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OUTLINES  OF  ROMAN  HISTORY 


V  ^ 


OUTLINES 


OF 


ROMAN    HISTORY 


BY 

H.  F.  PELHAM,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.S.A. 

PRESIDENT  OP  TRINITY  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 

CAMDEN  PROFESSOR  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY  IN  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD 

FELLOW  OF  THE  BRITISH  ACADEMY 


FOURTH  EDITION  REVISED 
{Eighth   Thousand) 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

'  37  WEST  TWENTY^HIRD  STREET  34  BEDFORD  STREET,  STRAND 

^\%  Imickubocktx  ]pKsK 
1907 


y 


609769 


COrVXIGHT,  X893 
BY 

O.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


tTbe  fmlclkerbpclker  ^cm •  Hew  fiorik 


PREFACE  TO  FOURTH  EDITION. 


In  this  new  edition,  apart  from  minor  corrections 
and  additions,  larger  space  has  been  given  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  Flavian  Emperors  and  of  Trajan.  The 
annexations  of  territory  beyond  the  Rhine  effected 
by  the  former,  and  the  Dacian  and  Parthian  cam- 
paigns of  the  latter,  have  been  more  fully  treated. 

H,  F.  Pelham. 

OzvoBD,  November,  190S. 


ifi 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  a  reprint,  with  many  additions  and 
alterations,  of  the  article  "  Roman  History/'  which 
appeared  in  the  last  edition  of  the  Encyclopcedia 
BritannicUy  and  my  best  thanks  are  due  to  Messrs. 
Black  for  the  ready  courtesy  with  which  they 
acceded  to  my  request  for  its  republication. 

My  aim  has  been  to  give  such  a  sketch  of  the 
general  course  of  Roman  history  as  might  enable 
the  reader  to  follow  the  main  lines  of  movement, 
and  grasp  the  characteristic  features  of  the  different 
periods.  The  lion's  share  of  the  space,  some  three 
fifths  of  the  whole,  has  been  devoted  to  the  period 
which  extends  from  the  tribunate  of  the  elder  Grac- 
chus to  the  fall  of  Nero  (133  B.C.--69  A.D.),  as  being 
the  period  which  it  is  most  necessary  for  a  student 
of  Roman  history  to  understand,  and  the  one  which 
is  most  fully  illustrated  by  the  extant  ancient 
literature.  It  is  also  the  period  which  probably,  on 
these  grounds,  is  most  generally  studied. 

I  have  given  throughout  such  references  to  the 
original  authorities  as  were  necessary  to  indicate 
the  evidence  on  which  the  statements  in  the  text 
are  based.     The  references  to  modern  books  and  dis- 


VI  Preface. 

sertations  may  possibly  be  found  useful,  both  by 
students  who  wish  to  make  a  more  thorough  study 
of  the  subject,  and  by  teachers. 

Of  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  I  owe  to  a  long 
list  of  scholars,  English,  French,  and  German,  the 
footnotes  are  ample  proof.  I  cannot,  however,  deny 
myself  the  pleasure  of  paying  a  special  tribute  of 
homage  to  the  great  master,  in  whose  footsteps  all 
students  of  Roman  history  are  glad  to  tread.  Fifty 
years  have  passed  since  Professor  Mommsen  wrote 
his  monograph  "  de  collegiis  et  sodaliciis  Rotnanorumy' 
and  during  that  time  there  is  no  period  of  Roman 
history  on  which  he  has  not  set  his  mark,  from  the 
days  of  the  kings  to  those  of  Theodoric,  and  no 
department  of  Roman  antiquities  in  the  study  of 
which  some  work  of  his  has  not  made  an  epoch. 

My  friend  Mr.  Warde-Fowler*s  admirable  sketch  of 
Caesar  did  not  appear  until  my  own  chapter  on  the 
dictator  was  in  print.  I  am  glad,  however,  to  find 
that,  on  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  work  which 
Caesar  accomplished,  we  are  in  close  agreement. 

Henry  Pelham. 

Oxford,  January,  1893. 


.   CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

List  of  Authorities  Referred  to     .        .        .       »        •       ix 

BOOK  I. 

The  Beginning  of  Rome  and  the  Monarchy. 

Chapter     I. — The  Traditions 3 

Chapter    II. — The  Origin  of  the  City  and  Commonwealth    .      14 
Chapter  III. — Rome  under  the  Kings 30 

BOOK  II. 

The  Early  Republic,  509-275  b.c 

Chapter     I. — The  Foundation  of  the  Republic  and  the  Strug- 
gle between  the  Orders          ....       45 
Chapter    II, — The  Conquest  of  Italy 68 

BOOK  III. 

Rome  and  the  Mediterranean  States,  265-146  b.c. 

Introduction iii 

Chapter     I. — Rome  and    Carthage — The    Conquest  of  the 

West    .         .        .     **.         .      •  .        .        .114 

Chapter    II. — Rome  and  the  East 140 

Chapter  "^II. — The    Roman    State   and    People    during    the 

Period  of  the  Great  Wars      .       . .         .         .158 

Vll 


• 


viii  Contents. 

BOOK   IV. 

The  Period  of  the  Revolution,  133-49  ^-c. 

Chapter     I —From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla        .        .        .        .201 

Chapter  II. — From  Sulla  to  Csesar 232 

Chapter  III. — The  Empire  during  the  Period  of  Revolution    259 

BOOK  V. 

The  Foundation  of  the  Imperial  System  and  the  Rule  of 
THE  Early  CiCSARS,  49  B.C.-69  ^^d* 

Chapter     I. — The  Dictatorship  of  Julius       ....  .333 

Chapter   II. — The  Provisional  Government  of  the  Triumvirate  357 
Chapter  III. — The  Foundation  of    the  Principate  and    the 

Rule  of  Augustui^          .....  398 

Chapter  IV. — The  Julio-Claudian  Line         .        .        .        .  47^ 

BOOK  VI. 

The  Organisation   of  CiESAR's  Government  and  the  First 
Conflicts  with  the  Barbarians,  69-284  a.d. 

Chapter     I. — The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Caesars  .         .         •     5T3 
Chapter  II. — The  Empire  in  the  Third  Century      ,        .        ,    568 

BOOK  VII. 
The  Barbaric  Invasions,  284-476  a.d. 

Chapter     I. — From  the  Accession  of  Diocletian  to  the  Death 

of  Theodosius 577 

Chapter  II. — From  the  Death  of  Theodosius  to  the  Extinc 

tion  of  the  Western  Empire  •        •        •    5B7 

MAPS. 

Rome  and  Her  Allies  («Vf«  486  B.C.)  ',  .  to  face  page  72 

The  Roman  Empfre  in  134  B*.c.        .  .  .  ••«*•*  156 

The  Roman  Empire  in  49  B.C.          .  .  .  •«•«••  258 

The  Roman  Empire  in  69  A.D.         •  •  •  «•••«•  ^jq 


LIST  OF  THE    PRINCIPAL   MODERN  AU- 

THORITIES  REFERRED  TO  IN 

THE   NOTES. 

h.— GENERAL. 


Fischer,  E.  W.,  Romische  Znttafeln,     Altona,  1846. 

Herzog,  £.,  Geschichte  und  System  der  RSmischen  Staaisvgrfassung, 

Leipzig,  1884- 1891. 
Kuhn,  £.,  DU  stddtische  und  bUrgerHche  Verfassung  eUs  Romischen 

Retches,     Leipzig,  1864. 
Madvig,   J.   N.,  Die    Verfassung  und  Verwaltung  des  Rdmiscken 

Staates,     Leipzig,  1881. 
Marquardt,  J.,  Rdniische  Staatsverwaltung,     Leipzig,  1873. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Rdmische  Geschichte  {s^  Aufl.).     Berlin,  1868-1885. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Romisches  Staatsrecht,     Berlin,  1875. 
Niebuhr,  B.  G.,  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Rome  (Eng.  TransL). 

London,  1849. 
Pais,  E.,  Storia  di  Roma,     Turin,  1898. 
Ranke,  L.  von,  Weltgeschichte,     Leipzig,  188 1. 
Smith,  Dr.  W.,  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities  (Third 

Edition).     London,  1891. 

n. 

Bruns,  C.  G.,  Fontes  Juris  Romani  (Sixth  Edition).     Leipzig,  1893. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum.    Berlin. 

Dessau,  Inscriptiones  Latince  Selectee,     Berlin,  1902. 

Eckhel,  J.,  Doctrina  Numorum  Veterum,     Vindobona,  1792. 

Ephemeris  Epigraphica,    Berlin,  1872-1905. 

Prosopographia  Imperii  Romani,     Berlin,  1898. 

Wilmanns,  G.,  Exempla  Inscriptionum  Latinarum.     Berlin,  1873, 

Zumpt,  A.  W.,  Commentationes  Epigraphicce,     Berlin,  1850., 

ix 


X       List  of  Principal  Modern  Authorities. 

m. 

» 

Desjftrdins,  £.,  La  Gaule  Romairu,     Paris,  1876. 
Herzog,  £.,  Gallia  Narbonensis,     Leipzig,  1864. 
Jordan,  H.,  Topographie  der  Stadt  Rom,     Berlin,  1878. 
Jung,  J.,  Die  Romanischen  Landschaften,     Innsbruck,  1881. 
Kubitschek,    J.    W.,    Imperium    Romanum    iributim    descriptum, 

Vienna,   1889. 
Middleton,  J.  H.,  Ancient  Rome,     Edinburgh,  1888. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Romische  Tribus,     Altona,  1844. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Romische  Chronologie.     Berlin,  1859. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Rdmische  Forschungen,     Berlin,  1864. 
Ramsay,  W.  M.,  Geography  of  Asia  Minor.     London,  1890. 
Rein,  W.,  Criminal  Recht  der  Rdmer,     Leipzig,  1844. 
Teuffel,  W.,  Geschichte  der  Romischen  Litteratur,     Leipzig,  1870. 

B. — SPECIAL — The  Monarchy  and  the  Republic. 

I. 

Ihne,  W.,  Rdmische  Geschichte,     Leipzig,  1 868-1 8go. 

Ihne,  W.,  Early  Rome,     London,  1876. 

Lange,  L.,  Rdmische  AlterthUmer,     Berlin,  1863. 

Niebuhr,  B.  G.,  History  of  Rome  {Eng,  Transl.).     London,  1855. 

Schwegler-Clason,  Rdmische  Geschichte,     Tubingen,  1867. 

II. 

Beesly,  E..  Catiline,  Clodius,  and  Tiberius.     London,  1878. 

Beesly,  A.  H.,  The  Grcuchi^  Marius^  and  Sulla,     London. 

Beloch,  J.,  Campanien,     Berlin,  1879. 

Beloch,  J.,  Der  Italische  Bund.     Leipzig,  1880. 

Bureau  de  la  Malle,  Economie  Politique  des  Romains.     Paris,  1840. 

Gilbert,  O.,  Geschichte  u.  Topographic  der  Stadt  Rom.     Leipzig,  1883 

Greenidge,   A,  H.,  The  Legal  Procedure  of  Cicerd s  Time,     Oxford 

1901. 
Greenidge,  A.  H.,    A  History  of  Rome  from  133  B.C.  to  70  a.d. 

Vol.  I.     Methuen,  1904. 
Guiraud,  P.,  Le  diff/rend  entre  Cisar  et  le  S/nat,     Paris,  1878. 
Helbig,  W.,  Die  Italiker  in  der  Poebene,     Leipzig,  1879. 


List  of  Principal  Modern  A  uthorities.       xf 

John,  C,  Ensiehung  der  CoHlinarischen   VerschwSrung,     Leipzig, 

1876. 
Kiene,  A.,  Romische  Bundesgenossenkrieg,     Leipzig,  1845. 
Klausen,  R.  H.,  jEneas  und  die  Penaten.     Hamburg,  1839. 
Mommsen,  Th. ,  Die  Rechtsfrage  zwiscken  Casar  und  Senat,    Breslau, 

1858. 
Maller-Deecke,  Die  Etrusker,     Stuttgart,  1877. 
Nissen,  H.,  Das  Tetnplum,     Berlin,  1869. 
Nissan,  H,,  lialische  Landeskunde,     Berlin,  1882— iQOa. 
Nitzsch,  K.  W.,  Die  Gracchen,     Berlin,  1847. 
Reinach,  Th.,  Mithridates  Eupator,     Paris,  1891. 
Saalfeld,  G.  A.,  Hellenismus  in  Latium,     Wolfenbattel,  1883. 
Soltau,  W.,  Ensiehung  d.  altromischen  Volksversammlungen,     Berlin, 

1881. 
Stoffel,  Col.,  ffisioire  de  Jules  Cisar— Guerre  civile,     Paris,  1887. 
Stoffel,  Col.,  Guerre  de  C/sar  et  d* Arundsie,     Paris,  1890. 
Willems,  P.,  Le  S/natde  la  R^ublique  Ramaine.     Paris,  1878. 
ZoUer,  M.,  LaHum  und  Rom,     Leipzig,  1878. 
Zumpt,  A.  W.,  Studia  Romana,     Berlin,  1859. 

The  Empire. 
I. 

Bury,  J.  "^.^  History  of  the  Later  Roman  Empire,     London,  1889. 
Gibbon,  £.,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  (ed.  Milman). 

London,  1862. 
Hodgkin,  T.,  Italy  and  her  Invaders,     Oxford,  1880-1885. 
Merivale,  C,  The  Romans  under  the  Empire,     London,  1865. 
Schiller,  H.,  Geschichte  der  R&mischen  Kaiserzeit,     Gotha,  1883. 
Tillemont,  L.  de,  Histoire  des  Empereurs,    Venise,  1732. 

IL 

Cohen,  H.,  MidaiUes  ImpMales,   Paris,  1880-1890. 
Henzen,  W.,  Acta  Fratrum  Arvalium,     Berlin,  1874. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Res  Gestce  dim  Augusti,     Berlin,  1883. 
Mommsen,  Th.,  Leges  ScUpensance  McUaciiana,     Leipzig,  1857. 
Seeck,  O.,  Notitia  Dignitatum,     Berlin,  1876. 


xii    List  of  Principal  Modern  Authorities. 

■  ■  ■ 

HI. 

Boissier,  G.,  La  ReHgion  Romaine,     Paris,  1874. 

Boissier,  G.,  VOpposiium  sous  Us  Cisars,     Paris,  1875. 

Cagnat,  R.,  VArm^e  Romaine  tTAfrique,     Ftois,  1892. 

Dill,  S.,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  Marcus  AureUus.    Macmillan, 

1904- 
Darr,  J. ,  Die  Reiseu  des  Kaisers  Hadrian.    Wien,  1881. 
Fnincke,  H.,  Trajan,    Leipzig,  1840. 
Freytag,  L.,  Tiberius  und  Tacitus,     Berlin,  1870. 
Friedlfinder,  L. ,  Darsttlhmgen  aus  der  Sitiengesckickte  Roms,     Leip- 

ng.  1871. 
Gardner,  P.,  TJke  Parthian  Coinagt,    London,  1877. 
Gardthausen,  V.,  Augustus  und seine  Zeit,     Leipzig,  i8gi. 
Gregorovius,  F.,  The  Ewtperor  Hadrian.    (Eng.  Txansl.)    Macmil- 

Ian,  1898. 
Henderson,  B.  W.,  Life  and  Principaie  of  the  Eu^eror   Nero. 

Methnen,  1903. 
Hirschfeld,  O.,  Untersuchungen  aus  dem  Gebiete  der  RSmischen  Ver- 

waUungsgeschichte.    Berlin,  1905. 
HUbner,  £.,  RSmische  Herrschaft  in  West  Europa.     Berlin,  1890. 
Lanciani,  R.,  /  Comentarii  di  Frontino.    Roma,  1880. 
LAnciani,  R.,  Ancient  Rome.    London,  1888. 
Lehmann,  H.,  Claudius  u.  Nero.    Gotha,  1858. 
Liebenam,  W.,  Die  Laufhahn  der  Procuratoren.    Jena,  1886. 
Lid>enam,  W.,  Die  Legaten  in  den  RSmischen  Protdwien,    Leipzig, 

1888. 
Liebenam,    W.,  Zmr  Gtschichte  und  Organisation  des  RSmischen 

Vtreinswesen.     Leipzig,  1S90. 
Petersen,  £,,  Trajan* s  Dahische  A'riege.    Leipzig,  1899-1903. 
Pfitzner,  W.,  Gesehichte  der  Kaiser iegionen,    Leipzig,  i88z. 
Prenss,  Th„  Kaiser  Diocletian.    Leipzig,  1869. 
Ramsay,  W.  M„  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Ea^re.     Lond.  1893. 
Ramsay,  W.  M,,  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia.    Oxford,  1897. 
Richter,  H.,  Das  West  Rdmische  Reich.    Berlin,  1865. 
Schurz,  W.,  De  muitUiomhur  in  imtperio  Romano  ordinando  ah  impe^ 

ratore  Hadriano  factis.    Bonn,  18S3. 
Seeck,  Otto,  Geschichte  d.    Untergang  d.  Antihen    Weit.     Berlin, 

1897-1902. 
Shuckboigh,  £,  S.,  Augustus.    Fisher  Unwin,  1903. 


BOOK  I. 

THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    ROME   AND 

THE   MONARCHY. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  ROME  AND  THE 

MONARCHY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  TRADITIONS. 

The  story  of  the  beginnings  of  Rome  and  of  the 
rule  of  the  kings  is  told  by  Livy  in  the  first  book  of 
his  Histories^  and  by  his  contemporary,  the  Greek 
Dionysius  of  Halicamassus,  in  the  first  four  books 
of  his  Roman  Antiquities.  Both  have  essentially  the 
same  tale  to  tell,  and  we  may  assume  that  they  give 
us  what  was  in  their  time — that  is,  towards  the  close 
of  the  first  century  B.C. — the  generally  accepted 
tradition  as  to  the  early  history  of  Rome.  This 
tradition  carried  the  narrative  back  far  beyond  the 
point  at  which  Romulus  built  his  city  on  the  Pala- 
tine Mount.  In  remote  times,  so  ran  the  story,  the 
Sikels,  from  whom  the  island  of  Sicily  afterwards 
took  its  name,  dwelt  on  the  hills  by  the  Tiber.  The 
Sikels  were  driven  out  by  the  Aborigines,  who  de- 
scended from  their  mountain  homes  in  the  Apen- 
nines, and    made    themselves    masters   of    all  the 

3 


4  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

lowland  from  the  Tiber  to  the  Liris.  With  this 
highland  folk  were  united,  as  time  went  on,  visitors 
from  Greece,  Pelasgi  from  Thessaly,  Evander  with 
his  followers  from  Arcadia,  and  the  comrades  of  the 
restless  hero,  Heracles.  Later  still,  in  the  reign  of 
King  Latinus,  from  whom  his  people  took  the  name 
"  Latini,"  the  fates  brought  to  the  shores  of  Italy 
and  the  fields  of  Lavinium  the  great  ^Eneas  himself, 
with  his  Trojan  band.  The  visitors  were  made  wel- 
come, and  on  the  death  of  Latinus,  ^Eneas  ruled  in 
his  stead  over  the  united  people,  Trojans  and  Latins. 
From  iEneas  the  sceptre  passed  to  his  son  Ascanius, 
the  founder  of  Alba,  and  of  the  long  dynasty  of  the 
Alban  kings.  In  the  reign  of  the  last  of  these  kings, 
Numitor,  the  twins  Romulus  and  Remus  were  bom 
of  an  earthly  mother,  the  Vestal  Rhea  Silvia,  daugh- 
ter of  King  Numitor,  and  of  a  divine  father,  the  god 
Mar^.  Then  followed  the  familiar  tale  of  the  ex- 
posure of  the  children,  and  of  their  miraculous 
deliverance,  of  their  life  among  the  herdsmen,  of 
their  recognition  as  the  grandsons  of  Numitor,  and 
of  the  foundation  of  Rome  on  the  Palatine.  From 
this  point  onwards  the  tradition  described  how,  un- 
der  Romulus  and  his  successors,  the  historical  city 
and  state  of  Rome  took  shape.  The  gradual  expan- 
sion of  the  city  bounds,  until  all  the  seven  hills  were 
included  within  one  great  ring-wall,  the  develop- 
ment of  a  constitution,  and  the  steady  advance  of 
Roman  supremacy  over  the  lowlands  of  Latium 
were  all  duly  narrated,  until,  with  the  expulsion  of 
the  second  Tarquin,  this  first  chapter  of  Roman  his- 
tory reached  its  close. 


Ch.  1]  The  Traditions.    .  5 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  was  the  accepted  tradition 
of  the  beginnings  of  Rome  in  the  time  of  Augustus. 
What  is  its  value  as  an  historical  narrative  ?  In  the 
first  place  it  clearly  cannot  claim  the  authority  of  a 
contemporary  written  account,  for  the  earliest  refer- 
ences in  literature  to  the  history  of  Rome  are  found 
in  Greek  writers  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,*  and  no 
higher  antiquity  can  be  assigned  even  to  the  few 
native  Roman  records,  which  may  have  been  older 
than  the  burning  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls."  More- 
over, if  the  beginnings  of  this  written  tradition  can^ 
not  be  carried  back  farther  than  the  fifth  century 
B.C.,  it  is  equally  certain  that  it  was  not  until  long 
after  the  fifth  century  that  it  assumed  the  shape  in 
which  we  now  have  it.  It  was  only  gradually  that 
out  of  a  number  of  conflicting  versions  one  finally 
fought  its  way  to  general  acceptance,  that  the  un- 
dated fragments  of  tradition  were  fitted  together, 
the  gaps  filled  up,  and  the  chronology  settled.  It 
seems  probable,  indeed,  that  something  like  an 
authorised  version  was  already  established  by  the 
time  of  the  Punic  wars,  and  that  the  main  incidents 
and  the  order  of  events  were  given  in  much  the 

'  According  to  Dionysius,  i.,  72,  the  landing  of  ^neas  in  Italy 
and  the  foundation  of  Rome  were  mentioned  by  the  compiler  of  the 
chronicle  of  the  priestesses  of  Here  at  Argos.  The  compiler  is  gen- 
erally assumed  to  have  been  Hellanicus.  See  Mailer,  Fragm,  HisU 
Gr,^  i.,  27 ;  Schwegler,  R,  Gesch,,  i.,  3. 

'  Dionysius  mentions  two  inscriptions,  extant  in  his  day,  which 
were  believed  to  date  from  the  latter  part  of  the  regal  period,  that, 
namely,  which  recorded  the  foundation  in  the  reign  of  Servius 
Tullius,  of  the  temple  of  Diana  on  the  Aventine,  and  that  which 
preserved  the  terms  of  the  treaty  made  with  Gabii  by  the  second 
Tarquin. 


6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

same  way  by  the  oldest  Roman  chronicler,  Q. 
Fabius  Pictor/  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  and  by 
Livy  in  the  first.  What  changes  and  additions 
were  made  in  the  interval  cannot  be  accurately  de- 
termined, though  we  know  that  it  was  by  the  elder 
Cato  and  by  Varro  that  the  chronology  was  finally 
settled,'  and  though  we  may  suspect  that  it  is  to  the 
labours  of  the  lawyers  and  antiquarians  of  the  first 
century  B.C.  that  we  owe  much  of  what  Livy  and 
Dionysius  tell  us  of  the  constitutional  and  religious 
institutions  of  primitive  Rome. 

It  must  be  remembered,  then,  in  reading  Livy  or 
Dionysius  that  we  are  dealing  not  with  a  simple 
tradition  handed  down  whole  and  intact  from  the 
period  of  which  it  tells,  but  with  a  highly  composite 
production  gradually  wrought  into  shape  by  a  long 
series  of  writers,  Greek  and  Roman,  no  part  of 
which  existed  in  a  written  form  at  all  until  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  or  some  three  cen- 
turies after  the  supposed  date  of  the  foundation  of 
the  city.  And  when  to  this  is  added  the  considera- 
tion that  these  writers  were  not  assisted  in  the 
arrangement  of  their  matter  by  any  scientific  system 
of  chronology,  or  any  exact  canons  of  historical  criti- 
cism, it  becomes  sufficiently  clear  that  the  narrative 
which  their  combined  efforts  have  produced  is  many 
degrees  removed  from  authentic  history. 

