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HISTOKY OF KOME

AITD

THE ROMA^ PEOPLE.

H ISTOIBE DES RoM« INS

L;brairie: Hachette & c

LEGIONNAIRE ROMAIN
I'estauralion pur M. liailliDldi, an Miisee ilc .Saint-di-niiaiii.

History of Rome,

AND OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE,

FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THIi INVASION OF THE

BARBARIANS.

By victor DURUY,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE, EX-MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, ETC.

TRANSLATED BY M. M. RIPLEY AND IV. J. CLARKE.

EDITED BY

THE REV. J. P. MAHAFFY,

PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.

CDntaining obfr Z\\xn STijousaiiLi Engra^jinss, Cue Itiuiitirrti fBiaps anS }|3taw,
AND NUMEROUS CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHS.

Volume I.

PUBLISHED BY

C. F. JEWETT PUBLISHING COMPANY,

BOSTON.

EDITOE'S PREFACE.

IT is the duty of those who offer to the iniblic so large a work
on a subject already treated in English books, to justify its
position and explain the principles followed in translating and
editing it. Strange to say, though some of the greatest English
liistorians have devoted themselves to Roman history, there does
not exist any standard English work on the whole subject. Por-
tions of it have been thoroughly handled, but a complete survey
is not to be found except in little handbooks ; so that the English-
man or American who wants as a work of reference for his
library a history of Rome down to the close of its pagan days,
has hitherto been unable to find it. Even if he can read French
and German, he will encounter the same difficulty ; nor is it in
any way satisfactory to supply the want by two or three special
histories. No doubt the English edition of Mommsen's History, the
large work of Merivale, and the incomparable Gibbon cover the
ground, but they cover it writing from widely different stand-
points, in various styles, and without any general index which could
enable the ordinary reader to find any fact required. Moreover?
the very original and suggestive work of Mommsen on the early
history of Rome is totally unsuited for ordinary readers and for
ordinary reference, inasmuch as he treats with silent contempt
most of the popular stories, and re-arranges the remnants of tra-
dition according to new and peculiar principles of his own. To
a public ignorant of his special researches, — his RomiscTie Forsch-
uncjen and RomiscJies Staatsrecht, — the History, published with-
out references or explanations, must be often quite unintelligible.

6 EDITOE'S PEEFACE.

The account of the early reforms in the Constitution, and of the
relations of the Three Assemblies, are so totally opposed to the
accounts in ordinary English histories, that the thoughtful reader
is completely at a loss to find out when all these novelties were
discovered, or how they are to be justified. An edition of this
fine book, with some such information in foot-notes, would have
made it a work of far greater value ; for it represents a school
of thought which is as yet quite foreign to England, and which,
under the able expositions of Ruliino, Mommsen, Soltau, and others,
bids fair to displace the views of Niebuhr, even when corrected
and modified by Schwegler, Lange, and Clason.^ But as yet these
matters are within the field of controversy ; and to assume all
his own views as proved may indeed be admitted as lawful in
the historian, but cannot ))e regarded as satisfactory in a work
professing to give all the facts of Roman history.

The bi'oad difference between the older school of Niebuhr and
that of Mommsen is this : that while Niebuhr sifts tradition, and
tries to infer from it Avhat are the real facts of early Roman
history, Mommsen only uses tradition to corroborate the inferences
drawn concerning early Roman history from an analysis of the
traditional facts and usages still surviving in historical days, and
explained as survivals l\v critical Roman historians. Thus, tlie
iisages in appointing a dictator or consul lead him to infer^that of
old the kings were apj^ointed in like manner, these magistrates
having taken the place of the king. Such researches are naturally
only of value in reconstructing early constitutional history.

The work of Duruy does not adopt this method, and stands
on the ground of Niebuhr, or rather of Schwegler, whose valuable
History, like that of our own Thirlwall, is regaining its real
position after some years of obscuration by a more brilliant, but
not impartial, rival. Indeed, the newer critical school in Ger-
many cannot yet, and perhaps never will, furnish a real history
of early Rome, such as Niebuhr's, Ihne's, Schwegler's, or the pres-
ent, but only acute and often convincing essays on the Constitution.
It was beyond my duty to introduce these newer views by way

* The first glimpse of these new lights in English is to be found in l\Ir. Seeloy's Intro-
duction to his edition of Livij ; Ihne's Essay on the Roman ConslUution and his Ilislortj
are original and independent labors on the general lines of Niebuhr.

EDITOR'S I'REFACE. 7

of foot-notes, even though often convinced of their truth; for I
undertook to edit Diu'uy's great work, and not to supply anything
more. Accordingly I have confined myself here and there to
mentioning a fact or suggesting a different view of some event,
hut have avoided stating any conflicting tlieory. Additional books
of reference, however, and these principally of the newer school
above described, have been sometimes cited, and a great deal has
been done to improve another capital feature of the book, — ^ the
illustrations. In this respect Duruy's book stands alone, giving the
reader all kinds of illustration and of local color, so as to let him
read the history of Rome, as far as possible, in Italy, and among the
remains of that history, with all the lights which archceoloo-ical
research can now afford us. In many places I have left out a
cut which seemed of little authority, and supplied from photo-
graphs (collected in Italy and Sicily) better and truer pictures. T
have had recourse to contemporary art, and given some ideal pic-
tures of great events in Roman history, as imagined by artists
learned in the local color and the dress of the period. Here
and there I have also ventured to curtail the descriptions of battles,
which are borrowed from the ancient historians, as they were com-
posed from purely rhetorical considerations, and have no claim to
accuracy. Enough, and more than enough, has been left to show
the views of these patriotic historians. It is a perpetual cause of
offence and annoyance in the extant classical historians, that instead
of giving us some intelligil^le account of military movements, they
supply us with the most \mlgar and often absurd platitudes con-
cerning tactics, and with the invented harangues of the respective
leaders.

I will add, in conclusion, that the publishers have met all my
demands and requirements with the largest liberality. So far as
they are concerned, everythmg has been done to make the book
the best and the most complete which has yet appeared on Roman
history.

Trinity College, Dublin.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOLUME I.

INTRODUCTION.

THE PEE-aOMAN EPOCU.

PACE

I. Geography of Italy 17

II. Ancient Population of Italy — Pelasgians and Uinbrians 44

III. Etruscans 60

IV. Oscaus and Sabelliaus 88

v. Greeks and Gauls 106

VI. Political Organization of the Ancient Nations of Italy . . . . . . 116

VII. Religious Organization 122

VIII. Summary 132

FIRST PEEIOD.

KOME UNDER THE KINGS (753-510 B.C.). FORMATION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

I. Romulus (753-716) 137

II. Numa (715-673) 116

III. TuUus Hostilius (673-640) 150

IV. Ancus Marcius (640-616) . . . . - ,. 156

V. Tarquin tlie Elder (616-578) .157

VI. Servius Tullius (578-531.) . . 161

VII. Tarquinius Superbus (534-510) .166

CHAPTER n.

CONSTITTJTION OF ROME DURING THE REGAl PERIOD. PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION.

I. Sources of Roman History 181

II. Probable Origin of Rome 185

III. Patricians aud Clients . . . . ' ISO

IV. Senate and King ; Plebeians 194

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

FAGB

I. The Public Gods 199

11. The Domestic Gods 206

III. The Manes 210

IV. Naturalism of the Roman Religion and Formal Devotion 21C o

V. Sacerdotal Colleges 222

VI. Public Festivals 232

CHAPTER IV.

CHANGES IN RELIGION AND CONSTITUTION UNDEE THE THREE LAST KINGS.

I. The Gods of Etruria at Rome ; Reforms of Tarquin the Elder 235

II. Reforms of Servius Tullius 239

III. Tarquiu the Proud ; Power of Rome at this Epoch 250

CHAPTER V.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

I. Character of Ancient Roman Society 255

II. Private Manners ,. . . . 260

III. Public Manners 267

SECOND PERIOD.

ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS (509-367 B. c). — STRUGGLES WITHIN —

WEAKNESS WITHOUT.

CHAPTER Vl.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470 B. C.

I. Aristocratic Character of the Revolution of 509 ; the Consulship .... 272

II. The Tribunate 279

III. The Agrarian L. » . . ... 288

IV. Right of the Tnounes to accuse the Consuls and to bring forward Plebiscita . . 294-

CHAPTER VII.

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM THE DEATH OF TARQUIN TO THE DECEMVIRS (495-451 B. c).

I. The Roman Territory in 495; Porsonna and Cassius 299'

II. Coriolanus and the Volscians ; Cincinnatus and the Aequians 308

III. "War against Veii 315-

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTER Vin.

THE DECEMVIKS AND CIVIL EQUALITY (iDl-iig B. c).

PAGE

I. Bill of Terentilins 319

II. The Decemvirs (451-449) 327

III. The Twelve Tables 331

CHAPTER IX.

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY (449-400 B. C).

I. Re-establisbiuent of the Tribunate and Consulate 341

II. New Coustitution of the Year 444 . . 344

III. Struggle for the Execution of the New Constitution 348

CHAPTER X.

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 389 B. C.

I. Conquest of Anxur or Terracina (406) 353

II. Capture of Veii (395) 35G

III. Capture of Rome by the Gauls (390) 362

CHAPTER XL

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 389 TO 343 B.C.

I. Rebuilding of the City ; the Roman Legion 369

II. Return of the Gauls into Latium ; ilaulius ; Valerius Corvus .... 373

CHAPTER XII.

ACCESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS TO CURULE OFFICES.

I. The Licinian Laws : Division of the Consulships ....... 380

11. The Plebeians gain Admission to all Offices 384

CHAPTER Xm.

THE AGRARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OP DEBT.

I. Agrarian Law of LicLnius Stolo 398

II. Laws on Debt 403

III. The Aerarii ; Censorship of Appius (312) 406

12 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

THIRD PERIOD.

WAR OF ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE, OR CONQUEST OF ITALY (343-265 B. C).

CIIAPTEll XIV.

WAR WITH THE S.\MNITES AND LATIN.? (343-312 B. C).

PAQB

I. First Samnite War; Acquisition of Capua (313-341) 412

II. Tlie Latin War (340-338) 417

III. Second Samniu, vVai (326-312) ,425

CHAPTER XV.

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETRUSCANS, AND SENONES (311-280 B. c).

I. Tliird Samnite War (311-303) 438

II. Second Coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls (300-290) . . 445

III. Coalition of the Etruscans, and Senones ; War against the Lucanians (283-281) . 456

CHAPTER XVI.

■WAR WITH PYRRHUS (280-272 B. c).

I. Rupture with Tareutum ; First Campaign of Pyrrhus in Italy (282-278) ... 460
II Pyri-hus in Sicily ; Capture of Tareutum (272) 470

CHAPTER XVII.

OBGANIZATION OF ITALY BY THE ROMANS.

I. The Freedom of the City, and the Thirty-Five Tribes 476

II. Municipia, Prefectures, and Allied Towns ....... 483

III. Colonies and Mililary Roads 488

TV. Religious Supremacy ; Rome governs, and does not administer .... 497

CH.\PTER XVIII.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DURING THE SAMNITE WAR.

I. Manners 500

II. The Constitution ; Balance of Forces 502

III. Mihtary Organization 509

IV. Recapitulation 523

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 18

FOURTH PERIOD.

THE PUNIC WARS (264-201 B. C).
CHAPTER XIX.

CAKTHAGE.

PAGE

I. Commercial Empire of the Punic Race 525

II. Carthaginians and Libj-Phoenicians ; Commercial Policy of Carthagb . . 533

III. Mercenaries 538

IV. The Constitution 541

CHAPTER XX.

THE FIKST PUNIC WAR (264-241 B. C).

I. The Treaties between Rome and Carthage (509-279) 549

II. Operations in Sicily (264) .......... 552

III. Maritime Operations ; Lauding of the Romans in Africa (260-255) . . . 560

IV. The War is carried back into Sicily (254-241) 568

CHAPTER XXI.

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND CARTHAGE BETWEEN THE TWO PUNIC WARS (240-219 B. c).

I. Roman Expeditions outside of Italy and into Gallia Cisalpina . . . . 581

II. Carthage ; Wars of the Mercenaries ; Conquest of Spain 603

CHAPTER XXII.

rUTERKAL STATE OF ROME IN THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE TWO PUNIC WARS.

I. Commencement of Roman Literature ; Popular Games and Festivals . . . 612

II. Changes in Manners, Religion, and Constitution ....... 625

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR UP TO THE BATTLE OF CANNAE (218-216 B. c).

I. Hannibal in Spain 648

II. Hannibal in Gaul • Crossing of the Alps 660

III. Hannibal in Cisalpine Gaul; Battle of Ticinus; Battle of Trebia (218) . . .665

IV. Thrasimcne (217) ; and Cannae (216) 669

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS.^

VOLUME I.

Antium, View of ... .
Appiaii Way, the ....
Ardea, Remains found al .
Aventine, the (present state)
Baal-Hainmon, Temple of (ruins)
Cannae, Battle-field of .
Castel d' Asso, Valley of .
Cenis, Mont ....

Chastity, Temple of (restoration)
Circello, !Monte

Cloaca Maxima ....

Coins, bronze, table of .
Concord, Temple of (restoration)
Courage " " '■ , .

Ercte, Mount

Fortune, Temple of (restoration) .
Geese of the Capitol ....
Girgenti, Temple at (remains)
Human Sacrifices ....
Jupiter Stator, Temple of (restoration)
Liris, Fall of the . ' .
Metapontum, Harbor of . . .
Naples and Mount Vesuvius
Nemi, Lake .....
Norba, Walls of ... .
Nymphaeum of Egeria ....
Ravenna, Canals and Pine Forest of .
Roman Campagua ....

Romulus, Wall of (remains)

Rosa, Monte

Spoleto, View of . . .

Sybaris, Plain of .

Terni, Cascade of ... ■

Terracina, Rook of

Tiberina, the Insula ....

Tivoli, Temple at

Tomb, called that of Aruns

" Etruscan .....
" of the Horatii
Valley of Tombs near Norcliia (restoration)
Veii, City of (restoration)

" Vases found at ... .
Viso, Monte

1 Fachig the pages indicated.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX

TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING MAPS AND PLANS.

VOLUME I.

PAGE

Acaruauia, coin of . . .

. 592

Antoninus Pius, coin of

Adoratiou before a tomb .

211

ti a ti t<

340

" gesture of . . .

. 213

Apollo, the Pythian .

36]

Adria, as libralis of .

" priest of .

. 636

Aediles, plebeian (coin) .

. 298

Apollonia, coin of . . .

591

Aeneas carrying Auchises .

L'59

Appian Gate (restoration)

. 494

" (coin) ....

. 140

" Way

408

Aesculapius " ....

(537

Aquinum, coin of . • .

. 492

Aeserjiia, coin of .

. 492

Arcliigallus, an .

640

Agatliocles " " ....

555

Ar//i'»./arii .....

. 630

Ager Romauus (map) .

. 302

633

Agrigentum, coin of .

557

Ariminum, «s of .

. 373

" *'"...

. 559

Arretium, earthenware of .

446

" (plan) . . . .

55 S

Arvalis, Erater ....

. 225

Alatri, wall of ....

. 91

As in rude metal (actual size) .

24S

Alba, extinct volcanoes about (map) .

" double, of Gamers .

- 77

Alba Fucentia (plan)

. 447

" lilinilis of Adria . . . .

Alba Longa, coin of .

" " " Ariminum .

. 373

Alexander I., King of Epirus, coin of

. 425

■' " " Tuder .

Alexander II. " " " (gem) .

470

Astarte

. 565

Alphabets :

Atcllanc figures . . . .

621

Early Roman (Latin)

. 182

4tlilcte, victorious

. 624

Etruscan

Augur

237

of Central Italy

. CI

Augurinus, coin of ...

. 349

of Northern Italy

113

Aulus Postumius (coin)

179

Alps and Apennines, limit of the (ina|i)

Auruuca, wall of .

. 96

Alsium, tumuli at ...

. 493

Aventinc, wall of the

323

Altar (tomb at Pompeii) .

287

" (domestic) ....

. 206

Beak-head of a ship (coin)

. 561

Aiicilia, or Shields of Mars (coin)

149

Bellona (priest of ) . .

419

" (gem) .

. 224

Beneventum, coin of . . .

. 471

Ancona, coin of

110

Black stone, the (coin)

639

Ancus Martius, traditional portrait of

. 157

Boii, coin of the ....

. 594

Anna Perenna (coin)

284

Bronze arms

Antigonus Gonatas, coin of .

. 472

" " and tools

Antistia, gens, " " .

168

" candelabra . . . .

363

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS.

Bronze jewels .

" vases .

" vessels
Bnmdusiuni, coin of .
Brutus (bust ill the Capitol)
Brutus, L. Junius (coin) .

Bulla

" young man wearing the
Buxentum, coin of

Cabeiri ....

Cadiz, coin of .

Caeles Vibenna and Mastarna

Caere, vase of .

Cales, coin of

Camarina, coin of

" " " (early period)

Gamers, double as o( .
Camillus ....
Carapagna, Roman, cattle of the

" ■' flint "Weapons found

Cannae, ruins of
Capitoline Hill (restoration)
Capua, coin of .
Carthage, aqueducts of ,

" cisterns "

" coin of

" " (sold)
(plan) .
" ports of
Carthaginian art, remains of
" ex-volo .

" warrior

Castor, temple of
Caudine Forks, valley of the
Ccphaloedium, coin of
Ceres ....

" (found at Ostia in 1856)
Chariot-races, genii of .
Chastity, altar of (coin)
Chickens, the Sacred
Cliimaera ....
Cinerary Urns
Circe, Ulysses, and Elpenor
Circeii, wall of
Civic crown (coin)

" " with laurel-leaves (coin)
Claudia dragging the vessel of Cybele
Cloaca Maxima ....
Clusium, black vases of

493

174

277

209

51
52
531
240
165
423
461
545
77
231
40
42
683
251
103
528
529
532
532
533
533

527
534
543
539
605
178
432
569
308
281
623
397
437

66
257

93
170
325
325
639
252

Clusium, black vases of . .
Coins, table of (bronze), see full-page illus
" " (sold)
" " (silver)
Colony, coin of a ,

" (ground plan of lauds for)
Comic actor ....
Concord (coin) .
Consul between two fasces (coin)
Corcyra, coin of .
Cosa " "

Corsica and Sardinia (map)
Cossura, coin of
Crotona " "
Cncumella, the .
Cumae, coin of . . ,

" cave of the Sybil of
Cybele (coin)

Decius Mus (coin)
Decurions, coin of the
Demetrius Polioreetes (coin)
Demons leading away a soul
Denarius, silver

" " of Antoninus Pius

Diana, or the Moon (cameo)

" with the hind .
Dii Penates (coin)
Dioscuri "

Dnillius, rostral column of

Elea, coin of . . .
Elephant (ex-voto)
Elepliants, African (gem) .
(coin) .
(gem)
Elysian repast
Entella, coin of
Ercte, coin of
Eryx, remains of the town of

" Mount, view fi'om
Escutcheons, patrician
Etna, from Taormina
Etruria, Southern (map)
Etruscan alphabets

" archer

" chimacra

" cups . . ■

" figure with four wings

" figures

" funeral urn
gorgou

" helmet of Lucumon

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS.

Etruscan jewels and earrings
" Mars . . . .
" mirror
" sideboard .
" standard-bearer
" tomb (the Cucumella)

" vases (comic scenes from)

it t( tt 4i

Eugubine tables, fragment of

Fabia, ffen.i, coin of

Fabius Pictor (coin) .

Faesulae, walls of

Falerii (old gate of citadel)

Easces (coin)

Eaun of Praxiteles

Eaustulus (colli)

Eeronia "...

Ficle.i "

Elora " .

Elute-player .

Fortuna (statue in tlie Vatican)

" Virilis, tctrastyle temple of
Frater Arvalis ....
Frentani, coin of the
Fnria, ffens, tomb of the .
Futile (vase of the Vestals)

Gabii, treaty with (coin) .
Gallic chariot

" torqiii.s .....
Garlands of leaves around a temple (coin)
Gaul, wounded
Gaulos (coin of)
Gauls ....
Gela, coin of . . .

Gladiator (gem)

Good Success (coin)

Greek tomb-reliefs

Grinder, st;itue of the

Group from the Villa Ludovisi

Hannibal

Haruspex (bas-relief)

Heracleia, coin of .

Hicetas, " "

Hiero II. " "

Honor and Virtue (coin) .

Hope ....

(cameo) .

443

254
440

83
378
440
597
018
619

190
614
595
359
273
203
141
204
222
623
436
201
202
225
98
600
227

181
452
379
221
376
536
364
462
556
625
124
578
175
599

652
671
466
401
553
603
305
316

Horatia, r/c/is, coin of
Horatins Codes (medallion)

Issa, coin of
Italy (coin)

Janus (coin)

Juno

" Lucina (coin)
" Moucta "
" nursing Hercules
" of Herculaueura
" Sospita (coin) .
Jupiter, head of

" (intaglio)

" Capitolinus, temple of (coin)

" Eeretrius, ruins of temple of

" of Herculaiieuin

Knight holding his horse (coin)

Laciman Cape, the
Lares

" (coin) .
Larinum, coin of
Laus " " .

Led isternium (coin) .

" seat for a

Liberty (coin) .
Libya, coin of
Lilybaeum, coin of
Lipari " " .

Lucauia " '^
Lucumon's helmet .

Maccus ....
Malta, coin of . .
Maniertines, the, coin of .
Maiiiilia, yra.s " " .
Marcellus (coin)
Marcia, gens, coin of
Mars (coin)

" sacrifices to .
Matri Magnae (coin) . . .
Merchant vessel under sail (gem)
Mercury ....

" found at Palestrina
Messina, coin of

" Straits of (map)
Metapontum, coin of

" ruins of the temple of

Metellus (coin)
Milestone ....

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO TEXT ILLUSTEATIONS.

Minerva of Hcrculaiieum . . . 236

Mu/ncipium., coin of a . . . . 484

Naples, coin of 485

Navius, miracle of (coin) . . . 100

Nola, coin of .... . 485

" vase of 651

Nomeiitum, bridge of ... 2S4

Nuceria, coin of . .... 486

Nunia Pompilius, traditional ligure of . 147

Nuraghe of Sori 530

Ops (coin) 124

Order of battle (plan) . . . .517

Paestum , coin of ... . 426
Palatine, ancient substructions of . .188

Palladium, the (coin) . . . 228

Pallor " .... 156

Paludamentum ..... 673

Panormus, coin of .... 571

Pelasgio remains .... 47

Pliaros, coin of .... . 593

Pliintias " " 461

Piliiiii . . . . . . .515

Plonglniian 260

Tuscan 69

Po, present state of the coast south of (map) 30

Pomegranate (^r.r-vo/6) . . . 541

Pontine Marshes, |)resent state of (map) . 32

Po|ndonia, coin of .... 36

" " 76-

Praeneste, bronze group found nt . 259

chest " " . .480

" lid of " " 615

" Plioenician cup found at . . 300

Praxiteles, the Faun of . . . 203

Priest of Apollo 636

" presenting inceuse-box . . 336

Prisoner (gem) 368

Ptolemy IV., Euergctcs (coin) . . 603

" Philadelphus " . . . 472

Punic ships, ligurps at prow of . . 538

Puteal of Libo (coin) .... 259

Pyrrhus 465

" coin of 464

Regillus, Lake, battle of (coin) . . 179

Regnlus " . . 566

llliea Sylvia " . . 141

Eliegium, coin of .... 557

Roman bracelet .... 146

" camp (plan) .... 518

" galley 562

Roman horse-soldier

. 513

" soldier ....

511

" " ....

. 512

Rome, followed by a magistrate .

35]

" seated upon the Seven Hills (coin) 180

" and the She-wolf (coin)

. 143

Romulus, traditional figure of .

143

Rostra, the (coin)

. 422

Rostral colunnis

563

Rutuhans, coin of the .

. 90

Sabines, rape of the (coin) .

186

Sacred tree, .....

. 216

Sacrilice, instruments of .

223

Sacrilioes, human ....

. 375

Saguntum, remains of theatre of

656

Salian priest (coin)

. 149

Samnite liorsenian

442

" warrior ....

. 100

(1 ((

440

a u

. 441

Sanuiiuni, coin of . . .

101

Santa Maria di Leuca, Cape .

Sardinia, coin of . . .

530

Saturn, temple of . . . ' .

. 148

Salnraus

138

" (coin) ....

. 138

Scipio Barbatus, tomb of .

448

Segesta, coin of .

. 557

Seliuus " " .

571

" rcniaius of ...

. 573

" temple of (frieze) .

568

" " " (meto]ie)

. 570

4( U (< U

572

(( (( tt tc

. 574

" •' " archaic metope

579

Servilius Ahala, coin of .

. 348

Servius Tullius, agijcr or rampart of

161

" " " " " (section) 163

" wall of

. 162

Sezze

313

" ruins of a temple near

. 314

She-wolf of the Capitol

626

Shield, votive ....

. 459

Shrine, entrance of a

123

Sicily, coin of ....

. 552

" (map) ....

550

Sidon, coin of ....

. 530

Signia, gate of .

169

Stola

. 266

Suessa, coin of .

423

Sun-dial

. 628

Suovetaurilia ....

233

" ....

. 507

ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS.

Sutrium, amphitheatre of
Syharis, coin of
Sylvaiuis (coin)

Taiiit, the goddess

" " " temple of
Taoriiuiia, tlieatre of .

" view of
Tareiitum, coin of

" harbor of ([ilan)
Tarpeia (coin)
Tarpeian rock .
Tarqiiins, tomb of the
Tatius, traditional figure of
Tauromeniuni, coin of .
Teate " "

Teatro Greco, Taormiua
Temesa, coin of
Terina, " " . .

Terminus, the god
Terror (coin)
Thrasimene, Lake (map)
Thunderbolt with eight forks

" " twelve "

Thurii, coin of the
Tiber (coiu)
Toga, Roman in a

. 372

•

. 262

539

. 512

586

. 587

. 485

462

. U5

335

. 179

146

. 575

590

. 215

• .

102

. 119

156

. 674

(coiu) .

127

*' .

. 127

104

. 204

133

bas-reliefs of

Torqnix, Gallic
Triijurira, llio (coin)
Tuceia, the Vestal .
Tuder, as of

" coin of
Twelve gods, altar of the

it (1 4(

Tusculum (restored)
" (present state)

Veii, city of (plan)
Venus Erycina (coiu)
Venusia, coin of
Vesta (coin)

Vestal "
Vestals "
Victory, statue of
Volaterra, gate of
Volscians, coin of the
Vulcan of Elba, the .

War-vessel with beak-head (gem) ,

" " " double beak-head (coin)
Women spinning ....

Youtb (coiu)

379
553
229
57
57
678
677
303
304

306

564

221

234

227

230

680

128

444
561
201

125

INTRODUCTION.

THE PIIE-E.OMAN EPOCH.

THE GEOGEAPHY Of ITALY.

COIN OF ANTONINUS REmESENTING ITALY.l

HORACE was afraid of the sea; he called it Oceanus dis-
sociabilis, the element which separates ; and yet it was,
even for the ancients, the element which unites.

Looking at the mountains which run from Galicia to the Cau-
casus, from Armenia to the Persian Gulf, from the region of the
Syrtes to the Pillars of Hercules, we recognize the higher parts of
an immense basin, the bottom of which is filled by the Mediter-
ranean. These limits, marked out. by geography, are also, for
antiquity, the limits of history, which never, save towards Persia,

1 The letters tr. pot., an alibre\i.ation of Trihuuicla Potestas. signify the tribunician
power with which the Emperors were invested ; the letters COS. III. mean that Antoninus was,
or had l)een. Consul for the third time; and s.c. that it was by order of the Senate, '• Senatu.s
Consulto," that the piece of money was coined. Antoninus having had his third Consulship in
A. D. 140, and the fourth in 145, the medal was issued during one of the years which intervene
between these dates. The Senate of the Empire only coined bronze money. The first Irih.
pot. dated from the day of the prince's accession : since Trajan's time, all .ire dated from the
1st of January ; hence the number of iha'trih. pot. gives the number of the years of the reign.

vol.. I. 2

18 INTEODUCTION.

departed far from the coasts of the Mediterranean. Without this
sea, the space it occupies would have been the continuation of the
African Sahara, — an impassable desert ; l^y means of it, on the
contrary, the people settled on its shores have interchanged their
ideas and their vs^ealth ; and if we except those ancient societies
of the distant East which always have remained apart from Eu-
ropean progress, it is around this coast that the first civilized
nations have dwelt. Italy, therefore, by its position, between Greece,
Spain, and Gaul, and by its elongated shape, which extends almost
to the shores of Africa and towards the East, is in truth the
centre of the ancient world, — at once the nearest point to the
three continents which the Mediterranean washes and unites. Geog-
raphy explains only a portion of history ; but that portion it
explains well, — the rest belongs to men. According as they show
in their administration wisdom or folly, they turn to good or evil
the work of nature. The situation of Italy, therefore, will easily
account for her varied destinies in ancient times, and in modern
up to a recent period ; it will account for the vigor and energy
she manifested outside her limits, so long as her iuhal^itants formed
a united j^eople, surrounded by divided tribes ; later, for the evils
which overwhelmed licr from all points of the horizon, when her
power was exhausted and her unity destroyed, — it accounts for
Italy, in a word, mistress of the world around her, and Italy, the
prize for which all her neighbors contend.

There is another important consideration. If the position occu-
pied by Italy at the very centre of the ancient world favored her
fortune in the days of her strength, and procured her so many
enemies in the time of her weakness, was not this very weakness,
which at first delivered the peninsula to the Romans, and after
them, for fourteen centuries, to the stranger, chiefly due to her
natural conformation ?

Surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the fourth by
the Alps, Italy is a peninsula which stretches towards the south
in two points ; while at the north it widens into a semicircle
of lofty mountains, above which towers majestically, with its
sparkling snow, the summit sometimes called by the Lombards
"La Rosa dell' Italia." The summit next in height to Mont Blanc
is this Monte Rosa ; it is not six hundred feet lower than the

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 19

giant of Europe.^ Italy, tlien, is in part peninsular, and in part
continental, the two regions being distinct in origin, configviration,
and history. The one, a vast plain traversed by the great river
whose alluvia have formed it, has been in all ages the battle-field
of European ambitions ; the other, a narrow mountain-chain, cut
into deep ravines by countless torrents, and torn by volcanic shocks,
has almost always had an opposite destiny.

This peninsula is the true Italy, and it is one of the most
divided countries in the world. In its innumerable valleys,' many of
which are almost shut off from the outside world, its population
grew into that love of independence which mountain races have
manifested in all time ; but, with it, into that need of an isolated
life which so often endangers the much-loved lil^erty : in every
valley, a state ; for every village, a god. Never would Italy have
emerged from obscurity had there not been developed in the midst
of these tribes an energetic principle of association. By dint of
skill, courage, and perseverance, the Roman Senate and its legions
triumphed over physical obstacles as well as over the interests and
passions which had grown up behind their shelter, and united all
the Italian peoples, making of the whole peninsula one city.

But, like the oak half-cleft by Milon, which springs together
when the strength of the old athlete gives way, and seizes him in
tui'n. Nature, for a time conquered by 'Roman energy, resumed its
sway ; and when Rome fell, Italy, left to herself, returned to her
endless divisions, imtil the day when the modern idea of great
nationalities accomplished iov her what, twenty-three centuries
earlier, had been done by the ablest statesmanship, served by the
most powerful of military organizations.

By her geographical position, then, Italy Avas destined to have
an important share in the world's history, whether acting outside
her own territory, or herself becoming the prize of heroic struggles.
Nor is Rome an accident, a chance, in the peninsula's history ; Rome
is the moment when the Italian peoples, for the first time united,
obtained the object promised to their joint efforts, — the power which
springs from union. Doubtless History has often been compelled to
say with Napoleon : '• Italy is too long and too much divided." But

1 Mount Elbourz, in the Caucasus, is now known to be the highest (eighteen thousand
five hundred feet).

20 INTKODUCTION.'

when from the Alps to the Maltese Channel there was but one
people and one interest, an incomparable prosperity became the
glorious lot of this beautiful land, with its two thousand miles of
sea-coast, its brave population of sailors and mountaineers, its natural
harbors and fertile districts at the foot of its forest-covered hills, and
its command of two seas, holding as it did the key of the passage
from one to the other of the two great Mediterranean basins. Be-
tween the East, now breaking up in anarchy, and the West, not yet
alive to civilization, Italy, united and disciplined, naturally took the
place of command. This phase of humanity required ten centuries
for its birth and growth and complete development ; and the story
of these ten centuries we call the History of Rome.

A modern poet gives in a single line an exact description of this
country, —

" Cli' Apennin parte e '1 mar circonda e 1' Alpe." *

That portion of the Alpine chain which separates Italy from the
rest of Europe extends in an irregular curving line from Savona to
Fiume, a distance of about seven hundred and fifteen miles; the
breadth of this mountain mass is from eighty to ninety-five miles in
the region of the St. Gothard and the Septimer (the Pennine Alps),
and rather more than one hundred and sixty miles in the Tyrol ^
(the Rhaetian Alps). The perpetual snows of these high summits
foi-m huge glaciers, which feed the streams of Upper Italy, and trace
a glittering outline against the sky. But the watershed, lying
nearer Italy than Germany, divides the mass unevenly. Like all the
great European mountain-chains,^ the Alps have their more gentle
slope towards the North, — whence have come all the invasions, —
and their escarpment towards the South, — which has received them
all.^ Upon the side of France and Germany the mountains run to

^ " AMiicli the Apennine divides, and the sea and tlie Alps surround."

^ From St. Gothard to the Straits of Messina, Italy measures 625 miles, with a mean
breadth of from 88 to 100 miles; in area, 185,000 square miles.

' With the exception of the Caucasus, whose northern slope is much steeper than that of
the south.

* This is true, especially for the ]\Iaritime, Cottian, Graian, and Pennine Alps ; but the
Helvetian and Rhaetian Alps send forth to the south long spurs, forming the high valleys
of the Ticino, of the Adda, the Adige, and the Brenta. Geographically, these valleys belong
to Italy (canton of the Ticino, the Valteline, and part of the Tyrol) ; but they have always
been inhabited by races foreign to the peninsula, which have never protected her against
invasions from the north.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY.

the plain by long spurs, which break the descent, while from the
Piedmont side Mont Blanc appears like a wall of granite, sheer for
about ten thousand feet down from its summit. Man stops at
the foot of these cliffs, on which hold neither grass nor snow ;
and Northern Italy, having little Alpine pasture-land, is not like
the Dauphine, Switzerland, and the Tyrol,^ defended by a race of
brave mountaineers.

MOrf iM'CiU^r^.

Scale of -,

Thi Limit OF THE Alps i Apenmin£S.-

This difference between the incline and extent of the two
sides indicates one of the causes which insured the first suc-
cesses of the expeditions directed against Italy. Once masters of
the northern side, the invaders had only a march of a day or two

1 These Alps are covered witli beautiful forests, which Vcnioe at the time of her power
turned to profit; intractable mountaineers live there, like the inhabitants of the Sette Com-
muni. One of the characteristics of the Juhan Alps is the number of grottos and subter-
ranean channels which they embrace. From the River Isonzo to the frontiers of Bosnia
there are more than a thousand ; and the natives of the country say that there are as many
streams below the soil as there are over it. Channels of this kind, when not filled with
water, atford an entry into the 8ette Communi.

- The (|uestion of the boundary between the .Vlps and the Apennines has been long a
subject of debate; the engineers have decided it by making a railroad above Savona over
the Col d' Altase, which is not sixteen hundred feet in height, whence one descends into
the famous valleys of the Bormida and the Tanaro.

22 INTRODUCTION.

to bring tliem into the richest country.^ Thus Italy has never
been able to escape from invasions or to keep aloof from Euro-
pean wars, despite her formidable barrier of the Alps, with their
colossal summits, " which, when seen close," said Napoleon, " seem
like giants of ice commissioned to defend the approach to that
beautiful country."^

The Alps are joined, near Savona, by the Apennines, which
traverse the whole peninsula, or rather, which have formed it and
given it its character. Their mean height in Liguria is 1,000
metres (3,275 feet) ; but in Tuscany they are much higher, where
the ridges of Pontremoli, between Sarzana and Parma, of Fium-
albo, between Lucca and Modena, of Futa, between Florence and
Bologna, attain the height of 3,300 to 3,900 feet. Thus Etruria
was protected for a long time by these mountains against the Cis-
Alpine Gauls, and for some months against Hannibal.

The highest summits of the whole chain of the Apennines
are to the east of Rome, in the country of the Marsians and the
Vestini : Velino, 8,180 feet ; and Monte Corno, 9,520 feet, whence
can be seen the two seas which wash Italy, and even the moun-
tains of Illyria, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. At this
height a peak of the Aljos or the Pyrenees would be covered with
perpetual snow ; in the climate of Rome it is not cold enough to
form a glacier, and Monte Corno loses its snow at the end of
July ; but it always preserves its Alpine landscape, with the
bears and the chamois of great mountains.

Three branches separate at the west from the central chain,
and cover with their ramifications a considerable part of Etruria,
Latium, and Campania. One of these branches, after sinking to
the level of the plain, rises at its extremity in a nearly detached
rock forming the promontory of Circe (Monte Circello), where is
shown the grotto of the mighty sorceress. Tiberius, who on the
question of demons believed neither in those of the past nor in
those of the present, had a villa built near this dreaded spot.

1 Augustus understood it ; and in order to defend Italy, lie carried tlie Roman outposts
as far as the Danube. ISIarius also had gone beyond the Alps to meet the Cimbri ; wliile
Catulus, who wished only to defend the Italian side, was forced to retreat without a battle
behind the Po. Thus it was not in the mountains, but behind the Adige, that General
Bonaparte established his line of defence in 1796.

2 Cicero, de Prov. Consul. 14, said more simply: "Alpibus Italiam muniverat antea
natura, non sine aliquo divino numine."

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY.

From the eastern side of the Apennines there are only some
hills detached, which descend straight towards the Adriatic. But,
like Vesuvius on the opposite coast (3,948 feet), Monte Gargano
forms, over the Gulf of Manfredonia, a solitary group, of which
one summit rises to the height of 5,283 feet. Ancient forests
cover this moimtain, ever heaten by the furious winds which toss
the Adriatic.

Below Venosa (Venusia) the Apennines separate into two
l^ranches, which surround the Gulf
of Taranto ; the one runs through
the land of Bari and Otranto, and
ends in a gentle slope at Capo di
Leuca ; the other forms, through
the two Calabrias, a succession of ''""' '^^ vexusia.i

undulated table-lands, one of which, the Sila, 4,910 feet^ high, is
not less than fifty miles long from Cosenza to Catanzaro. Covered

CAPE SANTA MARIA DI LEUCA.

formerly with impenetrable forests, the Sila was the shelter of
fugitive slaves (Bruttians), and was the last retreat of Hannibal
in Italy. Now fine pastures have partly taken the place of

^ On the obverse the head of Jupiter ; on the reverse, an eagle bearing a tliunderbolt ;
the letters ae (aes) signify that the piece is bronze money, and the five ooooo that it was
a quincunx, that is to say, that it weighed 5 oz., — the us Uhralis, or Roman pound, weighing
12 oz. Rome never struck the quincunx; it was found only in the South of Italy.

- The highest top of the Sila, the Monte Nero, is nearly six thousand feet high.

24 INTKODUCTION.

these forests, whence Rome aud Syracuse obtained their timber.
But the temperature there is always low for an Italian country,
and notwithstanding its position in latitude 38°, snow remains
during six months of the year.^ Still farther to the south, one
of the summits of the Aspromonte measures 4,368 feet high. Fur-
thermore, while beyond Cajjo di Leuca there is only the Ionian
Sea, beyond the lighthouse of Messina we come to Etna and the
triangle of the Sicilian mountains, — an evident continuation of the
chain of the Apennines.

The two slopes of the Apennines do not differ less than the
two sides of the Alps.^ On the narrow shore which is washed
by the Upper, or Adriatic, Sea, are rich pasture-lands, woody hills,
separated by the deep beds of torrents, a flat shore, no ports
{importuosum litus),^ no islands, and a stormy sea, inclosed be-
tween two chains of mountains, like a long valley where the
winds are pent in, and rage at every obstacle they meet. On
the western side, on the contrary, the Apennines are more remote
from the sea, and great plains, watered l)y tranquil rivers, great
gulfs, natural harl)ors, numerous islands, as well as a sea usually
calm, promote agriculture, navigation, and commerce. Hence a
population of three distinct and opjjosite kinds : mariners about
the ports, husbandmen in the plains, and shepherds in the moun-
tains ; or, to call them by their historical names, the Italiotes and
Etruscans, Rome and the Latins, the Marsians and the Samnites.*

Yet these plains of Campania, of Latium, of Etruria, and of
Apulia, notwithstanding their extent, cover but a very small part of

1 Bruguiere, Orographie de rEurnpe.

2 However, Apulia, with its extinct volcano, its great plains, its Lake Lesina, its
marshes, situated to the north and to the south of Mount Gargano; beyond this the
marshy but extremely fertile lands watered by the Gulf of Taranto; lastly, the numerous
harbors of this coast, — reproduce some of the features of the western coast.

" All the islands of the Adriatic, with the exception of the unimportant group of the
Tremiti, are on the Ulyrian coast, where they form an inextricable labyrinth, the resort of
pirates, who have in all times levied contributions on the commerce of the Adriatic.

* All the extinct as well as active volcanoes are west of the Apennines, except Mount
Vultur in Apulia. It is these numerous volcanoes which have driven the sea far from the
foot of the Apennines, and have enlarged this coast, whereas the opposite shore, where not
a single volcano is to be seen, is so narrow; whence come also those lakes in the niidat
of ancient craters, and perhaps a part of the marshes. It is known that in 1538 the
Lucrine Lake was changed into a marsh by a volcanic, erujition. The lowest part of
the Pontine Marshes is on a line joining Stromboli to the ancient craters of Bolsena and
Vico.

- " - - -; -" i •^'""■:^^t T

r«t^.dit'^.)kJ- ^iiaS

t^ ■vis;

G. or NAPl. -.S V^ -" >, •31

PHYSICAL ITALY.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 25

11 peninsula which may be described generally as a country bristling
Avitli mountains and intersected by deep valleys. AVhy need we
wonder at persistent political divisions in a country so divided by
Nature herself? — Aelian counted up as many as 1,197 cities, each
of which had possessed, or aspired to, an independent existence.

The Apennines possess neither glaciers, nor great rivers, nor
the pointed peaks of the Alps, nor the colossal masses of the
Pyrenees. Yet their summits, bare and rugged, their flanks often
stripped and barren, the deep and wild ravines which fm-row
them, all contrast with the soft outlines and the rich vegetation
of the sub-Apennine mountains. Add to this, at every step, beau-
tiful ruins, recalling splendid traditions, the brightness of the sky,
great lakes, rivers which tumble from the mountains, volcanoes
with cities at their foot, and everywhere along the horizon the
sparkling sea, calm and smooth, or terrible when its waves, lashed
by the Sirocco, or by submarine convulsions, buffet the shore, and
beat now upon Amalfi, now upon Baiae or Paestum.

Europe has no active volcanoes luit in the peninsula and islands
of Italy. In ancient tmies, subterranean fires were at work from
the Carinthian Alps, where are found some rocks of igneous origin :
these reach as far as the Island of Malta, a part of which has sunk
into the sea.^

The basaltic mountains of Southern Tyrol and of the districts
of Verona, Vicenza, and Padua ; near the Po the catastrophe of
Velleja buried by an earthquake ; in Tuscany sul^terranean noises,
continual shocks, and those sudden disturbances wliich made
Etruria the land of prodigies ; on the banks of the Tiber the
tradition of Cacus vomiting forth flames,^ the gulf of Curtius, the
volcanic matter which forms the very soil of Rome, and of all its
hills, the Janiculum excepted ; the streams of lava from the hills
of All)a and Tusculum ; the immense crater (thirty-eight miles in
circumference), the sunken edge of which shows us the charming
lake of Albano and that of Nemi, which the Romans used to call

1 The Travels of Major de Valenthienne. The volcanic action used to reach still far-
ther in the same direction. Many extinct volcanoes and lava are found in the regency ot
Tunis towards El-Kef (Sicca Veneria). Cf. La Regence de Tunis, by M. Pelissier de
Keynaud.

^ This legend is true so far as concerns the recollection of the volcanic eruptions of
Latiuni, but it is false in placing them on the Aventiue, the abode of Cacus.

26 • INTRODUCTION.

the Mirror of Diana ; the legend of Caeculus building at Praeneste
walls of flames ; the enormous pile of lava and debris on the sides
of Mount Vultur;^ the islands rising from the sea, of which Livy
speaks ; the Phlegraean fields, the ancient eruptions of the Island
of Ischia, of Vesuvius, and of Etna, and so many extinct craters,

— all these show that the whole of Italy was once situated on an
immense volcanic centre.

At the present time the activity of the sul^terranean fires seems
to be concentrated in the middle of this line, in Vesuvius, whose
eruptions are always threatening the charming towns which insist
on remaining close to this formidable neighbor ; in Etna, which,
in one of its convulsions, tore away Sicily from Italy ; ^ and in the
Lipari Islands, situated in the centre of the seismic sphere of the
Mediterranean. In the north we find only craters half filled up,^

— the volcanic hills of Rome, of Viterbo, and of St. Agatha, near
Sessa ; the hot streams and springs of Tuscany ; the fires or " hot
springs" of Pietra, Mala, and Barigazzo ; and lastly those of the
" Orto dell' Inferno," the Garden of Hell.*

Before the year 79 a. d. Vesuvius appeared to be an extinct
volcano ; population and culture had reached its summit ; when,
suddenly reviving, it buried Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae
under an enormous mass of ashes and dust. In the year 472,
according to Procopius, svich was the violence of the eruption, that
the ashes were carried by the winds as far as Constantinople. In
1794 one of these streams of incandescent lava, which are some-
times eight miles long, from 300 to 1,200 feet in breadth, and
from twenty-four to thirty feet in depth, destroyed the beautiful
town of Torre del Greco. Stones were hurled to the distance of
1,300 yards ; vegetation far away was destroyed by mephitic
gases ; and within a radius of ten miles people went with torches
at midday.

1 Tata {Lett, svl Monte Vollnrc), considers this extinct crater as one of the most ter-
rible of pre-liistorie Italy.

- The name of the town of Rhegium (now Reggio), on the Strait, signifies "rupture."

3 Lakes Avernus, Lucrine, Albano, Nemi, Gabii, Regillo, San Giuliano, Bracciano, etc.
Earthquakes are still frequent in the neighborhood of Belluna and Bassano.

* With regard to the "Salse" of the neighborhood of Parma, Reggio (di Emilia),
Modena, and Bologna, which are also called volcanoes of mud, we must not confound them
with true volcanoes, although they possess some of the features of volcanic eruptions. In
the Salse, carburetted hvdrogen, the inflannnalile gas of the marslies, predominates.

Ml
>

o
S

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 27

Humboldt has observed that the frequency of the eruptions
varies inversely with the size of the volcano. Since the crater of
Vesuvius has diminished, its eruptions, though less violent, have
become almost animal. Its terrors are no more, its curiosity remains.
Rich travellers come from all jtarts, and the Neapolitans, who have
short memories, while exhuming Herculaneum and Pompeii, say of
their volcano. " It is the mountain which vomits gold."

In 16G9 the inhabitants of Catania had likewise ceased to
believe in the old tales of the fury of Etna, when an immense
stream of lava came doAvn upon their town, passed through the
walls, and formed in the sea a gigantic mole in front of the harbor
Fortunately this formidable volcano, whose base is 113 miles m
circumference, from whose summit there is a view of 750 miles
in extent, and which has grown, by excessive piles of lava, to the
height of 1U,870 feet, has very rarely any eruptions. Stromboli,
on the contrary, in the Lipari Islands, shows from afar by night
its diadem of fire, by day a dense mantle of smoke.

Enclosed between Etna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli, as in a triangle
of fire. Southern Italy is often shaken to her foundations. During
the last three centuries no less than a thousand earthquakes are
recorded, as if that part of the peninsula were lying on a bed of
moving lava. That of 1538 ^ cleft the soil near Pozzuoli, and there
came forth from it Monte Nuovo, 459 feet high, which filled up
the Lucrine Lake, now only marked by a small pond. In 1783
the whole of Calabria was wrecked, and forty thousand people
perished. The sea itself shared these horrible convulsions ; it re-
ceded, and then returned 42 feet above its level. Sometimes new
islands appear ; thus have risen one after another the Lipari Islands.
In 1831 an English man-of-war, on the open sea off the coast of
Sicily, felt some violent shocks, and it was thought she had grounded :
it was a new volcano opening. Some days after an island appeared,
aliout 230 feet high. The English and the Neapolitans were already
disputing its ownership, when the sea took back in a storm the
volcano's gift.^

1 Livy speaks (iv. 21) of numerous earthquakes in Central Italy and in Rome itself in
434. The overflowing of the Alban Lake du>-ing the war with the Veientines is jicrhaps
due to an event of this kind.

2 In these same parts the cable from CagUari to Malta was twice broken iu 18.58 near
Maretimo by submarine erujitions.

28 . INTRODUCTION.

For Southern Italy the claager lies in subterranean fires ; for
Northern and Western Italy it lies in water, either stagnant and
pestilential, or overflowing and inundating the country and filling
ujj the ports with sand. From Turin to Venice, in the rich plain
watered by the Po, between the Apennines and the Alps, not a
single hill is to be seen ; and consequently the torrents, which rush
down from the belt of snowy mountains, expose it to dreadful
ravages Ijy their inundations.^ These torrents have, indeed, created
the Avhole plain, by filling up with alluvial deposits the gulf which
the Adriatic Sea had formed there, and whose existence is proved
by the remains of marine animals found in the environs of Piacenza
and Milan,^ as well as 1)y the sea-fish which still haunt its lakes.

Springing from Mount Viso, and rapidly swelled Ijy the waters
which run down from the slopes of the Alpine Giant,^ the Po is the
greatest river of Italy, and one of the most celebrated in the world.
If it had a free outlet into the Adriatic, it would open to navigation
and commerce a magnificent territory. But the condition of all
rivers flowing into seas wliicli, like the Mediterranean, have no
tides, renders them unfit for sea navigation. The Italian torrents
bring to the Po quantities of mud and sand, which raise its bed,^
and form at its mouth that delta before which the sea recedes
each year about 22U feet.

Adria, which preceded Venice in the command of the Adi-iatic,
is at the present day more than 10 miles inland ; Spina, another

1 " . . . Sic agfjerilms niptis quum spiimeus amnis,
Exiit o]>])ositasiiue evioit giirgite moles,
Fertiir in arva furens . . .
Cum stabiilis armenta tiilit."

Vergil : Aeneid. ii. 490.
- Kamazzini believed also that the whole country of ISIodena covers a subterranean
lake. This would explain the prodigy, which startled the whole Senate, of fish which came
forth from the earth under the ploughshare of the Boian peasant. Near Narboune there
had also been a subterranean lake, where they used to fish with a lance. Cf. Strabo, IV. i, 6.
They are found in many places.

3 The height of Mount Viso is 1 2,-550 feet. The tributaries of the Po: on tlie right
bank, the Tanaro, the Trebbia, whose banks have been the scene of great battles ; the Reno,
where was the Island of the Triumvirs ; on the left bank, the Ticino, the Adda, the largest
tributary of the Po, the Oglio, and the Wincio.

■• Napoleon I. thought of having a new bed dug for the Po ; for in its present state immi-
nent dangers threaten the country which it traverses in the lower part of its course, where the
rising of its bed has caused a rise in the level of the waters, which overflow the surface of the
country. (De Prony, Recherchea sur le Si/alhne hi/flraulique de I'Indif.) During the last two
centuries only, M. de Prony has calculated the jirolongation of the delta by 230 feet a year.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY.

i^reat seaport, was in tlic time of Stralio 30 stadia from tlie coast,
which in former times it used to toucli ; ^ and Ravenna, the station
of the imperial fleet,
18 now surrounded 1)y
woods and marshes.
^^enice, also, has too
long suffered the chan-
nels of its lagoons to
be stopped up h\ the
alluvium of the Brenta.
The port of Lido, from
which the fleet which
carried forty thousand
Crusaders went forth, is
now only navigable for
small boats, and that
of Albiola is called the
" Porto secco" (dry port).

The north-east ex-
tremity of Italy is sur-
rounded by a semicircle
of mountains, which
send forth to the Adri-
atic several streams,
whose ravine-beds afford
an easy defence against
any invasion from the
Julian Alps. Of all
these oljstacles the last
and most formidable is
the Adige, a broad and
mighty river at its very
departure from the
mountains.

In peninsular Italy

AS l>I' ADRIA.-

' Strabo, V. i, 7. It had a treasure-house at Delphi, and is conjectured to be the present
village of Spina.

- We cannot say whether this medal, one of the beautiful bronzes of the French National

INTRODUCTION.

tlie Apennines are too near both seas

GsrAW ^i£,i^rd

g2Z3

P'"^

Rice Pine Marsheg. Sea

plantations forest. Bhore.

I
Scale 200,000

PRESENT STATE OF COAST TO THE SOUTH OF
THE 5I0UTHS OF THE TO.

to send them great rivers.
However, the Arno is 75
miles lona;, and the Tiber
r.)() miles. Bnt this king of
ancient rivers is sad to look
at. Its waters, constant-
ly filled with reddish mud,
cannot be ixsed for drink-
ing or bathing; and in or-
der to supply the deficiency,
numerous aqueducts brought
into Rome the water of
tlie neighljoring mountains.
Hence one of the character-
istics of Roman architecture .-
triumphal arches and mili-
tary roads for the legions;
amphitheatres and aqueducts
for the towns. Moreover
all the watercourses of the
Apennines have the capricious

Collection, and which bears the head of
a bciirded Bacchus, belongs to Adria
on the borders of the Po, or to that of
ricenum. The character of the three
letters on this piece, hat (for Iladria),
shows tliat it cannot be earlier than the
third century before our era. The '■ as "
denoted with the Romans the monetary
unit. It ought exactly to weigh a
Roman pound ; that is, exactly twelve
ounces, or 288 scruples, — whence the
name as lihralls. The real weight,
liowever, on the average, is not more
than ten ounces. The Romans have
without doubt kept to this usage, be-
cause ten ounces of bronze were worth
in Italy a scruple of silver, or -j^^ of a
silver "pound. (Mommsen's Hist, nf
Roman Coinage.)

1 The Adige, 250 miles in length,
the Bacchiglione 62, the Brenta 112,
the Piave 129, the Tagliamento 33, the
Isonzo 56.

«•■•'

.^^-

Is;
o

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 31

character of torrents : ^ wide and rapid in spring-time, they dry np
in summer, and are at all times almost useless for navigation.^ But
how beautiful and picturesque is the scenery along the banks of
their streams, and in the valleys where their tributaries descend !
The waterfalls of Tivoli, the most charming of sights, make a
delightful contrast to the wild grandeur of the Roman carapagna ;
and near Terni, at the Cascade delle Marmore, the Velino falls
into the Nera from a vertical height of 540 feet, then rushes in
cataracts over the huge bowlders which it has brought down from
the mountain.

All the lakes of Upper Italy are, like those of Switzerland, hol-
low valleys (Lake Maggiore, 39 square miles ; Como, 3-3 ; Iseo, 14 ;
Garda, 34), where the streams from the mountains have accumu-
lated till they have foimd in the belt of rocks and land the
depression whence they have made their escape and gi\-en rise
to rivers. Those of the peninsula, on the contrary, tilling up
ancient craters or mountam basins, have no natural outlets, and
often threaten, after long rains, or the melting of the snow, to
inundate the surroundmg country : such were the overflowing of
Lake Albano, the signal of the downfall of Veii, and those of
Lake Fuciuo, which at times rose 54 feet, and has lately been
drained. There are others, as Lake Bolsena, a kind of inland sea,
25 miles round, and the famous Trasimene Lake, resulting from an
earthquake.'^ The rains have filled up these natural cavities, and
as the neighbormg mountams are low, they supply just sufficient
water to compensate the loss produced by evaporation. There

1 Often and often in the Middle A^es Florence — wliieli, by the way, was built on a dried-
up marsh — was near being carried away by the Arno; in 1656 Ravenna was flooded by the
Ronco and the INIontone ; and in the last century Bologna and Ferrara have many times been
on the point of coming to blows, as the Proven9als and Avignonnais did, on the subject of
the Durance, to decide the spot where the Reno should join it. Thanks to the numerous
cavities where during the winter the water of its sources stores itself, the Tiber does not
sink much at its summer level.

^ Other watercourses of peninsular Italy : at the west, the IMagra, the boundary of
Tuscany and Liguria, 36 miles in length; the Clriana, the Nera, and the Teverone (Anio),
tributaries of the Tiber; the Garigliano (Liris), 70 miles; the Volturno, 83; the Sele ; the
Lao: at the east, the Pisatello (Rubicon) ; theMetauro; the Esino; the Tronto, 56 miles:
the Pescara (Aternus), 83 ; the Sangro, 83 ; the Biferno, 58 ; the Fortore, 81 ; and the
Of auto, 114.

^ There is some doubt on tliis point for the Lake of Bolsena, which some travellers
(Dennis, Eiruria, i. 514) and some learned men (Delesse, Recue de Gdol. 1877) regard as
a crater.

INTRODUCTION.

hardly issue from them even insignificant rivers. Lalie Trasimene,
at its greatest depth, does not reach 30 feet, and it wiU soon have
the fate of Lake Fucino.

30. u^

Gravepai Ethat;a,12.r.Du^iiaf-Ttoiun.

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE PONTINE MARSHES.

Stagnant waters cover a part of the coast to the west and to
the sorrth : it is the reahn of fever. The younger Plmy speaks of
the nnhealthiness of the coasts of Etruria, where the Maremma,
which the Etruscans had once drained, was reappearing. In Latmm
tlie sea formerly reached to the foot of the mountams of Setia

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY.

and Privernum, about 9 miles in from the present coast : ^ from the
time of Strabo the whole coast from Ardea to Antium was marshy
and unhealthy; at Antium the Pontine Marshes commenced. Cam-
pania had the marshes of JMmturnae and of Linternum. Farther
south, the Greeks of Buxentum, of Elea, of Sybaris, and of Meta-
pontum liad to dig thousands of canals to drain tlie soil before
puttmg in the plough. Apu-
lia, as far as Mount Vultur,
had been a vast lagoon, as
well as the country around
the mouths of the Po, fully
10(1 miles south of its mod-
ern mouth .^ Lombardy also
was for a long time an im-
mense marsh, and to the Etruscans are attril)uted the first em-
bankments of the Po. The banks of the Trebia, the territories of
Parma, of Modena, and of Bologna, had not been drained till the
works of Aemilius Scaurus, who during his censorship (109 B. c.)
made navigable canals between Parma and Placentia.^ There is
nothing so charming and so treacherous
as those plains of the '' Mal'aria," — a
clear sky, fertile land, where an ocean
of verdure waves under the sea-breeze;
all around there is calm and silence ;
an atmosphere mild and warm, which
seems to Ijring life, but carries death.

COIN OF lU'XEXTUM.

COIN OF METAPONTUM.^

" In the Maremma," says
an Italian proverb, " one grows rich in a year, but dies in six
months."

' .... La jMarcmiua,
Dilettevole molto e puco sana.'

How many peoples, once fiourisliing and powerful, are sleeping

' De Prony, Dcscr. Hijilrnij. ct Hint, ilc.i Marais Puntins, pp. 73 aiicl 1 76.

2 Pliny, Hitl. A'at. iii. 20; Cuvier, Disc, sur tes Recolutions du Globe, p. "216.

' In 187 B.C. the Consnl Aemilius Lepidus continued the Flaminian Road from Rimini
to Bologna and to Plaeentia, and from thence to Aquileia, (yKVK\nvji.evoi tu eXrj (Strabo, V.
i. 11). In the year 160 B.C. the Consul Ccthegus received as his )irovince the duty of
draining the Pontine Marshes (Livy, Epiloiiii;, xlvi).

* On the obverse, this medal bears the head of the hero Leucippos, the founder of
the city ; on the reverse, an ear of corn with a bird on the leaf.

' Very delightful and very unwholesome.
VOL. I. 3

34 INTEODUCTION.

here tlieir last sleep! Cities also can die, — Oj^jnda fOSse mori,
said the poet Rutilius, when contemplating, fifteen centuries ago,
the crumbling ruins of a great town of Etruria.

To restrain and direct their streams was then for the Italians
not only a means, as with other people, of gaining lands for agri-
culture, but a question of life and death. These lakes at the
summit of mountains, these rivei's overflowing their banks every
spring, or changing their Ijeds, these marshes, which under an
Italian sun so quickly breed the plague, compelled them to con-
stant efforts. Whenever they stopped, all that they had conquered
with so much trouljle reverted to its pristine state.^ To-day Baiae,
the delightful retreat of the Roman nobles; Paestum, with its
fields of roses so nuich beloved by Ovid, — tcpidi rosarla Paesti ;
rich Capua, Cumae, which was once the most important city of
Italy, Sybaris, which was the most voluptuous, are in the midst of
stagnant and fetid waters, in a fever-breeding plain, " Avhere the
decaymg soil consumes more men than it can feed." Pestilential
miasma, solitude, and silence have also conquered the shores of
the Gulf of Taranto, once covered with so many towns ; leprosy
and elephantiasis in Apulia and Calabria exhilnt the hideous dis-
eases of the intertropical regions traversed by " untamed waters."
In Tuscany 120 miles of coast-line, in Latium, 82 square miles of
land, have been abandoned to poisonous influences. Here the
wrath of man has aided that of Nature. Rome had ruined Etruria
and exterminated the Volscians. But water invaded the depopu-
lated country ; the malaria, extending gradually from Pisa to Ter-
racina, reached Rome herself ; and the Eternal City expiates now,
in the midst of her wastes and her unhealthy climate, the merciless
war waged by her legions.^ At the point where but lately the
Maremma of Tuscany and that of the States of the Church join,
the saddest of solitudes meets the eye: not a hut nor a tree to
be seen, but huge fields of asphodel, — the flower of the tomb. One
day, about fifty years ago, a vault, hidden under the grass, gave
way under the heavy tread of an ox: it was a funeral chamber.
Excavations were prosecuted. In a little time 2,000 vases and

1 Muratori {Rcr. Hal. Script, ii. 691, and Ant. Ilul diax. '_'!) has sliown how quickly the
drained lands become marshy again, as soon as cultivation is suspended.

'■^ Cicero, de Rep. ii. 6, said of Rome : " Locum .... in regione pcstilenti salubrem ; "
and Livy, v. 54, " saluberrimos colles."

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 35

other objects of art were discovered,' and Etru.scan civilization was
reclaimed from oblivion.

The name of the rich city which had l^nried so many marvels
in its tombs is not mentioned by any of the Roman historians,
and must have remained unknown l)ut for an inscription which
mentioned its defeat and the trimuph of its conqueror.^ The Vul-
cientes had fought the last battle for Etruscan liberty. How heavy
were the hands of Rome and of Time, and how many flourishing
cities they have destroyed ! But again, how many wonders does
the Italian soil reserve for the future, when the malaria is expelled,
and the towns it has slain shall deliver up their secrets.^

Bordering on the great Alps, and reaching to Africa, Italy has
every climate, and can have all kinds of culture. In this double
respect she is divided into four regions : the Valley of the Po, the
slopes of the Apennines turned towards the Tuscan Sea, the plains
of the Peninsula, and the two points in which it terminates.*

1 M. Noel des Vergers has naiTated with eli>i|uence the eraiition he felt when, in an
exca\ation that he made in the same necropolis of Vulci : " At tin' last blow of the ])ick, the
stone which formed the entrance to the cryjit gave way, and the light of the torclies illu-
mined vaults where nothing had for more than twenty centuries disturbed darkness and
silence. Everything was still in the same state as on the day when the entrance had been
walled up, and ancient Etruria arose to our view in the days of her splendor. On their
funeral couches warriors, covered with their armor, seemed to be resting after the battles
they had fought with the Romans or with om- ancestors, the Gauls ; forms, dresses, stuffs,
and colors were visible for a few minutes; then all vanished as the outer air penetrated into
the crypt, where our flickering torches threatened at first to be extinguished. It was a
calhng up of the past which lasted not even the brief moment of a dream, and passed away,
as it were, to punish us for our rash curiosity.

[" Like that loug-ljuried l)ody of the king
Fonnil lying with liis urns and ornaments,
Which, at a touch of liglit, au air of heaven,
Slipped iuto ashes, and was found no more."

Tennyson : Aylmer's Field.]

While these frail remains crumbled into dust in contact with the air, the atmosphere became
clearer. AVe then saw ourselves surrounded hy another population due to the artists of
Etruria. Mural paintings adorned the crypt all round, and seemed to come to life with the
flash of our torches."

2 Fast. Capit., ad ann. 473. Triumph of T. Coruucanius in 280 for his victories over the
Vulcientes and Volsinienses.

* Those unhealthy countries, where a thick vegetation covers the ruins, protect so well
against curiosity even the monuments which are there, that a century ago the temples of
Paestum were not kuo%vn, and also a few years ago, the curious necropolis of Castel d' Asso,
of Norchia, and of Soana.

* In antiquity Italy abounded more in woods and marshes, and the winter was colder.
[Tliis is proved, for historical times, not only by aUusions like Horace's " Vides ut alta stet
nivc candidum Soracte," etc., but by the researches of Hehn in his well-known work on the
spread of domestic animals and plants in antiquity. — Ed-I

3G INTBODUCTIOJSr.

Calabria, Apulia, and part of the coast of the Abruzzi have
almost the sky and the productions of Africa : a climate clear and
dry, but scorching ; the palm-tree, which at Reggio sometimes
ripens its fruit, the aloes, the medlar, the orange, and the lemon ;
on tlie coast the olives, whicli are the source, as formerly, of the
wealth of the country; farther up, for two thousand feet, forests
of chestnut-trees covering a part of the Sila. But from Pisa to
the middle of Campania, between the sea and the foot of the moun-
tains, the malaria reigns ; the soil is abandoned to herdsmen, and
although very fertile, waits for the labor of man to produce its old
return. Already in Tuscany tenant-farming is driving back the
Maremma, and the land is peopled again wherever it is drained.

Above these plains, on the first slopes of the Apennines, from
Provence to Calaljria, there extends the district of the olive, the
mulberry-tree, the arbutus, the myrtle, the laurel, and the vine.

This latter grows so freely that it
may be seen reaching the top of the
poplars which support it ; and in the
time of Pliny a statue of Jupiter
used to be shown at Populonia carved
in a vine-trunk. Farther up, on the

COIN OF POPULONIA.^ _ ^

mountain, come chestnut-trees, oaks,
and elms ; then fir-trees and larch. The summer snow and the
freezing Avind remind one of Switzerland, but for the flood of
dazzling light from the Italian sky.

But it is in the Valley of the Po, when coming down from the
Alps, that the traveller receives his first and most pleasant im-
pressions. From Turin, as far as Milan, he keeps in view the line
of tlie glaciers, which the setting sun colors with brilliant tints
of rose and purple, and makes them glitter like a magnificent con-
flagration spreading along the sides and on the summits of the
mountains. In spite of the vicinity of the perpetual snow, the cold
does not descend far on this rapid slope ; and when the sun bursts
forth in the immense amphitheatre of the Valley of the Po, its
rays, arrested and reflected by the wall of the Alps, raise the tem-

1 On the obverse, the bead of Minei-va with behiiet; on the reverse, a crescent and a
star with the word pvplv written from right to left in Etruscan characters. Puplu was
the commencement of the name Poinilonia.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY. 87

perature, and scorching heat succeeds suddenly the cold air of the
lofty summits. But the number of the streams, the rapidity of
their courses, the direction of the valley, which opens on the Adri-
atic and receives all its breezes, cool the atmosphere, and give
Lombardy a most delightful climate. The inexhaustible fertility
of the soil, enriched by the deposits of so many rivers, causes
everywhere a very rich vegetation. In one night, it is said, grass
which has been cut shoots up afresh ; ^ and the land, which no
culture exhausts, never lies fallow.

Such is the general aspect of Italy, — a land of continual con-
trasts : plains and mountains, snow and scorching heat, dry and
raging torrents. Limpid lakes formed in ancient craters, and pesti-
lential marshes concealing beneath the herbage once populous cities.
At every step a contrast : the vegetation of Africa at the foot of
the Apennines ; on their summits the vegetation of the North.
Here, under the clearest sky, the malaria, bringing death in one
night to the sleeping traveller ; there, lands of inexhaustible fer-
tility,^ and above, the volcano with its threatening lava. Else-
where, in the space of a few leagues, sixty-nine craters and three
entombed towns. At the north, rivers which inundate the lands
and repel the sea ; at the south, earthquakes opening unfathomable
depths or overthrowing mountains. Every climate, every property
of the soil combined, — in short, a reduced picture of the ancient
world,^ yet with its natural peculiarities strongly marked.

1 '• Et qu.antum longis carpent armenta diebus
Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet."

Veegil : Oeorgics, ji. 201.
Varro (tie Be i-ust. i. 7) said more prosaically, " In the jJaiii of Rosea let fall a stake,
to-morrow it is hidden in the grass."

2 In Etruria and in some other jiarts of Italy the land produced 15-foId, and else-
where 10-fold (Varro, de Re rust. i. 44). The fertiUty of the ground of Sybaris, like that
of Cam]iania, was jiroverbial : it used to be said that it returned 100-fold. [And even now
the traveller is delighted with the sudden dis])lay of rich pasture in the Valley of the Crati,
and with the splendid herds of cattle roaming through its meadows and forests. Nowhere
in Southern Italy is there such verdure. — JSrf.]

* This can be maintained without any systematic survey. Has not Italy the sun of
Africa; the valleys and mountains of Greece and Spain; the thick forests, the plains, the
marshes of Gaul ; indented coasts and harbors like Asia IMinor ; and even the valley of
the Nile in that of the Po? Both are the jiroduct of these rivers, with their delta, their
lagoons, and their great maritime cities, Adria or Venice, Alexandria or Damietta, accord-
ing to the age. "The Veneti," says Strabo (V. i. 5), "had constructed in their lagoons,
canals and dikes like those of Lower Egypt." In another passage Ravenna recalls to him
Alexandria. See in the fourth chapter of the sixth book the different causes he assigns for

38 , INTRODUCTIOK

In the midst of this nature, capricious and fickle, Ijut every-
where energetic for good as for evil, there appear peoples whose
diversity of origin will be stated in the following pages ; but we
know already, by the study of the Italian soil, that the popu-
lation, placed in conditions of territory and climate varying with
each canton, will not be moulded by any one of those physical
influences whose action, always the same, produced civilizations
uniform and impervious to external influences.

In this general description of Italy we have only glanced in
passing at the hills of Rome, which, notwithstanding their modest
size, surpass in renown the proudest suinmits of the world. They
deserve careful study. The earth is a great book, wherein science
studies revolutions beside which those of man are but child's-play.
When the geologist examines the soil of Rome and its environs,
he finds it formed, like the rest of the peninsula, from the two-
fold action of volcanoes and water. Remains have there been
found of the elephant, the mastodon, the rhinoceros, and the hip-
popotamus, — proving that at a certain period of geological time
Latium formed a part of a vast continent with an African tem-
perature, and one in which great rivers ran through vast plains.
At another epoch, when the glaciers descended so far into the
Valley of the Po that their moraines were not far from the Adri-
atic, the Tuscan Sea covered the Roman plain. It formed in it a
semitircular gulf, of which Soracte and the Promontory of Circei
were the headlands.^

At the laottom of this primordial sea volcanoes burst forth,
and their liquid lava was deposited by the water in horizontal
beds, which, at the present day, from Rome as far as Radicofani,
are found mingled with organic remains. When this lava has
become solidified by time and the action of water, it becomes the
peperino, the close-grained tvfo of which Rome, both under the
Kings and the Republic, was built. When the lava remains in a

the superiority of Italy. It has even been estabhshed that all the geological formations
are represented in Italy ; and although mining operations are not well prosecuted, they give
rise to an annual exportation of (iOO,000 tons of the value of 100 millions (of francs).

' It is considered that the Campagna di Roma from Civita Vecchia to Terracina is
91 miles in length, and that from the Mediterranean to the mountains its breadth is more
than 27 miles. As far inland as Rome, the mountains are in some parts distant only
from three to five miles. The Anio falls into the Tiber at less than three miles' distance
from Rome.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY.

granulous state it produces the pozzolana, from which was made
the tenacious cement of the Roman walls. Of this pozzolana the
Seven Hills, on the left bank, are formed. The Capitol alone is

•IjprcslACarU de l^Uit -Major An&idiicn.

Grove {>Ar£rlurd.

Scale agtooo

EXTINCT VOLCANOES ABOUT ALBA.

alnii)st entirely composed of a porous tufo; a more solid substance
seemed needed for the hill which was destined to be the throne
of the world.^

When the formidable volcanoes of the Alban Hills had lifted

* Ampere, L'Histoire Romalne a Rome, i. 8.

INTKODUCTION.

Latium above the sea, the lava which came from their craters
spread over the sides of the mountain, and one of the hot streams
descended across the new plain as far as Capo di Bove.' From
this la^-a, Avhen consolidated, Rome procured the flagstones with
which she paved the Appian Road, and which remain to this day.

The Roman campagna, formed in the midst of waters, whose
gentle vmdulations or level surface it reproduces in turn, changed
afterward by the volcanoes of the Alban Hills, is furrowed by
little hills and low ground, — "a humpy soil," said Montaigne, whose

CATTLE OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA.

cavities are filled Avith fresh water
now they are unhealthy pools ; ^
attributes to the influence of the

Once they were limpid lakes :

and a, learned man, Brocclii,

arki catttra the gloomy, violent,

1 Brocchi, Dclln stalo /sico del sunio di Roma. Capo di Bove is tlie part of the
Appian Road where is the tomb of C'aecilia Metella, the frieze of which bears heads of
oxen, in remembrance of the sacrifices made before the tomb.

- The season of [malaria] fever [typhoid, now so common, is apparently a new scourge
to the city, arising from modern causes — £</.] extends from June to October. Horace
especially dreaded the autumn (Od. II. xiv. 1.5; Sat. II. vi 19: see also Ep. I. vii. 5).
M. Colin, the chief physician of the French army, attributes the malaria in the Campagna
di Roma less to the effluvia of the marshes, since the Pontine Mar.shes do not reach so far,
than to the exhalations from a soil, very fertile and untilled, under a sky of fiery heat
during the da}-time, from July to October, and comparatively very moist and cold during
the night. (Traite dcs Jievres interini/lenles, 1870.)

I I I , I

'I iM
I

-I)

-J

o
«

(i.
O

THE GEOGRAPHY OE ITALY. 41

and irritable temper of those who carr}^ in their veins the germs
of the fever of the Maremma. This has Ijecn noticed by all
travellers; while, under a beautiful sky, and on the shore of the
bright sea of the Gulf of Naples, the people are merry, playful,
and noisy, the people of Rome, on the other hand, in the midst
of their majestic and stern country, are gloomy, silent, and prompt
with the knife. We shall find this harshness of character running-
through the whole history of Rome ; for though man may call
himself intelligent and free, the surrounding influences of nature
impress their mark upon him, and for the majority this mark is
indelible.

We might assert the same influences for all animals alike ; for
the buffaloes and great oxen with formidable horns, which wander
about the country of Roman campagua are as savage as the herds-
men who drive them ; and it is dangerous for a stranger to venture
near them.

While the volcano was fiirnishing Rome with indestructible
paving for her military roads, the waterfalls of Tivoli, larger then
than they are now, and the waters of the neighboring lakes, sat-
urated with carbonic acid or sulphurated Iwdrogen, formed the
travertino, — a light and whitish limestone, Avliich hardens in the
air and takes warm and orange-colored tints. With this stone
Rome built all her temples, the Coliseum, and other monuments
of the Empire.

The architecture of a nation depends on the materials which
it has at hand. The bricks give London its dulness, while Paris
owes its elegance to the French limestone, so easy to handle.
Marble made Athens sparkling with beauty. Rome was severe
with her grayish ^:)eper{«o, massive with her travertino cut in
large blocks, until the time came when she was able, with the
costly marbles unloaded at Ostia, to indulge in all the splen-
dors of architecture ; " so that her very ruins are glorious, and
still does she retain, in her tomb, the marks and image of her
empire " (Montaigne).

The Tiber was much larger than it is at the present day ;
for it received then all the Chiana, perhaps a part of the Arno,
and carried to the sea, with the streams of the Sabine territory,
those of a great part of the Tuscan Apennines. A large and

INTRODUCTION.

deep luke once covered the site of Rome ; and on the Pincian,
Esquiline, Aventine, and Capitoline Hills, fluvial shells are found,
130 to 160 feet above the present Tiller.

The river, barred probably by the Hills of Decimo, had accu-
mulated its waters behind that obstacle, which at length it suc-
ceeded in sweeping away.

Man appeared early on this soil. In the post-tertiary strata of
the basin of Rome his remains are found, and some cut or polished

flints along with the bones of the Cervus
clqjlias, of the reindeer, and of the Bos pri-
migenius} Implements of stone were fol-
lowed, as everywhere, by implements of
bronze. Man, then armed, was able to con-
tend against the fauna, and afterward against
Nature herself. But many centuries passed
before his efforts produced any useful effects.
In the first days of Rome the Forum,
the Campus Martins, the Velabrum, the val-
ley between the Aventine and the Palatine
Hills ( ValUs Mureia), which ultimately the
FLINT WEAPONS FOUND IN Qlrcus Maxlmus filled up entirely, — in short,

all the low-lying lands at the foot of the
Seven Hills, — were marsh lands, where the river often returned,
and where it still returns. It is from a slough that the most
beautiful city in the world was destined to rise.

For the purpose of self-defence the CapitoHne and Aventine
were secure refuges ; but in order to live and spread, she must
descend from the hills and overcome the wandering or stagnant
waters over which already the malaria began to hover. Fever
had early an altar on the Palatine, where they attempted, by
prayer and sacrifices, to charm away its fatal influence.^ But
though superstitious, the people were also energetic. What- they

1 Bull, de I'Inst. arch., 18G7, \>. 4, and the Alln.^, viii. 38. M. Capellini believes he has
found quite recently (1870) in Tuscany traces of Pliocene man.

2 Alias de I'Inst. arche'ol., viii. 36.

8 For the Latins the Fever was the God Februus, to whom was consecrated the month
of February, durinfj which purificatory sacrifices were offered ; hence the verb fehruare, to
purify. [Yet surely it seems strange that so healthy a month should be chosen for this
purpose. It may be connected with ceremonies at the end of the old year, when the 1st
of March was New Year's Day. — Ed."]

THE GEOGKArilY OF ITALY.

asked from the gods they were ready to demand from their toil ;
and this struggle against Nature prepared the way for the struggle
against men. In this work of improving the Roman soil they

ARTICLES IX TERRA-COTT.\ FOUND IN THE ENVIRONS OF ROME.^

were helped by the Etruscans, who knew how to drain marshy
plains and to build imperishable monuments for the leading away
of subterranean waters. The entrance of Etruscan art into Rome
was a geographical necessity, as also was the laborious and rough
life of the first Romans. With art many also of the civil and
religious institutions of Etruria migrated to Rome.

* Alias de I'ltist. arche'ol., viii. 37.

44 INTEODUCTION.

THE ANCIENT POPULATION OP ITALY - PELASGIANS AND UMBEIANS.

HTTALY has not, like France, England, Germany, and Scandinavia,
-*- preserved numerous traces of a race anterior to tlie epoch in
which man had learned to furrow the earth with implements of
metal ; at least, as far as our researches have reached, it seems
to have possessed only in cei'tain spots what has been called the
age of stone.' Separated from the rest of the world l)y the Alps
and the sea, it was peopled later than the vast countries of easy
access which lie on the east, north, and west of its mountains.
But when these regions were once inhabited Italy became the
country of Europe where the greatest number of foreign races
have met together. All the surrounding nations contributed their
share in forming the population ; and each revolution which dis-
turbed them produced a new people. The Sicanians were formerly
derived from Spain ; now they are identified with the Pelasgic
Siculi.^ But from Gaul came the Ligurians, the Senonian, the
Boian, the Insubrian, and the Cenomanian Celts ; from the great
Alps, the Etruscans ; from the Julian Alps, the Veneti ; from the
eastern coast of the Adriatic Seas and from the Peloponnesus
many Illyrian and Pelasgic tribes ; from Greece, those Hellenic
tribes which came in so great numbers into Southern Italy as to
give to that part the name of Great Greece ; from Asia Minor,
the Lydian Pelasgians ; lastly, from the coasts of Syria and Africa,
the more certain colonies which Tjre and Carthage established in
the two great Italian islands.^ And if we were to trust to the
patriotic pride of one of her historians,'* Etriiria would owe to

' However, pi-ehistoric discoveries occur daily in tlie Campagna di Roma, in Tuscany,
and from the Valteline, as far as Leuca, at tlie extremity of Italy, where M. Botti Ulderico
has discovered "rottoes which have served as shelters for primitive man.

' Cf. Benloew, Etudes Alhanoisi:.''.

" [We may add at least Agylla (Caere), in Etruria, whose name, as Mommsen has
shown, declares its origin. — Ed-I

* Micali, Storia ijegli anticU popoH Ilaliani, i. 142 ; cf. Freret, " Recherches sur 1 'origine
et I'histoire des differents peuples d'ltaUe," Hist, de I' Acad, dcs inscr., xvii. 72-114.

PELASGIANS AND UIVIBRIANS.

Egypt and the distant East lier religious creeds, her arts, and her
sacerdotal government.

Italy was, therefore, a ccjnimon asylum for all the wanderers of
the ancient world. All brought in with them their language and
their customs ; many preserved their native character and their
independence, until from the midst of them there should arise a
city which formed at tlieir cost her population, her laws, and
her religion, — Rome herself, the asylum of all races and of all
Italian civilizations ! ^

All the Italian races belonged to the great Indo-European
family, which came from the high regions of Central Asia and
gradually peopled a part of Western Asia and the whole of
Europe. When they penetrated into the peninsula, they had already
arrived at that degree of civilization which stood midway between
the pastoral, or nomad, and the
agricultural, or settled, state. The
most ancient geographical names
are a proof of this : Oenotria was
the country of the vme ; Italy
(vitulus), that of oxen ; the Opici
meant " laborers of the fields ; "
and the first means of excliange
were cattle, ^jccm*-, — whence pecunia. Sybaris, like Buxentum,
seems to have wished to preserve this remembrance. One of her
coins bears on both sides the imas;e of an ox.^

The most ancient of these nations seem to have belonaed to

COIN OK STBARIS.

' We must say that these questions of origin and relationsliip are among the historical
controversies which are still being argued every day. The evidence for and against is so
mixed, that both sides can accumulate contrary (juotations and interpretations, so that this
mass of doubtful proofs rather fatigues than enlightens the mind. Niebuhr says, as regards
one of these peoples : " ^Vhat abuses of imagination were not indulged in with regard to the
mysteries and wisdom of the Pelasgiansl Their very name is an abomination to the truthful
an<l serious historian. It is this disgust which kept me from making anv general references to
that people, lest I might open the floodgates for a new deluge of writing about this wretched
subiect." But later on he himself could not resist " that inclination which led him, Uke most
of Ids countrymen, to guess out lost history ; " and the Pelasgians obtained from liim sixty
l)ages. The most recent and complete work on the ancient populations of Italy is that of
.Schwegler (BSmisclie Gcschichle, i. 1.54-384). [A valuable book, obscured, like our Thirhvall,
by the lirilliancy of a more passionate, but less trustworthy, rival. — J?(/.]

'^ Some Samnite coins, struck during the Social War, have also Vilelu inscribed in place
of Tialia. It is perhaps in a letter of Decimus Brutus to Cicero (Fam. xi. 20) that the earliest
mention is made of the name of Italy as applied to the entire peninsula as far as the Alps.

46 INTRODUCTION.

the mysterious race of the Pelasgians,^ whom one finds confusedly
at the commencement of so many histories, though tliere is notliing
left of it hut its name and its indestructihle buildings. After
having carried its industry and activity into Greece and its islands,
into Macedonia and Epirus, into Italy, and perhaps into Spain,
the race disappeared, pursued, according to the ancient legend, by
the celestial powers, and suffering endless misfortunes.

At the commencement of historic times nothing but uncertain
remains of that great people are found, as we discover, in the
bosom of the earth, the mutilated remains of primitive creations.
It is a whole buried world, — a civilization arrested, and then
calumniated by the victorious tribes after they have destroyed it.
Their altars were stained, they say, with the Ijlood of human
sacrifices, and, in a vow, they offered a tithe of their children.
The priests directed at their will the clouds and tempests ; they
summoned the snow and the hail, and by their magic power they
changed the form of objects ; they were acquainted with fatal
charms ; they fascinated men and plants by their glance ; on
animals and on trees they poured the deadly water of the Styx ;
they knew how to heal, and how to compose subtle poisons.
Thus in the mythologies of the North the Cloths have consigned
the Finns, whom they had dispossessed, to the extremities of the
earth under the forms of industrious dwarfs and of formidaljle
magicians. Like the Pelasgians, the Finns open mines and work
metals ; and it is they who forge for the Odinic gods the invincible
shackles of the wolf Fenris, as Vulcan, the Pelasgic god, hud
made, for new divinities also, the chains of Prometheus.

It seems, then, that there were at the north and at the south
of Europe two gi-eat nations who knew the earliest arts, aiid com-
menced this struggle against physical nature which our modern
civilization continues with so much success. But both were
subdued and cursed after their defeat by the warlike tribes,
who looked upon work as servile labor, and made slavery the law
of the ancient world.

In Italy, where their first colonies settled at a remote epoch,
the Pelasgians covered, under various names, the greater part of
the coast. At the north, in the low plains of the Po, and along

> "Pelasgi primi Italiam teuuisse perhibcntur " (Serv. in Aen. viii. GOO).

PELASGIC REMAINS.
1. Boviaiium. 2. Volaterrae. S. Lista. 4. Olivano. 5. Veii. 6. Siguia. 7, Arpimiii

PELASGIANS AND UMBEIANS. 49

the western coast fi'om the Arno, there were Siculi, tlie founders
of Tibur, a district of which was called the Sicelion ; ^ at the south-
west, the Chonians, Morgetes, and, above all, Oenotriaus, who had,
like the Dorians of Sparta, public meals ; at the south-east,
Daunians, Peucetians, and Messapians, divided into Calabrians and
Salentines, and said by tradition to come from Crete ; at the east,
lastly, Liburnians, of that Ilhrian race which wc must perhaps
identify with the Pelasgic.^

The Tyrrhenians were probaljly one of these Pelasgic nations.
According to a Greek tradition Avhich agrees with Egyptian records,
they came from Lydia. '' In the days of King Atys, son of Manes,
there was a great famine throughout the land of Lydia. The
King resolved to divide his kingdom into two equal parts, and
made his people draw lots to decide which part should remain in
the land, and which should go into exile. He was to continue to
rule over those who remained ; the emigrants were to have his
son Tyrsenus as their chief. The lots were drawn ; and those
who were destined to depart came down to Smyrna, built .ships,
put in them the necessaries of life, and went in search of a hos-
pitable land. Having coasted for a long time, they reached the
shore of Umbria, where they founded the towns which they inhabit
to this day. They discontinued the name of Lydians, and called
themselves Tyrseni, after the name of their king's son, who had
acted as their guide." ^ These towns, of which Herodotus speaks,
were built to tlie north of the mouth of the Tiber, and consequently
very close to Rome. They were Alsium, Agylla or Caere,'* Pyrgi,

1 There is still near Tivoli a valle di SicUianu.

2 From a number of testimonies it seems to result that people of the Illyrian race covered
the whole of the eastern coast of Italy exactly opposite Illyria, while the western shore was
occupied by Pelasgians; and IMicali (ii. 35G) identifies these two peoples. This is also the
opinion of Dalmatian critics, who ha\e found a strong analogy between the Oscan, which is
akin to Latin, and the remains of the ancient Illyrian, preserved in the dialect of the
Skippetars. Grote admits the relationship of the Oenotrians, the Siculians, etc., with the
Epirotes. "All," he says, " have the same language, the same customs, the same origin, and
can be comjirised under the name of Pelasgians." lie adds, •' They were not very widely
separated from the ruder branches of the Hellenic race " {Hiatory of Greece, iii. 4G8).
The Pelasgic influence can be recognized in the oldest religion of Rome, especially in the
worship of Vesta, and is found in the Sibylline books, which recommended the building of a
temple to the Dioscuri, the worship of the Bona Dea, and the sacrifice of two Gauls and two
Greeks. Lastly, Samothrace, the centre of the Pelasgic rehgion, had her relationshiji with
Rome acknowledged by the Senate. Cf. Plut., Marcellus, 30.

' Herodotus, i. 94; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom., i. 27-30.
* Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ll/iil. i. 20) makes Pisa a Pelasgian city.

VOL. I. 4

50 INTEODUCTIOK

which was their port, Tarquinii, which played so great a part in
Roman history, and perhaps, at the mouth of the Arno, the city
of Pisa, the population of which spoke Greek.

The story of Herodotus is falaulous, but it may allude to a
real emigration. In the time of the Emperors this tradition was
national both at Sardis and iii Etruria.^ Whatever be their origin,
the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians possessed a power which spread far their
name ; for notwithstanding the conquest of the country by the
Rasena, the Greeks never recognized any people between the Tiber
and the Arno but " the glorious Tyrrhenians," ^ and the Athenians
have consecrated, in the beautiful frieze of the Choragic Monument
of Lysicrates,^ the memory of the exploits of one of their gods
against the pirates who came forth from the harbors of Tyrrhenia.

But while admitting the existence of these Tyrrhenians, it is
not necessary to sacrifice the Etruscans to them. The Romans,
who certainly had not learnt it from the Greeks, called the Rasena,
their neighbors, Tusci or Etrusci,* and the Eugubine tables, an
Umbrian monument, also call them Turscum, — a plam proof that
the name of the Tyrrhenians was national also in Etruria. What
can this native use of two names mean, if not the co-existence of
two nations ? After the conquest the Tyrrhenians were neither
exterminated nor banished ; their name even prevailed with foreign
nations, as in England the name of Anglo-Saxons over that of
the Norman conquerors ; and the subsequent progress of Etruscan
power appeared to be that of the ancient Tyrrhenians.

The Pelasgians, then, formed along the western coast of the
peninsula a first stratum of population, which was soon covered
by other nations. In the midst of these new races the ancient
masters of Italy, like the Pelasgians of Greece, lost their language,
their manners, their liberty, and even the remembrance of what
they had been. Nothing remained of them but the Cyclopean
walls of Etruria and of Latium, enormous blocks of stone, set
without cement, which have withstood the ravages of time as well

' Tac. Ann., iv. 55, and Strabo, V. i. 2.

2 Hesiod, Theog., 1015 and 1016.

5 [Pictured in Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens, and since iu all the histories of
Greek art ; it dates from 335 B. c. — Erf.]

* The Greeks said Tvpprjvoi and Tvpirrfvol : whence from the Etruscan form, Turscum, we
easily arrive at Tusci, Etrusci, and Etruria.

PELASGIAl«rS AND UMBKIANS.

as of man.^ Some Pelasgians, however, escaped ; and yielding to
the impulse for invasion which was at work from north to south,
gained by slow degrees the great island to which the Siculi gave
their name, and where the Morgetes followed them.''^ Those who
preferred the rule of the foreigner to exile, formed in many parts
of Italy an inferior class, who rested faithful, in their degradation,

Tirc CABEIKI.

to that habit of labor which was one of the characteristics of
their race. In Oenotria the low or servile occupations, that is to
say, all arts and manufactures,^ fell to their lot, as in Attica,
where the buildmg of the citadel of Athens was intrusted to them ;
so that the much-vaunted Etruscan arts, the figures in bronze* or

1 " At Segni the walls, composed of enormous blocks, form a triple enclosure. At Alatri
we still see a Pelasgian citadel. The walls are 40 feet liigh, and some stones are 8 to 9 feet
long. The lintel of one of the gates of the town is formed of three blocks placed side by side.
These stones have been carefully cut, and set with skill. The joining of the stones is perfect.
It is a work of giants, but of clever giants." — Ampere : L' Hisloire Romaiiif a Rome, i. 135.
For the description of these monuments see Abeken, Mittel Italien vor den Zeiten Romischer
Herrschaft.

- Thucydides (vi. 2) shows the Siculi fleeing into .Sicily before the 0]iici.

' It is to Temesa (Tempsa, in Bruttitun) that the Taphians came to exchange brass for
glittering iron {Ofhjs., I. 184). In the time of Thucydides, the Siculi still inhabited this
town. Stephanus Byz. (sub voce xioi) says that the Italian Greeks [Italiotes] treated the
Pelasgians as the Spartans did the Helots.

* According to tradition it was the Pelasgic Tekhines • — half men, half sjirites — who

INTEODUCTION.

terra-cotta, the drawings in relief, the painted vases,-' like those of
Corinth, etc., would be the work of the Pelasgians, who remained
as slaves and artisans under the Etruscan Lucumons.

Their religion was as obscure as their history. It was con-
nected with the worship of
the Cabeiri of Samothrace,
Axieros, Axiokersa, Axioker-
sos, and Casmilos, cosmic
deities, personifications of
earthly fire and celestial fire,
— the religion of a nation of
miners and smiths. Later
on the Cabeiri were identi-
fied with Greek divinities.
Thus on a famous Hermes
of the Vatican, Axiokersos is
associated with Apollo-Helios,
Axiokersa with Venus, and
Casmilos, " the ordainer,"
with Eros. Axieros, the su-
preme god, remained above the trinity who emanated from him.

It has been said that all the ancient religions have been the
worship " of nature naturalizing {naturantis), of nature naturahzed
{naturatae)." The expression is barbarous, but it is just. Of these
religions the first belonged to simple naturalism ; the second have
given rise to anthropomorphism, in which all terminate. The
Cabeiri being considered the cause of things, the symbol of gen-
eration played an important part in their figurative worshij) and

THE CABEIRI.

had discovered tlie art of working metals, and wlio had made the first images of the gods.
Niebuhr has remarked the singular coineidencc which exists in Latin and in Greek between
the words for a house, a field, a plough, husbandry, wine, oil, milk, oxen, pigs, sheep, apples
(he could have added metallum, argentum, ars, and agere, with their derivatives, ahacus, etc.),
and generally all the words concerning agriculture and a peaceful life ; while all the objects
which belong to war or hunting, ilueUum, ensis, sagitta, liasta, are denoted by words foreign
to Greek. This fact is explained if we consider that the peaceful and industrious Pelasgians
formed the foundation of the population in Greece and Italy, especially in Latiuni, where the
Sieulians remained mingled with the Casci. [Niebuhr's acute remark anticipated what Pictet
and others have shown to result from the common Aryan, not Pelasgian, ancestry of Greeks
and Romans before they settled in either country. The common roots indicate what culture
each race brought with it into its adopted home. — Ed.']

1 [We must not forget the direct importation of these things from Attica. ^ Ed.'}

PELASGIANS AND UMBRIANS. 53

history. On a Tusco-Tyrrhenian mirror of the fourtli century
before our era, two of the three Cabeiri, transformed into the
Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, are seen in the act of killing the
youngest under the eyes of Venus, who opens the cista in which
the remains of the god are to be placed, and in the presence of
the wise Minerva, calmly and serenely witnessing his death, which
is no real death. Life in reality comes from death ; the god will
revive when Mercury has touched him with his magic wand.

The initiation into the mysteries of the Island of Samothrace
remained an act of deep piety with the Romans as with the
Greeks. Rome was, by the legend, even put in direct relation with
the Pelasgic island.^

The Palladium and the Penates, carried away by Aeneas from
the flames of Troy, to be the pledge of power to the Eternal City,
were taken by the Pelasgian Dardanus, it is said, from Samothrace
to the banks of the Scamander, whence they passed to Rome.

Vesta, the goddess of the inextinguishable fire, who played so
great a part in the Italian religions, must also have been a deity of
the Pelasgians ; bvit she belonged to all the people of the Aryan race,
for she was the feminine representative of the Agni of the Vedas.

The Pelasgians, and those who imitated their method of
building, rendered a service to the pretended descendants of the
Trojans which has not been sufficiently noticed. The Cyclopean
walls, with which they surrounded so many towns of Central Italy,
saved Rome in the Second Punic War, by preventing Hannibal
from occupying a single one of those impregnable fortresses which
defended the approaches to the "Ager Romanus." During sixteen
years the great Carthaginian held little beyond the enclosure of
his camp.^

For two centuries the Pelasgians had the mastery of Italy ;
when the Sicanians, expelled from Spain by a Celtic invasion, and
some Ligurians, who had come from Gaul,'^ spread themselves along

1 See the Revue arcMol. for December, 1877.

* See plate of the walls of Norba. Twenty centuries ago this town, taken and burned
down by Sylla, ceased to exist; but its waUs are the most curious Italian specimen of the
architecture called Cyclopean. The town was built on a declivity commanding the Pontine
Marshes. The enclosure remains almost entire ; it has no tower to defend the foot of the wall,
but the principal gate is flanked by two quasi-bastions.

* For a long time the Ligurians were believed to be Iberians. " Their language is Indo-
European," says M. d'Arbois de Jubaiuville {Les Premiers Habitants de I' Europe) \ "it is

54 INTRODUCTION.

the shores of the Mediterranean from the P_yTenees to the Arno. In
Italy they occupied, imder various names, a great part of Cis-
Alpine Gaul and the two slopes of the Northern Apennines.
Their constant attacks, especially those of the Sicanians,^ who
had advanced farthest south, forced the Siculians to leave the
banks of the Arno. It was the beginning of the disasters of that
nation, which pretended to be indigenous, m order to prove its
right to the possession of Italy.

When, four centuries later, the Etruscans descended from their
mountains, they drove the Ligurians from the rich valley of the
Arno, and confined them within the banks of the Macra. How-
ever, bloody fights still took place for a long time between the
two nations, and notwithstanding their advanced post of Luna, the
Etruscans were unaljle to maintain themselves in peaceable possession
of the fertile lands watered by the Serchio (Ausar).^

Not far, on the San Pellegrino, the highest summit of the
Northern Apennines (5,150 feet), and in the impracticable defiles
from which the Macra descends, the Apuans dwelt, who, from their
lofty mountains, watching the roads and the plain, gave neither
truce nor respite to the merchants and traders of Tuscany.

Divided into as many little states as they had valleys, and
always in arms against each other, these nations preserved, how-
ever, the general name of Ligurians and some of the customs
common to all their tribes, — respect for the character of the fetials,
and the custom of proclaiming war by ambassadors. Their manners
also were alike everywhere. They were those of poor moun-
taineers upon whom nature had bestowed courage and strength, in
place of the wealth of a fertile soil.^ The women labored, like
the men, at the hardest work, and hired themselves out for the
harvest in the neighboring countries, while their husbands trav-
ersed the sea in their frail ships as far as Sardinia and Africa,
to the detriment of the rich merchants of Marseilles, of Etruria,

Celtic," adds M. Maury (Compies Rendus de I' Acad, de.i Inscript., 1870). M. Ern. Desjardins
discusses tliis question in the second volume of his Geogruphie ancienne de la (Jaulc, and
arrives at the same conclusions.

1 Thucvdides (vi. 2) admits the Sicanians as an Iberian tribe, a>s Si fj dXfjdfia eiplcKfTai.

2 The country of Lucca watered by the Serchio is called the garden of Tuscany, which
is itself one of the most fertile countries of Italy.

^ "Assuetum malo Ligurem." — Vergil, Georgics, ii. 168.

«
O

1-1
►J

PELASGIANS AND UMBRIANS. 55

and of Carthage.^ They had no towns, except Genoa, their common
market, but numerous small villages, hidden in the mountains,
where the Roman generals never found anytliing worth taking.
A few prisoners, and long rows of chariots loaded with rude arms,
were ever the only ornaments of tlieir triumphs over the Ligurians.^

Few people had so high a reputation for liard work, for
sobriety, and valor. During forty years their isolated tribes
held in check the Roman power in tlieir mountains, which suc-
ceeded in overpowering them only by forcing them away from
that ungrateful soil,^ where they saw famine ever threatening them,
but where they possessed tliat which they esteemed their chief
good, their liberty.

At the other extremity of Cis-Alpine Gaul dwelt the Veneti.
The two nations are contrasted, like their countries. In the midst
of those beautiful plains, fertilized by the mud of so many rivers,
under the mildest climate of Italy, the Veneti, or the " victorious," *
as they were called, exchanged their poverty and valor for effemi-
nate and timid manners. They had, it is said, fifty towns, and
Padua, their capital, manufactured fine woollen stuffs and cloths,
which, by means of the Brenta and tlie port of Malamocco, they
exported to distant countries ; their horses were in great demand
for the Olj'mpic races, and they travelled to Greece and Sicily to
sell the yellow amber which they obtained from the Baltic. Their
industry and commerce accumulated wealth, which often tempted the
pirates of the Adriatic. But never were they seen in arms ; and they
accepted disgracefully, without battle, without a struggle, the Roman
domination : a luxurious life had early sapped their courage.

Having entered Italy with the Liburnians of Illyria, or having
come, perhaps, from the borders of the Danube,^ the Veneti had
been driven into the mountains of Verona, of Trent, and Brescia,

' Poseidonius (ap. Strab. III. iv. 17, and Diod. v. 39). The descendants still go to the
coasts of Sardinia and Algeria to get fish and coral, which the Ligurian Sea does not a£Eord
them, because of the de])th of its water near the coast.

2 Livy, xl. 34.

' Forty thousand Apuans, the bravest of the Ligurians, were transported into the
country of the Hirpini ; and thirty times, if there is no mistake in the text of PUny (iii. G),
the Ingaunians were compelled to change their abode. " Ingaunis Liguribus agro tricies
dato." [This is the Asiatic system of fifroUicns, wliich we know from early Greek and from
Hebrew history. — Ed.^

* This is the sense given by Ilesychius to the word Heneti, sub voce 'Ei'eTiSay ttoKovs.

* Mannert declares them to be of Slave oritfin.

56 INTKODUCTION.

by the Euganei, who had possessed the country l)efore them, and
who had given their name to a chain of volcanic hills between
Este and Padua.

To the north of the Veneti, the Carni, probably of Celtic origin,
covered the foot of the mountains which have taken their name,
and some wild lUyrians had taken possession of Istria.

At a })eriod prol)ably contemporaneous with the invasion of
the Ligurians, the Umbrians ^ {Amra — the noljle, the brave) arrived,
who, after bloody battles, took possession of all the countries
possessed by the Siculi in the plains of the Po. Pursuing their
conquests along the Adriatic, they drove towards the south the
Liburnians, who left only a few of their number (Praetutians and
Pelignians)^ on the banks of the Prexara, and penetrated as far
as Monte Gargano, wliere tlieir name is still preserved.^ At the
west of the Apennines_^ they subdued a part of the country between
the Tiber and the Arno.* The Sicani, who had settled there,
found themselves involved in the ruin of the Siculi, and many
bands of these two nations united and emigrated beyond the Tiber.
But they met there with new enemies ; the natives, encouraged
by their disasters, drove them gradually towards the country of
the Oenotrians, who, in their turn, forced them to go with the
Morgetes, aiid find a last asylum in the island which they called
by their name. The Sicanians shared a second time their fate,
and passed after them into Sicily.^

Heirs of the Pelasgians of the north of Italy, the Umbrians
ruled from the Alps to the Tiber on the one side, and as far as
Monte Gargano on the other. They divided this vast territory into
three provinces : Isombria, or Lower Umbria, in the partly inun-

1 The Gallic origin uf the Umbrians iiccrediteJ by antiijuity, has been revived by modern
writers. But the inscriptions found in Umbria, on the frontier, it is true, of the iSabine
country, tell of a Latin tongue ; we must then connect the Umbrians with the Sabellian Osci.
Pliny (iii. 14) says of them, " gens antiquissima Italiae." The recent works of M. Breal have
proved that Umbrian was an Italian dialect, — which, after aU, does not solve the ethnological
question. M. Ern. Desjardins makes them a Ligurian jieople ; M. d'Arbois de Jubainville
makes them akin to the Latins.

'^ Ovid, who was himself Pehgnian, gives to these people a Sabine origin (Fafl., iii. 95).

* Scylax {Periplas, p. G). See the map of the kingdom of NajJes by Rizzi Zannoni.
At the centre of the group of mountains are found, besides the " Valle degli Umbri," other
localities named Catino d' Umbra, Umbriechio, Cognetto d' Umbri (Mieali, i. 71).

* The Umbro takes its name from them.

* Dionys. (i. 73) and Thucydides (\i. 2) fi.v this migration as having taken place two
hundred years after the Trojan war, — of course without certainty.

PELASGIANS AND UMBRIAJ^^S.

dated plains of the Lower Po ; Ollumbria, or Upper Umbria, between
the Adriatic and the Apennines; VUumbria, or Maritime Umbria,
between the Apennines and

the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Like the Celts and the
Germans, they dwelt in open
villas;es in the middle of the
plains, disdaining to screen
their courage behind high
walls ; but therefore exposed
after a defeat to irretriev-
able disasters. It is said
that when the Etruscans
came down into Loml«irdy,
the Umbrians, being con-
quered, lost at one blow three
hundred villages. However,
in the mountainous cantons
of Ullumbria, after the exam-
ple of the Tyrrhenian cities
which were in the neighbor-
hood, their towns were built
on the summits, and sur-
rounded with rainparts ; ^
thus Tuder, close to the
Tiber; Nuceria, at the foot
of the Apennines ; Narnia,
on a rock which commands
the Nar ; Mevania, Literam-
na, Sarsina, Sentinum, etc.,
which by their construction
are proof of a more timid, but also more advanced, civilization.

^ These fortifications arc perhaps the work of the Etruscans, for Umbria remained
subject to them for a long time. "Umbria vero pars Tusciae" (Serv. in Acn. xii. 753). Livj'
(v. 33) says, witlioiit any restriction, that the Tuscan empire embraced the whole width of
Italy, from sea to" sea.

'^ Tuder (Todi), or, as it is called on the money, tvtere, was early an important city.
What is left of the walls resembles, in its greater regularity and absence of rudeness, those of
Volaterrae and Pcrusia. It will bo observed that its money, which dates perhaps from the
fourth century B. c, is of remarkable elegance.

LIIiRAL AS OF TUDER."

58 INTEODUCTIOK

For three centuries the empire of the Umbrians gained for
that people a reputation of great jDOwer ; but it was broken by
tlie Etruscan invasion, which deprived them of the plains of the
Po and of Maritime Umbria, where the attacks of the Tyrrhenians,

CLAV£RNiVR-D;^ 5AS-H£R.TI-mATRv5-ATi£R5ie.-POSTl-ArMV '

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. .^'^y, — -^^^r^^^.x-^^----'-" -^^-rf^^.'^.

FRAGMENT OF EUGUBINE TABLES (FROM IGUVIUM).^

who remained masters of a part of the country, had shaken their
power.

Shut in from that time between the A^sennines and the
Adriatic, they were there subject to the influence and even to the
rule of their neighlwrs. Etruscan chai'acters are seen on their
coins ; they are found, too, on the tables of Iguimim, together

^ M. Bre'al, tlie learnerl author of the work entitled Les Tables Euguhines, has been kind
enough to give me this passage from Table V. in both Etruscan and Latin characters. It
contains two decrees given by the brotlierhood of priests who caused the Eugubine tables to
be engraved. The first decree, of wliich only the end is hero reproduced, is in Etruscan
letters ; the second is in Latin letters ; but the language of the two documents is the same,
it is Umbrian. We only give a transcription of the commencement : —

" Ehvelklu feia fratreks ute kvestur panta muta adferture si.
Rogatinnem faciat fratricus nut quaestor quanta miilta adfertori sit.
Panta niuta fratru Atiiediu mestru karu pure ulu bciuirent.
Quaiitam vutltam fratrum Attfdiorum major pars qui illur venerhit
adferture cru pepurkurent herifi, Etautu mutu adferture si.
adfertori esse jusserint \iiuantani\ tibet, tanta viulia adfertori sit."

The date of these two pass.ages may be pl.iced between the first and second centuries before
the Christian era, but the language of them is much older.

PELASGIANS AND UMBRIANS. 59

with some words wliicli appear to ])elong to the language of the
Rasena; and finally, the soothsayers of Umbria had no less rep-
utation than the Tuscan augurs.^

Oftentimes they banded together against the same adversaries.
Thus the Umbriaus followed the Etruscans to the conquest of
Campania, \vhere the towns of Nuceiia and Acerrae recall by
their names two Umbrian cities; and they took part in the great
expedition against the Greeks of Cumae.^ When Etruria understood
that the cause of the Samnites was that of all Italy, Umbria did
not abandon her at that last hour; sixty thousand Umbrians and
Etruscans stretched on the battle-field of Sutrimn bore witness to
the ancient alliance, and perhaps blending, of the two peoples.
Finally, when the loss of liberty left them no other joy than
pleasure-seeking and effeminacy, they w^ere devoted to these, and
remained united still in the same reputation for intemperance.^
Both, too, had had the same enemies to resist, Rome and the Gauls ;
with this difference, — due to the position and direction of the Apen-
nines, which protected Etruria against the Gauls, and Umbria
against Rome, — that the latter had first come to be more dreaded
by the Etruscans, as no barrier separated them, and the former
Ijy the Umbrians, whose country opened into the Valley of the Po.
The Senones invaded a considerable portion of it, and always
struck across Umbria in their raids towards the centre and south
of the peninsula.

The Umbrians were divided into numerous independent tribes,
of which some dwelt in towns, others in the country. Thus
while the mass of the nation made common cause with the Etrus-
cans, the Camertes treated with Rome on a footing of perfect
equality ; Ocriculum also obtained the Roman alHance, but the
Sarsinates dared to attack the legions alone, and furnished the
consuls with two triumphs. Pliny still counted in his time in
Umbria forty-seven distinct tribes ; * and this separation of the
urban and rustic populations, this passion for local independence,
this rivalry between towns, was always the normal state of the

* Cic, de Dicin., i. 41.

^ Strabo, V. iv. 3; Pliny, I^at. Hist., iii. 5; Dionysius, Ant. Rom., vii. 3.
' " Aut pastus Umber aut obesus Etruscus." — C.\tullus : xxxix. 11. On the dissolute-
ness of Etruscan manners, see Theopompus, in Athenaeus, xii. 14.

* Pliny, Xal. Hist., iii. 14.

60 . INTRODUCTION.

Romagna, of the mardaes of Ancona, and of almost the whole of
Italy. In the fifteenth century, just as in ancient times, there
were in the Romagna communities of peasants entirely free, and
all the towns formed jealous municipalities.' Thus it happened
that this energetic race, which had no knowledge of the litigious
spirit of the Romans, and with whom might settled right,^ — these
-men, that Napoleon declared to be tlie best soldiers in Italy, have,
thanks to their divisions, submitted quietly to the ascendency of
Rome, and came ultimately to obey the weakest of governments.

III.

THE ETEUSOANS.

OUR Western civilization lias its mysteries, like the old East ;
Etruria is to us what Egypt was before Cliampollion. We
know very well that it was inhabited l^y an industrious people,
skilled in commerce, art, and war, rivalling the Greeks at the same
time that they were under their influence, and for a long time
powerful and formidable in the Mediterranean ; but this people
has disappeared, leaving us for its riddle an unknown language
for a proof of what it once was, innumerable monuments, vases,
statues, bas-reliefs, ornaments, objects precious both for workman-
ship and for materials, — a people rich enough to bury with its
chiefs the means wherewith to pay an army or build a town ;
industrious enough to flood Italy with its products ; and civilized
enoiigh to cover its monuments and tombs with inscriptions.^ But

1 See L. Ranke, Ilistnnj nfllie Popes, ii. 198.

^ *O/i/3/jtK0t oTav TTfios dWrjXovs (^(UifTiv u^(liL(T(3r]Tr](riVy KaOoTikurSivm a)? eV iroKi^w ^cij^ovraL
Koi SoKovtrt Si(«ioVepa Xf'yeiK oi Tovs fvavriuvs (iTroo-f^d^arrej (Nie. Damasc, ap. Stob. Flor., 10,
70). Here we have the judicial duel of the Middle Ages. They said, too : 'AvayKoiov rj vimv
rj aT:o6vT]iTKfLV. (^Ibid.y 7, 31).)

* M. de Longporier says of one monument, which was found at Cervetri (Caere) : " It is
directly connected with the Corinthian art of the seventh century, so tliat this tomb may give
us an exact idea of what that of Demaratus, the father of Tarquin the Elder, must have been."
{Muse'e Napoleon 111., explanation of pi. Lxxx.) Let us note that the Etruscans interred
their dead, and did not burn them ; the contrary was the case in the later times of the Repub-
lic and under the Empire [or rather, both customs prevailed. — Eil.^.

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62 INTEODUCTIOjST.

all this is mute, and modern science, wholly baffled, has hitherto
been unable to interpret more than twenty words or so of the
Etruscan language.^ Their portraits which they have left us on
their tombs tell us nothing more of them. These obese and thick-
set men, with aquiline noses and retreating foreheads, have nothing
in common with the Hellenic or Italiote type, and are not of
the same race as the thin-featured people represented on their
vases.

Whence did they come ? The ancients themselves did not
know. Deceived by the name of the Tyrrhenians, who had pre-
ceded the Etruscans north of the Tiber, the Greeks took them for
Pelasgians, and re^Jresented them as having travelled from Thessaly
and Asia Minor into Tuscany. But, on the testimony of Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, their language, their laws, their customs, and
their religion had nothing in common with those of the Pelasgians.
Niebuhr and Otf. Midler consider that the Etruscans, or Rasena, as
they called themselves, came from the mountains of Rhaetia.^ As
a matter of fact, there is no reason why the Etruscans, who placed
the abode of their gods in the north, and gave^ them the Scandi-
navian name of Ases,^ should not be regarded as an Asiatic tribe,
which, after having penetrated into Europe by the defiles of the
Caucasus, by which the Goths afterward passed, had left on the

1 See the work of M. Noel des Vergers, L'Etrurie el les Etrusqucf, nu dix cms de fouilles
dann lex Maremmes Toscanes. Varro (de Ling. Lat., iv. 9) speaks of Etruscan tragedies which
are lost. We have nearly two thousand inscriptions : but we cannot understand them, and
Ma.x Muller, in his Science of Language, is obliged to pass over the Etruscan in silence. The
interpretations of Corssen, who [thought the language Indo-European, and] was for a time
called " the Oedipus of the Etruscan Sphinx," have been abandoned, and the Sphinx remains
mute [till we find a bilingual text. — -Erf.].

- Ijivy (v. 33), Pliny (iii. 20), and Justin (xx. 5) maintain, on the contrary, that the Rhae-
tiuus are Etruscans who took refuge in the Alps after the conquest of Lombardy by the Gauls.
Niebuhr supposes that the singular language of Groeden, in Southern Tyrol, is a remnant of
the Etruscan language. Many names of places there recall the Rasena, and the IMuseum of
Trent preserves vases and small figures in bronze with Etruscan inscriptions discovered in
that province. Quite recently, in 1877, there were found in the Valteline, not far from Como,
some Etruscan objects of great antiquity (Rer. arch., Sept. 1877, p. 204). Ogiuli tried to
prove in the G'wrntde Acadico the relationship of the Germans and Etruscans. M. Noel des
Vergers, who has sought for the solution of the problem especially in the study of figured
monuments, is disposed to accept the tradition of Herodotus as to their Lydian origin. But
the plastic arts may have been introduced into Etruria later than the arrival of the Etruscans,
by commerce, or previously to it by the Tyrrhenians. In short, the problem will remain
insoluble until we decipher the Etruscan language.

* Fest. s. V. " Sinistrae aves."

* " Aesar . . . Etrusca lingua Deus vocarotur" (Suet. Oct. 97).

THE ETRUSCANS.

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SOME ETRUSCAN ALPHABETS.

INTEODUCTIOK

south tlie peninsula of the Balkans occupied by the Pelasgian races,
and had ascended the Valley of the Danube as far as the Tyrolese
Alps. Priestly rule, division into strictly separated classes, and
the predominance of fatalism, are characteristics more and more
marked in proportion as we trace back the course of centuries
and approach more nearly to Asia. Etruscan civilization has also
in common v^^ith Semitic literatures the omission of the short vowels.

ETRUSCAN FIGURES. (ATLAS OF MICALI, PL. Xiv).l

the reduplication of the consonants, and the writing from right to
left. The dwarf Tages reminds us of the clever dwarfs and magi-
cians of Scandinavia ; whilst the obese figures found at Cervetri ;
the gorgons, of which there are so many representations ; the gods
with four wings, two spread and two drooped towards the earth ;
the sphinxes, the monsters which guard the approaches to the

1 We rc'liR'tantly reproduce these figures, to which we find non« analogous in Grecian
art. But the Etruscans, so clever in the manufacture of bronzes, jewels, and vases, preserve
the taste of barbarous nations for monsters to serve as bugbears. ^Vhen they thought to
make them terrible they made them hideous. We must show this side of their plastic art.
[Similarly, in old Irish illuminations and carvings, the animals introduced are simply gro-
tesque, and the human figures as bad as ]iossible, while both the feeling and execution of the
geometrical ornament is the most beautiful which can possibly be found. — Ed-J

THE ETRUSCANS. G5

mansions of the dead ; the animals imknown to Italy, lions and
panthers, devouring one another; the Egyptian scaral^aei, the good
and evil genii, like the devs of Persia, which conduct souls to the
lower w^orld; finally, a (piantity of details of ornamentation, — show
either borrowing from the East, or memories of their early lioinc.

We have above compared the two industrious and universally
persecuted races of the Finns and Pelasgians ; we might also com-
pare the two peoples who have taken their place, — the enigmatical
language of the Rasena with the Scandinavian Runes ; Odin, the
Ases, and royal families of the Goths, with the Tuscan Luciunons,
who were at the same time nobles and priests. Like the Germans,
the Etruscans united what the East separates, — religion and arms,
the caste of priests and that of warriors.

If the Goths believed m the death of the gods, and dared to
strive against them, the Etruscans predicted the renewal of the
world, and imagined that they could by their magic formulae con-
strain the divine will. The grave, melancholy, and religious char-
acter of this people, their
respect for women, their
kindness towards slaves,^ the
length and al)undance of
their repasts, would also sug-
gest Germanic manners, if it
were not probable that these
resemblances are purely ac-
cidental. The saying of
one of the ancients has, in
fact, remained the opinion of
modern science : " By their

1 1 „ „ xl ETRUSCAN GOKOOX (CAMPAXA MUSEUM).

language and manners the '^ ^

Etruscans are separated from all other nations."

We will suppose, w^ithout firm conviction, that the Etruscans
came down from the Alps into the Valley of the Po, bearing with
them from Asia.r which they had perhaps quitted for but a few
centuries, their liaK-sacerdotal government, and from the moun-
tains, where they had recently sojourned, that division into in-
dependent cantons which has existed in all time among the people

* Dionys. Ant. Rom., i.\. 5. The Veieatines earoUed tliem in tlnnr troops.
VOL. I. 5

INTllUDUCTION.

of the Alps. They first stopped in Cisalpine
Gaul, where they possessed as many as twelve
large towns ; then they crossed the Apennines,
and established themselves between the Tiber
and the Arno. Tliere they found some Tyrrhe-
nian Pelasgians in possession of Hellenic beliefs,
traditions, and arts, and in commercial rela-
tions with the Greeks of Southern Italy and
Ionia. These Pelasgians, protected by cities
stronger than the open villages of the Um-
brians, could not be expelled or exterminated,
and formed a consideral)le iiortion of the new nation.^ Is it ":oing:
too far to attribute the woi'ks of drainage,^ the Cyclopean construc-

FIGUIIE WITH FOITU WINGS.

CHIMAERA IJJ THE GALLERY OF FLORENCE (mICALI, ATLAS, PL. XLII.).

tions, the pretended knowledge of omens, and the industrious activity
of the Etruscans, to the influence, counsels, and example of these

' Esiiec-i.ally in the towns of Southern Etriiri.a, which always ilisplay chai-acteristios dif-
fering from Ihosu of the northern cities, and through which the Greek i-eUgion obtained an
entry into Kome. At Caere there have been found inscriptions thought to be PeLasgian.
Moreover Caere and Tarquinii Iind each its treasure-house at Delphi, like Sparta and Athens,
and the painted vases of Taripiinii are e.xactly similar to those of Corinth. We might call to
mind, too, the religious character of the peo]jle of Caere and the reputation they had of having
always ab.stained from jnracy.

'^ See Noel des Vergers, Etrnria and the El7-uf!can/<, i. 9G. The railway through the
Maremma has led to the discovery of a quantity of subterranean conduits for draining the
soil.

THE ETEUSCANS. 67

Pelasgians/ who are said to have excavated the tunnels from Lake
Copais through a mountain, to have built the fortifications, still
remaining, of Argos, Mj'ceuae, and Tirjns, and who passed for
magicians on account of their learning ? Moreover this people
never had the spirit of hostility towards strangers ; the tradition
of Demaratus, the mixture of Umbrian, Oscan, Ligurian, and Sabel-
lian names in the Etruscan inscriptions, and finally the introduc-
tion of the gods and arts of Greece, show with what facility they
admitted men and things of other countries.

One particular feature of Etruscan manners is, however, in
absolute contradiction to the Greek manners. This sensual people
loved to heighten pleasure by scenes of death. They were accus-
tomed to human sacrifices ; they decorated their tombs with scenes
of blood ; ^ and gave to their neighbors of the Seven Hills those
gladiatorial games which the towns of half the Roman world
imitated."

The ruin of the Umbrians was accomplished, said the Etruscan
annals,* 434 years before the foundatiun of Rome. The Rasena
succeeded to their power, and increased it by four centuries of
conquests. From Tuscany, the principal seat of then- twelve tribes,
they suladued Uml)ria itself, with a part of Picenum, where traces
of their occupation are to be found.^ Beyond the Tiber, Fidenae,

' [To account for the Etruscans by referring them to the Pelasgi, and that, too, by-
attributing to the latter all sorts of works without any conclusive evidence, is indeed to
e.xplain obscuru?n per obscurius, and gives new point to Niebidir's remark already quoted by
the author. — Ed.']

^ This design (see p. 68), taken from i>l. xxi. of the .illas of Xoel des Vergers, repre-
sents Achilles immulatiiig captives to the manes of Patrochis. This is the i-eading of the
names written over the head of each figure, and M. Brcal's rendering of them, going from
left to right, — Achmenrun (Agamemnon) ; Hinthial Patrucles (Ghost of Patroclus) ;
V\'p (?) ; AcHLE (Achilles); Truials (Trojanus) ; Chakn (Charon); Aivas Tljiunus
(Aja.x Telamoniusj ; Truials (Trojans); Aivas Vilatas (Ajax Oileusi. This scene of
murder corresponded so well with the manners of the Etruscans, that when they wished to rep-
resent an episode of the Iliad, they chose the only narrative of this nature which is found in
Homer. Many testimonies of ancient authors, and those which the Etruscans themselves have
left on their monuments, bear witness to this odious feature of Etruscan society. Macrobius
(Saturn, i. 7) says that Tarquin caused children to be immolated to the goddess jNIania, the
mother of the Lares. As for the winged figure who is standing behind Achilles, I should be
inclined to take it for the genius of the hero. For the Etruscan doctrine of genii see below.

^ [If more conjectures are encouraged, we shall soon have the Mexican Aztecs, so Uke
the Etruscans in these and other points, declared to be theu- descendants. — Ed.']

^ Varr., ap. Censor., 1 7 ; Dionysius said five hundred years. It is useless to add that
these chronological data are valueless.

^ Phny, A'at. Ilisl., iii. 5.

68 INTEODUCTION.

Crnstumeria, and Tusciilum, colonized by them, open the road to-
wards the cpuntry of the Volscians and RutuUans,^ who were
brought into sul^jection ; and towards Campania, a new (Etruria
was founded eight hundred j^ears before our era, of which the
principal cities were Volturnum, afterward called Capua, Nola,
Acerrae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.^ From the cliffs of Sorrento,
which were crowned by the temple of the Etruscan Minerva, they
watched any vessels hardy enough to venture into the gulfs of
Naples or Salerno, and their long galleys cruised as far as the
coasts of Corsica and Sardmia, where they had settlements. " Then
almost the whole peninsula, from the Alps to the Straits of Messina,
was under their sway," ^ and the two seas which wash the shores
of Italy took and still keep, the one the name of this people,
Tuscum Mare, the sea of Tuscany, the other of its colony of
Adria, the Adriatic.

Unhappily, there was no imion in this vast dominion. The
Etruscans were everjnvhere, — on the banks of the Po, the Arno, and
the Tiber, at the foot of the Alps and in Campania, on the Adriatic
and on the Tyrrhenian Sea ; but where was Etruria ? Like Attica
under Cecrops, like the Aeolians and lonians in Asia, the Achaeans
in Greece, the Salentines and Lucanians in Italy, the Etruscans
were divided, in each country occupied by tl;Lem, into twelve in-
dependent tribes, which were united by a federal bond, without any
general league for the whole nation. For instance, when any grave
circumstances occurred in Etruria proper, the chiefs of each city
assembled at the temple of Voltumna, in the territory of Volsinii,
to treat there concerning the interests of the country, or to celebrate,
under the presidency of a supreme pontiff, the national feasts.* In
the days of their conquests the union was doubtless very close,
and, the chief of one of the twelve tribes being proclaimed general-
issimo, exercised an unlimited power, indicated l)y the twelve lictors
furnished by the twelve cities, with their fasces surmounted by

1 Some tombs have been discovered at Ardea, the capital of the Rutiili, which appear to
belong to the Etruscans, and the citadel of that town, more imposing than those of Etruria.
is built, like them, of enormous stones.

- Livy, iv. 37; Cato, ap. Veil. Patero., i. 7; Polybius, ii. 17. Lanzi adds to these five
towns, Nocera, Calatia, Teanum, Cales, Suessa, Aesernia, and Atella.

^ Cato, ap. Serv. in Aen., xi. 567. Livy repeats it in almost the same terms in different
places (i. 2 ; v. 33).

* Livy, V. i. ; and elsewhere, ;))'//(<v'/j(.< Einirine.

i'i|\|iM;.l|i-

O
O
<i

W
«

12;

THE ETEUSCANS.

axes. But little by little this bond was relaxed, and the Etruscans,
who had at first presented the appearance of a great nation, were
unable to escape this political particularism, which has been too
dear to the Italians even up to our own days. At the epoch when

TUSCAN PLOUGHMAN.*

Rome seriously menaced Etruria, all imion had decayed, and tliey
had gone so far as to declare solemnly in a general assembly that
each city must settle its o\vn quarrels, and were not ashamed to
explain that it would l^e imprudent to engage the whole of
Etruria in the defence of one of its tribes.'^

BRONZE ARMS AND TOOLS FOUND AT BOLOGNA. ^

1 This group in bronze, found at Arezzo, is thought to be connected with the legend
of the birth of Tages.

2 Livy, V. 17.

' In 1871 there were brought to hght at the Chartreuse, near Bologna, ,365
Etruscan tombs, and in the environs of Villanova numerous pre-historic objects, like

USfTEODUCTION.

Each of these twelve tribes, represented by a capital which
bore its name, possessed an extensive territory, and within it
subject-towns were in dependence on the principal city, with inferior

JEWELS FOUND AT BOLOGNA (SEE NOTE BELOW).

political rights ; but in the capital itself the ruling power was the
order of the Lucumons, the true patricians, who possessed, by

those of the lake-cities of Switzerland. In 1877 a single search at Bologna led to the dis-
covery of an amphora 4^ feet high and 4 feet broad, buried doubtless at the moment of
an invasion, and containing 14,000 bronze objects, utensils, arms, and ornaments. These
bronzes were then precious and very expensive objects, sjiread through Italy and into
the Transalpine countries by a commerce which was at once timorous and daring (Rev.
arch, of June, 1877). Count Gozzadini places these bronzes as far back as the tenth
century B. c.

THE ETRL SCANS.

hereditary right, power, religion, and learning. In some cases they
governed the city in turn as annual magistrates, in others one of
them governed as king,^ but with a power limited by tlie privileges
of that sacerdotal aristocracy which had united religion, agriculture,
and the state by indissoluble bonds. The nymph Bygo'is had
revealed to them the secrets of the augur's art, and the dwarf Tages
the precepts of human wisdom with the science of the Aruspices.
One day when a peasant was driving his plough in the fields of
Tarquhiii, a hideous dwarf, with the face of a child imder his white

BRONZE VASES FOUND AT BOLOGNA.

hair, Tages, came out of a furrow. All Etruria flocked thither. The
dwarf spoke for a long time ; the Etruscans collected his words,
and the books of Tages, the basis of Etruscan disciplme,^ were
for Etruria what the laws of Mann had been for India, and the
Pentateuch for the Hebrews.

The common people, brought up by its superstitious fears to
respect the great and to submit to the laws which they had
ilictated, did not dispute their dominion ; and this docile obedience
rendering violence superfluous, the aristocracy and the people were
not separated by that implacable hatred which rends states asunder.
Like the subjects of Venice, still so faithful, even in the last century,

^ "Taedio annuae ambitionis regem creavere." (Livy, v. i.)
2 Cic, de Div., ii. '23.

INTEODUCTIOK

to the nobility of the Golden Book, the people fought for the
maintenance of a social order wherein it held only the last place.
But when the fortune of Etruria fell, the authority of the Lucumons
was humbled. At Veii, at the commencement of the ten years' war,
and at Arezzo, a century later, the plebeians dared to look their
masters in the face and demand a reckoning.

BRONZE JEWELS.^

The other Italian peoples lived scattered in straggling villages
(vicatim). The Etruscans always had their towns walled, and
generally placed on high hills, like so many fortresses dominating
the country. Warriors, husbandmen, and merchants, they fought,
drained the marshes, and dug harl^ors. India and Egypt, believing
themselves eternal, spent centuries on majestic but idle monuments.
Greece covered her promontories with temples, her roads with statues,

•■ For the description of these objects, see Annates du Dull, archeol. 1874, voL xlvi.
p. 24!), seq., and in the Atlas, vol. x. jil. x. seq.

THE ETKUSCAJSrS.

the streets and open spaces of her towns with porticos. Hero it
was the disinterested genius lor the arts, there a profoundly re-

EXnnSCAN JEWELS AND EARRIXGS.'

ligious sentiment and the hope of an endless existence. But Etruria
knew that she and her gods must die ; and anxious to live and

enjoy life before that anticipated end, she lavished time and men
only on useful works, making roads, opening canals, turning aside
rivers, surrounding towns with unpregnable walls.

1 These jewels are taken from Noel des Vergers' Atlas.

74 INTRODUCTION.

In Upper Italy, Mantua thus rose in the middle of a lake on
the Mincio — a position to this day the strongest in the peninsula.
Its metropolis, Felsina (Bologna), on the Reno, claims to have
founded Perugia^ also, and Plmy calls it the capital of Circumpa-

BRONZE ARMS.-

dane Etruria. Melpum, on the Adda, was able to stand against
the Gauls for two centuries ; and Adria, between the Po and the
Adige, was surrounded by canals which, connecting the seven lakes
of the Po, called the seven seas, rendered the delta of the river

' Silius Ilal., viii. 600.

- Bronze buckler and arms found in a tomb called that of the warrior at Corneto
(Tarquinii) ; see Alias of the Bull, de I' Inst. arche'oL, vol. x. pi. .x.

THE ETRUSCANS. 75

healthy. The waters, confincil or let off. prepared the fertile lands
for agriculture. Towns nniltiplied fhcre ; and from Piedmont to
tlie Adige there are found Etruscan inscriptions, bronzes, pamted
vases, etc., relics of the nde of an industrious people.

In Tuscany the Valley of the Arno and that (jf the Chiana
were drained, the Maremma made healthy, and six of the twelve
capitals liuilt upon that coast, now uninhabitable. While the towns
carved marble, cast iron^ and l:»ronze, modelled clay into elegant
vases, sculptured innumeral)le bas-reliefs, chased rich armor and
precious jewels, and worked up linen for the priests, wool for the
people, hemp for cordage, and wood for ships, a skilled agricul-
ture — closely bound up with religion and an equitable division of
land, which gave to each citizen his farm ^ — enriched the ^and^
and covered it with a healthy population. Thus was realized that
problem which antiquity was so seldom able to solve, — large towns
in the midst of a fertile country, industry and agriculture, wealth
and strength : sic furtis Etriiria crevit?

Meanwhile, from the numerous parts of the coast, from Luna,
the town of the Marble Walls ; ^ from Pisa, which was then nearer
the sea than now ; from Telamon, once a vast harbor, now only a
swamp ; from (rraviscae ; from Populonia ; from Cosa ; from Pj'rgi ;
from the two Adrias ; ® from Herculaneum ; from Pompeii, there
sailed vessels destined for commerce, or cruising from the Pillars
of Hercules to the coasts of Asia Minor and Egypt. More hard}-
adventurers went to Gaul to seek the tin of the Islands of the
Cassiterides, necessary in the manufacture of bronze ; farther still,
to the shores of the Baltic, to seek the yellow amber, of which
the women made their ornaments, and which was said by the
Greeks to be formed of the tears of the daughters of the Sun
weeping the death of Phaethon. Silver coins of Populonia found
in the Duchy of Posen show the route followed by the Etruse;in

1 The excellent ore of the Isle of Elba was brought to Populonia, wliere large foundries
were established; the isle is only separated from the continent by a channel 10 kiloni. wide
(() miles). [The mines are still worked, and give a good return. — 7J(/.]

'^ " Terra, eulturae causa, particulatim hominibus attributa " (Varro, up. Philai-g. iu
Geory. ii. 169).

^ Vergil, Georrj. ii. 52.3.

* Near Carrara, the Qiiarri/, where there is a mountain of white marble.

5 The most famous between the Po and the Adige still bears the same name, but is more
tlian 14 miles from the sea; the other, Atri, in Picenum, is 5 miles from the Ailriatie.

INTRODUCTION.

merchants across the European continent. Carthage closed against
them the Straits of Gades, beyond which they were desirous of
leading a colony to a large island of the Atlantic, which she had
just discovered ; ^ but she gave up to them the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Every strange vessel which they met westward of Italy was treated
as a prize, unless some convention protected it.^ When the
Phocaeans came, in 536 b. c to seek another country in these
seas, the Etruscans united with the Carthaginians agamst those
Greeks, whom the two nations met and fought everywhere.

COINS OF POPULONIA WITH A OORGON S HEAD, REVERSE SJIdOTH.'

But this imion could not last. Tlie Carthaginians, who for
their commerce with Gaul and Spain needed busmess settlements
in Corsica and Sardinia, established themselves in those two islands
in spite of treaties. Thence sprang up violent animosities, and
an anxiety on the part of the Carthaginians^ to ally themselves
with the Romans.* The hatred of Carthage was dangerous ; yet
less so than the rivalry of the Greeks, who occupied the most
important commercial positions in Sicily, in Southern Italy, and
as far as the centre of Campania, and who, through Cumae, men-
aced the Etruscan colony on the borders of the Volturno. As
early as the middle of the sixth century some Cnidians established
themselves in the Lipari Islands, whence they harassed the whole
of the Tuscan commerce. Being attacked by a numerous fleet,
they gained the victory, and in the joy of this unhoped-for triumph,

^ Diod. V. 20, NauKTiKttis dvvu^eatv itj)^v(javT€s Koi noWovi ;^/jot'ouf SaXaTTOKpaTijG-ai'Tes-

2 Aristotle, Pol. iii. G.

^ These medals give a full-face representation of the Etruscan Gorgon, which is seen on
so great a number of vases and terra-cottas ; but she no longer has the hideous head which the
ancient monuments of Etruria gave her. The Greeks had the Gorgon too ; but they disliked
ugliness. AVhen they had made her terrible, they made her beautiful ; and Lucian ends by
saying that it was by her beauty she exercised her fatal power of changing those who looked
upon her to stone. [Lionardo's famous Medusa suggests the same idea. — £</.]

♦ Shown by treaties of 509, 348, and 279 B.C.

THE ETRUSCANS.

they dedicated as many statues at Delphi as they had takeu ves-
sels.' Rhodes, too,

showed among its y^'*^ ^ **^'

trophies the iron-
bound beaks of the
Tyrrhenian vessels,
and the tyrant of
Rhegium, Anasilaos,
drove them from the
Straits of Sicily liy
fortifying the en-
trance.^ The Etrus-
cans, therefore, sided
with Athens against
Syracuse. Hieromade
them pay dearly for
this alliance. In con-
junction with Cumae,
Syracuse inflicted on
the Etruscans a de-
feat which marked
the decline of their
maritime power (47-4),
and of which Pindar
sung : —

" Son of Saturn,
I conjure thee, cause
the Phoenician and
the soldier of Tyrrhe-
nia to remain at their
own hearths, taught

^ Pausanias, x. 1 '2 and
16. Thucyd., iii. 88.

- Strabo, VI. i. 5.

' This coin, with the
sign of the wheel and the
anchor, is a dupondius, or
piece worth two asses, which
are marked on the two sides of tlic anchor. Coins of even ten asses were made ; but aU
these bronze nuiltii)les of the monetary unit are rare.

BROXZE COIX ATTKIIU TED TO THE ETRUSCO-UMBRI.-VN
TOWN OF C.^MERS.^

mTKODUCTION.

by the alfroiit that their fleet received before Cumae, and Ijy the
evils that the lord of Syracuse wrought upon them, vfhen victori-
ous he cast all their brilliant youth headlong from the heights of
the swift poops into the waves, and drew Greece from the yoke
of slavery." Hiero made an offering to Zeus of Olympia of the

r,---*^

A lucumon's helmet. 1

helmet of one of the Lucumons killed in this l>attle, with this
inscription, which he had caused to be engraved on it : " Hiero,
son of Deinomenes, and the Syracusans [have consecrated] to Zeus
the Tyrrhenian [arms] from Cumae." ^

1 [This helmet was found in 1817 iu the bed of the Alpheus, and is now in the British
Museum.]

2 Pindar, P;/tJi. i. 13C, sc/. ; cf. Jilate alrave.

THE ETRUSCANS. 79

From all quarters enemies then rose up against the Etruscans.
Threatened on the north by the Gauls, in the centre by Rome,
and on the south by the Greeks and Samnites, they lost Lombardy,
the left bank of the Tiber, and Campania, where the Samnites
made themselves masters of Volturnum, slaying all the inhabitants
in one night. At the end of the fifth century B. c. tliey retained
only Tuscany. Moreover, divisions prevailed amongst them ; in the
midst of the public misfortune the league had been dissolved.
Veii, attacked by the Romans, was left to herself, just as Clusium
was abandoned when threatened by the Gauls. Such selfishness
brought its own punishment. Veii succumbed, Caere became a
Roman municipality, and Sutrium and Nepeta were occupied by
Latin colonies. These disastei's taught them no lesson, and Etruria
viewed with indifference the earlier efforts uf the Samnites. At
last, however, she saw that it was a question of the liberty of
Italy, and she roused herself fully. But she was crushed at Lake
Vadimo ; a second defeat completed the work. This was the last
blood shed for the cause of independence. For some time longer
the Etruscans, mider the name of Italian allies, miglit think
themselves free ; Init little l)_y little the hand of Rome pressed
more heavily on them, and at the end of a century, without any
noticeable change, Etruria found herself a province of the Empire.

Calm under the yoke, and sadly resigned to a fate which
had been long predicted,^ this nation made no effort to strive
against its destiny. They tried to forget, in luxury and the
love of art, the loss of their liberty ; and preserving amid their
sensual pleasures the ever-present idea of death, they continued to
decorate their tombs with paintings, and to bury in them thousands
of objects, which in workmanship and material indicate extreme
opulence. Etruria, in fact, was still rich ; it will be seen what
its towns gave to Scipio after sixteen years of the severest
warfare.

' lu the miilst of the ei\il wars of Marius and Sylla, the Tuscan soothsa}'ers declared
that the great day of Etruria was drawinj; to a close. According to the calculations of
their astronomical theology, the actual world would only last eight great days, or eight
times 1,100 years, and one of these days of the world was accorded to each great people
(Varr. ap. Censor, 1 7). Cicero, in the Dream of Scipio, also believes in the periodic
renewal of the world : " Eluviones exustionesque terrarum quas accidere tempore certo
necesse est " (rfe Rep. vi. 21), Virgil has clothed this grand idea with his magnificent
poetry : " Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum," etc. (Eel. iv. 50).

80 INTRODUCTION.

But the economical revohition which followed the great wars
of Rome reacted on the provinces. As in Latium and Campania,
the shive took by slow degrees the place of the free man, the
shepherd that of the husl^andman, and small properties were lost
in great domains. When Tiberius Gracchus traversed Etruria, on his
return from Numantia, he was alarmed at its depopulation. Sylla
completed its ruin by abandoning it to his soldiers as the price
of the civil war ; the Triumvirs gave it another visitation. Thence-
forward EtiTiria never recovered. Her social organization had
perished ; her language, too, was gone. From so nmch glory, art,
and learning, one thing only survived ; up to the last days of the
ancient world the Tuscan augur retained his fame with the
country people. None could better read signs in the entrails of
victims, in the lightning flashes, or in ordinary phenomena.' It
was a vain science, which rested on the enervating dogma of
fatalism, and which infected the nation with a deathlike torpor.

The Etrurians played a considerable part, however, in the
civilization of Italy, — not Ijy their ideas, for they added nothing
to human thought ; nor by art, since as regards ideal work, theirs
has little originality ; liut by their utilitarian conception of life,
by their industry, and by the influence which they exercised upon
Rome.

Livy calls the Etruscans the most religious of nations, the one
which excelled in the practice of established ceremonies ; the Fathers
of the Church looked upon Etruria as the mother of superstitions.
We shall see that she deserved this report. Their augurs' doctrine
was famous among the ancients. They believed that the great
events of the world were announced by signs ; and they were right
in believmg it, if only, instead of observmg tlie phenomena of
physical nature, they had studied those of the moral order, — since
the best policy is that which discovers the signs of the times.
But the augur's art was only a collection of puerile rules, which
held the mind in bondage, and made first them, and then the
Romans, the greatest formalists in the world.

If we except the Greeks settled on the shores of the gulfs of
Naples and Tarentum, they were the most civilized of the Italian

^ Cicero, de Divin. ii. 12, 18. Exla, fulgura, ct ostenta were tlie three parts of the
science of divination.

THE ETRUSCANS.

nations. Their artisans were skilful, their nobles loved pomp in
their ceremonies, and magnificence in their dress ; and they gave
Rome these tastes, together with their horse-races and athletic
combats. They gave them, too, their massive architecture, which
was a clumsy imitation of the Doric order. The temple of Jupiter

GATE OF VOLATEHKA.

on the Capitol derived from them that flattened look which suited
so well the dull Roman imagination, but so ill tlie God of the
lofty heavens.^ The gate of Volaterra and the Cloaca Maxima
prove that they knew how to construct arches and vaults, wliich

1 [This was mainly the result of the wide separation of the i)illars, ■wM<'h give the Etrus-
can style a feeble and sjirawling look, as compared with the Greek. The effect of widening
these inter-columuar spaces is very marked. — Ed.']

VOL. I. 6

82 INTRODUCTION.

the Greeks of the grand epoch had forgotten [or neglected]. The
rude ogive of some Cyclopean gate had doubtless inspired them
with the idea, and architecture was endowed by them with a new
and precious future. They do not appear to have turned it to
account for majestic constructions, as did the Romans of the Em-
pire ; but they employed the vault in their canals and tunnels
to carry off the water and render the country healthy.

The senators of Rome, who lodged their gods in the Etruscan
manner, lodged themselves like the Lucumons of Veil or Tarquinii :
the atrium, which was the characteristic feature of patrician villas,
is borrowed from the Etruscans ; and from the Roman atrlmn came
the 2^'^^'t^o of the Spaniards or Moors, and the Catholic cloister.^
But whilst the Romans placed their tombs on the surface of the
soil, as we do, the Etruscans dug funereal chambers underground, or
in the rocky sides of their hills. Some of these, as, for instance,
in the valley of Castel d'Asso, have a singular likeness to those
which are seen at Thebes in Egypt. Sometimes they raised strange
structures over the excavation which contained their dead, of which
the fabulous tomb of Porsenna would he the most comj^lete repre-
sentation, if the description which the ancients have left us could
be reduced to the conditions of probability.

Varro, if Pliny has copied him accurately,, had made himself
the echo of vague memories which tradition had preserved and
embellished in its own fashion. " Porsenna," says he, " was buried
beneath the town of Clusium, in the place where he had caused
a square monument of liewn stone to be built. Each face is 300
feet long and 50 feet high. The base, which is square, enclosed
an inextricable labyrinth. If any one entered it without a ball of
thread, he could not regain the outlet. Alrove this square are five
pyramids, four at the angles and one in the middle, each 75 feet
broad at the base, and 150 feet high ; so exactly equal that
with their summits they all bear a globe of brass and a kind
of cap, from which bells are suspended by chains, which when
moved by the wind, emit a prolonged sound, such as was heard
at Dodona. Above the globe are four pyramids, each 100 feet

1 [More probably this method of house-building was common to all the Aryans of South-
ern Europe, certainly to the Homeric Greeks, as well as the Itahans. It is the form now
adopted all through the INIediterranean countries. — Ed.']

THE ETEUSCA^TS.

liigli. Above these last-mentioned pyramids, and on a single plat-
form, were five pyramids, whose height Varro was ashamed to note.
This height, according to Etruscan fables, was the same as that
of the whole monument."^ It has been attempted to explain this
impossible construction by saying that the pyramids were not
placed ni)on one another, but upon retreating surfaces.^ This
legend was, however, only half fabidous. Even at Chiusi, there
have been discovered sepulchral chambers, forming a sort of
labyrinth, through the narrow passages of which it is difficult to

THE CUCUMELLA.

make one's way, and the CucumeUa of Vulci leads to the suppo-
sition that the gloriovis king of Clusium had a sumptuous tomb.

The CucumeUa, situated in a plain, now an uninhabitable waste,
is a tumulus, or conical mound of earth, from 45 to 50 feet high,
probably higher in ancient times, and 650 feet in circumference.
Though it has been searched several times, this tumulus has not
given up its secret. Tombs have been met wdth, it is true, in the
excavations ; but only the obscure dead had their last abode there,
and, like faithful servants, guarded the approaches to the place

1 Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 19.

2 Quatremere de Quincy, Re.cueil de Dissert, arch., 183G.

INTEODUCTION.

where their master reposed. The Lncumo and his kin were further
in, in a central crypt, the access to which had ))een shut by a
wall of such thickness that the workmen could not break through
it. All efforts made to discover the entrance to this singular
monument were useless : the pyramids of Egypt have not defended
their sepulchral chambers so well. In the cuttings made round the
outer wall were found animals in basalt, winged sphinxes, lions
standing or couched, watching over this palace of the dead to drive
away the audacious visitor who should attempt to pass the
gate. On the summit were still seen the bases of partially crumbled

I'.ItOA'ZE VESSELS.!

towers. With the help of these remains it was possible to restore
this mysterious tomb with some appearance of probability .'■^ The
edifice is utterly devoid of grace. But purely Etruscan art had not
that gift which Greece received from Minerva ; and strange as this
construction appears, it is not more so than the tumulus of the
Lydian king, Alyattes, on the banks of the Hermus.^

! For the description of those objects, see Annales du Bull. arch, for 1874, vol. xlvi. p.
249 seq., and in the Alias, vol. x. jil. 10-12.

- This restoration was made under the directions of the Prince of Canino, whose domain
comprised the site of Vulci.

^ Herodotus, i. 93; Stuart, Mon. of Lydia, p. 4; Texier^ Description de I'Asie min.
iii. 20.

•J
u>

H
in
<
O

bi
O

•J

THE ETEUSCAIS^S.

To bury their cliiefs under great (atntdl was the custom of the
Scythians, Germans, Celts, and Lydians, and consequently of the
Pelasgians : it is tlierefore quite natural to liud it again in Etruria,
especially in the region where the Tyrrhenians had settled. The
type of the Egyptian tombs shows itself, on the contrary, in the
valley of Castel d' Asso, five miles from Viterbo.^ The town has
been destroyed, but its necropolis exists, excavated in the rock
like the tombs of Medinet Abu. The fagade is of the Doric order, —
a general feature of Etruscan architecture, — and the gates, narrow-
ing at the top. the deco-
rations in relief, and
the mouldings, recall the
monuments on the banks
of the Nile. Soana and
Norchia, too, have their
valley of tombs ; those
of Castel d' Asso were
still unknown in 1808.
In former days an im-
mense nation moved in
those solitudes, wherein
the traveller dare no
longer venture, as soon
as he feels the close
and deadly effluvia of
the spring time in the
Maremma.

The Etruscan exca-

BLACK VASES OF CLnSIUM (■CHIUSl).^

vations have yielded us an innumerable quantity of bronzes, terra-
cottas, jewelry, and domestic utensils, all of excellent workman-
ship. Their toreutic was renowned even in Athens ; the chasings,
candelabras, mirrors of engraved bronze, gold cups and jewels from
the land of the Tyrrhenians were sought for everywhere ; and

* Castel d' Asso corresponds to the village of Axia, Castellum Axiae, which was situated
"in agro Tarquiuiensi " (Cic. ;)ro Caec, 20). See the description which Dennis gives of it,
Etruria, i. 229-242; also the Bull. arch, for 18C3, pp. l.S-HO. The cut is taken from the Alia.-!
of tlie BuUelin, vol. i. pi. (lO.

- Taken from Noel des Vergers' Alla.f, pis. .wii., xviii., and xix ; see the exjilanatiou of
these cuts on pp, 12-14 of the same work.

86' INTEODUCTION.

when, solne years ago, the Campana Museum brought these marvels
to our knowledge, the modern goldsmith was obliged to conform
for a time to the Etruscan fashion.

Their figures have the rigidity of Egyptian statuary : the style
had not reached even that of Aegina. Yet they furnished Italy
with many bronze and terra-cotta statues of large dimensions.
The Romans, who were niggardly even with their gods, thought
that terra-cotta statues were a sufficient decoration for their temple
of Jupiter Capitolinus, and they placed some of them upon the
pediment.^ They provided themselves yet more cheaply with

statues of bronze, when they carried off
two thousand at the sack of Volsinii.

The ancients, who only learned very

late to make wooden casks, were the

best potters in the world : our museums

contain more than fifteen thousand antique

^^^^.'^--T'^^M vases. The i-cd pottery of Arezzo and

;? ' <^^^B^^^K" the black pottery of Chiusi are purely

•' '~^^ "" Etruscan. The form is sometimes odd,

BLACK VASE OF CLUSIUM.- , , p, i , ml

but often very elegant. ihe ornaments
in relief which decorate them, the fantastic animals seen upon
them — sphinxes, winged horses, griffins, and sirens — recall subjects
familiar to Oriental artists, and lead us to the conclusion already
propounded on the diverse sources of Etruscan civilization. Some
of these vases might even be taken for Egyptian caiiojjes, those
urns of which the cover is formed by a man's head. Among the
specimens which we give is a ewer in the shape of a fish ;
the Campana Museum has another in the form of a bird. The
learned are agreed to consider these Ijlack vases as very ancient,
and Juvenal asserted that good King Numa had no others —

" . . . quis
Simpuvium ridere Numae, nigrumque catinum . . .
Ausus erat ? " '

As for the painted vases, they are copied from Greek vases, or

1 [But it is not unlikely that the same fashion existed in Greece before they had learned
to carve in deep relief or set up marble figures in the pediment itself. — Ed.']

^ Taken from Noel des Vergers' Atlas, pis. xvii., xviii., and xi.x; see the explanation of
these cuts on pp. 12-14 of the same work.

8 Sat, vi. 343.

THE ETKUSCANS. 87

else they were imported in the active commerce which Italy carried
on with all the countries bordermg on the eastern part of the
Mediterranean — Egypt, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Rhodes, and, above all,
both European and Asiatic Greece. The subjects most frequently
represented on these vases are borrowed from the Epic cycle, from
the mythology and heroic traditions of Hellas. Whenever they
reproduce myths peculiar to Etruria, some reminiscence or imitation
of the foreigner appears. Some vases of gilt bronze which were
found at Volsinii have figures which remind us of the most
beautiful coins of Syracuse.

We ought to give the Etruscans credit for having appren-
ticed themselves to those who, in the domain of art, have been
the masters of the whole world, and for having preserved to us
some of their masterpieces.

The most admirable of the antique vases come from the
excavations at Chiusi ; ^ and smce an inhabitant of Vulci esteemed
a Panathenaic vase precious enough to be buried with him, let
us put in evidence what Etruria loved as well as what she
manufactured.

1 The Fran9ols Vase at Florence, of which a representation will be found in the Alias
of the Institut archiokuj., vol. iv. pi. liv., Iv., Ivii.

88 INTEODUCTIOK

IV.

OSCAKS AND SABELLIANS.

TN their central parts, eastward of Rome and Latium, the
-^ Apennmes have their highest pealis, their wildest valleys.
There the Gran Sasso d' Italia, the Velino, the Majella, the Sibilla,
and the Great Terminillo raise their snow-capped heads alcove all
the Apennine chain, and from their summits afford a view of l^oth
the seas which wash the shores of Italy .^ But their sides are not
gently sloped; it seems as if they laclved space to extend them-
selves. Their lines meet and break each other ; the valleys deepen
into dark chasms, where the sun never reaches ; the passes
are narrow gorges ; the watercourses torrents. Everywhere there
is the image of chaos. " It is hell ! " say the peasants.^ In all
ages this place has been the refuge of brave and intractable
populations, and the most ancient traditions place there the aljode
of the Oscans and Sabellians, — the true Italian race.

Long driven back by foreign colonists, and, as it were, lost
in the depths of the most somljre forests of the Apennines, these
people at last claimed their share of the Italian sun. Whence
did they originally come ? It is not l<:nown ; but historic proba-
bilities, strengthened by the affinity of language and religion,^
point to a common origin. The ditt'erence of the countries wherein
they definitely settled down — the Sabellians in the mountains ;
the Oscans m the plain — established between them differences of
customs and perpetual hostilities, which obscured their original
kinship. Of these two sister nations, the one, profiting by the
feebleness of the Siculi, must have descended, under the identical
names of Oscans, Opici, Ausoni, and Aurunci, into the plains of

1 [This wild Alpine country repeats itself twice again as you go southward ; once along
the bounilaries of Apulia, where the Abruzzi, from Potenza down to the ]\Ionte PoUino, form
a splendid chain, and again in Calabria, where the Sila Mountains embrace a large district
of inaccessible Alpine country. — £</.]

^ They call one of these valleys Inferno di S. Cnlumha.

^ The Samnites spoke Oscan. the language of the Campanians, and the Atellan farces
written in that language were understood at Rome. (Strabo, V. iii. 6.)

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS. 89

Latium and Campania, that ancient land of the OpicA, whicli they
had never, perhaps, entirely abandoned ; the other must liave in
later times peopled with its colonies the summits of the A]icnnines
and part of the Adriatic coasts: the latter led, in their warlike
temper, by the animals sacred to Mars; the former by Janus and
Saturn, who taught them agriculture, and of whom they made gods
of the sun and the earth, — the sun ^vhieh fertilizes, and the earth
whicli produces.

In the time of their power the Siculi had possessed the land
of the Opici ; but the miseries whicli the invasion had inflicted on
the Pelasgians of the banks of the Po gradually spread over the
whole race, and a lively reaction brought the mdigenous inhabi-
tants out of their Apennine catacombs, and put them in possession
of the plains which the Siculi had occupied. The Casci or Abo-
rigmes, that is to say, the oldest inhabitants of the land, began a
movement which, though several times arrested by the conquests
of the Etruscans, Gauls, and Greeks, finally resumed its course
with Rome, and ended l^y substituting the indigenous race for all
these foi-eign nations.

The latter, descending from the high land between Ami-
ternum and Reate, established themselves south of the Tiber,
where, by their union with the Umbrians, the Ausonians, and the
Siculi, who remained in the country, was
formed the nation of the Prlsci LaUni,^ which
occupied, between Tibur and the sea (33 miles),
and from the Tiber to beyond the Alban Mount
(19 miles), thirty vUlages, all independent.'^ •^'-''■^ ^°-^'«^-'

In the first rank stood Alba Longa, which took the title of the
Metropolis of Latium,* — a title which Rome, founded three hundred

1 Dionys., Ant. Rom. i. 14 ; Nonius, xii. 3; Cic, Tusc. i. 12; Varro, de Linrj. Lat. iv, 7;
Fest. s. V.

- On the obverse, a kelmeted head of Mercury ; on the reverse, a Pegasus. But this
Pegasus is neither the winged horse of the Muses nor that of Aurora, the legends of which are
of comparatively recent origin ; he bears the thunder and lightning of Jupiter, or rather, he is
the lightning itself, traversing the heavens at a bound (Hesiod., Theog. 281 ; Apollod. ii. 3, ^ 2
and 4, $2; Ovid, Metam. iv. 78.5 and vi. 119). This coin, of very clumsy workmanship, is
very old, and m.ay be assigned to the third or fourth century of Rome.

* Strabo, V. iii. 2 : dv i'uia Kara Kafias avTovofiuirdaL crvvi^Mvev vrr uvb(v\ Kotvui (j>vXa> Tera-
yfxeva.

* " Omnes Latini ab Alba oriundi." — Li\a' : i. 52.

INTEODUCTIOlSr.

years later, claimed to have inherited. A religious l^ond, in the
lack of any other, united these nations, and common sacrifices
gathered them on the Allian Mount, at Lavinium, the sanctuary of
the mysterious Penates and the native gods.^

Thus the nation from which Rome sprang was itself only a
mixture of diiferent tribes and races. Elsewhere successive races,
instead of blending, drive out or overlay each other, — one ruling,
the other enslaved. "With the Oscans and Sabellians there is, on
the contrary, a fusion of victors and vanquished. Greek tradi-
tions, which were always so intelligent, have faithfully echoed this
origin of the Latin people ; and it was by intermarriages and
peaceful unions that Evander, Aeneas, Tibur,
and the companions of Ulysses established
themselves, just as at a later period inter-
marriages unite Rome and the Sabines. By
its local traditions, as well as by its own
origin, Rome was prepared for that spirit of
facile association which gives her a distinctive
character among ancient polities, and which
was the cause of her greatness.

In the eighth century the prosperity of
the Latins was declining. The Etruscans had
traversed their country, the Sabines had
crossed the Anio, the Aequians and Volscians
had invaded the plain and seized several Latin
towns.^ Alba herself, in tradition, seems fee-
ble enough for a handful of men to have caused
a revolution there. This weakness was of ad-
vantage to the growth of the Eternal City.

Ties of relationship and aUiance united the Rutuli with the
Prisci Latini. The Rutulian capital, Ardea,* was already enriched

COIN ATTRIBUTED TO
THE KUTULIANS.^

' Janus, Saturn, Picus, Faunus, and Latinus were among these indigenous gods. Sacrifices
were also offered in memory of Evander and of his mother, the proplictess Camienta. One of
the gates of Rome was called the Carmental.

2 In the first centuries of Rome, Latin towns are assigned in turn to the Aequians,
Sabines, Latins, and Volscians.

' On the obverse, a tortoise with two o's, the mark of the sextans ; on the reverse, a
wheel, — rota, the root of the word Rutuli.

* " Ardeam Rutuli habebant, gens ut in ea regione atque in ea aetate divitiis praepollens."
— LivY ; i. 57.

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS.

by commerce and surrounded by liigh walls. Sagrmtum, in Spain,
was said to be its colony.

