A SMALLER HISTORY OF ROME,

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.

BY WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D.

WITH A CONTINUATION TO A.D. 479. BY EUGENE LAWRENCE, A.M.

Illustrated by Engravings on Wood.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1881.

THE STUDENT'S SERIES.

12MO, CLOTH, UNIFORM IN STYLE.

MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By PHILIP SMITH. Illustrated. $1 50.

THE STUDENT'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. Illustrated. $1 25.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST. By PHILIP SMITH. Illustrated. $1 25.

HISTORY OF GREECE. By Dr. WILLIAM SMITH. Illustrated. $1 25.

COX'S GENERAL HISTORY OF GREECE. With Maps. $1 25.

LIDDELL'S HISTORY OF ROME. Illustrated. $1 25.

MERIVALE'S GENERAL HISTORY OF ROME. With Maps. $1 25.

GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Illustrated. $1 25.

LYELL'S GEOLOGY. Illustrated. $1 25.

HISTORY OF FRANCE. By the Rev. W.H. JERVIS, M.A. Illustrated. $1 25.

HUME'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Illustrated. Now Edition. $1 50.

STRICKLAND'S QUEENS OF ENGLAND. Illustrated. $1 25.

HALLAM'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. $1 25.

HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. $1 25.

OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By PHILIP SMITH. With Maps and Illustrations. $1 25.

NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. By PHILIP SMITH. With Maps and Illustrations. $1 25.

LEWIS'S HISTORY OF GERMANY. With Maps and Illustrations. $1 50.

THE STUDENT'S SMALLER SERIES.

16MO, CLOTH.

SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 60 cents.

HISTORY OF GREECE. 60 cents.

HISTORY OF ROME. 60 cents.

COX'S SCHOOL HISTORY OF GREECE. 60 cents.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 60 cents.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST. 60 cents.

SEEMANN'S MYTHOLOGY. 60 cents.

MERIVALE'S SCHOOL HISTORY OF ROME. 75 cents.

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

Any of the above books sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, by HARPER & BROTHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

NOTICE.

The present History has been drawn up chiefly for the lower forms in schools, at the request of several teachers, and is intended to range with the author's Smaller History of Greece. It will be followed by a similar History of England. The author is indebted in this work to several of the more important articles upon Roman history in the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography.

The Table of Contents presents a full analysis of the work, and has been so arranged that the teacher can frame from it questions for the examination of his class, the answers to which will be found in the corresponding pages of the volume.

The restoration of the Forum has been designed by Mr. P.W. Justyne.

W.S.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

HISTORY OF ROME.

CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY OF ITALY—EARLY INHABITANTS.

Italy is the central one of the three great peninsulas which project from the south of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the north by the chain of the Alps, which form a natural barrier, and it is surrounded on other sides by the sea. Its shores are washed on the west by the "Mare Inferum," or the Lower Sea, and on the east by the Adriatic, called by the Romans the "Mare Superum," or the Upper Sea. It may be divided into two parts, the northern consisting of the great plain drained by the River Padus, or Po, and its tributaries, and the southern being a long tongue of land, with the Apennines as a back-bone running down its whole extent from north to south. The extreme length of the peninsula from the Alps to the Straits of Messina is 700 miles. The breadth of northern Italy is 350 miles, while that of the southern portion is on an average not more than 100 miles. But, till the time of the Empire, the Romans never included the plain of the Po in Italy. To this country they gave the general name of GALLIA CISALPINA, or Gaul on this (the Roman) side of the Alps, in consequence of its being inhabited by Gauls. The western-most portion of the plain was peopled by Ligurian tribes, and was therefore called LIGURIA, while its eastern extremity formed the Roman province of VENETIA.

The name ITALIA was originally applied to a very small tract of country. It was at first confined to the southern portion of Calabria, and was gradually extended northward, till about the time of the Punic wars it indicated the whole peninsula south of the Rivers Rubicon and Macra, the former separating Cisalpine Gaul and Umbria, the latter Liguria and Etruria. Italy, properly so called, is a very mountainous country, being filled up more or less by the broad mass of the Apennines, the offshoots or lateral branches of which, in some parts, descend quite to the sea, but in others leave a considerable space of level or low country. Excluding the plain of the Po, it was divided into the following districts:[1]

1. ETRURIA, which extended along the coast of the Lower Sea from the River Macra on the north to the Tiber on the south. Inland, the Tiber also formed its eastern boundary, dividing it first from Umbria, afterward from the Sabines, and, lastly, from Latium. Its inhabitants were called Etrusci, or Tusci, the latter form being still preserved in the name of Tuscany. Besides the Tiber it possesses only one other river of any importance, the Arnus, or Arno, upon which the city of Florence now stands. Of its lakes the most considerable is the Lacus Trasimenus, about thirty-six miles in circumference, celebrated for the great victory which Hannibal there gained over the Romans.

2. UMBRIA, situated to the east of Etruria, and extending from the valley of the Tiber to the shores of the Adriatic. It was separated on the north from Gallia Cisalpina by the Rubicon, and on the south by the Æsis from Picenum, and by the Nar from the Sabines.

3. PICENUM extended along the Adriatic from the mouth of the Æsis to that of the Matrinus and inland as far as the central ridge of the Apennines. It was bounded on the north by Umbria, on the south by the Vestini, and on the west by Umbria and the Sabini. Its inhabitants, the Picentes, were a Sabine race, as is mentioned below.

4. The SABINI inhabited the rugged mountain-country in the central chain of the Apennines, lying between Etruria, Umbria, Picenum, Latium, and the country of the Marsi and Vestini. They were one of the most ancient races of Italy, and the progenitors of the far more numerous tribes which, under the names of Picentes, Peligni, and Samnites, spread themselves to the east and south. Modern writers have given the general name of Sabellians to all these tribes. The Sabines, like most other mountaineers, were brave, hardy, and frugal; and even the Romans looked up to them with admiration on account of their proverbial honesty and temperance.

5. The MARSI, PELIGNI, VESTINI, and MARRUCINI inhabited the valleys of the central Apennines, and were closely connected, being probably all of Sabine origin. The MARSI dwelt inland around the basin of the Lake Fucinus, which is about thirty miles in circumference, and the only one of any extent in the central Apennines. The PELIGNI also occupied an inland district east of the MARSI. The VESTINI dwelt east of the Sabines, and possessed on the coast of the Adriatic a narrow space between the mouth of the Matrinus and that of the Aternus, a distance of about six miles. The MARRUCINI inhabited a narrow strip of country on the Adriatic, east of the Peligni, and were bounded on the north by the Vestini and on the south by the Frentani.

6. The FRENTANI dwelt upon the coast of the Adriatic from the frontiers of the Marrucini to those of Apulia. They were bounded on the west by the Samnites, from whom they were originally descended, but they appear in Roman history as an independent people.

7. LATIUM was used in two senses. It originally signified only the land of the Latini, and was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the north, by the Apennines on the east, by the sea on the west, and by the Alban Hills on the south. But after the conquest of the Volscians, Hernici, Æquians, and other tribes, originally independent, the name of Latium was extended to all the country which the latter had previously occupied. It was thus applied to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. The original abode of the Latins is of volcanic origin. The Alban Mountains are a great volcanic mass, and several of the craters have been filled with water, forming lakes, of which the Alban Lake is one of the most remarkable. The plain in which Rome stands, now called the Campagna, is not an unbroken level, but a broad undulating tract, intersected by numerous streams, which have cut themselves deep channels through the soft volcanic tufa of which the soil is composed. The climate of Latium was not healthy even in ancient times. The malaria of the Campagna renders Rome itself unhealthy in the summer and autumn; and the Pontine Marshes, which extend along the coast in the south of Latium for a distance of thirty miles, are still more pestilential.

8. CAMPANIA extended along the coast from the Liris, which separated it from Latium, to the Silarus, which formed the boundary of Lucania. It is the fairest portion of Italy. The greater part of it is an unbroken plain, celebrated in ancient as well as in modern times for its extraordinary beauty and fertility. The Bay of Naples—formerly called Sinus Cumanus and Puteolanus, from the neighboring cities of Cumæ and Puteoli—is one of the most lovely spots in the world; and the softness of its climate, as well as the beauty of its scenery, attracted the Roman nobles, who had numerous villas along its coasts.

9. SAMNIUM was an inland district, bounded on the north by the Marsi and Peligni, on the east by the Frentani and Apulia, on the west by Latium and Campania, and on the south by Lucania. It is a mountainous country, being entirely filled with the masses of the Apennines. Its inhabitants, the Samnites, were of Sabine origin, as has been already mentioned, and they settled in the country at a comparatively late period. They were one of the most warlike races in Italy, and carried on a long and fierce struggle with the Romans.

10. APULIA extended along the coast of the Adriatic from the Frentani on the north to Calabria on the south, and was bounded on the west by the Apennines, which separated it from Samnium and Lucania. It consists almost entirely of a great plain, sloping down from the Apennines to the sea.

11. CALABRIA formed the heel of Italy, lying south of Apulia, and surrounded on every other side by the sea. It contains no mountains, and only hills of moderate elevation, the Apennines running to the southwest through Lucania and the Bruttii.

12. LUCANIA was bounded on the north by Campania and Samnium, on the east by Apulia, and on the south by the Bruttii. The Apennines run through the province in its whole extent. The Lucanians were a branch of the Samnite nation, which separated from the main body of that people, and pressed on still farther to the south.

13. The BRUTTII[2] inhabited the southern extremity of Italy, lying south of Lucania; and, like Lucania, their country is traversed throughout by the chain of the Apennines.

Italy has been in all ages renowned for its beauty and fertility. The lofty ranges of the Apennines, and the seas which bathe its shores on both sides, contribute at once to temper and vary its climate, so as to adapt it for the productions alike of the temperate and the warmest parts of Europe. In the plains on either side of the Apennines corn is produced in abundance; olives flourish on the southern slopes of the mountains; and the vine is cultivated in every part of the peninsula, the vineyards of northern Campania being the most celebrated in antiquity.

The early inhabitants of Italy may be divided into three great classes—the Italians proper, the Iapygians, and the Etruscans, who are clearly distinguished from each other by their respective languages.

(1.) The Italians proper inhabited the centre of the peninsula. They were divided into two branches, the Latins and the Umbro-Sabellians, including the Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, and their numerous colonies. The dialects of the Latins and Umbro-Sabellians, though marked by striking differences, still show clearest evidence of a common origin, and both are closely related to the Greek. It is evident that at some remote period a race migrated from the East, embracing the ancestors of both the Greeks and Italians—that from it the Italians branched off—and that they again were divided into the Latins on the west and the Umbrians and Sabellians on the east.

(2.) The Iapygians dwelt in Calabria, in the extreme southeast corner of Italy. Inscriptions in a peculiar language have here been discovered, clearly showing that the inhabitants belonged to a different race from those whom we have designated as the Italians. They were doubtless the oldest inhabitants of Italy, who were driven toward the extremity of the peninsula as the Latins and Sabellians pressed farther to the south.

(3.) The Etruscans, or, as they called themselves, Rasena, form a striking contrast to the Latins and Sabellians as well as to the Greeks. Their language is radically different from the other languages of Italy; and their manners and customs clearly prove them to be a people originally quite distinct from the Greek and Italian races. Their religion was of a gloomy character, delighting in mysteries and in wild and horrible rites. Their origin is unknown. Most ancient writers relate that the Etruscans were Lydians who had migrated by sea from Asia to Italy; but this is very improbable, and it is now more generally believed that the Etruscans descended into Italy from, the Rhætian Alps. It is expressly stated by ancient writers that the Rhætians were Etruscans, and that they spoke the same language; while their name is perhaps the same as that of Rasena, the native name of the Etruscans. In more ancient times, before the Roman dominion, the Etruscans inhabited not only the country called Etruria, but also the great plain of the Po, as far as the foot of the Alps. Here they maintained their ground till they were expelled or subdued by the invading Gauls. The Etruscans, both in the north of Italy and to the south of the Apennines, consisted of a confederacy of twelve cities, each of which was independent, possessing the power of even making war and peace on its own account. In Etruria proper Volsinii was regarded as the metropolis.

Besides these three races, two foreign races also settled in the peninsula in historical times. These are the Greeks and the Gauls.

(4.) The Greeks planted so many colonies upon the coasts of southern Italy that they gave to that district the name of Magna Græcia. The most ancient, and, at the same time, the most northerly Greek city in Italy, was Cumæ in Campania. Most of the other Greek colonies were situated farther to the south, where many of them attained to great power and opulence. Of these, some of the most distinguished were Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, and Metapontum.

(5.) The Gauls, as we have already said, occupied the greater part of northern Italy, and were so numerous and important as to give to the whole basin of the Po the name of Gallia Cisalpina. They were of the same race with the Gauls who inhabited the country beyond the Alps, and their migration and settlement in Italy were referred by the Roman historian to the time of the Tarquins.

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST FOUR KINGS OF ROME. B.C. 753-616.

The history of Rome is that of a city which originally had only a few miles of territory, and gradually extended its dominions at first over Italy and then over the civilized world. The city lay in the central part of the peninsula, on the left bank of the Tiber, and about fifteen miles from its mouth. Its situation was upon the borders of three of the most powerful races in Italy, the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans. Though originally a Latin town, it received at an early period a considerable Sabine population, which left a permanent impression upon the sacred rites and religious institutions of the people. The Etruscans exercised less influence upon Rome, though it appears nearly certain that a part of its population was of Etruscan origin, and that the two Tarquins represent the establishment of an Etruscan dynasty at Rome. The population of the city may therefore be regarded as one of mixed origin, consisting of the three elements of Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans, but the last in much smaller proportion than the other two. That the Latin element predominated over the Sabine is also evident from the fact that the language of the Romans was a Latin and not a Sabellian dialect.

The early history of Rome is given in an unbroken narrative by the Roman writers, and was received by the Romans themselves as a faithful record of facts. But it can no longer be regarded in that light. Not only is it full of marvelous tales and poetical embellishments, of contradictions and impossibilities, but it wants the very foundation upon which all history must be based. The reader, therefore, must not receive the history of the first four centuries of the city as a statement of undoubted facts, though it has unquestionably preserved many circumstances which did actually occur. It is not until we come to the war with Pyrrhus that we can place full reliance upon the narrative as a trustworthy statement of facts. With this caution we now proceed to relate the celebrated legends of the foundation and early history of Home.

Æneas, son of Anchises and Venus, fled after the fall of Troy to seek a new home in a foreign land. He carried with him his son Ascanius, the Penates or household gods, and the Palladium of Troy.[3] Upon reaching the coast of Latium he was kindly received by Latinus, the king of the country, who gave him his daughter Lavinia in marriage. Æneas now built a city, which he named Lavinium, in honor of his wife. But Lavinia had been previously promised to Turnus, the leader of the Rutulians. This youthful chief, enraged at the insult, attacked the strangers. He was slain, however, by the hands of Æneas; but in a new war which broke out three years afterward the Trojan hero disappeared amid the waters of the River Numicius, and was henceforward worshiped under the name of Jupiter Indiges, or "god of the country."