'  The  version  given  by  Fabius  was  apparently  given  in  much  the 
same  form  by  the  chronicler  L.  Cincius  Alimentus,  and  by  the  poets 
Nsevius  and  Ennius,  all  of  whom  were  contemporary  with  the  second 
Punic  war. — Peter,  Hist,   Rom,   Reliquice ;  Schw^ler,  R*  6v.,  L. 

78. 399. 
•  Mommsen,  RSm,  Chrotwlogie^  134,  59^ 


Ch.  n  The  Traditiofis.  7 

It  is,  indeed,  a  patchwork  in  which  materials  of 
the  most  diverse  kinds  have  been  ingeniously 
stitched  together.  In  very  many  parts  the  handi- 
work of  Greek  writers  is  plainly  traceable.  From 
the  time  when  Rome  came  into  direct  contact  first 
with  the  Greeks  of  South  Italy  and  then  with  those 
of  Sicily,  the  history  of  the  rising  Italian  republic 
increasingly  attracted  the  attention  of  Greek  schol- 
ars,' who  made  it  their  business  to  provide  the  new 
community,  which  had  become  a  power  in  the  civil- 
ised world  of  the  Mediterranean,  with  a  suitable 
pedigree.  In  thus  endeavouring  to  find  ancestors 
for  the  Romans  among  their  own  people,  they 
seized  eagerly  on  an3^hing  in  the  nature,  traditions, 
usages,  and  monuments  which  could  serve  to  show, 
as  Dionysius  puts  it,  that  the  Romans  were  '^  an 
ancient  people  and  a  Greek  one."'  In  the  Ab- 
origines they  recognised  their  own  Pelasgi,  and 
pointed  in  proof  of  the  theory  to  the  rude  stone 
walls  long  known  in  Greece  as  Pelasgic.*  The  name 
of  the  Palatine  Mount  was  derived  from  Pallantium 
in  Arcadia,  and  the  god  Faunus  became  the  Greek 
Evander,  who  brought  to  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  the 
arts  of  civilised  life.  The  altar  and  worship  of  the 
Italian  Hercules  in  the  low  ground  near  the  river 
were  made  to  prove  that  Rome  had  not  been  un- 
visited  by  the  Greek  Heracles.     Odysseus  and  Circe 

'  For  some  account  of  these  see  Schwegler,  R.  Cr.,  i.,  35-99.  The 
most  hnportant  of  them  was  the  Sidlian  Timacus  of  Taurromenium 

(350-256  B.C.). 
'  Dionysius,  ii.,  3a 
*  Dionysius,  i.,  X4« 


8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

had  already  been  brought  as  far  on  their  travels 
as  the  bold  headland  which  marks  the  southern 
limit  of  the  Latin  plain,*  and  from  thence  to  the 
Tiber  was  a  short  and  easy  stage.  But  among  all 
the  roving  heroes  of  Greek  tradition  none  were  more 
famous  as  founders  of  cities  than  those  whom  the 
fall  of  Troy  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  of  these  the  most  famous  wzis  the 
Trojan  ^Eneas,  the  son  of  Anchises  and  Aphrodite. 
At  the  time  when  Greeks  began  to  interest  them- 
selves in  Rome,  his  name  and  his  reputation  were 
widely  spread.  The  course  of  his  wanderings  was 
traced  by  the  cities  he  had  founded,  or  by  the  tem- 
ples raised  in  his  honour,  and  in  that  of  his  goddess 
mother,  while  in  more  than  one  place  a  grave  of 
iEneas  was  pointed  out  to  the  traveller.'  When  or 
by  whom  Rome  was  added  to  the  list  of  the  cities 
which  honoured  him  as  their  founder  we  cannot  say ; 
we  only  know  that  the  tradition  existed  at  least 
cis  early  as  400  B.C.,  and  that  by  the  time  of  the  first 
Punic  war  it  had  been  officially  accepted  by  the 
Roman  state."  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  be- 
tween the  earliest  form  in  which  it  appears  and  that 
in  which  it  finally  obtained  currency  there  is  a  con- 
siderable difference.     In  the  story  as  originally  told 

/    *  The  headland  called  "  Circeii." 

*  Dionysius,  i.,  48-54,  for  a  detailed  criticism  of  the  story  of 
iEneas.  See  Schwegler,  R,  G.,  i.,  279,  399;  Klausen,  yEneas  v, 
D.  Penaten, 

*  The  ancestral  connection  of  Rome  with  Troy  was  given  by  the 
senate  as  a  reason  for  assisting  the  Arcananians,  who  alone  of  all 
Greeks  had  taken  no  part  in  the  Trojan  war.  Justinus,  xxviii.,  i 
(241  B.C.). 


Ch.  1]  The  Traditions.  9 

the  connection  between  Rome  and  iEneas  Wcis  close 
and  direct,  the  foundation  of  the  city  being  ascribed 
either  to  ^Eneas  himself  or  to  one  of  his  sons.* 
But  in  the  version  given  by  Q.  Fabius  Pictor,  and 
probably  in  that  of  the  Sicilian  Greek,  Timacus 
{circa  300  B.C.),  this  direct  connection  has  disap- 
peared. iEneas  founds  Lavinium,  his  son  Ascanius 
founds  Alba,  and  between  the  foundation  of  Alba 
and  that  of  Rome  by  Romulus  and  Remus  an 
interval  of  some  four  hundred  years  is  interposed. 
The  cause  of  the  difference  is  clear.  It  lay  in  the 
twofold  necessity  of  reconciling  the  Greek  story  with 
native  tradition,  and  the  accepted  date  of  the  fall  of 
Troy  as  fixed  by  Greek  chronologers,  with  the  date 
assigned  by  Roman  reckoning  to  the  foundation  of 
the  city.  It  was  impossible  to  set  aside  the  estab- 
lished belief  in  the  ancient  ties  which  connected 
Rome  both  with  Lavinium  and  with  Alba,  and 
between  the  year  of  the  burning  of  Troy  and  the 
year  of  the  building  of  Rome  there  was  an  interval 
of  more  than  four  centuries,  a  gap  which  was  rudely 
bridged  over  in  the  uncritical  fashion  of  the  time 
by  the  interpolation  of  a  fictitious  dynasty  of  Alban 
kings. 

In  the  rest  of  the  story,  from  the  foundation  of 
Rome  to  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  the  influence 
of  Greek  imagination  is  less  strongly  marked,  since 
from  this  point  onwards  the  comparative  richness 
and  precision  of  the  native  traditions  left  less  scope 
for  Greek  ingenuity  of  combination  and  fertility  of 
invention.     Yet  even  in  the  account  of  the  rule  oi 

'  Dionysius,  i.,  72,  73. 


lo  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

the  kings  the  hand  of  the  Greek  improver  can  be 
occasionally  traced.  To  Greek  influence  we  may 
ascribe  the  shape  given  to  the  stories  of  the  "  asylum.'* 
and  of  the  deification  of  Romulus,  and  it  must  have 
been  Greeks  who  suggested  that  King  Numa  had 
been  a  pupil  of  Pythagorzis,  or  that  the  Tarquins 
came  originally  from  Corinth. 

But,  though,  £is  the  tale  proceeds,  the  amount  of  na- 
tive tradition  which  it  contains  increases,  this  native 
tradition  is  in  itself  a  curious  medley,  in  which  frag- 
ments of  genuine  tradition  are  found  side  by  side  with 
the  stories  by  which  the  people  explained  to  them- 
selves the  origin  of  their  ancient  monuments,  or  their 
ancient  institutions  and  usages,  and  with  the  crude, 
uncritical  guesses  of  early  chroniclers  and  antiqua- 
rians. To  disentangle  these  various  elements  is  a 
difficult  matter,  nor  can  the  attempt  be  made  here. 
But  a  few  instances  may  be  given  to  illustrate  the 
method  of  doing  it,  and  the  kind  of  results  which 
can  be  obtained.  When  we  have  set  aside  all  that 
is  clearly  of  foreign  importation  or  of  late  date,  the 
inventions  and  additions  of  Greek  writers,  or  the 
chronological  apparatus  of  Cato  and  Varro,  we  are 
face  to  face  with  a  collection  of  tales,  handed  down 
from  mouth  to  mouth  among  the  people  themselves. 
In  such  tales  experience  hcis  taught  us  that  it  is  not 
so  much  the  contents  of  the  tale,  the  names  and 
personality  of  the  actors,  or  the  incidents  related, 
cis  the  motives  which  suggested  it,  the  peg  on  which 
it  was  hung,  that  are  historically  valuable.  Thus 
the  story  which  connects  Rome  with  Lavinium  and 
with  Alba  implies  an  ancient  belief  among  the  Ro- 


Ch.  1]  The  Traditions.  ii 

mans  in  their  kinship  with  their  Latin  neighbours, 
and  that  they,  with  ail  Latins,  recogfnised  a  common 
centre  in  the  sacred  mount  which  dominated  the 
Latin  plain.  Similarly,  behind  the  tales  told  of  the 
growth  of  Rome  lies  the  belief  that  Rome  had  not 
been  "  built  in  a  day,"  but  had  been  slowly  formed 
by  the  fusion  of  separate  settlements  into  a  single 
city  and  state ;  and  though  the  names  of  the  kings, 
the  years  of  their  reigns,  and  the  acts  that  they  did 
give  us  little  that  is  of  value,  existence  of  an  under- 
lying belief  that,  as  Tacitus  puts  it, "  in  the  beginning 
kings  ruled  in  Rome,"  *  is  a  fact  of  importance.  These 
ancient  beliefs  raise  a  presumption  which  we  have, 
then,  to  confirm  or  reject  by  the  test  of  positive 
evidence ;  the  evidence  of  language,  of  monuments, 
or  of  fossil  institutions  and  usages  which  are  found 
surviving  in  later  and  better-known  times. 

In  other  instances  the  motif  of  the  story  is  of  a 
different  kind,  and  historically  less  valuable.  In 
some  cases  the  starting-point  can  be  discovered 
in  an  ancient  usage  or  ceremony,  the  origin  of  which 
the  story  explains ;  in  others  the  tale  is  attached  to 
an  ancient  monument  or  a  remarkable  natural  ob- 
ject ;  in  others  again  it  has  no  better  basis  than  an 
apparent  similarity  in  names,  or  a  rude  etymological 
guess  at  their  meaning.  Explanatory  myths  of  this 
kind  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  early  tradition 
of  Rome.  As  instances  we  may  qtiote  the  rape  of 
the  Sabine  women,  the  building  of  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Stator,  the  story  of  Tarpeia,  and  of  the 
priestly  families  of  the  Potitii  and  Pinarii.     In  these 

'  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  i. 


1 2  Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  I 

cases  the  myth  Is  chiefly  valuable  in  so  far  as  its 
own  antiquity  as  a  tale  proves  the  antiquity  of  the 
usage,  institution,  or  monument  to  which  it  owes  its 
existence.  And  here  the  modern  critic  has  to  avoid 
an  error  into  which  his  ancient  predecessors  not 
unfrequently  fell.  Dionysius,  for  instance,  points,  in 
corroboration  of  the  story  that  i£neas  founded 
Lavinium,  or  that  Romulus  and  Remus  were  suckled 
by  a  she-wolf,  to  monuments  still  extant  in  his  day 
at  Lavinium  and  in  Rome.  But  these  monuments, 
like  the  hut  of  Romulus  on  the  Palatine,  are  the 
offspring  and  not  the  parents  of  the  myth,  and  were 
erected  to  commemorate  traditions  already  well  es- 
tablished. They  do  not  corroborate  the  story,  but 
indicate  that  at  the  date  of  their  erection  the  story 
was  generally  believed.  Lastly  the  colouring  and 
setting  of  these  tales  are  often  instructive.  It  is  sig- 
nificant, for  instance,  that  it  is  the  Etruscan  who 
figures  as  the  dreaded  enemy  alike  of  Rome  and  of 
her  Latin  kinsmen,  and  that  it  is  the  Sabine  high- 
landers,  whose  forays  are  repelled,  and  whose  women 
are  carried  off. 

Such,  then,  in  brief,  is  the  nature  of  the  narrative 
which  lies  before  us  in  the  pages  of  Livy  and  Diony- 
sius as  the  version  of  the  earliest  history  of  Rome 
current  in  the  Augustan  age,  and  current  also,  in 
much  the  same  shape,  when  Fabius  Pictor  wrote  his 
chronicles  in  the  third  century  B.C.  As  a  written 
tradition  no  part  of  it  can  be  traced  farther  back 
than  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  and  it  has, 
therefore,  no  claim  to  the  authority  of  a  contem- 
porary record.     In  it  materials  of  very  various  sorts 


Ch.  1]  The  Traditions.  13 

and  kinds,  and  brought  from  very  different  quarters, 
are  found  side  by  side.  Intermingled  with  fragments 
of  genuinely  old  and  native  tradition  we  find  pieces 
of  world-wide  folk-lore,  such  as  the  tale  of  the  chil- 
dren cruelly  exposed  and  miraculously  saved,  stories, 
some  drawn  from  the  inexhaustible  stores  of  Greek 
legend,  or  invented  by  the  scarcely  less  inexhaustible 
imagination  of  Greek  chroniclers,  others  representing 
the  naive  attempts  of  the  soberer  Roman  mind  to 
find  an  origin  for  the  most  ancient  of  their  usages, 
institutions,  and  monuments.  All  these  various 
materials  were  gradually  combined  and  arranged  by 
the  efforts  of  successive  generations ;  but  the  orderly 
and  consecutive  narrative,  with  its  apparatus  of 
names  and  dates,  which  was  thus  produced,  had 
even  less  claim  to  be  considered  history  than  the 
mass  of  disconnected  tales  of  which  it  was  composed. 
It  follows,  then,  that  neither  the  narrative  as  a 
whole,  nor  the  separate  incidents  can  be  regarded 
as  historical.  On  the  other  hand,  both  the  ancient 
and  genuinely  Roman  beliefs  which  underlie  the 
story,  and  the  colouring  and  setting  of  the  tale,  fre- 
quently afford  a  clue  to  the  truth,  which  a  study  of 
the  independent  evidence  supplied  by  the  undoubted 
relics  of  antiquity  to  be  found  in  the  language,  the 
institutions,  the  monuments  of  later  Rome,  enables 
us  to  follow  out  with  success. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ORIGIN    OF   THE    CITY  AND  COMMONWEALTH. 

There  is  fortunately  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the 
site  of  Rome,  or  as  to  the  district  which  was  the 
scene  of  her  early  history.  Along  the  western  coast 
of  Italy  from  Civita  Vecchia  in  the  north,  to  Tarra^ 
cina  in  the  south,  stretches  the  famous  lowland 
known  for  centuries  as  the  Campagna.  It  is  bounded 
to  the  north  by  the  more  hilly  country  of  Northern 
Etruria,  on  the  east  by  the  mountain  range  of  the 
Apennines,  on  the  south  by  the  Volscian  highlands. 
This  strip  of  lowland,  nearly  one  hundred  miles  long, 
and  nowhere  much  more  than  thirty  miles  wide,  is 
in  not  an  unbroken  level.  Its  undulating  surface  is 
furrowed  by  watercourses,  rent  by  volcanic  fissures, 
and  dotted  over  with  abruptly  rising  hillocks. 
Viewed  from  the  top  of  Soracte  at  its  north-eastern 
extremity,  or  from  the  more  famous  Alban  Mount, 
which  rises  out  of  the  plain  to  the  southward,  its 
appearance  has  been  compared  to  that  of  a  stormy 
sea  suddenly  petrified.  Of  the  streams  which  flow 
through  it,  two  only,  the  Tiber  and  its  tributary  the 

14 


City  and  Commonwealth.  1 5 

"  headlong  Anio/*  have  ever  been  important  enough 
to  deserve  the  name  of  rivers. 

It  IS  with  the  river  Tiber,  the  waterway  which 
connects  the  Umbrian  and  Sabine  highlands  with 
the  sea,  and  with  this  lowland  country  that  the 
beginnings  of  Rome  are  inseparably  associated.  It 
was  on  the  low  hills  which  rise  from  the  left  bank  of 
the  Tiber,  some  fifteen  miles  above  its  mouth,  that 
Rome  was  built,  and  it  was  possibly  from  the  river 
that  it  took  its  name.'  It  was  among  the  communi- 
ties of  the  lowland  that  Rome  found  her  natural 
allies  against  the  Etruscan  to  the  north,  or  against 
the  highland  tribes  to  the  east  and  south.  The 
establishment  of  her  ascendancy  over  the  lowland 
marks  the  first  stage  in  the  growth  of  her  empire, 
and  centuries  later  when  barbarians  ruled  to  the 
north  and  east  and  south,  this  lowland  remained 
Roman,  and  was  ruled  from  Rome  by  Roman 
bishops. 

It  has  been  already  said  that  the  traditional 
account  of  the  beginnings  of  Rome  implies  a  fixed 
belief  that  both  the  city  of  Rome  and  the  Roman 
commonwealth  were  gradually  formed  by  the  union 
of  separate  communities.  Romulus  built  his  city 
the  "  square  Rome  '* "  on  the  Palatine  Mount.  With 
the  Palatine  were  united  before  the  end  of  his  reign 
the  Capitoline  and  the  Quirinal.  Tullus  Hostilius 
added  the  Coelian,  Ancus  Martius  the  Aventine, 
while  Servius  TuUius  included  the  Esquiline  and 

'  Serv,  ad  jEn,^  viii.,  63,  states  that  the  Tiber  was  anciently  called 
"Rumon";  for  the  connection  between  "Rumon"  and  "Roma,** 
see  Corssen,  Vokalismus  v,  Betonung  d.  Lat.  Sprache^ ).,  279,  364. 

•  '*  Roma  quadrata,"  Ennius  ap,  Testum,^  258. 


1 6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  i 

Viminal,  and  enclosed  the  whole  area  with  a  ring- 
wall.  The  growth  of  the  people  followed  the  same 
lines.  To  the  followers  of  Romulus  on  the  Palatine 
were  added  successively  the  Sabine  settlers  on  the 
Quirinal,  Albans  transplanted  by  TuUus,  Latins  by 
Ancus,  and  lastly  the  Etruscan  comrades  of  Cceles 
Vibenna. 

The  first  point  in  this  tradition,  the  fusion  of  a 
cluster  of  separate  settlements  into  a  single  city,  has 
a  considerable  amount  of  independent  evidence  in 
its  favour. 

In  the  time  of  Tacitus  the  boundaries  of  the 
"ancient  Palatine  town,"  as  Varro  calls  it,*  could 
still  be  traced,"  and  the  memory  of  them  was  pre- 
served by  the  annual  race  of  the  Luperci  on  Febru- 
ary 15th.  Of  the  wall  which  once  fenced  round  this 
"city  of  Romulus,"  enough  remains  even  now  to 
show  its  direction  and  the  method  of  its  construc- 
tion. It  enclosed  the  whole  crest  of  the  Palatine, 
and  belongs  to  an  earlier  period  than  that  at  which 
the  Servian  wall  was  built.  On  the  Esquiline — 
Varro  mentions  an  "  ancient  city "  and  an  earthen 
rampart  * ;  on  the  Capitol,  on  the  Quirinal,  and  on 
the  Coelian  remains  have  been  discovered,  indicating 
that  each  of  these  hills  was  also  at  one  time  the  seat 
of  a  separate  settlement,  surrounded  by  its  own  rude 


*  Varro,  Z.  Z.,  vi.,  34. 

'  Tac,  Ann,^  xii.,  24.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  exact  limits  of 
the  Palatine  city,  see  Smith,  DicU  Geog,^  s.  v.  "Roma";  Jordan, 
Topog,  d,  Siadt  Rom,  i.,  cap.  2  ;  Gilbert,  Topog.  u,  GescA.  d.  Stadt 
Rom,  i.,  caps,  i,  2. 

*  Z.  Z.,  v.,  48  ;  cf,  ibid,,  50. 


Ch.  2]  City  and  Commonwealth.  1 7 

wall.*  Nor  are  we  entirely  without  evidence  of  the 
gradual  fusion  of  these  distinct  settlements  into  a 
single  city.  The  festival  of  the  Septimontium  com- 
memorated the  union  of  the  Palatine  with  the 
Esquiline  Mount.*  The  union  of  these  "  mounts  " 
with  the  Quirinal  "  Hill  '*  left  its  marks  on  the  insti- 
tutions and  ceremonies  of  the  state,  as  for  example 
in  the  double  worship  of  Mars,*  and  in  the  line  taken 
by  the  procession  of  the  Argei.*  Of  the  final  stage 
in  this  process  of  amalgamation,  the  wall  and 
agger  ascribed  to  King  Servius  still  remain  as 
witnesses.  But  though  we  may  safely  believe  that 
it  was  in  this  fashion  that  the  city  of  Rome  was 
formed,  we  cannot  be  equally  confident  as  to  dates ; 
all  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  oldest  tombs  yet  dis- 
covered on  the  Esquiline  appear  to  belong  to  the 
early  part  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  when  Greek 
traders  were  banning  to  move  westward,  and  that 
the  Servian  wall  may  be  assigned  approximately  to 
the  close  of  the  seventh  century.* 

But  is  tradition  right  in  representing  this  fusion 
of  distinct  settlements  as  a  fusion  also  Romea 
of  communities  of  different  race  ?  Much  ^"^^^  ^^^y* 
of  what  it  says  on  this  point  may  bp  at  once  dis- 
missed as  fabulous.     The  tales  of  iSneas  and  his 


'  Middleton,  Ancient  Rome^  37-58. 

•  Festus,  34S ;  Jordan,  i.,  199 ;  Gilbert,  1.,  161.  The  seven 
montes  were  the  Palatine  with  the  Velia  and  Germalus,  the  Subura, 
and  the  three  points  of  the  Esquiline  (Fagutal,  Oppins,  and  Cispius). 

'See  Mommsen,  K,  G.,  (7th  ed.),  i.,  51. 

•  Varro,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  45;  vii.,  44;  Jordan,  ii.,  237. 

•  Helbig,  Die  Italiker  in  d,  Poebene^  136.  A  much  later  date 
(fourth  century)  is  given  by  recent  critics,  e,  g.  Pais,  i.,  348. 

8 


1 8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  i 

Trojans,  of  Evander  and  his  Arcadians,  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Heracles,  and  of  the  still  earlier  Aborigines 
have  no  claim  to  a  place  in  history* ;  we  cannot 
accept  the  story,  to  which  the  Romans  clung  with 
proud  humility,  of  the  asylum  opened  hy  Romulus, 
or  believe  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Romans  were  a 
mixed  concourse  of  outlaws  and  refugees,"  nor  while 
admitting  the  probability  of  the  tradition  that  in 
remote  times  the  "  Sikels  "  had  dwelt  on  the  seven 
hills,  can  we  allow  them  any  part  or  lot  in  the  his- 
toric Roman  people.* 

That  the  Romans  were  in  the  main  of  the  same 
race  with  the  neighbouring  Latin  communities  is  a 
conclusion  which  all  the  available  evidence  supports. 
These  "  Latini,"  as  they  were  called,  possibly  from 
the  plain  land  in  which  they  dwelt,  had  probably,  as 
their  traditions  affirmed,  descended  at  some  early 
period  from  the  highlands  of  the  Apennines,  where 
their  kinsmen,  the  Umbrians  and  Sabines,  still  dwelt. 
Driving  out  the  earlier  population,  they  planted  their 
rudely  fortified  settlements  wherever  a  piece  of  rising 
ground  afforded  protection  against  human  foes  and 
against  the  malaria.  The  communities  thus  founded 
formed  the  peoples  {populi)  of  the  Latin  name. 
The  ties  of  kinship,  and  probably  also  the  common 
necessity  of  self-defence  against  Etruscan,  Sabine, 
or  Volscian  foes,  bound  them  together.     They  had 


^  For  these  traditions,  see  Dionysius,  i.,  31-71. 