Around this primitive Latium, wliicli did not extend beyond
the Numicius, and which nourished a stout population of husband-
men/ were settled the Aequians, Hernicans, Volscians, and Aurun-
cans, all included by the Romans in the general term of Latin

WALL OF ALATRI.

people ; further on, between the Liris and the Silarus, were the
Ausonians.

The* Aequians, a little nation of shepherds and hunters, in-
satiable plunderers,^ had, instead of towns, only fortified villages,
situated in inaccessible places. Quartered in the difficult region

" Et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen ;
Sed fortuna fuit." — -Vergil: Aeneid, vii. 412.
Dionys. (^Aiit. Rom., iv. 64) is still more expressive.

^ "Fortissimi viri et milites strenuissimi exagricolis gignuntur." — Flint: Xat. Hist.
xviii. 5.

* "Convectare juvat praedas et vivere rapto." — Vergil: Aeneid, vii. 74!'.

INTRODUCTION.

traversed by the upper Anio, they reached, by way of the moun-
tains, as far as Algidus, a volcanic promontory, from which the
Roman territory might be seen, and whose forests covered their
march. Thence they suddenly poured into the plain, carrying off
crops and herds ; and before the people could take arms, they had
disappeared. Faithful, however, to their plighted word, they had
established tlie fetial right which the Romans had borrowed from
them,^ but which they seem no longer to have recognized at the
time when, by their rapid incursions, they every year turned the
attention of the people from their quarrels in the Forum. Not-
withstanding their proximity to Rome, and two centuries and a
half of wars, they were the last of the Italians to lay down arms.
Less given to war and plunder, because their country was

VOLSCIAN COIN.

richer, notwithstanding the rocks which covered it,^ the Hernicans
formed a confederation, the principal members of which were the
cities of Ferentinum, Alatrium, and Anagnia.'^

The imperishable walls of the two first-named towns, the linen
books wherein Anagnia recorded her history, her reputation for
wealth, the temples that Marcus Aurelius found there at every
step, and the circus where the deputies of the whole league
assembled, l^ear witness to their culture, their religious spirit, and
their ancient might.* Placed between two nations of warlike tem-
per, the Hernicans displayed a pacific spirit, and early associated

1 Livy, i. 3-.'.

^ " Saxosis in montibus " (Serv. in Aen. vii. 684) ; he takes them for Sabines.

3 "Dives Anagnia" (Verg., Aen. vii. 684). Strabo (V. iii. 10) calls it illustrious (ttoXk
d^ioXo;^n?).

■» Ferentinum, on the Via Latina, between Anagnia and Frusino; Alatrium, a town of the
same nation, is seven miles from the former.

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS.

themselves with the fortune of the Latins and Romans against
the Aequians and Volscians.

The Volscians, who were more numerous, inhabited the country
between the land of the Rutulians and the mountains which
separate the upper valleys of the Liris and Sagrus. The Etrus-
cans, who were for some time masters of a part of their country,
had there executed
great works for carry-
ing ofE the water, as
they had done in the
valleys of the Arno,
Chiana, and Po, and
had brought mider
cultivation lands
which yielded thirty
and forty fold. These
swamps, famous un-
der the name of the
Pontine Marshes, had
been at first only a
vast lagoon, separated
from the sea, like
that of Venice, by
the long islands which "^''^^ cltsses, elpenor.'

afterward formed the coast from Astura to Circeii. They were
Ijounded toward the south by the Island of Aea, which in later times
was united to the continent under the name of the Promontory of
Circeii.^ The superstitioi;s fears which always people deep forests
and wave-beaten rocks with strange and threatening powers, placed
the abode of Circe, the dread enchantress, on this promontory, as
in Celtic tradition the nine virgins of the Island of Sein ruled
the elements in the stormy seas of Armorica. This legend, which
appears to be indigenous around the mountain, may be the remains

' This Etruscan mirror, taken from the ElntskiscJie Spiegel of Gerhard (^ol. iv. pi.
cdiii.), was found at Tarquiuii in 1S63, and represents Ulysses, aided by Elpenor, forcing the
enchantress to restore the human form to his companions, whom she had changed into swine.
One of them still has a man's leg. The three names in Etruscan characters are : Cerca for
Circe, Uthste for Ulysses, Felparun for Elpenor.

^ Front., Epist. iv. 4.

94 INTRODUCTION.

of an ancient belief. Is not Circe, wliom tlie Greeks con-
nected with the ill-omened family of the King of Colchis, but
who was said to be the daughter of the Siui, doubtless because
in the morning, when the plain is still in shadow, her mountain
is lighted by the first rays of the rising sun, — Circe, who
changes forms, and compounds magic draughts of the herbs-' her
promontory still bears, ^ — may she not be some Pelasgian divinity,
a goddess of medicine, like the Greek Aesculapius, who was
also an offspring of the Sun, and who, fallen with the defeat of
her nation, was degraded to a dread sorceress by the new
comers ?

The Volscians of the coast — with the Island of Pontia and
the stretch of coast which they possessed ; with the ports of An-
tium and Astura, and that of Terracina, which has a circum-
ference of no less than nine miles ; ^ with the lessons or example
of the Etruscans, — could not fail to be skilful sailors ; at all events
they became formidable pirates. The whole Tyrrhenian Sea, as far
as the lighthouse of Messina, was infested by their cruisers ; and
the injuries they inflicted on the Tarentine commerce nearly re-
sulted in a war between the Romans and Alexander, the Molossian
king of Epirus. Yet Rome had already conquered Antium and
destroyed its fleet.

The Volscians of the interior were no less dreaded in the
plains of Latium and Campania; and after two hundred years of
war,* Rome only got rid of them by exterminating them. In the
time of Pliny ^ thirty-three villages had already disappeared in the

1 The Crepis lacera abounds there (Mic., i. 273); Strabo (V. iii. G) was also aware that
poisonous herbs grew there in g^eat numbers; cf. Verg. 4en. vii. W, seq. The memory of
the dread enchantress still lives there ; and not long ago no peasant could have been found
who would dare for any money to penetrate into the grotto said to be Circe's. (Do Bon-
stetten, Voijar/e sur le theatre den six derniers livres de I'Eneide, p. 73.)

2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 85 (87); iii. 11 (9) thought, as indeed the appearance of the
region proves, that the promontory of Circeii had been once an island, which some were
inclined to recognize as the problematic Island of Aea of Homer (Odyss. x. 135).

' De Prony, " Mem. sur les marais Pontins." " Anxur . . . oppidum vetere fortuna
opulentum." — LiVY, iv. 59. Cf. Pliny, ibid. iii. 9.

* Livy, vi. 21. " Volscos velut sorte qiiadam prope in aeternum exereendo Romano
militi datos."

' Pliny, Nat. Hi,<<t. iii. 9 : ■' A Circeiis palus Pomptina est quem locum xxxiii urbium
fuisse Mucianus ter consul prodidit." In the whole of ancient Latium he mentions fifty-five
ruined towns.

OSCANS AND SABELLIAJSTS. 95

Pomptinum, since the reign of Augustus a region of pestilence
' and desolation.^

Between the Volscian coiuitr}' and the River Liris, in a moun-
tainous region where but two narrow roads gave passage from
Latium into Campania, dwelt the Aurunei. Inheriting the name of
the great Italian race, they seem to have possessed also its unusual
stature, its threatening aspect, and its bold character.^ Accordingly,
it is at Formiae, on their coast, that tradition placed the abode of
the giant Laestrygones.^ But since historic ages this race has
remained obscure ; Livy names the Aurunei only to relate the
pitiless war that Rome made upon them, and the destruction of
three of their towns.

Southward from the Liris lay the country known to the Romans
as Campania, — a mild and enervating region, where no form of
government outlasted more than a few generations, and the ground
itself, with its constant changes, seemed to share iia the vicissitudes
of human affairs. The Lucrine Lake, once so celebrated, afterward
became a muddy swamp ; and the Avernus, '' the mouth of hell,"
changed into a pellucid lake. At Caserna a tomb has been found
ninety feet imder ground ; and the beds of lava upon which Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii were built, themselves conceal a stratum of
productive soil and traces of ancient culture. " There," says Pliny,
" in that land of Bacchus and Ceres, where two spring-times bloom,
the Oscans and Greeks, the Umbrians, Etruscans, and Campanians,
rivalled one another in luxury and effeminacy ; " and Strabo, mar-
velling that so many nations have been by turns dominant and
enslaved in this land, lays the blame on its soft sky and fertile
soil, — whence, says Cicero, come all vices.*

The Oscans in Campania have been, since historic times, only
a race subject to foreign masters and blended with them, — Greeks
bemg established along the coast, Etruscans in the interior, and
Samnites coming down from the Apennines. A few Ausonian tribes,
such as the Sidicini of Teanum and the Aurunei of Cales, alone

' Livj', vi. 12: " Innumerabilem multitudinem liberorum capitum in eis fuisse locis, quae
nunc, vix seminario exiguo militum relicto, servitia Romana ab solitudine vindicant."

- Dionys., Ant. Rom. vi. 32, and Livy, ii. 26.

s Homer, Odtjss. x. 89, 134.

■* Pliny, \at. Hist. iii. 9 : "... summum Liberi Patris cum Cerere certamen." Cf.
Florus, i. IG ; Strabo, V. iv. 9 ; Cicero, tie Lege Arjrar. i. G, 7.

INTRODUCTION.

preserved their lil^erty in the mountains which separate the Voltur-
nus from the Liris. In Apulia, on the other side of the peninsula,
the main stock of the j^opulation was also of Ausonian origin, as
is proved by names of towns in the interior, and by the prevalence
of the Oscan language through a great part of Southern Italy.

The Sabines, from whom nearly all the Sabellian peoples are
descended,^ originally occupied the high region of the Upper Abruzzi
around the head-waters of the Velino, the Fronti, and the Pescara,

WALL OF AUKUNCA.^

a country where the gradual melting of the snows keeps the pastu-
rage good long after the sun has scorched the plains below. Here
they had a city, Amiternum, and hence they came down upon the
territory of Reate, driving out the Casci, while by way of Moimt
Lucretilis they stretched across to the Tiber. On the north they
crowded the Umbrians back beyond the Nera ; making predatory
excursions southwards, they occupied part of the left bank of the Anio,

1 " Paterque Sabinus" (Verg., Aen. \i\. 178).

2 Taken from the Ann. du Bull., vol. iv. 1839.

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS. 97

and in the eighth century they were, after the Etrv;scans, tlie most
powerful people in the peninsula.'

The Saljines, shepherds and husbandmen, like all the Sabellians,
lived in villages ; and notwithstanding the large population, which
l)ronglit under culture and peojiled the land up to the summits of
tlie most rugged mountains, they had scarce any towns but Ami-
ternum and Reate. Cures, the gathering-place of all the nation,
was only a large village.

They were the Swiss of Italy : their habits were severe and
religious ; they were temperate, courageous, and honest ; they had
the unostentatious Ijut solid virtues of the mountaineer, and they
remained in the eyes of Italy a living picture of ancient times.^
History, which recognizes in them one of the principal elements
of the Roman population, will not hesitate to refer to them the
frugal and laborious life, the austere gravity, the respect for the
gods, and the strictly constituted family which are found at Rome
in the early centuries, and which were long preserved there .^ They
resemble the ancient Romans, too, in their contempt for mental
culture, — in all their land not a single Sabine mscription has
been found.

When in these arid mountains famine seemed imminent or
some war was unsuccessful, they devoted to the gods, by a sacred
spring-time {ver sacrum), everything which was born in March or
April. <Even children were offered in sacrifice. In later times
the gods grew milder, only cattle were immolated or redeemed ;
and the children, when they reached the age of twenty, were
conducted with veiled heads out of the territory, like those Scan-
dinavian hordes, which, at fixed epochs, the law drove from the
land in order to prevent famine. Oftentimes the god himself
protected these young colonies, sacranae acies vel Mamertini, and
sent them divine guides. Thus of the animals sacred to Mars,
a woodpecker (picus) led the Piceni ; a wolf [hbyus) the Hirpini ;
and a wild bull the Sanniites.*

1 Livy, i. 30.

* ". . . .Severissimorum liominum, SalMiiorum" (Cic, in Vat. 15; pro Lig. 2). " Dis-
ciplina tetrica ac tristi veterum Sabinorum " (Livy, i. 18).

^ Verg., Georij. ii. 532; Servius in Aen. viii. C38 : "Sabinorum mores populiim Roma-
num secutum Cato dicit."

* Fest. s.v. "ver sacrum;" Pliny, Nat. Hist. iii. 18. During the Second Punic War the

VOL. I. 7

INTRODUCTION.

COIN or TEATE, CAPITAL OF THE
MARIiUCINI.'^

" From the Sabines," says Pliny/ " the Picentines are descended,
by a sacred spring-time." But too many different races occupied
this coast for an unmixed people to have resulted therefrom. In
their fertile valleys the Picentines remained unaffected by all the
Italian wars, and multiplied at leisure. Pliny asserts^ that when
they submitted to Rome, in 268, they were 360,000 in number.
Among them were counted the Praetutians, who formed a distinct

nation, settled in the high lands.
By a singular chance, it was these
poor mountaineers, scarce known to
the historians of Rome, who gave
their name to the centre of the
peninsula, the Al)ruzzi.

The vast province commonly
called by the name of the Sam-
nium, and which includes all the mountains south of Picenum,
and the Sabine land as far as Magna' Graecia, was divided between
two confederations, formed of what were held to be the bravest
nations in Italy.

In the first league the Marsi and Peligni were most renowned
for their coux'age. " Who shall triumph over the Marsi, or with-
out the Marsi ? " * said they. Next
to the Etruscan aruspex there were
no diviners more celebrated'for their
skill in reading signs, especially the
flight of birds, than those of the
Marsians. Among them we meet
again with the ^Js//Z/J of Egypt and
the physician-sorcerers of the natives of the New World, who

Romans made a similar vow, witli the exception of the proscription of cliildren (Livy, xxii. 9).
Sabine traditions said, too, that Semo Sanctis, also named Dius Fidius, the divine author of
the Sabellian race, had substituted rites free from blood for human sacrifices (Dionysius,
Ant. Rom. i. 38).

1 Hill. Nat. iii. 13.

- Ibid.

' On the obverse, a head of Pallas, above, five o's, the sign of the quincunx ; on the
reverse, this same mark, a crescent, an owl standing on a caiiital, and the word tiati.

■• Appian, Bellum civile, i. 4G. "Genus acre virum" (Verg., Georg. ii. 1G7). " Fortissi-
morum virorum, Marsorum et Paelignorum" (Cic, in Vaiin. 15).

^ A head of Mercury with the word FUENTnEN in Oscan characters ; on the reverse,
Pegasus flying.

COIN OF THE FRENTANI.^

OSCANS AND SAEELLIANS. 9i)

healed with the simples gathered in their momrtains, and with
their magic incantations, neniae} One family, which never inter-
married with the rest, had the gift of charming vipers, with which
the country of the Marsians abounded, and of rendering their
bites harmless.^ In the time of Elagabalus the reputation of the
Marsiau sorcerers still remained ; even to this day the jugglers
who go to Rome and Naples to astonish the people by their tricks
with serpents, whose poisoiious fangs they have extracted, always
come from what was once the Lake of Celano {Fucinus^). Now it
is St. Dominic of Cullino who bestows this power; three thousand
years ago it was a goddess held in great veneration in those same
places, the enchantress Angitia, sister of Circe, or perhaps Medea
herself, of the gloomy race of Aeetes. Names change, but super-
stition endures, when men remain under the influences of the
same places and in the same state of ignorance.

The country of the Marsians and Pelignians, situated in the
heart of the Apennines, was the coldest in the peninsula : * thus
the flocks, which in summer left the scorched plains of Apulia,
went then, as they do now, to feed in the cool valleys of the
Pelignians, who moreover produced excellent wax and the finest
of flax.*^ Their stronghold of Corfinium was chosen during the
Social war to serve, under the signiflcant name of Italica, as the
capital of the Italians who had risen against Rome.

The other g-reat Sabellian leas:ue consisted of the Samnite
people, who had more brilliant destinies, great riches, a name
dreaded as far as Sicily, as far even as Greece, but who paid for
all this glory by fearful disasters Being led, according to their
legends, from the country of the Sabines to the mountains of
Beneventum by the wild bull whose image is found on the coins
of the Social war, the Samnites mingled with the Ausonian tribes,

1 Cf. Hor., Epnd. xvii. 29.

- " Spargere qwi somnos cantuque maniujue .solebat,
Mulcebatque iras et morsus arte levabat."

Vergil : Aeneid, vii. 754.

* Lake Fucinus, the area of which was 37,500 acres, and the depth 58 feet, was drained
by Prince Turlouia between Aug. 9, 1862, and tlie end of .Tune, 1875.

^ The ancients had a proverbial saying, Peligna friyora and Marsae nivcs ; now thej- say
freddo d' Abruzzo.

' Pliny, Nat. Hi.tt. xi. 14; xLx. 2.

100

INTKODUCTIOK

who remained in the Apennines, and spread from hill to hill as
far as Apulia-. While the Candini and Hirpini^ .settled on the
slopes of Mount Taburnus, the foot of which reached to a valley
rendered famous Ijy them under the name of the Caudine Forks,
the Frentani established themselves near the upper sea, and irreg-
ular bands of them passed over the Silarus and formed on the
further side the nation of the Lucanians, which early separated
itself from the league. This was composed of four nations [Cara-

ceni, Pentri, Hirpini, and Caudini),
to whom Ijelongs more particularly
the glorious name of Samnites.

Their country, surrounded by
the Sangro, Volturno, and Galore,
is covered with rugged mountains
(the Matese), which preserve the
snow until May,^ and of which the
highest peak, Mount Miletto, rises
to 6,500 feet. Thus the flocks
found fresh pasturage and abundant
springs among these high valleys
during the scorching summer.
These constituted the wealth of
the country. Their produce sold
in the Greek towns on the coast ;
the pay which they often received
under the title of auxiliary troops ;
but, above all, the booty which they
brought back from their raids into
Magna Graecia, accumulated great wealth in the hands of these
warlike shepherds. In the time of the war against Rome the
abvindance of bronze in Samniiun was so great that the younger
Papirius carried off more than two million pounds of it ; ^ and
his colleague Carvilius had made, with nothing but the armor
taken from the Samnite foot-soldiers, a colossal statue of Jupiter,
which he placed on the Capitol, and which could be seen from

SAMNITE WARRIOR, AFTER A PAINTED
VASE IN THE LOUVRE.

' Festus, s. V. Hirpinos ; cf. Strabo, V. iv. 12; Serv. in Aen. xi. 173.
^ Keppel-Craven, Excursion in the Ahruzzi.
« Livy, X. 46.

OSCANS AND SAEELLIANS.

lUl

the summit of tlic; Alban Mount.^ Like all warrior-nations, the
Samnites exhibited their luxury in their armor ; Ijright colors
shone on their war-dress, gold and silver on their bucklers. Each"
soldier of the higher classes, arming at his own c(jst, was anxious
to prove his valor by the splendor of his arms. And yet the
wealth of the army does not imply the wealth of the people.

Calculating according to the numbers furnished by the historians
of Rome, the population of Samnium has been rated at two
million souls.^ This result is an evident exaggeration, like the
premises on which it rests. If the Sam-
nites were not able to arm against Rome
more than 80,000 foot soldiers and
8,000 cavalry, their population must
have amounted at the most to 600,000
inhabitants. But it was sufficient for ^'^^'^^ «*^ samxium.^

these stout soldiers, sometimes united under the supreme command
of an embradur (imperator), to spread their niids and conquests
all around their mountains. Their principal wealth consisted in
their flocks ; but for six or seven months the snow covered the
pasture in the mountains, so that it was necessary to descend in-
to the plains.* Hence came continual wars with neighboring
nations.

Though united in the same league, the four Samnite nations
each formed under its meddix tuticus a distinct and sovereign
society, which often neglected the general interest to follow out
particular enterprises. These sons of Mars, whose ancestors re-
ligion and policy had exiled, remained faithful to their origin.
They pi^eferred to the bonds which give strength, the isolation
which first gives liberty, but presently promotes slavery.

1 Pliny, Nat. Hisl. xxxiv. 7 (IS).

- Micali, Storia, etc. i. 287.

' Obverse, lielmeted, tlie head of Mars, with the words Mulii emhradur, in Oscan charac-
ters; reverse, two chiefs taking oath over a pig, which a kneehng soldier holds, and the
legend c.paapi for Papius, in Oscan characters. One C. Papius Mutilus was emhradur oi
the Samnites in the Social AVar, 90 — 89 b. c.

^ We know that the tribnte levied on the cattle which passed from the plains to the
mountains in summer and back again in winter was the principal revenue of the kingdom of
Naples, in later times nearly £800,000 per annum. The kings of Arragon had forced the
tenants of the crown in ApiJia to let the flocks of the Abruzzi pasture in their fields in
winter. In our own days the landlords of Apulia were obliged to keep two thirds of their
land for grazing; sec Keppcl-Cravcn, Excursion in the Abruzzi, 1,207, and Symonds, p. 241.

102 INTEODUCTION.

If the thirteen Sabellian nations had been united, Italy was
theirs. But the Lucanians were at enmity with the Samnites, the
latter with the Marsic confederation, the Marsians with the
Sabmes, and the Picentines remained strangers to all the moun-
taineers' quarrels. Yet Rome, which represented, as no other
ancient State had ever done, the opposite principle of political
unity, only triumphed after the most painful efforts, and by ex-
terminating this indomitable population.^ She was, moreover, com-
pelled to undertake the work of destruction twice over. The
Samnite and Second Punic wars had already made many ruins
and solitudes ; but when the vengeance of Sulla had passed over
that desolated land, Florus could say : " In Samnium itself it would
be vain to seek for Samnium." The ruin was so complete that
only a few monuments of those people are left us ; and more than
twenty of their towns have disappeared without leaving any
trace behind.

On the south-east, Tarentum and the great towns of Apulia
stayed the Samnites ; but towards the west the Etruscans of
Campania were unalile to defend that rich territory against them.
Tired of their continual expeditions, the Etruscans thought to buy
peace by sharing with the Samnites their fields and towns. One
night they were surprised and massacred (about 423) ; Vulturnum
took the name of Capua, and that of Campanians distinguished the
new masters of the country.^ The great Greek city, Ciimae,
was then taken by assault, and a Campanian colony replaced a

part of the massacred inhabitants ; yet
without making the Oscan language
and Sabellian customs supersede the
Greek.^ These herdsmen, who in their
mountains raised fine breeds of horses,*
MEDAL OF TEKINA.6 becamc lu tliB Campauiau plains the

best horsemen of the peninsula ; and the

1 Livy, and after him all the historians of Kome, have exaggerated this depopidation
of Samnium, since according to the census preserved by Polybius, that country could
furnish 77,000 soldiers after the First Punic War.

^ Diod. xii. 31 : TO Wvns tuv Kafiiravioi/ (rvvttm).

s See Livy, xl. 42, where the Cumaeans demand the substitution of Latin for Greek in
pubKc records.

* Especially in those of the Hirpini, whose country still rears an excellent breed.

* Silver coin : obverse, a woman's head ; reverse, the nymph Lygea seated.

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS. 103

renown wliiili this conquest won for tlieni led the way to more.
To the north, east, and soutli they were .surrounded by dithcult
countries and warlike nations, which blocked the road to fresh
enterprises ; but the sea remained open, and they knew that
beyond the gulfs of Paestum and Terina there was booty to be
obtained and adventures to be foiuid in Sicily. Under the ancient
and expressive name of Mamertines, the Campaniau horsemen
offered to serve any one who would pay them. The rivah-y be-
tween the Greek cities, the ambition of the tyrants of Syracuse,
the Carthaginian invasion, and the ceaseless war which desolated
the whole island, always provided them with purchasers for their
valor ; and this ti'ade of mercenaries became so lucrative that
all the bravest of the Campanian youth passed over into the
island, where the Mamertines were soon numerous enough to
lay down the law and take their own way.

But whilst beyond the straits they were become a power against
Avhich Carthage, Syracuse, and Pyrrhus strove in vain, their towns
on the banks of the Vulturnus were bemg enfeebled by the same
migrations which increased the
military colony in Sicily. As
early as the middle of the fourth
century, at Cumae, Nola, and
Nuceria, the ancient inhabitants
became masters again ; and if
Capua maintained its supremacy
over the neighboring towns, it was only by losing all its Sabellian
character. The effeminacy of the ancient manners reappeared, but
stained with more cruelty. In funeral ceremonies there were com-
bats of gladiators in honor of the dead ; in the midst of the
most sumptuous feasts, games of blood to enliven the guests," and
constant murder and treason in public life.

We have seen how the Samnites possessed themselves of the
town by the massacre of their entertainers ; the first Roman soldiers
who were placed there, wished, according to their example, to put
the inhabitants to death. During the Second Punic War, Capua

1 Laurel-crowned head of Jupiter; two soldiers joining swords, taking the oath over a

pig-

- Athenaeus, iv. 31); Livv, ix. 40 ; Silius, xi. 51.

COIN OF CAPUA.l

104

INTRODUCTION.

COIN OF LUCANIA.l

sealed her alliance with the Carthaginians by the blood of all the
Romans settled within her walls, and Perolla wished at his father's
table to stal) Hannibal. When, finally, the legions re-entered it, all
the senators of Cajiua celebrated their own funeral rites at a joyous

feast, and drank poison in the last
cup. No history is more bloody,
and nowhere was life ever more
effeminate.

The Lucanians had a destiny
both less sad and less brilliant.
Following the chain of the Apen-
nines, this people entered ancient Oenotria, the coasts of which were
occupied b}^ Greek cities, and where Sybaris ruled from the Gulf of
Paestum to that of Tarentum. After having slowly increased in
the mountains, their population came down upon the cultivated
territory of the Greek cities, and towards the middle of the fifth
century, Pandosia, with the neighboring towns, fell into their power.
Masters of the western shores, they turned towards those of the

Gulf of Tarentum, and placed
the Greeks, already menaced on
the south Ijy the tyrants of
Syracuse, between two dangers.
Towards 430 b. c, they were al-
ready contending against Thurii ;
and such was their , progress
in the space of thirty-six years,
notwithstanding their small number, which did not exceed 34,000
combatants,^ that a great defensive league, tlie first that the
Greeks of this coast had made, was formed against them and
Diouysius of Syracuse. The penalty of death was pronounced
against the chief of the city whose troops should not have assem-
bled at the first news of the approach of the barbarians (394 b. c.).*
These measures were fruitless ; three years afterward, all the
youth of Tluu'ii, desirous of recapturing the city of Laus, were

COIN OF TnURII.-

* Helmeted head of Mars ; reverse Bellona.

^ Head of Minerva, and the bull so frequently found on the coins of Southern Italy.

* Diodorus, xiv. 101-102.

* Ibil. 01.

OSCANS AND SABELLIANS. 105

destroyed in a battle \Yliieh gave almost the whole of Calabria
into the hands of the Liicaiiians.' Diouysiiis the Younger,
frightened in his turn, in spite of a treaty concluded with them
m 3G0 B. c.,'-^ traced from the Clulf of Scylachnn to that of Hipjw-
nium a line of defence, intended to protect his Italian possessions
against them.^

This period marked the greatest extension of the Lucanians.
Thenceforth they did nothing but give way, enfeebled as they
were by the lack of harmony between their different cantons, each
of which had its peculiar laws and its chief (meddix or praefucus).
Towards 356 b. c, the Bruttians make their appearance, whose
revolt was countenanced Ijy Dionysius ; and little Ijy little the
frontier of Lucania receded as far as Laus and the Crathis. Slnit
in on the south by the Bruttians, who were as brave as them-
selves, they sought compensation at the expense of the Greeks
on the shores of the Gulf of Tarentum ; but tliis was only to call
down upon them the arms of Archidamos, of Alexander the
Molossian, and of the Spartan Cleonymus. Later, their attacks
on Thurii brought on the war with Rome which cost them their
independence.

Of all the Sabellian peoples, the Lucanians seem to have re-
mained the most inipolished, and most eager for war and destruc-
tion. The civilization which surrounded them was not powerful
enough to penetrate into those rugged mountains, into those deep
forests, where they sent their sons to hunt the bear, the wild
boar, and other game, in oi'der to accustom them early to danger.*
Not very numerous, and often divided, they nevertheless kept the
conquered population rigorousl}' enslaved, and extinguished in them
even that Greek culture which had such vitality. "Having been
barbarized," says Athenaeus ^ of the inhabitants of Posidonia,
" having lost even their language, they had at least preserved a

^ From Pandosia to Thurium, and even as far as Rliegium, Scyla.x, who wrote about
o70 n. c, knows nothing but Lucanians all along the coast.

- Died., xvi. 5.

3 Strab., VI. i. 10.

* Justin, xxiii. 1. [The wild boar and the wolf are still found in these mountains, espe-
cially in the wild forests of the Sila. — Ed.]

5 Justin, xiv. 31. [It is difficult to conceive any real forgetfulness of their Hellenic
culture, with the splendid temples before them, and which now, even in their ruin, are among
the finest and most suggestive remains which modern Hellenists can study. — Ed.~\

106 INTEODUCTION.

Greek festival, during wliicli they gathered together to re-awaken
the ancient traditions, to recall the beloved names and their lost
country; and then they parted weeping," — a sad and touching
custom, which attests a hard slavery. At the extremity of Eastern
Calabria (the land of Otranto), inscriptions have Ijeen found which
cannot be assigned to any known dialect.'' They had been left
there by the lapygians, one of the most ancient nations of the
peninsula. They seem to have ruled as far as AjnUia, but were
early brought under Hellenic influence, and began early to lose
their nationality among the Greek colonists.

6EEEKS AND GAULS.

"TTTE have just spoken of truly Italian races, of those, at least,
' ' who, with the exception of the Etruscans, made use of a
sister language to the Hellenic, and who gave to Rome its popu-
lation, its manners, and its laws. There remain two nations to
study, the Greeks and the Gauls, who established themselves later
in the peninsula. The latter harassed it for a long time by their
raids for plunder ; the former opened it up to Hellenic civilization.
A few years ago Greek was still spoken in the neighborhood of
Locri ; ^ in the Calabrias, a sort of sacred dance resembles that
which is represented on antique vases ; and at Cardeto the women
have so well preserved the type of Hellenic beauty, that it is
said of them, " They are Minervas." In the same way it has
been thought that, from Turin to Bologna, the persistent traces
of the Celtic invasion ^ are to be seen in the features and in
the comparatively harsh and guttural accent of the Piedmontese,
Lombards, and Romagnols.'

1 [These Messapian texts are being deciphered by Deecke, and are related to Italic
dialects. — Ed.']

- [There are also five villages near Bari, where a Greek patois is still spoken ; but Lenor-
mant has lately proved, in his interesting work on Magna Graecia, that all these remains of
Greek date from the repopulation of these parts of the Byzantine Empire in the ninth-
eleventh' centuries A. d., and not from old classical times. — Ed.]

* Dr. Edwards, in his letter to Am. Thierry.

GliKKKS AND GAULS.

107

The history of the Greek colonies in Italy is divided into two
epochs. About tlie one, commencing in the eighth century before
our era, there can l)e no doubt ; ^ the other, ascribed to the four-
teenth century, has all historical probabilities against it. It is
of course possible that, in the times which followed the Trojan
Wal', after that great disturbance of Greece, Hellenic troops, driven
out of the mother country by revolutions, landed on the shores
of Italy. But as to what is said of the settlement of Diomede
in Daunia, or among the Veneti, who in the time of Strabo sacri-
ficed a white horse to him every year; of the companions of Nestor
at Pisa, of Idomeneus at Salentum, — although Gnossus in Crete
held his tomb, — of Philoctetes at Petelia and Thurii, of Epeus

?JV-£*

RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF METAPOXTUM (tAVOLA DEI PALADINl).

at Metapontum, of Ulysses at Scylacium, of Evander, of Tilmr,
of Telegonus, son of Ulysses, in Latium, at Tusculum, Tibur, Prae-
neste, Ardea, etc., — these legends, we may say, can only be re-
garded as poetical traditions invented by rhapsodists in order to
give an illustrious origin to these towns.

* [On these eighth-century dates, and their invention, cf. my IlUlory of Greek Literature,
vol. i., A pp. B. — Ed.}

108 INTEODUCTION.

Notliing was wanting to sanction these glorious genealogies :
neither the songs of the poets, nor the blind or interested credulity
of the historians, nor even the venerated relics of the heroes. On
the banks of the Nnmiciiis the contemporaries of Augustus used
to visit the tomb of Aeneas, who had become the Jupiter Indigetes,
and every year the consuls and Roman pontiffs offered sacrifices
there. Circeii exhibited the cup of Ulysses and the tomb of Elpe-
nor, one of his companions ; ^ Lavinium, the undecaying ships of
Aeneas ^ and his Penates ; Thurii, the bow and arrows of Hercules,
given ]jy Philoctetes ; Macella, the tomb of this hero ; Metapontum,
the iron tools which Epeus used for making the Trojan horse ; ^
Luceria, the armor of Diomede;* Maleventum, the boar's head
of Calydon ; Cumae, the tusks of th^ Erymanthian boar. Thus
the inhal^itants of a town of Armenia exhibited the remains of
Noah's Ark.^

No one any longer holds to these fabulous origins, except those
people of Rome who still say : Slamo Romanl, and would willingly
say like the Paduans : Sangue Troiano. Moreover, even if we
considered as authentic the first settlements of the Greek race in
Italy, we could not allow them any historical importance ; for,
left without intercourse with the mother-country, they lost the
character of Hellenic cities ; and when the Greeks arrived in the
eighth century, they found no further trace of these uncertain
colonies. To this class of legendary narratives belong the tradi-
tions of the Trojan Antenor, founder of Padua, and of Aeneas carry-
ing into Latium the Palladium of Troy. The Roman noljles desired
to date from the Trojan War, like the French from the Crusaders.

Accordmg to Herodotus, the first Greeks established in lapygia
were Cretans whom a tempest had cast there. Induced by the
fertility of the soil, they had burned their ships and built Iria in
the intericjr of the country. But the most ancient Grecian colony
of which the estaljlisliment is beyond doubt, is that of the Chal-
cidians, founders of Cumae. Led by Hippocles and Megasthenes,
they ventured, says tradition, across unknown seas, guided in the
daytime by a dove, and at night by the sound of the mystic

> Strabo, V. iii. 6. * Pliny, Hist. Nat. iii. 26.

2 Procopius, iv. 22. ' Jos., Ant. Jud. xx. 2.

' Justin, XX. 2.

GREEKS AND GAULS. 109

l)i-onz(>.' They built Cumao on a promontory which commands the
sea and the neighboring plains, opposite the Isle of Ischia. Its
prosperity was so rapid, owing to a position in the middle of the
Tyrrhenian coast, facing the Ijest ports and in the most fertile
comitry of Italy, that the colon}' was alile to become in its turn a
metropolis,^ to assist Rome and the Latins, in the time of Porsenna,
to shake off tlie yoke of tlie Etruscans of the north, and to eon>
tend on its own account with tliose of Campania. The battle (^f
the year 47-4 b. c. resounded as far as Greece, where Pindar cele-
brated it. But in 420 b. c. the Samnites entered Cumae. Yet, not-
withstanding the estrangement, and in sjiite of the barbarians. Cumae
remained for a long time Greek in language, manners, and memories ;
and every time a danger menaced Greece, she thouglit in her grief
that she saw her gods weeping.^ These tears repaid the songs of
Pindar.*

In this volcanic land, near the Phlegraeau Fields and the dark
Avernus, the Greeks believed themselves to be at the gates of
Hades. Cumae, where, according to some tradition, Ulj'sses had
evoked the shades, became the al^ode of one of the Sibyls and of
the cleverest necromancers of Italv ; each year many awestruck
pilgrims visited the holy place, to the great profit of the inhabi-
tants.^ It was there, too, in this
outpost of Greek civilization, in tlie
midst of these lonians full of the
Homeric spirit, that the legends
were elaborated which brous;ht so
man}^ heroes from Greece into Italy.

COIN OF CUMAE.^

' Strabo, V. iv. 4 : ■aaatav eWt irpfo'^vTaTr) tS>v t€ SixeXiKui' Kai tS>v 'iraKtaiTlSav. With the
Clialciilians were mingled colonists from Cyme, on the coasts of Asia Alinor, where Homer sang.
Tlie father of Hesiod was born at Cj-me, and Ilcsiod mentions Latinus as the son of Ulysses
and Circe. Euseliius in his Chronicle places this event in 1050. It is a very remote date.

- Cumae founded Dicaearchia or Pulcoli, which served as its port, Parthenope, and Xcapulis,
which eclipsed it. Naples reckoned also amongst its founders Athenians and Eretrians.
I'hese were first settled in the Island of Ischia, whence they had been driven by a volcaxuc
eruption (Strab., V. iv. 9). Avernus and the Lucrine Lake abounded in fish: "vcctigalia
magna praebebant" (Serv. in Georg. ii. 10).

^ The miracle of the tears of AjioUo of Cumae was renewed at the time of the war of
-Vristonicus and Antiochus.

^ [No one would have been less content with such remuneration than Pindar. — Ed.'\

5 Cic, r«-sr. i. 5.

^ A woman's head, and on the reverse the monster Scylla, which defended the entrance of
the Strait of Messina. The 'S.KvWaiov was the rock which bounds Rriiltium on the West.

110 INTRODUCTION.

After Cumae and its direct colonies, the most famous of which
is the New City, Naples, the other Chalcidian cities were Zancle,
afterward called Messina, and Rhegium, both of which guarded the
entrance to the Straits of Sicily, but whose military position was
too important not to draw upon them numerous calamities. The
Mamertines, who took Messina by surprise and massacred all
its male population, only did what, some years later, a Roman
legion repeated at Rhegium.

The Dorians, who ruled in Sicily, were less numerous in Italy ;
but they had Tarentum, wliicli rivalled in power and wealth
Sybaris and Croton, and which preserved its independence longer
than these two towns.^ Rich offerings, deposited at the temple of
Delphi, still bore witness, in the time of Pausanias, to its victories
over the lapygians, Messapians, and Peucetians. It had also raised

to its gods, as a token of its courage,
statues of a colossal height, and all
in fighting attitude ; but these could
not defend it against Rome, and the
conqueror who razed its walls left
com OF ANcoNA.^ j;^ dcrisiou the images of its warlike

divinities. Ancona, founded about 380 B. c, in Picenum, by
Syracusans who fled from the tyranny of Di'onysius the Elder,
was also Dorian.

The most flourishing of the Achaean colonies was at first
Sybaris, which had subdued the indigenous population of the
coTmtries of wine and oxen {Oenotria and Italy). At the end of
a century, about 620 B. c, it possessed a territory covered by twenty-
five towns, and could arm three hundred thousand fighting men.
But a century later, in 510, it was taken and destroyed by the
Crotoniates. All Ionia, which traded with it, lamented its down-
fall, and the Milesians went into mourning. Its land used to yield
a hundredfold : ^ it is now only a deserted and marshy shore.

' Livv, xxvii. 16. Strabo says (VI. iii. 4) : "(TX^'<^av Ss noTf o'l Tapavrivoi Ka6' vTrep/SoXijv.
The wealth of Tarentum arose from its fisheries, from its manufacture [and dyeing] of the
fine wool of the country, and from its harbor, which was the best on the south coast.

^ Ancona in Greek signifies elhoic, hence the half-ljent arm on the reverse. The ancients
often rendered a name by a figure which gave the meaning of it; thus certain coins of
Sicily, the island with three promontories, have three legs pointed in different directions
and united ftt the top. The modern Sicilians have kept this emblem, the friquelra.

2 Varro, de Re rust. i. 44. [The site of the town is not yet accurately known, but

GKEEKS AXD GAULS.

Ill

COIN OF LAUS.

On the western coast of LTicania, Laus, whicli the Lncanians

destroyed after a great victory over the confederate Greeks, and

Posidonia, whose imposing ruins ' have rendered famous tlie now

deserted town of Paestum, Avere colonies of Sybaris. Other

Achaeans, invited 1)y them, had settled at Metapontum, which

owed great wealth to its agriculture and to its liarbor, now

converted into a lagoon.^ Crotona had as rapid a prosperity as

Sybaris, its rival, Init one which lasted

longer. Its walls, double as great in

extent (100 stadia) indicate a more

numerous popidation, whose renown

for pugilistic combats [for cookery

and for medicine] would also lead

us to consider the population more energetic. Milo of Crotona

is a well-known name. The tyrants of Syracuse took it three

times, and it had lost all importance

when the Romans attacked it. Locri,

of Aeolian origin, never attained to so

much power. Its downfall, begun Ijy

Dionysius the Younger, was completed

by Pyrrhus and Hannibal.

The loniaus had only two towns in ]\Iagna Graecia : Elea,
famous for its school of philosophy, and Thurii, the principal
founders of whicli were the Atheni-
ans. Hostile to the Lucanians and
to Tarentum, Thurii, like its metrop-
olis, entered early into the alliance
of Rome.

It is remarkable that all these
towns had a rapid growth, and that a few years sufficed for them
to become states, reckoning the number of their fightmg men by

is somewhere under the C'rathis, which was turned over it. The plain is really rich in
grass and in cattle, but much visited by malaria. Excavations, accompanied by a change
in the river's course, would proljablv bring to light the most interesting remains yet found
in Italy. — Ed.']

^ The two temples and stoa of Paestum.

^ Now Lago di Santa Pelagina. When the water is low, remains of ancient construo-
tions are seen there ; it was destroyed by the bands of Spartacus.

' Head of Juno Lacinia ; on the reverse, Hercules sitting.

* Helmeted Minerva; lion couchant.

COIN OF CROTOXA.'

COIN OF ELEA.*

112 INTEODUCTION.

the liimdred thousand. It was not only the favorable climate of
Magna Graecia, the fertility of the soil, which, in the valleys and
plains of the two Calabrias, excelled that of Sicily,-' nor even the
wisdom of their legislators, Charondas, Zalencus, Parmenides, and
Pythagoras, that effected this marvel, but the clear-sighted policy
Avhich admitted all strangers into the city,^ and for some centu-
ries converted the Pelasgian populations of the south of Italy into
a great Greek nation. Doubtless distinctions were established ;
and there were proljaljly in the capitals plebeians and nobles, in
the country serfs of the soil, and in the conquered towns sulajects ;
but these differences prevented neither union nor strength. It
was by this means, too, by this assimilation of conquered and
conquerors, that Rome increased. But Rome preserved its disci-
pline for a long time, whereas the towns of Magna Graecia, under-
mined within by intestine divisions and menaced without by
Carthage and Syracuse, by the tyrants of Sicily and the King of
Epirus, incessantly harassed l:)y the Italian Gauls and the Samnites,
especially Ijy the Lucanians, were, moreover, enfeebled by rivalries
which jjrepared for the Romans an easy conquest.

If Umbria owes its name to a Gallic trilje, our fathers must
have crossed the Aljjs the first time in a large body at a very
early epoch.^ The invasion of the sixth century is more certain.

^ Dolomicu, Dissciiation sur le tremhlcment dc terre tie 1783. [In natural beauty Calabria
far surjiassc's the greater part of Sicily. — Ed."]

2 Polvbius, ii. 39 ; Dioil., xii. 9. Sybaris ruled four nations and twenty-five towns (Strab.,
VI. i. 13). There is doubtless a great exaggeration in the figure of 300,000 fighting men; but
the number of inhabitants must have been much larger than that of the towns of Greece
proper. At certain of its feasts, Sybaris assembled as many as 5,000 cavalry, four times
more than Athens ever had (Athen., xii. 17 and 18; Diod., fragm. of bk. viii.; Scymn., 340).
It was the same at Crotona. The Pelasgians of Lucania and Bruttium sliowed the same
readiness as those of Greece in allowing themselves to be aVtsorbed by the Hellenes and in
adopting their language and manners, and for tlie same reasons, — identity of origin, or at least
near relationship. This influence of the Hellenes was so strong, that notwithstanding the later
Roman colonies, Calabria, like Sicily, remained for a long time a Greek country. It was only
at the commencement of the fourteenth century that the Greek language [rc-introduced in the
eleventh] began to be lost there. As to the prosperity of these towns, it is connected, more
than has been shown, with that of the Greek colonies in general. Masters of all the shores
of the great basin of the JMediterranean, the Greeks had in their hands the commerce of the
three worlds. Continued intercourse united their towns, and every point of this immense
circle profited from the advantages of all the others. The prosperity of Tarentum, Sybaris,
Crotona, and Syracuse, corresponded with that of Phocaea, Smyrna, Miletus, and Cyrene.

^ Geographical names, dolmens, etc., reveal the presence, in the Valley of the Danube,
from the Black Sea to the Schwarzwald, of numerous Gallic populations which may have
come thence directly into Italy. In that case the Gauls of the banks of the Loire would only

me^Tf^

GEEEKS AND GAULS.

113

.Sala

Kliuotiaii.

Euijaiit'au.

Etnisiau.

It is said that the Gallic tribes of the northwest, driven back on
the Cevennes and the
Alps by invaders from
beyond the Rhine, ac-
cumulated there, and,
like waves long pent
up, overflowed to the
number of three hun-
dred thousand across
the Alps into the Val-
ley of the Po. On the
banks of the Ticino,
the Biturigan Bellove-
sus overwhelmed an
Etruscan army and
established his people,
the Insubrians, be-
tween this river, the
Po. and the Adda.^

Bellovesus had
shown the way ;
others followed it. In
the space of sixty-six
years, the Cenomani,
under a chief sur-
uamed the whirlwind
{EUtovius), Ligurians,
Boians, Lingones, An-
amans and Senones,^
drove the Etruscans
from the banks of
the Po and the

have been the western group
of this great nation. Cf. Re-
vue archeolofj. for January,
1881, p. 50.

' Livy, V. 34, 35.

^ With the Senones, Strabo unites (V. i. G) the Gesates, " Tlie two nations," says he,
"who took Rome."

^^^

^ A

/^ F^

5 3

1 :

3 1

3 3

♦

t %

^ B

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oot

^ <l>

s/ >J

w\Va

nA^ a/\

v^/|

AVv

OOO

MKIM

M M

<i a

4 a

i I

^ Z

f X

-r X

(CD

i r

4^ Y

> *

ALPHABETS OF NORTHERN IT.\LY.

114 INTEODUCTION.

Umbrians from the shores of the Adriatic as far as the River
Esino (Aesis). Some remains of the Etrascan and Umbrian powers
existed, however, in the midst of the Gallic populations, and formed
small states which were free, but triljutary and always exposed,
from the fickleness of these barbarians, to sudden attacks. Thus
Melpum was surprised by treacliery, and destroyed on the same
day, it is said, as the Romans entered Veii.'

As conquerors, the Gauls did not go beyond the linrits where
the invasions of the Senones had stopped. But this vigorous race,
these men eager for tunuilt, plunder, and battle, long troubled the
peninsula as they did all the ancient world, until the legions were
able to reach them in the middle of their forests and to fix them
to the soil. They inhabited unwalled villages, says Polybius, slept
on grass or straw, and had no knowledge except of lighting and
a little husbandry. Living chiefly on meat, they only valued
flocks and gold, — ready wealth whiih does not impede the warrior,
and whicli he carries everywhere along with him. Under their
ride Cisalpine Gaul returned to the barl^arism from which the
Etruscans had saved it ; the forests and marshes spread ; the passes
of the Alps especially remained open, and new bands continually
descended from them, which claimed their share of the country
of the tvine. Their high statui-e, their savage shouts, their pas-
sionate and menacing gestures, and that parade of courage Avhich,
on days of battle, made them strip off all their clothing in order
to fight naked, frightened the Italians so much that at their
approach the whole population took up arms. When the young
and fortunate Alexander threatened them, the Gauls of the Danube
replied that they feared nothing but that the sky should fall ; and
the first Roman army that saw those of Italy fled terrified. Yet
Rome was compelled to meet them everywhere, at Ca,rthage, in
Asia, with Hannibal, at her gates even, and up to the foot of
the Capitol !

Italy in this early age has only a twilight of history, the
uncertain rays of which with difficulty pierce the darkness in
which the commencement of the nations is concealed. However,
by this still doubtful light we can recognize some facts impor-
tant to general history, and particularly to that of Rome.

I riiny, jV((/. ///.-/. iii. 17 (21).

GREEKS AND GAULS. 115

Tlius all, or nearly all, the Italiotes bclon<j;o(l to the Aryan
lace. They were more connected with the ilelleuic ti'ibes than
the Germans are with the Celts and Slavs, which are also de-
tached branches of this powerful stem. But if this relationship
to the Greeks disposed them to yield to the mlluence of Hellenic
civilization, they borrowed from their brothers of Hellas neither
tlieir language, nor their worship, nor their institutions of early
days.

In what concerns Rome we note the following points : —

The preponderance, in the eighth century, on both banks of
the Tiber, of the Sabines and Etruscans, and consequently their
influence on the institutions and manners of the nation which
arose beside them and which increased at their expense.

The feebleness of the Latins, which favored the beginnings
of the Eternal City.

The power, but insubordinate spirit, of the Sabellians.

The political divisions of the Italian nations, sustained by the
very division of the soil and the diversity of their origin.

Let us imagine in the midst of these tribes, rendered strangers
to one another bv lono: isolation, a small nation which made a
necessity of war, a daily habit of the exercise of arms, a virtue
of military discipline ; and we shall understand that this nation,
formed for conquest, must triumph over all these tril^es, often
related to it ui origin, which, when attacked in succession, })er-
ceive too late that the dovrafall of each was the threat and the
announcement of the cominsj- downfall of the next.

116 INTKODUCTIUK

VI.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIOIT OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS OP ITALY.

IN Italy, as in the rest of Europe, the most ancient civiliza-
tion seems to retain something of the theocratic forms of Asia,
whence it has come, — with this difference, however, that an order
of priests is not found distinct from the rest of the citizens.
The same men were heads of the people and ministers of the
gods ; so that according to the more human and more political
spirit of the West, the relations were the reverse of what they
had been in the East : the warrior took precedence of the
priest ; before being pontiff or augur, the noble was a patrician ;
he did not shut himself up in a sanctuary, but lived before the
public gaze ; he did not remain tied to vmchangeable forms, Init
modified them, according to the wants of the state ; religion, in
fact, was for him not only an end, but a means and an instrument
all the more formidable, because it was employed by believers, so
that statecraft could ))ring fanaticism to its aid.

Among the Etruscans the two characters of the priest and
warrior appear in equilibrium. Their lucumos, alone instructed
in the augur's science, alone eligible by hereditary right for
public functions, guardians of the mysteries and masters of every-
thing divine and human, form a military theocracy founded on
divine right and the antiquity of families. Among the Oscan and
Sabellian nations the balance seems disturbed, to the advan-
tage of the warrior. The chief is the man revered for the an-
tiquity of his race and the grandeur of his house, powerful by
the extent of his domains and the number of his relatives, slaves,
and clients.

Agricultural and shepherd nations, for the very reason that
they remain in contact with nature, follow it closely in their insti-
tutions ; for them. Jews and Araljs, Celts of Scotland and. Ireland,
or natives of Latium and the Sabine country, the family is the
first element of society, and the patriarchal authority of the

S-

POLITICAL OKGANIZATIOX. 117

chief who, like Abraham, fights and sacrifices in turn, is the
earliest government. At Rome, all rights came from the family;
the heads of the state were the fathers, patres and ^ja^/mV ;
property was the j^atrimotiium ; the country, the common property
of the fathers, res patria. Yet the right of primogeniture, which
is found among so many nations, was unknown on the banks of
the Tiber. With the family are connected the servants, devoted
for life and death to him who nourishes and protects them, who
leads them to battle, and enriches them with spoil, like the
German comites, the Aquitanian soldurii, the memliers of the Scotch
clans, — like, in fact, the Italian clients, as regards their patron.
Patronage, jsa^rocmmm,^ and the patriciate ought then to be raised
from the rank of a particular institution, in which historians
have long placed them, to that of a law of the very organization
of primitive societies. When there are no institutions, it is very
necessary for the nascent state that there should be, between the
strong and the feeble, between the rich and the poor, an early
association, — an association with varying obligations, granting
liere more, there less, to the liberty of the protected and to the
rights of the protector. At Rome, this relation was called client-
ship ; in the Middle Ages, feudalism.

Like the Etruscan lucumos, the Latin and Sabine patricians
were the priests of their families and clients ; they sacrificed to
the domestic Penates ; they fulfilled the public ceremonies, and held
the magistracies, — in a word, the}' had Ijoth religious and political
authority. But in Latium, religion, because it was more popular,
protected their privileges less than in Etruria. So the great men
of Rome lost no time in borroAvins; from the Etruscans their
augural knowledge, and in buying, at a great price, the Sibylline
books, in order to place by the side of the popular religion, access-
ible to all, a state religion, reserved for themselves alone.

From this union between statecraft and religion, from this

' Dionysius Hal. (ii. 10, 9) expressly regards Roman patronage as an old Italian
custom. The Javan tiatias and Albanian phars rest upon the same principle ; they are
families composed of a head, relatives, and servants, all depending upon him. Clientship
existed among the Sabines (Livy, ii. 16 ; Dion., v. 40, and x. 14) ; among the Etruscans
(Livy. v. 1, ix. 36, and xxiii. 3, Dion. Hal., ix. 5). Cf. Livy, x. 5, the gens Licinia at
Arrezo ; at Capua (Li^-y, xxiii. 2, 7) ; among the Samnites, who have their princlpes,
primores, nohiles, equites, milites aurati et argentati.

118 INTEODUCTION.

double character of the Italian aristocracy, especially in Etruria,
it resulted that public and private rights were closely united
with religious rights, that religion, as in the East, was the bond
of every city and the principle of all juiisprudence, and that
ancient legislations, placed under divine sanction, gained thereby a
higher authority. Moreover, as it is the essence of all religions
to love mystery, especially of those that are in possession of the
heads of the state, the civil laws were wrapped up in secret and
mysterious religious forms.^ " Preserved in a dumb language,
and only explaining themselves by holy ceremonies, whereof some
rites remained in the acta legitima, they were long obeyed with
scrupulous piety." ^ The aristocracy, who were its sole deposi-
taries, found therein a power which for centuries the plebeians
dared not dispute.

The greatest strength of this aristocracy was, however, the
possession of the soil, even in Etruria, where industry and com-
merce had created the movable wealth of gold Ijeside the incon-
vertible wealth of land. To possess land was, as in the Middle
Ages, not only the sign of power but power itself ; for vast
domains furnished a whole army of servants and dependants.
Originally these domains were equal,^ and the aristocracies, by
their number and the equality of their members, were truly
democracies. In the Graeco-Italian states, generally formed by a
few migrations, colonies, or Sacred Springs, society existed before
property. There were citizens before there were landowners ; and
when a town rose, the soil could be divided geometrically: each
citizen received an equal share. The principle of feudal and
continental Europe, that political rights flow from possession of
property, was inverted by antiquity. At Lacedaemon it was as
Dorians, as citizens and founders of the state, that the Spartans
received 9,000 shares ; and no new right sprang from that conces-
sion of property. Befoi'e receiving their part of the promised land,

' The passage of Festus about the Etruscan ritual shows clearly the sacerdotal character
of Etruscan legislation. It is religion rules all things ; it was there written, said he, " quo ritu
coudantur urbes, arae, aedes sacrentur; qua sanetitate niuri, quo jure portae, ciuo modo ti-ibus,
ceteracjue ejusmodi ad bellum ac pacem pertinentia."

- Vico, ii. 283.

8 As at Sparta : the 9.000 shares given to the Spartans were inalienable. [But this was
probably a modern theory, devised in the time of Agis and C'leomenes, as Grote has conclu-
sively shown, in spite of the arguuicufs of recent Oerman critics. — Eil.~\

K ^

lliliiiiiiiliiiiiliiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit^^

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.

119

the Hebrews were all e(|iial, all members of God's people ; and
after tlie division they remain as they were before. In Egypt,
at Cyrene. in all the Greek colonies, similar divisions took place,
without implying any political consequence.^

With us these agrarian laws would be a supremely iniquitous
measure, because property now represents the accumulated fruits
of the labor of many generations ; in ancient times they only
resulted in the increase of the number of citizens, in annulling
unju.st usurpations, and leading the state back
to primitive equality. They were neverthe-
less violently rejected wherever there arose,
as at Rome and in Etruria, a second people,
poor and oppressed, which might have become
too formidable if to the power of numbers
they had joined that of fortune. To avoid
these reforms even Religion was called to the
aid of civil law, and made to imprint on
landed property a sacred character. She it
was who divided the land, who by prayers,
libations, and sacrifices marked the boundaries
that no one could remove without incurring
the divine wrath.^ Numa . . . statult eum qui
terminum exarasset, et ipsum et boves sacros esse.
This religion of property had its god, Terminus,
the immovable guardian of landmarks, who, in
tradition, will not fall back even before the
Master of heaven and earth. '• Ill-luck," said
an old prophecy, " to him who displaces Ter-
minus, in order to increase his domain ! His
land shall be beaten with storms, his wheat

THE GOD TERMINUS,
AFTER A STATUE IN
THE LOUVRE.

' Joshua XX.; Pint., Li/c. ; Herotl., ii. 109; Arist., Pol. vii. 4.

" The land to be marked out was for the ar/rimenxi»; who was both priest and augur, an
enclosure wherein a rehgious act was to take place. Like the sanctuary of the gods, it was a
templum, wliose limits were put in connection with the divisions which the augur established in
aerial space, when he consulted the omens. .\n altar was raised at the limit, and the
entrails of the victims were placed under the boundary stone, which by this consecration
became itself a god ; and the property, the o,r/cr auspirntu,^ ri'l limitatiis, could not be usurjied.
Cicero, in the Second I'lulippic (§ 40), denies that any one had the right to lead a new colony
into the territory of an ancient one not yet destroyed. " Negavi in earn coloniam, quae esset
auspicato deducta, dum esset incolumis, coloniam novam deduci posse."

120 INTEODUCTIOK

eaten witli mildew, his house overthrown, and all his race shall
perish." Never has landed property been more energetically pro-
tected, and with it the hereditary power of riches. Thus it was
that Roman society remained deeply aristocratic to its last day.

This consecration of property was especially the work of the
Etruscans, whose conquests and influence extended the use of it into
a great pai^t of the peninsula ; and no divinity, says Varro, was
more honored in all Italy than the God of Limit's.^

On this double basis of religion and property rose the old
aristocracy of Italy, and in late times that of Rome. Uniting these
two elements of strength, which eacli separately confer power, what
might not be its duration and ascendency ? As long indeed as
the city did not assume the proportions of an empire, no families
arose possessing power by hereditary right. The magistrates
were almost always elected annually, like the lucumos of Etruria,
the Tneddix tuticus of the Campanians,^ and the praetor or dictator
of the Latin cities. In grave circumstances a supreme chief was
elected, such as the emhradur (imperator) of the Sabellians, the king
whom the twelve Etruscan cities named, each sending him a lictor
in token of the power over the whole of the nation^ which was
committed to him, — such, in short, as that dictator of Tusculum,
Egerius, who was recognized chief of the Latin confederation, in
order to undertake the dedication of the connnon temple of Aricia.
In the heroic age, legend tells of kings in Latium ; V)ut at the time
of the foundation of Rome there were none left save m the little
towns of the Sabine territory.* Even Alba no longer had aught
but dictators ; and in detestation of the royal name, popular stories
were already rej)eated about the cruelties of Mezentius and of those
tyrants who, sti-uck Ijy the divine anger, had been buried with
their j^alaces at the bottom of Lake Albano. When the waters fell,
it was thought that these guilty dwellings might be seen.^

On a hill, on the borders of a lake, or on the steep banks of some

' Ovid, Fast. ii. 639-G84.

^ Livy, xxiv. 19; Fcstus, s. v. Tuticus.

s Livy, i. 8.

■* At a later epoch there were still kings among the Daunians, Peucetians, Messapians,
and Lucanians. (Strabo, V. and VI. passim; Livy, i. 17 ; Paus., x. 13.) But they were per-
haps only simple leaders in war, like the Samnite embradur.

^ Verg., Aen. viii. 7 and 4.S1 ; Dionys., i. 71.

I'OLITICAL OKGANIZATIOK 121

rivor, but always in a position ilifficiTlt of access.^ rose the capital
of each state, genei-ally not very extensive, and fortified, especially in
Etruria, with all the art of the times. Faesulae, Rusellae, Populonia,
and Cosa, the walls of which may still be seen, were only three
qnarters of a league round, Volaterrae a league and a half, and Veil,
the largest of all the Etruscan cities, less than two and a half leagues.
The Latin cities were not nearly so lai'ge ; yet they, according to the
Etruscan ritual followed in Latium, preserved a free space between
the nearest buildings and the walls, as well as between the wall and
the cultivated fields. This was the pomerium, the sacred bovmdary
of the city, within which dwelt none but true citizens, — that is to
say, heads of families, the fathers or patricians, with their servants
and clients (gentes j^cii^^^ciac). Plebeians and foreigners remained
outside the pomerium, without the political city.

On a place set apart in the midst of the town the patricians
assembled in arms,^ like the Germans and Gauls, to deliberate on
their common interest. According to the Etruscan usage,^ they
were divided into tribes, curies, and centuries, the number of
wliich was determined by a sort of sacred arithmetic. The
Eugubine tables show that this division took place in Umbria
likewise ; but the Oscans and Sabellians, freer from sacerdotal
fetters than the Etruscans, do not appear to have recognized
that mysterious authority of number which plays so great a part
in Rome.

In states suljjected to the authority of a powerful aristocracy,
there is often found side by side with the docile population
another population in revolt, which dwells in the depths of the
forests and lives Ijy pillage. These outlaws, the heroes of bar-
liarous times, must have been very numerous in ancient Italy,
where, moreover, amid so many rival cities, the military spirit

' Many towns of modern Italy are still in the place of the ancient cities. That of
C'apistrello commands the Valley of the Liris, above the point where the escaiie channel of Lake
Fncinus, designed by Caesar and carried out by Claudius, ojiens.

[This peculiar character of Italian towns is still yery striking to the traveller, especially
in Southern or mountainous Italy. Owing to long injustice and weakness of home governments,
and the raids of pirates up to the present century, isolated homesteads are a rare exce])tion,
and the population live in villages perched like eagles' nests on the top of the rocks, from
which they come down to till the slopes and valleys, and return in the evening. — /?</.]

^ (2"ir, lance; theni-e r/uiritcs and curia, the place where the quirites assembled.

' Fest., s. V. Rituales ; Verg., Aeix. x. 'JOl.

122 INTRODUCTION.

sustained by continual warfare gave rise to bands of mercenaries
who sold their services, like the condottieri of the Middle Ages,
or made war on their own account.^ We shall see how the
Mamertines fared in Sicily. The fortune of a few Tuscan chiefs
was no less brilliant,^ and the Etruscan condottiere Mastarna, the
son-in-law and heir of Tartinin the Elder, involuntarily calls to
mind that other condottiere, Francesco Sforza, son-in-law and
successor of a duke of Milan. Romulus himself, proscribed from
the time of his birth, rejected by the patrician caste of Alba,
associated in tradition^ with other condottieri similarly repulsed
by the Etruscan aristocracy, appears to have been nothing but one
of these warrior chiefs, who knew how to choose with marvellous
instinct the admirable position of Rome, and hide his eyrie between
the river, the wooded hills, and the marshy plains which extend
from their foot to the Tiber.

VII.

EELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION.

EXCEPT in Etruria, ancient Italy had few mysteries or profound
dogmas. Its religion was simple ; from the necessities of
life and from the labors of the field* it derived the impressions
of admiration or affright which that lovely and changeable nature
produced. In this essentially rural religion all services took place
in the open air. The first-fruits of the field and flock were
offered to the god on the altar of sacrifice which stood before the
temple ; there were pious songs, prayers, religious dances, garlands
of flowers and foliage suspended on the sacred walls ; and when
the faithful were rich enough for such an outlay, a few grains of
incense were burned on the altar, and perfumes in the interior of

^ Livy (iv. 55 ; vi. 6) speaks of the bands who issued from the country of the Volscians
without leave from the nation.al council, and Dionys. (^Ant. Rom. vii. 3) of the mercenaries
whom the Etruscans took into their pay.

^ Tac, Ann. iv. 65.

8 Dionys., A7it. Rom. iii. 37. There is also mention of Oppius of Tusculum, and of a
Laevus Cispius of An.agnia, in the time of Tullus Ilostilius. (Varro, ap. Fest. Septimontium.)

* The oldest Roman almanac (^Corp. Inscr. Lat., vol. i. p. 375) mentions none but rural
festivals.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION.

123

One of the
Ct'iitral Italy is

iu.stance, Vesta,

the .sanctuary, where tlie actual presence of the god filled the soul
with pious awe.

features which distinguished these creeds of
the moral superiority of their gods, — as, for
the immaculate virgin, who protects both the
j)rivate and pul)lic hearth {focus jmblicus) ; ^ the Penates, the pro-
tectors of luunan life and of
the city ; Jupiter, arbiter of the
physical and moral world, the
sustaining father and supreme pre-
server ; the gods Terminus and
Fidelity, who pmiisli fraud and
violence ; the Bona Dea, who fer-
tilized the earth and rendered
unions fruitful, though she her-
self ever remained a virgin ; ^ and
that touching worship of the
Manes, dii manes, which, re-
storing life to those who had
been loved, showed ancestors
watching beyond the tomb over
those whom they had left among
the living. Three times every

year the Manes left the infernal regions, and the son who had
imitated the virtues of his fathers could see their revered
shades.

The gods of Greece are so near to man, that they have
all his weaknesses ; those of the East are so far from him, that
they do not really enter into his life at all, notwithstanding
their numerous incarnations. The Italian gods, the guardians of

^ Vesta is the Agni of the Veda. The Pelasgians had brought the worship of tliis divinity
of fire from Asia. There were A^estals at Lavinium (Serv. in Aen. iii. 21), at Tibur (Tivoli),
and elsewhere. The temple represented on page 1 24, was dedicated, according to some, to Vesta,
according to others, to the Sibyl Alhunea, " Domus Albuneae resonautis '' (Hor., Odes, I. vii.
12) ; others again see in it the temple of Hercules : it is ailliuc suh Jndice. The main jjoint is
that the ruin is lovely. To the right of the round temple there is another scjuare one about
which the same uncertainty exists.

^ It is Varro who says so, in Macrobius, Salurn. I. xii. 27. . . " nee virum uncpiam viderit
vel a viro visa sit : " but others related her adventures, and her festivals, at least in the time of
Caesar, were considered as licentious, though all men were rigidly excluded from them.

^ After a miniature from the Vatican Vcrfril.

ENTRANCE OK A SHRINE.'

124

INTEODUCTION.

OPS, on WEALTH.'

property, conjugal fidelity, and justice, the protectors of agri-
culture, the dispensers of all earthly good, preside over the
actions of men without sharing their passions, but also without
raising their mind above selfish interests. Art
and science feel the loss, morality gams.-^ We
shall not find the Roman Olympus either teeming
witli life, light, and beauty, like that of Greece,
or profound, mysterious, and terrible, like those
of Egypt and India. We shall find its gods
inglorious and practical,^ whom during long years,
selfish worshippers dared only address with just prayers. Their
service will be a means of preservation for a society devoid of
enthusiasm, not an element of progress.

These modest divinities could not display the terrible require-
ments that are found in larger theogonies. They
very rarely demanded human l^lood on their
altars ; * but they accepted a voluntary sacrifice,
the redemption of the people by the devotion
of a victim, — a Curtius, who closes the gulf in
the heart of the city by leaping into it, ^ and
GOOD SUCCESS.* a Dccius, who by liis death changes defeat into
victory.

Another characteristic of the Italian gods is their infinite
multitride. Every town has its tutelar divinity. At Narnia it is
Visidianus, at Ocriculum Valentia, at Casinum Delventius, at
Minturnae Marica, among the Frentani Palina, at Satricum Matuta

1 Saint Ausustine (<le Civ. Dei, vii. 4) remarks that Janus was the hero of no questionable
adventure. Ovid, however, has compromised him somewhat {Fust. Vi. 119, seq.); but in the
time of Ovid the sense of the ancient rites was lost.

- She holds some ears of corn. Gold coin of Pertinax, struck at the close of 192 a.d.

s Sator, seed : Ops, work in the fields ; Flora, flower ; Juventas, youth ; Fides, faith ; Con-
cordia, concord ; Fors, fortime ; Bonus Evenlus, good success. [The reader will notice that
among Greek authors Xenophon alone, following the homely side of the Socratic religion,
exhibits this selfish and vulgar piety. Cf. my Social Life in Greece, p. 370. — Ed.']

* See p.age 139, note 1.

5 This gulf was but ill closed by Curtius ; at least as far as we are concerned ;
for in modern times alone it has re-opened three times, in 1702, 1715, and 1818 a.d.
(Wey, Rome, p. 36.)

* Success (Bonus Eventus) standing, holding a bowl and ears of corn ; at his feet an altar
burning. Bronze coin of Antoninus, struck by order of the Senate (S. C.) during his second
consulship (Cos. II.) in 139 A. D.

TEMPLE OF VESTA, OF THE SYBIL, OB OF HERCULES, AT TIVOLI.

EELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION.

125

CONCOUD.^

Mater; in the Sabine country Nerio, who was identified by the

(jens Claudia with the Roman Belluna, the wife or sister of Mars.'

To these must be added the numerous Semones or Indigetes, the

nymphs, heroes, and deified virtues : Concordia, Flora,

Pomona, Juventas, Pollentia, Rumina, Meua, Numeria,

and the swarm of local di\inities which Tertullian

calls decuriones deos, and the gods of the lower world,

Larvae and Lemures, and those of the indigU amenta,

those books which were both collections of prayers

Avhereof the priests kept the secret, and lists of divine beings

whom Tertullian compares to the angels of the Bible ; one might

add that they call to mind the saints of tlie popular beliefs of

Roman Catholic countries.

Not only each town, but each family, each man, paid honor to
special gods and to genii who protected his life and goods (Lares,
Penates) : there were gods for every act of
man's life, from the cradle to the grave.^ Thus
at the close of the Republic Varro could count
as many as thirty thousand gods. With nations
in their infancy, imperfect language supplies, by
the variety of particular names, the absence
of the general terms which represent the unity
of the species. The Italians possessed so many
deities only because their minds were incapable
of rising to the conception of one only God, — a defect which lasted
a long time with them, and which, with others, lasts even tiJl
now.

This divine democracy necessarily escaped from the control of
the greater gods and thek priests. This is the reason why rehgious

YOUTH.*

' Nerio appears to have denoted strength; the inscription is known Virluti BeUonae
(Orelli, 4,983).

^ Concord {Concordia'), seated, leaning witli her elbow on a horn of plenty, and holding
a patera. Gold coin of the Emperor AeUus Hadrianus, struck in the second year of liis
tribunitian power, and during his second consulsliip, consequently in the year 118 A. D.

* See in .Saint Augustine (rfe Civ. Dei, vi. 9) the manifold and very humble employ-
ments of these gods, after Varro, who himself had doubtless described them in the order
of " indigitamenta, a conceptione . . . usque ad mortem . . . et dei qui pertinent ad ea quae
sint hominis, sieuti est victus atque vestitus," etc.

* Youth (.Juventas) standing near an altar, in the form of a candelabrum, into which
she throws a grain of iucense, and holding a patera in her left hand.

126

INTRODUCTION.

TWO WOMEN BURNINO INCENSE AND PERFUMES UPON TWO
POKTABLE ALTAUS BEFORE AN IMAGE OF MARS.^

toleration was one of the necessities of Roman government ; and
if the patricians had not held the secret of the augur's science, of
the symbolic fornnilae and ceremonies, they would not have been

able to add the
ascendency of re-
ligion to that of
bu'tli and fortune.
Some gods had
more numerous
worshippers than
others, such as
Jupiter, god of air
and light ; Janus,
the Sun, who
opened and closed
the heavens and the
year ; Saturn, the
protector of rustic
labor, whose hollow statue was filled with the oil of the olives
he had caused to grow; Mars, or Maspiter, the symbol of manly
strength, also called Mavors, the god who slays ; Bellona, the
terr'ljle sister of the god of war ; Juno Rcfjiiia, queen of heaven,
and also the helpful, Sospita, in whom woman at all moments of
her life found aid, but who favored only chaste love and invio-
late unions.

The worship of these di\-inities was often the only bond which
attached cities of the same origin to one another. Thus the
Etruscans assemliled at the temple of Voltumna, the Latins at the
sacred wood of the goddess Ferentina, at the temple of Jupiter'
Latialis on the iUban Mount, and in those of Venus, at Lavinium
and Laurentum ; ^ the Aequi Rutuli and Volsci at the temple of
Diana at Aricia. Similar gatherings took place among the Salaines,
Samnites, Lucanians, Ligurians, etc. They were really Amphic-

1 Taken from JIarini, GU Aid e monum. de' fraleUi Arrali, afteV a painting found at
Rome, which Winckehnanu has also reproduced in his Mon. ine'dits, pi. 177.

- The worship of Venus at Lavinium and I^aurentiun only dates from the epoch at which
the legend of Aeneas took form. There was no goddess hearing the name of Venus at Rome
in the time of the kings. (Varro, in Atii/urum lihris, fragm. of book vi. ; Macrob., Saturn.
I. .\ii. 8-15.)

EELIGIOUS OEGANIZATION.

127

tyonies, over which rehgion presided, and wliicli the Romans
abohslied wlicn they them-
selves liad made use of the
Latin feriae to insure tlieir
supremacy m Latium.

In religion, as in politics,
the Etruscans were originally
distinct from the rest of the
Italiaa nations, from whom
they afterward received gods
or to whom they gave them.
Tlieir religious doctrines, a
distant echo of the great
iVsiatic tlieogonies, proclaimed
the existence of a supreme
being, Tinia, the soul of the
world, who had for counsellors
the dil consentes, — impersona-
tions of the forces of present
Nature, and destmed to perish
with her ; for the Scandina-
vian and Oriental l^elief in the destruction and renewal of the
world is found also in Etruria.

These (I'll fonsentes
could luu'l thunderbolts,
but not more than one
at a time. Tinia alone,
who was identified with
Jupiter, manifested his
will by three consecutive
bolts. Thus he was repre-
sented holding; a lio;htnino'
flash with three points. Beside him were seated Thalna, or Juno,
and Menafru, or Minerva, his divine family. Vejovis was the

HEAD OF jri'ITF.R.l

THUNDF.I'.IiOLT WITH 12
FOURS.

THUNDERBOLT WITH 8
FORKS. ^

' The famous bust found at Otriooli, which is supposed to be the fuie.st liead of Jupiter
that anti<juity has left us (AA'inckelmaun, History of Art, \\. ;U .vcy.)

- Large bronze medals of Antoninus, representing one a thunderbolt, of six or twelve
(lashes, the other of four or eiglit, with the words : To divine ProfiiU-ncf. [JMany of these
bronzes are close imitations manufactured in North Italy in the last century. — Ed.']

128

INTEODUCTION.

baleful Sun ; Summanus, god of niglit and nocturnal thunders ;
Sethlaus, or Vulcan, the great smith ; Nortia, fate or fortune,
etc. By an old contract, Nortia lent the inner walls of her
temple for the reception of the sacred nail which marked the
changeless order of time and the regular return
of the years. Higher yet, hidden in the un-
fathomal)le depths of heaven, mysterious deities
whose names were never uttered, the dii involuti
(or veiled) played the part of the destiny to which
even the gods were suliject ; they helped to
explain the inexplicable mystery of life.

Man has in all ages been desirous of passing
in thought over the threshold of death, and of
looking into the great unknown beyond. The
more uncertain and confused his view, the
more his mind peopled it with vague phantoms.
Believing that death separated two different but
not al:)solutely distinct things, the body which
falls lifeless, and the other self, that of dreams,
memories, and hopes, which still exists,^ — this other self was
looked upon as formed of a corporeal substance. With the ex-
ception of Pythagoras and Plato, all the philosophies, all the

VULCAN OF ELBA.'

1 It is thought that this bronze statuette, found in the Isle of Ilva (Elba), and now in the
Museum of Naples, represents the god who must have been the protector of the island whence
the smiths of Etruria got their iron.

2 This was the most ancient Ijelief of Egypt, and it is found everywhere. Although a
philosopher had dared to s.ay at the time of the construction of the pyramids : '• Of those who
have entered the coffin, was there ever any who came out again ? " all Egypt thought that
there existed a class of beings who were neither the living nor the dead. The dead who had
been good during their lives could at will resume terrestrial existence in any place or form
which suited them. (Chabas, Les Maximes i/u Scribe Ani, in MH. iSgypt. p. 171.) Tliis in
some belief was popular in Greece, where many Sarcophagi and funeral urns show souls
in some way deified (Ravaisson, Mon. de Myrrhine) ; and it was still current in the world in
the sixteenth century. " There are aerial beings," says Guicciardini {Ricordi politici, ccxi),
" who hold converse with man : I know it by experience." It stiU exists in China. To send gold
and silver to the manes of the dead in the other world, sacrificial papers are burned, which are
gilded or silvered, and there are prepared at certain dates, as was done at Rome, repasts in
which they are supposed to come and take part. But to prevent them from taking undue
ailvantage thereof, petai-ds are fired, to send them back to the place whence they came. For
the Esquimaux the whole world is peopled with genii, and every object has its own. In our
own days some people pretend even to converse with the spirits. In many points the difference
between the barbarian and the civilized man is not so great as is thought. [The Christian
doctrine of the resurrection of the body implied that the idea of a pure soul existing hereafter
without its body was found inconceivable. — Ed.']

KELIGIOUS OllGANIZATION.

129

religions of classic antiquity, even some of the earliest Fathers
of the Church, admitted the corpoi'eal nature of the soul.
Impalpable yet material shades, the genii were like a sacred
humanity which peopled the invisible imiverse. One of them
is seen in an Etruscan paintmg ^vllich represents two old
men bewailing the dead, whose genius hovers above them under
the form of a winged woman.

The Lares were the genii of the family ; the Manes, those of
the lost dead. Genii dwelt in woods, foimtaius, mysterious

DEMONS LEADING AWAY A SOUL.'

grottos ; the Romans even assign them to everything which has
a sort of collective life, — to the curia, the legion, and the cohort.
Every man and every thing has one of its own.

When the gods issued from the obscurity which enveloped
them in ancient days, and the theogonies settled order among the
divine race, the genii became the ministers of their beneiicent or
terrible will. The soml>re imagination of the Etruscans delighted
in picturing, on vases and mural paintings, infernal genii armed
with serpents, hideous monsters, a grimacing Charon, dragging the
departed to the lower regions, or, armed with a heavy hammer,
assisting at human sacrifices, to put an end to the victims whom the

' Conestabile, Pilture murale, p!. .xvii.
9

130 INTEODUCTION.

knife might spare.^ Something of this gloomy spirit appears to
have survived in modern Tuscany. What are the gorgeous and
hideous paintings of the Etruscans beside the dreadful pictures of
Dante and Buonarotti ?

One essential difference between this religion and the Asiatic
cult, was the science of augury. The unknown fills the child with
fear, and attracts the man who still dreads it, but who seeks therein,
according to the age of the world, the marvellous or the scientific
element. Now men of that time were in the age of the marvellous,
and they demanded from physical phenomena, instead of a revela-
tion of the laws of nature, the knowledge of the future.

The Assyrians imagined they could read in the stars those
impenetrable secrets ; the Etruscans sought them in terrestrial
phenomena, in the flight of birds and the entrails of victims. The
Greeks and Italians practised the latter two kinds of divination ;.
but the Etruscans formulated their rules, and made of them a,
complicated system. They were especially skilled in interpreting
the signs furnished by thunder and lightning." When the echoes
of the Apennines repeated the crashes of nocturnal thunder, it was
the god Summanus speaking ; and his voice must be under-
stood.

This country, then, so often affrighted by earthquakes, and
where, on account of its frequent storms, lightning still claims sa
many victims, — this land, so fertile and ever so menaced, was sure,,
more than any other, to nourish religious terror. Men had faith
in an occult power which manifested its will in a manner outside
the natural order of things, and the art of explaining prodigies,,
of gaining the favor of that dreaded power, became the supreme
science.^ Tlie nobles alone knew it, and in their hands it became
a weapon, long imfailing, against popular innovations. In these rit-
uals everything was calculated ; for the priest, the better to assure
his power, was unwilling that there should be a single indifferent
action; and a shameful superstition, weighing on the people, tied its.

' See the engraving on p. C8. Charon and his chib passed on to Rome ; under the name
of Phito he put an end with his hammer-strokes to the wounded in the Games who were not
wortli tlie trouble of curing.

^ Tliis was the " maximum auspioium." (Serv. in Aen. ii. 693.)

^ This science was afterward committed to the lUiri fulgurales.

EELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION. 131

tongue, its mind, and even its gestures. But the heavier the yoke,
the more violent was the revolt ; we shall see how in the last
century of the Republic the most audacious infidelity succeeded the
blindest faith. Men came to believe in naught but chance or fortune ;
still later in nothing at all, except perhaps unbridled pleasures, and
then the repose of death, — nameless sensualities, and after satiety,
suicide.

Thus among the Oscans and Sabellians we find a simple
worship, with numberless gods ; in Etruria, a religion which would
fain account for life and death, for gootl and evil, — which, showing
everywhere the arbitrary intervention of the gods, and in the
natural phenomena a manifestation of their capricious will, required
a class of men devoted, for the sake of public safety and the
private interests of each citizen, to the interpretation and expla-
nation of portents. All this was to find its wa}" into Rome, — the
Latin or Sabine sacrificer and the Tuscan augur, the popular
worship and the sacerdotal religion.

But we do not find those oracles of Greece which were so
often the voice of wisdom and patriotism, or those sacred poets of
the East whose songs purified the national beliefs. In Italy reli-
gion, which was rather a contract with the gods than a prayer and
an act of gratitude, never opened up those large heavens towards
which the spirit soars ; and the Latin genius was condemned by
this shabby creed to an incurable sterility. High abilities were
wanting, for invention at least ; and it had neither philosophy
— that deadly, but inevitable companion of great religious, for it is
the search after the ideal in thought — nor art, which is the search
after the ideal in sentiment and nature. Whereas the glorious
artists of Greece pierced the depths of Olympus with then' glance,
to obtain thence the image of Zeus or Athene, the Roman veiled
his head while accomplishing the sacred rites ; he feared to look
upon his gods, and he never held in esteem those who endeavored
to place them before him in marl)le or in bronze.

We might even claim the religious institutions of Numa for
the ancient populations of the peninsula, and look upon tlie
Twelve Tables as a monument of old Italian customs. The
laws concerning marriage, the power of the father and husband,
and usury, certainly belong to the most remote times ; and

132 INTRODUCTION.

the atrocious nature of the punishments recalls the cold cruelty
of the heroic age, as some other laws and customs apj^ear to
have been taken from a society of still nomadic shepherds.-'
Neither let us forget the fecial right established by the Aequi, the
order of battle {acies) of the Etruscans, whose infantry, drawn
up in deep lines, resembled a wall of iron {^iiiunun fcrrciun) ; the
golden crowns in imitation of oak-leaves, as a military reward ; the
armor of the Samnite soldier, which became that of the legionary ;
and the simple worship, frugal life, and severe education of the
shej)herds and husbandmen of Latium and the Sabine country ;
the luxury and art of Etruria, — and, in short, a mass of customs
which would show that Rome already existed in ancient Italy,
were it not necessary to add something especially Roman, — the idea
of the State overruling all, and that admirable discipline which
of such diverse elements formed an original society and the most
powei'ful empire that the world had hitherto known.

vm.

STJMMAEY.

THIS is a very deliberate excursion through ancient Italy ;
but, if we are not mistaken, the circuit will only have the
effect of shortening our route. Although we have travelled this
long journey illumined only by stray lights, we have been able
to catch a glimpse of the very ci^adle of Rome, of the institutions
from which hers were derived, of the nations Avho, after having
formed her population, produced her greatest men. In the consular
annals we find among the consuls of the years 510 to 460, B. c,
Volscians, Auruncans, Siculians, Sabines, Rutulians, Etruscans, and
Latins. Amongst the great families, —

The Julii, Servilii, Tullii, Geganii, Quinctii, Curatii, and Cloelii,
come from Alba ;

' Dornseiffen : " Vestigia v it ae nomadicae tarn in moribus nuani in legibus Romanis con-
spicua."

SUMMARY.

133

The Appii, Postumii, and pruhahly the Valerii, Fabii, and
Calpurnii, who called themselves the descendants of Numa, from
the Sabine country ;

The Furii and Hostilii, from Medullia in Latium ;

The Octavii, from V'elitrae ;

The Cilnii (Maecenas was of this family) and the Licinii, from
Arezzo ;

The Caeciuae, from Volaterra ;

The Vettii, from Clusium ;

The Pomponii, Papii, and Coponii, from Etruria ;

The Coruncanii and Sulpicii,
from Camerium ;

The Porcii and Mamilii, who
claimed descent from Circe, from
Tusculum, etc.

Amonsrst the OTeat names
of Roman literature, only two,
those of Caesar and Lucretius,
belong really to Rome ; all the
others are Italians : Horace is
Apulian ; Ennius, a Messapian ;
Plautus, from Umbria ; Vergil,
from Mantua ; Statins, from
Elea ; Naevius, from Campa-
nia ; Lucilius, from Suessa-
Aurunca ; Cicero, like Marius,
is a Volscian ; Ovid, a Pe-
lignian ; Cato, a Tusculan ;
Sallust, a Sabine ; Livy, from
Padua ; the two Plinys, from
Como ; Catullus, from Verona ;
[Martial and Seneca were
Spaniards]. Terence was even
a Carthaginian. So much for
men. Let us proceed to mate-
rial marks.

' Bronze statuette in the Payne Knight Collection at the British JIuseum ; in Mr. Payne
Knight's collection it is described as Cicero.

1 34 INTRODUCTION.

Rome received from Etruria, — tlie division into tribes, curiae,
and centuries, the order of battle, the dress of the magistrates,
the laticlave, the praetexta, the toga, the apex,^ the curule chair,
the lictors, all the display uf the triumphs and public games, the
nundinae,^ the sacred character of property, and the science of
the augur, — that is to say, the state religion. From Latium, the
names of dictator and praetor, the fecial right, a simple religion
which placed all the works of rural life imder the protection of
the gods, the worship of Saturn, protector of agriculture, and that
of Janus and Djana, the sun and the moon, united in the double
Janus ; in fact, agricultural customs and even language. From
Samnium and the Sabine country, the title of hnperator, the
armor and weapons of the soldiers, severe and religious customs,
and warrior gods. From all the nations which surrounded them,
the patriciate or patronage, the division into gentes, clientship,
paternal authority, the worship of the lares and fetich gods, such
as bread or Ceres, the spear or Mars, the divinities of the rivers,
lakes, and warm springs. In short, as a faithful representation
of this formation of Roman society, Romulus and Tullus are
Latins ; Numa and Ancus, Sabines ; Servius and the two Tarquins,
Etruscans.

The following beautiful and expressive legend is found in
Plutarch. Romulus, says he, called men from Etruria, who taught
him the holy ceremonies and sacred formulae. They had a trench
dug rcjund the Coniitium, and each of the citizens of the new
city threw into it a handfid of earth brought from his native
country. Then they mixed the whole, and gave to the ditch,
as to the universe, the name of the Avorld {mundus)}

^ Laliiiavc, a tunic, edged from top to bottom with a broad j)urj)Ie band, woven in the
material, the mark of a senator ; praetexta, a toga bordered with purple and worn by magis-
trates (or noble children) ; apex, a headdress of the ilamens and the Salii. The apex is seen
on a quantity of coins and monuments, the laticlave in very rare paintings.

^ Nnndinus (iwvena dies), the ninth day, or market-day.

^ The mundns of Romulus was the world of the manes and the subterranean deities.
Every time that a city was founded, a mundus was opened, into which were thrown the firsts
fruits of all the crops, with objects of good omen. It was a religious custom, which existed
even in Assyria, where, in the foundations of monuments, were placed the idols which should
protect them. AVlien we fix coins in the first stone of an edifice, we do something analogous
with totally different ideas ; and this custom, which only serves to mark the date of the erec-
tion of the monument, is perhaps a very remote souvenir of a religious usage which has been
secularized.

SUMMAliY.

135

Thus all the Italian nationalities, all the powers, all the civili-
zations of the ancient world were destined to fall into the bosom

of Rome and mingle there.

JANUS AS, COIN FOUND AT VOLTERRA.

HISTORY OF ROME.

FIRST PERIOD.

ROME UNDER THE KINGS (753-510 b. c).

FORxMATION OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.'

'fls eV TOiS iraTpiOis vuvois uwb
^'Pwfiaiuv 6Ti Koi vvv aSeroi.

DioXYSlUS: Ant. llom.l. 79.

I. Romulus (753-71G).

EOME, the city of strength^ and war and bloodshed, was pleased
to place an idyl at the beginning of her formidable history ;
Nero's city, ascribing to her first days the virtues of the age of

^ We do not. propose to discuss the legends of the royal period. The rentier curious in
intellectual diversions of this kind will do well to consult the first volume of Niebidir, in
which all these traditions are collected and critically considered ; also Schwegler's History,
in which they are also taken up and discussed. For ourselves, to any hypotheses, however
ingenious and erudite. — which must still be as incapable of proof as are the legends they
combat, — we prefer Livy's admirable narrative, if not as actual truth, at least as ])icture.
Details more or less authentic in respect to the biographies of certain personages are, after all,
of little consequence. One thing only is really imjiortant, since it is what men of all times
desire to understand, and that is the question how this singular city was formed, which grew
to be a nation, a world. This problem will occupy us far more than the idle or insoluble
questions which, since Niebuhr's time, have been so much agitated in German\-. [The
course here adopted is that of Arnold, who tells the old legends as legends, without any attempt
to sift history from them. ]\Iommsen contemptuously ignores them altogether. Ihne's little
book on the earhest epoch of Roman history is the best discussion of the problem in English. —
Ed.']

- The Greek word for Rome means strength ; and the city's secret name was perhaps
Valcntia, from the verb valere, which has the same meaning. See p. 142, n. 2.

138

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

gold, began her legendary annals with a reign of Saturn, — a period
of umocence, peace, and equality, of rustic labors and simple
_ pleasures.

In the beginning, says tradition,
a stranger king reigned over the
people of Latium, Janus, the sun-
god, whose dwelling was upon the
Janiculum. His subjects had the in-
nocent and simple, but rude and un-
cultured, manners of primeval man.
From this king, Saturnus, wbo had
been driven out of heaven by Jupi-
ter, obtained the gift of the Capi-
toline Hill ; ^ and in return for this
hospitality, taught the Latins how
to cultivate corn and the vine.
This is the age of agriculture, suc-
ceeding the pastoral age, when men
lived by the fruits of the chase
and upon the acorns which they
gathered under the great oaks of
the Latin for-est. Saturnus, " the
good sower," ^ was also the good
harvester, and was long represented
with a sickle, which later ages, per-
verting the original myth, con-
verted into the scythe of Time.
To him succeeded Picus, his son, a famous sooth-
sayer having the gift of oracles, and " the good "
Faunus, the founder of important religious institutions,
who was worshipped in later times in his twofold
character as the god of fields and shepherds, and
SATURNUS.* as an oracular and prophetic divinity. Faunus also

1 This hill was called at first the Mount of Saturn. (Varro, de Ling. lat. v. 42 ; Aen.
viii. 358.)

2 Salor means sower.

* Taken from the Monuments of Ancient Art of jNIiiller-Wisler.

* The cross placed under the chin indicates that the piece is a silver denarius. Behind
there is the sickle of the divine husbandman.

TKADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

139

welcomed the Arcadiiin Evander, son of Mercury and the nynipli
Carmenta. Evander built a town on the Palatine, then covered
with woods and meadows, and diffused among the natives the use
of the Greek alphabet and more refined manners. Hercules also
came unto Latium, where he abolished human sacrifices ; ^ he
married the daughter of Evander, killed the brigand Cacus on the;
Aventine. in the middle of a thick forest, and pastured the oxen
of Gerjon in a place
where, afterward, an ox
of bronze, set Tip in his
honor in the Fonmi
hoarium, consecrated the
memory of this circum-
stance. Thus the gods,
the demi-gods, and the
heroes sojourned on the
banks of the Tiber. This
was an omen of the future
grandeur of the City of
the Seven Hills ; or rather,
legtaid Ijrought them thither when Rome, havmg become power-
ful, was desirous that immortals should have surrounded her
cradle.^

AENEAS CARRYING ANCniSES.^

* Professor Capellini tliinlcs that he has found traces of cannibalism in the Island of
Palmaria. Many facts lead one to the belief that this ])ractice, which still exists in certain
islands of Oceania, was universal in the first ages of humanity. Certain Roman customs
recalled the memory of it. Every }ear, says Varro (tie Lint/. Int. vii. 44), the Vestals threw
into the Tiber, from the top of the Sublician Bridge, twenty-four osier figures, to replace
the human victims that they no longer threw in after the time of Hercules. The nscillae,
small dolls which were placed over the door of the house or hung on ^he neighboring
trees, also recalled to memory the heads of men which were formerly offered to Saturn
as a redemption. (Macr., Sal. I. vii. .31, and xi. 48.) At the feast of the Luperei, the
priest with a bloody knife touched the foreheads of two young men, and until the time
of the Empire, at the Latin Feriae, a criminal was slain whose l)l()od sprinkled the altar of
Jupiter. [.Ml tliis points only to human sacrifices, not to cannibalism. — /i'/.]

' Painting on a vase of Nola, at the ^lunich ]Muscura.

* On the legend of Hercules and Cacus, see the learned memoir of M. Breal (.l/eV. de
.Mi/lh.), in which he follows, from the hanks of the (ranges to the shores of the Tiber, a
similar history, that of the contest of Indra and Vitra, of Ormuzd and .\hriman, of
Hercules and Cacus. "Vergil," says he (p. 15!)), "has related this history as a poet of the
Vedic times might have done; and the verses which he jiuts into the mouth of the
i^alian priests would not be out of place in the most ancient of the liymns of the Aryan
race."

140

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

Through Saturn, the father of the gods, Rome was connected with
what was greatest in heaven ; through Aeneas, the son of Venus
and ancestor of Romulus, with that which Greek poetry had made
the greatest iipon earth, — the city of Priam. Having escaped from
the burning Troy witli his father Anchises, liis son Ascanius, and
his wife Creiisa, who carried the sacred objects and the Palladium,
he crossed the Helles]3ont ; and after having wandered for a long
time on land and sea, he was led by the star of his mother, which
guided his ship by day as well as by night, to the shores of
Latium.^ Latinus, king of the country, welcomed the stranger,
gave him his daughter Lavinia to wife, and to his companions
seven hundred acres of land, seven for each. But in a Ixittle
against the Rutulians, Aeneas, conqueror of
Turnus, disappeared in the midst of the
waters of the Numicius, the sacred water of
which was afterward used in the worship
of Vesta. The gods had received the hero.
He was worshipped under the name of Jupiter
Indigetes. The war, however, continued, and
AENEAS.^ ill single combat Ascanius killed Mezentius,

the ally of Turnus. Tlien, leaving the arid
and unhealthy coast where his father had' founded Lavinium,
he came to build Allja Longa, in the heart of the country,
on the Alban mountain, the summit of which commands all
Latium, and affords a view of the Tiller, the sea, and the storm-
beaten crests of the Apennines. Twelve kings of the race of Aeneas
succeeded him ; one of them, Procas, had two sons, ISumitor and
Amulius. The former, by right of age, ought to have inherited
the kingdoip ; but Amulius took possession of it, killed the son of
Numitor, placed his daughter Sylvia among the Vestals, and only
allowed his brother a portion of the private domains of their father.
Now one day when Sylvia had gone to the fountain of the sacred

' Serv. in^4en. i. 382. As early as the sixth century n. c, Stesiehorus asserted the arri-
val of Aeneas in Italy. Aristotle, in the fourth, adopted this tradition, and the historian
Timaeus, in the third, popularized it. We shall see later on that at the time of the First
Punic War it was accepted at Rome.

''pp. TR. POT. COS. III. sc, that is to say, Father of the country, third year of the
tribunitian power, and third consulate (a. n. 140) ; a ]iiece struck by order of the Senate.
It is the reverse of a lari;e bronze of Antonine representing Aeneas, who is carrying
Anchises and holding his son Ascauius by the hand.

TILVDITIU^AL lUSTUiiY Ul' THE Kl^iGS.

141

wood, to draw the water ncccssarv for the temple, Mavs appeared
to her, and promised divine children to the frightened maiden,
llavmg become a mother, Sylvia wa.s condemned to death, accord-
ing "to the rigorous laws of the worship of Vesta, and her twin
sons were exposed on the Tiber. The rivei- luid then overflowed its
1 tanks; the cradle was gently carried by tlic waters as far as the
Palatuie Hill, where it stopped at the foot of a wild fig-tree.^ Mars

RIIEA SYLVIA.

ROME AND THE SHE-WOLF."

FAVSTl'LUS.''

did not abandon the two children. A she-wolf, attracted by their
cries, or rather, sent liy the god whose symbol was the wolf,
nourished them with her milk. Afterward a sparrow-hawk brought
them stronger nourishment, while Ijiixls sacred to the augurs hovered
over their cradle to keep off the insects. Struck by these miracles,
Faustulus, a shepherd of the King's flocks, took the two children
and gave them to his wife, Acca Larentia, who called them Romulus
and Remus.^

' The Jicus Ruminalis, religiously preserved through centuries. Ihimn, or 7-umis, has
the meaning of nunniiia (Varr., de Re rust. II. i. •><!). and the Tiber itself was called Rumon,
that is, the river with fertilizing waters. (Serv. in Aen. viii. 63.) Hence came the names
of Rome, Romulus, and Remus. (Philargyr. in Verg., Eel. i. -20.) The bed of the Tiber
formerly reached from the Pincio to the Janiculum. Although this ri\er has now a width of
only 1H5 feet, it still frequently overflows into the streets: a rising of 32 feet has been marked
on the church of ^linerva. That of the 2yth of Decemljer. 1S70, was IS yards, 2 feet.

^ The Aemilii jiretended that Rhea Sylvia belonged to the Aemihan gens, and they put
her image on some of their medals. That which we give is taken from a die of Antoninus,
who was fond of recalUug on his coins, facts or monuments of the primitive history of
Rome.

* .\ didradnne of Camjianian make, in silver. Pieces of two drachmae are rare. The
drachme was almost ecpiivalent to a franc.

< SEX . P0:M . FOSTLVS RO.M.X. Faustulus standing on the left; before him the
wolf suckling the twins ; in the background the Ruminal fig-tree with three crows. Reverse of
a silver coin of the Pompeian family.

' I>ivy (i. 4) alludes to other accounts, in which Acca Larentia, on account of her
loose morals, was given a name for courtesan, lu/m, the she-wolf. Nothing more would
be reipiired for forming the famous legend on this name. It was already pojiular in 'I'JIJ, a
time when the wolf anil the twins were officially consecrated on the Palatine; but it was not
very ancient, since the coins of Rome bore the impress of the sow before that of the wolf,
which does not appear till the quadrantes of the fifth century. Acca Larentia was a telluric
goddess, who personified the earth in which we place the dead, and seeds, whence life springs ;

142 ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

Brought up on the Palatine in huts of straw, like the hardy
children of the shepherd, they grew in strength and courage,
fearlessly attacking wild beasts and brigands, and asserting their
rights l»y force. The companions of Romulus were called the
Quintilii : those of Remus, the Fal)ii ; and already division broke
out between them. One day, however, the two brothers had a
quarrel with the shepherds of the rich Numitor, whose flocks fed
on the Aventine, and Remus, surprised in an amlnish, was taken
by them to Alba before their master. The prisoner's features,
his age, the twin Inrtli, struck Numitor : he caused Romulus to
be brought before him ; and Faustulus disclosed t( > the two young
men the secret of their birth. Aided by their companions, they
killed Amulius, and Alba returned to the sway of its lawful
king. In return, Numitor permitted them to build a town on
the banks of the river, and gave up to them all the country
which extended from the Tiber <jn the road to Alba as far as
a place called Festi, about five or six miles distant.^

Equal in power and authority, the two l)rothers soon dis-
puted the honor of choosing the site and the name''^ of the new
city. It was left to the gods, whose will they consulted by the
Sabellian augury through the flight of Ijirds. Remus, on the
Aventine, first saw six vultures ; but almost at the same time
twelve appeared to Romulus, on the Palatine ; and their com-
panions, won over by this happy omen, pronounced in his
favor. So the plebeian hill, already sullied in the most ancient

so her festival was celebrated at the winter solstice. At the sixth hour, at the moment when
the year passed away, the Quirinal flamen offered a saei-ifice to the manes in honor of the
"Mother of the Lares," — this is the meaning of her name; and the rest of the day was
consecrated to Jupiter, the god of light and regenerated life. [The curious analogies in the
stories of the birth and education of Cyrus, preserved by Herodotus, show that we probably
have before us an old .\ryan legend, however late it may appear at Rome. — EdJ]

1 This is the (iger Hoiudnus. Under Tiberius expiatory sacrifices were still offered there,
intended to purify the primitive frontier. 1"he Roman mile, or thousand iiares of five feet, is
equivalent to about 1,(.)'20 yards.

- The profane name was Roma (see p. 137, n. 2) ; the sacerdotal name, Ftom. 1'here was a
third secret name, possibly Amor, an anagram of Roma, which it was forbidden to pronounce,
under pain of death. (Munter, De occulta urhis Roniae nomine.) Others think it Valentia, or
Angeroma. (Cf. Maury, memoir on Servius Tuliius.) Great care was taken to conceal this
name, says Pliny (Hist. Nat., xxviii. 4), because it belonged at the same time to the
tutelar deit}- of the city. As long as it remained unknown, the hostile jiriests could not induce
this god to abandon his people, by ]iromising in their city greater honors, ampliorcm cultum,
which, according to the idea of the ancients, was the determining reason of the favor of the
gods.

TKADlTKiNAL JllSTUliY UF 1 HE KINGS.

143

ROMULUS.^

traditions as the abode of the brigand Cacus, remained so by the
unhicky omen of Remus. It seems always doomed : at the present
day it is a waste, where a few monks dwell
about deserted churches.^

Following Etruscan rites ^ Romulus yoked
a Inill and a heifer without spot to a plough,
and with a bronze ploughshare he traced
around the Palatine a furrow which repre-
sented the circuit of the walls the pomeriuni,
or sacred enclosure.^ beyond which began the
secular town, the city of strangers and ple-
beians, devoid of auspices (April 21, 754'^).

Already the rampart was rising, when
Remus ua derision jumped over it ; Ijut Celer,
or Romulus himself, killed him, crying out :
" Thus perish every one who shall cross these
walls." Legend placed Ijlood in the foundations

of this city, which was destined to shed more than any city of
the world has done.''

The Palatine, the highest of the seven hills of Rome (168

' M. Maury sees in this legend the opposition of two oppida existing on the two rival
hills, one of which, the Aventine, bore the name of Remiiria, — whence the name of Remus.

- Varro, rfe Lint/, lat. v. 32; Plut., Horn. 11.

' Auhis Gellius, xiii., xiv. : . . . rjui Jhcit Jinein urbnnl auspicii Under Servius six
hills were enclosed in the pomeriura ; up to the time of Claudius, the Aventine remained out-
side this enclosure. Fest., s. v. Posimeriiim ; Dionys., iv. 13 : Tac, Ann. xii. "24.

^ We give this figure as we give the legendary history of Rome. Neither the one nor
the other is authentic. The statues of the Seven Kings were certainly preserved on the Cap-
itol, but they were conventional images. It is, however, as interesting to know how the
Romans represented their great personages as to know how they conceived the history of
then- first days. [Xevertbeless, these imaginary portraits are only of interest if really ancient,
and not the conscious invention of a late and sceptical ago. The portraits of these kings look
more hke Renaissance fancies, than old Roman work. They are ai)]>arcntly enlarged from
heads found on coins with the legend of the names. — Efl.1

^ Tliis ancient wall of Roma quadrata was found in the excavations undertaken on tlie
site of the Palace of the Caesars. It is a wall evidently built under the influence of the
architectural ideas of Etruria. The same is the case with the wall of Servius.

° The difficulties of Roman chronology are as inextricable as the legends of its history : —

1st. Until the time of Augustus they reckoned by the consuls and from the expulsiqn of the
kings ; but some consulships were omitted. Livy himself, by his own calculations, may be con-
victed of having omitted several. On account of city troubles, or by the fraud of the pontiff,
some were made to last longer, others less, than the vear. The intercalations of interregnums
and dictatorships, the variations of the date of entering on their duties, fixed sometimes on the
31st of December, sometimes (after the Second Punic War) on the 19th of March or on the Ides
of Alay, finally, after the year 153, on the 1st of Januarv. led to such confusion, that, when

144 ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

feet), was nearly 2,000 yards in circumference, so that access to
it was easy.

But, at a little distance, the Capitoline Hill (145 feet) de-
scended by steep declivities into the marshes ; this position, then,
was already strong in itself. Romulus there carried out works of
defence, which made it the citadel of Rome.

In order to increase the population of tlTe new city, he opened

Caesar reformed the calendar, it was necessary to make a year of fifteen months, in order to
put the civil year in accord with the course of the sun.

2d. The Roman year is four months behind the Christian year, and three months in
advance of the Greek year; so that the year of Kome 300 eorresDonds t(j eight months of the
year 454 B. c, and four months of the year 45.3 B. c. ; and for the Olympiads, to three months
of 01. 81,3, and nine months of Ol. SI, 4. Consequently, even if this chronology were certain,
there must be continual rectifications in reckoning the years before Christ.

3d. Livy avows that great confusion still existed concerning the period which followed
the expulsion of the kings, — Uinli e?-rores implicant teinporum . . . (ii. 21); and there is, in
truth, no certainty in Ronum chronology until after taking of Rome by the Gauls, because the
Greeks knew this event and connected it with their own chronology, in 01. 98, 1 or 2, or even,
according to Varro, 01. 97, 2. When they began at a rather late date to establish a chro-
nology for Roman history, it was a traditional belief (see Serv. in Aen. i. 268) that Rome had
been founded 3()0 years after the downfall of Troy, and that between its foundation and de-
struction by the Gauls the same number of years had elapsed. Of this period of 360 years, a
tliird, or 120, was allowed for the consuls; the other two thirds, or 240, with four intercalary
years, 244, formed the period of the kings. Now 300 b. c, the date of the taking of Rome hy
the Gauls, plus 364, give 754. But as there was a variation of some years in the same funda-
mental date, some took 754, others 753, or 752 (Fabius, 01. 8, 1 ; Polybiiis and Corn. Nep.,
01. 7, 2; Cato, 01. 7, 1 ; Varro, 01. 6, 3; and the Cupitoline Annuls, 01. 6, 4). They went as
far as to fix the day (April 21st), and even the hour, when Romulus had traced out the
pomerium. The value of such a chronology will be easily appreciated.

[The early Roman, like the Greek, chronology, reasoned down from remote mythical
dates, not up from known liistorical facts. Tlie use of 60-year cycles is just as clear in the
legends of the birth of Homer. Cf. the criticism in my Greek Literature, vol. i. Appendix B.,
and in my Essay on the Olympiads in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, ii. 164, neq. — Ed.']

4th. As regards the three last kings in particular, Cicero and Livy represented Tarquin
the Proud, who died in 495 B.C., as the son of Tarquin the Elder, who had come to Rome
with his wife 135 years before, — hence chronological impossibilities of which the legend had
never dreamed.

5th. Finally, the 244 years of the royal period give on an average 35 years for each
reiwn. Now Rome was an elective monarchy, in which the throne was only reached at the age
of ex|)erience and maturity; moreover, of seven kings, two only finished their life and their
reign in peace. So Newton, only allowing 17 years as an average for each reign, reduced
these 244 years to 119, and jjlaced the founding of Rome about 630 B.C. Niebidir has
remarked that Venice, arepubhc which also had elective chiefs, reckoned, from 805 to 1311, 40
doges; which gives an average of 12J years for each. We can infer nothing from these cal-
culations, for, in S]iain, from 1516 to 1759 (243 years), there were only seven kings, but not
elective; as many in France, from 987 to 1223 (236 years), and from 1589 to 1830, 240 years,
there would have been, reckoning as the Restoration did, seven kings, two of whom died a
violent death, a third finished his life in exile, and a fourth died at the age of ten.

This chronology of the early times of Rome must therefore be suspicious, like the liistory
of its first kings. We will follow it, however, in default of a better one.

o
«

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF TIIK KINGS. 145

an asylum in the mid.st of tlic uak.s wliicli grew in the Intermontium,
between the two sununits of the Capitoline, ami lie made it a
sacred wood ; * then he asked those in the neighboring cities to
unite themselves by marriages to his people. Everywhere they
refused with contempt. " Ojjen," said they, "an asylum for women
too." He dissembled ; Ijut at the festival of the god Consus,^ he
caused all the young girls to be carried off who had come to the
eames with their fathers. There was no concerted action to
punish this outrage. The Coeninates, the first ready, were beaten ;
Romulus killed their king, Acron, and consecrated his arms, as
spolia opima, to Jupiter Foretrius. The Crustiuninians
and the Antemnates met with the same fate and lost
their lands. But the Sabines from Cures, led by
their king, Tatius, penetrated as far as the Capitoline
Hill, and took possession, through the treachery of
Tarpeia, of the citadel, wliicli Romulus had built on
one of the peaks ; the other summit bore later on the temple of
Jupiter. For opening the gates to the Sabines, Tarpeia had asked
from them what they carried on the left arm, — namely, golden brace-
lets. But on this arm they also carried their Ijucklers ; on entering,
they threw them at her, and she was smothered under their weight.
The people long believed that at the end of the gloomy tunnels
excavated in the Capitoline, the beautiful Tarpeia lived, seated in
the midst of her treasures ; but that he who attempted to penetrate
to her, must infallibly perish.* The Romans were already fleeing,
when Romulus, vowing a temple to Jupiter Stator,*" renewed the
combat, which was stayed Isy the Sabine women throwing themselves

1 Not only were certain woods sacred, but also certain trees, notably those which had been
struck by lightning. PUny {Hist. Nat. xU. 1, 2) calls trees the first temples of tlie gods.
'I'liis worship was, in fact, very ancient, since it commences among the Greelcs with the oak of
Dodona, and is continued by the laurel of Apollo, the olive of JIiner\a, the myrtle of Venus,
the poplar of Hercules, etc., and it was still in active existence at the time of Ajjuleius.

^ This god, whose name it has been attempted to derive from the adjective conditus,
which signifies hidden, appears to have been a subterranean deity. (Hartung, Die Relir/ion tier
Horn., ii. 87.)

s TVR1TLI.\NVS III. VIR., that is to say, monetary triumvir. Tarpeia crashed by the
shields and raising her hands to heaven. Silver coin oi the Petronian family-

■• This is the only ancient legend which still exists amongst the people of Rome, said
Niebuhr ; but since his time it has been forgotten.

^ This temple, at first very unpretending, was several times reconstructed. The engraving
on p. 146 gives its restored form according to the works of Canina and ^1. Dutcrt, the author of
a very fine memoir of the Roman Forum.

VOL. I. 10

146

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

between their fathers and their husbands. Peace was concluded,

and the first basis of tlie greatness
of Rome established by the union of the
two armies. The double-headed Janus
became the symbol of the new nation.^

At the end of five years Tatius
was killed by the Laurentines, to
whom he refused justice for a
murder, and the Saliines consented
to recognize Romulus as sole king.
Victories over the Fidenates and
Veientines justified this choice. But
uoMAN BRACELET.^ Quc day, wlieu he was reviewing his

troops near the Capraean iharsli, a storm dispersed the assembly ;
when the j)eople returned, the King had dis-
appeared. A senator, Proculus, swore that he
had seen him ascend to heaven on the chariot
of Mars, amid thunder and lightning, and
he was worshipped iinder the name of Quirinus.
The Senate had sacrificed him to their fears,
or the Sabines to their resentment.

II. NuMA (715-673).

The two nations could not agree as to the

appointmeiit of his successor, and for a year

the senators governed l)y turns as interreges.

At length it was settled that the Romans should make the

selection, on condition that they chose a Sabine. A voice named

1 In memory of this peace Roman ladies celelirated on tlic Calends of ]\Iarcli (March 1st)
tne festival of the matrormlia. In the morning they ascended in pomjj to the temple of Juno,
on the Esquiline Hill, and placed at the foot of the goddess the flowers with which their heads
were crowned. (0\id, Fast. iii. 205.) In the evening, in order to commemorate the marks of
tenderness which the Sabine women had received from their husbands, they remained at home
richly adorned, waiting for the gifts of their husbands and relatives. Tibullus chose this day,
on which custom allowed presents to be offered to women, to send his books to his beloved
Neaera. (Tib., Carm. iii. 1.)

^ In gold and open work, with coins set in : it is reduced to almost half size, which proves
that it was worn on the upper part of the arm. The medals are of the third century of our era.
(Cf. Dictionary of Antiipiities, p. 4:! 7.)

^ Visconti's Iconographie Rotuaine. (Seep. 143, note 4.)

TRADITIONAL FIGURE
OF TATIUS.3

}

H
M
W

a
2;

M
o

o
w

TEADITIOXAL IILSTOKY OF THE KIXGS. 147

Numa Pompilius. All proclaimed him kiiiL;-; Imt lie did not accept
till lie had obtained favorable sign.s fruni Heaven. " Led l)y the
augur to the summit of the Tarpeian Mount, he seated himself on
a stone and turned towards the south. The augur, with his head
covered, and liolding in his hand the lituus, a curved stick without
a knot in it, cast his eyes over town and country, praying to the
gods meanwhile ; then he marked out a space in the heavens from
east to west, declared the region of the
south to be the right, that of the north the
left, and determined the extreme point of
the horizon to which his sight could reach.
Then he took the lituus in his left hand,
laid his right on the head of Numa, and
said : '' Jupiter. father ! If it be good
that this Numa Pompilius, whose head I
hold, reign in Rome, show me certain signs
in the space that I have marked out." He tkaditioxal poktkait op
announced the omens he requu'ed, and when m^ma poiipiLitb.

they had lieen manifested, Numa, declared king, descended from
the temiilum?'

Numa was the most just and wise of men, the disciple of
Pythagoras.^ and the favorite of the gods. Inspired by the Nymph
Egeria, whom he went to consult by night in the solitude of the
wood of the Cameuae or Muses,* he arranged the religious cere-
monies, the functions of the four pontiffs, the guardians of worship ;
of the flamens, the ministers of the greater gods ; of the augurs,
the interpreters of divine will ; of the fetiales, who prevented
unjitst wars ; of the vestals chosen by the high priest from the

1 Visconti's Iconograpliie Romaine.

- Te.mptum was the name given to sacred enclosures, afterward to religious edifices. I
liave borrowed tliese details from Livy (i. 18), who has certainly furnished us with an extract
from the ritual, and shown us an augur at his duties. The aruspices were simply diviners
wlio examined the entrails of victims ; the_r had no religious character, and did not form a
college. They never arrived at the authority and consideration that the augtirs enjoyed.

' Tradition says so ; but chronology and probability are opposed to the idea. Prthagoras
li\cd a century later [than the traditional date of Xuma].

■* In i)roof of this the Romans still show, not far from the Capena Rate, the grotto ndiercin
the goddess gave sage counsel to the new king. This grotto was, in fact, a nymplirtfum con-
secrated to some water divinity ; but Egeria never dwelt there, even according to the legenil.
The abode assigned to her by the ancients was in the wood of the Camenae, on the Caclius,
where from a dark cave came a fountain that never dried U]).

148

EOME UNDER THE KIXGS.

most noble families to keep up the perpetual fire, the Palladium, and
the Penates ; and lastly of the Salii, who guarded the shield that
had fallen from heaven (ancile) and celebrated the festival of

THE EIGHT COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF SATURN. ^

the God of War by songs and armed dances. He forbade bloody
sacrifices, the representation of the God hy images of wood, bronze,
or stone, and paid special honors to Saturn, the father of Italian
civilization, the king of the golden age, of the times of virtue,

1 Remains of a temple of Saturn, rebuilt by the Emperor Maxentius.

TEADITIOXAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

149

plenty, and equality, whose festival, a day of mad joy and
liberty even for the slave, suspended hostilities on the frontiers

HEADS OF THE DH PENATES.' SALIAN PRIEST.'

AXCILI.i.^

and the execution of criminals in the city.* In later times the
temple of this god was a kind of state sanctuary. The public
treasure was preserved there, with the official documents and the
ensims of the leajions.

That each might live in peace on his farm, Xuma distrib-
uted among the people the lands conquered by Romulus, raised
a temple to Good Faith on the Capitol, and consecrated the
hmits of property (festival of the Terminalia) by devoting to
the Q-ods of the infernal res-ions those who should remove the
boimdaries of the fields. He moreover divided the
poor into guilds of craftsmen, and built the temple
of Janus, the open gates of which announced war, L»;
the closing of them peace. It was needful that ^C/^
during war time the god should leave his temple
to protect the young warriors of Rome ; peace
rendered this aid useless. Under Numa " the neighboring towns
seem to have breathed the healtliful breath of a soft, pure wind,
that blew from the side where Rome lay," and the temple of Janus
always remained closed.®

1 DEI PEXATES. Coupled heads of the Penates. Silver coin of Antian familv.
- AVGVST. Dm F. LVDOS SAE. SaUan priest. Silver coin of the family San-
(piinia, commemorative of the secular games.

' The ancilia ; reverse of a bronze of Antoninus.

* The Saturnalia legally lasted one day in ancient times, three in last centuries of the
Kepublic, and five under the Empire ; but seven were often taken. During these feasts, which
in certain customs recall our old carnival, oflicial life was suspended and the tribunals closed.
Cf. ilacr., Sat. I. passim.

^ J(ino Patri. Janus standing, holding a patera and a sceptre. Aureus, or gold piece
of GalUenus.

* With the worship of Janus was perhaps connected the vague notion of a supreme god,
who was both sun and moon, the beginning and end of all things, the creator of the world and
arbiter of battles. The old deity was successively despoiled of his warhke attributes in favor

150

KOME UNDER THE KINGS.

• Beyond these works of peace, tradition ]\:nows nothing of the
second King of Rome, and remains silent on the subject of this

long reign of forty-three years.
He himself had recommended the
worship of silence, the goddess
Tacita. At his death Diana
changed Egeria into a fountain,
and the spring still flows at the
place which was the sacred wood
of the Camenae. Near the tomb of Numa, dug at the foot of
the Janiculum, were Ijuried his books, which contained all the
prescriptions to be followed to ensure the accomplishment of the
rites so as to gain certain favor from the gods. Being recovered
at an epoch when Greek idolatry had replaced the old religion,
these books were judged dangerous, and were burned by order of
the Senate.^

COI>' OF THE MARCII.l

III. — TuLLus HosTiLius (673-640).

To the pious and pacific prince there succeeds the sacrilegious
warrior king ; after Numa, TuUus Hostilius. The Sabiues, in
consequence of the agreement made between the two nations
about the election of Numa, chose him among the Romans,
as the latter, after Tullus, name the Sabine Ancus. Romulus
was the son of a god, Numa, the husband of a goddess; with

Tullus begins the reign of men.

He was grandson of a Latin of

of ilars, an old jrod of the field (Cato, dc Be rusl. 141, and Saint Augustine, de Civ. Dei, ii.
17), and of his supreme majesty in favor of Jupiter. In the Fasti (i. 101, 117 seq.) Ovid
makes him say : —

" Me Chaos antiqui, nam sura res prisca, Tocabant . . -

QuiJquid ubique vides, caelum, mare, niibila, terras,

Omnia sunt nostra clausa patentque manu."

1 This coin of the INIarcii, who asserted their descent from the fourth King of Rome,
himself said to be the grandson of Numa, gives the traditional features of these princes. On
the reverse are two arcades : under the first stands victory on a eoluuui, under the second the
crescent moon and the prow of a vessel, another souvenir of the port of Ostia built by Ancus
and of his success over the Latins. We see the custom the Romans had of recalling\)n their
coins the facts of their annals, and the interest that these coins offer from the double point of
view of lustory and art.

- The fact is reported by Dionysius, Livy, and Cicero. We shall see at the right place
what to believe about this pretended discovery of the books of Numa made in the year 181 B.C.,
which was a pious fraud.

TILIDITIOXAL IIISTOUY OF THE KES'GS. 151

Mediillia, who had fought valiantly under Romulus against the
Sabines. Tullus loved the poor, distributed lands among them,
and went to live among them himself on Mount Caelius, -where
he established the conquered Albans.

Let us hear Livy relating the ancient legend ; although no
translation can convey the brilliancj- of his narrative. Alba, tlie
mother of Rome, had l)y slow degrees become a stranger to
her colony, and mutual incursions brought on a war. Long the
two armies remained face to face, w'ithout daring to commence
the sacrilegious sti'ife. "As there were found in each of the
two nations three twin brothers, of uearlj" the same strength and
age. the Horatii and Curiatii, Tullus and the dictator of Alba
rharged them to tight for their country ; the supremacy should
belong to the victors. The convention that was made was this.
The fetialis, addressing Tullus, said : ' King, dost thou bid me
conclude a treaty with the pater jpatratas of the Alban people ? '
And on an affirmative answer being given, he added : • I
demand of thee the sacred herb.' ' Take it pure,' replied Tullus.
Then the fetialis brought the pure herlj from the citadel, and
addressing Tullus anew : ' King, dost thou name me interpreter
of thy royal wall and that of the Roman people, descended from
Quirinus ? Dost thou approve of the sacred vessels, and the men
who accompany me ? ' ' Yes,' replied the King, ' without prejudice
to my right and that of the Roman people.' The fetialis was M.
Valerius ; he made Sp. Fusius pater patratus of the Albans, by
touching him on the head and hair with vervam. The pater
patratus took the oath, and sanctioned the treaty by pronouncing
the necessary formulae. When the conditions had been read, the
fetialis continued : ' Hear, Jupiter, hear, father patratus of the
Alban people ; hear, too, Alban people. The Roman people will
never be the first to violate the conditions inscribed on these
tablets, which have just been read to you, — from the first line
to the last without fraud or falsehood. From this day they
are clearly understood by all. If it should happen that by
public deliberation or unworthy subterfuge the Roman people
infringe them first, then, great Jupiter, strike it as I strike
this swine, and strike with more severity, as thy power is greater.'
When the imprecation was ended, he broke the skull of the pig

152 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

with a stone. The Albans, by the month of the Dictator and
priests, repeated the same formulae and pronounced the same oath.

" When the treaty was concluded, the three brothers on each ij
side take their arms. The cheers of their fellow citizens animate
them ; the Gods of their country, and even, so it seems to them,
their country itself, have their eyes fixed upon them. Burning with
courage, intoxicated with the sound of so many voices exhorting
them, they advance between the two armies, who, though ex-
empt from peril, were not so from fear ; for it was a matter of
empire depending on the valor and fortune of so small a num-
ber of champions.

" The signal being given, the six champions sprmg forward
sword in hand, and bearing in their hearts the courage of
two great nations. Heedless of their own danger, they only
keep before their eyes triumph or slavery, and the future of
their country, whose destiny depends upon their acts. At
the first shock, when the clash of arms was heard and the
swords were seen flashing, a deep horrou seized the spectators.
Anxious exjiectatiou froze their utterance and suspended their
breath. Still the combatants fight on ; the blows are no longer
uncertain, there are wounds and blood. Of the three Romans two
fall dead. The Alban army utters shouts of joy, and the Romans
fix looks of despair on the last of the Horatii, whom the Curiatii
are already surrounding. But these are all three wounded,
and the Roman is unhurt. Not strong enough for his enemies
united, yet more than a match for each separately, he takes to
flight, sure that each will follow him according to the degree
of strength he has left. When he had gone some distance from
the scene of combat, he turned, and saw his adversaries following
him at unequal distances, one alone pressing rather close upon
him.

" Quickly he turns, darts on him with fury, and while the
Albans are calling on the Curiatii to help their brother, Horatius,
already victorious, hastens to his second combat. Then arose
from the midst of the Roman army a cry of unexpected joy;
the warrior gathers strength from the voice of his people, and .
without giving the last Curiatius time to apj)roacli, he puts an
end to the second. There remained only two ; but having neither

tkai)ltiu>;al histuky of the kings. 153

the same confidence noi- the same strength : the one imwoundocl,
proud of a double victory, and advancing with confidence to a
third combat ; the other exhausted by the blood he had lost
and by the distance he had run, hardly able to drag himself
along, and conquered beforehand by the death of hi.s brothers.
There was hardly a struggle. The Roman, transported with joy,
cries out : ' I have just sacrificed two to the manes- of my
l)rothers ; I sacrifice this one that Rome may have rule over
the Albans.' Curiatius could scarcely support his arms ; Horatius
[ilunged his sword into his throat, threw him to the ground,
and despoiled him of his arms. The Romans surround the victor
and cover him with praises, all the more delighted because they had
at first trembled. Each of the two peoples then turned to bury-
ing its dead, but with very different feelings. The one had
won empire, the other had passed imder foreign rule. The tombs
of these warriors^ are still seen at the spot where they each
fell ; the two Romans together and nearer Alba ; the three
Albans on the side next Rome, at some distance from one
another, according as they had fought.

" Then by the terms of the treaty, Mettius asked Tullus what is
his will. ' That thou hold the Alban youth under arms," answered
the King. ' and I will employ them against the Veientines if I
make war on them.' The two armies returned home, and Horatius,
loaded with his triple trophy, marched at the head of the legions,
when near the Porta Capena he met his sister, who was betrothed
to one of the Curiatii. She recognized on her brother's shoulders
her lover's tunic, which she herself had woven, and her sobs burst
forth ; she asks for her husband, she utters his name in a voice
choked with tears. Angry at seemg a sister's tears insult his
triumph and the joy of Rome, Horatius draws his sword and stabs
the girl, overwhelming her with imprecations. 'Go Avith thy mad
love,' says he, • go and rejoin thy betrothed, thou who forgottest
thy dead brothers, and him who remains, and thy countr3^ So
perish every Roman woman who shall dare to weep the death of
an enemy.' This murder caused a profound sensation in the Senate

' If this combat evtr did take plaoe. the Horatii must have fallen at that spot ; and the
tumuli seen there, which recall the sepulchral buildings of Etruria, perhaps covered their
hones. The Romans at least thought so.

154 ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

and among the people, though the brilliant exploit of the murderer
took from the horror of his crime. He is led before the King,
that justice may be done. TuUus, fearing to become responsible
for a sentence, the severity of which would raise in revolt the
multitude, calls the people together and says : ' I name duumvirs,^
according to the law, to judge the crime of Horatius.' The
law was fearfully severe. ' Let the duumvirs (it ran) judge the
crime ; if the judgment is appealed from, let the appeal be pro-
nounced upon ; if the sentence is confii'med, let the head of the
condemned be covered, let him be hanged on the fatal tree and
beaten with rods within or without the circuit of the walls.' The
duumvirs immediately take their seats ; ' P. Horatius,' says one
of them, ' I declare that thou hast merited death. Go, lictor,
bind liis hands ! ' The lictor approaches ; already he was passing
the cord round him, when by the advice of Tullus, a merciful
interpreter of the law, Horatius cries, ' I appeal ! ' and the case
was referred to the people. Then the elder Horatius was heard
crying that the death of his daughter was just ; otherwise he liim-
self, in Aai'tue of his paternal authority, would have been the first
to punish his son ; and he besought the Romans, who on the
j^receding day had seen him father of so fine a family, not to
deprive him of all his children. Then, embracing his son, and
showing the people the spoils of Curiatii, hung up in the
place called to this day the Pillar of Horatius : ' Romans,' said
he, ' the man Avhom you saw with admiration so lately marching
in the midst of you, triumphant, and bearing illustrious spoils,
Avill you see him tied to the degrading post, beaten with rods, and
put to death ? The Albans thepaselves could not endure such a
spectacle. Go, lictor, bind those hands which have just given us
empii-e ! Go, cover with a veil the head of the liberator of Rome ;
hang him on the fatal tree ; strike him within the town, if thou
wilt, but in presence of these trophies and spoils ; without the town,
but in the midst of the tombs of the Curiatii. Into what place
can you lead him where the monuments of his glory do not pro-
test against the horror of his punishment ? ' The citizens, conquered
by the tears of the father and the intrepidity of the son, pro-
nounced the absolution of the guilty ; and this grace was accorded

1 Duumviri penluellionis (Livy, i. 26 ; cf. Lange, Roinische AllerthUiner, i. 328, seq.').

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 155

liim ratlior for their admiration of his courage tlian for tlie good-
ness of his cause. In order, however, that so glaring a crime
should not remain without expiation, they obliged the father to
redeem his son by paying a fine. After some expiatory sacrifices,
whereof the family of the Horatii since preserved the tradition,
the old man placed a post across the middle of the street, a kind
of yoke, under which he made his son pass with veiled head. This
post, preserved and kept in perpetuity by the care of the Republic,
exists to this day. It is called the Sister's Post. " ^

Did this combat, twice consecrated, once by the great historian
of Rome, again by the masculine genius of Corneille, ever take
place ? We may doubt it ; but at Rome every one believed it, and
for centuries there existed proofs of it which appeared irrefutable :
the Sister's Post, the Cluilian ditch,^ the tomlis of the Horatii, the
expiatory sacrifices renewed every year by their House to appease
the manes of a beloved victim. All this compels us to admit that
there is at lea.st hidden under the ornament of epic narration, em-
bellished by popular poetry and by the pride of the gens Horatia,
some actual fact. Legend is often wrong as regards the exploits
whicli it relates : it is nearly always right about the manners
and institutions whicli it reveals ; and it is in order to show this
portion of truth that we have given this long narration.

Alba had submitted ; but in a battle against the Fidenates,
whom the Veientines aided, the dictator of the Albans, Mettius
Fuffetius, stood aloof with his troops, awaiting the issue of the
combat. Tullus invoked Pallor and Terror, promising them a
temple if they spread fear among the enemy's ranks ; then, jjeing
victorious, he said to the traitor : " Thy heart is divided between
me and my enemies : so shall it be with thy body ; " and they
bound him to two chariots, which were driven in opposite directions.
Then Alba was destroyed, its population transferred to Rome on
Mount Caelius, its patricians admitted to the Senate, and its rich
men among the knights.^ Rome inherited the ancient legends of

1 Livy, i. 24-26.

- The foitsia Ctuilia was supposed to be the trench of the camp in which Chiilius, kin;;
of Alba, had entrenched himself in the war against TuUus. He must have died there, and
have been replaced by the dictator, Mettius Fuffetius.

^ Livy, i. 30. Eqidtum decern tunnas ex Albanis legit. Each turma consisted of thirty
men. Cf. Fest. s. v.

156 • EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

Alba, tlie family of Julii, whence Caesar sprang, 'and its rights as
metropolis of several Latin towns. Six centuries later, the Hostilii,

who claimed descent from the thii'd
King of Rome, had represented on their
coins the two dread divinities, whom
their ancestor, said they, had invoked.
Tidlus again fought successfully
against the babmes and the Veien-
tines, whose town he besieged. But he neglected the service of
the gods, and their anger brought on Rome a contagious disease
which attacked tlie King himself. Like Romulus, he came to a
mysterious and tragic end. He thought he had found in Numa's
books a means of expiation, and the secret of forcing revelations
from Jupiter Elicius.^ A mistake made in these dread adjurations
drew down lightning upon him, and the flame devoured his body
and his palace (640 B. c.).^ " He," says Livy, " who had hitherto
considered it unworthy of a king to occupy himself with sacred
things, became the prey of every superstition, and filled the city
with religious practices." An old story, ever new ! A more prosaic
account says he was slain by Ancus.*

IV. Ancus Maecius (640-616).

The reign of Ancus, who was said to be the grandson of
Numa, has not the poetic brilliancy of that of Tullus. After the
example of his ancestor, he encouraged agriculture, re-established
neglected religion, caused the laws regulating ceremonial to be
inscribed on tables ® and exposed in the Forum ; but he could not,
like Numa, keep the temple of Janus shut, and he was obliged
to lay aside the service of the gods in order to talve up arms.
The Latins had just broken the alliance concluded with Tullus.
Four of their towns were taken ; their inhabitants settled upon

* Silver coin of L. llostilitis Saserna.

- The priests of Jupiter Elicius claimed the power of making the thunder faU ; and
they were thought to be able to do so. (Pliny, Nnl. Hist. ii. 4, and xxvii. 4.) They kept
this secret so well, that the world had to wait for Franklin to discover it again.

8 Livy, i. 31.

^ Dionys. iii. 35.

6 Livy, 1. 32; Dionys. iii. 3G.

TRADITIONAL HISTOEY OF THE KINGS.

157

the Aventine,^ and the territory of Rome extended as far as the
sea. Ancus foiind brme-pits, which are still there, and forests,
which are gone ; he appropriated the revenue of them for the
royal treasury.^ At the mouth of the Tiber
there was a favorable site for a port ; he
there founded Ostia (the mouths), which is
now a league from the sea. He built the
first bridge over the Tiber {pons Sublicius),^
making it of wood, that it might be easily
broken down if the enemy wished to make
use of it ; and he defended the approach
by a fortress over the Janiculum. To pro-
tect the dwellings of the new colonists on
the left bank of the river, he traced the ditch
of the Qui rites ; and in order to deter from

crimes, which had become numerous with the increase of popula-
tion, he dug in the tufo of the Capitoline the famous Mamertine
prison, which may still be seen, and which was led up to by
the steps of the Gemoniae, or " Stair of Sighs." His reign of
twenty-four years, according to Livy, of twenty-three by Cicero's
account, finished tranquilly, like that of Numa ; and the Romans
always honored the memory of the prince, wise and just in peace,
brave and victorious in war.*

TKADITIONAL PORTRAIT OP
ANCUS MARCH'S.

V. Tarquin the Elder (616-578).

In the reign of Ancus, a stranger had come to settle at Rome.^
He was said to be the son of the Corinthian Demaratus, a
rich merchant of the family of the Bacchiads, who, fleeing from
the tyranny of Cypselus, had retreated to Tarquinii. In Etruria,
all hope of power was forbidden to the stranger. But Tanaquil®

' Cicero, de Hep. ii. 18; Livy, i. 33.

' Aurel. Vict, de Vir. ill. .'j.

^ From suhlica, a pile. Festus. s. v. Siilih'cliim.

* He is said to have carried on seven wars, against the Latins, Fidenates, Sabines,
Veientines, and Volscians.

^ Schweglcr (^Riim. Gesck. i. G77) makes the Tarqiiins an ancient IJoman ijcnx.

^ Others say liis wife was Gaia Caecilia. the good spinner and beneficent enchantress,
to whom the young brides paid honor. (PUny, Hist. Nat. viii. 7-1.)

158 . HOME UNDER THE KINGS.

had read in the future the fortunes of her husband. He came to
Rome with hi.s wealth and numerous attendants. On the road the
forecasts of his future gi-eatness were renewed. The Romans were
not joarticular in tlie matter of omens ; they admitted all that were
told to them, and Livy gravely repeats the nursery tales which
tradition transmitted to him. We must repeat them after him,
because they show us the mental condition of the nation, which
had no imagination except for this kind of things, and because they
teach us how the aruspices analyzed a sign. "As Tarquin
appi'oaches the Janiculum, an eagle slowly descends from the
high heavens and carries oE his cap ; then hovers al^out the
car with loud screeching, swoops down afresh, and replaces it on
the traveller's head. At this sight Tanaquil. versed in the art
of augury, embraces her husband with delight. She tells him to
consider well the kind of bird, the part of heaven whence it
came, and the god who sends it. Another manifest sign was that
the prodigy was accomplished on the highest part of the liody ;
the ornament which covered his head was only raised an instant,
to be replaced on it immediately. The gods, then, promise him
the highest fortune." Tarquin accepted the omen; but at the
same time helped himself. At Rome he gained by his wisdom the
confidence of Ancus, who left to him the guardianship of his sons ;
and Ijy his worth and his kindness towards them he won the affec-
tion of the people, who proclaimed him king, to the exclusion of
the sons of the old prince.

The new King embellished Rome, enlarged its territory, and
undertook the encircling of the town with a wall, which was finished
by Servius. The Forum, drained and surrounded by porticos, was
used for the gatherings and pleasures of the 2:ieople. The Capitol
was begun, and the Circus levelled, for the shows and Great
Games brought from Etruria. But the most consideraljle of these
works were the subterranean sewers, which to the present day sup-
port a great part of Rome, notAvithstanding earthquakes, and in
spite of the weight of edifices a hundred times rebuilt over their
vaulting.^ For such works, which have not the majestic uselessness

^ In consefjuenee of the raising of tlio bed of the Tiber, perhaps also of tlie height of waters at
the time when tlie drawing was taken, only the top of the sewer is seen in our engraving on page
160. This construction astonished the contemporaries of Augustus by its size and the amount

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 159

of the Egyptian constructions, it must have been necessary to subject
the people to wearisome drudgery, and the treasury to hea-vy ex-
pense. For the latter, however, Tarquin was able to provide, with
the spoils taken from the Latins and Sabines in his successful wars
which made him master of the lands lying between the Tiber, the
Anio, and the Sabine mountains, known as the territory of Collatia.
Livy, in relating the story of this conquest, has preserved to us the
formula employed by the Romans in all capitulations of cities :
'■ Tarquin, addressing the deputies, asked them : ' Are you the
deputies sent l^y the CoUatian people to put yourselves and the
people of Collatia in my power ? ' ' We are.' — ' Are the people of
Collatia free to dispose of themselves ? ' ' They are.' — ' Do you
surrender, to me and to the Roman people, yourselves, the people of
Collatia, the city and the fields, the waters, the boundaries, the
temples, the movable property, and all things divine and human
therein contained ? ' ' We do.' — ' I accept them, m my own name
and in that of the Roman people.' "

Livy makes no mention of wars carried on by Tarquin against
the Etruscans ; but his contemporary, Dionysius of Halicamassus,
has much to say upon that sul^ject. This rhetorician, who en-
deavored to be a historian, lends a ready ear, in his Roman Archce-
ologij, to all the fables tradition offers him ; and tradition was eager
to make out that this Etruscan king, to justify his Roman royalty,
had carried on victorious wars agamst his former countrymen.
According to Dionysius, the conquered Etruscans sent Tarquin, in
token of their submission, the twelve fasces, the crown, the sceptre
surmounted by the royal eagle, the curule chair, and the purple robe.
This victory is more than doubtful ; and the gift, if it was ever
made, does not at all indicate the submission of those offering it.
Rome, in later days, gave things like these to the kings entering
into alliance with her, — compensating them thus at small expense
for their aid in war, or for their splendid presents made to her.

Tarquin was the first to celebrate the Roman triumph, display-
ing a pomp till then imknown ; his robe being embroidered with

tliat it bad cost. " Three things," said Dionysius of Hah<-arnassus, " reveal the magnificence
of Rome, — '■ the aqueducts, tlie roads, and tlie sewers." Nearly over the mouth of the Cloaca
stands the little rotunda known as the temple of the Sun, disfigured by an abominable roof,
with which it has been covered for the purpose of protecting its nineteen fluted Corinthian col-
umns of Carrara marble, — a construction probably belonging to the period of the Antonines.

160 ROME UKDEE THE lOINGS.

golden flowers, and his chariot drawn by four white horses. Prom
his reign dates the introduction into Rome of Etruscan costumes,
the royal robe, the war-mantle, the toga praetexta, and the tunica
palmata, worn by tlie victorious general at his triumpli ; and to his
time belong the twelve lictors and the curule chair, — an ivory seat
whose material the Etruscans obtained from Asia or Africa. Tar-
quin made an attempt to change the constitution ; but, notwith-
standing liis popularity, he did not succeed
in re-arranging the tribes. The patricians
who ojipost'd liim made religion speak by
the mouth of tlie augur, Attus Navius.
if j / I I Tliis personage maintained his opposition
to the King by aid of a miracle. " Augur,"
said Tarquin, hoping to bring him to con-
-*■ fusion, "can the thing be done which I

iiow have in mind?" The augur con-
MiRACLE OF NAvius.> ^^^^^^^ ^j^^ hcaveus, aud declared that it

could. Tarquin presented him with a razor and a whetstone, say-
ing : " Cut this stone, then, with this knife." Attus cut the stone
through with the knife ; and to keep the event fresh in the minds
of the people, the razor and the stone were preserved under an
altar, and a statue of Navius erected beside it, — - a figure with veiled
head in the attitude assumed l)y the augurs when awaiting the
revelation of the divine will. The popular faith had no difficulty
in accepting a legend which grew up about the cut stone, and the
college of aiigurs, naturally considering it historic truth, erected
the statue to consecrate it.

Tarquin had reigned for thirty or forty years with great renown
in peace and war, when one day two shepherds, suborned by the
sons of Ancus, presented themselves before the King, praying him
to settle a dispute which had arisen between them. The King
listened to them ; and while one was engrossing his attention, the
other suddenly struck liim a mortal blow on the head with an
axe. Upon this, Tanaquil at once closed the palace doors, and gave
out word to the people that the King was not dead, but merely
wounded, and that meantime he had deputed his son-in-law Servius

^ The aiicriir Navius, on his knees, cutting a stone ; Tarquin standing before biiu ; beliind
the King another stone. Bronze of Antoninus.

i^. L:i:.-i'.t!r,r

lll'I'M lilH||lllNllilimilll

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

161

to reign in his stead. For several days she concealed his death,

and when it was known, Servius became king without being

accepted by the assembly of the Curiae, but with the consent of
the Senate (578 b. c).

VI. — Servius Tullius (578-534).

His origin was surrounded with mystery. Some said he was
the son of a female slave ^ or of the prince of Corniculum, who
was killed in a war against the Romans ; others related how a

0T( *'^>fej^_-^^fei^

AGGER OR RA5IPART OF SEHVIUS

-^i^^J^^i^

genius had appeared in the flame of the hearth to Ocrisia, a
servant of Queen Tanaquil, and that at the same instant she had
conceived. After his birth the gods continued their favors to

' Independentlv of the Saturnalia, slaves were granted a day of liberty on the Ides of the
month of August, in memory of the servile birth of Servius Tullius (Pint., Quaest. Rom. 100;
Festus, s. V. Sen'oriim). This festival proves that we ought carefully to examine the customs
which, though themselves often sprung from a legend, would ap]iear to give to the latter the
character of a historic fact. This observation apjilics to many Koniaii usages.

VOL. I. 11

162.

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

him, and he grew up in the King's palace in the midst of -pro-
digies and manifest signs of liis future greatness. We shall see
later on what history and archaeology make of these traditions,
which concealed a totally different fate.

Having become king, Servius made great changes in the
city and m its laws. He gave Rome the dimensions which it

FRAGMKNT OF THE WALL OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.

had imder the Republic, by uniting the Viminal, the Esquiline,
and the Quirinal to the city, 1w a wall and a mighty hank of
earth {agger), with a ditch in front, lUU Roman feet wide, and
30 deep.i

^ This is .a little loss tliaii 100 foet one way, and 30 the otliei-. The Roman foot is equiva-
lent to ll.G inches. This wall was not continuous. It did not exist by the side of the Tiber,
which ap]ieared a suflicient defence in itself, since the fortress of the Janicnlum defended its
approaches, and certain sides of the Capitol were steep enough to apjiear inaccessible. " There
exist between the Esipiiline and C'oUine gates considerable remains of the great agyer of
Servius, wliich Tarquin the Proud enlarged. In the section reitresented in the engraving there
is shown a wall, now visible, of a height of 2G feet. Built in regular courses, this wall has a
foundation of blocks averaging 1 feet in length. In order the better to resist the pressure of

TKADITIONAL HISTOEY OF THE KINGS. 163

Rome was then the size of Athens, two leagues and a half in
circumference. He divided it into four quarters or city tribes,

SECTION OF THE AGGER OU UAMPAUT OF SEUVIUS TITLLIUS.

the Palatine, the Suhuran, the Colline, and the Esquiline, each
quarter having its tribune, who drew up the lists for conscriptions
and military service. At the Ijirtli of each boy a piece of silver
had to be deposited in the treasury of Juno
Lucina, the protectress of women in travail.
The territory was divided into twenty-six can-
tons, also called tribes, and all the people, patri-
cians and plebeians, according to the census —
that is to say, according to their fortune — into
five classes and a hundred and eighty-three

JUNO LUCINA.l

centuries, the last of which was formed by the
Proletariate. The last named were excluded from military service ;
Servius was unwilling to intrust arms to citizens who, possessing
nothing, could not take an interest m public ali'airs, nor give the
state a guarantee of their fidelity.^

Moreover, Servius concluded with the thirty Latin towns a
treaty, the text of wliieh Dionysius claims to have seen pre-
served in the temple of Diana on the Aventine.^ In order to
draw closer the bonds of this alliance, a temple, in which was seen
the first statue erected at Rome, had been built at the common
expense.

Some Sabine tribes also came to sacrifice. These leagues, which

the earth whirh forms the rauqiart. tlie wall is Hanked at intervals of 1 7 feet by buttresses 7
feet stiuare. The ditch runs along this wall. ... In the time of Augustus the a<J!/<:>' was
converted by Maecenas into a walk." Diet, des Ant. p. 140, seq.

1 IVNONI LVCINAE s. c. Juno seated, holds in one hand the flower which precedes
the fruit, and with the other a child in swaddling-clothes. The reverse of a large bronze of
Lucilla, wife of the Emperor Lucius Verus.

■^ See below. Chap. vi.

' iv. 26. But if Dionysius saw this treaty, he could not understand it ; for Polybius
found it very dilhcult to read a document which was not so old by two centuries.

164 ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

had their centre in the sanctuary of a divinity, were common
among the Italiote nations, and recall the Amphictyonies of
Greece.

We must keep them in mind, fur we shall find these religious
confederations under the Empire ; and we shall have to reproach
the Emperors with not liaA'ing known how to utilize, in the
interest of provincial liberties, an mstitution which might have
saved the provinces and themselves.

But let us return to the legend. Livy relates how the ruse
of one of the Roman priests, attached to the temple of Diana,
gave Rome its hegemony over Latium. " A heifer of extraordi-
nary beauty was laorn at the house of a Saljine mountaineer. The
divines announced that he who should sacrifice it to the Diana
of the Aventine would secure the empire to his country. The
Sabine led his heifer to the temple, and was going to perform the
sacrifice, when the priest, versed in prophecy, stopped him : ' What
art thou aljout to do ? Offer a sacrifice to Diana without having
purified thyself ? It is sacrilege ! The Tiber flows at the foot of
this hill ; run and make ceremonial ablutions there.' The peasant
went down to the river. When he returned, the priest had sacri-
ficed the victim." And Livy adds : '' This pious knavery was very
agreeable to the Kmg and to the people." Moreover, the immense
horns of the ^predestined heifer were preserved for ages in the
vestibule of the temple. Popular imagination loves to make the
greatest results proceed from the smallest trifles, and' some histori-
ans do likewise. If the Latins had already accepted the supremacy
of Rome, it was because her arms had established it.

Tradition also spoke of a war of Servius against Veil, Tarquinii,
and the inhabitants of Caere. The latter had united their arms
with those of the Etruscans, notwithstanding their Pelasgian origin,
which connected them with Rome (whose allies they became later
on) and with Greece, which gave them so many of the vases now
found in their tombs.^ This war must have resulted for the
Romans in an increase of territory ; but the distribution of these
lands which Servius made to the poor augmented still more the

^ Two small black vases, found in these tombs, and very iusiguificant in form, have
acquired a great importance, because it is believed that the inscriptions on them were
Pelasgian.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

165

hatred of the patricians, whose power he had, by his laws, con-
siderably limited. Thus they favored the conspiracy which was
formed against the popular King.

The two daughters of Servius liad niai'ried the two sons of
Tarquin the Elder, Lucius and Ai'uns. But the ambitious Tullia

VASE OF CAERE. 1

had been united to Aruns, the more gentle of the two brothers,
and her sister to Lucius, who merited, by his pride and cruelty,
the surname of Superbus. Tullia and Lucius were not slow in

^ Corinthian vase found at Caere in 1856. It represents : on the lower band horsemen
j;aIlo|)ing, and on the npper band " Hercules (HEPAKAE2) takinff part in the banquet which
the King of Oeehalia offers him. The young lule (EIOAA) is standing between the table of the
god and that of her brother Iphitus (EI*IT02). The two other couches bear Eurytius
(EYPYTIOS) and his three sons, Didaeon (AIAAIEON), Clytius (KA/TIOS), and Toxus
(T0305). All these names are in ancient Corinthian characters, and traced alternately from
right to left and from left to right, so as to foi-m, if they were arranged in a column, a boustro-
phedon text (like the turn of an ox ploughing)." (De Longperier, Mu.':ee Nap. iii. jil. Ixxi.)
[For the benefit of readers not versed in palaeography, it should be noted that the old Corin-
thian E and H were written like the B of other inscriptions ; the I has a zigzag form ; the S
is turned over, as in almost all older Greek writing. — Ed.']

166 • EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

nnderstanding each other and in conferring about their criminal
hopes. Tullia got rid of lier husband and of her sister by poison, in
order to marry Lucius. Overwliehned witli grief, Servius wished
to abdicate, and estabhsli consular government. Tliis was the pre-
text wliicli Lucius made to the patricians for overtlirowing the
King. One day, when the people were in the fields for harvest,
he ajjpeared in the Senate clothed with the insignia of royalty, threw
the old prince headlong from the top of the stone steps which led
to the* Senate House, and caused him to be put to death by his
confederates ; Tullia, hastening to hail her luisband as king, drove
her chariot over the bleeding body of her father. The street
retained the na-me of Via Scelerata;^ but the people did not forget
the man who had intended to establish plebeian liberties, and on the
nones they celebrated the birth of the good King Servius (534).

Vll. TAEQumius SuPERBUs (534-510).

The king was succeeded Ijy the tyrant. Surrounded by a guard
of mercenaries and seconded by a party of the senators whom he
had gained over, Tarquin governed without the aid of laws, depriving
some of their goods, banishing others, and punishing with death
all those of whom he was afraid. In order to strengthen his power,
he allied himself Avith strangers and gave his daughter to Octavius
Mamilius, dictator of Tusculum. Rome had its voice in the
Latin feriae, in which the heads of forty-seven towns, assembled
in the temple of Jupiter Latiaris,^ on the summit of the Alban
mount, which so majestically commands all Latium, offered a
common sacrifice and celebrated their alliance by festivals. Tarquin
changed this relationship of equality into an actual dominion, by
what means we do not know, but certainly by now-forgotten
struggles. Legend substituted the tragic adventure of Herdonius
of Aricia for these tales of Ixittle. " Tarquin," says Livy, " pro-
posed one day to the chiefs of Latium to assemble at the wood of
the goddess Ferentina, in order to deliberate on theh common

^ Livy, i. 41-48; Dionys. iv. 33-40, and Ovid (Faaf. vi. SOS) speak of a combat between
tlie two parties, — Hinc cruor, Jiinc caedes, etc.

^ The ruins of the temple, which still existed in the eighteenth century, were destroyed
by the last of the Stuarts [the Duke of Albany].

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 167

interests. They arrived at sunrise, but Tarqnin kept them waiting.
• What insolence ! ' cn'ied Herdunius of Aricia at last. ' Is all the
Latin nation to be thus mocked ? ' And he was persuading each
of them to return to his home. At this moment the King appeared.
He had been chosen, said he, as mediator between a father and sun ;
tins was tlie cause of the delay, for which he apologized, and pro-
posed to postpone tlie deliberation to the morrow. ' It was very
easy,' replied Herdonius, ' to put an end to this difference. Two
words were sufficient : that the son should obey or be punished.*
Tarquin, hurt by these outspoken words, caused arms to be concealed
during the night in the house of Herdonius, and on the morrow
accused him of wishing to usurp the empire over all Latium l)y the
massacre of the chiefs. The Asseml)ly condemned the alleged traitor
to be drowned in the water of Ferentina, under a hurdle loaded
with stones ; and Tarciuin, being rid of this citizen who had so
little respect for kings, had the treaty renewed, but introduced into
it a clause that the Latins, instead of hghting under their national
chiefs, should be, in all expeditions, united with the legions and
officered by Roman centurions." ^ This narrative is only the feel^le
echo of a violent rivalry between Rome and the town of which
Herdonius was chief, Aricia, a powerful city, against which the
empire of Porsenna was presently shattered.

Having become the actual leader of the Latin confederation, to
which there also lielonged the Hernici and the Volscian towns of
Ecetra and Antium, Tarquin laid siege to and took the rich city
of Suessa Pometia, which, doubtless, refused to enter into the
league. He was at first less fortunate against Gabii. A check
which he endured in an assault compelled him even to give
up a regular siege. But his son Sextus presented himself to the
Gabians. "Tarquin," said he, "is as cruel to his family as to his
people ; he wishes to depopulate his house as he has done the
Senate. I, Sextus, have only escaped by flight from my father's
sword." He was received, his counsels were followed, and successful
mroads into the nger liOnianus increased the confidence which was

* Livy. i, .50-52. The spring called aqua Fereiiimn, which was, perhaps, a natural
outlet of the All)an Lake, burst forth in a sacred wood, in which, until the year 340 b. c,
the Latins held their assemblies. Festus, s. v. Praetor. It is now the Marrana del Pantano,
which flows in a deep valley near Marino.

168 • EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

placed in him. Soon no one had more credit in the city. Then he
despatched to Rome a secret emissary, commissioned to aslc the old
King what Sextus ought to do in order to give the city into his
hands. Tarquin, without speaking a word, passed into his garden,
and, walking up and down, cut down with a stick the poppies
which were highest; then he sent l)aclc the messenger, quite sur-
prised at such a strange answer.

The Roman logographers took this story from Herodotus [who
tells it about Periander, tyrant of Corinth] ; but tlie submission of
Gabii to Tarquin is none the less certain. Dionysius
of Halicarnassus saw the treaty concluded between
the King and this city : it was preserved on a
wooden shield in the temple of Jupiter Fidius, — a
COIN OF THE place singularly chosen for a monument of treason, if
GENS ANTisTiA. |j^g narrative of Livy was as true as it is celebrated.^
On the lands taken from the Volscians Tarquin founded two
colonies : the one enclosed behind the walls of the Pelasgian
Signia. the other on the promontory of Circe. They were com-
posed of Roman and Latin citizens, wlio had to furnish their
contingent to the army of the league. This was the first example
of those military colonies, whicli, nmltiplied by the Senate at all
points of Ital}-, extended there the laws and language of Latium.
At the same time they were permanent garrisons, advanced out-
posts, which would stop an enemy far from the capital, and
whence valiant soldiers could be drawn at need.

Like his father, Tarquin loved pomp and magnificence. He
hired skilful Etruscan workmen, and with the spoil ol^tained from
the Volscians he finished the sewers and the Capitol, — that favorite
residence of the god who holds the thunder, and whence " he so
often shook his Ijlack shield and summoned the storm-clouds to
him."^ Li digging up the soil for laying the foundations of this
new sanctuary of Rome, they had found a human head which seemed
freshly cut off. '• It is a sign," said the augurs, " that this temple

' It bears the words FOEDVS CVM GABIXTS. or treaty with the Gabians, and
re])resents two persons offering a pig in sacrifice, in order to consecrate the convention.

'^ Hor., Ep. II. i. 25, and Fest. s. v. Clypcus. Gabii had obtained the isojiohty with
Rome. . . . (Tvv TovTots Trjv 'Pw/iaiuf IcroTToKirelav airaai \apl(ea-d(U. (Dioliys. of Hal., Ant,
Rotn. iv. 58.)

3 Vergil., Aan. viii. 353.

TEADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

169

will be the head of the world." The Sibylline books were shut up
in a stone cotter under the Capitol. A prophetess, the Sibyl of
Cumae, had come, disguised as an old woman, to otter to sell
the King nine books. On his refusal she burned three of them,
and returned to ask the same sum for the six others. A second
refusal made her burn tliree more. Tai(iuin, astonished, bought

H.(AT£H.^(Xl ""^^S^r:

GATE OF SIGNI.\.l

those which remained, and intrusted them to the keeping of two
patricians. In times of great danger these books were opened at
random, as it seems, and the first passage which was presented
to the eyes served as an answer." In the Middle Ages, too, they
cast lots on the Gospels.

1 We give a variety of these views, for the reasons given above.

2 Dionys., iv. 62; Cic., Dirin. ii. .54; Tac, Ann. vi. 12. Justin (i. 6) attributes this
story to Tarquin the Elder. Athens appears to have -had similar books. Cf. the discourse
of Deinarclius against Demosthi'nes : €v ah ra r^s noXeas crarr^pia Kurm. jSlany otiier towns
had some : ;(pr;(r/xoi a-i^vXkiaKoi. The Dorians said a-ws for 6e6i and /3oXXd for fiovXJ].
2io3uXi5, whence Sibyl, signifies, then, the counsel of God. The most ancient that we now
liavo were drawn up about the middle of the second century before our era, by Jews from
^?.^P*- [The habit of opening the Bible at random for advice in difficult circumstances is

170

RO]\IE UNDER THE KINGS.

These menacing signs, however, frightened the royal family.
In order to know the means of appeasing the gods, Tarquiu
sent his two sons to consult the oracle of Delphi, the reputation
of which had penetrated as far as Italy. Brutus, a nephew of
the King, who feigned madness ^ in oi'der to escape his suspicious
fears, accompanied them. When the God had replied, the young

WALL OP CIRCEI.2

men asked which of them would replace the King on the throne :
"He," said the Pythia, "who embraces his mother first." Brutus
understood the concealed meaning of the oracle : he fell down
and kissed the earth, our common m(.)ther.

not yet extinct amonsj nltra-Protestants in this kintjilom ; and there are men still living -n-ho
have "cut for premium" in Trinity College, Dublin, when two equal competitors used to
open the Bible at random, and j)riority of the second letter in the second Hue on the left-
hand page determined the victor. — JSi/.]

1 He was made, however, tribune of the Celeres, who was, next to the King, the first
magistrate of the state. His name, which in the ancient Latin signifies the grave aud strong
man (Fest. s. v. Brutiirn). but which also had the meaning of idiot, gave rise to the legend of
his madness.

^ See Dodwell, Pelasgk Remains. ]il. 104.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS.

171

The journey to Delphi was then for the Romans a very
great journey, and the King had no motive for scmling .siuli an
embassy.

But the Greeks wished that this homage should be rendered

THE CAVE OF THE SIBYL OF CUMAE.'

to their favorite oracle ; and in order to complete the picture
of the tyranny of Tarquin, they took a pleasure in showing the
nephew of the King constrained to conceal his deep mind under
the appearance of madness, as he had concealed a golden ingot
in his travelling staff, in order to offer it to the god.

In a play of Attius, represented in the time of Caesar, the
poet related that Tarquin, troubled by a dream, had called his
diviners ahout him. " I saw in a vision," said he, " in the midst
of a flock, two magnificent rams. I sacrificed one ; but the other,

^ Taken from an engra^•in^; of the Bibliothfeque Nationale. The mountain seen to the
right is the hill on whicli C'umae had been built. The summit bore its acropolis, and grottos
had been excavated in it. One of these grottos, the entrance of which is seen, is supposed
to have been the cave where the Sibyl gave her oracles. (See Vergil, Aen. vi. 41.)