Ascanius, who was also called Iulus, removed from Lavinium thirty years after its foundation, and built Alba Longa, or the "Long White City," on a ridge of the Alban Mount about fifteen miles southeast of Rome. It became the most powerful city in Latium, and the head of a confederacy of Latin cities. Twelve kings of the family of Æneas succeeded Ascanius. The last of these, named Procas, left two sons, Numitor and Amulius. Amulius, the younger, seized the kingdom; and Numitor, who was of a peaceful disposition, made no resistance to his brother. Amulius, fearing lest the children of Numitor might not submit so quietly to his usurpation, caused his only son to be murdered, and made his daughter, Rhea Silvia, one of the vestal virgins, who were compelled to live and die unmarried. But the maiden became, by the god Mars, the mother of twins. She was, in consequence, put to death, because she had broken her vow, and her babes were doomed to be drowned in the river. The Tiber had overflowed its banks far and wide; and the cradle in which the babes were placed was stranded at the foot of the Palatine, and overturned on the root of a wild fig-tree. A she-wolf, which had come to drink of the stream, carried them into her den hard by, and suckled them; and when they wanted other food, the woodpecker, a bird sacred to Mars, brought it to them. At length, this marvelous spectacle was seen by Faustulus, the king's shepherd, who took the children home to his wife, Acca Larentia. They were called Romulus and Remus, and grew up along with the sons of their foster-parents on the Palatine Hill.

A quarrel arose between them and the herdsmen of Numitor, who stalled their cattle on the neighboring hill of the Aventine. Remus was taken by a stratagem, and carried off to Numitor. His age and noble bearing made Numitor think of his grandsons; and his suspicions were confirmed by the tale of the marvelous nurture of the twin brothers. Soon afterward Romulus hastened with his foster-father to Numitor; suspicion was changed into certainty, and the old man recognized them as his grandsons. They now resolved to avenge the wrongs which their family had suffered. With the help of their faithful comrades they slew Amulius, and placed Numitor on the throne.

Romulus and Remus loved their old abode, and therefore left Alba to found a city on the banks of the Tiber. But a dispute arose between the brothers where the city should be built, and after whose name it should be called. Romulus wished to build it on the Palatine, Remus on the Aventine. It was agreed that the question should be decided by the gods; and each took his station on the top of his chosen hill, awaiting the pleasure of the gods by some striking sign. The night passed away, and as the day was dawning Remus saw six vultures; but at sunrise, when these tidings were brought to Romulus, twelve vultures flew by him. Each claimed the augury in his own favor; but the shepherds decided for Romulus, and Remus was therefore obliged to yield.

1. REIGN OF ROMULUS, B.C. 753-716.—Romulus now proceeded to mark out the boundaries of his city. He yoked a bullock and a heifer to a plow, and drew a deep furrow round the Palatine. This formed the sacred limits of the city, and was called the Pomœrium. To the original city on the Palatine was given the name of Roma Quadrata, or Square Rome, to distinguish it from the one which subsequently extended over the seven hills.

Rome is said to have been founded on the 21st of April, 753 years before the Christian era.

On the line of the Pomœrium Romulus began to raise a wall. One day Remus leapt over it in scorn; whereupon Romulus slew him, exclaiming, "So die whosoever hereafter shall leap over my walls." Romulus now found his people too few in numbers. Accordingly, lie set apart on the Capitoline Hill an asylum, or a sanctuary, in which homicides and runaway slaves might take refuge. The city thus became filled with men, but they wanted women, and the inhabitants of the neighboring cities refused to give their daughters to such an outcast race. Romulus accordingly resolved to obtain by force what he could not obtain by treaty. He proclaimed that games were to be celebrated in honor of the god Consus, and invited his neighbors, the Latins and Sabines, to the festival. Suspecting no treachery, they came in numbers with their wives and children, but the Roman youths rushed upon their guests and carried off the virgins. The parents returned home and prepared for vengeance. The inhabitants of three of the Latin towns, Cænina, Antemnæ and Crustumerium, took up arms one after the other, but were defeated by the Romans. Romulus slew with his own hand Acron, king of Cænina, and dedicated his arms and armor, as spolia opima, to Jupiter. These were offered when the commander of one army slew with his own hand the commander of another, and were only gained twice afterward in Roman history. At last Titus Tatius, the king of Cures, the most powerful of the Sabine states, marched against Rome. His forces were so great that Romulus, unable to resist him in the field, was obliged to retire into the city. Besides the city on the Palatine, Romulus had also fortified the top of the Capitoline Hill, which he intrusted to the care of Tarpeius. But his daughter Tarpeia, dazzled by the golden bracelets of the Sabines, promised to betray the hill to them "if they would give her what they wore on their left arms." Her offer was accepted. In the night-time she opened a gate and let in the enemy, but when she claimed her reward they threw upon her the shields "which they wore on their left arms," and thus crushed her to death. One of the heights of the Capitoline Hill preserved her name, and it was from the Tarpeian Rock that traitors were afterward hurled down. On the next day the Romans endeavored to recover the hill. A long and desperate battle was fought in the valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline. At one time the Romans were driven before the enemy, when Romulus vowed a temple to Jupiter Stator, the Stayer of Flight, whereupon his men took courage and returned again to the combat. At length the Sabine women, who were the cause of the war, rushed in between them, and prayed their husbands and fathers to be reconciled. Their prayers were heard; the two people not only made peace, but agreed to form only one nation. The Romans dwelt on the Palatine under their king Romulus, the Sabines on the Capitoline under their king Titus Tatius.[4] The two kings and their senates met for deliberation in the valley between the two hills, which was hence called Comitium, or the place of meeting, and which afterward became the Roman Forum. But this union did not last long. Titus Tatius was slain at Lavinium by some Latins to whom he had refused satisfaction for outrages committed by his kinsmen. Henceforward Romulus ruled alone over both Romans and Sabines. He reigned, in all, thirty-seven years. One day, as he was reviewing his people in the Campus Martius, near the Goat's Fool, the sun was suddenly eclipsed, and a dreadful storm dispersed the people. When daylight returned Romulus had disappeared, for his father Mars had carried him up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Shortly afterward he appeared in more than mortal beauty to the senator Proculus Sabinus, and bade him tell the Romans to worship him under the name of the god Quirinus.

As Romulus was regarded as the founder of Rome, its most ancient political institutions and the organization of the people were ascribed to him by the popular belief.

(i.) The Roman people consisted only of Patricians and their Clients. The Patricians formed the Populus Romanus, or sovereign people. They alone had political rights; the Clients were entirely dependent upon them. A Patrician had a certain number of Clients attached to him personally. To these he acted as a Patronus or Patron. He was bound to protect the interests of the Client both in public and private, while the Client had to render many services to his patron.

(ii.) The Patricians were divided by Romulus into three Tribes; the Ramnes, or Romans of Romulus; the Tities, or Sabines of Titus Tatius; and the Luceres, or Etruscans of Cæles, a Lucumo or Etruscan noble, who assisted Romulus in the war against the Sabines. Each tribe was divided into 10 curiæ, and each curiæ into 10 gentes. The 30 curiæ formed the Comitia Curiata, a sovereign assembly of the Patricians. This assembly elected the king, made the laws, and decided in all cases affecting the life of a citizen.

To assist him in the government Romulus selected a number of aged men, forming a Senate, or Council of Elders, who were called Patres, or Senators. It consisted at first of 100 members, which number was increased to 200 when the Sabines were incorporated in the state. The 20 curiæ of the Ramnes and Tities each sent 10 members to the senate, but the Luceres were not yet represented.

(iii.) Each of the three tribes was bound to furnish 1000 men for the infantry and 100 men for the cavalry. Thus 3000 foot-soldiers and 300 horse-soldiers formed the original army of the Roman state, and were called a Legion.

2. REIGN OF NUMA POMPILIUS, B.C. 716-673.—On the death of Romulus, the Senate, at first, would not allow the election of a new king. The Senators enjoyed the royal power in rotation as Inter-reges, or between-kings. In this way a year passed. But the people at length insisted that a king should be chosen, and the Senate were obliged to give way. The choice fell upon the wise and pious Numa Pompilius, a native of the Sabine Cures who had married the daughter of Tatius. The forty-three years of Numa's reign glided away in quiet happiness without any war or any calamity.

As Romulus was the founder of the political institutions of Rome, so Numa was the author of the religious institutions. Instructed by the nymph Egeria, whom he met in the sacred grove of Aricia, he instituted the Pontiffs, four in number, with a Pontifex Maximus at their head, who had the general superintendence of religion; the Augurs, also four in number, who consulted the will of the gods on all occasions, both private and public; three Flamens, each of whom attended to the worship of separate deities—Jupiter,[5] Mars, and Quirinus; four Vestal Virgins, who kept alive the sacred fire of Vesta brought from Alba Longa; and twelve Salii, or priests of Mars, who had the care of the sacred shields.[6] Numa reformed the calendar, encouraged agriculture, and marked out the boundaries of property, which he placed under the care of the god Terminus. He also built the temple of Janus, a god represented with two heads looking different ways. The gates of this temple were to be open during war and closed in time of peace.

3. REIGN OF TULLUS HOSTILIUS, B.C. 673-641.—Upon the death of Numa an interregnum again followed; but soon afterward Tullus Hostilius, a Roman, was elected king. His reign was as warlike as that of Numa had been peaceful. The most memorable event in it is the destruction of Alba Longa. A quarrel having arisen between the two cities, and their armies having been drawn up in array against each other, the princes determined to avert the battle by a combat of champions chosen from each army. There were in the Roman army three brothers, born at the same birth, named Horatii; and in the Alban army, in like manner, three brothers, born at the same birth, and called Curiatii. The two sets of brothers were chosen as champions, and it was agreed that the people to whom the conquerors belonged should rule the other. Two of the Horatii were slain, but the three Curiatii were wounded, and the surviving Horatius, who was unhurt, had recourse to stratagem. He was unable to contend with the Curiatii united, but was more than a match for each of them separately. Taking to flight, he was followed by his three opponents at unequal distances. Suddenly turning round, he slew, first one, then the second, and finally the third. The Romans were declared the conquerors, and the Albans their subjects. But a tragical event followed. As Horatius was entering Rome, bearing his threefold spoils, his sister met him, and recognized on his shoulders the cloak of one of the Curiatii, her betrothed lover. She burst into such passionate grief that the anger of her brother was kindled, and, stabbing her with his sword, he exclaimed, "So perish every Roman woman who bewails a foe." For this murder he was condemned by the two judges of blood to be hanged upon the fatal tree, but he appealed to the people, and they gave him his life.

Shortly afterward Tullus Hostilius made war against the Etruscans of Fidenæ and Veii. The Albans, under their dictator Mettius Fuffetius, followed him to the war as the subjects of Rome. In the battle against the Etruscans, the Alban dictator, faithless and insolent, withdrew to the hills, but when the Etruscans were defeated he descended to the plain, and congratulated the Roman king. Tullus pretended to be deceived. On the following day he summoned the two armies to receive their praises and rewards. The Albans came without arms, and were surrounded by the Roman troops. They then heard their sentence. Their dictator was to be torn in pieces by horses driven opposite ways; their city was to be razed to the ground; and they themselves, with their wives and children, transported to Rome. Tullus assigned to them the Cælian Hill for their habitation. Some of the noble families of Alba were enrolled among the Roman patricians, but the great mass of the Alban people were not admitted to the privileges of the ruling class. They were the origin of the Roman Plebs, who were thus quite distinct from the Patricians and their Clients. The Patricians still formed exclusively the Populus, or Roman people, properly so called. The Plebs were a subject-class without any share in the government.

After carrying on several other wars Tullus fell sick, and sought to win the favor of the gods, as Numa had done, by prayers and divination. But Jupiter was angry with him, and smote him and his whole house with fire from heaven. Thus perished Tullus, after a reign of thirty-two years.

4. REIGN OF ANCUS MARCIUS, B.C. 640-616.—Ancus Marcius, the successor of Tullus Hostilius, was a Sabine, being the son of Numa's daughter. He sought to tread in the footsteps of his grandfather by reviving the religious ceremonies which had fallen into neglect; but a war with the Latins called him from the pursuits of peace. He conquered several of the Latin cities, and removed many of the inhabitants to Rome, where he assigned them the Aventine for their habitation. Thus the number of the Plebeians was greatly enlarged. Ancus instituted the Fetiales, whose duty it was to demand satisfaction from a foreign state when any dispute arose, to determine the circumstances under which hostilities might be commenced, and to perform the proper religious rites on the declaration of war. He also founded a colony at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, built a fortress on the Janiculum as a protection against the Etruscans, and united it with the city by a bridge across the Tiber, called the Pons Sublicius, because it was made of wooden piles, and erected a prison to restrain offenders. He died after a reign of twenty-four years.

CHAPTER III.

THE LAST THREE KINGS OF ROME, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC DOWN TO THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. B.C. 616-498.

5. REIGN OF LUCIUS TARQUINIUS PRISCUS, or the ELDER TARQUIN, B.C. 616-578.—The fifth king of Rome was an Etruscan by birth, but a Greek by descent. His father Demaratus was a wealthy citizen of Corinth, who settled in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii, where he married an Etruscan wife. Their son married Tanaquil, who belonged to one of the noblest families in Tarquinii, and himself became a Lucumo or a noble in the state. But he aspired to still higher honors; and, urged on by his wife, who was an ambitious woman, he resolved to try his fortune at Rome. Accordingly, he set out for this city, accompanied by a large train of followers. When he had reached the Janiculum an eagle seized his cap, and, after carrying it away to a great height, placed it again upon his head. Tanaquil, who was skilled in the Etruscan science of augury, bade her husband hope for the highest honors. Her predictions were soon verified. He took the name of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and gained the favor both of Ancus Marcius and the people. Ancus appointed the stranger guardian of his children; and, when he died, the senate and the people unanimously elected Tarquin to the vacant throne.

The reign of Tarquin was distinguished by great exploits in war and by great works in peace. He defeated the Sabines, and took their town Collatia, which he placed under his nephew Egerius, who was thence called Collatinus. He also captured many of the Latin towns, and became the ruler of all Latium; but the important works which he executed in peace have rendered his name still more famous. The great cloacæ, or sewers, by which he drained the lower parts of the city, still remain, after so many ages, with not a stone displaced. He laid out the Circus Maximus, and instituted the great or Roman games performed in the circus. He also made some changes in the constitution of the state. He added to the Senate 100 new members, taken from the Luceres, the third tribe, and called patres minorum gentium, to distinguish them from the old Senators, who were now termed patres majorum gentium. To the three centuries of equites established by Romulus he wished to add three new centuries, and to call them after himself and two of his friends. But his plan was opposed by the augur Attus Navius, who said that the gods forbade it. The tale runs that the king, to test the augur, asked him to divine whether what he was thinking of could be done. After consulting the heavens, the augur replied that it could; whereupon the king said, "I was thinking that thou shouldst cut this whetstone with a razor." Navius, without a moment's hesitation, took a razor and cut it in twain. In consequence of this miracle, Tarquin gave up his design of establishing new centuries; but with each of the former centuries he associated another under the same name, so that henceforth there were the first and second Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres. The number of Vestal Virgins was also increased from four to six, the two new vestals being probably taken from the Luceres.

