Part 9 (2/2)

The Celtiberi, however, were still in arms. The strong city of NUMANTIA, the capital of one of their tribes, witnessed more than one defeat of a Roman Consul before its walls (141-140). Finally Rome sent out her best general, Africa.n.u.s the younger.

After devoting several months to the disciplining of his troops, he began (134) a regular siege of the place. It was defended with the utmost bravery and tenacity, until, forced by the last extreme of famine, it surrendered (133). The inhabitants were sold as slaves, and the town was levelled to the ground. The victor was honored with the t.i.tle of NUMANTiNUS.

The fall of Numantia gave Rome a hold upon the interior of Spain, which was never lost. The country now, with the exception of its northern coast, was nominally Roman territory. Several towns were established with Latin munic.i.p.al rights _(municipia)_, and, on the whole, order was maintained. Along the coast of the Mediterranean there sprang up many thriving and populous towns, which became centres of civilization to the neighboring districts, and were treated by Rome rather as allies than as subjects. Some of them were allowed to coin the silver money of Rome.

The civilizing process, due to Roman influence, went on rapidly in these parts, while the interior remained in barbarism.

In 105 the peninsula was overrun by the Cimbri, a barbarous race from the north. The country was ravaged, but finally saved by the brave Celtiberi, who forced the invaders back into Gaul.

THE SERVILE WAR (134-132).

While the Numantine war was still in progress, a war with the slaves broke out in Sicily, where they had been treated with special barbarity.

For a long time slave labor had been taking the place of that of freemen. The supply was rendered enormous by constant wars, and by the regular slave trade carried on with the sh.o.r.es of the Black Sea and Greece. The owners of the slaves became an idle aristocracy.

The immediate cause of the outbreak in Sicily was the cruelty of a wealthy slave-owner, Damophilus. The leader of the slaves was EUNUS, who pretended to be a Syrian prophet. A number of defeats were suffered by the Roman armies, until, finally, PUBLIUS RUTILIUS captured the strongholds of the slaves, TAUROMENIUM and ENNA, and thus closed the war. For his success he was allowed an ovation.

CHAPTER XXI. INTERNAL HISTORY.--THE GRACCHI. We have seen how the long struggle between the patricians and plebeians terminated in a nominal victory for the latter. From about 275, the outward form of the old const.i.tution had undergone little change. It was nominally that of a ”moderate democracy.” The Senate and offices of state were, in law, open to all alike. In practice, however, the const.i.tution became an oligarchy. The Senate, not the Comitias, ruled Rome. Moreover, the Senate was controlled by a cla.s.s who claimed all the privileges of a n.o.bility. The Comitias were rarely called upon to decide a question.

Most matters were settled by a DECREE OF THE SENATE (_Senatus Consultum_). To be sure the Comitia declared for war or peace, but the Senate conducted the war and settled the conditions of peace. It also usually a.s.signed the commands, organized the provinces, and managed the finances.

The causes for this ascendency of the Senate are not hard to find. It was a body made up of men capable of conducting affairs. It could be convened at any time, whereas the voters of the Comitias were scattered over all Italy, and, if a.s.sembled, would not be competent to decide questions demanding knowledge of military matters and foreign policy.

The Senate and the Roman n.o.bility were in the main the same. All patricians were n.o.bles, but all n.o.bles were not patricians. The patricians were the descendants of the original founders of the city.

The n.o.bles were the descendants of any one who had filled one of the following six curule offices, viz. Dictator, Magister Equitum, Consul, Interrex, Praetor, or Curule Aedile. These n.o.bles possessed the right to place in their hall, or carry in funeral processions, a wax mask of this ancestor, and also of any other member of the family who had held a curule office.

A plebeian who first held this office was called a _novus h.o.m.o_, or ”new man.”

The Senate, thus made up of patricians and n.o.bles, had at this time the monopoly of power. Legally, however, it had no positive authority.

The right of the people to govern was still valid, and there was only wanting a magistrate with the courage to remind them of their legal rights, and urge the exercise of them.

Such a magistrate was found in TIBERIUS SEMp.r.o.nIUS GRACCHUS. With him was ushered in the contest which lasted for more than a century, and brought to the surface some of the proudest names of Roman history.

On one side or the other we find them,--MARIUS and SULLA, CAESAR and POMPEY, AUGUSTUS and ANTONY--arraying Rome against herself, until the glories of the Republic were swallowed up in the misrule and dishonor of the Empire.

Tiberius Semp.r.o.nius Gracchus the elder (see Chapter XX.) belonged to the n.o.bility, but not to the aristocracy. He married CORNELIA, the daughter of Africa.n.u.s the elder. They had twelve children, of whom all but three died young. Two sons and a daughter lived to maturity. The daughter, SEMp.r.o.nIA, married Africa.n.u.s the younger. The sons, TIBERIUS and GAIUS, grew up under the care of their n.o.ble and gifted mother, who was left a widow when they were mere boys.

Tiberius (164-133) entered the army, and served under his brother-in-law during the third Punic war. Ten years later (136) he was Quaestor in Spain, where he won the affections of the people by adhering to the mild policy which his father had previously followed. His popular measures here displeased his brother-in-law, and he ceased to be a favorite with him. On his return home he pa.s.sed through Tuscany where he was astonished to see large tracts of the _ager publicus_ (see Chapter VII.) cultivated by slave gangs, while the free poor citizens of the Republic were wandering in towns without employment, and deprived of the land which, according to law (see the Licinian Rogations), should have been divided among them, and not held in large quant.i.ties by the rich land-owners.

Tiberius determined to rectify this wrong. In 133 he offered himself as candidate for the tribunes.h.i.+p, and was elected. He then began boldly the battle for the commons. He proposed to revise the Agrarian Law, now a dead letter, which forbade the holding of more than 320 acres of the _ager publicus_ by one individual. Occupants who had fenced this land and improved it were to be compensated therefor.

The wealthy cla.s.ses and the Senate at once took sides against Tiberius, and the struggle began. One of the other Tribunes, OCTAVIUS CAECiNA, who was himself a large land-owner, taking advantage of his authority as Tribune, interposed his veto to prevent a vote upon the question.

Gracchus, full of enthusiasm over the justice of his cause, obtained, contrary to all precedent, the removal of his colleague from office, and pa.s.sed his Agrarian Law. Three commissioners were appointed, himself, his brother, and his father-in-law, APPIUS CLAUDIUS, to carry it into effect.

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