'  For  a  criticism  of  the  myth  of  the  asylum,  see  Schwegler,  R.  (7. ,  i. , 
465  sq,^  who,  however,  exaggerates  the  mixed  character  of  the  Roman 
people.     Hegel,  Phil,  d,  Gesck.,  345,  takes  the  story  seriously. 

'  Dionysius,  i.,  9 ;  Thuc,  vi.,  2  ;  Dionysius,  i.,  16;  ii.,  i. 


Ch.2i  City  and  Commonwealth,  19 

their  federal  council,  their  federal  leaders,  and  a  com- 
mon federal  sanctuary  on  the  sacred  Alban  Mount. 
The  affinity  between  Rome  and  these  Latin  peoples 
is  implied  in  the  Roman  traditions  themselves. 
King  Faunus,  who  rules  the  Aborigines  on  the  Pala- 
tine, is  Latin ;  Latini  is  the  name  assumed  by  the 
united  Aborigines  and  Trojans ;  the  immediate  pro- 
genitors of  Rome  are  the  Latin  Lavinium  and  the 
Latin  Alba.  The  evidence  of  the  language,  the 
religion,  the  institutions,  and  the  civilisation  of  early 
Rome  points  to  the  same  conclusion.  The  speech 
of  the  Romans  is  from  the  first  Latin' ;  the  oldest 
gods  of  Rome — Saturn,  Janus,  Jupiter,  Juno,  Diana, 
etc.— are  all  Latin ;  rex^  prcBtor^  dictator^  curia^ 
are  Latin  titles  and  institutions.'  Geographically, 
too,  the  low  hills  by  the  Tiber  form  a  part  of  the 
strip  of  coast-land  from  which  the  Latini  took  their 
name,  and  the  primitive  settlements,  with  their 
earthen  ramparts  and  wooden  palisades  planted  upon 
them,  are  only  typical  of  the  mode  of  settlement 
which  the  conditions  of  life  dictated  throughout 
Latium.*  But  tradition  insists  on  the  admixture  of 
at  least  two  non-Latin  elements,  a  Sabine  and  an 
Etruscan.     The  question  as  regards  the  latter  will 


^  The  theory  that  Latin  was  a  "  mongrel  speech  **  is  now  discarded. 
See  Schwegler,  i. ,  190. 

*  The  title  rex  occurs  on  inscriptions  at  Lanuvium,  Tusculum, 
Bovillse  ;  Henzen,  BulUtino  dell.  Jnst.y  1868,  p.  159;  Corp,  /.,  L<U, 
vi.,  2125.  Ygx  dictator  zxi^prcetor^  see  Livy,  i.,  23,  viii.,  3  ;  cf,  Mar- 
quardt,  Rdm.  Staatsverwaltung,  i.,  475  ;  for  curia^  Serv.  on  jEn,^  i., 
17  ;  Marquardt,  i.,  467. 

•  Helbig,  Die  Italiker  in  d.  Poebene;  Pohlmann,  Anf&nge  Horns, 
40  ;  Abeken,  Mittel^Italien^  6i  sq. 


20  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  \ 

be  more  fully  discussed  hereafter ;  it  is  enough  to 
say  here  that  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  that 
any  one  of  the  communities  which  combine  to  form 
Rome  was  Etruscan,  or  that  there  was  any  important 
Etruscan  strain  in  the  Roman  blood.*  With  the 
Sabines  it  is  otherwise.  That  union  of  the  Palatine 
TheSabinca  and  Quirfnal  settlements,  which  consti- 
in  Rome.  tuted  SO  decisive  a  stage  in  the  growth 
of  Rome,  is  represented  as  having  been  in  reality  a 
union  of  the  original  Latins  with  a  band  of  Sabine 
invaders,  who  had  seized  and  held  not  only  the 
Quirinal  Hill,  but  the  northern  and  nearest  peak  of 
the  Capitoline  Mount.  The  tradition  was  evidently 
deeply  rooted.  The  name  of  the  Quirinal  Hill  itself 
was  said  to  be  derived  from  the  Sabine  town  of 
Cures."  The  ancient  worships  connected  with  it 
were  said  to  be  Sabine.*  One  of  the  three  old 
tribes,  the  Titles,  was  believed  to  represent  the 
Sabine  element*;  the  second  and  the  fourth  kings  were 
both  of  Sabine  descent.  We  may  follow  the  great 
majority  of  modern  writers  in  accepting  the  sub- 
stance of  the  tradition,  the  fusion  of  a  body  of 
Sabine  invaders  with  the  original  Latins,  as  histori- 


^  The  existence  of  a  Tuscan  quarter  (  Tuscus  vicus)  in  early  Rome 
probably  points  to  nothing  more  than  the  presence  in  Rome  of 
Etruscan  artisans  and  craftsmen.  The  Etruscan  origin  ascribed  to 
the  third  tribe,  the  '*  Luceres/'  is  a  mere  guess ;  see  Schwegler, !.,  504, 
and  Lange,  Rom,  Alterth,^  i.,  85. 

•  Varro,  Z,  Z.,  v.,  51. 

•  Varro,  Z,  Z.,  v.,  74 ;  Schwegler, !.,  248  sq,;  but  Mommsen  (^.  (?., 
!•*  53)  points  out  that  most  of  these  so-called  Sabine  deities  are  at 
least  equally  Latin. 

•  Yarro,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  55  ;  Livy,  L,  13, 


Ch.  2.]  City  and  Commonwealth.  2 1 

cal,  but  with  certain  qualifications.*  A  Sabine  in- 
vasion, if  it  took  place  at  all,  must,  at  any  rate,  have 
taken  place  far  back  in  the  prehistoric  age  ;  it  must 
have  been  on  a  small  scale  ;  and  the  Sabine  invaders 
must  have  amalgamated  easily  and  completely  with 
the  Latin  settlers;  for  the  structure  of  the  early 
Roman  state,  while  it  bears  evident  marks  of  a  fusion 
of  communities,  shows  no  traces  of  a  mixture  of 
race ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  point  to  any  provably  Sabine 
element  in  the  language,  religion,  or  civilisation  of 
primitive  Rome.*  That  there  was  ever  a  Sabine 
conquest  of  Rome  is  a  theory  which  can  hardly  be 
maintained  in  the  face  of  the  predominantly  Latin 
character  of  both  people  and  institutions.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  probability  of  a  Sabine  raid  and  a 
Sabine  settlement,  on  the  Quirinal  Hill,  in  very 
early  times  may  be  admitted.  The  incursions  of 
the  highland  Apennine  tribes  into  the  lowlands  fill 
a  large  place  in  early  Italian  history.  The  Latins 
were  said  to  have  originally  descended   from  the 


1  Mommsen,  Id,  tr.,  i.,  43.  Schwegler  (^.  G.,  !.,  478)  accepts  the 
tradition  of  a  Sabine  settlement  on  the  Quirinal,  and  considers  that 
in  the  united  state  the  Sabine  element  predominated.  Volquardsen 
{Rhein,  Mus,^  xxxiii.,  559)  believes  in  a  complete  Sabine  conquest ; 
and  so  does  ZoUer  {Latium  u,  Jdom,  Leipsic,  1778),  who,  however, 
places  it  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins.  Gilbert  (Topogr,^  i., 
cap.  5)  accepts  the  Sabine  settlement,  but  holds  rightly  that  in  the 
union  the  Latin  element  decisively  predominated. 

*  See  Mommsen,  i.,  43.  The  Sabine  words  in  Latin,  if  not  com- 
mon to  both  dialects,  were  probably  introduced  later,  or  are  Sabinised 
Latin  (Mommsen,  UnieritaL  Dialekten^  347).  Schwegler*s  attempt 
to  distinguish  Sabine  features  in  the  Roman  character  is  ingenious 
but  unsatisfactory. 


22  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Bookl 

■  ■  ■ 

mountain  glens  near  Reate.*  The  invasions  of 
Campania  and  of  Magna  Graecia  by  Sabellian  tribes 
are  matter  of  history,  and  the  Sabines  themselves 
are  represented  as  a  restless  highland  people,  ever 
seeking  new  homes  in  richer  lands."  In  very  early 
days  they  appear  on  the  borders  of  Latium,  in  close 
proximity  to  Rome,  and  Sabine  forays  are  familiar 
and  frequent  occurrences  in  the  old  legends. 

Leaving  behind  us  the  dark  period  of  the  making 
of  Rome,  we  pass  on  to  consider  what  can  be  known 
The  early  of  its  Constitution  and  history  in  the 
wealth.  earliest  days  of  its  existence  as  a  single 
united  community. 

The  populus  Romanus  was,  we  are  told,  divided 

into    three    tribes,    Ramnes,   Titles,   and  Luceres,* 

and  into  thirty  curicB,     The  three  tribes 

epeope.    ^^Q}^^\y    represented    a    primitive    clan 

division,  older  than  the  Roman  state  itself.  They 
survived  in  later  times  only  as  divisions  of  the 
corps  of  "  knights  **  {equitum  centurid)^  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ancient  cavalry  of  Rome,  and 
even  in  the  accounts  of  the  earliest  constitution 
they  have  ceased  to  serve  as  a  political  division  of 


'  Cato  ap.  Dionysias,  ii.,  48,  49. 

'  Cato  ap.  Dionysias,  ii.,  48,  49.  For  the  institution  of  the  vtf 
sacrum  see  Schwegler,  Rom.  Gesch,^  i.,  240;  Nissen,  Templum^  iv. 

'  The  tradition  connecting  the  Ramnes  with  Romulus  and  the 
Tities  with  Tatius  is  as  old  as  Ennius  (Varro,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  55). 
Mommsen  (i.,  41)  explains  Ramnes  as  =  Romani,  but  this  etymology 
is  rejected  by  Schwegler  and  by  Corssen.  As  regards  the  Luceres 
there  is  little  to  add  to  Livy's  statement  (i.,  13),  '*  nominis  ei  originis 
causa  incerta  est**  See,  on  the  whole  question,  Schwegler,  i.,  505, 
and  Volquardsen,  Rkein.  Mus.^  xxxiii.,  538. 


Ch.  2.]  City  and  Commonwealth.  23 

the  people.*  Of  far  greater  importance  was  the 
division  into  curicB.  In  Cicero's  time  there  were 
still  curies,  curial  festivals,  and  curiate  assemblies, 
and  modem  authors  are  unquestionably  right  in  re- 
garding the  curia  as  the  keystone  of  the  political 
system.  It  was  a  primitive  association  held  together 
by  participation  in  common  sacra^  and  possessing 
common  festivals,  common  priests,  and  a  common 
chapel,  hall,  and  hearth.  The  members  of  a  curia 
were  very  probably  neighbours  and  kinsmen,  but 
the  curia  seems  to  represent  a  stage  in  political  de- 
velopment midway  between  that  in  which  clanship 
is  the  sole  bond  of  union,  and  that  in  which  such 
claims  as  those  of  territorial  contiguity  and  owner- 
ship of  land  have  obtained  recognition.  As  separate 
associations  the  curice  are  probably  older  than  the 
Roman  state,  but,'  however  this  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  of  this  state,  when  formed,  they  constituted  the 
only  effective  political  subdivisions.  The  members 
of  the  thirty  curies  were  the  populus  Romanus,  and 
the  earliest  known  condition  of  Roman  citizenship 
was  the  communio  sacrorum,  partnership  in  the  cu- 
rial sacra.  Below  the  curia  there  was  no  further 
political  division,  for  we  cannot  believe  that  the 
curia  was  ever  formally  subdivided  into  a  fixed  num- 


>  They  are  traditionally  connected  only  with  the  senate  of  300 
patres^  with  the  primitive  legion  of  3,000,  with  the  vestal  virgins, 
and  with  the  augurs  (Varro,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  81,  89,  91 ;  Livy,  x.,  6  ;  Fes- 
tus,  344 ;  Mommsen,  i.,  4ii  74,  75  ;  Genz,  Patricische  Rom^  90). 

'  It  is  possible  that  the  curuB  were  originally  connected  with 
separate  localities ;  cf,  such  names  as  Foriensis..  Veliensis  (Fest.. 
174;  Gilbert,  i.,  213). 


24  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  i 

ber  of  gentes  and  families^  Nor  can  we  assent  to 
the  view  which  would  represent  the  curia  as  con- 
taining only  the  patrician  gentes.  The  primitive 
Roman  people  of  the  thirty  curia  included  ail  the 
freemen  of  the  community,  simple  as  well  as  gentle.' 
At  their  head  was  the  rexy  the  ruler  of  the 
united  people.  The  Roman  "  king  **  was  not  simply 
either  the  hereditary  and  patriarchal  chief 
of  a  clan,  the  priestly  head  of  a  com- 
munity bound  together  by  common  sacra^  or  the 
elected  magistrate  of  a  state,  but  a  mixture  of  all 
three.*  In.  later  times,  when  no  "patrician  magis- 
trates'* were  forthcoming  to  hold  the  elections  for 
their  successors,  a  procedure  was  adopted  which  was 
believed  to  represent  the  manner  in  which  the  early 
kings  had  been  appointed.*  In  this  procedure  the 
ancient  privileges  of  the  old  gentes  and  their  elders, 
the  importance  of  maintaining  unbroken  the  contin- 
uity of  the  sacra,  on  the  transmission  and  observance 
of  which  the  welfare  of  the  community  depended, 
and,  thirdly,  the   rights   of  the   free  men,  were  all 

'  Nlebuhr's  supposition  of  ten  gentes  in  each  curia  has  nothing  in 
its  favour  but  the  confused  statement  of  Dionysius  as  to  the  purely 
military  dixadEi  (Dionysius,  ii.,  7 ;  cf.  Mttller,  Philologus,  xxxiv., 
96). 

'  The  view  taken  here  on  the  vexed  question  of  the  purely  patrician 
character  of  the  curue  is  that  of  Mommsen  {Rom,  Forschungen^ 
vol.  i.). 

^  Rubino,  Genz,  and  Lange  insist  on  the  hereditary  patriarchal 
character  of  the  kingship,  Ihne  on  its  priestly  side,  Schwegler  on  its 
elective.  Mommsen  comes  nearest  to  the  view  taken  in  the  text,  but 
fails  to  bring  out  the  nature  of  the  compromise  on  which  the  kingship 
rested. 

*  Cic,  De  Leg,^  iii.,  3  ;  Livy,  iv.,  7. 


Ch.  2]  City  and  Commonwealth.  25 

recognised.  On  the  death  of  a  king  the  auspicia,  and 
with  them  the  supreme  authority,  reverted  to  the 
council  of  elders,  the  patres,  as  representing  the 
gentes.  By  the  patres  an  interrex  was  appointed,  who 
in  turn  nominated  a  second ;  by  him,  or  even  by  a 
third  or  fourth  interrex  a  new  king  was  selected  in 
consultation  with  ^^  patres.  The  king-designate  was 
then  proposed  to  the  freemen  assembled  by  their 
curice  for  their  acceptance,  and  finally  their  formal 
acceptance  was  ratified  by  the  patres^  as  a  security 
that  the  sacra  of  which  they  were  the  guardians  have 
been  respected.'  Thus  the  king  was  in  the  first  in- 
stance selected  by  the  representatives  of  the  old 
genteSj  and  they  ratified  his  appointment.  In  form 
he  was  nominated  directly  by  a  predecessor  from 
whose  hands  he  received  the  auspicia.  But  it  was 
necessary  also  that  the  choice  of  the  patres  and  the 
nomination  of  the  interrex  should  be  confirmed  by 
a  solemn  vote  of  the  community. 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  a  precise  definition  of  the 
prerogatives  of  the  king  when  once  installed  in 
office.     Tradition   ascribes   to  him   a  position  and 

*  "  Patres  auctores  facii^*^  Livy,  i.,  22  ;  ^^ patres  filer e  auctores" 
Id,,  i.,  32.  In  336  B.C.  (Livy,  viii.,  12)  the  Publilian  law  directed 
that  this  sanction  should  be  given  beforehand,  **ante  initum  suf- 
fragium^^  and-  thus  reduced  it  to  a  meaningless  form  (Livy,  i.,  11). 
It  is  wrongly  identified  by  Schwegler  with  the  **  lex  curiaia  de  im- 
period*  which  in  Cicero's  day  followed  and  did  not  precede  election. 
According  to  Cicero  {De  Rep,,  ii.,  13,  21),  the  proceedings  included, 
in  addition  to  the  *'  creation  "  by  the  comitia  curiaia  and  the  sanction 
of  the  patres,  the  introduction  by  the  king  himself  of  a  lex  curiata 
conferring  the  imperium  and  auspicia  ;  but  this  theory,  though  gener- 
ally accepted,  is  probably  an  inference  from  the  practice  of  a  later 
time,  when  th«  creaiio  had  been  transferred  to  the  comitia  centuriata. 


26  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  I 

powers  closely  resembling  those  of  the  heroic  kings 
of  Greece.  He  rules  for  life,  and  he  is  the  sole  ruler, 
unfettered  by  written  statutes.  He  is  the  supreme 
judge,  settling  all  disputes,  and  punishing  wrong- 
doers even  with  death.  All  other  officials  are  ap- 
pointed by  him.  He  imposes  taxes,  distributes 
lands,  and  erects  buildings.  Senate  and  assembly 
meet  only  when  he  convenes  them,  and  meet  for 
little  else  than  to  receive  communications  from  him. 
In  war  he  is  absolute  leader,^  and,  finally,  he  is  also 
the  religious  head  of  the  community.  It  is  his  busi- 
ness to  consult  the  gods  on  its  behalf,  to  offer  the 
solemn  sacrifices,  and  to  announce  the  days  of  the 
public  festivals.  Hard  by  his  house  was  the  com- 
mon hearth  of  the  state,  where  the  vestal  virgins 
cherished  the  sacred  fire. 

By  the  side  of  the  king  stood  the  senate,  or  coun- 
cil of  elders.  In  the  descriptions  left  us  of  the 
primitive  senate,  as  in  those  of  the  reXy 
we  can  discover  traces  of  a  transition  from 
an  earlier  state  of  things,  when  Rome  was  only  an  as- 
semblage of  clans  or  village  communities,  allied  in- 
deed, but  each  still  ruled  by  its  own  chiefs  and  head- 
men, to  one  in  which  these  groups  have  been  fused 
into  a  single  state  under  a  common  ruler.  On  the  one 
hand  the  senate  appears  as  a  council  of  chiefs,  with 
inalienable  prerogatives  of  its  own,  and  claiming  to 
be  the  ultimate  depository  of  the  supreme  authority 
and  of  the  sacra  connected  with  it.  The  senators 
are  the  patres;  they  are  taken  from  the  leading 
gentes ;    they  hold   their  seats  for  life;    to  them 

'  For  the  references,  see  Schwegler,  i.,  646  sq. 


Ch.  2]  City  and  Commonwealth.  ly 

the  auspicia  revert  on  the  death  of  a  king;  they 
appoint  the  interrex  from  their  own  body,  are  con- 
sulted in  the  choice  of  the  new  king,'  and  their 
sanction  is  necessary  to  ratify  the  vote  of  the  assem- 
bled freemen.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  no 
longer  supreme.  They  cannot  appoint  a  king  but 
with  the  consent  of  the  community,  and  their  rela- 
tion to  the  king  when  appointed  is  one  of  subordina- 
tion. Vacancies  in  their  ranks  are  filled  up  by  him, 
and  they  can  but  give  him  advice  and  counsel  when 
he  chooses  to  consult  them. 

The  popular  assembly  of  united  Rome  in  its  earli- 
est days  was  that  in  which  the  freemen  met  and 
voted  by  their  curia  (comitia  curiata*).  Theat- 
The  assembly  met  in  the  comitium  at  the  ■c«biy. 
north-east  end  of  the  forum,"  at  the  summons  and 
under  the  presidency  of  the  king,  or,  failing  him, 
of  the  interrex.  By  the  rex  or  interrex  the 
question  was  put,  and  the  voting  took  place  curi- 
atim.  The  vote  of  each  curia  was  decided  by  the 
majority  of  individual  votes,  and  a  majority  of  the 
votes  of  the  curice  determined  the  final  result.  But 
the  occasions  on  which  the  assembly  could  exercise 
its  power  must  have  been  few.  Their  right  to  elect 
magistrates  was  apparently  limited  to  the  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  the  king  proposed  by  the  interrex. 


*  If  the  analogy  of  the  rex  sacrorum  is  to  be  trusted,  the  king 
could  only  be  chosen  from  the  ranks  of  the  pairicii,  Cic,  Fro 
Domo^  14 ;  Gains,  i.,  122. 

'  Cic,  De  Rep,^  ii.,  13  ;  Dionysius,  ii.,  14,  etc. 

•  Varro,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  155.  For  the  position  of  the  eomitium^  see 
Smith,  Diet.  Geog,,  s.  v.  **  Roma,"  and  Jordan,  Topog.  d.  StadtRom; 
Petersen,  Comitium  (Rome,  1904). 


28  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       csook  I 

Of  the  passing  of  laws,  in  the  latter  sense  of  the 
term,  there  is  no  trace  in  the  kingly  period.  Diony- 
sius's  statement  *  that  they  voted  on  questions  of 
war  and  peace  is  improbable  in  itself  and  unsup- 
ported by  tradition.  They  are  indeed  represented, 
in  one  instance,  as  deciding  a  capital  case,  but  it  is 
by  the  express  permission  of  the  king  and  not  of 
right.'  Assemblies  of  the  people  were  also,  and 
probably  more  frequently,  convened  for  other  pur- 
poses. Not  only  did  they  meet  to  hear  from  the 
king  the  announcement  of  the  high  days  and  holi- 
days for  each  month,  and  to  witness  such  solemn 
religious  rites  as  the  inauguration  of  a  priest,  but 
their  presence  (and  sometimes  their  vote)  was  fur- 
ther required  to  authorise  and  attest  certain  acts, 
which  in  a  later  age  assumed  a  more  private  char- 
acter. The  disposal  of  property  by  will  *  and  the 
solemn  renunciation  of  family  or  gentile  sacra^ 
could  only  take  place  in  the  presence  of  the  assem- 
bled freemen,  while  for  adoption  *  {adrogatio)  not 
only  their  presence  but  their  formal  consent  was 
necessary. 

Such  in  outline  was  the  political  structure  of  the 
Roman  state  at  the  earliest  period  known  to  us.  It 
is  clear  that  it  belongs  to  a  comparatively  advanced 
stage  in  the  development  of  society,  and  that  a  long 
previous  history  lies  behind  it.    Traces  of  an  older 

'  Dionysius,  /.  c, 

'  Livy,  i.,  26 ;  Dionysius,  iii.,  22. 

'  Gaius,  ii.,  loi. 

*  Gell.,  XV.,  27. 

*  Cell.,  v.,  19,  **  Comiiia prcBbentuTy  qua  curiata  appellantur,**  Cf*  , 
Cic,  Pro  DomOy  13,  14.  1 


Ch.  2]  City  and  Commonwealth.  29 

and  more  primitive  order  of  things  still  linger  in  the 
three  ancient  shadowy  tribes,  in  the  curia  and 
genteSy  in  many  of  the  features  noticeable  in  the 
senate;  but  they  are  traces  of  an  order  that  has 
passed  away.  The  supremacy  of  the  state  is  estab- 
lished over  the  groups  out  of  whose  fusion  it  has 
grown,  and  such  of  these  groups  as  still  retain  a 
distinct  existence  are  merely  private  corporations. 
Private  differences  are  settled  and  wrong-doers  pun- 
ished by  the  state  tribunals,  and  even  within  the 
close  limits  of  the  family  the  authority  of  the  head 
is  limited  by  the  claims  of  the  state  upon  the  ser- 
vices of  the  sons  and  dependants. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ROME  UNDER  THE  KINGS. 

