A Smaller History of Rome Part 4

Veii, however, was only taken after a long and severe struggle. It was closely allied with Fidenae, 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 Fidenae 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 Fidenae. 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 pa.s.sage 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 a.s.saults 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 circ.u.mstance, which occurred during the siege of Veii, deserves notice. As the Roman soldiers were obliged to pa.s.s 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 a.s.sisted 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 n.o.blest 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 t.i.the 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.

[Footnote 18: The Censors.h.i.+p was regarded as the highest dignity in the state, with the exception of the Dictators.h.i.+p. The duties of the Censors were numerous and important. They not only took the _census_--or the register of the citizens and their property--hut they also chose the members of the Senate, exercised a superintendence over the whole public and private life of the citizens, and, in addition, had the administration of the finances of the state.]

[Footnote 19: This remarkable work, which, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, still continues to serve the purpose for which it was originally designed, is cut through the soft volcanic tufa of which the Alban Hill is composed. The length of the tunnel is about 6000 feet, and it is 4 feet 6 inches wide.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus restored.]

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 emba.s.sadors, 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 emba.s.sadors, 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 pa.s.sed, "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 Caere; 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 ma.s.sacred. 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 a.s.saults 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 grat.i.tude. 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. Ca.s.sius, 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 G.o.ds 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 a.s.sembly. 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. s.e.xtius, 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 princ.i.p.al, 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 s.e.xtius 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 Quaestors could be appointed; and the Tribunes of the Plebs and the aediles, 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. s.e.xtius 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 pa.s.sed, and L. s.e.xtius was elected the first Plebeian Consul for the next year. But the Patricians made one last effort to evade the law. By the Roman const.i.tution, 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. s.e.xtius 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. s.e.xtius; but the judicial duties were taken away from the Consuls, and given to a new magistrate called _Praetor_. Camillus vowed to the G.o.ddess 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 Consuls.h.i.+p, it was evident that their partic.i.p.ation in the other offices of the state could not be much longer delayed. We may therefore antic.i.p.ate 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 Praetors.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed at the Comitia of the Tribes the same force as the Laws pa.s.sed at the Comitia of the Centuries.

II. That all laws pa.s.sed 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, pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Footnote 20: _A Rogatio_ differed from a _Lex_, as a _Bill_ from an _Act_ of Parliament. A Rogatio was a law submitted to the a.s.sembly of the people, and only became a Lex when enacted by them.]

[Footnote 21: A _Jugerum_ was rather more than half an acre.]

[Footnote 22: _Ut plebiscita omnes Quirites tenerent._]

[Footnote 23: See p. 40. (The end of Chapter V.--Transcriber)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ruins at Capua.]

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 G.o.ds could mean, a n.o.ble 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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.sistance 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.