A Smaller History of Rome Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Rome, showing the Servian Wall and the Seven Hills.]

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 hards.h.i.+ps 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 G.o.ds 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 c.u.mae, 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, s.e.xtus, pretending to be ill, treated by his father, and covered with the b.l.o.o.d.y 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. s.e.xtus 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, t.i.tus 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, t.i.tus 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 s.e.xtus, 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 pa.s.sions of s.e.xtus. 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 s.e.xtus 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 a.s.sumed 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 cla.s.ses were inflamed with the same indignation. A decree was pa.s.sed deposing the king, and banis.h.i.+ng 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, t.i.tus and Aruns, took refuge at Caere, in Etruria. s.e.xtus 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 inst.i.tution they were named _Praetors_. 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 emba.s.sadors 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 emba.s.sadors were making preparation for carrying away the property, they formed a conspiracy among the young Roman n.o.bles 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 grat.i.tude, advised him to make peace with Rome, since three hundred n.o.ble 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 Scaevola, 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. Cloelia, 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. aebutius, the Master of the Horse; at the head of the Latins were Tarquin and Octavius Mamilius. The struggle was fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y, but the Latins at length fled. Almost all the chiefs on either side fell in the conflict, or were grievously wounded. t.i.tus, 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 a.s.sistance of the G.o.ds 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 a.s.sistance. He had already survived all his family; and he now fled to c.u.mae, where he died a wretched and childless old man (B.C. 496).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin representing the children of Brutus led to death by Lictors.]

[Footnote 7: The _As_ was originally a pound weight of copper of 12 ounces.]

[Footnote 8: The following table will show the census of each cla.s.s, and the number of centuries which each contained:

_Equites._--Centuriae 18 _First Cla.s.s._--Census 100,000 a.s.ses and upward.

Centuriae Seniorum 40 Centuriae Juniorum 40 > 82 Centuriae Fabrum (smiths and carpenters) 2 / _Second Cla.s.s._--Census, 75,000 a.s.ses and upward.

Centuriae Seniorum 10 Centuriae Juniorum 10 / 20 _Third Cla.s.s._--Census, 50,000 a.s.ses and upward.

Centuriae Seniorum 10 Centuriae Juniorum 10 / 20 _Fourth Cla.s.s._--Census, 25,000 a.s.ses and upward.

Centuriae Seniorum 10 Centuriae Juniorum 10 / 20 _Fifth Cla.s.s._--Census, 12,500 a.s.ses and upward.

Centuriae Seniorum 15 Centuriae Juniorum 15 > 32 Centuriae cornicinum, tubicinum 2 / Centuriae capita censorum 1 --- Sum total of the centuriae 198 ]

[Footnote 9: The celebrated seven hills upon which Rome stood were the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Caelian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquilian. The Mons Pincius was not included within the Servian Wall.]

[Footnote 10: The following genealogical table exhibits the relations.h.i.+p of the family:

Demaratus of Corinth.

| ---------------------------------------- | | TARQUINIUS PRISCUS. Aruns.

| | -------------------------------------------- | | | | | | Tarquinia, Tarquinia, L. TARQUINIUS Aruns. Egerius, married married SUPERBUS. commander of Servius Tullius. M. Brutus. | Collatia.

| | | ----------------- ------------------ | | | | | | | M. Brutus, L. Brutus, t.i.tus. s.e.xtus. Aruns. Tarquinius put to the Collatinus, death by Consul. married Tarquinius. Lucretia.

[Footnote 11: The _Lictors_ were public officers who attended upon the Roman magistrate. Each consul had twelve lictors. They carried upon their shoulders _fasces_, which were rods bound in the form of a bundle, and containing an axe in the middle.]

[Footnote 12: There is, however, reason to believe that these brilliant stories conceal one of the earliest and greatest disasters of the city.

It appears that Rome was really conquered by Porsena, and lost all the territory which the kings had gained on the right side of the Tiber.

Hence we find the thirty tribes, established by Servius Tullius, reduced to twenty after the war with Porsena.]

[Footnote 13: The _Dictator_ was an extraordinary magistrate appointed by one of the Consuls in seasons of great peril. He possessed absolute power. Twenty-four lictors attended him, bearing the axes in the fasces, even in the city; and from his decision there was no appeal. He could not hold the office longer than six months, and he usually laid it down much sooner. He appointed a _Magister Equitum_, or Master of the Horse, who acted as his lieutenant. From the time of the appointment of the Dictator, all the other magistrates, even the Consuls, ceased to exercise any power.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Campagna of Rome.]

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, aequians, 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 cla.s.s.

But this was not all. The Patricians formed not only a separate _cla.s.s_, but a separate _caste_, not marrying with the Plebeians, and wors.h.i.+ping the G.o.ds 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 circ.u.mstance still farther aggravated the hards.h.i.+ps of the Plebeians. The state possessed a large quant.i.ty 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 cla.s.s, 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.