F. R. Cowell, Cicero and the Roman Republic

CICERO AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC BY F. R.

COWELL

PENGUIN BOOKS BALTIMORE

*

MARYLAND

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex U.S.A.: Pengum Books Inc, 3300 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore 11, AUSTRALIA : Penguin Books Pty Ltd, 762 Whitehorse Road,

Mitcham, Victoria

First published 1948

Published in Pelican Books 1956

Second Pelican edition 1962

Made and

printed in Great Britain

by C. Nicholls

& Company

Ltd

Collogravure plates printed by Harrison Sons Ltd

&

This book that

it

is

sold subject to the condition

shall not,

by way of

trade,

be

lent,

re-sold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent,

In any form of binding or cover other than that in which It

is

published

Md

^

* vJ,

CONTENTS '

"7

*'

J-

/

LIST OF PLATES

vi

k

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS

LIST OF

FOREWORD

1.

xi

PREFACE

xii

INTRODUCTION

xv

ROME TAKES THE LEAD Traditions of Early

IN ITALY: 753-265 B.C. Rome ~ The Golden Age of the Roman

1

- Roman Citizenship and the Beginnings of International - The Romans Consolidate Their Position in Italy

Republic Relations 2.

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

IN THE

MEDITERRANEAN:

28

264-201 B.C. The First Punic War - The Second Punic War - Wars and Beginnings of the Empire - The Roman Army 3.

in the East,

THE ROMAN FARMER

52

Antiquity and Social Prestige of Agriculture

-

Nature - The Second Punic War and cultural

*New Dear Required -

Its

Changing

-

An Agriits Aftermath Failure of the Agricultural

Reformers 4.

ROMAN INDUSTRY: TRADE, MONEY AND COMMUNICATIONS

78

Metal Industries - Precious Metals - Building - City Industries Public Works - The Money System - Wages and Cost of Living The Corn Dole - Incomes - The Business Men - Maritime Commerce and Communications Roman Roads 5.

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND THE SENATE The Senate,

6.

its

THE ROMAN PEOPLE AND THE POPULAR ASSEMBLIES Patricians versus Plebeians

Roman 7

131

Origin, Powers, Procedure and Influence

- The Comitia - Democracy

144

in the

Republic

THE MAGISTRATES

165

The Consuls - The Censors - The Quaestors - The Praetors and the Development of Roman Law - The Dictator - The Curule Aediles - Tribunes of the People 8.

179

RELIGIOUS OFFICIALS Priestly 'Colleges*

- The

Sibylline

Books - The Augurs

CONTENTS

Vl 9.

10.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AS A WORKING CONCERN

187

THE SUBSTANCE OF ROMAN POLITICS

192

The Twelve Tables - Social Cleavage - The

Optimates -

Legislation

11.

PUBLIC WELFARE AND PRIVATE AMBITIONS

205

Era of Political Stability - Era of Stress and Growing Tension Reformers and Demagogues - The Social War 90-89 B.C. Marius and Sulla - Sulla's Reforms 12.

THE LADDER OF FAME

IN

ROME

219

The Prestige of Politics - Cicero's Early Political Career Pompey and Crassus - Cicero as Aedile and Praetor - How to Win an Election in Rome - Cicero as Consul - Catiline 13.

THE DUEL OF POMPEY AND CAESAR AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 236 Manoeuvring for Position - The First Triumvirate - Riots in Cicero Exiled - Chaos and Confusion in Rome - Caesar Crosses the Rubicon - Caesar the Dictator - Caesar's Failure 9 Cicero s Last Stand -The Second Triumvirate and the Murder of

Rome -

Cicero 14.

THE REPUBLICAN TRADITION

IN CICERO'S

Cato the Censor and the Parting of the Ways the Old Order 15.

DAY

THE ROMAN ARISTOCRACY

280

the Optimates - The Profits of Empire Life of a Roman Politician - The Private Life of a

Cicero

and

270

- Breakdown of

The Private Young Man

About Town 16.

THE CULTURAL LIFE OF ROME

310

Education - Literature - Medicine and Surgery - General Science 17.

THE COMMON PEOPLE

326

The Wretched Starveling Mob - Low State of Public Health The Organization of Lab&ur - Low Social Status of Workers Poor Reputation of Business Men and Financiers - Personal Religion of the Romans - Public Religion - Cicero on the Good Life

18.

-

Cicero on

Roman Law

THE SICKNESS OF ROMAN SOCIAL LIFE The Changed Social Outlook - A Policy of

356 Reform - The

Economic Problem - The Political Problem - Failures in Loyalty and Leadership - A Statesman's Manual - The Verdict of

History

BIBLIOGRAPHY

333

INDEX

3gg

LIST OF PLATES L INSCRIBED BUST OF CICERO*

Wellington

Museum, Apsley

House London 9

2. (a)

PLOUGH AND CART WITH OXEN,

SHEEP, GOATS, AND New York MARBLE RELIEF SHOWING BRONZE BUCKET* Museo

PIGS. Metropolitan Museum, (b)

Nazionale, Naples (c) 3. (a)

BRONZE BUCKET* Museum, Bonn

ROMAN ENGINEERING: PONS MULVIUS. from R. Delbruck,

(6) 4.

Hellenistische

ROMAN WARSHIPS.

Reconstruction

Bauten in Latium

Museo Nazionale, Naples

GRAECO-ROMAN VILLAS ON A WATERFRONT.

House of

Lucretius Pronto, Pompeii

5 a (a)

VIEW FROM ATRIUM INTO PERISTYLIUM.

Villa

of the

Dionysiac Mysteries, near Pompeii (b)

ATRIUM WITH IMPLUVIUM IN THE FOREGROUND. House of Lucretius Pronto, Pompeii

6. (a)

'CAVE CANEM' (BEWARE OF THE J}&). Museo Nazionale, Naples

(b)

BRONZE TABLE ON MOSAIC FLOOR. House

of Paquius

Proculus9 Pompeii 7. (a)

(b)

MULES' HEADS CAST IN BRONZE. Metropolitan Museum, New York IRON CHEST STUDDED WITH BRONZE NAILS. Museo Nazionak, Naples

8.

BRONZE PORTABLE STOVE OR WATER-HEATER. Museo Nazio-* nales Naples

9. (a)

(b) 10. (a)

LAMP FOR SEVEN LIGHTS. British Museum, London CLAY STORAGE JARS. House of Menander, Pompeii MOULD FOR GLAZED RED POTTERY BOWL, ARRETINE WARE.

(b) 11. (a)

Metropolitan Museum,

CLAY STAMP,

WORK

IN A

Metropolitan

New York

Museum^ New York

ROMAN BAKERY.

Relief on the tomb shown on

Plate 12

12.

(b) GRAIN MILLS AND BAKING STOVE. Pompeii TOMB OF THE BAKER MARCUS VERGILIUS EURYSACES, Near

13. (a)

(b) 14. (a)

(b)

the Porta Maggiore, Rome PUBLIC TAVERN. Via di Mercuric, Pompeii A FULLER'S WORKSHOP. Pompeii SOLDIERS RECEIVING RELEASE, Reliefadjoining (b) and (c) and(c) SACRIFICE OF THE SuovETAURiLiA I0wre Pam B

9

LIST OF PLATES

VH1 15. (a)

ROMAN DRAPER'S STOLES.

(b)

SELLING CUSHIONS AND

SHOP: SELLING A LENGTH OF CLOTH.

Florence

PAVED STREET WITH FOUNTAINS AND STEPPINGSTONES.

16. (a)

of Abundance Pompeii

Street

17. (a)

SHOP:

Florence

ROMAN DRAPER'S Uffizi,

(b)

Uffizi,

>

STEPPING STONES AND CARRIAGE RUTS AT STREET CROSSING. Via di Stabiae and Street of Abundance, Pompeii FOUNTAIN AT ENTRANCE TO THE MARKET. Foro, Trian~ golare 9 Pompeii

(b)

CLOACA MAXIMA, THE MAIN SEWER OF ANCIENT ROME,

18. (a)

Outlet into the Tiber

ROMAN AQUEDUCT: AQUA MARCIA AT PONTE LUPO, East elevation drawn by F, G. Newton for Thomas Ashby's

Roman Aqueducts ARCHES OF THE AQUEDUCT OF CLAUDIUS.

(b)

In the

Roman

Campagna 19. (a)-(h)

BRONZE COINAGE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

Museum, London (fy4k) SILVER COINAGE OF THE Museum, London (!)

ROMAN

REPUBLIC.

GOLD COIN OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

British

British

British

Museum^

London 20.

AES GRAVE: BRONZE BAR WITH FIGURE OF BULL.

British

Museum, London 21. (a) (b)

A YOUNG ROMAN. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen A YOUNG ROMAN LADY. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copen* hagen

ELDERLY ROMAN LAJ>v.Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen OLD ROMAN. Ny Carlsberg Gfyptotek, Copenhagen ROMAN CITIZEN WITH THE BUSTS OF His ANCESTORS, Palazzo Barberini, Rome AUREHUS HERMIA. (a) TOMBSTONE OF THE BUTCHER

22. (a) (b)

23.

24.

British (b)

Museum, London

ANCESTOR WORSHIP: ALTAR OF THE PARENTES. House ofMenander, Pompeii

25. (a)

LAR,

GOD OF THE HOUSE.

British

Museum, London

26. (a)

CEREMONIAL MOURNING OF A LADY. Lateran, Rome A ROMAN ACCOUNT BOOK FROM POMPEII. Reconstruc-

(b)

SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS FROM PoMPBiLAfuseo Naziowde*

(b)

tion from

Nobles

Pompeii, by Overbeck and Mau

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS

LIST OF 27.

IX

POMPEY THE GREAT. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen FOUR SILVER DENARII. British Museum, London ROMAN GARDEN WITH FOUNTAIN. Metropolitan Museum, New York

28. (a)-(d) 29.

30.

DIONYSIAC MYSTERIES.

Detail

of fresco

in

the

Villa

of the

Dionysiac Mysteries, near Pompeii 31.

A ROMAN

32. (a) (b)

TEMPLE, PROBABLY DEDICATED TO MATER MATUTA. Rome RACING CHARIOT. British Museum, London AMPHITHEATRE FOR GLADIATORS AND ANIMAL FIGHTS*

Pompeii

Acknowledgement

is

made to

the following for permission

to reproduce photographs: Messrs^Alinari, Florence, for Plates 6a

and

b, 7b, 8,

9b lla and b s 13b, 15a and b, 17b s 5

23,24b, 30; Messrs Anderson,

Rome, for Plates 5a,

18b, 31;

Messrs Mansell for Plates 16b and 26a; Les Archives Photographiques, Paris, for Plates 14a to c; The Trustees of the British

Museum

for Plates 9a, 19, 20, 24a, 25a, 32a;

Messrs Brogi, Florence, for Plates 16a, 26b; The Clarendon Press, Oxford, Istituto

17a;

and Dr

I.

A. Richmond

Geografico de Agostini,

The Metropolitan Museum, and

2a, 7a, lOa

b,

Plates 4, 5b, 32b;

29;

Ny

Mr

Rome,

New

for Plate 18a;

for Plates 13a,

York, for Plates

Ernest Nash,

New

York, for

Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen,

and b, 22a and b, 27; The Director of and Albert Museum and the Keeper of the

for Plates 21a

the Victoria

Wellington

Museum

LIST OF Specially

Rome:

Allies,

for Plate 1.

