A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate Part 15

[58] Dionys. vii. 71.

[59] They had made contributions in 186 B.C. towards the games of Scipio Asiaticus (Plin. _H.N_. x.x.xiii. 138).

[60] Livy (xl. 44) after describing the _senatus consultum_, in which occur the words Neve quid ad eos ludos arcesseret, cogeret, acciperet, faceret adversus id senatus consultum, quod L. Aemilio Cn. Baebio consulibus de ludis factum esset, adds Decreverat id senatus propter effusos sumptus, factos in ludos Ti. Semp.r.o.nii aedilis, qui graves non modo Italiae ac sociis Latini nominis sed etiam provinciis externis fuerant.

[61] The effect was still worse when a rich man avoided it. Cic. _de Off_. ii. 17. 58. Vitanda tamen suspicio est avaritiae. Mamerco, homini divitissimo, praetermissio aedilitatis consulatus repulsam attulit.

Sulla said that the people would not give him the praetors.h.i.+p because they wished him to be aedile first. They knew that he could obtain African animals for exhibition (Plut. _Sulla_ 5).

[62] Cic. _in Verr_. v. 14. 36.

[63] Liv. x. 47; xxvii. 6.

[64] Liv. xxiii. 30.

[65] Liv. x.x.x. 39.

[66] Plin. _H.N_. xviii. 286.

[67] Mommsen _Rom. Munzw_. p. 645.

[68] Liv. x.x.xvi. 36. On these festivals see Warde Fowler _The Roman Festivals_ pp. 72. 91. 70. The _Megalesia_ seem to have fallen to the lot of the curule aediles (Dio. Ca.s.s. xliii. 48), the others to have been given indifferently by either pair.

[69] Val. Max. ii. 4-7; Liv. _Ep_. xvi. It was exhibited in the Forum Boarium by Marcus and Decimus Brutus at the funeral of their father.

[70] Compare Livy's description (xli. 20) of the adoption of Roman gladiatorial shows by Antiochus Epiphanes--Armorum studium plerisque juvenum accendit.

[71] Polyb. x.x.x. 13.

[72] Liv. x.x.xix. 22.

[73] Liv. xliv. 18.

[74] Dig. 21. 1. 40-42 (from the edict of the curule aediles) Ne quis canem, verrem vel minorem aprum, lupum, ursum, pantheram, leonem ... qua vulgo iter fiet, ita habuisse velit, ut cuiquam nocere d.a.m.numve dare possit.

[75] Cic. _de Off_. ii. 17. 60 Tota igitur ratio talium largitionum genere vitiosa est, temporibus necessaria. He adds the pious but unattainable wish Tamen ipsa et ad facultates accomodanda et mediocritate moderanda est. Compare the remarks of Pohlmann on the subject in his _Geschichte des antiken Communismus und Sozialismus_ ii.

2. p. 471.

[76] Mommsen _Staatsr_. ii., p. 382.

[77] Plut, _Ti. Gracch_. 14.

[78] Liv. x.x.xix. 44; Plut, _Cat. Maj_. 18.

[79] Nitzsch _Die Gracchen_, p. 128.

[80] Cic. _de Off_. ii. 22. 76 (Paullus) tantum in aerarium pecuniae invexit, ut unius imperatoris praeda finem attulerit tributorum. A deterrent to luxury could still have been created by imposing heavy harbour-dues on articles of value; but this would have required legislation. Nothing is known about the Republican tariff at Italian ports. The percentage may have been uniform for all articles.

[81] Liv. x.x.xiv. cc. 1-8; Val. Max. ix. 1. 3; Tac. _Ann_. iii. 33.

[82] Macrob. _Sat_. iii. 17; Festus pp. 201, 242; Schol. Bob. p. 310; Meyer _Orat. Rom. Fragm_. p. 91.

[83] This date (161) is given by Pliny (_H.N_. x. 139); Macrobius (_Sat_. iii. 17. 3) places the law in 159.

[84] Gell. ii. 24; Macrob. _Sat_. iii. 17; Plin. _H.N_. x. 139; Tertull. _Apol_. vi. The ten a.s.ses of this law are the Fanni centussis misellus of Lucilius.

[85] It seems that we must a.s.sume formal acceptance on the part of the allies in accordance with the principle that Rome could not legislate for her confederacy, a principle a.n.a.logous to that which forbade her to force her franchise on its members (Cic. _pro Balbo_ 8, 20 and 21).

[86] We may compare the enactment of 193 B.C., which was produced by the discovery that Roman creditors escaped the usury laws by using Italians as their agents (Liv. x.x.xv. 7 M. Semp.r.o.nius tribunus plebis ... plebem rogavit plebesque scivit ut c.u.m sociis ac nomine Latino creditae pecuniae jus idem quod c.u.m civibus Romanis esset).

[87] The _Lex Licinia_, which is attributed by Macrobius (l.c.) to P.

Licinius Cra.s.sus Dives, perhaps belongs either to his praetors.h.i.+p (104 B.C.) or to his consuls.h.i.+p (97 B.C.).

[88] Gellius (ii. 24), in speaking of Sulla's experiments, says of the older laws Legibus istis situ atque senio obliteratis.

[89] _Exaequatio_ (Liv. x.x.xiv. 4).

[90] Cic. _de Rep_. iii. g. 16; see p. 80.

[91] Compare Tac. _Ann_. iii. 53. The Emperor Tiberius here speaks of Illa feminarum propria, quis lapidum causa pecuniae nostrae ad externas aut hostilis gentes transferuntur.

[92] The prohibition belongs to the year 229 B.C. (Zonar. viii. 19). For other prohibitions of the same kind dating from, a period later than that which we are considering see Voigt in Iwan-Muller's _Handbuch_ iv.

2, p. 376 n. 95.

[93] Earlier enactments had been directed against canva.s.sing, but not against bribery. The simplicity of the fifth century B.C. was ill.u.s.trated by the law that a candidate should not whiten his toga with chalk (Liv. iv. 25; 433 B.C.). The _Lex Poetelia_ of 358 B.C. (Liv. vii.

16) was directed against personal solicitation by _novi homines_. Some law of _ambitus_ is known to Plautus (_Amph. prol. 73; cf. Trinumm_. iv.

3. 26), See Rein _Criminalrecht_ p. 706

[94] Liv. xl. 19 Leges de ambitu consules ex auctoritate senatus ad populum tulerunt. This was the _lex Cornelia Baebia_ and that it referred to pecuniary corruption is known from a fragment of Cato (ap.

_Non_. vii. 19, s.v. largi, Cato lege Baebia: pecuniam inlargibo tibi).

[95] Obsequens lxxi.

[96] Liv. _Ep_. xlvii.

[97] Polyb. vi. 56 [Greek: _para men Karchaedoniois dora phaneros didontes lambanousi tas archas, para de Rhomaiois thanatos esti peri touto prostimon_.]

[98] The position of the ruined patrician will be fully ill.u.s.trated in the following pages when we deal with the careers of Scaurus and of Sulla.

[99] Liv. x.x.xiv. 52.

[100] Liv. x.x.xix. 7.

[101] Liv. x.x.xviii. 9.

[102] For the later history of the _aurum coronarium_ see Marquardt _Staatsverw_. ii. p. 295. It was developed from the _triumphales coronae_ (Festus p. 367) and is described as gold Quod triumphantibus ... a victis gentibus datur and as imposed by commanders Propter concessam vitam (_al_. immunitatem) (Serv. _Ad. Aen_. viii. 721).

[103] Liv. xxi. 63 (218 B.C.) Id satis habitum ad fructus ex agris vectandos; quaestus omnis patribus indecorus visus.