Tarquin had a favorite, Servius Tullius, said to have been the son of a female slave taken at the capture of the Latin town Corniculum. His infancy was marked by prodigies which foreshadowed his future greatness. On one occasion a flame played around his head, as he was asleep, without harming him. Tanaquil foresaw the greatness of the boy, and from this time he was brought up as the king's child. Tarquin afterward gave him his daughter in marriage, and left the government in his hands. But the sons of Ancus Marcius, fearing lest Tarquin should transmit the crown to his son-in-law, hired two countrymen to assassinate the king. These men, feigning to have a quarrel, came before the king to have their dispute decided, and while he was listening to the complaint of one, the other gave him a deadly wound with his axe. But the sons of Ancus did not reap the fruit of their crime; for Tanaquil, pretending that the king's wound was not mortal, told them that he would soon return, and that he had, meantime, appointed Servius to act in his stead. Servius forthwith proceeded to discharge the duties of king, greatly to the satisfaction of the people; and when the death of Tarquin could no longer be concealed, he was already in firm possession of the regal power. Tarquin had reigned thirty-eight years.

6. SERVIUS TULLIUS, B.C. 578-534.—Servius thus succeeded to the throne without being elected by the Senate and the Assembly of the Curiæ. The reign of this king is almost as barren of military exploits as that of Numa. His great deeds were those of peace; and he was regarded by posterity as the author of the later Roman constitution, just as Romulus was of the earlier. Three important acts are assigned to Servius by universal tradition. Of these the greatest was:

I. The reform of the Roman Constitution. In this reform his two main objects were to give the Plebeians political rights, and to assign to property that influence in the state which had previously belonged exclusively to birth. To carry his purpose into effect he made a twofold division of the Roman people, one territorial and the other according to property.

a. It must be recollected that the only existing political organization was that of the Patricians into 3 tribes, 30 curiæ, and 300 gentes; but Servius now divided the whole Roman territory into Thirty Tribes, and, as this division was simply local, these tribes contained Plebeians as well as Patricians. But, though the institution of the Thirty Tribes gave the Plebeians a political organization, it conferred upon them no political power, nor any right to take part in the elections, or in the management of public affairs. At a later time the tribes assembled in the forum for the transaction of business, and were hence called Comitia Tributa. The Patricians were then excluded from this assembly, which was summoned by the Tribunes of the Plebs, and was entirely Plebeian.

b. The means by which Servius gave the Plebeians a share in the government was by establishing a new Popular Assembly, in which Patricians and Plebeians alike voted. It was so arranged that the wealthiest persons, whether Patricians or Plebeians, possessed the chief power. In order to ascertain the property of each citizen, Servius instituted the Census, which was a register of Roman citizens and their property. All Roman citizens possessing property to the amount of 12,500 asses and upward[7] were divided into five great Classes. The First Class contained the richest citizens, the Second Class the next in point of wealth, and so on. The whole arrangement was of a military character. Each of the five Classes was divided into a certain number of Centuries or Companies, half of which consisted of Seniores from the age of 46 to 60, and half of Juniores from the age of 17 to 45. All the Classes had to provide their own arms and armor, but the expense of the equipment was in proportion to the wealth of each Class. The Five Classes formed the infantry. To these five Classes were added two centuries of smiths and carpenters, and two of trumpeters and horn-blowers. These four centuries voted with the Classes. Those persons whose property did not amount to 12,500 asses were not included in the Classes, and formed a single century.

At the head of the Classes were the Equites or cavalry. These consisted of eighteen centuries, six being the old patrician Equites, as founded by Romulus and augmented by Tarquinius Priscus, and the other twelve being chosen from the chief plebeian families.[8]

The Centuries formed the new National Assembly. They mustered as an army in the Campus Martius, or the Field of Mars, on the banks of the Tiber, outside the city. They voted by Centuries, and were hence called the Comitia Centuriata. Each Century counted as one vote, but did not consist of the same number of men. On the contrary, in order to give the preponderance to wealth, the first or richest class contained a far greater number of Centuries than any of the other classes (as will be seen from the table below), although they must at the same time have included a much smaller number of men. The Equites and First Class alone amounted to 100 Centuries, or more than half of the total number; so that, if they agreed to vote the same way, they possessed at once an absolute majority. An advantage was also given to age; for the Seniores, though possessing an equal number of votes, must of course have been very inferior in number to the Juniores.

Servius made the Comitia Centuriata the sovereign assembly of the nation; and he accordingly transferred to it from the Comitia Curiata the right of electing kings and the higher magistrates, of enacting and repealing laws, and of deciding in cases of appeal from the sentence of a judge. But he did not dare to abolish the old Patrician assembly, and was even obliged to enact that no vote of the Comitia Centuriata should be valid till it had received the sanction of the Comitia Curiata.

Thus, in consequence of the legislation, we shall find that Rome subsequently possessed three sovereign assemblies: 1. The Comitia Centuriata, consisting of both Patricians and Plebeians, and voting according to Centuries; 2. The Comitia Curiata, consisting exclusively of Patricians, and voting according to Curiæ; 3. The Comitia Tributa, exclusively of Plebeians, and voting according to Tribes.

II. The second great work of Servius was the extension of the Pomœrium, or hallowed boundary of the city, and the completion of the city by incorporating with it the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline Hills.[9] He surrounded the whole with a stone wall, called after him the wall of Servius Tullius; and from the Porta Collina to the Esquiline Gate, where the hills sloped gently to the plain, he constructed a gigantic mound nearly a mile in length, and a moat 100 feet in breadth and 30 in depth, from which the earth of the mound was dug. Rome thus acquired a circumference of five miles, and this continued to be the legal extent of the city till the time of the emperors, although suburbs were added to it.

III. An important alliance with the Latins, by which Rome and the cities of Latium became the members of one great league, was one of the great events which distinguished the reign of Servius.

Servius gave his two daughters in marriage to the two sons of Tarquinius Priscus. Lucius, the elder, was married to a quiet and gentle wife; Aruns, the younger, to an aspiring and ambitious woman. The character of the two brothers was the very opposite of the wives who had fallen to their lot; for Lucius was proud and haughty, but Aruns unambitious and quiet. The wife of Aruns, enraged at the long life of her father, and fearing that at his death her husband would tamely resign the sovereignty to his elder brother, resolved to murder both her father and husband. Her fiendish spirit put into the heart of Lucius thoughts of crime which he had never entertained before. Lucius made way with his wife, and the younger Tullia with her husband; and the survivors, without even the show of mourning, were straightway joined in unhallowed wedlock. Tullia now incessantly urged her husband to murder her father, and thus obtain the kingdom which he so ardently coveted. Tarquin formed a conspiracy with the Patricians, who were enraged at the reforms of Servius; and when the plot was ripe he entered the forum arrayed in the kingly robes, seated himself in the royal chair, in the senate-house, and ordered the senators to be summoned to him as their king. At the first news of the commotion Servius hastened to the senate-house, and, standing at the doorway, bade Tarquin to come down from the throne; but Tarquin sprang forward, seized the old man, and flung him down the stone steps. Covered with blood, the king hastened home; but, before he reached it, he was overtaken by the servants of Tarquin, and murdered. Tullia drove to the senate-house and greeted her husband as king; but her transports of joy struck even him with horror. He bade her go home; and, as she was returning, her charioteer pulled up and pointed out the corpse of her father lying in his blood across the road. She commanded him to drive on; the blood of her father spirted over the carriage and on her dress; and from that day forward the place bore the name of the Wicked Street. The body lay unburied; for Tarquin said, scoffingly, "Romulus too went without burial;" and this impious mockery is said to have given rise to his surname of Superbus, or the Proud. Servius had reigned forty-four years.

7. Reign of LUCIUS TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, or, THE PROUD, B.C. 534-510.—Tarquin commenced his reign without any of the forms of election. One of his first acts was to abolish all the privileges which had been conferred upon the Plebeians by Servius. He also compelled the poor to work at miserable wages upon his magnificent buildings, and the hardships which they suffered were so great that many put an end to their lives. But he did not confine his oppressions to the poor. All the senators and patricians whom he mistrusted, or whose wealth he coveted, were put to death or driven into exile. He surrounded himself with a body-guard, by whose means he was enabled to carry out his designs. But, although a tyrant at home, he raised the state to great influence and power among the surrounding nations, partly by his alliances and partly by his conquests. He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius, of Tusculum, the most powerful of the Latins, by whose means he acquired great influence in Latium. Any Latin chiefs like Turnus Herdonius, who attempted to resist him, were treated as traitors, and punished with death. At the solemn meeting of the Latins at the Alban Mount, Tarquin sacrificed the bull on behalf of all the allies, and distributed the flesh to the people of the league.

Strengthened by this Latin alliance, Tarquin turned his arms against the Volscians. He took the wealthy town of Suessa Pometia, with the spoils of which he commenced the erection of a magnificent temple on the Capitoline Hill, which his father had vowed. This temple was dedicated to the three gods of the Latin and Etruscan religions, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. A human head (caput), fresh, bleeding and undecayed, is said to have been found by the workmen as they were digging the foundations, and being accepted as a sign that the place was destined to become the head of the world, the name of CAPITOLIUM was given to the temple, and thence to the hill. In a stone vault beneath were deposited the Sibylline books, containing obscure and prophetic sayings. One day a Sibyl, a prophetess from Cumæ, appeared before the king and offered to sell him nine books. Upon his refusing to buy them she went away and burned three, and then demanded the same sum for the remaining six as she had asked for the nine. But the king laughed, whereupon she again burnt three and then demanded the same sum as before for the remaining three. Wondering at this strange conduct, the king purchased the books. They were placed under the care of two patricians, and were consulted when the state was in danger.

Tarquin next attacked Gabii, one of the Latin cities, which refused to enter into the league. Unable to take the city by force, he had recourse to stratagem. His son, Sextus, pretending to be ill, treated by his father, and covered with the bloody marks of stripes, fled to Gabii. The infatuated inhabitants intrusted him with the command of their troops; and when he had obtained the unlimited confidence of the citizens, he sent a messenger to his father to inquire how he should deliver the city into his hands. The king, who was walking in his garden when the messenger arrived, made no reply, but kept striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his stick. Sextus took the hint. He put to death or banished, on false charges, all the leading men of the place, and then had no difficulty in compelling it to submit to his father.

In the midst of his prosperity Tarquin was troubled by a strange portent. A serpent crawled out from the altar in the royal palace, and seized on the entrails of the victim. The king, in fear, sent his two sons, Titus and Aruns, to consult the oracle at Delphi. They were accompanied by their cousin L. Junius Brutus. One of the sisters of Tarquin had been married to M. Brutus, a man of great wealth, who died, leaving two sons under age.[10] Of these the elder was killed by Tarquin, who coveted their possessions; the younger escaped his brother's fate only by feigning idiotcy. On arriving at Delphi, Brutus propitiated the priestess with the gift of a golden stick inclosed in a hollow staff. After executing the king's commission, Titus and Aruns asked the priestess who was to reign at Rome after their father. The priestess replied, whichsoever should first kiss his mother. The princes agreed to keep the matter secret from Sextus, who was at Rome, and to cast lots between themselves. Brutus, who better understood the meaning of the oracle, fell, as if by chance, when they quitted the temple, and kissed the earth, the mother of them all.

Soon afterward Tarquin laid siege to Ardea, a city of the Rutulians. The place could not be taken by force, and the Roman army lay encamped beneath the walls. Here, as the king's sons, and their cousin Tarquinius Collatinus, were feasting together, a dispute arose about the virtue of their wives. As nothing was doing in the field, they mounted their horses to visit their homes by surprise. They first went to Rome, where they surprised the king's daughters at a splendid banquet. They then hastened to Collatia, and there, though it was late in the night, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, spinning amid her handmaids. The beauty and virtue of Lucretia excited the evil passions of Sextus. A few days after he returned to Collatia, where he was hospitably received by Lucretia as her husband's kinsman. In the dead of night he entered her chamber with a drawn sword, threatening that, if she did not yield to his desires, he would kill her and lay by her side a slave with his throat cut, and would declare that he had killed them both taken in adultery. Fear of such a shame forced Lucretia to consent; but, as soon as Sextus had departed, she sent for her husband and father. Collatinus came, accompanied by L. Brutus, her father, Lucretius, brought with him P. Valerius. They found her in an agony of sorrow. She told them what had happened, enjoined them to avenge her dishonor, and then stabbed herself to the heart. They all swore to avenge her. Brutus threw off his assumed stupidity, and placed himself at their head. They carried the corpse into the market-place of Collatia. There the people took up arms, and renounced the Tarquins. A number of young men attended the funeral procession to Rome. Brutus summoned the people, and related the deed of shame. All classes were inflamed with the same indignation. A decree was passed deposing the king, and banishing him and his family from the city. Brutus now set out for the army at Ardea. Tarquinius meantime had hastened to Rome, but found the gates closed against him. Brutus was received with joy at Ardea; and the army renounced their allegiance to the tyrant. Tarquin, with his two sons, Titus and Aruns, took refuge at Cæré, in Etruria. Sextus fled to Gabii, where he was shortly after murdered by the friends of those whom he had put to death.

Tarquin had reigned 22 years when he was driven out of Rome. In memory of this event an annual festival was celebrated on the 24th of February, called the Regifugium or Fugalia.

THE REPUBLIC.—Thus ended monarchy at Rome. Tarquin the Proud had made the name of king so hateful that the people resolved to intrust the kingly power to two men, who were only to hold office for a year. In later times they were called Consuls, but at their first institution they were named Prætors. They were elected by the Comitia Curiata, and possessed the same honors as the king had had. The first consuls were L. Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus (B.C. 509). But the people so hated the very name and race of Tarquin, that Collatinus was obliged to resign his office and retire from Rome. P. Valerius was elected consul in his place.

Meantime embassadors came to Rome from Tarquin, asking that his private property should be given up to him. The demand seemed just to the Senate and the People; but, while the embassadors were making preparation for carrying away the property, they formed a conspiracy among the young Roman nobles for the restoration of the royal family. The plot was discovered by means of a slave, and among the conspirators were found the two sons of Brutus himself. But the consul would not pardon his guilty children, and ordered the lictors[11] to put them to death with the other traitors. The agreement to surrender the property was made void by this attempt at treason. The royal goods were given up to the people to plunder.

As the plot had failed, Tarquin now endeavored to recover the throne by arms. The people of Tarquinii and Veii espoused the cause of their Etruscan kinsmen, and marched against Rome. The two Consuls advanced to meet them. When Aruns, the king's son, saw Brutus at the head of the Roman cavalry, he spurred his horse to the charge. Brutus did not shrink from the combat; and both fell from their horses mortally wounded by each other's spears. A desperate battle between the two armies now followed. Both parties claimed the victory, till a voice was heard in the dead of night, proclaiming that the Romans had conquered, as the Etruscans had lost one man more. Alarmed at this, the Etruscans fled; and Valerius, the surviving Consul, returned to Rome, carrying with him the dead body of Brutus. The matrons mourned for Brutus a whole year, because he had revenged the death of Lucretia.

This was the first war for the restoration of Tarquin.