172 EOME UNDEE THE KINGS.

dashing upon me, threw me to the ground, and severely wounded
me with his horns. At this moment I perceived in the heavens a
wonderful prodigy : the sun changed his course, and his flaming
orb moved towards the right." " King ! " reiDlied the augurs,
" the thoughts which occupy us in the day-time are reproduced
in our visions ; there is no need, then, to be troubled. However,
take care that he, whom thou dost not count higher than a
beast, have not in him a great soul, full of wisdom. The prodigy
which thou hast seen announces a revolution near at hand. May
it be a happy one for the people ! But the majestic star took
its course from left to right ; it is a sure omen. Rome will attain
to the pinnacle of glory." ^ Was it the Greek fiction that the
friend of Caesar's murderer took up in his Brutm? or did he recall
a ti'adition preserved in the house of the founder of the Republic ?
Around great events there always gather a cycle of stories of
adventure from whicli poetry and legendary liistory can draw.

AVhen the embassy returned from Greece, Tarquin besieged Ardea,
which was the capital of the Rutili, and had been that of Turnus,
the rival of Aeneas.^ It was a powerful city, in whicli the Etruscans
had long ruled ; Pliny there saw pictures which were thought
more ancient than Rome ; ^ and although its decay commenced as
early as the third century, some statues have been f(jund there
which, in spite of their mutilations, suggest the inspiration of Greek
art. What remains of its walls and citadel is more imposing than
any of the i-uins found in Etruria. The operations commenced
against it by Tarquin were protracted and wearisome, so that the
yoimg princes sought to drive away by feasts and games the ennui
of the siege ; when one day there arose between them that fatal
dispute concerning the merits of their wives. " Let us take horse,"
said Tarquinius CoUatinus ; " they do not expect us, and we Avill
judge them according to the occupations in which we surprise
them." At Collatia they found the King's daughters-in-law engaged
m the delights of a sumptuous feast. Lucretia, on the contrary,
in the retirement of her house, was spinning among her women

1 This passage is all ihat remains of the Bruins and even of any Roman tragedy of the
class called praetextata, or national.

^ lu the treaty concluded with Carthage, in the first year of the Republic, Ardea is called
the subject of Rome.

* Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 6.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 173

far into the night. She was proclaimed the best. But her dis-
cretion and her beauty excited criminal passion in the heart of
Sextus. Some time afterward he returned one night to Collatia,
entered the room of Lucretia, urged her to yield to his desires,
and combined threats with promises. If she resists, he will kill
her, place beside her the dead body of a murdered slave, and go
and tell Collatinus and all Rome that he has punished the cvilprits.
Lucretia is overcome by this infamous perfidy, which exposes her
to dishonor ; but no sooner was the outrage accomplished, than
she sends a swift messenger to her father and her husband to
come to her, each with a trusty friend. Brutus accompanies
Collatinus. They found her plunged in deep grief. She informs
them of the outrage, and her desire not to survive it ; but demands
of them the punishment of the criminal. In vain they try to
shake her resolution ; they urge that she is not guilty, since
her heart is innocent ; it is the intention which constitutes the
crime.^ But she says : " It is for you to decide the fate of
Sextus ; for myself, I absolve myself of the crime, but I do
not exempt myself from the penalty ; no woman, to survive
her shame, shall ever invoke the example of Lucretia." And
she stabs herself with a dagger which she had concealed under
her dress.

Brutus drew the weapon from the wound, and, holding it up,
cried : "■ Ye gods ! I call you to witness. By this blood, so pure
before the outrage of this King's son, I swear to pursue with fire
and sword, with all the means in my power, Tarquin, his infamous
family, and his cursed race. I swear no longer to suffer a King in
Rome." He hands the weapon to Collatinus, Lucretius, and
Valerius, who repeat the same oath ; and together they repair to
Rome. They show the bleeding body of the victim, and mcite
to vengeance the Senate, whom Tarquin had decimated, and the
people, whom he had oppressed with forced labor on his
buildings. A senatus-consulticm, confirmed by the Curiae, pro-
claimed the dethronement of the King, his exile, and that of all

* [The Greeks and Romans, who were familiar with these misfortunes in the case of the
noblest captives taken in war, and were accustomed to rccei\e them back into their homes,
felt the justice of this e.xcuse far more thoroughly than we should do, among whom the stain
is indelible. — Ed.]

174

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

his kin. Then Brutus hastened to the camp before Ardea,
which he moved to insurrection ; while Tarquin, having returned
to Rome in all haste, found its gates shut, and was reduced to
take refuge with his sons Titus and Aruns in the Etruscan town
of Caere. The third, Sextus, having retreated to Gabii, was
killed there by the relatives of his victims.'

This same year Athens was delivered from the tyranny of
the Pisistratidae.

As a reward for their aid, the people claimed the restoration

' BRUTUS (bust in THE CArlTOI-).

of the laws of tlie good King Servius and the establishment of
consular government ; the Senate consented to it, and the comitia
centuriata proclaimed as consuls Junius Brutus and Tarquinius

I Livy, i. 57-CO.

TEADITIONAL HISTOEY OF THE KINGS.

175

CoUatinus, and afterward Valerius, when Collatinus, having in-
curred suspicion on account of his name, was exiled to Lavinium.
Many others fared as he did ; for " the people, intoxicated with
their new libert}', exacted reprisals," says Cicero ; " and a great
number of innocent people were exiled or despoiled of their
goods." ^

Caere only offei'ed a refuge to Tarqnin. But Tarquinii and

THE GRINDER.-'

Veii sent to Rome to demand the restoration of the Kino-, or at
least the restitution of the goods of his house and of those who
had followed him.^ During the negotiations the deputies planned
a conspiracy with some }'oung patricians who preferred the
brilliant service of a prince to the reign of law, order, and
liberty ; the slave Vindicius discovered the plot ; the culprits
were seized, and amongst them the sons and some relatives of

^ De Rep. i. 40.

^ Tliis beautiful statue is supposed to represent the slave listening to the conspiracy of the
sons of Brutus, or to that of Brutus and Cassius against Caesar.
^ Dionys., v. 4-6, and Plut., Po2>l. 3.

176

KOME UNDER THE KINGS.

MaM^-

COIN OF THE GENS IIORATIA.^

Brutus, who ordered and calmly looked on at their execution.
Twenty days were granted to the refugees to return to the city.^
In order to gain the people over to the cause of the revolvition,
they were allowed the pillage of Tarquin's goods, and each ple-
beian received seven acres of the royal
lands ; the fields which extended be-
tween the city and the liver were
consecrated to Mars, and the sheaves
of wheat which they bore, seized and
thrown into the Tiber, were stopped on
the shallows which became afterward the Island of Aesculapius.^

An army of Veientines and Tarquinians. however, marched
on Rome. The legions went out to meet them ; and in a smgle

comljat Brutus and Aruns fell mortally
wounded. Night separated the combatants
without decided victor}'. But at midnight
a great voice, as it Avere, was heard pro-
ceeding from the Arsian Avood and pro-
nouncing these Avords : " Rome has lost one
Avarrior less than the Etruscan army." The
latter fled away in a panic. A'^alerius re-
entered Rome in triumph and pronounced
the funeral panegyric of Brutus ; the matrons honored by a
year's mourning the avenger of outraged modesty, and the people
placed his statue, sword in hand, on the Capitol, near those of
the kings, Avhich were still protected by a superstitious fear.

1 Dionys., v. 13.

'^ A coin bearing the name of ('ocles and struck at an uncertain date b_v some member
of the gens Horada. In front, a head of I'allas ; on the reverse, the Dioscuri.

' Dionys., ibid., and Plin., x\ iii. 4. This insula Tiberina (di San Bartolomeo) was aftei>
ward joined to the left bank uf tlie river by the pons Fabricius (Ponte Quattro Capi, on
account of the figures of Janus qimdrifons ])laced at its extremities), and to tlic right bank by
the pons Cestlus, wliicli bears tlie modern name of tlie island. In memory of a miracle, which
we shall have to relate later on, they gave to the insula Tiberina, by solid constructions, the
form of the keel of a ship floating on the water, and its extremity represented a prow, the
remains of which are still seen. To this island, very subject before these works to the inunda-
tions of the Tiber, they carried the slaves, old, sick, or infirm, and there abandoned them.
Aesculapius afterward hail his first temple there. Notwithstanding the neighborhood of the
god "healer," the desperate who wished to ([uit life, without earing about their burial, gener-
ally chose the pons Fabricius in order to pass into eternity through the Tiber. (Hor., Sal. 11.
Ui. 36.)

* Bronze medallion of .\ntonine. Codes crosses the Tiber swimming; an enemy is trying
to pierce him with his javelin, and a Roman finishes breaking down the bridge.

HORATIUS COCLES.*

v,"^ ,i''

'Jiff ^^' fj ,i;S

[lit 4' // '-i'^

^f*

•C:lf?

nt- t-;yj

i !«.,!

I
I
I

-a

TEADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 177

Devotion to public affairs, piety towards tlio gods, and lieroic
exploits distinguished this nascent libert}' : it was Valerius who,
being suspected on account of his stone house built on tlie Velian,
above the Forum, had it demolished in one night, and earned,
by his popular laws, the surname of Poplicola ; it was Horatius
to whom the death of his son was announced during the dedi-
cation of the Capitol, and who would hear nothing of this
domestic calamity because he was praying to the gods for Rome ;
and, lastly, when Tarquin armed Porsenna against his ancient
people, it was Horatius Codes who defended the j^ons Suhlicius
alone against an army ; Mucins Scaevola, who, standing before the
wondering Porsenna, put his hand into a brazier in order to punish
it for making a mistake in killing, instead of the King, one of
his officers ; it was Cloelia, who, having been given as a hostage
to the Etruscan prince, escaped from his camp and crossed the
Tiber by swimming.^ Then comes the war-song of the battle of
Lake Regillus,^ the last effort of Tarquin, who, abandoned by
Porsenna, had again stirred up Latium to revolt. All the chiefs
met there in single combat, and perished or were wounded. The
gods even, as in Homeric times, took part in this last strife.
During the action two young warriors of high stature, mounted
on white horses, fought at the head of the legions, and were the
first to cross the enemy's entrenchments ; when the dictator, Aulus
Postumius, wished to give them the siege crown, the collars of
gold and rich presents promised to those who should first have
entered the enemies' camp, they had disappeared ; but on the same
evening two heroes were seen at Rome, covered with blood and
dust, who washed their arms at the fountain of Juturna.'^ and
announced the victory to the people ; they were the Dioscuri,
Castor and Pollux. In order that their presence in the midst of
the Roman army might not be doubted, for centuries the gigantic

1 Between tlie Etruscan and Latin wars tradition places a war against tlie Sabincs, which
must have lasted four years, from 505 to 501, and during whicli tlie Sabine Attus Clausus
(Appius Claudius), a rich citizen of Regillus. who had been ailverse to the hostilities, had
emigrated to liouie, where he was received into tlie Senate, and his family took a place
amongst the new patrician f/entes.

'^ M. Pietro thinks he has found Lake Regillus in a dried-up marsh, !l Pnntatio, 15 or 16
miles on the way to Talestrina, south of the hill occupied by the village In Cnlonna.

' This fountain never dries, but at jiresent it flows underground. It was this which fed
what was called Lake Curtius. The temple of Castor was close by.

VOL. I. 12

178

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

impression of the foot of a horse was shown in the rock on the
field of battle, and Rome, which took j^ride in representing itself
as the object of the constant solicitude of the gods, consecrated

THE THREE COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OK CASTOR.^

this legend by raising a temple to the divine sons of Zeus and
Leda, which became one of the most celebrated in the city.

The victory was a bloody one. On the side of the Romans,
three Valerii, Herminius, the companion of Codes, Aebutius, the
master of the horse, were left on the field of battle or quitted it
wounded. On the side of the Latins, Oct. Mamilius, the dictator

^ The t«3m])le of Castor anil Pollux, in wliich the Senate often assembled, In aerie Cnstoj'ifi,
cdcberrimo clarissimoqne monumento (Cie., in Verr. II. i. 49) begun by Postumius and finished
by his son, was rebuilt on the same spot under Augustus and Tiberius. The three magnificent
columns which remain of it date from this latter epoch.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE KINGS. 179

of Alba, and Titus, the last son of Tarquin, fell. The old King

THE niOScrRI WATEE- AULCS POSTUMIUS,

ISG THEIR HORSES AT XHE CONQUEBOE OF
THE FOUNTAIN OF JU- THE LATINS. ^

TURNA.^

COIN COMMEMORATIVE OF THE BATTLE
OF LAKE REGILHJS.3

COIN OF TOE
GENS MAMILIA.*

himself, struck with a blow of a lance, only survived all his

SUPPOSED TOMB OF THE TARQUINS."

race and his hopes, to finish his miserable old age at the court of
the tyrant of Cumae, Aristodemus (496 b. c).

* Silver coin of the Albini, descendants of Postumius.

^ It was a descendant of A. Postumius who had this silver medal struck. The portrait
is certainly no true likeness ; but all the jiatrieians ke])t the images of their ancestors in the
atrium of their house, and the coin may have been fairly accurate. Besides, we ought to
do for figured Roman antiquity what we have done for its history ; I mean that we cannot
ignore the way in which the Romans represented their ancestors, any more than omit the
legends which were all, great and small, considered as historic truth.

* The descendants of the Dictator caused a coin to be struck in remembrance of his vic-
tory, representing the head of Diana on the obverse ; on the reverse three knights trampling a
hostile soldier under the feet of their horses.

* This gens claimed to be descended from Ulysses, and put the likeness of this prince on
their coins.

^ The sepulchral cave of the Tarquins has jjcrhaps been found in our days at Caere.
Their Etruscan name, Tarchnas, is inscribed thirty-five times on the walls of this tomb, — a fact

180

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

The Tarquins are dead ; the founders of the Republic have one
after the other disappeared ; the time of heroes and legends is
past : that of the people and of history begins.

which, however, is not sufficient for us to be able to affirm that this sepulchral chamber is that
of the Tarquins of Rome.

' Large bronze of Aatonine ; the wolf on the left, the Tiber on the right.

ROME SEATED UPON TIIE SEVEN HILLS.^

CHAPTER II.

CONSTITUTION OF ROME DTJEING THE EEGAL PERIOD-
PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION.

I. — Sources of Roman History.

COIN COMMEMORATIVE OF THE
TREATY WITH THE GABII.^

THE influence which Greek exercised over Latin literature
extended to the history of Rome : we have ah'eady seen
some proofs of it, and we shall see many more. The use of
writing, however, was not so rare in ancient Italy as has been
asserted. If we reject, as we are bound,
the discovery of the books of Numa, it
is nevertheless true that the treaty with
Carthage in 509, b. c, the original of
which Polybius read, the treaty with
Gabii,^ that of Spurius Cassius with the
Latins, which Cicero^ saw, the royal
laws collected after the departure of the Gauls,* show that writing
was employed, during the regal period, at least for public acts and
to preserve the memory of important events.

All around Rome, the nations had also monuments of their
national life. At the time of Varro there still existed Etruscan
histories written about the middle of the fourth century before
our era. Cumae had its historians,^ and each city its annals
engraved on sheets of lead, tables of brass, planks of oak, (ir
written on linen, as at Anagnia and Praeneste. There is no
doubt that the nation of the Volscians, so long powerful.

* Coin of Antisthis Yctiis. On the obverse, head of Augustus with the indication of his
8th tribunitia pntestas : on the re\erse, two fetials sacrificing a pig on a burning altar, and the
words: FOED (us) C^^M GABINIS, Treaty with the Gabini. '^ Dionys., iv. 58. s Pro. C.
Ballm, 23; cf. Dionys., iv. 2il. ^ Livy, vi. 1. ^ Festus, s. v. Ramam.

182

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

possessed written monuments, as well as the Hernici and the

Latins ; Dionysius makes men-
tion of their war-songs, Silius
of those of the Sabines, and
Vergil, who was as erudite
as the learned Varro in the
affairS|_pf ancient Italy, speaks
of the national songs of the
prisci Latini.

Inscriptions on bronze and
on stone, memorials, names
attached to monuments and
places, as the Sister's Post,
the via Scelerata, and oral
traditions which lived in fami-
lies, might aid researches into
their primitive history. But
the most ancient of Roman
annalists lived at the time
when Rome, the mistress of
Italy, entered into relations
with Greece ; they were
dazzled by the brilliancy of
Hellenic literature, and, mis-
understanding the importance
of native documents, which
were extremely meagre, they
became the pupils of those
whom they had just subdued.
There was then, as it were, a
double conquest made, in different directions. Tlie Greeks became
subjects of Rome, the Romans the disciples of Greece ; and the
Etruscan education of young patricians was replaced by Greek
education, — the journey to Caere by the journey to Athens.^ Even

' [These alphabets are taken (by F. Lenorninnt) from the Priscae Latinila/is Mon. Epi-
grapha, and represent the writing of the latter 5th, the 6th, and the 7th (Augustan) centuries
A. u. c. — Ed.']

'^ Livy, ix. 36 : Ilabeo auctores rulrjn Ivm (in the fifth century of Rome) Romanus pueros
sicut nunc Graecis, ita Eiruscis I'Uteris erudiri aolitos.

A/\A

A/\

B B

< C

^Ell

E II

f^FI'

F 1'

K 1=

l/L

N\ A/V

A/VMM

N N

A^N

600

r p

P P

1 a

p P

< s

EARLY ROMAN (lATIN) ALPHABETS.^

PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 183

long before the Romans thonglit of Athens, the influence of Greece
had made itself felt in the centre of Italy, among the Etruscans,
and even in Rome. The Sibylline books were written in Greek,
and the ambassador from Rome to the Tarentines spoke to them
in that language.

By a singular freak it was from the Greeks that the
Romans learned their history : I mean that history which the
Greeks made for them. The epic character which the influence
of Homer and Hesiod had given to the narrative prose of the
Hellenes, passed into the writings of the annalists of Rome.
Two of her first historians, Ennius and Naevius, were epic poets ;
Dionysius said of their works : " They resemble those of
the Greek annalists ; " and he added concerning Cato, C. Sem-
pronius, etc. : " They followed Greek story." Tacitus and Strabo
reproached them with the same tiling.^ Thus the nations of
Western Europe forgot in the Middle Ages their true origin for
the pedantic reminiscences of ancient literature : the Franks
said they were descended from a son of Hector ; the Bretons,
from Brutus ; and Rheims had been founded by Remus.

On the origin of Rome and of Romidus, there are in Plut-
arch no less than twelve different traditions, almost all of which
bear the stamp of Greek imagination ; and the one which he
preferred as being the most widespread was only the story of a
Greek, Diodes of Peparethos, followed by a soldier from the
Second Punic War. Fabius Pictor, the oldest of Roman annalists
and the first ambassador from Rome into Greece.

The organization, however, bemg altogether religious, and as the
priests were at every moment interfering in public affairs, the pontiffs
were concerned in keeping up the memory of events as accurately
as possible. Thus the Romans had the Annals of the Pontiffs,^ or
Annales Maximi, the Fasti Magistratimm, the Fasti Triumphales,
the rolls of the censors, etc. But these annals were so laconic
that they opened a wide field to interpretations and fables. More-
over, being written down from day to day, in order to preserve

btrabo, III. VI. 19 : 01 St twv 'Poi^ialtov trvy-yparpus fii^ovm-ai fifv tovs "EXXr^r'as'. Dionys.
I. i 1 : 'EWj]viK(a re fivdco xp^''^!^^""'- [This agrees with ilommsen's view o£ the antiquity of
writing in Italy, — a theory strongly corroborated by the recent discovery of the old Phoenician
alphabet, with its samech and tsadde on vases at Caere and elsewhere. — Ed.']
2 Cicero, de Oral. ii. 12, and Fest., s. v. Maxuiius and Servius ad Aen. i. 373.

184 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the memory of treaties, the names of magistrates and of important
events, they only went back to the period when established
Roman society felt the simple need of rendering an account to
itself of its acts and of its engagements with its neighbors.
Beyond, there is nothing but mythological darkness ; and this was
the open field in which the imagination of the Greeks was exer-
cised. They laid hold of this period and filled it up to suit their
interests. Now in their own history they had preserved hardly
any great record of ancient times, except that of the contest
against Troy. With this event they connected the first history
of Italy. It was towards Italy that they led the Trojan chiefs,
escaped from the sack of the city, or the Greek heroes driven
away from their homes by tempest, and each Italian town of any
importance had as founder a hero of one of the two races. Let
us note that the Greeks also found an advantage in this double
manner of connecting Italy and Rome with their history, by their
own colonies, and by the Trojan settlements, by Evander and
Aeneas, by Ulysses and Antenor. To go back to Troy, was, for
the Greeks, to go back to an epoch of glory and power ; and,
moreover, in ennobling through these legends the beginnings of Rome
and of tlie Latins, the Greeks avenged themselves indirectly in
exhibiting this city and nation formed by fugitives escaped from
the victorious sword of the Hellenes. It was not derogatoiy for
Rome to accept this origin. Troy was the greatest name of
antiquity, the most powerful state of the ancient world ; her
reputation was immense, and at the same time it could not
wound their pride, for Troy was long since destroyed. Moreover,
she was the enemy of Greece. Rome would not so willingly have
allowed it to be said that she sprang from Macedonia, Sparta, or
Athens, which were of recent celebrity. We are not jealous of the
glorious dead; to be their heirs is a new title to fame.

From the time of the First Punic War the belief in the
Trojan descent of the Romans was current, as is seen in the
inscription of Duillius, in which the Egestans, who were con-
sidered as a Trojan colony, are called cognati 2)02Mli Romani. After
Cynoscephalae, one of the first cares of Flamininus, who was
anxious not to pass for a barbarian, was to set up at Delphi an
inscription which called the Romans the race of Aeneas. When

PKIMITIVE ORGAJS^IZATION. 185

the Julian house had seized the Empire, this belief became an
article of political faith ; and, following the example of the
Romans, the Italians eagerly laid claim to this origin ; Trojan
genealogies were bought, just as, in the last century, our fathers
bt)ught marquisates ; and in the time of Dionysius ^ fifty Roman
families, the Trojugenae, claimed descent frojn the companions of
Aeneas. Moreover, even if Aeneas should truly have settled in
Latium, as he came there, according to the most ancient tradition,
with only a single vessel and a small number of Trojans, this
fact would be of importance only to the vanity of certain families,
of none to the civilization of the country.

II. Probable Origin of Rome.

All great nations have surrounded their cradle with mar-
vellous tales. In Egypt the reign of gods and demi-gods
preceded that of man. In Persia, Dschemschid opens the bosom
of the earth with a golden sickle and drives away the Djinns.
At ■ Troy, Apollo and Neptune buUt the walls of the city of
Priam with their own hands. Rome desired to have a no less
noble origin ; her obscure birth was hidden under brilliant
fictions, and the head of a band of adventurers became the son
of the god Mars, a grandson of the King of Alba, a descendant
of Aeneas. If this is objected to in the name of historic truth,
Livy replies by right of victory. " Such," says he with a proud
majesty of style, " such is the glory of the Roman people in war,
that when they choose to proclaim the god Mars as their father,
as the father of then- founder, other nations must suffer it with
the same resignation as they suffer our sway." ^ From this strange
idea of the rights of the historian, it followed that facts were to

1 Ant. Rom. i. 85.

^ In his preface Cicero (c/e Rep. ii. 2) also says : Concedamua famae hominum ; and
fiirtber on : Ut a fahulis ad facta veniamus. " We must not blame," says he, " those
who, recognizing a divine genius in the benefactors of the nation, wished to attribute to them a
divine origin." These are singular rules of criticism. I^et us add, in order to show the diffi-
culties wliich render the work of moderns so arduous, that we have lost the most ancient
historians of Rome, Diodes of Peparethos, Fabius Pictor, the Annale.f oi Ennius, the Origines
of Cato, the history of Cassius Hemina ; and let us add that Livy, Dionysius of HaUcarnassus,
and Plutarch, who had these works before them, rarely a<Tree.

186 ■ EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the great annalist of Rome like the subjects which in school are
proposed for recitations and essays, and whicli savor far more of
rhetoric than of the battle-field or the Forum. It is a veil
covered with charming embroidery, whicli must be respectfully
raised in order to find the fragments of truth hidden behind it.

Of these traditions the least improbable is the rape of the
Sabine women, — a practice very common in the heroic age. This
violence agrees well with tlte history of the jalace of
refuge : according as the outlaws of the Palatine
Hill carried off women, unions were arranged. Ab-
duction was, moreover, the primitive form of
marriage, and the recollection of it was preserved
SABINE WOMEN ' "^ ^^^^ uuptlal ceremonics until the last days of
Pagan Rome.^ But the fact of the rape of the
Sabines cannot be reconciled with the legend that Rome was an
Alban colony; for according to this it would have had the con-
nuhium, or right of marriage, with its mother city, and no one
would have dared to reject the alliance of the dominant race.
Moreover, the violent character of ancient Rome has been ex-
aggerated, by making it a sort of intrenched camp, from which
pillage and warfare ever issued. This was one consequence of
the idea that the town had been founded by a troop of bandits.
The severity of the first Roman institutions, the patriciate, and
the political and religious privileges of the noliility, do not agree
with this tradition of a mob collected at random, and long given
up to all kinds of disorder.

We do not wish to reject the idea of the existence of Romu-
lus ; though the hymns, still sung in the time of Augustus, which
preserved the poetic history of the first king of Rome, appear to
us nothing but a legend, such as all ancient nations have had, and
the counterpart of which it would l)e easy to find in other
national traditions. Thus Semiramis, like Romulus, is the child
of a goddess ; like him, and like Cyrus, who was exposed in a

1 L. TITVRI. Silver coin of one Sabinus Titurius.

^ The bride was carried, as it were, by force from her father's house, and it was customary
to hft her over the threshold of her husband's house. The latter practice stiU exists in a few
villages in England, where it may have been introduced b\' the Romans ; but it is usual in
China (Dennis, The Fnlk-lotv nf Cliiiiii) and with the Esfiuiniaux, which weakens the proof
that might be thence adduced in favor of the legend of the Sabines.

PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 187

forest and suckled by a bitch/ she is abandoned in the desert,
f(Ml by doves, and picked up by a shepherd of the king. Her
history, too, is blood}*. As Romulus kills his brother, she causes
the death of her husband, and after a long reign she disappears ;
but some saw her ascend to heaven, and her people paid her divine'
honors. Nearer Rome, in Latium itself, Caeculus, son of Vulcan
and founder of Praeneste, is abandoned after his birth, and brought
up by wild beasts. In order to people his city, which remained
empt}-, he called together the neighboring nations to solemn
games ; and when they came together from all parts, flames sur-
rounded the assembly. In the Sabine country, Medius Fidius, or
Sancus, who became the national god of the Sabines, was also
born of a virgin who was surprised by Mars Enyalius in a temple
of Reate ; and, like Romulus, he had founded a town, Cures, which
m tradition is the second metropolis of Rome. These legends,
which are found as far as the banks of the Ganges, in the story
of Chandragupta, were, with many others, the common inheritance
of the Aryan race.

We may regard Romulus, who may be connected with the
ro3-al house of Alba,^ to have been only one of those warlike
chiefs such as both ancient and modern Italy have produced, and
who became the king of a people to whom the position of Rome,^
fortunate circumstances, and the ability of its aristocracy gave
the empire of the world.

"Numerous testimonies* prove that, long before Romulus traced
a furrow round the Palatine, that hill was inhabited. There was,
therefore, a Latin city there, the town on the Tiber, Ruma,
having the manners and laws of Latium and of the Sabine
country, the patriciate, paternal authority, patronage, clientship,

1 Paris by a she-bear, Telephus by a hind, etc. This kind of legend was extremely wide-
spread in ancient times, and sprang up again in the Middle Ages : Genevieve of Brabant, etc.

^ In the legend, he is the grandson and sole heir of Xumitor. He does not, however,
succeed him, and the family of Sylvius is replaced on the throne of Alba by a new family, by
Cliiilius, king or dictator. Rome is called a colony of Alba, and yet there is no alliance between
the two towns, and the modern city does not defend its colony against the Sabines, etc.

3 "Place Rome at another point of Italy," says Cicero (rfe Rep. ii. 5), "and her rule
becomes almost impossible."

* Roma ante Romulum fuit ct ah ea sihi Rumulum nomen adquis'wkse Marianm Ltipercali-
oriim poela ostendil. (Philargyr., ad Verg., Eel. i. -20.) None but towns founded in entirety
and on a precise day by a roloni/ have a certain date. The others have been at first hamlets,
villages, and burghs. "With London or Paris, when did the hamlet begin ?

188

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

a senate, and perhaps a king, — in short, a truly political and
religious organization, already ancient, and which Romulus, himself
a Latin, only adopted. He may have come to establish liimseK
victoriously there with his band,^ the Celsi Ramnenses, giving the
ancient town a new appearance and more warlike manners. On
this ground he may have passed for its founder, and liis com-
panions for the heads of patrician houses. Is not tliu nobility

ANCIENT SUBSTRUCTIONS OF THE PALATIXE."

of England, so powerful and so proud, [in great part] descended
from the adventurers who followed William of Normandy ?

In spite of Niebuhr's disdain, sometimes so harshly expressed,
for those who seek historic facts in these ancient legends, we
may allow the abduction of certain Sabine women by the Celsi
Ramnenses,^ and the occupation, effected by a convention, of the

' Festus (s. V. Ver sacrum and Mamertini) attributes the origin of Rome to a sacred
spring-time. There is always the idea of an occupation of the Palatine by an armed troop.
^ Atlas of the Bull. arche'oL, vol. v. pi. 39.
* In the most ancient of the Roman historians, Fabius, the number of the Sabine women

PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 189

Capitoline and Quirinal by the Sabines of Cures.^ The two towns
remained separate, but the people met in the plain between the
three hills. Circumstances, which legend explains to suit itself,
led to the union, under a single chief, of the two burghs estab-
lished on the Palatine and Capitol. In whatever manner this
alliance was produced, history must yield to the Sabines a consider-
able and probably preponderant part in the formation of the
Eoman people.

But if we cannot pierce this veil of poetry which hides the
real facts, let us study the institutions which ancient manners and
circumstances produced. This we can do, for these customs lasted
into the historic age ; and as Cuvier from a few broken bones re-
constructed extinct creatures, we may reconstruct, with the help of
ancient remains, that society of which legends give us only in-
teresting but deceptive pictures.

III. Patricians and Clients.

Rome had no single legislator, as the Greek cities had. Its con-
stitution was the work of time, circumstances, and many men. Hence
arise numberless uncertainties. The most ancient traditions show
the people divided into three Tribus, the Ramnenses^ or companions
of Romulus, the Titienses, or Sabines of Tatius, and the Luceres,
whose origin is referred to an Etruscan chief, Lucumo,^ who may
have come with a numerous band to aid Romulus in building his
city and in gaining his first victories. But the political inferiority
of this last tribe, which at first had neither senators nor vestals,
would imply a conquered population, perhaps the ancient inhabit-

carriej off is only thirty. Valerius Antias counts as many as five hundred and twenty-seven,
and Juba six hundred and three.

' The lance (quir) was the national weapon of the Sabines, and the symbol of their
principal divinity; hence the names of Cures, Quirites, Quirina!, and Quiriiuis, and perhaps of
(.'uria. The two tribes together were called Populun Romnnus Quirites, omitting, according to
the use of the old Latin tongue, the conjunction ct. This became afterward Populus Bomanus
Qiiirilium.

- C'elsi Ramnenses (for Romanenses), or, as Dionys. says (ix. 44), KaOapwraxr) (jjvXrj.

' Cic, de Rep. ii. 8 ; Fest., s. v. Lucerenses, from Lucerus, king of Ardea ; according to
others from lucus, the wood of refuge. In that case the Luceres would be those who had taken
refuge.

190 ■ ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

ants of the town may have remained until the time of Tarquin
under the yoke of conquest.

The tribe was divided into ten curiae, each curia into ten
DECURIAE ; and these divisions, which were also territorial and
military, ^ had their chiefs, — tribunes, curiones, and decuriones.

In each tribe were included a certain number of political
families, or gentes, which were not composed of men only of the
same blood, l^ut also of men connected by mutual obligations,
by the worship of a hero venerated as a common ancestor {sacra
gentilUia), or by the right of inheriting one from another in the
absence of a will or of natural heirs, ^ — a right which reminds
us that, in the Ijeginning, property had been common. Thus
they were enabled to reduce to a small figure the number of these
political families, — 200 at first, afterward 300, — and to allow only
3,000 citizens to the city of Romulus ; but we must admit that
these figures, like the English words hundred, titldng, were not
a strictly exact arithmetical expression. Moreover by these 3,000
citizens of original Rome the patricians alone are understood.

Now to these heads of the gentes were
attached numerous clients. In tradition the
gens Appia mnnbers 5,000, the gens Falna
4,000, and Coriolanus could form a complete
COIN OF THE GENS FABiA. amiy of lus trlbc. Let us accept 300 as the

number of patrician houses, allowing for each
house an average of 100 clients, and we shall have a popula-
tion of more than 30,000. Even were these numbers purely
imaginary, the gens would none the less be the basis of the
primitive organization of Rome, as it has been among many
nations. However far we trace back the course of history, we
find in the family, natural or fictitious, the primordial elements
of society. The Greek yevr), the Scottish clans, the Irish
septs, answer to the Roman gentes; and the same organization

1 Varro (de Ling. Lai. v. 35) speaks of a threefold division of territory for the three
tribes; Dionys. (ii. 7) of a division into thirty allotments for the thirty curiae.

2 Instead of fjcns, genus is sometimes found, which clearly explains the word gens.
Thus Cilnium genus (Livy, x. 3-5). Cf. Aulus Gellius, xv. 27: Pollux, viii. 9; Harpocration,
s. v. Tevvfirat. Paul Diac. (p. 94) also says : Genlilis dicilur ct ex enilem genere ortus et is
qxd simili nomine appellalur. Ciiens or cluens, from dueo, means he who hears and who
obeys.

PEIMITIVE OEGANIZATION. 191

is met iu Frieslaud, among llie Ditmarses, the Albanians,
Slavs, etc.

In Algeria the Arab douar and the Kabyl dechera resemble
the Roman genu, the sheikh or amin represents the i^aterfamilias,
and the chiefs of the douars and decheras, like the patres at
the curia, discuss at their jemaa the interests of the families
they represent. Studied more closely, history shows that customs
long looked upon as peculiar to certain peoples and certain
ejtochs have been general institutions, and represent the stages
lunnanity has travelled.

Thus the gens united all its members by a bond of relation-
ship, real or fictitious. The curia was this same family en-
larged, and the tribe was a similar one, only more complete.
Each curia had its days of feasts and sacrifices, its priests and
tutelary gods. Religion united still more closely those whom
ties of blood or social position already connected. The whole
Roman state rested on this basis of family, and had the same
strict discipline.

The members of a gens were divided, we said, into two
classes, — those who belonged to it l)y right of blood, and those
who had become associated with it by certain engagements.

The former, the patroni or patricians,^ were the sovereign
people, to whom everything belonged, and who had the two
great outward signs which marked the nolnlity of the Middle
Ages, family names and armorial bearings, — I mean the jus im-
aginum, speaking devices, which were far more proud and im-
po§ing than all the feudal coats of arms, since it seemed as
though the ancestors themselves, clad in their insignia of office,
guarded the entrances of patrician houses. In funeral ceremonies,
individuals recalling in features^ and form the persons whom it
was desired to represent, assumed the costume and "honors"
that these latter had worn, thus surrounding the dead patrician
with a living escort of his ancestors. In later times they had
another form of escutcheons, the representation upon coins of
the objects that their name recalled. Thus Aquillius Floras, a

* Patricios Cincuis ail, i/i libra de ComitiU, eos appellari solilos qui nunc ingenui vocenlur.
(Fest., s. V. Patricias.)

" [Rather, they wore the wax masks taken from the images in the atrium. — Ed.']

192.

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

flower; Quinctius Miis, a mouse; Voconius Vitulus, a calf; Pom-
ponius Musa, the nine muses on nine different coins, etc., —

a custom infinitely more modest, which
ended by being merely a play of wit,
but which had at first ser^-ed to recall
heroic acts, — as, for instance, the collar of
the Manlii, and doubtless the hammer
of the Publicii and the axe of the
Valerii.

The second class of the members
of the gens comprised strangers domiciled
in the town, the prisoners brought to
Rome, the ancient inhabitants of the
land, the poor, freed slaves, — in short,
all who preferred dependence on the
great and strong, with their protection,
to isolation and an insecure liberty.
These were the clients, or we might say
vassals.

UAT.''

PICKAXE.^

MALLET."

COLLAR.'

BULL."

' Coin of L. A quill ills Florus III. Vir (monetary
triumvir), representing on tlie reverse a large full-blnwn
flower ; an aureus of Augustus.

^ Q. Voconms Vitxdus. Vitulus means a calf ; re-
verse of a denarius of Caesar's time.

* Pomponius Musa. Laurel-crowned head of Muse ;
behind, a buskin ; on the reverse, Thalia standing, hold-
ing a eomie mask. Denarius of the Pomponian fam-
ily.

^ Ti. Q. Tiberius Quinctius Mus, an unknown mem-
ber of the family Quinetia. Silver coin representing
a rat, in Latin m iis, beneath some horses which the rider
is restraining ; on the exergue, D. S. S., that is, de Senattis
sentetiiia, struck by order of the Senate.

^ Acisculu!!, hammer in a crown of laurel. The
aclsculum was a tool (jtiu utuntur lapicidae ad excavandos
lapides (ForcelUni, s. v.). Reverse of a silver coin of
the Valerian family.

^ Head of Pallas, .above, a m.allet, malleolus , on the
reverse C. Mall. (Cains J\Lilleolus). Naked man with
his foot on some armor ; in front, an anchor ; behind, the prow of a vessel. Denarius of the
Poblician family.

' L. Torquat. HI. inr. Tri])od enclosed in a collar, torques : denarius of the Manlii.
^ L. Thorius Balbtis, denaruis of the Thorian family. Taurus means a bull.
' P. Accoleius Lariscolus. Bust of Clymene, the mother of Phaeton ; on the reverse, the
three sisters of Phaeton changed into larches (lariz).

WOMEN CHANGED INTO TUEES.^

PKIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 193

The patrician, or patrox, — for the words are synonymous, —
gave a small farm to his client, or, in defaiilt of land, a sportula,
that is to say, a certain amount of provisions ; ' he must watch over
all his interests, follow his suits, aid him in law-courts, — do foi-
him, in a word, what the father does for his children, the patron
for his freedmen. The law allowed the client no appeal from
his patron ; but religion consigned the patron to the gods, if
he did any wrong to him whose necessary protector he was.^ The
client, on his part, took the family name of his patron, nomen
gentilicium., and when he died received shelter in his tomlj ; ^ he
helped him to pay his ransom, his fines, his law expenses, his
daughter's dowry, and even the expenses necessary to fulfil his
functions and mamtain the dignity of his rank. It was forbidden
them to summon one another into a court of justice, to bear witness
or to vote against one another ; and it would have been a crime
on the part of the client to maintain a suit against his patron.
Clientship was then a considerable diminution of the liberty of
the client, and for him a semi-slavery. Such was, in fact, the
strength of this bond in ancient times, that if the patron was
exiled or quitted his country, his clients followed him into foreign
lands. But in 390, B. c, Camillus set out alone ; the bond had
slackened ; some years later it was on tlie point of breaking, when
Manlius thought that his words would be obeyed if he pro-
posed to the clients to take arms against their patrons.* At this
period some of them were already on the road to fortune ; a
century later we shall see them advancing to power : the Marcelli,
for instance, had been in the clientship of the getis Claudia.
The gens then loses its social and religious character ; but consider-
able traces of it exist up to the time of Constantine. With the
conquests of the Republic, patronage extends to whole towns and
nations ; so that in the civil wars the strength of the chiefs was
thereby greatly increased. Under the Empire it was the precious

' A f/rnrum paries attribuehant tenuioribwt (Fest., s. v. pains), proliabh- on the same eim-
ilitions that the state imposed upon farmers of the domain. See Appian, Bell. C'ir. i. 7.
Dionys., ii. 10 : f^rjyeladai to Si/caia . . . This is the principal passage on clientship.
The nomination to a curule magistracy in later times broke the bond of clientship.

- Serv., ad Aen. vi. 609.

' Jus sepulcri. (Cic, de Leg. ii. 22)

* Livy, vi. IS.

VOL. I. 13

194. ROME UNDEE THE KINGS.

bond between the senators of Rome and the provhicial cities,
between the rich and poor; it freed the society of this age from
the necessity of having these charitable institutions wliich Cliristi-
anity multiphed wlien clientship had disappeared.

IV. Senate and King ; Plebeians.

The members of the gentes, of absolutely free condition {in-
genui), or the comrades in arms [comites), that is to say, the patri-
cians, nnastered at the Comitium,^ divided into thirty curiae, the
comitia curiata, and there, by the majority of votes, but with-
out discussion, they made laws, decided on peace or war, heard
appeals, and appointed to public or religious offices. Here, also,
they approved or rejected wills which modified the property of the
citizens, and adoptions which changed their civil condition.

The chiefs of these gentes, or elders {seniores, whence senators),
to the number of at first a hundred, two hundred after the union
with the Sabines, and three hundred after the admission of the
gentes minores under Tarquin, were the guardians of the national
customs.^ By refusing permission to present a bill to the assembly
of curiae, they rendered the latter powerless ; and as the council
of the supreme magistrate, they assisted him with their advice in
his government as well as in the propositions which he made to
the people.

Chosen for life by the comitia curiata, the king fulfilled the
triple functions of generalissimo, high priest, and supreme judge.
Every nine days, according to Etruscan custom, he dispensed
justice, or appointed judges to dispense it in his name. During
war and outside the walls his authority was absolute for discipline,

1 The Comhium was the part of the Forum nearest the Capitol. At first distinct from the
Forum, or pulilic place, it was confounded with it when the two nations became one. The
Comitium was crowned by a ]ilatform, on whicli was an altar sacred to Vulcan, the Vulcanal ;
the kings, and afterward the consuls and ])raetors, dispensed justice there.

^ Usually they sat in the curia Hostilia, built opposite the Comitium, at the foot of the
Capitol (Livy, i. 30) ; later on they met in one of the temples of the city, and always in a place
consecrated by aus])ices. They deliberated with open doors. This semi-publicity of the
sittings was better insured when the tribunes of the people had been admitted to seats on
benches at the doors of the curia.

PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 195

;is well as for the division of booty aud conquered land, of wliich
he himself kept a part ; so that he possessed, under the name of
state property, considerable domains. Strangers, that is, plebeians,
were subject to him at all times and in all places. He convoked
the Senate and the Sovereign Assembly, he named senators, watched
over the maintenance of laws and customs, and took the census.
Six centuries later we find these rights reappearing in the pre-
rogatives of the Emperors. But appeal might be made to the
people, that is to say, to the comitia curiata, or patrician assembly,
from the King's judgments, which was not allowed from the
sentence of the Emperors, — a difference which suffices to mark the
limited power of the one and the absolute authority of the other.^
There was another all-powerful restraint which does not exist
under the Empire, — the augurs and priests, being appointed for
life, had nothing to fear from the King, and they could arrest his
proceedings by making the gods intervene.

He had for his guard, it is said, three hundred iCNiGnTS, or
celeres. But these knights, chosen from among the richest citizens,
were probably only a military division of the tribes : in time of
war they formed the cavalry of the legions.^ Their chief, the
tribune of the celeres, was, after the King, the first magistrate
of the city, as under the Republic the magister equitmn, the
dictator's lieutenant, is the second person in the state. When
the King quitted Rome, a senator, whom he had chosen from
among the ten first of the assembly, governed the town, under
the name of guardian.^ In case of a vacancy in the royal power,
the Senate named an interrex every five days. Finally, the
quaestors charged with the institution of criminal proceedings
watched over the distribution of public charges, munia, and the
levy of certain taxes and dues ; * and the duumviri perduellionis

* 'lepMv Km Bvmoni rjycfinvlav exew (Dionvs., ii. 14). [The Emperors monopolized the right
of appeal under the trihunicla potcstas. — Ed.~\

* Niebuhr's school include all the patricians in the three centuries of knights, without
reflecting that in Italy, especially at Kome. all the military forces consisted of infantry, and
that in a Roman army there were never more tlian a small number of cavalry, as the nature of
the country rc([uired.

' Custos urhis. The appellation of praefertus urhi is more modern. Sec Joan. Lyd.. de
Magisl. i. 34, 38; Tac., Ann. vi. 11.

* Tacitus (Ann. xi. 22) places the institution of the financial quaestorship as far back as
the kings ; but it is not mentioned before 509.

196

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

judged such cases of high treason as the King did not reserve for
his own decision.

By the side of this people of patrician houses,^ which alone

forms the state, makes
laws, furnishes the
Senate with members
and the Republic with
kings and priests,
which possesses every-
thing, — religion, the
auspices by which it
holds communication
with the gods, political
and private rights,
lands, and, in the mul-
titude of its clients, a
devoted army, — below
this sovereign class are
found men who are
neither clients, nor vas-
sals, nor members of
the gentes, who may
not enter the patrician
houses by legal mar-
riage, who have neither
the paternal authority,^
nor the right of testa-
mentary disposition or
of adoption, — who do
not interpose in any
affair of public interest, and remain outside the political, as they
dwell outside the actual, city, beyond the pomerium, on the
hills which surround the Palatine. These men are the plebeians.
Ancient inhabitants of the seven hills, or captives carried to Rome,

MEKCURY FOUND AT PALESTRINA.'

1 The three tribes, Tar rpels <pv\as ras ycviKas (Dionys., vi. 14).

^ Patria potestas is derived from patrician marriage by confarrcatio, and the jjlebeians
cannot contract such. Wills and adoptions, to be valid, must be accepted by the curiae, and
they cannot enter these. * Mas. Pio Clem., PI. 6.

PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION. 197

foreigners attracted to the place of refuge, clients who have lost
their patrons, they are, as Appius afterward says of them, with-
out auspices, without families,^ and without ancestors. But they
are free, the\' hold property," they practise crafts, and already pay
honor to Mercury, the plebeian god of commerce, who in
time will enrich some among them ; ^ they settle their disputes by
judges chosen from their midst, they receive no order but from
the King, and they fight in the ranks of the Roman army to
defend the fields they cultivate and the walls beneath whose shelter
they have built their huts. Soon we shall find them become,
by the laws of Servius, citizens of Rome.

In antiquity, as in the Middle Ages, victory assigned to the
conqueror the person and lands of the conquered. Romulus having
become in some way or other, by conquest or voluntary cession,
master of the Agcr Romanus, was then enabled to divide it
equally among the families of the victors. This primitive division,
attested by all writers, established among the citizens an equality
of fortune, the restoration of which was several times attempted
by the agrarian laws. Each gens received, perhaps, an allotment of
twenty jugera, on the condition of supplying ten fighting men
or one horse-soldier for the army ; the legion was then formed
of three thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry. I fear
this explanation may seem like an idea copied from the organiza-
tion of the feudal armies, as clientship recalled to our minds
vassalage. The same system, however, is found in Greece.
Sparta also had three tribes (<^uXat) and thirty curiae [wfiai), to
each of which were given three hundred lots of lands, and the
members of which formed the army and the sovereign people. At
Rome itself the possession of the soil entailed, like that of a fief,
the obligation of military service ; and the landless citizen, aerarius,
was no more admitted into the legions than the Frank without a

1 That is to say, they do not form gentes, and they have not the yus imaffinum.

^ Either those which they had reserved on the territory of conquered cities, or the
asslijnations of the kings. Two words express this separation of the two people, — ■ the ])lebeians
had neither the connuhium, or marriage right, with the patricians, nor the commercium, or
right of buying and selling.

' At least Livy says (ii. 27) that a little before the establishment of the tribuncship, the
dedication of a temple to Mercury took place at Rome, and that a college of mercliaiils was
established under the patronage of the god.

198 EOME UNDEE THE KINGS.

domain or the Lombard witliout a war-horse^ into the King's
host. Under different aspects, many ages of the world are ahke.
In nature a small number of essential elements produces an
infinite variety of creatures ; just so in the political world the J
most diverse social forms often hide similar principles. Still it
need not be concluded from this that humanity surges to and fro
like the waves of the ocean, in continual ebb and flow; in that
eternal evolution of beings and empires, principles do not remain
immutable ; they are modified and developed. The world seems to
roll in the same circle ; but this circle is a spiral which at times
returns on itself, and always ends on a higher level.

What we have now been relating was, according to tradition,
the work of the first king, — that is to say, of ancient times ; for
popular imagination, which sees only gods in the phenomena of
nature, sees only men in the great phases of history, and attributes
to heroes, whose names it invents or receives, the work of many
generations. For the Romans, it was Romulus who had
divided the people into tribes and curiae, who had created the
knights and the Senate, established patronage and paternal and
conjugal power, and forbidden nocturnal sacrifices, the murder
of prisoners, and the exposure of children, unless they were
deformed.''' It was he agam who, by offering an asylum and by
setting the great example of inviting conquered people to the
city, had prevented Rome remaining, like Sparta and Athens, a
city with only a few citizens, or, to adopt the expression of
Machiavelli, an immense tree without roots, ready to fall at the
least wind,^

1 Luitpr. Leg. v. cap. 29.

- Dionys., ii. 15.

* " Sparta and .Athens were exceedingly warlike ; tbey had the best of laws ; yet they
never increased as much as Rome, which seemed to be less well administered, and governed by
less perfect laws. This difference can only come from the reasons e.xplained above [the intro-
duction into Home of the conquered populations, or the concession of the citizenship]. Rome,
anxious to increase its population, could put 280,000 men under arms; Sparta and Athens were
never able to exceed the number of 20,000 each. All our institutions are imitations of
nature, and it is neither possible nor natural that a slight and feeble trunk should sup])ort
heavy branches , . . The tree loaded with branches thicker than the trunk grows weary of
supporting them, and breaks in the least wind." — Machiavelli.

CHAPTER m.

EELIGION AO KELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS,

I. — The Public Gods.

JUST as those civil institutions which had belonged to Central
Ital}^ whence the Romans sprang, were attributed to Romulus,
so Numa has been looked upon as the author of the religious
customs brought from Latium and the Sabme country. We know
their gods. The most honored were first Janus, the great national
divinity, whose name stands at the head of all solemn
invocations — the god with two faces: for he it is who ^i(^ '^J^J'i
opens and shuts, and begins and ends ; ^ Jovis, or
Jupiter, the god of light, who is called father and
preserver of all things ; Saturn, who protects the grain m.*.r3.
sown in the earth ; Minerva, who warns the husbandman in time
of the works to be undertaken ; ^ Mars, the symbol of life renewed
in the spring-time, and of manly force, against which no obstacle
can stand ; ^ Quirinus, the Sabine god, who, later on, being con-
founded with Romulus, descends to the rank of a demigod ; Vesta,
whose altar marked the centre of domestic life in the house and
of political life in the city ; Vulcan, another god of fire, — of the

' According to Dionys. (fr. 18), Janus is represented with two faces because he knows
the past and the future. This interpretation is relatively modern. In fact Janus must have
been a solar deity, a symbol of the eternal revolution of things.

2 JMinerva, or rather Menerva, is a name belonging to the same family of words as mens,
monerc, meminisse ; hence the transformation of this agricultural deity into the goddess of
science and art, and the confounding of her with the Greek Athene. (Breal, Mel. de mijthol.
p. 35.)

' Coins sometimes represent him by the figure of a young man with a helmet on his head,
sometimes mounted on a chariot, brandishing a lance and bearing sjioils. With the legend of
Mars is connected the much less clear one of Anna Perennti, whose festival, as Ovid describes
it, recalls certain features of the popular ^e/es of modern Rome.

200

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

fire which devours and destroys, of the fire which conquers iron

and constrains the hardest metals to bend to the wants of men.

He early had an altar, tlie Vulcanal, laelow the Comitium. It

was there, according to tradition, that Romulus and Tatius met

to conclude peace.

Diana and Jovino were the feminine forms of Janus and

Jovis : the one, goddess of the night and of gloomy woods ; the

other, Juno, of the day
and of life, queen of
heaven, mater regina, and
Juno Sospita, protector of
matrons who preserved
their conjugal fidelity.
Her sanctuary at Lanu-
vium was famous ; the
priests there kept a ser-
pent, to which every year
a virgin offered a sacred
cake, — a dreadful ordeal.
If he refused it, the
maiden had not kept her
virgin purity. Diana, who
was afterward joined with
the Hellenic Artemis, was
also a kind of Lucina,
wliom women called to
their aid in childbirth.
Men paid her honor, as
the goddess of mysterious
forests ; and as Latium
was covered therewith,
she was one of the great
divinities of the Latins.

We have seen how Servius raised a temjile to her on the

ti t-fjSu'i

JUNO NURSING HERCULES (STATUE IN THE
VATICAN).'

1 We need hardly observe that the Ancient Romans long had, as representations of their
gods, nothing but the trunks of trees roughly hewn into shape, or coarse symbols, and that
consequently the busts and statues here given are of a period when Greek art reigned at
Rome, and when the town was encumbered with statues taken by the proconsuls from the
cities of Hellas and Asia Minor.

RELIGION AND EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

201

Aventine, when he wished to unite the destinies of Rome to those
of the Latin cities.

At a period of refined philosophy Pkitarch explained that the
worship of Fortune complemented that of Destiny ; that the goddess
of the swift wino-s ruled over
accidental events, whereas the
" Son of Necessity " ^ watched
over the maintenance of the un-
changeable laws of the universe
and the execution of the sover-
eign decrees pronounced by the
supreme God ; it was the oppo-
sition of the coiitingent and the
necessary, of the domain wherein
human liberty can be exercised,
and that wherein divine provi-
dence rules. The Romans did
not philosophize so deeply ; but
they had a confused idea that
everything in life did not obey
inevitable laws, and according to
their custom they had created a
divinity corresponding to this
feeling, — Fortuna, an old Italian
deity, whom Servius was supposed
to have introduced into Rome,
and who had certainly come there
in an isolated way. She was held
in great honor at Praeneste and
at Antium,^ and in time she counts more worshippers than the
great gods of the Capitol.^ The common people and slaves held
a yearly festival, on the 24th of Jime, in honor of her who could
bestow liberty and riches ; and in their prayers they joined the
name of Servius with that of the good goddess who from an

1 Plutarch {ih Falo), says that in Plato's Republic Destiny is the work of the Virgin
Lachesis, daughter of 'AvdyKr), Necessity.

^ The sortes of Praeneste, so famous throughout Italy, were little sticks, which were
drawn by a child, as the numbers of a lottery are still drawn at Rome.

^ According to Phny (Nat. Hist. ii. 5) Fortune was the great divinity of his time.

FORTUJfA (statue IN THE VATICAN).

202 . KOME UIS^DEE, THE KINGS.

adventurer had made him a king. " When she entered Rome,"
says Phitarch,^ " she folded her wings as a sign that she wislied
to remain tliere." And in fact she is still there ; the Roman of
the present day believes as firmly m chance as the Roman of
bygone ages.

Innumerable were her titles, and consequently her temples ;
for as every epithet bestowed on her expressed a special kind of

TETRASTYLE TEMPLE OF FORTUNA (VIRILIS).^

favor expected from her, there seemed to be as many goddesses of
fortune as there were motives for making supplication to Chance.
The Romans thus divided the deity according to the functions
which they meant it to fulfil ; and all their gods had several
different phases, as though this people were incapable of contem-
plating a divine being in its grandeur and serenity.

Women even desired to have their goddess of Fortune, Fortuna
muliebris, to whom the matrons whose tears overcame Coriolanus
erected a temple. They consecrated another to Fortuna virilis,

1 De Fort. Rom. 4.

- A tetrastyle temple, of the last days of the Republic, the base of which is still sur-
rounded by the ancient pavement of the Palatine Way. Tt is situated near the Temple of the
Sun (p. 160) and a house made entirely of the ancient ruins. See Wey, Romf, p. 162.

KELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

203

which had at first a very moral function, that of preserving to
wives the affection of their husbands, but which ends by being
only the goddess of every kind of feminine coquetry. This
temple still exists, — and with good reason, since the goddess has
not ceased to reign.

The gods of the lower world, — Tellus, Terra-Mater, Ceres,

Dis-Pater, etc., — caused
the seed to germinate
in the bosom of the silent
earth, and kept guard
over the dead. Those of
the sea, — so numerous
among the Greeks, who
passed half their lives
upon the waters, — could
not possess much credit
with a people who had
no fleet. But in the
middle region dwelt the
deities of the earth, Medi-
oxumi,^ gods of the field
and forests, of the har-
vest and vintage, of the
springs and rivers, — gods
more popular and more
honored than the great
gods who lived far away.
There Bona Dea reigned,
or Maia, the earth which
produces all things neces-
sary to life, and who was

therefore called the Great Mother, Hater Mar/na ;^ Saturn, "the
Good Sower," Faunus, Sylvanus, and Pales, gods of the woods
and meadows, who protected the farm, the poultry-yard, and the
garden established in some forest clearing, and who drove away
the wolf and fatal diseases.

.Y-'/V"!-^

FAUN OP PRAXITELES.''

> Plautus, Cistellaria, 11. i. 45. " Macrobiiis, Sat. I. xii. 20.

* Ancient copy of the Faun of Praxiteles, in tlie Capitoline Museum.

204

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

MAlr.I MAGNAE.

FERONIA.^

In ancient times Italy was, as it is now, the country of great
pastures ; and the Roman Campagna still keeps the race of wild
shepherds whose sports Vergil depicts. Their
great festival, the Palilia, was celebrated on the
anniversary of the founding of Rome, April 21,
and the royal hill of Romulus bears the name
of their divinity.^ Rumina, the foster-mother,
watched over the nourishment of the young
cattle ; hence the name of the Ruminal fig-tree,
under whose shade the she-wolf suckled the twins.
Rubigo preserved the wheat from mildew, Vertumnus and Pomona
caused the fruit to ripen in the orchard. Feronia,
the goddess of flowers, of joy, and of all natural pleas-
ures, seems to have been less lavish of useful favors ;
yet she was held in so great honor that Hannibal
found a rich treasiu'e to carry off from her temple
at the foot of Soracte. Besides this temple she had
others at Terracina, at Trebula in the country of the Sabines, and at
Luna in Etruria. In later times Flora and Venus became formidable
rivals to this goddess.

Liber, the genius whose modest duty it
was to secure abundance on the tables of his
worshippers, later fell heir to the rich legend
of the Theban Dionysos and the Indian Bac-
chus ; in the same way Hercules, the herdsman,
became the glorious son of Jupiter and Alcmena
[Herakles] when a wave of Greek poetry had
fertilized the soil of Italian mythology.^
Above the naiads, and nymphs, and all the water genii, rose
Father Tiberinus, the mighty river, who scorned to be fettered with
a bridge of stone, and for many centuries permitted to span his

1 Palatine, from pales, a word wliich is itself derived from tlie root jx'i, which formed the
verbs sii;nif_ying " to pasture " in Greek, Latin, and French.

* This coin was struck in the time of Augustus by the monetary tribune Petronius Turpi-
lianus, who has not bestowed beauty on the Goddess Feronia. But Roman artists, even in the
time when they were most under the influence of Greek art, did not seek their goddesses in
heaven, they took tliem from the Roman Campagna. The Minerva of the magnificent chest
of Praeneste, called the Ficorini, looks like a conladina.

° The first mention of the worship of Herakles, or Hercules, at Rome, is made by Livy
(v. 13) in connection with the Icctisternium of the year 418 B. c.

THE TIBER.

KELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 205

waves naught but the Pons Suhllcius, built uf wood, without a
single piece of iron. Moreover, in order to avert the anger of
the gods, tlie pontiffs had undertaken the construction of it
themselves ; and they directed all repairs, which were only exe-
cuted amid religious ceremonies. In the distant ages the Tiber had
exacted human victims ; he was now content with twenty-four
mannikins of osier, which the Vestals yearly (on the loth of May)
cast from the top of the Sublician Bridge into his stream.

To all these gods the name of father was given, which would
have made a friend of Horace smile, but which in ancient Latium
was the most august title for men and gods. Eros, wlio plays so
high a part in the Theogony of Hesiod as the harmonious arranger
of the elements of chaos, and excites sweet feelings in men and
gods, has no place in the Roman religion of the early ages.
These gods are united in pairs, Saturn and Lua, Quirinus and
Hora, Mars and Nerio ; but the son of Aphrodite is not yet
among them. These loveless and childless couples represent in
their severity the Latino-Sabine family, which granted no place
at the hearth but to the matron and her rough husband.

The innumerable gods of the Indigitamenta, that is, whose
names were written on the registers of the pontiffs, formed a
class apart. They had the singular chai'acter of presiding over
every action of life, even the very lowest, from birth to death,
— over all the needs of mankind, food, clothing, lodging; over all
his works, etc. ; but in such wise that each of them supplied only
one of these needs. They are only known by the epithet which
designates their duty.-^ The need satisfied or the act accomplished,
no further prayer is addressed to them, and they seem as if they
no longer existed. Some busy themselves about conception or
pregnancy ; others about childbirth ; some watch over the suckling
of the child; some make it utter its first cry, — and so on for the
whole of life. Strange illusion of man, to adore the conceptions

^ See in Saint Augustine (Dc Civ. Dei, vi. 9, and 10) .all the employments of these gods,
the enumeration of which he concludes with these eloquent words : omnem istam i(]nobilem
(Icorum fnrbam quam longo aevo superslitio conaessit. Cf. Maury, Religions de I'anliquite
vol. ii. p. 12.36. [The same sort of feeling is seen in those curious early Latin hymns, chiefly
of Celtic origin, which are called Loricae, and consist in invocations to protect every spot in
the body, even the most minute and ignoble. There are several specimens in Mone's Hymni
Lat. Med Aevi. — £</.]

206- EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

of his own mind ! But this people, possessed of such terrible
energy, who knew nought of dreamy contemplations or mystic
ardors, — these men of action and of perseverance could do noth-
ing by themselves. Whether his private interests or the affairs of
the state were in question, the Roman must have a god at hand.
Another characteristic trait we notice : the Greeks held their polit-
ical assemblies in the theatre ; the Roman Senate met to deliberate
in the temples of the gods.

IT. The Domestic Gods.

Certain of the Roman divinities — who may be called official,
having temples, priests, and a public ritual, with the homage of the
crowd — were besides honored in a sf)ecial manner in the tjentes,
by the sacrn gentilitia. Each of the great families had its protect-
ing deity, — as the mediaeval corporations were wont to make choice
of a heavenly patron ; and this cult closely united all the members
of the gens. To abandon it was to perish ; the gens not surviving
the desertion of its ancient altar. Livy relates that the Potitii,
having given up to the state the worship of Hercules, peculiar to
their race, all died within the year.^

Each household, even the poorest, had also its domestic gods,
modest and humble, some unseen, the Genii and

M Manes ; others, the Lares and Penates, represented
by small rude earthen figures, coarsely moulded
and baked in an oven, but held in as much honoi-
as are the holy pictures of the Russian lieasants
in our time. All these are with difficulty dis-
tinguished from one another, representing more
or less clearly the idea of a supernatural protec-
tion exercised by departed spirits over the house

DOMESTIC ALTAR.2 ./ i i . r • U

which had once been their home. This faith
appears to have existed in Greece ; we also find it in Etruria ;
and it would seem to be one of the earliest manifestations of
the religious instinct.

1 ix. 29.

2 Tbe domestic altars wci'e sometimes very small, like the Penates themselves. The one
we give is only reduced to a (juarter of its real size.

EELIGION AND EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

207

Let ns first dispose of the numberless crowd of Genii.
That strange doctrine is well known which makes men, and even
gods, of a double nature, and gives each in his lifetime two
existences, one of which continues after death. ^ The Genii pre-

THE LARES.''

sided over all the phenomena of physical and moral life. Nothing
took place without them, and the favor or- enmity reached the
individual, the family, the city, even the whole nation.

* Seep. 128. — Siih terra censehant reliijuam i-ilam ar/i morluorum. (Cie. Tusc. i. 16.)

* Lares taken from the C'ampana Museum, and comparatively modern. These statuettes,
so full of pretentious affectation, were certainly not honored with the same strong faith
accorded to the shapeless fetiches of ancient days. The Penates, who insured joy and
abundance to the house, were in late days represented in a joyous attitude, holding in one
hand a drinking-horn, and in the other a dish.

208 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

The Penates, or gods of the interior, whom Vergil calls
paternal gods,^ were the spirits of the house, in which they
provided abundance, penus. With the Lares or Lords, the spirits
of ancestors, were connected all endearing and sweet memories.
The Lares shared the joys and griefs of the family, and were
associated with its good or evil fortune. In every festival
they took part, on all happy occasions they were crowned with
flowers or foliage, and the young man, when he took the toga
virilis, consecrated to them the bulla which he had worn. No
meal was eaten without a portion l^eing set apart for them,
a kind of communion with the gods which in grave circumstances
was performed by the whole city, when she invited all her
guardian deities to the solemn feast of the lectisternium.

At an epoch already sceptical Plautus introduces on the stage
a family Lar, who explains to the spectators the plot of one of
his plays. " I am the Lar of this house. For many a year I
have had the keeping of it, and I watch over it from father to
son. The grandfather of the present holder confided a treasure
to me with many supplications, and secretly hid it under the
hearth, asking me to preserve it. He was a miser, and h&
departed without speaking to his son about it. When he was
dead, I carefully observed his son, to see if I should receive
more honor from him than from his father. I soon found that
he diminished still more the expenses which concerned me. I
punished him for it, and he never knew of the secret hoard. His.
son resembles him ; but his daughter never misses a day in offer-
ing me incense, wine, and prayers ; so I will lead her to discover
the treasure." ^

Take away the disrespectful handling of the poet, who makes
the familiar Lar a piece of theatrical machinery, and you will
find the god whose worship was the consolation and hope of many
a generation.

With the worship of the Lares was associated that of the^
domestic fire ; and it may be said that the two corner-stones which

' Macrobius {Sat. TTT iv. 6 and 8) calls the Penates the peculiar gods of the Romans :

(Us Romanorum propriis . . . per quos penitus spiramus, per (/uos habemus corpus, per quos:
ratlonem animi possidemus.

^ Prolojrue of the A ulularia.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

209

upheld Roman society were the hearthstone and the tombstone.
The family was formed around the one, and, in spite of the sad
separation, it continued around the other. He who had no
Penates wandered about in life as he who had no tomb wandered
in death ; and the hearth
is a saci'ed place. On
the kalends, the ides, the
nones, on all feast-days,
a crown of flowers is
hung there,^ and on en-
tering the house the father
salutes, first of all, the
Lares of the hearth.^

Great Vesta reigns
over the public hearth,
"a living flame that i. bili-a.^ 2. toung romax wear-

.,, . . ING THE BULLA.-'

neither gives nor receives

any germ of life," * consequently an eternal virgin, who can have
none but virgins for companions. Each house also possesses a
domestic Vesta. The hearth is her altar, and the fire which
burns there is a god, — the god who sustains life in the house,
as the sun does in nature, who bakes the bread, makes the tools,
and aids in all kinds of work ; but the god who purifies too ;
who is never soiled ; who receives sacrifices and bears to the
other deities the prayers of mortals, when the flame, quickened
by oil, incense, and the fat of victims, blazes up and darts
towards heaven. '

" Hearth," says an Orphic hj-mn, " thou who art ever
young and beauteous, make us always happy ! Thou who dost
nourish, receive in good part our offerings, and give us in return
happiness and health." With less of religious fervor, but with

1 Cato, de Re rust. 143.

2 Ibid. 2.

' No. 1 represents the golden bulla, without ornamentation, except on the clapper-ring.
No. 2 shows a statue from tlie Louvre representing a young Roman clad in the praetexta and
wearing tlie bulla. The poor wore leather ones ; but all had them, for the bulla was supposeta
to possess the power of averting evil.

* ... Vivamjlammam . . . quae seniina nulla remittit nee capit.

Ovid : Fast. vi. 291-294.
VOL. I. 14

210 ■ EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

an emotion which gives an idea of tliis eternal worship of the
hearth, Cicero says, later on : " Here is my religion, liere my
race and tlie traces of my fatliers. I find in this place an indefin-
able charm, which penetrates my heart and enthralls my senses."
And we of modern times still say similar things when we return
to our paternal hearth.

III. The Manes.

The souls of the dead, or Lemures, were of two kinds, — those
of the wicked, the Larvae, and those of the good, the Manes.

The Manes, " the pure beings," were the dead purified by
funeral ceremonies, and become the protectors of those whom
they had left behind them in life. At Rome, as everywhere, the
dead was not thought to be altogether dead. He had his place
of al)ode like the living; liis hearth was in the tomlj. There he
began a second life, sad, but calm, if the funeral rites had been
accomjDlished ; fretful and unhappy when funeral honors had not
been paid him. Separated from his mortal remains, the human
being did not (juit the earth to ascend into ethereal spheres or
to descend into the lower regions. Invisible, Imt ever present,
he remained near those he had loved, inspiring them with wise
thoughts, protecting their abode and their fortune, — on the con-
dition, however, that the livhig should render to the dead the
worship due to ancestors. Originally these rites were cruel, — at
least on the day of the funeral ceremonies ; for it was thought
that the Manes loved blood. On the touab of a king or hero
they immolated his wife, his slaves, his war-horse or captives ;
and from this custom came the combats of gladiators, which were
at first, as was the Spanish auto-da-fe, an act of devotion. But
on anniversaries the Manes were satisfied if the relations came
to deck the tomb with wreaths of foliage, as we place flowers
thereon, and to deposit cakes of honey and meal, to make liba-
tions of wine, milk,^ and the blood of some unpretending victim.
They were present in invisible form at these pious ceremonies,

» Ovid, FaM. ii. b31, seq.

RELIGION AJ^D RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 211

and took their part of the offerings.^ A great number of bas-
reliefs and paintings represent the dead engaged in their " Ely-
sian repasts." Lucian, who laughs at ever3-thing, ridicules this
appetite of the dead ; ^ and in fact, in his time, nay, even long
before him, there were miserable wretches, the hustirapi,^ who
played the part of the dead, by carrying away
in the night the food deposited on the tombs.
But pious people believed that the benevolence
of the Manes was secured by these offerings,
and that to forget them was to expose oneself
to their anger. Wandering then in the silent
night, they came to terrify the living, or to cast
disease on the flock, barrenness on the land.
Thus even at a time when the credit of Jupiter
had fallen very low Cicero wrote : " Render to
the Manes what is due to them, and hold them
for divine beings ; for our ancestors would that "^oue^I' tomb ^
those who had qiiitted this life should be of the
number of the gods ! " ^ We make the sign of the cross on pass-
ing near a tomb. The Roman said to the dead, " Sleep in peace ! "
or else, " Be propitious to us ! " and he saluted with the same
gesture of adoration that he used in worshipping the gods. Even
when a family was obliged to sell the field in which its funeral
vault was placed, the law reserved a right of passage, that they
might go to perform the sacred rites there. ^ On the return of

' Varro, de Ling. Lot. vi. 13. The custom of the funeral feast on the day of the obsequies
is preserved in our provinces. In my eliildhood it still existed, even in Paris ; but it is no
longer more than an act of politeness towards the guests, and none of the religious idea which
the ancients attached to it now remains.
2 De Luclu, 9.
' Plautus, Pseud. I. iii., 127.

* . . . Tacitae . . . tempore noctis
Purque vias urbis, Latinsque ululasse per agros
Deformes animas.

Ovid : Fast. ii. 552.
^ Taken from a painted vase, on which Orestes is represented approaching the tomb of
Agamemnon.

^ Cic, de Leg. ii. 9 and 22 . . . Mnjorcs ens, qui ex hac vita migrasseni, in denrum
mimcro esse voluissent. We must call to mind this belief, so persistent among the Romans,
when we see the Emperors declared divi.

' Dig. xviii. 1, 6. These rites of the tomb are found as far as the extreme East. Among
the Annamites, children inherit the property of their father in equal portions, except the eldest.

212

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the Feralia, the last day of the festival of the dead, there was
celebrated in each house the Caristiae, a feast in which all the
relatives took part. Then they recalled the glorious memories of
the family; together they worshipped the Lares, the protectors
of the paternal roof, and they separated with mutual wishes for
prosperity. " At this fraternal banquet," says Ovid, " Concord
always came to take a seat." ^

This religion of death is at once the most ancient and the
most touching ; it established a bond between the past generations

GESTURE OP ADORATION.^

GESTURE OF ADORATION.'

and those which survived them. The soul of the ancestors was the
soul of the family, and there was in this firm belief a great
principle of social conservatism.

But let us take notice that this festival of the dead differed
essentially from ours, which is a beautiful idea of universal charity
continued beyond the tomb, — a prayer offered by all for all.
Among the Romans the worship of the dead was essentially
domestic ; near relatives alone were entitled to make the offerings,
and no stranger had the right to be present at the funeral repast,
the i^ious representation of the banquets of the Elysian life, which

who holds an extra portion, in order to keep up the tombs of his ancestors. (Ch. Lemire,
Cochinchine franc, 1877.)

* Concordia fertur . . . ade.ise. (Fast. ii. 631.)

^ Bas-relief from the Louvre.

' Taken from a paintina; on a Greek vase. A young Greek woman and young man
saluting a Hermes. To jnit the right hand up to the mouth is still a mode of salutation in the
East, and sometimes even with us.

-■-«V^<?;fe^ J t:-;.-.r.- ^":''^£I

_C3; r-^f/i

WP^P^

7v7^

^.'■^^V!feA^%^*t-«t.'g^ "^^-^^ ^^3^3^x3^a^^^^^^'■^3g^^^S^^^Ov-'j

AN ELYSIAN KEPAST.

RELIGION AND EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 215

were the only joy tlie Roman and Greek could imagine for their
dead.^ The man, then, who died without leaving a family behind
him, lacked those honors which were necessary to the repose
and consolation of the dead. In order to avoid this misfortune,
the childless Roman, in default of a natural family, created for
himself a legal family ; and to religious belief must be attributed
the importance of that civil custom of adoption, as frequent at
Rome as it is rare with us. The funeral colleges under the
Empire are another means of providing oneself with relatives, who
may accomplish the rites necessary to this second life in the
tomb.

The Larvae, the messengers of the gloomy abode, brought
the living unlucky dreams, threatening visions, and terrible
apparitions ; they were the phantoms that peopled the night, and
whose anger people sought to deprecate by throwing black beans
over the shoulder, or Ijy striking a bronze vessel. All were not
so easy to exorcise, and about some of them there cu'culated
dreadful stories, which strengthened
the belief in evil Genii. '• Ulysses,"
say Pausanias and Strabo, " having
stopped at Temesa, on the coast of
Bruttium, one of his companions,

T, ^., ,1 ., 1 TEMESA OF BRUTTIUM."

rolites, outraged a maiden, and was

stoned by the inhabitants. Ulysses did nothuig to avenge this
murder and appease the manes of the hero, so the spectre of Polites
returned every night to spread terror and death among the people
of Temesa. In order to escape his anger, they were about to
abandon their town, when the Pythoness revealed to them that
they would appease the hero if they built a sanctuary to him, and
yearly offered to him the most beautiful among their daughters.
The shrine was raised in the thickest part of a wood of wild
olives, and the fearful sacrifice was performed, till the day when a

1 The engraving on page 213 represents the paintings on a tomb at Tartjuinii (Corneto).
In the foreground an Eljsian repast ; on the two side-pieces, persons dancing, doubtless the
initiated celebrating some rite of Bacchus in the midst of a sacred wood. On the two sides of
the door of the tomb, two horsemen and some tigers or jianthers, probably in memory of the
funeral games. (^Allas du Bull, arch., 1831, PI. xxxii. For the description, see Annales,
vol. iii. p. 325, seq.)

^ Tlie first three letters of the name of the town, and a helmet ; on the reyerse a tripod,
two greaves; silver coin.

216

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

famous athlete of Locri, named Eutliymos, entered the temple,
saw the maiden, and, touched with compassion and love, resolved
to fight the demon on the following night. He conquered, drove
him out of the territory, and obliged him to cast himself into
the waves of the Ionian Sea. After that time never did the fatal
spectre re-appear ; but there long existed the proverb, ' Beware
the hero ! '" ^ *

IV. Naturalism of the Roman Religion and Formal Devotion,

There is a poetry in the pious ceremonies performed near the
hearth and around the tombs. Poetry of another kind, too, is

found in the worship of
the sacred groves. The
Apennines were then
covered with those im-
mense forests, whose
silence and mystery long
inspired a religious ter-
ror. To find jjrotection
amid these unknown,
and, consequently, so
much the more dreaded,
dangers, men consecra-
ted in some glade a
grouj) of trees, which henceforth became an inviolable sanctuary.
Sometimes a single tree, which had l^een struck by a thunderbolt,
or whose crest topped the whole forest, and which allowed nothing
to grow l^eneath the depths of its shadow, became a divine being.
In 456 B. c, three aml^assadors from Rome came to demand of
the Aequi the fulfilment of a treaty. The chief, seated under

SACRED TREE.'

* Pausanias, VI. vi. 7-1 1 ; Strabo, vi. p. 255 ; Suidas, s. v. EvSvfios ; Aelianus, Hist. Var.
viii. 18. See, in the reign of Tiberius, the story of tlie matron delivered by the priests of Isis
to the god Anubis.

^ Bas-relief in the Louvre. Cymbals are hung on the branches of the sacred tree ; behind
it stands the altar, on which a ram, which a child leads, is about to be sacrificed ; behintl, a
veiled priestess and the flute-jilayer, necessary in all sacrifices. Behind the altar a second
woman, bearing offerings on her head. The worship of sacred trees still e.xists in many places.

EELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 217

an immense oak, answered them derisively : " Address yourselves to
this tree ; I have other business than listening to you." " Good,"
cried one of the Romans ; " let this sacred oak, and the god, who-
soever he be, who dwells therein, Ivnow that you have violated
your promised faith ; may they lend a favorable ear to our com-
plaint and aid us in the fight." ^

Vergil and Lucan saw the remains of this old naturalism still
in existence. They speak of trees held in veneration, of the olive-
tree of Faunus, whereon sailors, when they came back from a
dangerous voyage, suspended their ex-voto, and of the ancient oak
that stretches towards heaven its withered arms, yet ever bears
the remains of victims offered by the people, and the sacred gifts
of the chiefs. Though around it there spreads the sturdy green
forest, it alone is honored.

"Exuvias populi . . . sacrataque gestans
Doua dufum . . .
Sola tameu colitur."

Animals naturally played a part in this religion of nature. In
the temple of Jimo Sospita at Lavmia a serpent received offerings.
The woodpecker, which, with its strong beak, seems to attack the
largest trees in search of food, and the wolf, king of the Italian
forests, were the symbols of Mars. When under the leafy cover,
in the silence and shade, the woodpecker was heard afar, striking
his short, sharp blows, it was the rustic god who spoke, and the
augur gave a meaning to his words.

In substance, the religion of the early Romans was not far
removed from fetichism. Quirinus, represented by a spear ; Jupiter
Lapis by a stone ; ^ Vesta by fire ; Mars by his shield ; and the
gods and goddesses of fallow lands, of weeding, of manure, of
rust, of the grindstone, of the oven, of fear, of fever, and all that
represented the physical agencies which man loves or dreads, — are
scarce above the level of those good or evil beings which barbarous
nations worship. For the magistrate as well as for the private
person, the song or flight of a bird, an unusual noise, a sudden

1 Livy, iii. 25.

^ According to Varro (St. Aug., de Ch\ Dei, iv. 31), the Romans reniainetl I'li years
■without possessing any statues. I do not knovi whether the date is e.xact, but tlie fact must
have good foundation.

218 • ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

or involuntary sadness, a false step, the flickering of a flame,
the groans of the victim, the prolongation or speedy termination
of its death-pangs, the color and form of the entrails, — everything,
in fact, was an omen, and the appetite of the sacred chickens or
the size of a victim's liver often carried grave decisions.

The Roman knew nothing of divine love ; on the contrary,
he trembled before the innumerable deities,^ capricious and vin-
dictive, whom he pictured to himself lying in wait everywhere
along the path of life ; and in the words of the most religious of
pagans,^ " Full of affright, he entered their sanctuary, as though
their temple were the cave of a bear or dragon." Should he
by mischance cross the threshold of Ids house with his left foot
first, should he hear the squeak of a mouse or his glance fall on
any object held to be unlucky, immediately he re-entered his house
distracted, and could not feel re-assured till he had offered an
expiatory sacrifice. He Vjelieved in the evil eye,^ like the Iralian
of the present day, and like him too he thought to guard against
it by a fascinum^ which he hung round the necks of his children,
in his garden and over his hearth. Hence came the god Fascinus,
whose worship was intrusted to the vestals, and who was placed
on the chariot of generals at their triumph, to turn aside envy
and to avert evil fortune.^ There was, however, a sure preserva-
tive against spells, which was to spit into one's right shoe before
putting it on."

Cato the Elder died in 149 B. c. He lived, then, at a period
in which the grand age of Roman civilization began ; yet how
superstitious is this cool-headed and calculating man ! He believes
in charms and in magic words for healing sickness. Here is
his prescription, for instance, against dislocations. " Take a green
rush, four or five feet long, cut it m two in the middle, and let

1 Varro said 30,000, which was also Hesiod's reckoning (Works and Days, 252); but
Maximus Tyrius (Dissert, i.) thought this figure far too small.

" Plutarch, de Supers!.. 25 ; Cic, de Divin. ii. 72.

' Nescio quis teneros oculus mihifascinat agnos. (Verg., Ed. iii. 103.)

* This fascinum was commonly a sali/ricum sif/mim (Pliny, Nnl. Hisl. xix. 19), or a little
bell suspended on a branch of coral. Almost all young Chinese wear this latter kind of
amulet. This does not \m\i\y that the superstition travelled from Pekin to Rome. The
human mind, in all races, passes through similar stages, which lead to unexpected results.

^ Fortuna gloriae carnifex. (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. 7.)

» Ibid.

RELIGIO]Sr AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 219

two men hold it on jour thighs. Begin to sing: daries dardaries
astafaries dissunapiter, and continue to do so until the two pieces
are joined together again. Wave a blade over them when the two
pieces are joined and touch one another, seize hold of them, and
cut them across lengthways. Make a bandage therewith on the
broken or dislocated member, and it will heal. Sing, however,
over the dislocation daily : huat hanat huat, ista jjista sista. domiabo
damnaustra, or else huat haiit liaut ista sis tar sisordaunahon
dannaustra." And he mtroduced into his de He nistica many
similar receipts. Yet Cato is one of the greatest personages of
Rome. It is evident that this people was, on certain poi;its, very
small indeed.

Superstitions quite as gross and credulity as blind have been
seen in later, and even in highly civilized ages, and in many
places there exist others worthy of them. Even the Genii of
ancient Rome are no't all dead ; they live again under other names,
to people that infinity of heavens whereof the void and silence
frighten us. But what belongs more particularly to the Roman
religion is its formalism. There is no fervor or divine aspira-
tion, still less philosophic reflection, in its piety. The words,
attitudes, and gestures are ordered by the ritual. To leave the
established rule, even to be generous to the gods, was to go
beyond what was proper, and to fall into superstition. In the
temple, the most religious state of the soul was absolute calm ;
silence on the lips, silence in the mind.^ For the ceremonies, all
was settled beforehand, even to the prayer, which should only
rise from the heart ; and soon they begin to pray in forms - which
are no longer understood. In the time of the Antonines the
brotherhood of Arvales chanted songs which dated perhaps from
Numa. It was needful, too, to repeat these ancient compositions
witli religious care, for a peculiar virtue attached to the very
expressions. By the omission of one word a sacrifice became
useless, a prayer vain. The lawyers say at a later period : quia
vinjula cadit, causa cadit, — through a comma, one loses his suit.
The same was thought to be the case with the gods. When a
consul had a religious formula to pronounce, he read it from the

1 Templum in quo verbis jxircimus, in quo animos componimus, in quo lacitam etiam
mcntem nostram custodimus. (Qiiintil., Declam. 265.)

220 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

ritual, for fear of omitting or transposing a word. A priest
followed the reading in a second book, in order to be sure that all
the sacramental phrases were said aright ; another saw that absolute
silence was observed among the bystanders ; lastly, a musician
drowned with the modulations of liis flute every sound which
could have broken the charm attached to the words that the
officiating person recited.^

The feeling of religion has submitted to much slavery, but
never has it been enchained in such strict bonds. It might be
thouglit that Rome, like a certain famous institution, was afraid
of religious excitement, if we did not know that in this institution
the regulation of piety is the result of policy, whereas with the
Romans it was the spontaneous production of the national character.
But if this childish credulity lowers the spirit of the people, it yet
renders them very easy to govern ; and the vigorous devotional
discipline, which has nothing to do with religious feeling, produced
citizens in whom respect for the rules of the temple long inspired
respect for the law in the Forum.

We may make another remark : these divinities of Rome
appear less beautiful, but more moral, than those of Greek
polytheism ; ^ and the Fathers of the Church consider the religion

1 Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. 3. Here is the longest passage left us of the old historian
Fabius Pietor. At the same time may be seen the poverty of this ancient literature, the
miserable state of men's minds, and how grievous was that sacerdotal slavery in which there is
nowhere felt beating a truly religious heart. " It is a crime for the flamen of Jupiter to
ride on horseback or to see the centuries under arms ; thus he rarely has been named consul.
He is not permitted to take an oath ; the ring he wears must be hollow and of open work. No
fire must be carried from his house but the sacred fire. If a man enters that house bound, he
must be unbound, and the bonds must be carried through the inner court up the roof and
thrown into the street. The llamen has no knot about him, either on his cap, his girdle, or any
other part. If a man who is going to be beaten with rods falls at his feet as a suppliant, the
guilty one cannot be beaten without sacrilege that day. None but a freeman can cut a flauien's
hair. He never touches or names a shcrgoat, raw flesh, hare, or beans. He must not clip the
tendrils of tlic ^ ine that chmb too high. The feet of the bed he sleeps in must be plastered
with mud. He never quits it three consecutive nights, and no one else has the right to sleep
therein. There must not be near the woodwork of his bed a bo.\ with sacred cakes in it. The
parings of his nails and the cuttings of his hair are covered with earth at the foot of a fruitr
tree For him all days are holy days. He is not allowed to go into the open air without the
apex : and even as to remaining bareheaded under his own roof, the pontiffs have only (piite
recently decided that he may do so." (Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. x. 15.) Another example
of this minute and childish formalism is furnished by Table xli. of Marini. (Atti e monumenti
de' Fratetii Arvati) [One might imagine this page of old Fabius taken out of the Zend-
avesta or from the laws of Mauu. — Ed.}

■■' See page 124.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

221

of Numa to have been a decent religion.^ Yet the Roman gods
do not require their believers to practise justice. The i)urity
they exact is bodily purity, castitas? They may be approached
without repentance, but not with unwashed face or hands, or
stained raiment. Thus a clean toga is necessary for festivals ;
and ablutions and Ijaths were an act of piety before they were a
matter of health. It might even be said that the thermae, the
architectural glory of Rome, are derived,
like her theatres and circuses, from a
religious idea. Between these gods and
mankind there was but a bond of interest.
They wished to be honored, and, like a
patron proud of the great numl^er of liis
clients, they required that the crowd should
surround their altars ; they demanded sacri-
fices and libations, songs and sacred dances,
wreaths of flowers and foliage round their
temples and altars, and a numerous attendance, that their dignity
might be raised among the gods, and their credit among men.
In return they promised protection, and as they were feared, men
sought to appease them. As it was thought
they could give health, fortune, and victory,
men performed all the acts which could con-
strain them to grant prosperity.

The Roman did not love his gods, and they
did not live in him, did not purify his heart
or elevate his soul. Religion was a bargain,
and worship a contract in due form ; a quid pro
quo. Plautus bluntly says so : " He who has
made the gods propitious always gains large profits."^ This
piety, which calculates so exactly, shows us that the people

GARLANDS OF LEAVES
ROUND A TEMPLE.'

VESTA HOLDING THE
PALLADIUM AND A

SCEPTRE.^

1 Tertull.. Apol. 25.

^ Casta jAacenl superis : pura cum veste venite. (Tibullus, U. i. 13.) Auliis GeUiii.s (ii.
xxviii.) says : Veteres Romani . . . in constiiuendis religionibus . . . castissimi, cautissimique.
The lustratio, one of the greatest rehgious acts of Rome, and one of the oldest, was at first a
purification by water. This word comes from the verb luo, to wash, wipe out.

' DIVO AVG. S. C. Sacrifice before the temple. Large bronze coin of Caligula.

* Large bronze of Sabina, wife of Hadrian.

' CurcuUo, TV. ii. 45.

222 ROME UNDEK THE KINGS.

lacked certain high qualities of mind ; having no religious spirit,
they had in later times no philosophic spirit.

Vesta, however, had brought virgin purity into honor ; Juno
and all the other goddesses of marriage or nurture had done the
same for the wisdom and devotion of matrons ; the Lares loved
domestic virtues ; the Manes concord in families ; Fides, good

faith in contracts ; Terminus, respect for all
rights ; and with the exception of certain
rustic divinities, who delighted in gayety and
laughter — who allowed even far more — all the
gods had the Roman gravity. Still we should
not go as far as to repeat what is said of
this religion, " that, like the philosophy of
T,,^x,= ^ „. 1 Socrates, it brought divinity down to earth,

FIDES, OR GOOD FAITH.' ' O J '

and obliged it to regulate the life and man-
ners of men." The Socratic philosophy was a mighty effort of
reflection ; the Roman religion, on the contrary, sprang spon-
taneously from customs ; and in primitive ages customs precede
belief, which in their turn preserves them. The Latino-Sabine
populations, among whom the family tie was so strong, created
domestic gods who never can be immoral, and their agricultural
life compelled them to have gods who protected property and
agreements. Before he was carried to the ends of the field to
serve as the sacred boundary. Terminus had risen from the furrow
opened by the Latin plough.

V. Sacerdotal Colleges.

Thus the Roman religion is twofold in its nature. There
is that of the state, or of society as a whole, and that of
individual persons ; but there exists a very good understanding
between the two, because in the main it is the same thing
answering to two different needs. The family has its Penates,
which the state respects ; the city its gods, which private indi-

' FIDES AVGVST. S. C. Good Faith, standing, holding some ears of corn and a
basket of fruit. Large bronze of Plotina.

BELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

223

viduals honor not only by associating themselves with the public
ceremonies of their worship, but by particular devotions to such
and such a divinity, by sacrifices at such and such a temple. In

1. Lituus, or augur's baton. 2. Secespita, or sacrificial knife. 3. Patera. 4. Sacrificial vase,
wrongly coufounded with the pracfcricuhim, which had no handle. 5. Simpulum, small cup employed
in libations. 6. Sprinkler. 7. .-lyiej-, or flamen's cap. 8. Tripod surmounted by the cortma. 9. Axe
with wol£'s head, for killing great victims.

INSTRUMENTS OF SACRIFICE ; TAKEN FROM VARIOUS COINS IN THE CABINET

DE FRANCE.

addressing one of the gods of the city, there is no need of a medi-
ator. " The Aruspiciiim," says Varro,-* " enjoins that each should
sacrifice according to his own custom, — suo quisque ritu sacrificium
faciat ; " and this principle constituted the religious tolerance of the
Romans, so long as they did not believe that the state was threat-
ened by particular religions. When the father of the family, who

^ De Ling. Lat. vii. 38. Cicero also says, ritu.-i farniliae patrunique . . . that must be pre-
served, adis ijuaai traditam rcUgionem. (De Leg. ii. 11.)

224

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

was sovereign pontiff in liis own house, had recourse to the priest,
it was to assure himself that he properly carried out all the rites,
and employed the forms necessary to constrain the divine will in
his favor .^ Hence it resulted that all the priests, though appointed
for life^ and forming particular colleges, remained, as senators and
magistrates, active members of society, and as citizens subject to
the law and its representatives.^

If then religion and its ministers were, at Rome, closely con-
nected with political matters, it was not by ruling them, but in
remaining subordinate to them. This dependence lasted as long
as pagan Rome ; thence came her superiority in government and
her inferiority in art and poetry, which in Greece were born in
the precincts of the temples.

Neither special knowledge nor peculiar vocation was required

of those who desired to be
priests. If Rome had a clergy,
she had no sacerdotal class
possessing great wealth or re-
ceivmg tithes ; and no religious
interest was recognized apart
from state interest. The au-
gurs could only consult auspices
on the order of the magistrates ;
and it was forbidden to reveal
an oracle to the people unless
the Senate had authorized it.^
"Our ancestors," says Cicero, "were never wiser or better inspired
by the gods than when they settled that the same persons
should preside over religion and the government of the Republic.

ANCILIA, OR SHIELDS OK MARS.*

' M. Bouche-Leclerccj (^Les Pontifes de I'ancienne Rome) very justly remarks that at
Rome the priest only figures in religious solemnities as the master of ceremonies.

- riiny, Ep. iv. 8.

^ Only the iluumriri snrri.s fucuimlis, afterward the decemvirs, the interpreters of the
Sibylline Books, the ilamen of Jupiter, and, after tlie commencement of the Republic, the rex
sacrormn, could fulfil no other public charge. The Vestals were also devoted to the altar ; yet
they could, after thirty years of duty, re-enter civil life. The pontiff and augurs once claimed
to be exempt from the taxes imposed on other citizens ; but the quaestors forced them to pay.
(Livy, xxxiii. 42.)

* Taken from a gem in the collection of Florence.

' Dlonys., xxxLx. 5.

EELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

225

" 1

By this means magistrates and pontiffs unite to save the state
There was, then, no dependence of either of these two powers
upon the other. The state and religion were one, and as later
the different functions of these innumerable gods could quite
logically become simple attributes of one divinity, the state did
not feel itself threatened l^y the elastic interpretation of creeds;
and there existed at Rome, when philosophic thought was brought
thither from Greece, that religious liberty
which churches with precise dogmas will
not and cannot recognize.

The most highly honored of these priests
were the three flamens, or lighters of the
altars of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, who
could not appear in public or in the open
air, even in the courtyard of their houses,
without the apex, the sign of their priest-
hood ; ^ the three augurs,^ the sacred inter-
preters of omens ; the Vestals, guardians
of the public hearth, the fire whereof must
never die ; the twelve Salii, or leapers,* keepers of the Ancilia,
who every year in the month of March danced the war-dance,
and as soon as war was declared, entered the temple of the
" God who slays," to strike his bronze shield with their pikes,
crying, " Mars, awake ! " the twelve Fratres Arvales, or brothers
of the fields, priests of Dea-Dia, a Telluric divinity ; and finally
the four pontiffs,® who, free from all control, and rendering no

FRATER ARVALIS.*

1 Pro domo, i.

' The same obligation was imposed on the Salii. Cf. the fr.agment of Fubius Pictor,
above quoted (page 220).

^ Afterward four, then nine, in the year .300 b. c. ; finally fifteen under Sulla and sixteen
under Caesar. I do not sj)eak of the aruspiees, who did not form a college in the st.ate.
They were diviners, whom generals took with them, and whom priv.ate individuals consulted.

* For the ceremonies of their worship, the Arvales surrounded their heads with a crown
of ears of corn, held together by fillets of white wool. The head of their college was called
magister, and under the Empire the Emperors took the office. The figure given .above repre-
sents Marcus Aurelius as a Frater Arv.alis.

' On the first day of the month, which Ijore the name of their god, the Salii passed through
the quarters of Rome, stopping before the aedicula, or resting places, to perform their rites.
This procession, which lasted several days, was interspersed with dances and songs in honor of
the gods ; perhaps, too, in honor of some great citizens. In the time of Varro (de Ling. Lat.
vii. 3) no one any longer understood the SaHarin corniina and axemen/a.

^ Four at first, then eight ; fifteen under Sulla, and an indefinite number under the Empire

VOL. I. 15

226 EOME UNDEE THE KINGS.

account to either Senate or people, watched, under the presidency
of the high pontiff, over tlie maintenance of the laws and reh-
gious institutions ; they also settled the calendar, and which days
were lucky or luilucky, — thus rendering the administration of justice
and the holding of the comitia to a certain extent dependent upon
them. On the day that the new moon showed her golden sickle in
the heavens, one of the pontiffs, called (calare) the people together
on the Capitol, and taught them how many days to reckon from
the kalends to the nones.^ On the day of the nones another pon-
tiff announced the festivals to be celebrated during the month,
— an announcement which is made on Sundays in our churches.
Finally, the pontiffs kept the record of sacred acts, phenom-
ena, and all events which appeared to have a religious character;
hence came the Gi'eat Aniials.

The Vestals were at first four in number, two for each tril^e ;
after the addition of the Luceres there were six. When a vacancy
occurred in the college, the King, as chief pontiff, chose twenty
young patrician maidens of from six to ten years of age, without
any blemish, and who seemed to promise beauty. The lot, as
representing the divine will, designated which of them was to be
consecrated priestess. When the selection was made, the head
pontiff" took the hand of the chosen one : " I take thee," he said ;
" thou shalt be priestess of Vesta, and shalt perform the sacred
rites for the safety of the Roman people." Then he led her to
the regia, the sacerdotal dwelling, where her locks fell beneath
the shears,^ and where her sisters clad her in white. It was our
modern taking of the veil.

The virgins of Vesta watched by turns over the maintenance
of the fire which burned night and day on her altar. If it should

^ The Roman year seems to have at first counted only ten months, — March, A|)ril, May,
June, the v., vi., viii., ix., and xth months. Those latter, from the seventh to the tenth, have
not changed their name ; we still s<ay September, October, November, and December. Livy
(i. 19) attributes to Nunia the division of the year of 3J5 days into twelve lunar months,
with the insertion of complementary months, which at the end of nineteen years put the
lunar year in agreement with the solar. Each month was divided into three parts, the
kalends, which marked the first day, the nones (nuHua, ninth), which comprised the nine
days preceding the ides, and these (iihiare, to divide) which began in the middle of the month,
the last day of which was called the eve of the kalends.

- Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 85. The regia, which was asserted to ho the house of Numa,
was the head pontiff's residence ; behind it were the atrium and temple of Vesta.

RELIGION AND KELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

227

happen to go out. it was a terrible omen for Rome ; she who
had been guihy of the neglect was beaten with rods in a dark
place by the chief pontiif, who afterward re-lighted the fire by
rubbing together two pieces of wood taken from a
tree of good fortune, felix arbos ; in later times, by /./' SILA\"
concentrating in a metal vase the rays of the sun.'
They had to make libations, offer sacrifices, and per-
form a strange ceremony, which doubtless had some
connection with their vow of virginity. When, on
the loth of April, the pontiffs immolated thirty pregnant cows,
the embryos were taken and committed to the Chief Vestal, who
burned them and carefully kept the cinders, which she distributed
among the people on the day of the Palilia, that they might make
expiatory offerings of them.^ Every morning they cleansed the
temple with water drawn from the fountain
of Egeria in a vessel with a large mouth and
ending in a point, futile, so that it could not
be set down on the ground without the water
being spilled. They had the protection of Fas-
cinus, the god who averts evil spells, and that futile, vase of the

VESTALS.^

of the holy relics, pledges of the duration of

empire, fatale pignus im2ieru? These relics, preserved in the most
secret place of the sanctuary, were the Palladium, a shapeless
statuette of Pallas, and the fetiches which were said to have been
brought from Samothrace to Troy by Dardanus, and from Troy to
Italy by Aeneas. The Chief Vestal, maxima virgo, alone penetrated
this holy of holies.

Their functions lasted thirty years, at the end of which the
Vestals could re-enter the world, and even marry ; but very few
took advantage of this right ; they ended their lives near the
goddess to whom they had vowed then- virginity. As a compen-

* Dionys. ii. 67; Plut., Kuma, 10; Festus, s. v. Peniis Vestae. The arhorcs fcllces were,
however, rather numerous, — the oak, the holm-oak, the beech, the mountain-ash.

'^ Taken from the Cabinet de France.

' Ovid, Fast. iv. 629, seq. Mention has been made (page 139) of the twenty argei, or
figures of men in wicker-work, which were thrown by the Vestals into the Tiber every year.

* Servius (arf Aen. xi. 339) asserts that hence comes the word futilis, designating a
man incapable of keeping what is confided to liim. Taken from the Catalogue Durand by
M. de Witte.

' Livy, XX vi. 27.

228 ' ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

sation for this sacrifice, they received the greatest respect and
enjoyed great honors. Free from all ties of relationship, that is,
released from paternal restraint, jmtria potestas,
and from the guardianship of their kin, they could
receive legacies and dispose of their goods by
testament. In covu'ts of justice they made depo-
sitions without being obliged to take the oath.
On meeting them, the magistrate had the fasces
lowered ; and the criminal being led to punish-
ment was set free, provided they declared they
, had accidentally crossed his path.

THE PALLADIUM.^ •' i

But, on the other hand, what a horrible death
if they broke their vow ! At the extremity of the Quirinal,
between the Colline gate and the place where afterward stood
the famous gardens of Sallust, was the "accursed field," campus
sceleratus. There was dug an underground chamber, wherein the
guilty priestess was to be buried alive. Placed on the bier, which
was surrounded with thick coverings to stifle her cries, she was
borne with mournful pomp across the Forum, through the silent
crowd, to the vault, wherein were placed a bed, a lighted lamp,
some bread, a little water, milk, and oil, provisions for one day,
in an eternal prison, the mocking help of a piety unwilling to
have to give an account to Vesta of the murder of one of her
virgins ! When the funeral train had arrived at the place of
torture the high priest uttered secret prayers ; then the l^ier was
opened, and, wrapped in her white veils as in a shroud, the victim
descended by a ladder uito her tomb, the opening of which was
speedily covered by the slaves. The earth was studiously levelled,
in order that nothing might reveal the place where, in the
dark night and cold of the grave, the Vestal expiated a sacrilege
which perchance she had never committed. No one came there
to make those libations which the poorest offered to the Manes.^
She was cut off at once from the world of the living and of
the dead.

When the sentence was accomplished, the crowd slowly melted

^ After a silver coin of the Julian family.

^ In the time of Plutarch, however (Quaest. Rom. 96), the priests came thither to perform
expiations.

EELIGION AND EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

229

away, some deeply moved by the terrible end of a beautiful and
noble girl, devoted from infancy to a dread office ; tlie greater
number convinced that evils which had threatened Eome had
been averted by a necessary sacrifice.

Vesta did not always abandon her priestesses. Aemilia was
about to be condemned to death for having intrusted the duty of
keeping up the aacred fire to a novice
who had let it go out. After having
implored the goddess, the Vestal tore a
strip from her robe and threw it on the
cold cinders, when the fire blazed up again.^
Another, Tuccia, accused of incest, cried
out : " Vesta ! if I have ever approaclu'd
thy altar with clean hands, grant me a
sign to prove my innocence ; " and taking
a sieve, she went down to the Tiber, filled
it with water, and came back again to
pour it at the feet of the pontiffs.^ An
engraved gem has preserved the remem-
brance of this miracle, for each college of
priests made a point of having one of its own ; and these legends,
by attesting divine intervention, freed the conscience of the Romans
from the remorse of having condemned the innocent to a fright-
ful death, when their merciless policy demanded a victim to calm
popular terror.

The honors paid to the Vestal virgins corresponded with the
religious importance of the worship which took place round this
public hearth, whereon the fire must never go out.* But to the
religious idea which had at first determined the conditions imposed
on the priestesses was added, as a natural consequence, a moral
idea, — only virgins could keep it up. This eternal flame, which sym-
bolized the very life of the Roman people, and the institution of
the College of Vestals, was an involuntary glorification of chastity ;
and in the days of faith this belief must have had a happy
influence on manners.

1 Dionys., ii. 68 ; Val. Max., I. i. 7. ^ Val. Max., VIII. i. 5 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxviii. 2.
' Montfaucon, /In/. Expl. i. pi. xxviii., Supplem. i. pi. xxiii.
* Cic, De Ley. ii. 8 : iijneiH foci publici scmpilernum.

THE VESTAL TUCCIA.'

230 ■ EOME UNDEE THE KINGS.

The twenty fetiales, elected for life, and taken from the most
noble families, formed a college at once political and religious,
which presided over international acts. When Rome
thought she had a right to complain of some nation,
a fetialis — called, for the occasion, the i^f^i^i' patratus
of the Roman people — was sent out. He set forth,
on his head a fillet of white wool and a crown of
VESTALS KiHixD vervaiu, which he had culled on the Capitol. When

THE ALTAR.' _ '<■ ^ ^

he arrived at the enemy's frontier he cried : " Hear
me, Jupiter ! Hear me, God of boundaries ! And thou, sacred
oracle of right (fas), hear. I am the messenger of the Roman
people ; I come in all justice, and my words deserve all trust."
Then he enumerated the grievances of the Romans, bearing witness
by solemn imprecations that they were well founded. " If it is
against right and my conscience that I demand these persons and
these things to be delivered up to me, the messenger of the
Roman people, may Jupiter never permit me to return into my
country." Advancing into the enemy's country, he addressed the
same words to the first inhabitant whom he met, then to those
whom he found at the gates of the principal city, and finally in
the forum to the magistrates. If, at the end of thirty-three days,
satisfaction had not been accorded him, he cried : " Hearken,
Jupiter, and thou, Janus Quirinus, and all ye gods of heaven,
earth, and the lower regions, I take you to witness that this
nation is unjust and violates right. How shall we avenge out-
raged right? Our old men will decide." And he returned to
Rome. If the Senate and people decided to have recourse to arms,
the fetialis went back to the enemy's frontier bearing a javeliu,
the end of which had been burned and reddened in blood, and
there cast this threat of fire and carnage, announcing at the
same time the opening of hostilities. At a later period, and
until the time of the Empire, when the enemy was on the Elbe
and Euphrates, the fetialis performed the same ceremonies, but
without going out of Rome. On the Field of Mars, near the
Temple of Bellona, rose the column of war, which represented
the limit of the Roman frontier. There the fetialis cast his

1 Gold coin from the Cabinet de France.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

231

bloody javelin, and Rome thought she had conscientiously per-
formed all the rites which obliged the gods to grant her vic-
tory.

At the sacrifice offered on the conclusion of a treaty, the fetialia
killed the victim with a flint stone, — the
stone whence sparks flashed, and which, on
account of this property, was often placed
in the hand of Jujiiter, instead of the
darts which represented lightning-flashes.^

The greater number of sacerdotal col-
leges filled up vacancies by co-option, that
is to say, the survivors made the election."
This was one means of preserving secret
the traditions of the corporation. The
flamens were designated, like the Vestals,
by the chief pontiff.

To aid the priests in the holy ceremonies
there were associated with them children of
noble family and perfect beauty, to Avhom
was given the name of camilli, borne by
Mercury, the messenger of the gods.* The
divinities of Greece, especially also those of Rome, were thought
to be much impressed by beauty, which was one of their gifts.
They exacted it in their priests, and were offended if they
were not served by the most perfect attendance ; e. (j. Juno, who,
" in the belief of many," says Valerius Maximus,^ " made Varro
lose the battle of Cannae because he had given the care of the
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to a most beautiful young man, whom
she wished to see attached to her own altar." We have pre-
served somewhat of this respect for the work of God in those
who consecrate themselves to his service ; certain bodily defects
are an obstacle to ordination.

The expenses of worship and the maintenance of the priests

1 Arnobius, vi. 25.
''■ Cicero, Phil. xiii. 5, and Brut. 1.

' This Caraillus, or servitor of the pontiffs, seems to carry the sprinkler in liis left band,
and in liis right the situUi, or pail, containing the water necessary for the ceremony.

* Pne.rl seu puellae, ingenui, felicissimi, patrimi malrimique. Cf. Fest., s. v. Flaminius.
6 I. i. IG.

CAMILLUS.^

232 KOIVIE UNDER THE KINGS.

were provided for by a certain tract of land assigned to each temple.^
In later times the state even allowed a subsidy.^

The domestic worship of cei'tain fa:uilies also made part of
the public worship of the city ; as, for instance, the Lnjjercalia, of
which the gentes Fabia and Quinctia held the hereditary priest-
hood, and the sacrifices in honor of Hercules,^ which must be
performed by Pinarians or Potitians.

V. Public Festivals.

The festivals, like the gods, were innumerable ; for in all ages
the ItaUan has loved religious services, as being a break in the
monotony of ordinary life, an occasion for pious ceremonies, noisy
games, and meals in which the poor spent the savings of a whole
week. It will here suffice to point out a few which display in a
distinctive manner the customs of ancient times.

Certain festivals, still celebrated in the time of Caesar,* and long
after, recalled the rural life, coarse manners, and selfish devotion of
the Romans. From Pales they asked what their descendants asked
of Samt Antony, the health of their flocks ; of Lupercus, the god-
wolf who protected the farm against the terrible beast whose name
he bore, they asked their increase ; of Dea-Dia, an abundant
harvest. On the day of the Lupercalia, the priests ran half-naked
through the town, armed with whijos, the thongs of wliich were
made with the skin of the doer and of dogs oJi'ered m sacrifice to
the god of fertility, and with them they struck all whom they
met, especially the women, who, by submitting, thought to escape
the opprobrium of sterility, or to msure themselves a happy de-
livery. On the Palilia, the shepherds jumped thrice over a burning
haycock, and made their animals go through the pungent smoke.

1 Dionj-s.. ii. 7 ; Festiis, s. v. Osnun ; Siculus Flacc, rle Cond. Agror. p. 23, ed. Goes.

- To the Vestals (Livy, i. 20); to tlie augurs (Dionys., ii. G) ; and jirobably to other
colleges. The Vestals, the pontifex maximus, and the n-x nacrorum had moreover a ilotnus
puhlica, or residence granted by the state.

5 The Roman Hercules, who was identical with tlie Sabine Sancus, and was also the God
of Good Faith (meherrnle), because he was the strong god, took the name of Kecaranus, or
Garanus. (Aur. Vic, Orig. 6 ; Serv., ad Aen. vi. 203.)

* Plut., Caea. 61.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

233

These were the tires of purification. The Ambarvalia, or lustra-
tions of the fields, were performed in the name of the state by
the Fratres Arvales before the wheat fell under the sickle, and
the festival was renewed around each property. The proprietor,
with his head bound round with an oak branch and followed by
his kindred and slaves, passed three times round his estate, dancing
and singing hymns to the Italian Ceres.

'■ God of our fathers, we purify our fields and those who till
them. Drive away evil from our lands ; let not the evil weed
choke the promised harvest; let not the slow sheep be in fear of

ANIMALS BEING LED TO THE SACRIFICE OF THE srOVKl VURIUCM.^ BAS-RELIEF FOUND

NEAR THE COLUMN OF PHOCAS.

the swift wolf." ^ Libations of milk and honeyed wine, — a sacrifice
and a feast at which the victim was eaten, — terminated these
pagan supplications.

The Aniburhdlia were the purification of the town. Along the
walls, led by the priests and preceded by the victims, rolled the
long procession of citizens, who in honor of the solemn day were
clad in spotless togas and crowned with leaves. When the hymns
had ceased, when the victims had fallen under the sacred knife,
and the portion set apart for the gods had been burned on the
altar, these latter owed protection to the gates and walls.

The people themselves, at the end of the lustrum, were purified

1 TibuUus, II. i. 1 7, seq. ; cf. Verg., Georg. i. .336-350.

' This word is formed from the name of the three victims, — the hog, sus ; the sheep, ovis;
and the bull, taurus.

234 ■ EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

by an expiatory sacrifice. Being convoked by the herald, they
assembled in the Field of Mars, whither the King, " scented with
myrrh and sweet-smelling plants," had resorted at daybreak with
the servitors, who led a hog, a sheep, and a bull. Three times
he made the round of the assembly, repeating hymns and prayers ;
then he immolated the victims, and the suovetaurile^ was per-
formed. Songs, prayers, offerings, were all these good-natured gods
demanded to keep them at peace with their people.

In grave circumstances, during a pestilence or amidst some
public misfortune, they admitted their people to communion with
them. Their statues were carried to a table ready sj)read ; the
gods were laid upon couches, as at the Roman meals,
the goddesses were placed sitting ; and the popular
imagination, highly excited by danger, saw them
accept the feast, or sometimes turn away their heads
STATE BED froui It lu angcr.^ Is it to some memory of these
FOR THE FES- gtouy guests, still px-eserved in Spain, that the terrible
LECTisTEK- Icgcud of tlic commendatorc (in Don Juan), el Convi-
dado de jnedra,^ is due ?
Such Gods and such festivals show the Roman revelling, like
the Greek, in that intoxication with nature which the great
enchantress had offered to all the Aryan race, — an intoxication
delightful and fruitful for the sons of Homer and Plato, oppres-
sive and barren for the sons of Romulus ; for the former found
therein a lovely and sublime ideal, which the latter never knew,
and of which they only caught a glimpse on the days when they
ceased to be Romans.

1 Livy, xl. 59.

^ Silver coin of the family of Caelia, with the names of L. Caldus, septemvir epulonum,
and C. Caldus, monetary triumcir.

* Magnien, Les Origines du Thcalre, i. 252.

REVERSE OF A BRONZE PIECE OF FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER. VESTA HOLDING THE
PALLADIUM AND THE CUP FOR LIBATIONS.

CHAPTER IV-

CHANGES IN RELIGION AND CONSTITUTION UNDEE THE THEEE LAST KINGS.

I. The Gods of Etruria at Rome ; Reforms of Tarquin

THE Elder.

THE third and fourth kings of Rome are repetitions of the
two first : Tullus is a new Romuhis, Ancus a second Numa, —
a suspicious symmetry which is repugnant to history, but in
which legend delights. Legend, however, attributes a special
characteristic to Tullus: he completes the city, by giving it its
military institutions, — militaris rei institutor}

The reign of the three last kings marks, on the other hand,
a new era. Whatever may be the cause, — be it the peaceful or
forcible settlement of some Etruscan chief, or a long period,
unknown to us, which prepared the transformation, — it is certain
that the city, whose territory was only six miles long by two
broad, has become a great town, which covers the seven hills, and
erects monumental buildings, which counts its inhabitants by the
hundred thousand, and extends its power afar ; and finally, which
replaces ancient simplicity by the splendor of its feasts, its fetich
gods by the great Etruscan divinities, and their modest altars by
the Capitol with its hundred steps.

Whether it was a heritage of the Pelasgi, or, more prob-
ably, borrowed from the Greek colonies of Italy through the
medium of the Campanian Etruscans, the gods of Greece were
greatly honored in the southern cities of Etruria. Thence they
came to Rome. Tarquin the Elder, it is said, drove all the gods

* Orosius, ii. 4. Florus, i. 3, also says : hie omnem militarem discipUnam artemque bellandi
condidit.

236 ■

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

of Numa from the Tarpeian, in order to raise a temple there to
the great celestial family, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Youth
alone and the god Terminus opposed it ; for the Roman people
was never to grow old, nor its frontiers to recede. Ceres, who
was identified with Pales, and whose priestess was always a
Greek, called from Naples or from Velia (Elea) ^ to do the
duties of the sanctuary which was raised to her after the
famine of 496 B. c. ; Diana, who was confounded with Feronia,

JUPITER.

MINERVA."

the protectress of the common people,^ to whom Servius huilt
a temple ; Vulcan, whom Tatius already honored ; Mercury, the
plebeian god of the commerce which had arisen, and the elo-
quence which was to increase, offered a dangerous competition to
the native gods. Apollo, Neptune, Cybele, and Venus did not

1 Cic, pro Balho, 24.

* Dionys., iii. 32.

* Tliese three bronze statues, found in the excavations of Herculaneum, are of a compara-
tively recent date.

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS.

237

come till a later period. The first of these was destined to high
fortunes. The Sibyl of Cumae, from whom Tarqiiinins Superbus
bought the books, was a priestess of Apollo, the Redeemer, so
called because he knew the necessary expiations. Under Augustus,
ho took his place by the side of the Capitoline Jupiter.

Thus the sphere of religious life goes on enlarging, and it
becomes so wide that these innumerable divinities end by being
effaced, to make way for the one God of whom they were only
the obscure manifestations ; but then, too, there comes a new
society, new ideas, new laws ; in fact, another world.

As if the gods of Greece carried art with them, their en-
trance into Rome was marked by the first effort to give to
the immortals dwellings less modest and an
appeai'ance less I'ude. Tuscan workmen built
the great temple of the Capitol, and the
Etruscan Tin-rianus modelled in clay the statue
of Jupiter which Tarquin placed there.-'

Etruria moreover gave something else
which properly belonged to her. The miracle
of the Tuscan Navius diffused respect for
the augurs through the city. No doubt the
epoch when Rome adopted so many Etruscan
customs, was that also of the introduction of
the science of aus-urv as the religion of the

~ ^ " AUGUR. -

state. It was a surer means of government,

inasmuch as both governors and governed put sincere faith in it.
In order to study this mysterious art, some young i^atricians were
sent to Etruria, and for a long time the augurs were only
taken from the noljlest families, from those whose members filled
the Senate and the magistracy. The augur, in fact, was to
be at once a sincere ^ priest and a shrewd politician : the latter

' Legendary history explains all these Etruscan importations by the conquest which Tar-
quin the Elder made of Etruria. Otf. ^IviUer reverses this proposition, and makes the Etrus-
cans conquer Rome and Latium ; but what is not contested is, that the epoch of the Tarcpiins
was marked by the preponderatinn; influence in Rome of Etruscan civilization. — so much so that
the greater part of the Greek historians, says Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 29), regarded
Rome as a Tyrrhenian town, Tuppr/vi'Sa woXiv €ivai vTreXajiov.

^ At the feet of the priest who holds tlie augur's rod is seen the sacred chicken, whose
more or less keen a]ipetite served as an auguT-y.

' At an epoch when faith was much shaken, Tiberius Gracchus reading, in the dejrths of

238 ■ KOME UNDER THE KINGS.

inspiring the former and making him vmconsciously report from
heaven the divine decree most conformable to tlie interests of the
state. ^

This behef in signs ended by making tlie Romans the most
religious people in the universe. " It was," said Polybius, " one
of the causes of her greatness." And the friend of Scipio is right;
for this blind piety, if it did not gain the favor of the gods,
at least assured the power of the aristocracy, by keeping the
people dependent on the most experienced and the wisest class.
Besides, in spite of their belief in the augurs, the Roman nobility
and its Senate never abandoned earthly things for religion till
human prudence had nothing left to do. In case of need, they
altered fatal presages by the freest interpretations, without their
faith being alarmed thereat. A consul was about to engage in
battle, and the diviner announced happy omens; lie was mistaken,
the signs were contrary. " That concerns him," said the consul,
" and not me or my army, to whom favorable auspices have been
promised ;" and he engaged in action. At the first encounter the
diviner fell ; but the consul was victorious.

It was Tarquin the Elder, too, who first laid hands on the
old constitution, not to change it, but to broaden its foundations.
In spite of the opposition of the j)atricians and of the augur
Navius, he formed a hundred new patrician families, whose chiefs
entered the Senate [patres minoriim gentium). Were these the rich-
est and noblest of the plebeians, or only the chiefs of the Luceres,

Spain, the books which treated of sacred things, discovered that, as president of the con-^ular
comitia, he had omitted one of the rites. He hastened to make known this mistake to the col-
lege of augurs, who immediately informed the Senate of it, and the two consuls were obliged
to abdicate. (Val. Max., I. i. 3 ; Plut., Marc. 5.)

^ Auguriis sacerdotioque augurum lanfw< honos acccssit, ut nihil belli doniirjue poslea nisi
auspicatn gereretur. (Livy, i. 3C.) The augurs had the right of declaring the auspices to
be contrary. Comitiatus et concilia, vel instituta, dimittere, vel hahita rescindere . . . decernere
ut magish-atu se abdicent consules. . . . (Cic, de Leg. ii. 12.) The magistrates had to consult
them for all their enterprises, and quique non parnerit, capital esto. (Id., de Leg. ii. 8.) But
prodigies were only referred to the augurs by the order of the Senate, si Setiatus jussil,
deferunto. {Ibid. ii. 9.) " The science of augury," says Cicero el.sewhere, "has been preserved
for state reasons": .his auqurum etsi dieinatinnis opinione principio constitulum sit, tamen posl-
ea rei puhlicae causa consen^alum ac retenlum. {Be Dirin. ii. 35.) In De Republica, ii. 10
and 9, he says of Romulus: Quum haec egregia duo Jirmamenta rei publicae peper isset, aus-
picia et Senatum . . . id quod retinemus hodie magna cum salute rei jmblicae. . . . The
necessary information about the augurs will be found in Sagho's Did. des Antiq. Gr. el
Rom., pp. 550-5G0, and about the auspices, Ibid., pp. 580-583.

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS. 239

until this time kept out of the Senate, and now admitted to it by
Tarquin, the foreign king ? The increase in the number of Vestals,
from four to six, would seem to confirm the opinion that he sought
to raise the tliiixl tribe to an equality with the original two. Cicero,
however, affirms that the patriciate was doubled ; ^ and Livy, narrat-
ing the creation of three new centuries of knights, calls them Ram-
nenses, Titienses, and Luceres posteriores. Thus we have the first
and second rank of Ramnenses,. Titienses, and Luceres;^ as later
there was a division in the Senate, which is not very clearly under-
stood, of patres majorum and ^:>a^res minormn gentium, the latter
voting after the former. The method of change is not important,
the main fact being undoubted that the patriciate was radically
modified by Tarquin ; and we may consider this as a preparatory
step towards the great reforms inti'oduced by Servius.

II. Reforms of Servius Tullius.

We have seen^ that the Romans represented their sixth king
as specially under protection of the gods. The Emperor Claudius,
who composed a history of the Etruscans, said on one occasion in
the Senate : " Our writers maintain that Servius was the son of a
slave named Ocrisia, while Etruscan annals represent him as the
companion-in-arms of Caeles Vibenna, and sharing all the latter's
adventures. Driven out of Etruria by some unfortunate turn of
events, these two chiefs established themselves, with what remained
of their army, upon the Caelian hill, which took its name from
Caeles Vibenna. Servius, who in Etruria had borne the name of
Mastarna, now adopted the one by which he is known to us.
Eventually he became King of Rome, occupying the throne with
renown and for the good of the state." * A tomb at Vulci,

^ DupUcavit ilium pristinum patrum numcrum. (De Rep. ii. 20.) Cf. Livy, i. 36 ; Val.
Max., III. iv. 2.

^ Livy, i. 36, aajtnem. — Civitas Romana in sex erat distributa partes, in primos secundosque
Titienses, Ramnenses, et Luceres. (Festus, s. v. Sex suffragia.) Hence six Vestals, Ut populus
pro sua quaijue parte haberet et ministram sacrorum. (Fest., s. v. Sex Vestae Sacerdotes.)
This number was never changed again. Cf. Cic, tie Din. i. 17 ; Dionys., iii. 71.

8 Page IGl.

^ This discourse of Claudius, of which Tacitus has given the substance, is engraved on two

240

EOME UNDEE, THE KINGS.

iflf^^Mwk

discovered about twenty years since,^ confirms the recital of the
imperial historian, or proves, at least, that this was a national legend
in Etruria. Upon a wall of the tomb are represented two figures :
one, who extends his bound hands, the other, who cuts the thong, and
holds under his arm the sword with wliich he is about to arm his
friend. Their names are written above their heads ; Caeles Vibenna
is the captive, and his deliverer is Mastarna. Here are the two

companions-in-arms, who after
manifold adventures, sometimes
perilous like that represented in
the picture, arrived in Rome,
where one becomes chief of the
people of Mars, the other gives
his name to the Caelian hill.
It is easy to understand that
Roman pride would greatly
prefer the favorite of their
great gods to this Etruscan ad-
venturer, seeking fortune at
the point of his sword.
This adventurer was, however, a man of peace. But one war
is ascribed to him, a not very well authenticated campaign against
the people of Veii,^ which Dionysius of Halicarnassus transforms
into a victory over the whole Etruscan nation. Servius is, above
all, the legislator. But shall we say that the constitution which
bears his name was really his own, or that it was the work of the
time ? This reformation, which still lasted as long as Roman
liberty endured, must have sprung, not from the mind of one
man, but from social and public needs. The patricians, or original

CAELES VIBENNA AND MASTARNA.

tables of bronze found at Lyons in 1524 by a peasant who was trenching his vineyard. [It is
now to be found appended to most good editions of Tacitus' Annals. — Eil.~\

1 In 1857, in the same funeral chamber at Vulci in which Achilles was represented
sacrificing some Trojan captives (see p. 68). The lucumo who had been laid there had with-
out doubt some similar brother-in-arms ; for the two pictures express the same idea, — the devo-
tion of a warrior towards the friend who followed him in battle : Achilles avenges Patrodus,
and Mastarna delivers Caeles. These fellowships in war must be an Etruscan custom. (Cf.
Noel des Vergers, Revue arche'oL, 1863, p. 462.) [They were, as we know, an old Greek
custom, especially in Sparta and among the Abantes of Euboea. — Ed."]

- Livy, i. 42. [This does not agree with the researches of V. Gardthausen {Mastarna,
p. 44), who shows that his rule was a military revolt against Etruria by an Etrurian leader of
the Latins. — Ed.'\

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS. 241

people who at first alone formed the army, must have been con-
strained, for safety's sake, to call in the plebeians gradually to serve
with them in the legions. Servius doubtless did nothing but
regulate the new state of things which insensibly sprang up ; he
does not the less merit that his name should remain attached to
this great institution.

We will speak, tnen, of this prince as the ancients spoke
of him, conceding to him, with the preceding reservation, the
honor of having been the legislator of royal and republican
Rome.

We know that the plebeians had neither the right of voting
(jus suffrafjii), nor the right of intermarriage or exchange {jus
connuhii et commercii) with the patrician families, but that they
enjoyed personal liberty. Since Romulus, their number had
constantly increased ; ^ for his successox's had remained faithful to
the policy of drawing the vanquislied to Rome, to augment its
military population. Until Servius, the plebeians remained with-
out direction and without unity. These men of different origins
might, however, combine, and some day become dangerous. The
prince, himself of foreign birth, who feared the enmity of the patri-
cians, understood what help this numerous and oppressed people
would be to him. He took away from the patricians a part of
the land that they had usurped from the public domain, and dis-
tributed to each chief of a pleljeian family seve^i jugera (4| acres)
with full Roman rights ; and he forced the aristocracy, already
shaken by the innovations of Tarquin, to receive plebeians as mem-
bers of the same city.

He used two means to attain this end : the tribes and the
centuries, that is to say, the administrative and military organi-
zation of the state. He divided the Roman territory^ into 26
regions, and the town into 4 quarters ; in all, 30 tribes. This
entirely geographical division was also religious, for he insti-
tuted festivals for each district, — the Coynpitalia for the plebs of
the city tribes, the Paganalia for the country tribes. It was

1 Romulus was said to have established at Rome the inhabitants of Caenina, Antemnac,
Crustumerium (Dionys., ii. 35); Tullus, the Albans (Livy, i. 29); Ancus, the Latins of
Politorium, Ficana, Tellenae, Medullia, etc. (Livy. i. 33.)

2 Livy, i. 43.

VOL. I. 16

242 • KOME UNDER THE KINGS.

administrative, for each district had its judges for civil matters/ its
tribune {curator tribus) to keep account of the fortunes, and to
assess the taxes ; and lastly, it was military, for these tribunes also
regulated the military service of their tribesmen, and m case of
sudden invasion collected them in a fort built in the centre of the
canton.^ The state was composed, then, of 30 communes (parishes),
having their chiefs, their judges, their particular gods, but no
political rights, these rights being only exercised in the capital.
Without touching the privileges of the patricians, Servius secured
to the plebeians that municipal organization which must precede,
and which introduces, political liberty. As the patricians gave their
name to all the tribes except one, we have the right to conclude
that they preserved their influence in the cantons where their
estates were, and that they probably filled all the offices of judges
and municipal tribunes. Biit for the first time they found
themselves confounded with the plebeians in a territorial division
in which birth and traditions were omitted. That alone was
enough to cause a revolution. A time will come when these
tribes desire and ol^tain political rights. That will be the victory
of numbers ; the centuries secured that of wealth.

Servius had made the census, or numbering, which was for
the future to be renewed every five years {lustrum). Each citizen
came to declare under oath his name, his age, his family, the
number of his slaves, and the value of his possessions.^ A false
declaration would have led to the loss of property, liberty, and
even of life.* Knowing thus all men's fortunes, he divided citizens,
in proportion to their property, into five classes, and each class
into a different number of centuries. Dionysius speaks of six
classes, and assigns to the first 98 centuries, whilst the five others
together had only 95. In each class there were the jimiores, from
17 to 45 years of age, who composed the active army, and the

' 'iSimrnf Sixaoras. (Dionys., iv. 25.) These judges doubtless formed the tribunal of the
centumvirs, as the curators of the tribes formed the college of the tribunes of the treasury.
^ Varro, de Ling. Lat. vi. 36.

* The census gave (Livy, i. 44) 80,000 citizens fit to bear arras, or, according to Dionysius
(iv. 22), 8.'),300 : a>s iv toX^ rifiT^riKols (pep^rai ypa\i^a(Tiv.

* Some critics think that the valuation of cattle, slaves, and ready money was not required
for the cen^ux until after the censorship of Appius, in 312. The ancient declaration would in
that case have been more favorable to the aristocracy, since, for the division into classes,
account would only have been taken of landed property.

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS. 243

seniores, from 46 to 60, who formed tlie reserve. The first class
thus contained 40 centuries of seniores, 40 of juniores, and, besides,
18 centuries of knights; that is to say, the 6 equestrian centuries
of Tarquin {sex suffragia), and 12 new ones, formed by Servius of
the richest and most influential plebeians. The state gave to eacli
of these 1,800 knights a horse, and allowed for his maintenance an
annual stipend {aes Jiordearium), which the orphans and unmarried
women paid.' To the second class were attached two centuries of ■
workmen {fahri), and to the fourth two of musicians {tubicincs)?
The poor, capite censi, formed the sixth class, and a single century,
which did not serve in the legions.^

The total of the army was 170 centuries of foot-soldiers, 18 of
horse-soldiers, 4 of musicians and workmen.*

Cicero, in the much-discussed passage in the second book of the
Bejmhlic, only speaks of five classes, foi-med of assldui {assesdare,
tax-payers ^). To the first he assigns 89 centuries ; to the four
others, 104 : in all, 193, as in the calculation of Dionysius, and
one less than in that of Livy. The proletariate, whose census did
not amount to 12,-500 asses, accensi and velati,^ followed the legions
unarmed, to replace the dead, to skirmish, or to do orderly service.
The poorest, cajnte censi, who were only counted on the register of

' This custom existed at Corinth. (Cic, de Rep. ii. 20.) Orba signified Ijoth widow and
unmarried woman.

- Dionysius (iv. 16-19) gives the census of the first class at 100 minae (about £380). Pliny
(xxxiii. 3) assigns to it 110,000 asses; Aulus Gellius (vii. 13), iL'o.OnO ; Festus, 120,000 ; Livy
(i. 43), 100,000. These figures are of a date posterior to the sixth century of Rome. From
the time of Servius, the aes grave, or the as libral, was a pound weight of bronze, and there was
then in Rome no one whose goods would represent 100,000 pounds of bronze, whether the value
of 1,000 oxen, or of 100 war-horses, or 10,000 sheep. (Festus, s. v. Peculatus.) The basis of
the census was doubtless thajugerum (2 roods, 19 poles), or what a pair of oxen could plough in
a day. The jiigenim was estimated later at 5,000 asses, which supposes iO Jiigera for the first
class, 15, 10, 5, and 2 or 2 J for the others. As for the as libral of 12 ounces, it was successively
reduced, about 2G8 b. c, to 4 ounces ; about 241, to 2 ; in 21 7, by the Flaminian law, to 1 ; in
89, by the law Plautia Papiria, to J.

' In grave danger they were armed at the expense of the State :
Proltitariiis publicitus scutisque feroque

Oriiatur fcrro. (Ennics, in Aldus Gellius, xvi. 10.)

Cf. Fest., s. v. Accensi.

* It is imiiossible to admit that the centuries of workmen and musicians, added to the first
classes, voted with them. But the constitution of Servius being at first a military organization,
there is nothing astonishing in the presence of workmen in the train of the Implites.

^ In the mancipatio there were witnesses representing the five classes of the Roman
people.

* Minimae Jiduciae. (Livy, viii. 8.)

244

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the census by the head, like slaves and cattle, did not serve.
Marius was the first who called them to the standards ; and
from that day the army lost its national character.

LIST OF LIVY.i

Centuries of Knights 18

First Class. — 100,000 Asses.

Centuries of Seniors 40

Centuries of Juniors 40

Centuries of Workmen 2

Second Class. — 75,000 Asses.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Third Class. — 50,000 Asses.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Fourth Class. — 25,000 Asses.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Fifth Class. — 11,000 Asses.

Centuries of Seniors 15

Centuries of Juniors 15

Centuries of Coniicines and Tubicines . 3

Centuries of Acccnsi

Centuries of Cajiite Censi 1

Tot.al 194

LIST OF DIONYSIUS.

Centuries of Knights 18

First Class. — 100 Minae.

Centuries of Seniors 40

Centuries of Juuiors 40

Second Class. — 75 Minae.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Centuries of Workmen 2

Third Class. — 50 Minae.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Fourth Class. — 25 Minae.

Centuries of Seniors 10

Centuries of Juniors 10

Centuries of Cornicines and Tubicines . 2

Fifth Class. — 12J Minae.

Centuries of Seniors 15

Centuries of Juniors 15

Sixth Class.
Centuries of Capitc Censi 1

Total 193

The uncertainty of the number of the centuries and of the
basis on which the assessment was made, does not prevent us from
appreciating the political importance of this military reform. It is
no longer birth which divides the citizens into patricians and
plebeians ; it is by fortune that are now regulated both their distri-
l)ution into classes, their place in the legions, the nature of their
arms, which they must procure for themselves, and the quota of
the tax which each of them must pay. All the centuries must

> The te.xt of Cicero (de Rep., ii. 22), unfortunately mutilated in this place, as in so many
others of the Republic, does not help us to make Livy's numbers agree with those of Dionysius.

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS. 245

contribute to the treasury according to their census, and later on
they exercise, in the Field of Mars, beyond the patrician town, the
same political rights. But the first class reckons 98 centuries,
although it is much the least numerous, since it only contains the
wealthy ; it furnishes, then, more than half the tax, and its
legionaries, by reason of their small number, are more often called
into service. It is also by centuries that, after 510 b. c, votes are
taken to decide on peace or war, to appoint to public offices and
make the laws. The rich, divided in 98 centuries, have 98 voices
out of 193, or the majority, — that is to say, a decisive influence
in the government. Their unanimity, secured beforehand on every
proposition affecting their interests, must render the rights of the
other classes illusory. Sometimes, in case of disagreement between
the centuries of the first class, those of the second may be called
upon to vote ; very rarely those of the third ; never those of the
last ; although each of them contains perhaps more citizens than
the three first together. " Servius," said Cicero, " did not desire
to give power to mere number ; it was by the votes of the rich,
not by those of the people, that all was decided." ^ He might have
added that the preponderance did not belong to wealth alone,
it was given also to wisdom and experience ; since the seniors or
citizens above 45 years of age — only half as numerous as the
juniors, from 17 to 45 years old — possessed as many votes.^ Finally
each had the duty which he could fulfil, and rights in the state
were in proportion to duties.

In the new laws rank was as clearly marked as in the old
constitution ; but this inequality was effaced in the eyes' of the
poor by the honor of being counted among the number of the
citizens and by the material advances made in their condition. If
the rich kept political power, on them also weighed the consequent
responsibilities : in the city the heaviest share of the tax ; in the
army the costliest equipment and the most frequent and dangerous
service. But, at this time there was at Rome little wealth except
landed property. Accordingly, as almost all the Ager Romanus

' Dionys. (iv. 20) also says : Trdo-i/s- ttjs iroKirelas Kvptoi (oi jrXoijo-tot). Livy, i. 43 : vh
omnis prnes primores ciinatis. Cf. Dionys., x. 1 7.

' Tbis preponderance of age was found again in the Senate, where the young only spoke
after the old.

246 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

and the greatest part of conquered lands were in the hands of the
patricians, they remained, as before, the masters of the state. These
new laws, which recognized the plebeians as free citizens of Rome,
and which, as a natural consequence, must some day call them to
vote on public affairs, did not, therefore, in reality change the
existing condition of the two orders. An immense step, however,
was gained ; in placing the aristocracy of wealth, — a variable power,
accessible to all, — by the side of the aristocracy of birth, — an
unalterable power, — these laws were preparing for the revolutions
which established in rejxiblican Rome union and invinciljle strength.

This constitution struck another blow at the aristocracy by
indirectly attacking clientship. It did not abolish patronage, which
gave to the nobles material strength, without which privileges cannot
long be defended, but it assured a place in the state to the clients
who until then had lived vender the protection of the Quirites. It
separated them from their patrons on the day of the comitia, to
mix them, according to their fortune, with the rich or the poor ; it
opened the road to the Forum for those who had never followed
any but that to the patrician Atrium. Another law of Servius
authorized the freedmen to return to their country, or, if they
remained at Rome, to be inscribed in the city tribes. This law
would have equally recognized in plebeians the right of patronage,
so that the rich plebeian could from that time show himself in the
town, surrounded like a Fabius, by a noisy and devoted band. But
clientship becomes weaker by diffusion ; and in the course of
centuries, Rome, the seat of the empire, is peopled, to the ruin
of its institutions, with freed slaves.

This constitution, which was to unite two people hitherto
separated, had only been conceived with a view to the army ; and
the centuries were called the city army, urhanus exercitus} The
seniores guarded the town whilst the juniores, or the active army,
went to meet the enemy. On the field of battle the legion drew
up in serried lines which recalled the Macedonian phalanx." In front

1 The patricians could accept this reform under the title of a military regulation ; they
were too strong to allow it to be imposed as a political constitution. Nothing short of a
revolution which rendered the help of the |)lebeians necessary to them, could wring this
concession from them as payment. (Livy. i. 47.)

'■^ Livy, viii. 8. [It may originally have been intended to reward Mastarna's mercenaries.
— Ed.]

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS.

247

of the enemy, and exposed to the first onset, were the legionaries of
the first class, fully clad in defensive armor ; behind them, and in a
degree shielded by them, were the second, third, and fourth classes
(following Livy's list), while those of the fifth class served as skirmish-
ers ; and 300 horsemen formed the cavalry attached to each legion.

DIANA WITH THE HIM).

We have seen that the friend of the Roman plebeians was also
favorable to the Latin cities, and that he invited them to offer common
sacrifices to Diana upon the Aventine.^ The temple built by the popu-
lar king upon this hill, regarded as unlucky in memory of the omens
seen there by Remus, was adopted by the slaves as their sanctuary ;

* Dionysius (iv. 26) says that he saw the decree containing the clauses of the alliance
ent»raved on a bronze column in ancient Greek cliaracters.

248

ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

AES SIGNATUM. (ACTUAL SIZE.)

and they offered sacrifices there,i but the patricians do not seem to have

' Fest., s. V. Scrvorum (lies.

CHANGES UNDER THE THREE LAST KINGS. 249

admitted this goddess into the national worship, and no public
festival was marked with her name in the book of the pontiffs.
Of course no vestige of this temj^le or of the image which it con-
tained, remains. When the Romans were Hellenized, they con-
founded their Diana, a fierce and eternal virgin, with the Greelc
Artemis, and gave her the attributes of the latter ; their palaces
and villas have preserved for us some statues of this goddess, which
are among the most beautiful that Greek art ever produced.

Dionysius^ assures us that besides his constitution Servius jDro-
mulgated more than fifty laws on contracts, crimes, enfranchisement,
the forms of acquiring property, weights and measures, coinage,
which he was the first to mark with an impression, — j^''"''-''^'*^^ signa-
vit aes, etc.^ If Servius is indeed the author of this last novelty,
which was not new for the Greeks of Campania and of Southern
Italy, it was a great service which he rendered his country, for
money is to commerce what writing is to thought, — a powerfiil
means of production.

The laws attributed to the great reformer of Rome seem to
have had the same liberal character as his constitution, — that,
for example, which Tarquiu abolished, and which the people took
nearly two centuries to recover, ordering the property only of
the debtor, and not his person, to be responsible for his debt.
Popular gratitude protected the memory of the plebeian King,
born in slaveiy or on foreign soil ; and they went so far as to
beheve that he had wished to lay down the crown in order to
establish consular government.

Some years before, the Athenian Solon had divided -rights in
proportion to property. Thus at the same time the two greatest
cities of the ancient world were desirous of renouncing the

* Dionys., iv. 13.

- Originally the Romans only had as a means of exchange the aes rude, bars of metal in
bronze or mere copper, without any stamped impression and without any settled weight. The
buyer put into the scales as many pieces as were necessary to make the weight equivalent to
the price of the goods bought. This was barter. — a means of exchange which indicates a still
ruder state of society. The aes sif/natum appears to have been coined under Servius ; it was
a flat jiiefce of bronze, with the picture of an ox, a sheep, or a pig, or, like that which we
give, with the impression of a tripod. Later on, more portable pieces were coined of circular
shape, on which the value was marked by a distinguishing sign ; we have already given some
of them on pages 29, 57, 77. The bar represented on page 248, and taken from the
Cabinet de France, weighs 1,495 grammes (3 lbs. 4 ozs.). At the base is seen the opening
through wliich thev ran the molten metal.

250 ■ ROME UNDER THE, KINGS.

government of the families consecrated by the gods, and of adopt-
ing the principle which is still applied in many modern societies,
— that power depends upon wealth. But at Athens customs had
paved the way for the reform of Solon, and it was immediately
applied ; at Rome, that of Servius was in advance of his time,
he could not establish it ; but in the next generation it came
about of its own accord.

in. Taequin the Proud ; Power of Rome at this Epoch.

It was, in fact, the democratic laws of Servius which helped
Tarquin the Proud, posing to the patricians as the defender
of their threatened i^rivileges, to dethrone his father-in-law.
Having become king by a murder, he destroyed the tables on
which were inscribed the results of the census, abolished the
system of the classes, and forbade the religious gatherings of
the plebeians ; ^ then, supported by his numerous mercenaries,
he obliged the people to finish the Circus, the Capitol, and the
great Cloaca. But counting too much on his Latin and Hernican
allies, he did not spare the patricians more than the plebeians,
and to escape death, many senators went into exile. This oppres-
sion was likely to unite the two orders by a common hatred.
It lasted however, until the outrage upon Lucretia had given the
multitude one of those exciting proofs of slavery which, even
more than bloodshed, bring about revolutions, because the injury
done to the individual is felt by all.

" If the constitution of Servius had been maintained," says
Niebuhr, " Rome would have attained, two hundred years sooner,
and without sacrifices, to a happiness . . . which she could
recover only at the cost of fierce combats and great sufferings."
Happily in the history of a nation, as in the life of a man,
good often results from evil. This difficult struggle trained the
youth of Rome and retarded its decline ; l)ut " woe to him from
whom the offence came, and curses on those who destroyed ple-
beian liberty to the utmost of their power ! "

' Dionvs., iv. 43.

' *;;

M
H

o
a

CHANGES UNDER THE TPIEEE LAST KINGS.

251

The Tarquins, however, had extended their reputation far
and wide. Under her last kings Rome is no longer the obscure
city whose territory extends a few miles from her walls. The
treaty with Carthage, concluded in 509 b. c, the grandeur of the

THE CAPITOLINE HILL (RESTORATION OF CANINA).!

TEMPLE OF JUPITER
CAPITOLINUS.

city, the importance of her edifices, and her 150,000 fighting men ^

(whatever reduction we make from tliis figure), testify that she

then formed one of the most powerful states of

Italy. The Tiber was already bounded by quays,

and some of the foundations laid to support the

Capitol still exist.^ This temple, which was worthy

of Rome at the time of its grandeur, formed

an almost exact square of 200 feet on each side.*

A double colonnade surrounded it on three sides.

But the peristyle of the south, which faced the

Palatine, had a triple row of six columns. It stood on orie of the

two summits of the Tarpeian Hill, that on the northeast, at the

place where now stands the church of the Ara-Coeli ; the God who

held the thunderbolt has given place to the Child who holds the

cross, — il Bambino. But the church is turned the opposite way from

' On the position of the temple of Jupiter, which some place on the west, otliers at the
opposite extremity of the Capitoline Hill, see the discussion of Ampere, L'Histoire Romaine a
Rome, vol. ii. p. 59, seqq.

* This is the census of the year 496 ; but these figures are most probably exaggerated.
The census of 509 had only given 130,000 men, and that of 491 gave only 110,000. (Cf.
Dionys., v. 20, 75 ; vi. G5, 96.) These numbers, if they were exact, would certainly imply a
population of at least 600,000 souls.

2 It may be that those which are still seen only date from the war with Samnium.

* Vitruvius, iv. 7.

252

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the temple, which faced the Forum, and rose majestically above
it. Grace, however, was wanting to this majesty. With its short
columns and quadrangular form, without a corresponding elevation,
the temple of Jupiter had a heavy and stunted appearance.
This sanctuary well suited a nation of soldiers which laid so
great a burden upon the world.

Of all Ta'-qum's works, the most important was the Cloaca
Maxima. Its foundations were sunk deep under the earth, and

its numerous branches
brought the water and
mud from the low dis-
tricts of the city and
led them into the
Tiber. It was only
when this innnense
work had been finished
that the marshy plain ^
which extended between
the Seven Hills was
rendered healthy and
dry. Such was the height of the triple vaialt^ of the main
channel, which was built with long stones of peperino, laid with-
out cement, that Agrippa entered it m a boat, and Pliny asserts
that a cart-load of hay could have passed through it. Tradition also
speaks, as in the case of the great constructions of the Egyptian
kings, of the misery of the people condemned to such tasks.

The rule of Rome, however, was then extensive enough for
the greatness of the state to be shown by the magnificence of
its buildings. In the treaty concluded with Carthage in the very
year of the expulsion of Tarquin, which Polybius^ translated

CLOACA MAXIMA.

^ This plain formed the quarters of the Velahrum, the Suhum, the Forum Komanum, and
the Circus Maximus. This circus, whicli was 3^ stadia in lenjfth by 1 in width, could hold
150,000, or according to others, 3.S0,000 spectators.

■•^ The vaulting is formed by three concentric arches, and the diameter of it is 20 ft. It may
be remarked that the Greeks only began to use the vaulted arch at the time of Alexander,
although M. Heuzey saw many more ancient in Epirus and Acarnania. [Pausanias speaks
as if the ancient Minyan treasure-house at Orchomenus had been really arched with a keystone ;
but according to Schliemann's researches l;,e must have been mistaken. — Ed.']

3 III. 22. The authenticity of this treaty would, if necessary, be confirmed by the
account of Livy, which represents Tarquin as the recognized chief of the league of forty-seven

CHANGES UNDER THE THKEE LAST KINGS. 253

from the original, preserved in tlic archives of the aediles in the
Capitol, all the towns of the coast of Latium. Ardea, Antium,
Circei, Terracina, are mentioned as subjects of Rome. In the
interior of the country, Aricia obeyed her under the same title.
Sucssa Pometia had been captiu'ed, and Signia colonized. Between
the Tiber and the Anio, all the low Sabine country belonged to
her, and the stories al)out Porsenna prove that on the north of the
Tiber her frontier extended so far that ten of her thirty tribes
had their territory in Etruria. Even her navy, especially that of
her allies, was not without importance, since we can conclude
from the terms of the treaty that merchant vessels, which started
from the Tiber or the ports of Latium, traded as far as Sicily,
Sardinia, and Africa. It was doubtless the road to Egypt which
the Carthaginians wished to close against them, by forbidding to
Rome and her allies all navigation to the east of the Fair Prom-
ontory. The republican revolution cost her this dominion, which
it cost more than a century and a half to recover.

The Greeks, who represented Romulus to be a descendant of
Aeneas, Numa a contemporary of Pythagoras, and the successor of
Ancus to be the son of a Corinthian, illustrated the history of the
last Tarquin by stories copied from Herodotus. Thus Sextus enters
into Gabii like Zopyrus into Babylon, and the silent but singu-
larly expressive advice of Tarquin to his son is that of Thrasy-
bulus to Periander. Servius, they said, had honored the Grecian
Artemis b}' raising a temple to her on the Aventine ; Tarquin
honored the Hellenic Apollo by sending to Delphi an eml^assy,
which in the legend only serves to show the feigned -madness of
Brutus, — an echo, perhaps, of that of Solon. In fact this King's
character has been drawn after those of numerous tyrants whom
Greece experienced. Even his fall remains a problem. Was it
Lucretia, who, by her generous death, overturned the powerful
monarch whose sway so many cities obeyed, or was it not the
whole Roman people who revolted against a foreign master ?

It is difficult not to consider the time of the royalty of the

Latin towns. See Livy, i. 52; Dionys., ir. 48-49. [Mommsen, Rom. Hixl. i. 145, while
])roving from the Latin forms of Phoenician names the early date of the direct intercourse of
Rome and Carthage, disputes the date of this treaty, which he believes to have been much
later. But his opinion is much disputed by other scholars. — 2?f/.]

254

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

Tarquin as the period of an Etruscan rule, accepted or endured on
the shores of the Tiber, and the Rome of Tarquinius Superbus as
the capital of the most famous of the lucumonies. Being, as they
were, masters of Tuscany and of Campania, they must also have
been masters of Latium. Their influence at Rome is matter of
history only as concerns the arts and religious beliefs which they
carried thither ; it was probably by a conquest which Roman pride
was unwilling to remember, that this influence made itself felt.^
Sufficiently strong and numerous to impose their authority and
some of their customs, they had not the power to change the lan-
guage, the civil institutions, and the population, which remained
Latino-Sabine.^ The story of the greatness and of the fall of the
last of the Tarquins, and of the wars undertaken by the Etruscans
to re-estabhsh him on the throne, leads to the idea that the revolu-
tion of the year 510 was a national uprising, called out by some act
of insolence like the outrage upon Lucretia. The fortune of the
Rasena was everywhere on the wane. They had already lost the
plains of the Po, and were losing, or about to lose, those of Campa-
nia. This reaction of the native races reached Latium and the city
which was its most flourishing capital. In the exile of Tarquin,
therefore, we may see the fall of the great Tiberine lucumony and
the revival of the old Roman people.

1 [Cf. the interesting arguments of Gardthausen {Mastania, p. 5, seq.) to show the
domination of the Etruscans about 600 B. c, and the remains of Etruscan names among
the Latin towns. — EdJ}

ETRUSCAN SIDEBOARD.

CHAPTER V.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

I. Character of Ancient Roman Society.

NOTHING can be said of science, art, or literature in this
pei'iod. When Tarquin fell, Greek literature had finished
half its career, perhaps the most brilliant part. The best days
of at least the higher kmd of poetry had passed, and the works
of Solon, Simonides, and Anacreon were an early decadence ; but
Pindar, Aeschylus, Herodotus, and Thucydides were born or were
presently to appear. Thus, on one of the shores of the Adriatic
Greece had for centuries listened to her immortal singers, while
on the other literary genius was yet asleep. And it must be so,
because, if the Romans had a worship, they had not a religion, in
the sense of a mythology. Instead of the magnificent development
of the Greek theodicy and of those great [philosophical] systems
which explained the world, we only find at Rome dry rituals.
Those living and passionate divinities which, around the Aegean
Sea, shared human love and hate, were replaced about the Apen-
nines by sober gods, without adventures, without history, who
never cross the azure of the sky to betake themselves to the
mountain, bathed in dazzling light, where the Olympians of
Homer drink their nectar.

Rome doubtless had songs in honor of gods, kings, and heroes.
But these rude and short songs, and careless expression of passions
and recollections, were far beneath the clearly defined form which
individual genius stamps upon its work. Formerly the value
of popular songs was overlooked ; now it is exaggerated. For the
Romans especially, whose cold and severe character had neither

256 ' ROME UNDEil THE KINGS.

the natural entliusiasm of the Greeks nor their brilliant and lively
imagination, j^opular songs never could have been as rich in
details and color as the school of Niebuhr [or Macaulay's lays]
would make us believe. The language, moreover, was too poor
to be adapted to varied requirements : the fragment which remains
to us of a hymn of the Fratres Arvales shows of wliat little use
this rude instrument had hitherto been.

Carmen Arvale.

Enos, Lases, iuvate.

Neve lue rue, jMarmar, sins [?;. sers] incurrere in pleores.

Satur fu, fere Mars. Limen sali. Sta. Berber.

Semunis alternei advocapit conctos.

Enos, IMarmor, iuvato.

Triumpe.i

In royal Rome they merely knew how to engrave laws and
treaties on wood or bronze ; and the only works which are men-
tioned for that time are the collection of laws which Papirius
is believed to have made after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud
(jus Pajjirianum), and of the Commentaries of King Servius,
said to have contained his constitution.^ It is characteristic
that Latin was compelled to borrow from the Greek the words

![...." The hymn, though it has suffered in transliteration, is a good specimen
of early Roman worship, the rubrical, directions to the brethren being inseparably united

with invocation to the Lares and Mars The most ]irobable rendering is as follows:

' Help us, O Lares 1 and thou, Marmar, suffer not jjlague and ruin to attack our folk. Be
satiate, O fierce Mars ! Leap over the threshold. Halt. Now beat the ground. Call in
alternate strain upon all the heroes. Help us, Marmor ! Bound high in solemn measure.'
Each line was repeated thrice, the last word five times. As regards the separate words,
gno.i — which should, perhaps, be written e nos — contains the interjectional e, which else-
where coalesces with vocatives. Lase.t is the older form of Lares. Lue rue ==: litem ruem :
the last an old word for ru'mam, with the case-ending lost, as frequently, and the copula
omitted, as in Patres Conscriptl, etc. Marmar, Marmor, or Mamor, is the reduplicated
form of Mars seen in the Sabine Mamers. Sins is for sines, as advocapit for adoocabitis.
Pleores is an ancient form of piures, answering to the Greek TrXeioras in form, and to roiis
noWois, " the mass of the people," in meaning. Fu is a shortened imperative. Berber
is for verbere, imperative of the old verb verbero, is, as triumpe from triumpere = (riumphare.

Semunes from Semo (se-lwmo, apart from man), an inferior deity Much of this

interpretation is conjectural, and other views have been advanced with regard to nearly
every word; but the above given is the most probable." — Cruttwell : History of Roman
Literature, pp. 14, 15.]

2 Pomponius, Dii/. i. 2, 2, § 2 ; Dionysius, iii. 36 ; Cicero, pro Rabir, 5 ; Livy, i. 31,
n2, 60.

MAJSTNERS AND CUSTOMS.

257

for poet and poetry ; but it possessed those whicli have to do
with rustic life or with hardy and warlike manners. The common
treasury was at first a basket of wicker-work {fiscus) ; their
contract, a straw broken by the two contractors [stipula) ; their
money, a herd (pecus) ; a fine, as much milk as a cow gives
(mulcta, from miihjeo, to milk) ; war was a duel {helium, from
duellum) ; victory, the action of liinding the conquered {vincio,
to bind) ; and an enemy, the victim reserved for sacrifice "
iyictima) and hostia.

The arts were no lietter cultivated. If the walls of Rome
and the foundations of the Palatine were formed of squared
blocks which marked an advance on the polygonal structure of
the preceding age, huts covered the slopes about the seven
hills, and we can reconstruct their clumsy form when we see
the cinerary urns recently fomid under the lava of the Alban

CINERARY URNS,' REPRODUCING THE FORM OP THE COTTAGES CONSTRUCTED BY THE
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF LATIUM.

Mount. Montesquieu well observes : " We must not form the idea
of the city of Rome at its beginnmg from the towns of the
present da^-, unless it be those of the Crimea, made to contam
plunder, cattle, and the fruits of the soil." The town had not
even streets, unless we give this name to the continuation
of the roads which terminated therem. The houses were very
small or placed irregularly. Until the war with Pyrrhus these

1 Cinerary urns in terra-cotta, containing calcined bones, recently found under the
deepest lava of the Alban i\Iount, consequently of great antiquity, and reproducing the form
of the cottages- constructed by the most ancient inhabitants of Latium. (Revue arche'oloq..
May, 1876, p. 338.)

VUL. I.

258 ■ EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

houses were only covered with planks,^ which would give credence
to the tradition that after the burning of Rome by the Gauls
one year sufficed for its reconstruction.^

Athens converted her feasts into great national solemnities,
during which the highest pleasures of the mind were found
associated with the most imposing shows of religious processions,
of the most perfect art and of the fairest nature. Those of
Rome were the games of rude shepherds, or shouts of the
delighted crowd, when the soldiers entered the city with some
captives, sheaves of wheat, and the cattle taken from the enemy, —
a rustic festival, which time and the fortune of Rome will change
into that triumphal ceremony which is the continual ambition of
her generals and one of the causes of her greatness.

ETRUSCAN CUPS, AFTER MICALl'S MONUMENTS IN^DITS.

To the north and south of the Tiber, however, among the
Etruscans, Rutulians, and Volscians, the arts had already begun to
make way. Pliny saw at Caere and Ardea some paintings still
preserving all the freshness of their colors, which he regarded as
anterior in date to Rome. The numerous objects found in the second
of these towns prove that it had a regular school of artists.
Praeneste was also a city fond of works of art ; every day some

1 Pliny, Hisl. Nat. xvi. 15. * Plut., Cam. 32.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

259

eight
our

are discovered in its ruins. A tomb which is believed to have

belonged to the gens

Sylvia, from which

Romulus was said to

be descended, has just

yielded a treasure

which dates perhaps

from seven or

centuries before

era.

The Romans, who
adopted everything from
their neighbors, adopted
from them even the
statues of their divini-
ties ; but they them-
selves made none. For
a long time they rep-
resented the gods by a
naked sword, a lance,
or an unhewn stone.
For them, the place
where a thunderbolt
had fallen became a temple, pxiteaJ ;'^ the tree struck by lightning
a sacred object ; and from a handful
of baked earth they made their Lares
and Penates, whom they thought they

saw dancing in the flame on the hearth, ^o sT •^J ^^^^SifSS

Strange fortune of religious conceptions ! , , ,

° O 1 PUTEAL OF LIBO (SILVER COIN).'

Art, one of the elements of the human

trinity,* was born of the religions of India, Egj^t, and Greece,

Y?;<if/-

GROUP IN BRONZE RECENTLY FOUXD AT PALESTRINA

(PRAENESTE).l

1 Of course this group, like tlie Mercury on page 196, is of a relatively modern period.
We shall see later on a very curious cup, also found at Praeneste.

2 Puteal means the brink of a well. It was a stone enclosure surrounding a well or
consecrated [)lace. The puteal of Libo is often represented on the medals of the r/cnx Scribonia ;
it protected, according to some, a place in the Forum which had been struck by a thunderbolt ;
according to others, the place where Navius had performed his miracle. Scribonius Libo
having repaired it, gave his name to it.

' See Cohen, Mrd. Consul Aemilia, No. 10.
* The Good, the Beautiful, and the True.

260

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

where it grew and developed ; but it could not jDroceed from the
temjile of Jehovah, and on the soil of ancient Rome it always
remained a foreign importation.^ Even after the Tarquins, the
images of the gods, the work of Etruscan artists, were still made
only in wood or clay, like that of Jupiter in the Capitol, and
like the quadriga placed on the top of the temple. Etruria
also furnished the architects ^ who built the Roma quadrata of the
Palatine and constructed the first temples ; she provided even
the flute-players necessary for the performance of certain rites.

II. Private ]\Iannees.

All the activity of the Roman tended to a practical end, —
public affairs, agriculture, and domestic cares. Two words signified

THE PLOUGHMAN.*

for him all good qualities, all virtues,* — virtus et pictas ; that is to
say, courage, force, an immovable firmness, patience in work, and
respect for the gods, his ancestors, his fatherland, and his family,
for the established laws and discipline. Cicero well remarks,^

' This sterility of Judaea and Rome is, of course, only shown in plastic arts.

^ Fabris undique ex Etruria accitis. (Livy, i. 56 ; of. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 12.)

' After an engraved stone in the collection of Florence.

* Appellala est ex vivo virtus. (Cic, Tusc. ii. 18.) [The peculiar Roman (jravilas should
have been added. — Ed."]