A  HISTORY  of  this  early  Roman  state  is  out  of  the 
question.  The  names,  dates,  and  achievements  of 
the  first  four  kings  are  all  too  'unsubstantial  to  form 
the  basis  of  a  sober  narrative  * ;  a  few  points  only 
can  be  considered  as  fairly  well  established.  If  we 
except  the  long  eventless  reign  ascribed  to  King 
Numa,  tradition  represents  the  first  kings  as  inces- 
santly at  war  with  their  immediate  neighbours.  The 
details  of  these  wars  are  no  doubt  mythical ;  but  the 
implied  condition  of  continual  struggle,  and  the  nar- 
row range  within  which  the  struggle  is  confined,  may 
be  accepted  as  true.  The  picture  drawn  is  that  of  a 
small  community  with  a  few  square  miles  of  territory, 
living  in  constant  feud  with  its  nearest  neighbours, 
within  a  radius  of  some  twelve  miles  round  Rome. 
Nor,  in  spite  of  the  repeated  victories  with  which 
tradition  credits  Romulus,  Ancus,  and  TuUus,  does 


'  By  far  the  most  complete  criticism  of  the  traditional  accounts  of 
the  first  four  kings  will  be  found  in  Schwegler*s  Rom,  Geschickte^  vol. 
i. ;  compare  also  Ihne's  Early  Rome^  and  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis's  Credibility 
pf  Early  Roman  History;  and  Pais,  Storia  di  Roma^  vol.  £• 

30 


Rome  under  the  Kings.  3 1 

there  seem  to  have  been  any  real  extension  of  Roman 
territory  except  towards  the  sea.  Fidenae  remains 
Etruscan ;  the  Sabines  continue  masters  up  to  the 
Anio ;  Praeneste,  Gabii,  and  Tusculum  are  still  un- 
touched ;  and  on  this  side  it  is  doubtful  if  Roman 
territory  extended  to  a  greater  distance  than  the 
sixth  milestone  from  Rome.*  But  along  the  course 
of  the  Tiber  below  the  city  there  was  a  decided  ad- 
vance. The  fortification  of  the  Janiculum,  the  build- 
ing of  M\\^p(ms  subliciuSy  the  foundation  of  Ostia,  and 
the  acquisition  of  the  salt  marshes  near  the  sea  may 
all  be  safely  ascribed  to  this  early  period.  Closely 
connected,  too,  with  the  control  of  the  Tiber  from 
Rome  to  the  sea  was  the  subjugation  of  the  petty 
Latin  communities  lying  south  of  the  river ;  and  the 
tradition  of  the  conquest  and  destruction  of  Poli- 
torium,  Tellenae,  and  Ficana  is  confirmed  by  the 
absence  in  historical  times  of  any  Latin  communities 
in  this  district. 

With  the  reign  of  the  fifth  king,  Tarquinius  Priscus, 
a  marked  change  takes  place.  The  traditional  ac- 
counts of  the  last  three  kings  not  only  The  Tar- 
wear  a  more  historical  air  than  those  of  *>"*°*- 
the  first  four,  but  they  describe  something  like  a 
transformation  of  the  Roman  city  and  state.  Under 
the  rule  of  these  latter  kings  the  separate  settlements 
were  for  the  first  time  enclosed  with  a  rampart  of  co- 


'  Tht  fossa  Cluilia^  five  miles  from  Rome  (Livy,  ii.,  39),  is  re- 
garded by  Schwegler  (i.,  585)  and  by  Mommsen  (i.,  45)  as  marking 
the  Roman  frontier  towards  Latium.  Cf,  Ovid,  Fasi.^  ii.,  681; 
Strabo,  230,  **//£ra$i)  yovv  tov  nifiitrov  xai  rov  ektov  At^oti 
.    .    .    rdttoi  ^rj6T(n  .    .    .    optor  rifi  roret  'Pooucdoov  yrfi^ 


32  Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  i 

lossal  size  and  extent.*  The  low  grounds  were  drained, 
and  a  forum  and  circus  elaborately  laid  out ;  on  the 
Capitoline  Mount  a  temple  was  erected,  the  massive 
foundations  of  which  were  an  object  of  wonder  even 
to  Pliny.'  To  the  same  period  are  assigned  the  re- 
division  of  the  city  area  into  four  districts  and  the 
introduction  of  a  new  military  system.  The  kings 
increase  in  power  and  surround  themselves  with  new 
splendour.  Abroad,  Rome  suddenly  appears  as  a 
powerful  state  ruling  far  and  wide  over  southern 
Etruria  and  Latium.  These  startling  changes  are, 
moreover,  ascribed  to  kings  of  alien  descent,  who 
one  and  all  ascend  the  throne  in  the  teeth  of  estab- 
lished constitutional  forms.  Finally,  with  the  expul- 
sion of  the  last  of  them — ^the  younger  Tarquin — 
comes  a  sudden  shrinkage  of  power.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  republic  Rome  is  once  more  a 
comparatively  small  state,  with  hostile  and  inde* 
pendent  neighbours  at  her  very  doors. 

It  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  conviction  that  the  true 
explanation  of  this  phenomenon  is  to  be  found  in  the 
The  Etrus-  supposition  that  Rome  during  this  period 
cans.  passed  under  the  rule  of  powerful  Etruscan 

lords.'  Who  the  people  were  whom  the  Romans 
knew  as  Etruscans  and  the  Greeks  as  Tyrrhenians  is 
a  question  which,  after  centuries  of  discussion,  still 
remains  unanswered  ;  nor  in  all  probability  will  the 
answer  be  found  until  the  lost  key  to  their  language 

'  Livy,  i.,  36. 

•  Livy,  i.,  38,  55  ;  Plin.,  N.  II,,  xxxvi.,  15. 

'  This  is  the  view  of  O.  Mttller,  and  more  recently  of  Deecke, 
Gardthausen,  and  Zdller ;  it  is  rejected  by  Schwegler.  Mommsen 
accepts  the  Etruscan  origin  of  the  Tarquins,  but  denies  that  it  proves 
an  Etruscan  rule  in  Rome. 


Ch.  3]  Rome  under  the  Kings.  33 

has  been  discovered.  That  they  were  regarded  by 
the  Italic  tribes,  by  Umbrians,  Sabellians,  and  Latins, 
as  intruders  is  certain.  Entering  Italy,  as  they  prob- 
ably did  from  the  north  or  north-east,  they  seem  to 
have  first  of  all  made  themselves  masters  of  the  rich 
valley  of  the  Po  and  of  the  Umbrians  who  dwelt 
there.  Then  crossing  the  Apennines,  they  overran 
Etruria  proper  as  far  south  as  the  banks  of  the  Tiber, 
here  too  reducing  to  subjection  the  Umbrian  owners 
of  the  soiLjjn  Etruria  they  made  themselves  dreaded, 
like  the  Northmen  of  a  later  time,  by  sea  as  well  as 
by  land.  Their  pirate  galleys  swept  the  Tyrrhenian 
Sea,  while  roving  bands  of  Etruscan  warriors  estab- 
lished themselves  at  one  place  after  another  in  the 
districts  south  of  the  Tiber,  built  their  strongholds, 
and  ruled  as  conquerors  over  the  subject  peoples. 
In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  at  the 
period  to  which  the  erection  of  the  Servian  wall  may 
be  assigned,  their  power  was  at  its  height.  It  ex- 
tended far  beyond  Etruria  proper.  The  Kelts  had 
not  yet  seriously  threatened  their  supremacy  in  the 
valley  of  the  Po, — and  they  were  still  masters  of  the 
rich  Campanian  plain,— from  which  the  Samnite  high- 
landers  were  to  oust  them  some  two  centuries  later. 
It  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  improbable  that  a  power  which 
had  extended  its  sway  from  the  Alps  to  the  Tiber, 
and  from  the  Liris  to  Surrentum,  should  have  left 
untouched  the  intervening  stretch  of  country  between 
the  Tiber  and  the  Liris.  Nor  are  we  without  evi- 
dence of  Etruscan  rule  in  Latium.*     According  to 

^  Zmier,  Latium  u,  Rom^  i66,  189  ;  Gardthausen,  Mastarna  (Leip- 

sic,  1882)  ;  Cuno's  Verbrdiung  d,  Etr,  Stammes  (Graudenz,  1880)  is 

highly  fanciful. 
3 


34  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  \ 

Dionysius  there  was  a  time  when  the  Latins  were 
known  to  the  Greeks  as  Tyrrhenians,  and  Rome  as  a 
Tyrrhenian  city.*  When  iEneas  landed  in  Italy  the 
Latins  were  at  feud  with  Turnus  (Turrhenos?  Diony- 
sius, i.,  64)  of  Ardea,  whose  close  ally  was  the  ruth- 
less Mezentius,  lord  of  Caere,  to  whom  the  Latins  had 
been  forced  to  pay  a  tribute  of  wine.'  Cato  declared 
the  Volsci  to  have  been  once  subject  to  Etruscan 
rule,'  and  Etruscan  remains  found  at  Velitrae,*  as 
well  as  the  second  name  of  the  Volscian  Auxur, 
Tarracina  (the  city  of  Tarchon),  tend  to  confirm  his 
statement.  Nearer  still  to  Rome  was  Tusculum, 
with  its  significant  name,  and  at  Alba  we  hear  of  a 
prince  Tapxirio^y*  lawless  and  cruel  like  Mezentius, 
who  consults  the  "  oracle  of  Tethys  in  Tyrrhenia." 
Thus  we  find  the  Etruscan  power  encircling  Rome 
on  all  sides,  and  in  Rome  itself  a  tradition  of  the 
rule  of  princes  of  Etruscan  origin.  The  Tarquinii 
come  from  South  Etruria ;  their  name  can  hardly 
be  anything  else  than  the  Latin  equivalent  of  the 
Etruscan  Tarchon,  and  is  therefore  possibly  a  title 
(=  "  lord  "  or  "  prince  **)  rather  than  a  proper  name.* 

*  Dionysius,  i.,  29. 

'  Livy,  i.,  2  ;  Dionysius,  i.,  64,  65  ;  Plut.,  Q,  R.y  18. 

•  Cato  ap.  Serv.,  y£».,  xi.,  567. 

*  Helbig,  Ann,  d,  Insi,^  1865. 

*Plut.,  Rom,^  2,  itapavo/iooraroi  xai  topLOTaroi ;  cf,  Rutulian 
Tarquitius,  Virg.,  jEn,^  x.,  550. 

•  Mtiller-Deecke,  i.,  69,  70 ;  ZOller,  LoHum  u,  Rom,  168  ;  c/, 
Strabo,  p.  219  ;  Serv,  ad  yEn,,  x.,  179,  198.  The  existence  of  an 
independent  *'gens  Tarquinia"  of  Roman  extraction  (Schwegler, 
t.,  678)  is  unproven  and  unlikely.  Nor  can  '*  Tarquinius"  mean 
"of  Tarquinii";  this  would  require  **  Tarquiniensis"  as  a  cog- 
nomm. 


Ch.  31  Rome  under  the  Kings.  35 

Even  Servius  Tullius  was  identified  by  Tuscan 
chroniclers  with  an  Etruscan  "  Mastama."  *  There 
are  two  other  features  in  the  story  of  the  last  three 
kings  of  Rome  which  point  the  same  way.  The 
Etruscans  are  not  represented  in  tradition  as  moving 
in  great  masses,  and  their  advance  is  not  the  migra- 
tion of  a  whole  people.  We  hear  rather,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Northmen,  of  roving  bands  of  warriors 
led  by  powerful  chiefs  who  carve  out  principalities 
for  themselves  with  their  own  good  swords,  and  rule 
as  conquerors  over  alien  and  subject  populations,* 
and  it  is  a  raid  and  a  conquest  of  this  kind,  not  an 
immigration,  that  the  tradition  suggests.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  Etruscans  were  not  the  people,  but 
the  rulers.  Nor  is  this  all.  That  Etruria  had,  under 
the  sway  of  Etruscan  lords,  forged  ahead  of  the 
country  south  of  the  Tiber  in  wealth  and  civilisation 
is  a  fact  which  the  evidence  of  remains  has  placed 
beyond  doubt.  It  is  therefore  significant  that  the 
rule  of  the  Tarquins  in  Rome  is  marked  by  an  out- 
ward splendour  which  stands  in  strong  contrast  to 
the  primitive  simplicity  of  the  native  kings.  The 
great  cloaca^  the  Servian  wall,  the  Capitoline  temple, 
were  monuments  which  challenged  comparison  with 
those  of  the  emperors  themselves,  and  they  can 
hardly  have  been  built  by  any  but  builders  from 
Etruria,  under  the  magnificent  patronage  of  Etrus- 


*  See  spfeech  of  Claudius,  Tab.  Lugd,,  App.  to  Nipperdey's  edition 
of  the  Annals  of  Tacitus,  **  Tusce  Masiarna  ei  mmun  erat,**  For  the 
painting  in  the  Fran9ois  tomb  at  Vulci,  see  Gardthausen,  Mastama^ 
22  sf,/  AnnaHdelL  InstU.^   Rome,  1859. 

'  Cf,  the  traditions  of  Mezentius,  of  Codes  Vibenna,  Porsena,  etc 


36  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

can  lords.  Nor  do  the  traces  of  Greek  influence 
upon  Rome  during  this  period  *  conflict  with  the 
theory  of  an  Etruscan  supremacy ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  at  least  possible  that  it  was  thanks  to  the  ex- 
tended rule  and  wide  connections  of  her  Etruscan 
rulers  that  Rome  was  first  brought  into  direct  con- 
tact with  the  Greeks,  who  had  long  traded  with  the 
Etruscan  ports  and  influenced  Etruscan  culture.' 

These  Etruscan  princes  are  represented,  not  only 
as  having  raised  Rome  for  the  time  to  a  command- 
The  Servian  ^^S  position  in  Latium,  and  lavished  upon 
reforms.  ^h^  ^ity  itself  the  resources  of  Etruscan 
civilisation,  but  also  the  authors  of  important  inter- 
nal changes.  They  are  represented  as  favouring 
new  men  at  the  expense  of  the  old  patrician  fam- 
ilies, and  as  reorganising  the  Roman  army  on  a  new 
footing,  a  policy  natural  enough  in  military  princes 
of  alien  birth,  and  rendered  possible  by  the  addi- 
tions which  conquest  had  made  to  the  original 
community.  From  among  the  leading  families  of 
the  conquered  Latin  states  a  hundred  new  members 
were  admitted  to  the  senate,  and  the  gentes  to  which 
they  belonged  thenceforth  ranked  as  patrician,  and 
became  known  as  gentes  minores^  The  changes 
in  the  army  begun,  it  is  said,  by  the  elder  Tarquin 

'  Schwegler,  R,  G,,  i.,  679  s^, 

'  Schwegler,  i.,  791, 792.  He  accepts  as  genuine,  and  as  represent- 
ing the  extent  of  Roman  rule  and  connections  under  the  Tarquins,  the 
first  treaty  between  Rome  and  Carthage  mentioned  by  Polybius  (iii., 
22) ;  see,  for  a  discussion  of  the  question,  Vollmer,  Rhnn,  Mus,^ 
xxxii.,  614  x^./  Mommsen,  Rom,  Chronologie^  20;  Dyer,  Journ,  oj 
Philol.^  ix.,  238. 

*  Livy,  !•>  35  >  Dionysius,  iii.,  67  ;  Cic.  De  Rep,,  ii.,  20b 


Ch.  3]  Rome  under  the  Kings.  37 

and  completed  by  Servius  Tullius  were  more  impor- 
tant. The  basis  of  the  primitive  military  system 
had  been  the  three  tribes,  each  of  which  furnished 
1,000  men  to  the  legion  and  100  to  the  cavalry.* 
Tarquinius  Priscus,  we  are  told,  contemplated  the 
creation  of  three  fresh  tribes  and  three  additional 
centuries  of  horsemen  with  new  names,'  though  in 
face  of  the  opposition  offered  by  the  old  families  he 
contented  himself  with  simply  doubling  the  strength 
without  altering  the  names  of  the  old  divisions.* 
But  the  change  attributed  to  Servius  Tullius  went 
far  beyond  this.  His  famous  distribution  of  all 
landholders  {assidut)  into  tribes,  classes,  and  cen- 
turies,* though  subsequently  adopted  with  modifi- 
^  cations  as  the  basis  of  the  political  system,  was  at 
first  exclusively  military  in  its  nature  and  objects.* 
It  amounted,  in  fact,  to  the  formation  of  an  enlarged 
army  on  a  new  footing.  In  this  force,  excepting  in 
the  case  of  the  centuries  of  the  horsemen,  no  regard 
was  paid  either  to  the  old  clan  divisions  or  to  the 
semi-religious,  semi-political  curia.  In  its  ranks  were 
included  all  landholders  within  the  Roman  territory, 


'  Varo,  Z.  Z.,  v.,  89. 

*  Livy,  i.,  36  ;  Dionysius,  iii.,  71. 

'  The  six  centuries  of  horsemen  were  thenceforward  known  as 
** primi  secundique  Hamnes"  (Fest.,  344;  cf,  Schwegler,  i.,  685 
sq.).  It  is  possible  that  the  reforms  of  Tarquinius  Priscus  were 
limited  to  the  cavalry. 

*  Cic.  De  Hep,,  ii.,  22  ;  Livy,  i.,  42  ;  Dionysius,  iv.,  16. 

*  This  is  recognised  by  Mommsen,  Genz,  and  Soltau,  as  against 
Niebuhr,  Schwegler,  and  Ihne.  Even  in  the  later  comitia  centuri- 
ata  the  traces  of  the  originally  military  character  of  the  organisation 
are  unmistakable. 


38  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  I 

whether  members  or  not  of  any  of  the  old  divisions, 
and  the  organisation  of  this  new  army  of  assidui 
was  not  less  independent  of  the  old  system  with  its 
clannish  and  religious  traditions  and  forms.  The 
unit  was  the  centuria  or  company  of  100  men; 
the  centuruB  were  grouped  in  ^'  classes*/'  and  drawn 
up  in  the  order  of  the  phalanx/  The  centuries  in 
front  were  composed  of  the  wealthier  citizens,  whose 
means  enabled  them  to  bear  the  cost  of  the  complete 
equipments  necessary  for  those  who  were  to  stand 
the  brunt  of  the  onset.  These  centuries  formed  the 
first  class.  Behind  them  stood  the  centuries  of  the 
second  and  third  classes,  less  completely  armed,  but 
making  up  together  with  those  of  the  first  class  the 
heavy-armed  infantry.*  In  the  rear  were  the  cen- 
turies of  the  fourth  and  fifth  classes,  recruited  from 
the  poorer  landholders,  and  serving  only  as  light- 
armed  troops.  The  entire  available  body  of  land- 
holders was  divided  into  two  equal  portions,  a 
reserve  corps  of  seniores  and  a  corps  of  juniores 
for  active  service.  Each  of  these  corps  consisted  of 
85  centuries,  or  8,500  men,  i.  e.  of  two  legions  of 
about  4,200  men  each,  the  normal  strength  of  a 
consular  legion  under  the  early  republic."  It  is 
noticeable  also  that  the  heavy-armed   centuries  of 

'  The  century  ceased  to  represent  companies  of  one  hundred  when 
the  whole  organisation  ceased  to  be  military  and  became  exclusively 
political. 

'  The  property  qualification  for  service  in  the  first  class  is  given  at 
100,000  asses  (Livy),  for  the  second  at  70,000,  third  at  50,000,  fourth 
at  25,000,  fifth  at  11,000.  It  was  probably  originally  a  certain  acreage 
in  land,  afterwards  translated  into  terms  of  money ;  cf,  Mommsen, 
Rom.  Tribusy  115. 

'  Polybius,  vi.,  20 ;  Mommsen,  Rom,  Trib.^  132  sq. 


Ch.  31  Rome  under  the  Kings.  39 

the  three  first  classes  in  each  of  these  legions  repre- 
sented a  total  of  3,000  men,  a  number  which  agrees 
exactly  with  the  number  of  heavy-armed  troops 
in  the  legions  as  described  by  Polybius.  Attached 
to  the  legion,  but  not  included  in  them,  were  the 
companies  of  sappers  and  trumpeters.  Lastly,  to 
the  six  centuries  of  horsemen,  which  still  retained 
the  old  tribal  names,  twelve  more  were  added  as 
a  distinct  body,  and  recruited  from  the  wealthiest 
class  of  citizens.*  The  four  "  tribes  "  also  instituted 
by  Servius  were  probably  intended  to  serve  as  the 
basis  for  the  levy  of  landholders  for  the  new  army.* 
As  their  names  show,  they  corresponded  with  the 
natural  local  divisions  of  the  city  territory,*  and 
included  also  the  citizen  population  resident  within 
it.* 

The  last  of  these  Etruscan  lords  to  rule  in  Rome 
was  Tarquin  the  Proud.  He  is  described  p^„  ^^  ^j^^ 
as  a  splendid  and  despotic  monarch.  His  »on*rchy. 
sway  extended  over  Latium  as  far  south  as  Circeii. 
Aristodemus,  tyrant  of  Cumae,  was  his  ally,  and 
kinsmen  of  his  own  were  princes  at  CoUatia,  at 
Gabii,  and  at  Tusculum.  The  Volscian  highlanders 
were  chastised,  and  Signia,  with  its  massive  walls, 
was  built  to  hold  them  in  check.     In  Rome  itself 


*  Livy,  i.,  43.  Dionysius  (iv.,  i8)  and  Cic.  {DeRep,^  ii.,  22)  ascribe 
the  whole  eighteen  to  Servius.  But  the  six  older  centuries  remained 
distinct  as  the  sex  suffragia  of  the  comitia  centuriaia  (Cic,  De  Hep,^ 
ii.,  22). 

'  Dionysius,  iv.,  14,6/$  rd^  xaraypaqidi  toov  drpariooTmv, 

*  Livy,  i.,  43.  The  four  were  Palatina,  Surburana,  Esquilina,  and 
CoUina. 

*  E.  Meyer,  Hermes^  xxx.,  12. 


40  Outlines  of  Roman  Hhtory.       [Book! 

the  Capitoline  temple  and  the  great  cloaca  bore  wit- 
ness to  his  power.  But  his  rule  pressed  heavily  upon 
the  Romans,  and  at  last,  on  the  news  of  the  foul 
wrong  done  by  his  son  Sextus  to  a  noble  Roman 
matron,  Lucretia,  the  indignant  people  rose  in  revolt. 
Tarquin,  who  was  away  besieging  Ardea,  was  de- 
posed ;  sentence  of  exile  was  passed  upon  him  and 
upon  all  his  race  ;  and  the  people  swore  that  never 
again  should  a  king  rule  in  Rome,  Freed  from  the 
tyrant,  they  chose  for  themselves  two  yearly  magis- 
trates who  should  exercise  the  supreme  authority, 
and  thus  the  republic  of  Rome  was  founded.  Three 
times  the  banished  Tarquin  strove  desperately  to 
recover  the  throne  he  had  lost.  First  of  all  the  men 
of  Veii  and  Tarquinii  marched  to  his  aid,  but  were 
defeated  in  a  pitched  battle  on  the  Roman  frontier. 
A  year  later  Lars  Porsena,  prince  of  Clusium,  at  the 
head  of  all  the  powers  of  Etruria,  appeared  before 
the  gates  of  Rome,  and  closely  besieged  the  city, 
until,  moved  by  the  valour  of  his  foe,  he  granted 
honourable  terms  of  peace  and  withdrew.'  Once 
again,  by  Lake  Regillus,  the  Romans  fought  vic- 
toriously for  their  liberty  against  Tarquin*s  son-in- 
law  Mamilius,  prince  of  Tusculum,  and  chief  of  the 
Latin  name.  Mamilius  was  slain ;  Tarquin  in 
despair  found  a  refuge  at  Cumae,  and  there  soon 
afterwards  died. 