Valerius was now left without a colleague; and as he began to build a house on the top of the hill Velia, which looked down upon the forum, the people feared that he was aiming at kingly power. Thereupon Valerius not only pulled down the house, but, calling an assembly of the people, he ordered the lictors to lower the fasces before them, as an acknowledgment that their power was superior to his. He likewise brought forward a law enacting that every citizen who was condemned by a magistrate should have a right of appeal to the people. Valerius became, in consequence, so popular that he received the surname of Publicola, or "The People's Friend."

Valerius then summoned an assembly for the election of a successor to Brutus, and Sp. Lucretius was chosen. Lucretius, however, lived only a few days, and M. Horatius was elected consul in his place. It was Horatius who had the honor of consecrating the temple on the Capitol, which Tarquin had left unfinished when he was driven from the throne.

The second year of the republic (B.C. 508) witnessed the second attempt of Tarquin to recover the crown. He now applied for help to Lars Porsena, the powerful ruler of the Etruscan town of Clusium, who marched against Rome at the head of a vast army. The Romans could not meet him in the field; and Porsena seized without opposition the Janiculum, a hill immediately opposite the city, and separated from it only by the Tiber. Rome was now in the greatest danger, and the Etruscans would have entered the city by the Sublician bridge had not Horatius Cocles, with two comrades, kept the whole Etruscan army at bay while the Romans broke down the bridge behind him. When it was giving way he sent back his two companions, and withstood alone the attacks of the foe till the cracks of the falling timbers and the shouts of his countrymen told him that the bridge had fallen. Then praying, "O Father Tiber, take me into thy charge and bear me up!" he plunged into the stream and swam across in safety, amid the arrows of the enemy. The state raised a statue in his honor, and allowed him as much land as he could plow round in one day. Few legends are more celebrated in Roman history than this gallant deed of Horatius, and Roman writers loved to tell

"How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old."

The Etruscans now proceeded to lay siege to the city, which soon began to suffer from famine. Thereupon a young Roman, named C. Mucius, resolved to deliver his country by murdering the invading king. He accordingly went over to the Etruscan camp; but, ignorant of the person of Porsena, killed the royal secretary instead. Seized and threatened with torture, he thrust his right hand into the fire on the altar, and there let it burn, to show how little he heeded pain. Astonished at his courage, the king bade him depart in peace; and Mucius, out of gratitude, advised him to make peace with Rome, since three hundred noble youths, he said, had sworn to take the life of the king, and he was the first upon whom the lot had fallen. Mucius was henceforward called Scævola, or the Left-handed, because his right hand had been burnt off. Porsena, alarmed for his life, which he could not secure against so many desperate men, forthwith offered peace to the Romans on condition of their restoring to the Veientines the land which they had taken from them. These terms were accepted, and Porsena withdrew his troops from the Janiculum after receiving ten youths and ten maidens as hostages from the Romans. Clœlia, one of the maidens, escaped from the Etruscan camp, and swam across the Tiber to Rome. She was sent back by the Romans to Porsena, who was so amazed at her courage that he not only set her at liberty, but allowed her to take with her those of the hostages whom she pleased.

Thus ended the second attempt to restore the Tarquins by force.[12]

After Porsena quitted Rome, Tarquin took refuge with his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, of Tusculum. The thirty Latin cities now espoused the cause of the exiled king, and declared war against Rome. The contest was decided by the battle of the Lake Regillus, which was long celebrated in Roman story, and the account of which resembles one of the battles in the Iliad. The Romans were commanded by the Dictator,[13] A. Postumius, and by T. Æbutius, the Master of the Horse; at the head of the Latins were Tarquin and Octavius Mamilius. The struggle was fierce and bloody, but the Latins at length fled. Almost all the chiefs on either side fell in the conflict, or were grievously wounded. Titus, the son of Tarquin, was killed; and the aged king was wounded, but escaped with his life. It was related in the old tradition that the Romans gained this battle by the assistance of the gods Castor and Pollux, who were seen charging the Latins at the head of the Roman cavalry, and who afterward carried to Rome the tidings of the victory. A temple was built in the forum on the spot where they appeared, and their festival was celebrated yearly.

This was the third and last attempt to restore the Tarquins. The Latins were completely humbled by this victory. Tarquinius Superbus had no other state to which he could apply for assistance. He had already survived all his family; and he now fled to Cumæ, where he died a wretched and childless old man (B.C. 496).

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS TO THE DECEMVIRATE. B.C. 498-451.

The history of Rome for the next 150 years consists internally of the struggles between the Patricians and Plebeians, and externally of the wars with the Etruscans, Volscians, Æquians, and other tribes in the immediate neighborhood of Rome.

The internal history of Rome during this period is one of great interest. The Patricians and Plebeians formed two distinct orders in the state. After the banishment of the kings the Patricians retained exclusive possession of political power. The Plebeians, it is true, could vote in the Comitia Centuriata, but, as they were mostly poor, they were outvoted by the Patricians and their clients. The Consuls and other magistrates were taken entirely from the Patricians, who also possessed the exclusive knowledge and administration of the law. In one word, the Patricians were a ruling and the Plebeians a subject class. But this was not all. The Patricians formed not only a separate class, but a separate caste, not marrying with the Plebeians, and worshiping the gods with different religious rites. If a Patrician man married a Plebeian wife, or a Patrician woman a Plebeian husband, the state refused to recognize the marriage, and the offspring was treated as illegitimate.

The Plebeians had to complain not only of political, but also of private wrongs. The law of debtor and creditor was very severe at Rome. If the borrower did not pay the money by the time agreed upon, his person was seized by the creditor, and he was obliged to work as a slave.[14] Nay, in certain cases he might even be put to death by the creditor; and if there were more than one, his body might be cut in pieces and divided among them. The whole weight of this oppressive law fell upon the Plebeians; and what rendered the case still harder was, that they were frequently compelled, through no fault of their own, to become borrowers. They were small landholders, living by cultivating the soil with their own hands; but as they had to serve in the army without pay, they had no means of engaging laborers in their absence. Hence, on their return home, they were left without the means of subsistence or of purchasing seed for the next crop, and borrowing was their only resource.

Another circumstance still farther aggravated the hardships of the Plebeians. The state possessed a large quantity of land called Ager Publicus, or the "Public Land." This land originally belonged to the kings, being set apart for their support; and it was constantly increased by conquest, as it was the practice on the subjugation of a people to deprive them of a certain portion of their land. This public land was let by the state subject to a rent; but as the Patricians possessed the political power, they divided the public land among themselves, and paid for it only a nominal rent. Thus the Plebeians, by whose blood and unpaid toil much of this land had been won, were excluded from all participation in it.

It was not to be expected that the Plebeians would submit to such grievous injustice. The contest was twofold. It was a struggle of a subject against a ruling class, and of rich against poor. The Plebeians strove to obtain an equal share not only in the political power, but also in the public land.

The cruelty of the Patrician creditors was the most pressing evil, and led to the first reform. In B.C. 494 the Plebeians, after a campaign against the Volscians, instead of returning to Rome, retired to the Sacred Mount, a hill about two miles from the city, near the junction of the Arno and the Tiber. Here they determined to settle and found a new town, leaving Rome to the Patricians and their clients. This event is known as the Secession to the Sacred Mount. The Patricians, alarmed, sent several of their number to persuade the Plebeians to return. Among the deputies was the aged Menenius Agrippa, who had great influence with the Plebeians. He related to them the celebrated fable of the Belly and the Members.

"Once upon a time," he said, "the Members refused to work any longer for the Belly, which led a lazy life, and grew fat upon their toils. But receiving no longer any nourishment from the Belly, they soon began to pine away, and found that it was to the Belly they owed their life and strength."

The fable was understood, and the Plebeians agreed to treat with the Patricians. It was decided that existing debts should be canceled, and that all debtors in bondage should be restored to freedom. It was necessary, however, to provide security for the future, and the Plebeians therefore insisted that two of their own number should be elected annually, to whom the Plebeians might appeal for assistance against the decisions of the Patrician magistrates. These officers were called Tribunes of the Plebs. Their persons were declared sacred and inviolate; they were never to quit the city during their year of office; and their houses were to remain open day and night, that all who were in need of help might apply to them. Their number was soon afterward increased to five, and at a later time to ten. They gradually gained more and more power, and obtained the right of putting a veto[15] upon any public business.[16] At the Sacred Mount the Plebeians also obtained the privilege of having two Ædiles of their order appointed. These officers had at a later time the care of the public buildings and roads, and the superintendence of the police of the city.

Emboldened by this success, the Plebeians now demanded a share in the public land. And in this they found an unexpected supporter among the Patricians themselves. Sp. Cassius, one of the most distinguished men in the state, who had formed the league between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans, brought forward in his third consulship a law, by which a portion of the public land was to be divided among the Plebeians (B.C. 486). This was the first Agrarian Law mentioned in Roman history. It must be recollected that all the Agrarian laws dealt only with the public land, and never touched the property of private persons. Notwithstanding the violent opposition of the Patricians, the law was passed; but it was never carried into execution, and the Patricians soon revenged themselves upon its author. In the following year he was accused of aiming at the kingly power, and condemned to death. He was scourged and beheaded, and his house razed to the ground.

We now turn to the external history of Rome. Under the kings Rome had risen to a superiority over her neighbors, and had extended her dominion over the southern part of Etruria and the greater part of Latium. The early history of the republic presents a very different spectacle. For the next 100 years she is engaged in a difficult and often dubious struggle with the Etruscans on the one hand, and the Volscians and Æquians on the other. It would be unprofitable to relate the details of these petty campaigns; but there are three celebrated legends connected with them which must not be passed over.

1. CORIOLANUS AND THE VOLSCIANS, B.C. 488.—C. Marcius, surnamed Coriolanus, from his valor at the capture of the Latin town of Corioli, was a brave but haughty Patrician youth. He was hated by the Plebeians, who refused him the consulship. This inflamed him with anger; and accordingly, when the city was suffering from famine, and a present of corn came from Sicily, Coriolanus advised the Senate not to distribute it among the Plebeians unless they gave up their Tribunes. Such insolence enraged the Plebeians, who would have torn him to pieces on the spot had not the tribunes summoned him before the Comitia of the Tribes. Coriolanus himself breathed nothing but defiance; and his kinsmen and friends interceded for him in vain. He was condemned to exile. He now turned his steps to Antium, the capital of the Volscians, and offered to lead them against Rome. Attius Tullius, king of the Volscians, persuaded his countrymen to appoint Coriolanus their general. Nothing could check his victorious progress; town after town fell before him; and he advanced within five miles of the city, ravaging the lands of the Plebeians, but sparing those of the Patricians. The city was filled with despair. The ten first men in the Senate were sent in hopes of moving his compassion. But they were received with the utmost sternness, and told that the city must submit to his absolute will. Next day the pontiffs, augurs, flamens, and all the priests, came in their robes of office, and in vain prayed him to spare the city. All seemed lost; but Rome was saved by her women. Next morning the noblest matrons, headed by Veturia, the aged mother of Corolanus, and by his wife Volumnia, holding her little children by the hand, came to his tent. Their lamentations turned him from his purpose. "Mother," he said, bursting into tears, "thou hast saved Rome, but lost thy son!" He then led the Volscians home, but they put him to death because he had spared Rome. Others relate that he lived among the Volscians to a great age, and was often heard to say that "none but an old man can feel how wretched it is to live in a foreign land."

2. THE FABIA GENS AND THE VEIENTINES, B.C. 477.—The Fabii were one of the most powerful of the Patrician houses. For seven successive years one of the Consuls was always a Fabius. The Fabii had been among the leading opponents of the Agrarian Law; and Kæso Fabius had taken an active part in obtaining the condemnation of Sp. Cassius. But shortly afterward we find this same Kæso the advocate of the popular rights, and proposing that the Agrarian Law of Cassius should be carried into effect. He was supported in his new views by his powerful house, though the reasons for their change of opinion we do not know. But the Fabii made no impression upon the great body of the Patricians, and only earned for themselves the hearty hatred of their order. Finding that they could no longer live in peace at Rome, they determined to leave the city, and found a separate settlement, where they might still be useful to their native land. One of the most formidable enemies of the republic was the Etruscan city of Veii, situated about twelve miles from Rome. Accordingly, the Fabian house, consisting of 306 males of full age, accompanied by their wives and children, clients and dependents, marched out of Rome by the right-hand arch of the Carmental Gate, and proceeded straight to the Cremera, a river which flows into the Tiber below Veii. On the Cremera they established a fortified camp, and, sallying thence, they laid waste the Veientine territory. For two years they sustained the whole weight of the Veientine war; and all the attempts of the Veientines to dislodge them proved in vain. But at length they were enticed into an ambuscade, and were all slain. The settlement was destroyed, and no one of the house survived except a boy who had been left behind at Rome, and who became the ancestor of the Fabii, afterward so celebrated in Roman history. The Fabii were sacrificed to the hatred of the Patricians; for the consul T. Menenius was encamped a short way off at the time, and he did nothing to save them.

3. CINCINNATUS AND THE ÆQUIANS, B.C. 458.—The Æquians in their numerous attacks upon the Roman territory generally occupied Mount Algidus, which formed a part of the group of the Alban Hills in Latium. It was accordingly upon this mount that the battles between the Romans and Æquians most frequently took place. In the year 458 B.C. the Roman consul L. Minucius was defeated on the Algidus, and surrounded in his camp. Five horsemen, who made their escape before the Romans were completely encompassed, brought the tidings to Rome. The Senate forthwith appointed L. Cincinnatus dictator.

L. Cincinnatus was one of the heroes of old Roman story. When the deputies of the Senate came to him to announce his elevation to the dictatorship they found him driving a plow, and clad only in his tunic or shirt. They bade him clothe himself, that he might hear the commands of the Senate. He put on his toga, which his wife Racilia brought him. The deputies then told him of the peril of the Roman army, and that he had been made Dictator. The next morning, before daybreak, he appeared in the forum, and ordered all the men of military age to meet him in the evening in the Field of Mars, with food for five days, and each with twelve stakes. His orders were obeyed; and with such speed did he march, that by midnight he reached Mount Algidus. Placing his men around the Æquian camp, he told them to raise the war-cry, and at the same time to begin digging a trench and raising a mound, on the top of which the stakes were to be driven in. The other Roman army, which was shut in, hearing the war-cry, burst forth from their camp, and fought with the Æquians all night. The Dictator's troops thus worked without interruption, and completed the intrenchment by the morning. The Æquians found themselves hemmed in between the two armies, and were forced to surrender. The Dictator made them pass under the yoke, which was formed by two spears fixed upright in the ground, while a third was fastened across them. Cincinnatus entered Rome in triumph only twenty-four hours after he had quitted it, having thus saved a whole Roman army from destruction.

In reading the wars of the early Republic, it is important to recollect the League formed by Spurius Cassius, the author of the Agrarian Law between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans. This League, to which allusion has been already made, was of the most intimate kind, and the armies of the three states fought by each other's sides. It was by means of this League that the Æquians and Volscians were kept in check, for they were two of the most warlike nations in Italy, and would have been more than a match for the unsupported arms of Rome.

CHAPTER V.

THE DECEMVIRATE. B.C. 451-449.