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS

drawn for

this edition

by Donald Sell-Scott

Enemies, and Neighbours, 298 B.C. in the Age of Cicero

The Roman World

Road Map

of Italy in Cicero's Time, Inset:

of Central Italy

22-3

42

Rock Formations 124-5

TO THE MEMORY OF

MY MOTHER AND FATHER

FOREWORD WITH

the beginning of the year 1959 Cicero's fame entered its is given to few human beings to remain a

twenty-first century. It figure of interest,

still

remembered and still admired, two thousand

years after their death, but such is the singular quality of Cicero that he with Julius Caesar alone among the Romans of the

Republic have so far evoked such commemoration. By this tribute of remembrance to two outstanding personalities of the ancient world, the twentieth century testifies also to a sustained interest in the tremendous drama of the crash of the

Roman The

Republic in which they both lost their lives. bimillenaries of Julius Caesar and of Cicero serve to

attention once

more

to the early

Roman way

of

life

and

draw

to the

great story of the rise, decline, and fall of that Republican form of government under which the Romans conquered the world.

What ago,

Polybius said about

and a century

climax, it

it

two thousand one hundred years it had worked out to its tragic

at least before

may still explain something of the magic that has enabled

to engross the attention of

mankind ever

since he confessed to

enthralling interest. 'Can anyone be so indifferent or idle', he asked, 'as not to care to know by what means and under what

its

kind of polity, almost the whole inhabited world was conquered and brought under the dominion of the single city of Rome, and that too within a period of not quite fifty-three years?* To that great theme this small work is devoted. It has now

been once more revised and I hope somewhat improved in one or two details so that it may continue to serve as an introduction to the story of the rise and fall of the Roman Republic as it is seen from the perspectives of our own day and from those offered

by the

life,

times and opinions of

Marcus

Tullius Cicero.

RICHARD COWELL November 1961

THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION To

tell

once more the story of an

mankind so It

has been

that any

earlier

period of the history of

may come alive in the minds of those who read the motive inspiring so much good work in the past that

it

new attempt necessarily seems

to require

a considerable

defence and apology.

The

best justification

portant

would no doubt be

new facts throwing fresh

light

upon

days. Unfortunately the history of the

the discovery of im-

the events of bygone

Roman Republic has

not

by epoch-making novelties that still remain among a scholar's dreams, The lost books of Livy have not yet been found,, Unless the sands of Egypt or the dust of Herculaneum still conceal valuable papyri, parchments or inscriptions on stone or bronze from that vast amount of Latin writing that seems to have yet benefited

disappeared for ever, or unless

modem

marvels of infra-red

photography reveal more of the text of classical authors obliterated from vellum or parchment to make a clean page for monkish

Middle Ages, the probability of modifying in any manner what we believe to be the story of the rise 5 the development and the collapse of the Roman Republic now seems scribes in the

substantial

faint

mdeed.

Nevertheless many writers in the last hundred years have that the old record can be seen in a

new

light

shown when re-interpreted

from a fresh point of view. Several pages would be required to pay homage to the distinguished scholars, from Niebubi and

Mommsen in the nineteenth century to Professors Tenney Frank and Hugh Last in our own day, upon whom all others who write on the subject must necessarily and heavily depend. They have shown that the history of the Roman Republic cannot be regarded as a dead and static story to be repeated without change from one generation to another. Unlike mere compilers of manuals, they have proved that it can be made a living

story able to illuminate the workings of the behaviour of men in society.

human spirit and

the

Inspired by their example I have sought to interpret the fascinating story of the Roman Republic in the light of a special interest in the operation of economic, political and social forces - but not s

PREFACE I

trust,,

Xffl

to the neglect or undue subordination of

all

that which,

in the art of war, in literature, art, general science, building

and

engineering, has so long and so justly been regarded as among the achievements upon which the fame of Rome securely

civil

rests.

For the text I alone of course am answerable, but the burden of so formidable a responsibility has been notably lessened by Harold Mattingly and Ronald Syme, each of whom has read the proofs and saved me from many blunders. Such, however, is the authority they both command in Roman Studies, and so far do I fall short of their high standards of scholarship, that I should ill

repay their generosity and kindness by trying to get credit for my own wares through the authority and trust their names inspire. In the United States the book appears with an introduction by Professor Allan Nevins, who thereby increases my debt to him for many kindnesses begun during the war years when he shared in the dangers and inconveniences of war-time London - when, I

perhaps add, this book was begun as an occupation in the black-out and during frequent air-raids.

may

RICHARD COWELL February 1948

IN reprinting the above preface

I

have omitted a reference to

my

Dr Otto

Neurath, and to the Isotype Institute which he founded, because the present Penguin edition does not contain the coloured Isotype charts which were included

indebtedness to the late

hope that they would give greater clarity to the account of the following topics:

in the 1948 edition in the

and precision

The Geology of Central Italy The Growth of Roman Territory The Expansion of Roman Power in Italy The Growth of Plebeian Power in Rome The Roman World in the Age of Cicero The Political Organization of Italy Rome's Near Neighbours and Allies, 298 B.C* The Lost Literature of Rome The Expansion of Roman Power in the Mediterranean

PREFACE

Xiv

Conjectural Composition of the Age of the Republic

Roman Army in the Heroic

A Legion in Battle Order - Heroic Age Conjectural Composition of the Cicero

Roman Army in the Age of

A Legion in Battle Order - Age of Cicero The Machinery of Government in Rome, 150 B.C. The Machinery of Government under Julius Caesar* 45 The Machinery of Government in Britain, 1948

B.C.

Readers interested in what is believed to be the first attempt to apply a novel form of visual aid to the study of the history of

Rome

are accordingly referred to the earlier edition of this book published in the United Kingdom by Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd and in the United States of America by Chanticleer Press Inc.,

New York.

Line drawings in black and white are however provided in this edition as well as the full series of 32 pages of photogravure plates

The technical planning and production of was undertaken by Messrs Adprint Ltd.

originally reproduced.

the

first

edition

FROM THE FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION IN THE PELICAN SERIES 1956 The addition of this work to the Pelican Series has provided an opportunity to correct errors and to attempt one or two other improvements, some of which were suggested by critics and reviewers of the first edition, to all of whom I am most grateful both for

this aid

To none do

I

and for

their

generous welcome to the book. to the Principal of Brasenose

owe more than

Dr Hugh Last. My general indebtedness to him, common with all who study or write upon the history of

College, Oxford,

shared in

Rome, and

so briefly acknowledged in

edition of this book, has

my

preface to the

now become much

greater

first

and more

he has most generously found time to send me a of detailed corrections, criticisms, and comments which I had no right to expect, but from which I have done my best to specific, for

series

profit.

In rechecking the calculations based upon Roman weights and measures I have been helped by Mr A. E. Berriman whose book Historical Metrology is listed in my revised bibliography*

INTRODUCTION WHEN the affairs of a country are in a bad way it is useful to remember Oliver Cromwell's advice to look back to the time when things went well and to try to see what subsequently went wrong. Complete success in such a task partial success

to unravel

would

is

rarely possible, but

clearly repay the effort involved if

something of the tangled story of the

of great nations* The

manhood

rise

it

and

helped decline

of Cicero as that of his

more

famous contemporary Julius Caesar was spent in the momentous years from about 90 B.C. to 43 B.C., a period that saw the decline

and rain of that old Republican form of government through which, within the previous 200 years, the Roman State had risen to unparalleled heights of power, wealth and glory.

By what

steps the

Romans

arrived at this

commanding

posi-

what wars they fought and what victories they won, is told in every history of the Republic. Over 2,000 years now separate us from the struggles in which that one small and obscure tribe, tion,

settled

on the banks of the River Tiber

slowly emerged

in the middle of Italy,

victorious after constant warfare against other

neighbouring tribes. The wavering fortunes of war, the bloodshed, the heroism, the exaltation of the victors, the dumb misery of the defeated were vivid urgent realities then; but for us today they

can

exist

only in imagination and they cannot therefore seem of

much account in comparison with the horrors endured by all those who have survived the tremendous crisis of 1914-18 and more deadly crisis of 1939-45. Romans, Etruscans, Samnites, Sabines, Volscians, their enemies and allies have long since mouldered away. The sands of Africa the

still

have obliterated what remained of the Carthaginian Empire. Debris and dust have mounted slowly year by year throughout fifteen centuries to

cover the ruins of the

Roman

Forurn where

excited crowds used to gather to hear the eloquence of Cicero

and the commanding oratory of Caesar. But those questions of rights and wrongs, of the best way to use political power and of the correct management of economic affairs, to which they

human

and many other Romans endeavoured to find the right answers, continue to vex mankind and to puzzle and perplex their

still

leaders.

INTRODUCTION

Xvi

The martyrdom

that

was Cicero's reward

for

Ms

vain opposiof

own time ennobled the lives people who have been struck down

tion to dictatorship has in our

millions of liberty-loving the behest of modem dictators

at

and

tyrants. This dreadful ordeal with to return survivors the passionate interest to those compels been forced grand questions of human destiny that have always

upon

the leaders of mankind

For we have now been made to

see

problems are indeed personal problems for that and they cannot be indifferently left to political everyone that these historic

leaders alone*

Faced as we are with such a task, it is natural to look back to which men were also confronted with the same other periods is why every new generation must look at history That problems.

k

afresh.

We

do

so not merely out of a rather childish curiosity and precedents 9 still less with the sinister and

to find parallels

dangerous intention of rewriting history as our own praise or compelling motive to historical study must surely apology. always be to profit by that deepening awareness of the true nature of our own problems and possibilities which comes from a real

A

understanding of the past. History is then a double-edged tool. By getting to grips with our own problems through its aid we are able to see

more

clearly into the

working of the

social forces of

own time. Armed with this greater insight we are in turn so much the better equipped in our effort to understand the operation our

work in past ages. Despite the fact, therefore, that the events in the history of Rome have been narrated afresh in almost every generation, and of the social forces at

in every iands

and although the

lives

and characters of

the chief

personalities in that great drama have been described again and again, the work of rekterpretation cannot cease. As we learn arts of government and administration, as we our knowledge of economics, agriculture and trade, and develop above all as we seek to penetrate deeper into the mind of man and into social psychology, we naturally hope to look to the past with

more about the

more understanding eyes. The fact that so great a task can hardly an end must be a sufficient excuse for any attempt, however partial and imperfect, to deal with it at all.

ever be brought to It is in this spirit

that an effort has been

follow to understand the

Age of

countrymen were formed by a

made in

Cicero, to see

style

and way of

the pages that

how life

he and

his

not of their

INTRODUCTION own

devising,

strains

and

how

XVil

they tried to reshape their inheritance, what

stresses they

endured and

how

far

by

their

own

were able to modify the destiny of mankind, 'Rome was not built in a day' is the enduring, proverbial

efforts they

testimony to the complicated story that this book seeks to tell. For the origins of many truly Roman aspects of the period around Cicero reach back through the mists of time. The activities

of Caesar, Pompey, Brutus,, Cato, Antony and the other celebrated figures of Cicero's age do not make sense unless they are seen in the light of this long evolution. It is a story in which the promise of great achievement is indeed realized but, despite great success, the end is ultimately a chaos that seems to have been

unavoidable. foes. It

The Roman Republic

did not

fall

before external

had not been permanently crippled or weakened by long

wars against powerful neighbours. What, then, were the faults and weaknesses that brought it to disaster? Were they due to defects in Roman political life or to a faulty machinery of government? Were they the result of an

unsound economic system which discouraged the production and upset the distribution among all the people of the good things of this

world?

Was Roman law unjust,

producing social discontent

and resentment? Or did the trouble spring from some deeper cause, traceable perhaps to some fundamental change in men's attitude towards life? If so, was it a matter of altered social relationships between one class and another, between rich and poor, between the old families and fashionable society on the one *

hand and the unknown common man' on the other, between the free and the slaves or between the Romans and the Italians or the Romans and foreigners? Beyond all these possible sources of weakness was there a failure of old religious and moral beliefs and a decay of old habits that had in the last resort been the true source of the vitality of the State?