^ Tusc. i. 1. Properly speaking, the originality of the Greeks exists especially in
political constitutions ; that of Rome in civil laws. Cicero says Qle Orat. i. 44), Incredible

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

261

without unduly flattering the national pride : " In sciences and
letters, the Greeks surpass us ; but there is more order and
dignity in our customs and conduct. Where else is there to be
found that severity of manners, that firmness, that greatness of
soul, that uprightness, that good faith, and all the virtues of our
fathers ? "

Their domestic life, in fact, was simple and austere : no
luxurj', no idleness ; the master ploughs with his slaves, the
mistress spurs in the midst of her women.^ Royalty, even wealth,
does not exempt from labor ; like
Bertha the Spinner, Queen Tanaquil^
and Lucretia set the example to the
Roman matrons. " When our fathers,"
says Cato, " desired to praise a man
of property, they called him a good
ploughman and a good farmer ; this was
the highest of eulogimns ^ [and on
many epitaphs noble women were praised
for chastity and diligent spinning].
Then men lived on their lands, in the
rustic tribes, which were the most
honorable of all, and they only came
to Rome on market days ^ or assembly
days. In the villa — a miserable cabin made of mud, rafters, and
branches — not a day, not a moment, was lost. If bad weather
prevented work in the fields, there was plenty to do at home in
cleaning the stables and the yard, in mending old ropes and old

est enim quam sit omne Jus civile, praeter hoc nostrum, inconditum ac paene ricliculum. He
went too far in this contempt for the civil laws of Greece, as is proved in numerous works
recently written upon the jurisprudence of Athens. We even find in the Digest the text of
the Athenian laws which were copied by the Romans.

1 Colum., (le Re rust. xii. praef.

2 At the time of Varro, they showed in the temple of Sancus her distaff and spindle, still
full, they said, of the wool which she spun. (Pliny, Hist. Nat. viii. 48.)

' Cato, de Re rust., praefat., and PI., ib. xviii. 3. The persons of most consideration in the
city were the locupletes loci, hoc est agri plenos, and the anniversary of the foundation of Rome
was celebrated on the 21st of April, the day of the feast of Pales, the guardian deity of flocks.

* Taken from a bas-relief at Rome, representing the arts of Minerva.

^ Nundinac, every nine days. After the year 287 the comitia could be convoked on
market-days. Nundinarum etiam conventus manifestum est propterea usurpatos,ut nonis tantum-
modo diebus urbanae res agerentur, reliquis adminisirarentur rusticae. (Colum., praef., and Macr.,
Sat. i. 16.)

A WOMAN SriNXIN'G.*

262

KOME UNDEE THE KINGS.

clothes ; even on feast days one can cut brambles, trim hedges,
wash the flock, go to the city to sell oil and fruits." ■* In order to
regulate the order of these country labors, calendars were after-
ward drawn up, which we have found, and which are the pre-
decessors of our almanacs.

Here follow the indications given by one of them for the
month of May : —

MENSIS

:\iAivs

DIES. XXXI
XON. SEPTBI

DIES. HOR. xnn s

NOX. HOR. Villi S

sol taitro
tutel apollin
seget rvncant
o^t:s tondvnt
lana lavatvr
ivvexci. domant
vicea. pabvlar

SECATVR

SEGETES

LVSTRANTVK

SACRYJI. INIERCVR

ET FL0RAE.2

The Month

of May
XXXI days.
The nones fall on the 7th day.
The day has 14 J hours.
The night has 9^ hours.
The sun is in the sign of Taurus.
The month is under the protection of Apollo.
The corn is weeded.
The sheep are shorn.
The wool is washed.
Toung steers are put under the yoke.
The vetch of the meadows

is cut.
The lustration of the crops
is made
Sacrifices to Mercury
and Flora.

Horace does not draw a more agreeable picture of ancient city
manners. " At Rome," he says, " for a long time a man knew no

other pleasure and no other festival than to
open his door at dawn, to explain the law
to his clients, and to lay out his money
on good security. They asked from their
elders, and taught beginners, the art of in-
creasing their savings and escaping ruinous
follies." * In this Italy, so full of super-
stitions, Cato will not have the farmer lose
sYi.\ ANUS.4 his time in consulting the aruspices, augurs,

' Verg., Gcnrq. i. 273 ; Colum., de Re rust. ii. 21, and Cato, dc Re rust. 39.

- This inscription (Corpus inscr. Lat. vol. vi. p. 637) is taken from the Calendarium rustir
cum Farnesianum, also called Menolofjium rusticum Colotianum ; it is a marble cube, bearing
on its four sides the indication of the works and festivals for each month.

3 Ep. ii. 1, 103-107.

* This bronze of Hadrian represents Sylvanus, the guardian of the rural domain, who for
this reason was associated with the Lares, dragging a ram and holding the pedum, or crooked

MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS. 263

and soothsayers ; he forbids him rehgious practices which would
take him away from his liome. His gods are on tlie hearth and
at the nearest cross-roads. The Lares, Manes, and Sylvani ai-e
sulhcient for the protection of the farm ; there is no need of
other gods.^

These laborious and economical habits, which introduced usury,
one of the plagues of Roman society, have been those of all agri-
cultural nations; but everywhere men forgot them to welcome the
guest who was sent by the gods, and hospitality was, even for the
poorest, a religious duty. Among the Romans, avarice and mis-
trust closed against the stranger the doors of the villa, which was
always surrounded with broad ditches and thick hedges, for useless
expenses must not be incurred ; nor was it ever right to give or
lend without gain,^ except on the great day of the festival of
Janus, the 1st of January, when everybody exchanged good wishes
and presents, strenae. The French have kept both the word and the
thing, etrennes. "The father of the family," said Cato, "must make
money of everything, and lose nothing. If he gives new brooms
to his slaves, they must return the old ones ; they will do for
pieces. He must sell the oil if it is worth anything, and what
remains of the wine and wheat ; he must sell old oxen, calves, old
carriages, old iron, old slaves and sick ones ; he must sell always.
The father of the family must be a seller, not a buyer." ^ Durum
genus !

The father of the family! It is always he who is mentioned,
for there is no one else in the house ; wife, children, clients, slaves,
— all are only chattels,* instruments of labor, persons without will
and without name, subjected to the omnipotence of the father. At
once priest and judge, his authority is absolute ; he alone is in com-
munication with the gods, for he alone performs the sacra privata,

staff of the shepherds. In front, there are a temple, a burning ahar, and a bird ; beliind, a tree,
which recalls the god of the woods. As the god cannot offer sacrifices to himself, and we see
neither the sacred knife nor the cup of libations, I should be inclined to think that they wished
to signify by this representation, that, thanks to Sylvanus, the altar would not lack the necessary-
victims.

* De Re rust. : Rem divinam nisi compitalibus, in compito aut in foco facial.

^ Satin semen, cibariajar, vinum, oleum, mutuum, dederet nemini. (Cato, de Re rust. 5.)
s Ibid. 2.

* Majicipia, hence emancipatio ; the}' are not sni, but alieni, juris, and cannot enter an
action. It is the father who answers for them or judges them.

264 • ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

and as master, he disposes of the powers and life of his slaves.
As husband, he condemns his wife to death ^ if she forges false
keys or violates her vow, and he is exempt, in her case, from the
religion of mourning, the piety of remembrance.^ As father, he
kills the child that is born deformed, and sells the others, as many
as three times, before losing his claims upon them. Neither age
nor dignities emancipate them. Though consuls or senators, they
may be dragged from the platform or the senate-house, or put to
death like that senator, an accomplice of Catiline, who was killed
by his father. If he is rich, he will lend at 12, 15, or 20 per cent.,
for the father of the family must turn his money as well as his
lands to account, and the law grants to him the liberty and even the
life of his insolvent debtor. Finally, at his death, neither his children
nor his wife can claim any of his goods, if he has bequeathed them to
a stranger ; for he has the right to dispose of his 7-es as he chooses.^
Nevertheless the city includes and rules the family. For the wish
of the father to be carried out, it is necessary for his will to be
accepted by the Curiae, and they do not like the patrimony to depart
from the family.

It is through women especially that manners change, that
families, classes, and fortunes mingle ; but in this society, so
severely disciplined, the woman, the changing element, remains
under guardianship* all her life. She belongs to the house, not to
the city, and in the house she always has a master, — her father
when she is a girl ; her husband when she is married ; her nearest
male agnate when she is a widow. One of the causes of the ruin
of Sparta was the right which Lycurgus had left to women of
inheriting and disposing of their goods.^ At Rome, if the woman

1 Dionys., ii. 25 ; PL, Hist. Nat. xiv. 13 ; Suet, Tib. 35 ; TsiC, Ann. xiii. 32 ; Hut., Rom.
22 ; /cXeiSui' xmojioXjj Er/natius Mecenius uxorem, quod vinum biliisset, fuati percussam inleremiC.
(Val. Blax., VI. iii. 9.) [But not, I fancy, without a family council. — Ed.]

" Uxorex viri lugerc non compeltentvr. — Sponsi nullus luclus est (Dig. iii. 2, 9) ; and else-
where, Vir non luget uxorem, nullam debei uxori religionem luctus.

' Uti legasset super pecunia, tutelave suae rei, ita jus esto. (Fr. XII. Tab.) Wills
had to be presented for the sanction of the Curiae or at the moment of setting out for
an expedition in procinctu (j;xercitus, expeditus, et armatus). (Ulp., Fr. xx. 2 ; Gaius,
ii. 101.)

■• Nullam ne privatum quidem, rem agere feminas sine tutore auctore . . . in manu esse
parentium, fratrum virorum. . . . (Cato, ap. Livy, xxxiv. 2.) The guardian had over the
ward the rights of the patria potestas. (Fest., s. v. Remancipata.')

» Arist., Polit. ii. G.

MANNEES AUD CUSTOMS. 265

obtained any share ^ in the heritage of her father or husband, she
could not, except in the case of the Vestals, in honoreni sacerdotii,
either transfer or bequeath it without the consent of her guardians,
that is to say, of her husband, brothers, or her nearest male relatives
on the paternal side, all interested, as her heirs, in preventing a
sale or a legacy. They had also the right of opposing ordinary
marriage (coemptio vel cohabitatio). The father only, by refusing
his consent, could prevent solemn marriage {confarreatio), ^ which,
in any case, did not take place between a plebeian and a patrician.
Placed under perpetual tutelage, she could confer no right, and the
relationship established by her had no civil effects ; the child followed
the father. In short, when she passed into another house, the
woman did not take the lares of the paternal hearth, for these
domestic gods never went to dwell under a strange roof. For her
there was another family, and other gods. " Marriage," said the
lawyers later, " is an association based on the community of the
same things, divine and human." ^

But, whether maid or matron, the woman was treated with
reverence. Marriage was a holy thing, consecrated by religion ;
and the mother of a family reigned alone by the side of her
husband in the conjugal dwelling, in which polygamy was pro-
scribed. Like him, she performed the sacred rites at the altar of
the Penates ; if he was a flamen, she became a priestess, flaminica ;
she alone had the right of wearing in the streets the stola, which
caused a matron to be recognized at a distance, and assured her
public respect.

The right of life and death given to the husband over his
wife was originally only applied in the case of patrician marriage
by confarreatio, the law not yet concerning itself with plebeian
unions. As soon as the betrothed had tasted of a symbolical cake
{far), passed under a cart-yoke, put the as in the balance,
on the Penates, on the threshold of the conjugal house, and pro-
nounced the formula, JJhi tu Gaius, ego Gaia, she fell, according

The share of a child, TcXevTTjo-ayros tov dvdpos KXrjpovofios iyiviro to)V ^prjfidroyv as dvydrrfp
TroTpiis. (Dionys., ii. 25.)

- Dionysius says of this sort of union that it took place Kara vaiiovs Upois.

' Nuptiae sunt conjunctio maris et feminae consortium omnis vitae, divini et humani Juris
comtnunicatiu. (Dig. x.xiii. 2, 1.) Uxor socia humanae rei alque divlnae. (Cod. ix. 1)2, 4.)

266 ■

EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

to the hard expression of the law, into the hand of her husband {in
manum viri), and her dowry became, like her person, the property

(res) of her husband.^ The XII.
Tables grant the same rights to
the plebeian marriage when it
has lasted a year without inter-
ruption, usu amii continui in
manum conveniehat.

In case of divorce, the hus-
band kept the dowry. But in
this age of harsh and austere
manners, divorce was unknown,^
and the matrons had not yet
raised that temple to Modesty
whose doors were closed against
the woman who had twice offered
the sacrifices of betrothal.

Customs and beliefs, on the
contrary, made almost a necessity
of divorce, when the marriage
remained barren. For it was
not the union of two hearts,
but the accomplishment of a
civil and religious obligation, — to
give new defenders to the city
and perpetuate for the domestic
gods the rites of the hearth —
for the ancestors, the honors of
the tomb. When a family dis-
appeared, they said, " It is a
®^°^'^' hearth extinguished."

Aristocratic associations insured to the future head of the
family — the eldest son — greater advantages than to his brothers.

1 Omnia quae muUeris fuerunt, virafiunt, doth nomine. (Cic, pro Cnccina.)

2 Distinctive garment of Roman matrons. Taken fi-ora tlie Mus. Borhon. iii. pi. 37.

^ The first divorce mentioned bj' the Annals, that of Sp. Carvilius, is in the year of
Rome 520 (233). " He separated from his wife," says Aulus Gellius (IV. iii. 2), "although
he loved her much, because he could not have (-hildren by her."

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 2(57

Roman law did not go so far as proclaiming the riglit of primo-
geniture, which proceeds from a principle unknown to antiquity, —
the indivisibility of the fief, — for it was too much preoccupied with
the absolute power of the father to limit his rights in anything ;
but in leaving him the free disposition of his goods, it permitted
him, in the interest of his house, to settle a greater portion on the
eldest of his children.-' These rights of the father, however, being
once reserved, Roman law ordained, in case of decease without will,
equal division among all the children. This entirely democratic
clause, after having enfeebled the patrician aristocracy, enabled
the lawyers of the Middle Ages to make a breach in the feudal
system.

Such is the law of the Quirites, jus Quiritium, and we find
here the triple basis on which rests this society, so profoundly
aristocratic, — the inviolability of property, of land, or of money ;
the unlimited rights, and the religious character of the head of the
family.^

m. Public Mantsters.

The rights of parental authority were likely to produce docile
subjects. Having become a citizen, the son transferred from his
father to the state the same respect and the same obedience. It is
a characteristic of small societies that patriotism varies inversely with
the extent of territory, and is stronger in proportion as the enemy's
frontier is nearer. For then the man belongs mpre to the state
than to his famil}'. He is rather a citizen than husband or father,
and domestic affections are postponed to love of the native soil and
its laws. To serve the state was the first law of the Romans ; and
in the Dream of Scipio, that lialf-Christian essay, immortality
is promised only to great citizens. By these causes is explained

I Thus, in Greek mythology, Hercules is submissive to Eurystheus.

^ Dionysius (ii. 26) contrasts the prodigious extension at Rome of the patrin pntrxtas
with the narrow limits in which Solon, Pittakos, Charondas, and all the Greek legislators
had confined it. At Kome the father was everything in the family, as the state was
everything in the city. This severe organization proves that at first the most rigorous
discipline had been necessary to insure its safety, and that some trace of it was left in tho
gentes.

268 EOME UNDER THE KINGS.

the respect of the plebeians for institntions, even when they were
opposed to them, and those secessions, unaccompanied by pillage,
those bloodless revolutions, that pacific progress which took place
gradually in constitutional ways. Hence come, too, in ordinary
life, the submission to old customs and to the letter of the
law, on which it would be sacrilege to put a new construction, —
that blind faith in the incomprehensible formulae of worship and
jurisprudence, and the authority, so long recognized, of the acta
legitima.

The word religion signifies bond [or obligation]. In no
other country, in no other times, has this bond been so strong
as at Rome ; it united the citizens to one another and to the
state. As the Romans saw gods everywhere ; as all nature, sky,
earth, and water was to them full of divinities who watched over
human beings with benevolent or jealous eyes, there was no act
of life which did not require a prayer or an offering, a sacrifice
or a purification, according to the rites prescribed by the ministers
of religion. This piety, being the offspring of fear, was all
the more attentive in observing signs considered favorable or
the reverse ; so that everything depended on religion, — private life,
from the cradle to the tomb, public life, from the comitia to the
field of battle ; even business and pleasure.^ Games and races were
celebrated in honor of the gods ; the people's songs were hymns,
their dances a prayer, their music, uncouth but sacred harmonies;
and, as in the Middle Ages, the earliest dramas were pious
mysteries. By the continual intervention of the pontiffs, who
knew the necessary rites and sacred formulae, by that of the
augurs, aruspices, and all the interpreters of omens, this religion,
devoid of dogmas and of clergy, of ideal and of love — made up
of silly superstitions, like that of some of their descendants — was
yet a great force of cohesion for the state and a powerful dis-
cipline for the citizens.

No people — some famous examples notwithstanding — ever pushed
so far the religion of the oath. Nothing could take place — raising
of troops, division of booty, lawsuits, judgments, public affairs, pri-
vate affairs, sales, contracts, or anything else — without the swearmg

1 Livy well says (vi. 41): Aur^piciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis hello ac pace
domi miUtiaeque omnia geri, quis est qui ignoret?

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 2G9

of either fidelity and obedience or of justice and good faith, the
gods being called upon to bear witness to the sincerity of the
parties. At sales the purchaser, in the presence of five citizens
of full age, put the bronze, the price of the purchase, into a
balance held by the Uhripens, and touching with his hand the land,
the slave, or the ox which he was Jjuying, said : " This is mine,
according to the law of the Quirites ; I have paid for it in copper
duly weighed." This right of selling or buying by mancij^ation^
{manic eapere, to take with the hand), without the intervention of
a magistrate and without written receipt, was one of the privileges
of the Quirites, and doubtless one of their most ancient customs.
It explams the importance of that law, — Utl lingua nuncupassit,
ita jus esto, such as the word is, so is the right, — which pene-
trated so far into the Roman habits that it made them the most
faithful of all nations to their word, but to the literal word, to
the actual sense, even should good faith be impaired thereby. Thus
for a loan it was necessary to say : Dari sjjo^ides ? Dost thou
promise the gift ? And the lender must reply : Spondeo, I under-
take to do so. Should either of the two change one of these
words, there was no longer any contract, no creditor or debtor ; and
if the money had been delivered it was lost. A man brings into
court a neighbor who has cut his vines, and produces against
him the terms of the law ; but the law speaks of trees, he
says vme — the suit cannot proceed. The leaders oi a sedition,
seeing that the soldiers are hindered from joining by the oath
they have sworn to the consuls, propose to kill the latter.
" When they are dead," say they, " the soldiers will be free
from their oath." At the Caudine Forks the generals give the
Samnites a verbal promise ; but there is not, as is necessary to
bind two nations, any treaty concluded by the fetiales with the
sacred herb, and consecrated by the sacrifice of a victim, there-
fore the agreement is, as regards religion, invalid, and the Senate
annuls it.^

This servile attachment to les-al forms came from the relierious

' All objects of property were divided into res mancipi (lands, houses, slaves, oxen, horses,
mules, asses), and res nee mancipi. The possession of the latter was transmitted by tlie simple
dehvery to the purchaser. For the others, the formahties just described were necessary.

- Livy, ii. 32.

270 ' ROME UNDER THE KINGS.

character of the law and from the belief imposed l^y the doctrine
of augury, that the least inadvertence in the accomplishment of
rites was sufficient to alienate the good will of the gods. Con-
suls were often obliged to resign on account of some negligence
committed in the consultation of omens.'^ How often did religion
itself suffer thereby, when by clever evasions the Romans deceived
their gods with an easy conscience !

The principal occupation of the Romans was agriculture ; for
the small amount of manufacture then at Rome, save a few
trades necessary to the army, was abandoned to the poor citizens
and strangers.^ But agriculture did not enrich the small pro-
prietor; it was well when it yielded him a livelihood, and he was
not forced, in order to supply a deficiency of the crops, to draw
on the rich man's purse, — to have recourse to the fatal assistance
of the usurer. In later times the usurer was a plebeian knight or
a freed man. At this epoch he was almost always a' patrician,^
for to the incomes derived from their estates the patricians united
the profits of maritime commerce, wliich they had perhaps reserved
to themselves. The insolvent debtor had no pity to expect, for
movable property was as strictly protected as landed property.
" If he pay not," said the law, " let him be , cited into court.
If illness or age hinder, let him be provided with a horse, but not
a litter. The debt being acknowledged and judgment given, let
there be thirty days' grace. If he still fails to pay, the creditor
shall cast him into the ergastulum, bound with straps or chains
weighing 15 pounds. At the end of sixty days let him be
produced on three market days and sold beyond the Tiber. If
there be several creditors, they may divide his body ; it matters
not whether they cut more or less." * This was a dangerous and

1 Plutarch, Marcel t. 5.

2 To Numa, however, is attributed the formation of nine corporations (Phit., Numa, 17) :
the flute-players, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, turners, copj)er-workers, and
potters ; all the other artisans were united in a single corporation.

^ Dionys., iv. 11; Livy, vi. 36. Nobiles doinos . . . uhicumque palricius hahltct, ibi carcerem
privatum esse.

* . . . Secanto. si plusve minusve secuerunt, se (for sine) fraude esto. (Frag, of XII.
Tables.) It may possibly be that in the fifth century before our era, the sectio no longer referred
to more than the price of the sold delitor ; but for earlier ages it must certainly be taken in its
literal .sense, although, according to Dion. (Frag, xxxii.), who knows nothing of it, it was never
practised.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 271

impolitic cruelty, for the crowd could not always remain indiifer-
ent to the sight of a corpse, or the appearance in the Forum of
a man of tlie people half dead under the lash for the sake of
a little money which he could not pay.

To sum up, the history of the early age of Rome shows us
a cold and melancholy people, eager for gain, disdaining the
ideal which returns no interest — without fire, without youth. But
this nation, which seems never to have lived its teens, owed to
its origin, and the circumstances of its historic existence, the
most severe discipline in the family, in religion and in the
state. If during centuries it never knew aught of poetry or
art, it had more than any other the sentiment of duty : its
citizens knew how to obey. That is why, in later times, they
knew how to command. Moreover, the aristocratic constitution
which resulted from its customs permitted it to be prudent in designs
and persevering in action ; and a military organization, already
excellent, henceforth provides it with the means of carrying out
everything which it undertakes. When the endless strifes of the
Forum and the outer world come, it can apply itself to them
with the energy which insures victory, with the political ability
which preserves the state.

* The Lares, each holding a rod and caressing a dog; above, a head of Vulcan, and
pincers ; on the right and left the letters LA RE (Lares). Reverse of a silver coin of the
Caesian family.

L. CAE31.1

SECOND PERIOD.

ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS (509-367 b. c).

STRUGGLES WITHIN — WEAKNESS WITHOUT.

CHAPTER VI.

INTERNAL HISTORY TEOM 509 TO 470.

I. Aristocratic Character of the Revolution of 509 :

The Consulship.

THE Kings of Rome had not been more fortunate than the
Caesars were afterward. Of seven of them, five liad died,
as so many Emperors did, a violent death. The reason was that
both liad the same enemy, — a powerful aristocracy. Moreover,
the abolition of royalty is a very common historical incident.
Throughout the whole Graeco-Italian world, the kings of the
heroic age give place sooner or later to the nobles, who, at
Rome, were called patricians. Superbus does not, perhaps, merit
the reputation that legend has affixed to him ; but the nobles
did not wish for another chief who could,, like Servius, prepare
for political life the crowd of plebeians whom they held in sub-
jection, or, like Tarquin, strike off the higher heads. They replaced
the King by two consuls or praetors, chosen from their midst and
invested with all the rights and all the insignia of royalty, except
the crown and the purple mantle worked with gold.

At once the ministers and presidents of the Senate, — adminis-
trators, judges, and generals, — the consuls had sovereign power,

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470.

273

CONSUL BETWEEN

TWO LAUREL-
CROWNED FASCES.-

regium imperium^ but only for one year. In the interior of the
city the nol^les did not allow them both to exercise the prero-
gatives of their magistracy at the same time. Each had the
authority, and the twelve lictors with their fasces, for a month.
If they differed in opinion, the opposition of one, intercessio,
arrested the decisions of the other, — a con-
servative measure ; for the interdict prevails over
the command, that is, the old order prevails
against the new. For a sudden attack on the
institutions they would have needed a military
force ; now Rome had no soldiers but her citi-
zens, and no one could appear in arms within
the pomerium. As the consuls were responsible
for their acts, they were exposed, on quit-
ting office, to formidaljle accusations. Thus the
royal authority was divided, without being weak-
ened ; it remained strong without the power of
again becommg dangerous, since it was renewed
yearly ; and by the intercessio it was self-re-
straining. But should a danger arise demanding
the rapid concentration of power, it reappeared complete in the
dictatorship.

The nobles did not desire that the revolution should extend
to the gods. Custom required that certain sacrifices should Ijc
offered by a king, so they appointed a rex sacrorum to perform
them ; but all ambition was forbidden him, he was declared
incapable of filling any other office.

Finally, the centuries of Servius were re-established, or
became for the first time the great political assembly of the
Eoman people, under guaranties which prevented all encroach-
ment. In memory of their early character they met outside the

* Uti consules potestatem Jiaherent . . . regiam. (Cic, de Rep. ii. 32.) Livy (i. GO) says
that the consuls were elected ex Commentariu Servi TuUi.

^ Consular coin of Cn. I'iso. The fasces, the insignia of victory, were surrounded with
wreaths of laurel; the victor and his soldiers wore laurel too, for it was considered a pre-
servative against evils, and a guaranty against the shocks of Fortune, which is wont to strike
more particularly at happy people. This coin, given by iMorell, after Goltzius,.is no longer
to be found in any collection.

' Consular coin of C. Norbanus : a fasces with an axe, a caduceus, and an ear of wheat.

VOL. I. 18

274 ' EOME UNDEll THE TATKICIAN CONSULS.

pomerium, in the Field of Mars, not at the call of the lictors,
like the comitia of the Curiae, but at the sound of the trumpet.
Before they met it was necessary to consult the auspices, so that
religion kept them in dependence on the patrician augurs. The
convocation must be aimounced thirty days beforehand {dies justi),
that none might be unaware of it ; and to avoid all chance of
surprise by the enemy, a red flag floated over the Janiculum,
which a picket occupied while the comitia lasted.^

The government really remained in the hands of the
patricians. They were masters of the Senate, the supreme council
of the city, wherein most of the propositions afterward laid before
the comitia must first be discussed, and they were predominant in
the assembly of centuries l>y their wealth and the number of
their clients. If any plebeians, who had by their fortune reached
the highest classes, threatened to render the vote of the centuries
unfavoraljle, the patrician magistrate, who presided over the
comitia, could always, by means of the augurs, break up the
assembly or annul its decisions ; or, if ill omens failed, cause a
popular resolution to be rejected by the Senate.

Rome had, then, an upper house, which discussed the law
twice, once before and once after it had been laid before the
comitia, and a lower house, composed of the whole people, which
voted, but did not discuss. It was somewhat like our three
readings. But the largest share of influence was accorded to
maturity of mind and to experience in public affairs, since by
its preliminary authorization the Senate had the initiative in
]3roposing laws, and, by their right of confirmation or rejection,
the power to arrest the proceedings of a magistrate who had
presented to the comitia, and caused them to pass, a revolu-
tionary bill.

All was done with the same precautions in the elective
comitia : the president proposed to the people the candidates
whom the Senate and the augurs preferred, and the assembly

^ Livy, xxxix. 15 . . . nisi quum vexillo in arce posito comitiorum causa exercitus cduclus
csnet. Cf. Aulus Gellius, XV. 27 ; Dionys., vii. 59. . . . &o-7rfp txTroXf/iia), andMacrob., 5a^ i. 16.
The comitia could be held only on set days, dies fasti, during which it was allowable
to engage in state affairs. There were about 190 of these days in the year. The dies ncfasti,
or ferial days, were those on which religion closed the tribunals and forbade all public trans-
actions. (Varro, de Ling. Lai. vi. 29 ; Festus, s. v. Dies comitiales.)

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470. 275

could only vote on these names. If a flatterer of the masses
succeeded in obtaining a nomination displeasing to the great, the
assembly of the Curiae, composed of patricians only, had the right
of refusing to grant the chosen magistrate the imperium, — that is,
the powers necessaiy for the exercise of his office ; ^ and this
assembly also formed the supreme tribunal of the city.^

It was really, then, the patricians who made the laws and
appointed to public offices, all of which they themselves filled,
Jus honorum. They held the priesthood and the auspices ; they
were priests, augurs, and judges ; and they carefully hid from the
eyes of the people the mysterious formulae of public worship and
of jurisprudence. Finally, they alone had the jus imaginum, which
fed the hereditary pride of family, while at the same time the
prohibition of marriages between the two orders seemed likely to
bar forever the people's access to the positions held by the nobles,
and entry into that Senate which was their foi'tress. ^

B;it the plebeians had in their favor their numbers, and even
their very misery, which soon drove them into successful revolt.
They were no longer a stranger people, they were a second order
in the State, which grew iinobserved and unceasingly in face of
the other, and which the patricians were obliged to arm in order
to resist Tarquin, the Aequi, Volsci, and Etruscans. This assist-
ance must earn its reward. Already the people had received
judges of their own, who decide in most civil suits, and religious
festivals, at which the assembled plebeians could reckon their
numbers ; and it was from the military centuries, or the two orders
united, that the nomination of the consuls* proceeded, as Servius
TuUius is said to have proposed. Henceforth the comitia centu-
riata makes the laws which the Senate proposes, and the elections
which the Curiae confirm, and decides for peace or war. These
serious innovations satisfied popular ambition for the time, for the

1 Ut pauca per popuhim, pleraque Senatus auctoritate . . . gererentur . . . Populi comitia,
nc essent rata, nisi ca patrum approhamsset auctoritas. (Cic. de Hep. ii. 32.) Ergo . . . nee
cenluriatis, nee curiatis comitiis patres anctores Jiant. (Livy, vi. 41.)

^ It will be seen further on that it was the XII. Tables which gave the centuries their
high criminal jurisdiction.

* . . . Servili imperio patres plehem exercere, de vita atque tergo regio more consulere, agru
pcllere et ceteris expertibus soli in imperio agere. (Sail. Uist.fr. i. 11.)

* Dionys., v. 2.

276 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

plebeians saw men of their own order in the first classes, and
patricians in the last, like Cincinnatus, who, after his son's law-
suit, had only six acres of land for his own property.'

The Eonian plebs was not, however, like that populace
of great cities which is seen chafing, struggling, and calming
down at random, — a blind force, which only becomes formidable
when it finds a leader. The plebeians, too, had their nobility,
their old families, and even royal families ; for the patricians of
conquered towns, like the Mamilii, the Papii, the Cilnii, and
Caecinae in later times, had not all been received into the
Roman patriciate. Other families, of patrician origin, but whom
circumstances unknown to us drove out of the Curiae or hindered
from entering them — the Virginii, the Genucii, the Menii, the
Melii, the Oppii, the Metelli, and the Octavii, placed themselves
at the head of the people ; and these men, who could vie in
nobility with the proudest senators, by joining their fortunes with
the order into which they had been driven, furnished the plebs
with ambitious leaders, and its efforts with skilful direction.^ As
the price of the help afforded to the nobles against Tarquin, they

1 Val. Max., IV. iv. 7.

- The lletelli claimed descent from Caeculus, son of Vulcan and founder of Praeneste.
They were plebeians, and yet Livy calls them patricians (iv. 4). The f/ens Furia, on the other
hand, was patrician, yet he calls the Furii plebeians (ix. 42 and xxxix. 7) ; the Melii and INIenii
were plebeians : he calls them patricians (v. 12) ; the Virginii (v. 29) and the Atilii (iv. 7) were
patricians : he makes them plebeians (v. 13, and x. 23) ; the Cassii, Oppii, and Genucii are in like
manner called bj' turns patricians and plebeians, consuls and tribunes. One branch of the gens
Sempronia, the Atratini, are patricians; another branch, the Gracchi, are plebeians. The e.x-
planation of this peculiarity, which occurs too often to be due to an error on the part of Livy,
may perhaps be found in the supposition that, out of regard for [traditional] numbers (see
p. 189), there remained outside the original Senate certain families who were yet held in as high
consideration as those whose cliiefs, having become senators, conferred on their descendants the
name of patricians. In that case the Curiae must have comprised families which had theausjnces,
all the rights of the sovereign class of citizens, and admission to office, without being patrician,
and yet not plebeian. When two orders only came to be recognized in the city, some of
these families re-entered the aristocratical body ; others must have been thrown back upon the
people, whose strength they constituted. Members of these uncertain families may have even
been placed by the censors on the list of the Senate. Tliis would explain the phrase of Livy
(v. 1 2) about the plebeian Licinius Calvus, before the year 36 7 b. c. : vir nuUis ante lionorihus usus,
lyelus iantum senator. Dionys. (Frag, xlvi.) asserts that it was through fear of tribunitian accusa-
tions (see p. 164) that some patricians had caused themselves to be inscribed among the plebeians.
The reason is a poor one ; for an adoption was necessary in order to change one's family, and
in that case the person adopted took the name of the adoj)ter. Whatever explanation is
accepted, however, this much is certain, and we only insist on this important point, that there
were, either between patricians and people, or at the head of the people, noble and wealthy
families interested in overthrowing the distinction between the two orders.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470. 277

had obtained the enforcement of the constitution of Servius.
Hereafter they will extort further concessions ; for Etruria is
arming in the King's cause, and behind the Veientines and
Tarquinians may be already seen the preparations of Porsenna.
A common misfortune may bring the two orders nearer by
humbling the military pride of the nobles.

Aristocracies die out when they are not renewed, especially
in military republics, where the nobles are found in the first
ranks of battle, and pay for their privileges with their blood.
Decimated by warfare and by that mysterious law of development
in the human species which causes the extinction of old families, ^
every aristocracy which does not receive recruits from without
its pale is soon exhausted and destroyed by the action of time
alone. The 9,000 Spartans of Lycurgus were no longer more
than 5,000 at Plataea, fewer still at Leuctra and at Sellasia.
But the nobility of Rome never closed its " golden book."
Under Tullus the great families of Alba, under Tarquin a hun-
dred new members, had lieen admitted to the Senate. After the
abolition of royalty, the fathers felt the need of strengthening
themselves by drawing towards them all the men of
consideration in the city to whom the Curia had hitherto
been closed.^ Brutus or Valerius restored the Senate
to the usual niimber of 300 members, as it had been
deprived of many by the cruelty of Tarqum and the ^^^^^
exile of his partisans.^ At the same time the Senate sentixg

BRUTUS.*

distributed among the people the lands of the royal

domain, abolished cvistoms, and lowered the price, of salt,^ — a clever

* The pestilences so frequent at Rome also contributed to the extinction of families. After
the plague of 462 B. C, which carried off both the consuls, several patrician families disappear.
After that epoch there is no mention of the Lartii, Cominii, and Numicii, and we no longer,
or only rarely, meet with patricians of the name of TuUius, Sicinius, Volumnius, Aebutius,
Herminius, Lucretius, and Mcnenius.

'^ I cannot possibly admit the strange theory, originating in Germany, of the constitution,
after the year 509, of a plebeio-patrician Senate. The whole internal history of Rome up to
367 B. c. protests against this supposition.

^ The exiles were so numerous that they fought in separate bodies. (Dionys., v. 0.) A
passage in Cicero (de Rep. i. 40) shows that there was a violent reaction against the friends
of tlie last King.

* Denarius of the Junian family.

* Livy, ii. 9. For these proceedings Brutus had re-established, or caused to be confirmed
by the Curiae, the quaestors established by the kings. (Tac., Ann. xi. 22.) Plutarch refers
their creation to Valerius.

278

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

move in two ways, for by satisfying the ambition of the chiefs, it
separated them from the masses, which remained without leaders,
while at the same time it interested the latter, by increasing their
material welfare, in the cause of the nobles.

To the first year of the Republic, too, are said to belong the
laws of Valerius, who, being left sole consul for some time after the

death of Brutus, exercised a kind
of dictatorship, and made use of it
to pass laws which the intercessio of
a colleague would perhaps have pre-
vented. These laws punished with
death whosoever should aspire to
r»yalty, and authorized disobedience
to a magistrate who should con-
tinue his office beyond the ap-
pointed term. He caused the fasces
to be lowered before the popular
assembly, and recognized its sover-
eign jurisdiction by carrying the
law of appeal (provocatio),^ which
was to Rome what the habeas corjms
has been to England. In order to
show clearly that the power of life
and death was taken away from
the consuls, he took the axes out
of the fasces within the city and
within a mile of its walls. Beyond
that they were restored to the lictors, for the consuls on passing
the first milestone^ recovered that unlimited power which was

1 Neque enim])roi-ocationem longiusesse ah urlie miUejmssutim. (Livy, iii. 20.) " Thiswas,"
says Cicero (de Rep. ii. 31), " the first law voted by the centuries." The appeal forbade eum
qui provocasset virgis caedi securique necari. (Livy, x. 9.) Compare Val. Max., iv. 1, and Cic,
de Rep. ii. 31. Dionysius (v. 19) extends the prohibition to fines. But if this occurred, it
could only be after the decemvirate. There is attributed to Valerius, too, a law which would
throw open the candidature for the consulship. 'YTrnTeiai' cfirnxf fitTuvm koi irapayyiWdv tois
/3ovXn^eVoir. (Plut., Popl. ii.) It is, of course, understood that this refers only to jiatricians who
might demand of the Senate or consuls to be inscribed on the list of candidates.

^ The value of the Roman mile is about 1G15 yards (1481.75 metres). Upon the roads which
issued from Rome, each mile was marked by a numbered post, and the distances counted from the
gate of the circuit wall of Servius. Tlie post represented by the engraving, after a restoration
of Canina, was the first upon the Appian Way. It is much later in date than our present epoch,

• I?-

A MILESTONE.

INTEENAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470. 279

as necessary to tliem in the army as it was dangerous in the
city.

Thus the patricians and the plebeians remained two distinct
orders, widely separated by the inequality of their condition: the
one, descendants of the early conquerors and guardians of the
ancient worship; the other, a mixed mass of men of all kinds of
origins and religions, long kept in subjection by the ruling people,
the Quirites, and still placed, as having neither the same blood nor
the same gods, under the insulting prohibition against inter-
marriage with patricians. Fortunately the assembly of centuries
united them in a single people, and this union saved them. At
first, it is true, it benefited only the patricians, who appropriated
the lion's share of the royal spoils. But the plebeians little by
little forced them to an equitable division. The establishment of
the tribuneship was their first and surest victory; for before at-
tacking they must learn how to defend themselves.

II. The Tribunate.

At Rome, as at Athens, and in all the states of antiquity
wherein handicrafts did not support the poor people of free con-
dition, debts were the primary cause of democratic revolutions.
Rome, being an exclusively agricultural state, would have needed,
in order to profit by the advantages of that condition, a long period
of peace or a vast territory, which might save the greater portion
of the land from undergoing the ravages of war. Now warfare
was constant, and after the conquest of Porsenna and the rising
of the Latins, the frontier was so near the town, that the lands of
the enemy might be seen from the top of the walls.'' There was,
then, neither repose nor safety to be had ; whence it resulted that
everywhere there was crowding and bad husbandry. Called to
arms every year, the plebeian neglected his little farm ; moreover

as it bears the names of Vespasian and of Xerva. Tlie use of these posts must be much more
ancient than Gracchus, who is supposed to have estabUshed them. (PUit., C. Gmcc. G-7.)
The post was at first a rough-hewn stone, which, by degrees, in the vicinity of Kome and
large towns, assumed the shape of a monument.

1 For the mihtary history of this epoch, see ne.xt chapter.

280 ' ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

he must eqiiip himself at his own expense, provide his own food
in war time, and yet pay the tax, which was relatively heavier for
the poor than the rich, because, being based upon landed property,
it did not allow for the debts of the one class or the credit of
the other. But if the war was not successful; if the enemy, who
could in a single day traverse the whole territory of the Republic,
came and cut down the crops and burned the farms ; if to the
pillage of the people of Latium and the Sabine land there were
added inclemency of weather, — how was the farmer to support his
family or rebuild his burned home ?

There were means of coming to some understanding with the
gods. A temple was promised, it might be to some foreign deity
whom they felt guilty of having neglected ; or they offered a
sacrifice, and thought they had set themselves right with the
celestial powers. Thus, a famine having broken out during the
Latin war, the dictator Postumius promised a sanctuary to a
Greek divinity, Demeter, who caused the fruitfulness of the
Campanian plains, whence the Senate, no doubt, procured corn. She
took, on the banks of Tiber, the name of an old Etruscan deity,
Ceres ; ^ and to minister at her altar a woman was summoned from
Naples or Velia, who on her arrival received the rights of citizen-
ship, because a Roman tongue only could invoke the gods in favor
of Rome.

The usurer's account was a more difficult matter to settle.
All the hard-earned savings went fii'st, then the booty won in pre-
vious campaigns, and finally the hereditary patrimony, — the last
pledge on which the poor man had raised a loan at an enormous
rate of interest. Thus a great number of plebeians had, within
a few years after the expulsion of the kings, become the debtors
of the wealthy, like their descendants, the peasants of the Roman
Campagna, who, ruined by usury and monopolies, sell their crops
before they have been sown. But the wealthy were to be found
especially among the patricians. Being possessed of vast estates,
and holding the lands of the public domain, which, as it was usually
left for pasturage, had little to fear from the enemy's ravages,
they could still export to foreign countries the wool of their flocks

1 Servius, ad Aen. ii. 325. The name Ceres has no meaning in Latin.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470.

281

and the produce of their land. Their fortune was less dependent
on a bad season or a hostile incursion. Thus they always had
money for that lucrative business^ which brought in more than
the best land or the most dogged work. At Rome, as at Athens
before the time of Solon,
and as in all the ancient
states of Asia and the
North, the law assigned
to the creditor the liberty
and life of the debtor ; it
was a pledge, a mort-
gage held on his person.
If the debtor did not ful-
fil his obligations within
the legal period, he be-
came nexus,^ that is to
saj^, he bound his person
to pay his debt by labor.
He was not a slave ; but
his creditor could impose
servile duties upon him,
and even keep him im-
prisoned in the ergastu-
lum. His children, unless
he had previously eman-
cipated them, shared his
fate, for they were his
property; and his prop-
erty, like his person,
belonged to his creditors
imtil he had freed himself from his debt.

It was not necessary that many plebeians should find them-
selves under the action of this severe law, to cause a widespread

* Usury was a national vice at Rome. Polybius knew this so well, that he honors
Scipio for not having been guilty of it (xxxii. fr. 8). We know that Cato the Censor
carried on the most disreputable form of it, — maritime usury ; and we see in Plutarch the
parsimony of Crassus, notwithstanding his immense fortune.

^ See page 31. The ncnun was tlie verbal agreement undertaken by the creditor, in the
presence of witnesses, to p.ay back the loan.

CEKES rOUND AT OSTIA IN 1856.
VATICAN.)

(museum of the

282 KOME UNDER THE PATPvICIAN CONSULS.

irritation ; its very existence was sufficient. The people soon saw-
that the revolution had merely substituted patrician for royal
authority ; and they conceived a violent hatred for these haughty
masters, who treated them with the violence they themselves had
suffered at the King's hands.^ At first they peaceably demanded
the abolition of debts ; then they refused to obey the conscription
for service against the Latins. The situation seemed so critical to
the Senate that they revived royalty with all its power for a time.
Tn 501 B. c. they created the dictatorship, the powers of which
were unlimited. Elected, on the invitation of the Senate, by
one of the consuls, and chosen from among the consulares, the
dictator (magister populi)^ had, even in Rome, twenty-four lictors
bearing the axes in the fasces, as a sign of absolute authority.
The ordinary magistrates were under his orders, and the right of
appeal to the people was suspended ; it was like our declaration
of martial law. He was nominated for six months, like his
lieutenant, the magister equitum, but none ever retained these
formidable powers so long. So soon as the danger had passed
which had caused the suspension of jDublic liberty and the
legal establishment of this provisional tyranny, the dictator
abdicated.^ The Senate had thus reserved an extraordinary
magistracy for those critical times from which states often emerge
only at the cost of their liberty. More than once, indeed, did
the dictatorshijj save the Republic from the enemy without and
from the agitations of the Forum within. If for nearly three
centuries Rome never felt the stormy vicissitudes of the Hellenic

^ Propter nimiam dominatlonem potcntimn. (Cic, pro Corn. fr. 24.) Sallust speaks simi-
larly. (Hist. frag. i. 21.)

^ Lars, in Etruscan, means lord and master. (Plutarcb, Quaest. Rom. 51.) The expression
magister populi has the same meaning, and the dictatorship was probably an imitation of
what took ])laee in Etruria when, in grave circumstances, she appointed a lars, like Porsenna
or Tolumnius.

^ Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 82 ; Fest, s. v. optima lex. A tradition, reported by Livy,
would assign another cause for the creation of this magistracy, — that the two consuls were
partisans of the King. The Greeks translated the word dictator by jiovapxns and avroKparutp.
Zonaras (vii. 13) says: ttjv 5' ck ttjs povap-j(ias o)<p€\fLav OeXom-fs . . . fV (YXXco ravrrjv ovopari
erXowo. Machiavelli made the following remark, which is confirmed by Montesquieu (Esp.
des Lois, ii. 3 : ) " Without a power of this nature, the state must either be lost in following
the ordinary lines of proceeding, or else quit them, in order to save itself. But if extra-
ordinary means do good for the moment, they leave a bad example, which is a real evil." The
dictatorships of SuUa and Caesar have, of course, nothing in common with the ancient
dictatorship.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470. 283

republics ; if tliose movements, which otherwise would have de-
generated into revolutions, only resulted at Rome in the regular
development of the constitution, — it was owing in a great meas-
ure to this office, this unlimited power of which moderated the
public excitement, while at the same time it arrested ambitious
designs.

Startled by these menacing displays, by this unlimited power,
the plelDs stifled its murmurs for some years, and the con.suls
were able to count on its support in the regal wars. But in
495 B. c, Appius Claudius, the most pitiless of patricians, was
appointed consul with Servilius. His pride, which chafed even
at a complaint, was already exciting sullen anger, when a man
suddenly appeared in the Forum, pale and fearfully emaciated.
He was one of the bravest centurions of the Roman army ; he
had been in twenty-eight battles. He told how, in the Sabine
war, the enemy had burned his house and his crops, and carried
off his flock. In order to live he had borrowed money, and
usury, like an odious sore, devouring his patrimony, had even
invaded his body. His creditors had led away himself and his
son, loaded with irons and lacerated with blows ; and he showed
his body stUl bleeding. At this sight the public fury knew
no bounds, and a messenger having come to announce an incur-
sion of the Volscians, the plebeians refused to take arms. " Let
the patricians go and fight," said they ; " let them have all the
perils of war, since they have all its profits ! " They only yielded
when the consul Servilius had promised that after the war
their complaints should be examined, and that_ all the time it
lasted, debtors should be free. On this assurance the people
took arms. Before this, the Volscians had given three hundred
hostages ; Appius had them all beheaded. Then Servilius marched
on Suessa Pometia, which was taken, and the booty distributed
among his soldiers. But when the victorious army returned to
Rome, the Senate refused to fulfil the consul's promises. The
poor found themselves again at the mercy of the pitiless Appius,
and the ergastula were filled anew. In vain the people exclaimed
loudly against it; Appius was inflexible. In order to frighten the
multitude, he caused a dictator to be appointed. The choice fell
upon a man of a popular family, Manlius Valerius, who renewed

284

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

the pledges of Servilius, and with an army of 40,000 plebeians
defeated the Volscians, Aequians, and Sabines. The people thought
that they had this time secured the execution of the consular
promises ; again they were deceived. A few poor men only, it is
said, were sent as colonists to Velitrae. The indignant Valerius
resigned, callhig to witness Fidius, the god of pledged faith, which
had been broken.

BRIDGE OF NOMENTUM.

To avert a revolt in the Forum, the consuls of
the year 493, availing themselves of the military oath
taken to their predecessors, forced the army to go out
of the city. But outside the gates the plebeians
abandoned the consuls, and crossing the Anio, probably
at the spot where the bridge of Nomentum was built,
they marched, under the leadership of Sicinius Bellutus and Junius
Brutus, to the Sacred Mount,^ and encamped there ; those of

ANNA PERENNA.'

1 C. ANNI. T. F. T. N., that is, C. Annius, son of Titus, grandson of Titus Annius.
Head with a diadem, attributed by Cavedoni to Anna Perenna : to the right, a caduceus ; on
the left, a pair of scales. Silver coin of the Annian family.

^ The mrms sacer is an elongated hill, separated from the Anio by a meadow, in which
there still exists the ancient bridge, surmounted by a pontifical building of the fifteenth
century. (See cut.)

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 50'J TO 170. 285

Kome -witlidrew at the same time with their families to the
Aventiue.^ Tradition had it that an old woman of Bovillae brought
them every morning smoking hot cakes, which she had sat
up all night to bake : it was the Goddess Anna Perenna.^ Under
this legend lies hidden a remembrance of the assistance given
to the plebeians by the neighboring cities.

Some time passed in delay and in fruitless negotiations. At
last the patricians, frightened by the menacing position of the
legions, nominated two consuls, friends of the people, and sent
ten consulars as a deputation to the soldiers. Among them were
three former dictators, also Lartins Postumius, Valerius, and the
plebeian Menenius Agrippa, the most eloquent and popular of the
senators. He told them the fable of the belly and the members,
and brought back their demands to the Senate. They were re-
markably moderate. All slaves for debt were to be set free ;
the debts themselves, at least those of insolvent debtors, to be
cancelled.^ They did not even demand that the criminal law
should be altered ; fifty years later, we shall find it still in-
scribed by the decemvirs on the Twelve Tables. But they would
not consent to come down from the Sacred ]\Iount until they had
nominated two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus, whose right the
Senate should recognize of assisting the harshly used* debtor, and
of staying by their veto the effect of the consular judgments.
In this way those Romans who remained without patrician pro-
tection, and had no one to defend them, would henceforth have two
official patrons with whom it would be necessaiy to reckon.^

These representatives of the poor had neither the laticlave
with a border of purple, nor lictors armed with fasces. No ex-
ternal mark distinguished them from the crowd, and they were
preceded by a single apparitor in plain dress. But, as fetials in
an enemy's territory, their person was inviolable. They devoted to

* Cic, de Rep., ii. 37 ; Livy, ii. 32 ; App., Bell. Civ. i. 1.
- Ovid, Fast. iii. 654.

« Dionys., vi. 83.

* At first tlie tribune could only protect the plebeian who had been insulted or struck in
his presence.

' Zon., vii. 15 : Trpoo-raT-ar hvo ; and Livy, ii. 33 ; iii. 55. The tribunes were not al-
lowedj except during the Latin games, to be away from Rome at night, and their door always
remained open. Their power ended one mile from the walls, where the imperium of the
consuls began.

286 EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

the gods any one who struck them, by saying sacer esto,^ and his
goods were confiscated to the profit of the temple of Ceres. No
patrician could become a tribune (493 b. c).

By this creation of two leaders of the people (soon after-
ward five, still later ten) the revolt, purely civil, if I may so
term it, in principle became almost a revolution, and turned out
to be the greatest event in the domestic history of Rome. " It
was," says Cicero,^ " the first reduction of the consular power,
in constituting a magistrate independent of it. The second was
the help which it afforded to the other naagistrates, as well as to
the citizens who refused obedience to the consuls."

The rich plebeians adopted the chiefs of the poor as being
those of the entire order. Thus supported, this protective power
soon became aggressive ; and we shall see the tribunes, on the one
hand, extending their veto to all acts contrary to popular interests,*
and on the other politically organizing the people, outside the
auctoritas j9a<r?<w, and causing the concilia plebis to assert as
their own the rights of deliberating, voting, and electing. Later
on, we shall see them effacing the distinction between the orders
by proclaiming the principle that the sovereignty resides in the
whole people ; and then will come the time when no one is so
powerful in Rome as a tribune of the people. This power
doubtless committed many excesses. But without it, the Republic,
in subjection to an oppressive oligarchy, would never have ful-
filled its great destinies. " Rome ought either to have continued
a monarchy," said even Cicero,* who had m,uch personal ground
for complaint against the tribunate, " or there was no need to grant
the plebeians a liberty which was not made up of mere empty
words." This liberty now begins for them, since there is no
freedom apart from strength, and there is no strength in societies
except in discipline. Disciplined by its new chiefs, the people
were soon able to maintain a regular struggle against the great,

' Zon. (ibid.) explains this expression, which occurs so often in legislation. The victim,
led to the altar as a sacrifice, was devoted, i. c. given up to death ; so also the man declared sacer.

■ De Leg. iii. 7. The question how the tribunes were nominated between the years 493
and 471 is very obscure. I do not doubt, however, that it had been from the first reserved to
the concilium plebis. See p. 295.

' Val. irax., ii. 7 ; Dionys., x. 2.

* De Lecj. iii. 10; . . . re non verba.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470.

287

and obtain, one after the other, all the magisterial offices. The
patrician city, forced to receive them, will be opened to the
Italians also ; later on to the world ; and a great empire will be
the recompense of this union, demanded and secured by the
tribunes.^

It was with the most solemn ceremonies, by sacrifices and
the ministry of the fetials, as if the matter in hand were a
treaty between two different peoples, that the peace was concluded
and celebrated. Every citizen swore to keep eternally the sacred
laws, leges sacratae^ and an altar, erected to Jupiter Tonans on

B, LEFT SIDE.

A, ALTAR OF THE TEMPLE, THOUGnT TO
BE TUAT OF QUIRINUS, AT POMPEII.^

C, RIGHT SIDE.

the site of the plebeian camp, consecrated the mountain where
the people had acquired their earliest liberties. Public veneration
surrounded, to the day of his death, the man who had reconciled
the two orders, and when Agrippa died the people gave him,
as well as Brutus and Poplicola, a splendid funeral.

As the consuls had two quaestors, so the tribunes had under
them, to guard the material interests of the plebeian community,
two aediles, whose rights increased, as did those of the tribunes,
and who finally had the care of all public buildings {aedes), espe-
cially that of the temple of Ceres, where were kept the senatus-

' On tlie successive additions to tbe tribunes' power, see Zonaras, vii. 15.

^ Livy, ii. 33; Dionys., vi. 89.

' The altar of Jlons Sacer was certainly very simple and unornamented, whilst that we
give is much ornamented. It shows, at any rate, the general form of Roman altars, and how
religious art decorated them. On one of its sides (Fig. a) is to be seen a sacrificial ceremony ;
on the other sides (Figs. B, c) are grouped different articles used in worship, — the Uluus o:
augur's staff, the box for [JCrfumes, etc.

288 ' EOME UNDER THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

consulta, and the rigtt of controlling tlie supply of Rome with
provisions.^ In the second century B. c. the aedileship was, ac-
cording to Polybius, a very illustrious office,^ and Cicero calls the
great Architect of the world the Aeclile of the Universe.

It is certain that the plebeians had already their own special
judges, judices decemviri, and their public assembly, concilium jjlehis ;
the patricians were naturally excluded from them, or, to speak
more exactly, did not condescend to enter them.^

"We shall close with two remarks : the tribunate is the most
original . of Roman institutions, for nothing like it has existed
either among ancients or moderns ; and the revolution whence it
proceeded did not cost one drop of human blood.

ni. The Agrarian Law.

The beginnmgs of the tribunate were humble and obscure, like
those of all the jilebeian magistracies.* But a patrician who had
been consul and celebrated a triumph three times — Spurius Cassius
— revealed to the tribunes the secret of their power, viz. popular

1 Dionys., vi. 90.

2 Polyb., X. 4.

^ Livy, iii. 55, and ii. 56, GO; Dionys., ix. 41.

* To fill up the interval void of acts which intervenes between the years 493 B. c. and
486 B. c, there are usually placed, immediately after the establishment of the tribunate, the
trial of Coriolanus and the disputes of the tribunes with the consuls respecting the colonies
of Norba and Velitrae, — that is to say, the conquest for the tribunes of the right of speaking
before the people without intcrrujition, of convoking the comitia of tribes, of declaring
plebiscita, of judging and condemning to death patricians. Thus we fail to recognize the
humble beginnings of this magistracy, which in the first year of its e.xistence was certainly
not strong enough to brave the Senate, the patricians, and the consuls. Besides this con-
sider.ation many circumstances in the story are actually false. Thus Norba and Velitrae
were not then Roman colonies, but independent Latin cities, as the treaty of Cassius with
the Latins proves ; Corioli was not a Volscian city taken by the Romans, but one of the
thirty Latin republics. Tlien Coriolanus is said to have borne when very young his first
arms at the battle of Lake Regillus, in 496 b. c, and in 492 B. c. he demands the consulship
and is f.ather of several cliildren. The tradition of Coriolanus has no doubt a historical basis ;
but this proscription of one of the most illustrious patricians, this vengeance of a cliief
among the banished, ought to belong to the epoch which saw the condemnation of Menenius
and A])pius, the exile of Caeso, and the attempt of Herdonius. Niebuhr also believes the
Icilian law to be posterior to that of Volero, and Hooke had previously proved it. It
was, in truth, a plebiscitum, and the people were only able to pass it after the adoption of
the Publilian law in 470 B. c. Besides, the first use of the Icilian law was made only in
421 B. c. in connection with Caeso (liic primus varies publico dedit) ; the tribunes would thus
have remained more than thirty years without using it.

INTERNAL HISTOKY FROM 509 TO 470. 289

agitation. He was the first to start amongst the crowd that
grand watchword, " the agrarian law ; " and the tribunes after
him had only to pronounce it to raise in the Forum tlie most
furious storms. In the Middle Ages, to possess land was to take
rank among nobles ; at Rome, it was to become truly a citizen, to
have true riches, such as alone brought honor, possessed endurance,
and the only kind that Rome, without industry and with but little
trade, could know and respect. Hence the importance of the
agrarian laws ; for, political rights being in proportion to fortune,
to diminish that of some and increase that of others amounted, in
the order of the social system, to raising the latter and bringing
down the former. By touching property they touched also the
^'ery constitution of the state, — they laid a hand on that which
religion had consecrated. Of course the upper classes repelled
always, by either force or deception, those laws which sought to
give the people, at their expense, a little fortune and power.

The agrarian laws did not, however, attack hereditary patri-
monies, ordinarily of small extent, but property usurped from the
state, and which could be recovered in its name from the dis-
honest holder. Like the territory of all the peoples in Italy and
Greece, the ager Homanus had been primitively divided into equal
parts among all the citizens ; these assigned lands, the limits of
which the augurs themselves drew, formed the inviolable and
hereditary property of the Quirites. But in this division of the
soil there had been reserved for the wants of the state a certain
extent of land, generally pasturage and forests, which continued
to be the common domain, the ager publieus, and on which every
one had the right of pasturing his flocks (■pecus), for the payment
of a small rent (pecunia). This public domain grew with the
conquests made by Rome ; for by the right of war all conquered
lands belonged to the conquerors, who generally made of them
a twofold division, — the one, restored to the old inhabitants or as-
signed, as property of the Quirites, to particular Roman citizens
(coloni) ; the second, without doubt the more considerable, attached
to the public domain.

If the ager j^'ublicus had continued wholly communal, it would
have yielded but a slight profit. To increase its value, a part of it
was enclosed; and the state, as proprietor, received from the

VOL. I. 19

290 ■ ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

farmers of it a tenth part of the produce. This tithe formed, down
to the time of the Veian war, along with the rent for pasturage, the
principal revenue of the city ; hence the importance of all questions
relating to the arjer publicus. But the farmers, at first, were all
patricians,^ and the Senate, forgetting the interests of the state in
behalf of those of their own order, neglected, little by little, to
demand the tithes and rents. This was, however, the mark which
distinguished these leaseholds, and, at all times, revocable possessions,
from full quiritary j)Ossession. So, on this mark disappearing, the
farms became changed into freeholds, and the state lost doubly, by
the diminution of the rents paid to the treasury and by the loss
of the public domain, transformed into private domains,^ without the
possessor paying for these usurped lands the trihutum ex censu which
was levied on all quiritary (freehold) property.

However, ancient jurisprudence declared that there was never
any statute of limitation against the state ;^ which, therefore, 'retained
all its rights over these usurped domains, and was able to resume
them, whoever might be the holder, the original farmer, his heirs,
or any one who had bought from them for ready money. For, in
the case of both parties, the unjust possessor or the bona fide
purchaser, it was nothing else than a property held without title.

During the monarchy, agrarian laws had been frequent, because
it was the interest of the kings, surrounded l^y a jealous aristocracy,
to keep friends with the partisans of the people ; but since the
exile of Tarquin there had been no other assignment than that of
Brutus. How much misery, however, had not the plebeians borne,
during those twenty-four years, from war and usury ! So the most
illustrious of the patricians, the only one of this epoch who, with
Valerius, had been three times decorated with the consular pui'ple,

1 A passage of Cassius Ilemina, in Nonius (ii. s. v. Plehitas) leads to the belief that
plebeians could not be admitted to the occupation of domain land. There is certainly
reason to believe in the principle here implied, since the plebeians were considered as a
foreign people. But the same passage proves that there were also plebeians liolders of
domain land : Quicumque propter plebitatem ar/ro publico ejecti sunt ; and Sallust {Hist. frag. 1 1)
savs also, tliat some time after the expulsion of the Tarquins, they were driven from the public
lands, agro jiellere. We shall see Lucinius Stolo in the possession of 700 acres.

■■^ Cf. Aggeuus Urbicus, de Controv. agror., ap. Ges., Rei agrariae scriptores, p. 69.
Neqant illud solum, quod solum populi Romani esse caepit, ullo modo usicapi a quoquam mor-
talium posse.

' Cic, de Rep. ii. 14.

INTERNAL HISTOEY FROM 509 TO 470. 291

Spiirius Cassius, desii-ed to restore to the state its revenues and
lands, and to give the poor the means of becoming useful citizens.
He proposed to divide a part of the government lands amongst the
most needy ; to compel the farmers of the state to pay tlieir tithes
regularly ; and to use this revenue in paying the troops.' If these
were indeed the demands of Cassius, we know not how to rate
too highly the unrecognized glory of this great citizen, who after
having consolidated abroad the tottering fortunes of Rome by his
double treaty with the Latins and Hernicans,^ wished, at home, to
prevent trouble by helping the poor, and who, almost a century
before it was adopted, had proposed the important measure f(.)r the
settlement of the soldiers' pay (486).

But these popular and patriotic demands aroused the indignar
tion of the Senate. The usurpation of the ager piihlicus, against
which Cassius protested, was the principal source of patrician
fortunes. A long possession seemed, besides, to have established a
right, and the great number of possessors of domain land no longer
distinguished their hereditary estates from the fields which they kept
from the state. However, it would have been dangerous, at a
moment when the people saw a consul at their head, to reject the
law : the Senate accepted it without seeing it carried out, but
hastened to be avenged on Cassius. The multitude once appeased,
dark rumors spread about the city : " Cassius was only a false
friend to the people. To obtain allies he had already sacrificed the
interests of Rome to the Latins and Hernicans ; but he wished to
stir up the poor against the great, and profit from their quarrels to
get himself declared king." The tribunes, jealous of their popu-
larity, and the people, whom it is so easy to frighten with empty
shadows, deserted him, when, on retiring from the consulship, the
nobles accused him of treason in the comitia curiata, ex more majorum..
Condemned to be beaten with rods and beheaded (486), he was
executed by order of his father in his ancestral home.^ Thus have

' This law is not that of Cassius, but that of Sempronius Atratinus, wlio very probably
did no more than reproduce the principal provisions of Cassius, excluding, however, the Latins,
whom Cassius, in order to strengthen the alliance of Rome with them, admitted to a share of
the lands which they had recently conquered in concert with the Romans. (Dionys., viii. 68, 63 ;
Livy, ii. 41.)

2 See p. 307.

' Dion Cassius {Fraij. 1!)) regards him as a victim of the nobles : ovk a&iKTfcrai ti an-wXtro.

292 ■ ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

perished so many popular patricians, victims of a powerful aristoc-
racy. The favor of the people is dangerous : it has slain more
tribunes than it has crowned.

The nobles, once rid of Cassius, sought to preclude the return
of the danger. The powerful house of the Fabii was signalized
by its zeal for the interests of the Senate, and it was one of its
members that had pronounced sentence of death against Cas-
sius ; the nobles desii'ed no other consuls, and during seven years
(484 - 478) a Fabius forms a member of the consulate. In vain,
also, did the tribunes call for the acceptance of the agrarian law.
C. Maenius even wished, in 482, to oppose his veto to the raising
of troops, since the Senate would not proceed to a division of the
lands. But the consuls conveyed their tribunal out of the city,
where the tribunitian protection did not extend, and summoned the
citizens to the enrolment, causing, by their lictors, the farms
to be burned, the fruit-trees to be cut down, and the fields laid
waste of those who did not give their names. These violent acts
might prove dangerous : the Senate preferred fighting the people
with its proper weapons, Ijy gaining some members of the college
of triljunes, whose opposition stopped the veto of Sp. Licinius in
480, and of Pontificius^ in 479. But the soldiers took it on them-
selves to avenge the feebleness of the tribimate, and in 480 the
legions refused to gain a victoiy over the Veientines, so as not to
secure to Caeso Fabius the honor of a triumph.

Here the history l^ecomes obscure. The Faljii, chiefs of the
Senate, pass over to the people, and then are forced to leave Rome.
We cannot but see in this change one of those frequent revolutions
in aristocratic republics. Without doubt, the patricians were alarmed
at seeing the consulate become the heritage of one family, and the
Fabii were obliged to seek among the people, notwithstanding their
ambition, that support which the Senate intended to withdraw. Won
over by the popular words and conduct of M. Fabius (479), the
soldiers promised him, this time, the defeat of the Veientines.
The battle was bloody ; the consul's brother perished : but the
soldiers kept their word : the Etruscans were crushed.^ On their
return the Fabii received the wounded plebeians into their houses,

' Livy, ii. 43, 44. ^ Livy, ii. 44 ; Dionjs., ix. 6.

INTERNAL HISTORY FROM 509 TO 470. 293

and henceforth no family was more popular. The next year, Caeso
Fabius, having owed the consulate " rather to the peojjle's votes
than those of the nobles," ' forgot that he was the accuser of
Cassius, and wished to extort from the patricians the execution of
the agrarian law. Since all hope of obtaining justice for the people
was lost, the whole gens, with its clients and partisans, left the
city, where it was uselessly compromised in the eyes of the patri-
cians, and m order to be still useful to Rome in its vohmtary
exile, it established itself before the enemy ^ on the banks of the
Cremera. Later on, the pride of the Fabian gens insisted in seeing
in this exile the devotion of three hundred and six Fal:)ii, who
sustained, with their four thousand clients, on behalf of tot-
tering Rome, the war against the Veientmes. One Fabius only,
left at Rome because of his tender age, prevented, it is said, the
extinction of the whole clan.^

After conquering in many encounters, they allowed themselves
to be drawn into an ambuscade in which the greater part perished.
The rest took refuge on a steep hill, and fought there from morning
till evening. '• They were surrovmded by heaps of dead ; but the
enemy was so numerous that the arrows rained on them like flakes of
snow. By dint of striking, their swords had become blunt and their
bucklers had been shattered. Yet they never ceased fighting, and
snatching arms from the enemy, they fell on them like wild beasts." *
While these heroic scenes were going on, which remind us of the
exploits sung in the chansons de geste, the consul Menenius came
by chance into the neighborhood with an army ; he did nothing
to save the Fabii. Perhaps this family, so proud, which had tried
to rule in Rome by its consular office, and afterward by the favor
of the people, was sacrificed to the jealous fears of the Senate, as
afterward Sicinius and his band to the terrors of the decemvirs

The pontiffs inscribed among the dies nefastl that on which

1 Non patruvi magh quam plebis studiis . . . consul factus. (Livy, ii. 48.)

2 Cum familiis suis. (Aul. Gell., xvii. 21.)

' Dionys., ix. 15; Livy, ii. 50; 0\id., Fast. ii. 195, sci;. Dionysius says four tbousand
clients and eTolpot; Festus, five thousand clients. The Vitellii ]iretcmk'd also, aided only by
their clients, to have defended against the Aequicolae a town which took their name, Vitellia.
(Suet., Vitdl. i.)

* Dionys., ix. 21.

294 EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

the Fabii had perished, and the gate by which they had left
was cursed ; no consul would ever cross the entrance on an ex-
pedition.^ Rome preserved the memorial of its misfortunes, and
by this mourning, perpetuated through centuries, she prevented its
repetition.

IV. Right of the Tribunes to accuse the Consuls and to

BRING forward PlEBISCITA.

The people had not been able to prevent the exile of the
Fabii ; they wished at least to avenge them. The tribunes accused
Menenius of treason (476 b. c.) ; shame and grief overcame him,
he starved himself to death. This was a considerable success.^
Until then the power of the tribunes had been confined to their
veto, and this the consuls well knew how to render illusory ; but
we see them now adopting a new weapon. The disaster at
Cremera and the public mourning helped them to gain the right of
citing the consuls to the bar of justice. Henceforth the tribuni-
tian accusers waited for those magistrates who are opposed to
the agrarian law, till they gave up office. Excluded from the
Curiae, the Senate, and the magistracies ; annulled in the centuries
by the preponderating influence of the patricians ; deprived by
the dictatorship of the tribunitian protection, — the plebeians now
found the means of intimidating their most violent adversaries by
summoning them before their tribes, concilium plehis. For meeting
and acting the tribunes had need neither of the permission of
the Senate nor the consecration of the augurs ; ^ and the patricians
who could not pretend to the tribunate did not vote in the popular
assembly, just as English peers do not in the elections for the
Lower House of Parliament. In less than twenty-six years, seven

1 Dion., Fr. 21.

- From the texts of Dionys. (ix. 44, 46) and of Lydus (i. 34, 44) we might conchide that
a law conferred on tlie tribunes this right of accusing the consuls ; but we cannot understand
how this law could have been made. We must rest content to be ignorant of many things
respecting these old times.

^ Mi7rf irpo^ovXciiiaTos . . . jxi^rt twv Upav. (Dionys., ix. 41.) Pkbcius magistratus nul-
lus ausjncalo crcatur. (Llvy, vi. 42.)

INTEE:N'iVL HISTORY FROM r>09 TO 470. 295

consuls and many patricians of the most illustrious families were
accused, condemned in penalties, or escaped this shame only by
exile or voluntary death. ^

In 475 B. c. Servilius, and in 473 L. Furius and C. Manlius were
accused by the tribunes, the former for a mismanaged attack in
the war against the Veientines, the others for not having executed
the agrarian law. Servilius escaped ; but Manlius and Furius had
as their opponent the tribune Genucius, who had sworn before
the people to allow no obstacle to stand in his way. On the
day of the trial he was found dead in his bed (473).^

This assassination spread terror among the people and its
chiefs, and when the consuls forced the plel^eians to enlist, arbi-
trarily distriljuting the ranks, and disdaining to heed any com-
plaints, not a voice arose from the tribunes' seat. " Your tribvmes
are deserting you," cried Publilius Volero, a brave centurion who
refused to serve as a common soldier. " They prefer to allow a
citizen to perish iinder the rods than expose themselves to assassina-
tion." On the lictors approaching to lay hold on him, he pushed
them away, took refuge in the midst of the crowd, stirred it
up, roused it to action, and drove from the Forum the consuls
and the lictors with their fasces broken.

The year following he was named tribune (472). He could
have taken revenge by an accusation against the consuls : he
preferred employing for the popular cause the courage which a
successful rising had just aroused in the people. It was the
army which, on the Sacred Mount, had elected the first tribunes ;
but this army, in a state of revolt against the consuls, was the
plebeian part of the comitia centuriata ; and whilst it had, with-
out douljt, l^een decided that the new chiefs of the plel^s should
be designated in the popular assembly of the tribes, the pa-
tricians well knew that if they succeeded in carrying the election
back to the centuries,^ the revolution would be abortive. Efforts

1 Menenius and Servilius (Livy, ii. 52), the consuls of the year 473 (ii. 54) ; Appius (ii.
56), Caeso (iii. 12), the consuls of the year 455 (iii. 31). Cf. Dionys., x. 42. He says else-
where (vii. 65) : 'EvSiv dc ap^d^evos 6 drjuos TJfidTj fxf'yas J] 6e dpt(rroKpaTia ttoXXo tou dp^aiov
d^taipaTos airefiake. Livy (ii. 54) says the same thing.

- According to Dion Cassius there were many more murders.

^ Cicero (pro Corn. 19) and Dionysius (vi. 89) say that the first tribunes were chosen
by the curies. But we cannot understand how the victorious plebs could consent to receive
its new leaders from the hands of the patricians.

296 . EOIVIE UNDER THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

were certainly made to effect this end. Volero wished to decide
the matter by demanding that the designation by the tribes
should be definitely established. This law would restore to the
tribunate its democratic vigor. The patricians succeeded during
a year in preventing it from passing. But Volero was re-
elected, with Laetorius as colleague, who added to the Publilian
proposal : that the aediles should be named by the tribes, and
the tribes should take cognizance of the general affairs of the
state, that is to say, the plebeian assembly should have the right
of making ^jZeft^'scito.^ On their part, the Senate took care that
Appius Claudius should secure the consulship, as being the most
violent defender of patrician privileges.^ The struggle was sharp ;
it was the most serious contest since the creation of the trib-
unes. " This man," said the colleague of Volero, of Appius,
" is not a consul, but an executioner of the people." Then,
sharply attacked by Appius at the assembly : '■ I speak with diffi-
culty, Quirites, but I know how to act : to-morrow I will have
the law passed or I will die under your very eyes." The next
day Appius came to the Forum, surrounded by the whole
patrician youth and by his clients. Laetorius again read his
rogation, and before calling on the tribes to vote, ordered the
patricians, who had not the right of voting in these comitia, to
retire. Appius opposed this : " The tribune has no right over the
patricians." Besides he had not used the customary formula :
" If you think it good, withdraw, Quirites." To discuss law and
legal forms in the midst of a revolution was to increase further
the popular ferment. Laetorius, instead of answering, sent against
the consul his viator- ; the consul, his lictors against the tribune ;
and a bloody fight took place. Laetorius was woimded ; Ijut, in
order to save Appius, the consulars were obliged to hurry him
away into the senate-house. He entered, calling the gods to

1 Dionysius, ix. 43 ; Zonaras, vii. 1 7. As Heaven was not fonsulted fur the holding of
comitia tributa, so neither were they preceded by solemn sacrifices, Uke the comitia ccnturiata ;
they were beyond the control of the augurs. (Dionysius, ix. 41, 49.) They were held on
market days, in order that members of the rustic tribes might attend ; if the debate had not
closed with sunset, it coidd not be resumed till the third market day following. The jiatricians,
having in the curies their own proper assembly, and all the influence in the Senate and the
centuries, did not vote in the comitia tributa. (Livy, ii. 60.)

2 Propugnatorem senatus, majestatisque vindicem suae, ad omnes tribuiiicios plebeiosque
oppositum tumullus. (Livy, ii. 61.)

INTERNAL HISTORY FEOM 509 To 170. 297

witness the weakness of the Senate, who were allowing laws to
1)0 imposed more severe than those of the Sacred Mount (471).*

Nevertheless, the people remained masters of the Forum,
voted the Publilian law, and forced the Senate to accept it hy
seizing the Capitol. Twenty-four years ago, they had compelled
the patricians to grant the creation of the tribunate only by
leaving the city ; now, to complete the victory begun on the Sacred
Mount, it was the very citadel of Rome that they held by arms.
What boldness in men so recently enfranchised ! What strength
in this people, lately so humble ! The defeat of the aristocracy
has, sooner or later, become certain ; for the people will find in
the tribunate, henceforth free from the influence of the nobles, a
sure protection ; in the assemblies which have the right of making
plcbiscita, a means of action ; lastly, in their numbers and disci-
pline, an ever-increasing power."

Among the tribunes nominated after the adoption of the
Publilian law was Sp. Icilius. To prevent the return of fresh
acts of violence, he made use of the right which had just been
recognized as belonging to the commonalty, and had this law passed : ^
'• that no one should interrupt a tribune when speaking before the
people. If any one infringed this prohibition, he was to find
security to come up for judgment ; if he failed to do so, he was
to be punished with death and his goods confiscated."

In the struggle, Laetorius had been w^ounded, perhaps killed.*
But Appius had been humbled as patrician and consul ; the death
of a tribune did not satisfy his wounded pride. An invasion of
Aequians and Volscians placed the plebeians at his mercy, by
obliging them to leave Rome under his command. Never had
authority been more imperious or arbiti'ary. " My soldiers are
so many Voleros," said he, and he seemed to try, by dint of his
unjust severity, to drive them into revolt. Whether it was treason,
or a panic, or the vengeance of soldiers who wished to dishonor

^ Dionys., ix. 48.

^ These plebiscita were not then obligatory on the two orders; but in formuhiting the
wishes of the people, they gave tliem a force which it was difEcult to resist for long.
Legally, these plebiscita re<piireil the sanction of the Senate and the Curiae.

" Dionjs., vii. 17. This Icilian law is commonly assigned to the time of the trial of
Coriolanus (see p. 288, note 4). We conform, in placing it here, to the opinion of Xiebuhr
and the logical concatenation of facts.

* At least he does not a])j>ear again.

298 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

their general, is uncertain ; bnt at the first charge against the
Volsci, they threw down their arms and fled to the Roman terri-
tory. There they again encountered Appius and his vengeance.
The centurions, the officers who had abandoned the standards,
were put to death, and the soldiers decimated. This bloodshed
atoned for the last plebeian victories.

Appius re-entered Rome, certain of the fate which awaited
him, but satisfied with having, at the price of his life, once at
least subdued this people. Summoned, on quitting his consulship,
before the popular comitia, he appeared in the character of accuser
and not of supjjliant, inveighed against the tribunes and the assembly,
and made them yield liy his haughtiness and boldness. The day
of judgment was put off : he did not wait for it ; a vohintary
death forestalled his condemnation, and the crowd admiring, in
spite of itself, this indomitable courage, honored the funeral of
Appius by an immense attendance (470). Livy makes him die of
sickness : this is less dramatic, Ijut more probal^le.^

In 493 the tribunes had only their right of veto ; in 476
they acquired the right of accusing cousulars, and in 471 that
of passing plebiscita by the people. Thus twenty-three years had
sufficed for organizing the political assembly of the plebeians,
and for making it already, within certain limits, a legislative
and judicial pojver. As regards the agrarian law, it had been
rejected, and, in spite of so many high-sounding words and
promises, the people continued in poverty. But it was in exciting
the crowd by this delusion about the equality of property that
the tribunes had gained their place in the state and some trust-
worthy guaranties. So it has been, and always will be.

1 Dionys., ix. 54; Livy, ii. 01.

2 AED. PL (aediles plebis). Head of Ceres. The reverse, M. FAN. L. CRT. P..\.
Marcus, Faunius, and Lucius Critonius, aediles of the people. Silver moneys of the families
Fannia and Critonia. We shall return to this matter when the creation of the curule
aedileship takes place.

PLEBEIAN AEDILES.''

CHAPTER Vn.

MILITARY HISTOEY OF EOME FROM THE DEATH OF TAEQUIN TO THE

DECEMVIES (495-451).

I. The Roman Territory in 495 ; Porsenna and Cassius.

MONARCHY had given to Rome a grandeur which the treaty
of Tarquin with Carthage testifies,^ and to the plebeians a
well-being which resulted from the commerce which this treaty
shows/ as well as by successful wars made under the kings, and
the immense works carried out by Ancus, Servius, and the two
Tarquins. The aristocratic revolution of 509 caused the Romans
to lose this power and prosperity. The people sank into misery,
and Rome was almost reduced to its own walls.

The most dangerous of the wars called forth by this revolu-
tion was that which Porsenna, the powerful Lars of Clusium,
conducted. He conquered the Romans and took fi'om them the
territory of the ten tribes established north of the Tiber. Rome
hid her defeat under heroic legends, and it was only after she
had become mistress of the world that she did not blush to avow
the acceptance from Porsenna of harder condition's than she herself
ever imposed after her most brilliant victories. He forbade the
use of iron, except for agricultural purposes,' and exacted as sign
of submission that the Senate should send him a curule chair
or ivory tlu'one, a sceptre, and a crown.* Rome being overcome,

I See p. 251.

' Di'ilita urhe . . . (Tac., Hisl. iii. 72) defendit ne ferro nisi in ayricullura uterenlur.
(Pliny, Hint. Nat. xxxiv. 39.)

^ Dionys., v. 34.

* There remains a curious proof of the extent of this commerce. It is a cup in silver
repoux.ie work, recently found among a large number of other gold, silver, and bronze objects
at Praeneste (Palestrina), and preserved in the Kircher Museum [Collegio Romano] at Rome.
iVU the objects which compose this treasure differ greatly both from Etruscan and from Greek

300

ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS,

Porsenna aimed at conquering Latium, which three centuries
earlier the Etruscans had victoriously traversed, and at opening

PHOENICIAN CUP FOUND AT PRAKNESTE.

up a route towards the lucumonies of the Vulturnus. The Greeks
of Campania saw with terror the preparations for this new inva-
sion, and to prevent it they came to the help of the Latin
cities which were resisting the Etruscans. Aricia, which has

art. They recall, by their Oriental stamp, other finds made in Cyprus or Greece. Our patera
is an imitation of the Egyptian. The centre is filled with a war scene. A prince is in the act
of putting to death some captives. Before him stands the God Ilorus : behind a warrior in
arms, who brings other victims. Above, a sparrow-hawk with outspread wings. The border
is fiUed with symbolic scenes. Four sacred barks are symmetrically disposed ; on two of them

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451. 301

bequeathed its name to tlie picturesque village of Laricia on the
southern slopes of the Albau Mount, near the charming Lake of
Nemi, was then the most flourishmg city in Latium. It had re-
sisted Tarquin Superbus, and when the son of the King of Clusium,
Aruns, appeared before its walls with a powerful army, the
inliabitants met him bravely in the field with their Latin and
Greek allies. But they were unable to withstand the charge of
the Etruscan phalanx, and they were already retiring in disorder,
when the men of Cumae, by a skilful manoeuvre, charging the
enemy in the rear, changed his victory into defeat.^ Aruns was
slain, and there are shown near Laricia the ruins of a tomb,
built in the Etruscan manner, where they allege that he was
buried.^ The debris of his army took refuge in Rome, which
profited from this reverse to rise in insurrection ; the Etruscan
rule was driven back again beyond the Tiber.

Rome recovered its liberty, but not its power ; ^ for the
Etruscans continued masters of the right bank of the river, and

is tlie scarabaeus, symbol of the sun and immortality ; iif the two otliers some divinity.
Between the shi])s are tliickets of lotus and a woman who is nursing a boy.

" Two circles of hieroglyphic writing are round these scenes ; but the whole is coarsely
imitated ; the hieroglyphs give no sense.

'• The sparrow-hawk is surmounted by a Phoenician inscription which M. Kenan reads :
Esclnniinjair hen Ischetu (Eschmunjair, son of Ischeto).

" These words are engraved in a very delicate character. They determine conclusively the
Phoenician origin of the treasure of Praeneste and of other similar finds. But, besides, they
help to fix the date with all but certainty.

" The character of the letters does not permit us to carry down the composition of the
inscription lower than the si.xth century B. c. The hieroglyphics lead to the same conclusion.
M. Maspero finds among them no sign which ajjpears in the texts from the twenty-seventh
dynasty on (about the fifth century). The inscri])tion furnishes us again with an indication
of another sort. M. Kenan translates the last ])ropcr name by ' the work of Him ' (of God),
and compares it to analogous names such as Abdo (the servant of Ilim), etc., etc. Now the
pronoun suffi.x ' of Him,' which is written in Phoenician by a vav, the Carthaginians render by
alef. Our inscription writes it by the latter letter. Then again, on a cup of the same sort, but
without inscription, found in the same place, are seen following, in a circular design, the differ-
ent events of a royal hunt. Kow among the animals hunted by the King is a large a]ie, prob-
ably the gorilla, unknown in Egypt and in Syria. It results from this that these plates or
cups are most Ukely of Carthaginian origin." As our manufacturers imitate for the slop trade
the products of China and Japan, so the Carthaginian merchants had made gold and silver
articles badly copied from the Phoenician or Egyptian styles. Our imitation Poeno-Egyptian
cup, bought from the sailors of the coast by some rich inhabitant of Palestrina, is a ])roof of the
activity of the Carthaginian commerce with the Latin cities. [Cf. ISL Clcrmont-Ganneau's
remarkable tract on the second cup, representing the adventure with the colossal ape. — EdS]

> Dionys., v. 36.

' Canina has given the restoration of it.

' This clearly resijts from the war against Veii in 483, and from the reduction of the

302

KOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

on the left bank was recovered only the old aga^ Eomanus,
limited on the south by the lands of the Latins of Gabii,
Bovillae, Telleuae, and Tusculum.

From the lofty citadel of this last-named city, which rises
15 miles off from the walls of Servius, can be seen all who
leave Eome by the ijorta Capcna ; but from that distance also

^ Ig l£ 2t> 5& ROMAn NILES

Map OF THE "AsEB Roman us"

the Tusculans, their faithful allies, signalled, by two beacon-fires
on their ramparts, the approach of the Aequians and Volscians.

On the east some successful expeditions into the Sabine
territory extended the Roman frontier to the neighborhood of

30 tribes of Servius to 20, the number which is fountl after the expulsion of tlie kings. In
495 are named 21 (Livy, ii. 21) ; a new tribe, called Crustuminian, from the name of a conquered
city, having been formed after the Sabine war. Fidenae, which was reduced only in the year
426, is two leagues from Rome.

•A

Q
63

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROIVIE FROM 495 TO 451.

303

Eretum, which remainod free.^ Tibur, nearer Rome, from which
it was separated only by 20 miles, also kept its mdependence, and
promised to defend it bravely by the worship which it paid to
its civic divinity, Hercules of the Rocks, Hercules Saxanus, whose
temple rose above the Falls of the Anio. And it did in reality
defend it for more than a century and a half.^ On the north
the frontier reached scarcely beyond the Janiculum. Rome was at

I^i-^>f--.

' \' ^

TUSCULUM. RESTORED BY CANINA. '

that time no longer a great state, but it was always one of the
greatest of the Italian cities, and this made its fortune. Within
its cu'cumference, and on this territory of only a few leagues in
extent, were reckoned, if we believe Dionysius of Halicarnassus,^
130,000 fighting men, — 130,000 men imder the command of the
consuls, directed in times of peril by one will, and always under

' Since the war during which the Sabine Attus Clausus settled at Rome (see p. 177, n. 1),
there was no independent Sabine town nearer Rome than Eretum.
2 Tt was not taken till .33.5.
' Dionys., v. 20 ; he says, according to the census-lists.

304

ROME UJSTDEE THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

excellent discipline. Thanks to the concentration of their forces,
the Romans were able to attend safely to their internal disputes ;
for, though they expended in their Forum the energy which they
should have transferred more advantageously to fields of battle,
yet they were too strong to be overwhelmed l^y any enemy who
might attack them, — a serious war always brmging back union,
and with it invincible power. Thus they never ceased having

TUSCULUM. — PRESENT STATE.

confidence in their good fortune ; from the earliest days of the
Republic they had raised a temple to Hope.

Their enemies were above all the Aeqiiians and Volscians.
Mountaineers, poor and fond of pillaging, always threatening and
yet inaccessible, to-day in the plain burning the crops, to-morrow
strongly entrenched or hidden among the mountains, the Aequians
were, if not the most dangerous, yet at least their most trouble-
some enemy. The Volscians, numerous, rich, and possessing a
fertile territory, ought to have caused more alarm, had they

MILITARY HISTOEY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451.

305

not been divided into a multitude of small tribes, which never
united either for attack or defence, and showed neither plan nor
perseverance in their expeditions, which the impatience of some
and the sluggishness of others generally foiled. This state of
division ; the want of a capital, the loss of which might by one
blow end the struggle ; as well as the nature of the country,
intersected with mountains and marshes, should
have made the war iuterminable. With such
enemies there was no other way of finishing
it than that which, but recently, the Pontifical
Government employed against the brigands of
the Roman States : to raze the cities and exile
or exterminate the population. This is what
Rome did. But when the war was ended, the
country of the Volscians was nothing but a
mere sohtude.

In Etruria, the enemy was different ; Veil,
a commercial and mdustrial city,^ was only 4
leagues from the Janiculum. On this side they
knew where to strike : it was simply to march
directly against the city, besiege it and take it.
But the danger for Rome was the same as for
Veil, for the two cities foiuid themselves exist-
ing under very similar conditions : both large,
populous, strong in situation, protected by strong walls, and able
to put considerable forces on foot. So Rome was not in a state
for undertaking this siege, which would end the war, tUl a cen-
tury more had elapsed.

Among these enemies we have reckoned neither Latins nor
Hernicans, whom theh position necessarily rendered allies of the
Republic. It was by the burning of the Latin farms that the
incursions of the Aequians and Volscians always became known at
Rome ; and the Hernicans, established between these two people,

* Dionys. (ii. 52) calls it as great as Athens, and Livy (v. 24) finer than Rome. It was
situate where the Isola Farnese is now, on a height which overlooks a magnificent valley,
through wliich runs the Cremera, a short way from the first posting station on the route from
Rome to Florence, 11 miles from the walls of Servius.

^ This statue is reproduced in the Atlas of the Bull. arch. 2, vol. Lx. pi. 3, under the title
of Stalua archaica.

VOL. 1. 20

306

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

in the valley of the Treriis, had to suffer daily from their depre-
dations. This alliance dated from ancient times {feriae Latinae).

PLAN OF THE CITY OP VEII.*

Under the last Tarquiu it was changed on Rome's side into a
domination which the exile of the kings removed, and which the

' This fil.an has been drawn up by Canina, who has marked on it the tombs discovered
in the Necropolis, and the part of the city where were found some columns, bas-reliefs, and a
colossal statue of Tiberius, which is in the Chiaramonti Museum. Veii, which remained
deserted till Caesar's time, received from hira, and later on from Augustus, a colony, and
New Veii seems to have continued several centuries.

MILITAEY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451. 307

battle of Lake Regillus did not re-establish. Rome and the Latins
continued separate, but the increasing power of the Volscians and
the ravages of the Aequiaiis drew them closer. In 493 b. c, during
his second consulate, Sp. Cassius signed a treaty with the 30 Latin
cities, either designedly omitted, or misunderstood by the Roman
liistorians, because it bears witness to their feebleness after the
wars of the kings ; but there could still be read, in the time of
Cicero,^ on a bronze column : " There shall be peace between the
Romans and the Latins so long as the sky remains above the
earth and the earth under the sun. They shall never arm against
each other ; they will not afford any passage to the enemy across
their territory, and they will bring aid with all their force
whenever they are attacked. All booty and conquests made in
common are to be divided." Anotlier witness ^ enables us to add :
" The command of the combined army shall alternate each year
between the two peoples."

Seven years later, during his third consulship, some time
before proposing his agrarian law, Cassius concluded a like treaty
with the Hernicans.^ From that time the Aequians and Volscians
could make no movement which Hernican or Latin messengers did
not at once amiounce at Rome, and the legions hastening either
up or down the Valley of the Trerus were able to threaten the
very heart of the enemy's country. These two treaties added
more to the grandeur of Rome than any of those which it signed
ever after ; for they assured its existence at a time when its
power might have been nipped in the bud. The whole weight of
the war against both Aequians and Volscians fell upon its allies,
and on this side it generally played the part of a mere auxiliary.
Hence the little importance of these wars, in spite of the acts of
heroism and devotion, the great names, and the marvellous stories
with which the annalists have adorned them.

' Cic, pro Balbo, 23 ; Livy, ii. 33.

^ Cincius, mentioned by Festus, s. v. Praetor ad porlam . . . Quo anno Romanos vnpera-
tores ad exercitum oporteret. . . .

' It is by virtue of tliis treaty that the colony of Antium was divided between the Romans,
Latins, and Hernieans : eSo^e rfi ^ov\^ . . . intrpi'^ai AartVcui' t€ Ka\ 'Kpi'tKa)f Tois ^ovXofiiifois
T^s diTOKias ij.erf'xfiv. (Dionys., Lx. 59.)

308

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

n. coriolanus and the volscians ; cincinnatus and the

Aequians.

The Volscians, establislied among mountains {monti lepini),
which reach a height of 5,000 feet, and whose waters form the

Pontine Marshes, had the
twofold ambition of stretch-
ing at once along the
fertile Valley of the Tiber
and along that of the
Liris. After the fall of
Tarqnin, they had retaken
the cities which that King
had conquered from them.
Stopped, on the south, by
. the strong position of
Circei, which, nevertheless,
fell into their power, and
by the impassable and
sterile country of the
Aurunci, they threw them-
selves upon the rich plains
of Latium, took Velitrae
and Cora, in spite of their
powerful fortifications, and
carried their outposts
within ten miles of Rome.'
The most fortunate of
their invasions, and that
to which all their con-
by an illustrious Roman,

_ ^^■'.v'f

CERES.*

quests have been attached, was led
an exile of the gens Marcia.

He was, says the legend, a patrician distinguished for his

1 At Bovillae, which they took (Plut., Cor. 29), as well as Corioli, Lavinium, Satricum, and
Velitrae. (Livy, ii. 39.)

* Taken from an ancient painting in the museum at Naples.

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451. 309

courage, piety, and justice.' At the battle of Lake Regillus ho
had won a civic crown, aiid gained at the taking of Corioli the
surname of Coriolanus. Once, when the plebeians refused to give
levies of troops, he had armed Ills own clients, and sustained
alone the war against the Antiates. Yet the people, whom lu;
wounded by his pride, refused to give him the consulship, and
Coriolanus conceived a feeling of hatred which he showed by some
hasty words. During the retreat to the Sacred Mount the lands
remained imcultivated ; to fight against famine, a temple was vowed
to Ceres, and what was of greater service, they bought corn in
Etruria and Sicil}-, where Gelon refused to take money for it.
The Senate wished to distribute it gratuitously to the people :
" No corn or no more tribunes," said Coriolanus. This exjiression
was understood by the tribunes, who instantly cited him before
the people. Neither the threats nor entreaties of the patricians
could move them, and Coriolanus, condemned to exile, witlidrew
to the Volscians of Antium, a powerful and rich maritime city.
Tullius, their chief, forgot his jealousy and hatred, that he might
arouse in the heart of the exile a desire of revenge ; he consented
to be simply his lieutenant, and Coriolanus marched uj)on Rome
at the head of the Volscian legions. No army, no fortress stopped
him, and he encamped at last near the Cluilian ditch, ravaging
the lands of the plebeians, but sparing purposely these of the
nobles. In vain did Rome try to bend him. The most vener-
able of the consulars and the priests of the gods came to him
as suppliants, to receive only a harsh refusal. When the depu-
tation returned in despair, Valeria, sister of Poplicola, was praying
with the matrons at Jupiter's temple. As -if by an inspiration, she
led them to the house of Coriolanus and prevailed on his mother
Veturia to endeavor to touch the heart of her banished son,
whose proud spirit had not been broken by the prayers of his
country and his gods. At the approach of these ladies, Coriolanus
maintained his fierce aspect. But they told him that amongst them
were his aged mother and his young wife leading her two children
by the hand. Too Roman still to fail in filial respect, he advanced

Dionj'S., vui. 62 : "ASfxat xai vfive'irm Trpor ttuvtihv wj ficrf/3^f Ka\ SUaios avr^p. Tllis
legend has been much discussed, and Shakespeare has utilized it, without clearly sifting
out the element of truth it contains. [Was this to be expected? — Ed.']

310 • ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

to meet Veturia, and ordered tlie fasces to be lowered in her
presence : " Am I face to face with my son, or with an enemy ? "
said the dignified matron. The wife did not dare to speak, but
threw herself weeping into the arms of her husband, and his
cliildren clung to him : he was overcome, and withdrew. The Roman
women had saved Rome tlie second time.

The story is beautiful, but scarcely credible. Tired of war
and laden with booty, or finding that resistance grew stronger
as they approached Rome, the Volscians withdrew to their cities.
The legend adds that they did not pardon Coriolanus for thus
stopping them in the middle of their revenge, and that they
condemned him to death. According to Fabius, he lived to
an advanced age, exclaiming : " Exile is very hard u2:>on an old
man."

We can hardly refuse to believe that Rome was reduced to
the last extremities, and that the Volscians were established in
the centre of Latiiun ; Ijut it was a patrician wlio had conquered,
and thus honor was saved.

Coriolanus, on his part, had reason to find a stranger's bread
very bitter, for exile at Rome was both a civil and religious
excommunication. The exile lost not only his country and prop-
erty, but his household gods, his wife, who had the right of
re-marrying, his children, to whom he became a stranger, his
ancestors, who were no longer to receive funeral sacrifices at his
hands. Our civil death is less terrible.^

The mountains which separate the basins of the rivers Liris
and Anio descend from the borders of Lake Fucinus to Praeneste,
where they terminate at Algidus by a sort of promontory which
commands the plain and valley of the Tiber. By following the
hidden mountain paths, the Aequians could reach Mount Algidus
unperceived, the woods of which still covered their march and
ambuscades.^ Thence they burst unexpectedly on the Latin lands ;

1 Cicero wishes that he couUl be put to death, for the reason that this is a more suitable
end for the brave : Hu'ic generi mortis potius assentior : but Atticus answers : " It is true that
rhetoricians are allowed to lie in history if their art gains by it ! " (Concessunt est rhe.toribus
ementiri in historiis ut aliquid dicere possint argulius !) If we compare this with what
is cited from Livy above, p. 185, we shall find that these Romans had a strange idea of the
duties of an historian.

2 Nigrue feraci frondis in Algido. A few years ago Algidus was still the haunt of brigands
who infested the neighborhood of Palestrina and Frescati.

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451. 311

and if they were in sufficient numbers, or the enemy too cautions,
they were soon in the midst of the Roman territory. Every
year these incursions were renewed. It was not war ; but it would
have been far better to have serious engagements than these
unceasing acts of brigandage. The Latins were rendered so weak
that tlie Aequians were able to take several of their cities.^ Ac-
cordmg to the treaty of Cassius, Rome was bound to send all
their forces to their help. Their internal dissensions and the
dangers they ran on the side of Veil, kept the legions in the
city or to the north of the Tiber. However, the Senate felt
alarmed when it saw the Aequians established on Mount Algidus,
and the Volsciaus on the Alban Mount, separating the Latins from
the Hernicans and threatening two peoples at the same time.^ A
forty years' truce, which the Veientes had just signed (474), and
the adoption of the Publiliau law (471), by ending for a time
the Etruscan war and the troubles of the Forum, enabled them
to listen to the complaints of their allies.

Two members of the gens Quinctia, Capitolinus and Cincin-
natus, gained the honors of this war.

T. Quinctius Capitolinus, a popular patrician', had been the
colleague of the imperious Appius. While the Voleros of the
latter allowed themselves to be beaten by the Volscians, Quinctius
seized the booty gained by the Aequians and re-entered Rome
with the title of Father of the Soldiers. Consul a second
time in 467, he took possession of Antium, a part of whose
territory was distributed amongst some Roman colonists, and he
had on his return so brilliant a triumph that he obtained the
surname of Capitolinus. The Aequians continued in arms. Four
times then- active bands audaciously penetrated into the Campagna
of Rome : one day they even surrounded the consul Fuvius in
a narrow gorge. Two legions were on the point of destruction :
Capitolinus saved them. At the news of the danger, the Senate had
invested the other consul with dictatorial power by the formula :
Caveat consul ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat, and it was

1 In the legend, all these towns, even Corbio, beyond the Anio, are taken by the Volsci ;
all the successive conquests of both Volsci and Aequi were attributed to the Roman exile.

^ These two mountains are the watershed between the basins of the Tiber and the Liris,
and they dominate the whole Latin plain.

312 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

employed only to cliarge CapitoHnus with the difficult duty
of delivering the consular army.

Never had Rome, since Porsenna, been so seriously threat-
ened ; internal troubles had begun again respecting the proposal
of Terentillus. The pestilence was raging with a violence so
much more fatal because the inroads of the enemy filled the
city, during the heat of summer, with men and troops accustomed
to the pure mountain air.^ In 462 an army of Aequians and
Volscians encamped only three miles from the Esquiline Gate ;
three years later a night attack delivered the Capitol for a moment
into the hands of the Sabine Herdonius ; the year following
Antium revolted, and the consul Minucius allowed himself once
more to be shut into a defile by the Aequians. Cincinnatus
alone seemed able to save the Repuljlic. He retook the Cajaitol,
and restored to the Romans the fortress which was also their
sanctuary. In this matter he made himself conspicuous by a
severity which gained the confidence of the Senate : he was made
dictator.

The senators who were sent to inform him of this election
found him across the Tiber in the field which was named for a
long time the meads of Quinctius. He was digging a ditch, and
he received them resting on his spade. After the accustomed salu-
tations, they requested him to assume his toga, in order to
receive a communication from the Senate. "He is astonished,
asks if all is not well, and sends his wife Racilia to find his
toga in the hut. Having put it on, after having brushed off
the dust and perspiration, he returns to the deputies, who salute
him dictator, present their congratulations, and press him to return
to the city." ^ If this scene is not historic, it is at least accord-
ing to the manners of the time and the character of the man.
What follows shows the patrician, so proud of his descent,
taking possession of power with the same simplicity which he
had shown in quitting his plough and displaying the activity and
energy of men born to command. A boat awaited him on the
Tiber; he embarked and was received on the left bank by his
three sons, his relatives, and the greater part of the senators.

» Livy, iii. 6. 2 Jbid., iji. 26.

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 495 TO 451.

313

Before the end of the day he went to the Forum, and then
named as his cavahy chief another patrician as poor as himself,
and ordered all business to be suspended, all shops closed, and
all men aljle to take arms to meet on the Field of Mars before
sunset, each witli five stakes and enough In-ead for five days.
Evening being come, he set out and marched six leagues in four

HOi^

hours ; before daybreak the Aequians were themselves enclosed
by a ditch and a palisade work : they were coitipelled to pass
under the yoke. On his return in triumph to Rome, followed
by the consul and the army that he had saved, he compelled
Minucius to set him free from his special charge, had the
consular fasces^ broken before him, and on the seventh day
laid down the dictatorship, in order to return to his own fields.

^ Setia Tvas on a hill, diificult of access, which rose above the Pontine Marshes ; the town of
Sezze has kept the name„and occupies the same site.

^ Dionj-s., X. 22 ; Livy, iii. 26-30: Vi majoris imperii. The school of Niebuhr regards this
story as legendary.

314

KOME UNDER THE PATKICIAN CONSULS.

In spite of this success, which national vanity has thus em-
bellished, as is the case in so many other points of Rome's
military history, the war was not ended; the Aequians kept
possession of Algidus, as did the Volscians of the Alban
Mount.

During the half century that had elapsed surce the expulsion
of the kings, the decadence of Rome's power was not arrested
one instant. In 493 its territory was at least protected by the

RUINS OF A TEMPLE NEAR SEZZE.

Latins ; but of the thirty Latin cities which had signed the treaty
of Cassius, thirteen were now either destroyed or held by the
enemy, and among them some of the strongest places of Italy,
such ,as Circeii, at the foot of its promontory, Setia, Cora, and
Norba,' all three in the mountains of the Xo^scian territories and
surrounded by strong walls. If the acjer Ronianus was not yet
encroached upon, the barrier which ought to have protected it had
been partly destroyed. Was Rome more fortunate in the north
against the Etruscans ?

' Other Latin cities taken or destroyed : Velitrae, Tolina, Ortona, Satricum, Labicum,
Pedum, Corioli, Carventum, Corbio. (Dionys. and Livy, passim.')

MILITARY HISTORY OF ROME FROM 497 TO 451. 315

III. War against Veil

A GREAT part of Etruria had taken part in the expedition of
Porsenna ; since that time the invasions of the Cisalpine Gauls
and the increasing power of the Greeks and Carthaginians had
divided the attention and forces of the Etruscan cities ; some of
them watching, on the north, the passes of the Apennines ;
others, in the west, on the coasts threatened by the Ligurian
pirates, and on the southwest over their own colonies, which, one
by one, were slipping from their hands. The old league was dis-
solved, and all idea of conquest in the direction of Latium had
been abandoned. But Veil, at a distance from the Gauls and
the sea, was too near Rome not to profit by its weakness.
The war, however, did not break out till 482 B. c. It lasted
nine years.

Two incidents only have been preserved of this war, far
more serious for Rome than the incursions of the Aequians and
Volscians, — the foundation by the Romans of a fortress on the
banks of the Cremera, from whence they extended their ravages for
two years up to the walls of Veil, and the occupation of the
Janiculum by the Veientines. We have already seen that the
Roman annalists do great honor to the patriotic devotion of
the Fabii for having held in check all the enemy's forces, till the
day when, surprised by an ambuscade, the whole gens perished.'
The Veientines in their turn burned up everything along both
banks of the Tiber, and established themselves on the Janiculum,
from whence they saw Rome at their {eet. One day they crossed
the stream and ventured to attack the legions on the Field of
Mars. A vigorous effort repulsed them ; the next day they were
caught between two consular armies, and at last driven from the
dangerous post which they held. The war was carried up to
the very walls of Veii ; a forty years' truce left the two peoples
in the position which they held before hostilities began (474 b. o.)

In this Avar Veii had not been supported by the great
lucumos of the north, whose attention was at that time called

1 See p. 294.

316

ROME UNDER THE PATEICIAjST CONSULS.

elsewhere, wliere the fate of their rivals was l^eiiig decided. While
in fact Rome was rehearsing her part for future greatness by
these obscure contests, and for the pillage of the world by the
carrying off some rustic plunder, the armies of Xerxes were
shaking Asia, and three hundred thousand Carthaginians, his allies,
made a descent on Sicily (480). The ability of Themistocles at
Salamis saved Greece ; that of Gelo at Himera assured the welfare
of Syracuse and of the Italiot Greelvs who disputed with the Etrus-
cans the commerce of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic. At
first the Greeks closed against them the Straits of Messina ; then in
the year which preceded the forty years' truce they annihilated their
fleet in the vicinity of Cape Misenum.^ Hiero established in the Isle
of Ischia a station for his galleys, which cut the communications
Ijetween the Etruscan cities of the Vulturnus and those of the
Arno. Thus the most dangerous enemies of the ancient subjects
of Porsenna were wasting their forces in these distant wars, and
this enabled the Romans to indulge with impunity in all the
disorders which accompany growing liberty.

During these first years of the Republic, so fruitful for Rome's

institutions, nothing had been done to extend its power. Rome,

at all events, had lasted, gaining daily streugth

and confidence. Its territory, properly so called,

had not been imjDaired, and the population grew

warlike in these struggles which were not really

dangerous. The soldiers whom Appius decimated

without resistance, whom Cincinnatus loaded with

five stakes, their arms, and their victuals, for a

march of nearly twenty miles in four hours, were

already the legionaries who could conquer the

Samnites and Pyrrhus. Rome need no longer fear

for her existence, as in the time of Porsenna, and she has the

right to great expectations.

1 See p. 79.

^ Cabinet de France, No. 94 in the Catalogue : cameo of archaic style, representing Hope
standing, with a diadem, lifting up the skirt of lier tunic with the left hand, and holding in
her right the flower which promises to bear fruit.

llSilmTxun AlkrCanina.

SOUTHERN ETRUKIA (TERRITORY OF VEIl).

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DECEMVIES AND CIVIL EQUALITY (451-449).

I. Bill ok Terentilius.

UP to the time of Volero and Laetorius, the people had only
won the means of fighting ; and the struggle, in spite of
the violences which had already taken place, had not yet seriously
begim. The aristocracy preserve all the ofiices which they held
after the exile of the kings, the supreme command, the magisterial
offices, religion, justice ; but the plebeians were formerly without
guidance and object : now their chiefs are measuring the distance
which separates them from power.

The internal history of Rome is truly of an admiraljle simplicity.
First of all, an aristocracy which forms by itself the whole state,
and below, far below, strangers, fugitives, men without family and
almost without gods. But then the plebeians, used as instruments
for conquests, see their number as well as their worth and their
strength increase by these conquests. It comes to pass that they
help the nobles to drive out a tyrant ; next day they ai'e forgotten :
they fly to the Sacred Mount from • their misery and servitude,
and discover chiefs who discipline this mob, hitherto untrained,
exercise it in the conflict, and gradually arm it at all points.
Presently they pass from the defensive to attack tlieir foe.

In 462 the plebeians demanded the revision of the constitution
and a written code.^ This was too much to ask at once, for they
were not strong enough to triumph at once. So then victory
was gained piecemeal, so to speak, and needed more than a century

* Legihus de imperio consulari scrihcndh (Livy, iii. 9) ; and fjirther on (iii. 34) : Fon^
omnis puhHci privatique est juris : and Dionys., x. 3 : tovs inrip airavrav vofiovs, rav re Koiviiv
Kai Ttov iSttov. Lastly, Zonaras, vii. 18 : rfjv TroXtTfiau laaiTtpav notri<Ta(T0at, fyjnj<fit{TavTO»

320 . EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

to complete it. In 450 they extorted civil equality ; in 367 and
339 political equality ; in 300, religious equality. The decemvirate
was the conquest of equality in civil and penal law.

In the constitution nothing was written or determined ; no one
knew where the jurisdiction of the magisti'ates, where the powers
of the Senate ceased. Law was not right, rectum, or, as the jrnis-
consults of the Empire defined it, the gQod and the just, ars boni
et aequi : it was the order imperiously given, jus, by the stronger
to the weaker, by the priest to the layman, by the husl^and to the
wife and children.' Besides, to fulfil their duty, to protect the
plebeians against iniquitous handling of the law, the tribunes
needed to know it, and it continued in the uncertain and floating
state of custom. The judge gave sentence, " according to the usage
of their ancestors," ex more m.qjorum, that is, after the particular
law of an ancient sovereign people of whom the new people knew
nothing. The tribune C. Terentilius Arsa was determined to destroy
this uncertainty and the arbitrary conduct it authorized. Aljan-
doning the agrarian law, which was becoming stale, he demanded
in 462 that five men should be nominated to draw up a code of
laws, which should determine, by limiting it, the power of the
consuls.^ A plebiscitum had no force over the j^ojndus ; the Senate
was then able to avoid considering this proposition, but it at-
tempted to stop the triljune liy the veto of one of his colleagues.
But they had all sworn to remain united, and neither threats nor
evil omens could turn them from their purpose.

The leader of these acts of patrician violence was the son
of Cincinnatus, Caeso, a young man proud of his power, his
exploits, and his high rank. At the head of the young pa-
tricians he disturbed the deliberations, attacked the crowd, and
more than once drove the tribunes from the Forum. This man
seemed to contain in himself all dictatorships and consulates,
and his audacity made the tribunitian power useless. A tribune
dared nevertheless to make use of the Julian law. Virginius
accused Caeso of having struck one of his colleagues in spite

' For the aristocratic idea of order, yu.v Irom juheo, we liave substituted the idea of justice.
The French word droit comes from the Latin rcrium and directum, in Italian direttu, in Spanish
derecho, in German rccht, in English ri;/hl, among the Scandinavians ret. The Slavs start from
another idea, nut that of rectitude, but of truth, prauoda.

^ Livy, iii. 9.

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 440. 321

of liis inviolable office, and a plebeian ' bore witness that lie bad
knocked down, on tlie SulMiran road, an old man, bis brotber,
wbo died some days after of bis wounds. Tbe people were
niucb excited by tbis murder, and Caeso, set free on bail, would
bave I)een condeunied to deatb at tbe next comitia, bad be not
voluntarily gone into exile to Etruria. He bad been compelled
to find bail to tbe amount of 30,000 lbs. of bronze ; to pay it,
Cincinnatus sold all bis property except four acres (4G1 B.c.).^

Like Coriolanus, Caeso determined to be avenged, and tbe tri-
bunes came one day to denounce before tbe Senate a conspiracy
he bad organized. Tbe Capitol was to be surprised, tbe tribunes
and cbiefs of tbe people to be massacred, tbe sacred laws
abolisbed. Tbe Capitol was in fact, in tbe following year,
seized during tbe nigbt by tbe Sabine Herdonius, at tbe bead
of 4,000 adventurers, slaves or exiles, among wbom probably was
Caeso (460)." Tbis bold stroke frigbtened tbe Senate as much as
tbe people, to wbom tbe consul Valerius promised tbe acceptance
of tbe Terentilian bill in return for tbeir help. Tbe Capitol was
retaken by tbe aid of tbe dictator of Tusculum, C. Mamilius,^
and not one escaped of all tbose wbo were bolding it. But
Valerius, tbe popular consul, bad fallen during tbe attack, and
was replaced by Cinciimatus, wbo tbougbt tbe Senate released
from its promises by bis death. '' So long as I am consul,"
said be to the tribunes, "your law shall not pass, and before
leavmg office I will nominate a dictator. To-morrow I lead the
army against the Aequians." They announced tbeir opposition to
the enrolment. " I do not want fresh soldiers ; the legionaries
of Valerius have not been disbanded ; they will follow me to
Algidus." He wished to take tbe augui's there, in order that
they might consecrate a place for deliberation and compel the
army, as representative of the people, to revoke all the tribuni-
tian laws.* Tbe Senate dared not follow tbeir consul in this
violent reaction. They merely rejected the law ; but the same

' Livy, iji. 13; Dionys., x. 4-8.

^ Dionys., x. 9, 14; Livy, iii. 15 : Iribunorum interficiendoruin, trucidandae plebis.

^ lie received, in recompense, the freedom of the city. It was, without doubt, a descend-
ant of Tarquinius Superbus, who had a son-in-law a dictator of Tusculum ; his family was
reckoned among the more illustrious plebeian families.

* Livy, iii. 20.

VOL. I. 21

322 • EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

tribunes were re-elected for the third time. So they were in the
years following, up to the fifth time ; and with them was brought
forward the hateful bill, in spite of a new dictatorship of Cin-
cinnatus, who employed his authority to exile without appeal the
accuser of his son (458 b. c).

This state of things kept men's minds in such a continual
ferment, that the Senate thought it prudent to consent to nomi-
nating for the future ten tribunes, two for each class (457). The
people, aljove all those of the lower classes, expected from this
increase more efficacious protection, the patricians greater facility
for bribmg some members of the college. Other concessions
followed.

In 456 the tribune Icilius demanded that the lands of the
public domain on the Aventine should be distributed among the
people.^ In vain the patricians troubled the assembly and upset
the voting-urns ; the tribunes, supported liy the brave Sicinius Den-
tatus, condemned several young patricians to confiscation of their
property as authors of these violent acts. The Senate secretly
bought back their lands and restored them. But the tribunes
had proved their strength ; they secured the acceptance of the law
by the tribes, compelled the consuls to take it to the Senate,
and Icilius obtained the right to enter the cvuia to defend his
.plebiscite. From this innovation .sprang the right for the tribunes
to sit and speak in that assembly; later on, they had even, as
had the consuls and praetors, that of calluig it together.^ The
law passed. Many of the poor who lived outside the city went
to live on the Aventine, and the force of the plebs increased by
the number of those who were able to hurry to the Forum at
the first call of the tribunes. The popular hill was covered with
plebeian houses. The citizens too poor to build one from their own
resources united with others ; each flat had in this way its pro-
prietor, — a custom which still exists at Rome, in Corsica, and even
in some cities of France. As the public domain retained not

1 Dionys., x. 31. The condition of ager publicus, preserved by the Aventine up to 456,
contradicts the tradition relative to the establishment, on this hiU, of the Latins conquered by
Ancus. (Cf. p. 156.)

- AVe see them, after the decemvirs, in full possession of tliis right. Cf. Livy, iii- 69 ;
V. 1, 2, 3, 6, 2G, 36, etc. Trihunis plehin .tenatns habendi jus erat, quamquam senalores non
essent, ante Alinium plchlscituia. (Aul. GcU., xiv. 8.)

DECEMVIKH AM) CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 449. 323

a foot of soil, thero tlic patricians could not stay ; and this lull

became a sort of fortress of the people. Under the decemvir.s it
was the asylum of pleljoian lilierty.'

WALL OF Till-; AVKNTINE.-

In 454 a law presented to the centuries by the consul Ater-
nius recognized in all the magistrates, even in the tribunes and
aediles, the right of punishing by fine those who did not show

1 The Tcilian law was placed aiiionc; the number of the ler/cx siirratae, following Lhy (iii.
32); but Lanf;e (liiimisclie AlUrtJiumer, i. 51!) and 53'i) thinks with reason that Livv has con-
founded this kx Icilia with the Icilian |ilcbiscituni of 471, which was in fact a lex sacrnta.
(See p. 297, n. 3.) LTp to that time a great number of plebeians inhabited, as tenants, houses
belonging to the patricians; the latter lost by this law the influence they used to exercise,
under the title of landlords, over a certain number of the plebs.

- After a jihotogi-aph by Parker. The Aventine, f(3rmerly covered with temples and
thickly populated, would be a mere solitude without two or three convents which rise on it
above the Tiber.

324 . EOME UNDER THE PATKICIAJST CONSULS.

to them the respect and obedience which their office demanded.^
The lowest fine was fixed at one slieep, and the maxiinnm, wliich
could be reached only by an increase of a head for each day of
refusal, at two oxen and thirty sheep. At the same time this
law put a limit to the arbitrary manner in which the consuls
had up to tliat time fixed the amount of the fines.

A short time after an official coinage began. The state had
at first only certified the quality of the metaP by stamping the
pieces of bronze, aes, the weight of which was afterward deter-
mined by the buyer's balance, whence the form of purchase called
mancipatio per aes et librani .• ^ "I take this object bought with
this bronze duly weighed." To this first warranty there was
added another in the time of the decemvirs,* — the evidence of
weight ; they ran in a mould pieces of bronze of a circular form,
bound to weigh twelve ounces.^ This was the as lihrale, which
carried a stamp with a figure indicating its value, and which was
divided as follows : —

As =1

pound,

bear

ing

the liead of Janus.

Semis = ^

Jupiter.

Trieiis = J

Minerva.

Quadrans = \

Hercules.

Sextans = J-

Mercury.

Uncia = ounce

Eome.

The appearance of money is one of the great events in history.
For more than a century and a half, to the year 2G8 B. c. the
Romans were satisfied with their heavy bronze money, while for

^ Dionys., x. 50 ; Cic, de Rep. ii. 35.

^ The primitive bronze was of almost pure copper : 93.70 of co])per and 6.30 of tin.

2 The Roman jjound, which was divided into 12 ounces, weighed 327.4 grammes.

* In the Twelve Tables the penalties are given in uses ; cf. Gains, iii. 223.

^ It is beUeved that no single as reached this weight ; the greater number in reality
weighed 9 to 10 ounces. But in 1852 there were found at Cervetri 1575 uses, many of which
weighed 312 grammes; whence it must be inferred that the greater part of the ancient uses
had about the normal weight (see p. 630, No. 2). Respecting the successive reductions of
the weight of the as, which fell to 4 ounces at the end of the Saranite War; to 2 ounces
at the end of the First Punic War; to 1 ounce in 217; and later on to ^, j, during the
early Empire; even in the middle of the 3d century to ^ and -^-^ of an ounce, — see Pliny,
Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 5 ; Festus, s. v. Sextantarii uses ; Mommsen, Hist, of Rom. Money ; and
Marquardt, Handb. ii. p. 9 el secj. It is easy to tell by a cursory inspection of the table
on p. 630 and by the finish of the work of the stamjied uses, tliat these coins are of much
later date than the ases which were cast. The former date, in fact, only from the second
century b. c.

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 459 TO 449. 325

a long time Greece, Sicily, and South Italy were coining silver
monc}', which is the most beautiful yet known. How wretched the
commerce for which such means of exchange sufficed ! Let the as
cast' at Rome be compared with tlie coins of Tlnirii and Syracuse,
and we can measure the distance which then separated the Romans
from the Greeks !

The division of the lands of the Aventine was a true agrarian
law, and the lex Aternia repressed one of the most crying abuses^
which Terentilius had attacked. The Senate
hoped in this way to impose upon the people,
and to delay, by these partial satisfactions,
two formidable demands, the agrarian law and
the lex Terentilia. But the tribunes would
not tolerate either truce or respite ; the two
proposals were immediately resumed, and to
get them passed there was elected to the
tribunate the most renowned and popular of
the plebeians, Sicinius Dentatus, an old centurion who had been
present in 120 battles, followed 9 triumphs, slain 8 of the enemy
in single combat, received 45 wounds, all in front,
earned 183 necklaces, 160 gold bi-acelets, 18 lances,
25 suits of armor, and lastly 14 civic crowns for
the same number of citizens whom he had saved. ^
Employing a means of intimidation which his pre-
decessors had already employed, Sicinius condemned
two consuls to fines. The Senate saw the necessity of giving up
force without excluding diplomacy, in order to divert the revolution.
It accepted the proposition of Terentilius, which the tribunes had
changed into a demand for a complete revision of the constitution.®
One of the consulars condemned, Romilius, had supported the
bill, no doubt hoping that the new legislation would take from

CIVIC CKOWN WITH
LAUREL LEAVES.'^

CIVIC CROWN.*

* The importance of this law will be felt if wc recall the effect that was produced in
England by the penalties enforced by the Government of Charles I. At Rome in 430 the
penalties in kind were converted into penalties in money.

2 OB CIVIS SERVATOS, a large bronze of Augustus' tune.
' Aul. Gell., ii. 11.; Dionys., x. 37.

* AVGVSTO OB C.S. (oi cities servatos) in a crown of oak. Reverse of a gold coin of
the family Petrnnia.

^ The lawgivers were to seek quae aequandae libertatis essent. (Livy, iii. 3.)

326 . KO.ME UNDER THE TATRICIAN CONSULS.

the hands of the tribunes, if it did not destroy the tribunate
itself, this terrible right of accusation before the people.^ The
astonished Dentatus praised his courage, abjured their old hatred,
and in the name of the people remitted the penalty which ought
to have been paid into the treasury of Ceres. " This money,"
replied Romilius, " belongs now to the gods ; no one has the
right to dispose of it ; " and he refused the boon.

However, three commissioners were named, Sp. Postumius,
A. Manlius, and P. Sulpicius, to go, perhaps to Athens,^ at any
rate to the Greek cities of Italy, to collect the best laws. To
give the strangers a high idea of the Roman people, the quaestors
caused the vessels in which the ambassadors sailed to be richly
decorated.

Rome was at peace during the absence of the three deputies.
On their return (452) some discussion arose respectmg the com-
position of the legislative commission. This was where the nobles
determined to face the tribunes. The question was indeed very
serious, for all antiquity thought that the legislator ought to be
invested with unlimited power. The consuls, the tribunes, the
aediles, the quaestors were then to give way to ten magistrates
charged with drawing up the new code. The most precious of the
republican conquests, the provocatio, was even suspended ; but the
rights acquired by the plebeians during the last 50 years were
reserved ! ^ Besides, before the new laws could be put in force they
would have to receive the approbation of the Senate and the
sanction of the people. Rome did not then give up her liberties.
In pleading their acquaintance with law, the patricians kept the
ten jjlaces of legislators for themselves. This first choice decided
that the reform should not have a political character.

' Dionys., x. 48 and 58.

- Livy afBrms it, Alticis kgihus (iii. 32) ; Tacitus {Ann. iii. 27) says only . . . e.t accitis
quae usquam cgregia. [The nature and duties of tlie censorship (t-f. below, p. 345, •'<?'/•) make
it very probable that the financial measures of the decemvirs were borrowed directly from those
adopted by the Athenians, who then ruled over a great maritime power. — Ed.J

3 The law de Acenlino publicando and the leges sacralae were, however, removed from
the right of general revision granted to the decemvirs. The sentence was terrible for
any who should have violated these laws : Sacer alicui deormn sU cum J'aiiulia pecuniaque.
(Cf . Fest., s. v., and Livy, iii. 32.)

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FKOM 451 TO 449. 327

n. The Decemvirs (451-449).

In the year 451 b. c, on the Ides of Ma}^, the decemvirs, who had
all served as consuls, entered on their duties. They were : App.
Claudius, T. Genucius, P. Sestius, T. Romilius, C. Julius, T. Veturius,
P. Horatius, and the three commissioners.^ Each day one of them
held the presidency, the government of the city, and the twelve
lictors. Unanimous in their acts, just and affable towards all,
they kept the Republic in a state of profound peace, diminishing
rather than exceeding theh powers. A dead body had been found
in the house of the patrician Sestius ; not only did the decemvir
Julius follow up the prosecution, but though he had the right of
judgment without appeal, he sent the case to the people's assembly.
At the end of the first year, ten tables were set up in the Forum,
that any one might propose amendments, to be afterward reviewed
by the decemvirs, then approved by the Senate, accepted in the
comitia centuriata, and sanctioned by the Curiae under the presi-
dency of the Pontifex Maximus. The gods seemed to give their
assent by sending favoi'able auguries.

These ten tables were the old customs of Rome, or of primitive
Italy, modified by some things borrowed from the legislation of
the Greek cities, which the Ephesian Hermodorus had explained
to the decemvirs.^

However, the code was not yet complete. In order to finish
it, the powers of the legislative commission were continued, but
with the aid of other men, in accordance with the spirit of the Roman
constitution. Among the resigning decemvirs was Appius Claudius,
who during the first year had concealed his pride and ambition
under popular appearances. Called upon to preside at the comitia
of election, he opposed the candidature of Cincinnatus and Capito-
linus, whom he would not have been able to mould to his designs,

^ I follow Dionysius ; the list in Livy differs somewhat.

- As a reward, they erected a statue to Hermodorus in the Comitium. He had been
exiled from Ephesus by the jealousy of the populace, who had caused this law to be passed :
Nemo de nobis vnus excMat ; sin quis exstiteril , alio in loco et ajmd alios sit. IleracUtus said
that by reason of this decree : unirersos Ephesios esse morte mulclandos. (Cic, Tusc. v. .3G.)
Envy is at the root of every democracy.

328 . ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

and only allowed those to be nominated who were devoted to him.
He did not fear to collect votes for himself, though, as president
of the comitia, custom forl^ade his re-election. His new colleagues,
obscure men, submitted to his ascendency. Preceded by 120 lictors
[an innovation], with the rods and axes, they seemed to be ten
kings,^ and they were so in pride.

Like their predecessors, they were unanimous, for they had
mutually promised that the opposition of none of them should
check the acts of his colleagues ; ^ and this agreement consolidated
their power. Henceforth, the fortune, honor, and the lives of
the citizens were at their mercy. The Senate might now have
played a splendid part, that of defending the public liberties. It
preferred giving way to the old spirit of rancor, and hailed this
tyranny arising from a popular law. The patrician youth, for a
long time accustomed, under Appius and Caeso, to violence, became
for the city a sort of decemviral army, and the senators, deserting
their posts in the senate-house, retired to their country houses.

However, the decemvirs jDublished two new tables, " filled,"
says Cicero,^ "with unjust laws," and the year ended without
their expressing any intention of abdicating. Rome had given
herself masters. There existed, in fact, no legal means of depriving
a magistrate of his imperium, if he did not, of his own accord,
come to the Forum and declare tluit he resigned his office, and
swear that he had done nothing contrary to the laws : jurare in
leges. Fortunately, the Sabmes and Aequians renewed the war.
The Senate had to be convoked.

Free states, which change character and sentiments by force of
external or short-lived impulses, owe their stability to the existence
of houses in which the principles and opinions of their forefathers
are perpetuated, as a heritage transmitted to the latest posterity.
The popular patricians did not on this occasion fall short of their
name. A Valerius rose, as soon as the session was opened, and
in spite of Appius, who refused to let him speak, he denounced
the conspiracy formed against liberty. " These are the Valerii and
Horatii who expelled the kings," said Horatius Barbatus; "their

' Dionys. (x. 58) pretends that throe were plebeians ; Livy (v. 7) makes them all patricians.

^ Livy, iii. 36 : 'intercessionem consensu sustulerant.

* De Rep. ii. 37: iluabics tahulis inujuarmii lef/um addilis.

DECEMVIES AJSTD CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 449. 329

descendants will not stoop their head under the Tarquins." The
deceinvii\s interrupted and threatened him ; they threatened to hurl
him from the Tarpeian rock ; but even the uncle of Appius declared
against him. Still timid counsels prevailed, and, at the end of a
stormy sitting, ten legions were intrusted to the decemvirs. Two
armies left Rome; being badly led, and disloyal to their chiefs,
they were beaten. In one Dentatus served, who did not hide his
hate. In order to get rid of him, the decemvirs sent him to
choose a site for a camp, and gave him as escort some soldiers
ordered to assassinate him. The Roman Achilles onl}' succumbed
after having killed fifteen of the traitors. The report was circulated
that he had jierislied in an ambuscade ; but no one doubted that
he had been sacrificed to the fears of the decemvirs. Another crime
at last brought about their fall.

From the elevation of his tribunal Appius? had seen, several
times, a beautiful young girl, hardly grown up, going to one of
the public schools, held by freedmen in the Forum ; and a criminal
passion seized him. She was the daughter of one of the highest
plebeians, Virginius, who was then with the army of Algidus, and
the affianced of the former tribune Icilius. The decemvir suborned
one of his clients, Marcus Claudius, and charged him to lay
before him a suit which would bring Virginia mto his power. The
scene is very Roman, and well told by Livy. No seduction, no
abduction or open violence : the iniquity is accomplished with the
observance of legal foi-ms which disguise the violation of the law.
A stranger, ignorant of the real motive of the suit, would have
admired in Appius the imperturbable magistrate in the midst of
popular clamor.

One day Claudius seized the maiden under pretence that she,
being the child of one of his slaves, belonged to him. The tears
of Virginia, the cries of her nurse, stirred up the crowd. Her
father's friends pi'otested agauist this insolent and false pretence ;
but Claudius called on Appius to have his rights respected, and the
iniquitous judge, contrary to the very law which he had himself
passed, adjudged provisional possession to his accomplice. Icilius
cried out, and the crowd grew agitated ; Appius, with a hypocritical
appearance of legality, consented to let Virginia free till the
morrow, to hear the father's deposition, and determine the question

330 ■ KOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

of her paternity. But at the same time lie despatched a secret
emissary to the chiefs of the legions of the Algidus to enjoin
them to prevent Virginius leaving the camp. The friends of
Icilius forestalled the messenger, and in the morning the father
was at the Forum with his daughter and neighbors dressed in
mourning. His presence did not stop Appius. All the available
fighting men were in the armies ; m Rome there remained only
women, old men, and infants ; and the decemvir believed that his
lictors and clients would be able to keep in check this timid
crowd. So when Claudius had explained his case, he declared,
without allowing the father to speak, that the proof was complete,
and that Virginia was a slave. Claudius wished to carry her off ;
the women who surrounded the damsel repulsed him, and Vir-
ginius, raising against Appius his arms menacingly, cries : " It is
to Icilius that I have affianced my child, and not to you ! It is
for marriage, and not for shame, that I have brought her up ! "
And he added, pointing to the unarmed citizens : " Will you
permit it ? Perhaps ; but surely those who have arms will
not ! "

Appius, carrying out his part as magistrate occupied only
with administering justice and order in the city, deigns to answer.
" Secret meetings," said he, " are held the whole night long in the
city to stir up sedition ; I know it, not by the insults of Icilius
yesterday, by the violence of Virginius to-day, but by sure proofs.
Therefore I am prepared for the struggle, and have come down to
the Forum with men-at-arms to check, in a manner worthy of my
powers, those who disturb the public peace." And he ended by
saying : " Citizens, keep quiet, it is the wisest course ; and you,
hctor, go, disperse the crowd, and make way for the master to
seize his slave."

At these threatening words the multitude dispersed of its
own accord. Then Virginius, despairing of aid, addressed the
decemvir : " Appius," said he, " pardon the grief of a father,
and permit me, here in the presence of my child, to ask her
nurse the whole truth ! " And he led Virgmia towards a comer
of the Forum where was a butcher's stall : he takes up from it a
knife, and strikes her to the heart, preferring to see her dead
than dishonored ; then, covered with her blood, he fled to the

DECEMVIKS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 449. 331

army encamped on Algidus. The soldiers rose in revolt, marched
upon Kome, where they seized the Aventine, and then, followed
by all the people, united on the Sacred Mount with the legions
of the Sabine army.

For some time the decemvirs hesitated, supported by a party
in the Senate who dreaded the results of a plebeian revolution.
But if it had been necessary to yield forty-six years before,
when the patricians were still powerful and the plebeians without
leaders, how was it possible to resist now when the people had
the experience derived from theu' last struggles and the conscious-
ness of their strength? The decemvirs abdicated (449 B. c).

Is this story of Appius in all parts credible ? and has not
Livy been, this time also, the echo of this bitterness, which for
ten years had checked the great popular reform — the drawing up
a code of written law ? Appius has been represented as a friend
of the people : m proof of this it is asserted that he it was
who gave three places to the plebeians in the second decemvirate ;
that he continued to hold office for the purpose of crushing the
opposition of the irreconcilables in the Senate who refused to
accept the last two tables, — in short, that the story aimed at
perpetuating, by the blood of a vu-gin, the victory of the
plebeians, as the blood of Lucretia, sixty years earlier, had per-
petuated that of the nobles. This is possible ; but with such
confirmed scepticism no history at all can exist ; and it being
impossible to prove a negative, the old story preserves a part
at least of its rights.

m. The Twelve Tables.

The Twelve Tables made little change in the old rights of
individuals. Aristocratic customs were too deeply rooted to permit
them yet awhile to become modified by that spirit of equality
and justice which the tribunes by degrees infused into the Roman
constitution. The decemvirs preserved to the paterfamilias absolute
power over his slaves, children, wife, and property.

If no will was left, the inheritance passed to the agnati ;

332 • IKJME UNDEE THE I'ATKICIAN CONSULS.

if they failed, to the gentiles : the law did not as yet recognize
the cognati, or relations of the wife.^

The Twelve Tables did not introduce, as has been sometimes
maintained, any new law concerning the family, granting more
liberty to the wife and son. The emancipation of the son by
these pretended sales freed him, it is true, from the paternal
authority, but deprived him of his inheritance ; for he suffered
by emancipation a diminution of civil rights, capitis diminutio,
which indicated certain disabilities ; as, for example, inheriting
from his father, bemg guardian of his nephews, posterity, etc.,
since the capitis diminutio destroyed the jus agnationis. Marriage,
on the contrary, by cohabitation or purchase, coemptio, was raised,
so far as the husband was concerned, to the strictness of the
patrician marriage : usu anni continui in manuni conveniebat? The
plebeian had from this time, over wife and children, the paternal
and conjugal power which the patrician had hitherto possessed,
and which later on the provincial could obtain only by the
gift of civic freedom. It is the ciml marriage which receives
the sanction of the law, and which is placed, so far as its results
are concerned, on a level with the religio^is marriage,^ which will
ultimately quite disappear. In four years Canuleius made use of
the rights recognized in the plebeian marriage to suppress the
interdiction preserved in the Twelve Tables, of unions between
the two orders. Thus the gates of the patrician city will open
first to the plebeians of Rome, then to the Italian allies, and
finally to their subjects in the provinces.

The ancient patrician gens must have been copied early in
the families of rich plebeians ; but the bonds of the clientela being
gradually relaxed, the Twelve Tables tried to strengthen this
social institution of old Italy. " If the patron does an injury to
his client," it is said therein, " let him be accursed." It was a
last effort to tie up to his condition the client, who, finding in the
law that protection which he had formerly sought from the great

1 As regards projierty, the omnipotence of the father w^as, in the 2d century B. c,
restrained hy lex Furia, which forbade making a bequest of more than 1,000 ases to the same
person, in order to prevent the abuse of legacies, which cut up properties and impoverished
the old families.

'^ Gaius, i. Ill, and Q\q., pro Flacco, 34.

* On the marriage by confarreatio, see p. 106, n. 2.

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 449. 333

man, drifted ;iway from the (jms into the common crowd, where
he found more hberty. Soon he espoused its interests and passions,
as the clients of CamiUus did, who voted against him. Tliis was
an unfelt and yet profound revokition, for a part of the forces be-
longing to the aristocracy thus passed over to the plebeian camp.

Property remained also under the same conditions : it was
either public or private. As to the first, there was never any
freehold, because the state could not lose its rights ; as for the
second, two years sufficed to acquire it, for the state was in-
terested in this, that the land should not remain without culture.
If it was a question of personal property or of slaves, one year
was enough. But against a foreign possessor the law was always
open : adversus hostem aeterna auctoritas} Hence the efforts of
provincials, when Rome had extended her conquests to a distance,
to obtain the title of citizen, which, among other privileges, gave,
after an enjoyment for two years, the right of property over those
uncertain lands, so numerous everywhere where the legions had
passed.

In the heroic ages the law protected persons but little,
because they knew how to defend themselves, and becaiTse courage
was respected even to the extent of violence. The Twelve Tables
have, then, comparatively light penalties for attacks on the person.
But — and this is characteristic of Rome — attacks against property
are severely punished. Theft becomes in them an impiety ; for
property is not only the power of the -rich and the life of the
poor, but all the goods which the house contains are a gift of
the Penates, and the harvest is even Ceres herself. " An}' one
who shall have bewitched or used magical arts (excantasset, pellex-
erit) against another's crops, or who shall have carried off, during
the night, the pasture of the flocks of his neighbor or cut his
crop,^ let him be devoted to Ceres, Cereri necator. At night let
the robber be killed with impunity ; during the day, if he make
resistance. Let him who shall set fire to a shock of corn be
bound, beaten with rods, and then burned. The insolvent debtor

* On the synonymy of h/spes, or peregrinus, and of Jiostis, cf. Cic, rie. Off. i. 12 ; Varr.,
de Ling. Lat. v. 1. The stranger is an enemy: this was for the Romans the first principle
of the law of nations.

^ In the Twelve Tables, says Pliny (xviii. 3), it is a more serious crime than homicide.

334 . KOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

shall be sold or cut in pieces." ^ Yet tlie Twelve Tables had
moderated the severity of Nuina's law respecting the removal of
boundaries. It was no longer a capital crime ; " soon it became
simply a misdemeanor ; and the Mamilian law (239 or 165 B. c.)
limited the punishment of the offender to a fine. It was inevi-
table that time and the revolutionary spirit of the plebeians should
alter the sacred character of property of former times.

For offences regarded as less grave, two modes of punishment
were in use among all barbarous peoples : the lex talionis, or cor-
poral reprisals, and the private indemnity. "He who breaks
any one's limb shall pay 300 ases to the injured party ; if he do
not compound with him, let him submit to the talio."

Let us remark that this severe people yet had relatively speak-
ing some very mild laws. It knew nothing as yet of torture, nor.
condemned either to imprisonment or penal servitude. All offences,
even a good part of what we should call crimes, were compounded
for by fine, — a punishment not lilved by us, because it alfects not
only the guilty, but the family ; a punishment which the Romans
preferred, because all the members of a family were conjointly
responsible. In regard of crimes they troubled themselves only
with those which affected the public peace, and they had only
two forms of punishment for them : death and banishment. The
condemned were thrown from the Tarpeian rock, strangled in the
TiiUianum, or beaten with rods and beheaded. The Porcian law in
the next century suppressed punishment by death for the citizen.

Cicero has preserved for us some curious directions about
funerals. " You remember," says he, " that in our infancy we
were made to recite the Twelve Tables, which now hardly any
one knows." After having reduced luxury to three mourning
robes, three bands of purple, and ten flute-players, they put down
the lamentations : " Let the women no longer tear their cheeks ;
let them no longer use the lessus at funerals ^ . . ." Praiseworthy
directions, for they applied ahke to rich and poor, which is very

1 See p. 270.

2 Cf. Trotz, dc Termino molo. It is the establishment of the iter Umitare. By means of
this arrangement the need of applying Numa's law occurred but rarely, and this law fell into
disuse.

' . . . Neve lessum funeris ergo habento. Cicero adds : Lessum quasi lugubrem. ejulationem,
ut vox ipsa significat. {De Leg. ii. 23.)

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FEOM 451 TO 449. 335

proper, since death effaces every difference. There are other
regulations: "Let no one be buried within the city," — a religious
prohibition which caused sepulture to take place in the coimtry
or along the high roads leading to the city. "• Let no gold
be put into the graves," — a useless expense, which the Etrus-
cans incurred voluntarily, but which the Romans spared. How-
ever, " any one whose teeth are bound with gold wire may be

THE TAKPEIAX ROCK.'

buried or burned with this gold," — a respect for the corpse which
the hand must not profane, and which must be consigned to the
flame of the pile or the earth of the tomb. " Let the pile be
erected sixty feet at the least from the house of another," — a
precaution against fire, in order that the dead hurt not the living.

1 " Travellers are shown a bare piece of rock at Rome and told : This is the Tarpeian
rock; and they are astonished at its small height, not reflecting that the rock which is
pointed out to them by the cicerone at random is only a small part of the Tarpeian
rock. This name used to be given to the whole southern ridge. I live on this summit,
and understand very well what would happen to me if they threw me out by the window
into Strada di Consolazione ; it would be a fall of 100 feet. Besides, the side of the Tar-
peian rock bristled with projections, against which the bodies of those who were thrown
down were mangled and smashed before reaching the bottom." (Ampere, Hist. Rom. a Rome,
ii. 569, notes.)

336

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

"Let not the wood be polished with iron," — a useless luxury.^
" Let funei'al feasts be suppressed, as well as the throwing of
perfumes into the flames ; incense-boxes ^ and chaplets, except that
which the deceased shall have gained by his courage, and which

may, on the day of the funeral, be placed
on his head," — precautions to restrain the
pump used by the great in these ceremo-
nies. " Let not the bones of the deceased
l3e kept for the pui-pose of performing the
obsequies later on," — a prohibition against
celebrating several times the obsequies of
the same person, and of drawing, by this
repeated show, the attention of the city to
the same house.

The greater part of these regulations
were borrowed from the laws of Solon, who
himself also had aimed at diminishing the
influence of the Eupatridae by restraining
show at funerals. But we shall see that
A PKiEST PRESENTING TUE tliB scveritles of the law will not prevail

INCENSE-BOX. mi J- l !• , l

over manners. ihe lunerais of the great
were always at Rome among the most pompous ceremonies of
the city, and by their tombs the Romans have created a kind
of architecture, which we still copy.

Two questions of more importance from an historical point of
view are : the introduction of several laws more favorable to the
poor or the entire order of plebeians, and the general character
which law takes in the Twelve Tables.^

Here were arrangements favoraljle to the plebeians : " Whoever
shall lend money at more than 81 per cent shall restore it four-
fold ; " that the nexus (the slave for debt) be not considered

1 And perhaps a religious idea. We have seen that not a single nail was used in the
construction of the Sublician bridge.

2 Acerra, incense-bo.x ; one of these is represented in the engraving, which has been
copied from a painted vase in the Naples Museum, which represents the preparations for
a sacrifice.

^ In the text, so far as it has been made out, there is much uncertainty in the order of
the contents; but the order, which has much importance for the jurisconsult, has none for
the historian.

DECEMVIRS AND CIVIL EQUALITY FROM 451 TO 449. 337

infamous. This was a protection for the debtor against the usurer.
" In state matters let them adjudge provisionally in favor of
liberty," — a protection for the weak against the strong. ''That
it be permissible to form corporations or colleges, provided that
nothing be done against the laws and the public weal." This
was the right to the lower classes to form associations. '• Let the
false witness and the judge who has taken bribes be thrown
from the rock," — a protection to the poor defendant against the
rich suitor and the patrician judge. " That there be always right
of appeal to the people from the sentences of the magistrates."
This is a fresh sanction to the Valerian law, and a restriction put
on the unlimited power of the dictatorship.^ " That the people only,
in the comitia centuriata, have the power of condemnation to death."
This was a grant to the people of criminal jurisdiction, taken
from the consuls, to whom the lex Valeria de provocatione had left
the judgment in the first instance.'^ It was to the assembly of
the centuries, where all patricians and plebeians are mingled ac-
cording to scale of property, that the power passes. The Twelve
Tables call it maximum comitiatum, the true assembly of the
Roman people.

This was the general character of the law : " No more
personal laws ; ne prwilegia inroganto." The civil legislation of
the Twelve Tables recognizes Roman citizens only. Its regulations
are made neither for an order, nor a class, and its formula is
always : si quis, — if any one ; the patrician and the plebeian, the
senator and the pontiff, the rich and the proletarian, are equal in
its eyes. Fo7'ti sanatique idem jus esto? Thus by this blotting out
of distinctions, formerly so deep, - the final union of the two
peoples is at last proclaimed, and this new people, formed by the
entirety of the citizens, has now the sovereign authority which
had tUl then remained in the hands of the patrician j^opulus.
"What the people shall have ordained finally shall be law."

1 Fest., Optima lex: Livy, iii. 55; Cic, de Rep. ii. .31 : ah omni judicio paenaque provocari
licere.

' Cicero said of this law : admiranduin, tatilum majores in posterum providisse. The
Senate declared in SIO B. C. judicium populi rescindi ab senatu 7ion posse. (Livy, iv. 7.) The
elections and the laws were alone submitted to the auctoritas patrum.

' Let the strong and the weak have the same right. See in Festus, v. Sanates, the
explanation of this word.

VOL. 1. 22

338 EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

Two remarks must be made on this axiom : the first is that
the law is no longer the revelation of the nymph Egeria or the
inspiration of gods which should continue mysterious and unchange-
able ; the people who have made it can unmake it. The second
is the clear and simple definition which is given of it. The
Romans have not sought for it in philosophical considerations.
They do not define a principle : they assert a fact, — a new proof
of that practical spirit which demands from life and society only
those useful results which they may afford.

The people had also obtained by the Twelve Tables some
material ameliorations, and, if not political equality — from which
the poor could scarcely profit, at least equality before the civil
and criminal law, which gives even to the most wretched the
feeling of dignity as a man.

The aristocratic spirit transpires, however, in this code drawn
up by ]Datricians : " Let the rich plead for the rich ; for the poor
any one who will." ^ This is only contemptuous ; but the law is
very severe against authors of scurrilous verses, and those who
meet secretly at niglit ; ^ and in one of the last articles added
by A2Dpius it sanctioned the invidious exclusiveness of former
days : " Let there be no marriages between patjicians and
plebeians." It is a protest of the old masters of Rome agamst
the new character of the law, in the name of their ancestors, of
the nobility of their race, the religion of their families, and the
special protection which the gods granted them. Let there be
equality, since they could not prevent it ; let the same judges, the
same law, the same penalty strike Fabius and Icilius ; but no
mesalliances. Outside the tribunal let the one return to the crowd
from which he came, the other to the curia, the temples of the
gods, the hereditary atrium !

The patricians had, in fact, allowed nothing to be changed in
the constitution : they remained consuls and senators, augurs and
pontiffs, judges especially ; and by the multifold forms of pro-
cedure of which the plebeians were ignorant, they were able to

1 Assiduo vindex assiduus esto ; proletario quivis volet vindex esto.

^ Qui caetus nocturnos agitaveril, capital esto. For all these citations from the Twelve
Tables I have followed the text given by Reiske in his edition of Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus,
pp. 236G-2381.

DECEMVIES AND CIVIL EQUALITY FEOM 451 TO -119. 339

nullify this publication of the law and this civil equality which
they had been compelled to proclaim.^

In the populous cities of Italy and Greece neither law nor
custom would suffer that state of war in jseace — the right of
taking justice into one's own hands — which so long decimated
the modern nobility ; and public good sense was sufficiently strong,
in spite of blind superstition, to prevent referring the decision
of a cause to the judgment of God, as was the case in the trial
by ordeal in the Middle Ages.^ In every case human justice
adjudicated. But at Rome the judges were not a class of men
whose life was devoted to the religious duty of affording justice.
For every trial the consul named judges, always patricians ; and
these judges sat only on days fixed by the secret calendar
of the Pontiffs, which changed yearly. They did not admit
the litigants to set forth simply the matters in dispute ; ^ mysterious
formulae, gestures, and actions were necessary. It was required
to hold in one hand a bit of straw as a memento of the lance
of the Quirites, to touch with the other the object at stake, to
declare his right in the established terms, to throw the straw
at the object ; then to defy the adversary ; if the question
related to a theft, to enter naked into the house of the suspected
thief, girt with a linen Ijand, a dish in the hand, etc. ; and
especially to avoid making any mistake, any error in this judicial
drama, for then the suit could no longer proceed.* In this
unknown labyrinth of legitimate acts and formulae of action, the
plebeian easily strayed from the legal road, at the least hint from
the judges ; and the judge was so often his political adversary !

1 Dionys., ii. 27 : cpavfpois anaa-i. As regards equality before the civil law, it is still proved
by these expressions : aequatae ler/cs (Livy, ill. 31, 63, G7) ; lirovoixla, la-ijyopia (Dionys., x. 1) ;
vofiovs KOLvoiis eVi ttuo-i (x. 50). Appius says : Se omnihus, summis injimisque jura aequasse.
(Livy, iii. 34.)

'^ [Nevertheless the legend of the combat of the Iloratii and Curiatii is distinctly an appeal
to the same princi])le, which we find in old Jewish history, and which was proposed by the
Argives to the Spartans in Thucydides' time (cf. Thuc, v. 41). The Spartans thought it folly
(fiwpia), but thought it politic to agree. Of course the duel never came off. The Argives
quoted the story of Otliryades as an old decision in this way. In later Roman times a personal
quarrel was settled characteristically by a sort of legal bet ni vir bonus essci, where a man's
character was investigated in court, and if cleared, his opponent lost his stakes. — £rf.]

' Cf. C\c., pro il/urena, 12, and Gaius, iv. 13-17. There were 5 formulas of actions:
Sacramento, per judicis postulationem, per condllionem, per manus injectionem, per pignoris
captionem. The acta legitima were numberless ; cf. Brisson, de Formulis.

« See p. 268.

340 EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

Still, the new legislation had founded the civil law of
Rome ; four centuries after, Cicero still recomnieuded its study,
carmen necessariuni,^ and Gains, under the Antonines, drew up
a long commentary on the Twelve Tables. This reform did
not satisfy all the hopes of the people; but the decemvirs
had nevertheless given an impulse to the plebeian power, if not
by then- laws, at least by the acts of violence of their closing
days.

1 De Leg. ii. 4, 23.

' A woman holding a balance and a stick, which is doubtless a measure, the pertica, or
perch.(=: 10 Rom. ft. = 3 yds. 8 in.).

SILVER PENNY OF ANTONINUS PIUS.''

CHAPTER IX.

ErrOETS TO OBTAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY (449-400).

I. Re-establishment of the Tribunate and Consulate.

rjlHE revolution of 510 b. c, made by the patricians, had benefited
-L the aristocracy ; that of 449, made by the people, profited
the people. The decemvirs had abdicated, and two popular
senators, Valerius and Horatius, had gone to the Sacred Mount to
promise the re-establishment of the tribunate and right of appeal,
extended to all the citizens, with an amnesty for those who had
taken part in the revolt. The people returned to the Aventine,
and in order to be assured that these promises would be kept,
occujiied once more the Capitol.^ But no one dreamt of disputing
the victory. The Pontifex Maximus held the comitia for the
election of ten tribunes, then Horatius and Valerius were ap-
pointed consuls, who by several laws guaranteed the recovered
liberty.

The first of these laws prohibited, under pain of death, the
creation at any time of a magistracy without appeal.^ The second
gave the force of law to the plebiscita, that is to say, that resolu-
tions passed in the assembly of the tribes should no longer need
the sanction of the Senate, as did the resolutions of the centuries,
to become general laws.^ The third renewed the anathema pro-
nomiced against any who outraged the tribunitian inviolability.

1 Cic, pro. Cornel, i. Fr. 25.

^ Livy, iii. 55.

' T^i* avrffv ()(ovTas hivafxiv Tois iv Tais \o\Itiitw eKi(Kr](Tiais Ti6r]a-o\i(voii. (Dionys. , xi. 45.)
M. Willems (ie Droit public Romain, p. 61) thinks that from this moment the patricians and
their cHents were admitted, if not hy right, yet at least in fact, to the concilia plebis. The
centuries preserved jud<!;ments for capital crimes, election to the chief magistracies, the right of
making the most general laws, and of deciding for peace or war. The legislative power of the
tribes was put in force respecting questions of internal order, and especially for the maintenance

342 ' ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

The fourth ordered that a copy of all the Senatus-consulta, counter-
signed by the tribunes with the letter T,^ to prevent all falsifica-
tion, should be intrusted to the plebeian aediles and kept by them
in the temple of Ceres on the Aventine. Another copy was,
without doubt, kept by the quaestors in the temple of Saturn.
The tribune Duilius had this law passed : that the magistrate
who neglected to hold the comitia at the end of the year, for
the election of the tribunes of the people, should be punished
with the rod and axe.^

Liberty was assured ; but the blood shed called for vengeance.
Virginius accused the decemvirs. Appius, their chief, killed himself:
in prison before the trial ; Oppius, the second in impopularity,
died in the same way. The others were exiled ; their property
was confiscated to the temple of Ceres. The people were satisfied
with these two victims, and Duilius declared that he would opposo
his veto to any further accusation.

However, the two consuls had resumed military operations
against the Aequians and Sabines, and the latter were so
thoroughly beaten by Horatius, that they remained at peace with
Rome for a century and a half. On their return the consuls
demanded a triumph ; up to that time the Senate alone had the
right to grant it, and refused. The tribune Icilius had it decreed
by the peojole, and " the consuls triumphed not only over the
enemy, but the patricians also." It was the tribunes also who,
gradually bringing tlie people into the most important state
affairs, decided in the debate between Ardea and Aricia.^

This matter is worth a moment's delay, for it has given
occasion to one of those very rare stories which show us the
interior of the Italian cities. Ardea, a very old Latin city, four
miles from the sea, and Aricia, celebrated in antiquity for its
terrible temple of Diana, and in modern times by its cliarming
Lake Nemi, disputed about the territory of the city of Corioli,

and extension of public rights. Aul. Gellius {Noct. Attic. X. xx. 6) defines the plebiscitura :
lex ijuam plebes, non populns, arcipit.

1 Val. Max., II. ii. 7 ; Livy (ii. 55) says : Senatusconsulta quae antea arbitrio consulum
supprimehantur viiiabanturque.

2 Livy, iii. 55 ; Died., xii. 25. Another law, proposed by Trebonius, required the
appointment of ten tribunes and forbade co-optation.

* Livy, iii, 71.

EFFOETS TO OBTAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY. 343

destroyed in one of the wars against the Volscians. After many
battles, they chose Rome as umpire. The Senate referred the
matter to the people, who, at the instigation of the nobles, played
the part of judge in the fable of the Pleaders : they adjudged
to themselves the contested territory. The Ardeates, more pleased
with the discomfiture of Aricia than annoyed at having lost their
case, or at least their nobles, who had need of a foreign alliance
against the people of Ardea, made a treaty with Rome which gave
some fertile lands to the Romans. Did this convention seem an
act of treason to the plebeians of Ardea, or were they hurt in
some other way ? We know not ; but a little while after they
left the city, and in place of observing, in this secession, the patri-
otic moderation which the Roman historians confess in the seceders
of the Sacred INIount or the Aventine, they returned to Ardea with
a Volscian army. The patricians and their clients, incapable of
defending themselves, invoked the help of their new allies. Those
whom they termed reljels were conquered by a Roman army, and
their chiefs perished under the axe. To re-people the city, now
half desert, Rome sent there a colony ; but the triumvirs put in
charge by it of the division of the lands gave the best to their
friends of Ardea ; so the anger against them was so hot among
the Roman people that, not daring to appear before them, they
stayed in the colony, where doubtless they obtained a good number
of jucjera well selected. This history enables us to see in the
Latin cities the same divisions as at Rome, and, among all those
peoples, modes of action which prove that the ancients under-
stood justice differently from us, or at least otherwise than as
our moral treatises define it.

The year 449 had not taken from the patricians all their
privileges. Rome has still two classes, but only one people ; and
the chiefs of the plebs, sitting in the Senate, are meditating, after
the struggle to obtain civil equality, to commence another to gain
political equality.

In a revolution, in fact, the party which has conquered
opposition cannot stop short ; its momentum carries it beyond the
goal, and it preserves for a long while an impetus by which
its leaders know how to profit — sometimes in the public interest,
more often for their ambition. After the victory, the tribunes

344 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATEICIAJST CONSULS.

employed the rest of their energy to complete the work of the
decemvirs and carry out the Terentilian law. The patricians had
more than once tried to slip into the tribunate ; the Trebonian
law closed it against them for ever. They had reserved to them-
selves the judicial power, except in the case of a capital sentence
against a citizen, and the administration of the finances, by
leaving to the consuls the right of appointing quaestors of the
treasury. The tribunes obtained in 447 B. c. that the quaestores
parricidii et quaestoi'es aerarli should be for the future elected
in the comitia tributa, although these two offices remained
patrician.-*

Two things maintained the insulting distinction between the
two orders : the prohibition of marriage between patricians and
plebeians, and the tenure of all the magisterial offices by those
who formed since the origin of Rome the sovereign people of the
patres. In 445 b. c. the tribune Canuleius demanded the abolition
of the prohibition relative to marriages, and his colleagues a share
in the consulate. This was a demand for political equality.

n. — New Constitution of the Year 444.

We know now that every aristocracy which closes its ranks
soon perishes, because time and power quickly exhaust political
families. Without knowing it, the Roman patriciate acted as if it
comprehended this truth, and this perception of public necessities
made the greatness of Rome. After a resistance skilfully cal-
culated for opposing to the popular torrent a dam which broke
its force without exciting it, the nobles always yielded ; but, like
a disciplined army which never becomes broken, they retreated
in order to make a strong defence at the next point. Thus
was prolonged this internal war, which moulded the robust youth
of the Roman people.

When the patres heard this new and audacious demand of
the tribune, their indignation burst forth. "■ Thus then," said
Claudius, with his hereditary pride, " thus nothing will remain

1 Tac., Ann. xi. 22.

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN" POLITICAL EQUALITY. 345

pure: plebeian ambition will pollute everything, — time-honored
authority, and religion, and family rights, and auspices, and
the images of our ancestors." But the people used the method
which had alread}- been used twice before : they withdrew in
arms to the Janiculum ; ^ and the Senate, thinking that customs
would be stronger than law, agreed that henceforth there should
be legal marriages between patricians and plebeians.

When this barrier was once broken down, it was not possible
to forbid the access of the plebeians to curule offices. However,
by mere adroitness, the patriciate, though half conquered, defended
itself for forty-five years longer ; for it had in this struggle the
gods themselves as allies, from the belief, deeply rooted in the
people, that the hand of a noble was alone able to offer favor-
able sacrifices for the state. The colleagues of Canuleius asked,
in the name of the plebeians, one of the consulships and two of
the quaestorships of the treasury. The Senate granted that the
quaestors of the treasiuy should be chosen without distinction^ in
the two orders ; and thanks to this latitude, for a long time
only patricians held this office. As regards the consulship, no
concession was possible ; rather than relmquish that also, the Senate
preferred to dismember it. This royal power had already lost the
right of performing certain sacrifices (rex sacrorum), the care of
the treasure {quaestores aerarii), and the direction of criminal affairs
{quaestores parricidU) ; and two new magistrates, sine imjierio,
that is, without military authority or jm-isdiction, the cexsoes,
created in 443 B. c, at first for five years, then for eighteen months
(434), obtained the consular right of making the census, of
regulating the classes, of administering the public domain, of
farming out to the highest bidder the tax on the public lands,
of watching over public morality, and, later, of drawing up the

' Flor., i. 25. Tertiam seditionem . . . in monte Janiculo . . . duce Canuleio. The patricians
alone were able to take the auspices. This privilege, necessary for acquaintance with all the
mysteries of religion and law, gave them a reUgious character, which the plebeians in the long
run would share by the mixing of families. Hence the keen opposition of the Senate to a law
which would lead to the mingling of the two orders. When Cleisthenes wished to strengthen,
at Athens, the democratic element, he suppressed the sacra privata ; . . Koi ra twu ISiav ifpav
avvaKTeov cts oXlya koi KOtva Koi irdvra <TO<\>L(niov^ ottcos &v oti ^aXtcrra di>afit^Bo)(Tt ndiTfs
dXX^Xoir . . . (Arist,, Pol. VI. ii. 11.)