So,   in  brief,  ran  the  story  of  the  flight  of  the 

'  Livy,  ii.,  9-14.  Pliny  (N,  H,^  xxxiv.,  14)  and  Tacitus  (Ann,,  iii., 
72)  imply  the  existence  of  a  tradition,  possibly  that  of  "  Tuscan 
annalists/'  according  to  which  Porsena  actually  made  himself  master 
of  Rome.  The  whole  story  is  fully  criticised  by  Schwegler  (ii.,  i8l 
s^.)  and  Zdller  {Latium  «.  Rom,,  p.  180). 


Ch.  3.]  Rome  under  the  Kings.  41 

kings,  as  it  was  told  by  the  chroniclers  whom  Livy 
followed.  Its  details  are  most  of  them  fabulous ; 
it  is  crowded  with  inconsistencies  and  improbabili- 
ties ;  there  are  no  trustworthy  dates ;  the  names 
even  of  the  chief  actors  are  probably  fictitious,  and 
the  hand  of  the  improver,  Greek  or  Roman,  is  trace- 
able throughout.*  The  struggle  was  doubtless 
longer  and  sharper,  and  the  new  constitution  more 
gradually  shaped,  than  tradition  would  have  us  be- 
lieve. Possibly,  too,  this  revolution,  in  Rome  was 
but  a  part  of  a  wide-spreading  wave  of  change  in 
Latium  and  central  Italy,  similar  to  that  which  in 
Greece  swept  away  the  old  heroic  monarchies.  But 
there  is  no  room  for  doubting  the  main  facts  of  the 
emancipation  of  Rome  from  the  rule  of  alien  princes 
and  the  final  abolition  of  the  kingly  office. 

*  See  the  exhaustive  criticism  inSchwegler  (ii.,  pp.  66-203);  Pais,  i., 
chap.  3. 


BOOK  IT. 


THE  EARLY  REPUBLIC— 509-275  B.C. 


THE  EARLY  REPUBLIC— 509-27^  B.C. 


CHAPTER  L 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  AND  THE 
STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  THE  ORDERS. 

Much  of  what  has  been  said  as  to  the  nature  and 
value  of  the  traditional  account  of  the  be-  '^*\®    }^^^^' 

tional    ac- 

ginnings  of  Rome  and  of  the  monarchy  count, 

applies  to  that  we  possess  of  the  early  republic.  It 
is  true  that  there  is,  at  first  sight,  a  considerable 
difference.  In  passing  from  the  first  to  the  second 
book  of  Livy  we  are  conscious  of  passing  from 
poetry  to  prose.  The  narrative  assumes  at  once  the 
shape  of  a  chronicle,  in  which  events  are  set  down  in 
order,  year  by  year,  as  they  occurred,  and  in  which 
the  actors  are  men,  and  not  gods  or  demi-gods.  But 
this  appearance  of  historical  sobriety  and  consecutive- 
ness  is,  at  least  for  the  period  before  the  sack  of 
Rome  by  the  Gauls  (390  B.C.),  somewhat  delusive. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  the  dearth  of  contemporary 
documents  relating  to  this  period  must  have  been 
almost  as  complete  as  in  the  case  of  the  preceding 

45 


46  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  M 

one.  We  may,  indeed,  grant  that  when  Fabius 
Pictor,  or  Timaeus  before  him,  wrote,  there  existed 
in  Rome  written  records,  such  as  the  annals  of  the 
pontiffs,  or  the  consular  fastis  purporting  to  carry 
back  the  chronicle  of  events  and  the  list  of  magis- 
trates to  the  first  year  of  the  republic.  But  these 
records,  at  any  rate  in  their  earlier  portions,  were  in 
no  sense  contemporary  authorities.  They  were 
compiled,  probably  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  out 
of  a  mass  of  confused  tradition,  which  the  compilers 
have  only  imperfectly  succeeded  in  reducing  to 
order.  Moreover,  what  we  know  of  the  nature  of 
these  official  records  makes  it  certain  that  a  great 
part  of  what  Livy  or  Dionysius  tells  us  about  the 
early  republic  cannot  have  been  directly  or  in- 
directly derived  from  them.  It  is  evident  that  not 
only  were  they  often  altogether  silent  where  Livy 
and  Dionysius  have  much  to  say,  but  their  notices 
of  events  were  of  the  most  concise  and  meagre  kind. 
If  they  furnished  the  bare  outlines  of  the  story,  the 
wealth  of  episode,  with  which  these  outlines  have 
been  filled  in,  must  have  come  from  elsewhere,  and 
mainly,  no  doubt,  from  popular  tradition.  The 
early  struggle  for  existence  which  the  infant  republic 
waged  with  her  neighbours  had  left  behind  it  an 
ample  legacy  of  border  legends,  tales  of  feuds  and 
forays,  of  valiant  chiefs  and  heroic  deeds,  which  were 
told  and  retold  among  the  people,  and  cherished  with 
especial  care  by  the  great  patrician  houses.  Nor  was 
the  great  domestic  conflict  between  patricians  and 
plebeians  without  its  own  stories  of  patricians  who 
loved  the  people   or  oppressed   them,  of  resolute 


Ch.  1]         Foundation  of  the  Republic.  47 

tribunes,  of  secessions  and  reconciliations.  To  piece 
together  these  stray  stories,  and  to  fit  them  into  the 
rude  framework  supplied  by  the  official  records,  was 
a  work  of  time,  and  by  each  writer  who  took  part 
in  the  work  something  was  added  with  the  view  of 
removing  inconsistencies,  supplying  omissions,  or 
simply  of  giving  life  and  colour  to  the  narrative. 
And  this  tendency  to  retouch  and  even  to  recast 
the  old  material  became  gradually  stronger.  The 
chroniclers  of  the  first  century  B.C.  possessed  an 
amount  of  literary  skill,  which  at  once  encouraged 
and  made  possible  a  freer  handling  of  the  traditions. 
L.  Calpurnius  Piso,  tribune  in  149  B.C.  and  consul  in 
133  B.C.,  prided  himself  on  reducing  the  old  legends 
to  the  level  of  common-sense,  and  importing  into 
them  valuable  moral  lessons  for  his  own  generation. 
By  Caelius  Antipater  the  methods  of  rhetoric  were 
first  applied  to  history,  a  disastrous  precedent 
enough.  He  inserted  speeches,  enlivened  his  pages 
with  chance  tales,  and  aimed,  as  Cicero  tells  us,  at 
not  merely  narrating  facts,  but  also  at  beautifying 
them.  His  successors  carried  still  farther  the  prac- 
tice of  dressing  up  the  rather  bald  chronicles  of 
earlier  writers  with  all  the  ornaments  of  rhetoric. 
The  old  traditions  were  altered  almost  beyond  the 
possibility  of  recognition  by.exaggerations,  interpo- 
lations, and  additions.  Fresh  incidents  were  inserted, 
new  motives  suggested,  and  speeches  composed  in 
order  to  infuse  the  required  life  and  freshness 
into  these  dry  bones  of  history.  At  the  same 
time  the  political  bias  of  the  writers  and  the 
political  ideas  of  their  day  were  allowed,  in  some 


48  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  ii 

cases  perhaps  half  unconsciously,  to  affect  their 
representations  of  past  events.  Annalists  of  the 
Gracchan  e^e  imported  into  the  early  struggles  of 
patricians  and  plebeians  the  economic  controversies 
of  their  own  day,  and  painted  the  first  tribunes  in 
the  colours  of  the  two  Gracchi  or  of  Satuminus.  In 
the  next  generation  they  dexterously  forced  the 
venerable  records  of  the  early  republic  to  pronounce 
in  favour  of  the  ascendency  of  the  senate,  as  estab- 
lished by  Sulla.  To  political  bias  was  added  family 
pride,  for  the  gratification  of  which  the  archives  of 
the  great  houses,  the  funeral  panegyrics,  or  the 
im^^nation  of  the  writer  himself  supplied  an  ample 
store  of  doubtful  material.  Pedigrees  were  invented, 
imaginary  consulships  and  fictitious  triumphs  in- 
serted, family  traditions  and  family  honours  were 
formally  incorporated  with  the  history  of  the  state. 
But,  in  spite  of  all  this,  a  history  of  the  first  two 
centuries  of  the  republic  is  possible  in  a  sense  in 
which  a  history  of  the  regal  period,  and  still  more  of 
the  mythical  period  which  preceded  it,  is  impossible. 
To  the  Roman  even  of  the  time  of  the  Punic 
wars  the  pre-republican  period  was  a  sort  of  ante- 
diluvian age,  separated  from  all  that  followed  by  a 
gap  which  no  tradition  completely  bridged  over, 
and  of  which  only  fossjl  relics,  ancient  monuments, 
or  ancient  institutions  remained  to  excite  the  wonder 
and  curiosity  of  later  generations.  But  the  early 
republic  was  connected  with  the  republic  of  Cicero 
by  a  close  and  unbroken  chain  of  continuity.  Proofs 
of  the  reality  of  its  conflicts  with  Volscians  and 
iEquians,  Etruscans  and  Gauls  abroad,  or  between 


Ch.  1]  Foundation  of  the  Republic.  49 

I  I  > 

patrician  and  plebeian  at  home  were  everywhere 
forthcoming,  and  the  descendants  of  the  chief  actors, 
Valerii,  Claudii,  and  Fabii,  still  sat  in  the  senate- 
house  or  led  the  legions.  Above  all,  in  the  consti- 
tution itself,  in  the  ancient  magistrates,  in  the  senate 
or  assembly,  and  in  the  venerable  statutes  which 
guarded  the  liberties  of  the  citizen,  or  protected  the 
privileges  of  the  plebs^  evidence  survived  by  which 
tradition  could  be  tested,  and  a  reconstruction  of 
the  old  political  fabric  made  possible.  We  do  not 
know, — it  is  not  likely  that  we  shall  ever  know, — 
how  the  revolution  which  ended  the  rule  of  kings  in 
Rome  was  effected,  nor  in  what  way  or  by  whom 
the  republican  government  was  established.  But 
the  substitution  of  two  annually  elected  chief  magis- 
trates for  the  single  king  is  a  fact  which  is  proved  by 
all  that  followed.  The  incidents  of  the  struggle 
between  the  orders,  the  personality  of  the  actors,  in 
many  cases  even  the  order  of  the  events,  are  doubtful 
and  uncertain ;  but  if  we  had  nothing  to  go  upon 
but  the  position  and  powers  of  the  tribunes  of  the 
plebs  in  the  days  of  the  Gracchi  or  of  Cicero,  we 
should  still  have  indubitable  evidence  that  .such  a 
struggle  must  have  taken  place.  The  same  is  the 
case  with  the  long  border  wars  between  Rome  and 
her  neighbours.  The  details  are  historically  worth- 
less, but  the  reality  of  the  wars,  the  gradual  advance 
of  Rome,  and  her  final  supremacy  are  beyond  the 
possibility  of  doubt. 

The  establishment  of  the  republic  took  place, 
according  to  Roman  chronology,  in  the  245th  year 
from  the  foundation  of  the  city,  or  120  years  before 


50  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  li 

the  sack  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls,  and  it  is  said  to 
have  followed  immediately  on  the  expulsion  of  the 
Theestab-  Tarquins.  But  the  date  (509  B.C.)  thus 
of  thi"*  assigned  to  the  "  year  one  "  of  the  republic 
repttbiic.  ^j^g  evidently  conjectural,  and  it  is  very 
possible  that  the  change  from  kings  to  consuls 
was  only  gradually  made.  However  this  may  be, 
as  to  the  form  of  government  finally  established, 
possibly  towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  B.C., 
there  is  no  room  for  doubt.  The  supreme  execu- 
tive authority,  hitherto  wielded  by  the  single  king 
for  life,  was  now  transferred  to  two  annually 
appointed  magistrates,  who  jointly  exercised  for  the 
year  the  powers  {imperiuni)  of  the  king,  and  who 
were  styled  fratores  (leaders = Greek  (Trparrfyoi)^ 
or  possibly  pratores  consules  (="  joint  leaders").' 
There  was  not,  however,  any  diminution  of  the 
kingly  prerogative,  nor,  strictly  speaking,  any 
division  of  authority  between  the  two  praetor- 
consuls.  They  inherited  the  "regal  imperium"*  in 
all  its  plenitude,  and  each  consul  could  singly  exer- 
cise  all  the  prerogatives  attached  to  it.  It  was  in 
the  dual  character  of  the  new  magistracy,  and  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  held  only  for  a  year,  that,  to  use 


'  That  the  consuls  were  originally  styled  pratores  is  expressly 
asserted  by  Varro  ^/.  Nonium^  p.  23,  and  Livy,  iii.,  55;comp.  Cicero, 
De  Leg,^  iii.,  3,  8.  The  same  title  was  borne  by  the  chief  magis- 
trates in  many  of  the  Latin  communities.  When  additional /r<;/<;r/j 
(praior  urbanus-peregrinus)  were  appointed,  the  two  origrinally 
pratores  seem  to  have  been  distinguished  as  maximi.  Hence 
Polybius'  equivalent  for  **  consuls  "  is  either  arparrjyoi  viraroi  (= 
^atores  maximt)^  or  simply  (^rot 

•  Cic,  Di  Leg,^  iii.,  3,  8,  **  regio  imperio  duo  sunt.** 


Ch.  1]  Foundation  of  the  Republic.  5 1 

Livy's  phrase,  the  "  beginnings  of  liberty  "  consisted.' 
It  is  characteristic  of  Rome  that  this  change  was 
made  with  the  least  possible  disturbance  of  existing 
forms.  Not  only  was  the  title  of  king  retained, 
though  merely  as  that  of  a  priestly  officer  {rex  sacro- 
rum\  but  the  consuls  were  always  regarded  as 
holding  this  imperiuniy  and  the  right  of  taking  the 
auspices  by  direct  and  continuous  transmission  from 
Romulus  himself.  Morever,  though  they  were 
rather  elected  or  "  desig^nated  "  by  a  new  assembly, 
by  the  army  of  landholders  voting  by  their  classes 
and  centuries  {camitia  centuriata\  yet  it  was  still 
by  a  vote  of  the  thirty  curug  {lex  curiata)  that  the 
supreme  authority  was  formally  conferred  upon 
them,  and  this  vote  of  the  curia  had  still  to  be  rati- 
fied by  the  council  of  patres  {patrum  auctaritas). 
In  the  position  and  powers  of  the  senate  no  forma] 
change  was  made,  although  it  is  probable  that  before 
long  plebeians  were  admitted  to  seats,  and  though 
its  importance  was  gradually  increased  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  an  annual  magistracy  for  the  life-long 
rule  of  a  single  king.  Even  the  ancient  assembly  of 
the  people  by  their  curia,  though  cast  into  the  shade 
by  the  new  centuriate  assembly,  to  which  the  desig- 
nation of  the  consuls  and  the  passing  of  laws 
now  passed,  continued  to  meet,  and,  as  has  been 
said,  to  confer  the  imperiutn  under  the  old  forms 
upon  the  magistrates  designated  by  the  centuries. 

But  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy  brought  with 
it  a  change  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the  actual 
working  of  the  constitution.     Though  the  distinction 

*  Livy,  iL,  i. 


52  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  li 

between  patricians  and  plebeians  was  at  least  as  old 
as  the  state  itself,  it  was  not  until  the  establishment 
Patricians  ^'  ^^^  republic  that  it  played  any  part 
beUna^the  ^^  ^^^  history  of  Romc.  No  sooner,  how- 
tween  the*'  ^vcr,  was  the  overshadowing  authority  of 
orden.  ^j^^  j^jj^g  removed  than  a  struggle  com- 

menced between  the  two  orders,  which  lasted  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  It  was  in  no  sense  a 
struggle  between  a  conquering  and  a  conquered 
class,  or  between  an  exclusive  citizen  body  and  an 
unenfranchised  mass  outside  its  pale.  Patricians 
and  plebeians  were  equally  citizens  of  Rome,  sprung 
of  the  same  race  and  speaking  the  same  tongue. 
The  former  were  the  members  of  those  ancient 
gentes  which  had  possibly  been  once  the  leading 
families  in  the  small  communities  which  preceded 
the  united  state,  and  which  claimed  by  hereditary 
right  a  privileged  position  in  the  .community.  Only 
patricians  could  sit  in  the  council  of  patreSy  and 
hence,  probably,  the  name  given  to  their  order.*  To 
their  representatives  the  supreme  authority  reverted 
on  the  death  of  the  king ;  the  due  transmission  of 
the  auspicia  and  the  public  worship  of  the  state  gods 
were  their  special  care;  and  to  them  alone  were 
known  the  traditional  usages  and  forms  which  regu- 
lated the  life  of  the  people  from  day  to  day.  To 
the //<f^j  (the  multitude,  TcXrjdo^)  belonged  all  who 
were  not  members  of  some  patrician  gens,  whether 
independent  freemen  or  attached  as  **  clients  "*  to  one 


>  C/.  adiUs,  adilicius,  etc. ;  Cic,  De  Hep.,  ii.,  12  ;  Livy,  i.,  8.  For 
a  full  discussion  of  other  views,  see  Soltau,  179  sg,  ;  Christensen, 
Hermes^  ix.,  196. 

'  For  the  clUntela,  sec  Mommsen  (Forsch. ,  i.)  and  Schwegler,  i. ,  638. 


Ch,  11     The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.        53 

of  the  great  houses.  The  plebeian  was  a  citizen, 
"with  civil  rights  and  a  vote  in  the  assembly,  but  he 
was  excluded  by  ancient  custom  from  all  share  in 
the  higher  honours  of  the  state,  and  intermarriage 
with  a  patrician  was  not  recognised  as  a  properly 
legal  union.' 

The  revolution  which  expelled  the  Tarquins  gave 
the  patricians  an  overwhelming  ascendency  in  .the 
state.  Th^plebs  had  indeed  gained  something.  Not 
only  is  it  probable  that  the  strictness  of  the  old  tie  of 
clientship  had  somewhat  relaxed,  and  that  the  number 
of  the  clientes  was  smaller,  and  their  dependence  on 
patrician  patrons  less  complete,  but  the  ranks  of  the 
plebs  had,  under  the  later  kings,  been  swelled  by  the 
admission  of  conquered  Latins,  and  the  landholders 
among  these  had  with  others  been  enrolled  in  the 
Servian  tribes,  classes,  and  centuries.  The  estab- 
lishment of  the  republic  invested  this  military  levy 
of  landholders  with  political  rights  as  an  assembly, 
for  by  their  votes  the  consuls  were  chosen  and  laws 
passed,  and  it  was  the  plebeian  landholders  who 
formed  the  main  strength  of  the  plebs  in  the  struggle 
that  followed.  But  these  gains  were  greater  in  ap- 
pearance than  in  reality.  The  plebeian  landholders 
commanded  only  a  minority  of  votes  in  the  comitia 
centuriata.  In  their  choice  of  magistrates  they  were 
limited  to  the  patrician  candidates  nominated  by 
patrician  presiding  magistrates,  and  their  choice 
required  confirmation  not  only  by  the  older  and 
smaller  assembly  of  the  curicBy  in  which  the  patricians 
and  their  clients  predominated,  but  also  by  the  pa- 
trician patres.     They  could  only,  vote  on  laws  pro- 

*  I.e,  the  children  ranked  as  plebeian,  even  if  the  father  was  patrician. 


54  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBook  li 

posed  }gY  patrician  consuls,  and  here  again  the  sub- 
sequent sanction  of  the  patres  was  necessary.  Thd 
whole  procedure  of  the  comitia  was  absolutely  in  the 
hands  of  their  patrician  presidents,  and  liable  to 
every  sort  of  interruption  and  suspension  from  pa- 
trician pontiffs  and  augurs. 

But  these  political  disabilities  did  not  constitute 
the  main  grievance  of  ihe/fU6s  in  the  early  years  of 
the  republic.  What  they  fought  for  was  protection 
for  their  lives  and  liberties,  and  the  object  of  attack 
was  the  despotic  authority  of  the  patrician  magis- 
trates. The  consuls  wielded  the  full  imperium  of 
the  kings.  Against  this  "  consular  authority  '*  the 
plebeian,  though  a  citizen,  had  no  protection  or 
appeal,  and  matters  were  only  worse  when  for  the 
two  consuls  was  substituted  in  some  emergency  a 
single,  all-powerful,  irresponsible  dictator.  In  Rome, 
as  in  Greece,  the  first  efforts  of  the  people  were 
directed  against  the  arbitrary  powers  of  the  exec- 
utive magistrate. 

The  history  of  this  struggle  between  the  orders 
opens  with  a  concession  said  to  have  been  made  to  the 
//f^f  by  one  of  theconsuls  themselves,  a  con- 
de*  Provoca^  cession  possibly  due  to  a  desire  to  secure  the 
allegiance  of  the  plebeian  landholders,  who 
formed  the  backbone  of  the  army.  In  the  very  first 
year  of  the  republic,  according  to  the  received  chro- 
nology, P.  Valerius  Poplicola  carried  in  the  comitia 
centuriata  his  famous  law  of  appeal.*  It  enacted 
that  no  magistrate,  saving  only  a  dictator,  should 


*  Livy,  ii.,  8,  Le^  Valeria  <U  Pravocatione ;  Cic,  De  Rep,^  ii.,  31; 
</.  Liry,  iii,  ao. 


Ch,  11      The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.        55 

execute  a  capital  sentence  upon  any  Roman  citizen, 
unless  the  sentence  had  been  confirmed  on  appeal  by 
the  assembly  of  the  centuries.  But,  though  the 
"  right  of  appeal "  granted  by  this  law  was  justly 
regarded  in  later  times  as  the  greatest  safeguard  of 
a  Roman's  liberties,  it  was  by  no  means  at  first  so 
eflfective  a  protection  as  it  afterwards  became.*  For 
not  only  was  the  operation  of  the  law  limited  to  the 
bounds  of  the  city,  so  that  the  consul  in  the  field  or 
on  the  march  was  left  as  absolute  as  before,  but  no 
security  was  provided  for  its  observance  even  within 
the  city  by  consuls  resolved  to  disregard  it. 

It  was  by  their  own  efforts  that  the  plebeians  first 
obtained  any  real  protection  against  magisterial  des- 
potism. The  traditional  accounts  of  the 
first  secession  are  confused  and  contra-  JSmSoo 
dictory,"  but  its  causes  and  results  are  triSSnau. 
tolerably  clear.  The  seceders  were  the 
plebeian  legionaries  recently  returned  from  a  victori- 
ous campaign.  Indignant  at  the  delay  of  the  prom- 
ised reforms,  they  ignored  the  order  given  them  to 
march  afresh  against  Volsci  and  i£qui,  and  instead 
entrenched  themselves  on  a  hill  across  the  Anio, 
some  three  miles  from  Rome,  and  known  afterwards 
as  the  Mons  Sacer.  The  frightened  patricians  came 
to  terms,  and  a  solemn  agreement  (lex  sacratay 
was  concluded  between  the  orders,  by  which  it  was 
provided  that  henceforth  the  plebeians  should  have 
annual  magistrates  of  their  own  {tribuni plebis\  mem- 
bers of  their  own  order,  who  should  be  authorised  to 

*  Greenidge,  Z^gal  Procedure  of  Cicem^s  Timi,  pp.  344  sg, 

*  Schwegler,  ii. ,  229  sf. 

*  Schwegler,  ii.,  251,  note ;  Liry,  i..  33. 