Such seem to be the main questions that

arise as

we read about

Cicero and endeavour to understand the circumstances in which

he was placed, the troubles and anxieties with which he had to contend and the extraordinary difficulties facing the men of his time

who

tried to

put the

Roman world

to rights.

CICERO AND THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

Chapter One

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

IN ITALY

753-265 B,c a

the City, my dear Rufus - stick to that and live in its Residence elsewhere - as I made up my mind in early

THE City, full light!

-

mere eclipse and obscurity to those whose energy is of shining in Rome,' The gusto and unmistakable note capable of enthusiasm in these words ring down the ages through the 2,000 years that divide the man who wrote them from our own time. life

is

They excite curiosity. What manner of man was he and what were the deep satisfactions which life in that city afforded? The City was, of course, Rome and the writer was Marcus Tullius Cicero, at that time fifty-six years of age and proconsul or governor, for the year 50 B.C., of

Rome's

distant province of Cilicia in Asia Minor.

Had there been a Roman Dictionary of National Biography, might have summarized

it

the story of Cicero's career briefly as

follows:

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, of the tribe Cornelia. Son of Marcus Bom at Arpinum a.d. ra Non. Ian. A.U.C. 648

Tullius Cicero, eques. [3

January 106

B.C.].

Served in the army in the Social War, A.U.C. 665

[89 B.C.], Student of philosophy

Rhodes. Pleader in the

Roman

and rhetoric

in

Rome, Athens and

Courts, A.U.C. 666-676 [88-78 B.C.]

Elected Quaestor, served at Lilybaeum in Sicily, A.U.C. 679 [75 B.C.]. Senator, A.U.C. 680 [74 B.C.], Curale Aedile, A.U.C. 685 [69 B.C.]. Praetor Urbanus, A.U.C. 688 [66 B.C.]. Consul, A.U.C. 691 [63 B.C.], when he suppressed the conspiracy of Catiline and was acclaimed Father of his country.

He opposed 696

A.U.C 701 [53

B.C.],

[51-50

B.C.].

Julius Caesar

who

indirectly procured his

697 [57 B.C.]. Augur, Proconsul of Cilicia for the year A.U.C. 703-704 In the defence of the Republican constitution he joined

exile in A.U.C.

[58 B.C.], Recalled, A.U.C.

ROME TAKES THE LEAD IN ITALY

2

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the Civil War against Julius Caesar, the defeat of A.U.C. 705 [49 B.C.], Pardoned by Julius Caesar on he returned to Italy, A.U.C. 706 [48 B.C.], but retired from

Pompeius,

on the overthrow of the Republican constitution. He wrote and literary works until the assassination of Julius Caesar on Id. Mar. A.U.C, 710 [15 March 44 B.C.], when he sought to arouse and direct the opposition to M. Antonius. The alliance between

political life

philosophical

Antonius and Octavianus made the task of restoring the Republican constitution hopeless and doomed its chief supporters. Cicero did not but live to see the reconstruction of the Roman State under Octavianus

was proscribed and beheaded attempting to leave Italy, a.d. vn Id. Dec. A.U.C, 711 [7 December 43 B.C.]. Married Terentia, A.U.C. 677 A.U.C. 689 [65 B.C.], daughter [77 B.C.] one son, M. Tullius Cicero, bom A.U.C. 708 [46 B.C.]. Married Tullia, born A.U.C. 678 [76 B.C.]. Divorced, PubMia, A.U.C. 708 [46 B.C.]. Again divorced, A.U.C. 708 [46 B.C.]. :

Almost all trace of Cicero's eager enthusiasm, Ms zest for life and action, his intensity of feeling and warm human sympathies have evaporated from so dry and condensed a summary. Some of the words it contains, like Tribe, Quaestor, Aedile, Praetor for The dating example, sound strangely to twentieth-century ears. 'A.U.C.' above is the Roman year measured ('ab urbe condita") from the year of the supposed foundation of Rome by Romulus, in the year 753 B.C. according to our reckoning. The equivalent dates B.C. in our chronology are given in brackets.

man is to come alive in our imagination we want to Ms dignity and Ms offices, something of see, beyond Ms country and Ms people. We want a vision, however imperfect If Cicero the

his life-story,

of the crowded scenes at Rome, the swirl of white of togas among the gilded statues in the sunlit Forum, the hum the Circus in races chariot swelling the at suddenly great humanity in volume to thunder as the speed-crazed drivers whip their

and

fleeting,

horses to fury

Who

on the

were these

last lap

of a race.

men and women by

the

hundred thousand

Cicero walked 2,000 years ago? What were their worries and their difficulties? How did they try to escape from them or solve them? How did they live and work and what

among whom

were their opinions about the nature, the duties and the destiny of mankind? How was it that Cicero was murdered and what provoked the intense political upheavals and civil war in wMch he perished? Through history alone it may be possible to find clues to the answers to some of these questions. There is much we shall have to pick our way with what care and luck never know.

We

CICERO'S

WORLB

3

we may among the scattered relics which have survived the wreck of Rome. By piecing together such remnants of the record a tolerably clear picture of the

main

outlines of the

grand story of

Republic should emerge. It is an amazing story. Cicero and his contemporaries might well have glowed with pride and an intense national self-satisfaction when they looked back the determination, the endurance and bravery of the

Roman

upon

dogged

their forefathers

tions

who

in the short space of three or four genera-

had conquered the known world. Cicero himself makes

it

writings that the history of the and fascinated him. It is absorbed that a was subject Republic true that his interest in it did not arise from that detached intellectual curiosity towards the past that characterizes modern

abundantly clear in

Ms own

scholarship, Cicero, like the rest of

Ms countrymen, was

a busy

man. History for him was useful if it pointed a moral and adorned some tale he wanted to tell,, the better to sway the opinions of Ms hearers.

Few Englishmen attain manhood today without learning something about the critical events in their nation's Mstory. King the Alfred's victory over the Danes, the defeat of King Harold by overthe John, Charter the of by King great Normans, the grant Armada by the Elizabethans, the work of throw of the

Spanish

Oliver Cromwell, the Revolution of 1688, the battles of Trafalgar of in 1805 and of Waterloo in 1815, the Reform of Parliament and

of administration in the nineteenth century and the development the public social services in the twentieth century are so many milestones in the long march of the English people through and often history, now followed in imagination, often haltingly

without real understanding, by the schoolboys and schoolgirls who study the English tradition. The acMevements of Christopher 9 of the 'Mayflower pioneers, the battle of Bunker

Columbus,

of Paul Revere, the life-work of George WasMngton of similarly part of the grand story the growth of the United States with which all its young citizens become familiar. In the same way in Cicero's day the Romans of heard from their cradles the story of the rise of Rome, and

Hill, the ride

and of Abraham Lincoln are

epic

the mighty deeds of their forebears. At an early age they learned at the to hate the name of King, to fear the tribes of Gaul, to thrill

Carthaginstory of Roman triumphs over the Etruscans, Greeks, Indelibly their Mediterranean of rest the neighbours. and ians

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

4

associated with

many

IN ITALY

such stirring events were the names of who led the revolt that drove the

national heroes - Lucius Brutus last

Etruscan King from

Rome;

Cincinnatus

who

left his

plough

B.C. ; Camillas who to lead the Romans against the Aequi in 458 later; Appius Gauls years the seventy from saved the city

B.C. Claudius, the blind Censor of 312-308

who devoted

his life

Greek King to the Republic and inspired its straggle against the historical other and figures these Pyrrhus. The great renown of in Roman minds by the loyalty of the Romans to

was kept

alive

their ancestors

and by the devotion of Roman fathers who trained

memory of the mighty deeds ^of the men whose achievements made up the heroic story of the rise and at some of the main lines of grandeur of Rome. A rapid glance in better perspecthis oft-told story may help to fix Cicero's age their sons to reverence the

and developing history long vista of the ever-changing more than half introduction historical an of Rome. Without such would remain Ms men of the and age himself Cicero of the story because their activities can only be understood as a part tive in the

untold,

of the slow development of

Roman social life and politics,

Traditions of Early

Rome

little more than 400 Although when Cicero was a boy it ruled been memory of them had kings, by years since Rome had become hazy and their history was uncertain. Some records used to be made in those early years, but they were probably few and meagre chronicles of the high priest, consisting of bare

was

notes of wars, famines, eclipses, weather conditions, prodigies and pestilence. Until the evidence of recent archaeological

doubt on the story, it was confidently on the authority of Livy, whose history of Rome was

investigations threw believed,

written a few years after Cicero's death, that all these early archives had been lost when Rome was burned by the Gauls, the

barbarian invaders from the North, at the beginning of the fourth

were century B.C. (around 390 B.C.). The archives, however, survived now it is and in various thought, these, stored temples the invasion. Later Roman historians got what they could from

modern notions of patient research through masses of documents had not yet been bom and some later scholars have been bitter at what they consider the laziness these early records, but

ROMAN TRADITIOHS of the

Roman

writers.

5

The records weres

inadequate for anything like a

full

in any ease, probably account of early Rome.

Legends supplied what history lacked. Stimulated,,

it

seems, by

a remark of Cicero's,, Macaulay among others believed that the stories of the early days of Rome, beginning with its supposed foundation by Romulus in 753 B.C., had for many generations been preserved as ballads. If so they had already been forgotten by Cicero's day, although the stories they enshrined were still 4 part of the heritage of every Roman. The loves of the Vestal and s

God of War

the

...

the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the recog-

nition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, the death of Tarpeia,

the fall of Hostus Hostilius, the straggle of Mettus Curtius through the marsh, the women rushing with torn raiment and dishevelled

and thek husbands, the nightly meetby the well in the sacred grove, the fight of the three Romans and the three Albans, the purchase of the Sibylline Books, the crime of Tuffia, the simulated madness

hair between their fathers ings of

Numa

and the

Nymph

of Brutus, the ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the Tarquins, the wrongs of Lucretia, the heroic actions of Horatius Codes, of Scaevola and of Cloelia, the battle of Regillus won by the aid of Castor and Pollux, the defence of the Cremera, the touching story of Coriolanus, the still more touching story of Virginia, the wild legend about the draining of the Alban Lake,

combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul' are9 said, some among the many poetic legends about s the early Roman State. They no longer, as he supposed, at once

the as

Macaulay

suggest themselves to every reader*, but they may still be read in the pages of Livy, in the many histories of later writers and in the stirring, energetic verse of Macaulay himself. Although, for

the last hundred years at least, they have generally been regarded as fictions, they have the merit of showing what actions and ideals the

Romans thought worthy

early legends entirely

the greatness of the

of admiration.

would be

Roman

To

strike

out these

to lose this valuable insight into

spirit.