^ Livy, iv. 43: promixcuc. The quaestors wore treasurers of the public funds; they it was
who opened and closed the treasury, in which were also deposited the standards of the legions.

346 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

list of senators and kniglits.^ In this way they gradually attained
the first rank in the state, and re-election to an office which
became the highest honor in the city was presently forbidden.

There remained of the consular power its military functions,
civil jurisdiction, the designation of new senators, the presidency in
the Curiae and the comitia, the care of the city and the laws.
These powers were given, but sub-divided, without curule honors,
with six lictors in place of twelve, and under the plebeian name
of tribune, to three, four, or six generals. To these military
tribunes, elected without auspices,^ religion forbade at first one of
the most important prerogatives of the consuls, viz., the designa-
tion of a dictator.^ Mere lieutenants, so to say, of an invisible
magistracy, but which the Senate knows and inspires, they did
not fight under their own auspices, and never did they obtain the
most envied of military rewards, the triumph.* What power they
have is also divided among them according to their number. One
marches at the head of the legions, another commands the reserve,
another the veterans, another again watches over the arsenals and
provisioning of the troops. One only is invested with the religious
and judicial functions of the consuls, viz., the praefectus urbis,
president of the Senate and the comitia, guardian of religion, the
laws, and all the interests of the city.^ Also the Senate took
care that these prerogatives, including the duties given later
on to the praetors, with .the important privilege of naming the

1 Pastures, woods, fisheries, salt mines, mines, harbor dues, etc. (Livy, .xxxii. 7 ; xl. 51.)
On the duties of tlie censors, see Cic, de Leg. iii. 3 ; Hist. Aug. Valer. 2. But all these duties
were not theirs from the beginning. Livy says (iv. 8) Bes a parva origine orla. The first
mention of a leciio senatus by the censors is from the year 312 B. c. (Livy, viii. 29-30), which,
however, does not mean that there had never been one before. [It appears from the researches
of Soltau at the Carlsruhe Congress of Philologists (1882), that the censorate was directly
imitated from the chief administrator (6 eVi r^r Stoixijo-fms-) of the Athenian tributes. The
direct influence of Greece on Rome is probably older and greater than is usually thought. — Ed.~\

2 This can be inferred from the speech of Appius (Livy, vi. 41), nullus auapicalo. At least
they had not the maxima auspicia. (Aul. Gcll. xiii. 15.) Livy even says (v. 1 8) that they were
nominated in the profane assembly of the tribes ; but he contradicts himself elsewhere (v. 13).

^ Religio obstaret . . . (Livy, iv. 31.) However, in 423 B. c, in a pressing danger, the
augurs removed this prohibition, and the consular tribune, praefectus urbis, Corn. Cossus,
nomin.ates a dictator.

* Zonaras, vii. 19, confirmed by the silence of the triumphal fasti. The triumph was
accorded to those only who had conquered i:uis nuspiciis.

^ Livy, vi. 5. In 424, four tribunes, e qiiiius Cossus praefuit Urhi ; the same in 431 B. C,
in 383, etc.

EFFORTS TO OP.TAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY. " 347

judgos, remained in the hands of a patrician.' When the
plebeians ultimately gained (sntrance into the considar tribunate,
one place at least was always reserved for a candidate of the
other order.^

Out of the consulate three offices are formed : the quaestor-
ship, the censorship, and the consular tribunate. The two former
are exclusively patrician. The military tribunes, m reality pro-
consuls confined, with one exception, to the command of the
legions, could now be chosen without distinction from the two
orders. But the laAv, in not requiring that every year a fixed
number of thena be plebeians, allowed them to be all patricians ;
and they remained so for nearly fifty years .^

In spite of such skilful precautions, the Senate did not give
up the consulate. It held in reserve and pure from all taint the
patrician magistrac}', hoping for better days. The dictatorship,
which was not effaced from the new constitutional code, and the
right of opposition from the jmtres, remained as a last resource for
extreme cases. Religion in fine always furthered the interests of
the aristocracy ; and if, in spite of the influence of
the nobles in the assemblies, in spite of the arbitrary
power of the president of the comitla, who had the
right to refuse votes for a hostile candidate, the

., f , • f r 1 • JUPITEU.*

majority of votes were ni favor of a new man. Ins

election could still be quashed by an adverse decision of the

augurs. If necessary, Jupiter thundered.

1 Once, in 306, Livy names six plebeians. But in the place of P. Maelius the new frag-
ments of the Fasti and Diodorus (xiv. 90) name Q. Manliiis.

* As regards the freipient variations in the number of the consular tribunes, a thing so
strange in Roman anticjuity, they are explained by making the consular tribunes to be only
generals. Their number grew according to the need. From 443 B. C. to 432 they are three,
two for the legions, one to renaain as prefect in the city. In 425, after the declaration of war
against Veii, four are named. If the number reaches six in 404, it is still for the Veian war.
When they are eight, it is perhaps, as Perizonius has maintained, because the censors were
included.

= From 444 to 400 B. c.

* Jupiter with the sceptre and thunderbolt. Antique intagUo from the French National
Collection, No. 1,420.

348 KOME UNDER THE rATEICIAN CONSULS.

III. Struggle for the Execution of the New Constitution.

Whatever skill had been exhibited by the Senate, the iDrin-
ciple of political equality had just triumijhed, and the division
of the curule magistracies was only a question of time. This
time was long ; for the question here was no longer to satisfy
general interests, but only the ambition of some chiefs of the
people. Thus the attack, though spirited, was ill-sustained; and
the plebeians, content with the name of equality, neglected for
a long time to grasp the reality.^ We shall see them at the
crisis ready to abandon Licinius Stolo and the consulate for a few
acres of land.

The constitution of 444 b. c. authorized the appointment of plebei-
ans to the consular tribunate ; down to 400 B. c. none obtained it ;
and during the seventy-eight years that this office continued, the
Senate twenty-four times appointed consuls ; that is to say, it
succeeded, one year in three, in its attempts to re-establish the
ancient form of government."

These perpetual oscillations encouraged the ambitious hopes of
a rich knight, Spurius Maelius (439 B. c). He thought that the
Romans would willingly resign into his hands their unquiet liberty,
and during a famine he gave very liberally to the poor. The
Senate became alarmed at this almsgiving, which was
not at all in accordance with the manners of that
time, and raised to the dictatorship Cincinnatus, who,
on taking office, prayed the gods not to suffer that
COIN OF sEuv ^^^^ '^^^ ^S^ should prove a cause of hurt or damage
AHALA." iq ^}-^g Kepublic. Summoned before the tribunal of the
dictator, Maelius refused to appear, and sought protection against

' Livy sa^s, it is true, iinperio vt iihtii/iiibiis CDnsuldribiia iikos : biU all that precedes, shows
without dovibt the inferiority of the tribunes to the consuls. If the name alone had been
changed, the tribunes of the people would not have shown such obstinacy in demanding the
consulate itself. "It was never a mere quarrel of words," says Madame de Stael.

- It was on the proposition of the Senate that the centuries decided each year whether
they would elect military tribunes or consuls. It did not generally ])ropose tribunes except
when they were threatened with war : the ordinary foruuila at the time of the election of
consuls was, pax cf olium iloiiii fitrisqac.

3 AIIALA. Head of Servilius Ahala on a silver coin of the Servllian family.

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY. 349

the lictors amongst the crowd which filled the Forum. But the
master of the horse, Serv. Ahala, managed to reach him, and ran
him through with his sword. In Pjjite of the indignation of the
people, Cincinnatus sanctioned the act of his lieutenant, causcul
the house of the traitor to he demolished, and the pracfcrfita
annonae, Minucius Augurinus, sold, for an as per modius, the corn
amassed by Maelius.^ Such is the story of the partisan of llu;
nobles ;^ but at that epoch to have dreamt of re-establishing royalty
would have been a foolish dream, in which Spurius could not have
indulged. Without douljt he had wished to obtain liy
po[)ular favor the military trilnmate, and in order to
intimidate the plebeian candidates, the patricians over-
threw him by imputing to him the accusation which
Livy complacently details by the mouth of Cincinnatus, coin of
ot havmg aimed at royalty, ilie crowd always can be
cajoled by words ; and the Senate had the art of concentrating
on this word roi/alt>/ all tlie phases of popular hatred. The move
succeeded; during the eleven years following, the people nine
times allowed the Senate to appoint the consular tribunes.* There
was, however, in 433 B. c, a plebeian dictator, Mamercus Aemilius,
who reduced the tenure of censorship to 18 months.

These nine consulships gave such confidence to the nobles
that the Senate itself had to suffer from the haughty insub-
ordination shown by the consuls of the year 428 B. c. Though
conquered by the Aequians, they refused to name a dictator.
To overcome their resistance, the Senate had recourse to the trib-
unes of the people, who threatened to drag the consuls to prison.^
To see the tribunitian authority protecting the majesty of the
Senate was quite a new phenomenon. From this day the

' Livy, iv. Ifi ; Flor., i. 20; Cic, Cat. i. 1. For a different story, cf. a newly discovered
frag, of Dionys. Hal. in MiiUer's Fragrj. Hist. Grace, ii. p. 31.

2 Livy, iv. 12.

8 C. AVG (urinus). Two persons, standing, hold, one of them, two loaves, the other, the
augural lituus. In the midst a striated column, supporting a statue, between two corn-ears and
two lions couchant. This silver coin of the Minucian family refers to some fact which has
been lost. Livy (iv. 16) simply says: Minucius hove aurato extra portam Triijeminam est
(lonatus. Cf. Pliny, Hist. Nat. xviii. 3 ; xxxiv. 5.

* In thirty-five years, from 444 to 4u;) u. c, the Senate obtained the appoiutmeut of
consular tribunes twenty times.

6 Livy, iv. 26.

350 ' EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

reputation of the trilsunate equalled its power, and few years
passed without the plebeians obtaining some new advantage.

Three years earlier the tribunes, jealous of seeing the votes
always given to the nol-iles, had proscribed the white robes, which
marked out from a distance, to all eyes, the patrician candidate.^
This was the first law against undue canvassing.

In 430 a law put an end to arbitrary valuations of penalties
payable in kind.^

In 427 the tribunes, by ojjposing the levies, obliged the Sen-
ate to carry to the comitia centuriata the question of the war
against Veii.^

In 423 they revived the agrariaii law, and demanded that the
tithe should be more punctually paid in the future by the occupiers
of domain land, and applied to the pay of the troops.

They miscarried this time ; but in 421 it seemed necessary
to raise the number of quaestors from two to four. The people
consented to it only on the condition that the quaestorship be
accessible to the plel^eians.

Three years later 3,000 acres of the lands of Labicum were
distributed to fifteen hundred plebeian families. It was very
little; so the people laid claim, in 414, to the division of the
lands of Bola, taken from the Aequians. A military tribune,
Postumius, being violently opposed to it, was slain in an outljreak
of the soldiery. This crime, unheard of in the history of Roman
armies, did harm to the popular cause ; there was no distribution
of lands, and for five years the Senate was able to appoint
the consuls. The patrician reaction produced another against it
which ended in the thorough execution of the constitution of
the year 444. An Icilius in 412, a Maenius in 410 B. c. took up
again the agrarian law and opposed the levy. The year following
three of the Icilian family were named as tribunes. It was a
menace to the other order. The patricians understood it, and in
410 three plebeians obtained the quaestoi'ship.

1 In 431 ; cf. Liry, iv. 25.

" Cic, de Rep. ii. 35 ; Livy, iv. 30. The law fixed the value in silver of an ox and a
sheep: an o.x equalled 100 ascs, a sheep 10.

' Livy, iv. 30. In 380 it was the tribes who decided that war should be made on the
Volscians. (Livy, vi. 21.)

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN POLITICAL EQUALITY.

351

In 405 pay was established for the troops, and the rich
uudertoolv to pay the larger portion of it.

Finally, in 400, four militaiy tribunes out of six were
plebeians.

The chiefs of the people thus obtained the public offices, and
even places in the Senate, and the poor obtained an indemnity
which supported their families while they served with the colors.
All ambitions, all desires are at present satisfied. Calm and union
returned to Rome ; we can see it in the vigor of the attacks
on external foes.

BOME FOLLOWED BY A MAGISTRATE. BAS-RELIEF IN THE LOUVRE

CHAPTER X.

MILITAET HISTOET TKOM 448 TO 389 B, 0.»

I. Conquest of Anxue or Tereacina (40G).

IN the middle of tbe fifth century b. c, at the period which
precedes and follows the decemvirate, the Latin confederation
was dissolved and the Roman territory open to all attacks. Every
year the Sabines descended from the mountains of Eretum, the
Aequians from Algidus, the Volscians from the Alban Mount, and
the Etruscans disturbed the right l)ank of the Tiber. It seemed
as if a last effort must be made to set Rome free from her
enemies. But the people had just made in their turn a plebeian
revolution. Confidence grew again ; the leaders were popular ;
the war became successful. During half a century Rome fought
only for existence ; afterward she fought for empire. She was
helped by two powerful means, which the kings seem to have
already employed, — military pay, which allows longer campaigns
and stricter discipline ; the colonization of captured cities, which
assured the possession of conquests and prej^ared the way for
new ones. Thus, in the space of fifty years, the Sabines, the
Aequians, and the Volscians laid down their arms. Veil dis-
appeared, and the Latins became the subjects of Rome.

The first expedition, after the re-establishment of liberty, was
signalized by a victory over the Sabines, which confined them for
a century and a half to the Apennines. Perhaps it was not the
terror inspired by the Roman arms which deserves credit for this
result, so much as the circumstances which offered to the Sabines
more lucrative enterprises.

1 It is necessary for all these wars to keep in view the map which we have given of the
Agar Romanus, p. 302, and that of Central Italy.

MILITAKY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 3S9. 353

The Samnites were at that time very restless in their
mountains, and commenced against tlieir rich neighbors those
incursions which obtained for tliem Lucania and th(i Campanian
phiin. In 420 they took the large city of Cumae. The Sabines were
doubtless engaged, as were all the mountaineers of the Apennines,
in this reaction of the old Italian race against the foreigners, and
Rome, thankful to count one enemy less, boasted of the moderation
of the Sabines.

These movements of the Samnites made a diversion more
favorable to the Romans by drawing away to the Liris the
attention and forces of the Volscians, who, however, in 443 came
as far as the Esquiline Gate. But T. Quinctius destroyed their
army, and established at the entrance of their country ' a
garrison which kept them in check for fifteen years. Then, as
if these people relieved one another to wear out Rome and ex-
haust it by a war without cessation, the Etruscans recalled the
legions from the South to the North. Fidenae, five miles from
the Janiculum, on the left bank of the Tiber, was an advanced
post of Rome or Etruria, according as the descendants of the
Roman colonists, sent by the kings into that city, or the
inhabitants of Etruscan origin were the stronger there. In 430
the aborigines drove away the colonists and placed themselves
under the protection of the Veientines and Faliscans, after having
massacred, at their instigation, four ambassadors from the Senate.
This war caused the appointment of two dictators — the one who
took possession of Fidenae in 435 ; the other, the cavalry general.
Corn. Cossus, who slew Tolumnius, lars or king of Veii, and
offered up the second sjwlia opima (426 B. c). To punish this
second revolt, the Senate caused the whole Etruscan population
to be massacred or sold. The terrified Veii bessced a truce
of twenty years (425). There is hardly another mention of the
name of Fidenae in history. In the last century of the Republic
might be seen in the Forum the statues of the four assassinated
ambassadors ; and when Augustus restored the temple of Jupiter
Feretrius, he found there the armor of Tolumnius with his linen
cuirass which bore an inscription.^

* At Verrugo, a city or position unknown, which has been thought to be in the environs
of Signia. '' Livy, iv. 20.

VOL. I. 2S

354

ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

In the interval between these two Etruscan wars, the Aequi-
ans and Volscians had taken up arms ; and the dictator appointed
against tliem, A. Postuniius Tubertus, gave the first example
of that inflexil^le discipline which formed the best infantry in
the world. His son had fought without orders and returned
as victor ; but he had him beheaded ^ (431 b. c). Tubertus

RUINS CALLED THOSE OF THE TEMPLE OP JUPITER FERETKIUS.

gained on Mount Algidus, over the allied army, a great
battle, which gave some respite to the Romans. A truce of
eight years, and then intestine divisions which enfeebled the
Volscian nation, suspended hostilities in this direction. The
Aequians, left to themselves, lost several cities,^ — among others
Labicum, — whither the Senate hastened to send a colony of fif-
teen hundred men, which barred the way against these turbulent

1 Val. Max., II. vii. 6 ; Aul. GelL, XVII. xxi. 1.

" In 418 Labicum, where they sent a colony ; in 414 Bola; in 413, Ferentinum, which the
Hernicans re-entered.

K
O
H

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 381). 355

mountaineers, and enabled the Romans to go to tlio Valley of
tlie Trerus and help the Herni(!ans, their faithful allies. Rome
profited from this success to strike some decisive blows at the
Volscians. In 406 three armies menaced at the same time
Antium, Ecetra/ and Anxvir. or Terracina. Placed at the extremity
of the Pontine Marshes, on the slope of a hill near the sea,
Anxnr was one of the richest cities belonging to this people,
and a military position which commanded, at the same time,
the Pomptinum and the passage from Latium into Campania.
Tarqviin had understood its importance, and the royal garrison
which held it in 510 was sufficient to hold in check the whole
country of the Volscians. While two armies marched with great
ostentation towards Antium and Ecetra. a third, led l)y Fabius
Ambustus, advanced rapidly upon Anxur and took the place
before the inhabitants — a long distance from the ordinary seat of
w*ar — had time to realize the attack.^ The two divisions which
had covered this skilful and bold march joined with the soldiers
of Fabius in dividing the plunder. A garrison was left in
Anxur, and Falnus returned to inform the Senate that the Re-
public had reconquered the frontier held by Rome under the
kings eighty years before.

The plebeians deserved recompense for this brilliant conquest ;
besides, the truce with Veii expired the following year, and
that people showed hostile intentions. The Senate decreed that
the infantry should receive payment from the public treasury.^
The legionai-y, being consequently in no hurry to return to
his own fields, remained longer under arms. The war might
be extended, operations be prolonged, and the generals demand
greater efforts and obedience from their soldiers.

Large operations now succeed the numerous skirmishes, whose
repetition would fatigue by its monotony, did not the glory
which this people attained in maturity throw an illusion of splen-
dor over the obscure years of its youth.

' The position of tills city is uncertain ; perhaps not far from Ferentinum. Abakan
(Mi/tel-Italien, p. 75) places it on Monte Fortino.
- Livy, iv. .59.
* Ut stipetidium miles de publico acciperet. (Livy, ibid.)

356 • ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAJST COl^SULS.

II. Capture of Veii (31)5 b. c).

The siege of Veii began in 4(15. Tlie city was only four
leagues from the Servian walls, and from the top of its walls
could be seen the seven hills. So long as it remained standing
on its escarped rock, overlooking and threatening the right l)ank
of the Tiber, the Romans could not live in peace and security.
Therefore they employed all their strength and all their ^^erse-
verance in the enterprise from which nothing succeeded in turning
them aside.

This war was their Iliad ; heroes and prodigies, the inter-
vention of the gods, a resistance for ten years, great misfortunes
after the victory, — nothing was lacking to ennoble the struggle
which made Rome the preponderating power of Central Italy.
From the first year the war was centred about Veii. Two
Roman armies encamped under its walls, — the one to reduce it
to starvation, the other to prevent all succors. But Veii was
abandoned : the Etruscans assembled at the temple of Voltumna
and declared the league dissolved ; the Faliscans and the Ca-
penates, being nearer to the danger, made some isolated efforts ;
they broke up one of the two camps, and opened communication
for some time between the besieged and the country. The Tar-
quinians also invaded the Roman territory, but were repulsed
with loss.

The capture of Anxur had been a terrible IjIow to the
power of tlie Volsci. Rome now had a fortress from which
to attack in the rear this people whom the Latins faced and
the Hernicaiis threatened in flank. In 402 the Roman garrison
had been surprised ; two years later the Romans re-entered the
place ; and in 307 the Volscians laid siege to tlie town whilst
the Aequians were attacking Bola. It was the critical time of the
siege of Veii; Rome was unable to spare a soldier. Fortunately
the Latins and Hernicans succored the places threatened ; and
on the news that the great Etruscan city was gi'V'ing way, the
two hostile nations begged for a truce. In order to insure their
position at Anxur, the Senate sent a colony to the neighboring

MTLTTARY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 389. 357

Circei ; a second, established at Vitellia, in the chain of high hills
which separates the Valley of the Anio from that of the Trerus,
closed finally against the Aequians the issue from their moun-
tains.

For the first time the Romans had continued hostilities during
the winter. But their success did not equal their perseverance.
The divided connnand among the military tribunes caused defeat
or chilled the ardor of the troops. In 400 B. c, the people,
suspecting some treason, at last chose four plebeians to the
consular tribunate. Fortime did not change ; two tribunes, one
of whom died on the field of battle, were again overcome, and
the Senate thought all Etruria would rise ; it appointed as
dictator a patrician who had held with distinction the highest
offices, — M. Furius Camillus (396). Camillus called out all the
citizens able to bear arms, svmnnoned contingents from the Latins
and Hernicans, and led them against the victorious enemy. After
a bloody struggle the Capenates and Faliscans withdrew to their
cities, and the Romans were able to press on actively the siege
of Veii.

Tradition preserves the story of a mine carried beneath the
walls, through which the Romans penetrated to the midst of
the city. But it records many other marvels, — the overflow of
the Alban Lake in the middle of a scorching summer, and the
thousand canals dug to prevent the water reaching the sea ; ^ the
fatal imprudence of the Tuscan haruspex who betrayed his people's
secrets ; and the menacing prophecy of an Etruscan chief respect-
ing the Gallic invasion. At the taking of the city the recorded
prodigies continue. The mine led to the sanctuary of Juno, the
guardian divinity of Veii. In {he midst of the din of a general
assault, Camillus penetrated by the tunnel right to the temple.
The Veian King was consulting the gods. " The victor," cried
the haruspex, "will be he who shall offer on the altar the

' The outlet of the Alban Lake, cut through the voleanic rock for a length of 2,730 yards,
5 feet wide, and high enough for a man to pass along it, is a very ancient work, probably
anterior to Rome. There may have been made, at the time of the siege of Veii, some repairs
shown to be necessary by the severe winter of 400, whi<h accumulated deep snow on the
mountains, and the scorching summer which followed. This canal is still in use, and the
stream which escapes by it falls into the Tiber below Rome. Sir Wm. Cell's Topography of
Rome, pp. 39 and 53.

358 • EOME UNDEE THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

entrails of the victim." At these words Camilhis and the Romans
burst into the sanctuary and finished tlie sacrifice. The j^hmder
was immense ; Camillus had called together the whole people
to the pillage. The small number of inhabitants who escaped
massacre were sold. Meanwhile, from the top of the citadel,
Camillus was proudly contemplating the grandeur of the city
thus become his conquest, and the richness of the spoils ; Ijut
he remembered the frail nature of the most brilliant prosperity,
and, veiling his head, he pi'ayed the gods to turn from him and
the Republic the ills in store for mortals of exceeding good fortune.
In turning round, according to the ritual prescribed for solemn
prayers, he struck his foot against a stone and fell. But he
rose full of joy. " The gods are satisfied," said he ; "• this fall has
expiated my victory."

Rome, in conquering cities, also conquered their gods.^ Camillus
had promised to the Veian Juno a temple on the Aventine, on
condition that she consented to leave the hostile city to follow
liiiu to Rome. But no one dared to touch the sacred image.
Some young knights, purified according to the rites, and clothed
in their festal dress, came to the temple to ask the goddess
if she consented to go to Rome. " I will do so," said a voice ;
and the statue appeared to follow of itself those who were
to move it.

The credulous Plutarch does not know what to think of such
prodigies. He says : " Others allege similar marvels, — that images
have exuded drops of sweat ; that they have been heard to sigh ;
that they have moved, or made signs with their eyes : but there is
danger in believing too easily "such things, as well as in not believ-
ing them, because of the frailty of human nature. Hence, to be
cautious, and to go to neither extreme, as in everything else, is
still the best." ^ In this matter Livy is not cautious, like the pru-
dent Plutarch. He treats the miracle as a fjible, ^ — which, how-
ever, does not prevent him from promising Juno Regina that her
temple at Rome shall be an eternal abode, — acternam scdem suam.

1 Livy, V. 21; Verg., Aen. iii. 222; Pliny, Hist. Nat. iii. o, 9; Macrob., Sat. iii. 9.
Evocare deos. — Solere Romanos religiones urbium captarum parlim privatim per familias
spargere, partim publice consecrare. (^Arnuh., i'u. SS.)

2 Ca?n., 6.

» Indc/abulae ... (v. 22.)

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 389.

359

Of this eternity iiotliing now renuiius, save perhaps a few old
marble columns which adorn a temple dedicated to another wor-
ship, — the church of Santa Sabina.

The territory of ^'cii was divided among the citizens, but
the city remained a desolate waste for centuries. Propertius
could still write, in the time of Augustus : " Veii, thou
w'ast a kingdom, and in thy forum stood a golden tlirone !
To-day the pipe of the idle shepherd resounds within thy walls,
and in th}- fields the harvest covers the bones of thy citizens ! " ^

.-.^^'"■'Ij'-^.

-r i

K-

^i0 ■

OLD GATE OF THE CITADEL OF FALEItll.

It recovered under the Empire,, only to fall once more. In the
time of its power its walls contained a hundred thousand souls ;
at present the space which is occupied by its citadel — so long
the rival of the Roman Capitol — would be far too large for the
eighty inhabitants of tlie Isola Farnese.^

The fall of Veii brought that of Capena (395) ; and Falerii
was gained, it is said, by the generosity of Camillus, who had
sent back to their fathel-s the children of the principal people
of the city, whom the schoolmaster had given up to him (394).

1 Carm. IV. .\. 27.

2 See p. 30G, the plan of Veii.

360 . EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

Two or three years after, tlie capture of Nepete and Sutriura
carried tlie Roman frontier, towards the north, up to the dark
Ciminian forest, which was thought at Rome to be impassable.
The legions ventured, however, to cross it to attack the Sal-
pinates and Vulsinians, who obtained a truce of twenty years, by
the indemnity of a year's pay to the Roman army (391).

So from 450 to 390 B. c. the Romans have resumed the offensive.
They are established in the midst of the Volscians by means of
colonies or the garrisons of Circei and Anxur; by those of Bola
and Labicum they have guarded their territory against the
Aequians. But the latter continue still in possession of Algidus,
and have destroyed Vitellia, which might have haired their
way to it. If the result is not yet settled between Rome
and its two indefatigable enemies, the position is at least the
reverse of what it was at the commencement of this period.
Fear and caution are transferred to the Volscian side. Besides,
Rome has exercised an increasing ascendency over what remains
of the thirty Latin tribes. Accustomed to be defended by her,
they have learned the habit of obedience. The ancient equality
is forgotten, and Rome has united to her own territory that of the
Latin cities which she recovered from the enemy. To the north
of the Tiber she can boast of a brilliant triumph, and the
conquest of the Veian country has doubled her own territory.
But in this direction her victories produced a great danger, since
they brought her face to face with the Gauls ; and she had just
lost her best general, — Camillus was an exile.

What was the cause of this exile ? The i^roud magnificence
of his triumph, when he went up to the Capitol in a car drawn
by four white horses, the equipage given to the Sun-god, his
pride, and the vow that he had secretly made to consecrate to
the Pythian Apollo the tithe of the booty of Veil, and finally,
his opposition to the project of the tribunes to transfer to that
city a part of the Senate and people,^ had. it is said, excited
against him the people's hatred. The last proposition was very
dangerous, since it would thus have set up again the antagonism
which had only been destroyed by desperate efforts.^ It is

1 Livy, V. 24. 2 See p. 369.

MILITAKY HISTORY FROiM 448 TO 389.

361

hard to see how they could have dared to do it, and the whole
matter may be more csasily explained. A part of the Vcian
lands was certaiidy divided among the plebeians, who thought
that the Senate intended to recompense them for their long efforts
by the concession of
the absolute freehold.
Camillus may have
proposed to charge
this property with a
rent for the revenue,
as was the case with
all the ager jnibUcus ;
hence the popular
resentment, and the
accusation brought
against him under the
pretext of embezzle-
ment.^ His own cli-
ents refused to vote
in his favor ; " We
cannot acquit you,"
said the}', '• Ijut we
will pay the penalty
for you." He did
not desire an act of
devotion which saved
his fortune at the ex-
,pense of his honor,
and he went into
exile without await-

PYTIIIAX APOLLO.''

ing the trial. It is

related that, after having passed the Ardeatine gate, he turned
towards the city and prayed the gods of the Capitol, if he were
innocent, to make his fellow-citizens soon repent his exile, — hard
and egoistic words, which recall by contrast the touching prayer

' Pliny, Hint. Nat. xxxiv. 3.

' Statuette from the Louvre, No. 73 in the Frdhner Catalogue.

362 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

of Aristides, but which the Greeks have invented to bring out
the true grandeur of their Athenian hero, and to presage tlie
terrible drama of the Gallic invasion.

For the same year the Gauls entered Rome.

III. Capture of Rome by the Gauls in 390 b. c.

Nearly two centuries had elapsed since the Gauls had made
a descent into Italy, and they had not dared again to entangle
themselves in the Apennines ; but the most venturous of their
bands, by keeping close to the Adriatic shore, went to gain, in
the service of the cities of Magna Graecia, large military pay, or to
pillage on their own account this beautiful country. Yet we can
hardly believe that the Senones — who had since the time of
Tarquinius Superbus reached the banks of Aesis — continued more
than a century without coveting Etruria, to which they were so
near, and with whose opulence they were well acquainted. Here
are still the two principal routes which lead from Tuscany into
the Romagna. To the east of Perusia the Apennines sink, and
over several ridges offer easy passages ; the Gauls learned early
to, cross by them ; and this circumstance explains why the Etruscans
of the north and east, being menaced by tliese turbulent neighbors,
abandoned those of the south when attacked by Rome. The siege
of Clusium was only the most important and best knoAvn of these
expeditions.

Clusium, built on a height above the Clanis (la Chiana), an
affluent of the Tiber, had been in Porsenna's time the most
powerful of the Etruscan lucumonies. It was still flourishing, and
rich with a thousand objects of art, — vases, candelabra, bronzes
of all sorts, some of which have been recovered, and wliich ex-
cited the covetousness of the Gauls as much as did tlie fertility
of the lands. Thii'ty thousand Senones demanded a share of its
teiTitory. The Clusians shut their gates, and begged succor from
Rome. The latter sent three ambassadors, Fabii, to offer the
mediation of the Romans. " When they had explained their
message to the Gallic council," says Livy, " the latter replied
that 'though they had never heard of the Romans before, they

MILITAKY HISTORY FltUM 448 TO 389.

563

must conchule tliom tf) be
had begged their aid. Nor
would the pr()])osed peace
be rejected, it the Chisians,
wlio had too much hind,
woidd yiekl a part to the
Gauls, Avho had too little ;
otherwise j)eace will not be
granted. Let them answer
us in the Romans' presence ;
if not, we will fight under
their ej'es, and they will be
able to go and tell at Rome
how much the Gauls surpass
other men in bravery.'
'But by what right do you
attack the Etruscans ? ' asked
Q. Ambustus. 'This right,'
replied the Senonian Brennus,
'we carry, as you Romans
do, at the point of our
swords : everythhiL!' belons-s
to the brave.'" The Fabii
were annoyed at the haugh-
tiness of this barbarian, who
dared to assert that their
native city had made so
little noise in the world,
that its name had not yet
reached the plains of the
Po. Forgetting their char-
acter of ambassadors, they
joined the besieged in a
sortie; and Q. Ambustus
slew, in sight of the two

be bravo men, since the Clusians

CANDELAIiRUM OF UltONZE POUND AT CIIIUSI."

armies, a Gallic chief, whom he despoiled of his arms.

1 Atlas of the Inst, archdol. of Rome for 1851. Chiusi has prcsorvc.l none of the si.leudor

364

ROME u:nder the patrician consuls.

The barbarians immediately ceased hostilities against Clusium,
and demanded reparation at Rome. The whole college of fetiales
insisted, in the name of religion, that jnstice should be done.
But the credit of the gens Fabia prevailed ; the guilty were
absolved, and the people, as if struck with madness, gave them
three out of the six appointments as military tribimes.

On hearing this, the Senones, reinforced by some bands
from the banks of the Po, commenced their march on Rome,

without attacking a single
city, without pillaging a
village. They descended along
the Tiber, when, being then
eleven miles from the Capi-
tol, near the stream of the
Allia,^ they saw on the
other bank the Roman army
extended in line, their centre
in the i:)lain, their right on
the heights, their left covered
by the Tiber. The attack
commenced from the side of
the hills, where the left
wing, composed of veterans, kept firm ; but tlie centre, frightened
by the shouts and savage aspect of these men, who seemed to
them of gigantic proportions, and who advanced, striking their
bucklers with their arms, broke their ranks, and threw themselves
in disorder on the left wing. All who could not swim across the
Tiber, and take refuge behind the strong walls of Veil, perished
in the plain, on the banks, and in the bed of the river ; the
right wing, unbroken, beat a retreat to Rome, and without manning

GAULti.-

of Clusium, except a number of tombs witb a quantity of sepulchral urns and bronzes decorated
with figures in relief and monsters of an Oriental character. By the side of these objects,
which have nothing in common with Greek art, have been found some painted vases of
Hellenic jn-oduction or imitation. (Cf. Dennis, Etruria, ii. pp. 32.5-384.) [The candelabrum
in the cut shows a thoroughly Greek and well-designed chair adapted to an absurd ]iurpose,
— the support of a pillar on a .sitting woman's head. — Ed.']

1 According to IM. Pietro Rossa, the Scannabecchi, which comes down from the Crus-
tuminian Hills.

- Group taken from a bas-relief found at Rome, decorating the sarcophagus called that
of Ammendola Villa.

MILITARY III.STOKY FROM 448 TO .S89. 365

the walls, without closmg the gates, hastened to hold the citadel on
the Capitoline hill (18th July, 390 B. c). Happily the barbarians
stayed to pillage, to cut off the heads of the dead, and to cele-
brate with orgies their easy victory. Rome had time to recover
from its stupor, and to take measures which might save the
Roman name. The Senate, magistrates, priests, and a thousand
of the bravest of the patrician youth, shut themselves up in the
Capitol. They carried thither all the gold of the temples, all the
provisions of the city; as for the bulk of the people, they soon
covered the roads, and dispersed among the neighboring cities.
Caere (Cervetri) afforded an asylum to the Vestals and the sacred
vessels.

On the evening of the second day which followed the battle
the Gauls' advanced guard appeared in sight ; but, astonished to
see the walls bare of soldiers, and the gates open, they feared some
snare, and the army put off its entrance till next day. The streets
were silent, the houses deserted ; in some the barbarians saw
with astonishment old men seated on curule chairs, clad in
long robes edged with purple, and resting, with calm air and
fixed eye, on their long ivory staves. These were ex-consuls, who
offered themselves as victims for the Repulilic, or who had not been
willing to beg an asyhun among their former subjects. The barba-
rians at first looked at them with a childlike wonder, quite disposed
to take them for supernatural beings ; but a Gaul softly pass-
ing his hand over the long beard of Papirius, the latter struck him
with his staff, whereupon the irritated Gaul slew the old man. This
was the signal for massacre ; nothing living was spared. After
the pillage the houses were set on fire.

The barbarians saw soldiers and warlike ^^reparations only on
the Capitol, and desired to mount it ; but on the narrow and
steep acclivity which led up to it the Romans had little difficulty
ui repulsing them, and the siege had to be changed into a
blockade. For seven months the Gauls encamped in the midst of
the ruins of Rome. One day they saw a young Roman descend
at a slow pace from the Capitol clothed in sacerdotal garments,
and carrying in his hands some consecrated things : it was a
member of the gens Fabia ; without being disturbed by shouts or
threats, he crossed the camp, ascended the Quiriual, and there

366 • EOME UNDEE THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

performed expiatory sacrifices. Then he returned cahnly and
slowly ))y the same way he had taken. Admiring his courage,
or struck with superstitious fears, the Gauls had allowed him to
pass.^

The gods were appeased ; fortune was about to change. In
their want of foresight, the barbarians had provided neither pro-
visions nor shelter ; a rainy autumn Ijrought diseases which
decimated them, and famine obliged them to scour the country
in bands. The Latins and Etruscans, who at first rejoiced at
the misfortunes of their too powerful neighbors, were in their
turn affrighted. The best general of Rome was then an exile in
Ardea ; this city gave him some soldiers with which he surprised
and massacred a Gallic detachment. This first success encouraged
resistance ; on all sides the peasants rose, and the Roman refugees
at Veii proclaimed Camillus dictator. The sanction of the Senate
and of the Curiae was needful to confirm the election and restore
to Camillus the civic rights which he had lost by his exile. A
young plebeian, Cominius, crossed the Tiber by night, swimming or
floating on the bark of a cork-tree, escaped the enemy's sentinels,
and by the aid of some briers and shrubs which clothed the
escarped slopes, he reached the citadel. He returned with the
same good fortune, and brouglit to Veii the appointment which
put aside all the scruples of Camillus. But the Gauls had observed
his footprints. On a dark night they climbed to the very foot
of the rampart ; they had already touched the battlements, when
the cackling of some geese, sacred to Juno, awoke a patrician
renowned for his strength and courage, Manlius, who hurled from
the top of the wall the foremost assailants. The garrison soon
manned the rampart, and but a small number of Gauls regained
their camp. The Capitol was saved, thanks to Manlius ; but the
provisions were exhausted, and Camillus did not appear. The
military tribune Sulpicius treated with Brennus, whom an attack of
the Veneti summoned to his country,^ and whose army the malaria

' The act of this Fabius was perhaps less wonderful than Livy would make out : the
Quirinal was then joined to the Capitol by a ridge which later on was cut, and which Fabius
followed. The cnterjn'ise was not less audacious, and might ha\e ended badly, but for the
religious astonishment of the Gauls at this act of courage and Jiiety.

2 Polyb., Hist. ii. 18.

GEESE OF TUE CAPITOL.

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 448 TO 389. 367

was now destroying. It was agreed that the Gauls should receive
as ransom 1,000 lbs. weiglit of gold (about 800 lbs. av.) ; that
])rovisions and means of transport should be furnished them by
the allies of Rome ;^ and that one of the city gates should always
stand oi^en.

When the gold was being weighed, the barbarians bnjught
false weights. When Sulpicius protested, " Vae victiri ! " said the
Brcnn, — '" Woe to the conquered ! " and he threw into the scales
his great sword and his baldric.

The barbarians went oft' ; but Camillus annulled the treaty
by his authority as dictator. He ordered the allied cities to
close their gates, to attack stragglers and isolated bands. Dur-
ing the blockade, in which 70,000 Gauls were engaged, numerous
detachments had quitted the siege to scour the country ; they
had reached as far as Apulia. When they returned, the mass of
the army was gone, all Latium in arms, the Roman legions reor-
ganized ; thus very few of them escaped. The Caerites massacred
a body of them which fell by night into an ambuscade ; and an-
other was crushed by Camillus near a city, the name of which
is lost.

This narrative by Livy is plainly legendary, it is a poem in
honor of Camillus. At the epoch we have reached, the basis of
history is true, the ornaments with which it is decked are not so.^
Diodorus knows nothing of the dictatorship of Camillus ; Polybius
relates that the Gauls regained Umbria with their booty ; Suetonius,
that Livius Drusus recovered a century later the ransom of Rome ;
others, in fine, that hard conditions were imposed by the conquerors.
It is impossible to conceal the defeat of the Allia, the capture and
burning of the city. Tlie terror with which the mere name of the
Gauls filled the minds of the Romans till Caesar's day, witnessed for
more than two centuries that it was simply the heedlessness of
the barbarians which had saved Rome from complete annihilation.

1 Pint., Cavi. 28 ; Livy, v. 48.

= Against the story of Livy, see Polyb., ///.sV. ii. 22; Suet., Tih. 3; Tac, An7i. xi. 24,
and Hist. iii. 72 ; Polyaen., Sirat. viii. 25, who iiiontions this gate, which the Romans were
to keep always open, but says that they opened in an inaccessible place, on the Capitol
itself, the gate Pandana ; lastly, Frontinus, who speaks of the provisions and means of
transport in Chap. II. vi. 1, where he shows that oue should make for the enemy a golden
bridge.

368 ■ ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

The annalists made amends for this painful admission, by making,
out of some slight successes over stragglers, so complete a victory
that not a barbarian escaped the avenging sword of Camillus.

PRISONER. FROM A OE^M IN THE CABINET DE FRANCE, NO. 2,G22 IN THE
CHABOUILLET CATALOGUE.

CHAPTER XI.

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 389 TO 343.

I. Eebuildi^^g of the City ; The Roman Leoion'.

IF the Capitol was safe, Rome was in ruins. Several tribunes
Ijrought forward again, it is said, tlie proposition of transferring
a part of the plebeians to Veii, whose thick walls and houses were still
standing. But to abandon places where so many records stirred
patriotism, where dwelt the civic divinities and the household
gods, where the empire had l)een founded, and whence domination
was extended over the surrounding peoples ; to quit the sovereign
city for the conquered town, — would not this have been a shame, a
crime towards the gods, and a great political blunder ? Camillus
said so, and so the Senate thought ; a fortunate omen, the " Let
us stay here ! " of the centurion who was crossing the Forum, deter-
mined the still irresolute people to rebuild the city. A year sufficed,
for the Senate gave the bricks, the wood and stones, taken, doubtless,
from Veii, which was demolished to furnish materials. These means
were cleverly chosen to prevent the people from ever conveying
thither their Penates. Once more, the steadfastness of the Senate
saved the destinies of Rome.^

In the midst of 'the ruins they had found the augural staff
of Romulus, the Twelve Tables, some fi\igments of royal laws, and
some treaties. This was all that seemed to reniam of the old Roman
society. Rebuilt at random, without plan, without direction, at
the caprice of every one, Rome presented in its material aspect the
confusion which soon appeared in its political state. In passing

1 The project of transferring Rome to Veii is probably only an oratorical invention, in
whicli was found a pretext for eloquent speeches, like the story that Julius Caesar tliousbt
of transferring it to Tlium. All religion, all rites, were totally opposed to it : what would
Terminus and Jupiter Capitolinus have said?

VOL. I. 24

370 ■ EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

over the soil, the Gallic invasion had levelled it ; when the torrent
had disappeared, a new city and almost a new people appeared.

The sword of the barbarians had made some great gaps in
the population ; ^ to fill them up and prevent a dangerous revolt
of their subjects, the freedom of the city was granted to tlie
inhabitants of the territory of Veil, Capena, and Falerii ; and the
first censors appointed after the retreat of the Gauls formed of
them four new tribes.^ It was a very serious step to call at once
so many men to a share of the sovereignty, and to give former
subjects four votes out of twenty-five ; Ijut it was impossible for
Rome otherwise to escape from the perilous situation in which
the Gauls had left it, and the Senate did not hesitate to make
the necessary sacrifice. It was at once rewarded ; for doubtless
this concession greatly helped the success of the Romans, now
left without allies by the defection of part of the Latins and Her-
nicans,^ and attacked, before they were fairly out of their ruinous
state, by almost all their neighbors.

In refusing to go to Veii, the Romans took upon themselves the
work of reconstituting both their city and their empire ; and, in
spite of contrary appearances, the double work of reconstruction Avas
not beyond their strength. Their neighbors and enemies had also
suffered from the mvasion, especially the Aequians, through whose
country the Gauls had perhaps passed to reach Apulia, and who
seemed to have lost their accustomed boldness. Besides, these wars
were always merely partial or badly organized attacks. Whatever
in certain cases might be the superiority in number, the Romans
had that unity of feeling in the soldiers and of connnand in the
chiefs which doubles the strength of armies.

Still, the circumstances were very critical. Rome had never
passed through a more dangerous moment. Camillus, Avho appears
constantly at the head of the legions, then gained, but with more
ju,stice than in the Gallic war, the title of second founder of Rome.*
At home, he stimulated all parties to union by his patriotic
counsels, or he sought, by his firmness, to impose on them peace.

1 Tc5i' T!\(l(TT(Dv TTokiroiv aTTn\a>\i')T(j>v. (Diod.. xiv. 116, 8.)

2 Stellatina, Tromentina, Sabatina, and Arniensis (Livy, vi. 5) io 387.

* Livy, vi. 2 . . . defeclione Lalinoruin Ilernicorumque.

* Livy, vi. 35-42.

MILITARY HISTORY FROM 389 TO ;54;}. 371

111 the camp liis skilful reforms prepared the vi(;t.ory which his
talents assured im the field of battle. Before the impetuous attack
of the Gauls the Eoman legions had lied ; he armed the soldiers
with long spears, which stopped the iiiipctnosity of the liarhariaiis,
and with bronze helmets, with bucklers edged with an iron })late,
against which their badly-tempered swords were blunted. He did
more : he entirely changed the Roman tactics.

We know not the name of the man who created this animated
and living body known as the Roman legion, who knew how to
combine in it so well different kinds of weapons, that it was pre-
pared for conquering in all lands, and for triumphing over all forms
of troops and tactics, — stanch and united before the swift riders
of Mount Atlas or the disorderly bands of barbarians ; divisible
and light before the Macedonian phalanx or the scythed chariots
and elephants of Antiochus : the name of the man who thus
constituted the legion into a complete army is unknown. Daily
experience, a guerilla warfare;, and continual skirmishes, doulitless
taught the advantages of the division into maniples over the old
organization of the phalanx. But if any general contributed to this
change, to whom, more than to Camillus, ought we to assign the
honor ? The records fail in enabling us to fix the date ; it is
only known that after the Gallic wars, at the battle of Vesuvius
this division was definitively established. Camillus owed, perhaps,
to it the numerous successes which saved Rome the second time.

He repeatedly beat the Volscians, the Aequians, and Tar-
quinians, who could not prevent the Romans from placing two
colonies in Nepete and Sutrium, and he did not leave an enemy
between the Tiber and the Ciminian forest.' But on the left
bank, Antium, protected by its maritime position, Praeneste, a rich
and populous city, strongly placed and almost impregnable, were
in arms, and received numerous volunteers from Latium. A victory
of the dictator Corn. Cossus seemed yet more to increase the
defections. Velitrae, Circei, and Lanuvium revolted ; Camillus,
raised for the seventh time to the military tribunate, had difficulty

' Xcpc'.te was tliirty miles from Rome, Sutrium thirlv-two, and the anltus Ciminius is the
wooded chain now called the Mountains of Viterbo. At Sutrium can be seen the very
picturesque remains of an amphitheatre cut in the rock. It seems to belong to the imperial
epoch; yet some anticjuarians think it Etruscan. — Cf. Dennis, Etruria,\. pp. 94-97.

■Ji:

EOME UNDEE THE PATKICIAN CONSULS.

iu warding off great disasters. In 379 the Praenestines penetrated
to the CoUine gate, and ravaged all the country between the
Tiber and Anio. Overtaken and beaten on the banks of the
Allia by the dictator T. Quinctius, they lost eight cities, and
begged for peace. Three years after, a two days' battle ended the
war against the Antiates, and the military tribune Servius Sulpicius
relieved the faithful Tusculans, who had been attacked by the

AMPHITHEATRE OF SUTRIUM.

Latins. These were important successes ; but Yelitrae and Circei
had not been punished for their defection ; Praeneste, Antiuni, and
the Volsci did not acknowledge their defeat : Rome was not at
that time sure of the Latin plain.

To these wars belongs a legend which perhaps covers an
historic fact which the Roman writers refrain from telling us.
After the retreat of the Gauls, the Fidenates, in league with some
other peoples, had penetrated to the edge of the Servian walls ; and
as the price of withdrawal, they demanded that the most noble

JMUJTAEY HISTORY FROM 3S'J TO 343.

373

matrons should be delivered up to them. Shame and anxiety filled
the city, when a female slave, whose devotion procured for her the
name Tutela, offered to surrender herself to the enemy, together
with the most beautiful of her companions, clothed as matrons. The
Senators agreed, and the Fidenates, full of boasting at this humilia-
tion of Rome, celebrated it l:)y orgies which continued for some time.
When drunkenness had closed their eyes, Tutela, having climbed
to the top of a wild fig-tree,^ called the Romans, who triumphed
easily over their unarmed adversaries. This Latin Judith and those
who had followed her were emancipated, and dowered at the public
expense. Every year, on the nones (7th) of July, the women slaves,
dressed in the matron's stola, and carrying branches of the fig-tree,
celebrated, by a sacrifice in the temple of Juno Caprotina, the
memory of those who had saved the honor of the Roman ladies.^

II. Return of the Gauls into Latium ; Manlius ; Valerius

CORVUS.

The Senones, who had returned to their own country with the
j^lunder of Rome, had very soon recommenced their adventurous
expeditious. In 37G they took
the important town of Ari-
miuum, and we have ases
of that city representing a
Gallic head, easily recognizable
by the moustache and the
necklace that it bears. Of
their exploits on the Adriatic
coast we know nothing ; but
they had not forgotten the
route through the Latin dis-
trict, which they had with
impunity ravaged for seven
months. Twenty-three years
after the siege of the Capitol, they reappeared, and reached the

AS OP ARIMINUM.

1 Ej-

'rhore caprifico.

= Macr., Sat. I. xi. 35 -40.

374 ROME Uj^DEK the PATIlICIA]Sr CONSULS.

environs of the Alban Mount, where Camillus gained a great
victory over them, tlianks to the changes he had effected in the
equipment of tlie sokhers (867). Polybius does not speak, it is
true, of this last triumpli of the octogenarian dictator ; but he is
quite ignorant of many others whicli Roman vanity gives in detail.
In 361, say the annalists, the Gauls encamped on the via Solaria,
near the Anio. A bridge separated them from the legions, and
every day a warrior of gigantic stature came there to insult the
Romans. The legionary tribune Manlius accepted the challenge,
slew the Gaul, and snatching from him his gold necklace [torques,
whence Torqiiatus), put it, all covered with blood, on his own neck.
However, the barbarians, apparently invited or supported by Tibur,
Praeneste, and the Hernicans, who were frightened Ity the increasing
strength of Rome, ravaged all the country to the east of the city,
and, passing between two consular armies, reached the CoUine gate.^
A dictator was appointed ; the whole body of youth were armed ;
and the barbarians were thrown back in disorder upon the army
of the consul Poetilius, who pursued them as far as the environs of
Tibur, whose inhabitants, having gone to the help of the Gauls,
were involved in their flight. The consul at his triumph obtained
leave to mention among the names of the vanquished that of the
Tiburtines. This brave population of one of the smallest cities in
the neighborhood of Rome protested the following year, by insult-
ing the walls of Rome, against this honor, decreed at its expense ;
and the Gauls, established in a strong position around Pedum,^
behind an entrenchment formed by tlieir war chariots, set out from
there for incursions into Latium and Campania. So also, in the
Middle Ages, the Northmen threw themselves audaciously into the
midst of the enemy's country, and, making a camp of their ships
moored on the shore of the rivers, went forth to pillage far and
wide.

To this Latin and Gallic war was added another more terrible,
called forth by religious fanaticism and political hate : the people of
Tarquinii declared war (358 b. c).

All was in a state of conflagration around Rome. For three
years the Gauls were encamped in the midst of Latium, and Tibur,

' Livy, vii. 11.

^ Gallos . . . circa Pedum. (Livy, vii. 12.) He says elsewhere of Tibur, arx Gallici belli.

MILITARY HISTORY FROM ;jS'J TO ;34o.

375

Praeneste, Velitrae, Privernum seemed in league with them ; the
Ilernicaus remembered having recently slain the plebeian consul
Genucius, and of having yielded the dictator Appius a victoiy
very dearly bought. Then lastly, the Tarquinians had inherited
the hate of Veil against their neighbors of the seven hills, and
they forced Caere into alliance with them, in spite of the bond
of public hospitality which it had formed with Rome during the

HUMAN SACRIFICES.!

Gallic war. Joined in addition by the Faliscans, the Tarquinians
went to the fight, conducted by their priests, who brandished, like
the Furies, burning torches and serpents. The army of Fabius
gave way to a panic at sight of this formidable array, and three
hundred and seven legionaries, being made prisoners, were sacrificed
by the Tarquinians to their gloomy divinities.

In the midst of so much peril and terror, the renewal, with the
Latin cities, of the ancient alliance broken up by the Gallic inva-
sion, was a welcome occurrence (358).^ Worn out as much as
Rome by the prolonged stay of the barbarians, the Latins united

! Taken from a painting on an Etruscan tomb. (Atlas of Noel ties Vergers.)

2 Inter mullo.i Icrrorcs solatia fuit . . . miKjna vis militum ab iis accepta. (Livy, vii. 12.)

The principal cities which composed the new alliance were Aricia, Bovillae, Gabii, Lanuvium.

Laurentum, Lavinium, Nomentum, and Tustulum.

376

ROME UNDEE THE PATEICIAN CONSULS.

their forces to the legions, and the Gauls were crushed. In their
joy the Romans regarded this victory as equal to that of Camillus.
Fortune returned; the Hernicans were this same year beaten and
subjected ; the Volscians crushed so completely, that this brave
people, who had for so long a time arrested the future of Rome,
now disappears from history. In order to preserve these advan-
tages, and to prepare new resources for the future, the Senate
formed of all the inhabitants of the Pomptine country between
Antium and Terracina, two new tribes. This policy, which had

WOUNDED GAUL.l

proved so useful in 386 b. c, had now the same success. The
Privernates, whose city was situated on the Amasenus, which comes
down to Terracina, were annoyed at seeing Roman colonies so
near them ; but their defeat assured the tranquillity of tlie ancient
Volscian country. The inhabitants of Til)ur and Praeneste, trusting
to their rocks and walls, preserved a threatening attitude. In 354
they decided to treat for peace on the condition of keeping their
independence, which the Senate thought it best to respect. From
Rome to Terracina all was at peace.

1 Tills beautiful statue from the Capitoline Museum was long called the Dying Gladiator.
It is a Gaul, as is easily seen by the collar Le wears.

MILITARY lllSTOUV FllOM 389 TO 343. 377

Yet on tlae north of the Tiber the Etruscans had again
ravaged the Roman territory as far as the salt-works of Ostia. In
order to drive off thes(> pillagers, Martins Rutilus was appointed
dictator (35G). He was a iieLO man. The patricians would fain
have avoided a plebeian triumph at any cost ; but the people
eagerly assembled under a general who had risen from the ranks.
Martins repulsed the enemy, and, in spite of the Senate, by the
votes of the tribes he re-entered Rome in triumph.

Some 3'ouths from Caere had taken jiart in the raids of the
men of Tarquinii into Roman territory. The Senate, which never
left desertion unpunished, declared war on these old allies. Caei'e
did not close its gates, its ramparts were not furnished with
engines, and none of its citizens took arms ; deputies went to
Rome, and l^efore the assembled people in the Forum, invoked the
memory of their ancient services ; the pure and religious hospitality
which they had afforded to the tlamens and Vestals ; and how their
town had become in the time of the Gallic iuA^asion the sanctuary
of the Roman people, the as3-lum of its priests, a secure refuge
for the holy things. The Roman people, usually so hard-hearted,
were softened by their prayers and the confidence shown towards
them ; they granted the Caerites a truce of one hundred years,
which kept up the memorj* both of the transgression and of its
pardon.

In .3-33 the defeat of Faljius was avenged, and three Imndred
and fifty-eight Tarquinians of noble family were beheaded in the
Forum.^ Three 3'ears later that people asked and obtained a truce
of forty 3-ears.

Men now looked for a period of repose ; but the Gauls
re-appeared (349). One of them, remarkable for his tall stature,
challenged the Romans to single combat. The legionary tribune
M. Valerius haAdng obtained leave from the consul to accept the
challenge, renewed the exploit of jManlius, to which the annalists
added marvellous circumstances. A raven, said they, swooped
down on his helmet during the combat, and troubled the Gaul
by striking him on the face with its wings and beak ; when the

^ Livy, vii. 19. These Kttle wars were very bloody. " !Many were slain on the field of
battle," says Livy, " and a great number were made prisoners. The nobles were beheaded at
Rome, vulgus aliud trucidatum."

378

EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

ETRUSCAN ■WARRIOR.l

barbarian fell, the bird resumed its flight and disappeared towards
the east. The soldiers bestowed the surname of Corvus upon the

victor, and fell upon the enemy in full
assurance of victory. This battle, gained
by the son of Camillus, put an end to
the Gallic invasions. The barbarian army,
driven out of Latium, boldly threw itself
into Campania, and pushing forward, with-
out thinking of its return, penetrated as
far as Apulia. Eight centuries later the
Franks renewed these daring raids with
the same careless confidence, and starting
from the banks of the Meuse, went straight
before them till they were stopped Ijy the Straits of Messina.

The hero of this last contest, Valerius Corvus, was chosen
consul at the age of twenty-three (in 346), to suppress some
movements among the Volscians. He burned
Satricum, which the Antiates had rel^uilt. In
the following year the taking of Sora on the^
Liris,^ at the extremity of the Volscian country,
and a victory over the Aurunci, who inhabited
a group of volcanic mountains on the left bank
of the same river,^ opened the road to Cam-
pania to the Romans.

These wars are as toilsome to read about as
they were to fight ; and even the art of Livy
has not succeeded in making them interesting.
ETRUSCAN AHCHEK.* g^^ ^ ^^^^^ natiou lias a right to the same

curiosity as is accorded to the obscure origin of a great man,

' Taken from Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Eiruria.

'^ Four miles below Sora, after its junction with the Fibrenus, the Liris forms, near the
village of Isola. one of the most beautiful cascades in Italy. The river there falls from a
total height of more than 100 feet. (Craven, A/iruzzi, i. 93.) Cicero liad a house near the
spot, on the Isola San Paolo, which is surrounded by the Fibrenus. He was born there
(de Leg. iv. 1), and it was about this vilLa that he uttcre<l tlie beautiful words we have
quoted on p. 210.

* On one of these mountains, now called ^lonte di Santa Croce, the highest peak of which
rises to a height of nearly .3,300 feet above the sea, the Aurunci had built their first capital,
Aurunca, which the Sidicini destroyed in 337.

* Taken from a painting on an Etruscan tomb at Caere.

MILITAUY HISTORY FROM 389 TO 343.

379

and we must not show ourselves more indifferent than Carthage
and Atlieus were to the phenomenon of such tenacious per-
severance. Ah'eady the blows struck at the foot of the
Apennines were heard afar, Greece grew interested in the
defeats of the Romans as well as in their victories,^ and Carthage
had recently renewed the treaty which she had concluded with
them a century and a half earlier. A hundred and sixty-five
years of fighting were needful for them to regain the frontiers
and alliances of which the abolition of ro^'alty had deprived
them. The power of this people had grown very slowly; but in
the midst of these dangers and miseries its sturdy youth had
been formed ; and it is by slow growth that men become strong,
and greatness durable.

* The capture of Rome by the Gauls was known in Greece shortly after the event.
Aristotle, who mentions it, names one Lucius as the savior of the city. Niebulir thinks that
this Lucius was the son of the great Camillus and the victor of 349.

GALLIC TORQUIS, TAKEN FROM THE MUSEUM OF SAINT-GERMAKJ.

CHAPTER XII.

ACCESSION or THE PLEBEIANS TO CUKULE OFEICES.

I. The Licinian Laws ; Division of the Consulships.

WHILE Rome was making such persevering efforts to re-establish
her power without, within the city the tribunes continued the
struggle against the patriciate. As it had been a century earlier,
so now debts were the cause of new dissensions. The land-tax
being the principal revenue of the state, the misfortunes of war,
especially when it drew near to Rome, had the double result
of obliging the treasury to make greater demands on property,
and of diminishing at the same time the value of the land and
its produce. The tax became heavier, and the resources which
served to pay it, smaller. Hence came debts, as numerous after
the Gallic invasion as they had l^een after the royal wars, and
the two revolutions which they occasioned, — the one giving rise
to the tribuneship, the other which resulted in the sharing of
the curule offices.

In 389 B. c. it became necessary to rebuild the burned town.
Doubtless the house of a plebeian cost but little to reconstruct.
But whence was a man who had lost everything, furniture and
flocks, to draw the means of getting his little field under cultiva-
tion again, sheltering his family, buying a few cattle, and paying
the war tax, the tax for the Capitol,^ the tax for re-building the
temples and walls, unless he drew it from his patron's purse ?
The allotment of lands made to the plebeians in the territory of Veil
had been another cause of borrowing. As the state only gave tli(>

1 New construotions were erected there, to render it inaccessible from tlie Tiber, on
whicli side it had been considered, until the Gallic invasion, that the river sufficiently defended
the approaches.

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ACCESSION OF THE I'LEBEIANS TO CUEULE OFFICES. 381

land, it was often necessary for some rich man to advance the
funds for the agricultural implements, flocks, and seeds necessary
to stock the seven jiujrra. But the rate of interest was heavy,
the creditor i^itiless : the er(ja>itula wei'e again crowded : Camilhis
himself was distinguished for his cruelty.

Here we come u2)on an obscure story. Livj^, the unconscious
but constant echo of patrician hatred, relates that Marcus Manlius
Capitolinus, jealous of the glory of Camillus, and irritated at being
overlooked in the distribution of offices, constituted himself the patron
of the poor, and delivered as many as four hundred debtors from
prison. Every day the crowd increased around him and his
house on the Capitol. " The great oppress and ruin you," he
urged ; '•' not satisfied with appropriating the state lands, they
embezzle the pulalic money. They are hiding the money re-
captured from the Gauls, and while you are exhausting yom-
last resources in restoring to the temj)les their treasures, they
reserve for their pleasures the money which they receive for a
sacred work." Against him as much as against the Volscians a
dictator was appointed, Cornelius Cossus, who on his return from
the campaign cast him into prison. A senatus-consultum having
restored him to liberty, two tribunes, won over by the patricians,
or themselves jealous of his popularity, accused him of high
treason. In the comitia centuriata Manlius recalled his exploits:
he displayed the arms of thirty enemies slain by him, eight
civic crowns, thirty-two military rewards, the wounds which
covered his breast, and the Capitol which he had saved ! This
sight, these Avords, excited the compassion of the people, and he
would have been acquitted, when the assembly was broken up,
and the judgment deferred till another day. In a meetmg of
the people held in a place whence the citadel of Rome could
not l)e perceived, or according to others by the sentence of
the Duumvirs,^ he was condemned to death. By Dion's account,
Manlius, having occupied the Capitol with his partisans, was
precipitated from the Tarpeian rock- by a traitor whom he
trusted. His house on the Capitol was razed to the ground, it
was forbidden for any one ever to build on that hill, and the gens

1 Duumviri pcrduellionis. 2 gee p. 335.

382 HOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

Manila decided that none of its memlaers should henceforth bear
the praenomen of Marcus (384).^

Manhus, who shared the fate of Cassius and Maelius, must
have been sacriiiced hke them to the hatred of the nobles ; ^ but
he was doubtless only a vulgar agitator : C. Licinius Stolo and
L. Sextius were true reformers. They were rich and noble
plebeians, to whom the equality of the two orders through the
military tribuneship only appeared a political lie : from 400 to
367 B. c. there had been only fifteen plebeians elected to the military
tribuneshiia. Livy, who like so many other historians is fond of
assigning great events to small causes,^ relates '• that a senator,
Fabius Ambustus, had married the elder of his two daughters to
the j^'T-ti'lcian Serv. Sulpicius, and the second to a rich plebeian,
Licinius Stolo. One day the two sisters were conversing in the
house of Sulpicius, when he, at that time military triliune,
returned from the Forum preceded by his lictor, who, according
to custom, knocked at the door with his rod. At this noise
the young Fabia grew disturbed ; then she expressed astonishment
at the numerous retinue which followed the tribime. The
elder laughed at both her astonishment and ignorance, and her
raillery showed the wide gulf placed between her and her sister
by marriage, which had led the latter mto a house wherein
honors could never enter. Fabia was so hurt by this, that her
father noticed her vexation, and joromised her that she should
one day see in her own home the dignities which she had seen
at her sister's. From that time he began to concert plans with
his son-in-law and another young man of strong energy, L.
Sextius."

It is a pretty incident ; Livy is never loth to scatter a
few flowers through the severe history of the least romantic of
nations ; and we do the same, but without any belief in them.
The young Fabia had often at her father's home or at the houses
of family friends heard the lictor's knock, and had often seen the
retinue which always followed magistrates and persons of importance.
Nothing of all this could have surprised her, then, and she well

1 Livy, vi. 14-20.

"... Inimicorum oppressus factione. (Serv., in Aen. viii. G5'2.)

' Paroa, ut pleruimiuc sold, rem inijentem moiiundi causa inlerrenil. (Livy, vi. 34.)

ACCESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS TO CURULE OFFICES. 383

knew, in marrying Liciniiis, in what condition that plebeian would
place her. The revolution which was preparing no more arose
from the jealousy of a woman, than the Trojan war was caused by
the abduction of Helen; it was the last act of a struggle carried
on for one hundred and twenty years, and which had never
stayed its course for one single day.

Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius, being appointed tribunes of
the people in 376 b. c, formally demanded the division of the
consulship ; and in order to compel the plebeians to take an
interest in this question, they presented the following resolu-
tions : —

In future no more military tribunes shall be appointed, but
two consuls, of whom one must always be a plebeian. No one
shall possess more than 500 jurjera (about 312 acres) of public
land. Interest already paid shall be deducted from the principal,
and the remainder shall be repaid in three years by equal
instalments.^

The moment for the final struggle had then arrived. It
was worthy of its earlier stages. There was no useless violence,
but on both sides admirable perseverance. For ten successive
years the tribunes obtained their re-election. In vain did the
Senate gain over their colleagues, whose veto suspended their
action, and in vain twice have recourse to the dictatorship. Camil-
lus, threatened with a heavy fine, and perhaps Avith a second exile
in his old age, abdicated ; and Manlius, wlien proclaimed after him,
chose a plebeian, Licinius Calvus, as Chief of the Cavalry. The
sanctity of religion was emploj-ed as a means of opposition to the
tribunes; there was not a plebeian in the priesthood.

In order to destroy this movement, and avert the interven-
tion of the gods, which the senators would have claimed to read
in the oracles of the Sibyl, they added this fourth clause, which
the Senate accepted in order to invest its own side with an
appearance of justice : " Instead of duumvirs for the Sibylline
books, decemvirs shall in future be appointed, of whom five shall
be plebeians."

The people, however, wearied with such prolonged debates,

' Livy, vi. 35 ; Colura., i. 3 ; Dionys., viii. 73.

384 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

were on the point of iDetraying their own cause : they no longer
demanded more than the two laws concerning debts and land,
which the patricians were disposed to yield. But the tribunes
declared the three propositions inseparable : they must he adopted
or rejected together. The comitia of tribes voted for them, the
Senate accepted them, and the centuries proclaimed Lucius Sextius,
one of the two tribunes, consul. In their Curiae the patricians
refused the imjierium to the plebeian consul, and the battle,
which was on the point of ending, began again more fiercely
than ever. The details of this last struggle are little known.
There is vague mention of terrible threats, and of a new seces-
sion of the people. Camillus interposed. He had just won his
last victory over the Gauls ; five times dictator, seven times
military tribune, full of glory and honors, he desired a repose
worthy of his sixty years of service. Won over by his counsel
and example, the Senators yielded, the election of Sextius was
ratified, and Camillus, closing the age of revolutions for a century
and a half, vowed a temple to Concord (366 b. c.).^

The gates of the political city, then, were at last forced ;
the plebeians now in timi take their seat on the ciu'ule chair.
In token of the admission of these new-comers into the real
Roman people, there was added to the three festal-days of the
great games held in honor of the three ancient tribes, a fourth
day for the plebeians.^

II. The Plebeians gain Admission to all Offices.

The adoption of the Licinian laws marks a new era in the
history of the Republic. But were these laws faithfully observed ?
and what were the consequences to the great, to the populace,
and to the fortune of Rome ? These are the questions which

1 The magnificent ruins wliich still remain of the Temple of Coneord do not Itelong to the
edifice erected hy Camillus, which appears to have been built at the Ca])itol (Ovid, Fast. i.
C37), and of which nothing i.s left, nor to that of Flavins, which, according to Pliny (xxxiii.
G, 3), was only a bronze chapel raised on the Vulcanal, above the Comitium ; they formed part
of a temple of Concord, of which mention is often made in the last days of the Repubhc, and
which was situated at the foot of the Tahularium.

2 Dionys., vii. 4L_

ACCESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS TO CURULE OFFICES. 385

we are about to examine ; separating, for greater clearness, the
political laws from social, or such as related to debts and
property.

The patricians never frankly accepted popular victories. On
the morrow of their defeat they ' began again disputing step Ijy
step the ground they had lost on the preceding day, multiplying
obstacles in order to put off the evil day, when the equality
which they looked upon as sacrilege must be finally achieved.
This time they yielded the consulship itself, but the consulship
dismembered. Two new patrician magistracies were, in fact,
created at its expense, — the jiraetorship, for the administration of
justice, the formulae of which were unknown to the plebeians,
and the curule aedilesMp,^ for the city police (366). Class interest
was, for this once, in accord with public interest. The patricians
gave their own order three new offices, but they gave the Republic
three necessary magistracies.

The great pre-occupation of modern governments is, or ought to
be, to protect the fortune and life of citizens, to develop instruction
and commerce, to diminish misery and vice. The Romans of the
early times had no such cares. They considered their task ended
when they had provided for internal peace and the security of the
frontiers ; the rest concerned only individuals. The Romans of
the time of which we speak were beginning to understand that
it was for the interest of the treasury to establish a supervi-
sion over their public buildings, which were now rapidly increas-
ing in number ; also that their city, as it grew larger, required
an organized protection in the streets against fires, in the mar-
kets against fraud, in the baths, taverns, and dangerous quarters,
against brawls. Finally, in times of scarcity it was necessary
to buy wheat abroad, and sell it to the people at a low
price.^ The plebeian aediles no longer sufficed for this work,
and it was well to double their number. "The Senate having
decreed," says Livy, "that in order to thank the gods for the
re-establishment of concord between the plebs and the patriciate
a foiu-th day should be added to the Roman games, the plebeian

1 . . . Quod pro consule uno plebeio tres patricios magistratus . . . nobilitas sibi siimpsisset.
(Livy, vii. I.) The curule aedilesliii) formed a college composed, like the plebeian aedilesliip,
of two members ; at first there was only one praetor.

" Cicero {de Leg. iii. 3) names the aediles : Curatores urbis, annonae, ludorumque solemnium.

VOL. I. 25

386 • EOME UNDER THE PATKICIAN CONSULS.

aediles refused to sanction this expenditure, and in order to avoid
the omission of this lionor towards the immortal gods, some
young nobles offered to take the expense upon themselves, on
condition that they should be appointed aediles.^ Here again
we find anecdote taking the place of history. We have just seen
the serious reasons which led to this creation. Moreover, the
new magistracy l^ecame almost immediately common to the two
orders.

The praetorship was in like manner a necessary duplicate of
the consulship. As the state became greater, more frequent and
more distant wars left the first magistrates of the Republic but little
time to occupy themselves with civil justice, and the recent
agrarian law of Licinius Stolo was sure to multiply law-suits
to an extraordinary degree. Although the division of power
was not a very Roman idea, men saw the utility of insuring
the regular course of justice by always having at Rome a
magistrate charged with its administration, to supplement the
absent consul. In order to mark the sul)ordinate character of
the praetor, only six lictors were allowed him.^ But he was
elected, like the consul, in the comitia centuriata and with the
same auspices ; he presided, in the consul's absence, at the
meetings of the people and the Senate ; and the imperium, which
he possessed from the outset, allowed him in later times to
assume the functions of leader of the army and of provincial
governor. His judicial competence was summed up in three words :
Do, I give the judge and the mode of procedure ; Dico, I
declare the right ; Addico, I adjudge the object of the suit.
On his entry into office, the praetor gradually fell into the
habit of publishing an edict, in which he indicated the rules
of jurisprudence which he intended to follow ; we shall see that
this edictum jjraetoriicm by degrees transformed all the Roman
legislation.

So much good resulted from this institution, that twenty
years later there was appointed a second praetor for disputes be-
tween citizens and foreigners, — the 2)raetor peregrinus. He must,

^ Livy, vi. 42; vii. 1. . . . postea promiscuum. fuit.

2 There were two praetors in 342 B. c, four in 227, six in 197, eight under Sylla. Wo
shall see later the reasons for these different aut^mentations.

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ACCESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS TO CURULE OFFICES. 387

by reason of liis office, be vensed in foreign customs, jus gen-
tium, as well as national usages, jus civile, and bis edicts prepared
tbe way for the fusion of these rights. Rome possessed, then,
from this time forth, the two workmen who were slowly collect-
ing the numberless materials wherewith the jurisconsults were to
construct the magnificent monument of the Pandects.

The consuls retained the command of the armies, the presidency
of the Senate, and the raising of troops. These were still too high
prerogatives for the patricians not to seek to recover them. The
dictatorshi23 was left them ; they made use
of it either to preside over the comitia and
influence the election of consuls, or to snatch
from a plebeian general the honors of a suc-
cessful war. Between oGo and 344, a period

of only twenty years, there were fourteen

dictators. seat kou a

The one who stood at the head of this long lectisternium.i

list was Manlius Imperiosus. The plague was raging with murder-
ous intensity, and had carried oft" Camillus ; the Tiber overflowed
its banks; an earthquake had opened in the midst of the Forum
an abyss into which Curtius is said to have leaped fully
armed. In order to appease the angry gods, new games, drawn
from Etruria, had been celebrated, mingled with songs and dances
to the sound of the flute ; then the statues of the great gods
had been laid on beds and invited, as a pledge of reconciliation,
to a sacred banquet (lectisternium). Maidius having been appointed
dictator in order to drive the sacred nail into the temple of Jupiter,
refused, when the ceremony was ended, to resign his powers ; he
retained his twenty-four lictors, and announced a levy against
the Hernicans. This prolonged suspension of the consular power
coincided too well with the views of the Senate, which was ready
to respect the dictatorial power under such circumstances. But
the tribune Pomponius accused the dictator. Among other
grievances he reproached him with his conduct towards his own
son, banished from the domestic Penates, exiled to the fields,
and condemned to servile labors. " This son of a dictator

' Marble seat, preserved in the Glyptothek at Munich, on wliich was placed the statue of
a god in the ceremony of the lectisternium.

388 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

learned, by a daily punishment, that lie was born of a father
worthy of his surname [Imperiosus). And what was his crime ?
He had a difficulty in expressing himself. Instead of correcting
this natural defect by education, Manlius aggravates the evil ;
he retards still further this dull spirit ; and whatever vivacity and
intelligence remain to his son will l)e extinguished Ijy the rustic
habits which he imposes on him." A singular reproach in the
mouth of a tribune ! But every kind of weapon was employed.
Moreover the Romans, like the English of ovu- own day, were
proud of their nobility, and were unwilling that any young
patrician should be brought up in a manner unworthy of his birth.

While all the people were indignant with Manlius, the victim,
grieved at being a sul^ject of prosecution to his father, conceived
a project which set an example, to be commended, indeed, but not
withoiit danger in a free city. Unknowir to any one, with a
dagger hidden under his robe, he came to the house of Pomponius
one morning, gave his name, and insisted on l:)eing admitted.
Every one retired, in order to leave him alone with the tribune.
Then he drew his dagger, and threatened to stab Pomponius, who
was still in bed, unless he swore, in terms which he dictated to
him, " never to convoke an assembly of the people to accuse the
dictator." The tril)une, finding himself at the mercy of an armed
man, young and powerful, grew frightened, and repeated the oath
imposed on him. The people were dissatisfied to see their victim
escape, but they willingly rewarded the young man's filial piety
hy appointing him legionary tribune." ' The chiefs of the plebs,
who knew how to profit not only by their hatred, but by their
affections, seized this opportunity to claim for the comitia the
nomination of six of those officers (3G2 B. c).

Four times more, in the four following years, the Senate had re-
course to the dictatorship. But this supreme office was itself invaded.
In 356 " the danger of the war against the Etruscans caused the

' Livy, vii. 4, 5.

^ The preceding year was marked by tlie establishment of a tax of 5 per cent on enfran-
chisements. Tliis tax was established in connection with Privernian prisoners, released on
ransom by the soldiers of the consul Marcius. His colleague, Manlius, had caused it to be voted
by the array encamped near Sutrium. The tribunes accepted the law, but instituted the punish-
ment of death for any one who should renew this dangerous precedent of calling on his army
to discuss public affairs. (Livy, vii. 1 fi.) Let us notice that this tax must be paid in gold, and

ACCESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS TO CUEULE OFFICES. 389

proclamation of Marcius Rutilus, one of the most illustrious
plebeians, as dictator, who four years latcn- also became the first
censor of his order.

The plebeian consulsliip was the door, as it were, which gave
access to the sanctuary. The patricians tried to close it ; from 355
to 341 they managed to have the two consuls taken from their
ranks on seven occasions. Three years earlier, the Poetelian law
had forbidden canvassing {amhitus), in order to diminish the
chances of success of new men, who, being little known among
the rural tribes, travelled through the country soliciting votes
(358). Yet the plebeian consulship had not been the reward of
the seditious or of demagogues. Licinius and Sextius were only
once honored with this office, and for a long time after them no
tribune succeeded in oljtaining it ; for in order to restrict the
number of consular plebeians, the patricians combined m favor
of the same candidates, preferring to see the same men consul four
times rather than the consulship be given to four new men.^ In
twenty-seven years they had permitted only eight plebeians to
arrive at the consulship. Even this was nmch. What did the
ability of Marcius and Popilius matter? Could their services
efface the stain of their birth ? This imprudent attempt on the
part of the patricians completed their defeat. The rich plebeian
families grew angry at bemg deprived of what the perseverance of
Licinius had gained for them. As for the poor, ruined then, as
always, by usury, they were then, as always, disposed to insur-
rection.

After the first Samnite war the Romans had placed a garrison
at Capua. In that lovely country the legionaries remembered the
creditors who awaited them at Rome, and also the means employed
by the Samnites twenty-four years before to obtain possession of
the town, when, having been received by the Campanians as
friends, they had one feast-day fallen upon them unarmed and
butchered them all. The plot was discovered. To avert the
execution of it, the consul Marcius Rutilus sent the soldiers away

all lodged in the treasury, where it constituted a reserve fund, which it was forbidden to touch,
save in cases of extreme necessity.

* Marcius and Popilius were four times consuls ; Plautius and Genucius three times, etc.
It seems, too, that a single magistrate had united several oifices. (See next page.)

390 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

by cohorts. But they re-assembled at the defiles of Lautulae, passo
dl Portella, a narrow pass between the sea and the mountains,
which it was necessary to traverse in going from Fundi to Ter-
racina, that is to say, from Campania into Latium.^ When their
bauds reached the proportions of an army, they marched upon
Rome to the numl^er of twenty thousand, calling on all who were
enslaved for debt to join them. Near Bovillae they fortified a
camp, ravaged the neighboring lands ; and having found a
patrician, T. Quinctius, in his villa near Tusculum, they com-
pelled him to put himself at their head. A revolt of the plebeians
res]3onded to that of the soldiers. They marched oi;t of Rome and
camped four miles from its walls. A popular dictator, Valerius
Corvus, was appointed ; Ijut his soldiers, instead of fighting, sided
with their comrades ; and all together demanded and obtained : ^ —

1. A general amnesty and complete forgiveness of the past.

2. A military regulation providing that the legionary serving
under the standard should not, without his own consent, be erased
from the registers, — that is to say, be deprived of the advantages
attached to military service,^ — and that one who had served as
tribune should not be enrolled as centurion.

3. A reduction in the pay of the knights.

The plebeians on their part, having returned into the city, voted,
on the proposal of the tribune Genucius, the following laws, which
had the double object of relieving the poor and preventing offices
becoming the hereditary patrimony of a few families (342 b. c.) : —

4. No one should be re-eligible for the same office till after an
interval of ten years, and no one should be invested with two
magistracies at the same time.

5. Both the consuls might be plebeians.

G. Loans on interest and debts to be abolished, the nexi to be
released.*

In these grave circumstances the Senate had shown a spirit of

' The passage is so narrow, that a tower and a gate are enough to dose it. It was, not.
long since, the boundary between the States of the Church and the Neapolitan Kingdom.

- Livy, vii. 38, 42 : Lex sacrata militaris.

' Tlie legionary serving under the standard coidd not bo pursued by his creditors ; and
if the campaign was successful, he found himself able, with his share of the booty, to pay
or diminish his debts.

* Tac, Ann. vi. IG.

ACCESSION OF THE I'LEBEIAI^S TO CUEULE OFFICES. 391

conciliation, of -wliicli it again made proof two years later, when it
allowed the plebeian dictator, Publilius Philo, to strike the last blow
at the old regime by the svippression of the legislative veto of the
Senate (339 B. c). The following laws were also passed : —

1. The plebiscita should be binding on all.'

2. Every law presented for the acceptance of the coniitia
centuriata should be approved beforehand by the Senate.^

3. One of the censors must be always cliosen from the plebeians ;
both consuls might belong to that order.

The last of these laws was the application to the censorship
of the Licinian law on the consulship. By means of the other
two, Publilius Philo wished to concentrate the legislative power
in the centuries and tribes, in order to avert the possibility of
a conflict between the two sovereign assemblies and the Senate.
The latter no longer retained any sign of its ancient power,
save the j^'f'f'^iviinunj cipprohatton of the plebiscita and laws df
the centuries ; and this obligatory approbation appeared to he a
mere formality. But the Senate made arrangements with the
consuls for drawing up the list of consular and praetorian
candidates presented to the centuries, and for approving before-
hand the projected laws to be carried before them. On a future
day, when the tribunes made common cause with the nobles,
the Senate pursued the same course in respect to the plebiscita,
and in this way again became for a time master of the Re-
pubhc.^

Let us note, at the moment when the reciprocal rights of
the assemblies and the Senate are being determined, that while
the Curia discussed a subject before voting upon it, the Comitia
voted without discussing it. For popular assemblies the Romans
had wisely separated discussion and decision, — certainly a very
useful precaution against the sudden and violent excitement

1 The law of Iloratius and Valerius had given the force of law to the resolutions of the

tribes, bv submitting them to the sanction of the Senate, palrum auctoritas. Publilius freed

them from the sanction post ererilum, hy submitting them, like the laws of the centuries, to the

* prcliminari/ approbation of the Senate. As an electoral power, the comitia by tribes appointed

the aediles, quaestors, and tribunes.

^ . . . Ut lequm quae comitiit centuriatis ferrentur, ante initutn suffragium palres auctora
Jierent. (Livy, viii. 12.)

* This new development will be explained in vol. ii. of this work.

o92 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

that a glowing speech might produce jnjt before tlie ballot.'
Yet the resolutions of the centuries and tribes were not taken
till the citizens had been enlightened by a controversial debate
at a contio, — a free assembly presided over by a magistrate,
and which a magistrate of superior rank might forbid.^ It
was there that the measures to be proposed to the comitia were
discussed. In our [French] assemblies there is always a right of
replying to a minister ; in the contio the magistrate spoke last.^
This means that with us more liberty is allowed for an attack
on the Government ; whereas at Rome it was rather sought to
defend it. This single fact shows the difference between the two
states.

The consequences which followed the revolt of the Campanian
legions prove that the rebels had no intention of committing the
lawless violence which some have supposed ; but that they were
carrying out a plan formed by the popular leaders to complete
the revolution to which Licinius Stolo had given an irresistible
impulse. In 339, indeed, ends the political strife, which the
secession of the people to the Sacred Mount had commenced a
century and a half earlier. If the plebeians are still excluded from
some offices, they gain access to them gi-adually — without com-
motions, without struggles — by the sole force of the new
constitution — who;^ spirit is equality, as that of the old was
privilege. Thus Publilius Philo obtained the praetorship in 337,
and in 32(3 the proconsulship, — which office was consequently
open to plebeians from its foundation. At an uncertain date, after
366, but before 312, the Ovinian plebiscitum threw the Senate open
to plebeians ; * and in the year 300 the Lex Ogulnia decreed that

1 C'lc, pro Flacco, 7 : morem praeclarum disciplinamqiie, quam a majorihus accephnus . . .
Nullum ilH . . . vim conlionis esse voluerunt, etc. ; and he compares all the precautions taken
by the ancient Romans with the tumultuous assemblies of the Greeks, where men voted by
show of hands as soon as the orator had finished speaking.

- Aulus Gellius, xiii. 15. I need not add that it oftL'n happened, in the last centuries
of the liepublic, that the deliberative assemljly immediately ])receded that in which the
votes were taken, — which much diminished the value of the precautions taken in olden
times.

8 Dion., xxxix. .35 : . . . tols Idioyrats irpo tu>v tcis ap)(as €)(^6in-uiv 6 Xdyoy eSi'Soro.

* This law transferred from the consuls to the censors the right of drawing up the list of
Senators, but obliged them to choose the new members, ex omni online optimum qiiemque, from
among the old curule magistrates, quaestors, plebeian aediles, and tribunes. Thus, in the space
of a lustrum, there were 50 tribunes and 10 aediles, so that the plebeians were not long in finding

ACCESSIOi^ OF THE PLEIJEIAIS-S TO UUKULE OFFICES. o'Jo

thenceforth four pontiffs and five augurs should be taken from the
second order.-" Tliis was the division of the priesthood, and the
abolition of the patrician veto of the augurs. Four years later
the son of a freednian, Flavius, clerk to the censor Appius,
by the publication of the calendar^ and the formulae connected
with lawsuits, deprived the patricians of the only advantage left
them, — the knowledge of civil and sacred law.

The consuls had always appointed the legionary tribunes. In
the year oG2 the people took upon themselves the right to choose
six of them ; fifty years later they appropriated a larger share
of the appointments, and decided, by the Atilian plebiscitum, that
they would name sixteen. As each of the four legions raised
annually had six tribunes, democratic jealousy had thus deprived
the generals of the choice of two thirds of them. Fortunately,
among this military nation, where every citizen nuist have
served in at least ten campaigns, it was difficult for the
popular vote to appoint to any command men incapable of
exercising it.

To this work of popular levelling belongs the Maenian law,^
established towards the end of the Samnite war, which suppressed
the right, liitherto left to the Curiae, of refusing the imjierium to
magistrates chosen by the centuries. Deprived of all influence
over elections and the making of laws, this ancient assembly of
the Roman people fell into disuse. There was no longer patrician
caste, nor comitia curiata. But this nation, whose life was a
perpetual revolution, was more tenacious than any other of the
worship of the past. Like the citizens who proudly displayed the
images of their ancestors, it religiously preserved the memory and
semblance of things which time or man'liad destroyed. Even the

thenjgelves a majority in the Senate. Cf. Livy, xxii. 49 : . . . senatores aul qui eon inagislralus
yessissent unde in senatmn legi deberent.

* The salii, the fratres Arvales, the fetiales, anj the rex sacrorum, wlio played no
poUtical role, were always taken from the patricians.

- The calendar showed the days and hours in which it was legal to plead. As these days
varied each year, it was necessary, before the time of Flavius, to consult the pontiff, or those
patricians who were initiated into these mysteries of these calculations . . . a paucix princijimii
quolidie. petcbat. (Pliny, xx.xiii. 6.) The Tables of Flavius, in which were revealed the lei/is
actiones, the actus legilimi, the dies fasti, nefasti, and intercm, formed the jus Flavianum. The
patricians having devised new formulae, Sextus Aelius Catus again disclosed them in 202.
To his work the name of /us Aelianum was given.

3 Cic, Brut. 14.

394 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

Empire did not completely sweep them away. Three centuries
after Augustus there was a Senate, which at times resumed its
political character in earnest, and Justinian still appointed consuls.
Thus the Curiae still continued, preserved, like the statues of
the kings, by the respect in which men and things of ancient
times were held by all, but reduced to insignificant civil and
religious prerogatives, and represented by thirty lictors, under the
presidency of the high pontiff.

By this downfall of the Curiae, all the aristocratic strengtli
of the government was concentrated in the Senate, into which a
greater number of plebeians entered daily through the medium of
office.

From 302 to 286 came renewed confirmation of the funda-
mental laws, which were the Magpa Charta, as it were, of plebeian
liberties.

In 302 there was a confirmation of the Valerian law, which,
by the right of appeal, gave the accused his peers as judges.

In 299 there was a confirmation of the Licinian law, for the
division of the consulship, and consequently of every office.

In 286 the laws of the plebeian dictator, Hortensius, which
ratified all former victories, confirmed tlie PubliUan law relative to
the obligatory character of plebiscita, and freed them from the
preliminary authorization of the Senate.^

Grave circumstances had led to tliis last dictatorship : the
people, having again risen in revolt on the subject of debts,^ had
withdrawn to the Janiculum. They only demanded the re-enforce-
ment of the laws against creditors ; but their chiefs desired more.
Interested as they always are in causing political revolutions ly
which they profit, they turned the attention of the multitude from
their misery to their olfended dignity. The Hortensian laws had
thus quite a different bearing from what the first leaders of the
crowd had intended. Debts were abolished or diminished, it is
true, but the plebeian rights were also confirmed agam ; and in
order to efface the last distinction which still separated the two
orders, the nundinae were declared not to be holy days. It Avas
on the nundinae, or market days, that the tribes assembled, because

1 . . . Itaque CO mndo Icylbus plebiscita exaerjuata sunt. (Gaius, Insl. i. 3.)
" See pages 403-405.

ACCESSlOiS! OF THE TLEBEIA^S^S TO CURULE OFFICES. 395

on those days the country people came to Rome. The patricians,
unwilling in their pride to have anything in common with the
plebeians, and in order that the latter miglit not be able to count
their small number in the Curiae, or await the decisions of the
Senate, or in a menacing crowd attend the judgments of their
tribunals, had consecrated the nundinac to Jupiter, and had for-
bidden themselves during them all deliberation and all business.'

Another arrangement is, however, attributed to the dictator
Hortensius, which would show a sincere desire to prevent excesses
among the democracy by strengthening the aristocratic element in
the constitution : senatus-consulta were to be raised to the rank
of general laws, and, lilve the plebiscita, to be binding on all
orders.^ The thing is not certam ; but henceforth the legislative
power of the Senate is seen to extend more and more.

There is a creation of this period which has no political
character, but wMch ought to be 23laced at its proper date. About
the year 292 b. c. there was instituted a magistracy of secondary rank,
the triumviri cajntales,^ who replaced the quaestores parricidii. Ap-
pointed in an asseml^ly of the people presided over by the praetor,
they were charged with the investigation of crimes, the receiving
of evidence against the guilty, and, after the trial, the supervision
of the carrying out of the sentence. They assisted the aediles in
the maintenance of public order, and in obtaining the payment of
the fines which the latter had inflicted, and they could have slaves
and common people beaten for any offence. Plautus in his time
knew of them : " If the triumvirs met me at this hour of tlie night,"
he makes Sosia say,* " they would clap me into prison, and to-morrow
I should l^e dragged out of their cage, and they would give me
the stirrup-leathers without listening to my reasons. Eight strong
fellows would lieat the anvil on my l^ack." We know that they
had Naevius put into fetters to punish the l)oldness of his verses.**

By the aggregate of laws promulgated since the year 367 b. c,

^ Xundlnaa Jnei xacrns cssi;. (Marr., Sat. {. IG.)

" Theopliilus, one of the lawyers of Justinian, in Bk. i. tit. 2, § 5, of his very useful Greek
paraphrase of the Institutes, speaks of Hortensius as a true friend of his country, who put
an end to the century-long quarrels of the two orders.

* Livy, Epll. xi., and Dig. I. ii. 2 and 30: Trinniriri capitales qui careens cuslodiam
hahcrent ul. rum anhnadverii oporteret, intcrventu curum Jicret.

* Amphhr. I. i. 3-C.

' Aulus Gellius, iii. 3. lie lauqiooned the ^Nletelli, who were powerful jiatrii-ians.

39G EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

not only had political eqiiality been won, but the advantage was
now on tlie side of the plebeians. Eligible for all magistracies,
with the right of occupying at once both the posts of consul and
censor, they kept exclusively plebeian the offices of tribune and
plebeian aedile. The triljunes could, by their veto, arrest the
decrees of the Senate, the acts of the consuls, and legislative
proposals ; by their right of accusation they placed unpopular magis-
trates under the threat of an inevitable condemnation. The
assemblies of Curiae were annulled, and the comitia of tribes bound
all the orders by their plebiscita. Yet even the aristocracy itself,
and, above all, the fortune of Rome, were to gain by this equality
so unwillingly yielded. The aristocracy was indeed thrown open
to all; but it was m order to attract and to absorb mto its bosom,
to the profit of its power, all talents — all aml^itions. Separated
from the people, it would soon have fallen into weakness ; heuceforth
the best plebeian blood rose to the summit; like a branch grafted
on a vigorous trunk, it was nourished by a fertilizing sap, and the
tree, whose roots reached deep into the soil, was strong enough to
spread its branches afar.

An obscure fact shows that, if the law had decreed equality
by allowing a man of talent and courage to aspire to anything,
which is one great advantage to a state, society preserved its family
traditions, which are another. In the year 295 the Senate, in
order to avert the effect of evil omens, had prescribed two days
of public prayers. On this occasion a dispute arose among
the Roman ladies in the little temple of patrician Chastity. A
patrician woman, named Virginia, had married a plcljeian, the
consul L. Vohimnius. In order to punish her for this mesalliance,
the matrons forbade her to join in their sacred ceremonies. She,
angry at this affront, l^uilt a temple to plebeian Chastity, estab-
lished the same rites, and assembled all the matrons of her
order there, saying to them : " Let there be henceforth no less
emulation among the women in chastity, than there is among the
men in courage ; and let this altar be honored more devoutly
than the other." "The right to sacrifice here," adds Livy, "was
only granted to Avomen of acknowledged chastity, and who had
been only once married." ^

1 Livy, X. 23.

''' '"m

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ACCESSION OF PLEBEIANS TO CURULE OFFICES. 397

The story is edifying, and the virtue of the matrons is con-
spicuous-, but there are also jealous rivalries disclosed, which the
women at least never forgot, and that respect for blood and race
which always prevented Roman society from falling a prey to
demagogues. Moreover, the leaders of the plebs, having no longer
anything to appropriate or destroy, now became conservatives, in
accordance with the logic of the passions and of history.

From the laws concerning the state, let us Tpass to those which
relate to private fortunes.

1 The coin below rejiresents an altar, on which is the statue of Chastity standing on a
curule chair. Reverse of a denarius of Plotina, wife of Trajan. The legend bears these
words : " Caesar Augustus Germanicus Dacicus, father of his country, for the sixth time cou-
gul;" which fixes the coining of the piece between 112 and 117 a. D.

ALTAR OF CHASTITY.!

CHAPTER Xni.

THE AGEAEIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT.

I. Agrarian Law of Licinius Stolo.

CIVIL equality gives, even to the jDoorest, new and ntWe sen-
timents ; ^ but wealth is not one of the good things which
it assures. Those whom the law declared equal in the Forum,
remained classed in ordinary life according to their fortune ; the
rich above, near to the honors, the poor below, in misery.
Accordingly the tribunes had always had in view a double object :
to attain, by a share in offices, political equality, and by grants of
land to mitigate the distresses of the poor.

As the workman now demands work and remunerative wages,
so the poor man formerly demanded land. The agrarian laws which
so long troubled the Roman Republic are thus the ancient form
of the social questions which agitate modern society.^ Since the
problem is the same, — to diminish miseiy, and consequently to
diminish the evil passions which misery too often sows in the
minds of the poor against the rich, — we are led by more than
mere curiosity to study closely this history of the old Roman
proletariat.

1 " Everywhere where civil inequality exists, whatever greatness it may develop among a
few by the aid of privilege, it entails a corruption peculiar to itself, which disfigures the most
admirable societies, and spoils the best and most generous natures." — De Remusat, Essais de
Philosophie. [The distinction of freemen and slaves introduced this inequality into all ancient
states, however completely the freemen may have equalized the privileges among themselves.
Thus the purest ancient democracy was really an aristocracy ruling a population greater than
itself, which had no civil rights. — Ed.']

^ [This form, however, still exists in Ireland, and will ])resently reappear in Southern
Italy, where great estates have monopolized the means of living in a country without manu-
factures, or else where manufactures have been suppressed. — Ed.]

THE AGRARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEI'.T. 399

In a country overspread with small republics, as Italy was,
the strength of the state was augmented by increasing the number
of citizens. This principle, which was recognized and put into
pi-actice by the kings, and after them by the Senate, made the
fortune of Rome. But for the sake of safety the state dared
not arm those who might possibly be tempted to employ arms
against herself. Accordingly, the Roman law had provided that
tlu' proletariat should never be called to the standards. Shut
out of the Forum and the army, these proletaries must become
dangerous as they increased ; and this was continually the case.
The stranger deprived of his land, and who had come to Rome
to seek the means of subsistence, the craftsman, the ruined
farmer, the insolvent debtor, the citizen degraded by the censors,
the freedman whose fortune could not make men forget his birth,
— all who were miserable and hostile to a government to which
they attributed their miseries or their civic degradation, fell into
this abyss, which, gaping wider day by day, threatened to engulf
the city.-' In this there lay, as was proved in the last days of
the Republic, a great danger to liberty : it w\as true foresight,
and the act of a good citizen, to strive to diminish this danger
by diminishing the number of the proletariat, and by providing
the state and the legions with useful citizens. From this patriotic
idea, with which there were naturally mingled some selfish motives,
among the leaders of the people, sprang almost all the agrarian laws.

From the time of Cassius to the decemvirs, that is to say,
so long as the misfortunes of the times left only the lands
bordering on the wall of Servius to be distributed, the patricians
energetically repelled all agrarian laws. When the frontier receded,
they consented to give up to the poor a few acres of land round
the conquered towns, in order to free Rome from a certain
number of poor, and to favor the increase of the population
available for bearing arms,^ but more especially with the object

' It is necessary to distinguish between the proletarius, or capite census, who had not the
census necessary to enter a class, and the aerarius, whose fortune was sometimes consider-
able (cf. § iii. p. 406), but who, on account of his origin, was deprived of certain riglits.
Practically, the proletariat suffered under the same civil disabilities, and might conse(]ucntly
be disposed to make common cause with the aerarii. But it was only for the proletaries that
the tribunes spoke.

^ After the taking of Veii the gratuity was more hberal : seplena jugcra . . . ut vellent
in earn span liberos tottere. (Livy, v. 30.)

400 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAlf CONSULS.

of occupying in the interests of their empire strong military-
positions. But this exile amid conquered races and the dangers
which the colonist ran of being driven out or massacred by the
ancient inhabitants,^ rendered these gratuities far from popular.
" They preferred," says Livy, " asking for lands at Rome, to pos-
sessing them at Antiimi." Deprived of a portion of his rights as
citizen, the colonist would have left tlie city with regret even
though he might find on the two or four jugera^ assigned to him
so far away, ease and safety.

Accordingly, although colonies multiplied with fresh conquests,
the tribunes well understood that something more was needed to
uproot the evil of pauperism, and Licinius Stolo proposed to dis-
tribute among the poor a portion of the state land which had been
usurped by the nobles.

His proposed law appears to have been thus conceived : —

No citizen shall possess more than 500 jmjera (330 acres) of
state land ; ^

None shall keep on the public pastures more than 100 head
of neat and 500 head of small cattle ;

Of the lands restored to the state, there shall be taken suffi-
cient to distribute to every poor citizen seven jugera (about four
and a half acres) ;

Those who remain in possession of public land shall pay to
the public treasury a tithe of the fruits of the earth, a fifth of the
produce of the olives and vines, and the rent due for each
head of cattle. At each lustrum these taxes shall be farmed out
to the highest bidder by the censors, who shall apply the proceeds
to the pay of the troops.

Each proprietor shall be obliged to employ on his land a
certain numljer of free laborers, in proportion to the extent of
the estate.

It has been shown (p. 289) that the agrarian laws among
the Romans, since they only applied to public lands,* were as

• As at Sora (Livy, ix. 23) ; at Fidenae (iv. 17); at Antium (iii. 4) ; and at Velitrae (viii. 3).

^ As at Labicum 2 ( 1^ acre) ; at Anxur, 3^ (2^ acres). (Livy, viii. 21.) 'Ih^ jugerum
= 28,800 square feet.

^ We give this reconstruction of the Licinian law according to Isiebulir, but believe he
has introduced into it too many traces of tlie law of the Gracchi.

■* All the agrarian laws denote by the word posses.sio the portion of the ager publicus

THE AGEARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 401

just as they were necessary ; but tlioir execution almost always
injured rights consecrated by time. How was a public estate to
be recognized when the landmarks had been displaced, and the
tithe was no longer paid ? How was a state property to be
discovered amid lands that luul bi'cii handed down as private
property for more than a centur}-, or sold. l)equeathed, given as
dower, left by Avill, twenty times over ? The rich knew well
what insuperable difficulties would be fomid in applying the
Licmian law, when after ten years they at last accepted it. They
loiew, too, how to evade it, by emancipating their sons before
they came of age, so as to assign them the 500 jugera allowed,
or by retaining under an assumed name what they should have
returned to the state. The example of Licinius, who was himself
condemned in 357 b. c. to pay a fine of ten thousand ases for
having in his possession 1,000 jugera (660 acres) of public land,
500 of which he held in the name of his emancipated son, proves
how numerous the evasions were, since the author of tlie law, a
man of consular rank, could elude it without feeling any shame.
The domain continued, then, to be encroached upon by the nobles,
who, by appropriating Italy to themselves, laid the foundations
of those colossal fortunes, which can only be understood now by
comparison with the English aristocracy. Even in 291 B. c. two
thousand workmen were needed by one consul to clear his woods.
The provision of the Licinian law relative to tithes appears
to have been better obseiwed, since from this time forth we hear no
more of those complaints against the taxes which were formerly so
rife ; and henceforth Rome is able to bear the expenses of the longest
wars. But it was not so with that which limited the quantity
of cattle to be sent to the public pastvires. Tliese pastures grew
daily larger, for from the end of the fifth century of Rome there
comes a fatal change iii agriculture, — namely, the substitution of

occupied by any individual, and the Digest establishes the difference between possessio and
proprietas. Quicquid appreliendimus cujus proprietas ad nos non pertinet, aul nee potest
pertinere, hoc possessionem appdlanius. (Digest, L. Ifi, 11. 5.) At Rome (Livy, iv. 4S), as
almost all lands were those which had been conquered, tlie heritages were only small fields.
Accordingly, those who did not wish to encroach on the public domain hav« only 4 to 1 jugera,
like Cincinnatus, Fabricius, Coruncanius, Aemilius Papus, JI. Curius, Regulus, Fabius Cuncta-
tor, etc. (Cf. Val. JIax., iv. 4 and 8.) It was certainly only at the expense of the public land
that the greater part of the possessiones of 500 jugera and more could have been formed.

VOL. I. 20

402 ■ ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

grazing for arable land.' How, indeed, was it possible to sow,
plant, or build far from Rome, and beyond the protection of the
legions or fortresses during that Samnite war which seemed
as thou2;h it would never end ? Where were hands to be found
to bring all the conquered land under cultivation ? Slaves were
scarce, and military service retained the free lalwrers under
the standards. There was nothing to be done, then, but leave
these lands for pasture, since it was impossible to prepare them
for seed, or to wait a year for the harvest. If the enemy
appeared, the flocks dispersed among the mountains, and instead of
crops and farms, nothing was left to burn or pillage but the poor
hovels of the shepherds. To have grazing lands, or to have flocks
feeding on the public ground, was a clear and sure source of
revenue, which dreaded neither the enemy nor bad seasons, and
which all wished to enjoy. Accordingly, the Licinian law was
soon forgotten,^ notwithstanding the fines inflicted by the aediles.
But large flocks drive out small ones. Moreover, the poor man's
cow could not go 30 or 40 miles from Rome every day to
pasture ; even without any violence, the state grazing lands were
only of use to those who could afford to pay shepherds, and build
on the heights castles or strong houses which served as a refuge
in case of hostile invasion.^

The new aristocracy, however, while it appropriated the best
lands for itself, did not forget that the surest means of preventing
trouble aljout its usurpations was to do something for the welfare
of the people. During the Samnite war numerous colonies were
founded ; into the three towns of Sora, Alba, and Carseoli alone
there were sent as many as fourteen thousand plebeian families ; *
and Curius Dentatus twice, in his first consulship and at the end

1 Cato {lie Re rust, i.), j)lacing the lands in order of their vahie, puts the corn-bearing
lands only in the sixth rank ; Varro (iii. 3) puts meadows in the first.

^ In the year 298 there was pronounced a condemnation against those who plus quam
quod lege finitum erat agri possidcreiit. (Livy, x. 13; cf. x. 23, 47.) New fine.s were imposed,
in 2nfi and 293, on pecuarii. These fines were so numerous and so heavy, that they served
to build temples, celebrate games, and make ])recious offerings : paterae of gold to Jupiter,
brazen gates for the Cajutol, the wolf of Romulus, the temple of Concord of Flavius, the.
paving of the Appian Way, etc. Those quotations would be far more numerous, had wo
not lost the second decade of Livy.

' Livy, V. 44. [The same change has taken place, from economical causes, in Scotland,
and is taking place in Ireland. — Ed.']

* The older colonies were far smaller, usually 300 families. (Dionys., ii. 35, 52.)

THE AGRARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 403

of the war against Pyrrhus, distributed five acres of land per
head among the people.' The laws of the dictator llortensius
perhaps contained a similar provision.
Other laws relieved debtors.

II. Laws on Debt.

The rate of interest, which was at first arbitrary, had been
fixed by the decemvirs at the twelfth of the capital (8| per cent
per annum). Licinius had deducted from the capital the interest
already paid, and allowed three years for the repayment of the rest.
But, mindful only of the present ill, he had not lowered the legal
rate of interest for the future. In 356 B. c. the ravages of the
Gauls and the dread which they left behind having rendered money
scarce and loans burdensome to the borrower, two tribunes again
put into force the provisions of the Twelve Tables. The evil con-
tinued. The price of land fell under the continual threat of
invasions, and the debtor who owned a field could only sell it at
an enormous sacrifice.

The Senate grew frightened at the increasing number of slaves
for debt. In the year 352, in the consulship of Valerius and
Marcus Rutilius, five commissioners established in the name of
the government a bank, which lent money at very low interest.
At the same time they fixed the prices at which lands and flocks
might be given in repayment of the loans. This measure caused
the paying off of many debts. Five years later the rate of
interest was reduced to one twenty-fourth of the capital (4^ per
cent). Finally, the revolt of the garrison of Capua (342) led to
an abolition of debts, — which was a general bankruptcy, — and the
suppression of loans on interest,^ — a measure more humane than
efficacious, since the law cannot control in transactions for the
most part beyond its cognizance.

There remained the cruel provisions of the Twelve Tables

1 There were also great distributions at the end of the First Punic War.

' Tac., -Inn. vi. 16: unciario foenore, uncia, scmitncia, etc., signify not only an ounce, etc.,
but also -jV, ^j, etc., of any sum. Thus haeres ex uncia was heir to ^ of tlie whole. The
unciarium foenu.1 brought in ^ of the capital. At Athens, the usual interest was 12 per cent.

404 . EOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

against insolvent debtors. In 326 b. c. the violence of Papirius
towards the young Pviblilius excited such indignation, that in
order to appease it the Senate were obliged to revive the old law,
attributed to Servius, that the goods, and not tlie body, of the
debtor should answer for his debt. This was a real benefit.
" From that day," says Livy, " there commenced for the people a
new liberty." -^

But in purely agricultural states, whatever precaution the law
may take, small properties are always devoured by usury. Taxes
take the little money the husbandman possesses ; and should there
come a bad season, should a harvest be lost, he must necessarily,
since he has no reserve fund, have recourse to the usurer.^ At
the close of the Samnite war, after sixty campaigns, there were
very many poor at Rome, — prisoners whose all had been swallowed
up by the payment of their ransoms ; the sick, the wounded, who
were unfit for work ; and lastly, those who had squandered their
share of the plunder while their fields remained imtilled.

Misery reached even some of the great families. One Ven-
turius, the son of a man of consular rank, not having been able to
pay for his father's funeral ceremonies, was kept in the ergastulvm
by C. Plautius, his creditor. One day he managed to escape from
prison, and ran to the Porum, all covered with blood, like the
centurion in the year 493, where he implored the jDrotection of
the tribunes.

This period is little known to us ; it seems, however, that
the tribunes proposed an abolition of debts,^ that the rich resisted,
and that there were long disturbances ; but the people marched
out of Rome and encamped on the Janiculum (286). For the last
time this means succeeded; for the frontier was still so near the
town that the nobles dared not risk a civil war, of which the enemy
would not have failed to take advantage. At this moment, too,
Etruria began to bestir itself : a dictator was appointed, a plebeian

^ . . . Quod necli flenierunt. (Livy, Tiii. 28.) Yet the insoh-ent debtor, if he remained
free, was none the less iiifiunis, expelled from his tribe, and deprived of aU political rights.
(Cf. Cic, pro Quinctio, 15.)

^ This is still the state of the farmers of Rome, who have been often known to sell the
harvest before seed-time. The population became too numerous for large farms, and when
reduced to small plots, were subject to all the distresses of the small farmers round Ancient
Rome.

' Val. Max., VI. i. 9 ; Zonaras, viii. 2 ; Livy, Epil. xi. : post tonr/as cl f/raves seditiones.

THE AGRARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 405

named Hortensius. We know his political laws ; ■* the following
provisions are also attributed to him : —

Abolition or diminution of debts ;

Distribution of seven acres to each citizen ;

A renewed confirmation of the Lex Papiria Poetelia, which had
(in 326) forbidden slavery for debt.

Debtors were thus protected agamst their creditors, since the
usurer, who was counted the most dangerous of robbers, was
condemned, says Cato, to pay a fine of fourfold, whereas the
robber onlj- paid double of what he took. Thus usury must die
out, — at least the law has said it ; but the law declares that all
citizens of Rome are equal, which is a legal fiction. The poor citi-
zens are no more guaranteed against usury than they are all
made consuls and senators. The usurer, driven from the pulslic
place, and punished by the laws, hides himself, and becomes more
exacting than ever ; ^ for he must now be paid, be3'ond the price of
his money, the risks that he runs, and the dishonor which falls
on him.

But these are evils which human wisdom cannot cure. In-
equality is too marked in nature for society to avoid its impress.
At Sparta, where equality was pin-sued with savage energy, even
at the expense of morality and liberty, the most glaring inequality
resulted from the laws of Lycurgus.^ Let us not, therefore,
accuse these upstart nobles of having forgotten, in their curule
chairs, the people from whom the}' sjsrang. By giving land to
the poor, by proscribing usury and especially the detention of the
person, they had done all that the law and political wisdom could
do to ameliorate the lot of the plebeians. The latter bore it in
mind for more than a century, and that century was the golden
age of the Republic.

> See p 3i»4.

'^ Even the law fell into disuse. The ancient usages reappeared : releri jam more Jhenus
receptum erat. (Appian, de Bcllo cic. i. 54 ; cf. Tac, Ann. vi. 16, 17.) Moreover the Latins,
the allies, served as nominal debtors. (Livy, xxxv. 7.) Brutus lent at 48 per cent with
compound interest. (Cic., ad Alt. v. 21.) The praetor Sempronius, being desirous of jmtting
the laws into force again, was slain by his creditors. (App. ibid.) The abolition of debts and
of loans on interest was a revolutionary measure which could not last. It failed at Rome ; it
will fail everywhere, because it is against the nature of things.

' [That Lycurgus established equality of property is more than doubtful. — £(/.]

406 ROME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

in. The Aerarii ; Censorship of Appius (312).

The two orders, however, had not yet terminated their an-
cient quarrel, when there appeared on tlie scene those who were
to overthrow the patriciate, tlie plebeian nobility, and liberty.
Beneath the plebeians who had become Quirites, outside the pale
of the centuries and tribes, lived the freedmen, who were already
multiplying, the craftsmen, the merchants, the inhabitants of muni-
cipalities suie siiffragio, who had settled at Rome, and lastly the
aerarii,^ all of them citizens, but living under political disabilities,
excluded from the legions, disqualified for holding office, and never
allowed to vote. Organized into corporations,^ having assemblies,
and doubtless having leaders too, counting among them wealthy,
active, and intelligent men, they formed a class so much the more
dangerous as they represented more truly than the real plebeians —
by the diversity of their origin and the stain of their birth or
professions — the revolutionary principle which was to throw Rome
oj^en to all nations. In 312 b. c. they nearly obtained possession
of power.

Appius was then censor. He was one of the most dis-
tinguished men of his time, a great orator, a great lawyer and
poet ; but he was also the proudest of the haughty race of the
Claudii, who counted among them five dictatorships, thirty-two
consulships, seven censorships, seven triumphs, and two ovations,
and who ended with four emperors. Contrary to custom, Appius
had canvassed for the censorship before the consulship. This
irresponsible office, which gave into a man's power the moneys

1 Aera pro rapite praehehant. They ■were only armed in cases of extreme peril, and tliey
were subject to an arbitrary tax, heavier in proportion than that of the citizens. (Cf. Dionys.,
iv. 18; ix. 25; and Livy, iv. 24; viii. 20; ix. 4G ; xlii. 27, 31.) The inhabitants of towns
which had the right of citizenship sine suff'rayio, the Italians who had settled at Rome, after
having received the /us commcrcil and even theyus connubii, were in the same category.

^ We have spoken of the corporations of Nunia, which we again found in the centuries of
workmen of Servius (see p. 244, seq.). Fortunes are now estimated according to the sura
total of property movable or immovable. At Rome all that was recognized by the censors
in their estimates was quiritarian property, that is to say, all the jts mancipl (coined bronze,
houses, fields, slaves, beasts of burden). Many merchants, usurers, creditors, shipowners,
artisans, indirect holders of the domain (for the aerarius had no direct share in the conquered
lauds, since he did not serve) might be very rich, and yet find themselves counted among the
aerarii.

THE AGRARIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 407

of the Republic and the honor of the citizens, was the true royalty
at Rome. When he had obtained it he kept it, it is said, five
years, in spite of the laws, the Senate, and the tribunes. He
overruled his colleague, who finally abdicated, and he did not
allow an}' successor to be appointed. His ambition was great.
In an age of niilitary glory he preferred that which civil works
confer. During his consulship he left the other consul to make
war against the Samnites, while he remained at Rome to finish
his aqueduct, 7 miles long, and the Appian Way, viarum regina.
The pride of his answer to Pyrrhus is well known ; before the
Samnites were yet conquered, he declared that Italy was the
domain of the Republic.

Traditional history makes Appius one of those ambitious patri-
cians who ask power from the mob. It was hateful to him, it
is said, to see plebeians in office ; and in detestation of that burgher
class which the patricians no longer dared resist, he flattered the
populace, which, in spite of its demagogic instincts, often yields
to the ascendency of great names and great fortunes. In draw-
ing up the list of the Senate, Appius put into it the sons of
some freedmen. There was a general indignation among the
plebeian nobility.^ The consuls and tribunes refused to accept the
senate of Appius. To this refusal he replied by a far more
dangerous innovation : he distributed througlf the tribes the aerarii,
the lihertini. — in short, the masses of the lowly (kumiles), as Livy
says.'^ This was simply placing the votes in their hands, to
shake the constitution ; and Appius thought it would be easy to
lead this populace and gain its voice.

A simpler explanation offers itself, and is justified by his
character, and by the two consulships which he gained after his
censorship,^ which the nobles could easil}- have hindered him from
obtaining. The Samnite war, commenced twenty years before, had
just broken out again with murderous violence, and the plague
had raged fiercely in the preceding year. In order to fill up the
gap made in the population, Appius inscribed on the register of

' They accused Appius of overturning religion, as well as the constitution, by allowing
the Potitii and Pinarii to leave to slaves the care of the sacrifices which they owed to
Hercules. The god punished him by striking him blind. (Livy, i.\. 29.)

^ Humilihus pfi- omnes tnbu.i ilivisi.i. (Id. ix. 4C.)

' In 307 and 29G u. c.

408

KOME UNDER THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

the census the aerarii who were exempt from military service.
This policy was hateful to those wlio, through their fathers or
themselves, had striven against all novelties ; Ijut it caused the
greatness of Rome, by proclaiming the spirit of assimilation with
foreign races instead of a narrow and jealous patriotism. As for

-J.,

^ I— i !s^] — ' — ^

Jufuiui-pyiii

CAUSEWAY IN THE VALLEY OF ARICIA FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE APPIAN WAY.l

the sons of freedmen called to the Senate l)y Ajipius, they must
have been very few, for there is nothing said about their exj^ul-
sion by the succeeding censors, — though, of course, this may have
taken place without any noise.

The law allowed the censors,' who were appointed every five
years, to retain office for only, eighteen months ; and Appius is
accused of not having abdicated till the end of five years. He
could only have committed this breach of law by the support of
a powerful party in the Senate and among the people ; but it is

^ Atlas of the Bull, archeol. vol. ii. ])1. 39.

THE ACRAEIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 409

more than probable that in order to allow liini to complete his
immense works, he was furnished with a commission wliich was
looked upon as the continuation of his censorship. Whatever may-
be the truth about these accusations and our hypotheses, posterity
owes honor to the man who, after having taught the Romans the
importance to empire and commerce of rapid means of commu-
nication, built the first of those aqueducts which led the water of
neio-hboring hills to Rome '" on triumphal arches." His was
subterranean, but most of the other thirteen, which were built
later, were not so; and their colossal rums give to the desert of
the Roman Campagna that solemn and grave aspect which reminds
us that a great people has lived there.

With Appius and his reforms is associated the clerk Flavins,
himself the son of a freedman, and made a senator by Appius.
The publication of the calendar of the pontiffs and of the secret
formulae of legal proceedings {jus Flacianum), which he had managed
to discover by attending law-suits, had gained him the gratitude
of business men, who forced him mto the tribuneship, had him
twice appointed triumvir,^ and promised him their voices for the
curule aedileship. The whole nobihty, those who were already
called " the better classes," were moved at this strange novelty, and
the president of the elective comitia tried to refuse votes given for
him (304). When his election was known, the senators, in grief
and shame, took off their golden rings, the knights the ornaments
of their war-horses, and the first time he entered his colleague's
house," no one rose to yield him a place. But he had his curule
chair brought in, and those who scorned the upstart were obliged
to bend before the magistrate.

These bravados might stir up passions ; but Flavins displayed
the temper of a statesman, and not that of an ambitious upstart.
He spoke of peace, of concord, and, like Camillus, vowed a temple
to the reconciliation of all the orders. As the Senate would not
give him the money necessary for the building of the temple, he
employed upon it the proceeds of fines, and the people forced

* Triumvir noctuntiis and triumvir coloniae deducendae. (Livy, xi- 46.)
' Livy, ibid.; Pliny, Nat. Hist., .xx.Kiii. 6; Cic, ile Orat. i. 41; Ejj. ad Att. vi. 1. His
colleague, Q. Anicius of Praeneste, had only been a Roman citizen for a few years. Their
competitors were two plebeians of consular family, Poetelius and Domitius. (Pliny, ib. x.\.\iii. 6.)

410 ROME UNDEE THE PATRICIAN CONSULS.

the chief pontiff, who had at first refused, to consecrate the
building.

The measure taken by Appius in respect to the aerarii was a
just and good one ; but the manner in which it had been carried
out rendered it dangerous. If spread through tlie thirty-five
tribes, tlie populace would have become masters of all the votes.
When, in 304, Fabius, the most illustrious of the patricians, and
Decius, the chief of the plebeian nobility, had been appointed
censors, they allowed the aerarii to retain the rights which Appius
had given them; but they enrolled them in the four city tribes,
where, notwithstanding their number, they had only four votes
against thirty-one. This measure gained for Fabius among the
patricians the surname of Maximus, which his victories had not
conferred on him, and the city tribes were thenceforth held to be
debased ; it became a punishment to be enrolled in them by the
censors. Appius was right in doing away with the civic degrada-
tion of a numerous class, and Fabius in taking precautions lest the
" new social stratum " should stifle the old.

In order to increase the external splendor of the nobility,
the same censors instituted an annual review of knights. On the
15th of July they proceeded on horselaack from the Temple of Mars
to the Capitol, clad in white robes striped with purple, wearing
olive crowns on their heads, and bearing the military rewards
accorded to their valor. Thus every year this brilliant array of
youth passed, proud and glorious, before the eyes of the people,
inspiring them with respect and awe. This Avas the festival of the
Roman nobility.^

We did not wish, by the narration of the complicated wars
of this period, to draw off attention from the development of the
Roman constitution from the time of the tribune Licinius to that
of the dictator Hortensius (367-286).^ Now that we know the

' [It was probably a direct imitation of the Panatbenaic festival at Athens, wbieb wo see
in the frieze of the Parthenon. — /irf.]

^ There have been reekoned for the fifth century nearly two hundred patricians who had
borne office ; for the fourth not more than half this number are found, and more than forty
plebeians obtained m-agistracies. In 29,5 the former still have a majority in the Senate (I-ivy
X. 24), but their number continually diminishes, whereas that of the plebeians, after the 0\inian
law, increases unceasingly. (See p. 348.) In 179, out of 304 senators, M. Willems, in his
remarkable essay on the " Scnat de la Republiipie Romaine," p. 36G, finds eightj-eight patri-
cians and two hundred and si.Kteen plebeians.

THE AGEAEIAN LAW AND THE ABOLITION OF DEBT. 411

state of this society, so happily blended of aristocracy, represented
by the Senate, which retained the daily government of the Republic,
and of democracy, re[)resented by the people, who had the last word
in all grave affairs ; now that we have seen how out of so many
diverse elements there grew this city, in which the nobility,
whether of ancient or recent origin, is devoted to the interests of
the state, in which small landowners fill the legions and the Forum,
conquer provinces by their discipline, and protect liberty by their
wisdom, — we may revert to the tedious history of the long-continued
struggle of the Italians against Rome.

1 Roman knight holding his horse by the bridle. Reverse of a silver coin of the
Licinian family.

p. CKASsus M. r.i

THIRD PERIOD.

WAR OF ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE, OR CONQUEST
OF ITALY (343-265).

CHAPTER XIV.

WARS WITH THE SAMNITES AND LATINS (343-312).

I. First Samnite War ; Acquisition of Capua (343-341).

SINCE the Licinian laws had re-established concord in the city,
Rome displayed a formidable energy abroad. In the space of
twenty-three years she had freed herself from the Gauls for the
next half century ; the only Etruscan towns which had dared to
attack her had learned fatal e-vidence of their weakness ; and
the whole plain of Latium was occupied by Roman citizens and
allies. If there still remained in the mountains any independent
and secretly hostile Latm or Volscian cities, the Senate kept them
surrounded by the garrisons established at Terracina on the sea,
and at Sora in the Valley of the Liris. Within the city the
patricians had failed in their counter-revolutionary attempts, and
the laws of Genucius and Publilius were about to complete the
plebeian revolution.-* Nothing, however, foretold, except perhaps
the strong organization of this little nation, that its fortunes would
ever extend beyond these narrow limits. It ■yvas the battles
against the Samnites that decided the future of Rome. Hitherto,
from the time of the kings, she had with difficulty defended
herself. The new struggle, in which her very existence is at
stake, and at the end of which she finds herself mistress of Italy,

1 See chap. xiii.

WARS WITH SAMNITES A2iD LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 413

must needs make her a conquering state. Tlie fight on Mount
Gaurus is tlie first battle of a war whicli ends on the summits of
Atlas and the banks of the Rhine, the Danube, and Euphrates.

We have seen ^ what the country of tlie Samnites was : snowy
peaks, wild valleys, where life was hard and manners warlike, and
the need of putting under contribution the plains at the foot of
the Apennines ever pressing. They loved war, and in order to
succeed in it, they had reached a pitch of military organization
scarcely inferior to that of the Romans. But, being scattered
among the mountains, they had neither any great town to serve
as a citadel, nor a political organization which might unite the
inhabitants of the territoi'y in close bonds. Sometimes a temporary
league united their forces, and for any enterprise once determined
they chose a chief to lead their warriors ; but of any executive
power like that of the consuls, or permanent council like the
Senate, or any sovereign assembly like the comitia of Rome, — that
is to say, of one of the most vigorous political constitutions of
antiquity, — they knew nothing.

While Rome advanced towards Latium, Southern Etruria, and
the Sabine country, securing every step Isy the occupation of all
strategic positions, and leaving as little as possible to chance, the
Samnites went in search of adventures. Now they conquered Cam-
pania ; again Magna Graecia ; but no tie attached these new settle-
ments to the mother country, and their colonies soon forgot the
people whence they had sprung; so that, though Samnite bands
made rich captures and took possession of fertile lands, the Samnite
state increased neither in size nor strength. Strictly speaking, it
did not exist. And yet these turbulent mountaineers had great
ambition. When they saw the Romans established at Sora, a few
steps from their territory, they wished to take up a position
between Campania and Latium, by seizing the country of the
Sidicini. Teanum, the capital of this people, was situated on a
group of mountains shut in between the Liris and the semicircular
course of the Vulturnus ; from its walls might be seen Capua, be^-ond
the Vulturnus, and Minturnae, at the mouth of the Liris. These
two places and the road between Latium and Campania would

' Page 88 sei].

414 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

have been at the mercy of the Samnites, if they had made the
conquest of the country of the Sidicini. Accordingly, the Capuans
promised aid to Teanum. But their enervated troops could not
withstand the active mountaineers ; they were twice beaten, and
driven back into Capua, which the Samnites, encamped on Mount
Tifata, a mile from its walls, held ■ as it were besieged.^ In this
extremity the Campanians sent an embassy to Rome (343). Eleven
years before, a common hatred of the Volscians and the fear of the
Gallic bands had drawn the Romans and Samnites together ; a
treaty had been concluded. This was the pretext which the Senate
used to reject the first demands of the Campanians, and making
them buy aid at a high price. " Well ! " said the deputies,
" will you refuse to defend what belongs to you ? Capua gives
herself to you with her lands, her temples, everything, sacred and
profane." The Senate accepted ; but when its envoys came to bid
the Samnite generals desist from attacking a town which had
become Roman property, the latter replied by ordering the rav-
aging of the Campanian lands ; and a war of sixty-eight years
began.

State reasons were doubtless invoked to break off the treaty
so recently concluded with the Samnites. It was impossible
to allow the enfeebled nations of the Volscians and Auruncians,
of the Sidicini and Campanians, to be replaced at the very gates of
Latium l)y a brave and enterprising people ; if this torrent were
not confined to the mountains, soon no dam would be able to
restrain it. The Latins believed this. Accordingly, the war was for
them a national one, and they entered into it with more ardor
than the Romans had desired. Three armies were set afoot. One,
under the command of Valerius Corvus, went to relieve Capua ;
another, led by Cornelius, penetrated into Samnium ; while the
Latin allies crossed the Apennines in order to attack the Samnites
in the rear, through the country of the Peligni.

The historians of Rome have, of course, preserved no recoi'd
of the operations of the Latin army. Regarding the Roman
legions, on the other hand, details are given in abundance.^ Let

' Livy, vii. 29, seq. . . . imminentis Capuae coUes, now called Monte di Maddalonu
Hannibal established his camp there in 215.
' Livy, vii. 32, seq.

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FKOM 343 TO 312. 415

US not complain of this, for tliey offer us examples of devotion,
which are always good to contemplate, and they show us the
Roman in that camp-life in which he learned the secret of con-
quering the world. Cornelius, entangled among steep mountains,
had allowed himself to be shut up in a narrow gorge ; when he
became aware of it, it was already too late to force a passage. A
military tribune, Decius Mus, then approached the consul, and
showed him a hill which commanded the hostile camp, and which
the Samnites had neglected to occupy, and said to him : " Seest
thou yonder rock ? It will be our safety if we can manage to
gain possession of it immediately. Give me the principes and
hastati of a single legion ; ^ as soon as I have climbed the summit
with them, march immediately ; the enemy will not dare to
follow thee. As for us, the fortune of the Roman people and
our courage will carry us through." The consul accepted the
offer ; Decius set out ; and it was only
as they gained the summit that the
Samnites perceived them. The danger
was now transferred to their side.
Whilst their attention was drawn to

DECIUS MDS.2

this quarter, and they were turning

their standards against Decius, the consul escaped. Decius, mean-
while, disguised in the cloak of a legionary, took advantage of
the last rays of daylight to reconnoitre the position. When
night had fallen, he called the centurions, and ordered them
to assemble their soldiers in silence at the second watch. They
had already traversed half the enemy's camp, when a Roman, in
stepping over a sleeping Samnite, made his shield clash. At this
noise the Samnites were alarmed. Decius then ordered his men to
shout, and to slay all whom they met. The uncertainty, the
darkness, the shouts of the Romans, the groans of the wounded,
caused confusion among the enemy ; and Decius brought l^ack his
detachment safe and sound to the consular army. This success
was not enough for him ; he advised the consul to take ad\-antage

1 On the composition of a Roman legion, see below, at the end of chap, xxvii.

^ Head of I'allas. with X. the mark of a denarius: on the reverse, ItOMA, and the Dios-
curi on horseback : under their feet a Gallic shield and trumpet. Silver coin of the Decii, as
is proved by a coin restored by Trajan, of which a unitjue specimen is found in the Museum of
Denmark, and on which the same symbols exist accompanied by the legend : Decius Mus.

416 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

of the disarray of the enemy. The Samnites, attacked before
they had recovered from their surprise, were defeated, their camp
was taken, and the Romans inflicted a fearful slaughter on them.

On the morrow the consul commended Decius in the presence
of the whole army. Besides the customary military presents, he
gave him a golden crown, a hundred oxen, and a white bull with
gilded horns ; and to each of his soldiers an ox, two tunics, and
a double ration of wheat for his whole life. After the consul, the
legions which Decius had saved from death or dishonor, and the
detachments which he had drawn out of a dangerous position,
were also anxious to reward their deliverer and amid universal
acclamations the ohsidional crown was placed upon his head. It
was only made of grass or wild herbs, but it was the greatest
military honor that a citizen could obtain, and the army alone
had the right to bestow it. Decorated with these insignia, Deciua
sacrificed the bull with the gilded horns before a rustic altar of
Mars, and presented the hundred oxen to the jjmicipes and Jiastati
who had followed him. To each of these same soldiers the
other legionaries gave a pound of meal and a measure of wine.
What wonderful men they were, to whom gratitude was as natural
as devotion ! It is easily understood how the memory of that
glorious day colored the whole life of Decius, and inspired him
with the idea of his crowning sacrifice.

All the honor of this campaign was reserved for the other
consul, Valerius Corvus. He, with Manlius, of whom we shall
see more presently, was the hero of the Gallic wars. Beloved by
the people, as were all of his house, he still retained amid the camp
and under the consular robe his popular manners, affable witli
the soldiers, sharing their privations and fatigues, and setting all
an example of courage. Six times he obtained the curule aedile-
ship, the praetorship and consulship, twice the dictatorship and a
triumph.^ He had seen Camillus die, and the Romans trembling
before a few Gallic bands ; he saw the close of the Samnite war,
which gave Rome the rule of all Italy, and he almost saw the
commencement of the Punic wars, which left in her hands the
empire of the world. And during the course of this century-

1 Pliny. Nat. Hist. vii. 48.

WAES WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 417

long life he never failed the Republic one day, in action or in
council. In 343 he was m his third consulship. Being charged
to drive the Samnites out of Campania, he went to seek theiri
near Moimt Gaurus, and inspired his troops with such ardor,
that after the fight the prisoners confessed, says Livy,-' that they
had been terror-.struck when they saw the legionaries' eyes flash
like fire beneath their helmets. All Capua came out to meet the
conqueror. At Rome a triumph awaited him, gained by a second
victory near Suessula. These successes resounded far and wide ; the
Faliscans asked to change, the truce into an alliance ; and the Cartha-
ginians, friendly towards a power which was rising l^etween their
rivals, the Greeks and Etruscans, sent an embassy to congratulate
the Senate, and to place a crown of gold in the Capitol.

When winter came on, the Romans, at the request of the
inhabitants, placed garrisons in the Campanian towns. We have
related the revolt of these legionaries and its consequences.^
When the sedition was pacified, the Senate, who felt tliat the
state was shaken, and that the Latins threatened trouble, renounced
the Samnite war, only requiring a year's pay and three months'
provisions for the army of the consul Aemilius (341). For this
price they abandoned Teanum and Capua to the Samnites. The
Latins continued hostilities on their own account, in league with
the Volscians, Aiu'unci, Sidicini, and Campanians ; and when tlie
Samnites came to Rome to complain, the senators were obliged
to answer that they had not the right to prevent their allies from
making war on whomsoever they chose.*

II. The Latin War (340-338).

Since the first Gallic invasion, Rome had always found
enemies in Latium. Though common dangers had drawn several
cities closer to her in 357, these did not accept her supremacy
with the same resignation as in the days when the legions yearly

' Livy, vii. 33, 38.
» See p. 332.

^ ... In foedere Latino nihil esse, quo hcllarc cum quibus ipsi velint prohibeantur. (Livy,
viii. 2.)

VOL. I. 27

418 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

came to defend them against the Aequi and the Volsci. The
enfeeblement of those two nations and the departure of the Gauls
having removed the fears of the Latins, tlieir jealousy awoke ;
an alliance with the Sidicini and Campanians, whom Rome had
abandoned, increased their confidence, and the successful issue of
the revolt of the cohorts in Campania led them to believe that
their own defection would also be successful. Soon there arrived
at Rome two Latin praetors, Annius of Setia and Numicius of
Circeii. They demanded what the plebeians had just obtained,
equality of political rights, — that is, that one of the two consuls
and half the senators should be taken from among tlie Latins. On
these conditions Rome would remain the capital of Latium. The
national pride revolted. " Hear these blasphemies, Jupiter ! "
cried Manlius ; and he swore to stab the first Latin who should
come to take his seat in the Senate.

Annius replied with insulting words against Rome and her
Jupiter Capitolinus. But the lightning flashed, says tradition ; peals
of thunder shook the Curia ; and as Annius quitted the Capitol
to descend the flight of a hundred steps, he missed his footing
and rolled to the bottom, where he lay lifeless. The god had
avenged himself.^

War was declared (340). Rome was now, by the defection
of the Latin towns, obliged to fight with men accustomed to her
discii^line, her arms, and her tactics.^ The danger was immense;
but men's courage rose with the danger. The consuls at that
time were Manlius, whose severity gained him the surname of
Imperiosus, and Decius Mus, of that noble plebeian family, in
which devotion to their country became hereditary. While the
consuls raised the best levies, strengthened discipline, and made all
preparations with the activity and resources which a centralized
power afford, the Senate kept up its alliance with Ostia,
Laurentum, Ardea, the Hernicans, and perhaps Lanuvium, and
secured the neutrality of Fundi and Formiae, and the favorable
regards of the Campanian aristocracy. But the most important
aid reached it from Samnium, the treaty of peace between the

* Livy (viii. 6), who wishes to bring this legend into Iiistoric possibility, only speaks of a
fall followed by a swoon.
2 Livy, viii. 12, 13.

WAES WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. -119

two nations being changed into a treaty of offensive alliance. Tn
the first days of spring the Roman army (jnietly crossed the
country of the Marsians, Pelignians, and Samnites, reinforced on
the way from the forces of their new allies, eager with the hope
of plunder in the rich valleys of the Campanians. While the
consular army was arriving secretly by this bold march in the
neighborhood of Capua, another, under the praetor, Pap. Crassus,
protected the city, and held in check the Latins who had not
joined on their way through Campania the forces destined to
invade Samnium.

The battle took place at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, near
a brook called Veseris. All the nations of Central Italy met there,
the Romans with the Hernicans and Sabellian tribes ; the Latins
with the Oscan nations who dwelt between the Numicius and the
Silarus. It might have been called a struggle between the two
ancient Italian races. Before the battle a Tusculan, named
Geminus Metius, challenged to a single combat
the consul's son, whom he had recognized at
the head of a troop of knights. " Wilt thou,"
he ci'ied, after the exchange of some boasts
on either side, " w^ilt thou measure thyself with
me ? It will then be seen how much the Latin
horseman excels the Roman."

Manlius accepted, and conquered. He re-
turned, surrounded with soldiers rejoicing in this
happy omen, to offer the spoils of the van-
quished to his father. But he had fought
without orders ; and for this war, in which the
combatants had so much in common — arms, tactics, and language
— in which so many soldiers had ties of family and military
comradeship with both sides, an edict of the consuls had strictly
forbidden any one to leave the ranks, even in the hope of striking
a lucky blow. Discipline had been violated. Like Brutus, tile
consul overcame the father, and the young Manlius was beheaded.
The army bent beneath this iron hand.

On the day of battle, the left wing, commanded by Decius,

PRIEST OF BELLONA.

' From a funeral stela, with tlie (^age and bird which served to take the auspices.

420 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

began to give way. The consul called the high pontiff to him,
and with veiled head and a javelin under his foot he invoked Janus,
Mars, and Bellona,^ and pronounced the sacred formulae which,
for the safety of the legions, dedicated himself and the hostile
army to the gods of the lower world. Then, mounted on his war-
horse, and clad in all his armor, with his toga girt about him,^
he rushed mto the midst of the enemy's ranks, where he soon
fell, pierced with many blows. This religious preparation, this
heroic devotion, witnessed by both armies, the belief that the
blood of this voluntary victim had redeemed that of the Roman
army, inspired the consular legions with the certainty of victory,
and the Latins with as great a certainty of defeat. Three
quarters of the Latin army were left upon the field of battle,
and Campania was reconquered at a blow. A skilful manoeuvre
on the part of Manlius, who brought up his reseiwes after the
Latins, deceived by a stratagem, had engaged all their forces, had
decided the victory. The remnant of the beaten army rallied at
Vescia among the Aurunci. Numicius led thither some levies
hastily raised. But a second victory, which threw open Latium,
broke up the league ; several towns tendered their submission ; and
on the 18th of May Manlius entered Rome in triumpli (340).

The war was not yet finished ; the Senate hastened, however,
to award the punishments and rewards. Capua lost the Falernian
country, so noted for its wine ; but sixteen hundred Campanian
knights, who had remained faithful to the cause of Rome, received
the rights of citizenship, with an annual pay of 450 denarii each,
levied on the rest of the inhabitants. This was about £20,000
of English money, paid annually by the Campanian people for the
treason of its aristocracy. The Latin cities which had just sub-
mitted were also deprived of a portion of their land. This was
distributed among the citizens, giving 2 jugcra a head in Latium,
and 3 in the Falernian country.^

Meanwhile Manlius, having fallen sick, appointed Crassus

1 Janus, Jupiter, Mars Pater, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, divi Norensiles, di Indigetes, divi,
quorum est potestas nostrorum Jiostiutnque, Diiqiie Manes. The gods named by Decius are
the old Italian divinities, with Janus at their head : the divi Novensiles are the new gods.
Cf. Cincius, ap. Arnob., iii. 38.

^ Ipse incinctus cinctu Gahino. (Livy, viii. 0.)

' Livy, viii. 11.

WAES WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 421

dictator to complete the reduction of Latium. An expedition
against Antium, which led to no results, was an encouragement
for the towns which had remained in arms. A victory gained by
Publilius PhUo did not efface a cheek sustained by liis colleague
at the siege of Pedum. The Republic, it is true, was at this
period disturbed by troubles which led to the dictatorship and

TEMPLE OF THE GIANTS AT CUMAE.*

laws of Publilius ; but it was the last act of this long drama.
Revolution, successful at home, was successful, too, abroad ; and the
first event of the new era was the total submission of Latium.

Antium, on the coast, and Pedum, situated in front of Mount
Algidus, were the last two bulwarks of the league. The consuls
of the year 338 divided between them the attack on these two
places. Maulius marched against the first, and beat the Latins in
the plain near Asturia ; Furius took the second, in spite of all the

1 Taken from the Biblwlheque. nationale. It should rather be called the temple of the
Giant, for these ruins belong to a small edifice from which was taken a colossal statue of
Jupiter seated, which is now in the museum at Naples.

422 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

efforts of the Latins of the mountains. From this time resistance
ceased, and all the towns one after another opened their gates.

It was necessary to decide on the fate of the vanquished.
This was the first time the Senate came to settle matters of such
grave interest. They did it with such prudence, that the measures
taken on this occasion insured the fidelity of the Latins for ever,
and were invariably repeated for three centuries in all countries
conquered by the Republic. In the first place, the inhabitants
were forbidden general assemblies, leagues, to make war, contract
marriage, or acquire landed property outside their territory.^ The
Latin confederation was thus dissolved, and Rome had now before
her nothing but small towns condemned to isolation ; the Senate,
moreover, awakened, by an unequal distribution of offices and priv-
ileges, those rivalries and municipal jealousies always so rife in
Italian cities. The towns nearest Rome were attached to her
fortunes by the concession of the rights of citizenship and of
voting. Tusculum got the first of these rights, not
the second. Lanuvium, Aricia, Pedum, Nomentum,
< and doubtless Gabii, had both, and in the year 332

fc-

_g-^^ two new tribes, Maecia and Scaptia, were formed of
SERPENT OF tlicir Inhabitants. With Lanuvium the consuls stipu-
juNo sospiTA.- j.^i^gj-j i^i^.^j. they should have free access to the temple

of Juno Sospita, in which the consuls came yearly to offer solemn
sacrifices. In this sanctuary was nourished a serpent, which is
often represented on the coins.

Beyond this first line of towns, which had become
Roman, and which protected the capital from the
sea to the mountains of the Sabine country, Tibur
and Praeneste ^ retained their independence, bvit lost

THE ROSTRA.^

a part of their territory, Privernum lost three quar-
ters, Velitrae and Antium the whole. Antium delivered up her

1 Caeteris Latinis populis connuhia commerciaque el concilia inter se ademerunt. (Livy,
viii. 14.)

^ Girl approaching the serpent of Juno Sos])ita; below, FABATI. Reverse of a silver
coin of the Roscian family. For the worship of Juno Sospita, see p. 200.

^ Roman citizens condemned to exile could retire into these two towns.

* The coin which re))resents them is a denarius of M. Lollius P.alicanus, who, being tribune
in the year 71, restored to the tribuneship the powers of which Sulla had deprived it. The
gens Lullia consecrated this memory by a coin bearing on one side a head of Liberty, and on
the other the platform for speeches, the rostra, restored to importance by Palicanus.

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 423

war-sliijis. the beaks ^ of wliieli went to ornament the platform of
the Forum, and was forbidden to arm others in future. At Velitrae
the walls were razed and their senate removed beyond the Tiber.
The important position of Sora had been for some time occupied
l)y a Roman garrison ; Antium, Velitrae, Privernum, and a few
years later Anxur or Terracina and Fregellae, which commanded
the two roads from Latium into Campania, received colonies.
Thus old Latium was guarded by towns henceforth well disposed,
and the country of the Volscians by numerous colonists. Among
the Aurunci, Fundi, and Formiae, in Campania Capua, whose
knights guaranteed its fidelity, the great city of Cumae, Suessula,
Atella. and Acerrae obtained, as an
inducement to remain in alliance
with Rome, the rights of citizenship
without the suffrage, or, as it was
then called, the ricjhts of the Cacrttes
(338 B. cy

In the following year the Sidicini
of Teanum and Gales attacked the Aurunci, who inhabited a
volcanic mountain, the Cortinella, the highest peak of which
rises 3,200 feet above the plain
of Campania. Fearing, no doubt,
starvation there, the Aurunci cjiut-
ted theu" e3'rie and took refuge at
Suessa, which still exists (Sessa),
half way up the hill, above a
fertile plain, the last undulations

of which reach to the sea. The Senate, which never abandoned
an ally, as they never forgot an enemy, hastened to send to
their succor the two consular armies and their best general,

COIN OI'' CALES.-"

COIN OF SUESSA.^

1 The rostra, or brazen beaks of galleys, filled the place of the rams of our ironclads.

>" Livy, viii. 10, 14.

' Head of ilinerva ; on the reverse, CALENO; Victory in a two-horsed chariot, galloping.
Didrachma, or double denarius in silver.

* Silver didrachma, bearing on the obverse a laurel-crowned head of Apollo, behind, the
triqueira, which seems to show SiciUan manufacture ; on the reverse, the word SYESAXO,
and a horseman victorious in a race that perhaps took place in Sicih', which would explain
both the fineness of the coin and the presence of the triquetra, the symbol of the island
with three promontories.

424 . CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Valerius Corvus. Gales was taken/ and guarded Ijy a colony of
2,500 men ; Teanum doubtless asked for peace, — at least, after
this period there is no more mention of the Sidicini. The
Ausones also disappear ; the Volscians have not been mentioned
since the disaster of Antium ; the Rutuli no longer give any signs
of life ; most of the Latins are citizens of Rome ; the Aequi,
Sabines, and Hernici reappear once more, some to relapse imme-
diately, vanquished and broken, into the obscurity of municipal
independence, others to lose themselves in the great city. Thus
the state of Central Italy was simplified : to a variety of nations
there succeeds Roman unity. From the Ciminian forest to the
banks of the Vulturnus, a single nation holds sway. But the
maluria follows the legions. The busy cities of the Latin and
Campanian coast lose their activity with their independence. The
struggle against this invading nature relaxes, the hai'l^ors be-
come blocked, the canals are choked up, the rivers spread abroad
into unreclaimed swamps, which, beneath a tiery sky, continually
produce and destroy innumerable organisms, filling the air in their
decomposition with the seeds of death. In these depopulated
countries fertile fields become deadly solitudes.

Rome herself suffered by it. Li the }'ear 331 a pestilence
desolated the city. Numbers of the Senate had already succumbed,
when a slave came to the aediles and declared that the victims had
died by poison. An inquiry was held ; and in their terror people
found some one on whom to lay the guilt, as in our own days the
mob do, even in Paris, when cholera decimates them. A hundred
and ninety matrons were condennied. After this holocaust had
been offered to terror and folly, it was thought that so many
domestic crimes must arise from the anger of the gods ; and in
order to appease them, a dictator was appointed, who, with all
religious pomp, went solemnly to drive a nail into the wall of the
temple of Jupiter.^

A few years previously (337) Rome had again afforded one of
those sad spectacles which we have already described.^ The Vestal
Minucia, who had awakened suspicion by an over-attention to her

1 Livy, viii. 16; in 335. 3 See pp. 228, 229.

'■^ Livy, viii. 18.

WAKS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 425

dress, was accused of having violated her vows. She received an
order from the pontiffs to cease the discharge of her duties, and
not to enfranchise any of her slaves, in order that they might be
examined l)y tortm-e. The evidence confirming the charges, as it
always did in these cases, the unhappy girl was buried alive near
the Colline Gate.^ These priests, who were such vigilant guardians
of the purity of the worship of Vesta, were as pitiless as their
fierce goddess.

III. Second Samnite War (326-312).

While the results of the Latin war gave the Republic a
territory 140 miles in extent, from north-east to south-west, and
58 miles from east to west,^ a king of Epirus, Alexander the
Molossian, uncle to Alexander the Great, was attempting to do in
the West what the son of Philip accom-
plished in the East. Having been
invited to aid the Tarentines, he beat
the Lucanians and Samnites near Paes-
tum, and consequenth- at the very door

ALEXANDER.'

of Campania, made them dehver up

to him three hundred hostages whom he sent into Epirus, and
deprived the Bruttians of Terina and Sipontum. After he had
conquered, he wished to organize ; and endeavored to constitute
at Thurium an assembly of the nations of Southern Italy, in
the hope of governing it as the kings of Macedonia swayed
the synod at Corinth.* In the Latin war the alliance of the
Samnites had saved Rome ; but since thei-e was no longer a
hostile nation between the allies, their jealousy re-awakened.
Accordingly, the success of Alexander was hailed with joy at
Rome ; and as that prince had complained of the piracies of
the Antiates, who, in spite of the severe chastisement they had

' Livy, Tiii. 15.

' From Sora to Antium.

* Laurel-crowned head of Jupiter ; on the reverse, .'VAESANAPOY TOY NEOnTOAEMOY,
Alexander, son of Neoptolemus, and brother of Oljmpias. Thunderbolt and lance-head.
Silver coin of Alexander L, king of Epirus.

■* Livv, viii. 17.

426

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OP PAESTUM.

recently received, continued to sweep the seas, the opportunity
was seized for making a treaty with him (332).^ Some years

later Alexander was treacherously killed
by a Lucanian (326) ; the dominion that
he had established fell with him ; and
Rome gained no profit by the alliance,
save m indicating to the Greeks of that
region whither they must look for
help against the barbarians who surrounded them. Al^out the
same date Athens, seized with a sudden return of desire for con-
quest, settled somewhere on the shores of the Adriatic, at a spot
which cannot be determined, a military and trading colony for the
protection of her commerce against the pirates of the Etruscan
towns of Atria and Spina. The decree of foundation, of which
a fragment has been discovered, was worthy of that city, still

great in her decay. " We desire," it says,
"that all who sail in this sea, whether Greeks
or barbarians, may find safety there under the
protection of Athens." ^ Italy * and Greece,
who divided the ancient world between them,
were entangling their interests more and more.
In a few years a Spartan comes to seek his
fortune on the shores of the Adriatic, and
Pyrrhus renews the attempt of Alexander the Molossian upon
the Italian peninsula.

Shortly after the treaty concluded with the King of Epirus,
the Senate had secured the alliance of the Gauls. This league of
the Romans with the barbarians on the north of Italy, and with
a prince who was the representative, as it were, of all the Greeks
settled in the soutli of the peninsula, was a threat to all the
Sabellian tribes. The two peoples at first kept up an undeclared
war, which envenomed their hatred without deciding anything. In
331 the Samnites crossed the Liris and destroyed Fregellae. The
Senate would not consider it a casus beJH ; but a Roman colony

1 Polyb., HUl. ii. 18.

^ PAISTANO. Head of Ceres crowned with wheat; on the reverse, two horsemen
racing. Silver <lidraclima.

° Decree of 329 ; see Bull, de I'Inst. archeoL, 1836, p. 132, feq.
* Engraved gem from the Berlin Collection.

MERCIIAXT VESSEL
UNDER SAIL.^

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 427

went and quietly rebuilt the walla. The Samnites threatened
Fabratcria ; the Senate declared the town to be; und(^r Roman
jirotoction. In 333 they had secretly stirred ii]) tlie Sidiciui ; Rome
subdued this nation, and colonized Gales. In 320 tliey aroused
the Privernates ; Vitruvius Vaccus, a nolile of Fundi, doubtless at
tlieir instigation, drew Fundi and Formiae into the movement.
These two towns carried on the war without vigor, and soon
dropped it. Privernum, left alone, held out against the two
consular armies for many months. Vaccus, who had taken refuge
there, was led in the triumph of the consuls, and then beheaded,
and the senators of the town were deported across the Tiber. As
for the remainder of the inhabitants, their fate was discussed in
the Senate. "Will you be faithful?" asked the consul of their
deputies. " Yes," they replied, " if your conditions are good ;
otherwise the peace will not last long." The Senate were desirous
of gaining over these men, so provid in defeat ; Privernum was
allowed the rights of the city without the suffrage, but its walls
were destroyed.^

Thus the Samnites had failed at Fregellae, Fabrateria, Gales,
and Privernum. As far as the Vulturnus all was now Roman ;
they turned to Gampania to find enemies to the Republic.

On the false report that the plague was desolating the city,
and that war had been declared against the Samnites, the Greeks
of Palaeopolis^ had attacked the Romans scattered through Gam-
pania. When the heralds came to demand justice, they only met
with challenge and insult, and four thousand Samnites entered into
the place. To the complaints of the Romans about this violation
of treaties, the Samnites replied by a demand for the evacuation of
Fregellae ; the deputies offered to submit the affair to the decision
of an arbitrator. " Let the sword decide it," said the chiefs ; " we
appoint a meeting with you in Gampania." ^

An imposing religious ceremony preceded the hostilities. The
gods were taken from the inmost sanctuaries where their statues
were set up, were laid on couches covered with sumptuous

' The Privernates were comprised in the Ufentine tribe, formed in .'ilS, at the same time
as the Falerian tribe. Test., s. v. Ufenlina ; Livy, ix. 20 ; Diod., xix. 10 ; Val. Max., VI. ii. 1.

- Palaeopolis, or the Old Town, a colony of Cumao, in the neighborhood of Neapolis
(Naples), the New Town.

' Livy, viii. 23.

428 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

tapestry, and invited to a feast served by the priests, the lecti-
sternitcm. The temples were thrown open, the roads were Ijlocked
with the faithful, who came to behold with devotion the god whom
they confounded with his image. As no inilucky omen stopped the
accomplishment of these rites, the divine guests of Rome seemed
to have accepted her offering and promised their aid.

The war dallied, however, in the first year (326), although the
Senate had secured the support of the Lucanians and Apulians, who
were to take the Samnites in the rear. The Lucanians, being
persuaded by the Tarentines, already jealous of the Roman power,
changed sides almost immediately ; but the industrious and com-
mercial population of Apulia had too much to fear from the
neighborhood of the Samnites not to remain in alliance with
Rome, at least so long as fortune favored her. The defection of
the Lucanians was, moreover, compensated by the capture of
Palaeopolis and the alliance with Naples, — that is to say, with all
the Campanian Greeks.

The blockade of Palaeopolis had been the occasion of an
important innovation. Li order to continue the operations against
that town, Publilius Philo had been continued in his command
under the title of pro-consul} By paying the same soldiers, the
Senate were able to retain them under the standards so long as
public necessity required it ; l^y the pro-consulship, it could leave
at their head the leaders who had gained its confidence and theirs.
The annual election of the magistrates guaranteed liberty, but
endangered empire. The institution of the pro-consulship, without
affecting this great principle of Roman government, destroyed the
danger of it. The Genucian law was thus happily evaded.^ It is
almost always pro-consuls who finish the wars, more especially
outside Italy, in countries whose resources and dispositions must
be leisurely studied by the generals, where negotiations and fight-
ing must be carried on at the same time. Fabius RuUianus,
Scipio, Flamininus, Sulla, LucuUus, Pompey, and Caesar had only
this title when they gained their most brilliant victories.

The treaty with the Campanian Greeks had driven the
Samnites out of Campania; and a mountain warfare, that is,

' [The Latin form is not pr(xoiisul, hwt proconsule, according to the best MSS. — JBrf.J
2 See p. 390.

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS KUOM .•;i;5 TO 312. 429

snrlden attacks, obscure but bloody fights, and heroic efforts
productive of no resuhs, replaced the great warfare of the plains.
The Romans there brought their tactics, arms, and discipline to
perfection. They issued from this struggle the best soldiers in the
world. Roman vanity is accnised of having multiplied the victories
of the legions ; in one campaign Livy reckons fifty-three thousand
killed, and thirty-one thousand prisoners ! There is an evident
exaggeration in these figures ; but it is in the nature of this kind
of war to be interminable. Though the Samnites had l)ut a
small number of walled towns, every rock was a stronghold for
them. On the other hand, it was scarcely possible that their
l)ands, formed of brave but ill-disciplined volunteers, should not
be beaten in almost every encounter by troops wliose organization
was superior to anything the ancient world had 3'et known. The
two armies resembled the two peoples : the one a fragile con-
federation, a precarious union of tribes miaccustomed to counsel
and action in common ; the other, a mass of two hundred and
fifty thousand fighting men, animated with the same spirit, obeying
the same influence : the latter, an immense force concentrated in
a single hand, in the service of a single interest ; the former, an
indomitable, but divided, courage, pursuing different aims.

Several obscure towns captured from the Samnites on the
banks of the Vulturnus, tlie pillaging of a few valleys, the rising
and defeat of the Vestinians, — these are the only events known
in the first years of the war. But the dryness of the annals is
suddenly broken, in 324, by the brilliant story of the quarrel of
the dictator, Papirius, with Fabius RuUianus his chief of cavalry.
The dictator, not having obtained sufficient auguries at the camp,
had gone to Rome to seek more favorable ones. He had for-
bidden Fabius to fight during his absence, since the sacred cliick-
ens did not promise victory. But a good opportunity having
occuri'ed, Fabius took advantage of it, and conquered the Samnites.
At the news of this infraction of discipline and defiance of the
gods, Papirius left Rome, hastened to the camp, and called the
chief of cavalry before his tribunal. " I would fain know of
tliee, Q. Fabius, since the dictatorship is the supreme power
which both the consuls, who are endued with I'oyal authority,
and the praetors, who are created under the same auspices as the

430 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

consuls, obey, — I would fain know of thee if thou thinkest it right
or not that a chief of cavalry should submit to its orders ? I
ask thee, moreover, if, convinced as I was of the uncertainty of
the auspices, I ought to have left to chance the safety of the state
in despite of our holy ceremonies, or renewed the auspices, in
order to do nothing without a clear knowledge that the gods were
on our side ? I ask thee, finally, if, when a religious scruple hin-
ders the dictator from acting, the chief of cavalry could have any
excuse for doing so ? Answer ; but answer only this, and not a
word beyond." Fabius would have spoken of liis victory. Papirius
interrupted him, and called the lictor : " Prepare the rods and the
axe ! " said he. At these words murnnirs were heard, and a
sedition was on the point of breaking out among the legions.
Happily night came on, and the execution was, according to
custom, deferred to the morrow. In the interval Fabius escaped
from the camp, and arrived at Rome, where, by virtue of his
office, he called together the Senate. His father, who had been
dictator and thrice consul, began to inveigh against the violence
and injustice of Papirius, when the noise of the lictors was heard
as they drove aside the crowd, and the dictator appeared. In vain
the senators tried to appease his wrath ; he ordered the culprit
to be seized. The elder Fabius then descended to the comitium,
whither the people had flocked, and appealed to the tribunes.
" Rods and axes," he cried, " for a victor ! What punishment
would he then have reserved for my son if the army had
perished ? Is it ^jossijjle that he through whom the town is now
full of joy, for whom the temples are now open and thanksgivings
are being returned to the gods, — is it possible that this man should
be stripped of his raiment and lacerated by the rods under the
eyes of the Roman people, in view of the Capitol, of its gods,
whom in two combats he invoked, and not in vain?" The
senators, the tribunes, the people themselves were for the glorious
culprit ; Papirius remained inflexible. He called to mind the
sanctity of the auspices and the majesty of the imperium, which
must be respected ; he showed the consequences of an act of dis-
obedience left unpunished. " The discipline of the family, the
city, and the camp are all closely connected," said he ; " will you,
tribunes of the people, be responsible to posterity for the evils

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM M3 TO 312. 431

which will follow any infringement of the rules of our ancestors ?
Then devote yourselves to lasting reproach to redeem the fault
of Fabius." The tribunes, troubled and uneasy, kept silence ;
but the whole people betook themselves to supplication ; the aged
Fabius and his son fell at the dictator's feet. " It is well,"
said Papirius ; " military discipline and the majesty of command,
which to-day seemed so near perishing, have triumphed. Fabius
is not absolved from his fault ; he owes his pardon to the Roman
people, to the tril)uiiitian power which has asked for mercy and
not justice." The pardon was not, however, complete. Papirius
appointed another chief of cavalry, and forljade Fabius, whom he
could not depose, to exercise any magisterial act.^

A fine story and a splendid scene ! Pai^irius, contending alone,
in the name of the law, against the Senate, the tribunes, and the
people itself, well represents that Roman firmness which yielded
neither to nature, nor fortune, nor the efforts of men. Such a
rock was necessary to Ijear the empire of the world. But to
gain that empire there was needed, too, the respect for social
discipline and the profound sense of responsibility, which is in-
cumbent in public life upon one and all. This is why the old
story is always good to read.