From the Agrarian Law of Sp. Cassius to the appointment of the Decemvirs was a period of more than thirty years. During the whole of this time the struggle between the Patricians and the Plebeians was increasing. The latter constantly demanded, and the former as firmly refused, the execution of the Agrarian Law of Cassius. But, though the Plebeians failed in obtaining this object, they nevertheless made steady progress in gaining for themselves a more important position in the city. In B.C. 471 the Publilian Law was carried, by which the election of the Tribunes and Plebeian Ædiles was transferred from the Comitia of the Centuries to those of the Tribes.[17] From this time the Comitia of the Tribes may be regarded as one of the political assemblies of the state, ranking with those of the Centuries and the Curies. But the Patricians still retained exclusive possession of the administrative and judicial powers, and there were no written laws to limit their authority and to regulate their decisions. Under these circumstances, the Tribune C. Terentilius Arsa proposed, in B.C. 462, that a commission of Ten Men (Decemviri) should be appointed to draw up a code of laws, by which a check might be put to the arbitrary power of the Patrician magistrates. This proposition, as might have been expected, met with the most vehement opposition from the Patricians. But the Plebeians were firm, and for five successive years the same Tribunes were re-elected. It was during this struggle that an attempt was made upon the Capitol by Herdonius, a Sabine chief, with a band of outlaws and slaves. It was a turbulent period, and the Patricians had recourse even to assassination. At length, after a struggle of eight years, a compromise was effected, and it was arranged that Three Commissioners (Triumviri) were to be sent into Greece to collect information respecting the laws of Solon at Athens, as well as of the other Greek states. After an absence of two years the three commissioners returned to Rome (B.C. 452), and it was now resolved that a Council of Ten, or Decemvirs, should be appointed to draw up a code of laws, and, at the same time, to carry on the government and administer justice. All the other magistrates were obliged to abdicate, and no exception was made even in favor of the Tribunes. The Decemvirs were thus intrusted with supreme power in the state. They entered upon their office at the beginning of B.C. 451. They were all Patricians. At their head stood Appius Claudius and T. Genucius, who had been already appointed consuls for the year. They discharged the duties of their office with diligence, and dispensed justice with impartiality. Each administered the government day by day in succession, and the fasces were carried only before the one who presided for the day. They drew up a Code of Ten Tables, in which equal justice was dealt out to both orders. The Ten Tables received the sanction of the Comitia of the Centuries, and thus became law.

On the expiration of their year of office all parties were so well satisfied with the manner in which the Decemvirs had discharged their duties that it was resolved to continue the same form of government for another year, more especially as some of them said that their work was not finished. A new Council of Ten was accordingly elected, of whom Appius Claudius alone belonged to the former body. He had so carefully concealed his pride and ambition during the previous year that he had been the most popular member of the council, and the Patricians, to prevent his appointment for another year, had ordered him to preside at the Comitia for the elections, thinking that he would not receive votes for himself. But Appius set such scruples at defiance, and not only returned himself as elected, but took care that his nine colleagues should be subservient to his views. He now threw off the mask he had hitherto worn, and acted as the tyrant of Rome. Each Decemvir was attended by twelve lictors, who earned the fasces with the axes in them, so that 120 lictors were seen in the city instead of 12. The Senate was rarely summoned. No one was now safe, and many of the leading men quitted Rome. Two new Tables were added to the Code, making twelve in all; but these new laws were of the most oppressive kind, and confirmed the Patricians in their most odious privileges.

When the year came to a close the Decemvirs neither resigned nor held Comitia for the election of successors, but continued to hold their power in defiance of the Senate and of the People. Next year (B.C. 449) the Sabines and Æquians invaded the Roman territory, and two armies were dispatched against them, commanded by some of the Decemvirs. Appius remained at Rome to administer justice. But the soldiers fought with no spirit under the command of men whom they detested, and two acts of outrageous tyranny caused them to turn their arms against their hated masters. In the army fighting against the Sabines was a centurion named L. Sicinius Dentatus, the bravest of the brave. He had fought in 120 battles; he had slain eight of the enemy in single combat; had received 40 wounds, all in front; he had accompanied the triumphs of nine generals; and had war-crowns and other rewards innumerable. As Tribune of the Plebs four years before, he had taken an active part in opposing the Patricians, and was now suspected of plotting against the Decemvirs. His death was accordingly resolved on, and he was sent with a company of soldiers as if to reconnoitre the enemy's position. But in a lonely spot they fell upon him and slew him, though not until he had destroyed most of the traitors. His comrades, who were told that he had fallen in an ambush of the enemy, discovered the foul treachery that had been practiced when they saw him surrounded by Roman soldiers who had evidently been slain by him. The Decemvirs prevented an immediate outbreak only by burying Dentatus with great pomp, but the troops were ready to rise in open mutiny upon the first provocation.

In the other army sent against the Æquians there was a well-known centurion named Virginius. He had a beautiful daughter, betrothed to L. Icilius, an eminent leader of the Plebeian order. The maiden had attracted the notice of the Decemvir Appius Claudius. He at first tried bribes and allurements, but when these failed he had recourse to an outrageous act of tyranny. One morning, as Virginia, attended by her nurse, was on the way to her school, which was in one of the booths surrounding the forum, M. Claudius, a client of Appius, laid hold of the damsel and claimed her as his slave. The cry of the nurse for help brought a crowd around them, and all parties went before the Decemvir. In his presence Marcus repeated the tale he had learnt, asserting that Virginia was the child of one of his female slaves, and had been imposed upon Virginius by his wife, who was childless. He farther stated that he would prove this to Virginius as soon as he returned to Rome, and he demanded that the girl should meantime be handed over to his custody. Appius, fearing a riot, said that he would let the cause stand over till the next day, but that then, whether her father appeared or not, he should know how to maintain the laws. Straightway two friends of the family made all haste to the camp, which they reached the same evening. Virginius immediately obtained leave of absence, and was already on his way to Rome, when the messenger of Appius arrived, instructing his colleagues to detain him. Early next morning Virginius and his daughter came into the forum with their garments rent. The father appealed to the people for aid, and the women in their company sobbed aloud. But, intent upon the gratification of his passions, Appius cared not for the misery of the father and the girl, and hastened to give sentence, by which he consigned the maiden to his client. Appius, who had brought with him a large body of patricians and their clients, ordered his lictors to disperse the mob. The people drew back, leaving Virginius and his daughter alone before the judgment-seat. All help was gone. The unhappy father then prayed the Decemvir to be allowed to speak one word to the nurse in his daughter's hearing, in order to ascertain whether she was really his daughter. The request was granted. Virginius drew them both aside, and, snatching up a butcher's-knife from one of the stalls, plunged it into his daughter's breast, exclaiming, "There is no way but this to keep thee free." In vain did Appius call out to stop him. The crowd made way for him, and, holding his bloody knife on high, he rushed to the gate of the city and hastened to the army. His comrades espoused his cause, expelled their commanders, and marched toward Rome. They were soon joined by the other army, to whom Numitorius and Icilius had carried the tidings. The Plebeians in the city flocked to them, and they all resolved to retire once more to the Sacred Mount.

This second secession extorted from the Patricians the second great charter of the Plebeian rights. The Patricians compelled the Decemvirs to resign, and sent L. Valerius and M. Horatius, two of the most eminent men of their order, to negotiate with the Plebeians. It was finally agreed that the Tribunes should be restored, that the authority of the Comitia Tributa should be recognized, and that the right of appeal to the people against the power of the supreme magistrates should be confirmed. The Plebeians now returned to the city, and elected, for the first time, ten Tribunes instead of five, a number which remained unchanged down to the latest times. Virginius, Icilius, and Numitorius were among the new Tribunes.

Two Consuls were elected in place of the Decemvirs, and the choice of the Comitia Centuriata naturally fell upon Valerius and Horatius. The new Consuls now redeemed their promises to the Plebeians by bringing forward the laws which are called after them, the Valerian and Horatian Laws. These celebrated laws enacted:

1. That every Roman citizen should have the right of appeal against the sentence of the supreme magistrate. This was, in fact, a solemn confirmation of the old law of Valerius Publicola, passed in the first year of the republic. It was enacted again a third time in B.C. 300, on the proposal of M. Valerius, the Consul. These repeated enactments gave a still farther sanction to the law. In the same way the Great Charter of England was ratified several times.

2. That the Plebiscita, or resolutions passed by the Plebeians in the Comitia Tributa, should have the force of laws, and should be binding alike upon Patricians and Plebeians.

3. That the persons of the Tribunes, Ædiles, and other Plebeian magistrates should be sacred, and whoever injured them should be sold as a slave.

Virginius now accused Appius Claudius, who was thrown into prison to await his trial. But the proud Patrician, seeing that his condemnation was certain, put an end to his own life. Oppius, another of the Decemvirs, and the personal friend of Appius, was condemned and executed. The other Decemvirs were allowed to go into exile, but they were all declared guilty, and their property confiscated to the state.

The Twelve Tables were always regarded as the foundation of the Roman law, and long continued to be held in the highest estimation. But they probably did little more than fix in a written form a large body of customary law, though even this was a benefit to the Plebeians, as they were no longer subject to the arbitrary decisions of the Patrician magistrates. The Patricians still retained their exclusive privileges; and the eleventh table even gave the sanction of law to the old custom which prohibited all intermarriage (connuubium) between the two orders.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE DECEMVIRATE TO THE CAPTURE OF ROME BY THE GAULS. B.C. 448-390.

The efforts of the leaders of the Plebeians were now directed to two subjects, the removal of the prohibition of intermarriage between the two orders, and the opening of the Consulship to their own order. They attained the first object four years after the Decemvirate by the Lex Canuleia, proposed by Canuleius, one of the Tribunes (B.C. 445). But they did not carry this law without a third secession, in which they occupied the Janiculum. At the same time a compromise was effected with respect to the Consulship. The Patricians agreed that the supreme power in the state should be intrusted to new officers bearing the title of Military Tribunes with Consular Power, who might be chosen equally from Patricians and Plebeians. Their number varied in different years from three to six. In B.C. 444 three Military Tribunes were nominated for the first time. In the following year (443) two new magistrates, called Censors, were appointed. They were always to be chosen from the Patricians; and the reason of the institution clearly was to deprive the Military Tribunes of some of the most important functions, which had been formerly discharged by the Consuls. The Censors originally held office for a period of five years, which was called a lustrum; but their tenure was limited to eighteen months, as early as ten years after its institution (B.C. 443), by a law of the Dictator Mamercus Æmilius, though they continued to be appointed only once in five years.[18]

Though the Military Tribunes could from their first institution be chosen from either order, yet such was the influence of the Patricians in the Comitia of the Centuries that it was not till B.C. 400, or nearly forty years afterward, that any Plebeians were actually elected. In B.C. 421 the Quæstorship was also thrown open to them. The Quæstors were the paymasters of the state; and as the Censors had to fill up vacancies in the Senate from those who had held the office of Quæstor, the Plebeians thus became eligible for the Senate.

During these struggles between the two orders an event took place which is frequently referred to by later writers. In the year 440 B.C. there was a great famine at Rome. Sp. Mælius, one of the richest of the Plebeian knights, expended his fortune in buying up corn, which he sold to the poor at a small price, or distributed among them gratuitously. The Patricians thought, or pretended to think, that he was aiming at kingly power: and in the following year (439) the aged Quintius Cincinnatus, who had saved the Roman army on Mount Algidus, was appointed Dictator. He nominated C. Servilius Ahala his Master of the Horse. During the night the Capitol and all the strong posts were garrisoned by the Patricians, and in the morning Cincinnatus appeared in the forum with a strong force, and summoned Mælius to appear before his tribunal. But seeing the fate which awaited him, he refused to go, whereupon Ahala rushed into the crowd and struck him dead upon the spot. His property was confiscated, and his house was leveled to the ground. The deed of Ahala is frequently mentioned by Cicero and other writers in terms of the highest admiration, but it was regarded by the Plebeians at the time as an act of murder. Ahala was brought to trial, and only escaped condemnation by a voluntary exile.

In their foreign wars the Romans continued to be successful, and, aided by their allies the Latins and Hernicans, they made steady progress in driving back their old enemies the Volscians and Æquians. About this time they planted several colonies in the districts which they conquered. These Roman colonies differed widely from those of ancient Greece and of modern Europe. They were of the nature of garrisons established in conquered towns, and served both to strengthen and extend the power of Rome. The colonists received a portion of the conquered territory, and lived as a ruling class among the old inhabitants, who retained the use of the land.

The Romans now renewed their wars with the Etruscans; and the capture of the important city of Veii was the first decisive advantage gained by the Republic. The hero of this period was Camillus, who stands out prominently as the greatest general of the infant Republic, who saved Rome from the Gauls, and whom later ages honored as a second Romulus.

Veii, however, was only taken after a long and severe struggle. It was closely allied with Fidenæ, a town of Latium, not more than five or six miles from Rome. The two cities frequently united their arms against Rome, and in one of these wars Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, was slain in single combat by A. Cornelius Cossus, one of the Military Tribunes, and his arms dedicated to Jupiter, the second of the three instances in which the Spolia Opima were won (B.C. 437). A few years afterward Fidenæ was taken and destroyed (B.C. 426), and at the same time a truce was granted to the Veientines for twenty years. At the expiration of this truce the war was renewed, and the Romans resolved to subdue Veii as they had done Fidenæ. The siege of Veii, like that of Troy, lasted ten years, and the means of its capture was almost as marvelous as the wooden horse by which Troy was taken. The waters of the Alban Lake rose to such a height as to deluge the neighboring country. An oracle declared that Veii could not be taken until the waters of the lake found a passage to the sea. This reached the ears of the Romans, who thereupon constructed a tunnel to carry off its superfluous waters.[19] The formation of this tunnel is said to have suggested to the Romans the means of taking Veii. M. Furius Camillus, who was appointed Dictator, commenced digging a mine beneath the city, which was to have its outlet in the citadel, in the temple of Juno, the guardian deity of Veii. When the mine was finished, the attention of the inhabitants was diverted by feigned assaults against the walls. Camillus led the way into the mine at the head of a picked body of troops. As he stood beneath the temple of Juno, he heard the soothsayer declare to the king of the Veientines that whoever should complete the sacrifice he was offering would be the conqueror. Thereupon the Romans burst forth and seized the flesh of the victim, which Camillus offered up. The soldiers who guarded the walls were thus taken in the rear, the gates were thrown open, and the city soon filled with Romans. The booty was immense, and the few citizens who escaped the sword were sold as slaves. The image of Juno was carried to Rome, and installed with great pomp on Mount Aventine, where a temple was erected to her. Camillus entered Rome in a chariot drawn by four white horses. Rome had never yet seen so magnificent a triumph (B.C. 396).

One circumstance, which occurred during the siege of Veii, deserves notice. As the Roman soldiers were obliged to pass the whole year under arms, in order to invest the city during the winter as well as the summer, they now, for the first time, received pay.

Veii was a more beautiful city than Rome, and, as it was now without inhabitants, many of the Roman people wished to remove thither. At the persuasion of Camillus the project was abandoned; but the territory of Veii was divided among the Plebeians.