56  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      IBook  n 

protect  them  against  the  consuls,'  and  a  curse  was  in- 
voked upon  the  man  who  should  injure  or  impede 
the  tribune  in  the  performance  of  his  duties.*  The 
number  of  tribunes  was  at  first  two,  then 
five,  and  before  449  B.C.  it  had  been  raised 
to  ten.  The  fact  that  the  institution  of  the  tribunate 
of  ^^pUbs  was  the  one  result  of  the  first  secession, 
is  strong  evidence  that  the  object  of  the  seceders 
was  not  economic  or  agrarian  reform,  but  protection 
against  the  consuls.  The  tribunate  gave  them  this 
protection  in  a  form  which  has  no  parallel  in  history. 
The  tribune  was  not,  and,  strictly  speaking,  never 
became,  a  magistrate  of  the  Roman  people.  His  one 
proper  prerogative  was  that  of  granting  protection 
to  the  oppressed  plebeian  against  a  patrician  officer. 
This  prerogative  (^jus  auxilit)  was  secured  to  the 
tribunes,  not  by  the  ordinary  constitution,  but  by  a 
special  compact  between  the  orders,  and  was  pro- 
tected by  the  ancient  oath  (vetus  jusjurandufn)^ 
which  invoked  a  curse  upon  the  violator  of  a  tribune. 
This  exceptional  and  anomalous  right  the  tribunes 
could  only  exercise  in  person,  within  the  limits  of  the 
pomosrium^  and  against  individual  acts  of  magisterial 
oppression.*  It  was  only  gradually  that  it  expanded 
into  the  later  wide  power  of  interference  with  the 
whole  machinery  of  government,  and  was  supple- 
mented by  the  legislative  and  judicial  powers  which 
rendered  the  tribunate  of  the  last  century  B.C.  so 

'  Cic,  De  Rep,^  ii.,  34,  **  contra  consular e  imperium  creaH,** 

«  Livy,  iii.,  55. 

»  Festus,.3i8  ;  Appian.  B,  C,  i.,  138. 

*  Gell.,  xiii.,  12,  "  ui  injuria  qua  coram  JUret  arcereturj* 


Ch.  1]       The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.         57 

f ormidable^  and  the  tribunicta  potestas  so  essential  an 
element  in  the  authority  of  the  emperors. 

But  from  the  first,  the  tribunes  were  for  th^plebs  not 
only  protectors  but  leaders,  under  whom  they  oi^an- 
ised  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  patri- 

,  t  M  f  *  LcxPubliUa. 

cians.  It  was  the  tribunes  who  convened  as- 
semblies of  th^plebs  {concilia  plebis\  and  carried  res- 
olutions on  questions  of  interest  to  the  order.  This 
incipient  plebeian  organisation  was  materially  ad- 
vanced by  the  Publilian  law  of  471  B.C., ' 
which  appears  to  have  formally  recognised 
as  lawful  the  plebeian  concilia^  and  established  also  the 
tribune's  right  cum  pUbe  agere^  i.  e.  to  propose  and 
carry  resolutions  in  them.  These  assemblies  were  trib- 
uta,  or,  in  other  words,  the  voting  in  them  took  place 
not  by  curies  or  centuries,  but  by  tribes.  In  them, 
lastly,  after  the  Publilian  law,  if  not  before,  the  trib- 
unes were  annually  elected."  Thus  the  foundations 
were  laid  of  that  plebeian  organisation,  with  its  ple- 
beian magistrates,  assembly  {concilium  plebis\  and 
resolutions  {plebiscita\  which  was  in  after  days  to 
become  the  strongest  force  in  the  state. 

For  the  time,  however,  the  plebs  used  the  right 
granted  them  of  free  meeting  and  discus-  Agrarian 
sion,andof  freely  chbosingtheir  own  leaders  »g»tation. 
for  purposes  of  immediate  importance  to  themselves. 

Tradition  is  possibly  right  in  dating  from  this 
period   the   commencement  of   the   long-continued 

>  Livy,  ii.,  56,  60 ;  Dionysius,  ix.,  41  ;  Schwegler,  if.,  541 ;  Soltau, 

493. 
*  For  theories  as  to  the  original  mode  of  appointing  tribunes,  see 

Mommsen,  Forsch,^  i.,  185. 


58  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [BookN 

quarrel  as  to  the  disposal  of  the  "  common  lands  " 
[agri  publici)  of  the  state.  The  extent  of  these 
was  rapidly  increasing  as  Roman  dominion  extended, 
but  the  new  lands  had  been  reserved  for  the  enjoy- 
ment  of  patricians  alone.  Against  this  monopoly 
the  plebs  protested,  and  demanded  that  a  fair  share 
of  these  lands  should  be  assigned  in  small  holdings 
to  the  plebeians,  who  had  helped  to  win  them. 

But  this  agrarian  agitation,  though  destined  sub- 

The       sequently  to  play  an  important  part  in  the 

decemvirate.  histofy,  was  for  the  time  far  less  fruitful 

in  results  than  the  attack  which  was  now  renewed 

against  the  consular  authority. 

The  proposal  of  C.  Terentilius  Arsa  (460  B.C.)  to 
appoint  a  plebeian  commission  to  draw 
up  laws  restricting  the  powers  of  the  con- 
suls '  was  resolutely  opposed  by  the  patricians,  but 
after  ten  years  of  bitter  party  strife  a  compromise 
was  effected.  A  commission  of  ten  patricians  was 
appointed,  who  should  frame  and  publish  a  code  of 
law  binding  equally  on  both  the  orders.  These  de- 
cemviri  were  to  be  the  sole  and  supreme  magistrates 
for  the  year,  and  the  law  of  appeal  was  suspended  in 
their  favour.*  The  code  which  they  promulgated,  the 
famous  XII.  Tables,  owed  little  of  its  importance  to 
any  novelties  or  improvements  contained  in  its  pro. 
visions.  For  the  most  part  it  seems  merely  to  have 
reaffirmed  existing  usages  and  laws.  But  it  substi- 
tuted  a  public,  written  code,  binding  on  all  citizens 
of  Rome,  for  an  unwritten  usage,  the  knowledge  of 

'  Livy,  iii,  9. 
•  Livy,  ill.,  3a, 


Ch.  n      The  druggie  between  the  Orders.         59 

which  was  confined  to  a  few  patricians,  and  which 
had  been  administered  by  this  minority  in  their  own 
interests.  With  the  publication  of  the  code  the 
proper  work  of  the  decemvirs  was  finished ;  never- 
theless for  the  next  year  a  fresh  decemvirate  was 
elected,  and  it  is  conceivable  that  the  intention  was 
permanently  to  substitute  government  by  an  irre- 
sponsible patrician  "  council  of  ten  "  for  the  old  con- 
stitution. However  this  may  have  been,  the  tyranny 
of  the  decemvirs  themselves  was  fatal  to  the  con- 
tinuance of  their  power.  We  are  told  of  a  second 
secession  of  the  plebSy  this  time  to  the  Janiculum, 
and  of  negotiations  with  the  senate,  the  result  of 
which  was  the  enforced  abdication  of  the  decemvirs. 
The  plebs  joyfully  chose  for  themselves  tribunes, 
and  in  the  contitia  centuriata  two  consuls  were 
created.  But  this  restoration  of  the  old  rigime  was 
accompanied  by  legislation  which  made  it 
an  important  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Horatian 
struggle  beween  the  orders.  With  the 
fall  of  the  decemvirate  this  struggle  enters  upon  a 
new  phase.  The  tribunes  appear  as  at  once  more 
powerful  and  more  strictly  constitutional  magis- 
trates ;  the  plebeian  concilia  take  their  place  by  the 
side  of  the  older  assemblies ;  and,  finally,  this  im- 
proved machinery  is  used  not  simply  in  self-defence 
against  patrician  oppression,  but  to  obtain  complete 
political  equality.  This  change  was  no  doubt  due 
in  part  to  circumstances  outside  legislation,  above 
all  to  the  expansion  of  the  Roman  state,  which 
swelled  the  numbers  and  added  to  the  social  import- 
ance of  the  plebs  as  con^  pared  with  the  dwindling 


6o  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       LBook  ii 

forces  of  the  close  corporation  of  patrician  gentes. 
But  the  legislation  ascribed  to  the  consuls  of  449 
B.C.  involved  more  than  a  restoration  of  the  old  form 
of  government.  One  of  their  laws  was  plainly  in- 
tended to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  an  irresponsible 
tyranny,  such  as  that  of  the  decemvirs.  It  reaf- 
firmed the  right  of  appeal  granted  by  the  Valerian 
law.*  But  it  is  to  the  others  that  the  chief  interest 
attaches.  The  first  of  them  enacted  that,  whereas  it 
had  been  ^  subject  of  dispute  whether  a  resolution 
carried  by  Xh^plebs  in  their  own  assembly  could  bind 
patricians,  for  the  future — "  what  the  plebs  enacted 
by  their  tribes  should  bind  the  people.""  That 
these  words  of  Livy  do  not  accurately  state  the  pur- 
port of  the  law  is  generally  agreed.  It  is  utterly 
improbable  that  in  449  B.C.  plebiscita  should  have 
been  given,  at  once  and  without  conditions,  the  force 
of  law ;  but  what  the  conditions  imposed  were  it  is 
impossible  to  say,  though  it  is  probable  that  among 
them  was  the  requirement  that  the  plebiscite  should 
be  ratified  by  the  authority  of  the  patres.  In  any 
case,  however,  the  measure  provided  that,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  the  hitherto  informal  resolutions 
of  the  informal  concilium  of  \!ci^  plebs  might  pass  into 
law%  It  thus  paved  the  way  for  the  establishment  of  a 
plebeian  machinery  of  legislation,  and  for  the  recog- 
nition of  the  plebeian  magistrates  and  plebeian  assem- 
blies as  part  of  the  constitution  of  the  state.  In  the 
same  spirit,  by  another  Valerio-Horatian  statute,  the 

^  Livy,  iii.,   55,   **  ne  quis   ullum  magisiratum   sine  ^roifocatunu 
crearei,** 

*  Livy,  ib,f  ^*  quod  tributim ^Ubs  jussisset  fopulufti^  tenrret" 


Ch.  1]      The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.         6l 

— ' 

inviolability  of  the  tribunes,  which  had  hitherto  been 
secured  only  by  the  oath  of  the  plebs  to  maintain  it, 
was  now  guaranteed  by  law,*  and  the  tribunes  thus 
placed  in  this  respect  on  a  level  with  the  magistrates 
of  the  state.  Finally,  by  a  plebiscite,  the  first  passed 
under  the  new  conditions,  the  permanency  of  the 
tribunate  was  secured.*  The  plebeian  organisation 
was  no  longer  merely  tolerated,  it  was  recognized  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  constitution.  Its  efficiency 
was  amply  proved  by  the  events  that  followed.  Only  a 
few  years  after  the  Valerio-Horatian  legis-LcxCanuicia. 
lation  came  the  Lex  Canuleia,  itself  a  pie-  309A.U.C. 
biscite  (445  B.C.),  by  which  mixed  marriages  between 
patricians  and  plebeians  were  declared  lawful,  and  the 
social  exclusiveness  of  the  patriciate  broken  down. 
In  the  same  year  with  this  measure,  and,  like  it,  in 
the  interests  primarily   of  the   wealthier  Legret 

plebeians,  a  vigorous  attack  commenced  sexule! 

on  the  patrician  monopoly  of  the  consu-  387A.U.C. 
late,  and  round  this  stronghold  of  patrician  ascend- 
ency the  conflict  raged  until  the  passing  of  the 
Licinian  laws  in  367  B.C.  The  original  proposal  of 
Canuleius  in  445  B.C.,  that  the  people  should  be 
allowed  to  elect  a  plebeian  consul,  was  evaded  by  a 
compromise.  The  senate  resolved  that  for  the  next 
year,  in  the  stead  of  consuls,  six  military  tribunes 
with  consular  powers  should  be  elected,  and  that 
the  new  office  should  be  open  to  patricians  and  ple- 


'/<>.,"  reUgione  inviolatos  lege  etiam  fecerunt»^ 
*  Ib.f  "  quij^lebem  sine  tHbunU  rdiquUsH    .     ,    ,     tergo  ae  cafiU 
punireiur,** 


62  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  II 

beians  alike.    The  consulship  was  thus  for  the  time 

saved  from  pollution,  as  the  patricians  phrased  it,  but 

the  grrowing  strength  of  the  plebs  is  shown  by  the 

fact  that  in  fifty  years  out  of  the  seventy- 

3x0-88  A.U.C. 

eight,  between  444  and   366  B.C.,  they 
succeeded  in  obtaining  the    election    of    consular 
tribunes  rather  than  of  consuls.    A  good  omen  for 
their  ultimate  success  was  a  victory  they  won  in  con- 
nection with  the  inferior  office  of  the  quaestorship. 
Down  to  the  time  of  the  decemvirate  the  quaestors 
had  been  nominated  by  the  consuls,  but 
in  447  B.C.  their  appointment  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  plebeian  comitia  tributay  and  in  421  B.C. 
the  first  plebeian  was  elected  to  the  office.* 
Despite,  however,  these  discouragements, 
the  patricians  fought  on.     Each  year  they  strove  to 
secure  the  creation  of  consuls  rather  than  consular 
tribunes,  and  failing  this  strained  every  nerve  to 
secure  for  their  own  order  at  least  a  majority  among 
the  latter.     Even  the  institution  of  the 
censorship   (435    B.C.),    though   rendered 
desirable  by  the  increasing  importance  and   com- 
plexity of  the  census,  was,  it  is  probable,  due  in  part 
to  their  desire  to  discount  beforehand  the  threatened 
loss  of  the  consulship  by  diminishing  its  powers.' 
Other  causes,  too,  helped  to  protract  the  struggle. 
Between  the  wealthier  plebeians,  who  were  ambitious 
of  high  office,  and  the  poorer,  whose  minds  were  set 


^  On  the  question  of  the  identity  of  these  comiiia  tributa  with  the 
concilium  pubis ^  see  Diet,  Antiq,^  s.  v.  **  Comitia** 
'  Livy,  iv.,  43;  Mommsen,  Staatsrecht^  ii.,  497, 
'  Mommsen,  >'^,,  304. 


CN.  1]      The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.         63 

rather  on  allotments  of  land,  there  was  a  division  of 
interest  of  which  the  patricians  were  not  slow  to  take 
advantage,  and  to  this  circumstance  must  be  added 
the  pressure  of  war.  The  death  struggle  with  Veii 
and  the  sack  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls  absorbed  for  the 
time  all  the  energies  of  the  community. 

vn  A  U  C 

In  377  B.C.,  however,  two  of  the  tribunes, 
C.  Licinius  Stolo  and  L.  Sextius,  came  forward  with 
proposals  which  united  all  sections  of  the  plebs  in 
their  support.     Their  proposals  were  as  follows  * :  (i) 
that  consuls  and  not  consular  tribunes  be  elected; 

(2)  that  one  consul  at  least  should  be  a  plebeian ; 

(3)  that  the  priestly  college,  which  had  the  charge  of 
the  Sibylline  books,  should  consist  of  ten  members 
instead  of  two,  and  that  of  these  half  should  be 
plebeians ;  (4)  that  no  single  citizen  should  hold  in 
occupation  more  than  500  acres  of  the  common  lands, 
or  pasture  upon  them  more  than  100  head  of  cattle 
and  500  sheep';  (5)  that  all  landowners  should  em- 
ploy a  certain  amount  of  free  as  well  as  slave  labour 
on  their  estates ;  (6)  that  interest  already  paid  on 
debts  should  be  deducted  from  the  principal,  and 
the  remainder  paid  off  in  three  years.  The  last  three 
proposals  were  obviously  intended  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  the  poorer  plebeians,  and  to  secure  their 
support  for  the  first  half  of  the  scheme. 

Ten  years  of  bitter  conflict  followed,  but 
at  last,  in  367  B.C.  the  Licinian  rogations  became  law, 
and  one  of  their  authors,  L.  Sextius,  was  created  the 
first  plebeian  consul.     For  the  moment  it  was  some 

'  Livy,  vi.,  35,  42  ;  Appian,  B,  C,  i.,  8. 

*  0:i  the  real  date  of  this  provision,  see  below,  p.  209, 


64  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       iBook  11 

consolation  to  the  patricians  that  they  not  only  suc- 
ceeded in  detaching  from  the  consulship  the  admin- 
istration of  civil  law,  which  was  entrusted  to  a 
separate  officer,  prcetor  urbanus^  to  be  elected  by 
the  comitia  of  the  centuries,  with  an  understanding 
apparently  that  he  should  be  a  patrician,  but  also 
obtained  the  institution  of  two  additional  cediles 
{cediles  curules)y  who  were  in  like  manner  to  be  mem- 
bers of  their  own  order.'  With  the  opening  of  the 
consulship,  however,  the  issue  of  the  long  contest 
was  virtually  decided,  and  the  next  eighty  years 
witnessed    a    rapid   succession    of    plebeian    victo- 

openins  of  ^^^^'  Now  that  a  plebeian  consul  might 
thomagis-  preside  at  the  elections,  the  main  diffi- 
tracies.  culty  in  the  way  of  the   nomination  and 

election  of  plebeian  candidates  was  removed. 
The  propoised  patrician  monopoly  of  the  new 
curule  aedileship  was  almost  instantly  abandoned. 
398  A.u.c.  In  356  B.C.  the  first  plebeian  was  made  dic- 
tator, in  350  B.C.  the  censorship,  and  in  337 
404-X7  A.u.c.  3  Q^  |.jjg  praetorship  were  filled  for  the  first 

time  by  plebeians,  and  lastly,  in  300  B.C.,  by 
the  Lex  Ogulnia,  even  the  sacred  colleges 
of  the  pontiffs  and  augurs,  the  old  strongholds  of 
patrician  supremacy,  were  thrown  open  to  th^plebs,* 
A  no  less  important  victory  was  that  which  formally 
secured  the  independence  of  the  people  in  assembly. 
From  the  first  the  acts  both  of  the  people  in  the  co^ 
mitia  of  centuries,  and  of  the/Zf^j  in  ^€\r  concilium 
had  required  ratification  by  the/^/r^j,  and  this  check 

*  Livy,  vi.,  42. 

•  Livy,  vii.,  17,  22  ;  viii.,  15  ;  ix.,  6. 


Ch*  13      The  druggie  between  the  Orders.         65 

on  the  people's  freedom  of  action  was  rightly  regarded 
by  the  patricians  as  one  of  the  main  supports  of  their 
ascendency.*  But  in  339  B.C.  a  plebeian 
dictator,  Q.  Publilius  Philo,  carried  a  law 
enacting  that  in  the  case  of  measures  proposed  in 
the  contitia  centuriata^  the  auctoritas  patrum  should 
be  given  beforehand.*  A  Lex  Maenia,  of  uncertain 
date,  extended  the  rule  to  elections  in  the  same 
assembly.  By  another  law  of  Publilius,  followed 
some  fifty  years  later  by  the  famous  Lex  lcx  Horten. 
Hortensia,  the  plebeian  concilium  was  also  •*»»467A.u.c. 
emancipated  from  the  control  of  the/^/r^j.*  Thence- 
forward the  auctoritas  patrum  became  a  meaningless 
form  of  words  hurried  over,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
before  the  voting  began.*  From  287  B.C., 
the  year  in  which  the  Hortensian  law  was 
carried,  not  only  the  acts  of  thtpopulus  in  the  contitia 
of  the  centuries,  but  those  of  the/Zf^j  in  the  concilium 
plebiSf  were  valid  and  binding  without  reference  to  any 
other  authority  in  the  state.  So  far  as  the  law  could 
do  it,  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  in  election  and 
legislation  was  secured.  With  the  passing  of  the 
Lex  Hortensia  the  long  struggle  between  the  orders 
came  to  an  end.     The  ancient  patrician  gentes  re- 

•  Cic. ,  De  Rep. ,  ii. ,  32  ;  Pro  Plancio^  iii. ,  8.  Whether  by  patra  we 
are  to  understand  the  senate  as  a  whole,  or  only  the  patrician  sena- 
tors, is  a  disputed  point.     See  Diet.  Antiq.^  s,v.  Senatus. 

•  Livy,  viii.,  12,  **«/  .  .  .  ante  initum  suffragium  patres  auctorei 
fierent,**  cf,  Livy,  i.,  17.  For  the  Lex  Maenia,  see  Cic,  Brut,,  14; 
Soltau,  112. 

•  Livy,  viii.,  12  ;  for  the  Lex  Hortensia,  see  Plin.,  N.  H.^  XTi.,  10; 
Cell.,  XY.,  27  ;  Gains,  i„  3. 

«  Livy,  L,  17. 


66  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       \Book  ii 

mained,  but  the  exclusive  privileges  of  the  patriciate 
as  a  ruling  order  were  gone.  For  the  great  offices 
of  state  and  for  seats  in  the  senate  the  plebeians 
were  by  law  equally  eligible  with  patricians.  The 
assemblies,  whether  of  people  or  plebs^  were  indepen- 
dent of  patrician  control.  In  private  life  inter-mar- 
riages between  patricians  and  plebeians  were  recog- 
nised as  lawful,  and  entailed  no  disabilities  on  the 
children.  Finally,  great  as  continued  to  be  the 
prestige  attaching  to  patrician  birth,  and  prominent 
as  was  the  part  played  in  the  subsequent  history  by 
individual  patricians  and  by  some  of  the  patrician 
houses,  the  plebs  were  now  in  numbers  and  even  in 
wealth  the  preponderant  section  of  the  people. 
Whatever  struggles  might  arise  in  the  future,  a 
second  struggle  between  patricians  and  plebeians 
was  an  impossibility.  Such  being  the  case,  it  might 
have  been  expected  that  the  separate  organisation, 
to  which  the  victory  of  the  pUbs  was  largely 
due,  would,  now  that  the  reason  for  its  existence 
was  gone,  have  disappeared.  Had  this  happened, 
the  history  of  the  republic  might  have  been  dif- 
ferent. As  it  was,  this  plebeian  machinery — the 
plebeian  tribunes,  assemblies,  and  resolutions — sur- 
vived untouched,  and  lived  to  play  a  decisive  part 
in  a  new  conflict,  not  between  patricians  and  ple- 
beians, but  between  a  governing  class,  itself  mainly 
plebeian,  and  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  finally  to 
place  at  the  head  of  the  state  a  patrician  Caesar. 
Nor  was  the  promise  of  a  genuine  democracy,  offered 
by  the  opening  of  the  magistracies  and  by  the  Hor- 
tensian  law,  fulfilled.      For  one  hundred  and  fifty 


Ch.  1]      The  Struggle  between  the  Orders.         67 

years  afterwards  the  drift  of  events  was  in  the 
opposite  direction,  and  when  the  popular  leaders 
of  the  first  century  B.C.  endeavoured  to  make  gov- 
ernment by  the  people  a  reality,  it  was  already  too 
late. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CONQUEST  OF  ITALY. 

The  period  occupied  by  the  struggle  between  the 
orders  is  also  that  during  which  Rome  slowly  ad- 
vanced to  supremacy  in  Italy,  for  it  was  only  twelve 
years  after  the  passing  of  the  Lex  Hortensia  that  the 
repulse  of  King  Pyrrhus  left  her  the  mistress  of  the 
peninsula.  The  steps  by  which  this  supremacy  was 
won  have  now  to  be  traced.  Under  the  rule  of  her 
Etruscan  princes  Rome  had  spread  her  sway  over  the 
lowlands  of  Latium,  and  her  arms  were  a  terror  to 
the  warlike  highlanders  of  the  Sabine  and  Volscian 
hills.  But  with  their  fall  this  miniature  empire  fell 
also,  and  at  first  it  seemed  as  if  the  infant  republic, 
torn  by  internal  dissensions,  must  succumb  to  the 
foes  who  threatened  it  from  so  many  sides  at  once. 
It  was  only  after  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
almost  constant  war  that  Rome  succeeded  in  rolling 
back  the  tide  of  invasion  and  in  establishing  her 
supremacy  over  the  neighbouring  lowlands  and  over 
the  hill  country  which  bordered  them  to  the  east  and 
south.  The  close  of  this  first  stage  in  her  external 
growth  is  conveniently  marked  by  the  first  collision 


The  Conqtcest  of  Italy.  69 

with  the  Sabellian   peoples  beyond  the 

4XZ  A.U.C. 

