Rome

4032

Rome

 

secession of the plebeians to the Mons Saccr,
where they threatened to establish an in-
dependent city. By the Lex Sacrata they ob-
tained alleviation of their misery, and the
right to appoint annually tribuni plebis, or-
iginally two, finally ten, in number, with
power. The decemviri legibus scribundis drew
up, in 451-450, the Twelve Tables of the
Roman law, thus abolishing a great plebeian
grievance — law, like religion, having been
previously a mystery only to be known by
patricians. The Lex Canuleia (455) legalized
for the first time, marriage between patricians
and plebeians.
The plebeians continued to gain conces-
sions. In 326 nexum, by which defaulting
debtors became at once slaves of their credi-
tors, was abolished. In 304 Cn. Flavius pub-
lished the fasti and formulas of lawsuits; in
300 the lex Ogulnia admitted plebeians to the
colleges of pontiffs and augurs. About 275-
266 the sedileship gave an entree to the sen-
ate. All disabilities were now at an end, ex-
cept that patricians could not be tribunes. In
the intervals of these struggles Rome had
been conquering Italy, and by 266 Roman
authority extended from the Rubicon to
Rhegium.
3. The Republic (265-28 b.c.).—The form-
ation of provinces beyond the sea began with
the Punic Wars. Commercial rivalry was the
cause of these wars. The immediate object of
the first war (264-241) was Sicily. At the end
of the war, Sicily, except the kingdom of Sy-
racuse, was made the first Roman province.
Corsica and Sardinia followed. In the second
Punic War (218-201), Sardinia was retained,
and after ten years of fighting the Carthagin-
ians were driven from Spain. Carthage had
to surrender all ships of war, to evacuate
Spain and all possessions beyond the frontier,
and could offer no resistance to Roman ex-
pansion. The provinces were increased by the
addition of the kingdom of Syracuse to Sicily,
by the formation of two provinces in Spain,
and by a protectorate over Numidia. Politic-
ally the effect of the war was to enhance the
position of the senate, which, in the absence
of the magistrates on service and at times of
trouble, assumed many administrative func-
. tions. Indirectly also it led to an eastward ex-
pansion, Rome becoming supreme in Greece
and Asia Minor after 189,
In 146, after a three years' siege, Carthage
was destroyed, and her territory made into
the province of Africa. The Roman ex-
chequer gained so much from these conquests
that citizens were no longer called upon to

pay the land tax (tributwn), while great
fortunes were made by companies of revenue
collectors (pubticam) and by bankers and
money-lenders. Senators were debarred from
these employments, which were therefore un-
dertaken by equites, who thus formed a
wealthy middle class. The governorships were
also immensely profitable. How these oppor-
tunities were abused is shown by the fact
that the first qttcestio perpetna established
was for trial of malversation by governors in
the provinces (149).
The reverse side of the picture is the dis-
tress among agriculturists in Italy. The price
of corn went down owing to importation
from Sicily, Sardinia, and Egypt. Only large
holdings paid. Small owners were bought out,
free laborers supplanted by slaves, and the
city was crowded with indigent people, thus
forced from the land, while those who stayed
were unable to compete with the great own-
ers, who also held more than the legal amount
of ager publicus, or fed more than the legal
amount of cattle on it. Tiberius Gracchus
proposed to reduce the holdings of this land
to the legal standard, and to settle poor citi-
zens on the surplus (133-131). Both he and
his brother Gaius (123-121) perished by vio-
lence at the hands of the aristocrats. The pro-
posals of Gaius aimed at curtailing the power
of the senate by transferring the judida to
the equites. The poor were to be relieved by
colonies, by distribution of cheap corn, by the
shortening of the time by military service,
and by giving the soldiers their arms and
clothing. The bloodshed accompanying the
fall of the Gracchi began the revolutionary
era. A popular party arose, ready to go all
lengths against the senatorial government and
the monopoly of office by the great families.
The struggle waged, the constitution of the
republic resting in the power of first one and
then another leader, leadership being deter-
mined by the fighting strength of a man's
soldiers.
Finally, in 60, Pompey, Caesar, and Cras-
sus, the millionaire, joined in the informal
coalition known as the 'First Triumvirate.'
Pempey's acta were confirmed; Csesar ob-
tained the consulship for 59, and the prov-
inces of Gaul and niyricum for five years af-
terwards. But Caesar's successes in Gaul al-
armed the senate, and Pompey was gradu-
ally placed by it in a position to counter-
balance him. Crassus perished at Carrhae
(53) and in spite of the renewal of the agree-
ment in 56, whereby Caesar had five more
years in Gaul, Pompey and Csesar gradually