Fearful

no doubt of such a

many people have agreed with Goethe, who used to say if the Romans were great enough to invent such stories we

result,

that

should at least be great enough to believe them. Belief is perhaps word in this connexion but, true or false, there

rather a strong

can be no doubt about their powerful influence in shaping the thoughts and actions of mankind, not only in ancient Rome but

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

6 in

modem Europe, where

IN ITALY

have figured promiand in the study and recreation

for eeaturies they

nently in the lessons of schoolboys

of maturer minds. Cicero was under no illusions about the historical value of much of what, in his day, passed for the story of early Rome and

achievements of early Romans particularly the story of the whose later descendants relied heavily upon the assumed glory

of their ancestors to redeem their own very real shortcomings. They had, he said, referring particularly to the written traditions repeated on

all

ceremonial occasions, particularly as funeral lies. They tell of events which

orations, 'filled our history with

never took ancestors

place,,

...

imaginary triumphs, an excess of consular by including men from obscure families

collected

9

. It was foolish, he thought, to demand in a matter such as the early traditions of Rome 'the kind of truthfulness expected of a witness in court rather than of

who happened to bear the same name

a poet'. In history on the other hand everything

is

judged', he said,

4

is

s

the standard

by which

the truth'.

and Cicero, like aE a great interest in the took as well cultivated Romans, they might, from the most inMs of traditions and for, country, history

The

truth

was

sufficiently impressive,

auspicious beginnings,

Rome had achieved in a mere three or four

hundred years a position of predominance in the known world. Constant and often bitter warfare had been the price of supremacy. Surrounded on all sides by more numerous, richer, and the apparently more powerful peoples, the men of Rome in seventh and sixth centuries B.C. possessed no obvious advantages that would enable them to survive in a struggle with their

A

small, inconspicuous tribe, they occupied no neighbours. strong natural fortress, but were settled on seven small hills overlooking the largest river of Central Italy as it swept down,

yellow with sand and silt, to traverse the narrow coastal plain to the sea. From this centre they would emerge every day to work on

each of probably about five to ten acres in the country around, retiring again behind the city's protective defences or walls every night. Theirs must have been a hard life in which hand labour with the hoe predominated. Carried on for centuries with relatively little change and with very their small plots

flat

and

fertile

it was hardly the kind of life to encourage great ambitions. Merely to succeed in holding such a site was an un-

slow progress,

ORIGINS OF ROME doubted achievement, but not by

itself

7

a guarantee of future

greatness.

The Romans always believed in later years that their early had been gifted with extraordinary qualities of tenacity,

ancestors

patience, frugality, capacity for hard work, and a constitutional inability ever to admit defeat. The life they led was certainly the

They were specially manifest in the army and in the organization of the government The first political task of the Roman people had been to secure independence from the Etruscans, their powerful neighbours who sort to breed such quaEties.

occupied the north-western shores of Italy. These strange people remain one of the mysteries of history. Their origin is obscure, their manner of life and their civilization can be imagined only

by putting together the scanty facts that archaeologists discover with the spade. For although many of their inscriptions on tombstones survive,, almost nothing else remains to give a clue to their language. At an early period the Etruscan realm in Italy included Rome, and the Latin and Campanian plains. It seems

clear that the Etruscans developed a relatively highly cultivated civilization.

flourished

Under Etruscan domination Rome seems to have It was helped by its one

and grown considerably.

hills, although not very high, served as a stronghold commanding the crossing of the Tiber in the middle of the coastal plain. A bridge at this site could be protected as

natural strategic asset. Its

could nowhere else from the Central Apennines to the sea. Hence an important trade route from north to south lay through Rome, a circumstance from which the Romans were able to it

profit, as

people in similar cicumstances usually have profited,

by levying tolls. Helped by their fertile soil to increase their numbers, and by their control of a salt-yielding area on the coast and of an important trade route to increase their wealth, the Romans had already made their home, in this early period, one of the strongest and most important cities in the whole of Italy. No other city in the peninsula had a larger temple than that at Rome. There were other impressive buildings all enclosed within walled fortifications of greater extent than those of any other settlement except those of Tarentum, one of the Greek cities in the south of Italy, At length the Romans thought themselves strong enough to seek independence from thek overlords. Etruscan political and military ascendancy consequently came

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

g

IN ITALY

an end when the leading men of Rome siicceeded in expelling probably around 510 B.C. the last of the proud Tarquin Freedom was thereby won, but at considerable cost Etruscan hazard. The closing of the enmity became a lasting and serious was an immediate conseRome route trade through north-south were forced back upon Romans The of independence. quence their own resources, which meant concentration upon agriculture the going was as a means of livelihood. For a century at least The Etruscans than rather declined progressed. hard and Rome them by putting their north-south commerce on the

to

by-passed

A

lengthy period of sea-route well out of the reach of Rome. therefore necessary before Rome defence and consolidation was

could expand and provide the food required by her growing numbers. Under a Republican form of government the Romans gradually built

The

up

their strength.

strategic picture

was essentialy

simple.

The Romans were

one among several peoples cultivating the small but fertile coastal from another and a yet plain of Latium. They were separated more fertile plain of about the same size (Campania) by a mountainous mass. The hinterland was also all mountainous and its mountain races. glens and passes were controlled by hardy There were Umbrians and Sabmes flanking the Etruscans in the north. More formidable than either were the Samnites occupying the whole of the central range* Their dominion extended behind

and beyond Latium and Campania down to the Adriatic coast. The men on the plains had what the hill-men often lacked, ample crops of grain, vegetables and fruits. The hill-men had what the

men on the plains often wanted, well-watered grazing for animals, dashes between the two were naturally

to be expected, particu-

growth of population pressed everywhere upon the means of subsistence. The first essential in such conditions was and foothills - Romans, union between the men on the larly as the

plains

Latins 9 and Campanians. The near neighbours of Rome, the Latins to the south, came to terms only after the fierce battle of

Lake Regillus (497 B.C.), in which defeat was narrowly averted the legends assert, by the intervention of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. The Romans secured independence, equality and the promise of perpetual peace by guaranteeing the same advantages to the Latins. Both promised mutual aid against common enemies. Such was thsfoedus Cassianum, one of the oldest public documents s

ROMANS, ITALIANS AND GAULS In the history of

on bronze

Rome

s

which Cicero remembered seeing copied

tablets before the rostra in the

Roman policy., rough and brutal some

to use

at least of

restraint rare if not

9

its

unknown

as

it

victories

Forum

at

Rome. knew how

so often was,

with a moderation and

in a barbaric age.

The Romans im-

proved upon the usual practice of always stealing land, of enslaving whole populations or of taxing the survivors. Instead Rome sought to secure and maintain alliances with the other peoples of the plains. To this quality as much as anything else must the rise and greatness of Rome be attributed. Statesmanlike distinctions were made in dealing with the vanquished. Some were granted Roman citizenship, others were admitted to half the more recalcitrant were given no citizen privileges of citizens, the Roman under government, they had earned the privirights until,

lege

by good behaviour. The fighting over, the Romans and the became at first allies 9 later fellow-citizens and ultimately

Latins

way other neighbouring tribes, such as the or by necessity joined the complicated choice by Roman-Latin coalition. The straggles with the MH-men s the and Samnites, then began in Volscians,^ the Umbrians, Sabines one people. In

this

Hernici, either

and they led to more difficult and more persistent warfare. the Romans were hard pressed in defensive struggles date of against the Latins until their victory at Lake Regillus (the

earnest

At

first

which

is

traditionally given as

the Sabines lasted

Volsci were

497

from about 505

B.C.). Intermittent

B.C. to

449

B.C.

wars with

The Aequi and

more formidable opponents who were not overcome

until the Battle of Algidus, 431 B.C., after strife lasting

something

more than fifty years. The great power at this time was still Rome's old masters, the Etruscans, and with them a forty years' peace B.C. treaty was made after ten or eleven years' fighting, in 474 The Romans turned to the offensive during the last quarter

On the east they overcame the Aequi and the Volsci (about 431 B.C. to 393 B.C.). A great step forward was made when the formidable Etruscan city of Yeii, north of the Tiber, was finally overthrown after a ten involved in years' straggle in 396 B.C. Two other Etruscan towns this struggle were also overcome, Capena in 395 B.C. and Falerii in 394 B.C. While these neighbours fought and snarled at each lurked beyond the other, a truly formidable danger to them all River Po and the mountains of the north* of the

fifth

century B.C.

(423 B.C. to 393 B.C.)

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

10

IN ITALY

winter snow, far and legendary lands of forest and the mountain crossed tribes Gaulish nomadic wild of swarms bum and destroy in the ranges and passes of the Alps to loot, stricken of refugees and the glow of sumy land of Italy, Streams the only warning that be would horizon the on burning villages 390 or 387 B.C,, the devouring hordes were at hand. In the year the Capitol, the for the horror reached Rome. The city fell, except six months the For eminence. citadel perched on its small rocky

From

fate

of ibis sole smaE stronghold was perilous. The

final disaster

was narrowly averted, legend says, by the sacred geese giving a foothold the alarm as a scaling party of Gauls had all but gained and ransom a off large were by bought on the Capitol The Gauls Rome an was It north. the experience to they withdrew again The work of their forefathers for over a hundred never forgot

In international affairs as in years seemed entirely undone. of is a product expectations about future conduct politics,, prestige based upon present performance. The past, however solid or to proud and powerful brilliant, counts for little. Disasters nations therefore rarely come singly. So

Rome found. Crashed by

hard-won good name in * in a later age, it was recorded as so forfeit also Livy was that, Italy the with clear to all that the Roman name was menaced not only The her allies'. of scorn the hate of her enemies, but also with defeat,

the Romans soon saw that

their

Romans had to buckle to and vindicate afresh their pre-eminence The Etruscans, despite their own heavy losses

in Central Italy,

hands of the Gauls, took the offensive against Rome from the north between 388 B.C. and 386 B.C. Rome was unable to retaliate until 359 B.C. when after eight years' fighting another who forty years* truce was concluded with the Etruscans (351 B.C.) at the

thereafter gave

little

trouble. (See the

map pp.

22-3.)

Meanwhile to the east, Rome attacked the Aequi in 389 B.C., next the Hernici, Rome's old allies, in 386/385 B.C. Not until 358 B.C. was Rome able to settle accounts with the Hernia, after having declared war on them again in 362 B.C. The Volsci on the south-east were tougher foes. They also had struck when Rome's fortunes seemed low in 389 B.C. After a bitter straggle they were beaten off in 386-385 B.C. but they renewed their onslaughts in attacks lasting until 377 B.C. until they were finally crushed in a war lasting from 348 to 338 B.C.

Even

the Latins

had no

scruples in breaking

awav from

their

11 ROMANS, ITALIANS AND GAULS old ally, and Rome was hard put to it between 389 B.C. and 354 B.C. to restore her paramount position to the south in Latimn. The task was not finally completed until, with the aid of the Samnites between 340 B.C. and 338 B.C., Rome finally broke up the Latin League and dictated her own terms of peace to its members in the decisive treaty of 338 B.C., a statesmanlike settlement which bound the Latins and Romans in a new confederacy. Aided by a succession of able men the might of Rome was painstakingly restored. Of them all the name of Camilius is outstanding. For a quarter of a century he was the man to whom Romans looked in times of trouble, and he did not fail them. He and the men around him were succeeded by others famous in the traditions of Rome, T. Manlius Torquatus, thrice Consul (347 B.C., 344 B.C. and 340 B.C.), and M. Valerius Corvus, Consul in 348 B.C., 346 B.C., 343 B.C. and 335 B.C. Rome again became 9

a strongly fortified town, military colonies were planted at strategic points, and the army was reformed by abandoning the

phalanx or serried, horde formation and introducing open order fighting by spear throwers. After 381 B.C.,

when Tusculum was the

to be so privileged, former enemies were bound to Rome by being given rights as Roman citizens. In the last half of the fourth first

century B.C. this method of augmenting the size of the citizen body, and consequently of the army, was increasingly used.

About on

thirty years after the sack of

their plundering raids.

are confused. There

is

The

details

Rome,

the Gauls returned

of their various incursions

no doubt, however, that the Romans were from both the Gauls and their nearer

by troubles

thickly beset

neighbours. Northwards against the Etruscans, eastwards against the Aequi and Hernici and southwards against the Volsci and Latins, the

Romans had

to fight doggedly for fifty years before

securing themselves in Central Italy.

Had

the Gauls given

their nomadic way of life and achieved a well-laid plan

and

up

of conquest

might have been very different. For have been hopelessly outnumbered by the Gauls.

settlement,, the story

Rome would Nothing but enabled the

Romans had

their superior intelligence

Romans

and

will to

conquer

Then the South and they

to survive the Gaulish menace.

to reckon with the Samnites to the

also called forth all the military

power the Romans could muster*

Their task of imposing their leadership upon their neighbours became very much more difficult when some of these tough

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

12

highlanders took the against

IN ITALY

mad risk of inviting the Gauls to help them

Rome.

