Part 24 (1/2)
But his victory was not decisive, and the Romans continued to be hara.s.sed by the neighboring nations, and they, moreover, suffered all the evils of pestilence. It was at this time, in the three hundredth year of the city, that they sought to make improvements in their laws-at least, to embody laws in a written form. Greece was then in the height of her glory, in the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, and thither a commission was sent to examine her laws, especially those of Solon, at Athens. On the return of the three commissioners, a new commission of ten was appointed to draw up a new code, composed wholly of patricians, at the head of which was Appius Claudius, consul elect, a man of commanding influence and talents, but ill-regulated pa.s.sions and unscrupulous ambition. The new code was engraved upon ten tables, and subsequently two more tables were added, and these twelve tables are the foundation of the Roman jurisprudence, that branch of science which the Romans carried to considerable perfection, and for which they are most celebrated. The jurisprudence of Rome has survived all her conquests, and is the most valuable contribution to civilization which she ever made.
(M803) The decemvirs-those who codified the laws-came into supreme power, and suspended the other great magistracies, and ruled, under the direction of Appius Claudius, in an arbitrary and tyrannical manner. Their power came to an end in a signal manner, and the history of their fall is identified with one of the most beautiful legends of this heroic age, which is also the subject of one of Macaulay's lays.
(M804) Appius Claudius, who perhaps aspired to regal power, became enamored of the daughter of a centurion, L. Virginius. In order to gratify his pa.s.sions, Claudius suborned a false accuser, one of his clients, who was to pretend that the mother of Virginia had been his slave. Appius sat in judgment, and against his own laws, and also the entreaties of the people, declared her to be the slave of the accuser. Her father returned from the army, and in his indignation plunged a dagger in her breast, preferring her death to shame. The people and soldiers rallied around the courageous soldier, took the capitol, and compelled the decemvirs to lay down their office. The result of this insurrection was the creation of ten tribunes instead of the old number, and ten continued to be the regular number of tribunes till the fall of the republic. It was further decreed that the votes of the plebs, pa.s.sed in the Comitia Tributa, should be binding on the whole people, provided they were confirmed by the Senate and the a.s.semblies of the curias and centuries. The persons of the tribunes were declared to be inviolable, under the sanctions of religion, and they, moreover, were admitted to the deliberations of the Senate, though without a vote. Thus did the commons ascend another step in political influence, B.C. 449. The next movement of the commons was to take vengeance on Appius Claudius, who ended his life in prison.
(M805) The plebs, now strengthened by the plebeian n.o.bles, who sought power through the tribunate, insisted on the abrogation of the law which prevented the marriage of plebeians with patricians. This was effected four years later, B.C. 445. These then attempted to secure the higher magistracies, but this was prevented for a time, although they acquired the right of plebeians to become military tribunes, or chief officer of the legions, but none of the plebeians arose to that rank for several years.
(M806) A new office of great dignity was now created, that of censors, who were chosen from men who had been consuls, and therefore had higher rank than they. It was their duty to superintend the public morals, take the census, and administer the finances. They could brand with ignominy the highest officers of the State, could elect to the Senate, and control, with the aediles, the public buildings and works. There were two elected to this high office, and were chosen from the patrician ranks till the year B.C. 421, when plebeians were admitted. They were even held in great reverence, and enjoyed a larger term of office than the consuls, even of five years.
(M807) The commons gained additional importance by the opening of the quaestors.h.i.+p to the plebeians, which took place about this time. The quaestors virtually had charge of the public money, and were the paymasters of the army. As these were curule officers, they had, by their office, admission to the Senate. Another great increase of power among the plebeians, about twenty years after the decemviral legislature, was the right, transferred from the curiae to the centuries, of determining peace and war.
(M808) While these internal changes were in progress, the State was in almost constant war with the Volscians and Acquians, and also with the Etruscans. The former were kept at bay by the aid of the Latin and Hernican allies. The latter were more formidable foes, and especially the inhabitants of Veii-a powerful city in the plain of Southern Etruria, and the largest of the confederated Etruscan cities, equal in size to Athens, defended by a strong citadel on a hill. The Veientines, not willing to contend with the Romans in the field, shut themselves up in their strong city, to which the Romans laid siege. They drew around it a double line of circ.u.mvallation, the inner one to prevent egress from the city, the outer one to defend themselves against external attacks. The siege lasted ten years, as long as that of Troy, but was finally taken by the great Camillus, by means of a mine under the citadel. The fall of this strong place was followed by the submission of all the Etruscan cities south of the Ciminian forest, and the lands of the people of Veii were distributed among the whole Roman people, at the rate of seven jugera to each landholder, B.C. 396.