Falerii was almost the only one of the Etruscan cities which had assisted Veii, and she was now exposed single-handed to the vengeance of the Romans. It is related that, when Camillus appeared before Falerii, a schoolmaster of the town treacherously conducted the sons of the noblest families into the Roman camp, but that Camillus, scorning the baseness of the man, ordered his arms to be tied behind him, and the boys to flog him back into the town; whereupon the inhabitants, overcome by such generosity, gave up their arms, and surrendered to the Romans (B.C. 394).

Camillus was one of the proudest of the Patricians; and he now incurred the hatred of the Plebeians by calling upon every man to refund a tenth of the booty taken at Veii; because he had made a vow to consecrate to Apollo a tithe of the spoil. He was accused of having appropriated the great bronze gates at Veii, and was impeached by one of the Tribunes. Seeing that his condemnation was certain, he went into exile, praying as he left the walls that the Republic might soon have cause to regret him (B.C. 491). His prayer was heard, for the Gauls had already crossed the Apennines, and next year Rome was in ashes.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE CAPTURE OF ROME BY THE GAULS TO THE FINAL UNION OF THE TWO ORDERS. B.C. 390-367.

The Gauls or Celts were in ancient times spread over the greater part of Western Europe. They inhabited Gaul and the British isles, and had in the time of the Tarquins crossed the Alps and taken possession of Northern Italy. But they now spread farther south, crossed the Apennines, and laid waste with fire and sword the provinces of Central Italy. Rome fell before them, and was reduced to ashes; but the details of its capture are clearly legendary. The common story runs as follows:

The Senones, a tribe of the Gauls, led by their chief Brennus, laid siege to Clusium, the powerful Etruscan city over which Lars Porsena once reigned. Such reputation had Rome gained through her conquests in Etruria, that Clusium applied to her for aid (B.C. 391). The Senate sent three embassadors, sons of the chief pontiff, Fabius Ambustus, to warn the barbarians not to touch an ally of Rome. But the Gauls treated their message with scorn; and the embassadors, forgetting their sacred character, fought in the Clusine ranks. One of the Fabii slew with his own hands a Gallic chieftain, and was recognized while stripping off his armor. Brennus therefore sent to Rome to demand satisfaction. The Roman people not only refused to give it, but elected the three Fabii as Military Tribunes for the following year. On hearing of this insult, the Gauls broke up the siege of Clusium, and hastened southward toward Rome. All the inhabitants fled before them into the towns. They pursued their course without injuring any one, crying to the guards upon the walls of the towns they passed, "Our way lies for Rome." On the news of their approach the Roman army hurried out of the city, and on the 16th of July (B.C. 300), a day ever after regarded as disastrous, they met the Gauls on the Allia, a small river which flows into the Tiber, on its left bank, about eleven miles from Rome. Brennus attacked the Romans on the flank, and threw them into confusion. A general panic seized them: they turned and fled. Some escaped across the Tiber to Veii, and a few reached Rome, but the greater number were slain by the Gauls.

The loss at the Allia had been so great that enough men were not left to guard the walls of the city. It was therefore resolved that those in the vigor of their age should withdraw to the Capitol, taking with them all the provisions in the city; that the priests and Vestal Virgins should convey the objects of religious reverence to Cæré; and that the rest of the population should disperse among the neighboring towns. But the aged senators, who had been Consuls or Censors, seeing that their lives were no longer of any service to the state, sat down in the forum on their curule thrones awaiting death. When the Gauls entered the city they found it desolate and deathlike. They marched on, without seeing a human being till they came to the forum. Here they beheld the aged senators sitting immovable, like beings of another world. For some time they gazed in awe at this strange sight, till at length one of the Gauls ventured to go up to M. Papirius and stroke his white beard. The old man struck him on the head with his ivory sceptre; whereupon the barbarian slew him, and all the rest were massacred. The Gauls now began plundering the city; fires broke out in several quarters; and with the exception of a few houses on the Palatine, which the chiefs kept for their own residence, the whole city was burnt to the ground.

The Capitol was the next object of attack. There was only one steep way leading up to it, and all the assaults of the besiegers were easily repelled. They thereupon turned the siege into a blockade, and for seven months were encamped amid the ruins of Rome. But their numbers were soon thinned by disease, for they had entered Rome in the most unhealthy time of the year, when fevers have always prevailed. The failure of provisions obliged them to ravage the neighboring countries, the people of which began to combine for defense against the marauders. Meantime the scattered Romans took courage. They collected at Veii, and here resolved to recall Camillus from banishment, and appoint him Dictator. In order to obtain the consent of the Senate, a daring youth, named Pontius Cominius, offered to swim across the Tiber and climb the Capitol. He reached the top unperceived by the enemy, obtained the approval of the Senate to the appointment of Camillus, and returned safely to Veii. But next day some Gauls observed the traces of his steps, and in the dead of night they climbed up the same way. The foremost of them had already reached the top, unnoticed by the sentinels and the dogs, when the cries of some geese roused M. Manlius from sleep. These geese were sacred to Juno, and had been spared notwithstanding the gnawings of hunger; and the Romans were now rewarded for their piety. M. Manlius thrust down the Gaul who had clambered up, and gave the alarm. The Capitol was thus saved; and down to latest times M. Manlius was honored as one of the greatest heroes of the early Republic.

Still no help came, and the Gauls remained before the Capitol. The Romans suffered from famine, and at length agreed to pay the barbarians 1000 pounds of gold, on condition of their quitting the city and its territory. Brennus brought false weights, and, when the Romans exclaimed against this injustice, the Gallic chief threw his sword also into the scale, crying, "Woe to the vanquished!" But at this very moment Camillus marched into the forum, ordered the gold to be taken away, and drove the Gauls out of the city. Another battle was fought on the road to Gabii, in which the Gauls were completely destroyed, and their leader Brennus taken prisoner. This tale, however, is an invention of Roman vanity. We learn from other sources that the Gauls retreated because their settlements in Northern Italy were attacked by the Venetians; and there can be little doubt that their departure was hastened by a present of Roman gold. The Gauls frequently repeated their inroads, and for many years to come were the constant dread of the Romans.

When the Romans returned to the heap of ruins which was once their city their hearts sank within them. The people shrank from the expense and toil of rebuilding their houses, and loudly demanded that they should all remove to Veii, where the private dwellings and public buildings were still standing. But Camillus and the Patricians strongly urged them not to abandon the homes of their fathers, and they were at length persuaded to remain. The state granted bricks, and stones were fetched from Veii. Within a year the city rose from its ashes; but the streets were narrow and crooked; the houses were frequently built over the sewers; and the city continued to show, down to the great fire of Nero, evident traces of the haste and irregularity with which it had been rebuilt. Rome was now deprived of almost all her subjects, and her territory was reduced to nearly its original limits. The Latins and Hernicans dissolved the League with the Romans, and wars broke out on every side. In these difficulties and dangers Camillus was the soul of the Republic. Again and again he led the Roman legions against their enemies, and always with success. The rapidity with which the Romans recovered their power after so terrible a disaster would seem unaccountable but for the fact that the other nations had also suffered greatly from the inroads of the Gauls, who still continued to ravage Central Italy. Two of their invasions of the Roman territory are commemorated by celebrated legends, which may be related here, though they belong to a later period.

In B.C. 361 the Gauls and Romans were encamped on either bank of the Arno. A gigantic Gaul stepped forth from the ranks and insultingly challenged a Roman knight. T. Manlius, a Roman youth, obtained permission from his general to accept the challenge, slew the giant, and took from the dead body the golden chain (torques) which the barbarian wore around his neck. His comrades gave him the surname of Torquatus, which he handed down to his descendants.

In B.C. 349 another distinguished Roman family earned its surname from a single combat with a Gaul. Here again a Gallic warrior of gigantic size challenged any one of the Romans to single combat. His challenge was accepted by M. Valerius, upon whose helmet a raven perched; and as they fought, the bird flew into the face of the Gaul, striking at him with its beak and flapping his wings. Thus Valerius slew the Gaul, and was called in consequence "Corvus," or the "Raven."

It is now necessary to revert to the internal history of Rome. Great suffering and discontent prevailed. Returning to ruined homes and ravaged lands, the poor citizens had been obliged to borrow money to rebuild their houses and cultivate their farms. The law of debtor and creditor at Rome, as we have already seen, was very severe, and many unfortunate debtors were carried away to bondage. Under these circumstances, M. Manlius, the preserver of the Capitol, came forward as the patron of the poor. This distinguished man had been bitterly disappointed in his claims to honor and gratitude. While Camillus, his personal enemy, who had shared in none of the dangers of the siege, was repeatedly raised to the highest honors of the state, he, who had saved the Capitol, was left to languish in a private station. Neglected by his own order, Manlius turned to the Plebeians. One day he recognized in the forum a soldier who had served with him in the field, and whom a creditor was carrying away in fetters. Manlius paid his debt upon the spot, and swore that, as long as he had a single pound, he would not allow any Roman to be imprisoned for debt. He sold a large part of his property, and applied the proceeds to the liberation of his fellow-citizens from bondage. Supported now by the Plebeians, he came forward as the accuser of his own order, and charged them with appropriating to their own use the gold which had been raised to ransom the city from the Gauls. The Patricians in return accused him, as they had accused Sp. Cassius, of aspiring to the tyranny. When he was brought to trial before the Comitia of the Centuries in the Campus Martius, he proudly showed the spoils of thirty warriors whom he had slain, the forty military distinctions which he had won in battle, and the innumerable scars upon his breast, and then turning toward the Capitol he prayed the immortal gods to remember the man who had saved their temples from destruction. After such an appeal, his condemnation was impossible, and his enemies therefore contrived to break up the assembly. Shortly afterward he was arraigned on the same charges before the Comitia of the Curies in the Peteline Grove. Here he was at once condemned, and was hurled from the Tarpeian Rock. His house, which was on the Capitol, was razed to the ground (B.C. 384).

The death of Manlius, however, was only a temporary check to the Plebeian cause. A few years afterward the contest came to a crisis. In B.C. 376 C. Licinius Stolo and his kinsman L. Sextius, being Tribunes of the Plebs, determined to give the Plebeians an equal share in the political power, to deprive the Patricians of the exclusive use of the public land, and to remove the present distress of the Plebeians. For this purpose they brought forward three laws, which are celebrated in history under the name of THE LICINIAN ROGATIONS.[20] These were:

I. That in future Consuls, and not Military Tribunes, should be appointed, and that one of the two Consuls must be a Plebeian.

II. That no citizen should possess more than 500 jugera[21] of the public land, nor should feed upon the public pastures more than 100 head of large and 500 of small cattle, under penalty of a heavy fine.

III. That the interest already paid for borrowed money should be deducted from the principal, and that the remainder should be repaid in three yearly instalments.

These great reforms naturally excited the most violent opposition, and the Patricians induced some of the Plebeians to put their veto upon the measures of their colleagues. But Licinius and Sextius were not to be baffled in this way, and they exercised their veto by preventing the Comitia of the Centuries from electing any magistrates for the next year. Hence no Consuls, Military Tribunes, Censors, or Quæstors could be appointed; and the Tribunes of the Plebs and the Ædiles, who were elected by the Comitia of the Tribes, were the only magistrates in the state. For five years did this state of things continue. C. Licinius and L. Sextius were re-elected annually, and prevented the Comitia of the Centuries from appointing any magistrates. At the end of this time they allowed Military Tribunes to be chosen in consequence of a war with the Latins; but so far were they from yielding any of their demands, that to their former Rogations they now added another: That the care of the Sibylline books, instead of being intrusted to two men (duumviri), both Patricians, should be given to ten men (decemviri), half of whom should be Plebeians.

Five years more did the struggle last; but the firmness of the Tribunes at length prevailed. In B.C. 367 the Licinian Rogations were passed, and L. Sextius was elected the first Plebeian Consul for the next year. But the Patricians made one last effort to evade the law. By the Roman constitution, the Consuls, after being elected by the Comitia Centuriata, received the Imperium, or sovereign power, from the Comitia Curiata. The Patricians thus had it in their power to nullify the election of the Centuries by refusing the Imperium. This they did when L. Sextius was elected Consul; and they made Camillus, the great champion of their order, Dictator, to support them in their new struggle. But the old hero saw that it was too late, and determined to bring about a reconciliation between the two orders. A compromise was effected. The Imperium was conferred upon L. Sextius; but the judicial duties were taken away from the Consuls, and given to a new magistrate called Prætor. Camillus vowed to the goddess Concord a temple for his success.

The long struggle between the Patricians and Plebeians was thus brought to a virtual close. The Patricians still clung obstinately to the exclusive privileges which they still possessed; but when the Plebeians had once obtained a share in the Consulship, it was evident that their participation in the other offices of the state could not be much longer delayed. We may therefore anticipate the course of events by narrating in this place that the first Plebeian Dictator was C. Marcius Rutilus in B.C. 356; that the same man was the first Plebeian Censor five years afterward (B.C. 351); that the Prætorship was thrown open to the Plebeians in B.C. 336; and that the Lex Ogulnia in B.C. 300, which increased the number of the Pontiffs from four to eight, and that of the Augurs from four to nine, also enacted that four of the Pontiffs and five of the Augurs should be taken from the Plebeians.

About thirty years after the Licinian Rogations, another important reform, which abridged still farther the privileges of the Patricians, was effected by the PUBLILIAN LAWS, proposed by the Dictator Q. Publilius Philo in B.C. 339. These were:

I. That the Resolutions of the Plebs should be binding on all the Quirites,[22] thus giving to the Plebiscita passed at the Comitia of the Tribes the same force as the Laws passed at the Comitia of the Centuries.

II. That all laws passed at the Comitia of the Centuries should receive previously the sanction of the Curies; so that the Curies were now deprived of all power over the Centuries.

III. That one of the Censors must be a Plebeian.

The first of these laws seems to be little move than a re-enactment of one of the Valerian and Horatian laws, passed after the expulsion of the Decemvirs;[23] but it is probable that the latter had never been really carried into effect. Even the Publilian Law upon this subject seems to have been evaded; and it was accordingly enacted again by the Dictator Q. Hortensius in B.C. 286. In this year the last Secession of the Plebeians took place, and the LEX HORTENSIA is always mentioned as the law which gave to Plebiscita passed at the Comitia of the Tribes the full power of laws binding upon the whole nation. From this time we hear of no more civil dissensions till the times of the Gracchi, a hundred and fifty years afterward, and the Lex Hortensia may therefore be regarded as the termination of the long struggle between the two orders.

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE LICINIAN ROGATIONS TO THE END OF THE SAMNITE WARS. B.C. 367-290.

United at home, the Romans were now prepared to carry on their foreign wars with more vigor; and their conquests of the Samnites and Latins made them the virtual masters of Italy. But the years which immediately followed the Licinian laws were times of great suffering. A pestilence raged in Rome, which carried off many of the most distinguished men, and among others the aged Camillus (B.C. 362). The Tiber overflowed its banks, the city was shaken by earthquakes, and a yawning chasm opened in the forum. The soothsayers declared that the gulf could never be filled up except by throwing into it that which Rome held most valuable. The tale runs that, when every one was doubting what the gods could mean, a noble youth named M. Curtius came forward, and, declaring that Rome possessed nothing so valuable as her brave citizens, mounted his steed and leaped into the abyss in full armor, whereupon the earth closed over him. This event is assigned to the year 362 B.C.