On his return to the camp Papirius beat the Samnites, who
sued for peace (.32.3). Only a truce was concluded, which was as
necessary to the Romans as to their enemies. Disquieting symp-
toms seemed to annoimee that a renewal of the Latin war was
approaching. Tuscuhxm, one of the oldest allies of Rome, wavered
in its fidelity ; Velitrae and Privernum claimed the recovery of
their independence. The wisdom of the Senate averted the storm.
Instead of employing force, they disarmed the rebel cities by
conceding them the full I'ights of citizenship. And the man who
in 323 was dictator of Tusculum, is seen, a few months later,
seated in the Senate as consul of the Roman people.

In this same year Alexander died at Babylon. Several Italian
nations had sent ambassadors to him there.

The truce had not expired before the Samnites took up arms
again, encouraged by the defection of a part of the Apulians.
Fabius broke up this coalition by a victory, and by the recapture

' Livv, viii. 30-35.

432

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

of Luceria raised Roman influence in Apulia. The Samnites were
thus driven back botli east and west into their mountains, and not
a single ally, even in the Marsic confederation, declared for them.
Once more they asked for peace ; as they could not deliver up
Brunius Papius, the author of the last outbreak, alive — since he
had killed himself — they sent his body to Rome. A refusal re-
awakened their energy. They put at their head C. Pontius of
Telesia, the son of the sage Herennius, whom Cicero considered

VALLEY OF THE CAUDINE FORKS, NEAR CASEUTA ^

to have been the friend of Archytas and Plato. The two consular
armies were in Campania. Pontius had conveyed to them the
false mtelligence that Luceria, hard pressed by the whole Samnite
army, was aljout to open its gates if succor were not promptly sent

' Taken from the BililiotJieque nationnle. But tliere is much unc'ertainty as to the true
position of the Furculae Caudinae. The most rehable opinion ]iLaces the valley between
Santa Agata and Moirano, on the road to Beneventum ; a little river, the Isclero, runs
through it. (Craven, Tnur throufih the SoutJwrn Prorhices of the Kinfjdom of Kn/iles, pp.
12-20.) As to the lost town of Caudium, it was situated, according to the Roman itineraries,
on the Appian Way, 21 miles from Capua, and 11 from Beneventum.

WAKS AVITIL SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 312. 433

to it. In their zeal the consuls forgot prudence, and taking the
shortest way, entered the narrow valley of Caudium. Suddenly the
enemy appeared, closing the outlets, and from tlie high rocks wliich
commanded the naiTow pass, threatened the four legions with in-
evitable destruction. A desperate struggle ensued ; it doubtless
lasted several days, at the end of which, as provisions failed, the
Komans were forced to yield.^ " Kill them all," said Herennius,
the aged father of the Samnite general, " if you desire war ; or
send them back free, with their arms, if you prefer a glorious
peace." Pontius wished to enjoy his triumph. He sent them back
free, but dishonored, with shame on their foreheads and an im-
placable hatred in their hearts. All who remained of forty thoiisand
Romans had passed under the yoke, at their head the two consuls,
Postumius and Veturius, four legates, two quaestors, and twelve legion-
ary triliunes. Six hundred knights, who were delivered up as hos-
tages, answered for the peace sworn by the leaders of the army (321).
For the national pride this humiliation was worse than the dis-
aster. Thei'e was universal mourning in the city. Twice a dicta-
tor was appointed, and twice did sinister omens compel the annulling
of the election. At length Valerius Corvus, as interrex, raised
to the consulship two of the greatest citizens of the Republic, —
Papirius and the plebeian Publilius Philo. When the treaty was
discussed in the Senate, Postumius rose and said : " The Roman
people cannot be bound by a treaty concluded without its appro-
bation ; but, in order to free the public faith, it is necessary to
give up to the Samnites those who swore peace." As state interest
silenced all scruples, the Senate seemed to think that the blood of
these voluntary victims would redeem the perjury, even with the
gods ; and the consuls, quaestors, and tribunes, chained like slaves,
were led by the heralds to the Samnite army.^ When thev stood
in the presence of Pontius, " I am a Samnite now," said Postumius ;
then, striking the knee of the herald, he cried : " I violate the sacred

^ Livj- (Lx. 2-6) does not mention any battle, but Cicero {de Sen. 12, and de Offir. iii. 30)
knew of it ; and it was perhaps after the battle that the lloman army allowed itself to be
entrapped in the Caudine Forks.

^ Livy (ix. 8-9) and Cicero (de Offic. iii. 20) justify the rupture of the treaty which had
been concluded, injussu popxdi senatusque ; and they are right. A general who, by his own
fault, has brought himself into danger, must make his escape at his own risk ; he may
stipulate by a capitulation for his army, but not by a treaty for his Government.

VOL. I. 28

434 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

character of an ambassador ; let the Romans avenge this insult ;
they have now a just motive for war." " Is it permitted thus to
mock the gods ? " cried the Samnite general in indignation ; " take
your consuls back again, and let the Senate keep the sworn peace,
or let them send their legions back to the Caudine Forks."

Fortune rewarded injustice. The Samnites, it is true, surprised
Fregellae and massacred its defenders, in spite of their capitulation,
and they roused Luceria ; but the Senate, l^oldly resuming the
offensive, sent the two consuls into Apulia, which they did not
again leave till they had given these faithless allies a bloody
lesson. Publilius, at the head of the legions of Caudium, beat an
army in Samnium, and set out for Apulia to rejoin Papirius, who
had haughtily repulsed the intervention of the Tarentines, dispersed
the enemy by an impetuous attack, and recaptured Luceria.^ He
had there found the six hundred hostages, the arms and standards
lost at Caudium, and had passed under the yoke seven thousand
Sanmite prisoners, with their chief, the noble, but imprudent
Pontius Herennius (320).

The successes of this campaign are a too brilliant reparation
of the disasters of the preceding year not to lead us to suspect
the fidelity of the annals. As forty years later the Romans
pretend to have wiped out the disgrace of the AUia, so they
would fain have wiped out, in 320, that of the Caudine Forks ;
and, in order that this revenge might not be disputed, they
showed how Apulia immediately entered into alliance with them
again, and how the Samnites were obliged, in the year 318, to
ask for a truce of two years. These hasty successes are doulitful ;
and this doubt is authorized l)y the events which followed.

The Senate had just sent a prefect to Capua to dispense
justice there, — in reality to supervise and restrain those restless
spirits. This was to deprive the Campanians of a right allowed
to the most obscure of the vanquished, and provoke a discontent
of which the Samnites took advantage.^ In rapid succession Rome
heard of the capture and destruction of Plistia, that Fregellae
itself had been occupied, the colonists of Sora massacred, and
Saticula, situated a few leagues from Capua, swept into the revolt.

^ Diodorus (xx. 72) says that Luceria was recoiKjuered in 314.

^ Nuceria, on the Sarnus, to the southeast of Caj)ua, liad just revolted. (Died., .xix. 65.)-

WAKS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FROM 343 TO 311;. 435

A dictator was at once sent against Saticula, which was strictly
invested and taken, after a vain attempt on the part of the new
allies to break through the Roman lines. But the Samnites,
calling to arms every man of an age to fight, forced the dicta-
tor to retire upon the defiles of Lautulae, between Terracina
and Fundi. Whilst they followed Fabius in this direction, they
left Apulia open to the consuls, who hastened thither to recap-
ture Luceria. Two roads led from Rome into Campania, the
upper one by the Valley of the Trerus, a tributary of the Liris ;
the lower one, which was afterward the Appian Way, across the
Pontine Marshes. Fregellae, which the enemy held, closed the
former ; by the second, Fabius received a niimerous body of men
from Rome, who, coming up suddenly in the middle of the
action against the Samnites, secured the victory for the Romans

(315).

Each of the Italian cities, great or small, had two factions,
as Rome used to have, but as, fortunately for her, she had no
longer, — the party of the nobles, and that of the people. The
Roman Senate, which held the direction of its external policy,
was naturally led to seek the alliance of the aristocratic party.
The popular party inclined to the opposite side ; so that when
war broke out between the two .most powerful nations in the
peninsula, each town had a Roman and a Samnite faction. Hence
the continual defections which are seen in favor of one adversary
or the other, according to the party which ruled for the moment
in the city.

At Capua, for instance, the Romans had granted to the rich,
privileges which must necessarily have caused great irritation
among the rest of the population. Accordingly, a conspiracy was
formed there for calling in the Samnites. The movement spread
to tlie towns of the lower Liris, in the country of the Aiu-unci ; ^
but in Latium no disturbance occurred. The Senate had time to
assemble its forces and to manage intrigues which opened to its
legionaries the gates of Ausona, Mmturnae, and Vescia, the in-
habitants of which were massacred. After this war the name
of the Aurimci disappears from histor}.- Ovius and Novius, the

1 Diod., .\Lx. 76. Livy is much less explicit.

^ Livy, ix. 25 : Nultua modus cacdil/usjuit, delctaque Ausomtm gens.

436

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

leaders of the revolt of Cajuia, killed themselves. Sora and
Fregellae fell into the hands of Rome again, and those of their
inhabitants who had betrayed the Roman colonists were taken to
Rome and there beheaded. It was a holocaust offered to the
people ; for Ity this terrible execution the Senate declared to all
men that the citizen sent to a colony might count on watchful
protection while he lived, and an inexorable vengeance if he were
slain ; and the ancients loved vengeance.

According to Livy, the army, after having recovered Cam-
pania, went in search of the Samnites not far frt)m Caudium, and
killed thirty thousand of them, — a great slaughter, placed too
near the Caudine Forks for us not to suspect the historian, or
the chroniclers copied by liini, of having invented a double
expiation of the insult there done to Roman military honor
(314). The legions, however, acting on a plan wisely combined
and perseveringly followed out, succeeded in once more driving the
Samnites mto the Apennines, and there enclosing them, east and
west, with a line of fortresses. Suessa Aurunca, Interamna on

the Liris, Casinum, and Luceria in Apulia,
received Roman colonies. In order to keep
watch over the Tarentine corsairs, who swept
the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Senate also sent one
to the Island of Pontia. This measure was
connected with the recent creation of a
navy and the nomination of two maritime
prefects.^

In the midst of these accounts of war
Livy places a grotesque incident, " little
worthy of recital," says he, " if it did not
refer to religion." It is, in fact, a detail
which is not devoid of interest in the his-
tory of the manners of so grave and yet
so frivolous a nation. Religious festivals,
sacrifices, and even the observation of heavenly signs and funeral
ceremonies, required the presence of flute-players, who had

FLUTE-PL AYEU.2

1 Dnummri navales. (Livy, ix. 30.)

2 Bronze figurine from the National Collection of France, No. 3,064 of Chabouillet's
catalogue.

WARS WITH SAMNITES AND LATINS FEOM 343 TO 312. 437

originally been l)i-ouglit from Etrnria, and who formed a semi-
religious corporation. The censors having forbidden them the;
sacred banquets of the temple of Jupiter, to which thciy liad
been hitherto admitted, they all retired in anger to Tibur. Tiie
Senate, much alarmed at the interruption of a necessary rite,
ordered them ti) return ; but they refused to re-enter Rome ; and
in order to make them return to their religious duties, it was
necessary to adopt a stratagem. One feast-day, under pretence of
giving, by the aid of music, more solemnity to the festivities, the
wealthy of Tibur invited them, and made them drink until they
became very drunken. They were then placed on chariots and
carried back to Rome, where they were left in the middle of
the Forum. When they awoke in the morning all the people
were gathered round them. The privilege they had enjoyed was
restored ; and to seal the reconciliation, a feast of three days was
instituted, — a kind of masquerade, of which they were the heroes,
and which was celebrated with songs, dances, and mad gayety.'

' Livy, ix. 30; Ovid, Fast. vi. GSl, seq.

- In the camp it was usual to consult omens taken from the appetite of birds, generally
chickens. The templuni, or enclosed space for obser\ing the signs, was traced on the ground;
the puUarius brought thither the cage and opened it, and then gave the fowls food. When
they flew eagerly ujjon the grain, especially when they let some of it fall from their beaks, the
omen was fortunate. This could be easily managed by making the fowls fast, or by giving
them a friable paste. And yet, though they thus tricked Providence, the Romans, and even
I'apirius Cursor, as we have just seen on p. 429, believed none the less in the omen
obtained.

k mrn^vM ^

THE SACRED CmCKEN.S.^

CHAPTER XV.

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETRUSCANS, AND SENONES (311-280).

I. Third Samnite War (311-303).

FOR sixteen years the Samnites fought alone ; but at last the
other nations began to stir. The forty years' truce with the
Tarquinians was drawing to an end, and the Etruscan cities,
which no longer heard the Gallic bands thundering on the other
side of the Apennines, saw with dread the fortune of Rome in-
creasing with every campaign. Samnite emissaries excited them,
and the ancient league of the lucumonies was again formed.
While the legions were detained in Samnium at the siege of
Bovianum, fifty or sixty thousand Etruscans came and surrounded
Sutrium, the fortress which protected the a^^proaches to Rome
from the north. If this place were carried, it was but a few
hours' march to the foot of the Janiculum. Since the battle of
the Allia the Senate always kept two legions in the city. This
reserve attempted to raise the blockade of Sutriuiu ; an indecisive
battle kept the enemy in check until the arrival of remforcements
led by Fabius, the hero of this war. The capture of Bovianum
rendered the other consular army available, and the Senate was
desirous of .sending that also to the besieged town. But the
Samnites broke into Apulia ; it was necessary to follow them.
Fabius was thus left alone. The Etruscan lines were too strong
to be carried, and they declined to be drawn from them. Fabius
left them there, warned the Senate to protect Rome with a re-
serve army, and then, without awaiting the chance of an order
that might upset his bold plan, he crossed the Ciminian
forest, which his brother had explored in the disguise of a
Tuscan shepherd, penetrated the rich lands of Central Etruria,
passing near Castel d' Asso and Norchia, — now cities of the dead,

COALITION OF THE SAMKITES, ETC., FfiOM 311 TO 280. 439

but then lloui-ishing towns — and slow sixty thousand Umbrians or
Etruscans near Perugia. Three of the most powerful cities, Perugia,
Cortona, and Arretium, asked a truce of thirty years. Sutriuni was
saved, the confederacy dissolved/ and the massacre of the gens Fabia
on the banlvs of tlie Cremera, in 47'.) B.C., was at last avenged.

Meanwhile Marcus Rutilus, wlio had been sent against the
Samnitcs, had almost fallen into another Caudine Forks : he had
only escaped from the field of battle by a partial defeat ; and
Samnium was meditating an heroic effort. War was ardently
advocated all tln-ough the mountains ; the bravest were called
upon to take the oath of the holy law. The Senate had recourse
to the man who had repaired the disaster of Caudium, the aged
Papirius.^ Age had weighed down his body, bowed his lofty
statifi-e, and chilled his strength ; he was no longer the Roman
Achilles, but he was still one of the first generals in the Republic.
The appointment of a dictator belonged to Fabius, and the consul
had not forgotten the resentment of the former chief of cavalry.
He hesitated a whole day ; Ixit patriotism at length prevailed, and
at midnight, far from all profane eyes and ears, he named Papirius.
Junius Bubulcus, the conqueror of Bovianum, Valerius Corvus, and
a Decius were his lieutenants. The Samnite army was ready.
Numbers of warriors had sworn before the altars, amid imposing
ceremonies, the solemn oath to conquer or die ; and wearing their
most splendid armor, some, bright-colored cloaks and golden shields,
others, white tunics and silver shields, all with their helmets
crested with brilliant plumes, they marched to battle, adorned
for the sacrifice as if for a triumph. They fell ; and when
Papirius went up to the Capitol, long trams of chariots passed
along the triumphal way loaded with the arms of the Samnite
devoti. The , shops of the Forum were decorated with them, and
tlie Campanian allies carried some of them back to their towns
as glorious trophies (309).

* Diod., XX. 3.'). According to Livv, the battle took place near Sutrium, on the return of
the legions from Etruria. He strangely exaggerates the terror inspired by the Ciminian
forest, whicli was dreaded by merchants, as are all marches, like the Scottish border, but
which an arnn- had already traversed in a war against the Vulsinii, in 390. Tarquinii itself
is situated north of the southwest portion of the Ciyninius saltus, now Monte di Viterbo.

^ The Romans had named him Cursor, like Achilles, and would have opposed him to
Alexander, says Livy, had that prince turned his arms westward.

440

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

The fears of the Senate were not yet dissipated ; Papirius
retained the dictatorship all that year, and Fabins remained as
proconsul at the head of the legions in Etruria ; there were no
consular elections.

Between the Tiber and the Ciminian forest was a lake,
which Pliny the younger describes with childish satisfaction,'

ETKUSCAN WARRIOR (sTANDARD-BEAEEB).'

SAMNITE WARKIOR.^

and which is now only a pool of sulphurous water, the Jaglietto
di Bassano, formerly the lacus Vadvmonius, famous for having twice
seen the fortune of Etruria fail upon its shores. The reason is
that the defile, scarce a mile wide, which extends from the lake
to the spurs of the Cimino, is the easiest passage that lies open
to an army desirous of going from Rome to the upper valley of
the Tiber.* The Etruscans had hastened thither for a last effort.

* Eplst. viii. 20 ; of. Dennis, Eiruria, i. 167.
- From a vase in the Campana Collection.

^ jittas of the Bull, de I' Inst. archeoL, vol. viii. pi. 21.

* The Mons Ciminius, which in ancient times was covered with a thick forest, is now
quite bare, which changes the aspect of the place.

COALITION 0¥ THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 441

They had displayed every religious pomp, and deelannl the sacred
law which devoted to the infernal gods all who fled ; each soldier
liad chosen a companion in arms, at whose side he must fight, and
conquer or fall. The shock was terrible. Two of the Roman
lines were broken ; the third, in which were the iriarii, main-
tained the combat ; and the horsemen, having dismounted, decided

O c o o c

S.4MNITE WARRIOR.l

S.'VMNITE WAKUIOR.l

the victory. " The strength of the nation," says Livy,^ " was
destro3'ed in this battle."

The Etruscans being defeated at Lake Vadimon and again
conquered near Perugia, which had revolted, and this place being
occupied by a Roman garrison, the other cities were compelled to
sue for peace, and Etruria was finally subdued. Such were the
services of Fabius in this year.^ When Decius entered the country

' From a vase in the Campana Collection.
- ix. 39 : caesurn in acie quod roboris fuit.

^ Diodorus does not mention all these victories of Fabius, which were family trailitions
embellished by imagination and vanity.

442 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

on the return of spring, he found nothing but people anxious to
negotiate.

Fabius had gone to carry his fortune, that is, his renown
and perseverance, into Samnium. The Marsic confederation had

SAMNITK HOBSEMAN (AFTER A VASE IN THE CAMPANA COLLECTION).

furnished the Samnites with numerous vohmteers, but it had not
openly declared for them. As in the early days of Rome, her
enemies were preparing victories for her by their want of union.
When the Samnites were enfeebled and the Etruscans overwhelmed,
the Marsians and Pelignians saw that their cause was that of all
Italy. But it was too late. Fabius overcame them, subdued

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280 443

Nuoeria, which had revolted seven years before, and, learning
that his colleague was retreating before a large body of Uinbrians,
lie went to his aid, dispersed the Umbrian army, and receivcnl the
submission of their towns (308). A fresh pro-consulship gave
him an opportunity for fresh victories. He surrounded a Samnite
army near Allifae, and obliged it to surrender before the eyes of
the Tarentme ambassadors, who, deluded by their pride, wished to
take upon themselves the office of mediators (308).

Among the prisoners were some Aequians and Hemicans.^
An inquiry ordered by the Senate drove the latter to arms.
Having met in the great circus of Anagni, they resolved to
support their brothers of the mountains ; but Marcius liad time
to beat the Hernicans in three encounters, and to oblige the nation
to submit to the discretion of the Senate, who
deprived its towns, with the exception of three
which had remained faithful, of their indepen-
dence and a portion of their territory.^ Thence
Marcius hastened to set free his colleague Cor-
nelius, who was blockaded by the Samnites,
and slew thirty thousand of them. For five
months the legions overran Samnium, burning
houses and farms, cutting down fruit-trees,
killing even the animals.^ On their return
their general had a trium^ih, and an eques-
trian statue was erected to him (306 B. c).

The plebeians were desirous of glorifying
by this honor a consul of their own order ;
and to the credit of the Senate it must be
said, that when in later times the statues
which encumbered the Forum were removed, that of Marcius was
retained ; Cicero saw it tliere.^

ETRUSCAN MARS.*

^ Livy, Lx. 42.

" Livy, ix. 43. They received tlie rights of citizenship without the suffrage, and with a
prohibition of any intercourse between them. The towns excepted were Alatrium, Ferentinum,
and Verulae. These preserved the /us coimuhii et commcrcii among tlicmselves.

^ Diod., XX. 90. It is, says Polybius, a custom of the Romans; they desire thereby to
inspire a more jirofound terror.

* Or warrior with a lielmet surmounted by a high-crested ridge ; bronze figure from the
Cabinet de France, No. 2,977 in Chabouillet's catalogue.

5 Philipp. vi. 13.

444 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

The Samnites held out for one more campaign, m spite of
the ravaging of their lands. It was only when they saw their
strongholds in the hands of the legions that they decided to sue
for the termination of a war which had lasted more than a
generation. They retained their territory and all the outward
signs of independence, hut acknowledged the majesty of the Roman
peoi3le. Circumstances were to define what the Senate meant by
the Roman majesty (304).^

This peace left the Etruscans isolated, and exposed to the
anger of Rome. For more than a century this restless nation
had allowed themselves to he forgotten. Driven back by the
Gallic invasions into the mountains to the west of Lake Fucinus,
and restrained by Tibur and Praeneste, which barred the road
into Latium against them, they had taken no part in the Latin
war. But the Senate, remembering that some Aequians had fought
in the Samnite ranks at AUifae, sent against them the legions
which had just returned from Samnium. In fifty days forty-one
places were taken and burned ; then a part of their territory was
confiscated, and they were allowed the citizenship without the
suffrage, which placed them in the condition of subjects (304).
Five years later, owing to the fear of a Gallo-Samnite coalition,
they were raised to the rank of citizens, and formed into two
new tribes, the Aniensis and Terentina. A
short war with the Marsi, who had been roused
by the establishment of a Roman colony at
Carseoli, and a treaty concluded with the Vestini
and Piceni, are the sole events of the follow-
ing years. Rome thus placed a whole mass of
BEAK (rostkum.)^ frlcudly nations between the Mruscans, the
Gauls, and the Samnites, whom she had conquered, but not disarmed.

An episode of this time makes us think of our own tragic
story of the caves of Dahra. Rome did not disdain to watch over
those agitations with which wars end, but with which they also
recommence. Men whom Livy calls l)rigands, but who were
doubtless patriots refusing to accept a foreign yoke, overran the
Umbrian country in bands. Two thousand of them had taken

^ Livy (Lx. 45) says : fiiedun antiquum redditum.
'^ Engraved gem from the Berlin Museum.

WAR VESSEL WITH

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 445

refuge in a deep cavern. A cunsul tracked them thither ; and a.s
the scjldiers wlio tried to penetrate into it were driven back with
stones and arrows, wood was piled n[) at the two extremities and
set alight, and the fire was kept burning till all had jici-ished.
stifled by the smoke or the heat.'

In the same year an adventure happened which the Paduan
Livy tells with great satisfaction. Cleonynuis, the grandson of a
Spartan king, had come with a fleet to seek his fortune in the
Adriatic. He seized vessels and pillaged the coasts. Finding
those of the Sallentine country well guarded by the Roman legions,
he pushed on as far as the head of the gulf, and penetrated by
the lagoons of the Brenta to the Venetians, whose territory he
ravaged. The protection of Rome did not yet extend so far; but
the Paduans, accustomed, from the proximity of the Gauls, to the
use of arms, fell on these marauders, killing some, and pursuing
others to their ships, several of which were taken. Very proud
of this success gained over the Lacedaemonians, Padua deposited
the armed prows of their vessels in her temple of Juno, and
instituted a feast, still celebrated in the time of Augustus, at
which a naval combat on the Brenta recalled the victory over the
pirates of Cleonymus.

II. Second Coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians,
AND Gauls (300-290).

In the last forty years the Saumites had been often beaten.
Nothing, however, had yet been decided, and the recently con-
cluded peace was only a momentary repose before the final
struggle. Betwixt Rome and Samnium it was no longer a rivalry
of power, but a question of life or death ; for Roman ambition
increased with success, and Appius had just declared that the
sway of the Republic should reach as far as Italy reached. War
was smouldering everywhere ; and the partial fires which broke out,
— the war with the Aequians, the Marsi, and soon agamst Arre-
tium and Narnia, — announced a fresh conflagration. At Arretium
the powerful family of the Cilnii called in a Roman army, which

1 Livy, X. 1.

446

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

helped to subdue the people of that town. The Cilnii and the

l)eople ):)ecame reconciled, says Livy ;
Ijut most probably this union, effected
by the foreigner, took place to the
profit of Rome ; and here, as at
Capua, as indeed everywhere, the
Italian aristocracy sold the indepen-
dence of the people to the Senate in
order to save its own privileges and
power.^ At least it is impossible to
explain the strange conduct of the
Etruscans in this last period of the
Samnite war, except by internal
troubles, by a deplorable rivalry be-
tween the Roman and the national
parties, one desirous of peace, the other
war, whence came endless broken
truces and ill-conducted campaigns.

The Gauls at this time began again
to make a stir in the world. Their
warlike hordes were moving in the Danube Valley, whence they
issued to ravage Greece and Asia Minor. Italy felt the reaction
of these movements ; a few bands again crossed the Alps, and
the Senate, uneasy about the disposition of the Senones, made
preparations for protecting themselves from a sudden invasion.
In oOO B. c. we find the consuls besieging the Umbrian town of
Nequinum (Narnia). Built on a rock above the Nar, this place
commanded the passage from Umbria into the Valley of the Tiber ;
it was one of the most important military positions in the neigh-
borhood of Rome. The Senate there established a strong garrison.
With Carseoli and Alba Fucentia, which had been colonized a little
earlier, this place completed the line of defence which surromided
the capital of Latium.®

' Livy (xlii. 30) says later on about another people and another nobility : . . . plehi
omnis, ut solet, deterioris erat . . . principum diversa studia . . . plures ex Us ita, si praecipuam
operant navassent, potentes sese in cimtatibus suis futuros rati . . .

^ Vase of red earthenware in relief, from the Campana Museum.

' Sutrium, Narnia, Carseoli, Alba Fucentia, and the colonies of the Liris Valley, Sora,
Atina, Casinum, Interamna, etc.

E.\RTHEN\VARE OF ARKETIUM
(AKEZZO).-

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 447

At Narnia, some Saiuuitcs had been found among the defenders
of the place ; their chiefs were preparing a general rising, and
sought allies everywhere. The Lucanians had promised them
assistance ; but at the moment of action the Roman party gained
tlie upper hand, and caused hostages to be given. The Picentines,
though earnestly solicited, also informed the Senate of the message
calling them to arms ; and the
Marsic confederation, true to
its old jealousy of the Sam-
nites, once more betrayed the
common caiise. But other
allies were found. The Sa-
bines, who had been at peace
with the Romans for a cen-
tury and a half, would not
abandon a sister people in its
last hour. The Etruscans were
quite decided. Some years
previously they had paid the
Gauls to march upon Rome.
When the barbarians held the
money, " That is only your
ransom," they said; ''to aid you against the Romans you. must
give us lands." The Umln-ians had thrown in their fortune with
the Etruscans. Thus, war was ready to break out from the
Cisalpine to Bruttium. To this ill-cemented coalition Rome opposed
all the strength of the Latin and Campanian nations from the
Ciminian forest to the Silarus ; and, what was worth more than
an army, unity of counsel and control.

The war commenced at both extremities at once, in Etruria
and in Lucania. Valerius Corvus, then consul for the sixth time,
was intrusted with the Etruscan war. The enemy, frightened by

1 Alba Fucentia was three miles from Lake Fucinus, at the foot of Monte Velino, but
upon the summit of a hill. This made it a very strong position ; and Rome sent thither, in
302, six thousand colonists (Livy, x. 1), and in later times used it as the state prison.
Syphax, Perseus, and Bituitus were incarcerated there. A part of the walls still remain.s ;
they have a circuit of about three miles, and in the interior are seen the village of Alba, of a
hundred and fifty inhabitants, and some ruins, those of the amphitheatre and a theatre. The
plan conveys an idea of what the ancient cities of Central Italy were like. See Promis,
Antichita di Alba Fucense.

ALIiA FUCENTIA. 1

448

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

the very name of such an adversary, allowed its country to be
devastated without risking a battle (299). The Samnites had sent
an army into Lucania, to aid their party. Rome summoned them
to recall it ; they would not listen even to the heralds. The
consul Fabius immediately marched ui^on Bovianum (298), beat

rnpM^LiV": LVC'.'f SC"'ie B/^rBATVS G^y/4IV0D PAT t

I'F^CWArVS f Of,TIS'V!F.S/\riEtJS0Vh- a/i5l\S-F0RMAVIRTVTEI-PAI.ISV r

• •■'■• f- CONSOV C E NSO* AIDILIS- GVEI- F VI r>PV»-VaS-TAVK ASI^CISAV N I-

MNIOK^EPir-SVBICITOAv^MELOVCANA/oPSIDEsaVE-ABDOVCIT^--

*-X^=>*^'^^'*i.

TOMB OF SCIPIO BAltBATlTS.

the enemy, whom he several times deceived by his strategy, and
took the town ; while his colleague, Scipio Barbatus, gained a
victory over the Etruscans (?) near Volaterrae. These successes
were no doubt less than they are represented,^ or else the people

' We have the inscription from the tomb of this consul. It is the most ancient monument
of the Latin language with a settled date that we possess [the ablative Gnawod ending in d
is peculiarly interesting. — Ed-I : —

Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus

Gnaii'od patre prorjnatus, Jhriis vir sapiensque.

Quotas forma virtutei parisuma fait.

Consol, censor, aidilis (/uei fait apnd ros

Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit

Subif/it omne Loacana opsidesque abdoucit.
Tluit is : —

Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barliatus,

Son of Cneus ; valiant and wise,
His beauty equalled his valor.
He was consul, censor, aedile,
Took Taurasia and Cisauna in Samnium,
Subdued all Lucania, and brourjht back hostages.
The omission of the victory over the Etruscans, related by Livy, proves that that hiS'

1.5- «

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FliOM .'511 TO 280. 449

were desirous of striking a decisive blow early in the campaign ;
for in the following year they obliged Fabins Rullianus, who had
just quitted his aedileship after having exercised his celi'bratod
censorship, to accept the consulslii[). Fabins only consented on
condition of having P. Decius for his colleague. In spite of all
attempts, the Etruscans, who did not wish to engage seriously
before the arrival of the Gauls, held themselves on the defensive,
and the two consuls were able to march towards Samnium. Having
each gained a victory, one at Tifernum, the other at Maleventum,
they remained five months m that province, methodically devastat-
ing the country, halting their legions in the richest valleys, and
leaving them only when they had destroyed everything. In this
manner Decius made forty-five encampments in Samnium, and
Fabius eighty-six, which were long afterward to be recognized by
the ruin and solitude surrounding them.

This systematic devastation, continued by Faliins in the follow-
ing year, inspired the Samnites with a desperate resolve. Quitting
their country, which they could no longer defend, they tlirew
themselves into Etruria under the leadership of Gellius Ignatius,
raised to rebellion the towns which still hesitated, persuading the
Umbrians to join them, and called in the Gauls.^

There was great terror in Rome, which unlucky omens served
to increase. It was said that the statue of Victory had descended
from its pedestal and had turned towards the Colline Gate, by
which the Gaiils had entered a century earlier. Did the god-
dess wish to flee from Rome, or to show her favorite people
where the danger or the triumph lay ? But tliis people, whose
superstition was boundless, never lost courage, even when they
doubted the assistance of their gods. At Rome the justltiioii
was proclaimed ; that is, the tribunals were closed, business was
suspended. All available men were enrolled, even to the freed-
men, and Volumnius was recalled from Samnium to help his
colleague Appius, who extricated himself by a sanguinary en-
gagement. But Campania was left defenceless, and the Samnites

torian here again attributed to the Romans a success which they never gained. We are
drawing near tlie time of historic certaint)', liowever ; for this Sei]jio was the grandfather
of the conqueror of Hannibal.

' Livy, ix. 21. Thus the people of La Vendee crossed the Loire to stir up Bi'ittany,
Maine, and Normandy.

VOL. I. 29

450 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

fell upon it. Volumnius hastened back into his province, beat the
enemy there, and delivered seven thousand four hundred prisoners.
This victory diminished the terrors of the city, and was celebrated
with public prayers.

Ai^pius, however, was left in a dangerous position : in front
of him the Saninite Egnatius, by his activity and hatred, animated
the coalition of all the nations of the north of the peninsula,
hushing rivalry, preaching union, and guiding the terrible Senones
into the defiles of the Apennines. The year 295 B. c. was critical ;
accordingly, all votes raised Fabius and Decius to the consulship.
Ninety thousand men at least, divided into five armies, were set
afoot. One of these armies invaded Samnium, whilst, under the
name of colonies, two garrisons occupied Minturnae and Sinuessa ;
another, encamped at the foot of the Janiculum, covered the city ;
the third, established near Falerii, protected the approaches to it ;
the fourth, commanded by Scijoio Barbatus, took up a position
in tlie territory of the Camertini, whence it watched the move-
ments of the Gauls ; and finally, the fifth, formed of the consular
legions, kept the field.

When Fabius came to take the command, Appius was keeping
this last army shut up in a camp, the defences of which he daily
strengthened. The new general scorned these precautions, which
frightened the soldiei's, tore down the palisades, and took the
offensive again. Meanwhile the Gauls attacked a legion posted
by Scipio near Camerinum, killed them to the last man, and,
having forced the passage of the Apennines, spread over the
plain, carrying at their saddles and on their pikes the bleeding
heads of the legionaries. If the conquerors should effect a junc-
tion with the Umbrians and Etruscans, it was clearly all over
with the consular army ; but Fabius by a diversion recalled the
Etruscans to the defence of their homes, and then hastened in
search of the Gallo-Samnite army in the plams of Sentinum. The
shock was terrible ; the war-chariots of the barbarians put the
Roman cavalry to flight, and broke the first line of the legions.
Seven thousand Romans on the left wing, commanded by Decius,
had already perished, when the consul, following his father's
example, devoted himself for the legions. " Before me," he cried,
after having pronounced the sacred formulae, " may terror and

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 451

fliglit. blood and death, tlie rage of tlie gods of heaven and hell
dash onwards ! May the breath of destruction annihilate the
hostile arms and standards ! " and he hurled himself into the
thickest of the fray. The sacrifice of the fii'st Decius had troubled
the Latin legions ; but the Gauls were inaccessible to these religious
terrors, and this fall of the consul served only to animate their
courage. The whole left wing would have been crushed, had not
Fabius, who had overcome the Samnites, hastened up. SuiTounded
on all sides, the barbarians retired without disorder, and, abandon-
ing a cause in which they were only auxiliaries, they regained
their own country. Twenty-five thousand Gallic and Samnite
corpses covered the field of battle ; eight thousand prisoners re-
mained in the hands of the Romans ; Egnatius had perished ; only
five thousand Samnites went back to their mountains. Fabius
again beat an army that had issued from Perugia,^ and then went
to Rome to enjoy his triumph. Behmd his car the soldiers sang
the praises of Decius : this was the justice of the people (295 B. c).

The coalition was dissolved. It remained to crush successively
those who had taken part in it, whose names the Senate never
forgot. But the Samnites, in spite of so many defeats, were yet
formidable.^ Like a lion stricken to death, this indomitable
nation did not perish without inflicting cruel wounds. Li the
following year they beat a consul. In another encounter Atilius
Regulus found himself so near a defeat, that he vowed a temple
to Jupiter Stator ; and as the winter approached, the Romans dared
not remain in Samnium. A diversion of the Etruscans remained
without any successful results. The colleague of Atilius had forced
a truce of forty years upon them.

The war was now about to concentrate in the Apennines. The
son of Papirius was sent thither with Sp. Carvilius. As they had
done fifteen years before, so now the Samnite chiefs called religion
to the aid of patriotism and union. The aged Ovius Paccius
assembled forty thousand warriors near Aquilonia. In the centre
of the camp was a tent of linen cloth ; in the middle of the tent
an altar ; around the altar stood soldiers with naked swords.

* lie slew of the Perugians, says Livy (x. 31), four tlinusanil tlvi.' liiindrod men, and cap
tured one thousand seven hundred and forty, who paid each for hi.s ransom 510 ases.
■^ Dura ilia pectora. (Id., ibid.)

452

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

After mysterious sacrifices, the bravest were led thither, one by-
one, hke so many victims ; ^ and each warrior, repeating the dread
imprecations of Paccius, devoted himself, his family, and all his
race to the anger of the gods, if he revealed these mysteries or
refused to follow his chiefs everywhere, if he fled from the fight
or did not himself slay those who fled. Some refused, and were
put to death. On their bodies, placed with those of the victims,
the others swore. Then from among these the generals appointed
ten, who in turn chose ten warriors, and so on up to sixteen
thousand. This was the Linen legion, the soldiers of which, clad

GALLIC CART (MUSEUM OF SAINT-tiKKMAIN).

in flashing armor, were all the bravest and noblest warriors of
Samnium. They kept their word. Thirty thousand Samnites
remained on the battle-field of Aquilonia, where Papirius had
displayed his father's talents.

A defection of the Faliscans called Carvilius into Etruria.
A few days suflaced to drive back the Etruscans, ever the enemies
of Rome, and ever fearful of a decisive combat. The Faliscans
gave a year's pay to the army, and paid a fine of 100,000 pounds
weight of copper (293 B. c).

At his triumph Papirius displayed 2,033,000 pounds weight
of copper, resulting from the sale of the prisoners, and 1,330

^ Nobilissimum ijueinque yenere faclisqua . . . nuujin ut victima, etc. (Livj, x. 38.)

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 453

pounds weight of silver, taken from the towns and temples.
Carvilius, on his side, placed 380, UOO pounds of bronze in the
treasury, distributed 200 ases to every soldier, and twice as
much to the centurions and knights.^ With the rest of his
bt)oty he built, on the left bank of the Tiber, the temple of
Fors Fortuna, Lucky Chance, — a strange deity for a people who
left so little to chance. The arms taken on the field of battle
were distributed to the colonies and allies as trophies ; and
of the part which fell to himself he had a colossal statue of
Jupiter made, which he placed on the top of the Capitoline
Hill, whence it commanded the city and the whole Roman Cam-
pagna.^

From this immense quantity of booty for a single campaign,
the slaughter on the battle-field, and the sale of slaves after the
victory, we can understand the depopulation and misery which
everywhere followed the legions. After half a centuiy of such
warfare, Samnium might well be exhausted ; and of the men who
had seen it begin, no doubt there were but very few left alive.
There was one, however, who from the depths of the retirement,
in which perhaps the reproaches of his fellow citizens held him,
followed in despair the course of these repeated disasters. This
was the hero of the Caudine Forks, the man who had believed in
Roman faith. The Samnites called him to their head for their last
effort, and Pontius Herennius reappeared victorious after a lapse
of twenty-nine years, in the plains of Campania. Fabius Gurges,
the son of the great Fabius, dared to attack him, and was beaten ;
but his father obtained leave from the Senate to go and serve
under him as lieutenant. The conqueror of Perugia and Sentinum
struck the last blow of this war. Twenty thousand Samnites
perished, and their leader was taken. Fabius Gurges triumphed ;
his father followed him on horseback, and behmd them marched
Pontius in chains. When the triumphant general left the Sacred
Way to ascend to the Capitol, the victors dragged Pontius to the

1 Livy's figures have been accused of exaggeration by those who maintain that the
mountaineers of Samnium were poor. That is true ; but they forget that for centuries
they had pillaged Campania, Apulia, and Magna Graecia, that ancient nations loved to
treasure up valuables, and that warrior tribes delight in displaying their wealth in their arms.

^ Here ends Livy's first decade; we do not meet him again till '120 B.C. This statue
was to be seen, says Pliny {Nat. Hist. xx.Kiv. 18), from the Alban Mount.

454 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

prison of Ancus.^ They went their way ; one to render thanks to
the gods, the other to yield his head to tlie executioner.

Two centuries later, the Roman who knew most of jus-
tice, who had the tenderest soul, still spoke of punishments due
to the vanquished.^ Ancient warfare was certainly a merciless
duel.

For one year more the legions pursued the remnants of the
Samnite armies, till Curius at length extorted from this nation
the acknowledgment of their defeat. A treaty, the clauses of
Avhich we do not know, classed them among the allies of Rome
(290 B. c). To keep them in restraint, Venusia, between Samnium
and Tarentum, was occupied by a numerous colony.

We know just as little of the operations of Curius in the
Sabine country. It is only mentioned that the Sabines paid for
the aid they had so tardily afforded the Samnites with a con-
siderable portion of their lands. On his return, after having
penetrated as far as the Adriatic, Curius uttered these words,
which show how Rome conducted a war : '' I have conquered so
many countries, that those regions would be but a A^ast solitude, had
I less prisoners to people them with. I have subdued so many
men, that we should not know how to feed them, , had I not
conquered so many lands." Accordingly, he distributed seven
jugera to every citizen. For himself he would accept no other
recompense. The Sabines had the rights of citizenship without
the suffrage ; but Reate, Nursia, and perhaps Amiternum, re-
mained simple praefectures.^ Castrum and Hadria, on the Adriatic,
were colonized. Curius triumphed twice ui the same year. This
honor, hitherto unprecedented, and the respect which attached
to his name, proclaim great services. The true Samnite war was
over.

For other reasons Curius well deserved to triumph twice, for
he had conquered nature as well as the Samnites. He turned the
Velinus aside into the Nera, and created the magnificent cascade

1 The Tullianum. See in Sallust (^Cat. bb) the description of the place where execu-
tions took place.

^ Cic., in Verrem, II. v. 30: Supplicia quae debentur liostihuis victis.

' Fest., s. V. Praefectura ; Aur. Vict., viii. 33; Veil. Paterc, i. 14. The long peace
which the Sabine country had enjoyed had increased the wealth of its inhabitants. It was
after the conquests of Curius, says Strabo, that the Romans became opulent.

CASCADES OF TERN).

COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETC., FROM 311 TO 280. 455

of Terni. Victors and vanquished have been dust these twenty-
three centuries ; but the marvellous spectacle that this Roman
created for himself lasts for ever.

Could this Samnite war, which caused such ruin, have been
avoided ? There is something of the bird of prey and the wild
Ix'ast even in many civilized men ; naturally these instincts of
rapine and carnage were more strongly developed in times when
humanity was nearer its origin. The men of the plains and those
of the mountains, the husbandmen and the shepherds, were neces-
sarily hostile to one another ; and in all ages the one race had
yielded to the temptation of reaping the lands sown by the other.
Rome, who was herself mistress of the Latin plain, and, through
Capua, also of the Campanian plain, was anxious to put a stop to
this periodical pillaging, and to act as the police of the Apen-
nines. With her usual tenacity, she succeeded in so doing. This
constituted the whole Samnite war. It had lasted fifty-three years
(343-290) ; and the intervals of peace had only served the two
nations for repairing their arms, for a moment's breathing time,
before they again closed in conflict.

Accordingly we have followed the incidents of this desperate
struggle and the slow death-pangs of a brave nation with tedium,
it is true, but also with admiration^ and involuntary regrets.
Boldness, heroism, love of country, — nothing was lacking to the
Samnites, nothing but that union which alone makes nations
strong. In order to rise to a glorious rank among the nations, it is
at times needful to sacrifice precious but enervating liberties. In
the very camp the Samnites did not forget the wild independence
of their mountains. At Aquilonia, in order to secure their
obedience for the last time, their chiefs had been obliged to call
the most dreadful mysteries of religion to the aid of their
authority. Therefore Samnium perished, and deserved to perish ;
for had she been victorious, she would never have drawn Italy and
the world from the chaos out of which Rome drew them.

1 Quinam sit ille, quern pigeat longinquitatis bellorum scribendo legendoque, quae gercntes non
/atigaverunt ? (Lhy. x. 31.)

456' CONQUEST OF ITALY.

III. Coalition of the Etruscans and Senones ; War

AGAINST THE LuCANIANS (283-281).

Latium, Campania, Apulia, and Samnium submitted to the
rule or the alliance of Rome. But on the north a part of
the Etruscans were hostile, and the Gauls had quickly for-
gotten their defeat at Sentinum. On the south, although the
Samnite nation had laid down their arms, there remained some
bands which, rejecting all }jeace with Rome, went to seek
refuge among the rugged mountains of Calabria. There are to
be found immense forests, where by degrees a new nation was
formed, the Bruttii, whom the Greeks and Romans disdainfully
called revolted slaves. Greeks and Lucanians saw with dread
the Roman rule drawing nearer to them, — Tarentum especially,
which showed a growing jealousy of the successes of the bar-
barous city on the banks of the Tiber. But how were so
many tribes to be united for common action ? Pyrrhus and
Hannibal himself could not effect it. Rome alone worked this
miracle, because she applied to the work two great forces, — wisdom
and time.

There was only an instant of serious danger. Arretium,
thanks to the Cilnii, had remained faithful to the alliance of
Rome ; some Etruscans, supported by an army of Senones, came
and besieged it. The legions hastened to the succor of the place;
but their leader, seven tribunes, and thirteen thousand soldiers,
fell on the field of battle ; ' the rest were taken prisoners (283),
This was one of the most bloody defeats that the Romans had
ever suffered ; it served to increase the alarm that the simple
announcement of a Gallic war caused among them. When the
Senate caused complaints to be brought before the council of the
Senones, their chief, Britomar, whose father had been slain in the
Ijattle of Arretium, replied by killing the deputies as expiatory
victims, whom he offered ., to the paternal manes. Indignation

^ Polybius, ii. 19 ; Orosius, iii. 22.

COALITION OF THE ETKUSCANS, ETC., FROM 283 TO 281. 457

doubled the strength of Rome, and two powerful armies were raised.
With one of them one of the consuls restrained or overcame the
Etruscans ; with the other Dolabella, quietly crossing the Sabine
country, entered the territory of the Senones by Picenuni, burned
their villages, slew the men, sold the women and children, and
only quitted the country when he had made it a desert. He
had borne thither the vengeance of Rome, which, when tlie
sons of the conquerors of the AUia were exterminated, no
longer blushed for the ransom carried off from the Capitol.
In order to prevent the Cisalpine Gauls from replacing the
Senones in this solitude, the Senate sent colonists to guard
the country, settling them at Sena, on the north of Ancona,
at Castrum, and at Hadria, in Picenum. As the sway of
the Romans had crossed the Apennines on the south by the
occupation of Venusia, so it crossed them on the north by settle-
ments on the Adriatic, whence she could watch over the Valley of
the Po.

The Boii, whose territory extended from Parma to Bologna,
grew alarmed at this extermination of a Gallic tribe. With
those of the Senones who had escaped the Roman sword, they
entered the Valley of the Arno by the defiles which led from
the Romagna to Florence, and passed through the whole of
Etruria, summoning all those who were still enemies to Rome.
But not far from Narnia, near a swampy marsh called Lake
Vadimon, they were stopped by a defeat with fearful slaughter.
Streams of blood ran as far as the Tiber, and reddened its
waters.

In the following year the Boii made peace (282 B. c). For
two years longer the Senate was obliged to send armies into
Etruria. The victory of Coruncanius over the Vulcientes put an
end to this war, which had begun almost with the beginning of
Rome. From the year 280 the name of Etruscans no longer
appears in the triumphal records.

Since the day when Fabius passed the Ciminian forest, the
Tuscan augurs could predict to their nation that the end of its life
was drawing near, and that the tenth century — in which, according
to ancient prophecies, its nationality was to perish — had arrived.
Resignation was easy to them. Their gods had spoken, and the

458'

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Romans had fulfilled the oracle. Why should they resist destiny,
especially when Rome demanded so little, when life was so sweet,
and natiire so fruitful in that land of plenty, where nothing
was lackmg for pleasure and luxury ? One of the ancients
said of the Etruscans : " Renouncing the virtues of which their
ancestors were so jealous, the Tuscans pass their lives in feast-
ing or in wanton pleasures ; they have
thus lost the glorious renown of their
fathers." ^ We may write here, then, Finis
Etruriae.

During these operations in the North,
hostilities had been actively carried on in
the South. The Greek town of Thurium
(Thurii) had implored the aid of Rome
against the Lucanians, who ravaged their
lands every summer. A first expedition
against these pillagers effected nothing; but
in 282 Fabricius opened his way as far as
Thurium, the blockade of whic}i he raised,
and left troops there. Locri, Crotona, and
perhaps Rhegium, also received Roman gar-
risons. On his return, Fabricius put 400
talents into the treasury : with the re-
mainder of the booty he paid large gra-
tuities to the soldiers, and restored to the
citizens what they had paid for the
^""""pLf clction"' ^^"- "Hlitary tax that year. Such productive

campaigns made men love war ; the am-
bition of the great and the greed of the poor found it to their
advantage.

Peace was apparently restored in the peninsula, and from the
Rubicon to the Straits of Messina all except Tarentum acknowl-
edged the majesty of the Roman people, or submitted to alliance
with it ; but the powerful city on the banks of the Taras, proud
of its Spartan origin, its riches, and the numerous vessels that
crowded its harbor, the mare Piccolo, was about to instigate a

' Diod., V. 40. Theopompus and Timaeus said mucli more . . . famulus nudas minis-
trare viris . . . communes mulieres, etc., Athen., Deipnosnph. xii. 14, and iv. 38.

ETRUSCAN FUNERAL URN.

COALITION OF THE ETRUSCANS, ETC., FROM 283 TO 281. 459

war move dangerous to Rome than had been any of the struggles
which she had sustained in the hist sixty years.

' Tliis volivi' sliiold scorns to represent llic fanious le<;entl of the gold of the Capitol
weighed by the (laiils ; below, Camillus and Breiinus ; above, the town anil its monuments ;
in the centre, a <^rotes(jue (ignre with rani's liorns, a twisted beard, and great leaves. 'I'he
workmanship is referred to the lirst century of our era. (l)odwcll, dc Parma Wnoriicdrdiana.)

VOTIVE SHIELD.^

CHAPTER XVI.

¥AK WITH PTEEHUS (280-272).

I. Rupture with Tarentum ; First Campaign of Pyrrhus

IN Italy (282-278).

WE have reached the moment when Rome and Greece are about
to clash. Greece was then moribund, and her end marked
the completion of a new jDeriod in the life of humanity. By allow-
ing individual genius its full flight, by leaving it untrammelled
by the bonds of priestcraft or of an overshadowing aristocracy,
Greece had created political liberty, art, and science ; but from an
excess of liberty social anarchy had arisen. The Greeks were
a great people ; Europe owes her civilization to them ; Init they
never were a great state. That is why others inherited their labors.
Rome represents a second age of the European world, — manhood
after youth, the people of action after the people of theory,
ambition after enthusiasm, discipline and order after liberty and
anarchy. Plato and Aristotle,-' tracing the ideal of a Greek city,
admit therein only a few thousand citizens, and even condemn
fruitfulness in women. Rome makes citizens even of her enemies,
and prepares her subjects to become so. Accordingly, her pros-
perity endures for ages, whilst that of the Greek cities had lasted
but a few years. Sparta had succeeded to Athens, Thebes to
Sparta, Macedonia to all three. Then when Alexander died, and

1 Plato would have no more than ,5,040 citizens (Laics, v.). Children born of parents
who are blemished or too old, says he, natural children or deformed, should be exposed. The
republic must not be burdened with them (isle;), v.). Aristotle demands that the number
of marriages and the number of children to be raised in each household should be fixed. If
the law of the country forbids the exposure of children, says ho, let abortion be practised
(Pollt. vii. 14, 10). He would have the number of citizens such that they might all know
one another {Ibid., vii. 14). In another place he mentions the means employed by the Cretans
to stop the increase of ]>opulation. (Pol. ii. 7, 4.)

WAK WITH PYREIIUS, FKOM 280 TO 272.

461

designs

with him, a huge disorder had shaken hi

the Indus to the Adriatic; confusion devoid of

Morality was di;-

COIN OK niCETAS

COIN OF CAMARINA.2

his vast

empire, from

greatness, chaos whence life could never spring !

based, nationalities were forgotten ; every

man's hand was against his neighbor's

for a little gold or power ; war became

a trade, as in Italy and in Germany

at the most disastrous periods of their

history ; and a few mercenary soldiers bestowed or took away

crowns.

This general decay of the Greek race had reached Sicily and
Magna Graecia. In Sicily the brilliant rule of Agathocles had
just closed, and everywhere petty
tyrants arose : ^ Hicetas at Syra-
cuse, Phintias at Agrigentum,
Tyndarion at Tauromenium, Hera-
clides at Leontini, etc. On the
west, Carthage was strengthening
herself ; on the north, the mer-
cenaries of Agathocles took possession of Messina by treason, mas-
sacred the male inhabitants, and thence extended their raids over
the whole island as far as Gela and
Camarina, which they pillaged.* On
the north of the straits Rhegium, so
hardly treated by DionysiTis the Elder ;
Locri, ruined by his son ; Metapontum,
almost destroyed by Cleonymus and
Agathocles; Thurium, which had replaced Sybaris without suc-
ceeding to its power ; Croton, thrice taken by Agathocles and
Dionysius, — all these, surrounded by Lucanians and Bruttians,

' Head of Ceres crowned with ears of wheat ; behind, the torch Ughted by Demeter
in her search for her daughter Proserpina ; the legend 2YPAK02IQN ; coin of the Syra-
cusans. On the reverse, a Victory in a chariot, drawn by two horses galloping ; above,
a star and the words EnUKETA; under the reign of Hicetas. Gold coin.

"^ Died., Fragm. xxii. Excerpt. Hoeschel., p. 495.

^ KAMAPINA (liav), coin of Camarina; head of Hercules with the Uon's skin. On the
reverse, figure on a rjuadrir/a crowned by Victory, probably in commemoration of a prize
won in the chariot-race at Ol^Tajna.

^ Diod., Fragm. x.xi. Excerpt. Hoeschel., p. 493.

^ Laurel-crowned head of Apollo. On the reverse, BA2IAE02 *INTIA, Phintias being
king, and a wild boar. Bronze coin.

COIN OP PHINTIAS.^

462

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

lived a miserable life amidst continual alarms. Tarentum was
an exception ; ^ but these Dorians, avIio had become the richest

merchants of Italy, had fallen
into a dissoluteness of manners
which made them incapable of
sustaining a serious struggle. Yet
the}^ had the haughtiness which
d'^^A.- wealth brings, and Avere angry

at hearing all Italy resound with the name of these barbarians

PLAN OF THE
HARBOUR OF

TARENTUM

3cale

HARBOR OF TARENTUM.

on the banks of the Tiber, who were as incapable of executing
a work of art as of arranging a festival.

The Senate had added to the Roman garrison of Thurium
a squadron of ten galleys to cruise in the gulf. One day, as the
people of Tarentum were assembled in the theatre facing the sea,
the Roman vessels appeared at the entrance of the port. A dem-
agogue, named Philocharis, cried out that, according to ancient

' Tarentum was the only port on this coast : Croton had only a summer roadstead
(Polyb., X. Fragra. i.). The principal industry of Tarentum was the manufacture and dye-
ing of woollen stuffs. Hence its relations with the Samnites, of whom it bought the
wool. The latter took in exchange salt, fish, and manufactured olijects. (Cf. Strabo, v.
p. 259.)

'^ TEAAS. Gala was the name of the torrent which ran at the foot of the walls of the
town, now the Fiume di Terranova. The god of this torrent was rejiresented imder the form
of an ox with a man's head. Thus our silver tetradrachma of the town of Gela shows it;
On tlie reverse, a chariot, or biga, and a figure crowned by a Victory, — a token of a prize
gained in the Olympic games.

WAR WITH PYRRHUS, FROM 280 TO 272.

463

treaties, tlie Romans had not the right to pass the Lacinian Cape.
Tlie Tarentines hastened to their vessels, attacked the Roman
galleys, sank fom' of them, took another, and butchered the crew ;
and, emboldened by this easy success, went and drove the Roman
garrison out of Thurium and pillaged tlic town. Soon a Roman
ambassador presented himself, demanding reparation. He was re-
ceived with hootins; and low insults : one buffoon dared to cover

THE L.\CIXIAN CAPE.*

the ambassador's toga with filth. '• Laugh," said Postumius, " laugh
now ; vour blood will wash out these stains." (282 b. c.)

Th^ Senate, however, entered upon this fresh war with
repugnance. The Etruscans still resisted the legions. Armed
bands overran Sanmium, and the Lucanians must be punished for
their repeated attacks upon Thurium. Moreover, it was evident
that the Tarentines would seek auxiliaries in Greece, as they had

' This solitary pillar still marks the site of the famous temple of Hera Lacinia, built on
the point of the ca])e. (From a photograph taken in 1882.)

464

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OF PYRRHUS.'

already done thrice, when they had called in Archidamas, king
of Spai-ta, Alexander of Molossus, and the Lacedaemonian Cleo-
nynius. The discussion lasted several days in the Senate. The

war party at last pre-
vailed, and the con-
sul Aemilius marched
through Samnium
against Tarentum. Be-
fore attacking it he
once more offered
peace. The nobles
accepted it ; but the popular party, who were the true masters of
the state, I'ejected all proposals, and invited Pyrrhus to make a
descent upon Italy (281).

Pyrrhiis, nephew of Olynapias, and son of Aeacides, king of
Epirus, was perhaps the ablest of all those who claimed to be the
heirs of Alexander. Tried, however, by the most diverse fortunes,
having already twice lost and regained his kingdom, and conquered
and abandoned Macedonia, he had acquired a restless ambition which
all his life long impelled him from one enterjJrise to another. At
Ipsus (301) he had fought for Antigonus against Seleucus, Lysim-
achus, and Cassander. As Asia fell to these, he dreamed of the
conquest of Rome, Sicily, and Carthage ; he desired to be the
Alexander of the West. Method was wanting in all his designs ;
accordingly, he lived and died less like a king than an adventurer.
In other respects, brilliant in mind and courage, like his cousin
Alexander ; like, him too, beloved by his people, even to the most
entire devotion ; a spoiled child of fortune, which so often smiled on
him and so often deserted him ; upright of heart, open to all noble
feelings, history at once loves and condemns him. When he saw
Fabricius, he desired to have him for a friend ; when he knew the
Eomans, he was eager to have them as allies ; and he never Alushed
at having been conquered by them.

The Tarentines spared neither presents nor promises. He was
to find in Italy 350,000 foot soldiers and 20,000 cavalry. In spite
of the warnings of his friend, the Thessalian Cineas, Pyrrhus

1 Head of Jupiter crowned with oak. On the reverse, BASIAEfiS HYPPOY, Pyrrhus
being king.

WAR WITH PYliRHUS, FROM 280 TO 272.

465

accepted, and immediately sent off Milo with three thousand men
to occupy the citadel of Tarentum. During the winter he prepared
a considerable armament — 120,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 2,000
archers, 500 slingers, and 20
elephants. In crossing, a tem-
pest dispersed the fleet and
almost dashed the royal vessel
on the coast of the Messapians.

When Pyrrhus arrived at
Tarentum, he closed the baths
and theatres, obliged the citizens
to take arms, and exercised them
pitilessly, like mercenaries. The
town of pleasure had become a
place of war. Many Tareutines
fled (280 B. c).

At Rome it was desired to
open the campaign with a sol-
emn declaration of war against
Pyrrhus ; but Epirus was far
away, and time pressed. They
escaped from the difficulty, as at
Caudium, Ijv a subterfuge. An
Epirote deserter bought a field,
and on this field the heralds
solemn!}' carried out the religious
ceremonie.s. The letter of the
law was fulfilled. The gods
oug;ht to consider themselves
satisfied. The public conscience

asked no more. Happily, the preparations for war were more
serious. The consuls enrolled, as in all times of extreme danger,
all the capable men, even of the proletariat. The freedom of Rome,
recently granted to several tribes, the colonies spread over Cam-
pania, Samnium, and Apulia, especially that of Venusia, which was
so numerous, and the garrisons in the advanced posts of Locri and

j^.c/imts,

VOL. I.

1 Statue in the C'apitoline ^luseum.
.30

4G6

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OF THE I.UCANIAN HERACLEIA.l

Rliegium, secured the fidelity of the allies. Moreover, to keep
them from the sight of hostile standards, Laevinus marched to
meet the King as far as the l:)anks of the Siris. In vain did

Pyrrhus strive to negotiate, con-
descending to act the part of
mediator ; the Romans repelled
every offer : they neither would
nor could allow a stranger to in-
terfere in the affairs of Italy. The
first hattle was fought near Hera-
clea, half way between Thurium and Tarentum. The elephants,
which were new to the Romans, threw their ranks into disorder.
They left fifteen thousand men on the field of liattle. But Pyrrhus
had lost thirteen thousand.^ "Another such victory," said the
latter, " and I return without an army to Epirus."
He himself was nearly slain by the Frentanian
Vulsinius ; and one of his officers, whom he had
equipped with his own weapons and royal mantle,
had fallen, covered with wounds.

This hard-earned victory, the very dangers he
had run, and what he had learned about Rome,
inspired the Greek King with an earnest regard
for these barbarians, whose tactics were so excellent. He had
reckoned, when crossing the Adriatic, on an easy war, and he met"
with the most redoubtable adversaries ; on numerous auxiliaries, and
the Italians had left him to fight alone at Heraclea. After this
battle, Locri had opened its gates to him ; the Cainpanian legion,
in garrison at Rhegium, massacred the inhal^itants of that city and
took their i^lace, as the Mamertines had done at Messina. Some
Lucanians and Samnites came to his camp ; Ijut tliis was very far
from the three hundred and seventy thousand men who had been
promised.

Pyrrhus renewed his first offers, — that the Romans should
leave free Tarentum and all the Greeks of Italy, and restore to

FIGHTING ELEPHANT
MAKING A PRISONER.^

^ Ilelmcted head of Minerva ; tlie reverse, Hercules choking a Hon, the hero's club, and
Minerva's bird, the owl. Siver coin.

^ These are the figures, the latter certainly false, given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
^ Gem in the Cabinet de France, No. 1,911 in Ch.abouillet's catalogue.

WAU \Vn II I'YRRHUS, FROM 280 TO 272. 4G7

the Samnites, Apulians, Lucanians, and Bruttians tlic cities and
lands which they had taken from them. In exchange, he offered
his alliance and the ransom of their prisoners. Cineas, whose
eloquence, it is said, had gained for rynluis more cities than his
arms, was charged with submitting these proposals to Rome. He
brought briljes for the senators, and rich robes for their wives ;
but he found nobody venal. Yet the Senate was inclined for peace.
The aged Appius, now blind, heard of this with indignation. He
had himself led to the senate-house : " I was sorry at not being
able to see," said he : " to-day I am sorry that I can hear ;" and
after havmg spoken strongly against what lie termed a cowardly
act, he ended with these words, which became ever afterward a
rule for the guidance of the Senate : " Let Pyrrhus leave Italy,
and then we shall talk of treating with him." ^ Cineas was
ordered to leave Rome the same day. Before his eyes two
legions were formed solely of volunteers. The sight of this
great cit}^, of its austere manners, of this patriotic zeal, struck
the Greek with admiration, brought up, as he had ])een, in
the midst of the base intrigues, the venality and decay of his
own country. " Tfie Senate," said he on his return, " seemed
to me an assemljly of kings. To fight with the Romans is
to fight the Hydra.^ Their numbers, like their courage, is
unbounded."

Pyrrhus tried a bold move. He left Lucania, avoided Laevi-
nus, wdio was covering Naples and Capua, threw himself into
the Valley of the Liris, took Fregellae, Anagni, Praeneste, and
pushed his advanced posts to within six leagues of Rome ; l)ut
nothing stirred around him, not a city revolted, and Laevinus was
approaching ; Coruncanius, who had just signed a peace with the
Etruscans, was bringing from Etruria another consular army, and
in the city new legions were being drilled.

Before this threatening circle could close around him, Pyrrhus
escaped with his booty, and returned to winter at Tarentum. The
legions also went into winter-quarters, except those which had
been defeated at Heraclea. As a punishment for their defeat,

* Cic, (le Sen. 6. This speech of Appius was still extant in Cicero's time.
2 Plut., Pijrrh. 19. See in Horace {Od. IV. iv. .57, Gl) the beautiful comparison, Duris ut
ilex .... Noii hydra sccto corpure firmior, etc.

468 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

they were made to stay in the enemy's territory, living on what
they could plunder.

The Senate, nevertheless, decided to ransom the prisoners.
These were, for the most part, cavalry, whom their horses, being
scared by the elephants, had thrown. They belonged, besides, to
the best houses in the city. Three commissioners went to treat
of their ransom or exchange, Aemilius Papus, Corn. Dolabella,
and Fabricius, the hero of the legends, which we are compelled
to follow during this period, when Dionysius and Livy fail us,
and after which Polybius begins. Pyrrhus refused ; but, from
esteem for Fabricius, whom he in vain tried to bribe, he allowed
his prisoners to go to Rome to keep the Saturnalia. Not
one of them failed to return. In the spring of the year 279 he
resumed hostilities in Apulia, and besieged Asculum, which the
two consuls, Sulpicius Saverrio and P. Decius, determined to save
by a battle. The report went abroad, it is said, in the two
armies that Decius would imitate the example of his father and
grandfather. The King gave his troops a description of the
costume which the consul would wear, and gave orders to seize
him alive and unwounded. At the same time he warned the
Roman generals that after the battle he would put the devoted to
an ignominious death, as a man practising sorcery and waging
unfair war.^

The fragment of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, found lately
at Mount Athos, does not say a word of the death of Decius,^ but
relates the battle in a way which seems to indicate a sort of
official despatch. It is indeed probable that Dionysius, who knew
the Commentaries written l)y Pyrrhus, had Ijorrowed from them, at
least partly, this account of the battle, which we give abridged.^
" Heralds had fixed beforehand the time and place of combat. The

' Zonaras, viii. 5.

2 Valerius Max. (V. iv. 5, 6) speaks only of the Decii, whose death in the Latin war and in
the Etruscan we have related. At Asculum Dionysius shows the two consuls acting in concert
right to the end of the battle. Cicero does the same in de Offic. (iii. 4) and de Senect. (20) ; but
in Tusc. Dhp. (i. 37) and in r/e Finibus (ii. 19) he admits the death of three Decii. These
discrepancies confirm the opinion of Valerius Maxinuis and Dionysius.

3 Dionysius and Plutarch cite the Commcntarh-x (JjTTuixvi]fj.aTa) of Pyrrhus. He had like-
wise written a treatise on the art of war, which Cicero rea<l. {Fam. ix. 25.) [I have even
abridged it further in the translation, as the details are quite conventional, and of no moment in
explaining to us the real points of strategy employed by either side. — Erf.]

AVAR WITH PYERHUS, FROM 280 TO 272. 469

Macedonian infantry were on the right with the Italian mercenaries
and the auxiliaries of Bruttiura and Lucania; the Aetolians and
Acarnanians filled the centre. The left wing was formed by the
Samnite battalions. The cavalry, elephants, and light-armed soldiers
covered the two extremities of the line, which reached a terrace of
land raised above the plain. A reserve of two thousand cavalry
was under the direct orders of Pyrrhus. The consuls adopted a
similar order. In the space between the four legions, they placed
the contingents from Latium and Campania and their other allies.
They distributed equally their cavalry on the two flanks of the
army. Three hundred four-wheeled war-chariots, bristling with
scythes and lances, were intended to take part this time in the
action. The}^ had been furnished Avith long movable poles, carry-
ing at one end bundles of tow steeped in pitch, in order that
when in flames the smoke and the smell would rout the
elephants.

" Pyrrhus had 70,000 infantry, 16,000 of whom wei'e Greeks,
who had crossed the Ionian Sea ; the consuls had nearly as many,
of whom 20,000 were Roman citizens and 8,000 horse. The King
had rather more cavalry, and nineteen elephants.

" On the signal being given, the Greeks sounded the paean, and
the cavalry opened the action. In the royal army the prize for
valor was gained by the Macedonians, who made the first legion
and the Latin allies retreat ; in the Roman army it was merited
by the second legion, who drove back the Molossi, Thesprotes, and
Chaonians.

" The battle was maintained with this alternation of diverse
fortune, when an unexpected succor reached the Romans. A body
of four thousand infantry and four hundred horsemen from the
city of Arpi, seeking to join the consuls, reached the high grounds
at the rear of the King's camp, and attacked it. Warned by a
soldier, Pyrrhus ordered his bravest horse to hasten to the camp
with some elephants, and drive away the pillagers. But the latter
had already set fire to it ; and, on seeing the troops despatched
against them, they retired to a steep hill, which the cavalry were
unable to climb.

" However, m the plain the fight continued. The Kmg was the
first to grow tired, and began, at the decline of day, to withdraw.

470 •

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

The Romans also withdrew ; they crossed the river, and returned
to their camp. Pyrrhus did not find his own again ; the tents and
his baggage were burned, and many of the wounded perished through
failure of succor ; ^ but he remained master of the field of battle."

If the Romans were worsted, they had, at all events, yielded
a victory dearly bought (279).^

For Pyrrhus this war was decidedly very serious and very
slow. He desired nothing more than a pretext to give it up with
honor. Fabricius having forewarned him that his physician,
Philip, sought to poison him, he sent back all the prisoners with-
out ransom (278).^ After this exchange of amenities it was hard
to fight any longer. So, leaving Milo in the citadel of Tarentum,
and his son Alexander at Locri, he crossed into Sicily, whither the
Greeks had invited him against the Mamertines and Carthaginians.

II. Ptrrhus in Sicily ; Capture of Tarentum (272).

Carthage had recently sent a fleet to Ostia of a hundred and
twenty galleys, offering help to the Senate against
Pyrrhus. The Senate had declined it, at the same
time renewing their ancient alliance. The two
r('pul)lics seemed to have then the same interests;
they struggled against the same enemies : the one
against the Greeks of Italy, the other against
those of Sicily. The Carthaginians were again
besieging Syracuse. It is to the succor of this
city that Pyrrhus,^ as son-in-law of Agathocles,
He raised the blockade, and drove the Africans back

ALEXANDER II.,
KINO OF EPIRUS.*

was invited.

^ Dionys., Ant. Rom., excerpta ex Ubro, xx. 1, 3.

^ According to the Koman anualists, their countrymen bad made a great carnage of the
King's troops. A contemporary, Ilieronymus of Cardia, following the Commentaries of Pyrrhus,
makes the loss of the Romans six thousand men, that of the E])irotes three thousand five
hundred and six. [Cf. jMiiller, Frag. Hist. Graec. ii. 454. — Ed.']

^ These details are too strongly out of character with the wars wliich precede or follow and
with ancient manners, which possess nothing chivalrous in them, to be accepted without
suspicion. The story of Pyrrhus' physician is an evident reminiscence of the story of
Alexander's physician.

* Alexander, son of Pyrrhus and Larissa, with a head-dress from the hide of an elephant's
head. Gem from the Cabinet de France, No. 2,050 in Chabouillet's catalogue.

' Pvrrbus had married his daughter Larissa or Lanessa ; cf. Diod., xxii. 14.

WAE WITH PYREHUS, FROM 280 TO 272. 471

from port to port as far as Lilybaeum, which he could not take.
'I'hcre, as in Italj-, after victories arose misunderstanding with his
allies and the tediousness of a war which would not end. Pyrrhus
had lost Cineas. Urged on by new counsellors to violent measures,
he severely punished some acts of perfidy, and alienated by his
haughtiness the Sicilians, to whom he wished to give as their
king his son Alexander. Besides, he had remaining very few of
his veteran Epirotes, as the bravest had perished at Heraclea,
Asculum, and in the battles against the Carthaginians. With an
army of Greek and barbarian mercenaries, he did not feel himself
secure against the Sicilians. The entreaties of the Italians, hard
pressed by Eome, decided him ; and for the second time he left
his enterprise uncompleted (278-276).

Every year since his departure had been marked by the suc-
cesses of the Romans. In 278 Fabricius had beaten the Lucanians,
Bruttians, Tarentines, Salentines, and compelled Heraclea to enter
into alliance with Rome. In 277 Rufinus and Bubulcus had com-
pleted the devastation of Samnium, and

forced the remainder of the population to /?$'^*^\ i^S®^^
seek, like wild beasts, a refuge in the ( 1 ^ %_ -■i'^Wr™P\^&i^l
forests and on the highest mountains. \^^f^ ^^^^^M
Then Rufinus had gone to capture Cro- ^^^^ ^^ beneventum.^
ton and Locri. The following year there

was a fresh victory over all those nations, who then recalled
Pyrrhvis. At the crossing of the straits the Carthaginians
beat his fleet and captured his military chest ; then he en-
countered the Mamertines, who had reached Italy before him,
and through whom he was compelled to force a passage. One
of them, of gigantic stature, was eager in his pursuit, when
Pyrrhus turned about and with an axe cleft him from the head
to the saddle. At Locri, which he re-entered, he pillaged
Proserpine's temple to pay his mercenaries. But this sacrilege,
he himself said, drew down on his arms the anger of the
goddess,^ and caused his fortune to fail at Beneventum. Curius

1 Coin of Beneventum, BENEVENTOD. Lanrel-crownetl head of Apollo; on the
reverse, nPOnOM, a word that Eokhel (vol. i. \). 102) believes to be the name of a magistrate.
A horse at large ; above, a pentagon. Bronze coin.

^ 'Qs . . . Kal avTos 6 Hvppos iv rots (Slots inrofiUTjfiatTt ypdfpei* (Dionys., Ant, Rom*,
exc. ex libra, xx. 10.)

472 ■

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OF ANTIGONUS GONATAS.'^

Dentatus was then in command of the Roman army. The legion-
aries had become accus-
tomed to the Lucanian
oxen^ as they named
the elephants ; they
knew how to keep them
off by a shower of
darts, or by burning
brands : their victory
was complete. Even the royal camp fell into their hands (275).
Pyrrhus was unable longer to keep in Italy ; he
left a garrison at Tarentum, and crossed into Epirus
(274) with an army reduced to eight thousand
men, and without money to pay it. He led it
to fresh enterprises, tried to reconquer Macedonia
from Antigonus Gonatas, was proclaimed king there
PTOLEMY for the second time, then met an ignoble death, at
PHILADELPHU8.5 |;jjg attack ou Argos, from the hand of an old
woman (272).

The following inscription has been recently found at Dodona : *
" King Pyrrhus and the Epirotes have dedicated to Jupiter Na'ios

these spoils of the Romans and their
allies." Whilst these lying trophies
were hung up in the most venerable of
the sanctuaries of Greece, Curius was
triumphing at Rome on a car drawn by
four elephants, and an ambassador from
the King of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelj)hus, came to congratulate
the Senate, and to ask its friendship. The alliance of the two
states became a rule of national policy, at Rome as at Alexandria.

DEMETRIUS POLIORCETES.^

1 [A formation like turkey-cock or Nil-pferd. — Ed.']

'^ Coin of Antigonus Gonatas. Bust of Pan, with the pedum (see p. 262) on a Macedo-
nian shield; the reverse, BASIAEDS ANTirONOY. Minerva walking; beside her, a helmet and
monogram. Tetradraclniia in silver of Antigonus Gonatas.

^ From the quadruple .stater of gold of Ptolemy Soter, Berenice, Ptolemy Philadelphus,
and Arsinoe.

* By M. Carapanos, the able and learned excavator of Dodona, the results of which lie
has j)ublished in a magnificent work.

6 On the right, the head of Demetrius Poliorcetes ; the reverse, BA2IAEQ2 AHMHTPIOY :
a horse-soldier (Demetrius?) with a JNIacedonian helmet and armed with a lance. Gold
stater.

WAR WITH PYEEHUS, FEOM 280 TO 272.

473

Some years before, Demetrius Poliorcetes had sent back to the
Senate some prisoners made on tlie Italian ships whicli cruised
in Greek waters. Thus, the princes of tlie East turned their
eyes towards this new power, which they saw seizing the
dominion of Italy. But in Pyrrhus the Romans had con-
({uered in advance all the successors of Alexander. The Romans
had triumphed over the Macedonian phalanx and the elephants,
those living engines of war belonging to the Asiatic and African
armies.

Hostilities, but of no importance, lasted for some years longer
in the south of Italy. A victory of Papirius Cursor and Spurius

QTJINCUSSIS WITH THE FIGURE OF AN ELEPHANT.'

Carvilius disarmed the last Samnite bands. This people at length
submitted, and gave numerous hostages. It was seventy years
ago since the battle of Mount Gaurus had been fought ; and
in this long war the consuls obtained the triumph twenty-four
times.

The same year Papirius received the submission of the Lucanians,
and Milo (272) delivered up Tarentum, the walls of which were
destroyed, its arms and vessels taken away. The citadel was
preserved, into which the Senate put a garrison to hold the city,
which was condemned to an annual tribute, and to keep away
the Carthaginians from the best part of South Italy. Pyrrhus
had, in fact, hardly left, before distrust grew up between the two
republics. During the siege of Tarentum by tlie Romans a

* This money, worth five-twelfths of a libra, was coined in memory of the victory gained
OTer Pyrrhus.

474 CONQUEST OF ITALY,

Carthaginian fleet appeared outside the port,^ offering assistance.
Papirius had done all he could to keep off this formidable aid,
and the city owed to these fears the fact of its being less harshly
treated. Before eight years were gone by, this mistrust changed
into a terrible war.

The struggle for the rule of Italy was ended. Measures
rather of policy than of war will account for some agitations,
which ax"e the last paroxysms of this great body of Italian people.
The Senate knows that there are no enemies to be despised, and
that great conflagrations are often produced from mere sparks.
Placed in the centre of Italy, it could hear the least sound
and watch every movement. Nothing escaped this surveillance,
which never slept in times of success, and as soon as danger
showed itself, strong forces were at once sent to the threatened
point.

Thus, in the year that followed the capture of Tarentum, the
consul Genucius went to demand reckoning for their misdeeds of
the revolted legionaries of Rhegium. Three hundred of them,
being sent to Rome, were scourged and beheaded. The rest had
almost all perished in the attack.^

In 269 a Samnite hostage, Lollius, escaped from Rome, col-
lected a few adventurers, and tried to raise the Caraceni in the
high valley of the Sagrus. The two consuls at once sent against
him quickly stifled this re-opening war.

The year after, it is the Picentes who are strugglmg with
two other consular armies, and who are compelled to submit at
the mercy of the Senate ; then the Sarsinates and the whole
Umbrian nation, which receives the final stroke ; and lastly, in the
south of Italy the Salentines and Messapians, who suffer the attack
of the legions less on account of their alliance with Pyrrhus than
because they possess the port of Brundusium, the best passage
from Italy to Greece. Already the Senate turned its eyes in this
direction. Some disturbances were arismg also in certain villages

' There are, as to this fact, great variations between Orosius (iv. 2), Zonaras (viii. 6),
the Epitome of Livy (xiv.), and Dion Cassius. In Livy (xxi. 10), Hanno gives as the cause
of the First Punic War an attack on Tarentum projected by the Carthaginians ; but it is
Livy who makes him say it.

2 Polyb., i. 7 ; Val. Max., U. vii. 15.

WAR WITH PYRRHUS, FROM 280 TO 272. 475

of Etruria, where two classes, the dominant and the subject, were
always face to face ; the latter cultiv^ating the earth, working
marble and iron for the former, who lived in abundance, whilst
the plebs, subjected to a sort of slavery, continued in wretchedness.

At Rome the poor had reached, by a slow but continuous
progress, comfort, political equality, and agreement with the patri-
cians ; in Etruria they had sought to bring about this change by
violence and crime. This difference explains the opposite destinies
of the two peoples.

Volsinii, built on a hill overlooking a beautiful lake, was the
chief of the Etruscan cities,^ but also one of the most effemi-
nate ; and its loose morals were combined with the most violent
passions. A popular revolution deprived the nobles of their
liberties, their property, even the honor of their families ; for their
daughters were compelled to marry the clients and slaves of the
city. The nobility called in the Romans, who took the city b}'
famine and destroyed it (360), after having carried away, Pliny
assures us, two thousand statues. Much blood was shed. Rome
made little distinction between the slaves revolted against their
masters, the clients armed against their patrons, and the nobles,
traitors to their native land. The remnants of the population were
forbidden to inhabit the site of the old Etruscan metropolis. Even
the ruins of this powerful city have disappeared.

This expedition was the last clash of arms heard in Italy till
the explosion of the Punic wars (265). But these are impend-
ing. The military habits acquired by the Romans durmg these
seventy years of fighting, this pillage of Italy, which had enriched
the city, the nobility, and people, — these victories, which had
raised the ambition, the patriotism, and pride of the nation,
were to commit Rome to eternal war. The genius of conquest
henceforward inspired the senate-house.

1 Caput Etruriae. (Livy, x. 37.) The temple of Voltumna, whore the hieumons assembled
yearly, was situated on its territory. The lempio di Norzia, to be seen at Bolsena near the
Florence gate, is Roman work. The Etruscan city was on the height at the place called (7
Piazzano, above the amphitheatre of Bolsena (Dennis, Etruria, i. oOS) ; the Roman city was
built at the foot of the hill. It was a custom of the Romans to compel the vanquished to
abandon cities built on heights, and descend into the plain.

CHAPTER XVII.

OEGANIZATION OF ITALY BY THE EOMANS.

I. The Freedom of the City, and the Thirty-five Tribes.

WHILE Rome was bringing Italy into subjection, the Greeks
were overturning the Persian monarchy. To the latter,
a few years in one human life had sufficed to conquer from the
Adriatic to the Indus. Rome required a century to stretch from
the Rubicon to the Straits of Messina. If she advanced only
step by step, she knew at least how to keep what she took ;
while Greece, at the end of a few generations, had lost all, even
her liberty.

In that immovable East, where governments pass away
like the water of the streams which are lost in the desert,
but where manners last like unchangeable Nature, the rev-
olution which transferred the empire from the Persians to the
Macedonians had no lasting results, and that old world was agitated
only on the surface. The Greeks found themselves neither
numerous nor strong enough to organize after having conquered,
to establish after having destroyed. Left, after Alexander, without
guidance ; lost, so to speak, in the midst of Asiatic populations, —
they exercised on the latter only a feeble influence, and by their
imprudent divisions they encouraged revolts. What the con-
queror might have perhaps known how to do, — to bind together
all these nations, whose bonds the Persian monarchy had broken
in its fall, not one of his successors attempted.^ There, as elsewhere,

1 [I need hardly say that the text gives rather a rhetorical than an historical view of the
Diadochi. They each strove to recover for themselves the whole dominion of Alexander, — at
least Perdiccas did, and Antigonus, Demetrius, and Seleuciis. But they were too evenly matched,
and wore one another out in mutual conflicts. Ptolemy alone of the leading men confined
himself to Egypt and the surrounding coast, and so Ilellenized Egyi)t very completely. But,

ORGANIZATION OF ITALY. 477

Greece was convicted of inability to organize anything great, out-
side of the petty states wliich, small as they were, were yet too
large for her philosophers and public men. In the political world,
therefore, there resulted from this conquest nothing but a vast
confusion ; and if, in morals, there grew up between these men of
two hitherto separated worlds, a useful interchange of doctrines ;
if from the comparison of their systems of religion and philosophy
there proceeded a rich intellectual development, — it was the West
only that profited thereby, since only in the West was Rome able
to establish the order and unity of power.

The Roman state grows slowly. Her territory becomes wider
only as her population augments ; before she makes a country into
a province, she prepares long in advance her support there ; she
creates therein a Roman population, — Roman either in interest
or by origin. Into the midst of twenty independent nations she
throws out a colony, — an advanced sentinel, forever on guard.
Of one city she makes an ally ; to another she grants the honor
of living under quiritarian law, — here, with the right of suffrage,
there, with the local government preserved. Municipia of various
grades, Latin colonies, Roman colonies, prefectures, allied cities,
free cities, all isolated by the difference in their condition, all
united by then- equal dependence upon the Senate, they form a
great network entwined about the Italian peoples until the day
when, without further struggles, the latter awake to find them-
selves subjects of Rome. Let us examine thoroughly this
policy which made of a little city the greatest emphe of the
world.-^

Ancient patriotism had something material and narrow in it. The
country which a man could see and touch, whose extent could be em-
braced with the eye from the summit of Cape Sunium, from Mount
Taygetus, or from the Capitol, was the real fatherland, the hearths
and the altar for which he ought to die : pro aris et focis. But
those invisible ties of a common language, of the same ideas and

indeed, so did the Seleucidae Ilellenize SjTia, and even as far as the Punjab. Greek infhientes
were deep and lasting. — Ed.']

^ Tacitus says so {Ann. xi. 24) : Qu'u! aliud exilto Lacedaemoniis et Athenie7it>ilms
fuil, quanqtiam armis pollerent, ttisi quod oictos pro alicnif/enii arccbant? At condilor
no.tiri Romultis tantum sapientia valuit, ut plerosque popidos eodem die hostes, dein cives
habuerit (Speech of Claudius).

478 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

sentiments and manners and interests, — this patriotism, born of
Christian brotherliood and modern civilization, was unknown in
antiquity.^ Each was of liis own tribe, his canton, or his city. Like
Sparta, Athens, and Carthage, lilce all the conquering republics of
antiquity, Rome did not desire her sovereignty to pass beyond her
Forum and her senate-house. These cities were not capitals, but the
entire state. There were citizens^ only inside these walls or on the
narrow territory which lay around them ; beyond were only con-
quered lands or subjects. Accordingly, Sparta, Athens, and Carthage,
which never gave up this municipal pride, were never more than
cities, and perished.^ Rome, which often forgot it, became a great
people, and lived twelve centuries.

The political wisdom of the Romans never rose, however,
to the idea of creating an Italian nation. To deprive the van-
quished of the right of foreign policy because it was Rome's
interest to suppress local wars in Italy, as later on she put
them down in the world ; to place them in varied conditions
of dependence, so that an unequal pressure might prevent a
dangerous concert ; in short, to make use of them to promote
Roman security and grandeur by requiring their assistance against
every foreign enemy, — this was the design of the Senate when
the legions had conquered Italy. To comprehend and control
this situation the Senate had merely to review its own history.
Two very ancient ideas inspired its conduct. As regards political
rights, it placed the Italians, towards the people of Rome, in the
position which the plebeians had so long occupied in their relation
to the patricians, that is to say, it made them a subordinate people.

1 [This ignores the Pan-IIelleuic sentiment so prominent in the policy of Pericles, the
letters of Isocrates, the speeches of Demosthenes, and elsewhere. — Ed.}

2 The maximum of the numher of citizens was at Athens 20,000. (Thucyd., ii. 13;
Demosth., ailv. Aristog. i. ; cf. Boeckh, i. 7.) "The limitation of the number of citizens
was the basis of the government of Greece." (Letronne, Acad, des Inscr. vi. 18G.)

3 According to the public law of Greece, the conquered were either massacred, as the
Plataeans and Melians, or driven away, as the Potidaeans, the Scyreans, the Carians of
Lemnos, etc. (Thucyd., ii. 27 ; Diod. Sic, xii. 44 ; Corn. jSTep., dm. 2, and Mill. 2) ;
or enslaved, as the Dolopes, the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Tmbros (Thucyd., i. 98 ; Diod.,
xi. 60) and the ancient inhabitants of Crete under the Dorians (Athen., vi.) ; or made slaves
of the soil, as the Helots, the Penestae, the Maryandinians among the Heraeleotes of Pontus,
the Gymnesii at Argos. (IVlliller, Dor. ii. p. 55.) Others, more fortunate, were subjected
only to tribute and some humiUating conditions, as the Messenians, the Lesbians, etc.
(Paus., Messen. ; Thucyd., iii. 50.) All this was far from the state of things in the Roman
policy.

ORGANIZATION OF ITALY. 479

As regards the common defence, the Senate imposed on them the
part wliich the Latins and Hernicans had filled after the treaty
of Spurius Cassius; it used them as guardians of its fortunes and
instruments of its power.

The origin of Rome, in fact, its history and policy, which
under tlie kings had opened the city to the conquered, under the
consuls the Senate to the plebeians, had taught the Senate that
force alone establishes nothing durable, and that the vanquished
cannot be trampled under foot for ever. Implacable on the field
of battle, Rome showed no pity either for the hostile chiefs who
fell into her hands or for the city handed over to her will. She
massacred in cold blood, and made wars of extermination, at the
end of which whole peoples had disappeared. In other cases she
took a part of their territory : that is ancient war in all its
severity. But after the victory there is no tyrannical oppression ;
she leaves to her sul)jects their laws, their magistrates, their re-
ligion, — in fact, all their municipal life ; no tribute, — that lastmg
and painful mark of defeat and servitude ; no fiscal extortions or
arbitrary levies of soldiers ; in case of a common danger they
furnish subsidies of men and money according to rules established
for the Romans themselves. If they have lost their independence
they have become members of a powerful state, which reflects on
them the glory of its name ; and when the wounds made by war
are healed, they are certainly more happy than before their defeat,
since they enjoy peace and security in place of frequent struggles
and perpetual alarms.^

The sovereign people of the Quirites is always that of the
Forum, and it can exercise its rights only in the sacred enclosure
of the j^omoen'um ; ^ l)ut into this enclosure the vanquished are by
degrees admitted, according as they become gradually penetrated

* Dionys. (i. 89) says of Rome: KoworaTTjv re noXeav koi (piXavBpiaTvnrdrrjv; ff. ihhi., ii. IG,
and Sail., Cat. 6; Flor., i. 1 ; Livy, passim; Tac, Ami. xi. 24; and Cicero in a beautiful
passage (de Leyibus, ii. 2) and in pro Balbo (13): Romulus docuil eliam hoslibus rccipiendis
augeri hanc civitatein^portcrc. Cuj'us auctoritate . . . nunquam est intermissa largitio el com-
municatio civitalis. [All these ])anegyrifs on the Roman peace ignore the fact that Italy as
a whole did not prosper under this rule. It became depopidated more and more, and pro-
vincial life became gradually sadder and duller. The loss of political lilierty, with the imju'tus
it gives to intellect and to material enterprise, is never counterbalanced by the so-called
blessings of an ignoble and compulsory peace. — Ed.}

^ Roma sola urbs, cetera oppida. (Isid., viii. 6.)

480

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

with the Roman spirit. The bravest and nearest entered it first.
It was, without doubt, for the Romans a partition of the profits
of victory ; so also was it, by doubUng their number, an assurance
<jf new victories and durable conquests. Between 384 and 264
twelve tribes were created, and the ager Romanus spread from
the Ciminian forest to the middle of Campania. On this territory
the censors reckoned 292,3-34 fighting men,' — i. e., a population
of 1,200,000 souls close around Rome, which was certainly strong

CHEST OF PRAENESTE.^

enough to keep the rest of Italy in awe.''^ Two centuries before, the
military population did not exceed 124,214 men.* In spite of the
losses from the Gallic and Samnite wars, the force of Rome in
citizens, and consequently in soldiers, increased in the proportion

' Census made at the commenceraent of the First Punic War. (Epit. Livy, xvi. ; cf.
Eutrop., ii. 10.)

- This chest, taken from the Atlas of the Biill. Arrli., vol. viii. pi. 8, has unfortunately
been cut, no doulit to lessen its height. The part which remains represents Aeneas killing
Turnus, Camilla on her chariot, etc. It is the old legend of the Trojan origin of Rome,
treated by a Greek artist. W'c shall see later at what period the legend became established
in Latium. '•*

* I follow, for the evaluation of the whole ])0|)ulation, the rule adopted by Clinton in his
Fasti Hellenici. Ihne {Rom. Gtscli. i. 465) stretches these figures, and reaches a population
of a million and a haU, for which he gives half a million of slaves. I think both these
numbers e.\aggerated, especially the latter.

< Census of 463 (Livy, iii. ?,). The number in 338 was still only IGti.OOO, before the
great annexations which the success of the war, then commencing, admitted.

OEGANIZATION OF ITALY. 481

of 1 to 3. The old Roman stock counts for scarcely half of this
number. But its 21 tribes^ gave 21 votes, and the new citizens,
perhaps more numerous, counted as 12 only ; the districts of South
Etruria, Roman since 387 B. c, had 4 votes ; the Latins, Volscians,
Ausones, and the Aequians, 2 each ; the Sabines in 241 formed no
more than two tribes.^ Let us add that the distance from Rome
of the new citizens did not permit them, without costly journeys,
to attend the comitia to vote in the centuries. Thus while
doubluig her military strength, while declaring the peoples estab-
lished around lier as far as 50, 60, or 100 miles from her walls
members of the sovereign state, Rome prudently reserved to her
ancient citizens their legitimate influence. She satisfies the vanity
of her suljjects without altering the fundamental nature of her con-
stitution ; she remains a city, and is already almost a nation ; she
has the strength of numbers and that of unity.

This union, however, was never so complete but that there
remained at the very gates of Rome some independent towns. In
every direction the territory of the 35 tribes, arjcr Romanus, was
intersected b}' foreign territories, ager peregrinus. At Tibur, at
Praeneste, the Roman exiles found an inviolable asylum ; for the law
which interdicted them fire -and water was unable to touch them
beyond the lands of the Repuljlic.^ While making their own Forum
the only theatre of political discussions, the only place from the
Umbro to the Vulturnus where lofty ambition and great talents
could find scope, the Senate Avished to leave some encouragement
to this old love of the Italians for municipal independence.
Many a town of Latium. nomen Latinum* still continued a foreign

' Four urban : the Efquiline, Colline, Suhuran, and Palatine ; 17 rural: AeniiUa, Camilla,
Claudia, Cornelia, Crustumina, Fabia, Valeria, Horatia, Lemonia, Menenia, Papiria, Pallia,
Pupinia, Romilia, Seryia, Veturia, and Vollinia. The four urban tribes have geographical
names ; the seventeen rural tribes, one onl}' excepted, Crustumina, bear the names of
patrician gentes.

^ Etruscan.: Stcllatina, Tromentina, Sabatina, Arniensis, in 387 (Livy, vi. 5); Volscian :
Pomptina and Publilia, in 358 (Livy, vii. 15); Latins: Maecia and Scaptia, in 332 (Livy,
viii. 17); Ausones, Oufentina and Falerina, in 318 (Livy, i.x. 20) ; Aequi, Anicnuix and
Terentina, in 299 (Livy, x. 9) ; Sabines, Velina and Quirinn, in 241 (Livy, Epit., xix.).

^ The same at Naples.

■* The nomen Lalinum now includes what remained of the ancient Latin peoples not vet
attached to the Roman city, and those who had received the jus Latii, as colonies of the Latin
name ; but among these people " of the Latin name " there were also differences : some kept
some of the privileges from the ancient alliance concluded by Sp. Cassius : others, who jjerhaps

VOL. I. 31

482 . CONQUEST OF ITALY.

city, and yet attached by divers bonds to the great association
of peoples and cities which formed the Roman Republic. Less
hardly treated in general than the other peoples of Italy, sur-
rounded by Roman citizens, possessing the same material interests,
the same language, the same manners, often the same civil laws,
with the right of trade, jus commercii, and many facilities for
obtaining the freedom of the city, the Latins had no other feelings
than those of Roman citizens. The election of their magistrates
and senators (decuriones), the liberty left them of making laws of
local interest, of administering their revenues, of coining,^ of watch-
ing over the worship and police of their city,^ occupied men's life in
these little cities. Their political speaking, less far-reaching than
the Roman debates, was not less impassioned. Before seeing at
Rome the rivalry of Marius and Sylla, Cicero had seen at Arpinum
the hereditary struggles of his ancestors and of those of Marius.*
But the Senate took good care not to forget these consuls, these
municipal censors in their own municipality. It had appointed
that the exercise of a municipal office should give the freedom of
the Roman city ; * in this way attaching to the fortune and interests
of Rome whatever men of wealth, nobility, or ambition were in the
Latin towns. To disarm the plebeians, it had taken their chiefs
into its bosom ; to disarm the Latins, it summoned their nobility to
Rome.

This freedom of the city, which the Senate knew so well how

were at first the inhabitants of the twelve Latin colonies founded since 2G8, had not the right
of coinage, excepting cojjper, and retained the jus commercii with restrictions. Hence one
distinction between the Latium majus and the Latium minus, which spread greatly under the
Empire. This Latium minus opened the Roman city to those of the Latins who had borne
one of the great municipal offices or convicted a Roman magistrate of peculation.

^ It seems that from 2G8 the Latins ceased the coinage of silver money, and that the
issuing of their bronze coin stopped after the Second Punic War. (Mommscn, llisl. of Roman
Money, iii. 188-195.)

^ Aul. Gell., Noct. Att. xvi. 13 : legihus sttis et sua jure utentes. See ibid., iv. 4, the proof
of the existence among the Latins of a civil law distinct, from that of Rome for marriages,
and in Livy (xxxv. 7) for debts. The Julian law destroyed this special law.

' De Leg., iii. 10. Arpinum, on a hill which overhangs the Liris near its confluence with
the Fibrenus, was surrounded by Cyclopean walls with a remarkable gate (see this gate,
p. 47, No. 7). Cicero built for himself, quite near, a villa on one of the isles of the Fibrenus.
See the charming description which he gives of it in de Legibus, ii. 1. It is in this
passage that the beautiful words are found, cited on p. 210.

* Strab., iv. p. 187 ; App., Bell. Civ. ii. 26 : 'Qv oo-oi Knr' eror ^px"^ iytyvovro 'Pm/xaifflC
TToXiToi ; Gaius, i. 96 : Hi qui rel mayistratum vel honorem gerunt ad civitatem Romanam
perveniunt.

a;
o

O
W
iJ

!?;
o

H
«

OEGANIZATION OF ITALY. 483

to use for stimulating zeal, recompensing services, or softening the
regret of lost liberty/ implied for him who had obtained it abso-
lute authority over his children, wife, slaves, and property, the
guaranty of personal liberty, of religion, of the right of appeal,
and that of voting up to 60 years of age ; ^ fitness for office, in-
scription on the censor's lists, and the obligation of military service
in the legions ; that of permission to buy and sell according to the
law of the Quirites ; ^ exemption from every impost except that
which citizens paid ; * lastly, the useful right of participating in the
enjoyment of the domain lands or in the farming out of the
taxes, — in a word, the benefit of the civil, political, and re-
ligious laws of the Romans. Among these laws, some affect the
family and property, — these are included under the name of ju><
Quiritiuin ; others affected the State, — this is the jus ciuitatis ; all
together, they formed the freedom of the city in its fulness, — jus
civitatis optimo jure.

n. MuNiciPiA, Peefectukes, and Allied Towns.

The Senate conferred on the Italians outside the 35 tribes
either the civil rights of the Caerites^ after the Gallic invasion, or
political rights in their fidl extent. Sometimes the Senate granted
only the right of trade [conimercium), or of marriage [eonnubium] ;
and in this case children followed the condition of the father."
Far from dishonoring the freedom of the city by an imprudent
Uberality, the Senate parcelled it out in order to vary the concessions,

^ However, some Italians refused this so envied lienor. (Livy, ix. 45; xxiii. 20.)
^ Macrob., Saturn, i. 5; Pliny, Ep. iv. 23 ; Festus, s. v. Sexaf/enariDS.

^ Palria potestas, jus connuhii, legitimi dominii, lestamenti, hercdUatis, libertatis, pro-
vocationis, sacrorum, suff'ragii, honorum vel viagistratuum, census, commercii, mililiac.

* That is to say, a moderated impost, some rights of customs, and e.\cise of one twentieth
on the sale and setting free of slaves.

* As they could neither vote nor hold any office, the censors, in order to punish a citizen,
inscribed him 'm tabulas Caeritnm. But this list of Caerites had at first been a title of honor,
when the inhabitants of Caere were associated to the Roman state, ea conditione ut semper rem
publicam separatam a populo Romano hnherent. (Festus, s. \. Municeps.)

^ Gaius, Inst. i. 77. When marriage had taken place between persons not having the jus
connuhii, the condition of the children was fixed by that of the mother; in the case of a mar-
riage of a foreigner with a Roman, natum delerioris parentis conditionem sequijubet lex Mcnsia.
(Ulp., Lib. rcg. v. 8; cf. Gaius, Tnsl. i. 78, 81, 8G.)

484-

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OF A MUNICIPIUM.-

which, enabled it to repay zeal or punish lukewarmness, at the same
time making everywhere inequality.

These concessions were made sometimes to a man, or a family,
or an entire class ; more often to a whole city. Munieipia was the

name given to the cities thus
annexed to the great Roman
society. They were of three
kinds : ^ —

1. Munieipia optimo jure,
whose inhabitants had all
the rights and obligations of
Roman citizens. Their inter-
nal government was copied from that of Rome, but they ceased to
be an independent state, civitas, since they formed part of the Repub-
lic, and had not the right of coining money, which the federated
cities and Latin colonies possessed.

2. Munieipia without the right of suffrage, whose inhabitants
were in the same condition as the ancient plebeians of Rome,
bore the title of citizens, served in the legions, but could not
hold office or vote.^

3. Towns having a treaty of alliance with Rome, who bound
them to her fortune without altering their laws and institutions.

Below the munieipia came, in this social hierarchy, the praefect-
urae, which had no local magistrates at all ; a prefect, sent yearly
from Rome, administered justice and did all the public business;
then cities sank to the state of simple country towns, vici.^

' Fest., s. V. Municipium. When the people, on receiving the freedom of the city, adopted
the Roman laws, henejicio pupuli Romani, it was called fundus, and its citizens adjusted
their actions-at-law to the Roman law, sometimes before a prae/ertus Jure dicundo, who
was called the praetor urhanus. So it was at Arpinum, whose inhabitants had the right of
voting at Rome and in several other cities. Let us note, too, in passing, that the prefects,
whatever their functions, — and these were very variable, — were always appointed, and not
elected.

2 Laurel-crowned head of Augustus, with the legend, AVGVSTVS P. P. BIP. (Augus-
tus, Pater patriae, Imperator). On the reverse, MVN. (municijiium) in a crown of laurel, and
the name of the municipium, TVRIASO. Medium-sized bronze coin, of coarse workmanship,
struck in a Spanish city.

° Fest., s. v. Municipes . . . cives erant ct in legione mcreharil, sed dignitatcs non capicbant.
The Campanians were in this class; it is for this reason that Polybius counts them with the
Romans. Cf. Livy, viii. 14 ; Fest., s. v. Praefectus.

* . . . in quihus el jus dicebatur et nundinae agebantur . . . neque tamen magistratus suos
kabehat. (Fest., ibid.^

ORGAJSTIZATION OF ITALY.

485

COIN OF NAPLES.''

COIN OP' NOLA.3

The i3refectures of tliis sort were cities punished for their
too great power or tlieir revolts, as
Capua during the Second Punic War,
or cities troubled l)y intestine dissen-
sions and which asked of Rome a body
of laws and a prefect.* In the Middle
Ages every Italian republic had also
a foreign podesta. Yet among the prefectures the same diversity
existed as among the municipia, and doubtless for the same
reasons.

The deditit'd were still more severely treated : handed over by
victory to the discretion of Rome, they had been obliged to give
up arms and hostages, to j3ull down
their walls or receive garrisons, to pay
tribute, and furnish a contingent de-
termined by the Senate. According to
the formula of surrender preserved by
Livy, they and their property, even
their gods, became the property of the conqueror.*
were the subjects of Rome.

Others bore none of these names.
treaties of public friendship or hospitality
which made their citizens, when they
came to the Forum, the guests of the
Roman people, and permitted them to
attend, in a place of honor, at religious
feasts. Or agam a convention, the terms
of which they had struggled for, declared them tlie free allies of
the Roman people, civitates foederatae, — an illusion which served
the designs of the Senate without taking aught from its power.

^ Eodem anno (SIG) primum praefecti Capuam creari coepti Ugibus ab L. Furio praetore
(lalis, cum utrumque ipsi pro remedio aegris rebus discordia intestina petitsent. (Livy, \\. 20.)

^ Laurel-crowned head of Apollo. The reverse, a lyre and the vase called cortina, which
received the first oil come from the jiress, or water carried to horses and circus-riders. A small
bronze of the Xeapolitans. NF.OnOAITQN.

° II(^ad of a woman. The reverse, NQAAIfJN, money of the Nolans, — a bidl with human
face crowned by a winged Victory. Silver didrachma.

* For the formula of surrender, see p. 59.

^ Head of a woman between three dolphins and the legend TAPA. The reverse, a young
man on horseback crowned by a Victory. Gold slaler of Tarentum, the Greek name of which
is TAPA2.

The dedititii

They had with Rome

COIN OF TARENTUM.'

486 .

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OF NUCERIA.*

Tarentum was free, like the Hernican cities ; ^ but its demolished
walls, its citadel occui)ied by a Roman legion, told plainly what
sort of liberty it was. Naples was the ally of Rome, as also
Velia, Nola, Nuceria, the Marsi and Peligni, and a number of
other peoples, but they were obliged in all wars to give vessels
and pay for the troops.^ The Camertiues and Heracleotes had
treated on an equal footing, aequo foedere ; ^ Tibur, Praeneste, had

preserved all the external signs of
independence, like the greater part
of the Etruscan and Greek cities,
and seemed like foreign states. But
these allies of Rome had promised
to respect " the Roman majesty, " —
which interdicted them from every
enterprise against the fortunes of the Roman people.^ The term,
moreover, was vague enough to let the Senate extract from it all
the obligations which suited them ; and as in every city Rome had
created friends by sustaining the party of the nobles against the
popular party, from which some foolish heroism^ was always appre-
hended, what could this equality be between some obscure cities and
the mistress of Italy ? What was this independence, due simply to
the disdainful or politic moderation of the conqueror ?

Such, then, was the policy pursued by the Senate in its
treatment of the vanquished : the respect of local liberties in all
the cities where particular circumstances had not demanded
severity, but no general treatment which would have united what
the Senate wished to keep separate : on the contrary, formal
interdiction of every league, of all commerce, even of marriage,
between the Italians of cities or different cantons ; ' and for every

' They had autonomy. CLivy, ix 43.)

'^ Livy, xxviii. 45. Rhegium, Velia, Paestum, rendered ships also (xxvi. 39). Likewise
Tai-entum (xxxv. 16), Locri (xxxvi. 42), Uria (xlii. 48), et aliae civitates ejusdem juris. Cicero
says, speaking of these duties imposed on the allied cities : Inerat. nescio quo modo, in illo
Joedere societatis, quasi quaedam nota servitutis. (II. in Ven: v. 20.)

' Cic, pro Arch. 4; pro Biilho, 20, 22; Livy, .xxvii.46.

* Head of a young woman with a ram's horn ; Oscan legend ; behind the head a doljihin,
and on the reverse a Dioscuros standing, holding his horse by the bridle, and a sceptre. Silver
money of Nuceria.

' Ut populi Romani majestatem comiter consenmret. {Dig. xlix. 15, 7 § 1.)

° At Capua, during the Second Punic War, the nobles remained faithful to the Romans j
the people were for Hannibal.

' Cf. Livv, viii. 14 ; ix. 4.'. ; xlv. 29.

ORGANIZATION OF ITALY. 487

people who submitted, special conditions ; for every city a special
treaty ! ' To judge from appearances, one might take Italy
for a confederation of free states, one of wliich in the centre
surpassed the others oidy in powci' and renown. The fate of
the Latin league has taught us already what must be that of
the Italian confederation.

The prohibition which broke every bond between the cities
was political, and is easily comprehended ; that which authorized
the exercise to the Italian of the jus commercii only within the
limits of his own territory was economic, and had grave results,
which do not appear at first sight. The Romans, being alone
able to buy and sell throughout the peninsula, and meeting with
a. very limited competition from the inhabitants of the place where
the transaction was made, possessed a privilege which permitted
them by degrees to unite in their own hands a great part of the
Italian landed projjerty. This limitation certainly contributed
much to the formation of the Jatifundia, which, in tlie centuries
following, established, for the profit of the Romans, immense
domains cultivated by armies of slaves.

There were, however, conditions common to the whole of Italy.
Thus prudence counselled not to subject the Italians to a land-tax ;
and this exemption became one of the marks of the Italian law
under the Empire. But citizens pleno jure, citizens sine suffragio,
allies or socii, and civitatcs foedcratae, all were subjected to military
service, which these warlike peoples scarcely regarded as a burden ;
and their contingents had to be raised, armed, paid, perhaps even
supported, at the expense of the cities,^ — which was not unjust, since
Rome at first demanded them only for the common defence.

1 For towns bearing the same title some differences existed. Thus Messina and Tauro-
menium became during the First Punic War foederalae ; but the former furnished a sliip,
and the other was not expected to do so. (Cic, II. in Verr. v. 19.)

^ For the incorporation of the Italians into the Roman army, see Polyh., vi. Frar/. 5. He
says that Rome gave gratuitously corn and barley to the ItaHan auxiliaries {ibuL, p. 8), while
she retained the cost of it out of the pay of the Roman citizens. We infer from this passage
that she did not undertake the pay of tlie auxiliaries, although slie divided the booty with
them. But their chiefs, prae/ecli sociorum, were Roman citizens. (.Livy, xxiii. 7.)

488 ■ CONQUEST OF ITALY.

III. Colonies and Military Roads.

After having divided the interests, there was need to prevent
them from becoming; remiited : the colonies forestalled this danger.
The Gi-eek colonies were sometimes fomided with a commer-
cial end in view, like the three hmidred trading-posts of Miletus ; but
never for a political object, unless it were to rid the mother
country of a surplus population or a turbulent crowd. Like the
swarm driven from the hive, the colonists became strangers to
their metropolis ; ^ the utmost they owed to it was
in religious matters — some marks of deference and
lilial respect. The civil law explains the political
law ; at Athens, the son, inscribed in the ^^/tra^n'a,
became a citizen, and no one had authority over
''^mn^.vi^ liim- At Rome, the father was master of the life

COLON 1 . ^

and property of his son, even if senator or consul.
In the colony born of Rome,^ emancij^ation could never come.
From the Senate it received its municipal law ; its internal
organization was sketched on that of the mother country ; it had
senators or decuriones, consuls or duumvirs, censors or duumviri
quinquennalcs ; but in case of war it had to pay a tribute to the
Roman treasury, and to the legions even the very last of its able-
bodied men.* The ancient Roman colony was truly nothing but
a garrison,^ sent out to the state lands, and, as Machiavelli terms
it, a sentinel.® It did not establish itself at random^ in some

^ The xXijpoi'xo' must be alwa}s exeopted. Athens entered upon this system after the
Median wars, and to it owed tlie ]iower tliat she enjoyed during half a century. The true
Greek colonist was in a state of inferiority in respect to his metropolis (Tliuc, i. 25). He of
Athens, if he returned to Attica, was nothing more than a /neVoiKos. See on this question the
learned memoir of M. Foucart on les Colonies atheniennes of the 5th and 6th centuries.

^ Reverse of a bronze struck at Carthago Noca. Two military ensigns, and around, C.
AQUINVS MELA IIVIR QVIN {duumvir quinquennaUs) .

^ The colonies were reflections of Rome. Ex ciritale quasi propai/atae su7it et Jura in-
stitutaque omnia populi Romani liaheni . . . cujns islae coloniae quasi effigies parvae simulacraque
esse . . . videntur. (Aul. GeU., Noct. Alt. XVI. xiii. 8-9.)

* . . . Milites pecuniamque darent. (Livy, xxix. 15.)

* Non tarn oppida Italiae quam propugnacula imperii. (Cic, in Rull. ii. 27.)

* The expression is Cicero's. In the speech pro Fonteio he calls Narbonne : Specula
populi Romani et propugnaculum.

' Servius {in Aen., i. 12) defines a colony : dcdticli sunt in locum cerium acdijiciis munitum.

OEGANIZATION OF ITALY.

489

fertile district, on a river's bank, or at a harbor. It had
as its object not its own prosperity, but the guardianship of a
territory.^ In place of building a city where it chose, it occupied

AtUT the Auatnun Survey

Scale

GKOUND-PLAN OF LANDS FOR A COLOPfY.^

in narrow passes, or on precipitous mountain-sides, old cities sur-
rounded by good walls, and commandmg the country far and wide.^
The agrimcnsor who came from Rome with the armed colonists, all
veteran soldiers,* divided among them houses as well as lands. At

" Brutus (ap. App., Bell. Cir. ii. 140) calls the colonists: (pvXuKas tmv neTToKfjirjKuTMv.

^ There still remain traces of the ground-plans set out by the agrimensores : " In following
the Via Aemilia, between Cesena and Bologna, as well as here and there in the districts of
Modcna and Parma, the traveller is much surprised to see uniform paths, all perfectly parallel,
equidistant and at right angles with the high road. They are all cut at right angles by other
tracl<s, so that the fields have exactly the same area. Seen from the spurs of the Apennines,
these fields look like chessboards of verdure or of ripening crops, and an accurate survey
proves that in fact the soil of these districts is cut into rectangles of geometrical equalit}-,
being 785 yards long and about 127 acres. Now this square is precisely the Roman centuria,
and Livy tells us that all these lands, after having been taken from the Gauls, were measured,
S(iuared, and divided among the Roman colonists. It is, then, beyond doubt that these regular
networks of roads, canals, and furrows date 20 centuries back, and are, indeed, the work of the
veterans of Rome." (Reclus, Nnuvelh //e'of/mphie universelle, i. 344.)

3 Horace says, speaking of Venusia : Quo ne per vacuum Romano incurreret Jwstis. (Sat.
II. i. 38.)

* Livy, iv. 48 ; Front., Stmt. iv. 3, 1 2. The colonists formed a little army, having its
centurions and knights, who received a larger share, (r^ivy, xx.xv. 9, 50; xxxvii. 57; xl. 34.)

490

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

the first, they were few in number ; in the cities of Latium and
the Sabine territory there were three hundred families ; hi,ter on,
when there was need to occupy important mOitary frontiers, actual
armies went forth : six thousand men went to Beneventiim, to
cover Campania ; still more to Venusia, to threaten Magna Graecia,
to defend Apulia, to check the Lucanians and the Samnites of
the south. It is thought that the colonists, once established at
the expense of the former inhalutants, and consequently sur-
rounded by enemies, were
jiffv not allowed to desert their

post and go to vote at
Rome, and that, like all
the soldiers with the col-
ors, the law deprived
them of the right of de-
liberating. We have no
express evidence that they did not preserve the plenitude of
their privileges as Roman citizens. But though they preserved
them, they had something else to do than increase the din and
crowd of the Forum. The Republic required them to render its
conquests durable ; to watch over the vanquished and prevent
revolts ; to carry throughout Italy the language, manners, laws,
and blood of Rome and Latium.^ This they secured so well, that,
within a few years, there was born in the depths of Apulia the
man whom the Romans styled the father of their literature,
Ennius noster, the poet who sang in eighty-one books the great
deeds of their ancestors.

COIN OP THE DECURIONS.'

Three magistrates were generally charged with conducting them, and during the first year
supervising theii- wants : triumviri deducendis coloniis, qui per triennium magistralum haherenl.
(Livy, xxxii. 29.) The colonies called maritime (not all the colonies on the sea were so, but
only those which guarded an important port at the mouth of a river) were exempt from land
service, and sometimes that by sea : sacro-sancta vacalio. (Livy, xxvii. 38 ; xxxvi. 3.) They
were required above all to defend the ])osition which had been intrusted to them, and this
interest appeared so considerable, that the maritime colonies were composed of Roman
citizens.

1 Coin struck by decree of the dccurions DD {de.crelo dacurionuiii) at Apamea in Bithynia
under Caracalla. Large bronze.

^ Asconius {in Pison.y reckoned before the Second Punic AVar 53 colonies, twenty-three
of which had the jus Lntii. Madvig and Mommsen have enumerated the names of thirty-oue
or thirty-two Roman colonies and of thirty-nine Latin colonies. In the latter not only Latins
and Italians were admitted, but also plebeians from Rome, who preferred a jiroiierty in a
colony to the exercise of political rights in the Forum.

ORGANIZATION OK ITALY. 491

Following a custom derived from older Italy, the colonists,
where the conquered had been spared, took usually a third of the
territory ; the natives shared the rest, and had in their own city-
only an inferior position, like that of liie plebeians of Rome when
the latter were still without the jus suffragil and the jus lionorum.
Thus revolts were frequent, and many a time were the colonists
driven away or surprised and massacred by their subjects. But
time and community of interests effaced, as at Rome, these dil-
ferences. The colonial 'populiis and plvhs ended by being fused in
the equality of municipal rights, to which was often added equality
of i-ights with Rome, in vu'tue of a plebiscite which enrolled the
city in one of the thirty-five tribes. Then there remained no other
division than the natural one between the rich and poor, the assidui
and the aerarii, the honestiores and the humiliores, which formed
the great social division in the last days of the Republic and under
the Empire.

With the Gracchi a new sort of colonies began, — that of poor
people to whom lands were given ; another again with Marius and
Sylla, — that of soldiers who obtained lands as a military prize:
two very different proceedings, which we shall discuss in due
time.

To complete this sketch of the ancient colonies, let us see what
posts the Senate gave them to guard.

Till the Samnite war, Rome, more engaged in gaining peace
within than conquests without, had formed a small number only
of these establishments alike political and military. In Etruria,
Sutrium and Nepete at the passes of the Ciminian forest ; among
the Rutuli, Ardea and Satricum ; among the Volsci, Antium to
watch the coast ; Velitrae, Norba, and Setia, to keep in che(;k the
mountain district.

In the war with Samnium the legions had conquered in vain ;
the war would never have ended, had not the Senate, by its
colonies, gradually made the enemy retreat to the Apennines.
By Terracina, on the Appian Way, it closed the route from Cam-
pania into Latium ; by Fregellae it barred the Valley of the Trerus,
which led to Praeneste and the Alban Mount ; by Sora, Interamna,
Minturnae, all on the Liris, it covered the country of the Volsci and
of the Hernicans.

492 •

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

COIN OP AQUINUM.'

A second line defended the first, — Atina, Aquinum, Casinum,
in the mountainous country which separates the Vulturnus from
the Liris, closed the passes which the Samnites had many a

time followed to descend into the
valley of this latter river, and thence
effect a junction with the revolted
peoples of Latium. Vescia, Suessa
Aurunca, Teanum, and Gales among
the Sidicini, kept the country between
the Lower Liris and the Vulturnus.

This double line, which encircled Latium on the south and
southeast, was connected on the east by Alba Fucentia among the

Marsi, Aesula and Carseoli among the
Aequi, with the important position of
Narnia, which covered the route from
Umbria towards Rome, and with the colo-
nies of Etruria, Nepete, Sutrium, Cosa,
Alsium, and Fregellae. Behind this ram-
part Rome could brave every enemy. Hanni1)al and Pyrrhus, who
once crossed this formidable circle, but without having broken it,
did not dare to remain in the midst of it.

In the rest of Italy the colonies were less numerous : the
population of Rome and its Latin allies would not have been suf-
ficient to form so many garrisons ; but
lay their strength and good position
they were enabled to command a wide
area. Thus Samnium had only two, — at
Aesernia and Beneventum, from whence
started all the high roads of South Italy ;
Picenum, three, — Hadria, Firmum, Castrum ; Umbria, four, ranged
along the route of the Gauls, — Narnia, which barred the middle
valley of the Tiber; Spoletum, which covered this place and

COIN OF COSA.-

COIN OF AESERNIA.^

^ Head of Minerva. Reverse, AQVIN, a cock and a star ; small bronze of Aquinum on
the via Latina, the ruins of which are to be seen still in the vicinity of the modern town of
Aquino. It was the native place of Juvenal [and of the great St. Thomas. — i?'/.].

^ Head of Jlinerva. On the reverse, bust of a horse, CO(sa)NO. Small bronze.

3 Head of Vulcan: VOLCANO:\r; behind, pincers. On the reverse, AISERNINO and
a young woman driving a biga. Small bronze of Aesernia, in the Valley of the Vulturnus,
now Isernia.

ORGAJJTIZATION OF ITALY.

493

the route to Rome ; Sena and Ariiiiinniu, outposts against the
Cisalpines.'

In Campania the Greeks proved faithful ; Itut Capua, always
turbulent, was watched by the
colonies of Saticula and Cales ; in
case of need, Casilinum, on a rock
at the edsre of the Vulturnus and
a short distance from Capua, could
receive a garrison ; Apulia was
guarded by Luceria and Venusia,
which put on its coins the eagle of Jupiter holding a thunderbolt ;

COIN OF BKUNDUSIUM.-

TUMULI AT ALSIUM.2

Calabria, by Brundusium and Valeutia ; the coast of Lucania, by

' To avoid returning later on to this matter of the colonies, in the case of some I go
beyond the date which we have readied. Thus Spolctuni was colonized only in 240 ; several
others were founded only din'ing the First Punic ^^'ar.

^ Neptune crowned by a Victory, the trident, and four O's, the mark of the tricn;! (see
p. 324). On the reverse, BIIVN. (Brundusium) and a monogram. Arion on a dolpliin, and
holding in his right hand a Victory. Bronze of Brundusium.

* Vergil has described (^Aen. xi. 850, seq.) this Icind of sepulture : " On a mountain arose

494

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Paeskim. More to the south, Tarentura, Locri, Rhegiiim, on the
Straits, and some other places, had garrisons.

To bind together all these parts, and to transport the legions
rapidly to menaced points, great military roads were laid out from
one extremity of the peninsuhi to the other. In the middle of the
Saiunite war, in 312, the censor Appius had begun the Appian

THE AITIAN GATE (kEST(_>1!I;1)).1

Way, which led across the Pontine Marshes from Rome to Capua.
This great example was followed ; and from that time the censors
employed for works of peace the resources of the treasury. They
set with such activity to work, that before the Second Punic War the
Valerian Way traversed Tibur, the colonies of Carseoli and Alba,
and reached Corfinium, on the other side of the Apennines ; the
Aurelian Way ran along tlie coasts of Etruria, and the Flaminian

an immense eminence, wliich an oak covered witli its tliiek shade. It was the tomb of Der-
cennus, a former king of Laurentum."

1 Canina, (ili Eilifhj di Roma. pi. L>70.

Jl'll'

'J I

1 1

.imi iBiiiiiii'iijiimm iniiiigiiia!

OEGAN^IZATION OF ITALY. 495

Way went from the Campus Martius to Ariinimiin, i. c, to the
entrance of Cisalpine GauL

By the Appian and Latin Ways Rome had therefore prompt and
easy communication with Lower Italy ; by the Aurelian and Fla-
minian Ways, with Etruria and Umhria ; by the Valerian Way,
with the country in the midst of the Apennines. The colonies
settled on these routes were able, in case of danger, to close them.^

The genius of a people or an epoch is seen in its architecture.
Greece had the Parthenon, — supreme elegance and ideal beauty ;
the Middle Ages, the cathedrals of Rheims and Amiens, — the fervent
glow of devotion. The architectural glory of the Romans is aljove
all their military roads, whose strong network first enlaced Italy,
later on, the world. This people did not look upwards : its eyes
and hands are fixed on the earth ; but no one has held it with
a stronger grasp.^

' It is true tliat ancient armies, not carrying heavy artillery, could more easily leave the
main roads.

- The I'oUuwiug is a list of the seven high-roads leading from Home, to which were
attached twenty secondary roads or branches from the principal ones. The most important
of these can be traced on our special map of the military roads and colonies before the Punic
wars. In the following list we give the complete system, so as to avoid returning to this
matter.

I. Via Appia, from Rome to Capua by the plain, and from ('a]iua to Brundusiura. From
it branch off the roads, — Setina, going to Setia ; Domitianaj which from Sinuessa to Surrentum
goes round the Bay of Naples ; Campana or Consularis, from Capua to Cumae, Puteoli,
Atella, and Naples; Aquillia from Capua to Salernum, Paestum, Cosentia, Vibo, and Rhegiiim ;
Egnatia, from Beneventum to Ilerdonea, Canusiimi, and Brindisi ; Tmjana, from Venusia to
rieraclea, Thurium, ('rotona, and Rhegium, where it joins the Via Aquillia ; Minuriti, or
Numicia, traversing Samnium from north to south.

II. Via Latina, from Rome to Beneventum, at the foot of the mountains. It sends a
branch to Tusculum, via Tusculana, and is connected to the Appian Way by a cross-road, Vi '
Hadriana, running from Teanum to Minturnac. The two roads, Appia and Latina, separate
at the Porta Cajiena. Between the Latin and Valerian roads run, — the Via Lahicana, iroxa
the Esfjuiline Gate to Labicum, and joining the Via Latina at a ])lace calleil ad Bicium, 30
miles from Rome ; the Via Pracneslina or Gahina, going off at the same point and joining
the Latin Road near Anagnia ; the Via Collatina, very short.

III. Via Tibubtina, from the Porta Tiburtina to Tibur, and continuing, under the
name of Via Valeria, across the Sabine country to Corfinium, whence it was continued
to the Adriatic, which it coasted from Aternum to Castrum Truentinum. where it met the
Salarian Road. Two branches led to Sublaipieum, Via Suhlaccnais, in the high valley of the
Anio and in Apulia ; Via Frentana Appula, along the Adriatic. The Via Nomenlana, or
Ficulnensis, started from the Porta Collina, rejoined at Eretum the Salarian Way.

IV. Via Salaria, from the Colline Gate to Ancona, by Fidenae, Reate, Asculum,
Picenum, Castrum Truentinum, to the coast of the Adriatic.

V. Via Fi.aminia, from the Flaminian Gate to Ariminum, by Narnia, Interamna,
Spoletum, Fanum Fortunae, and Pisaurum, on the coast. It was continued under the name of
Via Aemilia, which traversed GalUa Cisalpina to Placentia, where it crossed the Po, reached

496 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Besides the military colonies sent to the strongest places of
Italy, Rome had in the country establishments of another kind, and
which helped the same result, — the spread of the Latin race over
the whole peninsula. The ager Romanus stopped at the Vulturnus ;
but the rest of Italy was covered with lands assigned to the public
domain of the Roman people. The Bruttians had ceded half of the
Sila forest / the Samnites and the Lucanians, who had recognized
the majesty of the Roman people, the Sabines and Picentines, de-
spoiled by Curius, the Senones, exterminated by Dolabella, had lost
more still ; and the half, perhaps, of the best lands of the penin-
sula had become Roman property. The censors had let them ; '^ and
shepherds and Roman laborers, being spread throughout the country,
were unceasingly jjeing fused with the Italian populations.

In order to insure the payment of the tax imposed on the
lands of the domain, the Senate divided the peninsula into four
grand divisions, to which were sent four quaestors, who resided at
Ostia and Gales for the provinces which lie towards the Tyrrhenian
Sea ; in Umbria and Calabria for the districts along the Adriatic.^

To the cities of different ranks which we have named are at-
tached the cantons, pagi, and the country towns, vici, which had
their annual magistrates ; also the fora and concilidbula. In the dis-
tricts where the jDopulation was not dense, certain places became the

Milan, and from thence ran westward to Turin, to the east as far as Trieste. A cross-road,
Via Pnstvtiiia, went from Genoa to Verona.

VI. Via Cassia led across Central Etruria, by Veii, Siitrium, Vulsinii, and Arretium to
Luna, where it joined the Aurelian Way. One of its branches, via Amerina, went to Tudor and
Perusia; another. Via CTorfio, united Rusellae and Tarquinii, and the Via Ci);n'no crossed the
mountains of Viterbo, Ciminus jnonn.

VII. Via Aurelia, leaving Rome by the Janiculum Gate, touched Alsium, and followed
the Etruscan coast to Genoa and Frejus. The Via Portuensis followed the right bank of the
Tiber to Portus August! ; the ' Via Ostiensis, the left bank to Ostia, whence it turned to the
south, keeping, under the name of Via Severiana, along the coast to Terracina ; the roads
Laureniina and Ardeatina indicate the route by their names.

Thus seven grand roads started from Rome, — two, Appia and Latino, to the south;
two, Vale.ria and Salaria, to the Adriatic ; one, Flaniinia, to the northeast; two, Cassia and
Aurelia, to the northwest ; and the Via Aemilia serves for both banks of the Po. See on this
question the classic work of Bergier, Tli.itoire. des graiuU chemins dc Vcmpire romain, and the
Table de Peulinyer, ed. Ernest Desjardins.

' Dionys., Excerpta ex libra xx. 15 (20, 5).

^ In many places the Italians were admitted as farmers, and this was one more bond
between them and Rome ; but that dates, doubtless, from a later period. At the time of the
Gracchi, many of them are holders of domain land. (Cic, de Rep. iii. 29.)

* Livy, Epit. XV.; Tac, Ann. iv. 27.

ORGANIZATION OF ITALY. 497

common market-place, /o/vrm, and the point of vcumion, conciliabidum,
of the whole canton.' Communities were there formed which
became by degrees vici, or even cities ; and the nomad sheplierd of
the Pontine Marshes, as well as the mountaineer whose hut lay
hidden in the most retired valleys of the Apennines, was attached
to this municipal rule, of which Rome, while respecting it, made
an instrument of dominion.

IV. Religious Supremacy ; Rome governs, and does not

ADMINISTER.

Religion exercised too great an influence throughout the whole
peninsula for the Romans, while disciplining Italy, to neglect the
discipline also of its religions. We have seen^ that the protecting
divinities of conquered cities were often worshipped at Rome. When
their gods were left to the vanquished, it was usual to subject the
priests of these gods to the control of Roman priests, who claimed to
be the sole possessors of the science of augury. From the Rvibicon
to the Straits of Messina, not a prodigy happened that was not im-
mediately referred by the trembling people to the Roman Senate,
interpreted by its augurs, and expiated according to their directions.^
By this the local clergy was dispossessed of its principal means of
influence, and the Romans held Italy by religion, as they did by
policy and arms. Presently, we shall find the religious feeling
grow weak, and amongst some disappear. Now it was still power-
ful, and the Romans gave an example of piety. It is computed that
from 302 to 290 ten temples were built by them in their city.

The other great nations of antiquity had known well enough
how to conquer ; not one knew how to preserve its conquests,
because none would forego the rights which A'ictory had given them.

1 The commissioners norainateJ in tlie year 211 for tlie recruitine;, go per fora et con-
ciliahula. Cf. Livy pass, and Festus s. v. These fora et concUiahula were places where a
rural population, not having a city, transacted their religious or judicial affairs, and held their
meetings and markets. I have counted among the ancient cities of Italy more than thirty
fora, many of which to this day keep the name : Forli, Forlimpopoli, Fossombrone, etc.

2 Page 358, n. 1.

* Livy, xxi. 62: lectkternium Caere imperafum ; .xxii. 1, deci-etiim est . . . Junoni Lanurii
. . . sacrijirarelur . . . Decemriri Ardcae in fori) majoribus hostiis sacrijicarunt. Cf. xxxiii. 31.
See especially in the ne.xt volume the senatus-consuUum against the Bacchanals.

VOL. I. 32

498 . CONQUEST OF ITALY.

Under her kings, Rome called in strangers to unite with her ;
now, populous enough, in the Senate's judgment, she creates Roman
citizens outside her walls ; and to stimulate zeal, she holds up, before
the eyes of all, this title which raises to the rank of masters of Italy,
which releases from many taxes, which gives access to office, and in-
vites to a share in the distributions of lands and to the enjoyment of
the public domain. It is the coin in which she repays all services, —
precious money, which she distributes in order to gain by it a greater
number to her cause. Therefore if it is true that the Roman people,
terrible against the strong, and pitiless on the field of battle, carried
destruction wherever it found a iveen resistance, at least, when war
was over, it spontaneously, in the interest of its greatness, raised
up the enemy which it had just struck down ; it was j)leased, as
the poet says, joarcere suhjectis et debellare superhos. Satisfied with
having destroyed the political power of its adversaries, it genera^lly
respected, in tliis first period of its conquests, their manners, their
laws, and their government. It knew that a people could be re-
signed to the loss of its independence, that is to say, to a confes-
sion of its weakness, but never to the contempt of the customs of
its ancestors. The centralization was political, not administrative ;
and the greater part of the cities, preserving their magistrates,^ laws,
religion, finances, internal police, allowed to confer municipal free-
dom, to administer criminal and civil procedure,^ — in short, to give
themselves laws, — regarded themselves rather as associated with
the splendor of the Roman name than subject to its power. The
bustle of their comitia made them believe themselves free. All the
living forces of Italy were centralized in the hands of the consuls;
the Senate disposed of its five hundred thousand soldiers, its cavalry,
its navy, and yet political life was not extinguished in the municipia;
the blood did not leave the extremities to rush to the heart, as
is the case a century and a half later, when those tempests arise
in which the Republic will founder. We are still in the age of
moderation and wisdom.

' See p. 483. After the war against Perseus, the citizens had no taxes whatever to
pay.

^ Even the simple towns : 7n<i(/istri vici, item ma(jislri pagi quotannis Jiunt. Fest., s. v.
Vicus.

^ Except for the municipia optiino jure. A Roman citizen coukl, in a criminal matter,
be judged only by the whole people according to the TwelvS Tables.

OEGAl^IZATION OF ITALY. 499

While giving to Italy the organization just described, Rome
had accomplished all that her municipal constitution permitted, and
more than the political wisdom of antiquity taught her. She con-
tinued the sovereign city by the right of victory ; but she made
herself the capital of the Italians by attracting to her Senate their
most notable citizens. If it is not the representative system m its
reality, it was a feeble image of it ; and this political genius which
anticipated the far-off future ought to command our admiration.^

1 "\\'e liave seen at p. 418 that the Latins had demanded that the Senate shoidd be
composed half of Roman senators and half of Latin senators. This idea of a sort of federative
republic was very familiar to the Italians of Central Italy. We know of an Etruscan diet of
Voltumna, the feriae Latinae, the ancient league of Kome, the Latins and Ilernicans. Alex-
ander the Molossian had also formed an amphictyonic council for the Italian Greeks.

CHAPTER XVIII.

INTEENAL STATE OF EOME DUEING THE SAMNITE "WAK.

I. Manners.

THIS period has been regarded as the golden age of the
Republic. According to the old and honorable ciistom of
praising l^ygone days, all the virtues have been ascribed to the
Romans of this period ; and virtues they indeed possessed, especially
those which make good citizens. The conquerors of the Etruscans
and Tarentum did not desj^ise poverty ; the plebeians, who had
asserted so many rights, accepted all their duties, and their patriot-
ism had the force of a religious feeling. Two Decii gave their
lives for the Roman army; Postumius and Manlius each sacri-
ficed a son to discipline. The censor Rtitilius, ^ re-elected on leav-
ing office (266), called together the people, and censured them
strongly for having conferred twice in succession on the same
citizen those important functions. If Corn. Rufinus, in spite of
two consulates, a dictatorship, and a triumph, was expelled the
Senate for his ten pounds of silver plate, wlien the law permitted
only eight ounces ; ^ if the consul Postumius forced two thousand
legionaries to cut his corn or clear his woods, — Atilius Serranus
received at the jslough the consular purple, as Cincinnatus did
formerly the dictatorship. Regulus, after two consulates, possessed
only a little field with a single slave, in the sterile territory of
Pupiniae ; and Curius, with his triumphal hands, like Fabricius and
Aemilius Papus, prepared his coarse food in wooden vessels. The
same Curius who declared a citizen to be dangerous to whom seven
acres were not enough,^ refused the gold of the Samnites ; Fabricius

' Livy, Ep. xiv. Rather, ]ierhapp, for his jihindering. The answer which Fabricius
made him (Cic, de Oral. ii. C(i) represents him as a plunderer.
^ Phny, Nat. Hist, xviii. 4.

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME DURING SAMNTTE WAR. 501

fh;it of Pyrrhus ; and Cineas, when introduced to the Senate,
thought ho saw there an assembly of kings.

"At that time," says Valerius Maximus, "there was little
or scarcely any money, some slaves, seven acres of poor land,
poverty in families, funerals paid for by the state, and daughters
without dowry ; but illustrious consulates, wonderful dictatorships,
innvunerable triumphs, — such is the picture of these old times!"'
Let us say more tamely that, thanks to the Licinian law of the
limitation of property,^ Rome had neither the extreme wealth which
sometimes produces insolent pride, nor the extreme poverty which
causes the growth of envy and the spirit of revolt. The greatest
number was in that haj^py mean which excites to labor, gives
value to a small possession, and puts into the heart the desire of
energetically defending it.

This people had its faults: it liked work, but also booty, usury,
litigation; it had in its blood the she-wolf's milk. The creditor was
hard to the debtor, the father to his son, the master to his slaves,
the conqueror to the conquered. They had the limited intelligence
of the peasant, who Ha'cs with his head bent over the furrow, with
the brutal passions of dull natures and the vulgar pride of physical
force. There was nothing' generous, nothing elevated, save in the
very few ; neither art, philosophy, nor true religion ; as its ideal,
gain, and power, which is the political form of covetousness. Was
their dome.stic life more edifying than it is in the sequel ? Evil
is better seen in the societies which are in full light of da}', than in
those whose darkness historj' can hardly penetrate. But there are
vices which excess of wealth, the pleasures of a too easy existence
and of too numerous temptations, develop ; with these the Romans
of the fourth century before Christ were certainly unacquainted.

They were upright, and kept their plighted word. "Trust,"
said a later proverb, "' a treasure to a Greek, take ten sureties, ten
signatures and twenty witnesses: he will rob you." At Rome, a
magistrate had in his hands all the public wealth, and to prevent

1 Val. Max., IV. iv. 6 and 11. The triumph of Curias introduced, by what Florus .says,
great riches into the city. Silver was soon so abundant that, three years after the taking of
Tarentum, silver coin was struck. Up to that time there had been only (ises of bronze.
Polybius (xviii. 2) still praises the poverty of Pauhis Aemilius and of Scipio Aemilianus.

2 Eo anno plerisque dies dicta ab aediUbus, quia plus (juain quod leye Jiidtum eral, agri
possiderent. (Livy, x. 13.)

502 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

liis embezzling it, liis oath, was sufficient.^ This good faitli of tlie
individual, this probity of the magistrate, were the reflection of a
more general virtue which existed in the whole body of citizens :
absolute respect for law, a spontaneous obedience to established
authority, with the right of appeal from an arlntrary order. " The
people most jealous of its liberty wliich the world ever saw was
at the same time the most submissive to its magistrates and to
lawful power." ^ Bossuet was right in Ijringing together these two
ideas, which to so many men are contradictory : it is their union
which makes citizens truly free, and states really strong.

The Roman is not lovable, but he extorts admiration, because,
in that society, if the man is little, the citizen is great. He is so
by those civic virtues through which he deserved empire, by the
indomitable courage which gave it him, by the discipline, in the
best sense of the word, and by the political wisdom which pre-
served it to him. Thus his history, in which the poet and artist
find so little interest, will be always the proper school of pubhc
men.

IT. The Constitution ; Balance of Forces.

The dangers of the Samnite wars had restored peace between
the two orders. Little rivalries had ceased when the great interest
of the public safety was concerned, the political emancipation of
the plebeians was fully accomplished, and the new generation of
patricians, brought up in camps, had lost the remembrance of the
popular victories. The new men were now as numerous in the
Senate as the descendants of the old families ; and the services as
well as the glory of Papirius Cursor, Fabius Maximus, Appius
Caecus, and Valerius Corvus, effaced neither the services nor the
glory of the two Decii. P. Philo, four times consul, of C. Maenius,
twice dictator, of Caecilius MeteUus, who commenced the renown
of this family, of whom Naevius is ol^liged to say : " The MetelU

^ [Tliis st.itement may have been often true, but suffered many sad exceptions. There
was great corruption among Roman public men later on, and it is not certain that their political
moraUty, when state interests were concerned, was higher than that of Demosthenes. Cf.
my Social Life in Greece, fourth edition, p. 424. — Ed.']

- Bossuet, Disc, sur rhist. univ., part 3, cap. vi.

INTEENAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 503

are bom consuls at Rome," of Curius Dentatns and Fabricius, who
were plebeians not even of Roman descent.

There was imion because there was equality, because the
aristocracy of blood was no longer known, and because they did
not yet know that of riches. At this period the Roman constitu-
tion presented the wise combination of royalty, aristocracy, and
democracj^ which Polybius, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu have
admu-ed. In the consulate, there was unity in command ; in the
Senate, experience in counsel ; in the people, strength in action.
These three estates being kept mutually within just limits, all the
forces of the state, sometime in opposition, had at last found, after
a struggle of more than two centuries, that happy state of equi-
librium which made them concur, with irresistible power, towards
one common end, — the grandeur of the Republic.

In the city the consuls ^ were the chiefs of the government ;
but there were two of them, of different order, and their inevitable
rivalry assured the preponderance of the Senate, to which they
were constrained by their dearest interests to show a prudent def-
erence. They received the ambassadors of foreign nations ; they
convoked the Senate and the people, proposed laws, drew up the
senatus-consulta, and directed the other magistrates ; but all this
power, more honorable than real, might break down against the
opposition of a colleague or the inviolable authority of the tribunate,
against the sovereignty of the people who made the laws, agamst
a decree of the Senate, which could annul the power of a consul by
causing a dictator to be nominated. In the army the consul seems
an absolute chief ; he chooses a part of the legionary tribunes, fixes
the contingents of the allies, and exercises over all the right of life
and death ; but without the Senate he has neither victuals, clothes,
nor pay, and a senatus-consultum can suddenly stop his enterprises,
give him a successor, suspend him from his command, grant or
refuse him a triumph.^ He makes treaties; but the people ratify
them or reject them. He acts, he decrees ; but the tribunes watch
him, and by their veto stop him, by their right of accusation keep

' Apropos of consuls, Cicero utters the celebrated but dangerous maxim : ollis saluj: populi
suprema lex esto. It was an indirect vindication of his own consulate.

^ It was the Senate that authorized the consul to borrow from the treasury the amount
necessary for covering the expense of this solemnity. (Polyb., vi. 5.)

504 . CONQUEST OF ITALY.

him in a continual suspense. Lastly, when his term of office has
expired, he must render an account to the peojole to receive their
plaudits, which promise him fresh offices, or reproaches and murmurs,
which for ever close against him entrance to high office, — sometimes
even a penalty which ruins and dishonors him.^

Subjects, allies, and foreign sovereigns, never received by the
Senate but when assembled in the temple of Bellona, to remind
them that Rome was always prepared for war,^ who saw it settling
their differences, replying to their dej)uties, sending amongst them
commissioners, and granting or refusing the triumph to the generals
who had conquered them, looked on this body as the mistress of
the Repulilic.'^ Even at Rome the senators, appearing always clothed
in the royal purple ; holding their sittings in the temples ; discuss-
ing important affairs, — the plans of generals and the government
of conquered countries ; able to adjourn the assemblies of the people
or pass decrees having the force of law ; * receiving the reports
of the censors and quaestors ; authorizing outlays, public works, and
alienations of the domain lands ; watching over the conservation
of the religion of the state, the prosecution of public crimes, the
celebration of games and solemn sacrifices ; finally, decreeing, in
case of peril, supplications to the gods after victory, acts of thanks-
giving, and regulating even the affairs of Heaven by granting
temples ■ and the freedom of the city to foreign divinities, — the
senators, I .say, seem to be the chiefs in the state by the extent of
their public rights, as they were by their dignity and the respect
which was attached to their name. But, suljjeeted to the irre-
sponsible control of the censors, the Senate is still presided over by

1 Postumius, on quitting office, was condemned to pay 500,000 ases (Livy, Epitomt:, xi.) ;
Camillus narrowly escaped being fined the same amount.

- This temple, vowed by Appius in 29C (Livy, x. 19, and Pliny, xxxv. 3), was built outside
the city, in the Field of !Mars. The Senate met there to receive foreign ambassadors and the
consuls who asked of it a triumph. At the entrance of this temple was the column which the
fetial struck with a javelin when the enemy was too distant to jtermit him to declare war from
the Roman people. (.See p. 230.)

^ In England also the people are little concerned with foreign affairs, the direction of
which they generally leave to the ministry.

'' jMontesq., Espr. des Lois, v. 8. Legally the legislative power of the Senate was exer-
cised only in matters of administration. But the limit was very difficult to fix, and more than
one senatus-consultum trespassed on the territory of the law. The Senate later on took the
right of giving dispensation from keeping the laws. (Cic, pro lege Man. 21.) On the formal-
ities followed for drawing up a senatus-consultum. see Foucart, Mem. sur an senalus-cons.,
inedit de I'an 1 70.

INTERNAL STATE OF KOME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 505

the consuLs, who direct its deliberations as they jjlease. Should
they be agreed, yet would it not be possible, without the consent
of the tribunes, either to assemble or pass a decree ; and the legis-
lative omnipotence of the people places the Senate in dependence
on the centuries and tribes. All its members are, besides,
indirectly nominated by the people, since it is they who raise to
olHce, and it is by office that the Senate is attained.^

With us the executive can be questioned respecting its acts as soon
as they are done ; m certain cases even before their execution, and
this can stop them. At Rome the magistrate renders an account only
after the expiration of his magistracy. He is inviolable, sacro-
sanct,^ and yields only to the interference of a colleague, the veto
of a tribune, or that of the augurs. Nor can he be proceeded
asamst even for a crime in common law.

The people, the highest jury,^ an electoral and legislative
body,* — in a word, the true sovereign in the Forum, — finds in the
civil tribunals, senators as judges, in the army, consuls as generals,
the former armed with the authority of the laws and of that dis-
cretionary power which an uncertain and obscure legislation gives ;
the latter with a discipline which commands a blind obedience.
The plebeian will avoid offending those who could be avenged on

1 We shall see later how Fabius Buteo filled up the Senate after Cannae. So also the
senators are often represented as chosen by the people. (Livv, iv. 4 ; Cic., pro Sexlio, 65 ; 2'>'o
Cluenl., u6.) In //e Lcrjihui (iii. 3) Cicero says the Senate must be composed of all tlie former
magistrates, and Sylla passed a law in this sense. Yet the censors could inscribe on their list
any whom they pleased; but the lex Ovinia (p. 392) obliged them to summon former magis-
trates first. This it is which made the Senate so experienced an assembly.

^ Livy, ix. 9. The praetor Lentulus, an accomplice of CatiUne, could only be proceeded
against after he had abdicated his office. (Cic, Caiil. iii. 6.)

3 At the head of the Uonian constitution Cicero Qle Lcij., iii. 3) ])uts the precious right of
appeal [hke our Habeas corpu.i. — Ed.'].

* The jieople, assembled by tribes, appointed the tribunes, aediles, cjuaestors, a part of the
legionary tribunes, the chiefs of colonies, the commissioners for the agrarian laws, the duumviri
iiiarilimi (Aul. Gell., xiii. 15; Livy, vii. 5, ix. 30). It deliberated in the concione.'i and voted
in the assembly of the tribes ( plehiscitum) on the propositions of the tribunes, which sometimes
referred to the gravest interests of the state ; on the granting the freedom of the city (Livy,
xxxviii. 3(i); on the powers of magistrates (Livy, xxii. 25, 26, 30). Flaminius brought his
agrarian law to their vote. They had also a judicial power (Livy, xxvi. 3, 4 ; App., Bell.
Civ. i. 31). In the comitia centuriata the people as a legislative power made laws, decided
peace and war, ratified treaties, and received the accounts of the magistrates ; as an electoral
body it nominated to the leading offices; as supreme tribunal it received appeals from all
the courts, pronounced on the life of citizens, on the crime of high treason (Livy, vi. 20,
xxvi. 3 ; Cic, de Le//. iii. 4, 1 9 ; pro Sext. 44, 51). But we know that in these assemblies the rich
and the high class easily predominate, and that the multitude is reduced to an unimportant part.

506 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

him as suitor or legionary for las hostile vote as citizen. In the
comitia; even, where the people is supreme, nothing is left to the
hazard of the moment. The magistrate who calls together the as-
sembly limits the debate ; he asks either a Yes or a No ; he allows
no inquiries; and the people reply, Uti rocjas [as you propose], for
approval ; Antiquo [I am for the old], for rejection. We should say
now that the assembly had neither the right of amendment nor
question. Discussion occurred only in the condones, — a sort of pre-
paratory assemblies, where no voting took place. If, nevertheless,
the sovereign people sought to manifest its sovereignty, it could be
stopped by a double veto : in the comitia tributa by that of the tri-
bunes ; in the centuries by that of the gods expressed by the augurs.
Lastly, the farmers of the revenue and contractors for public works
— a large class of citizens and among the richest — were still more
dependent upon the Senate and the censors, who decide upon bids,
allow commissions, put off the pay-day, or break the lease.-'

There were none, even to the poorest, who had not their days
of royalty. On the eve of the comitia the patrician sinks his
nobility to mix with the crowd, to caress these kings of a few
hours who give place, power, and glory. He takes the hard palm
of the peasant, calls the most obscure citizen by his name,^ and,
later on, he Avill restore to the people for one election all that he
and his fathers have saved out of the pillage of many provinces.
Canvassing, which a century later was punished as producing
venality, tended as yet only to draw the rich and poor together,
and to give a lesson in equality to the great.

" Everybody in the state," says Polybius, " may, therefore,
damage another or serve it ; hence arises their harmony and the
invincible strength of the Republic."

A moral power, the censorshii?, itself uTCsponsible and un-
limited in its rights, watched over the mamteuance of this

1 Polyb. vi. 7, II. I could have quoted him for almost every detail of this picture of the
Roman constitution. 'WTien we compare it with that which Cicero has drawn in his treatise
de Legibus (iii. 3), we see that the former was written by a statesman, the latter by a juris-
consult and a philosopher, who, in the first book at least, is pre-occupied with a matter for
which ancient Rome had no thought, — natural law.

■^ Cf. Livy, passitu ; Plutarch, in the Life of Coriolanus ; and the curious book of Quintus
Cicero, On the Candidal arc for lite ConsulalR. [The author might have cited the canvassing
of great English nobles at parliamentary elections, especially before the introduction of the
ballot. — £</.]

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DUEESTG SAMNITE WAR.

507

equilibrium. In oriental legislations, the principal preservative
of the constitution is religious sentiment, for law is only the
expression of the divine will. In Greece and at Rome, Lycurgus
and Numa also gave to their laws the sanction of the gods. But
Solon and the Romans of the Republic, further removed from the
sacerdotal period, confided to men this conservating power : Solon
to the Areopagus, the Roman constitution to the censors. At
Athens, the Areopagus, a sort of tribunal placed outside the
executive, was never sufficiently strong to exercise a useful in-

SUOVETAIIRILIA.*

fluence ; ^ at Rome, the censorship, charged with very important
material interests, was an active magistracy ; the political importance
grew, and asserted a moral authority.* Those details which no law
could anticipate, those innovations which silently unsettle republics
by destroying equality, the censors knew how to reach and punish.
They often expelled po'werful citizens from the Senate or the

^ Bas-relief from the Louvre, showin<; the ceremony of the suovelaurilla. Before the altar,
the magistrate, standing witli veiled head, performed the functions of sacrificer ; near him are
two assistants or camilli carrying, the one the (u.erra, or incense-box, the other the vase of
libations, giittus ; behind are tlie two lictors of the magistrate with their fasces ; next come the
victimarii crowned with laurel, leading the victims, or preparing to strike them ; lastly, on the
second slab, are seen some assistants at the ceremony. See p. 233.

- [I think the influence of the Athenian Areopagus is underrated by the author. — Ed.']
* Censores poputi aevitates, soholcs, famlUas, pecuniasque censento ; urhis tecta. lempla, inas,
aqttas, aerarium, vectir/alia tuento, populique partes in tribus discrihunto, exin pecunias:, acvitales,
ordines partinnto, equilum pedilumque pruUm describunto, caelibes esse prohibento, mores poputi
regunio, prohrum in scnatu ne reliquunto, Bini sunto. (Cic. de Leg. iii, 3.)

508 . COJSTQUEST OF ITALY.

equestrian order, or deprived them of tlieir political rights, and in
the re-partition of classes " they exercised legislation even over the
body which had the legislative power," ^ and they placed their
acts under the sanction of religion, by offering at the closing of
the census the solemn sacrifice of the suovetaurilia. By their
uncontrolled power they came to the aid of the executive power,
— always so weak in democracies.

In every state it is a grave qiiestion to know in whose hand
the judicial power should be placed. This question troubled the
last century of the Roman Rejoublic ; in anterior peri(jds it had
received an original solution. The consul, and then the praetor,
did not himself judge. For each case he gave the rule of law
which ought to be applied, and the jiidges [juiy] appointed by
him, with the agreement of the parties, decided the question of
fact. Thus the process was double, in jure before the praetor, in
iudicio before the judges [jury]. For important causes the judges
were chosen from the Senate : for less important matters from the
body of centumvirs selected to the number of three by each of
the thirty-five tribes. Thus, the organization of civil justice was,
in some respects, that which we have for criminal justice ; the
magistrate declared the application of the law, and judices or jurors
pronounced on the point of fact.

Criminal justice was exercised by the people. Whoever had
violated the public peace, was amenable to the sovereign assembly,
which also received appeals brought against the decisions of the
magistrates ; the latter, in virtue of their duty to make the law
respected, punished offences, a certain number of which would be
regarded by us as crimes. The chastisement was the rod for the
lower classes ; for the others, a fine. The consuls and praetors had,
besides, preserved from royalty the right of nominating, for grave
and pressing cases, criminal quaestors, — an exceptional jurisdiction
which became permanent, quaestiones fer-petuae. However, criminal
justice was rarely exercised, for domestic justice dealt with the
crimes of the slave, of the son, if he were not emancipated, and
of the wife in manu. The master, the father, and the husband
pronounced in the interior of the house the sentence, and had it

1 Montesijuieu, Esprit des Lois, Bk. xi. caj). -xvi.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 509

executed. There was not then, at the period of llonian history
now reached, a body of citizens who were invested with judicial
authority, and who, tliauks to tliat privilege, could menace the
liberty of the other classes. Justice was, therefore, now equal to
all ; in a century it was so no more.

This so well balanced constitution, however, exposed the
state to some great perils. It was not written down ; and the
rights of the assemblies or the magistrates having never been
clearly defined, it could happen that the different jurisdictions
should clash, and hence cause disturbance ; or that one, aided by
circumstances, should gain a dangerous preponderance in the state.
Thus, Hortensius gave an equal authority to the decisions of the
Senate and of the people. Let these two powers array themselves
against each other, and there is no legal force in the state, save the
violent and tempoi-ary remedy of the dictatorship, which can end
this struggle without conflicts. But the prudence of the Senate was
able for a century and a half to avoid the danger. It caused a
division to be made between itself and the people of the matters
respecting which legislative omnipotence should be exercised. T
the people fell the elections and the laws of internal organization :
to the Senate, the administration of finance and foreign affairs ;
to the magistrates, the unlimited rights of the m^jerafm for the
exercise of the executive power.

Then, too, if this people was continually urged on by new
wants, it was constantly also held in check by its respect for
ancient times. As long as Rome remained' herself, she had, like
the image of her god Janus, her eyes turned at the same time
towards the present and the past. The custom of their ancestors,
mos majorum, preserved an authority which often permitted the
supplementing or evading of the written law ; and this authority
of custom was a powerful principle of social conservation.

III. Military Organization.

Abroad, this government was protected by the best armies
yet known. No adversary, no enterprise could affright the con-
querors of the Samnites and Pyrrhus. They had triumphed over

()

510- CONQUEST OF ITALY.

all enemies and obstacles ; over Greek tactics ^ as well as Gallic
dash and Samnite obstinacy ; the elephants of Pyrrhus had as-
tonished them only once.^ Surrounded l^y enemies, the Romans
had, for three quarters of a century, known no other art than war,
no other exercise than arms. They were not only the bravest
soldiers, the best disciplined in Italy, but the most active and
strong. The average military march was 24 millia in 5 hours
(nearly 3 miles per hour), and during these marches they carried
their arms, rations for five days, stakes for encamping, — in all, at
least 60 Roman pounds.

In the intervals between the campaigns drill Avas continued in
the Field of Mars. They shot javelins and arrows, fought with
the sword, ran and leaped in full armor, or crossed the Tiber
swimming, employing for these exercises weapons of a weight double
that of ordinary arms. The noblest citizens took part in these
games ; consuls, those who had triumphed, contended in strength,
address and agility, showing to this people of soldiers that the
generals had also the qualities of the legionary.

All other Powers fought at that time with mercenaries ; Rome
alone had a national army, from which the foreigner, the freedman,
the proletary were excluded, and which had already established
that devotion to the colors which has wrought such miracles.*

All the wealthy citizens had to pass through this rude school
of discipline, devotion, and self-denial. No one, says Polybius,
can be elected to a magistracy who has not been in ten campaigns.

1 The Macedonian phalanx had its force merely from impetus; barbarian armies from
the individual courage of their soldiers. In the one the indi\idual was nothing, and the mass
everything; in the others, the mass nothing, the individual everything. The legion, by its
division into maniples, left full swing to individual courage, and preserved full action to the
mass. Hannibal himself did homage to the organization of the Koman armies by arming his
veterans like the legionaries. (Polyb., xviii. 11.) [The power of the phalanx is perhaps
underrated here. As a formation, like the modern column, intended to break the old e.x-
tended lines, it was most effective, and it was superior to the Roman order of battle when they
met on even ground. But the difficulty of marching it through any rough or uneven ground
made it often useless, and so it was that Alexander never won a battle with his phalanx, but
always used it as the defensive arm of his Hne of battle, — the cavalry and light footguards being
the offensive. At the very time of his death he was devising means to make the phalan.x more
serviceable, and resolvable into smaller and more active subdivisions when need arose. — EdJ]

^ It has always been said that Pyrrhus taught the Romans how to pitch a camp. The
description of Polybius makes one think of the urbs quadrata of the Etruscans ; and he himself
contrasts the regularity of a Roman camp to the confusion which prevailed in a Greek one.

8 On the return from every campaign the standards were placed in the aerariutn.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 511

To what an extent must this law have raised the dignity and
force of the army !

We have followed the Romans to the Senate and the Forum;
we have shown their public as well as their private life. This
study would be incomplete if we did
not see them in camp. Military
organization is for all peoples a very
serious matter. Without soldiers
formed in the gymnasia of Greece, the
Persians had been conquerors at Mara-
thon and Plataea ; without the phalanx
of Philip, Alexander had not set out
from Macedonia ; without the legion,
Italy and the world would have been
given up to the barbarians before
civilization could have taken such root
as not to be entirely extirpated by
them. The picture of the Roman army
necessarily, therefore, forms part of
Rome's history ; and to trace it we
have only to abridge, while supple-
menting it in some points, the account
by Polybius, who, if not a great
writer, was the most intelligent ob-
server of antiquity.^

'• After the election of the consuls,
24 tribunes, always of senatorial or
equestrian order, were appointed, 16 by the people, 8 by the
consuls, for the annual levy, which is usually of four legions.^
They were chosen in such a way that 14 of them were selected
from those who had at least served five years. And that was easy,
since all the citizens were obliged, iip to forty-six years, to carrj'^
arms, either ten years in the cavalry, or sixteen years in the
infantry. Only those were excepted whose property did not exceed

EOMAN SOLDIER.''

^ Fragment of book vi. 19-42.

'■^ Taken from the work of M. Lindensclimidt, keeper of the Museum of Antiquities
of Mayence, Die Alterthilmer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit.

2 In 207, the levy being of 23 legions, the comitia nominated the twenty-four tribunes of
the first four legions; the consuls designated all the others. (Livy, .\xvii. 36.)