The wars with and humiliation

9

at the Caudiiie Forks,

survivors of the battle were (321 B.C.).

Rome with defeat where disarmed Roman

the Samnites began badly for

marched under a yoke of spears

War was renewed five or sk years later.

Thereafter the

were Gauls" reappeared in force to join the Samnites. They at in Roman battles history, decisive routed after one of the

Mus met a Sentinum (295 B.C.), ia which the Consul P. Decius Umbrians hero's death to turn the day for Rome. The Etruscans, and Samnites, who had joined the Gauls against Rome, did not made their sustain the fight for much longer, and successively surrender of the Samnites in unconditional the with peace, until, of Rome was once again supreme in Central the 290

B.C.,

Italy.

might

The power of the Etruscans seems finaly

to have collapsed

themat this time, as a result of their own inability to organize the Gauls. of attacks the destructive withstand to and selves Rome profited not merely by the elimination of a once powerful and dangerous enemy but also by being able eventually to succeed to oppose to the Etruscan heritage. That unity which Italy failed achieve to or instinct sought design, by Rome, to the barbarian,

The Gauls with by her 'own strength aided by wise diplomacy, ever-renewed force returned in 285 B.C., still formidable, but they were again defeated and this time they were driven north of the Rubicon. Land was taken from them, and added to the Roman in the following year yet another tribe of public domain. Again Gauls got to within fifty miles of Rome before they were hurled back. The northern frontier was thereafter fairly secure for nearly

200 years. Three generations of Rome's manhood between 400 and 280 B.C. had, in constant and often desperate warfare, en brought their country from insignificance to a position of

had Thus prepared, Rome was able to face the yet graver perils which the future was to bring. The expansion of Greece into Italy seemed likely at one time to include the territory of Rome itself, but the Etruscans had proved

viable distinction in the Italian peninsula. Their strength

been forged amid

fiery trials.

too strong for the Greek invaders in the northern half of the of Italy including the rich peninsula. The whole of the south

The civilization fell, however, under Greek sway. of Greece was thereby brought very near to the Romans but a

island of Sicily

ROMANS AND GREEKS

13

century at least was to elapse before the Romans began to take any interest in it. Then they got involved in Greek affairs by

coming

to the rescue of the

Greek

city

of Thurii, whose leaders

appealed to Rome for help against their enemies the Lucanians instead of to the Greeks of Tarentum, whose 'protection* was

becoming too expensive. This annoyed the Tarentines, who sank some Roman ships. Rome declared war (281 B.C.). The Tarentines found a brilliant leader in Pyrrhus, one of the younger successors of Alexander the Great, whose own meteoric career had recently come to an end after he had carried the arms of Greece to the confines of the known world and had returned laden with immense treasures from the East (323 B.C.). The Romans then faced a formidable foe and narrowly escaped disaster at Heraclea in the south of Italy, on the bay of Tarentum (280 B.C.). Eventually they gained the mastery. Pyrrhus was called back by troubles at home and Rome secured an undisputed leadership of the whole of South Italy, after reducing the many Greek settlements along the southern coast. In the ten years between 281 B.C. and 272 B.C. Rome was within sight of securing the ascendancy which she finally won by 265 B.C., when she became supreme in Italy south of the territory of the Gauls beyond the River Po. Sicily, however, still remained outside the Roman orbit. So did the other Mediterranean islands, Corsica and Sardinia. full story of these struggles of Rome with her neighbours blurred and many details have been lost. Until comparatively recently, when economic causes have been suggested as a simple

The

is

explanation of these early wars, their sole interest lay in their and in the light they threw upon the character and the methods of the Romans. Many of the actual wars were

political results

probably similar in nature to and on clashes in the

much

the

same

scale as the

Middle Ages between the Saxon kingdoms of the

Heptarchy or the

tribal feuds dividing the semi-barbaric clans

of

The amount of authentic history concerning Rome's often desperate and perilous struggles was of Scotland or tribes of Ireland.

less

account, even in Rome itself, than the rich crop of heroic mixed with legends, some of which have been referred to

tales

briefly

above.

They survived

to

stimulate

Roman

patriotic

sentiment and family pride and to increase the respect and deference shown in later ages to the noble or patrician families

14

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

IN ITALY

heroes in many stirring bearing the same names as the renowned and dramatic scenes in battles long ago. Economic motives alone do not fully account for these although Rome certainly profited as a result of them. straggles

The Romans needed more food and they got it by winning better as the Greeks had agricultural land, not by migrating overseas Phoenicians were the as commerce and trade done or by taking to real advantages in this doing. Success in warfare brought very bound to the soil more was wealth when obviously age, early than it is in modern times. There was no richer booty for a fertile land and slave labour with which work it. For this reason the rank and file of the Roman people were often quite as ready to vote for war as were their leaders. It says much for Roman restraint that her wars had other the vanquished automatically objects and that by no means all of forfeited to the Romans their land and liberty. Rome's territory

growing community than to

increased from about 600 square miles at the time of the capture of Rome by the Gauls, to about 9,600 square miles after winning

supremacy

in Italy.

The new resources enabled

the

Romans

to

landless citizens to become plant out their younger sons and colonial dependants of the mother city. They naturally were a privileged class

among the conquered. As long as Rome was liable

by its neighbours, the motive force in founding such colonies would be strategical rather than merely economic and the colonists would be armed outposts of Rome. They marched to their new homes in military formation as though embarking to attack

upon a new campaign. Some of the newly won territory was given in small lots to the rank and file. Some was taken for the public domain and then leased to swell the fortunes of the wealthier the classes, who obviously were best able to pay the rental and cost of the labour required to work the land. Slavery was already a feature of life in Rome, as indeed it was fairly generally at this time in most Mediterranean countries. The fact that Rome's first slaves were people of Italy, and near neighbours at that, meant that they could be absorbed into the social life of Rome with little difficulty. Moreover slaves did not at first form the bulk of the labour force, because the men of Rome were mostly independent farmers in a small way who worked hard themselves. Those who did not possess farms of their own worked as hired labourers

for the landowners*

Many

forces

FRUITS OF VICTORY

15

conspired to lighten the lot of the Italian slaves.

The

defeated

and peoples from whom they came were brought under Roman rule and given some, but not all, of the privileges of Roman citizenship. Trade and business relationships and later tribes

intermarriage with the

community of

Romans

followed.

By

passed before this soundness of instinct that seems to have led the it.

If slavery

degrees a greater

was established. That some generations policy took effect says nothing against the

interest

had stopped

Romans to adopt

at that, the entire history of

Rome

might have been very different. For slavery under such conditions was a much milder fate than it became later when vast hordes of

men and women were imported

homes in was one thing to be a slave from the neighbouring hills of Rome amongst a people not very dissimilar in manners, customs, and language, and in much the same land as the slaves' own territory, but it was a very different thing to be a slave torn from hearth and home and transported hundreds of miles across the sea like cattle to an alien land where the language and the habits were entirely new. Yet the Romans do not seem to have treated the foreign slaves less the Eastern

wholesale from their

and Western Mediterranean.

It

favourably than the local slaves, particularly in the all-important matter of granting them freedom. Huge numbers of alien people

were imported into Rome as slaves and later set free. They and their descendants so greatly diluted the old Roman stock that by Cicero's time the inhabitants of Rome were fast becoming a different breed from the heroes of the fourth century B.C. and from the men with whom his grandfather rubbed shoulders along the Sacred Way and in the crowded Forum,

The Golden Age of the Roman Republic of later days not surprisingly looked back upon the early period of the rise of their Republic from the fifth to the third century B.C. as the days in which the finest qualities of their

Romans

race found fullest expression. No doubt the Roman habit of venerating their ancestors explains something of this attitude. In Rome, moreover, as in most ancient lands, nobody believed that, as

past.

a matter of course, the future would be better than the the contrary, the Golden Age of the Greeks and

On

Romans,

like the

Garden of Eden of

the Hebrews,

was a

state

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

16

IN ITALY

from which imperfect men had steadily fallen. Inevitably also reformers in later Rome gave point to criticisms of their contemporaries and justified their own discontents by depicting a time when, so they said ? selfishness was swamped by public with a few modest necessities of life spirit, when contentment left no place for envy or avarice, and when men were brave

because they were strong, with a simple faith in their country

and

their gods.

Then none was for a party; Then all were for the State; Then the great man helped the poors

And the poor man

loved the great:

Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold The Romans were like brothers, :

In the brave days of old. all allowance is made for the influence of such seems that Romans had some solid reasons for believing that their forerunners were men of no common stamp. It was a fact which other non-Roman peoples in Italy could hardly deny, especially at a time when Rome controlled the whole world and they were themselves anxious to be counted

Nevertheless,

when

habits of mind,

as

it

Romans and admitted to the privileges of Roman citizenship. What were the special qualities that won supremacy for Rome?

Certainly not mere numbers; their Latin neighbours were as numerous. Certainly not mere wealth; the Etruscans and Greeks were richer. How else could Roman success be explained save by the force of human personality? Nowhere, thought Cicero, was it possible to find a people possessed of so many excellent qualities as the old Romans. They had a he said, true greatness of soul, a

nature at once deeply serious, calm, steadfast, loyal and trustworthy. We have learned in our own day that there are few more

misleading imaginative exercises than that of generalizing about the supposed character of so large and complex an organism as

a nation. Nevertheless we have succeeded in finding one or two clues promising a greater insight into national characteristics. Of

diem language is assuredly one. The form and character of the Latin language offers one means of testing the truth of what might b&dismissed as merely a product of Cicero's patriotic imagination.

For the

style

and manner of speech are an index of the

man and

ANTIQUE ROMANS

17

Latin has characteristics of a special kind. Latin sentences are direct and to the point, virile, energetic, austere and dignified. Because they were an essentially practical people, the Romans

chose concrete words in preference to abstractions. Simplicity and a terse vigour of speech are the foundation of their language. early Roman writing we possess show little other quality. When a more sophisticated and involved style was after Cicero had developed a century or two Iater particularly the language of his left the marks of his imperishable genius upon

The few remains of

9

forefathers, a rigid discipline of thought

observable in

Roman writings,

and expression

is still

especially in the careful marshal-

and clauses around the main theme. half a and two long centuries of struggle and During the Rome in Italy there was no of the of early Republic triumph native literature of any consequence. Not until Rome had begun to find itself in wars of expansion abroad did there seem to and history develop a consciousness of individual character

ling of subordinate sentences

stimulate self-expression. Then, when Romans began to interest themselves in the history of their city, men of learning they wrote in Greek, just as in the Middle Ages sufficiently

strong to

wrote in Latin because the vernacular European languages were also lacked little understood outside their borders and they to an themselves could express words and phrases in which they educated audience.