During the next few years the Gauls renewed their inroads, of which we have already spoken, and in the course of which Manlius Torquatus and Valerius Corvus gained such glory. The Romans steadily extended their dominion over the southern part of Etruria and the country of the Volscians, and the alliance with the Latins was renewed. Fifty years had elapsed since the capture of the city by the Gauls, and Rome was now strong enough to enter into a contest with the most formidable enemy which her arms had yet encountered. The SAMNITES were at the height of their power, and the contest between them and the Romans was virtually for the supremacy of Italy. The Samnites, as we have already seen, were a people of Sabine origin, and had emigrated to the country which they inhabited at a comparatively late period. They consisted of four different tribes or cantons, the Pentri, Hirpini, Caraceni, and Caudini, of whom the two former were the most important. They inhabited that part of the Apennines which lies between Campania and Lucania, but they were not contented with their mountain-homes, and overran the rich plains which lay at their feet. They became the masters of Campania and Lucania, and spread themselves almost to the southern extremity of Italy. But the Samnites of Campania and Lucania had in course of time broken off all connection with the parent nation, and sometimes were engaged in hostilities with the latter. It was a contest of this kind that led to the war between the Romans and the Samnites of the Apennines. On the borders of Campania and Samnium dwelt a people, called the Sidicini, who had hitherto preserved their independence. Being attacked by the Samnites, this people implored the assistance of the Campanians, which was readily granted. Thereupon the Samnites turned their arms against the Campanians, and, after occupying Mount Tifata, which overlooks the city of Capua, they descended into the plain, and defeated the Campanians in a pitched battle at the very gates of Capua. The Campanians, being shut up within the city, now applied for assistance to Rome, and offered to place Capua in their hands. The Romans had only a few years previously concluded an alliance with the Samnites; but the bait of the richest city and the most fertile soil in Italy was irresistible, and they resolved to comply with the request. Thus began the Samnite Wars, which, with a few intervals of peace, lasted 53 years.

FIRST SAMNITE WAR, B.C. 343-341.—The Romans commenced the war by sending two consular armies against the Samnites; and the first battle between the rival nations was fought at the foot of Mount Gaurus, which lies about three miles from Cumæ. The Samnites were defeated with great loss; and it has been justly remarked that this battle may be regarded as one of the most memorable in history, since it was a kind of omen of the ultimate issue of the great contest which had now begun between the Samnites and Romans for the sovereignty of Italy. The Romans gained two other decisive victories, and both consuls entered the city in triumph. But two causes prevented the Romans from prosecuting their success. In the first place, the Roman army, which had been wintering in Capua, rose in open mutiny; and the poorer Plebeians in the city, who were oppressed by debt, left Rome and joined the mutineers. In the second place, the increasing disaffection of the Latins warned the Romans to husband their resources for another and more terrible struggle. The Romans, therefore, abandoning the Sidicini and Campanians, concluded a treaty of peace and alliance with the Samnites in B.C. 341, so that in the great Latin war, which broke out in the following year, the Samnites fought on the side of the Romans.

THE LATIN WAR, B.C. 340-338.—The Latins had, as already stated, renewed their league with Rome in B.C. 356, and consequently their troops had fought along with the Romans in the war against the Samnites. But the increasing power of Rome excited their alarm; and it became evident to them that, though nominally on a footing of equality, they were, in reality, becoming subject to Rome. This feeling was confirmed by the treaty of alliance which the Romans had formed with the Samnites. The Latins, therefore, determined to bring matters to a crisis, and sent two Prætors, who were their chief magistrates, to propose to the Romans that the two nations should henceforth form one state; that half of the state should consist of Latins, and that one of the two Consuls should be chosen from Latium. These requests excited the greatest indignation at Rome, and were rejected with the utmost scorn. The Senate met in the Temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, to receive the Latin deputation, and, after hearing their proposals, the Consul, T. Manlius Torquatus, the same who had slain the Gaul in single combat, declared that, if the Republic should cowardly yield to these demands, he would come into the senate-house sword in hand and cut down the first Latin he saw there. The tale goes on to say that in the discussion which followed, when both parties were excited by anger, the Latin Prætor defied the Roman Jupiter; that thereupon an awful peal of thunder shook the building; and that, as the impious man hurried down the steps from the temple, he fell from top to bottom, and lay there a corpse.

War was now declared, and the most vigorous efforts were made on both sides. The contest was to decide whether Rome should become a Latin town, or the Latins be subject to Rome. The Romans had elected to the consulship two of their most distinguished men. The Patrician Consul was, as already mentioned, T. Manlius Torquatus; his Plebeian colleague was P. Decius Mus, who had gained great renown in the recent war against the Samnites. The two Consuls marched through Samnium into Campania, and threatened Capua, thus leaving Rome exposed to the attacks of the Latins. But the Consuls foresaw that the Latins would not abandon Capua, their great acquisition; and the event proved their wisdom. The contest was thus withdrawn from the territory of Rome and transferred to Campania, where the Romans could receive assistance from the neighboring country of their Samnite allies. It was at the foot of Mount Vesuvius that the two armies met, and here the battle was fought which decided the contest. It was like a civil war. The soldiers of the two armies spoke the same language, had fought by each others' sides, and were well known to one another. Under these circumstances, the Consuls published a proclamation that no Roman should engage in single combat with a Latin on pain of death. But the son of Torquatus, provoked by the insults of a Tusculan officer, accepted his challenge, slew his adversary, and carried the bloody spoils in triumph to his father. The Consul had within him the heart of Brutus; he would not pardon this breach of discipline, and ordered the unhappy youth to be beheaded by the lictor in the presence of the assembled army.

In the night before the battle a vision appeared to each Consul, announcing that the general of one side and the army of the other were doomed to destruction. Both agreed that the one whose wing first began to waver should devote himself and the army of the enemy to the gods of the lower world. Decius commanded the left wing; and when it began to give way, he resolved to fulfill his vow. Calling the Pontifex Maximus, he repeated after him the form of words by which he devoted himself and the army of the enemy to the gods of the dead and the mother earth; then leaping upon his horse, he rushed into the thickest of the fight, and was slain. The Romans gained a signal victory. Scarcely a fourth part of the Latins escaped (B.C. 340).

This victory made the Romans masters of Campania, and the Latins did not dare to meet them again in the field. The war continued two years longer, each city confining itself to the defense of its own walls, and hoping to receive help from others in case of an attack. But upon the capture of Pedum in B.C. 338 all the Latins laid down their arms, and garrisons were placed in their towns. The Romans were now absolute masters of Latium, and their great object was to prevent the Latin cities from forming any union again. For this purpose not only were all general assemblies forbidden, but, in order to keep the cities completely isolated, the citizens of one town could not marry or make a legal contract of bargain or sale with another.[24] Tibur and Præneste, the two most powerful cities of the League, which had taken the most active part in the war, were deprived of a portion of their land, but were allowed to retain a nominal independence, preserving their own laws, and renewing from time to time their treaties with Rome. The inhabitants of several other towns, such as Tusculum and Lanuvium, received the Roman franchise; their territory was incorporated in that of the Republic; and two new tribes were created to carry these arrangements into effect. Many of the most distinguished Romans sprung from these Latin towns.

Twelve years elapsed between the subjugation of Latium and the commencement of the Second Samnite War. During this time the Roman arms continued to make steady progress. One of their most important conquests was that of the Volscian town of Privernum in B.C. 329, from which time the Volscians, so long the formidable enemies of Rome, disappear as an independent nation. The extension of the Roman power naturally awakened the jealousy of the Samnites; and the assistance rendered by them to the Greek cities of Palæopolis and Neapolis was the immediate occasion of the Second Samnite War. These two cities were colonies of the neighboring Cumæ, and were situated only five miles from each other. The position of Palæopolis, or the "Old City," is uncertain; but Neapolis, or the "New City," stands on the site of a part of the modern Naples. The Romans declared war against the two cities in B.C. 327, and sent the Consul Q. Publilius Philo to reduce them to subjection. The Greek colonists had previously formed an alliance with the Samnites, and now received powerful Samnite garrisons. Publilius encamped between the cities; and as he did not succeed in taking them before his year of office expired, he was continued in the command with the title of Proconsul, the first time that this office was created. At the beginning of the following year Palæopolis was taken; and Neapolis only escaped the same fate by concluding an alliance with the Romans. Meanwhile the Romans had declared war against the Samnites.

SECOND OR GREAT SAMNITE WAR, B.C. 326-304.—The Second Samnite War lasted 22 years, and was by far the most important of the three wars which this people waged with Rome. During the first five years (B.C. 326-322) the Roman arms were generally successful. The Samnites became so disheartened that they sued for peace, but obtained only a truce for a year. It was during this period that the well-known quarrel took place between L. Papirius Cursor and Q. Fabius Maximus, the two most celebrated Roman generals of the time, who constantly led the armies of the Republic to victory. In B.C. 325 L. Papirius was Dictator, and Q. Fabius his Master of the Horse. Recalled to Rome by some defect in the auspices, the Dictator left the army in charge of Fabius, but with strict orders not to venture upon an engagement. Compelled or provoked by the growing boldness of the enemy, Fabius attacked and defeated them with great loss. But this victory was no extenuation for his offense in the eyes of the Dictator. Papirius hastened back to the camp, burning with indignation that his commands had been disobeyed, and ordered his lictors to seize Fabius and put him to death. The soldiers, whom Fabius had led to victory, rose in his defense; and in the night he escaped to Rome, to implore the protection of the Senate. He was stating the case to the Fathers, when Papirius entered the senate-house, followed by his lictors, and demanded that the offender should be given up for execution. But the Senate, the people, and the aged father of Maximus interceded so strongly for his life, that the Dictator was obliged to give way and to grant an ungracious pardon.

The year's truce had not expired when the Samnites again took up arms, and for the next seven years (B.C. 321-315) the balance of success inclined to their side. This appears to have been mainly owing to the military abilities of their general C. Pontius, who deserves to be ranked among the chief men of antiquity. In the first year of his command he inflicted upon the Romans one of the severest blows they ever sustained in the whole course of their history.

In B.C. 321 the two Consuls, T. Veturius and Sp. Postumius, marched into Samnium by the road from Capua to Beneventum. Near the town of Caudium they entered the celebrated pass called the CAUDINE FORKS (Furculæ Caudinæ). It consisted of two narrow defiles or gorges, between which was a tolerably spacious plain, but shut in on each side by mountains. The Romans, thinking the Samnites to be far distant, had marched through the first pass and the plain; but when they came to the second they found it blocked up by works and trunks of trees, so as to be quite impassable. Retracing their steps to the pass by which they had entered, they found that the enemy had meantime taken possession of this also. They were thus blocked up at either end, and, after making vain attempts to force their way through, were obliged to surrender at discretion. Thus both Consuls and four legions fell into the hands of the Samnites. C. Pontius made a merciful use of his victory. He agreed to dismiss them in safety upon their promising to restore the ancient alliance on equal terms between the two nations, and to give up all the places which they had conquered during the war. The Consuls and the other superior officers swore to these terms in the name of the Republic, and six hundred Roman knights were given as hostages. The whole Roman army was now allowed to depart, and each Roman soldier marched out singly under the yoke.

When the news of this disaster reached Rome the Senate refused to ratify the peace, and resolved that the two Consuls and all the officers who had sworn to the peace should be delivered up to the Samnites as persons who had deceived them. They were conducted to Caudium by a Fetialis; and when they appeared before the tribunal of C. Pontius, Postumius, with superstitious folly, struck the Fetialis with his foot, saying that he was now a Samnite citizen, and that war might be renewed with justice by the Romans, since a Samnite had insulted the sacred envoy of the Roman people. But Pontius refused to accept the persons who were thus offered, and told them, if they wished to nullify the treaty, to send back the army to the Caudine Forks. Thus Postumius and his companions returned to Rome, and the 600 knights were alone left in the hands of the Samnites.

The disaster of Caudium shook the fate of many of the Roman allies, and the fortune of war was for some years in favor of the Samnites. But in B.C. 314 the tide of success again turned, and the decisive victory of the Consuls in that year opened the way into the heart of Samnium. From this time the Romans were uniformly successful; and it seemed probable that the war was drawing to a close, when the Etruscans created a powerful diversion by declaring war against Rome in B.C. 311. But the energy and ability of Q. Fabius Maximus averted this new danger. He boldly carried the war into the very heart of Etruria, and gained a decisive victory over the forces of the League. The Samnites also were repeatedly defeated; and after the capture of Bovianum, the chief city of the Pentri, they were compelled to sue for peace. It was granted them in B.C. 304, on condition of their acknowledging the supremacy of Rome.

At the conclusion of the Second Samnite War the Æquians and Hernicans were reduced to subjection after a brief struggle. A part of the Æquian territory was incorporated in that of Rome by the addition of two new tribes, and two colonies were planted in the other portion. The Marsi, Marrucini, Peligni, and other nations of Central Italy, entered into a league with the Romans on equal terms. Thus, in B.C. 300, the power of Rome seemed firmly established in Central Italy. But this very power awakened the jealousy of the surrounding nations, and the Samnites exerted themselves to form a new and formidable coalition. The Etruscans and Umbrians agreed to make war against Rome, and called in the assistance of the Senonian Gauls.

THIRD SAMNITE WAR, B.C. 298-290.—As soon as the Etruscans and Umbrians were engaged with Rome, the Samnites invaded Lucania. The Lucanians invoked the assistance of the Romans, who forthwith declared war against the Samnites. The Republic had now to contend at one and the same time against the Etruscans, Umbrians, Gauls, and Samnites; but she carried on the struggle with the utmost energy, attacking the Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls in the north, and the Samnites in the south. At length, in B.C. 295, the Samnites joined their confederates in Umbria. In this country, near the town of Sentinum, a desperate battle was fought, which decided the fortune of the war. The two Roman Consuls were the aged Q. Fabius Maximus and P. Decius Mus. The victory was long doubtful. The wing commanded by Decius was giving way before the terrible onset of the Gauls, when he determined to imitate the example of his father, and to devote himself and the enemy to destruction. His death gave fresh courage to his men, and Fabius gained a complete and decisive victory. Gellius Egnatius, the Samnite general, who had taken the most active part in forming the coalition, was slain. But, though the League was thus broken up, the Samnites continued the struggle for five years longer. During this period C. Pontius, who had defeated the Romans at the Caudine Forks, again appeared, after twenty-seven years, as the leader of the Samnites, but was defeated by Q. Fabius Maximus with great loss and taken prisoner. Being carried to Rome, he was put to death as the triumphal car of the victor ascended the Capitol (B.C. 292). This shameful act has been justly branded as one of the greatest stains on the Roman annals. Two years afterward the Samnites were unable to continue any longer the hopeless struggle, and became the subjects of Rome. The third and last Samnite war was brought to a close in B.C. 290.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE SAMNITE WAR TO THE SUBJUGATION OF ITALY. B.C. 290-265.

Ten years elapsed from the conclusion of the third Samnite war to the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy. During this time the Etruscans and Gauls renewed the war in the north, but were defeated with great slaughter near the Lake Vadimo. This decisive battle appears to have completely crushed the Etruscan power; and it inflicted so severe a blow upon the Gauls that we hear no more of their ravages for the next sixty years.