512-

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

400 drachmae, and who were reserved for the navy. When
necessity arose, even they were taken for the infantry, and then
their military obligation was twenty years' service.

" Each legion has six tribunes, who command the legion by turns

for two months under the superior orders
of the consul ; and care is taken that this
body of officers is made up in almost equal
proj^ortions of young and veteran tribunes.
" When there is need to make a levy,
ordinarily of four legions, all Romans of
age to bear arms are summoned to the
Capitol. There the military tribunes draw
the tribes by lot and choose in the first
four men equal, as far as possible, in
height, age, and strength. The tribunes
of the first legion make their choice first,
then those of the second, and so of the
rest. After these four other citizens come
forward ; it is then the tribunes of the
second legion who make their choice the
first ; those of the third afterward ; and
so of the rest. The same order is ob-
served till the finish, whence the result
is that each legion is made up of men of the same age and
strength, generally to the number of four thousand two hundred,
and of five thousand when danger presses.'^ In respect of the
horse the censor selects them according to the state of the revenue,
three hundred to each legion. When the levy is over the tribunes
assemble their legion, and, choosing one of the l)ravest, they make
him swear that he will obey the orders of the chiefs and do all
he can to carry them out. The others, passing in turn before
the tribune, take the same oath by pronouncing the words, Idem
in me. [It was equivalent to our formula, / swear it?'\

SOMAN SOLDIER.'

^ Lindenschmidt, op. cit.

^ According to Livy (viii. 8) five thousand was the regular number ; later on it reached
six thousand. (Cf. Livy, xlii. 31 ; and Suidas, s. v. Xcytav . . . i^aKicrxO^toi.}

' This oath was called sacramenluin, because he who took it became cursed or devoted to
the infernal gods if he broke it. Seneca says, too : primum militiae vinculum est religio tt
signorum amor et deserendi nefas. (Ep. 95.)

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME DUEING SAMNITE WAR. 513

" At the same time the consuls gave information to the cities
of Italy, whence they wish to draw auxiliaries, as to the number
of men they require, the day, and place of assembly. The levy
takes place in these cities
as at Rome, the same or-
der, the same oath. A chief
and quaestor is given to
these troops, and they are
marched off.

"The tribunes, after ad-
ministering the oath, inform
the legions of the day and
place where they must as-
semble without arms ; then
he dismisses them. When

assembled on the day fixed,

of the yomigest and poorest

the velites were formed ; .

those who followed them in

age formed the hastati ; the

strongest and most vigorous

composed the 2^')'incipes ; and

the oldest were taken to

form the triarii. Thus each

legion was composed of four

sorts of soldiers, who differed in name, age, and arms : 600 triarii,

1,200 principes, as many hastati ; the rest formed the velites.

" The velites were armed with a helmet without crest, a sword,

a round buckler, 3 feet in diameter, several javelins, the wood of

which was 2 cubits long and an inch thick. The point, 9 inches

long,'- is so tapering that at the first stroke it warps, so that the

enemy is unable to use it.^

" The hastati have complete armor, that is to say, a convex

buckler, 2|- feet broad and 4 long. It is made of two planks

glued together, and covered outside with linen, then with calf-

^ LindensL'hmiJt, op. cit.

- The Greek foot = 1 ft. 0.135 in. ; the digitus =:. 7584 in.; the spithame=: 9.10125 in.;
the cubit = 1 ft. 6.2025 in.

' Livy, xxvi. 4, says that the velites each had seven of these darts.
VOL. I. 33

ROMAN HORSE-SOLDIER.l

514 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

skin. The edges of this l^uckler above and below are mounted
with iron, and the convex part is covered with a plate of the
same metal, to ward off darts sent with great force. The hastati ■
carry their sword on the right thigh ; the blade is strong, and
strikes both cut and thrust.^ They have, besides two jjila, a
bronze casque and buskins. One of these two javelins is round
or square, and 4 digits thick ; the other is lighter, but the stafE of
both is 3 cubits long, and the iron as much.^ On their helmet is a
red or black plume, formed of three straight feathers, a cubit high,
— a thing which makes them aj^pear taller and more formidable.
The poorer soldiers wear, besides, on the breast a plate of bronze,
which is 12 digits in diameter. But those whose wealth exceeds
10,000 drachmas have, instead of this breastplate, a coat of mail.
The principes and triarii have the same arms, only the latter have
but one lance {hasta or Sopv).

" In each of these three bodies they select — putting aside
the youngest — twenty of the most prudent and brave, to make
them centurions. The first chosen has a voice in the council.
There are twenty other officers of an inferior rank, optiones, who
are chosen by the first twenty to lead the rear-guard. Each
corps is divided into ten maniples^ with the exception of the
velites, which are divided in equal niunbers among the three
other corps. The centurions choose in their companies two of the

1 This sword of which Polybius sjieaks was the Sjianish sword, adopted by the Romans
during the Second Punic War, just as they must have taken the piluin from the Etrus-
cans. There has been found at Vulci, among some old Etruscan arms, an iron pilum-
head.

- That would make 6 cubits or 9 feet ; but as a part of the iron entered the wood, where
it was fastened by a socket, the pilum was somewhat shorter. Polybius makes it also too
heavy for the thickness which he gives it, unless he meant the jjllum murale, which played
the part of our siege muskets, which are much larger than the ordinary musket. AVe shall
see the changes made by Marius and Caesar in the pilum, — the arm with which the Romans
conquered the world.

^ The legion had then thirty maniples divided into two centuries, each commanded by a
centurion, so that there were sixty of these officers to a legion. The centurio prior commanded
the first maniple, and was placed at the head of the right wing ; the centurio posterior served
as his lieutenant, if needful, took his place, and had his place in battle at the left wing. The
distinctive sign of the centurion was a vine-stock, with which he might strike the soldiers.
The allies, in case of fault, were beaten with rods : que7n militem extra ordinem deprehendit, si
Romanus essct, vitibus, si extraneus, fustibus cecidit. (Livy, Ep. Ivii.) A cohort was the
union of a maniple of hastati with another of principes and a third of triarii, each with
the velites which belonged to them. The cohort was therefore the reduction to the tenth
of the whole legion. (Cincius, op. Aul. Gell. xvi. 4.)

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 515

strongest and bravest men to carry the standards, vexillarii,
signifcri}

"■ The cavah'j is di\idcd in the saiiu; manner into ten com-
l)anies or turmae ; eacl^ of tliera has three
ofiicers, of whom the first nominated com-
mands the wliole company. These officers
choose three others of a lower rank to con-
trol the rear ranks. The arms of the cavalry
are a cuirass, a solid buckler, and a strong
lance with iron at its butt, in order that it
might still be used when its point was
broken.^

" After the tribunes had thus divided
the troops, and given the necessary orders
for arms, they dismissed the assembly until
the day on which the soldiers had sworn
to rejoin. Nothing can release them from
their oath except the auspices or insur-
mountable difficulties. Each consul appoints
a separate meeting for the troops intended
for him, — generally the half of the auxiliary
allies and two Roman legions. When the
allies have joined, twelve officers chosen by
the consuls, and who are styled prefects, are
charged with regulating their distribution.
They put on one side the best formed and
bravest men for the cavalry and infantry,
which ^re to form the consul's body-guard.
These are styled the extraordinarii. The
prefects divide the rest into two corps, one of which is called
the right wing, and the other the left wing."

On the field of battle the legion formed three lines, — in the
first, the hastati ; in the second, the principes ; in the third, the
triaril ; all divided into six maniples, in raoiks of 20 in front and

' Before Marius the Romans put the image of the wolf on their standards. (Pliny, Nat.
Hist. X. 4.)

2 The cavalry did not use stirrups, and practised vaulting on horseback fully armed,
(Veg., i. 17.)

' De Reffye, Les Ames d'AUse, 1864, p. 839.

THE PILUM.^

516 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

6 deep. In close order, confer tis ordinibus, the soldiers were
stationed 3 feet apart, in every direction, so as to have enough
space for using their arms. A similar interval separated the ten
maniples of each line, so that the front of a legion in battle array
■was about 617 yards, without counting the space reserved for the
cavalry, which the general generally placed at the wings, and
which took up a space of nearly 5 feet for each horse. In
extended order, laxatis ordinibus, the soldiers were separated from
one another by an interval of 6 feet, which doubled the line of
front.

To each maniple of hastati and principes were joined forty
velites, who formed behind the heavy infantry a sixth and seventh
rank of light troops. The velites passed through the intervals to
commence the action as skirmishers, re-entered again Avhen the
hastati closed with the enemy, or formed with them, if they could
still hurl their darts to advantage against the enemy. The
Romans did not employ slingers and archers till later. If the
hastati gave way, they retired by the intervals between the principes
in their rear ; and while the latter fought, the triarii, kneeling
and protected by their bucklers, waited the moment for coming
into action.

" The position for the camp is chosen with great care. When
once the site has been designated, the spot is selected from which
the geiieral can most easily see everything ; and there is fixed
a standard. Around is measured off a square space, each side
of which is distant a hundred feet from the standard ; this is the
praetorium. To the left and right of the praetorium are the forum,
or market, and the quaestorium, i. e., the treasury and arsenal. The
legions are stationed on the side which is most convenient for getting
water and forage. The twelve tribunes, if there are only two legions,
are lodged in a right line, parallel to the praetorium, and at a dis-
tance of fifty feet, their tents facing the troops, whose tents begin a
hundred feet farther off, in a line also parallel.^ The chief street ( Via
Principalis), a hundred feet wide, extends across the camp in front
of the tribunes' tents ; the Via Quintana, parallel to this, is fifty
feet wide ; and narrower ways (vzae) intersect these at right angles.

1 The tents, made of skins, upheld by poles, each held ten men. [For further details
of the arrangement of the troops, see the plan.]

mXEKNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 517

III.
Ill

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III

J_!_1_L

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P4

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iz J ^

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PLAN OF TUK OKDEB OK BATTLE.

518

CONQUEST OF ITALY.

"From the entrenchment ^ to the tents there is a distance of
200 feet ; this space serves to facilitate the entrance and departure
of the troops. Cattle and whatever may he taken from the enemy
are also put there. Another considerable advantage is that in
night attacks neither fire nor dart can easily reach the tents.

'•If it happen that four legions and two consuls camp
together, the arrangement is the same for each army ; only we must

. i m i | i ., i a il .l ll ,m i l ll . l l l lim i iil l llM ll ill ii!iilliil!llihiiih ir:i.!l.',.!;!:ii.':'; ;M3. .;JHfai:in! xVl|i|' : i i ,M lliM,mi.'iuiini>ili,

iMAM ' iMM

KOMAN CAMP.

1. Porta praetoria.

2. Porta decumana.

3. Porta dextra.

4. Porta sinistra.

5. Praetorium.

6. Forum.

7. Quaestorium. 13.

8. Tribnni. 14.

9. Praefecti sociorum. 15.

10. Legati. 16.

11. Pedites delecti. 17.

12. Equites delecti. 18.

Equites extraord.
Pedite-s extraord.
Auxilia.

Pedites sociorum.
Equites sociorum.
Hastati.

9. Priucipes.

20. Triarii.

21. Equites Romani.

22. Ara.

23. Via Principalis.

24. Via Quintana.

imagine two armies turned towards one another, and joined where
the extraordinarii of both are placed, — that is to say, by the rear of
the camp ; and the latter then forms an oblong, covering a space
double the first.

' The camp was defended by a ditch 9, 11, 12, 13, or 17 feet broad, and 8 or 9 deep.
The earth which was dug up was thrown inside the camp in such a way as to form an em-
bankment 4 feet high, on which was fixed palisading strongly interlaced. The' sutlers and
servants encamped outside the gates in the proceslria.

INTEKNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 519

" When once the camp is arranged, the tribunes receive the
oath from all, whether free or slaves, that they will not steal any-
thing in the camp, and that if they find anything they will bring
it to the praetorium. Then two maniples, made np of equal
numbers of principes and hastati from eac^h legion, are set to guard
the place which extends in front of the tril)unes' tents, and which
the soldiers occupy during the day. The tent and baggage of each
tribune are, besides, guarded by four soldiers. These maniples,
drawn by lot from among the principes and hastati, furnish this
guard daily, which is also intended to exalt the dignity of the
tribunes. The triarii, exempt from this service, guard the horses
for the squadron placed behind them. They have to prevent these
horses from getting entangled in their halters or from causing by
their escape any tumult in the camp. A maniple is always on
guard at the consul's tent.

" The allies make two sides of the ditch and entrenchment,
the Romans the two others, one by each legion. Each side is
allotted to parties, according to the number of the maniples, and
for each party a centurion supervises the work ; when the side is
finished, two tribunes examine and approve it.

" The tribunes were charged with the discipline of the camp.
Two of them commanded in turn together for two months. This
duty was among the allies performed by the praefecti. At day
the centurions waited at the tents of the trilumes, and the latter
at that of the consul, from whom they took their orders.

" The watchword for the night is given in the following manner :
one soldier, exempt from all guard-duty, is chosen from each of
the turmae of cavalry and the maniples of infantry quartered in
the last line. Every day, a little before sunset, the soldier betakes
himself to the tribune's tent, and there receives the watchword,
which is written on a little piece of wood, and then returns to his
company. His officer, taking witnesses, carries it to the officer of
the next company, and the latter in his turn carries it to the next ;
and so on, until the watchword, having passed through all the
maniples, is returned to the tribunes before night. General orders
were sometimes circulated in the same way.

" A whole maniple guards the praetorium during the night.
The tribunes and the horses are also guarded by sentries, who are

520 • CONQUEST OF ITALY.

taken from the maniples. Ordinarily three sentries are given to
the quaestor. The guard of each corps is taken from the corps
itself. The exterior sides are confided to the care of the velites,
who during the day mount guard along the entrenchment ; there
^re, besides, ten at each gate of the camp.

" The cavalry make the rounds. It is the first maniple of
the triarii whose centurion is charged to sound the trumpet at
every hour when the guard must be mounted. The signal given,
the horseman on whom the first guard has fallen makes the
round, accompanied by some friends whom he uses as witnesses,
and he visits not only the guards posted on the entrenchment and
at the gates, but also all those who are at each company of foot
and horse. If he finds the sentinels of the first watch on the alert
he receives from them a small piece of wood, on which is written
the name of the legion, the number of the maniple and century of
which tlie soldiers on guard make part. If any one is asleep or
absent he calls to witness those who accompanied him, and retires.
The other rounds are made in a similar way. At each watch they
soimd the trumpet, so that those who have to make the round and
those who form the guard may be warned at the same time.

" Those who have made the round, carry, as soon as the
morning breaks, the little pieces of wood which they have received
to the tribune. If they bring less than the number of guards, the
writing on each of them is examined ; whatever guard has not been
found at its post, and the centurion and men who formed the
guard, are called to confront him who made the round, who
produces his witnesses, without which he alone bears all the
penalty. Immediately a court-martial is called. The tribunes
judge, and the guilty one has to run the gauntlet.

" This punishment is thus inflicted : the tribune, taking a
small rod, simply touches the criminal ; and immediately all the
legionaries fall upon him with blows from sticks and stones in
such a way that he frequently loses his life during the punish-
ment. If he do not die, he remains marked with infamy. He is
not allowed to return to his native land, and no relation or friend
of his would dare to open his house to him. So severe a punish-
ment causes the discipline as regards the night watches to be
always exactly observed. The same punishment is inflicted on

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 521

those who steal in the camp, who give false witness, or have been
caught three times in the same fault. There are also marks of in-
famy for any one who boasts falsely to the tribunes of an exploit,
who abandons his post, or throws away his arms during battle.
So that from the fear of being punished or dishonored, the
soldiers brave all perils.^

" Should it happen that whole maniples have been driven
from their post, the tribune assembles the legion ; the guilty are
brought forward ; he makes them draw lots, and all who produce
the numbers 10, 20, 30, etc., are made to run the gauntlet. The
rest are condemned to receive barley in place of wheat, and to
camp outside the rampart, at the risk of being carried off by the
enemy. This is called decimating. When soldiers, on the con-
trary, distinguish themselves, whether m single combat with the
permission of the general, or in a skirmish where the officer
imposes no obligation of fighting, the consul parades the legion,
calls out the soldiers, and having first bestowed great praises on
them, makes a present of a lance to him who has wounded the
enemy, of a' cup or a breastplate if he has killed and despoiled
him.

" After the capture of a city, those who first scaled the wall
receive a golden crown.^ There are also rewards for the soldiers
who save citizens or allies. Those who have been delivered them-
selves, crown their liberator. They owe them during their whole
life filial respect and all the duties which they would render a
father. The legionaries who have received these rewards have
the right, on their return from the campaign, to be present at
games and fetes, clothed in a dress only worn by those whose
bravery the consuls have honored. They besides hang up, in
the most conspicuous places of their houses, the spoils which they
have taken from the enemy, as monuments of their courage.

" After a victory or the capture of a city the division of
the booty is made with the same regularity. Half the soldiers
guard the camp ; the others disperse for pillage, and each brings

' The consul Petilius having been slain in 176 by the Ligurians, the Senate decided that
the legion which had not been able to defend its general should not receive the pay of the
year, and that that campaign should not be reckoned to any one quia pro saluli imperatoris
hostium tells se nan ohtulcrant. (Val. Max. II. vii. 1.5 ; cf. Livy, xli. 18.)

^ The obsidional crown was for a long time made simply of grass.

522 CONQUEST OF ITALY.

to his legion what he has been able to get. This booty is sold
by auction, and the tribunes divide the proceeds equally among
all, including the sick and those who are absent on leave.

" The pay of the foot-soldier is two obols per day.^ The
centurion has double, the cavalry treble, or a drachma. The ration
of bread for the infantry was two thirds of an Attic medimnus of
corn per month, that of the horse 7 medimni of barley and 2
of wheat.^ The infantry of the allies had the same rations as the
Komans ; their cavalry 1 medimnus, and a third of wheat and 5 of
barley. This distribution was made the allies without charge ;
but as regards the Romans, a certain fixed sum was deducted
from their pay for the victuals, dress, and arms which were
assigned them.

" As the camp was always arranged as has been explained,
and as each corps holds the same place in it, all that was needful
was that the army, on reaching the place of encampment, should
see the white flag waving which marks the spot where the
consul's tent is pitched, in order that all the maniples should
know where to halt. The soldiers take their places a's if entering
their native city, each going straight to his dwelling without
possibility of mistake. Thus the Romans have no need to search,
as the Greeks had, for a place ' fortified naturally ; ' they
could camp everywhere ; and everywhere, when the enemy wished
to try a night surprise, they found them established in a fortress,
where the watch was well kept." ^

We see that in the army of those days there was no
question respecting the distribution of the soldiers according to
the order of classes. The legion of the first age of the Republic
was constituted aristocratically, according to wealth. After the

1 The ohol was one sixth of a drachma ; and Polybiiis regards the Greek drachma as equal
to the Koman denarius, which continued to be considered, for the pay of troops, as equal to
10 ascs, though, from 218 B.C. onward (PI. Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 13), it was worth 16 in com-
merce. For a year of 360 days, the pay of a foot-soldier was therefore 120 denarii, that of
the centurion and horse-soldier from 240 to 360 denarii. The denarius, containing about this
time 58 grains of fine silver (liussey, Ancient Weif/hls), had an absolute value of 88 centimes
(8^rZ.), and a possible value much greater. M. de Witte raises the intrinsic value of the
early denarii, struck at the rate of 72 to the lb., to 1.01 francs; that of the latter, 84 of
which went to the lb., at about 82^ centimes (8}d.).

'^ This rate is somewhat higher than that adopted for the French army.

' Compare with this description that which Josephus (Bell. Jud. iv. 5) gives more than
two centuries after Polybius.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME DURING SAMNITE WAR. 523

establishment of pay in 400 b. c, and probably since the reforms
made by Camillus,^ the distinctions set up or regulated by King
Servius necessarily disappeared, and equality seemed to rule in the
camp as well as in the Forum. Age and strength decided the
place that the soldier should hold in the ranks. But Rome was
too tenacious of its old usages to forget them entirely. The rich,
who m the uifantry have complete armor, alone furnish all the
cavalry, both those who mount themselves at their own expense equo
jprivato, to whom the state gives 7 medimni of barley a month, and
those who receive from it a horse, equus j^uhlicus, with an allowance
for its support, aes equestre, equivalent to the rations granted to the
others in kind. The poor are only received into the velites, — a sort
of forlorn hope, not called on for heavy fighting, — and the prole-
tariat are enrolled only in times of grave peril.^ Their service is
then an exception, which becomes the rule from Marius' time, —
that is to say, at the time when ambitious men believe the poorest to
be the best auxiliaries.^ At the time of the Punic wars the army
was still representative of its country. In two centuries it will no
longer be so.

Let us note also that no people of antiquity so faithfully ful-
filled the obligation of military service. One may assert that from
the battle of Lake Regillus to that of Zama the Romans were an
army always on foot. To be raised to a civil magistracy one must
have been a soldier ; and this custom continued through the time of
the Antoniues. When, in the third century of our era, civil func-
tions were separated from military, what remained of the spirit of
old Rome disappeared, and the reign of adventurers began.

IV. Recapitulation.

So, in the heart of Italy, in the midst of populations subdued,
disunited, and watched, arose a people, strong from union and
character, which, having spent nearly two centuries in build-
ing up its constitution and army, had, in less than eighty years,

1 The state gave them a sword and buckler.

Proktarius publicitus scutisque Jeroque

OrnatuT ferro. (Ennius, ap. Aul. Gell. xvi. 10.)

^ . . . et homini potentiam quaerenti egentissimtts quisque opportunissimus. (Sallust, ap. Aul.
GeU., ihid.)

524 . CONQUEST OF ITALY.

subdued and organized the whole peninsula, from the Rubicon to
the Straits of Messina. In presence of these splendid results of
human activity and prudence, remembering what Rome had once
been, we shall say with Bossuet : " Of all the peoples of the world
the Roman people has been the proudest and hardiest, the most regu-
lar in its counsels, the most constant in its principles, the most pru-
dent, the most laborious, — finally, the most patient. From all this
has been formed the best military power and the most prudent, firm,
and logical political system which has ever existed."

These are very glorious destinies and a very great history.
Yet if in Rome we have found many great citizens, we cannot say
that we have, thus far, met with one really great man. This empire
was, as Bossuet shows, in spite of himself, the work of time, of his-
torical circumstances, and of the collective wisdom of the Senate
and people. The union existing between those who deliberated in
the curia and those who voted in the comitia, the spirit of sacrifice
and the spirit of discipline, that is to say, the great civic virtues,
— these gave to Rome the victory over the Samnites and Italy,
these gave her the victory over Carthage and the world. This
history is then the triumph of good sense applied with persever-
ance to public affairs ; it is also the most brilliant protest against
the old doctrine of the government of the world by the gods, and
against the new theory which attributes all human progress to
great men. They do much, doubtless, and in the works of art
and thought they do all ; but in politics there are no other great
men than those who are the personification of the wants of their
time, and who direct the social forces in the direction these forces
had already taken. We shall one day see Rome, incapable of guiding
her destinies, abandon herself into the hands of her military chiefs ;
but, for a century longer, her institutions and her old spirit preserved
her from these dangerous leaders.

* Coin of Lollius Palikanus, the reverse of which represents the rostra. (See p. 422.)

HEAD OF LIBERTY.'

FOURTH PERIOD.

THE PUNIC WARS (264-201).

CHAPTER XIX.

CARTHAGE.

I. Commercial Empire of the Punic Race.

WHILE Rome was advancing slowly by war from the heart of
Latiuin to the Straits of Messina, on the other coast of
tlie Mediterranean, facing Italy, less than 30 leagues from Sicily,
the Carthagmian power was growing by means of industry and
commerce.

To-day, on a desert strand, 4 leagues from Tunis, are to be
seen fragments of columns, the ruins of a Roman aqueduct, some
reservoirs half filled up, and in the sea the remains of piers which
the waves have destroyed. This is all that remains of Carthage,^

' The most considerable ruins are those of the aqueduct whioh crossed the isthmus and
supplied the city. At its extremity are some deep parallel cisterns, which are sunk under the
ground. At a little distance from the cisterns, and commanding the sea by a height of 205 feet,
a hill rises, whore King Louis Philippe has had a small chapel built in honor of Saint Louis.
Tliis is, without doubt, tlie site of Byrsa, the citadel of Carthage. M. Beulc (Fouilles de
Carthayc) thought he found the foimdations of the walls on tlie declivity of the liill ; but the
results of his excavations have on this j)oint been strongly combated by Mr. Davis (^Carthage
and her Remains). The temple of the great goddess of Carthage, Tanit, whom the Romans
.successively called Urania, Juno, and the Heavenly Virgin, occupied, according to the accounts
of ancient authors, another hill almost as extensive as Byrsa, from which it was se]iarated onlv
by a low street. There has been found on the whole l)rcadth of the space comprised lietwcen
tlie chapel of St. Louis and the sea, but princ-i])ally in the vicinity of tlie chapel, a (piantity
of ex-votos bearing dedications in the Phoenician language to Tanit and Baal-IIammou, wliicli
must come from the temple of this goddess.

" The situation of the ports leaves room for less doubt ; they were to the south of Carthage,

526- THE PTJNIC WAKS FROM 264 TO 201.

,. . etiam periere ruinae. And yet twice, Carthage lived gloriously,
first as a Punic city, and then as a Roman. Her towers rose
to 4 stories ; her triple walls reached to 30 cubits ; and such
was the strength of her walls, that the rooms made in their
masonry could shelter three hundred elephants of war, four
thousand horses, and twenty-four thousand soldiers with their
provisions, equipment, and arms.^ Gold plates covered her temple
of the Sun, whose statue of pure gold weighed, it is said, 1,000
talents ; and in her squares, which re-echoed with twenty lan-
guages, were to be met the half-naked Numidian and Moor, the
Iberian dressed in white, the Gaul in his brilliant sagum, the
stout Ligurian, the active Balearic, Greeks come to seek their
fortune in the great city, Nasamones and Lotus-eaters called
from the region of the Syrtes, — in short, all those who came
to Carthage to sell their courage, pay their tribute, or to bring
to this commercial centre of all lands, civilized and barbarous,
the products of three continents. In its last days, after the
struggle of a century, Carthage still contained seven hundred
thousand people.^

and opened not upon the Lake of Tunis, but upon the sea, in front of the little port Goletta.
There were two, one behind the other ; but one opening gave entrance to both. The fij-st, which
communicated directly with the sea, was the commercial port ; the other, the naval port, was
smaller and circular ; an island occupied its centre. These ports had been cut out of the rock,
as were a great many of the I'lioenician harbors ; and they were thus defended on their sides by
a natural wall ; towards the south they were closed by an iron chain.

" The Phoenicians carried their religion with them. Wherever they went they raised
chapels, or consecrated in the temples of foreign divinities ex-votos to their national divinities.
So in almost all their commercial stations are to be found traces of the worship of Melkart and
Astarte, or Hercules and Venus, as the Greeks and Komans have always called their gods.
The Partus Hercuiis, Po7-lu.i Ilcrcidts Monoeci (Monaco), and the Partus Veneris (Port Vendres)
have this origin.

" The Carthaginian inscriptions make known to us, besides priests properly so called, the
existence of hierodules attached to the service of the different temples who must have formed
regular confraternities. The temple was their family ; they had no ancestors : thus more than
once is seen on the stckie the name of the city of t^arthage in the place of the son and of the
ancestor of him who made the offering. The inscriptions permit us also to catch glimpses of a
religious organization outside the sacerdotal body; on two or three large inscriptions we see
represented the ' ten men placed over the sacred things.' This must have been a sort of
rehgious magistracy answering to the centumviri or the sufEetes. Finally, it tells us the names
of a certain number of suffetes, — Hannibal, Mago, Bomilcar ; but their names were very
widespread, and the total absence of dates jn-events us from drawing any result relative to the
history of Carthage." (Note conununicated by 1\I. Berger.)

1 The triple enclosure of which Appian speaks was perhaps only the external wall, then
the two walls of casemates separated from the first by a covered road.

^ Its Punic name was Kiriath-IIadeshat, or the New City, which was probably pro-

CARTHAGE.

527

This city was, however, only a colony of another city, — Tyre,
a city without territory, like Venice or Amsterdam, a vessel at
anchor on the sea, and thence witnessing conquerors and revolu-
tions. Tyre and Sidon were tlie principal cities of a c(nintry

PLAN OK CARTHAGE,

which, confined between Lebanon and the sea, had scarcely an area
of 240 square miles. But from the smallest countries have come

nounced Kart-Hadshat, and tliis explains the Greek name Kapxi^oiv, and the Roman name
CarlJia(/o.

1 There are many plans of Carthage. We have collected into ours the residts of the most
recent works ; but many of the details in the pubhshed plans, as also in our own, are only
approximations.

528

THE PUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

the grandest things : from Attica, the civilization of the world ;
from Palestine, the religion of Christ.

The Greeks have been the artists, the thinkers, and the poets
of the ancient world ; the Phoenicians were only the traders,^ but
with so much courage, perseverance, and skill, that they have
taken, in the history of the human race, a place among its
civilizing peoples. In their distant expeditions these gold-seekers

AQUEDUCTS OF CARTHAGE.'^

had found what they did not seek, — the arts and science of Egypt
and of Assyria, which they carried away in their caravans and on
their ships. To the Greeks they transmitted the hieratic writing
of the Pharaohs, the metric system of the Babylonians, and many
religious doctrines and artistic methods, which were felicitously

1 Respecting the commerce of the Phoenicians, see the magnificent ode by Ezekiel (chap,
xxvii.) : " O Tyre ! tliou hast said, I am of perfect beauty," etc.

2 These aqueducts belongcil to Roman Carthage. Drawing taken from the work by
Davis, Carlhar/e and her Remains; see p. 529, n. 2.

CAHTHAGE.

529

modified by the bright and charming genius of the race beloved by-
Minerva.^ To the Africans and Spaniards they taught the agricul-

CISTERXS OF CARTHAGE.-'

ture of Syria and of the Nile Valley ; everywhere they brought the
products of an advanced industry, which awakened the nascent
industry of barbarous countries.

1 [The Phoenician infiuenoes on Greek and Eoman culture are here well stated, and haTe
been of late proved far greater than was supposed by the earlier students of Greece and Rome.
The Greek ij.va retains its Babylonian name ; the Greek alphabet has now been proved (by De
Rouge) to have come from Egypt through the Phoenicians, who re-named the letters ; the
tombs of Palestrina, etc., show the spread of Phoenician workmanship over Italy. How much
Greek and even Roman religion owed them is uncertain, but the debt was certainly
large. — Ei:l.~\

^ These cisterns, built on the east of the citadel, appear to have been 140 feet long,
50 wide, and 30 high; the walls were 5 feet thick. The Carthaginian cisterns became in-
sufficient for Roman Carthage. Hadrian sought for a supply at Zaghwan and Djonghar,
about 68 miles distant, and constructed a gigantic acpeduct across mountains and valleys. It
had a mean height of about 113 feet, and a separation of only 9 feet between the supports.
There exists above the Bardo. at about one hour's distance, a part of the arches to an extent of
about SOO yards. The canal, which the .aqueduct carried, was vaulted, and high enough for an
average man to walk along without stooping.

VOL. I. 3i

630-

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

COIN OF SIDON.'

COIN OF SARDINIA. -

As there was no land for the Phoenicians on their barren strand,
they had taken the sea for their domain ; they covered it with their
fleets, and planted colonies on all its coasts, not after the fa.shion

of Rome, as fortresses intended to
secure empire . and the unity of
the conquering people, but after
the Greek manner, as an overflow
of population left to its own re-
sources, and so much the better
pursuing its own fortune. There
was a time when the Mediterranean might be styled the Phoenician
Sea. The legend, smnming up, as it always does, the ancient

history of a people in that of a
mythic hero, represented the succes-
sive stages of progress of Phoenician
colonization by the symbolic voyage
of the god Melkart. The Tyrian
Heracles, leading a powerful army,
had crossed the north of Africa,
Spain, Gaul, Italy, and Sicily, subduing nations, founding cities,
and teaching to the conquered the arts of peace. Sardinia still

possesses the strange
monuments raised by
the Phoenician colonists,
the Nuracjhe?

In the Aegean Sea
the Phoenicians retired
before the warlike races
of Hellas ; and leaving
to them the north of
the Mediterranean, they
kept only Africa and
Spain. From Tyre to Cadiz, for 1,000 leagues, the Phoenician

1 Head crowned with towers, personification of the city- On the reverse, tlie name
Sidonians, an eagle with a palm and its foot on a ship's prow ; iu the field a monogram and
the diite E, year 5 of the Sidonian era, or 106 B. c.

- SARD. PATEU. Head of the god Sardus ; on the reverse, the head and name of Atius
Balbus, praetor in Sardinia, and grandfather of Augustus. Roman bronze coin.

' [That these Nurar/he were built by Phoenicians is more than doubtful ; they probably date
from earlier, or at least ruder races. — Ed.']

NURAGHE OF SORI.

CARTHAGE. 531

ships could follow a coast fringed by their trading-posts. But the
Mediterranean was too narrow for these thousands of merchants who
constituted themselves the purveyors of nations. Their caravans or
their ships visited the most remote countries of the east and south.
By the Red Sea and Indian Ocean they
went as far as India, Ceylon, and estab-
lished themselves in the Persian Gulf; by
Persia and Bactria they penetrated to the N^^^>^
frontiers of Chuia. The ivory and ebony '^°™

of Ethiopia, the gold dust of Central Africa and Asia, the perfumes
of Yemen, the cinnamon and spices of Ceylon, the precious stones
and rich tissues of India, the pearls of the Persian Gulf, the
metals, slaves, and wools of Asia Minor, copper from Italy, silver
from Spain,^ tin from England, amber from the Baltic, lay in heaps
in the markets of Tyre. But let us not look into the interior of
these maritime cities, where, with so much riches, there was
combined so much corruption. Under the influence of a hot
clunate and of a religion which reduced the problem of the
universe to that of fecundity, their solemnities were the lascivious
feasts of Astarte, or the shrieks with which their temples re-
sounded when Moloch, " horrid king," ^ required the sacrifice of the
noblest children.*

Carthage was only a link of this immense chain which the Phoe-
nicians had attached to all the continents, to all the islands, and
with which they seemed to desire to bind the world. But there
are cities which are called by their situation to a high for-
tune. Placed at that point of Africa which stretches out towards
Sicily, as if to close the Maltese Channel, and commands the pass-
age between the two great basins of the Mediterranean, Carthage

1 Head of Hercules — Jlelkart ; on the reverse, a fish and a Punic inscription, which
reads: " MebaaU-Agadir," a '• citizen of Agadir." Silver money. (Note by M. de Saulcy.)

' Silver being rare in ancient times, the ratio of gold to silver was at Rome as 1 to 10 ;
anciently in Asia it was perhaps 1 to 7 or 8 ; with us it is legally 1 to 15^ ; this high price of
silver was without doubt one of the causes of the wealth of the Phoenicians, who drew much
silver from S])ain. Tyre and Sidon had flourishing industries also, — purple stuffs, glass ware,
textile fabrics, toys, salt provisions, metal work, etc.

s " Moloch, horrid king, hesmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice and parents' tears."

Milton: Paradise Lost, ii.

* [The most brilliant picture of Carthaginian splendor will be found in Flaubert's novel
Salanunbo, of which the scene is laid between the First and Second Punic Wars. — Ed. J

532

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

became the Tyre of tlie West, and in colossal proportions, because
Mount Atlas, with its intractable mountaineers, was not like
Lebanon to Tyre, close to its walls, barring the way and

limiting its space ;
because it was not
encircled, like
Palmyra, by the
desert and its
nomads ; because,
in short, it was
able, resting on
large and fertile
provinces,^ to ex-
tend over the vast continent lying behind it, without being
stopped by powerful states. The Greeks of Gyrene were kept
in check, the interior of Africa crossed to the Nile and Niger,

Senegal^ discovered, Spain and
Gaul explored, the Canaries
discovered, America perhaps
surmised and announced to
VfCifn' TT'^^iSi, ';y Christopher Columbus by that
statue on the Isle of Madeira
which, with extended arm,

COIN OF CAUTHAGK.^

COIN OF CARTHAGE

pointed to the West. This
is what the colony did which was placed by Tyre at Cape Bon.

^ Head of the nymph Arethusa; on the reverse, Pegasus. The inscription, BARAT,
signifies the Wells, and perhaps more exactly Bi ARAT, " at Arat," a Punic name of Syracuse,
which possessed the famous fountain of Arethusa. Large silver piece, certainly struck in
Sicily, and probably at Syracuse. (Note of M. de Saulcy.)

2 The Zeugitana and the Byzacene districts, the extreme fertility of which Polybius (xii. 3),
Diodorus (xx. 8), and Scylax praise, and whose soil is even now of inconceivable fertility.
Ninety-seven ears have been counted on a single root of barley, and the natives have assured
Sir G. Temple (Excurs. in the Medit. ii. 108) that there have often been as many as 300. At
the Algerian Exlubition of 1876 some clusters of barley grown in the ditches of Touggourt,
and springing from a single grain, bore each 78, 84, and even 118 ears.

2 Ilanno, charged with the examination of the west coasts of Africa, came to a stop
through want of provisions between the 7th and 8th degree of N. lat., in the Gulf of Sherboro,
which he called the Horn of the South, Norov Kepas. He settled colonists, men and women, on
divers points of the coast, from 10° N. lat. to the Pillars of Hercules.

* Head of Arethusa. On the reverse, a free horse, with his back against a palm-tree, —
a symbol essentially Carthaginian. A fraction of the former piece. The inscription has the
same meaning, which assigns the same Sicilian origin to this piece. An electrum coin. (Note
of M. de Saulcy.)

CAKTHAGE.

533

There was a moinent when this commercial empire founded
by the Punic race, with its two great capitals, Tyre and Carthage,
extended, as did a thousand years later that of their Arab
brothers, from the Atlantic Ocean as far as the Indian. But tliis
rule had two implacable enemies, — in
the east the Greeks, in the west the
Romans. With Xerxes the Phoenician
shi})s came as far as Salamis ; witli
Alexander tlie Greeks appeared under
the walls of Tyre, which they over-
turned. When, however, they founded Antioch and Alexandria,
Phoenicia, straitened between these two cities, saw the commerce
of the world depart. What Alexander had done to Tyre,
Agathocles and Pyrrhus attempted against Carthage.
But Greece looks towards the east ; here she had
gained her brilliant victory ; Pyrrhus miscarried in ^^^^ ^^^^ ^
the west against the Phoenician coloiiists ; it re-
quired a stronger hand to snatch Sicily from the Carthaginians.

COIN OK CAKTHAGE.

II. Caetiiaginiaks and Liby-Piioenicians ; Commercial Policy

OF Carthage.

Like Rome, Carthage had the most obscure beginnings. She
took four centuries to found her empire. Not all the Numidians
were, as their Greek name would seem
to indicate, nomads. Many of the
Libyans were devoted to agriculture ;
many also wandered about, like the
present Algerians, with their flocks.
She conquered the former and gained '"'^ °^ libya.

or restrained the latter by the alliances which she caused their

1 On the ri<;ht, a palm. On the reverse, the head of a horse. Coin of recent period.

^ Hercules-Melkart, having the head covered with a lion's skin. On the reverse, a lion
walking. Below the name of the Libyans. Above, the Punic letter corresponding to M, the
abbreviation of the word MAKHNAT, whicli signifies rain/i. The piece must be, then, a moneta
castrensis special to the Libyans. (Note of M. de Saujcy.)

534

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

chiefs to contract with the daughters of her richest citizens.^ She
encouraged the culture of the soil, and her colonists, mixing with
the natives, formed in time one people with them, the Liby-

PORTS OF CARTHAGE - (TAKEN FROM DAVIS).

Phoenicians.^ But the Roman colonies, always armed, encircled
their metropolis with an impenetrable girdle. The establishments

^ See in Livy the history of Soplionisba, and in Polybius that of Naravas (i. 78 seq.).
Oesalces, King of the Massylians, married also a niece of Hannibal. (Livy, xxix. 29.)

- The harbors of Carthage were situate to the southeast of Saint Louis' chapel, at the
point where the Bey's country-house stands. The two little lakes now to be seen there are
not remains of the ports, but an attempt at restoration, made some years ago by the son of
the jirime minister. (De Sainte-Marie, La Tunisse Chre'l.)

' Arist., Pol. vi. 3. Let us note that between the Carthaginians and the Africans there
was a difference of origin, language, and manners which did not exist, at least to the same
degree, between Rome and the Italians, even if the famous narrative of Procopius (De B.
V. ii. 20) should be admitted respecting tlie presence in Africa of Canaanites, — that is to say, of
men of Phoenician language and rai>e before the arrival of colonists from Sidon and Tyre. In
Italy the fusion was possible ; it was so in Africa only by that intermediary race the Liby-
Phoenicians, which was slow in forming, and which had not the same interests as Carthage.
Just as the English are foreigners in India, so the genuine Carthaginians always remained for
Africa. In Livy the ambassadors of Masinissa reproach them with it.

CAKTHAGE. 535

of Carthage, all unwalled, that a revolt might be impossible, were
only, to say the truth, large agricultural villages, charged with
the feeding of the immense population of the capital and pro-
visioning its thousand ships and its armies. Thus is it that the
Carthaginian cities appear to us, — open to all attacks, and as in-
capal)le of defending themselves against Carthage as against her
enemies. Spoletum, Casilinum, Nola, and the impregnable cities of
Central Italy saved Rome by their resistance to 1 launiljal ; two hun-
dred cities yielded to Agathocles as soon as he had set foot ua Africa.

The Senate had favored the intermarriage of its colonists with
the Libyans (Berbers). But the people of tliis mixed race were
regarded as an inferior class, ex-
eluded from honors and from office,^
watched, treated as a hostile race,
and thus urged on to revolt. The
history of Mutines and of the war
of the mercenaries shows the fault

AEGYPTO-ROMAX COIN OF MALTA. -

of Carthage and its punishment ;

at Rome, Mutines might have become a consul ; at Carthage, he

was insulted, proscribed, and forced into treason to save his head.

Carthage had been preceded or followed on this coast by
other Phoenician colonies, — Utica, Hippo, Hadrumentum, the two
Leptis, all of which she compelled to recognize her supremacy,
except Utica, which knew how to keep a real independence.^ No
longer having to fear their rivalry, having subjected the Numidian
borderers, keeping the rest divided by policy or gold, she had full
liberty to extend her maritime empire. Born of a merchant city,
Carthage loved nothing but commerce, and made war simply to
open up thoroughfares, to make sure of trading with new countries,
or to destroy rival powers. The Greeks and the Phoenicians
divided between them one of the two great basins of the

1 It was the Liby-Phoenieians who composed, with the populace of the capital, the colonies
sent out in such number. (Arist., Pol. vi. 3.) [Momrasen thinks the designation was really
political, like the Latin name. — Ed."]

^ ME.\rrAIQN. Head of Iris, with her usual head-dress, — three plumes and two uraens
(the serpent, mark of royalty) ; before her, the representation of the goddess Tanit. On the
reverse, Osiris (?) carrying the two symbols of regularity, — the claw, which holds, and the
Jiabellum, which moves or fans. Bronze coin of Malta.

^ Polyb., iii. 24. Utica in Phoenician means the old town.

536

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

POENO-ROMAN COIN OF GAULOS.^

Mediterranean : Carthage sought to possess the other. Sardinia,
Corsica, and the Balearic Ishmds commanded its navigation ; she

tooli possession of them. Sicily was
better defended by the Greeks of
Syracuse ; she kept them in check
by taking up her position at Malta,
where she kept two thousand men
as garrison, at Gaulos, at Cossura,
which touch it, at the Aegates and the Lipari Islands, which
dominate its coast on the west and north, in Sicily itself, two
thirds of which she finally occupied. Wherever she ruled as
sovereign, hard laws — as merchants have always prescribed, even
in our days, to defend their monopolies — oppi-essed the conquered.
Whilst around her own walls she condemned the Libyans to work
for her profit, it was forbidden, if we may believe the Greeks,

the inhabitants of Sardinia, under
pain of death, to cultivate the soil.^
In Africa, whose stormy coast she
had fringed with her numerous fac-
tories ; in Spain, where ancient
Phoenician colonies served as com-
mercial stations, — she profited by
the ignorance of the barbarians to make good bargains with them.
She lost neither her time nor strength in conquering or civilizing
them ; she preferred to create wants for them, and to impose on
them burdensome exchanges, taking, for some slight tissues made
at Malta, the gold dust of the African or silver of the Spaniard;
always gaining on everything, and with all men.

POENO-ROMAN COIN OF COSSURA.^

' Head of Melkart. Before it, a caduceus, symbol of commerce. On tlie reverse, an
object, the meaning of which is lost, and in a Roman crown of laurel the words " the ships."
Bronze money used for jjaying sailors.

- Auct. de Mirah. li)4. This is a mistake ; Sardinia furnislied much corn to the fleets and
armies of Carthage (Died., -xiv. G3, 77). But the Carthaginians spread this report to keep off
foreign ships from the island, whicli would have supported Carthage if a revolt or war deprived
them of the corn of Africa. In the first treaty with Rome, the Romans were allowed to trade
in Sardinia ; in the second, tliis permission was witlidrawn. (Polyb., iii. 22-24.)

^ Head of a veiled woman, image of tlie tutelary deity of the island, crowned by a Victory.
Reverse, COSSURA, and the representation of Tanit in a crown of laurel (see p. 542, n. 2).
Bronze coin of Cossura. These three coins show the two islands submitting to the triple
influence of Phoenicia, Egypt, and Rome ; and as two at least are of the Roman period, they
prove also the persistence of the Punic nationality.

►J •

fc.

CAHTHAGE. 537

The Etruscans, Massaliots, Sjrracuse, Agrigentum, and the
Greek cities of Italy created for her a severe competition. Against
some she excited the hate and ambition of Rome (by the treaties
of 509, 348, and 270 b. c.) ; against others she perhaps armed the
Gauls and Ligurians ; or else she mysteriously hid the route fol-
lowed by her ships. Every foreign vessel caught ia the waters of
Sardinia or near the Pillars of Hercules was pillaged and the
crew thrown into the sea.^ After the Punic wars, this strange right
of nations, as Montesquieu calls it, was modified. A Carthaginian
vessel, seeing itself followed into the Atlantic by a Roman galley,
ran itself aground rather than show the route to the Cassiterides
(the Scilly Islands).^ The love of gain rose almost to heroism.
What is strange, the greatest commercial power of antiquity seems
to have remained a long time without itself coining its gold and
silver money ; at least, the silver and gold coins which we possess
of Punic Carthage all come from the mints which it had in Sicily,
and where Greek artists worked for it. Syracuse even made them
for it, as appears from the beauty of the type and image of the
nymph Arethusa. These moneys do not even belong to the standard
of weight after which the true Punic coins were made.^ Carthage,
however, had them at the time of its independence ; but, follow-
ing the custom of Egypt and Western Asia, it made its exchanges
principally with bullion, as China still does, and by barter, or with
pieces of leather, which, bearing the stamp of the state,* pla^-ed the
part of om' paper money. This practice need hardly surprise us,
as something analogous to it has been found among the Assyrians,
from whom Phoenicia borrowed so much.^

- App., Bell. Pun. 4 ; Strabo, xvii. 802 ; Montesq., Esp. des Lois, xxi. 11.

^ Strabo, iii. 176. Tlie captain being saved, Carthage restored liini, at the public
e.xpense, all he had lost.

" Lenormant, La Monnaie dans I'antiquUe, i. 266. The author behaves that Carthage
began to coin pieces of gold at home only towards 350.

' Cf. Eckhel, Doctrina Numm. iv. 136.

^ From the ninth century b. c. the Assyrians had small clay bricks, which were real letters
of credit, enabling the merchants of Babylon and Nineveh to dispense with the cumbrous and
sometimes dangerous transport of specie. (Lenormant, ibid. i. 113.)

538

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

III. — ■ Mercenaries.

To give its commerce scope and security, to be mistress of the
seas, Carthage only wanted quiet possession of the isles and coast-
line. However restricted these pretensions were, armies were re-
quired to realize them. But as soon as war becomes simply a
commercial matter, a means of assuring the return of capital and
the sale of merchandise, why should not the merchants pay
soldiers as they pay agents and clerks ? Venice, Milan, Florence —

FIGURES PLACED AT THE PROWS OF PUNIC SHIPS.'

all the Italian repul)lics of the 15th century had condottieri ; Eng-
land has often bought them. It was a Phoenician practice: "The
-Persians, Lydians, and the men of Libya," said Ezekiel to the city
of Tyre, "were in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the
shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness."^ Car-
thage had, therefore, its mercenaries. Horses were bought and ships,

1 We may suppose that Carthage followed the usage of Tyre and Sidon, who placed
monstrous dwarfs at the prow of their ships (Muse'e Napoleon, vol. iii. pi. 19). See (p. 542)
what is said of Carthaginian art.

2 xxvii. 10.

CARTHAGE.

539

which tlicy armed at the prow with deformed dwarfs to excite
terror ; they also bought men, and from the Alps and Pyrenees to
the Atlas Mountains there were plenty of swords for hire! Every
one of Carthage's factories became a recruiting office. The prices
were low, for the emulation was great amongst the poor and
greedy barbarians who encircled the narrow border of the Car-
thaginian possessions. Besides, Carthage understood her business.
She shipped the women, children, and even the effects of her
mercenaries, — they were so many hostages of their fidelity ; or after

OFFERING (f.X-VOTO.)^

THE GODDESS TANIT (eX-VOTO)."

a murderous campaign they fell to the treasury. No one was
refused, neither the Balearic slinger,^ nor the Numidian horseman,''
armed with a buckler of elephant's hide and covered with the skin
of a lion or panther, nor the Spanish and Gallic foot-soldier, nor the
Greek, whom they employed in every capacity, — spy, sailor, builder,
in time of need even general.^

The more different races there were in the Carthaginian

' A Carthasiniun iiiakinj^ an offering before an altar.

2 Toji of a ste.le of the temple of Tanit, wliere the goddess, who was "the splendor of
Baal," that is to say, the moon, is reflection of the god, whose wife she was, is represented
holding a child. To the right and left on the acrole.ria the crescent moon above the sun's disc.

8 The reputation of these slingers is known. Strabo says (iii. 168) that the Baleares gave
bread to their children only by placing it on a spot which they had to reach by the sling. Cf.
Floras (iii. 8), Lycophron {Alex., p. CJT), and Uiodorus (v. 18), who say the same thing.

* Polyb., i. 1.5.

^ Xanthippus. Polyb., i. 7. See in the chapter following the history of the llhodian of
Lilybaeum.

540 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

army, the more confidence Carthage felt ; a revolt seemed im-
possible among men who could not understand each other's
speech. Besides, the general, his principal officers and his guard,
called the sacred battalion,^ were Carthaginians ; and the senators
always kept some of their colleagues near him, to watch over his
conduct, and make sure that all these men were well earning
their pay. The love of fame and of country, devotion to the state,
— all those grand words, which at Rome wrought miracles, had
no currency with the Carthaginian Senate. There was much talk
of receipts and expenditures — very little of national honor ; hence
the resources of the country were exactly measured by those of the
treasury. When that was full, soldiers were lavished with care-
less prodigality ; when it was exhausted, Carthage yielded, or
negotiated : the transaction had been a failure. In case of suc-
cess, the disbursements were quickly made good, and the dead
mercenaries forgotten. What matter if there were forty or fifty
thousand barbarians less in the world ! These mercenaries might
sometimes be dangerous ; but in that case it was easy to get
rid of them, — witness the four thousand Gauls given up to
the sword of the Romans, the troop abandoned on the desert
Isle of Bones,^ and Xanthippus, who perhaps perished like
Carmagnola.

Such a system might last, so long as distant expeditions only
were concerned ; but the moment that war drew near her own
walls, Carthage was lost. Her citizens, having committed to mer-
cenaries the care of their defence, found few resources in themselves
when they stood alone in face of the enemy. Even if they had had
a senate able to send to the Romans, when making a descent on
Africa, the answer of Appius to the King of Epirus, still they
could not have made legionaries, like those of Asculum and Bene-
ventum, out of their shopboys. " A crowd of virtues belongs to
the pursuit of arms ; " ^ and war, while a great misfortune, gives to

1 For the Carthaginian citizen military service was so meritorious that he desired to keep
perpetual remembrance of it. The law considered that to gird the sword was quite an
exploit, and authorized the citizen to wear as many rings as he had made campaigns. (Arist.,
Polit. vii. 2, 6.)

^ 'Oo-TfcoSr/r. Diod., V. 11.

* Chateaubriand says : " A people accustomed to see only the variations of the funds and
the yard of cloth sold, if it find itself exposed to a disturbance, will be able to show neither the

CARTHAGE.

541

a military people qualities which outside camps are not known.
Like the Jews and Tyrians, their brethren, the Carthaginians learnt
how to fight only in their last days ; but like them also, at the
crisis they were heroic.

IV. TuE Constitution.

Besides, the mercenaries only appeared at periods of de-
cadence, — m Greece, after Alexander ; in the Roman Empire, after

POMEGRANATE (eX-VOTO).I

ELEPHANT (EX-VOTO).'

the Antonines ; in Italy, in the Middle Ages, after the Lombard
League. When Rome and Carthage met, according to Polybius,^
the former was in the full force of its ro})ust constitution ;
the other had reached that senility of states when the en-
feebled organization is no longer directed by an energetic will.
The assertion of the merits of poverty had disappeared with the
declamations on the virtues of the golden age. The poor man is
not necessarily a good citizen, and the rich a bad one ; but riches
as well as indigence can produce mischief. Now there was at

energy of resistance nor the generosity of sacrifice. Repose begets cowardice ; among shuttles
there is fear of swords ; a crowd of virtues belongs to arms."

1 Taken from a ■■<tele of the temple of Tanit. The pomegranate being consecrated to
Adonis, this representation would indicate some relation between the worship of Tanit and
that of Adonis. These two designs show more manual dexterity in the reproduction of animals
and plants than is to be found in that of the human figure.

2 Polyb., vi. 51. [Greeks served for pay from early days, as already mentioned. — Ed.J

542

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

Carthage too miTcli opulence and too little of that high spirit which
raises the soul above fortune. This great city had skilful mer-
chants, bold voyagers, wise counsellors, and incomparable generals ;
we cannot name a poet, an artist, or a philosopher.^ It will be

quite enough to see the reproduction
which we give of some specimens of
the three thousand ex-votos found at
Carthage, to learn that, true to its
origin, this people had no more art
than their metropolis. It was active
enough, but not thoughtful ; and its
religion, at once licentious and sanguin-
ary, and for that rea.'^on very tenacious,
exercised no moral influence on private
life, no useful influence on the govern-
ment ; whilst that of the Romans promoted virtuous conduct, and
its priests, nearly all magistrates or senators, spoke in the name
of Heaven to give sanctions to political wisdom.^

EX-VOTO OF THE TEMPLE OF
TANIT.-

1 In spite of the luxury of the temples .and palaees, art was at Rome, as at Tyre, only
a foreign importation. In the temple of Melkart at Tyre, where Herodotus (ii. 44) saw a gold
column .ind one of emerald, there was no image of the god. The same in the temple of Gades :

. . . nulla pjlJiqies, siviulacnwe notadeorani
Majestate locum implevere llinore.

SiLius Italicds : Punica, iii. 30.

There were some books at Carthage, since the Senate gave them to Masinissa, and Sallust
{Jug., p. 1 7) saw them ; but there is no literary work extant but Mago's treatise on agriculture.
It has been thought that the sculptor Boethos was a Carthaginian ; but the best editions of
Pausanias have the reading 'HakKr^huvim in place of Xapp^ijSoi^ios, which uuikes Boethos to
lie a Greek of Chalcedon (see the I'ausanias, ed. Didot, V. xvii. 4). They make Clitom-
achus also a Carthaginian, one of the chiefs of the New Academy ; but he li\ed a long time
at Athens, and there succeeded (in 129 b. c.) Carneades. He was still teaching there in 111
(Cicero, Be Oral. i. 11), and he is traced there as far as the year 100. He was a Greek, at
least in education, as another Carthaginian, Terence, was a Roman.

2 A pediment somewhat Greek, then two figures of geometrical appearance, and which
are, in fact, the rudimentary representation of the sacred cone (Venus of Paphos, Tacit., Hist.
ii. 3, black stone of Emesa, Cybele, etc.), which was the image of Tanit, of whom the Graeco-
Romans have made the Heavenly Virgin. " There, indeed, where the Aryan mind sees at-
mospheric phenomena, the Semite sees persons, who become united and beget others. . . . The
o])en hand seen from the front is the hand of the divinity which blesses." (Berger, Les

• Ex-voto du temple de Tanit, p. 1 2.)

s Note explanatory ofthejigure.i of the plate (p. 543) : No. 1, Attitude of adoration ; No. 2,
Hand of the goddess blessing, whose power is indicated by the immoderate size of the thumb, on
which is graven its image ; No. 3, The ears of the god " who hears," and his mouth, " which
blesses;" No. 4, Disk of Venus surmounting the globe of the sun. with two uraei, symbols of
Baal-IIammon, formed by two crowned serpents surrounding the solar disk ; No. 5, in the centre

NO. I. AKORATIOJf. NO. 2. HAND OF A GOD BLESSING. NO. 3. KX-VOTO.

NO. 4. DISK OF VENUS.

NO. C. SHIP.

NO. 5. PALM-TREE AND ENSIGNS.

NO. 7. CnAHIOT.

%^^^

NO. 8. TROPHY. NO. 9. PLOUGH. NO. 10. CANDELABRUM.

REMAINS OF CARTHAGINIAN ART (sEE PAGE 542, NOTE 3).

CARTHAGE. 545

The Romans pillaged the enemy; they did not pillage the
state. At Carthage, in the latter days, all was for sale, and all
was sold, principles as well as places. As wealth gave power,
honors, and pleasure, no means of acquiring it, whether by force
or astuteness, seemed illegitimate. "Among the Carthaginians,"
says Polybius, "in whatever way riches are acquired, one is never
blamed; high places are bought." Aristotle also says that the
rich alone held office. Carthage loved gold ; she got possession of
it, and she utterly ceased to live on tlie day when she lost it, —
receperunt mercedem suam.

Nevertheless, Aristotle boasts of the excellence of her govern-
ment.^ It was a constitution made up of different elements, —
royalty, aristocracy, democracy ; but there did not exist among
these powers the just balance which is the advantage of this
kind of polity : oligarchy was really supreme. Two suffetes
{shophetim, i. e. judges), chosen out of privileged families, and ori-
ginally appointed for life, by the general assembly, were the highest
magistrates of the Republic : some Greek and Latin writers give
them the name of kings.^ After them came the Senate, in which
all the great families had representatives. To facilitate the action
of the government by concentrating it, there was taken from the
Senate the council of the centumviri, or of the hundred and four,
according to Aristotle. The latter by degrees usurped the power,
so that the suffetes became an annual office, and, being deprived
of the command of the armies, were no more than presidents of this
council and the religious chiefs of the nation. The centumviri,
who recruited themselves by co-option, could call the generals to

a palm-tree with two clusters of dates, to the right and left two pikes representing ensigns;
No. 6. Ship's prow ; No. 7, Chariot with full wliecls ; No. 8, Panoply showing that the conical
helmet represented is like the conical helmets found at Cannae, and which, after our drawing,
should be considered as Carthaginian ; No. 9, Plough ; No. 10, Candelabrum (extract from
a memoir by Mons. Ph. Berger on Lex Ex-voto du temple de Tank a Carthaije). Let what
precious monuments come from the small town of Pompeii be compared with what the temple
of Tanit yields to us, and whatever allowance we may make for profanations and pillage, the
thought must strike us that the Carthaginians, in spite of their nearness to Sicily, had only
rude forms of art.

1 Arist., Polit. ii. 8. Cicero says also: Nee lantum Carthago Tiahuisset opum scxcentos
fere annos sine consiliis el disciplina. (Z)e Rep. i. fragm. inc. 3.)

2 Corn. Nepos (Hannib. 7). Arist. (Pol. ii. 8) compares them to the kings of Sparta, and
calls them ffaa-iXus. Livy (xxx. 7) comjiares them to the consuls ; cf. Zon., viii. 8. Gades
had two suffetes (Livy, xxviii. 37), and the case was probably the same in all the Phoenician
and Carthaginian colonies.

VOL. I. 35

546 • THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

account; they made use of this right to control all the military
forces of the Republic. In time the other magistrates and the
Senate itself found themselves subjected to their control.^ As
senators, they filled the committees formed in the Senate to control
each of the branches of the administration, — the navy, internal
police, military affairs, etc., and as centumviri they exercised, more-
over, supervision over these committees. Finally, they formed the
tribunal before which were brought judicial matters, — perhaps in the
committee of the Thirty, whose members were for life,^ and who
seem to have been a privy council.^ The nomination to offices and
the right of intervening, in case of disagreement, between the
suffetes and the Senate constituted the sole prerogatives of the

public assembly.

We cannot be quite sure that what has just been said is a
faithful summary of the Carthaginian constitution. The informa-
tion of the ancients is insufficient, and on many points contradic-
tory ; ■* Irat they agree in showing the long-continued preponderance
in this Republic of the oligarchy, which, to keep away the poor
from the government, had made, as at Rome, all public functions
unsalaried, and permitted the same citizens to hold several offices
at the same time. To select senators and judges Athens consulted
the lot, which is very democratic ; Carthage consulted wealth only,
which is not so.

The Senate, and in the Senate the centumvirs, were for a long
time the sole masters of government. If liberty, as the Greeks

1 Livy, XXX. IG ; xxxiii. 46. The tribunal of the Forty at Venice united also all their
powers. (See Daru, bk xxxix. ; Arist. {Pol. ii. 8) speaks of the (rvaaina tS>v iratprnp.) These
associations, where they prepared subjects for deliberation in the Senate, — in circulis convivus-
que cdcbrata sermonibus res est, dehule in senatu quidam (Livy, xxxiv. Gl), — were an element of
etrength to the aristocracy, which was besides renewed by the accession of the newly become
rich. ° Observe that the Carthaginians had not family names any more than the Jews.

2 Justin, xix. 2, 5, and Livy, xxxiii. 46 : res fama vkaque omnium in illornm potestate
erat. Qtd unum ejus ordinis offendisset, omnes adversos hahehat.

3 . . . Triginta seniorum principes: id cral sanctius apud illos, consilium, maximaque ad
ipsum senatum regendum vis. (Livy, xxx. IG.)

< The two men who have spoken with the greatest authority respecting the institutions of
Carthage, Aristotle and Polvbius. are separated by two centuries, since the former died in 322,
and the"latter in 1 22. The one knew Carthage in prosperity, and finds its government excellent ;
the other saw its ruin, and blames its institutions. Both sj.eak truly, though inconsistently;
and this difference is explained by the difference of the times when they lived. Yet Aristotle
had said : " H ever any great reverse happen to them, if their subjects refuse tliem obedience,
the Carthaginians will find no means in their constitution to save themselves."

CAllTHAGE.

547

COIN OK CAMAKINA.-

of the decadence understood it, suffered, empire profited, for
the Carthaginian Senate had tlie immutable policy belonging to
great aristocratic bodies, which, pursuing the same designs with
energy and prudence for several generations, do more for the future
of states than the often-changing influence of popular assemblies.
It maintained during one whole
war the same generals in office,
— for example, Hannil^al,^ tlie de-
fender of x\grigentum ; Carthalo,
the destroyer of the Roman fleet
among the rocks of Camarina ; Ad-
herbal, the conqueror at Dreiianum;

Himilco, who for nine years held Lilybaeum ; and, above all,
Amilear Barca, over whom for six years all the efforts of his
powerful adversaries could not triumph. But it Avatched their
acts and punished their faults, not always their misfortunes;
thus he who was conquered at Mylae, being surprised by an
unusual manoeuvre, did not lose its confidence. It is blamed
for some rigorous decisions ; it was right to remove from com-
mands the incapable, or to strike ambitious fools, who deserve
the extremest severities when they have lost the army or
compromised the state. In home affairs it did not, like Athens,
give up the tribunals to the people, — that is to say, justice to
popular passions ; and so well did it defend the civil power
against military chiefs and demagogues, that there was not seen
to arise, during a space of five hvmdred years, one of those
tyrannies which were so often bred elsewhere from the favor
of the army or demagogic excesses.^ The populace, restrained
by a whole system of aristocratic institutions, attached to the

1 The foUowint; are the meanings, as given by M. de Sauli'y, of some Carthaginian names :
Hannibal (khanui-Baal), "Baal has taken me into favor;" Asdrubal (aazeron-Baal), "Baal
has protected him," or " protects him : " Amilear (abd-Melkart), " the servant of Melkart ; "
Hannon (khannoun), " the gracious ; " !Maharbal (mahar-Baal), " present from Baal ; " Bodos-
tor (abd-Astaroth), "the servant of Astarte;" Bomilcar (abd-Melkart), "the servant of
Melkart."

^ Theatrical mask or head of Medusa ; on the reverse, six globules, mark of the i lb.
(6 ounces). Very ancient bronze coin of Camarina.

^ Two attempts at usurpation are quoted. Aristotle speaks of a Hanno, whom he com])ares
to Pausanias, and who, in 340, was put to death, after frightful tortures, with his whole family ;
and, according to Justin (xxi. 4), Bomilcar also attempted, in 308, to cause a revolution.

548 . THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

government by the opulence of the charitable establishments,^
was also periodically enfeebled by the sending abroad of numer-
ous colonies. Carthage thus got rid of this populace, without na-
tive ties and without gods, which collects in great merchant cities,
and in which low instincts, brutal passions, hatred, envy, and all
covetousness were at work. War stopped this current of emigra-
tion, and seditious mobs gathered in Carthage. If we believe
the wisest historian of antiquity, the Punic wars, which at Rome
consolidated union, modified the constitution for the profit of the
multitude. He says, "Among the Carthaginians, it was the people,
before the war of Hannibal, who decided all; at Rome it was the
Sgnate. So the Romans, often beaten, triumphed at last by the
prudence of their plans." ^ We must attribute, if we follow
Polybius, this great fall of Carthage to its demagogues : they have
caused that of many other states.

' " The Carthaginians have rich estabUshments, where they take care to place a large
number of citizens of the lower class. It is thus that they remedy the fault of their
government, and assure tranquillity at home." (Arist., ii. 8.)

2 Polyb., vi. 51 ; of. xv. 30.

nKAD OF APOLLO CROWNED WITH LAUREL; ON THE REVERSE, AIAYBAIITAN AND A
LYRE. BRONZE COIN OF LILYBAEUM.

CHAPTER XX.

THE FIRST FUNIC ¥AE (264-241).

I. — The Treaties between Rome and Carthage (509-279).

ROME and Cartilage liad known each other for a long time ;
three times they had sealed their alliance by treaties, for they
had the same enemies, — the pirates who infested the Tyrrhenian
Sea and pillaged the coasts of Latium; later on, the Italiot Greeks
and Pyrrhus.

We can still quote these monuments of a very ancient diplomacy ;
Polybius had read them on tables of bronze preserved in the
archives of the aediles. They are doubly interesting, — as regards
the history of political events, and that of the law of nations.
The most ancient, which is at once a treaty of alliance and of
commerce, was negotiated by Tarquin, and concluded by the first
consuls of the Republic (509). " Between the Romans and their
allies on the one part, the Carthaginians and their allies on the
other, there shall be peace and amity on the following conditions :
The Romans and their allies shall not sail their war-ships beyond
[east of] Cape Bon (Prom. Pulchrum), imless they be driven thither
by tempest or chased by their enemies. In that case they shajl be
permitted to buy there or to take thence what shall be necessary
for the repair of the vessels, and for sacrifices to the gods, and
they shall undertake to leave in five days. Their merchant-ships
shall be able to trade at Carthage ; but no bargain shall be valid
unless it shall have been made by the medium of the public crier
and writer. For everything sold in their presence, the public credit
shall be a guaranty as regards the seller. The same shall apply
in Africa (on the territory of Carthage), in Sardinia, and in the
part of Sicily under the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians shall
do no harm to the peoples of Ardea, Antium, Laurentum, Circei,

550 .

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO L'Ol.

and Terracina, nor to any other Latin people subject to Rome.
They shall abstain from attacldng (in that part of Italy) the
cities not subjects of the Romans ; if they take one, they shall
relinquish it to the Romans without doing it damage. They
shall not build any forts in Latium, and if they disembark
in arms upon Latin territory, they shall not pass the night
there."

11'"'""' ^'\'/ ~r.

*,¥,;.,

iUil

11""

Co,-

siciLy ^

for
THE 1!* PUNIC WAR

v-l^ Mr 111,,

Scale _4.Soo. ooo
Roman - MiZes

. ff V ri^i/neXers

This treaty shows what degree of power Rome had reached
under its kings, how it then protected its subjects and Latin
allies, and what advantages it assured their commerce even on the
distant shores of Libya, without, however, obtaining from Carthage
for their ships free entrance into the Levant.'

1 [Rather from entering the Gulf of Carthage, and proceeding to the rich country about
the Lesser Svrtes, Byracium, and Emporia. The genuineness of this treaty, as to age, being
attacked by Mommsen, has been recently defended by many scholars, and seems fairly estab-
lished. Cf. the account in Neumann's Zeitalter der Pun. Kriegi; pp. 53-58, where the editor
(Faltin) cites the recent literature on the subject, especially Nisseu in the Jahrbiicher f. Klas.
Phil, for 18G7, pp. 321 seij. — Ed.'\

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241. 551

The second treaty is later by mure than a century and a
half (348 B. c). Rome had employed the hundred and sixty-two
years in recovering that wliich the setting up of the Republic
had cost. Carthage, on the contrary, secure from revolutions
under its aristocratic government, had grown in strength and
riches. Among its allies it names this time Utica and Tyre,
because it now represents all the ambitions of the Phoenician race,
united against those Greeks who come into so riide a rivalry with
the ancient masters of the Mediterranean, who dispute with them
Sicily, and threaten at the same time the Roman coast of Latium
and the Punic factories of the Tyrrhenian Sea. So its words are
more haughty and its concessions less favorable. By the former
treaty it interdicted the Romans from navigating the Eastern
Mediterranean ; it maintains this prohibition, and adds another,
that of not passing the Pillars of Hercules. It takes from them
the right of traffic in Sardinia and Africa, and no longer engages
not to molest the Latin cities which it might take outside the
Roman territory. It still consents, indeed, to give up such towns
to its allies, but cleared of gold and captives, which this time it
intends to keep.^

The third treaty is in the year 279 b. c.^ Pyrrhus being then
ill Italy, and disturbing both Carthage and Rome, these two cities
renewed their old compact of friendship. They stipulated that
neither of the two nations should accept from the King conditions
contrary to the alliance, and that if one of the two peoples were
attacked by the Epirots, the other should have the right to help
it.^ " Carthage shall furnish transport ships for the voyage out and
back, but the auxiliaries shall be paid by the state which sends
them. The Carthaginians shall bring help to the Romans on sea,
should the latter need it ; yet the ships' crews shall not be forced
to land if they refuse."

These treaties were confirmed by oaths. The Carthaginians
swore by the gods of their fathers ; the Romans, m the former

1 [This treaty was mainly concerned with international limitations of piracy, wliich, since
the fall of the Etruscan and Dionysian naval powers, was restricted by no powerful marine,
and was particularly injurious to the Romans, who had no fleet to overcome it. Cf. Livy,
vii 26, and Neumann, op. cit. p. 60, seq. — Ed.l

^ [Really the fourth. The third was in 306 B. c. ; but its terms are unknown. — Ed.}

^ . . . 2va c^Tj ^orjditv aWrjXoK. (Polyb., iii. 25.)

552.

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

treaties by Jupiter Lapis, in the last by Mars and Enyalius.^ The
oath by Jupiter Lapis was thus tal^en : " Tlie fetial takes a stone
in his hand, and, after liaving sworn by tlie public faith that the
conventions shall be faithfully kept, he adds : ' If I speak the
truth, let happiness be mine ; if I think differently from what I
say, let every one else preserve in peace, in his own country and

under its laws, his property,
penates, and their tombs ; as for
myself, let me be cast aAvay as I
cast away this stone.' And while
saying these words he throws the
COIN OF SICILY.2 j,toj^g f.^j. away."

We have seen that the Carthaginians, to fulfil one of the
clauses of the treaty, before it had even been requested by Rome,
sent to Ostia a hundred and twenty galleys.'^ The Senate did not
accept this help ; under their refusal was hidden the confidence
which the Romans had of conquering alone, or the distrust with
which such forward allies inspired them. From Ostia the admiral
sailed to Tarentum, and offered his mediation to Pyrrhus.* The
Carthaginians were evidently very desirous to restore the King to
the delights of his Epirot royalty. He, on the contrary, dreamt
only of battles ; he passed into Sicily, made war there for three
years, and when quitting the island exclaimed : '' What a fair
battle-field we are leaving to the Romans and Carthaginians ! " ^

n. Operations in Sicily (264 b. c.)

Neither Rome nor Carthage could yield to a rival power the
fine island situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, which
adjoins Italy, and from which Africa is almost visible. If

1 Enyalius, or the bellicose, was at first a surname of Mars ; later on they made him a
son of that god. He holds probably, in the language of Polybius, the place of Quirinus.

^ Woman's head (probably the queen Pliilistis, whom some assign as wife to Hiero II.)
veiled and crowned with corn ears ; behind, a leaf. On the reverse, 2IKEAIQTAN and a
monogram. Victory in a quadriga. Coin of the Sicilians.

^ Justin, xviii. 2.

* Justin, xviii. 2. Livy tells of presents which Carthage sent in the years 342 and 30G to
Rome, in congratulating them on their successes over the Samnites, vii. 38 ; ix. 43.

^ A quarrel had already been near breaking out on the subject of Tarentum. See p. 473.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241.

553

COIN OF MESSINA.'

Carthage were inistres.s of it, .she would shut up the Romans in
the peninsula, who.se people her intrigues and gold would unceas-
ingly be arousing to revolt. If Rome ruled there, the commerce
of Carthage would be inter-
cepted, and a fair wind could
in less than a night convey
the legions to the foct of her
walls.

Three powers divided the
island between them : Hiero,
tyrant of Syracuse since the year 270, the Carthaginians, and the
Maraertines, or sons of Mars. The last, who had been mercenaries
of Agathocles,^ had
by treason seized Mes-
sina, and from this
port they infested the
whole island.^ Dio-
dorus represents them
pillaging even on the
south coast, where
they laid waste Gela,
which was rising from its ruins. Hiero wished to rid Sicily of
them ; he beat them, threw them back on Messina, and was going
to receive their submission, when the
Carthaginian governor of Lipari,
Hanno, disputed this conquest with
him. The Mamertines then remem-
bered that they were Italians ; and
preferring a protector at a distance
to friends so close at hand, they sent an embassy to Rome.

COIN OF HIERO II.*

THE TRIQUETRA.5

* ME22ANIQN. Hare running ; above, head of Pan ; below, a leaf. On the reverse, a
figure seated in a biga and crowned by a Victory ; below, a leaf. Silver tetradrachma of
Messina.

2 Festus regards them as a sacred spring of the Samnites. See p. 114.
8 See p. 461.

* Head with diadem of Iliero 11. ; the reverse, BA2I.\E02 IEPQN02. Victory in a
quadriga at a gallop ; in the field a star. Silver octodrachma.

^ The triquetra, a symbol of Sicily, the island of three promontories, Trinacria ; on the
reverse, LENT. COS. Jupiter standing, holding a thunderbolt and an eagle; in the field a
strigil. Silver jK-nny of the Cornehan family.

554

THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

The Mamertines were notorious pillagers. What the garrison of
Rhegium, so severely punished, had just done on one of the

li'ko E.orCr.

TYRRHENIAN SEA

•-^
^

.--''Charybdis $^

Sin ■Salvator

^ ^- -

' \jri.-iif

^\ *^1 U^ SaaCifjvtuun

v'*W

'**"%ai»:

^:;-;^<j;|i*

15»»oE of Cr

Scale ibffooo

THE STKAIT8 OP MESSINA (PRESENT STATE).

libiL

coasts of the Straits, the Mamertines had done, and very much
worse, on the other side. The Senate hesitated at undertaking

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241.

555

COIN OF AGATHOCLES.l

their defence. The consuls, less scrupulous, carried the matter
before the people. They recalled the equivocal conduct of the
Carthaginians at Tarentum, and pointed out the establishments
of this people in Corsica, in Sar-
dinia, in the Lipain Islands, in
Sicily, like a chain which already
closed the Tyrrhenian Sea, and
which must be broken. The am-
bition of the Romans was a mix-
ture of pride and avarice. They
wished to command, because they considered themselves to be
already the greatest people of the earth ; they wished to conquer,
to satisfy their taste for plunder ; Sicily and Carthage were such
a rich prey ! The people decided that succor should be sent to
the Mamertines ; the consul despatched in great haste the legionaiy
tribune C. Claudius to Messina.

He was, like all those of his race, an energetic man, who
stopped at nothing if
he could gain his end.
He passed the Straits
at the risk of being
seized by the enemy,
and on his arrival at
Messina found Hanno
established in the
citadel which a fac-
tion had delivered to liim.^ Claudius wished to bring over troops,
but the Carthaginian vessels closed the Straits. " Not a ship shall
pass," said Hanno, " and not one of jonr soldiers shall ever wash
his hands in the waters of Sicily." However, he consented to
an interview with the tribune ; in the midst of the conference
Claudius caused him to be seized, and to obtain his liberty,
Hanno surrendered the citadel. On his return to Carthage he was

1 K0PA2. Head of a Proserpine ; the reverse, Victory setting up a trophy ; in the field the
triquelra. As inscription, ArABOKAEIOS. Silver coin of Agathocles, King of Syracuse.

- Head of Vulcan ; on the reverse, .MHAPION and a jirow of a vessel with the acrnxtoHum,
an ornament which terminates a ship's prow ; the six globules are the mark of the i denarius,
Large-sized bronze money of Lipari.

^ [No doubt this party argued that the example of Ilhegium made the Romans more
unsafe allies than the Carthaginians. — /irf.]

COIN OV LIPAKI.-

556

THE PUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

COIN OF THE MAMERTINES.l

crucified; but Rome had commenced the period of its great wars
by an act of perfidy, which, with many others, was forgotten by

her orators when they arraigned
" Punic faith " in the Senate and
the Forum.

Hiero and the Carthaginians
united in hiying siege to Messina.
With horrible precaution, the Car-
thaginians massacred their Itahan
mercenaries ; but as the strait was scarcely more than two miles in
the narrowest part, the allies coidd not prevent the consul Appius
Caudex^ taking adA^antage of a dark night to send across twenty
thousand men on barks and small boats, lent by all the cities on
the coast. Appius defeated or cowed the two besieging armies,

which were not very considerable,
for Polybius does not say that
their retreat was the result of a
victory by the Romans. The con-
sul j)ursued Hiero as far as the
walls of Syracuse ; the place was
too strong to be taken by a
sudden attack, and the malaria from the marshes of the Anapus
forced him to retire (264). He retired to Messina, where he left
a garrison.^ The occupation of this natural and secure harbor,
large enough to hold six hundred galleys of the ancients, and
deep enough to receive the largest of modern vessels, was worth
more to Rome than a victory. She possessed there the port of the
island, and she took measures for its safe preservation. This pros-
perous commencement encouraged the Senate to push on the war
vigorously. The two consuls and thirty-six thousand legionaries •
passed the following year in Sicily, where sixty-seven towns, and
amongst them Catana, at the foot of Etna, fell into their power.
Segesta, the most ancient ally of Carthage in the island, had

* Laurelled head of young ]\Iars and his Greek name, APE02 ; on the reverse, MAMEP-
TINQN. An eagle on a thunderbolt. Bronze coin of the Mamertines.

^ From the name of liis transport-ships, caudicaruie. [Most writers call liim Claudius. —
Ed.']

^ [Rather he tras defeated and driven into Messina, where his siege was raised by the
victory of the succeeding consul (MessaUa). In this year, too, the first lloman fleet was built.
Cf. Neumann, op. cit., p. 86. — Ed.J

COIN OF GELA.

THE I'lRST PUNIC WAR FEOM 264 TO 241.

557

COIN OF EHEGIUM

COIN OF SEGESTA.5

massaciHul its Punit' gan-ison, and had pleaded its pretended Trojan
descent in order to obtain favor-
able terms from the Romans.
The Senate was not likeh' to
refuse a people, which attracted
its nobility by flattering Roman
vanity, and which gave such
pledges of its relationship. The
Segestans were declared Uheri et immunes. Hiero, dismayed, and
reflecting that Syracuse had more to
lose, in the matter of its commerce,
by siding with Carthage than with
Rome, hastened to negotiate ; he gave
up his prisoners, paid 100 talents,^
and remained for fifty years the faith-
ful ally of the Romans.

Never was Syracuse in a happier condition. Theocritus was
there then cursing the war,
and praying the gods to cast
into the Sardinian sea tlie
enemies who were destroying
the Sicilian cities.* We would
wish to believe that these
idyls were a true picture of
the happiness of this little
corner of land, while the rest of the world was shaken by the
collision of two great nations.

' The head of a lion, with a Ijranch of laurel on the left. On the reverse, the name of the
town PEFINOS, in aneient Greek backwards. Ju])iter sitting ; an ea^le under the seat of the
god ; the whole surrounded with a wreath of laurel. Tetradrachma of Rhegium.

" Diodorus (xxiii. 5) said 150,000 drachmas, Polybius 100 talents, Orosius and Eutropius
200. [The prisoners restored were those taken in the defeat of Ap. Claudius. — Ed-I

° SETESTA (boustrophedon, see p. 165, n. 1). Head of a woman with ahead-band; on the
back, a dog drinking. A silver didrachma of Segesta.
* See Idyl xvi., especially lines 82-97 : —

f;f^poi'? €K pdcroLO KaKa Tre'^'^fui' avdyKa
^apBoviov Kara Ki'/ia . . .

apyovs 6* ipyd^oivro Tf^r/Xoraf, a\ S* dfapid/iO(
priKiav ;^iXtaSeff j^ordva BianLavSe'ttTat

fi/l TTfSiOl' [iXTJ^olvTO^ j36(S S' dy(\T}56v €S av\iv

dpd^Via S €tff ottX dpd)(vai
XcTrra Biavrjcraivrot jiods 6* en p.i]8' ovoix fij;.

COIN OF AGEIGENTUM.

558

THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

The treaty with Hiero assured to the Romans the alliance
of the national party in Sicily, and relieved them from the
necessity of sending from Latium provisions and stores, which
the enemy's fleet would have been able to intercept. The ambi-
tion of the Senate increased, and it resolved to drive out the
Carthaginians from the whole island, where the excesses of their
barbarous bands for two centuries had made their rule odious.

PLAN OK AGKIGENTUM.

Agrigentum, famous among all the Sicilian towns by the num-
ber and the colossal proportions of its monuments, was a very
strong position, and the Carthaginians had made their arsenal m
'the island. Built on rocks, of which some, those of the citadel,
seemed cut perpendicularly, and surrounded by two watercourses,
which, uniting below it, fell together into the sea, fiume de Girgenti,
it would have been impregnable, if its distance from the shore —

THE FIRST rUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241.

559

COIN OK ACKIGENTtM.

18 stadia, or about 2 miles — had not rendered its re-victualling im-
possible.' The Roirians besieged it. Not knowing yet how to take a
place by the aid of engines of war, which the Greeks had long since
used, they established themselves at the east and west of the town in
two camps, which a double line of defences protected against sorties
and succors from without. There they stayed for seven months,
until famine opened the gates for
them. Without Hiero, they would
themselves, more than once, have
suffered from scarcity. Hannibal,
the son of Gisco, defended the
place with a strong garrison ; the
provisions therein diuiinished the
more quickly. Carthage sent an army to succor it under Hanno,
who seized on Heraclea and Herbessus, where the two consuls
kept their stores ; the convoys of Hiero maintained abundance in
the Roman camp, and Hanno was compelled to risk a battle,
which he lost in spite of his elephants. Since the time of
Pyrrhus the legions no longer feared
these clumsy engines of war. They
killed thirty of them, and took eleven
alive. Profiting by tlie darkness of a
winter's night, and by the negligence
of the sentinels rendered over-confident
by the late victory, Hannibal crossed the Roman lines with a part
of his troops. The unfortunate town was sacked by the conquerors,
who sold as slaves twenty-five thousand of its inhabitants. These
three campaigns and tliis long siege had already tried the finances
of Carthage, and she was for a while compelled to stop the pay
of her mercenaries. To get rid of the too-spirited complaints of
four thousand Gauls, who threatened to go over to the enemy, a
Carthaginian general promised them the pillage of Entella. They
hastened thither ; Ijut he had secretly warned the Roman general.

COIN OF E.VTELLA.

1 [The site of Agrigentum is peculiar. It is a great oval plateau, with scarped edges laid,
on the slope of a hill, and reaching from the summit half way to the sea. Along the lower ediic
of this plateau there is a splendid row of temples, from which you look over the descending slojic
to the sea. Syracuse has similar features on its land side, that is to sav, at the summit of the
slope there is the same kind of steep rock, ])rotecting the city from the land side. Pindar seems
to have thought Agrigentum the most beautiful of Greek towns. — Erf.]

560 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

and the Gauls, having fallen into an ambuscade, were killed almost
to a man. The legionaries were also without pay ; but not a com-
plaint was heard among the army of citizens. Before Agrigentum, a
number of soldiers suffered themselves to be killed at the gates
of the camp to give the dispersed legions the time to rally ; and
if any quarrels arose between them and their alhes, it was to
obtain the most pei-ilous post in the battle.^

From the tliird year of the war, Carthage possessed only
some maritime places in Sicily. But her fleets ravaged the
coasts of Italy, closed the Straits, and rendered all conquest pre-
carious.^ The Senate understood that it must attack the enemy on
his own element (261). Thus their object was enlarged as it
constantly receded. It was at first to prevent the Carthaginians
from getting possession of Messina ; then to drive them from the
island ; now the Senate wished to sweep them from the sea.

m. Maritime Operations ; Landing of the Romans
IN Africa (260-255).

The Romans were not so ignorant of maritime aifairs as has
been supposed. They were acquainted with the cons-truction and
the management of triremes ; it must be remembered that the
appearance of a Roman fleet in the harbor of Tarentum had
provoked the war with Pyrrhus. But they did not hke the sea;
they distrusted the "treacherous element;" and as their military
life was spent on land, they had no permanent fleet, although
they elected magistrates, duumviri nacales,^ to watch over the
maintenance of a fixed naval stock. Also, when they had need
of vessels, they demanded them of their Etruscan and Greek
subjects. But in the struggle against Carthage they required
ships of the line, that is to say, vessels with high bulwarks
and five ranks of rowers. A Carthaginian quinquereme, which
luid foundered on the coast of Italy, served as a model. Such
was then the imperfection of this art, which has become so

1 Polybius, i. 1 7.

2 [Hence Pliny (xvi. 192) says they built a fleet in 45 days against Hiero, viz. 263 B.C.—
Ed.]

^ [Viz., duumviri classis ornandac rcficiendaeque causa, in 311 B. c. — Ed.]

"'"""""'i'llWlllliillllllllBlilJllliBfilBMHIIIMIilliiiiiliililllliaiBlllii:;^

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241.

561

WAR-SrilP WITH A

elaborate, that two months sufficed to fell the wood, build and
launch one hundred and twenty ships, and to form and train
the crews.^ All these sailors were not novices ; the allies had
furnished many seamen and experienced pilots. They nevertheless
needt'd courage to make an attack with such a fleet on the first
maritime power in the world. The consul Cn. Cornelius Scipio was
taken, it is true, with seventeen vessels in an
attempt on the Aeolian Islands (Lipari) ; but his
colleague Duillius defeated near Mylae (Milazzo),
the Carthaginian fleet (260).

In the naval battles of antiquity, the vessels,
armed with a ram at the j^i'ow, sought to strike
each other at the water-line ; the lightness of double beak-uead.'^
the ship and the activity of the sailors were then, as at present, the
first conditions of success, and the galley-slaves did more than
the soldiers embarked on board, ordinarily few in number. Athens
used to put but ten on their triremes with 200 rowers.'^ After the
first campaign the militar}^ genius of tlie Romans
invented a new form of tactics. Their vessels,
roughly constructed of green timber, were heavy
machines, which could, however, by the aid of
oars, be forced straight at the enemv. At the
bows of the ship Duillius placed a gangway,*
which, falling upon an enemy's galley, seized it
with its grappling-iron, held it fast, and made a bridge for the
soldiers. The science of the Carthaginian pilots became useless ; it
was a mere land battle, in which the legionaries regained their
advantage, and Duillius had as many as a hundred and twenty
on board each ship.'^ When the Carthaginians saw the Roman

BEAK-HEAD OF
A SHIl".^

1 A few months suffice the Carthaginians to open a new outlet to their internal harbor
and to build a fleet with the debris of their houses. One cannot but be astonished at an art
remaining so long in its infancy, which was practised by so many people.

'^ Engraved gem of tlic Museum of Berlin.

2 During the Peloponnesian War. Tliucyd. ii. 'J.'!, 102; iii. 91. !).5 ; and iv. 76, 10
Boeckli, Staalsh. i. .390.

* According to the description, a little obscure, of Polybius
corvus, and which worked all round, was used at the prow, stern

' Reverse of a sextans of bronze of the town of Tuiler.

^ There was less than this number at Ecnonius (Tolyb., i. .'J). Others give 200 as the
number of soldiers Duillius put on board each ship.

VOL. I. 36

this brid'ic, which iva
or at the sides.

1. (^f.
called

562.

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

fleet advancing, tliey came on as if to certain victory. Thirty
ships, which formed tlie vanguard, reached it first. Seized by the
grapples, not one escaped. Tlie admiral's galley, with seven rows
of oars, was itself taken, and Hannibal, the former defender of
Agrigentum, who was on board, had but time to escape in a boat.
He directed, however, his other galleys to the llaidv and astern of the
Roman vessels. But, despite the rapidity of their evolutions, the
formidable grapple was always ready for them. Twenty galleys
more were taken ; three thousand men were killed, and six thousand

ROMAN GALLEY. (CAST FEOM MUSEUM OF K. GERMAIN.)

made prisoners ; the rest fled in terror. Tlie land army raised in
all haste the siege of Segesta ; the troops which were defending
Macella allowed the place to be taken by storm ; and the Cartha-
ginian general, having retired to Sardinia with .some troops, was
crucified there by the mutinous mercenaries.

These successes were the material result of the victory ; but
there Avas a greater. The prestige of the maritime superiority
of Carthage was dispelled ; and whatever disasters befell the
Roman fleets in the future did not cause the Senate to give
up the sea. They knew now that Carthage could be conquered;
and the late events made them understand that the conquest

THE FIRST PUNIG WAR FJIOM 2G1 TO 241.

563

of islands must be accoinplisliod by sea Already they were
directing a fleet against Sardinia,
and an attack on Africa was in con-
templation. Very unusual honors
were given to Duillius. Besides
the triumph, lie had a column
in the Forum, and the right of
being escorted home in the even-
ing by torchlight and the sound
of flutes. The simplicity of this
time knew no better way of
honoring the first conqueror of
Carthage.'

After the victory of Mylae, the
Romans had divided their forces ;
while the land army succored
Segesta, the consul, L. Corn. Scipio,
with a part of the fleet, pursued
as far as Sardinia the vessels
which had escaped at the first
disaster, destroyed them, and com-
menced the conquest of that island
and of Corsica, of which he took
the capital, Aleria. Caught, on his
return, in a stormy sea, he dedi-
cated a temple to the tempests, and
desired that on his tomb there might be preserved the twofold
remembrance of his conquest and of the protection with which these
peculiar divinities had sheltered him :

" Hie cepit Corsicam Aleriamque urbem
Dedit Tempestatibus aedem merito."

Carthage then sent to Panormus a great general, Amilcar. By
skilful manoeuvres he enclosed the legions in a defile, whence

^^':fir^5<5^-^^

ROSTKAL COLUMN OF DUILLIUS.^

1 riorus, Fl. 2, and Val. Maximus speak of these honors bestowed on himself by Duillius.
The inscription of his rostral column would be one of the oldest monuments of the Latin
language, if the text which we have had not been repaired towards the middle of the first
century of our era, when the monument was restored.

- Kestoration of Canina, vol. iv. p. 264. This monument of one of the greatest victories
of Rome is actually disgraced by a street-lamp I

564. THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

they were only able to escape through the devotion of Cal-
purnius Flamma. He was a legionary tribune, who offered to
occupy, with four hundred men, a hill, from whence he could
cover the retreat and stop the enemy. '* I give my life to thee
and to the Republic," said he to the consul. All fell except the
tribune, who was found alive under a heap of corpses. He
received a crown of grass. "■ At that time," says Pliny, " it was
the highest reward." ^ Cato compares him to Leonidas, and com-
plains of the cajarice of fortune Avhich has left his name in
obscurity. He forgot that it is tlie end for which we die which
gives immortality to the victim. Calpurnius, like so many soldiers
in our annals, saved only one legion (258) ; Leonidas had saved
his country, the whole of Greece, and the civilization of the world.
Notwithstanding, the war languished ; Amilcar destroyed the

town of Eryx, of wliich he left stand-
ing only the temple, built, it was said,
in honor of his divine mother, Venus
Ervcina, whom the Phoenicians con-
founded with their goddess Astarte. He

VENUS ERYCINA.^ . i l t • t^

carried the population to Drepaniim,
and concentrated his forces in that town and in Lilyl^aeum,
two impregnaljle places, the approaches to which were protected
by the sea and by several cities which the Carthaginians still
occupied on the coasts and in the interior.

The fortune of Rome seemed declining, and some dangerous
defections resulted. In the centre of the island, Enna, the sacred
town whose civic divinity, Ceres, was honored throughout Sicily, on
the southern coast the great city of Camarina, and even Agrigentum,
came round to the Carthaginians. If the legions had returned to
Rome at the end of the summer, according to custom, and had
not wintered in the island, all would have been lost. But the
consul of 258 retook the lost places, putting to death the prin-
cipal citizens, and selling the rest. It was the custom, and was

1 riiny, Hist. Nat. xxii. 1 1 ; Aul. Gell. (iii. 7) calls him Caecitliiis, others Laberius.

^ On the obverse, Venus Ervcina, diademed, and crowned with myrtle or laurel, and the
inscription, C. CONSIDI. NONIANI. S. C. On the reverse, ERVC, and the temiile of
Venus. Silver money of the family Considia. The coin represents the temple at the summit
of the hill with the deep enclosure wliich surrounded it, and which the artist, to render his
drawing lighter, has represented as open work.

THE FIKST rUNIC WAll FllOM 2(1 1 TO L'U.

565

prac^tisod on both sides. Among the ancients, when the city fell,
tlie individuals perished. Fortune destroyed, family lo.st, no home,
no household gods ; yesterday enjoying the honors of the
patriciate, to-morrow in the miseries of slavery : such was the
lot of the conquered, when on
the day of defeat they had not
fallen beneath the sword of
the soldier or under the axe
of the lictor. By way of com-
pensation the fierce character
of war gave to patriotism an
energy long since passed away.

These successes in the in-
terior of the island, and a
fresh naval battle, whii-h the
consul Atilius claimed to have
gained near Lipari. decided the
Senate to the boldest enterprise.
Three hundred and thirty ves-
sels were equipped, one hundred
thousand seamen and soldiers,
and the two consuls, Manlius
Vulso and Atilius Regulus,
embarked with the determina-
tion of passing through the
Carthaginian fleet and making
an attack on Africa.

The two fleets met off Ecnomus.^ It was the greatest spectacle

' Statuette found in Phoenicia (cf. Acad, des Sciences de Sainl-Pclershourg, 7th series,
vol. xix. No. 4, p. 1, fig. "i), and which does not give a very great superiority to the artists of
tlie metropoh.s over those of Carthage. " The goddess is standing in full dress ; on the
forehead a rich fillet. The hair falls in many tresses behind and on each side, on the neck
two symbolical necklaces ; a circle shut by a square bezel, and a triple row of pearls. The
bare forearm is ornamented up to the wrists with open bracelets, closing by a clasp, the
two ends of wliich are decorated with heads of antelopes. An upper dress, made of a supple
and fine material, ojiens in front, forming on each side symmetrical little folds. Sleeves with
clasps co\er the top of the arm. The robe, falling from the neck to tlie feet, covers the heels,
and is provided with a train which the left hand holds, and brings to the front. The bare feet
have sandals with straps. The whole of this dress is heavy, and seems strange. The goddess
thus resembles the squaw of a Redskin." (Georges Colonna C'eccaldi, Revue archeol. de Janvier.
1878, p. 10, note 1.)

- A mountain between Gcla and Agrigentum.

ASTARTE.l

566 . THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

tlie Mecliterraneaii had yet seen ; t.liree hundred thousand men were
about to fight on its waves. The Roman vessels, formed into a hollow
triangle, with double base, and its point directefi towards the enemy's
line, advanced steadily, and the Carthaginians, despite a clever
manoeuvre to draw off the van of the hostile fleet and separate it
from its powerful rear-guard, lost ninety-four ships out of three
hundred and fifty ; twenty -four Roman galleys only were sunk (256).
The remains of the conquered army fled to Carthage. Some
vessels were equipped there in all haste, and troops raised to
guard the coast. But the greatest confusion still reigned in the
town Avhen it was learnt that the Romans, having disembarked
near the promontory of Mercury (Cape Bon), were already be-
sieging Clypea. Regulus had only taken sufficient time to repair
his disabled ships and to get provisions. The troops began to
be afraid of a war in Africa, — that land of mon-
sters, whence such terrible tales reached them,
Africa 2^orte7itosa ;^ even a tribune had dared to
murmiu'. Regulus threatened him with the axe,
and the army, despite its superstitious fears, set
out. Clypea having been taken, and no position,
no army, protecting the country, the Romans spread
over these rich plains, which, since Agathocles,
had not seen an enemy, and whose fertility was secured by a
good system of irrigation. In a few days they took twenty
thousand prisoners and immense booty.

The Senate, deceived by its first successes, recalled Manlius
and his legions ; it was a mistake. Regulus himself, it was said,
had requested to return, because the farmer whom he had left to
cultivate a field of seven acres, his sole patrimony, had run away
and taken the plough and oxen. The Senate replied that all should
be re-purchased for him, his field cultivated, and his wife and
children kept at the expense of the treasury. He remained in
Africa with fifteen thousand men and five hundred horses. These
forces were sufficient for him to defeat the enemy on all sides, to

1 Livy, xxxiv. G2. Such is the suspicious history of the serpent of Bagradas, a hun-
dred and twenty feet long, and whose head, sent to Kome, was still shown there in the time
of the Numautian war. (Cf. Flor., ii. 2.) Polybius does not mention it. However, such large
serpents now exist in the highlands of Algeria, that it may only have been an exaggerated
fact.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241. 567

, take three hundred towns, and seize Tunis, three leagues from
' Carthage, after a victory near Adys which cost the Cartliaginians
seventeen thousand kiHed, five liundrcd prisoners, and eigliteen
elephants. The town was hard pressed. From the amount of
tribute imposed on Leptis Parva, — a talent a day, — we can under-
stand that the yoke of Carthage was heavy. In consequence
of these defeats the subjects revolted, and the Numidians plun-
dered that which had escaped the Romans. A treaty was proposed.
Regulus demanded the abandonment of Sicily and Sardinia, an an-
nual tribute, the giving up of the Roman prisoners, the ransom
of the Carthaginian captives, the destruction of the whole fleet
of war, the promise to make neither alliance nor war without the
consent of the Senate, etc.

Such conditions offered no inducement for treating ; the war
was resumed.^ The fanaticism of the people was excited by human
sacrifices, and vessels laden with gold went to Greece and Spain
to buy soldiers. Among the mercenaries who came from Greece
was the Lacedaemonian Xanthippus. Carthage had still twelve
thousand infantry,'- four thousand horse, and one hundred ele-
phants. The Lacedaemonian undertook, with this army, which
he carefully drilled for some weeks, to fight the enemy. " The
question is only," said he, " to find a field of battle which may
suit us." Instead of pitching his camp on the heights, where
the elephants and cavalry were useless, he descended into the
plain ; and the legions, disordered by the elephants, and charged
by a numerous cavalry, fell into confusion. Two thousand only
escaped by reaching Clypea ; Regulus and five hundred of the
bravest were made prisoners ; the rest perished. Xanthippus,
richly rewarded, left the town before gratitude had given place to
envy.^

1 [This whole campaign sliows the extraordinary helplessness of Carthatrc, owinc; to the
counter-suspicions of its oligarchical factions, and the gross incompetence of Regulus, who, if
he had used the Xumidian cavalry, ought to have carried the day. Amilcar had been recalled
from Sicil}-, but was only joint commander with two others. Surely such a general was as well
able to defeat Regulus as a Greek mercenary. So the demands of Regulus, who had no sien-c-
train, were as severe as those demanded by Scipio at the end of the Second Punic War. Noth-
ing is stranger than that such a man should have been exalted into a national hero. — Ed.']
^ [These numbers are probably lessened, to increase the glory of Xanthippus. — EiLl
^ The Carthaginians have been accused of having drowned him (Zonaras, viii. 13 ; Silius
Ital., vi. 682) ; but they had no interest in this crime, contradicted elsewhere bv Polybius.

568

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

Carthage was saved. However, the victorious army was
repulsed at the siege of Clypea, and a Carthaginian fleet was again
beaten in sight of this place. But the destruction of the whole
of an army, the capture of a consul, and the dilhculty of crossing
mcessantly a stormy sea, in order to re-victual the legions of
Clypea, decided the Senate to relinquish Africa. At the same
time a frightful disaster closed the way. Two hundred and seventy

FRIEZE OF SELIXUS, TAKEN FKOM rllOTOGRAPlIS, DATING AliOUT Hill IJ. C.

(see pp. 570-572.)

galleys were shattered by a tempest along the coasts of Camarina ;
it was nearly the whole fleet. The Carthaginians hastened to put
down their rebel subjects ; the chiefs were crucified ; the towns
gave 1,000 talents and twenty thousand oxen ; then the prepara-
tions were pushed forward with vigor for carrying the war again
into Sicily (255).

IV. The War is carried back into Sicily (254-241).

A NEW fleet, a new army, and one hundred and forty elephants
set out from Carthage. Agrigentum was re-taken. On her side,
Rome, in three months, built two hundred and twenty galleys,
and the consuls, proceeding along the northern coast of Sicily,
took by treachery the strong position of Cephaloedium,' and that
of Panormus, which gave them an excellent port. Those of the
inhabitants of Panormus who were unable to pay a ransom of
two silver minae (200 drachmas, or nearly eight guineas) were sold
as slaves. There were thirteen thousand of them.

The following j'ear the fleet ravaged the coast of Africa ; but

' It was built on a .steep promontory, whence its Greek name signifying head ; it is now
Cefalu.

THE FIRST rUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO I'll.

569

a tempest on its return again destroyed one hundred and lifty
vessels near Cape Palinurus, on the coast of Lucania (253). These
repeated disasters seemed a menace of the gods ; tlie Senate gave
up tlie sea, as it had given u}) Africa.

The two adversaries, wearied out by the struggle, which had
already lasted eleven years, rested on their arms : the Carthaginians,
in a strong position, which they occupied at the western extremity
of Sicily ; the legions, at some distance in the rear, on the heights,
from which they watched the enemy. This inaction became detri-
mental to the Roman discipline. It was necessary at one time to
degrade four hundred equites, who had refused to obey the con.sul ,
at another time to make a military tribune of the illustrious house
of Valerius run the gauntlet.^ Car-
thage, on her side, occupied without
doubt in reconstituting in Africa her
rule, which the Roman invasion had
shattered, confined herself in Sicily
to a prudent defensive. She even
made no effort in 252 to prevent Scipio, who was conquered in
the first naval action, from taking his revenge at Lipari, bj' seiz-
ing upon this island with the ships lent by the faithful Hiero.
The IjIow was a severe one, for from Lipari her privateers inces-
santly came forth, ravaging the Italian coasts. Accordingly, tlie
year after, Carthage made a vigorous effort. Hasdru-
bal, with two hundred vessels, carrying thirty thoiisand
men and one hundred and forty elephants, attempted
to retake Panormus. The pro-consul, Metellus, kept
his army shut up there ; but, by means of his light
troops, he challenged the enemy, and drew them to
the foot of the wall; and whUe the elephants, pierced of metellus.3
with darts, rushed furiously back on the Carthaginian army, which
they threw into disorder, Metellus attacked with all his forces.

COIN OF CEPIIALOF.DIU.M.-

COIX COMMEM-
ORATIVE OF
THE VICTORY

1 Val. Max., 11. ix. 7 ; Front. Strat., iv. The knirchts were (Icjraded to the rank of acrarii.
In 252, Aurelius Pecuniola having, in the absence of the consnl, Cotta, his cousin, permitted
the burning of a redoubt, and almost lost his camp before Lipari, Cotta had him flogged, and
reduced him to the rank of a common soldier. (Val. Max., 11. vii. 4.)

^ Head of Jupiter, crowned with laurel ; on the reverse, KE*A. Goatskin, club, and quiver.
Bronze money.

^ METELLUS in a car drawn by elepliants, and crowned by \'ictory. The reverse of a
piece of silver money of the Caecilian family.

570

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

METOPE FROM THE LATEST TEMPLE AT SELINIIS.^

Twenty thousand Africans perished ; one hundred and four elephants

were taken ; they were
conducted to Rome, where
they followed the car of
the conqueror; and as it
was found too expensive
to keep them, they were
hunted down in the great
circus, that the people by
familiarity miglit cease to
dread them (251).

On his return to Car-
thage, the incapable Has-
drubal was crucified. At
Rome Metelhis received
ereat honor. He was twice
made consul, dictator, sov-
ereign pontiff; and when, in
a fire in tlie temple of Vesta,
he lost his eyes in saving the Palladium, the people gave him the
right, which none had up to this time obtained, of going in his
car to the Senate. In the funeral oration which tlie son of the
conqueror of Panonuus delivered in honor of his father, we can
see what a Roman of this time esteemed as the sovereign good.
" He attained," he said, " and in perfection, ten very great things,
which the wise pass their life in seeking. He wished to be
the best soldier, the first of orators, the ablest of generals, the
most eminent of senators, and he desired to conduct under his
auspices the gravest affairs, to attain to the highest magistracies,
to supreme political wisdom, and a great fortune acquired by honor-
able means, and finally to leave behind him many children, and to
be the most respected of all his fellow-citizens." ^ This is the ideal
of Roman virtue. It is not a very elevated one ; but if it did not
make sages in the true sense of the word, it made great citizens.

Many noljle Carthaginians had l^een made prisoners before
Panormus ; others had long been so. The Carthaginians, we are

^ It represents Heracles fighting an Amazon. The setting of the extant sculptures is the
restoration in the Museum at Palermo. ;

- Pliny, Nal. Hist. vii. 45.

THE FIRST I'UNIC WAR FROM 204 TO 241.

571

COIN OP PAXOUMUS.^

told, proposed an exchange, and sent Kegulus to Rome to '^npport

their demand. That general had no1»ly

l)C)rne lii.s captivity. He was unwilling

to enter the city : " I am no longer a

citizen," said he, as Postumius had said

after the Caudine Forks ; and w hen he

spoke on the proposal, he dissuaded the

senators from accepting it. They tried to move him to have pity

on himself : " My days are numbered," said he ; '■ they have given

me a slow poison ; " and he set out on his return, repelling the

embraces of his wife, Marcia, and his children.

Horace has celebrated this nythical story, so dear to Roman pride :

" Then, it is said, he . . .

bent to earth

•• In stern humility his manly face,
Till his inflexible persistence fixed
The Senate's wavering will :

And forth, bewept, the glorious exile jDassed.

" Albeit he knew what the barbarian skill
Of the tormentor for himself prepared,
He motioned from his path
The opposing kindred, the retarding crowd,

"Calmly as if — some client's tedious suit
Closed by his judgment — to Venaf rian plains
Or mild Tarentum, built

By antique Spartans, went his pleasant way." '^

On his return to Carthage he died, it is
affirmed, a cruel death.^ If this tradition be
true, in spite of the silence of Poly bins, wef
must not forget either the treatment inflicted
by the Romans themselves on hostile chiefs
who fell into their power, or that other tra-
dition, according to which two Carthaginian generals were given up
to Marcia, and by her cruelly tortured.^

1 Double head under a horse. On the reverse, n.\NOPMI . . . and an eagle. Bronze

coin of Palermo (Panormus).

- Car7n. III. v. [Lord Lytton's ^Metrical Translation of Horace.]

5 Resectis palpchr'is, illigatum in machina, viffilaiulo, necaverunt. (Cie., in Pison. 18.)

* Parsley-leaf. On the reverse, a square hollowed in compartments. Silvei- coin of

Selinus ; very ancient.

^ Diod., Fragm. de Virt. et Vit. x.xiv. ; Aulus Gell, vii. 4 ; Zonaras, viii. 15, etc.

COIN OF SELINOXTIM.''

572.

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 2G4 TO 201.

Polybius reproaches Regulus with not having known how to
guard himself against the inconstancy of fortune, with having
imposed too severe conditions, etc. No doubt he would have been
wiser to restrain himself within bounds ; but what general would
have acted otherwise ? It was by aiming at a very lofty ideal, often

even above their powers, that
the Romans did such great
things. A nation does not
become great by merely being
always a nation of wise men.

The victory of Panormus
put an end to the great battles.
The Carthaginians once more
fell back to the western ex-
tremity of the island, to Dro-
panum and Lilybaeum, whither
they transported all the in-
habitants of Selinus, after
having destroyed their town.
Lilybaeum, surrounded on two
sides by a sea rendered dan-
gerous, even to the most skilful 2)ilots, by sand-banks, reefs just
beneath the surface, and rapid currents, was shut in on the
land side by a high wall, and defended by a very wide and
deep ditch. In the autumn of the year 250 two consuls, four
legions, and two hundred ships of war blockaded the place,
and a new siege of Troy began. The Romans at first tried to
close the entry to the port by sinking fifteen vessels loaded with
stones there ; but the current swept them all away. The passage
remained open, and fifty vessels, bearing provisions and ten
thousand soldiers to Lilybaeum, were able to pass through it
under the veiy eyes of the powerless Roman fleet. On the land
side the Romans in several places filled up the ditch and mined
the walls ; but when their battering-rams had made a breach, they
found themselves faced by another wall which Himilco had raised.
Some mercenaries plotted the surrender of the town ; Himilco
discovered the conspiracy, and burned the engines of the Romans in
a sortie, thus ol)liging them to change the siege into a blockade.

ZEUS AND HERE (SEE P. .OGS).

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 2G4 TO 241.

573

When the new consul, P. Claudius, son of Appius the censor,
came to take the command, sickness had already carried off many
of the soldiers. The Carthaginian fleet was stationed in the neigh-
boring port of Drepanum. Claudius wished to fall upon it by
surprise. The omens were sinister; the sacred chickens refused to
eat. '•Well, let them drink, then," said the consul, and he had

REMAINS OF SELINUS.

them thrown into the sea. The army was beaten beforehand by
this impious act, which Claudius could not repair by the cleverest
manoeuvres : ^ ninety-three vessels taken or sunk, eight thousand
men killed, and twenty thousand prisoners, — such were the results
of the battle of Drepanum (249). Junius Pullus, the colleague
of Claudius, had no better fortune. He was at Syracuse with
eight hundred merchant vessels destined for the revictualling of
the camp at Lilybaeum. Carthalo, who watched his departure

^ Polvbius knows nothing of this storv of the sacred eliickens, but Cicero relates it.

574.

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 2G4 TO 201.

from the coast of Agrigentum, first intercepted several convoys,
and tlien by a clever manoeuvre drove tlie whole of Junius's fleet
into the midst of the reefs of Camarina, where furious winds broke
it up, while he himself, running before the storm, went and shel-
tered his vessels behind Cape Pachynum. All the transj)orts and
a hundred and five galleys had been destroyed. The occupation of
the high hill near Drepanum, on which stood the fortified temple
of Venus Erycina, was not compensation for so many sad losses.
Tlie disaster of the year 249. the saddest in all the war for

Rome, compelled the Senate
again to renounce the idea of
fleets. Claudius was recalled,
and obliged to name a dictator.
He chose the son of a freed-
man, named Claudius Glicia, his
client and clerk. The Senate
annul k'd the insulting choice,
and a sentence passed by the
people severely punished this
1)old contemner of things
human aiid divine. Junius,
accused, like his colleague, of
having despised the auspices,
killed himself before bis con-
demnation ; Claudius had, per-
haps, set him the example of a voluntary death. Three years
laterwards another sentence struck the haughty race. The sister
of Claudius, finding herself one day pressed by the crowd, cried,
" Would it might please the gods that my brother should still
command the armies of the Republic. ! " The aediles punished this
homicidal wish with a fine.

By a singular fatality, at the time when Rome could no longer
find any but incapable leaders, Carthage placed able generals at
the head of her forces, — Himilco, the defender of Lilybaeum ;
Hannibal, who had so successfully revictualled that place ; Adher-
bal, the conqueror of Drepanum ; Carthalo, who, before destroying

' [This very archaic sculpture is one of the most remarkable remains of nascent Greek art,
and dates from the 7th century B. c. It represents Heracles carrying off the Kerkopes. — £(/.]

METOPE OF TEMPLE AT SELINUS (NOW AT
PALERMO).'

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FKOM 2(M TO 241.

575

COIN OF EUCTE.l

Junius' fleet, had burned a part of that before Lilybaenm and ravaged
the coasts of Italy ; and. finally,
the greatest of all, x\niilcar,
father of Hannibal, surnamed
Lightning, Barca. Unfortu-
nately, discipline was often
wanting in these armies of
Carthage, and a violent se-
dition of the mercenaries had just brought her into the greatest
peril. Amilcar found means to satisfy their requirements. He
led them to the pillage of Italy. When the booty gained
Bruttium had won him their con-
fidence, he boldly advanced and
took possession of Mount Ercte
(Monte Pellegrino), near Panormus

(24

•7\ 2

For six years all the

COIN or TAUROMEXIUM

strength of the two repul)lics
was concentrated in this corner
of Sicily ; the Romans were at Panormus, on the summit of Mount
Eryx,* in the ancient town of that name, and before Lilybaeum
and Drepanum. The Carthaginians occupied these two places and
Mount Ercte. From the top of this almost inaccessible mountain
Amilcar watched all the enemy's movements, and swept quickly
down from it to intercept his convoys, cut up his detachments,
and carry his ravages to the very heart of the island ; or, again,
from the port at the foot of his mountain he set sail with a fleet
of light vessels and ravaged the Italian coast as far as the middle

' Bust of a woman. On the reverse, a lion before a palm-tree. Below, a Punic legend
signifying " of the people of the camp." This was a coin struck for the pay of the troops,
iimncla castrensis. It was struck in Sicily, but engraved by an artist who did not know Punic,
for the inscription is written the wrong way. M. de Saulcy, who has kindly furnished me
with this note, does not believe that this silver tetradrachm, attributed to Ercte by the Due de
Luynes, belonged to that town, or, at least, it was not struck there during Amilcar's occupation.

^ Mount Ercte, the foot of which is washed by the sea, is protected on its flanks by sharp
rocks, and separated from the mountains which run west of Panormus by a broad plain, so that
it forms a vast natural fortress, rising above the town to a height of 2,000 feet.

* Laurel-crowned head of Apollo. On the reverse, TAYPOMENITAN, and a serpent round
a vase, called cortina. Silver coin.

* Mount Eryx, at 6 miles from Drepanum, is only 2,180 feet high, but its isolated situation
makes it appear much loftier. It was a still stronger position than Slount Ercte. On the
summit of the mountain was the tem]ile of Venus Erycina. The town was built half way up.

576. THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

of Campania.^ For six years there were continual and bloody
fights. They were like two athletes of equal strength wrestling
on a rock high above the waves.^

The armies were but a few stadia aj^art ; they drew still nearer.
Amilcar took the town of Eryx by surprise, and placed himself
between the two Roman camps established at the base and on

REMAINS OK THE TOWM OF EUYX.'^

the summit of the mountain. The war advanced none the quicker;
an equal tenacity paralyzed every effort. At last the soldiers,
weary of useless conflicts, and each side esteeming equally the
valor of the other, "plaited," says Polybius,* "the sacred crown,"
which was offered to the gods when the victory remained imde-
cided, and abstained by common accord from fighting.

' Tbese cruises obliged the Senate to found several maritime colonies at Alsimu, FregeUae,
and Brundusium.

2 Polybius, i. 5C, 57.

2 Taken from Monum. della Sic'dia of Fr. Cavallari, parte 1', tav. 26. There is no more
mention of Eryx in Roman history after its destruction by Amilcar.

* Polybius, i. 58.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FEOM 264 TO 241.

577

Since the commencement of hostilities the Romans had lost
many more galleys than the Carthaginians. But for Home, a con-
tinental power, vessels were but so much wood and iron, which
were easily replaced ; whereas for Carthage, a maritime and com-
mercial power, they were strength and richfs. The one then
was like a ship struck in a vital part; the other like a fortress, of
which only a few battlements had fallen. Tliis was plainly seen

T^-

r ^^'^^--^^w^Vj

- ^^ ir

^, --.?vA.Atv I

VIEW FROM MOUNT ERYX (mONTE SAN GIULIANO).!

when, in 241, the Senate decided upon a fresh effort. In order to
avoid expenses which no longer appeared necessary, and to pass
them over to their commercial fleets, the merchants of Carthage
had disarmed all their remaining war vessels ; and leaving Amilcar
alone to keep in check from his mountain-top all the forces of
Rome, they had resumed their long voyages, their business rela-
tions with the whole world. They willingly forgot that devastated
island, without industry or commerce, whence there came only

' Taken from the Bibliotheque Nationale. (See p. 575, n 4.)

.S7

578

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

troublous sounds of warfare and ceaseless demands for money.
The sea remained free, and a Roman fleet reappeared. It had
been necessary to make an appeal to the devotion of the citizens
to build it. The treasury was empty ; patriotism, tliat wealth
which excels all otiier, replenished it. The ricli lent money to
the state, or built vessels at their own expense. Many armed
privateers.^ Two hundred vessels were once more launched. Lu-
tatius took the command, and led them to Drepanum. It was near
the end of winter. The fleet, which for economical reasons the
Carthagmians recalled during that season, had not yet returned,

GRKEK T(lMB-l:i:i.IKFS (NOW IN THE MUSKTM OF rAI.Kl'.MO).

so that Lutatius had no difficulty in making himself master of the
port, and closely beleaguering the place. Carthage in all haste
sent ships laden with provisions, but with no soldiers, as the
admiral was to take on board Amilcar's veterans. In order to
reach Ercte he had to pass before Drepanum. Lutatius barred the
way by placing himself near the Aegates. "Never was fought a
more furious naval battle," says Florus. " The Carthaginian vessels
were overladen with provisions, arms, and engines of all kinds.
The Roman fleet, on the other hand, brisk, active, and light,
resembled a land army. It was like a cavalry action. Our shi^js
obeyed the oar as a horse does the bit, and with their movable

' Zonal-., viii. 16.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR FROM 264 TO 241.

579

beaks darted so well, now against one vessel, now another,
that they niiglit have been living creatures." Lutatius sank five
of these defenceless ships, and took seventy (10th March, 241).
The Romans became undispiitcil iii:isters oi" the sea again, and
Drepannm, Lilybaeum. and Amilcar could l)e starved into snr-
render. Moreover, twenty-
four years of war, expense,
and sufferings were enough
— nay, too much — for these
merchants ; for the third time
they asked to treat for
peace. Lutatius required
that Amilcar shoulil lay
down his arms. " Never,"
replied the indignant hero,
" will I lay down these arms
that were given me to fight
against you." The consul
agreed to allow the Car-
thaginian army to evacuate
Sicily freely. Peace was
signed on the following conditions : Carthage should not attack
Iliero or his allies ; she should abandon Sicily and the Aeolian
Islands ; should restore all prisoners without ransom, and pay 3,200
Euboic talents (nearly £760,000) within ten years.

'• Thus ended the war of the Romans against the Carthaginians
regarding Sicily, after lasting twenty-four years without inter-
ruption : the longest and most important war of which we have
ever heard. . . . Some Greeks assure us that the Romans owe their
successes only to fortune. But after having prepared themselves
for great enterprises by expeditions of such importance, they had
nothing better to do than to propose to themselves the conquest of
the world; and this project was likely to be successful."^ Poly-
bius is right ; and if he could have been shown beforehand how

^ It represents Perseus, aided by Athene, cutting ofF Medusa's head, and is of the same
age as that given on p, .574.

^ Polybius, i. 63. That historian is the i)rintipal source of iufoniuition concerning
this war.

AllCIIAIC METOI'E FROM SELIXUS.'

580 .

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

much blood, how many tears, and what ruin were necessary to
erect the edifice of Roman greatness, he would doubtless have
rephed : " Before Rome as much blood had flowed ; without her,
more would have flowed." Indeed, after her final victory, she
allowed none to be shed for centuries.

' This African elephant differs from the Asiatic one in height, wliich is less, and his ears,
which are larger, being as much as 4 feet 5 inches in length, and 4 feet in breadth. Living-
stone saw a negro shelter himself from the rain beneath this strange cover. The aacient
engraver has faithfully reproduced this characteristic feature.

ELEPHANTS (AFRICAN).!

CHAPTER XXI.

OOUTQUESTS OP EOME AND CAETHAGE BETWEEN TEE TWO PUNIO

WARS (240-219).

I. Expeditions outside of Italy and into Gallia Cisalpina.

ROME had just displayed an admirable constancy ; but it seemed
as though, after such long efforts, she must be exhausted.
The population had, in the space of five years, fallen from 297,797
fighting men to 241,212.-' Seven hundred war-ships had been
destroyed, with an immense number of ships of burden ; ^ the
treasury was loaded with debts to private

persons who had advanced money ; and, /^^^ cr^^^%\
in order to furnish means for so burden- ( '\3m^ W^^^^^gW^
some a war, the Senate had been obliged ^L^j(\y ^^^^fw
to have recourse to the dangerous ex- ^SC--'^ ^v^-i^r^

... , _,, SILVER DENARIUS OP 16 ASES.'

pedient oi debasmg the currency. Ihe

weight of the as had been successively reduced from 12 ounces to
6, 4, 3, and 2 ; and as the state, on account of its armaments, was
the universal debtor, this depreciation of the coinage gave it a
profit of five sixths of its debts, or more than 80 per cent.. — an
operation which, as far as its creditors were concerned, was

equivalent to an actual bankruptcy.* There was the same diminu-

1 Livy, Epit. xviii. and xLx. The latter figure — 241,212 — is that of tlie year 247. The
loss of the Romans during this war has been set down at 200,000 men.
■ Polybius, i. 63.

* On the obverse, head of Rome or P.allas ; behind, the mark xvi. On the reverse,
C.TITINI, and in the exergue, ROJLA. ; Victory in a biga. Silver denarius of the Titinian
family.

* Ita quinque partes lucrifactae dissolutumque aes alienum. (Pliny, xxxiii. 13.)

582 THE FUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

tion of weight in the silver coinage. In 269, forty denarii went
to the pound; in 244, seventy-five; in 241, eighty-four; though
the denarius always represented ten ases.^

But the strength of Rome did not consist in its wealth ; as
for the populace, the foundation of several colonies, a very liberal
distribution of land, and the formation, in 241, of two new tribes,
Velina and Quirina, reconstituted the class of small proprietors,
which the war had decimated.^ Accordingly, Rome soon found
herself ready for fresh wars.

The First Punic War had cost Carthage Sicily and the empire
of the sea ; this was too great a shame and loss to be endured ;

V'J>5?-

M-^

ETNA, FROM TAORMINA.

the peace which had just been signed was, in fact, nothing but
a truce. The Senate understood this, and employed the twenty-
three years of its duration in fortifying their position in the
peninsula by occupying all the points from which it could be
menaced, — Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Cisalpine Gaul, and lUyria.
They desired to make Italy a fortress.

1 But the as was then at two ounces. In 216 it is no longer more than one ounce ; in 89,
half an ounce. Yet during the Republic, though the weight was altered, the name was not, and
the coins were ahnost free from alloy. M. d'Arcet found .983 to be the mean value of the
silver coinage. The silver denarius was originally worth 10 pounds of copper, dena ; hence
its name.

2 This distribution, the date of which is uncertain, but which must have occurred at the
end or in the last days of the First Punic War, was so great that fifteen commissioners were
needed for the division. Among them PUny (vii. 45) names L. Metellus, the conqueror of
Fanormus.

>^'

jjS'lgH'

=~~;e-'^Ai I,

I 1

[i!

^1 \a

■|:H''';if;

»/^

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND OF CARTHAGE. 585

Sicily, the theatre of the First Punic War, had seen her towns
by turns taken and retaken, often pillaged, and their inhabitants
sold. For twenty-three years she had exhausted her fields to sup-
port ileets and armies, which sometimes counted more than two
hundred thousand men ; but this land, so admirably fertile, soon
repaired its losses. The Senate hastened to declare it a Roman
provmce ; ^ this was a new condition. It was not needful, in point
of fact, to employ with the Sicilians the same political caution as
the Romans had used with the nations of Italy. Now that the
centre of their empire was protected by municipalities, colonies, and
allies, there must be outside nothing but subjects liable to taxation
and drudgery.^ Lutatius disarmed all the inhabitants, and made
part of it public domain ; and two hundred towns only recovered
their territory on condition of paying a tribute, to be fixed every
year by the Roman censors, and the tithe of all the products of
the soil, — often, indeed, the Senate exacted a double tithe. Lutatius
also wrote the formula, giving the subject cities a uniform organiza-
tion, in which, following the example of Rome, aristocratic prin-
ciples predominated. Each year a praetor was sent into the new
province with absolute power, from which there was no appeal
till after its execution. True to its maxim of never laying an
equal yoke on all, the Senate accorded privileges to certain chosen
towns, — which were few in number, however, for Sicily was too
rich for Rome to deprive herself of the right of despoiling it at
leisure. Thus Panormus, Egesta, Centuripa, Halaesa, and Halicyae
were free, and exempt from the tribute, but bound to military
service ; the little republic of Tauromenium and that of the
Mamertines remained independent, as was the kingdom of Syracuse ;
later on, too, there were colonies. Messina owed that favor to
the part it played in the First Punic War ; Syracuse to the long

1 Festus derives this word from provicil, for ante vicii ; Niebuhr from prorentus. In the
former case the word province would have reminded men that the Romans claimed to exercise
in the provinces all the rights of con(iuest ; in the second, that the jirovinces, not having the
riglit to possess arms, would serve the sovereign state in an exclusively financial manner. But
pruvincia more esijcciallv denotes an olhce whidi one has engaged upon oath to fulfil, and con-
sequently the object of that office ; thus it means the duty of holding elections (Livy, xxxv.
20) to manage the water supply (Cic, in Vat. § 5.) The formal organization of the province
of Sicily did not take place till 227 B. c.

^ Livy, xxxi. 31 : civitaten stipendiarias ac vcctigales. We will return to the subject of the
condition of these provinces later on.

586

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

fidelity of Hiero. As for Tauromeniuni, built on a mountain 900
feet above the sea, and defended by a citadel built 492 feet
higher, on an almost inaccessible rock, it had doubtless disjjlayed
in those times the sentiments which it manifested in later days to
Marcellus, and which gained it the title of deltas foederata.

As had been done for the greater part of the Italians, so here
it was forbidden to the inhabitants to acquire any possessions
beyond the territory of their cities. Thence there came a great

THEATRE OF TAOKMINA.

fall in the price of land, of which the Roman speculators, who
could buy anywhere, took advantage to monopolize the best
estates. From day to day the number of indigenous proprietors
diminished, and Cicero could scarcely find a few in each town.
With the small properties, the class of free husbandmen disappeared
from the whole island. Immense farms, cultivated for rich Roman
knights by an innumerable multitude of slaves ; harvests, but no
more poets or artists, — such is henceforth the state of Sicily.

-FT"'

r---

u.-..-..-,^

TEMPLE OF JUNO MATUTA (RESTORATION OF M. LEFUEL).

CONQUESTS OF HOME AND OF CARTHAGE.

589

Having become the granary of Rome, she saves the people and
army from famine more than once. But from her bosom, too,
there issue the Servile wars, the cruel expiation of impolitic
measures. It is a law of humanity, — evil breeds evil. We have
seen it in our own days in Ireland, which has long been, from analo-
gous causes, a thorn in England's side.

lictvtihs I

Stp. of ' •■'I'aiiliry.H 1^' ^

W CORSICA

AND

SARDINIA

Scale = U ^"o ooo

-j-rf zr-

Sardinia and Corsica were acquired at the cost of a piece of
treachery. At the news that the mercenaries of Carthage, who had
been led back from Sicily into Africa, had revolted,' those left in
Sardinia had massacred their leaders and all the Carthaginians
in the island; a rising of the inhabitants against this soldiery

1 See p. 604.

590 THE PUNIC WAKS FEOM 264 TO 201.

obliged it to put itself under the protection of Rome. The Senate,
which had supported the soldiers in Africa in their revolt by
allowing provisions to be taken to them from all the ports of
Italy/ did not hesitate to take advantage of the embarrassment of
their rival to declare that as the rule of Carthage had ceased in
the island, they could, without a breach of treaty, take possession
of Sardinia. Then, on the report that Carthage was making some
preparations, they pretended to think that Italy was threatened,
and declared war. Their wrath was appeased by the offer of
1,200 talents and the abandonment of Sardinia. It was still
necessary to conquer the Sardinians, whom their old masters pro-
bably supported in secret. The Senate employed eight years over
it, and two consuls came back thence to triumph. One of these,
Pomponius Matho, in order to track the islanders to their remotest
retreats, had made use of dogs trained to hunt men, — an expedient
which the Spaniards renewed in the New World. This conquest
ended, as it had begun, l)y hateful means.

Corsica shared the fate of the neighboring island; the Senate
declared it a Roman province. In reality it preserved that liberty
which no enemy dared to spoil, in the depths of its impene-
trable coverts.^ Too wild and too poor to furnish tribute in
wheat, like Sardinia, Corsica paid it in the honey of its bees ; it
promised 100,000 pounds of it.^ The creation of these two pro-
vinces obliged the number of praetors to 1)e raised to four ; two,
the 2}raetor urbanus and the inaetor peregrinus, remained at Rome ;
the other two were appointed, one to govern Sicily, the other Sar-
dinia and Corsica (227 B. c).

Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica being subdued, the Tyrrhenian
Sea became a Roman lake. On the other sea the coast was
guarded from Rimini to Brundusium by six colonies.* But the
coast of Illyria, with its numberless islands, has been inhabited
in all ages by dangerous pirates. At the time of which we
are speaking the Adriatic was infested with them. Nothing

I Polybius, i. 83. They forbade it wlien the mercenaries were on the point of
triumphing.

- Livy says even of the Sardinians in the time of Augustus : gente ne nunc quidem pacata,

(xi. 34.)

« Val. Max., iii. 5 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xv. 29.

* Ariminum, Sena, Iladria, Castrum Novum, Firmum, Brundu.sium.

CONQUESTS OP ROME AND OF CARTHAGE.

591

COIN OF COUCYKA.

passed without paying toll ; the coasts of Greece were ceaselessly
devastated, those of Italy threatened.^ A few years previously
they had beaten the Aetolians and Epirotes, taken Phoenice, the
richest town in Epirus, pillaged Elis and Messenia, and drawn the
Acarnanians into alliance with them.
On complaints being raised on all
sides, the Senate sent ambassadors to
Teuta, the widow of their last king,
who governed a port of Illyria in
the name of her son Pmeus."'^ She
proudly replied that it was not the

custom of the kings of Illyria to forbid their subjects to cruise for
their own profit. At these words the youngest of the deputies,
one Coruncanius, replied : "• With us. Queen, the custom is never to
leave unpunished the wrongs suffered by our fellow-citizens ; and we
will so do, if it please the gods, that you yourself will set about re-
forming the customs of the lUyrian
kings." Teuta, in irritation, caiised
the bold youth to be slain, with
those who had promoted this Roman
embassy, and had the commanders
of the vessels which had brought
it burned alive. Then the pirating

began again with more boldness than liefore ; Corcyra was taken,
Epidamnus and ApoUonia besieged, and an Achaean fleet beaten.

This was a good opportunity for the Romans to show them-
selves to the Greeks. The Senate saw what advantage they might
derive from these events, and loftily assumed the character of
protector of Greece,^ which they played to the last with so much

COIN OF APOLLONIA.*

1 Pliny {Nat. Hist. Hi. 2G) calls an lUyrian tribe, the Yardaei, poputatores quondam Italiae.
^ "Aypcov rjv ^aa-iXfvs 'iXKvpiai/ fiipovs. (Appian, lUjP'. ^ .)

* Cow suckling her calf. On tlie reverse, K backwards, the initial letter of the name of
Corcyra. Plan of the gardens of AlcinoUs, eelebrated by Homer. Silver coin of Corcvra.

* APXE.\A02. Head of Apollo. On the reverse, API2TI2N AYSDNOS, the names of
two magistrates. Three girls dancing; between them we read. AnOA. Silver drachma of
Aj)ollouia in Illyria.

* Two years later they also took the Greeks of Saguntum under their protection. In
the year 267 they had concluded an alliance with the Apollonians (Livy, Epit. xv.), and in
237, on the demand of the Acarnanians, they had ordered the Aetolians to respect Acarnania,
the only country in all Greece, said their ambassadors, which had not taken part in the
Trojan war! (Just., xxviii. 1 and 2.)

592

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

COIN OF ACARNANIA.'

success. In order to give a great idea of tlieir power, tliey sent
against these miserable enemies two hundred vessels, twenty
thousand legionaries, and the two consuls (229). They had not

done so much against Carthage at first.
Corcyra was given up l)y a traitor,
Demetrius ; the Illyrians were besieging
Issa in the island of the same name
(Lissa) : they were driven from it ; and
not one of the places that attempted
resistance could hold out. Teuta, in affright, yielded all that
Rome demanded, — a tribute, the cession of a part of lUyria, a
promise not to send more than two vessels to sea beyond the

Lissus, and the heads of her chief
councillors, in order to appease with
the shedding of their blood the irri-
tated manes of the young Coi'uncaniua
(228). The Greek towns subdued by
the Illyrians, Corcyra and Apollonia,
were restored to their independence.^
The consuls hastened to make this treaty known to the
Greeks, reminding them that it was for tlieir protection they had
crossed the sea. The deputies showed themselves in every town
amid the applause of the crowd. At Corinth they were admitted
to the Isthmian games, at Athens the citizenship was bestowed on
them, and they were initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis. Thus
began the first political relations between Rome and Greece.

The Romans had given Demetrius the Island of Pharos and
some districts of Illyria. Not considering himself sufficiently

COIN OF ISSA.-^

1 AKAPNANQN. Head of the River Acheloiis, with two liorns, whicli figure the
rapidity of its current, or call to mind that he changed himself into a bull to fight Hercules.
The hero tore off one of his horns, which became the horn of plenty, — a pleasing image of the
works executed in order to embank the river and restore vast tracts to agriculture ; beneath,
a serpent, another symbol of the winding course of the stream. On the reverse, the name of
a magistrate, MENNEIA2, and behind Apollo, who is seated on a rock and holds a bow ; in
the field, a torch. Silver coin of the Acarnanians.

2 On the obverse, a woman's head and the name of the town. On the reverse, a star.
Bronze coin. Issa was an important island on the Illyrian coast. The Romans, whom it
had furnished with the ojiportunity of acquiring a valuable province, exempted it from all
tribute (Livy, xlv. 2f>), and its inhabitants afterward received the juf civilatis. (Pliny, Nal.
Hist. iii. 21.)

» Polybius, ii. 11 ; Zonaras, viii. 19. Cf. for this war, Appian, Illi/r. 7.

CONQUESTS 0¥ EOME AND OF CARTHAGE.

593

COIN OF PIIAUdS

recompensed, he joined the corsairs, and led King Pineus into revolt
with liiin. Tlie Gallic war, of which we sliall presently speak, was
ended, and the Senate, free from all disquietude in Italy, was able
to send another consul into Illyria.
Demetrius took refuge with the King
of Macedonia, whom he soon after-
ward induced to take arms against'
the Romans, and Pineus submitted to
the conditions of the former treaty
(219). Rome thus possessed good
ports and a vast province on the Greek mainland, — a kind of
outpost, which protected Italy and threatened Macedonia. The
Adriatic was pacified like the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the merchant
cities of Italy heartily united themselves with the fortune of
a Government which gave security and impulse to their com-
mei'ce.^

From Sicily to the northern extremities of Umbria and Etruria
the Roman sway was accepted or endured in silence. Beyond the
Rubicon and the Apennines all remained free ; Cisalpine Gaul, not-
withstanding the defeat of the Boii at Lake Vadimon in 283,
had not been subjugated. The fertility of these plains, which
make Lombardy a garden, astonished Polybius, even after he had
seen Sicily and Africa. " Such abundance of grain," says he, " is
reaped there when the land is cultivated, that we have seen a
measure of wheat at 4 oboli, and one of barley at half that price.
A measure of wine is exchanged for an equal measure of barley.
Millet grows there in abundance. Numerous woods of oak furnish
such quantities of mast that the plains of the Po produce a great
part of the pork of wliich so much is used in Italy, either for the
nourishment of the people or the provisioning of the armies. In
short, one can satisfy all the needs of life for so small an expendi-
ture, that travellers who stop at the hostelries do not offer a
separate price for each thing provided, but pay their reckoning

1 Laurel-crowned head of Jupiter. On tlie reverse, *APIQN ; goat standing before a
serpent. Bronze coin of Pharos.

2 This commerce was much more considerable than is supposed, and Rome protected it
most energetically. The motive of the war declared against Carthage during the mercenary
war was the capture of a great number of merchant vessels belonging to Italy ; and the
piracies of Teuta's subjects on Italian commerce were the first cause of the Ulyrian war.

VOL. I. 38

594 • THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

by the head ; and it often happens that they settle the whole
bill with the fourth part of an obolus." '

In this frnitful country the Gallic race had increased with
incredible fertility. Cato counted one hundred and two Boian
tribes. Polybius, who saw them almost a century after the period
to which our story has led us, found them inhabitants of unwalled
villages, sleeping on grass or straw, without any
furniture, and eating only meat. Warfare was their
principal occupation, gold or cattle the only wealth
which they esteemed, because they could transport it
wherever their adventurous life led them.

Intestine wars, arising from the rivalry of their
chiefs, the jealousy of the tribes, the hatred of the
"^'^"boiT"'^^'^ Taurini agamst the Insubres, of the Cenomani against
the Boii, of the Venetians against them all, and the
lucrative service in the armies of Carthage, which attracted the
most restless of these adventurers, had for forty-five years saved
the peninsula from the dangers of a Gallic invasion. The repose
which the peace of 241 had restored to the world did not suit
these campaigners. In 238 two Boian chiefs, supported by the
youth of the land, were anxious, in spite of the old men, to
drag their nation into a war against Rome. They called in some
tribes from the Alps and fell upon Arimininn. But the peace
party carried the day ; the two chiefs were murdered, their
auxiliaries driven away, and calm restored before the legions could
reach the frontier.

At this time the expeditions to Sardinia and Illyria had not
commenced ; the Gauls appeared intimidated, and Carthage was
defeated; the Senate closed the temple of Janus, for the first
time since Numa. Almost immediately troubles broke out on all
sides, and Rome again l^ecame the city of Mars.

The Ligurians descended from their mountains and pillaged the
Etruscan plains ; to drive them back again required six years and
the talents of Fabius. This war was only tedious ; that against the

1 Polybius, ii. 15, 17. This picture is to tliis day partly true. One can live very
cheaply in the plain of the Po outsidu the great hotels, and Bologna sends its sausages all
over Europe.

^ On the obverse, here represented above, an uncertain object. On the reverse, a rain-
bow above a boat. Gold coin of the Boii.

CONQUESTS OF KOME AND OF CARTHAGE.

595

Boii was dangerous. The Senate had forbidden the sale of arms to
them, and the tribune, Flamiuius, had proposed the division of the
land of the Senones, lying along the frontier, which had remained
almost deserted since the war of extermination in 283. This j)roposi-
tion was in accordance with the policy of Rome : it relieved the city
of its poor, rewarded the veterans of the Punic war, and placed at

WALLS OF FAESULAE (fIESOLE).I

the approaches to Cisalpine Gaul a Roman population, which would
act as a living rampart against Gallic invasions. But it deprived
the nobles of the pastures which they considered as their property ;
they violently rejected it, and when Flaminius had it voted by
the tribes in the comitia, in spite of the opposition of the Senate,
they accused him of having caused the revolt of the Boii. The
latter, terrified at the idea of having the Romans for neighbors,
joined with the Insubres, and called in from Transalpine Gaul a
formidable army of Gaesates, warriors belonging to various tribes,
but united by a common taste for adventures. " Never," says
Polybius, " had braver soldiers crossed the Alps." Happily the
Cenomani and Venetians betrayed the common cause. Rome had

' From a print in the Biblioih'cquc nationale.

596 ■ THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

for a long time come to an understanding with the former ; the
others had always been hostile to the Cisalpine Gauls. This
diversion obliged the confederates to leave a portion of their
forces for the protection of their homesteads ; the remainder,
consisting of 50,000 foot-soldiers and 20,000 horsemen, or soldiers
mounted on war-chariots, set out for Rome. The Cisalpines were
commanded by Britomar, the Insubrian ; the Gaesates, armed with
the gals, a blunt sword, sharp only on one edge, followed their
kings Concolitan and Aneroestus. All had sworn, leaders and
soldiers, not to take off their baldrics till they had ascended the
Capitol.

Terror was at its height in the town ; the Sibylline books
were consulted, and demanded the sacrifice of a Gallic man and
woman and a Grecian man and woman. They were buried alive
in the midst of the Forum Boarium, and the oracle which announced
that the Gauls and Greeks should take possession of the Roman
soil was thought to be accomplished. But according to the popu-
lar belief these unhappy laeings might after their death become
formidable ; so in order to appease their anger, a sacrifice was
instituted, which was yearly celebrated " on the Gallic grave."
Having thus settled accounts with the gods and the murdered
victims, Rome set herself about warding off the danger. Vain
terrors did not banish manly resolutions ; she trusted to the gods,
but especially to herself ; and this was what made her so great, in
spite of her superstitious spirit.

The Senate declared that there was a tumuUus, and every man
fit to carry a sword took arms, even such of the jariests as the law
dispensed from service; 150,000 soldiers were drawn up before
Rome, and 620,000, furnished by the allies, were held in reserve.
The Samnites had promised 70,000 foot and 16,000 horse ; the
Latins, 80,000 foot and 5,000 horse ; the lapyges and Messapians,
50,000 foot and 16,000 liorse ; the Lucanians, 30,000 foot and
3,000 horse ; the Marsic confederation, 20,000 foot and 4,000 horse.
The Romans and Campanians alone could furnish 273,000 men.
Thus the whole of Italy rose to defend Rome, and drive back the
barbarians.

Two routes led from Upper Italy into the Valley of the Tiber.
In order to close them, one of the consuls stationed himself on

CONQUESTS OF liOME AND OF CARTHAGE.

597

the east of the Apennmes before Ariininuin ; a praetor established
himself on the west, near Faesulae, with 54,000 Etruscans and
Sabines, and the other consular army was recalled m haste from
Sardinia, with orders to land at Pisa, and guard the passes of the
Apennines in Liguria, if it was not too late. So many precautions
and preparations almost turned out useless. The Gauls, crossing
the Apennines at a place where the legions did not expect them,
left behind them the praetorian
army which guarded the moun-
tain passage on the Urabrian
side, and arrived within three
days' march of Rome. The
praetor had followed them ;
they turned upon him, killed
six thousand of his men, and
hemmed in the remains of his
legion upon a hill. Fortunately
the consul Aemilius arrived
during the night, having has-
tened from Ariminum at the
news of this bold march. The
Gauls, being embarrassed with
immense plunder and many
captives, were desirous of
placing their acquisitions in
safety at home, then to return
and en2;aa;e m battle. I his

resolution was their ruin. They were marching along the coast,
followed by Aemilius, in order to reach Liguria, when the consul
Atilius, having landed at Pisa with his legions, fell upon their
vanguard near Cape Telamon (near the mouth of the Ombrone).
The Gauls were caught between three armies. They stationed
then" chariots on the flanks to protect them, their booty and
captives they placed on a hill in their midst ; and whilst the
Gaesates and Insubres faced Aemilius in the rear, the Boii and Tau-
risci resisted the consul Atilius in the front. " It was a strange

' From a bas-relief found at Faesulae. (Jlicali, ])1. ii. fig. ;i.)

598 ■ THE PUNIC WAKS FEOM 264 TO 201.

siglit ; innumerable trumpets and the Avar-cries of the barbarians
filled the air with fearful noises, whicli the hills re-echoed, and
the great naked figures were seen violently brandishing their arms.
But if their shouts caused terror, the golden collars and bracelets
which loaded their arms and necks gave hope of a ricli booty."
The consul Atilius was killed in a cavalry skirmish which preceded
the general action. The latter was commenced l)y the archers of
the legions, who showered upon the enemy's line a hail of arrows,
not ■ one of which was lost, for the Gaesates, who, with ostentatious
courage, and in order to be more free in their movements, had
stripped off their clothing down to their belts, could not shelter
themselves under their small shields. After the archers the infan-
try, clad in excellent armor, came on at racing speed, and fell to the
attack with their short strong swords well sharpened on each edge
and at the point. The Gauls, whose sabres bent at every blow,
for some time resisted by their mass and their indomitable courage.
" If they had had the weapons of the Romans, they would have
gained the victoiy." And Polybius, in so saying, expressed the
opinion of the oldest historian of Rome, Fabius Pictor, who had
been present at the battle ^ when the Roman cavalry, breakmg
through the line of chariots, charged them on the flank, and a
frightful confusion broke out in the barl)arian army, thus pressed
from before, behind, and on the side. Forty thousand barbarians
were left on the battle-field : ten thousand were made prisoners.
One of the Gallic brenns, Concolitan, was taken ; another, Ane-
roestus, slew with his own hand those of his devoted band who
had survived the combat, and stabbed himself (225). The fate
of Britomar is not known. The captives kept their oath ; they
ascended to the Capitol wearing their baldrics, but preceding the
triumphal car of Aemilius. Midway they laid them aside to enter
the TuUianum, whence none came out alive.

Rome had been frightened. The Senate decided to free Italy
from such fears ; and in the following year sent the two consuls
into Cisalpine Gaul to begin the conquest of it. The Gauls on the
south of the Po, enfeebled by the great disaster of Telamon, gave
hostages, and delivered up three of their strongholds to the Romans,

' . . . Qui ei bcllo interfuit. (Eutrop., iii. 5.)

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND OF CARTHAGE.

599

amongst them jModeiia (224). But those on the north, the Insubres,
met the consuls with vigor wlien, in the following year, the latter
for the first time risked the Roman standards on the north bank
of the river. The Romans were glad to accept a treaty which
allowed them to retire without fighting. They reached the country
of the Cenomani, where
a few days, rest and
plenty restored strength
to their troops ; then,
forgetting the treaty,
they again entered the
Tnsubrian territory at
the foot of the Alps.
Fifty thousand men
marched against them
to avenge this perfidy.
They had taken from
their temples their sacred
flags, the hnmovablcs,
which were never
brought out except in
the greatest dangers.
Flaminius, one of the
consuls, was that former
tribune so hateful to the
nobles on account of
his proposition to dis-
tribute the lands of the
Senones. The Senate,
not being able to hinder
his election, made the
gods speak to anniil it ; miracles multiplied, and the augurs
declared the appointment of Flaminius and his colleague, Furius,
illegal. A decree recalled them ; Flaminius received it at the
moment of commencing the battle, and took no notice of it ; he

GROUP FROM THE VILLA lATDOVISI.'

1 It was long thought that this group represented the death of Arria and Pactus ; we
dare not assert that the artist wished to consecrate the famous remembrance of the suicide of
Aneroestus, but it is certainly a barbarian killing his wife and himself after a defeat.

600

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

could only escape condemnation by a victory. He impressed the
necessity of it upon his soldiers, posting them in front of a deep
river, and breaking down the bridges behind them. The swords
of the barbarians, badly tempered and pointless, grew blunt and
bent easily. After the first blow the soldiers were obliged to
press them against the ground and straighten them with their
feet. Having observed this at the battle of Cape Telamon, the
tribunes distributed the pikes of the triarii among the men of
the first rank, with orders not to attack with the sword till
they saw that the sabres of the Gauls had been Ijent by striking
on the iron of the pike. The Insubres lost eight thousand dead,

and ten thousand prisoners (22.3 B. c).
They asked for peace ; and, on the
refusal of the Senate, hastily called
in from the Transalpine regions
thirty thousand Gaesates, commanded
by King Virdumar, who came and
proudly laid siege to the strong-
hold of Clastidium, on the south
of the Po, which, in the hands of
Rome, had become one of the
fetters of Cisalpine Gaiil. The
Roman consul, Marcellus, he who
some years later won, against Hannibal, the surname of the Sword
of Home, hastened to relieve it. As he was drawing up his line
of battle, his horse, frightened by the confused cries of the
barbarians, suddenly turned and carried him, in spite of himself,
to the rear. With such superstitious soldiers as the Romans were,
this natural incident might be taken for a presage of defeat, and
might lead to it. Marcellus, on the contrary, turned it to ad-
vantage. He pretended to be anxious to accomplish a religious
act, made his horse complete the circle, and when he had returned
in front of the enemy, worshipped the sun. After that they could
fight ; it was only one of the ordinary ceremonies of the adora-
tion of the gods. When the King of the Gaesates perceived
Marcellus, judging by the splendor of his arms that he must be

' The Furii appear to have been originally from Tiisculum, where the remains of a tomb
of that family are seen.

TOMB OF TUE GENS FURIA.l

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND OP CAETHAGE. 601

the chief, he spurred his horse out of the ranks, and challenged
him to single combat between the two armies.

The consul had just vowed to Jupiter Feretrius the most
I)eautiful arms that should be taken from the enemy. At the
sight of this Gaul, whose armor was resplendent with the blaze
of gold, silver, and purple, Marcellus had no doubt that these were
the promised spoils, and that the gods had sent the barbarian to
fall beneath his blows. He rushed straight at him at the full
gallop of his horse, and struck him with his lance right on the
breast with such force that the cuirass was pierced, and Virdumar
fell. Before he could rise, Marcellus dealt him another blow ; then
sprang to the groimd, tore off his arms, and, raising them towards
heaven, cried : '" Jupiter, receive the spoils whicli I offer thee, and
deign to grant us like fortune in the course of this war." The
Romans, excited by the exploit of their leader, fell impetuously
on the enemy. After a bloody affray the Gaesates took to flight.
Despair seized the Insubres. They yielded themselves to the dis-
cretion of the Senate, who made them pay a heavy indemnity, and
confiscated a part of their territory, in order to establish colonies
there (222).

All that was most magnificent in the arrangements of the
Roman festivals was employed to celebrate the victory of Marcellus,
— the third who had triumphed with the sjjolia opima. The streets
through which the procession ^ was to pass were strewn with flowers,
and incense smoked everywhere. A numerous band of musicians
led the march ; then came the oxen for sacrifice, with their horns
gilded, and, after a long string of chariots, bearing the arms taken
from the enemy, the Gallic captives, whose higli stature and mar-
tial bearing struck every eye. A clown, dressed as a woman, and
a troop of satyrs, insulted their grief by joyful songs. Finally,
amid the smoke of perfumes, there appeared the triumpher, clad in
a purple robe embroidered with gold, his head crowned with laurels
and his face painted with vermilion like the statues of the gods ;
on his shoulder he bore the helmet, cuirass, and tunic of Virdumar,

1 The procession was formed on the Fiekl of INIars, and crossed the Flaminian Circus, the
Triumphal Gate, where the senators and magistrates awaited it, tlien the Circus JIaximus, and
by tlie valley which separated the Caelian from the Palatine reached the Via Sacra, and
arrived at the Capitol by the cUviis Victoriae. See the plan of Home.

602

THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

arranged round the trunk of an oak. At the sight of this glorious
trophy the crowd made the air resound with the cry of " Triumph !
triumjjli!" interrupted only by the warrior hymns of the soldiers.

" As the triumphal car began to turn from the Forum towards
the Capitol, Marcellus made a sign, and the flower of the Gallic
captives were led to a prison, where the executioners were waiting,
and axes prepared ; then the procession went, according to custom,
to wait on the Capitol in tlie temple of Jupiter till a lictor should
bring the news that the barbarians were despatched. Then
Marcellus intoned the hymn of praise, and the sacrifice was over.
Before leaving the Capitol the triumpher with his own hands
planted his trophy in the precincts of the temple. The rest of
the day passed in rejoicings and festivities, and on the morrow
perhaps some orator of the Senate or people again began the
customary declamations against that Gallic race which must be

exterminated, because it butchered its
prisoners and offered the blood of men

to its sods

" 1

MARCELLUS AT THE TEMPLE OF
JUPITER FEBETRIUS."

Marcellus had promised on his vic-
tory to raise a temple to Honor and
Courage. The pontiffs refused to unite
the two deities in the same sanctu-
ary. " Should the lightning fall there," said they, " or should
some prodigy be manifested, it would be difficult to make the
expiations, because it would not be known to which god to offer
the sacrifice, and the rites do not permit to immolate the same
victim to two deities." Marcellus dedicated the temple to
Honor, and lauilt another to Courage, which his son dedicated
seventeen years later.^

The defeat of the Insubres advanced the conquest of Cis-
alpine Gaul. In order to consolidate their power there, the Senate,
in 218, sent two colonies, each of six thousand Roman families,
to Cremona and Placentia ; they were to guard the line of the
Po, already defended by Tannetum, Clastidium, and Modena. The

1 Amedce Thierry, Hist, des Gaulois, i. 257.

' MARCELLINVS. Head of ]\Iarcellus. Behind, the triqucira (see p. 110, note 2).
On the reverse, MARCELLVS COS. QVINQ. (consul for the fiftli time) ; Marcellus bearing
a trophy to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Silver denarius of the Claudian family.

^ Livy, xxvii. 25, and xxix. 1 1.

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND OF CARTHAGE.

603

HONOR AND
VIRTUE.-'

military road commenced by the censor Flaminins, leading across

the Apennines from Rome as far as the middle of the country of

tlie Senones, was continued in order to connect these

advanced posts with the great place of Ariminum.^

Thus the Roman sway drew near the Alps, — "that

bulwark raised by a divine hand." says Cicero, " for

the defence of Italy," — and the plough was about

to finish the work of the sword in Cisalpine Gaul,

when the arrival of Hannibal put a stop to everything.

In 221 the Romans had also occupied Istria ; there they were
masters of one of the gates of Italy, and they estal)lislied them-
selves on the north of Macedonia, which they
already menaced on the side of Illyria.

Since the defeat of Pyrrhus they had
maintained friendly relations with the kings
of Egypt. The latter naturally drew near
a people who might some day become a
formidable adversary to the enemies that the

Ptolemies had in Greece. After the First ptoi.emy m., euergetes.^
Punic War Euergetes renewed the alliance

that his father had concluded with Rome. The Senate offered him
troops as auxiliaries against Antiochus of Syria.* He refused them,
but remained faithful to his friendship with the Romans.

II. Carthage : War of the Mercenaries ; Conquest

OF Spain.

During these twenty-three years so well employed by Rome,
Carthage had also extended her empire ; but only after having
passed through a crisis which nearly destroyed her, and which gave
her constitution a lasting shock.

1 Strabo (v. 217) attributes to Aemilius, who was consul in 187, the Aemilian Way,
wliich led from Ariminum to Bononia and Aquileia, going round the marshes, and following
the foot of the A1])S.

^ no. VTE. Laurel-crowned head of Honor, with the helmoted head of Virtue (^''alor) ;
beneath, the word KALENI, the surname of the Trufian family, who had this silver coin
struck.

^ Bust of Ptolemy Euergetes, with a sceptre and the aegis. From a gold tetradrachma.

* Zonar., viii. 6 ; Eutrop., iii. 1.

604 . THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

When Amilcar signed the peace with Lutatius, there were
in Sicily twenty thousand mercenaries, who had long been paid
with nothing l3ut words. When the war was ended they claimed
the execution of these promises and their pay. Gisco, the governor
of Lilybaeum, sent them back to Carthage by detachments, in order
to give the Senate time to satisfy or disperse them. But the
treasury was empty. All were allowed to arrive, and when they
were assembled the distress of the Republic was pictured to them,
and an appeal was made to their disinterestedness ; yet gold and
silver shone on all sides in this opulent metropolis of Africa. The
mercenaries began to pay themselves with their own hands. The
Senate feared a pillage ; they ordered the officers to lead the army
to Sicca, giving each soldier a piece of gold for the most pressing
needs. The Carthaginians might have detained their women and
children as hostages ; but they sent them away, that these foreigners
might not be tempted to come back in search of them. Then,
closing their gates, they believed themselves to be sheltered from
all anger behind their high Avails.

The mercenaries, says Polybius, whose account we are abridging,
met at Sicca. For such troops idleness is an evil counsellor. They
began to reckon and to exaggerate what was owing to them, and
what had been promised them in hours of danger ; and in those
greedy souls there sprang up vast desires.

Hanno was sent to them ; who, instead of bringing gold, asked
for sacrifices, speaking humbly of the destitution of the Republic.
Citizens might have understood this language. The mercenaries
grew irritated, and sedition broke out. First the men of each nation
gathered together, then all the nations united. They could not
understand each other, but they all agreed in hurling a thousand
imprecations. Hanno essayed to speak to the soldiers through their
leaders ; the leaders repeated quite different things from what was
said to them, and the anger of the crowd increased. " Why, too,"
asked the mercenaries, " had there been sent them, instead of the
generals who had seen them at work, and who knew what was
due to them, Hanno, who knew nothing about them ? " They
struck their camp, marched upon Carthage, and stopped at a
hundred and twenty stadia from the town, at the place called
Tunis.

CONQUESTS OF KOME AND OF CAETIIAGE.

605

Carthage had neither soldiers to drive off these barbarians, nor
hostages to stay them. She tried to appease them ; she sent them
provisions, the price of whicli tlicy tliemselves fixed, and deputies
who promised tliat all they might demand should be granted.
These proofs of cowardice increased their boldness. They had lield
tlieir own against the Romans in Sicily : who then would dare to
look them in the face ? Certainly not the Carthaginians. . . . And
every day they invented new demands, laying claims, besides their
pay, to the price of then- horses
that had been killed, and requir-
ing that they should be paid for
the provisions owing to them at the
exorbitant price they had reached
durmg the war. To put an end
to this, Gisco, one of their generals
in Sicily, was sent to them, who
had always had their interests at
heart, and who came with a large
quantity of gold. He took the
leaders aside, and then assembled
each nation separately to give
them their pay. An arrangement
was almost arrived at ; but there
was in the army a certain Spen-
dius, a Campanian, formerly a slave
at Rome, who feared lest he should
be delivered up to his master, and
an African named Matho, the prin-
cipal author of these troubles ; they
both expected, if an agreement was made, to pay for all. Matho
pointed out to the Libyans that when the other nations were
gone away, Carthage would let all the weight of her wrath fall
on them, and chastise them m such a manner as to frighten their
compatriots. A great agitation followed this discourse, and as

CARTHAGINIAN W.VERIOR (?).'