Not

for the

Romans

of the heroic age were

the graces and the elegance of the highly cultivated Greeks, whom, in fact, most of them despised. Blunt, direct, practical

and determined, the creators of the Republic showed wel were. The enough in their speech what manner of men they indications that language affords need confirmation from other in quarters. It is forthcoming

many the

anecdotes and in the more known achievements of the

by Romans. A general picture emerges of a stolid matter-of their fact and puritanical people, intensely loyal to their family, such authority with State and their gods, willingly accepting word pietas. the Latin described a by quality perfect discipline; this quality and sought it for himself, valued Roman true Every more so that he could be described as plus. The words meant * 5 used are now which and words pious 'piety than our modern of a one of The satisfaction alone. sense being a in religious sharing in common loyalties, common tasks aad social substantial evidence provided

early

*

group,

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

18

IN ITALY

common triumphs, answers one of the most deep-seated cravings of human beings. In primitive communities life seems to have no meaning or value tion. It is

a

to the individual unless

satisfaction all

it

affords this satisfac-

the deeper because

and

it

provides a

helps to develop them. There was plenty of love and affection in the apparently stern Roman household, In modem societies, despite the extent to natural outlet for

human

affections

it

which individuals have freed themselves to live according to thek own ideas, the need for contact and community within the family or with some group or society is still very evident Otherwise human energies and affections are blunted and, lacking a worthwhile purpose, develop frustration, disillusionment and boredom with their usual accompaniment of bad temper, aggressiveness and mental illness. Most people seem unable to achieve peace of

mind and sometimes cannot sustain themselves without the assurance of support from the system of common beliefs, sentiments and values that society or community alone can afford. Often men demand no more from life than such assurance. A remark by one of the early visitors to Japan in the nineteenth century illustrates the overwhelming importance of the social framework for the individual: It is a singular fact that in 4

Japan, where the individual is sacrificed to the community, he should seem perfectly happy and contented; while in America, where exactly the opposite takes place and the community is

a perpetual state of This was written in 1859 but

sacrificed to the individual, the latter is in

uproarious clamour for

Ms

rights.'

the principle applies very widely in all ages. With the Romans of the early Republic, the community spirit and a readiness of the individual to sacrifice himself to it was a

and spontaneous thing. Since life had no meaning apart from the survival of the State, the individual was reckless in its

natural

defence. No Roman in any circumstances could regard himself as vanquished "a peculiarity said the observant Greek, Polybius, in the days of Cicero's grandfather, 'which they have inherited from thek ancestors*. This was the key to the real strength of the Republic. The other well-known virtues of the Romans followed 3

,

from

it;

sojbty,

their

manliness and courage in battle

(virtus),

their

their consciousness of their responsibilities, their dis-

ciplining of the

emotions (gravitas) and their readiness to give

stogie-minded attention to the practical needs of the hour

ANTIQUE ROMANS

19

{simplidtas). With it all went a precise formality actions were measured and undertaken,

all their

by which almost and a high sense

of honesty. Theirs was a community spirit fostered first in the home which the Romans venerated and cherished with a passion

seem to have been new in the development of The head of the home, the father of the family, was the first source of authority and discipline, qualities which, in the early centuries of Rome, he seems to have exercised in full measure. This marked supremacy of the Roman male points to a

and

tenacity that

civilization.

form of society. Inevitably therefore it suggests the view held today by some students of social organization that it would probably have been predominantly a rather hard, militarist and even cruel society, as the patriarchal society of Prussia has patriarchal

been in modern history. cies in

Roman

society,

It is

not

difficult to

discern such tenden-

but the respect which the

Roman

father

enjoyed extended also to Ms wife. The Roman matron held a high position in the family second only to that of her husband. These robust family and household units in turn owed all their loyalty to the Republic. They were the Republic. To pay such tributes to

Roman

is to echo the highly idealized picture that and ever since have always held up for Cicero of age the admiration of the world. Such a glorification of the early Romans has no doubt served

the

character

men of the

various purposes of which the chief seems to have been the moral aim of stirring up others to imitate them. And it has served this

purpose with some success not only in the Republic and later Empire of Rome, but in more modem times as well. Shakespeare confessed to a vivid awareness of the heroic Roman pattern of

when he made the noble Horatio declare at the culminating am more an antique Roman than a Dane As long as history is regarded as "philosophy teaching by examples' drawn from real life, this tendency to write up the life

point of Hamlet's tragedy, *I 9

.

virtues of past ages will persist. So long also will classical scholars be tempted to seek to enhance the value of their subject by

upon the moral worth of the Romans. be a thankless task to propose any less as generous revaluation of what has so generally been accepted the grandeur that was Rome. It would be nearer the truth to take the view that the best Roman characters of the early Republic, dwelling with enthusiasm

So long

also will

it

ROME TAKES THE LEAD

20

IN ITALY

over-idealized as they have been, were the fine product of a simple and primitive state of society that could not by any conceivable means have been restored once it had faded away. Cicero and very many who have followed him did not seem to realize that it was not by harking back to models in the past, but by resolutely facing the problems of their own time, that they could hope to create conditions in which the human personality could grow and

expand to the extent of embracing qualities and achievements of which the Romans of the early Republic, despite their many admirable characteristics, would not have been capable,

Roman

Citizenship

and

the Beginnings of International Relations

In the ancient world a beaten

enemy ran a

serious risk*of being

killed, enslaved or forced to find a ruinous ransom as his life. To Rome belongs the credit of much reducing

of evil

not indeed of abolishing any of them, for her record is darkened by crimes and atrocities as black as any to be found on

practices,

the pages of history. Rome often went beyond extermination, cruelty and repression* to arrive at an understanding with her former enemies. Cfaarao

the oldest of her religious officials wore the were They priestly ambassadors employed to advise upon war and peace, to act as spokesmen to the enemy, to endeavour to lead him to acknowledge the justice of the Romaa teristically,

among

Fetiales.

cause and, if persuasion failed, to perform the religious ceremonies attendant upon the declaration of war without which the Roman conscience was not completely clear. To the Feriatealso was committed the duty of attending the declaration of with

proper ceremony. The religious samples to wMcht the *coEep* of f bears witness may oftea have seemed to Roie s victims to be mere humbug. But methods of declaring war which we

'

fUWea ,

have experienced in our supposedly

do n and it circulated in Rome but was most needed for trade in the new areas where Roman bronze was

introduced small silver coins as a

unknown. The Romans who at this time had expelled from the Senate no less a person than an ex-Consul because he owned some silver plate were clearly in no haste to adopt foreign customs In the use of the precious metals. Shortly after this

first silver

coinage, the

Romans began thek

deadly struggle with the Carthaginians for supremacy in the Mediterranean. The Roman coinage seems to have survived the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) without alteration. The war was not fought on Italian soil and the relatively small demands upon domestic currency did not overtax the sources of supply of silver

and copper. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) was a very serious matter. Like all major wars, it involved expenditure which was huge in relation to the normal resources of Rome. Bronze was needed in large quantities to supply arms and armour, and one way of getting it quickly was to reduce the size of the bronze coins. This was not necessarily inflation,

much more

new smaller-size coins might still contain the same bronze since the metal itself was so greatly needed, in other words had become so much more valuable. Hie as of the old bronze money was still the unit of account,

because the 'Value in

tot it suffered a rapid and steep decline from the original standard

CURRENCY REFORM

97

of about 10 oz to 6 oz (around 217 B.C.), then to about 3 oz (around 209 B.C.) and fell later to 2 i oz and 2 oz. It was still called an as. Later writers who had endured the deliberate robbery practised by unscrupulous rulers

who debased

the coinage for thought that this decline in the metal content of the coins represented a similar debasement by the earlier Republic. Their explanation is no longer believed. From their

own

profit, naturally

the monetary point of view conditions at the two periods were worlds apart. As long as the old Roman bronze money was a means of payment, not a medium of exchange, it did not much matter what was the size of the coins. What had happened was that a great demand had arisen for bronze and silver for other uses besides the coinage. In other words, bronze and silver had

become more valuable and their new values were reflected in the amount of metal in the coins. The smaller coins were much more serviceable and no doubt helped along the more smaller

general use of money. The currency suffered heavily during the Second Punic War, with its succession of severe crises, because it was a very much more desperate straggle than the first. Never since the

Roman such

Republic emerged as an independent power was it in Second Punic War. Never, in the authentic as

peril as in the

distinct from the legendary history of Rome, did the Roman people respond to the dangers which encompassed them with such bravery and resolution. All were ready to sacrifice their lives and

Roman army The Senate was unable to come to their rescue with fresh supplies because the Treasury was empty. There was only one solution. The supplies were obtained from the richer citizens and the army was saved. The bronze coinage also suffered when Hannibal cut off the copper zone of Etruria and Capua (until 211 B.C.). About 205 B.C., shortly after the victory of the Metaurus, or perhaps earlier, a new silver coin was issued as a token of victory. This was the victoriatus. It was worth twice as much as the earlier nummus. Like the nummus, it was coined as a medium of exchange fortunes in their city's cause. In 215 and 214 B.C. a

was

in dire peril in Spain.

for foreign trade rather than for the home market, where bronze B.C. the Carthaginians were com-

continued to be used. In 202 pletely defeated

and

in the following year there

was peace.

It

was

not of long duration for, almost immediately, wars with Macedon

98

ROMAN INDUSTRY

- TRADE

AND MONEY

and Syria followed, and in each the might of Rome prevailed. Heavy Indemnities had been exacted from the defeated Cartha-

War they were required to pay, over a period of 10 years, the sum of 3,200 talents. The second indemnity was 10,000 talents spread over 50 years. The talent was a Greek monetary unit not frequently used by the Romans. It is usually regarded as the equivalent of 6,000 denarii or 24,000 sesterces. This indemnity must have represented a vast amount of wealth to the all but rained and impoverished Romans with their ginians. After the First Punic

undeveloped monetary system, particularly as they were as yet little accustomed to the use of silver or precious metals. Great as was the wealth of Carthage, it was of small account beside the riches of the Near East where the treasures of Persia brought back by Alexander the Great, were still intact. The Romans helped themselves to as much as they could carry. It is extremely difficult to frame any notion of the tremendous sudden

meant to a small, struggling City State of the ancient Mediterranean world. The power of gold and silver to stimulate the activities of men has had accession of wealth which these vast hoards

many illustrations in modern history. The sudden rise of Spain, the vigour of Elizabethan England, the great expansion in worldwide trade and commerce which followed the opening of the gold fields

of California, of Australia and of South Africa in the nineall conspire to suggest forcibly that, even if men

teenth century,

cannot count on becoming civilized as soon as they become rich, nevertheless there is a very close connexion between much gold and great economic expansion. Consequently it is plausible to believe that the wealth of Persia which, as a result of Roman conquests, suddenly fertilized the Mediterranean world after the middle of the second century B.C., acted like a forced draught

upon the slowly developing economic life of Rome and contributed powerfully to the wealth and urbanity of the civilization into which Cicero was born. It has indeed been suggested that this great store of riches, suddenly acquired and circulated by the Romans, alone maintained the Roman State until it was again slowly dissipated by being re-exported to those far Eastern lands whence it had originally come. It went back to pay for the silks

and spices and the other exotic articles of luxury beloved of the Romans. A pound of silk by A.D. 301 was said to cost more than a pomd of gold. This slow drain of precious metals, which was all

THE DENARIUS

99

Romans could offer to Arabs, Persians, Indians and Chinese in exchange for the products of the East, gradually, so it has been said, sapped the vital principle by which the whole economic system of the Roman Empire was maintained and thus that the

contributed as

much

as any other

economic factor to the decline

and fall of Rome. However, the depreciation of the coinage by the later Emperors as well as the drain of precious metals to the East and the failure of the gold and silver mines were all factors in the later breakdown. Yet if there were any truth in such a standard by which to value the theory, it would afford a better it into British booty collected by Rome than any effort to put than doubled more it valuation probably currency. On a rough which has the of the all citizens owned Republic, wealth the by been guessed as about 1,000 million denarii at the beginning of the second century B.C. Fifty years later (about 150 B.C.), Roman national wealth had perhaps increased to about three times this amount but it would still be a minute and insignificant sum comassets today of any British or pared with the estimated capital American community of the size of Rome. Leaving such speculations and returning to the recorded state is no doubt that the Treasury was again replenished. A settlement of accounts became possible. The bronze coinage, reduced as it had been to an emergency war issue of small metal content, called for attention merely in order to meet the domestic needs of Rome. But more was now no longer an Italian City State but was required. Rome was

of Rome in and after 200 B.C., there

general supreme in the Mediterranean. Roman money tion as a means of exchange throughout this expanded sphere of influence was obviously needed as never before. Such a currency could only be in silver. In or soon after 187 B.C. first appeared the Roman denarius, a silver coin weighing slightly less than our for

circula-

which was to become a household word not merely in the Mediterranean but throughout the known world. (Its name still the survives as the