Liris   in    343    B.C.'     In   marked  contrast 
with  the  slowness  of  her  advance  up  to  this  point 
is  the   fact  that  only  seventy-five  years 
more  were  needed  for  the  virtual  subjuga- 
tion of  all  the  rest  of  the  peninsula  (343-269  B.C.). 
The  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins  from  Rome,  fol- 
lowed as  it  seems  to  have  been  by  the  emancipation 
from  Etruscan  supremacy  of  all  the  country  between 
the  Tiber  and  the  Liris,  entirely  altered  the  aspect 
of  affairs.  North  of  the  Tiber  the  powerful  Etruscan 
city  of  Veii,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  restore  the  Tar- 
quins,  relapsed  into  an  attitude  of  sullen  hostility 
towards  Rome,  which,  down  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
final  struggle  in  407  B.C.,  found  vent  in 
constant    and    harassing  border   forays. 
The   Sabines  recommenced   their  raids  across  the 
Anio ;  from  their  hills  to  the  south-east  the  iEqui 
pressed  forward  as  far  as  the  eastern  spurs  of  the 
Alban  range,  and  ravaged  the  plain  country  between 
that  range  and  the  Sabine  mountains;  the  Volsci 
overran  the  coast-lands  as  far  as  Antium,  Lg^g^^  ^j^i, 
established    themselves   at    Velitrae,   and     andHcrn* 
even  ravaged  the  fields  within  a  few  miles  *^*°** 

of  Rome.  But  the  good  fortune  of  Rome  did  not 
leave  her  to  face  these  foes  single-handed,  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  the  history  of  the  Roman  advance 
begins,  not  with  a  brilliant  victory,  but  with  a  use- 
ful and   timely  alliance.     According   to 

r  •  •..  •  ^  1  r  ^^  A.U.C. 

Livy,  it  was  in  493  B.C.,  only  a  few  years 

after  the  defeat  of  the  prince  of  Tusculum  at  Lake 

*  Livy,  vii.,  29. 


70  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ii 

Regillus,  that  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  Rome 
and  the  Latin  communities  of  the  Campagna.'  The 
alliance  was  in  every  respect  natural,  and  may  very 
probably  have  been  only  the  renewal  of  an  ancient 
friendship.  The  Latins  were  the  near  neighbours 
and  kinsmen  of  the  Romans,  and  both  Romans  and 
Latins  were  just  freed  from  Etruscan  rule  to  find 
themselves  as  lowlanders  and  dwellers  in  towns  face 
to  face  with  a  common  foe  in  the  ruder  hill  tribes  on 
their  borders.  The  exact  terms  of  the  treaty  can- 
not, any  more  than  the  precise  circumstances  under 
which  it  was  concluded,  be  stated  with  certainty, 
but  two  points  seem  clear.  There  was  at  first  a 
genuine  equality  in  the  relations  between  the  allies ; 
Romans  and  Latins,  though  combining  for  defence 
and  offence,  did  so  without  sacrificing  their  separate 
freedom  of  action,  even  in  the  matter  of  waging  wars 
independently  of  each  other.*  But,  secondly,  Rome 
enjoyed  from  the  first  one  inestimable  advantage. 
The  Latins  lay  between  her  and  the  most  active  of 
her  foes,  the  iEqui  and  Volsci,  and  served  to  pro- 
tect her  territories  at  the  expense  of  their  own.  Be- 
hind this  barrier  Rome  grew  strong,  and  the  close  of 
the  iEquian  and  Volscian  wars  left  the  Latins  her 
dependents  rather  than  her  allies.  Beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Campagna,  Rome  found  a  second  ally,  hardly 
less  useful  than  the  Latins,  in  the  tribe  of  the  Her- 
nici  ("  the  men  of  the  rocks  **),  in  the  valley  of  the 
Trerus,  who  had  equal  reason  with  the  Romans  and 
Latins  to  dread  the  Volsci  and  iEqui,  while  their 

*  Livy,  ii.,  33  ;  Cic,  Pro  Baibo^  23. 

*  Livy,  viii.,  2. 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  71 

position  midway  between  the  two  latter  peoples 
made  them  valuable  auxiliaries  to  the  lowlanders  of 
the  Campagna. 

The  treaty  with  the  Hemici  is  said  to  have  been 
concluded  in  486  B.C./  and  the  confederacy 
of  the  three  peoples — Romans,  Latins,  and 
Hernicans — lasted  down  to  the  great  Latin  war  in 
340  B.C.     Confused  and  untrustworthy   as  are  the 
chroniclers   of  the  early  wars  of   Rome, 
it  is  clear  that,  notwithstanding  the  acqui- 
sition of  these  allies,   Rome  made  but  little  way 
against  her  foes  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  republic.     In  474  B.C.,  it  is 
true,  an  end  was  put  for  a  time  to  the 
harassing  border  feud  with  Veii  by  a  forty  years' 
peace,  an  advantage  probably  due  not  so  much  to 
Roman  valor  as  to  the  increasing  dangers  from  other 
quarters  which  were  threatening  the  Etrus- 
can states."    But  this  partial  success  stands 
alone,  and  down,  to  449  B.C.  the  raids  of  Sabines, 
iEqui  and  Volsci  continue  without  intermission,  and 
are  occasionally  carried  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Rome. 

Very  different  is  the  impression  left  by  the  annals 
of  the  next  sixty  years  (449-390  B.C.).  ^^  ^^^ 
During  this  period  there  is  an  unmistak- 
able development  of  Roman  power  on  all  sides.     In 
southern  Etruria,  the  capture  of  Veii  (396     ^ 

'  *^  ^^-^  Capture  ot 

B.C.)  virtually  gave  Rome  the  mastery  as        ^  a  u*c* 

far  as  the  Ciminian  forest.     Sutrium  and 

Nepete,  "the  gates  of  Etruria,"  became  her  allies, 

'  Livy,  ii.,  40. 

•  From  the  Kelts  in  the  north  especially. 


72  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  11 

and  guarded  her  interests  against  any  attack  from 
the  Etruscan  communities  to  the  north,  while  along 
the  Tiber  valley  her  suzerainty  was  acknowledged  as 
far  as  Capena  and  Falerii.  On  the  Anio  frontier  we 
hear  of  no  disturbances  from  449  B.C.  until 

308  A.U.C.  ^ 

some  ten  years  after  the  sack  of  Rome 
by  the  Gauls.  In  446  B.C.  the  iEqui  appear  for  the 
last  time  before  the  gates  of   Rome.     After  418 

B.C.   they  disappear  from    Mount  Algi- 

dus,  and  in  the  same  year  the  communi- 
cations of  Rome  and  Latium  with  the  Hernici  in  the 
Trerus  valley  were  secured  by  the  capture  and  col- 
onisation of  Labicum.      Successive  invasions,  too, 

broke  the  strength  of  the  Volsci,  and  in 

mCj  a  u  c 

393  ^'C.  a  Latin  colony  was  founded  as 
far  south  as  Circeii.     In  part,  no  doubt,  these  Roman 
successes  were  due  to   the  improved  condition  of 
affairs  in  Rome  itself,  consequent  upon  the  great  re- 
forms carried  between  450  and  442  B.C. ; 
but  It  IS  equally  certam  that  now  as  often 
afterwards  fortune  befriended  Rome  by  weakening, 
or  by  diverting  the  attention  of,  her  opponents.     In 
particular,  her  rapid  advance  in  southern 
EtnlLcan'      Etrurfa  was  facilitated  by  the  heavy  blows 
power.  inflicted  upon  the  Etruscans  during  the 

fifth  century  B.C.,  by  Kelts,  Greeks,  and  Samnites. 
By  the  close  of  this  century  the  Kelts  had  expelled 
them  from  the  rich  plains  of  what  was  afterwards 
known  as  Cisalpine  Gaul,  and  were  even  threatening 
to  advance  across  the  Apennines  into  Etruria  proper. 
The  Sicilian  Greeks,  headed  by  the  tyrants  of  Syra^ 
cuse,  wrested  from  them  their  mastery  of  the  seas ; 


Ch«  2]  The  Conqtcest  of  Italy.  73 

and  finally,  on  the  capture  of  Capua  by  the  Samnites 
in  423  B.C.,  they  lost  their  possessions  in 
the  fertile  Campanian  plain.  These  con- 
quests of  the  Samnites  were  part  of  a  great  south- 
ward movement  of  the  highland  Sabellian  peoples, 
the  immediate  effects  of  which  upon  the  fortunes  of 
Rome  were  not  confined  to  the  weakening  of  the 
Etruscan  power.  It  is  probable  that  the  cessation 
of  the  Sabine  raids  across  the  Anio  was  partly  due 
to  the  new  outlets  which  were  opened  southwards 
for  the  restless  and  populous  hill  tribes  which  had  so 
long  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Latin  lowlands.  We 
may  conjecture,  also,  that  the  growing  feebleness 
exhibited  by  Volsci  and  ^Equi  was  in  some  measure 
caused  by  the  pressure  upon  their  rear  of  the  Sabel- 
lian clans,  which  at  this  time  established  themselves 
near  the  Fucine  Lake  and  along  the  course  of  the 
Liris. 

But  in  390  B.C.,  only  six  years  after  the  great  vic- 
tory over  her  ancient  rival  Veii,  the  Ro- 

,  f  .111  Sack  of  Rome 

man  advance  was  for  a  moment  checked  by  the  oauis, 
by  a  disaster  which  threatened  to  alter  the 
course  of  history  in  Italy,  and  which  left  a  lasting 
impress  on  the  Roman  mind.  In  391  B.C.  a  Keltic 
horde  left  their  newly  won  lands  on  the  Adriatic, 
and  crossing  the  Apennines  into  Etruria,  laid  siege 
to  the  Etruscan  city  of  Clusium  (Chiusi).  Thence, 
provoked,  it  is  said,  by  the  conduct  of  the  Roman 
ambassadors,  who,  forgetting  their  sacred  character, 
had  fought  in  the  ranks  of  Clusium,  and  slain  a 
Keltic  chief,  the  barbarians  marched  upon  Rome. 
On  July  18,  390  B.C.,  only  a  few  miles  from  Rome, 


74  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  il 

was  fought  the  disastrous  battle  of  the  Allia.  The 
defeat  of  the  Romans  was  complete,  and  Rome  lay  at 
the  mercy  of  her  foe.  But  in  character- 
istic fashion,  the  Kelts  halted  three  days 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  victory,  and  time  was  thus 
given  to  put  the  Capitol  at  least  in  a  state  of  defence. 
The  arrival  of  the  barbarians  was  followed  by  the 
sack  of  the  city,  but  the  Capitol  remained  impreg- 
nable. For  seven  months  they  besieged  it,  and  then 
in  as  sudden  a  fashion  as  they  had  come,  they  dis- 
appeared. The  Roman  chroniclers  explain  the  re- 
treat in  their  own  way,  by  the  fortunate  appearance 
of  Camillus  with  the  troops  which  he  had  collected, 
at  the  very  moment  when  famine  had  forced  the 
garrison  on  the  Capitol  to  accept  terms.  More  prob- 
ably the  news  that  their  lands  across  the  Apennines 
were  threatened  by  the  Veneti,  coupled  with  the 
unaccustomed  tedium  of  a  long  siege  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  supplies,  inclined  the  Kelts  to 
accept  readily  a  heavy  ransom  as  the  price  of  their 
withdrawal.  But,  whatever  the  reason,  it  is  certain 
that  they  retreated,  and,  though  during  the  next 
fifty  years  marauding  bands  appeared  at  intervals  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Rome,  and  even  once  pene- 
trated as  far  south  as  Campania  (361-360 
B.C.),  the  Kelts  never  obtained  any  footing 
in  Italy  outside  the  plains  in  the  north  which  they 
had  made  their  own. 

Nor,  in  spite  of  the  defeat  of  the  Allia  and  the 
Annexation    saclc  of  the  city,  was  Rome  weakened  ex- 

of southern  ^ 

Etruria.         cept  for  the  moment  by  the  Keltic  attack. 
The  storm  passed  away  as  rapidly  as  it  had  come  on. 


Ch«  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  75 

The  city  was  hastily  rebuilt,  and  Rome  dismayed  the 
enemies  who  hastened  to  take  advantage  of  her  mis- 
fortunes by  her  undiminished  vigour.   Her  conquests 
in  southern    Etruria    were    successfully    defended 
against  repeated  attacks  from  the  Etruscans  to  the 
north.   The  creation  in  387  B.C.  of  four  new 
tribes  (Stellatina,  Sabatina,  Tromentina, 
Arniensis)  marked  the  final  annexation  of  the  territory 
of  Veii  and  of  the  lands  lying  along  the  Tiber  valley. 
A  few  years  later  Latin  colonies  were  established  at 
Sutrium  and  Nepete  for  the  more  effectual  defence 
of  the  frontier,  and  finally,  in  353  B.C.,  the 
subjugation  of  South  Etruna  was  complet- 
ed by  the  submission  of  Caere  (Cervetri)  and  its  par- 
tial incorporation  with  the  Roman  state  as  a  muni- 
cipium  sine  suffragia — the  first,  it  is  said,  of  its  kind.* 
Next  to  the  settlement  of  southern  Etruria  the 
most  important  of  the  successes  gained  by  Rome 
between  300  and  343  B.C.,  were  those  won 

o:^  ^Tu  J  ^  Successes 

against  her  old  foes  the  ^Equi  and  Volsci,       jE*5f  a°nd 
and  her  old  allies  the  Latins  and  Herni-^       /®A*^'- 

364-4XX  A.U.C. 

cans.  The  ^Equi,  indeed,  already  weak- 
ened by  their  long  feud  with  Rome,  and  hard  pressed 
by  the  Sabellian  tribes  in  their  rear,  were  easily  dealt 
with,  and  after  the  campaign  of  389  B.C.,  we  have  no 
further  mention  of  an  iEquian  war  until  365A.U.C. 
the  last  iEquian  rising  in  304  B.C.  The  450A.U.C. 
Volsci,  who  in  389  B.C.  had  advanced  to  Lanu- 
vium,  were  met  and  utterly  defeated  by  M.  Furius 

*  For  the  status  of  Caere,  and  the  "Caerite  franchise,"  see  Mar- 
quardt,  Staatswrw,,  i.,  2^sq. ;  Madvig,  H.  Verf,,  i.,  39 ;  Beloch,  liaL 
Bund,  120. 


y6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [fiook  It 

Camillus,  the  conqueror  of  Veil,  and  this  victory  was 

followed  up  by  the  gradual  subjugation  to  Rome  of 

all  the  lowland  country  lying  between  the  hills  and 

the  sea  as  far  south  as  Tarracina.     Latin  colonies 

3fi9,375A.u.c.  wcrc  established  at  Satricum  (385  B.C.), 
S6.39«A.u.c.  ^^  g^^j^  ^^^^  g^^^  ^j  ^^  Antium  and 

Tarracina  some  time  before  348  B.C.  In  358  B.C. 
two  fresh  Roman  tribes  (Pomptina  and  Publilia) 
were  formed  in  the  same  district.* 

Rome  had  now  nothing  more  to  fear  from  the 

foes  who,  a  century  ago,  had  threatened  her  very 

existence.       The  lowland    country  —  of 

tionofthe      which  shc  was  the  natural  centre,  from 

Latin  leai^ue. 

the  Ciminian  forest  to  Tarracina — was 
quiet,  and  within  its  limits  Rome  was  by  far  the 
strongest  power.  But  she  had  now  to  reckon  with 
the  old  and  faithful  allies,  to  whose  loyal  aid  her 
present  position  was  largely  due.  The  Latins  and 
Hemicans  had  suffered  severely  in  the  ^Equian  and 
Volscian  wars ;  it  is  probable  that  not  a  few  of  the 
smaller  communities  included  in  the  league  had 
either  been  destroyed  or  been  absorbed  by  larger 
states,  and  the  independence  of  all  alike  was  threat- 
ened by  the  growing  power  of  Rome.  The  sack  of 
Rome  by  the  Kelts  gave  them  an  opportunity  of 
reasserting  their  independence,  and  we  are  conse- 
quently told  that  this  disaster  was  immediately 
followed  by  the  temporary  dissolution  of  the  con- 
federacy, and  this  again  a  few  years  later  by  a  series  of 
actual  conflicts  between  Rome  and  her  for- 
mer  allies.     Between  383  B.C.  and  358  B.C. 

*Livy,  vii.,'X5. 


Ch.  2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  7  7 

we  hear  of  wars  with  Tibur,  Praeneste,  Tusculum, 
Lanuvium,  Circeii,  and  the  Hemici.    But  in  all  Rome 
was  successful.   In  382  B.C.  Tusculum  was 
fully  incorporated  with  the  Roman  State 
by  the  bestowal  of  the  full  franchise  * ;   in  358  B.C., 
according  to  both  Livy  and  Polybius,  the 
old  alliance  was  formally  renewed  with  Lat- 
ins and  Hernicans.     We  cannot,  however,  be  wrong 
in  assuming  that  the  position  of  the  allies  under  the 
new  league  was  far  inferior  to  that  accorded  them  by 
the  treaty  of  Spurius  Cassius."   Henceforth  they  were 
the  subjects  rather  than  the  equals  of  Rome,  a  posi- 
tion which  it  is  evident  that  they  accepted  much 
against  their  will,  and  from  which  they  were  yet  to 
make  one  last  effort  to  escape. 

We  have  now  reached  the  close  of  the  first  stage 
in  Rome's  advance  towards  supremacy  in  Italy.  By 
343  B.C.  she  was  already  mistress  both  of  the 
low  country  stretching  from  the  Ciminian 
forest  to  Tarracina  and  Circeii  and  of  the  bordering 
highlands.  Her  own  territory  had  largely  increased. 
Across  the  Tiber  the  lands  of  Veii,  Capena,  and 
Caere  were  nearly  all  Roman,  while  in  Latium  she 
had  carried  her  frontiers  to  Tusculum  on  the  Alban 
range,  and  to  the  southernmost  limits  of  the  Pomp- 
tine  district.  And  this  territory  was  protected  by 
a  circle  of  dependent  allies  and  colonies  reaching 
northward  to  Sutrium  and  Nepete,  and  southward 
to  Sora  on  the  upper  Liris,  and  to  Circeii  on  the 
coast.    Already,  too,  she  was  beginning  to  be  rec- 

'  Livy,  vi.,  26. 

*  Mommsen,  Ji,  (7.,  i.,  347,  note ;  Beloch,  Ital.  Bund^  cap  ix. 


78  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       csook  I 

og^ised  as  a  power  outside  the  limits  of  the  Latin 
lowlands.  The  fame  of  the  capture  of  Rome  by  the 
Kelts  had  reached  Athens,  and  her  subsequent  vic- 
tories over  marauding  Keltic  bands  had  given  her 
prestige    in    South   Italy  as    a    bulwark 

^f^^  A  U  C 

against  northern  barbarians.     In  354  B.C. 
.  she  had  formed  her  first  connections  beyond  the 

Liris  by  a  treaty  with  the  Samnites,  and 

^f^  A.  IT  C 

in  348  B.C.  followed  a  far  more  important 
treaty  with  the  great  maritime  state  of  Carthage.' 

Rome  had  won  her  supremacy  from  the  Ciminian 
forest  to  the  Liris  as  the  champion  of  the  compara- 
tively civilised  communities  of  the  low- 
ftf/^dthe  lands  against  the  rude  highland  tribes 
thesamnite  which  threatened  to  overrun  them,  and 
""""  so,  when  her  legions  first  crossed  the  Liris, 

it  was  in  answer  to  an  appeal  from  a  lowland  city 
against  invaders  from  the  hills.  While  she  was  en- 
gaged in  clearing  Latium  of  Volsci  and  ^Equi,  the 
Sabellian  tribes  of  the  central  Apennines  had  rapidly 
spread  over  the  southern  half  of  the  peninsula. 
Foremost  among  these  tribes  were  the  Samnites,  a 
portion  of  whom  had  captured  the  Etruscan  city  of 
Capua  in  423  B.C.,  the  Greek  Cumae  in 
'420  B.C.,  and  had  since  then  ruled  as 
masters  over  the  fertile  Campanian  territory.  But 
in  their  new  homes  the  conquerors  soon  lost  all 
sense  of  relationship  and  sympathy  with  their 
highland  brethren.     They  dwelt  in  cities,  amassed 

'  Livy»  vii.,  27.  For  the  whole  qaestion  of  the  early  treaties  with 
Carthage,  see  Polybius,  iii.,  22 ;  Mommsen.  R.  G,,  i.,  4x3,  and  ^. 
Chrtmol,^  p.  320;  VoUmer,  Rhdm,  Mus,^  xxxii.,  6x4, 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  79 

wealth,  and  inherited  the  civilisation  of  the  Greeks 
and  Etruscans  whom  they  had  dispossessed  *;  above 
all,  they  had  before  long  to  defend  themselves  in 
their  turn  against  the  attacks  of  their  ruder  kins- 
men from  the  hills,  and  it  was  for  aid  against  these 
that  the  Samnites  of  Campania  appealed  to  the 
rising  state  which  had  already  made  herself  known 
as  the  bulwark  of  the  lowlands  north  of  the  Liris, 
and  which,  with  her  Latin  and  Hemican  allies,  had 
scarcely  less  interest  than  the  Campanian  cities 
themselves  in  checking  the  raids  of  the  highland 
Samnite  tribes. 

The  Campanian  appeal  was  listened  to.      Rome 
with    her    confederates   entered  into  alliance   with 
Capua  and  the  neighbouring  Campanian 
towns,   and    war  was    formally   declared       nite  war! 
(343  B.C.)  against  the   Samnites.*     While     ^,  a.u.c. 
to   the   Latins    and    Hemicans  was    en- 
trusted apparently  the  defence  of  Latium  and  the 
Hemican   valley  against  the  northerly  members  of 
the  Samnite   confederacy,  the  Romans  themselves 
undertook  the  task  of  driving  the  invaders  out  of 
Campania.       After    two    campaigns    the  war  was 
ended  in  341   B.C.  by  a  treaty,  and  the 
Samnites  withdrew  from    the   lowlands, 
leaving  Rome  the  recognised  suzerain  of  the  Cam- 
panian cities  which  had  sought  her  aid.' 


*  For  the  Samnites  in  Campania,  see  Mommsen,  R,  G,^  i.,  353  ; 
Schwegler-Clason,  R,  G,^  \,,<^sg,  ;  Beloch,  Campanun^  Berlin,  1879. 

*  Livy,  vii.,  32. 

'  For  the  di£Glciilties  in  the  traditional  accounts  of  this  war,  see 
Mommsen,  R.  ^.,  i.,  355,  note  ;    Schwegler-Clason,  R.  (?.,▼.,  14 if. 


8o  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  II 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  check  thus  given  by 
Rome  to  the  advance  of  the  hitherto  invincible  Sa- 
bellian  highlanders,  not  only  made  her  the  natural 
head  and  champion  of  the  low  countries,  south  as  well 
as  north  of  the  Liris,  but  also  considerably  added  to 
her  prestige.  Carthage  sent  her  congratulations,  and 
the  city  of  Falerii  voluntarily  enrolled  herself  among 
the  allies  of  Rome.  Of  even  greater  service,  how- 
ever, was  the  fact  that  for  fifteen  years  the  Samnites 
remained  quiet,  for  this  inactivity,  whatever  its  cause, 
enabled  Rome  triumphantly  to  surmount  a  danger 
which  threatened  for  the  moment  to  wreck  her  whole 
position.  This  danger  was  nothing  less  than  a  des- 
The  Latin  P^^ate  effort  on  the  part  of  nearly  all  her 
w**^-  allies  and  dependants  south  of  the  Tiber 

to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  her  supremacy.  The  way 
was  led  by  her  ancient  confederates  the  Latins, 
whose  smouldering  discontent  broke  into  open  flame 
directly  the  fear  of  a  Samnite  attack  was  removed. 
From  the  Latin  Campagna  and  the  Sabine  hills  the 
revolt  spread  westward  and  southward  to  Antium 
and  Tarracina,  and  even  to  the  towns  of  the  Cam- 
panian  plain,  where  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  at 
once  repudiated  the  alliance  formed  with  Rome  by 
the  ruling  class.  The  struggle  was  sharp  but  short. 
In  two  pitched  battles*  the  strength  of  the  insur- 
rection was  broken,  and  two  more  campaigns  sufficed 
for  the  complete  reduction  of  such  of  the  insurgent 
communities  as  still  held  out.  The  revolt  crushed, 
Rome  set  herself  deliberately  to  the  task  of  re- 

'  At  the  foot  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  Livy,  viii.,  9  ;  at  Trifanum,  id,^ 
Yiii.,  II. 