' Bearded warrior, standintr, clad in a cuirass, found in Sicily in 1762. He held in his
right hand a sword, of which only the hilt remains. Caylus calls it a Cai-thaghiian
soldier. Statuette in bronze, 5 inches in height. Cabinet de France: No. 2,976 in Cha-
bouillet's catalogue.

606 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

Gisco put off till another time the payment for provisions and
horses, the Libyans assembled tumultuously. They would hear
only Spendius and Matho ; if any other orator attempted to speak,
he was immediately stoned. A single word was understood by
all these barbarians : Strike ! As soon as any one said Strike !
they all struck, and so quickly, that it was impossible to escape.
Many soldiers, and even leaders, thus perished ; and at length
Spendius and Matho were chosen generals.

Gisco knew that if once these ferocious beasts were let loose,
Carthage woiild be lost. At the peril of his life he remained in
the camp, trying to bring back the leaders to reason. But one
day, when the Africans, who had not received their pay, insolently
demanded it, he told them to address themselves to Matho. At
these words they fell ujson the money, seized Gisco and his com-
panions, and loaded them with chains.

Carthage was in terror. All bruised and bleeding yet from
her defeats in Sicily, she had hoped, when peace was once made
with Rome, for a little rest and safety, and here was a war
breaking out more terrible than ever ; for it was no longer a
c|uestion of Sicily, but of the safety and even the existence of the
country. She had neither army nor fleet ; her granaries were
empty, her treasury exhausted, her allies indifferent or hostile.
Her sway over the nations of Africa had been cruel. In the last
war she had exacted from the inhabitants of the country half
their incomes, and doubled the taxes in the towns ; Leptis Parva
owed her a talent a day. The poorest could hope for neither grace
nor mercy from the Carthaginian governors ; for to be popular at
Carthage it was necessary to be pitiless towards her subjects, and
extract large sums of money from them.

Accordingly, as soon as Matho had stirred up the towns of
Africa to revolt, the very women, who had so often seen their
husbands and kindred dragged to prison for the payment of the
tax, swore among themselves to hide none of their effects ; they
gave all they had in the way of furniture and ornaments, and
money abounded in the camp of the mercenaries. Their troops
were augmented by numerous auxiliaries, the army rose to seventy
thousand men, with whom they laid siege to Utica and Hippo,
the only two towns which had not responded to their appeal.

CONQUESTS OF KOME AND OF CARTHAGE. 607

The Carthaginians at first confided the conduct of the war
to Hanno ; but he twice let slip an occasion to destroy the enemy.
Aniilcar was put in his place. With ten thousand men and seventy-
five elephants he managed to make the mercenaries raise the siege
of Utica, free the approaches of Carthage, and gain a second battle
against Spendius. Then the Numidians went over to him, he found
himself master of the country, and the mercenaries began to lack
provisions. At the same time he showed much mildness with
regard to his prisoners. The chiefs feared defections ; in order to
prevent them, they assembled the army, and brought forward a
man who they pretended had just arrived from Sardinia with
a letter, in which their friends invited them to keep a close watch
upon Gisco and the other prisoners, to mistrust the secret practices
going on in the camp in favor of the Carthaginians. Spendius
then addressed them, pointing out the perfidious mildness of Amil-
car, and the danger of sending back Gisco. He was still speaking,
when a fresh messenger, who said he had arrived from Tunis,-
brought another letter in similar terms to the first. Autaritus,
chief of the Gauls, declared that there was no safety except in a
rupture beyond reparation with the Carthaginians, that all those
who spoke otherwise were traitors, and that in order to avoid all
agreement it was necessary to slay Gisco and the other prisoners.
. . . This Autaritus had the advantage of speaking Phoenician,
and thus makmg himself understood by the greatest number ; for
the length of the war gradually made Phoenician the common
language, and the soldiers generally saluted in that langviage.

After Autaritus, men of every nation spoke who had obligations
towards Gisco, and who demanded that he should l^e at least
spared torture ; as they all spoke together, and each in his own
language, nothing they said could be understood ; but as soon as
it was perceived what they wished to say, and some one cried,
Kill ! kill ! these unhappy intercessors were struck down with
stones. Then Gisco was taken with his companions, to the nmnber
of seven hundred ; they were led out of the camp, their hands and
ears cut off, their legs broken, and they were thrown alive into
a ditch. When Aniilcar sent to demand at least their corpses,
the barbarians declared that the deputies should be treated in the
same manner, and proclaimed as law that every Carthaginian

608 . THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

prisoner sliould perisli by torture, and that every ally of Carthage
should be sent back with his hands cut off ; and this law was
rigorously observed. Amilcar in reprisal threw all his prisoners
before the elephants.

The affairs of the Carthaginians were assuming a favorable
aspect, when sudden reverses threw them back into their earlier
state. Sardinia revolted ; a tempest sank a great convoy of pro-
visions ; Hippo and Utica revolted and murdered their gar-
risons ; and Matho already dreamt of leading his mercenaries to
the foot of the walls of Carthage. But Hiero, whom the final
victory of this barbarian army would have menaced, afforded all
the help that the Carthaginians demanded ; even Rome [now]
showed herself favorable. The Senate restored what remained of
the prisoners taken in Sicily, allowed Italian merchants to bear
them provisions, and refused the offer of the inhabitants of Utica
to sive themselves to the Romans. A second time Amilcar drove
the mercenaries from the neighborhood of Carthage, and, with
his Numidian cavalry, forced them into the mountains, where he
succeeded in enclosing one of their two armies in the defiles of
the Axe. There, unable to fight or flee, they found themselves
reduced to eating one another. The prisoners and slaves went
first ; when this resource failed, Spendius, Autaritus, and the other
leaders, threatened by the multitude, were obliged to ask for a
safe-conduct to go in search of Amilcar. He did not refuse it,
and made an agreement with them that, with the exception of ten
men whom he should choose, he would send away the others,
leaving each of them a coat. When the treaty was concluded,
Amilcar said to the envoys : " Yoic arc among the ten ! " and he
detained them. The mercenaries, on learning the arrest of their
leaders, thought they were betrayed, and rushed to arms ; they
were so surrounded, that of forty thousand not one escaped.
Meanwhile Matho, who was besieged in Tunis, offered an ener-
getic resistance ; in a sortie he captured Hannibal, the colleague
of Amilcar, and bound him to the cross of Spendius. Thirty
of the principal Carthaginians perished in fearful tortures ; but,
being drawn into the level coimtry, he was overcome in a great
battle, led to Carthage, and given up to the people for their
sport.

CONQUESTS OF ROME AND OF CARTHAGE. 609

The inexpiable war, as it was called, had lasted three years and
four months. " I know not," says Polybius, " that in any other
barbarity and impiety have been carried so far." Man had fallen,
as he often does, below the wild beast, which kills to live, but
does not torture.

In a commercial republic which allows itself to be drawn
into long wars, there is necessarily formed a military party, whose
importance grows with their services, and who end liy sacrificing
the liberties of the country to their chief. Thus perished the
Dutch repiiblic,^ thus Carthage was to end. Moreover, a con-
stitution must be firmly rooted in a country, not to be shaken by
an unsuccessful war. The Carthaginian oligarchy bore the penalty
of the disasters of the First Punic War, and the necessity of arming
the citizens to resist the mercenaries had still further enfeebled it,
by strengthening the popular element. If the inner life of Carthage
were better kno'mi to us, we should find therein some curious
revelations about the two great parties which divided it, and of
which historians scarcely give us a glimpse. Perhaps Hanno and
his friends, who are represented to us as sold to Rome, or basely
jealous of Amilcar and his son, would appear as citizens justly
alarmed at the growing favor among the populace and soldiers of
a family, which appeared to be invested by hereditary right with
the command of the armies, and who threatened Carthage with a
military dictatorship. In the First Punic War Amilcar had rendered
immense services ; yet Hanno was appointed against the mercenaries.
When his incapacity had obliged the Senate to yield Amilcar to
the desires of the army, another Hanno was appointed as his
colleague. But the soldiers drove liim away,^ and Amilcar
replaced him by a general called Hannibal, and probably of his
faction. When he was dead the Senate hastened to send Hanno
again, with thirty senators, to reconcile the two leaders, and keep
watch over Amilcar. The hero was compelled to share with
his rival the glory of terminating this war. The savior of Car-
thage deserved brilliant rewards ; he was humiliated by shamefiil

* Hannibal was the future statholder of Carthage ; the Ilannos were its Do Witts. It
was the same at Syracuse, in all the Greek republics of Sicily, and in all those of Italy in the
Middle Ages.

^ Polyb., i. 82 . . . BcipKa? hk jrapoKa^av 'AyvL^av toi' trrpaTrjyov . . . ejrd tov "^Avtfuiva to
oTpaTOTreSov tKpiv€ 8elv aTraKkdrrecrdai.

VOL. I. 39

610 . THE PUNIC. WAES FKOM 264 TO 201.

accusations.^ The army and the people were for him ; but, either
through patriotism, or a consciousness of the strength which the
party which insulted him still retained, or a desire to increase his
renown and the influence of his party by fresh victories, he allowed
himself to be exiled with his victorious troops, and set out to
subdue for Carthage the coasts of Africa and Spain. This conquest
would, it was thought, be a compensation for the loss of Corsica
and Sardinia.^

Amilcar spent there nine years, during which, says Poly-
bius, he subdvied a great number of nations by arms and by
treaties, till he perished m a battle against the Lusitanians, on the
banks of the Guadiana. The booty won in Spain had served to
buy the people and a part of the Senate.^ The Barcine faction
increased ; and as its principal support was in the people, it
favored the encroachments of the popular assembly, which by
degrees came to jireponderate in the Government.* Accordingly,
Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of Amilcar, and favorite of the people
at Carthage, succeeded to his father-in-law's command, in spite of
the Senate.^ He continued his conquests with an army of fifty-six
thousand soldiers and two hundred elephants, pushed on as far
as the Ebro, where the Romans, frightened at his progress, stopped
him by a treaty (227) ; and, in order to consolidate his power,
founded Carthagena "^ in a well-chosen position, in the middle of
the Spanish coast, facing Africa, at a large harbor, and near mines
which daily yielded him 300 pounds' weight of silver. Immense
works made a great town of it in a few years ; it was, as it were,
the capital of the future states of the Barcine house.''

1 Corn. Nepos, Amilcar.

2 According to Appian, lie set out, in spite of the Senate, for Spain, where Carthage
already had some possessions and commercial relations.

* . . . pecunia totam locupletavit Ajricam. (Corn. Nep., Amilcar, 4.)

* . . . Ttfv 7r\ci(m;ii bvvap.iv iv rots dia^ovXiots . . . 6 Srjfios ^8t) /ifreiXiy^ft (Polyb., vi. 51 ; cf.
Appian, vi. 5 ; see p. 526). The First Punic War, by staying the course of emigration, which
periodically removed a part of the poor from the towns, augmented the influence of the people.

' Factionis Barcinae opibu-t, quae apud militcs plehemque plus quam moilicae erant, baud sane
ijoluniate principum, in imperio potitus. (Livy, xxi. 2.) According to Cornelius Nepos (^Amil-
car, 3) : largitione vetustos pervertit mores.

^ Gades was the Phoenician capital of Spain ; but the Barcas desired a new town. Gades,
moreover, occupied too eccentric a position, and preserved the bitter regret of its indepen-
dence, which Hasdrubal had suppressed.

' rianno, in opposing himself to Hannibal's being sent to Hasdrubal, said : An hoc timemus,
ne . . . niinis sero imperia immodica et reyni paterni speciem videat . . .f And he adds in

CONQUESTS OF liOME AND OF CARTHAGE. 611

Hasdrubal was, however, assassinated by a Gallic sLive, who
avenged on him the death of his master, slain by treason. The
soldiers elected in his place Hannibal, the son of their ancient
commander, \vho had fought in their ranks for three years. The
people confirmed,^ and the Senate accepted the new king. Spain
and the army were, in fact, no longer anything but a heritage
of the Barcas.^

Su(;h was, in 219, the situation at Carthage. Everything
announced a coming transformation in that ancient repulalic. But
Hannibal, hke Caesar two centuries later, needed soldiers and
victories to enable him to re-enter his fatherland as its master.
Caesar won the dictatorship in Gaul; Hannibal sought it in this
Second Punic War, which his father had bequeathed him.

speaking of Amilcar : cujus rei/is . . . ; and of the army: hereddarii excrcitus . . . (Livy,
xxi. 3.) These speeches of Ilanno are made by Livy, but they represent the opinion which the
Romans held, and whicli, according to all indications, we must ourselves hold, of the ambition
of the Barcas. A military chief, Malchus, had already led his army against Carthage, and
taken the town, — without, however, proclaiming himself king. But he was condemned, and
put to death on the accusation of having aspired to the tyranny. (Justin., xviii. 7.)

" Poly bins. iii. 13.

2 The historian Fabius, a contemporary of Amilcar and senator of Rome, expressly said
that Hasdrubal, after having tried to seize the tyranny of Carthage : . . . eis fiovapxia" irfpicrrfja-ai
TO noXiTfviJia Tuv Kapxqhovlav, had behaved in Spain as if the country belonged to him : . . .
ra Kara ttjv lj3epiav x^tpi^etv Kara rtju avrov Trpomp^aiv, ov npoa^xovra rat trvvc^plci twu Kapx^
Soi/iiov. (Polyb., iii. 8.) Polybins himself says (x. 10) of Hasdrubal, that he had built a kingly
palace at Carthageua: jiaaiKeia KaTiaKdaarat. itoKyTtKas, a ipamv . . . vroirjo-ai, p.ouapxi-K'is
op€y6p.£fQV i^ovaias.

CHAPTER XXII.

INTEENAL STATE OF EOME IN THE INTEEVAL BETWEEN THE TWO PUNIO

WAES.

I. Commencement of Roman Literature ; Popular Games

AND Festivals.

TO furnish Italy with her natural adjuncts, Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica, and make these islands the outposts of the new
Empire, to protect her commerce against the pirates of lUyria,
her quiet and fortune against the land-pirates settled in Cisalpine
Gaul, Rome had fought numerous battles and set immortal lessons
of perseverance. From these terrible struggles she had issued
with an assurance of her own strength and of the fidelity of her
subjects : this is the golden age of her republican existence.^

Meanwhile, since the Samnite War, everything, — manners, re-
ligion, and political organization, — had made a step in advance.
The riches found in the pillage of industrious commercial cities,
the tribute paid by Sicily and Carthage, the ideas acquired by
contact with so many men and things, produced novelties to which
the Romans insensibly grew accustomed. In less than three
quarters of a century Rome is no longer in Rome. Let us follow
these slow infiltrations of foreign ideas and customs, which are
about to modify so profoundly the Latmo-Sabine society of early
times. In the study of these inevitable transformations lies the
interest and profit of history.

The Latin language, that sonorous but imperfect instrument,
preserved the commanding majesty which is so clearly marked

^ Polybius says of this government (vi. 57) : 'Hr koi KaXKiarov koI rtXeiov e'v tois 'Ai'viffiaKois
Katpots.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

613

in the Twelve Tables, and which, after the flowing eloquence of
Cicero and Livy, it again resumes in the masculine terseness of
Tacitus and the great lawyers of the Empire. It w^as always unfit
for the rendering of abstract ideas, — which, indeed, this people did
not possess ; Aristotle and Plato would have found difficulty in
using it.

By the very fact of being used, however, it grew more
supple, and lost its asperities. In the Forum and in the Curia
Rome had orators of note. In the
camp, and even on the field of battle,
generals harangued their troops to con-
vince before commanding them.^ And
it could not be otherwise in a i-e-
publican state, in which speech is as
powerful as the sword in the good
and evil it can eiiect. Eloquence had
even its tutelary god. Mercury, whose
statue, erected in the public place of
the towns, there presided at once over
commerce and deliberations.

The custom of funeral orations
was very ancient. We have cited a
fragment of that which Q. Metellus
consecrated to the victor of Panor-
mus.^ It is a fashion w'hich rises
rapidly to perfection ; in the following
generation Q. Fabius pronounced be-
fore all the people over the bier of

his son a harangue which Plutarch ventures to compare with those
of Thucydides.

Another branch of literatiu'e also commenced, which develops
till it becomes one of the jDurest glories of Rome. The first

1 [It is, however, certain tliat tlie great majority, if not all, the speeches of this kind
reported in our Roman histories arc the invention of rhetorical liistorians copying the fashions
of Oreek historiography. The whole tenor of Roman military discipline seems foreign to such
speech-making. — Ed.~\

^ Life of Fahiu!<, initio.

' Mercury, with the travelling cap and winged shoes, holding a purse in hi.s right hand and
his eaduceus in his left. Bronze figure found at Aries. See, p. 196, the Jlereury Agoreus of
Praeneste. Collection of the Cabinet de France, No. 'i.OOe in Chabouillet's catalogue.

.MERCURY.'

614 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

plebeian higli pontiff (254), Coruncanius, had just opened a school
of jurisprudence,^ that is to say, for explaining the law to all who
presented themselves, instead of admitting, like his predecessors,
only those patricians who counted upon canvassing for a place in
the college of pontiffs. These schools multiplied, and therein was
formed the only science which the Romans created, — jurispru-
dence.

Oral tradition preserved many things, but intellectual needs
were so limited that the recitals of the atrium and the hearth ^
sufficed for a curiosity which was seldom stimulated.
Rome existed for five hundred years without making
a book or a poem, or even one of those soldier-songs,
one of those warrior lays, which are found among all
COIN OF F. nations. The first play of Livius Andronicus, the
Tarentine, who had been set free by a man of consular
rank, was represented in 240, at the celebration of the Roman
games ; that of the Campanian Naevius appears to belong to 231 ;
and in the interval l)etween the two Punic wars, Fabius Pictor
began his books of Annals.* They opened with the arrival of
Aeneas in Latium, and the soldier of Thrasimene continued them
down to the events which he himself had witnessed.^ Polybius,

1 Dig. i. 2, 8, § 35.

"^ Cato, however, says that the guests used to sing in round, to the sound of flutes, the ex-
ploits and virtues of their ancestors. (Cic, Tusc. iv. 2, and Val. Max., II. i. 10.) Horace bears
witness that this was an ancient custom, more palrum (^Carm. IV. xv. 26-3.3). Tliere were
also Neniae, or funeral wailings. But tradition, usually so tenacious in preserving popular
songs, has retained nothing of these rude poems of Rome, which leads us to think that they
never stirred the national spirit very deeply.

* On the obverse, a head of Pallas, wliich we do not give. On the reverse, Rome holding
an apex and a spear ; behind her, a shield, with the word QUIRINUS, and the legend,
FABIUS PICTOR. It is not certain that this coin is our historian's ; it belongs at least to
some one of his family.

* After the battle of Cannae, F. Pictor was sent to Delphi to consult the oracle of Apollo.
Polybius calls him a senator.

^ About the time of Pyrrhus the belief in the Trojan origin of Rome was already estab-
lished, and at the end of the First Punic War the Romans claimed, on the strength of it, a right
to intervene in Greece in favor of the Acarnanians. (Dionys., i. 52 ; Just., xxviii. 1.) Naevius,
Ennius, and Fabius Pictor had no doubt about it. On a box lately found at Praeneste, with all
its contents, an Italian artist, inspired by Greek art, has depicted this legend and the combats of
Turnus and Aeneas, a century and a half before Vergil. As the upper part of the cist no longer
exists, only one half of the fight and the combatants is seen (see p. 480) ; but the lid repre-
sents the last scene. Aeneas had demanded the hand of Lavinia, the daughter of Latimus and
Amata, but the latter, who had promised her to Turnus, refuses. Aeneas wounds Turnus
mortally ; Amata kills herself ; and Lavinia marries Aeneas, who makes peace with Latinus.

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME. 617

\A\y, Dioiiysius of ILilicaniassus, and Dion Cas.sius made much
of his work, which was lacking in ai't, but in which a vast
r[uantity of precious information on tlu; subject of institutions was
found. He wrote it in Greek, in contempt for the vulgar idiom.
It is believed, however, that lie made a Latin translation of it.^

It is not our duty to study these early writings more closely ;
literary history is only of interest here as an expression of the
state of mind and manners. It will be sixfficient to remark that
the period at which we have now arrived is that in which, under
the influence of the great events which take place, and by the in-
fluence of Greece, which gradually gains ground, Latin genius is
at last awakina; to intellectual things.

Why this long slumber, and why these beghmings of litera-
ture due to foreigners ? It is because this people loves above all
things strength and practical talent, and that, having no leaning
towards the ideal, nor the imagination which leads thereto, they
only see the reality of things, and know not how to clothe it in
graceful fictions. They will have none of the art of Aeschylus or
Sophocles and the religious terrors of the Athenian theatre ; they
are only moved in the face of real pangs, of life-blood issuing
from deadly wounds. Were the comedies of Menander offered
them they would hasten away to the floral games and the Atellane
farces, to coarseness and obscenity. What the Greeks told with
poetic anger or enveloped in a religious myth they would put in
action on the stage, — Leda, for instance, and the swan, or Pasiphae,
who was represented in the theatres of the Empire.

These are the last acts of the drama represented on the lid. Aeneas has the body of Turnus
borne before Latinus ; on the other side, Amata, in despair, flies to i)ut herself to death, whilst
Lavinia refuses to follow her. The third woman represented is no doubt a nymph, a sibyl, or
some other fortune-telling female, an interpreter and revealer of future destinies. Latinus is
taking Aeneas' hand, and with the other swearing peace, while his feet trample on arms and
shields. The two winged figures are Sleep and Death, or genii represented by an artist
who no longer understands the old theology, or, perhaps, the Dirae of Vergil (Aen. xii. 845),
" daughters of dark night." Both are of the male sex. One is about to carry off Turnus ; the
other still slumbers, but will awake when Amata has accomplished her design. The figures
placed below the principal scene do not enter into its action. One is a cor])ulent Silenus; the
other, the River Numioius ; the female is the fountain of Juturna, sad at losing itself in the
deep river (Vergil, ibid. xii. 885-886) : —

Caput fflauco contexit amictu,
Afulta gemens tt sejluvio dea condidit alto.
II. Brunn (Ann. du Bull, arche'ul., 1864, p. 367) fixes the date of this cist in the sixth century
of Rome, about the end of the Second Punic War, or shortly afterward.

^ Cf. Peter, Rell. Hist. Rom. p. Ixxvi, who refers the Latin history to a later Fabius.

618

THE PUNIC WAKS FROM 264 TO 201.

The Romans certainly had many very solemn festivals, and in
their religious processions choirs of boys and maidens sang pious
hymns that every ear might hear. Livy mentions several of
them,^ and Catullus has preserved us one, — which is, however, the
poet's own [adapted from Sappho].

"We who have vowed ourselves to the worship of Diana,
maidens and boys of pure hearts, we celebrate her praises.

" mighty daughter of Jupiter ! Thou who reignest over
the mountain and the green forests, the mysterious groves and re-
sounding billows ;

"Thou whom women invoke in the pangs of labor; thou,

too, mighty Hecate, to whom the sun
lends his light ;

" Who in thy monthly course
tracest the circle of the year, and
fillest with an abundant harvest the
barn of the rustic husbandman ;

" most holy ! By whatever
name it may please thee to be in-
voked, be, as thou ever wast, helpful
to the ancient race of Romulus." *
But these people, who were so pious and habitually grave,
were at the same time very coarse. They loved at once the solemn
and the grotesque. Amid the triumphal pomp which we picture
to ourselves, with the trif)le majesty of the Senate, the people, and
the army, advancing between two rows of temples towards the
Capitol of the hundred steps, there marched gigantic dancing
figures and masks, Lamiae with pointed teeth, a kind of vam-
pire, out of which were taken alive the children whom they
had devoured,* and Manducus, a colossal bogy, which advanced
" with large, broad, and horrible jaws, well provided with teeth,
above as well as below, which by means of a little hidden
cord were made to click one against the other in a terrible

1 Livins Andronicus composed one, P. Lioinius Tegula another, at tlie commencement of
the war against Macedonia in 200, to avert evil presages. (Livy, xxxi. 12.)

^ Diana, or the moon, in a car, drawn by two horses, which she herself drives. The god-
dess has her hair bound up with a diadem, and is clad in a long robe. Cameo in the Cabinet de
France.

* Carm. xxxi v.

* . . . pransae Lamiae vivmn pueriim extrahat alvo. (Hor., Ars Poet. 340.)

DIANA, OR THE MOON.^

INTERNAL STATE OF KOME.

61!)

manner." ' The monstrous machines made the children cry, the
women shriek, and the men laugh, and the feast was complete.
We like the soldier who, behind the triumphal car, makes his
general pay with keen sarcasms the ransom of his glory, and wlio,
in order to be more free in his railina; verse, hides himself in

COMIC SCENE.*

a buck's skin and covers his head with a tuft of bristly fur.''
We love, too, to hear the slave appointed to hold the golden
crown over the triumpher's head murmur in his ear, " Remember
that thou art a man." * But Petreia, the drunken old woman
who leads the procession, is only disgusting; and the remarks
which Citeria, the gossip with the sharp tongue, throws at the
spectators as she passes, would not amuse us.^

1 Rabelais, Pantagruel, iv. 59.

* Taken, as is also the engraving on the following page, from two Etrusoan vases. {Atlas
du Bull. arche'oL, vol. vi.-vii. pi. 34.)

' Dionysius of Halicarnassus, vii. 74.

* Tertull., Apol. 33.

^ Festus, s. V. These two women were two masks. We know that each great town in
Italy has still its own, — PulcineUo at Naples ; Pasquino at Rome ; Stenterello at Florence ;

620

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

They afforded great amusement to the Romans, who, the
moment they ceased to be serious, desired coarse laughter, sharp
words, and biting epigrams. The refined Horace dislil^ed these
bold and ribald improvisations, which, expressed in the freest of
verse, the Saturnian, assumed an appearance of literature, — a very
low literature, it is true, but so national in Italy that it is still
the delight of the masses, sometimes even that of men of letters.
" The husbandmen of former times," says he, " robust and easily

COMIC SCENE.

contented, recreated themselves, when the harvest was gathered,
by feasts. With their slaves, children, and wives they offered
a hog to the earth, milk to Silvanus, and flowers and wine to
the genius of the hearth. The Fescennine license springing from
these festivals poured out its rustic sarcasms in dialogue. At
first it was only a gay pastime ; but this jesting ended by becoming
spiteful, and assailed the most honorable families. Those whom
this cruel tooth had wounded obtained the passing of the law^
which forbade, under pain of chastisement, any personal attack.
The custom was changed for fear of the rod." ^ But the rod

Arlequino at Bergamo ; Pantalone at Venice, etc. We have seen, on p. 437, that the Tubicines
on certain days ran througli the streets in all sorts of costumes, even in women's clothes, utter-
ing a thousand buffooneries, — such, no doubt, as are still heard during the Roman carnival.
Cf. Censor, De Die Nat. 12, 1.

I In the Twelve Tables. •

^ Horace, Ep. II. i. 139, seq.

INTEEISrAL STATE OF ROME.

621

was not always called in. In fact, when Pasquino, who is so old
at Rome, reformed, the nobility perhajjs gained by it, but not the
public taste ; for centuries, maidens, on the day
of their espousals, had to listen to Fesceunine
verses.

The inhabitants of Atella, in Campania, took
pleasure in coarse farces, lazzi and grimaces,
blows and kicks, very vulgar, and sometimes
very acute, jokes, allusions to the events of the
day, and domestic mishaps, — the whole sphere,
in short, of the Comniedia clelT arte of modern
Italians, the hero of which, " the very sprightly
Signor Pulcinella," is descended in a direct line
from Maccus, the jolly gossip of ancient Cam-
pania. AVhen the jesters of Atella, who travelled
through Italy, arrived at Rome, Roman gravity
unbent so far that the citizens, Avho left the
representation of the serious plays of Livius Andronicus to actors,
played in masks the Fabulae Atellanae, in which everything was

ATELLANE PERSONAGES.''

laughed at. "It was settled," says Livy, "that a man might play
in them without being excluded from his tribe or the legions." ^

^ Maccus, or tlie ancient Punch. Mask with an enormous crooked nose, and wearing
a sort of cap. Bronze figure from the Cabinet de France, No. 3,096, in the Chabouillet
catalogue.

^ See, in the Diet, de.i Antiq. grecques el rom., figures 593-597, and on p. 513 and the
following ones, M. Boissier's article, Atellanae fabulae.

5 vii. 2.

622 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

The grand period of the AteUane farces comes later than the
time of which we are now speaking, but the personages already
had their traditional costnme and character. Maccus was the good-
for-nothmg, whom his gluttony and luxury were always getting
into scrapes ; Bucco, the parasite, the impudent and clever
glutton, who always managed to find a dinner ; Pappus, the old
^ssfgr% miser, in search of his wife and his money,

JC^'*?^^. which he had been robbed of; and Dossennus,

' ^^^^ a philosopher, who afforded great laughter by the

V- "^ ij^Sk f^ contrast between his conduct and his speeches.
W'>^'^^^ Fescennine verse and Atellane farces mingled in
%^'-''MW] ^'^^^ scenic games. In 364 a pestilence desolated

Y^^h^^^mE' Rome. They had recourse to the gods, who

ralfKj® turned a deaf ear ; then to the Etruscans, who

}~i^^%^9 had the reputation of being able to avert plagues.

^wiCI^^\ They replied that the gods would be satisfied if

^~^~"^^^^^^ they were honored by scenic games, and, that

COMIC ACTOR.i ^jjg Romans might be able to celebrate these
games, they sent them at the same time actors, who executed
reUgious dances to the sound of the flute. As the pestilence then
ended, the remedy appeared efiicacious, and the counsel was fol-
lowed. Young Romans learned the dances introduced f rom, Etruria,
and marked the rhythm of them by songs, often improvised, which
ended by being accompanied with action.^ Roman comedy was dis-
covered ; but it recalled the fact that it had sprung from the plays
of mountebanks, till the day when a poet of genius, Plautus, took
possession of it, or rather, turned it into the streets, by producing
in the theatre Greek comedy, — which he made sufficiently Roman
for us to find the manners of the Romans here and there.

The floral games date from the present e230ch. They were
instituted in 238 in order to induce Flora, the goddess of
Spring, to grant that all the flowers wherewith the fields were
covered on the days of her festival^ should bring forth fruit.*

1 Figure found at Rome, No. 3,093, in the Cliabouillet catalogue.

^ This mixture of music, words, and dancing was called a nalura. The satura, which must
not be confounded with tlic satire, long remained the true Roman drama. The actors who
afforded this diversion were paid by the aediles.

" Prom the 28th of Ajjril to the 3rd of May.

* Ut omnia bene ckJJorescerent. (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. G9.)

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

623

Goddess of joyous fniitfuliiess, Flora inspired no grave thoughts ;
her games were celebrated with noisy magnificence, and a liberty
which presently passed into all license. In the following century
the dancing-girls of Flora appear imvoilcd before
the spectators, and Cato the censor, in order to
avoid placing any restraint on the pleasures of tiie
people, who would not dai'e to demand these
tableaux vivants before; so grave a personage, leaves
the theatre before the dancers showed themselves.^
The postures and words of the mimes were as bad as the ballet-
dancing, and later on even worse.

The festivals of Anna Perenna, the goddess of life, were an
occasion for joyous gatherings in the meadows which the Til)(!r
washes with his eternal waters (jjereimes). In these festivities, to
drink till they lost their reason, and to call to mind in the freest
verse the mistakes of Mars in taking a decrepit goddess for the
beautiful Minerva, were looked upon as pious works, and the care
of singing this story fell to young maidens.^

GENII OF THE CH.\RIOT-RACES.*

The native modesty of woman no doubt protested in some
cases, but the ancients understood this sentiment otherwise than

1 Silver i;-i)in of the Servilian family, presenting on the obverse, to the right, tlie legend
FLORIAL (ia) riUMVS (fecit, understood). Head of Flora crowned with flowers ; behind,
the liluus or augural rod. After being suspended during the long woes of the Second Punic
War, these games were re-established, after a bad harvest, in 1 73, on the order of the Senate,
by the aedile C. Servilius.

2 Val. Max. II. .X. 8 ; Mart., i. pr.
» Ovid, Fast. iii. 67.'i-G76 : —

Nttnc mihi, cttr cantent, stiperest, obscena puellae,
Dicere ; nam coe'unt, certaqiie }rrnlira canunt.

* Bas-relief in the Louvre, No. 44!1, Clarac catalogue. We have explained on p. 12S
the doctrine of the genii which the Romans of later ages developed. But in this bas-relief, as
in many paintings at Pompeii, the artist has only employed Cupids for the object of a graceful,

624

THE PUNIC WAKS FROM 264 TO 201.

we; tliey did not place it in the "blessed ignorance" of the
maiden, but in the fidelity of the wife. Lucretia was the model of
matrons, and single marriages gained the name of chastity for the
unioira woman.^ The basis of paganism being the worship of life,
to transmit it became a duty and a quasi-religious act. Every-
where was seen the expressive symbol, and the
allusions made to it were listened to without
virtue being troubled thereby ; as in the time of
the Trouveres and of Rabelais, of Moliere and
La Fontaine, our grandmothers heard many
things which would shock us now.

The great Roman games were more ancient ;
the institution of them was referred to the first
Tarquin. They consisted of chariot-races and
pugilistic contests, and were celebrated in the
Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and the
Palatine, in honor of the three civic deities of
Rome, — Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The citi-
zens were present at them ; but, unlike the
Greeks, did not descend into the arena, which
was given up to paid grooms and professional
coachmen.^
-:?r_^. ~ It is well to notice this origin of the

VICTORIOUS ATHLETE.' public games of Rome, which were all estab-
lished with a view of appeasing the gods or of
gaining their favor ; * and it must be borne in mind, in order to
understand how, even at the period of the greatest excesses, they
always preserved the character of national and religious festivals.

theme for decoration. We recognize the different details of the circus, — the statue of Diana,
the dolphins half hidden by one of the runners, the boundaries, melasque hnilala cupressus
(Ovid, Met. X. 106), placed at either extremity of the spina, which divided the circus in two,
and finally, the columns supporting the seven ova which served to mark the number of times
that the chariots had made the circuit of the spina.

1 . . . Corona pudicitiae honorabantur. (Val. Max., II. i. 3.)

^ The citizens only took part in the consualia, — races celebrated in honor of the god Cen-
sus, who afterward became the equestrian Neptune. The Equiriae (Festus, s. v. Equiria,
and Varro, ih; Ling. Lai. vi. 1 3) were probably races of free horses, like those of the barberi
in the modern Corso.

2 Statue found in the ruins of the Forum, Archemorium. Louvre Museum, No. 702 in the
Chirac catalogue.

* Ludorum primum. initium . . . procurandis religionibus datum. (Livj', vii. 3.)

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME. 625

'"■ Varro," says St. Augustine, " ranks theatrical things with things
divme." ^

The combats of gladiators themselves came from the religious
idea that tlie Manes loved blood, — an old belief, which was general
in ancient times, and which still holds amongst l)ar-
barous nations. The Greeks, who immolated captives
and slaves on the tombs of their heroes, renounced
that custom, which they replaced by sliani-fights and
a warlike dance, the Pyrrhic ; the P^truscans pre-
served it, and transmitted it to the Romans. The
first combat of gladiators seen at Rome was that gladiatoh.^
which the two sons of Brutus gave at the funeral ceremonies of their
father, in the same year in which the Punic War began (204).

II. Changes in Manners, Religion, and Constitution.

Rome, having become rich and powerful, desired to beautify
herself without sacrificing too mucli to the Graces. The Colossus
of Carvilius, the Wolf of the Capitol,'^ placed by the aediles on the
Palatine Hill near the Ruminal fig-tree in 296, and the paintmgs
of Fabius Pictor in the Temple of Safety (302), show that, until
the Punic wars, art had remained sacerdotal, — I mean that it
had served more especially for the ornamentation of temples. The
Romans, who adopted everything from their neighbors, were very
slow in adopting the fair dalliance of art. They carried off statues
from Veil, Volsinii, and Syracuse, but they themselves made none.
When, in order to recall patriotic memories, they set up, in the fifth
century, the statue of Hermodorus, who had aided the decemvirs,
with Ills counsel, and those of the Roman ambassadors slain at
Fidenae, and in the fourth and fifth those of the augur Navius,
Horatius Codes and of Clelia, of the kings of Rome and of Brutus,
Greek or Etruscan artists must have carved these images, for

1 De Civ. Dei, iv. 1.

2 Gladiator {mirmiUo) fully armetl, sword in hand, sliicild on arm. Rarely reiircscnted on
intaglios. Engraved gem for the Cabinet de France, double the actual size, No. 1,876 in the
Chabouillet catalogue.

' This group is still in existence ; it is an Etruscan work. The twins appear to be of a
later date. See next page.

VOL. I. 40

626

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 2(J4 TO 201.

Romulus and Tatius were represented without any clothing, as the
Greek heroes always were.

With the product of the fines the aediles widened the streets
of ancient Rome, which were so narrow that the vestals and
matrons alone had the right to pass tlu-ough them in chariots to
attend religious solemnities, and, after the examjole set by Appius,^
the bold constructor of the Appian Way and of the first Roman

bUE-WOLF OF THE CAPITOL.

aqueduct, a part of the state resources was employed in the com-
pletion of great works of public utility. Manius Curius had, after
the second war of Pyrrhus, constructed a second aqueduct ; and
Flaminius, after the defeat of the Insubres, commenced a second
military road, the via Flaminia, which started from Rome and
reached beyond the Apennines to Ariminum, the Adriatic, and
Gallia Cisalpina, as the via Appia would lead across the Apennines
on the south to Beneventum, Brundusium, and the Ionian Sea.^
In time, both were bordered with magnificent tombs, and the

1 See p. 407.

^ Flaminius also built at Rome the circus which bears his name, and procured the means
necessar}' for these great works by rigorously gathering in the taxes which the holders of state
forests, pasture-lands, and mines owed to the treasury, and which, by the connivance of tlie
Senate, they sometimes forgot to pay.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME. 627

traveller arriving from the wniiling cities of Campania met the
great dead of Rome before seeing her consuls and her emperors.
The tomlis of the Klamiuiau Road have been replaced by the ])rosaic
houses of the Corso, but the Appian Way retains some of those
upon it ; and before these ruins, to which the majestic horizon
of the Latin moiuitains forms so fine a frame, we forget the
vulgar side of Rome's manners to contemplate the solemnity of
her spirit.

The temples also multiplied ; all consuls were not like the
parsimonious Papirius, who, on the day of the battle of Aquilonia,
promised Jupiter a cup of good wine if the legions Avere victorious,
— " an offering." says Livy gravely, " which was well received by
the god." ^ Each time that a general found himself in a difficulty
he promised some deity to build him a sanctuary on condition that
he gave him the victory. Rome, the city of the three hundred
and sixty-five churches, possessed almost as many temples when
Jupiter reigned there. The pagans had enough gods at theh dis-
position for dedications, and when any Avere wanting appropriate to
the cu'cumstances, an epithet added to the name made a new god
of an old one. Jupiter, Juno, Fortune, etc., had thus an infinity
of surnames. I do not know whether piety gained much thereby,
but family vanity found an advantage in it. These monuments,
which ceaselessly recalled the glory of those who had raised them,
prepared favorable elections for themselves and their children.
When there were no longer any comitia at Rome, to decorate one's
town with a temple or a divine image was still, in the towns of
the Upper Empire, the surest means of gaining public favor.

Private individuals sought for themselves that luxury which was
formerly only displayed for the gods. Greek art gained entrance into
Rome, where it decorated the vast tomb which the Scipios had raised
to themselves, and some houses, says Florus, already showed gold,
purple, statiies, and all the refinements of the luxury of Tarentum.
The words temples and statues must not, however, give us the
idea of a town in which civilization had already obtained its
citizenship. In the first place, there never was a Roman art,

1 Td votum diis cordi fiiil (x. 42). Papirius judged of Jupiter's tastes by his own ; he was
accused of loving wine; and Livy says of liim: . . . fcrunt cibi vinique capacissimum (ix. 16;
Dion., fr. 92).

628 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

SUN-DIAL OR ASTROLOGICAL ALTAR OF GABII.* (MUSEUM OF THE LOUVRE.)

altliougli there were, at a later date, magnificent monuments
inspired by the genius of Rome. It is a singular thing that

^ A monument unique of its kind, found at Gabii in 1792. It is composed of two inde-
pendent parts, — first, a. patella (liollow plate), around wliieli are carved the heads of the twelve

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME. 629

Cliristian Rome was no more fruitful in artists ; ^ but in them
both what statesmen ! But certain facts still prove great* want of
cultivation. The .introduction into Rome, about the year 300, of
tlie custom which the Grec^ks had of sliaving their beards has no
significance. But we see Papirius Cursor shortly afterwards bring
1)ack thither as a triumplial object a sun-dial, which he placed on
tlie walls of the temple of Quirimis.^ It was much admired there.
Unfortunately this solarium, not having been constructed for the
latitude of Rome, did not mark the true hour, and it was half
a century before they could make a more exact one. They waited
still longer, until the year 159, to have a public clepsydra [water
clock], which marked the hour by night as well as by day.^ In 219
a Greek doctor named Archagathos came and settled at Rome. At
first he was welcomed there, received the citizenship, and induced
the Senate to buy him with the pul^lic money a house, in which he
could treat the sick and dress their wounds. He was only applied
to in cases of fracture or sores, for internal maladies belonged to
the province of the quacks and the gods. Accordingly he was
called vulnerarius, the doctor for wounds. For some time he was
the fashion ; then, as his therapeutics consisted chiefly in burn-
ing the sores and cutting off broken limbs, he was at last set
down as a butchei", and the whole town declared doctors useless.
This was the opinion of Cato the Elder, who believed in old
women's remedies, and has left us a number of recipes that our
latest village sorcerers would not have disowned. In his advices to
his son he says : " The Greek race is very vicious ; and, believe
this as the voice of an oracle, with its literature it will spoil every-
thing at Rome : it will l)e far worse still if it sends us its
doctors. ^ They have sworn among themselves to kill all the

deities of Olympus ; second, this patella is placed in the centre of a table of circular form, the
edge of which bears the twelve signs of the zodiac, with the emlilem of the divinity who
[u-esides over each month of the year. The cavity in the middle of the table served as a sun-
dial; the traces of the needles which marked the hours symbolized by the twelve divinities
are still visible. It is certain that this monument was made for Rome, since the god Mars is
thereon represented by a wolf, and the diameter of the patella is a cubitus (17.47 inches), a
lloman measure of length. The deities are placed in the following order : Jupiter, Venus,
Mars (hetween Venus and Jlars a Cupid), Diana, Ceres, Vesta, Mercury, Vulcan, Neptune,
Juno, Apollo, and JMinerva. See Frohner, Notice de la sculpture antique du Muse'e national du
Louvre, i. 9-14.

' It has only produced Giulio Romano.

2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 60. » Ibid, and Censor., dc Die nat. 23.

630

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

JUNO MOXETA/

barbarians with their medicines ; they make lis pay dearly for
obtaining our confidence, and poison us the more easily. My son,
remember that I forbid thee doctors." " He thought," adds Pliny,
" that medical services ought to be gratuitous ; and that is why,

though they invited Aesculapius to Rome,
the Romans relegated him to a temple
Ijuilt outside the gates, on the Tiberine
island." 1

Needs were felt which had formerly

been unknown, and which showed that

the economic conditions of society were changing. In 268 silver

money had been coined'; in 207 gold money is required.'^ The

dictator Furius (350) had vowed a
temple to Juno Moneta, and had
built it on the Capitol, on the place
where the house of Manlius had been
razed.* During the war with Pyr-
rhus there was added to it a mint, "'
and " the good counsellor " became
the protectress of coiners, — which
causes no surprise in a country
where Jupiter Hercius, the protector
of property, also took the surname
of Pecunia, the god of gain.''
Finally, the argentarii had long encumbered the Forum ; and,
another sign of the times, the nobles had so completely forgotten
the ancient prejudices against commerce, that a law had just been

3 j ^ (S V^tL "^

ARGENTARII.'

' Nat. Hist. xxix. G-8. The form of a vessel had been given to that island, and there may
still be seen sculptured on its stone i:irow the staff of Aesculapius and the serpent twisted round
it. As for the temple, there were found in the ruins a quantity of hands, feet, etc., that is to
say, ex-rolo offerings, as certain of our churches have.

' MONETA. Head of Juno Moneta. On the reverse, T. CARISIVS. Laurelled coin,
with anvil between a pair of pincers and a hammer. Silver coin of the C'arisian family.

^ Pliny, ibid. xx.\iii. 3. The silver denarii struck in "2G8 were worth 10 ascs of bronze of
a pound each. See, pages 631 and 632, the series of gold and silver coins.

■* Livy, vii. 28.

^ We give here the tables of the series of gold and silver coins struck .it this period.

' Bottom of a painted vase. A changer seated near a table co\ered with pieces of money ;
a man standing in front of him offers others on a tray ; behind, bags on which are inscribed
the amounts of the sums they contain.

' St. Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vii. 12.

AS (cast).

AS (struck).

SEMIS (cast).

SEMIS (STKUCK).

TKIENS (cast).

yuADKANs (cast).

OUNCE (cast).

quadkans (struck).

ounce (struck).

sextans (cast).

sextans (struck).

table of bronze coins.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

631

Double (leuarius. On the obverse, double
head, beardless ; on the reverse, Jupiter in a
quadriga, in the exergue, KOMA in sunk
letters. Value, 'iO ases. Double of the de-
narius (No. .'i), if not in size, at least iu
weight.

Double victoriatus, the equivalent of a dena-
rius. Laurel-crowned head of Jupiter ; on
the reverse, ROMA, and winged Victory
crowning a trophy. Unique coin in the
Cabinet de France. Jlean weight of the
known victoriati, oS grains troy.

Denarius. On the obverse, Pallas or Rome ;
behind, X (the mark of the denarius or ten
ases) ; on the reverse, the Dioscuri on horse-
back and the legend ROMA. Mean weight,
(jO.64 grains troy.

Victoriatus, the equivalent of a quinarius,
thus called on account of the figure of
Victory.

Quinarius. Head of Pallas ; behind, V (the
mark of the quinarius, or five ases) ; on the
reverse, the Dioscuri, designated by two
stars, and ROMA, as on the denarius. The
letter H is a mark of issue or of the mone-
tary tribune. Mean weisrht 27.7 grains troy.

Demi-yictoriatus. Laurel<Towned head of
Apollo ; on the reverse, ROMA and the let-
ter D between Victory and the trophy she is
crowning. Same value as the sesterce. The
victoriatus was coined about 228, the demi-
victoriatus about 104 B.C.

Sestertius. Head of Pallas and the mark of
the sesterce (or two and a half uses) HIS.
Same reverse as the two preceding pieces.

SERIES OF SILVER COINS.

632

THE PUNIC WAHS FEOM 264 TO 201.

Golden denarius (aureus, 25 den., or 100
sest.). Head of Jupiter; on the reverse,
CN. LENTVL. Eagle on a thunderbolt.
Aureus of the Cornelian family, weighing
only 119.139 grains troy, whereas an aureus
of the Cornufician family, a drawing of which
we give later on, weighs 122.997 grains troy.
The difference may dejiend upon the extra-
ordinary preservation of the latter.

Golden quinarius or demi-aureus. On the
obverse, a bust of Victory and the legend,
C. CAES. Die. TER.; on the reverse, L.
PLAXC. PRAEF. VRB. round the sacrifi-
cial vase. Golden quinarius of the Munctian
family.

Sixty sestertii. On the obverse, a head of
iMars and the figure VX; on the reverse,
ROMA. Eagle on a thunderbolt. A piece of
Cam]:anian manufacture; jjeriod of the first
workmanship in gold.

Forty sestertii. Ilelmeted head of INIars and
the figure XXXX ; on the reverse, an eagle
on a thunderbolt, with the legend ROMA.
Also a piece of Campanian make, and of the
same period as the preceding one.

Twenty sestertii. Mars and XX (twenty) ;
same emblems and same origin as the two
preceding pieces.

SERIES OF GOLD COINS.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

633

ARGEXTAIill.

made to forbid senators to have at sea a sliip of more than three
Inindred (imphorae in freight. Tliis prohibition served the purpose
of tlie freednien and acrar'd, who could then monopolize all the
commerce of the Republic. Since
shame had attached to usury, it
was they especially who lived by
this lucrative trade. Formerly the
indebted proprietor remained in
his class ; after the Poetelian
law (326) the creditor had in-
scribed to his account the pro-
perty which he had received as
security, so that he gained at once both the interest of his money
and public consideration, since his social condition rose in proportion
as his debtor's sank. The great wars in which Rome now found
herself engaged increased the influence of business men ; they
instituted themselves army-contractors, and by an agreement among
themselves formed an order dreaded even by the Senate. We shall
see later on the insolence of the commissary, Postumius of Pyrgi,
and the circumspection of the senators, qui ordincm 'puhlicanorum
offensum nolehant?

Grievous symptoms revealed the dangers to which the conquest
of the world would expose Roman manners. Thirteen senators had
been degraded by the censors of the year 252 ; and a general,
Papirius Matho, to whom the Senate had refused an ovation for
his victories in Sardinia, went to have his triumph on the Alban
Mount, before other gods than those of the Capitol.^ Some
patricians renounced the severe formalities of marriage by con-
farreatio in favor of the union concluded by purchase, coemjytio ;
it was in some sort civil marriage replacing religious marriage.
Valerius Maximus asserts that the divorce of Carvilius Ruga (233)
caused great indignation. There is no reason for seeing in this
any symptom of a weakening of customs. Carvilius had sworn
before the censors that in repudiating his sterile wife he had no

' Bas-relief from the Vatican. Changer seated behind a counter. On his left a wire
grating very similar to those still employed in establishments of that kind. On the right a heap
of money, and a figure carrying a bag.

2 XXV. 3.

* Livy, Epit. xviii. ; Val. Max. iii. C.

634 THE PUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

other motive tlian tliat of furnishing the Republic with citizens.-*
Many others before him had repeated to their wives the form of
repudiation : " Talce what belongs to thee, and give up the
keys ; " for in a society in which the husband had the right of
life and death over his wife, he must necessarily have also the
right of divorce, — which, indeed, the Twelve Tables recognized."''
It was long after the period at which we have arrived that
divorces, by their multiplication, introduced disorder into families.
Finally, the severities of Camillus against celibacy, which were
renewed by the censors of this same year, were less a measure
of moral than of military order.

Religion preserved its character of interested worship. It
created neither a Ijody of doctrines nor moral teaching,^ and had
always one single aim, — to know the will of the gods, in order to
try and bend them. But since the auguries, abandoned to the
plebeians, had ceased to be a political instrument, they had lost
much of their authority. The gods had so often deceived the hopes
of their worshippers, that some already doubted, and the priests
sought to avert the effects of this doubt 1)y mitigations of the
ancient severity. The ritual prescribed the cessation of all work
on ferial days, on pain of profanation. This rigor was avoided
by clever interpretations. " What is it permitted to do on a
feast-day ? " was asked of the high pontiff, Scaevola. " All that
cannot be neglected without harm." The pious Vergil says :
" Nothing hinders from washing the bleating flock in the whole-
some water of the river ; " and Varro : " In war there is no need
to make any distinction between dies fasti and ncfasti." * In fact
Fabius Cunctator declares that everything serviceable to the Republic
is accomplished under good auspices : everything that is contrary
to it ^ under evil auspices ; and Flaminius boldly braves them.

The sig7is had been a continual caiise of preoccupation and
terror; Marcellus, who became five times consul, and who was

1 Id. ii. 1 ; Aul. GeU., iv. 3.

^ Cic, Phil. u. 28. The Scantinian law, to repress shocking vices, is of unknown date :
it existed in the time of Cicero (ad Fam. viii. 12) : but I do not think it e.xisted two centuries
earUer.

* Sacra minus ad homines meliores faciendos quam ad votuntatem deorum concdianddm
speclabant. (Iloltius, Hist. jur. Rom. lineam. p. 12.)

* Macrob. Saturn, i. 16.
^ Cic, de Senect. 4.

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME. 635

then already augur, once saved his sacerdotal character by saying:
'• When I meditate an enterprise, I close my litter, so as not to
see contrary auspices." ^ Tlie theologians of Rome, who liad
become as complaisant as others have been for us, decided that
where a sign had not been asked of the gods, one was at liberty
to take no notice of it;^ and Pliny considered that this lil)erty was
the greatest favor that the gods had granted to man.^ Since the
time of Pascal we give a particular name to this manner of
interpreting religious laws : it belongs to all ages, because it is
inherent in human nature.

Certainly many believers might still be counted ; the high
pontiff, Metellus, had just lost his sight in saving the Palladium
from the flames,* — an act which was, however, still more political
than religious. But what we wish to point out is that there were
the incredulous, like that Claudius who had the sacred chickens
thrown into the sea, and his colleague, Junius, who disdained to
consult them. Ennius dared to say this much : " No doul)t I
believe that the gods exist, but they scarcely trouble themselves
about this world ; " and many applauded.^ There were also in-
different men, like the Potitii, who left to their slaves the care of
the sacrifices to Hercules, and the old rites were abandoned. " In
the time of the Second Punic War," says Liv}', '• public or domestic
sacrifices were no longer performed according to the ancient custom,
but only in foreign fashion." ® As the old Italiot deities lost their
credit, piety turned towards new gods. In the period of the
decemvirs Apollo, a Greek divinity, had been introduced at Rome,
not as the inspirer of the Muses, — the Romans did not look so
high, — but as a useful god who kept off diseases. In 429 a temple
was consecrated to him, on the occasion of a pestQence which had
desolated the city," and at the time of the greatest perils in the
Second Punic War, the surest means of ruining Hannibal was

1 Cic, de D'w. ii. 3G. - Servius, ad Aeneid. xii. 259.

' . . . Quo munere divinae induhjcntiae majux indium est. (Nat. Hist, xxviii. 4.)

* Livy, Epit. xxix.

^ Cicero, de Div. ii. 50 : . . . Magna plausu assentiente populo.

' Livy, XXV. 1. In 212 the Senate itself decreed that sacrifice sliould he made to Apollo,
graeco ritu. (Ihid. 12.) They sent to Delphi to consult the orade several times.

' Apollo being then a foreign god, his temple was built without the walls, near the Car-
mental Gate, as that of Aesculapius was relegated to the Tiberine island.

636

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

thought to be the dedicating of Apollinarian games to the " god
who saves," deus sosjntalts. In 293, after a violent pestilence,
ambassadors had gone to Epidaurus to demand the serpent of

Aesculapius/ which was

at once both the image
and the genius of the
god who appeared to be
incarnate in him. " Our
vigilant pontiffs on con-
sulting the Sibylline
books," says Valerius
Maximus,^ " found that
the only means of re-
storing health in Rome
was to bring Aesculapius
himself from Epidaurus.
The Repuljlic, whose
authority was already
immense throughout the
world, was persuaded
that she would obtain
by an embassy the only
Success answered this attempt.

PRIEST or AP0LL0.2

remedy indicated by the Fates
As soon as they arrived, the deputies were led by the Epi-
daurians into the temple of Aesculapius, which is situated five miles
from their town, and invited them to take therefrom all that they
thought would be useful to the health of their country. The god
ratified the words of the mortals ; for the serpent, which rarely
appeared to the Epidaurians, but always to annoimce some good

1 The serpent, whicli silently glides under tlie grass, and after its winter sleep strips off
its skin to assume a new one, was in the eyes of the ancients a wise creature, which knew
the simples whence healing juices are taken, and the symbol of renewed life after iUness or
death.

'^ Livy, I. viii. 2.

" From the base of a tripod which is in the Louvre Museum, No. 89 in the Frbhner
catalogue. The quindecemvirs, sor!-/.s- /uci»nrf(>, who were undoubtedly only raised from ten
to fifteen by SuUa, were the priests of Apollo, whose festival they celebrated from the 4th to
the 15th of July. They wore the Greek costume, with a crown made of the foliage of the
tree sacred to Apollo, the laurel. Each of them had in his house a bronze tripod on which
every morning he burned incense and called upon his god. (Servius, ad Acneid. iii.
352.)

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

637

COIN OF COMMODUS.'

fortune to them, and which they worshipped as Aesculapius
began to pass through the most frequented quarters of the town.
After having thus for three days offered himself to the religious
admiration of the crowd, he directed his course towards the Roman
galley, testifying by joyous movements the desii-e wliioh he had
for a more glorious residence. He entered the vessel in the
presence of the affrighted sailors, reached
the cabin of the ambassador, Q. Ogulnius,
and, rolling himself uito numerous folds,
he remained there in profound tranquil-
lity. The ambassadors, having obtained
their utmost wishes, returned thanksgivings
to the gods ; and after having learned
the manner of paying honor to the ser-
pent, hastened to leave Epidaurus. A
fortunate voyage soon landed them at
Antium. There the serpent left the vessel, and took his way to-
wards the vestibule of the temple of Aesculapius, where stood
a palm-tree, the crest of which rose majestically above a Isusliy
myrtle. He rolled himself round the trunk of the tree, and
remained there three days, during which time food was brought
to him. The ambassadors feared that he would not again return
into the galley ; but, quitting the hospitable lodging of the temple,
he went and resumed his former place, to be carried to Rome.
Finally, the deputies had scarcely set foot on tlie banks of the
Tiber, when he swam to the island, where a temple Avas afterward
dedicated to him, and his arrival removed the horrible scourge
against which his aid had been employed."

On the island of the Tiber there was already a sanctuary of
Fatmus,^ who, like Aesculapius, gave oracles by sending dreams ; and
the oracles of the ancient Latin deity could only have been recipes
for curing man and beast. The residence of the god of Epidaurus
was thus settled beforehand ; but popular imagination could not
allow that he had entered Rome in a simple manner ; hence, the

* This coin represents the arrival of Aesculapius on the island of the Tiber in the form
of a serpent.

^ See later on a double Hermes in the Cabinet de France, representing on one side the
head of Faunus, and on the other that of Tutanus Mutinus.

638 THE PUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

marvellous circumstances which we have just related. This account
forms part of Roman history, and even of the history of the human
mind ; for the spectacle of this strange superstition among a people
so Avise in council, so resolute in action, who left nothing to
chance, — that is to say, to the providence of their gods, and who
appeared to demand everything of them, — shows that there is no
age of the world in which man's mind cannot associate opposites,
— the most resolute thinking and most puerile credulity.

The Senate gave another proof of this at the moment when
there was about to take place the greatest event in Rome's
history, and a pledge of the conquest of the world. In 203,
on the eve of Zama and of the fall of Carthage, they sent, by
the order of the Sibylline oracles, to seek in Asia Minor a
Phrygian divinity held in great renown among the nations of
the peninsula.

This singular goddess, difficult to comprehend, who was
originally, no doubt, a representation of the earth, and whom
the Greeks had made the mother of the gods, could not enter
Rome in a manner less miraculous than Aesculapius. She also
received the honor of a legend. " Five of the noblest persons in
the Republic being sent to Delphi, they received this answer :
' King Attains will cause the Romans to obtain what they desire,
and the goddess, transported to Rome, must receive hospitality there
from the most virtuous of the citizens ! ' The King of Pergamus,
who was at war with Philip of Macedonia, had need of the friend-
ship of the Romans ; it did not seem to this sceptical Greek that
he would pay too dearly for it at the price of a sacrilege, and he
persuaded the priests of Pessinus to give up the image of their
divinity, the ' Idaean Mother.' " These priests formed a rich cor-
poration, whose chief was a sort of sovereign. But, surrounded by
Gauls, who claimed to make Pessinus one of their capitals, they
could refuse nothing to a prince who was himself the enemy of the
Galatians, and whose protection was so necessary to them. They
gave the idol, and made arrangements to persuade the devotees
that Cybele, although she had set out for the banks of the Tiber,
remamed on those of the Sangarius.

At Rome it remained to appoint the most virtuous man in
the Republic, that he might receive the goddess. Many competitors

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME.

639

CLAUDIA DRAGGING THE VESSEL OF CYBELE

arose ; men of consular rank, former dictators, canvassed for
this honor. It was assigned to a patrician, Publius Scipio, a
young man scarcely of the age for quaestorsliip, and a near rela-
tive of the general who had just now arrived before Carthage,
thus drawing Hannibal away from Italy. The clever people
who sat in the Senate
flattered the liberator of
Rome by this choice, and
at the same time avoided
giving offence to those who,
by reason of their age
and dignities, could not
be jealous of an entirely
political favor done to a

young man who was still
in obscurity.

When the vessel arrived at the iiiouth of the Tiber, P. Scipio
went on board and received the goddess from the hands of the
priests. But the ship stranded on a shoal, and all efforts were
powerless to get it off again. One of the noblest ladies, Claiidia
Quinta, whose conduct slander had attacked, stood forth from
among the matrons, implored Cybele, and asked her to bear witness
to her virtue by yielding, •' she, the chaste goddess,
to chaste hands." Claudia tied her girdle to the ship
and dragged it along, and Rome possessed a titular
divinity and one more mii'acle. Livy dared not re-
late this story, which Ovid gives at full length.
But Cicero, and even Pliny, believed in it, and the
statue of Claudia, which was placed in the vestibule
of Cybele's temple, did not permit a Roman to doubt it.^

Cybele was venerated under the form of a black stone, which
was, no doubt, an aerolite,* and her orgiastic worship contrasted

THE BLACK
STONE.-

1 Bass-relief in the Pio Clementino Museum.

^ Altar on which is the Black Stone, surmounted hy a stag's head. Reverse of a bronze
coin of Augustus, struck at Pessinus.

2 Livy, xxix. 11 and 14 ; Ovid, Fa.ili, 298 .<('(/. Cicero, de Ilarusp. rep. 1,3; Pliny, Nal.
Hist. vii. 35.

* Aerolite, or thunder-stone, as the Turkish peasants say, who attribute to meteors healing
virtues in certain sicknesses. The Black Stone of Pessinus might also have been only a piece

640

THE PUNIC WAK8 FEOM 264 TO 201.

strangely with the gravity of Roman solemnities. Accordingly,
although the Roman Pantheon opened to this foreign divinity, the
patricians did not open their ranks to her priests, and refused to be

her pontiffs. A citi-
zen would have been
dishonored by the
mutilation to which
the Phrygian Galli
condemned them-
selves ; the latter re-
mained the ministers
of their divinity.
Each year Cybele took
a mystic bath at the
I junction of the Anio
and the Tiber. A
priest clothed in pur-
ple washed the sacred
stone therein, while
the Galli made a great
noise with flutes and
tambourines, uttered effeminate shrieks, and scourged themselves
with whips furnished with knuckle-bones.

Augustus allowed the shapeless image of the Mean Mother
to be placed upon one of his coins ; Hadrian, better advised,
borrowed the type of the Greeks, who represented the goddess
seated on a throne with a mural crown on her brow and lions
couched at her feet.

After the Grecian and Phrygian gods came those of the Punic

AN ARCHI-GALLUS.'

of lava; almost the whole of Phrygia is of volcanic origin. Arnobius (^Adi\ (jrntes, 8), who saw
it, says that it was small, smooth, and of blackish color. It was placed before the mouth of
the statue of Cybele.

' Bas-relief in the Capitoline Museum. Notice should be taken of the effeminate charac-
ter of this priest-eunuch, whose ears are loaded with jjearls. On his head he wears three
medals, one of Idaean Jupiter and two of Atys, that Phrygian shepherd of matchless beauty
whom Cybele had consecrated to her worship, and to whom mythographers have attributed
tragic adventures which make him an involuntary hero of chastity. On the priest's breast
again is hung the image of Atys, with the Persian mitre on his head. In his right hand he
holds olive-branches ; in the left, a basket of fruit, from which issues the whip furnished with
knuckle-bones ; on the wall, cymbals, a drum, two flutes, and the mystic cist.

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME. 641

race. In 217 the erection of a temple to Venus Erycina was
decreed, who was then for the first time admitted to a seat among
the great Latin gods at the religious repast of the leetisternium.
This Venus was the Celestial Virgin of Car-
thage and Tyre ; but at Cyprus she had be- xJ***\i^^v^^-^T*^
come Queen of Paphos and of Love ; at ff / /\ \KI \ \k
Eome. too, she was soon made goddess of ll i i ljj|^ -^ \ \
voluptuousness. 11 Ii^^aj^^Ta, -4=^ I I

We have just spoken of the leetisternium. \/^ -^1 ^'^ JJ

This custom, like so many other ancient ones, ^^*^- --^^^^

astonishes us ; but by sacrifices the faithful ^^:^s£=:=*^

entered into communion with the god, to

whom they offered a part of the victim. In funeral repasts offerings
were made to the dead ; in domestic ones libations were poured out
to the Lares ; on great occasions the whole town, or the senators, as
its representatives, communed with the civic divinities by a public
feast. It was a religious act, and it was thought necessary to the
safety of the city that it should be accomphshed.^ We shall again
find this usage commanded by religion in the funeral assemblies of
the Empire and in the love-feasts of the early Christians.

All this shows that the religion of the state was tottei'ing,
and that the Oriental religions, which were to prove fatal to the
Latin spirit, were already making an effort to invade the city of
Janus. But the terrors of the Second Pmiic War again strength-
ened the ancient worship. The nearer Hannibal approaches to
Eome, the more do omens multiply, and the more does faith revive.
Later on we shall see what victory, safety, and new spiritual
needs make of it.

In the new political organization a great change had also
taken place. The people had effaced from the constitution the
timocratic principle which Servius had introduced into it. The
centuries of knights had been preserved, but the classes were
aboUshed, and the assembly of centuries differed from the assembly
of tribes only by a di\asion which the hereditaiy respect of all
Romans for age and experience imposed {centuriae juniorum et

* Cybele on a lion, liolJing a sceptre and the tijmpanon, or drum of the priests. Reverse
of a bronze coin of Sabina, the wife of Hadrian.

^ 'SMiTTipia Til/ TioKeav crivhemva. (Athen., Deipnos. v. 186 a.)
VOL. I. 41

642 THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

seniorum)} This was the definite triumph of the principle of
equality, in the name of which the tribunes had always fought.

1 The united texts of Livy, Cicero, and Dionysius unfortunately only throw partial light on
the transformation of the assemblies of centuries. They say enough, however, to place it beyond
doubt, (t'f. Livy, i. 43, xxiv. 7, xxvi. 22, xxvii. 6 ; Cie., de Le(j. atp: ii. 2, Pro Plane. 20, De
Leg. iii. 4, and every page of the Demand of the cons. ; Dionysius, iv. 21 ; Polybius, vi. 4, etc.)
But it seems that two attempts were made to effect this change. During the war with Hanni-
bal and up to the year 179, — a time at which he speaks of a great change in the suffrage, — Livy
frequently (xxiv. 7, xxvi. 22, xxvii. G) gives to the centuries the name of tribes. In the election
of 211 each tribe ajijiears divided into two centuries, one oi juniorcs, a.n({ one oi scniores, —
which confirms the passage in Livy (i. 43) : tribus numero earum diiplicatn, cenluriis juniorum et
seniorum. At what period did this change take place ? Necessarily after the Hortensian law,
and according to Livy, post expletas quinque et triginla tribus. Perhaps in 220, during the
censorship of Flaminius, by whom, says the 20th Epitome, libcrtini in qualuor tribus redacti
sunt, quum antea [since 304] dispcrsi per omnes fuissent. All tUc German writers differ on this
date, because they do not see that there might have been two changes at different times.
JVanke gives 495 ; Walter and Peter, 450 ; Niebuhr, 305 ; Nobbe, 288 ; Ihne, 241 ; Goettling
and Gerlaeh, 220; Schulze, 181. It seems to me, however, that we cannot go far wrong in
placing this change in the interval between the two Punic wars. The number of thirty-five
tribes was only completed in 241, and in 215 centuries of tribes are already seen. At this time
of republican equality, of poverty and heroism, the timocratic principle of the census must
necessarily liave been effaced. It had already disappeared from the legions, whose organization
no longer depended on the division into classes established by Servius ; the plebeians, who had
lately won equality on aU points, could easily cause it to disappear from the Forum too. More-
over, by the depreciation of the as, then reduced to the sixth of the value which it had still had
before the First Punic War (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiii. 13; Varro, de Re rust., i. 10), 100,000
OSes represented in 240 only lU.fiGG of the ancient ones, to which the rise in the price of com-
modities gave an infinitely smaller value than in the time of Servius. The result of this was
that the same fortune which under Servius woidd have admitted a man into the fifth class,
raised him in 240 to the first. In fact, the classes no longer existed, since an immense majority
of the citizens found themselves in the first ; there was, therefore, no need of a revolution
to abolish them, and their suppression passed unnoticed. Without classes there could be no
centuries. The old division, known and loved by the jieople, into juniores and seniores, was,
however, preserved.

But the dangers of the Second Punic War invested the Senate with a kind of dictatorship,
which they were unwilling to give up after having exercised it for fifteen years ; the nobility
was re-organized, acquired confidence in itself, and, in order to fortify its growing power, was
desirous of re-estabUshing the categories of fortunes. Livy says of the censors of the year 1 79 :
Mutarunt snffragia, retponatimque generibus hominum, causis et quaestibus, tribus descripserunt
(xl. 51) ; and thenceforth the classes — which indeed had always existed on the censors' books,
since the ta.x was proportional to fortune — resumed their political character. In 169 he speaks
of the centuries of knights and of many centuries of the first class. At the election of
Dolabella Cicero {Phil. ii. 33) cites the prerogative century, the vote of the first, second, and
remaining classes. In all his speeches he mentions nothing hut classes, though he looks upon
the tribes as the fundamental division of the Roman people. It is these tribes that he sub-
divides into classes and centuries : censo7-es partes populi in tribus descrihunto, exin pecunias,
aevitates, ordines partiunto (ile Leg. iii. 3) ; and numerous testimonies confirm these words. (Cf.
Dionys., v. 21 ; Sallust, de Ord. rep. ii. 8 ; Aulus Gellius, vii. 13, on the subject of the Voconian
law and the figurative expression, to belong to the fifth class, in Cic., Acad. ii. 23.) In the
two last centuries of the Republic, then, the centuries and classes existed as they had formerly
done, and rested on the same principle as the ancient division of Servius. Dionysius accord-
ingly Bays : " The assembly by centuries is not destroyed, but modified ; it has become more

INTERNAL STATE OF ROME. 643

The constitution became, then, more democratic. This is seen in
the nomination of Flaminius and Varro, who were raised to the
iiighest otiices in spite of the Senate and the omens, and in that of
Minucius and of the adventurers tcj whom the people intrusted
armies against Hannibal. Moreover, tlu^ ancient and popular as-
sembly of the tribes still existed, and when the tribunes resumed
their revolutionary role, it served their designs.

But a century still separates us from the Gracchi, and the

democratic" (iv. 21). No doubt of it, because there was no longer the same disproportion in
tlie number of centuries as in the past. The passage in Livy (xliii. IG), where lie only
mentions twelve centuries of knights, instead of eighteen, would be a proof of this.

I think, then, that since 241 the great assembly of the Roman people had been that of the
tribes, each divided into two centuries, of seniores and juutores; that in 179, as equality sank
dailv more out of sisht, the categories of fortune were re-established, — in a more democratic
form, however, than by Servius : these changes — being, moreover, in perfect accord with tlie
history of those times — ought, it seems to me, to be admitted without dispute. "\\'hat now
follows is merely hypothesis.

Thus each tribe contained classes, according to the passage in Livy for the year 1 79 and
the texts indicated above, probably five, as of old, and as is expressly stated in the work de Orel,
rep. u. 8, and the Academica of Cicero. Each class was divided into Juniores and seniores, as
was each tribe before 179, as was each class after Servius, and as is proved by twenty passages
in Cicero: omnium aetatim atqiie ordinum (Atl. iv. 1; pro Flacco, 7, etc.). There were, then,
35 tribes, containing 175 classes, subdivided into H.5i> centuries, together with 18 centuries of
knights. Thus all the classes having the same number of centuries had the same number of
votes. The small number of the wealthy did not overpower the crowd of the poor. Moreover
the lot decided (since C. Gracchus) which should be the (irerogative century, whose vote, which
was looked on as an omen, was generally followed by the others. These modifications, then,
gave, as Dionysius affirms (iv. 21), a more democratic character to the assembly of centuries.
Let us note, however, that the fate of an election or a law was really in the hands of the middle
class, who, by siding below or above, gave the majority to the rich or the poor. But the real
assembly by tribes was not destroyed. The Gracchi made use of it to pass their laws, in spite
of the rich. As for the census of each class, it is difficult to determine. According to Livy
(xxvi. 1) we might fix it thus: the first class, above 1,000,000 ases ; the second, from a
million to 300,000 ; the third, from 300,000 to 100,000 ; the fourth, from 100,000 to 50,000 ; the
fifth, from 50,000 to 4,000.

These figures may be disputed, because our texts arc deficient ; but the principle of the
new organization appears beyond a doubt: it is the fundamental principle of the Roman
constitution, — ne pbrrimum raleant plurimi ; that is to say, the poor, who form the greatest num-
ber, must not have the preponderance. The tribunes, who now enter the Senate and form
part of the new nobility, are no longer party men, but statesmen : accordingly they willingly
accept the organization which prevents Rome becoming a frightful demagogy ; for as the num-
ber of new citizens increased daily, it was necessary to establish at any price an order which
' would insure a certain preponderance to the old Romans. If the assembly by centuries had
absorbed the assembly of tribes, Rome would have been an oligarchy, suspicious ami tyranni-
cal, like Venice. If the comitia by tribes had absorbed the comitia by centuries, Rome would
have been a senseless democracy, like the Athens of Cleon. By the existence of the two
kinds of assemblies, the nobiUty and the people, the rich and the poor, preserved a balance
till the day when the Empire became too great, and it was necessary to sacrifice liberty to
power.

644 THE PUNIC WAKS FROM 264 TO 201.

aristocracy had advanced so far in manners, that even at the time
when equahty was proclaimed as the principle of Roman society,
a new nobility rose on the ruins of that which the laws of Licinius,
Publ. Philo, and Hortensius had destroyed. If there were still any
patricians, the patriciate no longer existed as a political body. In
the Senate and in high offices plebeians were now more numerous
than the descendants of the patrician families. In 205 the two
consuls were plebeians ; but these new men had only entered one
after another into the Senate; far from modifying the spirit of it,
they had yielded to its influence and accepted that ancient policy
which kept the public within the wise limits of a moderate
democracy. Community of interest led to family alliances, which
united the new nobility with the old ; and the Roman aristoc-
racy found itself not destroyed, but renewed by all these popular
laws.

Those whose ancestors had striven most vigorously for equality
hastened to raise a barrier between themselves and the people, by
using the jus imaginum which every curule office gave. " When
some person of high rank dies at Rome," says Polybius, " he is
solemnly borne to the Forum with the images of his ancestors,
preceded by the fasces and axes, and covered with a praetexta, a
robe of purple or gold cloth, according as he had held the consul-
ship or the praetorshijj, the censorship, or had the triumph. At
the foot of the orators' j)latform they are placed on ivory seats,
and the son of the dead man relates his exploits, and then those
of his ancestors. Thus the reputation of great citizens is ever
renewed ; their glory becomes immortal, and the people cannot
forget it." Tlie cold Polybius himself grows animated at the
sight. " It is the most exciting scene," cries he. It was also
the surest means for the nobles to justify their ambition, even in
the eyes of the people, by ceaselessly reminding them of their
services. Jealous as the patriciate had formerly been of keeping
new men from honors, they had decided since the First Punic War
that the aediles, and not the treasury, should henceforth bear all
the expenses of the public games. Now it was necessary to pass
through the aedileship before attaining the high offices. It was
thus closing the access to them aojainst all who had not a sufficient
fortune to dare to canvass for this onerous magistracy.

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME. 645

To the ascendency which fortune, birth, the habit of command, and
the exckisive loiowledge of the fornmlae of law ' gave them, there was
added, for a great number*, the patronship of the allies. Every free
nation of Italy had at Rome a patron who represented its interests,
and in case of need defended it before the Senate or the people.
The Senate had, it is true, reserved the right of judgment on
differences between the towns, of deciding on the complaints of
citizens against their city, on crimes against Rome, on internal
discords, etc. ; Ijut, generally speaking, they left this care to the
pati'ons,^ who were always cliosen from influential families. This
clientship of a city or of a whole people increased the consideration
and the power of the nobles in a manner dangerous to liberty.
Accordingly, in 234:, a praeto7' j>jerer7nft?/s was created, who extended
his jurisdiction over foreigners, and who, bemg placed between
them and the nolales, restrained the patronage of the allies within
limits in which it could only be useful to the Republic.

From another point of view this institution had grave social
consequences. The praetor pererjriniis, not being al)le to accord to
foreigners the benefits of the civil laws of Rome, was obliged to
seek, among the I'ules of right or principles of natural equity,
common to many nations, which constituted a new juridical domain,
that of the right of nations. Thenceforth the jus gentium did not
cease to make inroads upon the jus civile, or peculiar right of
Rome, the narrow enclosure of which it finally carried by storm,
and with it fell the privileges of the Quirites.

Thus, since the laws of Hortensius, the constitution had be-
come more democratic, and still the aristocracy had been re-
organized. The patriciate had been destroyed as a privileged
caste ; the nobility was allowed to continue as a class invested
with honorable distinction.^ In a word, the laws were democratic,
the customs were not ; and this contrast, far from being a cause

' After Flavius (p. 409) the nobles had invented new formulae ; but tliey were divulged
about 200, /us Aemilianum. (Pomponius, on the Dig. I. ii. 2, § 7.)

- Claudii became the patrons of the inhabitants of Messina; Minutianus of fifteen Umbrian
tribes ; the JMaroelli of the Sicilians ; the Fabii of the Allobroges; the Gracchi of the S])aiiiards ;
Cato of the Capjiadocians and Cypriotes, etc. : . . . turn pUtbem, socios, regna colere et culi
licilum. (Tac, Ann. iii. .55.)

^ These distinctions, says Polybius, arc a great encouragement to virtue (vi. 53). This was
Napoleon's thought when he destroyed the feudal nobility and created the Legion of Honor.

646 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

of weakness to Rome, gave her great strength, since it thus united the
advantages of a popular government with those of an aristocratic
state, without the inconveniences occasioned by the exclusive pre-
dominance of one or other of these political forms. If, however,
the early tribunes had been unable to pluck the aristocracy out
of the heart of Roman society ; if, deserting the people, they them-
selves had gone over to the hostile camp, — they had successors in
the tribuneship who continued their work. They had abolished
classes, and had only left the nobles that influence which ever}'-
where attaches to great names and to great fortunes. At the same
time the censors had driven back the freedmen^ into the four city
tribes. The nobility and the foreign masses were thus restrained,
and the true Roman people ruled masterfully in the Forum, faithful
to its gods, its manners, and its discipline, because these new needs,
this growing love of luxury, this contempt of ancient customs
and ancient beliefs, which we have spoken of above, had not yet
descended to the heart of the nation. This middle class which
had conquered the Samnites, Pyrrhus, and Carthage, was still as
devoted, as brave, and even as numerous. For if the agrarian law
was not faithfully observed, at least the watchfulness and the fines
of the aediles prevented the concentration of property, whilst the
distril)utions of land multiplied small heritages and formed that
nursery of Roman soldiers whence Rome soon draws twenty-three
legions.

This period is the best age of Roman liberty. But it must
be well understood that this liberty was not like that which we
love ; for the Roman citizen, whom we picture to ourselves so
proud of his rights, was not sure of his social rank, which at
each lustrum the censor might deprive him of without trial, or
of the independence of a private life into which the same magis-
trate penetrated, armed with the severities of his irresponsible
magistracy. This republican was the serf of the state, and every-

1 Livy, Epil. XX. The wealth amassed by the aerarii, and their constant efforts to spread
themselves throiigli all the tribes, no doubt contributed to the .abolition of the classes. Men
saw the necessity of restricting the exercise of [lolitical rights to the plebeian proprietors and
agricultors, who in that quality were interested in the preservation of the state and of liberty ;
but the aerarii ceaselessly strove against this limitation, which was renewed in vain in 304, in
220, probably in 181, and in 168. Clodius wished to distribute them through all the tribes.
Under Nero they filled the equestrian order and the Senate. (Tac., Ann, xiii. 26, 27.)

INTERNAL STATE OF EOME.

647

thing, — liberty, justice, morality, — yielded at need to the maxim
that the safety of the state is the supreme law, — an excellent
maxim when the citizen understands it as an obligation for him
to devote his fortune and his life to his country, but a maxim
which may become detestable when it is the government that
decides what is required for the safety of the state.

CYBELE. REVERSE OF A LITTLE BRONZE OF CADIZ IN PHRYGIA.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SECOND PUNIO WAK UP TO THE BATTLE OP OANNAE (218-216).

I. Hannibal in Spain.

IF the Senate, in answer to the appeal of Utica and the mercenaries
during the revolt of the armies of Carthage, had sent them
two legions, it would have been all over with the great African
city ; Amilcar would not have undertaken the conquest of Spain,
Hannibal would not have attempted that of Italy, and infinite ills
would have been spared to numberless populations. Rome lacked
boldness. It was not respect for good faith which stayed her;
her priests and augurs would easily have found the means to set
at rest a conscience that was not over scrupulous. But on the
morrow of the Punic War she had to bind up her wounds ; and as
she dared not risk a great iniquity, she contented herself with a
small one, — the indirect help given to the mercenaries in Africa
and the seizure of Sardinia. Amilcar had time to save Carthage
and to double her empire.^

In the year 218, on the eve of the Second Punic War, the
possessions of the Carthaginians were dispersed from the Cyrenaica
to the mouths of the Tagus and Douro, on a line of from eight to
nine hundred leagues, but narrow, without depth, and liable at any
moment to be cut, either by the African nomads in their rapid
incursions, or by an enemy who could always find means to land
on this immense stretch of coast. The Roman Republic, on the

1 For the Carthaginian names I now follow the usual orthography. If Hannibal,
Hasdrubal, Amilcar were obscure personages, it would be needful to call them bj- their true
names, which are given in Punic inscriptions, Ilannibaal, Azroubaal, and Ahmilcar or Abmilcar,
. — the Latin form, Amilcar, answering to two different names, one of which signifies brother
(ah), the other servant (abd), of Melkart. To write Hasdrubal and Hamilcar is a real mis-
take, for the aspiration in these two names is too feeble to be marked by an /( ; on the other
hand, it is very strong in Hannibal, which ought to have one. (Note by M. de Saulcy.)

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216. 649

contrary, presented the aspect of a regularly constituted empire, —
Rome placed in the middle of the peninsula ; the penhisnla itself,
protected by three seas; and, beyond these; three seas, like so many
outposts guarding the approaches of Italy. — Illyria, whence the
legions kept watch o\er Macedonia and Greece ; Sicil}', whence
they observed Africa ; and Corsica and Sardinia, in the middle of
the road to Spain or Gaul, and commanding the navigation of the
Tyrrhenian Sea.

What added force to this rule was that tlirougiiout the great-
est part of Italy it was accepted, if nut witii love, at least
with resignation.^ Poor and warlike nations prefer to pay tribute
with blood rather than with gold ; and Rome only asked soldiers
of the Italians. In exchange for their stormy independence she
had given them peace,^ which favored the development of popida-
tion, agriculture, and commerce. They were no longer in dread
lest some night a hostile troo}) should come and reap their fields,
strip their vines and fruit-trees, carry off their flocks, burn their
villages, and lead their women and children into slavery. Rome
had put an end to these evils and terrors, which before her time
liad been daily renewed at many points in Italy. Her censors
covered the peninsula with roads, drained the marshes, built bridges
over the rivers, and erected temples, porticos, and sewers in the
Italian cities, so that Rome was not the only one to benefit by the
spoils of the world.^ To defend the coasts against the descents of

' lA\y says of the allies before Cannae: . . . juslo d modi-rato rri/elmn/ur i/ii/ierio; nee
ahmu'hani, quod unnm rinculumjithi est, mcliorihux [larrre. (xxii. 13), and Pohbius, speaking of
Hannibal's ravages, extended as far as Campania without a single town going over to him, says :
'E^ hv Kai TTapaarj^rji'aiT av Tts Tijv KaTairKr^^iv Km KciTa^loiaiv napa rols (rvp^d^ois tov Viofiaiatv
TToXiTfifiaros (hi. 90). See in T^ivy the conduct of Nai)les and Paestum after Tlirasimene; of
Canusium, Venusia, Nuocria, and Aeerrae after Cannae ; of Petelia, Consentia, and Cortona
after the defection of Bruttium ; the heroic resistance of the .soldiers of Praeneste and Perugia
in Casilinum, and the courage of a cohort of Pelignians, who were the first to enter the camp
of Ilanno. In Sicily and in Sardinia, when the praetors demand money and provisions for their
soldiers, the Senate rei)ly that they liave nothing to send them, and the allies liasten to fur-
nish all that is necessary. (I^ivy, xxxiii. ii.) For I'etelia, compare especially Polybius, vii.
f r. 1 . It resisted for eleven mouths, and the inhabitants ate even leather and the bark of trees.
It was two scjuadrons of Samnites (Livy, xxvii. 44) who led the messengers of Ilasdrubal to
Nero, and that general in his march from Canusium to the Metaurus was able to show his
soldiers quo cnncursu, ijiid admlralione, quo favore. liominum iter suum cfdehratur. All along
the route numerous volunteers joined him. Finally, we know that an army and a fleet were
furnished to Scipio by the allies.

- By forbidding wars between town and town.

' The consulshi;) of Corn. Cethegus was passed in draining a part of the Pontine nuvrshes

650 THE PUNIC WAES FKOM 264 TO 201.

enemies or pirates, the Senate had lately lined them with maritime
colonies ; to protect the Italian merchants they had declared war
against the Illyrians and Carthage.' Some among the no))les made
a noble use of their title of patrons of towns to carry out immense
works for the profit of the allies. Thus Curius had become the
protector of Reate by cuttmg a canal through the rock of a moun-
tain to lead into the Nera the overflow of Lake Velinus.^ If
we still possessed the second Decade of Livy, we should no doubt
find there many facts similar to these, which would prove that
this domination, though established Ijy force, and sometimes
even by violence and perfidy, was excusalile by the benefits it
conferred.

The glory of Rome, moreover, was reflected upon the Italians,
as that of Athens and Sparta had been an honor to Greece. All,
in spite of the differences of their condition, closed round her at
the news of a Gallic invasion, and we shall see the victorious Han-
nibal remaining two years in the midst of Italy without finding
a single ally there. Time had cemented the edifice constructed by
the Senate during the Samnite war, and had iinited all the Italian
nations into a comjaact and immovable mass. In the last countries
subdued, however, there still lingered among the populace, whose
patriotism is often more disinterested than that of the great, regrets
for lost liberty.^ But everywhere the nobility had freely rallied
round the Romans, as at Volsinii, Capua, Nola, Tarentum, and in
Lucania ; family alliances between this Italian nobility and that of
Rome drew these ties closer. At Venice the nobles of the Golden
Book scorned those of the mainland^ but at Rome Ap. Claudius took

. . . siccatae, agerque ex Us f actus. (Livy, Epit. xlvi.) For a later epoch see the works of Aem.
Scaurus in Cisalpine Gaul during his censorship (Strabo, V. i. 11), and in Livy (xli. 27) the
long enumeration of constructions made in Rome and in several towns of Italy by the censors
of the year 174.

1 During the war of the mercenaries. Later, in 170, as Tarentum and Brundusium com-
plained of the Illyrian pirates, the Senate armed a fleet ; they did the same for the Massaliotes,
whose commerce was troubled by the Ligurian pirates. (Livy, xl. 18.)

^ Cic, ad Att. iv. 15. See pages 454 and 457. The Romans had also lowered the level
of the Lake of Alba, which frequently threatened to inundate Latium.

* Unus velut morbus invaserat omnes Italiae civitates, ut plehes ah oplumatibux dissentirenl
senalus Rornanisfaveret, et plebs ad Poenos rem traheret. (Livy, xxiv. 2.) At Capua, during
the revolt, it was men of the lower class who governed. The author of the movement was,
it is true, a noble, but before the siege one hundred and twelve knights passed over to the
Romans.

THE SECOND PUNIU WAR FKOM 218 TO 21 G.

651

a Canipaiiian for his son-in-law, and the cx-consul Livius married
the daughter of a
senator of Capua. ^

It was needful,
then, that the empire
of the Carthaginians,
so colossal in appear-
ance, should rest on
equally firm supports.
The enormous contri-
butions levied on their
subjects, and the
atrocities of the In-
expiable War, had
doubtless not done
much to reconcile
them with the Afri-
cans. Utica, indeed,
and Hippo-Zaryta had
been desirous of giv-
ing themselves to the
Romans. On the
coasts of Numidia
and Mauritania, some
posts, at great dis-
tances apart, and sur-
rounded by barbarians,
were scarcely suffi-
cient to afford aid to
ships in the danger-
ous crossing from Spain. In Spain itself the authorit}' of Car-
thage, or rather of Hannibal, was securely established only in
Baetica. In the rest of the coimtry, as far as the Ebro, the

VASE OP NOLA.*

1 Livy, xxiii. 4. He adds for Capua: . . . connuhium vetustum multas familias claras ac
polentis Romanis miscuerat.

^ This beautiful vase with three handles, of Nolan manufacture, represents Jupiter and
Aegina, painted in red on a bla«k ground. Collection of the Cabinet de France. No. 3,330 in
the Chabouillet Catalogue.

652

THE PUNIC WAES PROM 264 TO 201.

tribes had been conquered, but not subdued ; and the Roman
generals could make an appearance there as liberators of the
peninsula much more easily than Hannibal in Italy .^

Hamilcar had brought up his sons in hatred of Rome. " These
are four lions' whelps," said he, pointing to them, " who will grow
up for her ruin ; " and Hannilxxl in his old age used to tell King

Antiochus that before setting out for
Spain, his father, in the midst of a
solemn sacrifice, had made him swear
eternal hatred to the Romans.
" From the time of his arrival in the
camp of Hasdrubal," says Livy, " he
drew all eyes towards him. Old
soldiers thought they saw Hamilcar
in his youth again : there was on his
face the same expression of energy,
the same fire in his glance. He
presently needed no remembrance of
his father to gain their favor.
Never was there a mmd more fitted
for two opposite things, to obey
and to command ; so that it would
have been diflicult to decide which
cherished him more, the general or
the army. Hasdrubal never chose
any other leader when there was
some vigorous blow to be struck ; and under no other did the
soldiers show more confidence. Incredibly bold in confronting
danger, he retained marvellous prudence in peril. No labor
wearied his body or prostrated his spirit. He supported heat and
cold equally well. For his food, he satisfied need, but never
pleasure. His wakefulness and his sleep did not depend upon day
and night. When his work was finished, he sought repose neither

HANNIBAL.^

1 See Polybius (ix. 11, and x. 18, 35) on the haughtiness and exactions of the Carthaginian
generals. Hasdrubal-Giseo had forced ludibiUs, Mandonius, and Edeco to pay hiui great
sums, and to give him their wives and daughters as hostages ; and these latter had much to
complain of in the conduct of the Carthaginians towards them.

^ Bust in the Naples Museum. Probably the only thing about it belonging to Hannibal
is the name it bears.

THE SECOND TUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216. 653

on a soft couch nor in silence. Often he was seen, covered witli
a soldier's cloak, stretched on the earth between the advanced sen-
tinels or in the midst of the camp. His dress did not di.stinguish
him from his companions ; his whole luxury was in his horses and
arms. At once the best of horsemen and of foot-soldiers, he went
into the fray first, and retired from it last. So many good qualities
were accompanied by gi-eat vices, fierce cruelty, a more than Punic
perfidy, no frankness, no modesty, no fear of the gods, no respect
for the faith of an oath, no religion. With this mixture of virtues
and vices he served three years mider Hasdrubal without neglecting
anything that a future general of the Carthagmian armies ought to
see and hear." ^

Livy certainly exaggerates Hannibal's vices, and only puts in
relief the qualities of the soldier. The history of the Second Punic
War will show us the great captain. Heir of the ambition of the
Barcas, with more genius and boldness, Hannibal strove to create
for himself at Rome's expense an empire which he was not strong
enough to create at the expense of Carthage." An Italian war
was, moreover, a glorious means of putting an end to the strife
which his family and his party were sustaining ; and in spite of
treaties, in spite of the cautious part of the Senate,^ he began it.
He asked nothing of Carthage, and put trust only in himself and his
own ; then, bringing over Spaniards and Gavils on his route, he
crossed the Alps. His conduct before Saguntum ; the choice of the
route which he took, so as not to place himself in dependence on
the fleets of Carthage ; his promises to his troops ; * his treaty with
Philip ; the forlorn state in which Carthage left him after Cannae ;
the almost unlimited power which, when conquered, he yet seized
in his own comitry, — show his secret designs, and what he

1 [This character seems written by Livy purely from a rhetorical point of view, and
determined simply from the Roman view of the great war. Such feelings as justice to a
noble foe, or real interest in the character of the wonderful Phoenician, were quite foreign to
the vulgar patriotism of the historian. — Ed.l

- Juccneniflagrantemcupidine regni. (Livy, xxi. 10.)

' Fabius said : oiSeva . . . a^ioKoyayv. (Polyb., iii. 8.) In Livy (xxx. 22) the ambassadors
agreed, after Zama, that the war was only between Rome and Hannibal, and that Carthage liad
no part in it. The Punic wars are indeed generally a war of races ; but the second is essentially
the conflict of Hannibal and Rome.

* See p. 659. As regards the treaty with Philip, it stated that Italy should belong to
Hannibal and the Carthaginians ; to Philip all the booty.

654 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

would have made of that country's liberty had he returned as
victor. The Second Punic War is onty a duel between Hanni-
bal and Rome ; and in this assertion we do not mean to dimin-
ish the importance of the struggle, because it will show what
strength and inexhaustible resources there are in the genius
of a great man, as in the institutions and manners of a great
people.^

Before commencing this war it was necessary to secure
Spain. The South and East were subdued ; but the mountaineers
of the centre and the upper valley of the Tagus were still resist-
ing. Hannibal crushed the Olcades in the valley of the Xucar
(221), the Vaccaeans in that of the Douro, and the Carpetani on
the banks of the Tagus in the environs of Toledo (220). The
Lusitanians and the tribes of Galicia continued free, and Han-
nibal took care of wasting against them his time and forces. As
far as the Ebro Spain seemed submissive ; this was sufficient for
his designs.

In the treaty imposed by Rome on Hasdrubal, the independence
of Saguntum to the south of the Ebro had been formally guaranteed.
In order to force on war, Hannil^al besieged that place, which would
have served as an arsenal and a point of support to the legions if
he had left them time for arriving in Spain. This conduct
was mijust, but clever.^ Saguntum, a Greek commercial city, half-
way between the Ebro and Carthagena, came into competition on
this coast with the Carthaginian merchants. Hannibal desired
to offer it them as a victim, in exchange for the war which he
forced them to accept. By the pillage of one of the largest
cities in the peninsula he reckoned also on buying beforehand
the devotion of his soldiers. Rome sent some deputies to him ;
he refused to receive them, under the pretext that he could not
answer for their lives if they risked themselves among so many
soldiers who were barbarians. The deputies went to Carthage
to demand that the audacious general should be delivered up to
them.

1 Polybius says this : " After Cann.ae, what made Rome triumph was the vitality of its
institutions," rfi tov iroKiTevfiaTos lbtcm\Ti (iii. 118).

2 [It cannot possibly have been regarded unjust by those who remembered the Roman
annexation of Sardinia. All wars are begun by violating treaties imposed by previous neces-
sities. — Ed-I

THE SECOND PUNIC WAK FROM 218 TO 216. 655

In spite of the just resentment which Carthage had felt re-
specting tlie coiuhict of Rome in the matter of Sardinia, she did
not desire war. Her rich mercliants, seehig the Romans disdain
the profits of conimei'ce, and Marseilles, Syracuse, Naples, and
Tarentum i>rosperHig under their rule or in alliance with them,
were becoming familiarized with tlu> idea of the Roman suprem-
acy. Biit the people and Senate were ruled by the Barcine faction.
In spite of Hanno's efforts, answer was made to the deputies that
Saguntum had of itself kindled this war, and that Rome would
be acting unjustly if they preferred this city to Carthage, their
more ancient ally.'

During these embassies, Saguntum was pressed with the
utmost rigor. " Situated," says Livy, " about 1,000 feet from
the coast,^ it had not the sea for defence, and Hannibal was able
to attack it from three sides at once. His assaults were often
renewed ; in one of them Hannibal had his thigh pierced by a
javelin. When his soldiers saw him fall, there was such con-
fusion and fear among them, that the mantlets were nearly
abandoned, and for some days the siege was nothing more than
a blockade.

" Hannibal's wound l^eing healed, the attack was obstinately
renewed, and the works of approach reached the foot of the wall,
which the battering-ram shook in several places. Already the
Carthaginians thought themselves masters of the city ; but the
Saguntines, covering the city, where the wall failed, with their own
bodies, checked the enemy in the midst of the rubbish. They
used a javelin of spruce-fir with an iron head, three feet long,
which could pierce both armor and body. At the place where
the iron projects from the handle was some tow steeped in tar,
which was set alight at the moment the javelin was hurled, and
the rapid movement fanned the flame. Thus the falarica — that
was its name — caused much fright. Even when it was arrested
on the buckler^ without wounding the soldier, it forced him, from

' [This is the account of Livy, probably borrowed from the conservative and patriotic
Fabius Pictor, and very untrustworthy. — Ed.']

2 Nearly 480 feet. Tlie rock, 400 feet high, on which Saguntum had been built, is at
present 2J miles from the sea. (Hennebert, Hist. d'Annibal, i. 296.)

' The buckler of the Roman soldier was of wood.

6-56

THE PUNIC WAES FEOM 264 TO 201.

fear of fire, to throw awcay his arms and expose himself unde-
fended to the blow of the enemy."

These attacks took place before the arrival of the Roman
deputies at the camp of Hannibal and at Carthage. The}^ began
again after the breaking off of the negotiations, and to excite the
ardor of the soldiers, Hannibal promised them the whole booty
of the city. " During the truce the Saguntines had raised a new

REMAINS OF THE THEATRE OP SAGUNTUM.l

wall behind the breach, but the assaults became more terrible than
ever ; the countless Punic army surrounded almost the entire circuit.
The besieged being no longer able to defend the approach to their
wall, a large opening was made by which the enemy entered the
city. But a house-to-house fight Ijegan ; and the Carthaginians
having succeeded in getting hold of a height, surrounded it with
a wall, and made it a citadel which they held in the city itself.

^ De Laborde, Voyage d'Espagne.

THE SECOND PUNTC WAR FROM 218 TO 21fi. 657

and which commanded it. The Sagnntines on their side covered
with a new wall wliat they still held of their city. Shut np more
closely day after day, they saw their destitution increasing and the
hope of succor vanishing. Confidence returned for a while when
it became known that Hannil:)al was obliged to march against
the Cretans and the Carpetans, who broke o\it into revolt at the
severity of the levies. But Saguntum gained nothing from the
absence of the general ; Maharbal, charged with the prosecution
of the siege, showed such activity, that neither besiegers nor
besieged were conscious of their chief's absence. Then two men,
Alcon of Saguntum and the Spaniard Alorcus, tried to Ijring
about an accommodation. The conditions demanded l^y the con-
queror were such that Alcon did not even dare to report them.
Hannibal left to the inhabitants only life and two garments :
they must deliver up arms, riches, leave their city, and with-
draw to a place which he would point out. Alorcus, who had
formerly been the guest of the Saguntines, offered to carry these
hard terms to. them. He advanced in open day towards the
enemies' sentinels, to whom he gave up his arms, and, havmg
crossed the entrenchments, had himself conducted to the chief
magistrate, who introduced him to the senate. He had scarcely
finished speaking, when the leading senators caused a funeral pile
to be raised in the public place, on it they threw the gold and
silver of the public treasury, then their own, and lastly them-
selves. This sight had already spread consternation in the crowd
when cries arose ; a tower fell, and a Carthaginian cohort, dashing
forwards on the ruins, informed the commander-in-chief that
the place was divested of its defenders." Hannibal hastened in
with all his troops, and commanded all to be slain who were
of an age to carry arms, — " a cruel measure," says Li^y, " but
its necessity was proved by the event ; for how could men be
spared who burned themselves in their houses with their wives and
children, or who, with arms in their hands, fought to the last
breath (219) ?"i

' Livy, xxi. 6-14. He says that all the defcndors of the place were killed, belli jure (xxi.
13) ; but he himself relates later on that one of the first cares of the Scipios was to ransom the
Saguntines. All, therefore, had not perished. Neither was Saguntum destroyed, for the
Scipios took it in 215, and the Romans made a colony of it, which was still existing under

VOL. I. 42

658

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

This heroic resistance, of which Spain affords other examples,
had lasted eight months. A part of the riches from Saguntum
sent to Carthage reduced the numbers of the peace party ; and when
a second' embassy came from Rome to demand a solemn reparation,

it was the Romans
whom they accused
of violating treaties.
The discussion was
prolonged in the Coun-
cil of the Ancients.
At last Faljius, hold-
ing out a fold of his

toga, said :
here peace
choose ! "
yourself ! "
response
sides.

bring
or war ;
" Choose
was the
from all
"Well, then,
war ! ■ replied Fabius.
Hannibal hastened
his preparations. He
sent fifteen thousand
Spaniards to keep gar-
rison in the places
in Africa, and he
called into Spain fif-
teen thousand Af-
ricans ; both would
serve as hostages for
the fidelity of the two
countries. His army
rose to 90,000 foot, with 12,000 horse and 58 elephants. A naval
defeat would have irretrievably ruined his projects, and the fleet
of Carthage no longer was mistress on the Mediterranean. He

FIGURE IN TOGA.

the Empire. One of its coins, of very coarse workmanship, represents on the face Tiberius ;
on the reverse a ship's prow. Its ruins may still be seen near Murviedro {Muri Veleres), and
the S])aniards there sustained a siege in 1811 against Marshal Suchet. The theatre built on
the slope of a hill was then partly destroyed, its stones having been used in the fortifications.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216. G59

resolved to open up a route by land. Tt was a very bold enter-
prise to go in search of the Romans in tlie very heart of Italy,
leaving behind the Alps, the Rhone, and Pyrenees. But since
the adventurous expedition of Alexander, all seemed possible to
audacity. Perhaps Hannibal did not believe Rome to be stronger
in Italy than Carthage was in Africa. Emissaries secretly sent
with gold to the Gauls and Cisalpine tribes studied the mountain
passes and the dis2)ositions of the peoples, and brought back
favorable reports. The Boii and In.subres in the Valley of the
Po promised to rise en masse; and it did not seem difficult to re-
kindle the hardly quenched hatred of the last Italians Avhom Rome
had conquered. Capua was not x'esigned to the obscure part of a
subject city ; the Sanniites doulitless would be roused, and Tarentum
and Etruria. And besides, there was no other choice than either
to receive war or carry it into Italy. The consul Semi^ronius
was already making immense preparations at Lilybaeum for an in-
vasion of Africa, and Scipio was levying troops which he hoped to
lead into Spain. It was necessary to forestall them. The example
of Regulus showed the advantages of offensive warfare ; this system
was besides the only one that suited Hannil:)ars position ; and that
to which he would be always compelled to return, even after
victories in Africa and Spain. If there were difficulties in the
march, yet ought they to take into account the prestige which
would surround the army, when the Italians should see descending
from the summit of the Alj)s these soldiers who came from the
Pillars of Hercules, and were bringing them liberty. Since
Pyrrhus, no enemy had penetrated into Central Italy. In the
midst of this rich district the war would support itself, and it
would be possible to do without Carthage.^ If reinforcements
should be needed, the forces to be left in Spain, under the com-
mand of Hasdrubal and Hanno, might follow Hannibal into Italy
by the same route which the general himself had taken, recruit-
ing as they advanced from the Gallic nations known to be lui-
friendly to Rome, and at all times ready for the lucrative service
of Carthage.

J We shall follow in the main Polybius" narrative. Unfortunately there remains of it,
after the battle of Cannae, only some fragments. Livy will then become our guide ; he has
borrowed much from Cincius Alimentus, who was one of Hannibal's prisoners, and certainly

660 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

When he conceived this bold plan, Hannibal was only twenty-
seven years of age ; the age of Bonaparte at Lodi.^

II. Hannibal in Gaul ; Crossing of the Alps.

After a solemn sacrifice offered at Gades to Melkart, the great
god of the Phoenician race, Hannibal set out from Carthagena in
the spring of the year 218, and reached the bank of the Ebro
with 102,000 men. On the other side of this river the country
is difficult, bristliiig with mountains, one of which, Montserrat,
about 4,200 feet high, is almost impracticable. He passed with
the bulk of his forces between it and the sea, in the direction of
Emporium, whilst detached corjis went towards the north-west
to drive back the mountaineers into their high valleys. He was
obliged to fight his way through this region, with loss of twenty
thousand men. Moreover, many of his Spanish soldiers deserted,
and of those who remained, a considerable number openly expressed
their discontent. Upon this he voluntarily sent back eleven thou-
sand; and intrusting ten thousand foot and a thousand horse to
Hanno, a Carthaginian officer, to keep the passes, he entered Gaul
with fifty thousand foot and nine thousand horse, all veteran soldiers
devoted to him. Thirty-seven elephants accompanied the army.

On leaving Carthage, the Roman ambassadors went to Gaul
to persuade the barbarians to close the Pyrenaean passes against
the Carthaginians. " At this proposition to fight for the people
who had abandoned Saguntum and oppressed the Italian Gauls,
there arose in the assembly of the Bebryces (Roussillon) such
laughter," says Livy,^ " mixed with angry cries, that the old
men had difficulty in calming the younger." On their return to
Rome, the deputies declared that in all the Transalpine cities,

also from Pol_ybius, whom be so often copies witliout acknowledgment. Appian has followed
Fabius Pictor, also a contemporary. Cornelius Nepos gives very little information in liis lives
of Hannibal and Amilcar. The lives of Fabius and Marcellus in Plutarch are rich in
detaOs. Silius Italicus has put Livy into verse. [Livy's sources often serve to correct Poly-
bius. — £(•/.]

1 Clinton (Fasti Hell. iii. 20, 52) places his birth in 247. lie was then only twenty-
six years old when the soldiers made him the successor of Ilasdrubal, and twenty-seven
when he subdued Spain.

^ Tanlus cum fremitu risus dicilur orlus. (Livy, xxi. 20.)

I'll I

mill
iiliiii I

11 '1
! , 'i

mil I

Mill

'A
a

THE seco:nd rui^ic wak eilum 21s to 216. 6G1

except Marseilles, they had not heard one peacefnl or hospitable
word, and that the hatred for Rome and the money scattered by
Hannibal's emissaries were preparing an easy route for the Car-
thaginian. It was prudent, therefore, to detain hiui in his own
peninsida. Tlie consul Senipronius, who was preparing for an
invasion of Africa from Sicil\% had ordi'rs to redouble his activity,
and r. Scipio, his colleague, pressed on his levies for the army of
Spain. At that moment the Senate thought that four legions would
be sufficient to take satisfaction from Carthage and this daring young
chief ; there were soon need of twenty-three against Hannibal alone.

They also took precautions against the Cisalpine tribes. To
keep them in clieck two colonies, each of six thousand men, were
sent to Cremona and Placentia. But the Boii and Insubres dis-
persed the colonists, chased them as far as Modena, which they
besieged, and surprised in the midst of a forest the praetor Man-
lius, who was near perishing there. These events retarded the
departure of Scipio, and deprived him of a legion wdiich he was
obliged to send to the colonies of the Po. However, when his
fleet entered the port of Marseilles, he thought Hannibal was
still on the other side of the Pyrenees ; the (yarthaginian was
already on the Rhone. ^

The Bebryces had made a treaty of alliance with him ; ^ the
Arecomici saw their independence threatened by this large army
which was approachiBg, and withdrew behind the Rhone in order
to dispute its passage. Hannibal deceived them ; he sent a part
of his forces to cross the river secretly, 25 miles above the bar-
barians' camp, Avith an order to take them in the rear, while he
himself made the attempt to cross. Harassed by this double at-
tack and by the burning of their camp, the barbarians dispersed.
Hannibal had put his elephants on immense rafts, and his troops
on boats bought of all the tribes living on the river banks ;
the horses followed by swimming ; the Spaniards had crossed on
inflated leather skins and their bucklers.^

1 On the passage of the Pj-renees by Hannibal, see the work of Hennebert. (Vol. i.
pp. 419-442.)

2 This treaty referred to their wives the deeision of the Carthaginians' claims against
the native pojjulations. (Pint., de Virl. mulicr.)

' The passage was made above Roiiuemaure, nearly 12 miles north of Avignon; that
is, at least, the opinion of Letronne, adopted by Hennebert. The widespread use of utres.

662 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

The next day five hundred Numidians descended the Rhone
to reconnoitre the river lower down. They fell in with a recon-
noitring party of three hundred Roman knights led by Gallic
guides in the pay of Marseilles. The two troops charged. There
returned only three hundred Numidians ; the Romans had lost a
hundred and sixty men, but they had remained masters of the
battle-field.

The question may have occurred to Hannibal's mind whether he
should pursue his march, or return against the consul, who was
raising his camp to come and attack him. But a victory in Gaul
would have decided nothing ; besides, a Boian chief had just come
to the camp, offering guides and the alliance of his people.
Hannibal drew farther away from the consul by ascending the
river's course.' What route did he take ? Here Polybius and Livy
differ, and after them all modern writers.^ Polybius had visited

inflated skins, like our fisliermon's Ijuoys for nets, is well expLaineil in M. Lentheric's charming
book on the olil delta of the Rhone and the Roman remains in Provence.

' [He meant evidently to ascend the Valley of the Durance, which is the most southern
affluent of the Rhone, and this would have made his journey much shorter. lie was obliged
to take the ne.xt river-course, that of the Isere. — iJrf.]

- Out of 90 dissertations whi<'h ajipeared before 1835, 33 of them are in favor of the
Little St. Bernard, which, having only 6,750 feet of elevation, is the easiest passage of the
whole chain ; 24 are for Mount Gene\re ; 1 9 for the Great St. Bernard ; 1 1 for Mount C'enis ;
and 3 for Mount Viso. How many others since that date ! The passage by the Simplon, which
has also been named, Hannibal would have rejected as too far towards the north and east, as
it would have made him lose much valuable time ; the passage by the Great St. Bernard is
very difficult, especially at the beginning of October. His Insubrian guides must have known
the shortest route, and this was that of the Little St. Bernard, Ijy which Hannibal arrived
in a straight Hue from the Valley of the Isere to the neighborhood of the Insubres, his
allies. The immense detour wliich some propose to gain the River Durance by very diffi-
cult country, and where Scipio, whom he was avoiding, would have been able from Mar-
seilles either to liinder him or come up with him, made him debouch by Mount Genevre or
Mount Viso on the lands of Ligures Tauriui, the enemies of his allies. From this side he had
to fear that the Taurini, directly threatened by his approach, would have summoned to them-
selves the mass of the Ligurian population of that region. His guides could not have pointed
out to him such a route. His aim was to reach Italy as quickly as possible, and to descend
into a friendly country in order to have time to refresh his army before fighting. Points of
strategy ought to prevail over geographical advantages, — which, moreover, are uncertain.
However, the theory of the passage by Mount Genevre has found again quite lately some
<-lever defenders in M. Desjardins (Ge'ographle de la Gaule Romaine, vol. i. pp. 86-94), and
Hennebert {op. cit. vol. ii. p. 43 cl seq.). Without wishing to draw any conclusion relative to
Hannibal's crossing, I notice the fact that the route by the Little St. Bernard was so much
employed from high antiquity, that it had been consecrated by a megalithic monument.
On the most elevated point of the pass, at a height of 6,368 feet, exists a cromlech, or circle
of raised stones, which is two hundred and thirty feet in diameter, and which the route
crosses. There has been found no trace of sepulture or worship, and it could not be a
place of meeting for the deputies of the neighboring peoples. AVhat does this monument

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216. GG3

the i)laces and questioned the mountaineers who liad seen ilic
expedition pass ; liis narrative ought to be f(jllowed ; unhappily he
does not remove all the difllculties, whieh will doubtless remain
insurmountable.^ Besides, whether Hannibal crossed by Mount
Cenis, Viso, Genevre, or the Little St. Bernard is of small con-
sequence to history, which is above all interested in the result;
namely, the Alps boldly crossed by a large army.

After four days' march, Hannibal entered " Isle of the Allo-
broges," which is formed l^y the Rhone and Isere. Two brothers,
in this country, were disputing for the supreme power ; he took
the part of the elder, helped him to conquer, and received in
return food and clothing, of which the soldiers would soon have
such need. The successful chief, with all his barbarians, accompa-
nied Hannibal across the plain, to the very foot of the mountahis.
Already were the Alps in sight, with their eternal snows and
threatening peaks. But Hannibal had caused the speech of the
Boian deputies to be translated to his troops, — their promise of
guiding the army by a short and sure route, the picture which they
drew of the magnificence and richness of the country beyond the
Alps. Thus the sight of these dreaded mountains, far from depress-
ing their spirits, animated the soldiers^ as if they saw the goal of
the war, as if in crossing them they would be, as Hannibal expressed
it, scaling the very walls of Rome.

It was in the middle of October that the Carthaginians entered
among the Alps.^ The snow already hid the pastures and paths,
and nature seemed struck with torpor. A pale autumn sun only
partially dissipated the thick fog which every morning enveloped
the army; and the long cold nights, disturbed by the solemn sounds

commemorate ? I do not know. M. Al. Bertrand, the learned curator of the Museum of
St. Germain, tliinks this cromlech very ancient. It is one proof tlic more that tliis pass was
known and used before Hannibal.

' [On the other hand, it is the opinion of Neumann (Da.s ZeitaUer dcr Pun. Kriege,
p. 286) that Livy follows better sources, and is our best authority. — Ed."]

^ Polybius makes hght beforehand of the declamations written and unwritten about the
terrors of the Alps : moles prope caelo iinmixtae, etc. The sight of high mountains, far from
repelling, attracts. Spain, besides, and the Pyrenees, whence started Hannibal's soldiers,
contain peaks as imposing as those of the Alps. The Cerro de jMulhaccn, which they had
saen in Baetica, is only 3,SU0 feet less than Mont Blanc.

2 Ideler., Cliroiwl. vol. i. p. 241. Daude de Lavalette {Rrcherches sur I'hisloire du pass-
age d'Annibal d'Espayne en Italic) makes him reach the summit of the Aljjs on the 2Cth of
October.

664 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

of distant avalanclies and the roar of torrents in cliasms far below,
chilled the limbs of these men of Africa. Yet the cold and snow,
the precipices and the untrodden paths, were not the greatest
obstacles ; for the mountaineers attempted several times to bar the
route against the Carthaginians. One day Hannibal found himself
in front of a defile guarded hy the AUobroges, and which was
commanded in its whole length b}- perpendicular rocks crowned
with eneiuies. He stopped and had a camp pitched ; fortunately
the Gallic guides informed him that at night the barbarians would
retire to their town. Before the next day he held the defile
and heights with light troops. Still there was a bloody fight,
and' terrible confusion for some hours. Men, horses, beasts of
burden rolled down the precipices ; a number of Carthaginians
perished. However, the army passed, took the town, and found
in it victuals and horses, which replaced those they had lost.
Farther on another tribe appeared before Hannibal, carr^dng
branches as a sign of peace, and offering hostages and guides.
He accepted them, but took care not to be deceived. The
cavaliy and elephants, the very sight of which frightened the bar-
barians, formed the advanced guard ; the infantry was in the
rear, the baggage in the centre. On the second day the army
entered a narrow gorge, where the mountaineers attacked it, hidden
in the clefts of the rocks. For a nisjlit Hannibal was cut off
from his advanced guard ; it was the last attack. After nine
days' marching he reached the summit of the pass, and there
stopped two days to give rest to his troops. From thence he
pointed out to them the rich plains of the Po, and in the
distance the way towards Rome, their promised prey. The
descent was difficult ; in attempting to cross a glacier covered
afresh with snow, men and horses were entangled. Elsewhere the
path was so narrow that the elephants could not pass : three
days were lost in making a road broad and firm enough for
them. At last, fifteen days after his departure from the
Rhone, he reached the lands of the Insubres, in the vicinity of
the territory of the Taurini.' The crossing had cost him. by
his own admission, twenty thousand men. He had remaining

1 . . . (Is Ta TTfpt ToK ndSof TTfSia Kai to Ta>v 'ivaofi^pav f'Ovos. (Polyb., iii. 56.)

H
O

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR EROM 218 TO 2W. 665

only twenty thousand foot and six thousand horse.' Napoleon,

who placed Hannibal higher than any other general of antiquity,

said : '' He bought his battle-field at the price of half his
army."

in. Hannibal in Cisalpine Gaul ; Battle of Ticinus ;
Battle of Trebia (218).

HjVNNIBAL had taken five months to do the 400 leagues which
separate Carthagena from Tunis ; he had, therefore, marched on the
average at the rate of only three leagues a day. This slow pace,
which is quite explicable, had given the Romans time to strengthen
their positions in Cisalpine Gaul so as to restrain Gallic turbulence.^
So, in spite of the promises of the Boian dei)uties, no people
hastened to join the Carthaginians ; besides, faithful even in the
presence of the legions to their hereditary hates, these tribes
continued naturally hostile. The Taurini, at this very time,
attacked the Insubres. Hannibal proposed to form an alliance
with them, and on their refusing took their capital by assault ;
all who were in it were slain. This rapid and sanguinary expedi-
tion attracted some volunteers, but the Roman legions were camp-
ing on the banks of the Po ; the Gauls before joining Hannibal
waited for victory to declare in his favor. Sati.sfied, moreover,
with having attracted the Carthaginian army into Italy, they de-
sired to let these two great nations, whose hand weighed so heavily
on all the barbarians of the West, engage in the struggle, — per-
haps with the secret thought that, as the result of the nmtual
exhaustion of their enemies, they might be able some day to play
that part in Italy which the Galatians, their brethren, were playing
in Asia with so much jn-ofit.

Hannibal must gain a victory. In order, says Livy, to speak
in a lang-uasce to his soldiers which all midit understand, he ranged

' lie had caused these figures to be cut on a cohuun in the temple of Lacinian Juno : roly-
bius saw them. In the wars of tlie ancients, as in our own down to the 17th century, the
wounded and sick ran great chance of perishing; in a march Hke that of Ilauuibal, those
merely lame were lost •, he must have had also a good many deserters.

^ See p. G61.

666 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

his army in a circle, and brought into its midst some young
mountaineers who had been made prisoners, all covered with
wounds, loaded with irons, and weakened by himger. He showed
them some brilliant garments, rich arms, war-horses, and asked them
if they were willing to fight together. The conqueror shall have
liberty and these presents ; death will free the conquered from
the horrors of captivity. They joyfully accepted, fought hard, and
triumphed or died cheerfully. Hannibal, then addressing himself
to his soldiers, showed them in these prisoners, in this fighting,
their own case. Shut in between two seas and the Alps, they
can never see their native land again, unless they open up
the road by victory. Either lead a wretched life in slavery, or
die gloriously, or conquer and win the riches of Italy. To the
spoils of Rome he will add lands in Spain, Italy, Africa, every-
where where they shall ask them ; and he will make them, if
they desire it, citizens of Carthage} May the gods slay him, if he
fail in these promises, as he himself slays this lamb ; and, seizing
a stone, he crushes the head of the victim against the altar.

The activity c>f Hannibal had disconcerted the plans of the
Senate ; the question was no longer of fighting in Spain or of
besieging Carthage, but of saving Italy. Sempronius, whose fleet
had already gained a naval victory and taken Malta, was recalled ;
Publius Scipio, after his futile attempt to check Hannibal by
a battle on the banks of the Rhone, had voluntarily left his prov-
ince, sent his brother Cnaeus into Spain with his legions, and took
the route to Italy by sea. He hoped to reach the foot of the
Alps in time to crush the army in its descent, while distressed
by fatigues and privations. This time, again, in spite of his dili-
gence, he arrived too late. From Pisa he had reached Placentia,
taken the command of the Roman forces scattered along the Po,
and crossed that river in order to place himself behind the Ticinus,
between the Carthaginians and Insubres. With its source at the
St. Gothard, the Ticinus forms, at the foot of the Alps, Lago

1 Agrum sese daturum esse in Italia, Africa, Hispania, ubi quisque velit, immunem ipsi,
qui accepisset, liberisque . . . qui aociorum elves Carlhafiinienses fieri vellent, potcstatem factunun.
(Livy, xxi. 45.) Neither Bonaparte nor Caesar would have dared to speak with such disdain
of the rights of the re'al sovereign power, — the people, the senate, and the law. But in Livy's
case one always entertains some scruples : were these the words of the general, or of his
historian ? They tell us, at least, what Livy thought of the Carthaginian hero.

THE SECOND TUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 21G. 667

Maggiore, which it leaves, a clear, deej), rapid stream, to fall into
the River Po below Pavia ; there was the frontier of the Insubrian
territory.-' Scipio hastened thither. But if the Romans were very
brave, well armed, and well organized into legions, their generals,
renewed yearly, were not experienced tacticians, still less strategists.
In place of taking iij) a position behind the Ticinus, of which he
should have made a good line of defence, Scipio passed it with his
horse and light infantry. Hannibal puslnul forward at the same
time a reconnoissance, and a short and sanguinary action took place.
The Numidians, by the rapidity of their charge, soon had the advan-
tage over light-armed men, whom they defeated, and also caused
the Roman cavalry to give way. The consul himself was wounded ;
but for his young son, the future conqueror at Zama, he would have
perished.

This battle of the Ticinus had been only an affair of the
advanced guard ; but Scipio, recognizing the Carthaginians' superi-
ority in cavali-y, fell back behind the Po, and resolved to avoid
fighting on the plain ; laut he did nothing in the way of disputing
with the enemy the passage of the river, which Hanniba;! easil}-
crossed. One night two thousand Gauls, in the service of the
Romans, massacred the guards of the camp and went over to the
Carthaginian, who sent them to their homes laden with presents :
they were to arouse among their people defections fatal to the
Romans. The consul had first made a stand at Placentia. To
secure himself from l)eing shut up in this place, he selected a
position in a valley behind the town, esta1)lishing his camp on the
bank of the Trebia, his rear being protected by the Apennines.
This torrent, sadly famous in French history^ as in that of Rome,
comes down from the mountains through a narrow valley, which
expands into a plain only twelve miles from Placentia. There
Scipio awaited the arrival of his colleague Sempronivis, whom he
had summoned, and who in forty days had come with all his
troops from Rhegium to Ariminum.

The Romans had a part of their magazines at Clastidium, a for-
tified post on the Po, up the stream from Placentia. Hannibal

1 Breadth at Buffalora, 533 to 660 yards ; lower it reaches sometimes 2,000. (Hennebert,
op. cit. i. 322.)

" [Great defeat of the French, under Marslial Macdonalil, June 17-1:), 17;»9, by tlie
Austro-Hussian forces under Suvaroff.]

668 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 2G4 TO 201.

surrounded this place, frightened or gained over the commandant, a
native of Brundusium, and entered it, — a precious acquisition for
him, and a very great loss to the Romans. Sempronius on his arrival
was only the more eager to fight, and readily fell into a snare laid
for him by the Carthaginian general. One morning the Numidians
drew near to provoke the camp before the hour when the soldiers
took their meal, and drew them on across the icy waters of the Trebia-'
as far as a plain where Hannibal had liidden, in the bed of a ton^ent,
two thousand men, intrusted to his brother Mago. Weakened by
hunger, the cold, and the snow, which the wind beat into their faces,
the Romans were at a great disadvantage when they came up with
the whole Carthaginian army, who, in good condition, fresh from
their tents, stood drawn up in battle array to receive them. They
made a gallant resistance, however, and the fortune of the day was
still undecided, when Mago with his band burst upon them, and a
rout commenced.

Nearly twenty-five thousand Romans perished or disappeared ;
ten thousand only, with Sempronius, broke through the Gauls of
Hannibal ^ and reached Placentia, — where, when night came on,

1 [A diversity of opinion exists as to the position of the Roman and Carthaginian camps,
and the location of the plain on which was fought the battle of the Trebia. It is agreed that
the two camps were situated one on each side of the stream, and that the battle took place
on the side occupied by the Carthaginians. Livy directly asserts that the Carthaginian oamp
was on the east bank of the Trebia ; but this view of the situation embarrasses the story with
considerable difficulties. Of these the most serious seems to be the question how Sempronius
was able to effect a junction with Scipio without any opposition from Hannibal, since if the
latter was encamped upon the east bank, the Roman consul, in advancing from the Adriatic
(o join his colleague, must have been comjielL'd to lead his large army " through a country,"
says Dr. Arnold, " unvaried by a single hill," jiast the Carthaginian camp, and well within
range of the incessant reconnoitring of Hannibal's Numidian cavalry. " But so much in war
depends upon trifling accidents," continues Arnold, dismissing the question, " that it is vain to
guess where we are without information. We only know that the two consular armies were
united in Scipio's position on the left (west) bank of the Trebia." Other difficulties connected
with Livy's statement concern the retreat of the Romans after the battle, their crossing and
re-crossing the river, and final taking shelter in I'lacentia. Livy's view has been very gen-
erally accepted, however, by the older writers ; but the modern school, represented by Momm-
sen, frankly discard it, and assert that the phrase of Polybius on which Livy founds his
topography of the battle-ground was misunderstood by the latter author. Says Mommsen :
" Polybius' account of the battle of the Trebia is quite clear. If Placentia lay on the right
bank of the Trebia where it falls into the Po, and if the battle was fought on the left bank
(both of which points have been disputed, but are nevertheless indis]iutablc) " . . . . And
later, " The erroneousness of the view of Livy which transfers the Phoenician camp to the
right and the Roman to the left, has been repeatedly pointed out." If the opinion of
Mommsen be accepted, the march of Sempronius and the Roman retreat are rendered
comprehensible, as will be seen by a reference to the map.]

' According to Polybius, almost all the dead on Hannibal's side were Gauls.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 210. 669

Scipio collected some fugitives, those who had been ;ible to regain
tiie ca,mp. This great success was due to the Numidian cavalry,
at present three times more numerous than that of the legions,'
which had tluown the two wings into disorder, while Mago's
horse threw the main bod}- into confusion by attacking it in tiie
rear.

The defeat at the Ticinus had repulsed the Romans across the Po ;
that of the Trebia repulsed them beyond the Apennines. Except
Placentia,^ Cremona, and Modena, Cisalpine Gaul was lost to them.

So far, Hannibal's plan had succeeded ; and the fame of the late
victory, spreading throughout Cisalpine Gaul, caused the tribes who
had remained undecided at once to send in their allegiance, with
promise of troops for the spring campaign. But while he was
thus opening the route to Rome, Cnaeus Scipio in Spain closed
against Ilasdrubal that into Gaul. Troops sent into Sardinia,
Sicily, Tarentum, garrisons put into all the strong places, and
a fleet of sixty galleys, cut his communications with Carthage.
This caused him little fear, for the Gauls were flocking in crowds
to his standard, and the Italian prisoners, treated kindly, then re-
leased without ransom, were going, so he thought, to gain over
the peoples of the peninsula. Of the two routes which led thither,
though he took the more difficult, yet it was shorter ; and in spite
of the advanced season, he tried to cross the Apennines. A terrible
storm, like those which sometimes burst forth in these mountains,
drove him back. He returned to Cisalpine Gaul and waited, in
the meantime blockading Placentia, for the return of spring.

IV. Thrasimene (217); and Cannae (216).

Napoleon has said, " If you hold North Italy, the rest of
the peninsula falls like a ripe fruit." That was true of his time,

1 Accustomed to fight in a mountainous country, the Romans had only a small force of
cavalry; at the Trebia, 4,000 horse to 3(j,000 foot, or 1 to 9. Hannibal had more than 10,000
to 20,000 foot, or 1 to 2. Napoleon also greatly increased the profiortion of cavalry in the
French armies, and military writers agree in laying down the principle that the cavalry ought
to be to the infantry as 1 to 4, 5, or 6, according to the nature of the ground where they
fight.

' Sempronius, shut up in this city, gained, however, some advantages over Hannibal.
(Livy, xxi. 57, 59.)

070 THE J'lTNIC WARS FROM 2C4 TO 201.

when on both sides of the Apennines all was ripe for a speedy
fall ; but not so in Hannibal's time, because a brave, disciplined
people, resolved on conquest, awaited there the invader behind
the triple ami impregnable rampart of cities surrounded by Cyclo-
pean walls, and coiniectcid with each other by good roads.

The Gauls had reckoned on a rapid expedition, on obtaining
booty ; and it fell to them to feed the army and submit to dis-
cipline. This discontent led to many plots, from which Hannibal
escaped, so it is said, only l)y continual disguises, appearing at one
time as a young man, at another as an old man, and thus baffling
the plots or ins])ii'iiig in thc^se rude minds a sort (jf religious
respect.^ As soon as the cold weather ])roke up he determined
to go into Etruria in search of those legions which had not
dared to dispute Cisalpine Gaul. To deceive them again, he
took the most dillicult route, by plunging into the midst of im-
mense marshes, wlu-re foi- foui- days and tlii'ee nights the army
marclicd in water and nnid. 'Vln) Africans and Spaniards, placed
in the vanguard, passed without serious loss ; but the Gauls, who
followed on ground already beaten in, kept slipping at every step
and falling. Without the cavalry, who followed them close, they
would have retreated ; many perished. Almost all the baggage
and Ijeasts of burden stuck in the mai'sli. Hannibal himself,
mounted on his last elephant, lost an eye by the watchings,
fatigues, and damjmess of the nights.'"* On hsaving these quag-
mires, which were dried up when the Aemilian Way was afterward
laid down, he entered the Apennines, cleared them at the defile of
Pontremoli, and descending into the Valley of the Amo, marched
by Faesulae on Arnitiiuii.

If the Romans, watching all his movements, had come and
attacked him on leaving the marshes or the mountains, they
might have ciheoked his advance. But thv.y did not know how
to make war with this foresight. Encamped under the walls of
Arnitium and Arimim nn„ they patiently awaited the appearance
of the enemy by the usual I'outes, forgetting that the Gauls, eight

^ 'ESokovv BiioTcpas <pva(o>s Xa^fLv. (A[>p. lieli. Ann. (i.)

^ These marslios are generally ])laee(l with Livy to tlie soutli of tlie Apennines in the valley
of the Arno. Micali maintains (2(1 part, eap. xv.) that they were on the otlu^r side of the
inountainH, in the territory of I'arnia and Modena. I'olybius' narrative is not ojiposed to this,
and Strabo (V. i. 11) says so e.xpressly.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 2Ki.

671

years before, had made use of another, which, without the happy
inspiration of the consul Aeniilius, would have led them direct to
Rome. The legions at Arretiiun were commanded by Flaminius,
who as tribune had j^iis^i^^^d an agrarian law ; as consul, had con-
quei'ed in spite of the; augurs ; as censor, had executed some works
of public utility, which were paid for out of moneys which the
tenants of the state forests, pastures, and mines owed to the
treasury, and which, by connivance of the Senate, they often forgot

A. HARUSPEX.'

to pay. The people had just given him. in spite of the nobles,
a second consulate. Recently Flaminius had further increased the
hatred of the nobility against himself by supporting a law which
prohibited any senator having at sea a ship of more burden than
three hundred amphorae?' So to annul his election, the most
sinister presages had appeared ; some contrived by those who had

1 A haruspex consults the entrails and the liver of an ox, which has just been sacrificed,
and seems to be giving account of what they presage. The victimarius holds in his right hand
tlie hatchet (inalleus) with whicli he has struck the victim, and the vessel where he has re-
ceived its blood. Tliis bass-relief is perhaps the only one which shows this ceremony. Museum
of the Tjouvre, Xo. 439 in the Clarac catalogue.

- Livy, x.xi. 63.

672

THE PUNIC WARS FEOM 264 TO 201.

a purpose in producing them, and all accepted by popular credulity,
nay, even by the most serious people.

At Lanuvium, Juno had shaken her lance ; burning stones

had fallen at Praeneste, and meteors had
shone at sea. In the country of Ami-
ternum white phantoms had been seen ;
at Falerii the lots had grown thin,
and on one of them was read, " Mars
brandished his lance." At Caere the
waters had rolled with blood ; at Capena
two moons were seen in the sky. In
Sicily there liad been seen flames on the
points of lances ; in Gaul a wolf had
snatched away a sentinel's sword ; buck-
^^ lers had sweated blood ; ears of corn had
fallen covered with blood luider the sickle,
— foolish fears born of strange beliefs or
frights caused by misunderstood pheno-
mena, and which prove that the human
mind can bring forth silly fancies even
amongst a people the most dispassionate
in the world. In the name of the Senate
the praetor of the city promised rich
offerings to the gods if they would
•'^'^^- preserve the Republic for ten years in

her whilom state ; the matrons dedicated a bronze statue to
the Aventine Juno ; and continual sacrifices, solemn prayers filled
the city and army with superstitious fe^rs. The newly-elected
consul did not take these into consideration. Certain of being
detained at Rome by false auspices,^ he set out secretly from
the city without having been invested at his own house, accord-
ing to custom, with the toga practcxta, the badge of office,
without having put on at the Capitol the paludamentum, or
military robe, or having offered up on the Alban Mount the
dutiful sacrifice to Jupiter Latiaris.

1 After a statue -which is at Rome. (Menard, la Mjth. dans Part ancien el moderne,
fig. 42.)

2 Auspiciis ementiendis . (Livy, xxi. fi3.) The tribune Ilerennius accused the augurs the
year after of pious frauds. (Livy, xxii. 34.)

THE SECOND I'UNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 21 (1.

673

To justify this neglect of the gods and of very old customs,
a victory was necessary. Polybius says that he sought one
with presumptuous impmidence. Yet we see him awaiting in his
(iainp at Arretium Hannibal's attack, and when the Carthaginian,
who, being without siege-train, was able neither to take a city
nor storm a camp, had passed by him, the Roman slowly follows his
enemy, informs his colleague, who sets forth from Ariminum with
all his forces, so that he could hope
to renew the campaign so. happily ter-
minated lately at Telamon. To con-
clude, he was not the assailant at Lake
Thrasimene. But Flaminius was wrong,
and he paid for this witli his life, in not
making a more cautious march, and in
falling blindly into the snare which his
clever adversary laid for him. Hanni-
bal had left behind him the high walls
of Arretium and Cortona, when, 7 miles
south of this latter city, he found him-
self, by going round a spur of the moun-
tains, on the banks of Lake Thrasimene
(Lago di Perugia), a sheet of water
not deep, but 8 miles broad and 10
miles long. On the side where the
road passes, the hills of the Gualandro
{Monies Cortonenses) form a semicircle,
the ends of which gradually fall towards
the lake, near two villages, — Borghetto
on the north, and Tuore on the south.
It is a natural theatre enclosing a little plain, invisible till you
enter it. As the route ran by the side of the lake, Flaminius,
who was pursuing the Punic army, would of necessity be entan-
gled in this snare without means of escape.'^ Hannibal there
awaited him. He placed his heavy infantry at the end of the
plain to close the way to the south, dispersed his slmgers over
the heights and in the hollows of the grovmds, and hid his Numi-

PALUDAMENTUM.l

* After a bas-relief of Trajan's Column.
vol.. I. 43

"... loca nala insidiis. (Livy, xxii. 4.)

674

THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

dians and the Gauls behind the hills which commanded the
northern pass.

Flaminius knew these parts, which he had traversed in order
to join the camp at Arretium ; but military instinct failed him.
There where Hannibal had found a field of battle admirably pre-
pared, lie had seen nothing, except water and heights which

Scale 1: 250.000
., I I

LAKE THKASIMENE.

embarrassed his march. At daybreak, without at all suspecting
the great movement of men which was taking place around him,
he fell into the snare. A thick fog rose from the lake and covered
the plain, whilst on the hills, where the air was quite clear, the
enemy were making, without being perceived, their final arrange-
ments. Suddenly loud cries resounded in the front, rear, and
flank of the Roman army, which was attacked from all sides be-
fore the soldiers could take up their arms and the legions change

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROiM 218 TO 216. G75

from tliL'ir marching oi'der into order of battle. It was a horrible
melee, lasting only three hours, but with such obstinacy, that the
combatants were not aware of an earthquake which at the same
time shook the mountains. Flaminius was slain by an Insubrian
horse-soldier; 15,000 of his men perished; as many were made
prisoners ; very few escaped.^ A stream which crosses the fatal
plain still preserves the remembrance of this great massacre, the
Sanguinetto. Hannibal had lost only fifteen hundred men, almost
all Gauls.^ The next day four thousand horse, sent by the other
consul, fell besides into the midst of the victorious army, and some
days after a fleet of transports, which was carrying munitions
of war to the army of Spain, was captured near Cosa by the
Carthaginians (217).

From Thrasimene to Rome it is only 35 leagues ; the route
was free, for the other consular army, which had just lost all its
cavalry, was still far in the rear of the Carthaginians, and the
Numidians already showed themselves under the walls of Nar-
nia, two days' journey from the Capitol. However, Hannibal did
not think himself strong enough, notwithstanding the destruction
of two armies, to risk a march on the great city. His good
treatment of the Italian prisoners, whom he continued to send
back without ransom, had as yet brought him no advantage. Etru-
ria gave no sign of affection to this friend of the Gauls ; and the
first city that he attacked after Thrasimene, the colony of Spoleto,
victoriously repulsed him.^ Since his departure from Spain, his
troops had had no repose ; he had in his train many wounded
and sick ; men and horses were covered with a leprosy caught in
the marshy encampments in Cisalpine Gaul. To refresh his troops
he led them into the fertile plains of Picenum, had the Numidian
horses washed with old wine,* took care of his wounded, and gorged

> Livy says ten thousand; but Polybius* narrative creates tlie belief that the army was
anniliilated.

2 'Ho-ai/ ol TrXei'ouf KcXrot. (Polyb., iii. 85.)

' The inhabitants of Spoleto have preserved this glorious souvenir in an inscription cut on
one of their gates, of which we give a ]>ir-ture, taken from an engraving in the National
Library, but which is modern.

* 'EkXovoiv Toir naXaioU o'imis. (Polyb., iii. 88). He says elsewhere (ix. 2) that Hannibal
owed all his victories to this formidable cavalry, which the Romans never dared to attack on
level ground.

676 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

his mercenaries with booty. What a singular homage rendered
by the conqueror at Thrasiniene to the military organization of the
Romans : he armed his Libyan infantry with the short sword and
large buckler of the legionaries ! ^

At Rome, after the battle at Trebia, the extent of the disaster
was kept secret ; after that of Thrasimene they did not dare to hide
anything. " We have been beaten in a great battle." These words,
falling on the multitude like an impetuous wind on the Avide sea,
spread consternation. For two days the Senate deliberated without
leaving the senate-house, and provided for everything. The bridges
over the Tiber were broken, the gates and walls put into a state
of defence, projectiles piled up on the ramparts. Not a soldier was
recalled from Sicily, Sardinia, or Spain ; but, as in other moments of
great public danger, it was resolved to concentrate the whole power
in the hands of one chief. The dictator ought lawfully to be
nominated by a consul : Flaminius had perished, and it was im-
possible to communicate with Sempronius. The Senate decided
that the people should be asked to name a pro-dictator. In this
way, while breaking the letter, they kept the spirit of the law ; and
as it was the sovereign power itself that made this modification in
the custom, the citizens owed obedience to the new magistrate ;
the gods, their aid. Rome was at that time admirable for political
good sense. Before the common danger, party spirit was wiped
out ; the people elected as pro-dictator the chief of the nobility,
a member of one of the most famous Roman families, Fabius
Maximus, and the aristocracy accepted, as Master of the Horse,
Minucius, one of the favorites of the multitude. There was
need to persuade the people that it had been conquered simply
from the impiety of Flaminius. Fabius caused the public prayers
and sacrifices to be renewed ; they celebrated a lectisternium
in honor of the twelve gods ; ^ there was vowed to them a
sacred spring, they were promised games, temples ; and a praetor

^ [He ])robably had no other means of replacing those broken or worn out in Italy. — Ed."]
^ The following is the arrangement of the guests at this divine feast : Sex pulvinaria in
■ conspectu fuerunt : Jovi ac Junoni unum, alterum Nepluno ac Minervae, tertium Marti et Veneri,

quartum ApoUini ac Dianae, quintum Vulcano ac Vestae, sexluni Mercurio ac Cereri. (Livy, xxii.

10.) After the example of Roman women, /emi'nae cum viris cubantihus sedentes cocnitabant,

the goddesses being seated in sellas, the gods reclining in lectulum. (Val. Max., II. i. 2.) See

pp. 234 and 3S7.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM' 218 TO L'lfi.

677

was charged witli an exclusive oversight of these numerous
expiations.

-^^/■'-3>

BAS-RELIEF OF THE AI.TAR OF THE TWELVE GODS.'

For the " sacred spring," which the sibyUine books had de-
manded, the Pontifex Maximus ordered that the following question

1 We have brought together in one ])late the three sides of the monument, in whicli are
represented : in the upper register, the Twelve Months, symbolized by twelve divinities (Nos.
1, 3, 4); in the lower, the Graces, who give the pleasures of life (No. 2) ; the Seasons, who
promise abundance (No. 5) ; the Eumenides, who assure the execution of the decrees of divine
justice (No. ()). The woodcut on p. 678 gives one of these sides. The numbers 1 and 2 are

678

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 1301.

should be put to the people : " If five years from now the Roman
people of the Quirites come prosperously out of this war, are you
willing, do you order that there be made to Jupiter an offering
of all that the spring shall have produced, — of pigs, sheep, goats,
and oxen, to commence from a day fixed by the Senate and
people ? " The proposition having been accepted, every citizen felt

himself legally bound to
fulfil this vow at the
appointed time. Yet
the chief priest took
care to enumerate the
cases in which the
sacrifice would not be

" legitimate," in order
that the Roman people
might not be responsible
for any irregularities
towards the gods, and
that the latter should
be obliged to keep the
agreement which the
priests had just con-
cluded in their name. For them, homage, honor ; for Rome,
victory ; and they would have willingly said to their gods as
the Arragonese did to their kings : " If not, no."

We are surprised that Hannibal after Thrasimene did not
attempt to crush the other consular army. On the banks of the
Po he had not taken the fortresses by which Rome guarded

ALTAR OF THE TWELVE GODS.'

there explained. In No. 3 are seen : ApoUo, whom one would take, from his costume, for a
goddess ; Diana with her bow ; Vulcan holding his pliers, but having nothing of the character
which tradition assigns him ; Minerva armed with a lance. In No. 4, Mars, Venus, Mercury,
and Vesta. In No. 5 are the three Seasons, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, recognizable by the
flowering branch, by the vine-stock, and the ear of corn which they are carrying ; in No. (i the
Enmenides have the sceptre surmounted by the pomegranate flower, the symbol of their power,
and the left hand open to signify that they are always ready to obey Destiny. M. Frohner
(Notice de la Sculpture antique du Musee national du Louvre) regards this tripod base as a rural
calendar. In any case these bass-reliefs form a little mythological poem.

1 Large triangular base of a tripod, called the Altar of the Twelve Gods, in the Louvre
Museum. Above, Jupiter armed with the thunderbolt and the head turned towards Juno ; on
the left of Juno, Neptune or the ocean, and Ceres or the earth ; below the three Graces. See
the other faces on the preceding page.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 210. 679

Cisalpine Gaul. Satisfied with crushing whatever attempted to
stop his march forwards, he showed no concern for what he left
in his rear. The reason is that he was in haste to reach South
Italy, in the midst of peoples wdium he thought disposed to join
him, near Sicily, which he hoped to urge into revolt, not far from
Greece, Sixain, and Africa, witli which lie wished to secure easy
and sure communications. Whilst he was reaching the Adriatic,
whence he despatched a vessel to Carthage which conveyed the
first news thither of his astounding succes-ses, Sempronius crossed the
Apennines and came down the valley of the Tiber as far as Ocricu-
lum, where he effected a junction with the dictator's army.

Fabius, at the head of four legions, went in search of Han-
nibal, who had followed the Adriatic coast into Apulia, in the
hope of raising revolt in Magna Graecia as he had done in Cisalpine
Gaul. On his march he had committed frightful ravages without
detaching a single ally from Rome ; for, at the head of his numerous
Cisalpine auxiliai'ies, he seemed to. be really at the head of one of
those Gallic invasions so feared by the Italians. The savage aspect
of his Africans frightened the inhabitants. He was accused of
feeding his soldiers on human flesh,^ and he was regarded as
making a sacrilegious war^ against the gods of Italy. Except
Tarentum, too humiliated not to desire the abasement of Rome, all
the Greeks offered up vows for the defeat of the Carthaginians,
their old enemies. Those of Naples and Paestum sent gold from
their temples to the Senate, who accepted only a very small part, in
order that the public treasure might seem to have inexhaustible re-
sources, and that this confidence might increase the fidelity of their
allies. Hiero, sure of Rome's good fortune, even after Thrasi-
mene, offered a gold statue of Victory of 320 lbs. weight, a
thousand archers or slingers, three hundred thousand bushels of
corn, two hundred thousand bushels of barley, and promised to send

' See the j)icture that Varro paints of tliis " ferocious and savage army, which makes
bridges and ditc-hes witli lieaps of dead bodies, and feeds on human (lesh." But it is Livy
(xxiii. o) wlio tlius sj)eaUs. We should therefore beUeve that he gives us words for facts, if
' Polybius had not said that one of Hannibal's generals had advised him to habituate his soldiers
to this kind of food [which does not make it the least more credible]. We know, besides, with
what cruelty the .\fricans make war. Cf. Horace, Carm. IH. vi. 3G : Annihalemrjiie. diruiii ; and
Eprxl. xvi. 8. [The story is worth citing, to show what credulity may be attributed to the
historians of the period. — A'rf.]

'^ Vastata Poenorum tumullu fana. (Hor., Carm. IV. iv. 47.) Cf. Livy, .\xviii. 46; Cicero,
de Dwin.' i. 24 ; Polyb., iii. 33.

680

THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

victuals in abundance wherever the armies should have need
of them. Fabius had struck out a new plan of campaign : to
cause all, both men and jDrovisions, to be housed in the fortified

places, to lay waste
the level country,
and refuse everywhere
to fight, but follow
the enemy, step by
step, fall upon his
foragers, cut off his
provisions, harass him
ceaselessly, destroy
him in detail. Han-
nibal, — without place
of retreat, without
allies, money, sure

convoys, and with
mercenaries who,
seeking in war only
for pleasure and the
booty of the day after
victory, are always
ready to cry out :
"Discharge or
battle!"^ — could not
for long stand against
these prudent tactics
of Fabius Maximus.
Vainly Hannibal rav-
aged under his eyes
Daunia, Samnium, and Campania ; Fabius followed him on the
mountains, hidden in the clouds and mists, insensible as well to
the insults of the enemy as to the raillery of his soldiers.^ One
day, however, Hannibal, deceived by his guides, became involved

1 Like the Swiss mercenaries in the Italian wars of Louis XII. and of Francis I.

^ Statue in the JNIuseum of the Louvre, called the Victory of Brescia.

' Cic, de Senecl. iv. 1 7 (the expression is from Ennius) : Non rumores ponebat ante
salutem. In a similar spirit Clisson said to Charles V. when, from the top of the towers of
the Louvre, he gazed at the ravages of the English : " All this fire and smoke will not cause
you to lose your heritage."

y.'iii&w^

VICTOKY.

THE SECOND TUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 21G. G81

near Casilinum, at the bottom of a valley closed by impracticable
marshes. Fabius seized the heights, fell on the rear-guard of the
Carthaginians, who lost eight hundred men, and held the only
entrance with a mnnerous body of men. Hannibal was caught.
In the midst of the night he drove towards the heights two
thousand oxen, bearing on their horns burning faggots ; and the
guard of the defile, thinking that the enemy was fleeing in that
direction, left their post, which Hannibal immediately took posses-
sion of. This peril was past ; but, with the vigilance of the
Roman general, it might retiirn. Fortunately for Hannibal, the
Romans were indignant at what they called a shameful timidity,
and, as the Carthagmians intentionally spared the lands of Fabius,
there were suggestions of treason.

In vain did he put his estate up for sale to ransom prisoners ;
the people, carried away by a slight success which the cavalry
general gained in his absence, gave Minucius an authority equal
to that of the pro-dictator. Fabius divided the army with him.

and Minucius, being too weak, was beaten at the first encounter
near Larinum. He would have perished,
had not Fabius descended from the
heights to save him. " At last the cloud
which covered the mountain has burst,
then," said Hannibal, " and produced rain
and storm. " Mmucms came of his own

accord to place himself again under the orders of his old leader,
and when the dictator quitted office at the end of six months,
the affahs of the Republic appeared to be in a prosperous con-
dition. At Rome one of his nephews dedicated a temple to a
new divinity, Intelligence (mens), and Ennius consecrated his
memory by the famous verse which Vergil borrowed from him :
" Who, alone, by delay retrieved our state." ^

For a moment a coalition of the whole West had been dreaded.
But in Spain a number of tribes passed over to the side of the

1 On the obverse, veiled head of Juno; on the reverse, LARINON, V. and a dolphin.
The two oo's are the mark of the sextans. Small bronze coin of Larinum.

2 Nubcm . . . cum procella hnhrem dedisse. (Livy, xxii. 30.)

' But Vergil does not repeat the second versi; (tmoted on last page), which he should
also have transcribed : " For he did not value rumor above our safety." This verse is more
important than the other, for it marks one of the most necessary qualities in a leader.

682 THE PUNIC WARS FROM 264 TO 201.

Romans ; in Gallia Cisalpina the Gauls, satisfied at finding them-
selves free again, forgot Hannibal and Carthage itself, which only
sent a few vessels to commit piracies on their coast, whence the
fleets of Sicily and Ostia quickly drove them away. A Roman
squadron which was returning from pursuing them as far as Africa
had taken the Island Cossura (Pantellaria), and levied on Cercina
a heavy war contribution. Everywhere, except in front of Han-
nibal, the Romans assumed the offensive and took bold measures.
Otacilius, the praetor of Sicily, had orders to pass over into
Africa ; the Scipios received succors ; Postumius Albinus with an
army kept watch over the Cisalpine Gauls ; and aml^assadors had
been sent to Philip of Macedon to require the extradition of Deme-
trius of Pharos, who was urging him to war ; to Pineus, king of
Illyria, to claim the tribute which he delayed paying ; and to the
Ligurians, to demand an accomit of the lielj) furnished by them to
the Carthaginians.^ There is something grand in this activity of
the Senate, paying attention to the most distant countries in the
midst of a formidalile war carried on at the very gates of the city,
and never permitting the fortune or the power of Rome to be
doubted for an instant. This Senate, which was so proud towards
the foreigner, showed a conciliating temper with the people ; it
reminded all of the necessity of mutual confidence by raising
a new temple to Concord, and placed it within the bounds
of the citadel,^ in order that eveiy one should understand that
the strength of Rome depended on the spirit inspired by this
divinity.

The consuls who commanded the army in the last months of
217, after the abdication of Fabius, followed the dictator's tactics ;
and this wise delay would doubtless have ruined Hannibal. But
could the rulers of Italy, vmder the eyes of their allies and with
superior forces, always decline battle ? Sempronius and Varro
are condemned after the event. The defeats of Trebia and
Cannae weigh upon their memory. Yet the people, the army,
and perhaps the true policy^ demanded a battle. The Senate
itself decided upon it. But there was needed an able and ex-

' Livy, xxii. 33. ^ In arce. (Livy, xxii. 33.)

3 Before Cannae the leaders of the army write to the Senate : tSiv (Tvniiax<^v Travruv
^€Tfco/jci)f oin-iov ToLS diavotats. (Polyb., iii. 107.)

THE SECOJSD FUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216.

683

perienced leadei- ; and though the nobility managed to obtain the
election of Paulus Aoniilius, a pupil of Fabius, who had already
distinguished himself in the Illyrian wars, the popular party gave
him as colleague its leader, Terentius Varro, the son of a butcher,
who had never seen a battle.^ Union was necessary between the

KvmL

RUINS OF CANXAE.-

leaders, and Paulus Aemilius and Varro, who were political gnemies,^
continued their quarrels in the army, the one alwaj^s wishing to
fight, the other to delay. As the command alternated every day
between the two consuls, Varro led the army so near the enemy
that retreat was impossible ; and on the next day but one, in the
morning he had the purple mantle, the signal for the fight, dis-

1 [Nevertheless, Livy tells us liis father had made money, and the consul had reached his
consiJate through the regular promotion, having been quaestor, aedile, an<] praetor, without
displaying any incompetence. — Ed.]

^ The arch, of which the remains are seen, is wrongly called the Arch of Varro.

" I pass over in silence the declamations of Varro and Ilercnnius on the treason of the
nobles, who were anxious to spin out the war. At this period the reproach is absurd ; twenty
vears later it is true.

684 THE PUJSriC WAllS FROM 264 TO 201.

played before his tent. He had eighty thousand infantry,^ and,
notwithstanding the remembrance of the three battles already lost,
only six thousand horse. In an army of fifty thousand men, Han-
nibal had ten thousand.'^ His forces were only half those of the
consuls ; but he had led them to a battle-field of his own choosing,
at Cannae in Apulia, near the Aufidus, in the middle of an im-
mense plain, which was favorable to his cavalry, and in a position
where the sun, shming in the faces of the Romans, and the wind,
carrying the dust against their line, fought for him.

In this level plain an ambuscade appeared impossible. But
five hundred Numidians presented themselves as deserters, and
during the action they fell upon the rear of the Roman army. At
Cannae, as at Thrasimene and at Trelaia, the smaller number sur--
rounded the greater. In order to offer more resistance to the
cavalry, Varro had diminished the extent of his line and increased
its depth. By this arrangement many soldiers became useless.
Hannibal, on the contrary, gave his army a front equal to that of
the enemy, and drew it up in a crescent, so that the centre, com-
posed of Gaids, projected from his line of battle. Behind them
the African veterans were drawn up along the curve, the two
extremities of which extended to the cavalry on the two wings.
Whilst the Romans attacked the Gauls with fury, and the latter,
led by Hannibal himself, were slowly falling back upon the
second line, Hasdrubal,^ with his Gaulish and Spanish horsemen
drawn up in deep masses, crushed the legionary cavalry on the
left, and Mago with his Numidians routed the allies on the
right. Leaving the Numidians to pursue and slay those who
had not fallen at the first shock, Hasdrubal attacked in the
rear the Roman infantry, which the Africans, by the backward

1 Ten thousand were left in the two consular camps.

2 Livy jnirposely exaggerates the critical position of Hannibal before the battle. He had,
says he, only ten da}s' provisions. The Spaniards, threatened with famine, were ready to
betray him, and Hannibal was already thinking how to reach Gaul. There is nothing of all
this in Polybius (iii. 107), who speaks of him as making immense magazines at Geronium, of
which he had gained possession, and as having taken, a few days before the battle, the castle
of Cannae, in which the Romans had their supplies of provisions, arms, and engines. It was
the cai)ture of Cannae, indeed, which decided the Senate to allow a battle. Moreover, with

'his cavalry Hannibal would always have found provisions.

8 [Not Hannibal's brother, who still remained in Spain, but an officer of great abihty who
at this time had the chief direction of military works.]

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR FROM 218 TO 216. 685

movement of the Gauls, had already taken in flank. The eighty
thousand Romans, shut in on all sides, soon formed only a
confused mass, on which every blow told, and which could
give few in return.^ By the account of Polybius, seventy-two
thousand Romans and allies, with one of the consuls, Paulus
Aemilius, who had refused to fly, two quaestors, eighty senators,
some ex-consuls, among them Minucius, and one of the consuls
of the preceding year, twenty-one legionar}^ tribunes, and finally a
whole crowd of knights, were left on the field of battle (Aug.
2, 216). The Roman nobility liberally paid their debt of blood
to their countiy. Hannibal had not lost six thousand men, of
whom four thousand were Gauls. This nation was the instru-
ment of all his victories.^ A prediction of this great defeat was
afterward attributed to a famous diviner, Marcius, who lived
before the Second Punic War. " Roman, son of Troy, avoid the
River Canna ; beware lest strangers force thee to join battle in
the field of Diomede. But thou wilt not believe me till thou
hast filled the country with thy blood ; till thy citizens have
fallen by thousands, and the river bearing them far from the
fruitful land has given them up for food for the fowls of the air,
for the wild beasts on its banks and the fishes of the vast sea.
Thus has Jupiter spoken to me."

This prophecy, more precise than those which precede the
event, satisfied the national pride, and at the same time served
the policy of the Senate, whose interest it was that men should
believe in oracles. Rome was willing to see in her defeat not
a failing in courage, but a decree of destiny ; she attributed
the victory to the gods much more than to Hannibal, and she
strengthened a precious instrument of government, faith in divina-
tion, by leading men to think that the diviner had foreseen the
future.

1 These are the figures given by Polyl)ii'.s. T^ivy only says 48,200 dead, and 24,900
prisoners. He raises to 8,000 the number of Hannibal's dead, which Polybius reduces to
5,700. [This victory, like most others won in a fair field against superior numbers, was won
by making the enemy " jam " himself, — a fatal mistake. As soon as troops, however good,
get so crowded as to have no room for their evolutions, they become a mere helpless mass.
To make an enemy far superior in numbers thus paralyze his forces is the art. of a consummate
tactician. — Ed.]

* [Though the Gauls often bore the brunt of the battles, and incurred most loss, there is no
doubt that the Sjianish infantry and the African veterans were the flower of the army. — Ed.']

(386 THE PUNIC WAES FROM 264 TO 201.

The battle of Cannae deprived the Romans of more strength
than it gave Hannibal. Some tribes of Campania and Magna
Graecia declared for him, but on condition of according him fewer
men and smaller subsidies than they had furnished to Rome ; ^ and
Carthage, which looked upon this bold expedition only as a useful
diversion, left him to his own resources.^ Enfeebled even by his
victories, he would be obliged to divide his forces if he would pro-
tect the towns which had just yielded themselves to him. He
would thus have an army too weak to renew the strife of Thrasimene
and Cannae. Moreover, the consuls, rendered prudent by experi-
ence, would place the safety of the Repul^lic in following Fabius'
system. Strange to say, war on a large scale is ended in Italy
after the battle of Cannae. Henceforth there is nothing but sieges
of towns, stratagems, many attacks and combats without results.
In this war of strategy Hannibal shows himself the ablest leader
of ancient times. But the contest has no longer more than a
secondary interest, except for the grandeur of the spectacle pre-
sented by this man, abandoned l)y his own country, in the midst of
a hostile people, face to face with the bravest and best-organized
nation then in existence, and who, nevertheless, was able for thirteen
years to master the insubordination of his mercenaries, to keep alive
the precarious fidelity of his allies, to furnish occupation for Rome's
best troops ; besides all this, to stir up the world with his negotia-
tions, to excite revolt in Syracuse, Sicily, Sardinia, and to call his
brother from Spain, and Philip from Macedon, to join him in Italy,
that he might crush Rome with the united weight of Africa and
Europe hurled upon her.^

' . . . neve civis Cmnpanus invitwi jnilitaret munusve faceret. (Treaty of Capua witli Han-
nibal, Livy, xxiii. 7.) . . . iiriri (popovs wpd^fcrdai. Kara iMTjSeva Tpoirov, fiijTC t'lKKo p-rfhiv f'm-
Ta^eiv Tapavrlvois Kapx^r)8ovtovs. (Treaty of Hannibal with Tarentum, Polybius, viii. 29.)

2 He received only ten tliousand men from it during the whole war.

^ " If I were asked," says Polybius, " who was the soul of this war, I shoidd say Hannibal."
(i-x. fr. 7.) Here we luifortuuately lose tliis conscientious historian. After the battle of
Cannae there only remain fr,agments of him.

END OF VOL. I.