346-53

family life, 2545, 296-303 love of books, 314-15, 351 character, 245, 316-17 Influence, 296, 312,

9 76-7, 133-5, 144-9, 155-6, 170, 196-201, 360-1

Claudian family, 197, 242, 306-8 Claudius Caecus, Appius (cos. 307 B.C.), 4, 123, 185, 307 Cleopatra, 37, 254 Clients, 133-4, 153, 161, 329 Clodia, 282, 302, 306-8, 313

Clodius Pulcher, P., sacrilege of, 243 becomes a plebeian, 242 dissolute behaviour, 303-4

on on on on

moral 348-55

70-4

376-82

148-9 S

gives free corn dole, 242, 374

aids workmen's clubs, 242 attacks Cicero, 243-9

Pompey, 246 gang warfare of, 246-9, 375 murdered, 249, 308 Clothes and clothing, 90-1, 113, 176 Clubs of workmen, 111, 195, 242, attacks

334-5

reduced by Caesar, 259 5 337

INDEX Crassus, M. Liclnius 55 B.C.), 223

Coinage, 24, 94-104 effect

on

social

life,

95

Caesar's portrait on, 104, 257 Collectors 83, 314-15 Colline Gate, battle of, 214

Colonies of

Roman

citizens,

defeat

Comitia cunata, 149 Comitia tributa, 152-4,

154,

155,

173,

215-17 Commerce, low social status of, 337-40 Senators excluded from, 60, 71-2 Greek, 96, 117-18 Phoenician, 28, 95-6 177, 206-7,

Italy, 24,

Communications, 120-30 Concilium ptebis, 150 Concordia ordinum, 164, 284, 358 Consualia, 341, 344 of,

165

powers and duties

of,

165-71

plebeians and, 171, 197-8

Census, 344 Contio 3 169 Contracts and contractors, 52, 87 9

114,127, 137,172,284 Corinth, 40, 260

Corn supply, 116-17, 176 under Sicily subsidized prices, 69-70, 106-9 Sicilian tithe, see

327-8, 335, 374 as political bribe, 107-8, 209

Bread mother of Gracchi, 66-7

Cornelius,

see

Cinna,

Scipio, Sulla

Corsica, 13, 28

annexed by Rome, 32 revenue from, 286 Cotton, 117

Cultural

life,

Chap. 16

Sibyl of, 179-80 Curio, see Scribonius

Cumae,

Curius, see Dentatus

Currency, see Coinage Cursus honorum, 216, 223, 353

Curule Aediles, see Aediles Cybele, 345 Cynoscephalae, battle of, 36 Cyprus, 293

Debt,

see

Money-lending

Decemvirs, 196-7 Delos, 121

Demagogues,

Dolabeila,

73, 76, 163, 215, 225 9

232-5, 239, 259-61, 364-5, 372

Democracy,

election of, 226-8

see also

247

of, 110, 115,

and death, 247-8, 250

126-9

joint-stock companies, 286

Cornelia,

239

Cicero on, 350 149-50,

155, 156-64, 168-9, 196,215-17

Consuls, origin

Consul with Pompey, 224 triumvir^

312

centuriata,

Rome and

70,

finances Caesar, 229-30

wealth 30,

(cos.

finances Clodius, 244

21

of Latins, 24

Comedy, Greek, Roman, 312 Comitia

391

172, 252,

133,

154-64,

168-9,

258

Demosthenes, 267 Denarius* see Coinage

Dentatus, Manius Curius 284 B.C.), 84

(cos. 290,

Diana, 344 Dictator, 167, 175, 256, 364 also

;

see

Caesarism

personal and social, 199-200, 220-2, 314, 338

Distinction,

Dolabella, P. Cornelius, 255, 302, 308

Dyrrhachium,

127, 253

Economic ideas and policy, Chap. 4, 366-9

Economic

progress,

13-14,

82-5,

97-9, 130, 208-9, 292 and the currency, 94-5, 100-2, 272 stimulated by road-building, 126

INDEX

392

Education, 133, 161, 195, 310-11, 333, 372 Aristotle on, 374-5 Egypt, 36, 186 corn trade, 117 relations

with

Gangs and

gangsters, 116, 163, 218,

246, 248-50, 252, 259, 261, 266, 329, 365, 375-82

Gardens, 88, 90, PL 29

Gaul and the Gauls, invasions

Rome,

230-1 ,

253-4, 257

10,

of,

11-12

Punic wars, 31, 33, 34 Caesar attacks, 248, 295

in

Electioneering, 227

Elephants in war, 32, 49 Ennius, Q., 82, 131, 344 Epicureans, 316, 349, 351

Cisalpine, 127, 264, 292

political influence of, 114-16, 119,

Gspadane, 126, 127 booty and revenue from, 286, 295 and Roman citizenship, 258 Gems and gemstones, 84, 86, 117

158, 164, 224, 284, 361 as jurymen, 71-2, 169, 216, 224,

Gladiators, 163, 166, 219, 246, 297 S

Eguites,,

business interests of, 70

339

358 in

tax-gatherers

provinces,

71,

216, 241, 291 social position

283, 339-40

of,

Cicero on, 227-8 Etruscans and Etruna,

7, 10, 11, 26,

84-5,210,311 Euripides; 30

Federation refused by

Rome,

21

344

Petioles. 20, 36, 41

Finance, public, see under

Rome

66,

Cicero on, 75-6, 163

Sempronius, 66, 67-8 9

Ti.

Gracchus, 74-6

agrarian policy of, 67-8, 207 Graft and corruption* 93, 243, 258-9

Greece,

Fishbreeders, 149

12-13,

30,

31,

67,

194,

Chap. 16

Flamines, 186

Flamininus,

Glaucia, 209, 212 Gods, see Religion Gold, 82-6, 98-9 G. Sernpronius, Gracchus,

and wheat subsidy, 69-70 s 106-7 as road-builder, 127

Family organization, 144-5, 280

Festivals, 341,

Glass, 87, 117

69-74, 74-6, 83

Fasces, 168, 174, 175

becomes

T.

Quinctius

(cos.

198 B.C.), 36-7, 289 Flaminius, C. (cos, 223, 217 B.C.), 61, 123, 207 Fleet, 29-30, 118-19

Food, see under

Rome

62, 65,

Roman

protectorates

40-1 philosophy

Roman

of,

351

dislike of, 17,

273

becomes malarious, 322

Fortuna, 343

Freedmen,

Genius, 342

Cicero on, 324-5 Guilds, see Clubs

329 Hannibal, in Spain, 31-2 invades Northern Italy, 32 defeats Romans, 32-4, 56

tax on, 153 see also Slaves Fullers, 91-2, 331

Funeral customs, 123, 199-200, 333

returns to Africa, 35

defeated at exile

Games, 229, 298, 308

S

329, 345 S 353

Zama, 35

and death,

Hasdrabal, 34

37,

40

INDEX

393

Health, public, 331-4 Heiiography, 129

Johnson, Samuel, 334 Jugurtha, 159,211-12

Heraciea, battle of, 13, 49

Julia (Caesar's daughter), 240,

Hiempsal, 211 Hirtius, A. (cos, 43

Julia

265

B.C.),

History and historians, 3-6, 19, 200, 315-16, 377 Holidays, 329

Home

life,

see also

;

Games

19, 86-92, 280,

296-303 s

328 religious aspect of, 342-3

250

(widow of Marius), 230

Julius, see

Caesar

Junius, see Brutus

Juno, 344

346-7

Jupiter, 180, 344,

Jury service, 71-2, 169, 174, 216, 224, 339 Justice, 174 ; see also Rule of Law

Horace, 121, 268 Hortensian Laws, 154 Hortensius, Q. (Dictator 287 B.C.), 153 Houses and housing, 86-8 s 328

Kings, Roman,

8,

145,

152,

165,

167, 179-80, 266, 350

Roman

hatred of,

3,

175, 230,

254, 362-3 Ilerda, battle of,

253

Illyna, 31

Imagines, see Funeral customs

Imperialism, 285-96

Impenum,

166, 174, 175

Caesar and, 256 Cicero and, 293 Incomes, 104-14 Individualism

decay of 76-7 s 83, 208,

and the

social solidarity,

336-7, 346-8 Industry, 78-93, 367 Insurance, 118 Interreges, 167 Irrigation, 93-4 Italy and Italians, early history of, 1-27 early agriculture of, 54-5 Roman policy towards, 21, 25

Roman jealousy Hannibal and,

of, 73, 115

57-8 284, 372 33,

grievances of, political enfranchisement, 209-10 see also Social

War

lugerum, 59

Land, 58-61, 67-8, 144 limit on holdings, 59, 67, 153 and depopulation, 58-9 Gracchan reforms, 67-74 grants to veterans by Pompey, 240; by Caesar, 259 Caesar's Land Bill, 230-1 ; see also

Lares

Ager

et Penates.,

341-3

Latifundia, 60, 75, 366-9 Latin language, 16-17, 312, 324-5

Latins, 8, 21, 24

Latium, 56, 74 malaria in, 322 in early Republic, 193 ff. influence of Pontifices on, 193

Law,

Twelve Tables, 193-6 Praetors and, 173-4, 353-4 as a career, 221-2

Cicero on, 244, 354

summary Legions, see

Lepidus,

M.

of,

201-4

Army Aernilius (cos. 78 B.C.),

triumvir, 223,

266

Letter-carriers, 122, 316

Jewellery, 84, 85-6, 329

18 Liberty, decay of political. Chap. Libraries, see Books

Jews, 352, 355

LiciniaB Rogations, 59, 198

Janus, 104, 343

INDEX

394 Licinius, see Crassus, Locullus Lictors, 168, 174

Money-lending, 53, 59, 147, 195-6, 259, 278, 284, 288, 293-4, 388

Lighting and lamps, 82 Literature,

social

311-18

Morals,

consequences

of,

232-3

Livius Drusus, M., the younger, 209

213-15, 218, 305-6, 310, 336, 343, 349-55, 359 9 372 Mucius, see Scaevola

Livy, history of, xii, 4, 5, 10, 81 Lucullus, L. Licinius (cos. 74 B.C.),

Munda, 255

Livius Drusus,

M.

(cos.

112

B.C.),

73

84, 291

163,

Mules, 45, 128 Municipalities,

Luxury, 81-2, 274, 357

21-4

Music, 311 Mutina, 265

Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 5, 263, 358 Macedonia, 34, 36-40, 286 Magistrates, Chap. 6

Maniple, see Army Manlius, T. Torquatus, (cos. 347 9 344, 340 B.C.), 11

Napoleon, 239, 379 Navy, 29-30, 118-19 Neptune, 104, 344 News, dissemination of, 38-9, 139, 142, 169,283,316, 317,372 Nigidius Figulus, 352

Marius, C. (cos. 107, 104-100, 86 B.C.), 49, 116,212-14 Marriage, 171 195, 281, 342

Numantia, 41 Numidia, 211

Magnesia, battle Malaria, 322

of,

37

Nobility 172

;

see also Optimates

Mars, 104, 186, 344 Marsi, 25 Masinissa, 211 Massilia (Marseilles), 32, 120, 222 9

Octavius, see Augustus Olive, culture, 62, 63, 332

Optimates, 198-200, 257-8, 359-62

253

Mathematics, 323 Medicine and surgery, 47, 318-23,

Oscan language, 210 Oxen, 128

331

Menander, 30 Mercury, 344 Metal industries, 80-2, 33! Metaurus, battle

of,

34-5

Metellus, Q. Caecilius (cos. 109 B.C.),

Metellus Celer, Q. (cos. 60 B.C.), 306 Metellus Nepos, Q., (cos. 57 B.C.),

(cos.

