Part 23 (2/2)

During this time Sulla had conquered Mithradates and had a.s.sured the loyalty of his soldiers by giving them the free pillage of Asia. He returned with his army (83) to Italy. His enemies opposed him with five armies, but these were defeated or they deserted. Sulla entered Rome, ma.s.sacred his prisoners and overthrew the partisans of Marius.

After some days of slaughter he set himself to proceed regularly: he posted three lists of those whom he wished killed. ”I have posted now all those whom I can recall; I have forgotten many, but their names will be posted as the names occur to me.” Every proscribed man--that is to say, every man whose name was on the list, was marked for death; the murderer who brought his head was rewarded. The property of the proscribed was confiscated. Proscription was not the result of any trial but of the caprice of the general, and that too without any warning. Sulla thus ma.s.sacred not only his enemies but the rich whose property he coveted. It is related that a citizen who was unaccustomed to politics glanced in pa.s.sing at the list of proscriptions and saw his own name inscribed at the top of the list. ”Alas!” he cried, ”my Alban house has been the death of me!” Sulla is said to have proscribed 1800[142] knights.

After having removed his enemies, he endeavored to organize a government in which all power should be in the hands of the Senate. He had himself named Dictator, an old t.i.tle once given to generals in moments of danger and which conferred absolute power. Sulla used the office to make laws which changed the entire const.i.tution. From that time all the judges were to be taken from the Senate, no law could be discussed before it had been accepted by the Senate, the right of proposing laws was taken from the tribunes of the plebs.

After these reforms Sulla abdicated his functions and retired to private life (79). He knew he had nothing to fear, for he had established 100,000 of his soldiers in Italy.

=Pompey and Caesar.=--The Senate had recovered its power because Sulla saw fit to give it this, but it had not the strength to retain it if a general wished again to seize it. The government of the Senate endured, however, in appearance for more than thirty years; this was because there were several generals and each prevented a rival from gaining all power.

At the death of Sulla four armies took the field: two obeyed the generals who were partisans of the Senate, Cra.s.sus and Pompey; two followed generals who were adversaries of the Senate, Lepidus in Italy, and Sertorius in Spain. It is very remarkable that no one of these armies was regular, no one of the generals was a magistrate and therefore had the right to command troops; down to this time the generals had been consuls, but now they were individuals--private persons; their soldiers came to them not to serve the interests of the state, but to profit at the expense of the inhabitants.

The armies of the enemies of the Senate were destroyed, and Cra.s.sus and Pompey, left alone, joined issues to control affairs. They had themselves elected consuls and Pompey received the conduct of two wars. He went to Asia with a devoted army and was for several years the master of Rome; but as he was more the possessor of offices than of power, he changed nothing in the government. It was during this time that Caesar, a young n.o.ble, made himself popular. Pompey, Cra.s.sus, and Caesar united to divide the power between themselves.

Cra.s.sus received the command of the army sent to Asia against the Parthians and was killed (53). Pompey remained at Rome. Caesar went to Gaul where he stayed eight years subjecting the country and making an army for himself.

Pompey and Caesar were now the only persons on the stage. Each wished to be master. Pompey had the advantage of being at Rome and of dominating the Senate; Caesar had on his side his army, disciplined by eight years of expeditions. Pompey secured a decree of the Senate that Caesar should abandon his army and return to Rome. Caesar decided then to cross the boundary of his province (the river Rubicon), and to march on Rome. Pompey had no army in Italy to defend himself, and so with the majority of the senators took flight to the other side of the Adriatic. He had several armies in Spain, in Greece, and in Africa.

Caesar defeated them, one after another--that of Spain first (49), then that of Greece at Pharsalus (48), at last, that of Africa (46).

Pompey, vanquished at Pharsalus, fled to Egypt where the king had him a.s.sa.s.sinated.

On his return to Rome Caesar was appointed dictator for ten years and exercised absolute power. The Senate paid him divine honors, and it is possible that Caesar desired the t.i.tle of king. He was a.s.sa.s.sinated by certain of his favorites who aimed to reestablish the sovereignty of the Senate (44).

=End of the Republic.=--The people of Rome, who loved Caesar, compelled Brutus and Ca.s.sius, the chiefs of the a.s.sa.s.sins, to flee. They withdrew to the East where they raised a large army. The West remained in the hand of Antony, who with the support of the army of Caesar, governed Rome despotically.

Caesar in his will had adopted a young man of eighteen years, his sister's son,[143] Octavian, who according to Roman usage a.s.sumed the name of his adoptive father and called himself from that time Julius Caesar Octavia.n.u.s. Octavian rallied to his side the soldiers of Caesar and was charged by the Senate with the war against Antony. But after conquering him he preferred to unite with him for a division of power; they a.s.sociated Lepidus with them, and all three returned to Rome where they secured absolute power for five years under the t.i.tle of triumvirs for organizing public affairs. They began by proscribing their adversaries and their personal enemies. Antony secured the death of Cicero (43). Then they left for the East to destroy the army of the conspirators. After they had divided the empire among themselves it was impossible to preserve harmony and war was undertaken in Italy. It was the soldiers who compelled them to make terms of peace. A new part.i.tion was made; Antony took the East and Octavian the West (39).

For some years peace was preserved; Antony resigned himself to the life of an oriental sovereign in company with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt; Octavian found it necessary to fight a campaign against the sons of Pompey. The two leaders came at last to an open breach, and then flamed up the last of the civil wars. This was a war between the East and West. It was decided by the naval battle of Actium; Antony, abandoned by the fleet of Cleopatra, fled to Egypt and took his own life. Octavian, left alone, was absolute master of the empire. The government of the Senate was at an end.

=Need of Peace.=--Everybody had suffered by these wars. The inhabitants of the provinces were plundered, hara.s.sed, and ma.s.sacred by the soldiers; each of the hostile generals forced them to take sides with him, and the victor punished them for supporting the vanquished. To reward the old soldiers the generals promised them lands, and then expelled all the inhabitants of a city to make room for the veterans.

Rich Romans risked their property and their life; when their party was overthrown, they found themselves at the mercy of the victor. Sulla had set the example for organized ma.s.sacres (81). Forty years later (in 43) Octavian and Antony again drew up lists of proscription.

The populace suffered. The grain on which they lived came no longer to Rome with the former regularity, being intercepted either by pirates or by the fleet of an enemy.

After a century of this regime all the Romans and provincials, rich and poor, had but one desire--peace.

=The Power of the Individual.=--It was then that the heir of Caesar, his nephew[144] Octavian, one of the triumvirs, after having conquered his two colleagues presented himself to the people now wearied with civil discord. ”He drew to himself all the powers of the people, of the Senate, and of the magistrates;” for twelve years he was emperor without having the t.i.tle. No one dreamed of resisting him; he had closed the temple of Ja.n.u.s and given peace to the world, and this was what everybody wished. The government of the republic by the Senate represented only pillage and civil war. A master was needed strong enough to stop the wars and revolutions. Thus the Roman empire was founded.

FOOTNOTES:

[140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B.C. made these distributions legal.--ED.

[141] At a very low price.--ED.

[142] 1600, according to Mommsen, ”History of Rome,” Bk. IV, ch. x.--ED.

[143] Grandson.--ED.

[144] Grand-nephew.--ED.

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