In the south the Lucanians also rose against Rome. The extension of the Roman dominion in the south of the peninsula had brought the state into connection with the Greek cities, which at one period were so numerous and powerful as to give to this part of Italy the name of Magna Græcia.[25] Many of these cities had now fallen into decay through internal dissensions and the conquests of the Lucanians and other Sabellian tribes; but Tarentum, originally a Lacedæmonian colony, still maintained her former power and splendor. The Tarentines naturally regarded with extreme jealousy the progress of the Roman arms in the south of Italy, and had secretly instigated the Etruscans and Lucanians to form a new coalition against Rome. But the immediate cause of the war between the Lucanians and Romans was the assistance which the latter had rendered to the Greek city of Thurii. Being attacked by the Lucanians, the Thurians applied to Rome for aid, and the Consul C. Fabricius not only relieved Thurii, but defeated the Lucanians and their allies in several engagements (B.C. 252). Upon the departure of Fabricius a Roman garrison was left in Thurii. The only mode now of maintaining communication between Rome and Thurii was by sea; but this was virtually forbidden by a treaty which the Romans had made with Tarentum nearly twenty years before, in which treaty it was stipulated that no Roman ships of war should pass the Lacinian promontory. But circumstances were now changed, and the Senate determined that their vessels should no longer be debarred from the Gulf of Tarentum. There was a small squadron of ten ships in those seas under the command of L. Valerius; and one day, when the Tarentines were assembled in the theatre, which looked over the sea, they saw the Roman squadron sailing toward their harbor. This open violation of the treaty seemed a premeditated insult, and a demagogue urged the people to take summary vengeance. They rushed down to the harbor, quickly manned some ships, and gained an easy victory over the small Roman squadron. Only half made their escape, four were sunk, one taken, and Valerius himself killed. After this the Tarentines marched against Thurii, compelled the inhabitants to dismiss the Roman garrison, and then plundered the town.

The Senate sent an embassy to Tarentum to complain of these outrages and to demand satisfaction. L. Postumius, who was at the head of the embassy, was introduced with his colleagues into the theatre, to state to the assembled people the demands of the Roman Senate. He began to address them in Greek, but his mistakes in the language were received with peals of laughter from the thoughtless mob. Unable to obtain a hearing, much less an answer, Postumius was leaving the theatre, when a drunken buffoon rushed up to him and sullied his white robe in the most disgusting manner. The whole theatre rang with shouts of laughter and clapping of hands, which became louder and louder when Postumius held up his sullied robe and showed it to the people. "Laugh on now," he cried, "but this robe shall be washed in torrents of your blood."

War was now inevitable. The luxurious Tarentines sent an embassy to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, begging him, in the name of all the Italian Greeks, to cross over into Italy in order to conduct the war against the Romans. They told him that they only wanted a general, and that all the nations of Southern Italy would flock to his standard. Pyrrhus needed no persuasion to engage in an enterprise which realized the earliest dreams of his ambition. The conquest of Italy would naturally lead to the sovereignty of Sicily and Africa, and he would then be able to return to Greece with the united forces of the West to overcome his rivals and reign as master of the world. But as he would not trust the success of his enterprise to the valor and fidelity of Italian troops, he began to make preparations to carry over a powerful army. Meantime he sent Milo, one of his generals, with a detachment of 3000 men, to garrison the citadel of Tarentum. Pyrrhus himself crossed over from Epirus toward the end of B.C. 281, taking with him 20,000 foot, 3000 horse, and 20 elephants.

Upon reaching Tarentum he began to make preparations to carry on the war with activity. The Tarentines soon found they had obtained a master rather than an ally. He shut up the theatre and all other public places, and compelled their young men to serve in his ranks. Notwithstanding all his activity, the Romans were first in the field. The Consul M. Valerius Lævinus marched into Lucania; but as the army of Pyrrhus was inferior to that of the Romans, he attempted to gain time by negotiation in order that he might be joined by his Italian allies. He accordingly wrote to the Consul, offering to arbitrate between Rome and the Italian states; but Lævinus bluntly told him to mind his own business and retire to Epirus. Fearing to remain inactive any longer, although he was not yet joined by his allies, Pyrrhus marched out against the Romans with his own troops and the Tarentines. He took up his position between the towns of Pandosia and Heraclea, on the River Siris. The Romans, who were encamped on the other side of the river, were the first to begin the battle. They crossed the river, and were immediately attacked by the cavalry of Pyrrhus, who led them to the charge in person, and distinguished himself as usual by the most daring acts of valor. The Romans, however, bravely sustained the attack; and Pyrrhus, finding that his cavalry could not decide the day, ordered his infantry to advance. The battle was still contested most furiously: seven times did both armies advance and retreat; and it was not till Pyrrhus brought forward his elephants, which bore down every thing before them, that the Romans took to flight, leaving their camp to the conqueror (B.C. 280).

This battle taught Pyrrhus the difficulty of the enterprise he had undertaken. Before the engagement, when he saw the Romans forming their line as they crossed the river, he said to his officers, "In war, at any rate, these barbarians are not barbarous;" and afterward, as he saw the Roman dead lying upon the field with all their wounds in front, he exclaimed, "If these were my soldiers, or if I were their general, we should conquer the world." And, though his loss had been inferior to that of the Romans, still so large a number of his officers and best troops had fallen, that he said, "Another such victory, and I must return to Epirus alone." He therefore resolved to avail himself of this victory to conclude, if possible, an advantageous peace. He sent his minister Cineas to Rome with the proposal that the Romans should recognize the independence of the Greeks in Italy, restore to the Samnites, Lucanians, Apulians, and Bruttians all the possessions which they had lost in war, and make peace with himself and the Tarentines. As soon as peace was concluded on these terms he promised to return all the Roman prisoners without ransom. Cineas, whose persuasive eloquence was said to have won more towns for Pyrrhus than his arms, neglected no means to induce the Romans to accept these terms. The prospects of the Republic seemed so dark and threatening that many members of the Senate thought it would be more prudent to comply with the demands of the king; and this party would probably have carried the day had it not been for the patriotic speech of the aged Ap. Claudius Caucus, who denounced the idea of a peace with a victorious foe with such effect that the Senate declined the proposals of the king, and commanded Cineas to quit Rome the same day.

Cineas returned to Pyrrhus, and told him he must hope for nothing from negotiation; that the city was like a temple of the gods, and the Senate an assembly of kings. Pyrrhus now advanced by rapid marches toward Rome, ravaging the country as he went along, and without encountering any serious opposition. He at length arrived at Præneste, which fell into his hands. He was now only 24 miles from Rome, and his outposts advanced six miles farther. Another march would have brought him under the walls of the city; but at this moment he learned that peace was concluded with the Etruscans, and that the other Consul had returned with his army to Rome. All hope of compelling the Romans to accept the peace was now gone, and he therefore resolved to retreat. He retired slowly into Campania, and from thence withdrew into winter quarters to Tarentum.

As soon as the armies were quartered for the winter, the Romans sent an embassy to Pyrrhus to negotiate the ransom or exchange of prisoners. The embassadors were received by Pyrrhus in the most distinguished manner; and his interviews with C. Fabricius, who was at the head of the embassy, form one of the most famous stories in Roman history. Fabricius was a fine specimen of the sturdy Roman character. He cultivated his farm with his own hands, and, like his contemporary Curius, was celebrated for his incorruptible integrity. The king attempted in vain to work upon his cupidity and his fears. He steadily refused the large sums of money offered by Pyrrhus; and when an elephant, concealed behind him by a curtain, waved his trunk over his head, Fabricius remained unmoved. Such respect did his conduct inspire, that Pyrrhus attempted to persuade him to enter into his service and accompany him to Greece. The object of the embassy failed. The king refused to exchange the prisoners; but, to show them his trust in their honor, he allowed them to go to Rome in order to celebrate the Saturnalia, stipulating that they were to return to Tarentum if the Senate would not accept the terms which he had previously offered through Cineas. The Senate remained firm in their resolve, and all the prisoners returned to Pyrrhus, the punishment of death having been denounced against those who should remain in the city.

In the following year (B.C. 279) the war was renewed, and a battle was fought near Asculum. The Romans fled to their camp, which was so near to the field of battle that not more than 6000 fell, while Pyrrhus lost more than half this number. The victory yielded Pyrrhus little or no advantage, and he was obliged to retire to Tarentum for the winter without effecting any thing more during the campaign. In the last battle, as well as in the former, the brunt of the action had fallen almost exclusively upon his Greek troops; and the state of Greece, which this year was overrun by the Gauls, made it hopeless for him to expect any re-enforcements from Epirus. He was therefore unwilling to hazard his surviving Greeks by another campaign with the Romans, and accordingly lent a ready ear to the invitations of the Greeks in Sicily, who begged him to come to their assistance against the Carthaginians. It was necessary, however, first to suspend hostilities with the Romans, who were likewise anxious to get rid of so formidable an opponent, that they might complete the subjugation of Southern Italy without farther interruption. When both parties had the same wishes it was not difficult to find a fair pretext for bringing the war to a conclusion. This was afforded at the beginning of the following year (B.C. 278) by one of the servants of Pyrrhus deserting to the Romans, and proposing to the Consuls to poison his master. They sent back the deserter to the king, saying that they abhorred a victory gained by treason. Thereupon Pyrrhus, to show his gratitude, sent Cineas to Rome with all the Roman prisoners, without ransom and without conditions; and the Romans granted him a truce.

Leaving Milo with part of his troops in possession of Tarentum, Pyrrhus now crossed over into Sicily. He remained there upward of two years. At first he met with brilliant success, and deprived the Carthaginians of a great part of the island. Subsequently, however, he received a severe repulse in an attempt which he made upon the impregnable town of Lilybæum. The fickle Greeks now began to form cabals and plots against him. This led to retaliation on his part, and he soon became as anxious to abandon the island as he had been before to leave Italy. Accordingly, when his Italian allies again begged him to come to their assistance, he readily complied with their request, and arrived in Italy in the autumn of B.C. 276. His troops were now almost the same in number as when he first landed in Italy, but very different in quality. The faithful Epirots had for the most part fallen, and his present soldiers consisted chiefly of mercenaries, whom he had levied in Italy. One of his first operations was the recovery of Locri, which had revolted to the Romans; and as he here found himself in great difficulties for want of money to pay his troops, he was induced to take possession of the treasures of the Temple of Proserpine in that town; but the ships conveying the money were wrecked. This circumstance deeply affected the mind of Pyrrhus; he ordered the treasures which were saved to be restored to the temple, and from this time became haunted by the idea that the wrath of Proserpine was pursuing him, and dragging him down to ruin.

The following year (B.C. 274) closed the career of Pyrrhus in Italy. The Consul M'. Curius marched into Samnium, and his colleague into Lucania. Pyrrhus advanced against Curius, who was encamped in the neighborhood of Beneventum, and resolved to fight with him before he was joined by his colleague. As Curius did not wish to risk a battle with his own army alone, Pyrrhus planned a night-attack upon his camp. But he miscalculated the time and the distance; the torches burnt out, the men missed their way, and it was already broad daylight when he reached the heights above the Roman camp. Still their arrival was quite unexpected; but, as a battle was now inevitable, Curius led out his men. The troops of Pyrrhus, exhausted by fatigue, were easily put to the rout; two elephants were killed and eight more taken. Encouraged by this success, Curius no longer hesitated to meet the king in the open plain, and gained a decisive victory. Pyrrhus arrived at Tarentum with only a few horsemen. Shortly afterward he crossed over to Greece, leaving Milo with a garrison at Tarentum. Two years afterward he perished in an attack upon Argos, ingloriously slain by a tile hurled by a woman from the roof of a house.

The departure of Pyrrhus left the Lucanians and other Italian tribes exposed to the full power of Rome. They nevertheless continued the hopeless struggle a little longer; but in B.C. 272 Tarentum fell into the hands of Rome, and in a few years afterward every nation in Italy, to the south of the Macra and the Rubicon, owned the supremacy of Rome. She had now become one of the first powers in the ancient world. The defeat of Pyrrhus attracted the attention of the nations of the East; and in B.C. 273, Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, sent an embassy to Rome, and concluded a treaty with the Republic.

The dominion which Rome had acquired by her arms was confirmed by her policy. She pursued the same system which she had adopted upon the subjugation of Latium, keeping the cities isolated from one another, but at the same time allowing them to manage their own affairs. The population of Italy was divided into three classes. Cives Romani, Nomen Latinum, and Socii.

I. CIVES ROMANI, or ROMAN CITIZENS.—These consisted: (1.) Of the citizens of the thirty-three Tribes into which the Roman territory was now divided, and which extended north of the Tiber a little beyond Veii, and southward as far as the Liris; though even in this district there were some towns, such as Tibur and Prænesté, which did not possess the Roman franchise. (2.) Of the citizens of Roman colonies planted in different parts of Italy. (3.) Of the citizens of municipal towns upon whom the Roman franchise was conferred. In some cases the Roman franchise was granted without the right of voting in the Comitia (civitas sine suffragio), but in course of time this right also was generally conceded.

II. NOMEN LATINUM, or the LATIN NAME.—This term was applied to the colonies founded by Rome which did not enjoy the rights of Roman citizenship, and which stood in the same position with regard to the Roman state as had been formerly occupied by the cities of the Latin League. The name originated at a period when colonies were actually sent out in common by the Romans and Latins, but similar colonies continued to be founded by the Romans alone long after the extinction of the Latin League. In fact, the majority of the colonies planted by Rome were of this kind, the Roman citizens who took part in them voluntarily resigning their citizenship, in consideration of the grants of land which they obtained. But the citizen of any Latin colony might emigrate to Rome, and be enrolled in one of the Roman tribes, provided he had held a magistracy in his native town. These Latin colonies—the Nomen Latinum—were some of the most flourishing towns in Italy.

III. SOCII, or ALLIES, included the rest of Italy. Each of the towns which had been conquered by Rome had formed a treaty (fœdus) with the latter, which determined their rights and duties. These treaties were of various kinds, some securing nominal independence to the towns, and others reducing them to absolute subjection.

The political changes in Rome itself, from the time of the Latin wars, have been already in great part anticipated. Appius Claudius, afterward named Cæcus, or the Blind, introduced a dangerous innovation in the constitution during the Second Samnite War. Slavery existed at Rome, as among the other nations of antiquity; and as many slaves, from various causes, acquired their liberty, there gradually sprung up at Rome a large and indigent population of servile origin. These Freedmen were Roman citizens, but they could only be enrolled in the four city-tribes, so that, however numerous they might become, they could influence only the votes of four tribes. Appius Claudius, in his Censorship (B.C. 312), when making out the lists of citizens, allowed the Freedmen to enroll themselves in any tribe they pleased; but this dangerous innovation was abolished by the Censors Q. Fabius Maximus and P. Decius Mus (B.C. 304), who restored all the Freedmen to the four city-tribes. The Censorship of Appius is, however, memorable for the great public works which he executed. He made the great military road called the Appian Way (Via Appia), leading from Rome to Capua, a distance of 120 miles, which long afterward was continued across the Apennines to Brundusium. He also executed the first of the great aqueducts (Aqua Appia) which supplied Rome with such an abundance of water.