(M809) But this event was soon followed by a great calamity to Rome-the greatest she had ever suffered. The city fell into the hands of the Gauls-a Celtic race. They were rather pastoral than agricultural, and reared great numbers of swine. They had little attachment to the soil, like the Italians and Germans, and delighted in towns. Their chief qualities were personal bravery, an impetuous temper, boundless vanity, and want of perseverance. They were good soldiers and bad citizens. They were fond of a roving life, and given to pillage. They loved ornaments and splendid dresses, and wore a gold collar round the neck. After an expedition, they abandoned themselves to carousals. They sprung from the same cradle as the h.e.l.lenic, Italian, and German people. Their first great migration flowed past the Alps, and we find them in Gaul, Britain, and Spain. From these settlements, they proceeded westward across the Alps. In successive waves they invaded Italy. It was at the height of Etruscan power, that they a.s.sumed a hostile att.i.tude. From Etruria they proceeded to the Roman territories.
(M810) The first battle with these terrible foes resulted disastrously to the Romans, who regarded them as half-disciplined barbarians, and underrated their strength. Their defeat was complete, and their losses immense. The flower of the Roman youth perished, B.C. 390.
(M811) The victors entered Rome without resistance, while the Romans retreated to their citadel, such as were capable of bearing arms. The rest of the population dispersed. The fathers of the city, aged citizens, and priests, seated themselves in the porches of their patrician houses, and awaited the enemy. At first, they were mistaken for G.o.ds, so venerable and calm their appearance; but the profanation of the sacred person of Papirius dissolved the charm, and they were ma.s.sacred.
(M812) The Gauls then attempted to a.s.sault the capital, but failed. But a youth, Pontius Cominius, having climbed the hill in the night with safety, and opened communication with the Romans at Veii, the marks of his pa.s.sage suggested to the Gauls the means of taking the citadel. In the dead of the following night a party of Gauls scaled the cliff, and were about to surprise the citadel, when some geese, sacred to Juno, cried out and flapped their wings, which noise awakened M. Manlius, who rushed to the cliff and overpowered the foremost Gaul. A panic seized the rest, and the capitol was saved. At length, when the siege had lasted seven months, and famine pressed, the invaders were bought off by a ransom of one thousand pounds weight of gold. ”The iron of the barbarians had conquered; but they sold their victory, and by selling, lost it.” They were subsequently defeated by Camillus, and Manlius, surnamed Torquatus, from the gold collar he took from a gigantic Gaul, and also by other generals.
The destruction of Rome was not a permanent calamity; it was a misfortune.
The period which followed was one of distress, but the energy of Camillus reorganized the military force, and new alliances were made with the Latin cities. Etruria, humbled and restricted within narrower limits, and moreover enervated by luxury, was in no condition to oppose a people inured to danger and sobered by adversity.
(M813) The subsequent fate of Manlius, who saved the city, suggests the fickleness and ingrat.i.tude of a republican State. The distress of the lower cla.s.ses, in consequence of the Gaulish invasion, became intolerable.