43

B.C.),

265

Paper, 117,314,316 Papirius, see

Parliament 187

211

Carbo and Roman

system*

ff.

Parthia, invaded

by Crassus, 247

Cicero's fear of, 293 Patricians, 133, 134-5

107 Military

Pansa, C. Vibius

power conferred by the

political privileges

of,

priestly offices,

Minerva, 104, 292, 344

old families extinct, 198-9

179-86

Mithridates VI, 212, 225, 290

Penates, 341, 342, 343

Molon of Rhodes,

People, the common, Chap. 17 also Plebeians

220 Money, 94-104, 195, 272 ; see also Coinage 119,

I709

133,

172

people, 211-13 Milo, T. Annius, 246

Petrarch, 312, 317

;

see

INDEX

Pontifex Maximus, 181, 185, 243 Caesar as, 182, 236-7, 345

Pharnaces, 254 Pharsalus, 253 Philip

V

395

of Macedonia, 36, 40, 267 269

Pontiffs, 181-3

Philippi, battle of,

Pontme marshes,

Philippic Orations^ 261

Popular party and power

220 Pirates and piracy, 28-9, 118-19, 130, 225 Phiio,

Plato, 336, 338, 351, 354, 378 Plebeians, 144

victory,

197,

236, 239, 337, 360 Population, 58-9, 61, 108 Porcius, see Cato

199,

205

Poverty and the poor, 336, 373-4,

aristocracy, 199

and

Chap. 17

religious offices, 179-85

see also

Power

Democracy, Demagogues Comitia

Plebiscitum.,

Plebiscitum, 151, 153-4, 370

Polybms on Roman tices, 184,

on

Roman

Rome,

176,

369-72,

religious prac-

200 constitution,

166,

181-2, 350-1 attacks on, 113,230, 373-4 confiscation of, 214-15, 259

Proscriptions, 229

by Sulla, 215 by Antony and Octavius, 267, Provinces,

Roman

289-96, Sulla,

222 ff. Consul with Crassus, 223 overturns Sullan constitution, 224 suppresses piracy, 199, 225, 291 against

Mithridates,

see

rule in, 71, 284, also

Ptolemy XII, 253 see

Public administration,

Pubhcani, see Equites Public opinion, 314, 361, 373-5 Cicero on, 163 302-3

triumph and booty, 237, 291-2, 330 triumvir., 239

Punic War, First, 29-31 Second, 31-5

leaves Italy, 251 defeated at Pharsalus, 253 in Egypt,

Cicero on, 361-2

Publishing, see

Book

consequences 207, 285-6

and Caesar, 250-3

253

under

Rome

Publilia,

sole Consul, 249

individual

colonies

225, 291 settlement of the East, 237

murdered

104-14

living,

268

character, 18, 272-3

Pompeii, 79, 126, 129, 282 Pompeius Magnus, Cn., and

campaign

83

silver,

Cicero on, 76, 113, 158-9,336

169-70, 190, 207

on Roman

and cost of

of

Property, religious rites aod, 144-5,

330, 358

219-20, 130, Chaps. 5-13 Aristotle on, 373-6

Prices,

of animals, 129

Po, river, 13, 31, 60, 127

Politics,

in industry, 80, 332 Praetors, 165-6, 173-5, 354

tributa,

Tribunes

Police, absence of, in

politics,

76-7, 116, 143, 163, 209, 231,

Postal service, 121-2 Pottery, 88

secessions, 150, 153 political

123, 260, 323

of,

Puteoli, 80, 118

Pydna, battle

of,

Pyrrhas, 13, 28

Pythagoras, 352

40

trade

57-60,

96-7 9

INDEX

396 Quaestors, origin of, powers of, 173

165-6

public administration, deficiency of, 50, 71, 73-4, 114, 137,286,

Cicero's term of office, 222 Qumctras, see Cincinnatus, Flami Bin us

334-5, 371-3 food,

8, 14,

trade, 7,

Chap. 4

;

see also

Com-

merce

Reg'llus, battle of, 8, 104

Religion, 180-1, 271, 294

Chap. 4 world power, 38 economic problems, 366-70, 374 wealth, estimated, 99 industries,

of slave trade on, 44 priestly colleges, 179, 347

as

effect

superstitions,

30-1, 45, 54-6, 89-90,

326-7

34 S 181, 183-4, 3209

344-5

Romulus,

and coinage, 104 and Tribunes, 188 and Roman life, 271, 341-53, 359-60, 372 Responsibility in public life, 2063

2, 104,

350

Roscius Q., 111,219 Rubicon, river, 12, 251 9

Rufus, see Caelius of Law, 174,

Rule

188,

195-6 S

353-4, 364, 373, 375-9

240, 284, 324-5, 317, 371

Rhodes, 36, 119,222,268-9 Roadmaking, 123-7

Sabines,

Roads, economic and military

sig-

nificance of, 69, 70, 117, 122 via Aemilia,

8,

Sacrifices,

56

human, 34

animal, 183, 352

Saguntum, 32 Sahi, 186

123-6

Appia> 123 via Cassia, 126

Sallustius Crispus,

via

Salt industry, 7,

Samnium and Samnites

via Domitia,; 127 via Egnatia, 127,

C, 313-14

285

269

94, 153,

Sardinia, 13, 28, 32, 286

map, 124-5

Saturnalia, 341

Robigalla, 341

the

Romans,

early

strategic position, 8 character, 15-20, 43, 50, 67, 131

in

12-14,

Italy,

Chap. 4 development

knowledge

in crafts,

Roman

147, 134 B.C.),

colonies, 14 Civil Service, lack of, 74,

Science, early scientific

of,

Chap. 16

Scipio Aemilianus, P. Cornelius (cos

25-7, 152

260

political institutions, 130,

Chaps.

83,211

Scipio Africanus, P. Cornelius (cos. 205, 194 B.C.), 37, 41, 66, 211 in Spain, 34-5

5-9 public assemblies, Chaps, magistrates, Chaps, 7, 9 political

Saturninus, L. Appuleius, 209, 212 Scaevola, Q. Mucius (cos. 95 B.C.). 181, 220 murdered, 214, 237

legends, 4-7

foundation, 4

development

6,

9

problems, 370-82

public finance, 39-40, 84-5, 207 9

284-96

12, 56,

Sanitation, 91-4, 326-333

viaFlaminia, 61, 123 viaLatina, 123

Rome and

9,

9

214

defeats Hannibal, 35

prosecuted by Cato, 273 Greek sympathies of, 312 Scribonius Curio, C., 250-1

Sempronius, see Gracchus

INDEX

procedure

powers

of,

9

Social policy

140-2, 242

unitary nature of, 51, 66 lack of at Rome, 309

136-40

of,

397

agricultural changes and 76

Senate, 135-6, 172-3, 182 history of, 135-43, 207

money policy, 103-4 relations with Consuls, 138, 167-8

controls

Social

relations with popular assemblies,

76-7, 83, 200, 260, 266-7, 334-5 Social War, 25 S 103, 116, 151, 159,

139-40, 153, 169 relations with Tribunes, 154, 167

Socrates, 194, 349

influence of, 142-3, 189 loss of authority,

214-24, 241-2,

250, 371-2 Sulla's support of,

215-18

Cicero on, 363-4 Senators, as landowners, 60-74

excluded from commerce, 52, 60, 71

Senatus consultum ultimum, 138, 233

solidarity,

18,

26,

Spain, under Carthage, 31-2 under Rome, 41, 175

export from, 41, 85, 119, 120 revenue from, 286 Caesar and, 253, 295 Sertorius and, 223 Spartacus, 223

Spinning and weaving, 90-1, 281 Sport, 297

Sentinurn, battle of, 12

Stoics, 326, 336, 349, 351 Sulla, L. Cornelius, 343

Sertorius, Q., 223

military career, 212-15

Servian reforms, 145-6, 152

captures

Sestertius, see

Dictator, 215

Ships and shipping, 116-21, 311 Sibylline books, 179-80, 186 28-9, 323-4 payments, 30-1, 56, 286

Sicily, 13,

tithe

43-4

slave revolts in,

Cicero

222

in,

120

of,

of, 64-5, 280,

Roman

291-5

life,

44, 65 9

revolts of, 43-4, 66, 223

trade

of, 65, 106,

in, 118,

367-8

338

Cicero on, 349-50, 363-4 Social

in

Syria, 248

Rome,

Tarentum,

13

Tarquins, 8 Taxation, of Romans, 40, 137, 1479 207, 268, 285-8

of Italians, 25 in provinces, 30-1,

120,278

in wealthy households, 65, 329,

Soap unknown

Syracuse, 30

Tariffs, 118

283

76-7, 271-2, 312, 338-9

economics

laws, 275

62

result of conquest, 40, 60,

on

system overthrown, 224 Greek library of, 315

Superstitions, see Religion

see also Coinage

;

enfranchisement

influence

legislation of, 173, 215-18, 328

Sundials, 282

Slaves, in the heroic age, 14-15

numbers

Rome, 214

proscriptions of, 116, 214-15 abdication and death, 218

Sumptuary

Verres and, 225 Silk, 98, 117 Silver, 83-5,

48,

211-16

Sergius, see Catilina

Coinage

46,

91, 33!

life, 78, 82-5, 111-13, 232, 258, Chaps. 14, 15, 17 S 18

286-7

see also Equites, Slaves, Tribute Telamon, battle of, 31

Temples, 180, 330 Terentia, wife of Cicero, 296-301 Terentius, see Varro

Teuton!, 212

INDEX

398 Tliapsus, battle of, 255 Thermopylae, battle of, 37 Tiber, river,

Toga, 91-2

7, ;

93, 128,

Valerian-Horatian reforms, 153-4 Valerius, see Catullus

254

Valerius Corvus,

see also Clothes

Tradition,

of,

131,

181-2,

128, 129

32 S 33

Treaties of alliance, 20-5

Tribunes, 150, 151, 176-8 Military, with consular powers 9 171, 198

Gracchi and, 68

and Senate, 141, 154, 167, 188 Sulla and, 216-17 Pompey and, 224 188

Tullius, see Cicero

Tusculum, 11, 53 Twelve Tables, 193-6 8,

210

Voting, 154-64, 172 Vulcan, 344

Punic

War

Water supply, 93

Triumvirate, First, 239, 247 Second, 266-9

daughter of Cicero, 296-303

Vineyards, 62-3 Volsci, 9, 56

;

Caesar and, 242 Cicero on, 177

Tullia,

Vesta, 341, 344 Vestal Virgins, 341 Veto, 68, 188 ; see also Tribunes Villas, Pis. 4, 5

Wages, 92, 104-14 War, 41-4 see also Army, Fetiales,

influence of, 176-8

Umbria

Vercingetorix, 248 Verginia, 197 Verres, C., 225, 293

of,

Tribes, 146, 150-62

of, 154,

Venus, 344 212

Vercellae,

decay of, 278-9, Chap. 18 Transport of food, etc., 109, 116-17,

powers

B.C.),

Veii, 55,

193, 342-3

Trasimene, battle

348

349-50 84

Commerce power

(cos.

Varro, M. Terentlus, 315, 323 9 346,

Tombs, roadside, 123 Totalitarianism 9 see Caesarisni Trade, see

M.

11

Weaving, 91, 281 Wine, 90, 105, 305 9 326

255 S

Women

in

Roman

society, 19, 187,

197 9 243, 280, 301-3, 329

Wool,

see

Spinning,

Clothes

Zania, battle of, 35

Weaving,