They became involved in debt, and thus were in the power of their creditors. Manlius undertook to be their defender, but the envy of the patricians caused him to be accused of aspiring to the supreme power, and he was, in spite of his great services, sentenced to death and hurled from the Tarpeian rock. His error was in premature reform. But, in the year 367 B.C., the tribunes Licinius and L. s.e.xtius secured the pa.s.sage of three memorable laws in the Curiata Tributa-the abolition of the military tribunate, which had increased the power of the patricians, and the restoration of the consulate, on the condition that one of the consuls should be a plebeian; the second, that no citizen should possess more than five hundred jugera of the public lands; and the third, that all interest thus paid on loans should be deducted from the princ.i.p.al. These were called the _Licinian Rogations_. But a new curule magistracy was created, as a sort of compensation to the patricians, that of praetors, to be held by them, exclusively. These political changes were made peaceably, and with them the old gentile aristocracy ceased to be a political inst.i.tution. The remaining patrician offices were not long withheld from the plebeians. But these political changes did not much ameliorate the social condition of the poorer cla.s.ses. The strictness of the Licinian laws, the oppression of the rich, the high rate of interest, and the existence of slavery, made the poor poorer, and the rich richer, and prevented the expansion of industry. The plebeians had gained political privileges, but not till great plebeian families had arisen. Power was virtually in the hands of n.o.bles, whether patrician or plebeian, and aristocratic distinctions still remained. The plebeian n.o.ble sympathized with patricians rather than with the poorer cla.s.ses. Debt, usury, and slavery began to bear fruits before the conquest of Italy.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CONQUEST OF ITALY.
Hitherto, the Romans, after the expulsion of the kings, were involved in wars with their immediate neighbors, and exposed to great calamities. All they could do for one hundred and fifty years was to recover the possessions they had lost. During this period great prodigies of valor were performed, and great virtues were generated. It was the heroic period of their history, when adversity taught them patience, endurance, and public virtue.
(M814) But a new period opens, when the plebeians had obtained political power, and the immediate enemies were subdued. This was a period of conquest over the various Italian States. The period is still heroic, but historical. Great men arose, of talent and patriotism. The ambition of the Romans now prominently appears. They had been struggling for existence-they now fought for conquest. ”The great achievement of the regal period was the establishment,” says Mommsen, ”of the sovereignty of Rome over Latium.” That was shaken by the expulsion of Tarquin, but was re-established in the wars which subsequently followed. After the fall of Veii, all the Latin cities became subject to the Romans. On the overthrow of the Volscians, the Roman armies reached the Samnite territory.
(M815) The next memorable struggle of Rome was with Samnium, for the supremacy of Italy. Samnium was a hilly country on the east of the Volscians, and its people were brave and hardy. The Samnites had, at the fall of Veii, an ascendency over Lower Italy, with the exception of the Grecian colonies. Tarentum, Croton, Metapontum, Heraclea, Neapolis, and other Grecian cities, maintained a precarious independence, but were weakened by the successes of the Samnites. Capua, the capital of Campania, where the Etruscan influence predominated, was taken by them, and c.u.mae was wrested from the Greeks.
But in the year B.C. 343, the Samnites came in collision with Rome, from an application of Capua to Rome for a.s.sistance against them. The victories of Valerius Corvus, and Cornelius Cossus gave Campania to the Romans.
(M816) In the mean time the Latins had recovered strength, and determined to shake off the Roman yoke, and the Romans made peace with the Samnites and formed a close alliance, B.C. 341. The Romans and Samnites were ranged against the Latins and Campanians. The hostile forces came in sight of each other before Capua, and the first great battle was fought at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. It was here that t.i.tus Manlius, the son of the consul, was beheaded by him for disobedience of orders, for the consuls issued strict injunctions against all skirmis.h.i.+ng, and Manlius, disregarding them, slew an enemy in single combat. ”The consul's cruelty was execrated, but the discipline of the army was saved.”
(M817) This engagement furnishes another legend of the heroic and patriotic self-devotion of those early Romans. The consuls, before the battle, dreamed that the general on the one side should fall, and the army on the other side should be beaten. Decius, the plebeian consul, when he found his troops wavering, called the chief pontiff, and after invoking the G.o.ds to a.s.sist his cause, rushed into the thickest of the Latin armies, and was slain. The other consul, Torquatus, by a masterly use of his reserve, gained the battle. Three-fourths of the Latin army were slain. The Latin cities, after this decisive victory, lost their independence, and the Latin confederacy was dissolved, and Latin nationality was fused into one powerful State, and all Latium became Roman. Roman citizens settled on the forfeited lands of the conquered cities.
(M818) The subjugation of Latium and the progress of Rome in Campania filled the Samnites with jealousy, and it is surprising that they should have formed an alliance with Rome, when Rome was conquering Campania. They were the most considerable power in Italy, next to Rome, and to them fell the burden of maintaining the independence of the Italian States against the encroachments of the Romans.