Ch.  2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  8 1 

establishing,  on  a  new  and  firmer  basis,  her  su- 
premacy over  the  lowlands,  and  in  doing  so  laid  the 
foundations  of  that  marvellous  organisa-  settlement 
tion  which  was  destined  to  spread  rapidly  ®*'^***"°*J 
over  Italy,  and  to  withstand  the  attacks  even  of 
Hannibal.  The  old  historic  Latin  league  ceased  to 
exist,  though  its  memory  was  still  preserved  by  the 
yearly  Latin  festival  on  the  Alban  Mount.  Most,  if 
not  all,  of  the  common  land  of  the  league  became 
Roman  territory  * ;  five,  at  least,  of  the  old  Latin 
cities  were  compelled  to  accept  the  Roman  fran- 
chise,* and  enter  the  pale  of  the  Roman  state.  The 
rest,  with  the  Latin  colonies,  were  ranked  as  Latin 
allies  of  Rome,  but  on  terms  which  secured  their 
complete  dependence  upon  the  sovereign  city.  The 
policy  of  isolation,  which  became  so  cardinal  a  prin- 
ciple of  Roman  rule,  was  now  first  systematically 
applied.  No  rights  of  connubiutn  or  commerciuin 
were  any  longer  to  exist  between  these  communities. 
Their  federal  councils  were  prohibited,  and  all  fed- 
eral action  independent  of  Rome  forbidden.' 

In  future  they  were  to  have  nothing  in  common 
but  the  common  connection  with  Rome,  a  con- 
nection b^sed  in  each  case  on  a  separate  treaty 
between  the  individual  Latin  community  and  Rome. 
The  Latin  allied  state  retained  its  internal  indepen- 
dence, and  the  old  rights  of  intermarriage  and  com- 
merce with  Rome,  but  it  lost  all  freedom  of  action  in 


'  Livy,  viii.,  ii. 

•  Livy,  viii.,  14 ;  Lanuvium,  Aricia,  Nomentum,  Pedum,  Tusculum. 
'/^.,  loc,  cit,^  **  ceteris  Latinis  populis  connuHa  commercicique  et 
(OftciUa  inter  se  ademerunt," 


82  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ii 

external  affairs.  It  could  wage  no  wars,  conclude  no 
treaties,  and  was  bound,  so  the  phrase  ran,  to  have 
and  of  always  the  same  foes  and  friends  as  Rome 

Campania,  hcrself.  In  Campania  and  the  coast-lands 
connecting  Campania  with  Rome,  a  policy  of  annex- 
ation was  considered  safer  than  that  of  alliance.  Of 
the  two  frontier  posts  of  the  Volsci,  Antium  and 
Velitrae,  the  former  was  constituted  a  Roman  col- 
ony, its  long  galleys  burnt,  and  their  prows  set  up 
in  the  Forum  at  Rome,  while  the  walls  of  Velitrae 
were  razed  to  the  ground,  its  leading  men  banished 
beyond  the  Tiber,  and  their  lands  given  to  Roman 
settlers.  Farther  south  on  the  route  to  Campania, 
Fundi  and  Formiae  were,  after  the  precedent  set  in 
the  case  of  Caere,  declared  Roman,  and  granted  the 
civil  rights  of  Roman  citizenship  ;  while,  lastly,  in 
Campania  itself  the  same  status  was  given  to  Capua, 
Cumae,  and  the  smaller  communities  dependent  upon 
them.*  During  the  ten  years  from  338  B.C. 
'  "  to  328  B.C.  the  work  of  settlement  was 
steadily  continued.  Tarracina,  like  Antium,  was 
made  a  Roman  colony.  Privemum,  the  last  Vol- 
scian  town  to  offer  resistance  to  Rome,  was  subdued 

4a4A.u.c.  ^^  33^  ^•^•»  P^'^  ^^  ^^^  territory  allotted 
to  Roman  citizens,  and  the  state  itself 
forced  to  accept  the  Roman  franchise.  Lastly,  to 
strengthen  the  lines  of  defence  against  the  Sabellian 
tribes,  two  colonies,  with  the  rights  of  Latin  allies, 
were  established  at  Fregellae  and  at  Cales.    The  set- 

'  For  the  controversy  as  to  the  precise  status  of  Capua  and  the 
equiUs  Campani  (Livy,  viii.,  14),  see  Beloch,  ItaL  Bund,,  122  sq,  ; 
id,,  Campanim,  317  ;  Zumpt,  Comment.  Epigraph.,  p.  290. 


Ck«2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  83 

tlement  of  the  lowlands  was  accomplished.  From 
the  Ciminian  forest  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
Campanian  plain,  the  lands  lying  between  the  sea 
and  the  hills  were  now,  with  few  exceptions,  Roman 
territory,  while  along  the  frontiers  from  Sutrium 
and  Nepete  in  the  north  to  Cales  in  the  south 
stretched  the  protecting  line  of  the  Latin  allied 
states  and  colonies.  As  a  single  powerful  and 
compact  state,  with  an  outer  circle  of  closely  de- 
pendent allies,  Rome  now  stood  in  sharp  contrast 
with  the  disunited  and  degenerate  cities  of  northern 
Etruria,  the  loosely  organised  tribes  of  the  Apen- 
nines, and  the  decaying  and  disorderly  Greek  towns 
of  the  south. 

The  strength  of  this  system  was  now  to  be  tried  by 
a  struggle  with  the  one  Italian  people  who  were  still 
ready  and  able  to  contest  with  Rome  the 

-    ,  .         ,  ^-  .         Second  Sam- 

supremacy  of  the  penmsula.    The  passive       nite  war. 

AX9-97  A.  U  C 

attitude  of  the  Samnites  between  342  B.C. 
and  327  B.C.  was  no  doubt  largely  due  to  the  dangers 
which  had  suddenly  threatened  them  in  South  Italy. 
But  the  death  of  Alexander  of  Epirus  in 

jfl9  A  U  C 

332*  B.C.  removed  their  only  formidable 
opponent  there,  and  left  them  free  to  turn   their 
attention  to  the  necessity  of  checking  the  steady 
advance  of  Rome.     In  327  B.C.,  the  year 
after  the  ommous  foundation  of  a  Roman 
colony  at   Fregellae,   a    pretext    for  renewing  the 
struggle  was  offered  them.     The  Cun^pean  colony 
of  Palaeopolis "  had  incurred  the  wrath  of  Rome  by 

>  Livy,  viii.,  3,  17,  24. 
'  Livy,  viii.,  22. 


84  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  II 

its  raids  into  her  territory  in  Campania.  The  Sam- 
nites  sent  a  force  to  defend  it,  and  Rome  replied  by 
a  declaration  of  war.  The  two  opponents  were  not 
at  first  sight  unequally  matched,  and  had  the  Sabel- 
lian  tribes  held  firmly  together  the  issue  of  the 
struggle  might  have  been  different.  As  it  was, 
however,  the  Lucanians  to  the  south  actually  sided 
with  Rome  from  the  first,  while  the  northern  clans, 
Marsi,  Vestini,  Paeligni,  Frcntani,  after  a  feeble  and 
lukewarm  resistance,  subsided  into  a  neutrality  which 
was  exchanged  in  304  B.C.  for  a  formal  al- 
liance with  Rome.  An  even  greater  ad- 
vantage to  Rome  from  the  outset  was  the  enmity 
existing  between  Samnites  and  the  Apulians,  the 
latter  of  whom  at  once  joined  Rome,  and  thus  gave 
her  a  position  in  the  rear  of  her  enemy,  and  in  a 
country  eminently  well  fitted  for  maintaining  a  large 
military  force.  These  weaknesses  on  the  Samnite 
side  were  amply  illustrated  by  the  events  of  the  war. 
The  first  seven  or  eight  years  were  marked  by  one 
serious  disaster  to  the  Roman  arms,  the  defeat  at  the 
A.U.C.  Caudine  Forks  (321  B.C.);  but,  when  in 
A.u.c.     jjg   g^^    ^jjg    Samnites    asked    for    and 

obtained  a  two  years*  truce,  Rome  had  succeeded 
not  only  in  inflicting  several  severe  blows  upon  her 
enemies,  but  in  isolating  them  from  outside  help. 
The  Lucanians  to  the  south  were  her  allies.  To  the 
east,  in  the  rear  of  Samnium,  Apulia  acknowledged 
the  suzerainty  of  Rome,  and  Luceria,  cap- 
tured  m  320  B.C.,  had  been  established  as 
a  base  of  Roman  operations.  Finally,  to  the  north 
the  Romans  had  easily  overcome  the  feeble  resist* 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  85 

ance  of  the  Vestini  and  Frentani,  and  secured 
through  their  territories  a  safe  passage  for  their 
legions  to  Apulia.  On  the  renewal  of  hostilities 
in  316  B.C.,  the  Samnites,  bent  on  escaping* 
from  the  net  which  was  being  slowly 
drawn  round  them,  made  a  series  of  desperate  efforts 
to  break  through  the  lines  of  defence  which  pro- 
tected Latium  and  Campania.  Sora  and  Fregellae 
on  the  upper  Liris  were  captured  by  a  sudden 
attack;  the  Ausones  in  the  low  country  near  the 
mouth  of  the  same  river  were  encouraged  to  revolt 
by  the  appearance  of  the  Samnite  army ;  and  in 
Campania  another  force,  attracted  by  rumours  of 
disturbance,  all  but  defeated  the  Roman  consuls 
under  the  very  walls  of  Capua.  But  these  efforts 
were  unavailing.  Sora  and  Fregellae  were  recovered 
as  quickly  as  they  had  been  lost,  and  the  frontier 
there  was  strengthened  by  the  establishment  of  a 
colony  at  Interamna.  The  Ausones  were  punished 
by  the  confiscation  of  their  territory,  and  Roman 
supremacy  further  secured  by  the  two  colonies  of 
Suessa  and  Pontia  (312  B.C.).  The  con- 
struction of  the  famous  Via  Appia,*  the 
work  of  the  censor  Appius  Claudius  Caecus,  opened  a 
safe  and  direct  route  to  Campania,  while  the  capture 
of  Nola  deprived  the  Samnites  of  their  last  import- 
ant stronghold  in  the  Campanian  lowlands.  The 
failure  of  these  attempts  broke  the  courage  even  of 
the  Samnites.     Their  hopes  were  indeed 

,     *  «  1  ,444  A.U.C. 

raised  for  a  moment  by  the   news   that 

Etruria  had  risen  against  Rome  (310  B.C.),  but  their 

*Livy,  ix.,  23. 


86  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  li 

daring  scheme  of  effecting  a  union  with  the  Etrus- 
cans was  frustrated  by  the  energy  of  the  Roman 
generals.     Five  years  later  (305  B.C.)  the 
*  *    *  Romans  revenged   a   Samnite   raid   into 
Campania    by    an     invasion     of    Samnium    itself. 
Arpinum,  on  the  other  frontier,  was  taken,  and  at 
last,  after  a  twenty-two  years*   struggle 
the  second  Samnite  war  was  closed   by 
a  renewal  of  the  ancient  treaty  with   Rome  (304 
B.C.).' 

The  six  years  of  peace  which  followed  (304-298 
B.C.)'were  characteristically  employed  by  Rome  in 
still  further  strengthening  her  position. 
Already,  two  years  before  the  peace,  a 
rash  revolt  of  the  Hernici  *  had  given  Rome  a  pre- 
text for  finally  annexing  the  territory  of  her  ancient 
allies.     The  tribal  confederacy  was  broken  up,  and 
all  the  Hernican  communities,  wifh  the  exception  of 
three  which  had  not  joined  the  revolt,  were  incorpo- 
rated with  the  Roman  state  as  municipia,  with  the 
civil  rights  of  the  Roman  franchise.     Between  the 
Hernican  valley  and  the  frontiers  of  the  nearest 
Sabellian  tribes  lay  what  remained  of  the  once  for- 
midable people  of  the  i£qui.     In  their  case,  too,  a 
revolt   (304  B.C.)  was    followed    by  the 
annexation  of  their  territory,  which  was 
marked  in  this  case  by  the  formation  there  (301  B.C.) 
of  two  Roman  tribes  (Aniensis  and  Teren- 
tina).*     Not  content   with   thus  carrying 

'  Livy,  ix.,  29. 
•Livy,  ix.,  45. 
•  Livy,  ix.,  45. 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  87 

the  borders  of  their  own  territory  up  to  the  very 
frontiers  of  the  Sabellian  country,  Rome  succeeded 
in  finally  detaching  from  the  Sabellian  confederacy 
all  the  tribes  lying '  between  the  north-east  frontier 
of  Latium  and  the  Adriatic  Sea.  Henceforward  the 
Marsi,  Paeligni,  Vestini,  Marrucini,  and  Frentani 
were  enrolled  among  the  allies  of  Rome,  and  not 
only  swelled  her  forces  in  the  field,  but  interposed  a 
useful  barrier  between  her  enemies  to  the  north  in 
Etruria  and  Umbria,  and  those  to  the  south  in  Sam- 
nium,  while  they  connected  her  directly  with  the 
friendly  Apulians.  Lastly,  as  a  security  for  the 
fidelity  at  least  of  the  nearest  of  these  allies,  colonies 
were  planted  in  the  Marsian  territories  at  Carseoli 
and  at  Alba  Fucentia.  A  significant  indication  of 
the  widening  range  of  Rome's  influence  in  Italy,  and 
of  the  new  responsibilities  rapidly  pressing  upon  her, 
is  the  fact  that  when  in  302  B.C.  the  Spar- 
tan Cleonymus  landed  in  the  territory  of 
Sallentini,  far  away  in  the  south-east,  he  was  met  and 
repulsed  by  a  Roman  force.* 

Six  years  after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  which 
ended  the  second  Samnite  war  (298  B.C.),  news 
arrived  that  the  Samnites  were  harassing  Third 

the  Lucanians.  Rome  at  once  interfered  ^*"l?ir! 
to  protect  her  allies.  Samnium  was  in-  ^  •  •  • 
vaded  in  force,  the  country  ravaged,  and  one  strong- 
hold after  another  captured.  Unable  any  longer  to 
hold  their  own  in  a  position  where  they  were  hedged 
round  by  enemies,  the  Samnite  leaders  turned  as  a 

*  Livy,  X.,  9. 
'  Livy,  X.,  2. 


88  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      CBook  il 

last  hope  to  the  communities  of  northern  Etruria,  to 
the  free  tribes  of  Umbria,  and  to  the  once  dreaded 
Kelts.  With  a  splendid  daring  they  formed  the 
scheme  of  uniting  all  these  peoples  with  themselves 
in  a  last  desperate  effort  to  break  the  power  of 
Rome. 

For  some  forty  years  after  the  final  annexation  of 

southern   Etruria  (351  B.C.)  matters  had  remained 

unchanged  in  that  quarter.     Sutrium  and 

Romans  in 

N.  ^tnina,    Nepete  still  guarded  the  Roman  frontier ; 

the   natural    boundary  of  the  Ciminian 

forest  was  still   intact;  and   up  the  valley  of  the 

Tiber  Rome  had  not  advanced  beyond  Falerii,  a  few 

^   ,  ^       miles  short  of  the  most  southerly  Umbrian 

town  Ocriculum.     But  in  3 1 1  B.C.,  on  the 

expiry,  apparently,  of  the  long  truce  with  Rome, 

concluded  in  351  B.C.,  the  northern  Etrus- 
403A.U.C.  ,  ^^  It,, 

cans,   alarmed,   no   doubt,  by  the   rapid 

advances  which  Rome  was  making  farther  south, 
rose  in  arms  and  attacked  Sutrium.  The  attack, 
however,  recoiled  disastrously  upon  the  heads  of  the 
assailants.  A  Roman  force  promptly  relieved  Su- 
trium, and  its  leader,  Q.  Fabius  RuUianus,  without 
awaiting  orders  from  home,  boldly  plunged  into  the 
wilds  of  the  Ciminian  forest,  and,  crossing  them 
safely,  swept  with  fire  and  sword  over  the  rich  lands 
to  the  north.  Then,  turning  southward,  he  met  and 
utterly  defeated  the  forces  which  the  Etruscans  had 
hastily  raised  in  the  hopes  of  intercepting  him  at  the 
Vadimonian  Lake.'    This  decisive  victory  ended  the 

*  Livy,  ix.,  39.      Ihne  (R,  G.^  i.,  351  sq^  throws  some  doubts  on 
the  traditional  accounts  of  this  war  and  of  that  in  296  B.C. 


Ch.2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  89 

war.  The  Etruscan  cities,  disunited  among  them- 
selves, and  enervated  by  long  years  of  peace,  aban- 
doned the  struggle  for  the  time,  paid  a  heavy  indem- 
nity, and  concluded  a  truce  with  Rome 

445*46  A.U.C. 

(309-308  B.C.).  In  the  same  year  the  promp- 
titude of  Fabius  easily  averted  a  threatened  attack  by 
the  Umbrians,  but  Rome  proceeded,  nevertheless,  to 
fortify  herself  in  her  invariable  fashion  against  future 
dangers  on  this  side,  by  an  alliance  with  Ocriculum, 
which  was  followed  ten  years  later  by  a  colony  at 
Nequinum,'  and  an  alliance  with  the  Picentes,  whose 
position  in  the  rear  of  Umbria  rendered  them  as 
valuable  to  Rome  as  the  Apulians  had  proved  farther 
south. 

Fourteen  years  had  passed  since  the  battle  on  the 
Vadimonian  Lake,  when  the  Samnites  appeared  on 
the  borders  of  Etruria,  and  called  on  the  Battle  of 
peoples  of  northern  Italy  to  rise  against  *m5*b.c! 
the  common  enemy.  Their  appeal,  backed  ^^  •  •  • 
by  the  presence  of  their  troops,  was  successful.  The 
Etruscans  found  courage  to  face  the  Roman  legions 
once  more ;  a  few  of  the  Umbrians  joined  them  ;  but 
the  most  valuable  allies  to  the  Samnites  were  the 
Kelts,  who  had  for  some  time  threatened  a  raid 
across  the  Apennines,  and  who  now  marched  eagerly 
into  Umbria  and  joined  the  coalition.  The  news 
that  the  Kelts  were  in  motion  produced  a  startling 
effect  at  Rome,  and  every  nerve  was  strained  to 
meet  this  new  danger.  While  two  armies  were  left 
in  southern  Etruria  as  reserves,  the  two  consuls, 
Fabius  and    Decius,  both   tried   soldiers,   marched 

*  Namia,  Livy,  x.,  lo, 


90  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  fi 

northwards  up  the  valley  of  the  Tiber  and  into 
Umbria,  at  the  head  of  four  Roman  legions  and  a 
still  larger  force  of  Italian  allies.  At  Sentinum,  on 
the  farther  side  of  the  Apennines,  they  encountered 
the  united  forces  of  the  Kelts  and  Samnites,  the 
Etruscans  and  Umbrians  having,  it  is  said,  been  with- 
drawn for  the  defence  of  their  own  homes.  The  bat- 
tle that  followed  was  desperate,  and  the  Romans  lost 
one  of  their  consuls,  Decius,  and  more  than  8,oqo 
men.*  But  the  Roman  victory  was  decisive.  The 
Kelts  were  annihilated,  and  the  fear  of  a  second 
Keltic  attack  on  Rome  removed.  All  danger  from 
the  coalition  was  over.  The  Etruscan  communities 
gladly  purchased  peace  by  the  payment  of  indemni- 
ties. The  rising  in  Umbria,  never  formidable,  died 
away  and  the  Samnites  were  left  single-handed  to 
bear  the  whole  weight  of  the  wrath  of  Rome.  During 
four  years  more,  however,  they  desperately  defended 
their  highland  homes,  and  twice  at  least, 
in  293  B.C.  and  292  B.C.,  they  managed  to 
place  in  the  field  a  force  sufficient  to  meet  the 
Roman  legions  on  equal  terms.  At  last, 
in  290  B.C.,  the  consul  M.  Curius  Dentatus 
finally  exhausted  their  power  of  resistance.  Peace 
was  concluded,  and  it  is  significant  of  the  respect  in- 
spired at  Rome  by  their  indomitable  courage  that 
they  were  allowed  to  become  the  allies  of  Rome,  on 
equal  terms,  and  without  any  sacrifice  of  inde- 
pendence.* 

»  Livy,  X.,  27. 

*  Livy,  EpiL^  xi.,  ** pacem petenHbus  Samnitibus  fcedus quarto rena^ 
vafyim  esi," 


Ch.f]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  91 

Between  the  close  of  the  third  Samnite  war  and  the 
landing  of  Pyrrhus  in  281  B.C.,  we  find  Rome  engaged, 
as  her  wont  was,  in  quietly  extending  and         a  u  c 
consolidating    her    power.     In  southern 
Italy  she  strengthened  her  hold  on  Apulia  by  plant- 
ing on  the  borders  of  Apulia  and  Lucania  the  strong 
colony  of  Venusia.*  In  central  Italy  the  an- 
nexation of  the  Sabine  country  (290  B.C.) 
carried  her   frontiers    eastward   to  the  borders  of 
her  Picentine  allies  on  the  Adriatic*     Farther  east, 
in  the  territory  of  the  Picentes  themselves,  she  estab- 
lished colonies  on  the  Adriatic  coast  at  Hadria  and 
Castrum  (285-283  B.C.).*    By  these  meas- 
ures her  control  of  central  Italy  from  sea 
to  sea  was  secured,  and  an  effectual  barrier  inter- 
posed between  her  possible  enemies  in  the  north  and 
those  in  the  south.     North  of  the  Picentes  lay  the 
territories  of  the  Keltic  Senones,  stretching  inland 
to  the  north-east  borders  of  Etruria,  and  these  too 
now  fell  into  her  hands.    Ten  years  after  their  defeat 
at  Sentinum  (285-284  B.C.)  a  Keltic  force 
descended  into  Etruria,  besieged  Arretium, 
and  defeated  the  relieving  force  despatched  by  Rome. 
In  283  B.C.  the  consul  L:  Cornelius  Dola- 
bella  was  sent  to  avenge  the  insult.     He 
completely  routed  the  Senones.     Their  lands  were 
annexed  by  Rome,  and  a  colony  established  at  Sena 
on  the  coast.     This  success,  followed  as  it  was  by 
the  decisive  defeat  of  the  neighbouring  tribe  of  the 

'  Dion.  Hal.,  Exc,  2335  ;  Veil.  Pat.,  i.,  14. 

•  Livy,  EpiL,  xi.;  Veil.  Pat.,  i.,  14. 

*  Livy,  Epit,,  xi. 


92  OuUines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  il 

Boii,  who  had  invaded  Etruria  and  penetrated  as  far 
south  as  the  Vadimonian  Lake,  awed  the  Kelts  into 
quiet,  and  for  more  than  forty  years  there  was  com- 
parative tranquillity  in  northern  Italy.* 

In  the  south,  however,  the  claims  of  Rome  to 

supremacy  were  now  to  be  disputed  by  a  new  and 

formidable  foe.    At  the  close  of  the  third 

War      with    _  .  i  x^        ,         .  .  « 

pyrrhtt*,  Samnite  war  the  Greek  cities  on  the 
^-479        '  southern  coast  of  Italy  found  themselves 

once  more  harassed  by  the  Sabellian 
tribes  on  their  borders,  whose  energies,  no  longer 
absorbed  by  the  long  struggles  in  central  Italy,  no^ 
found  an  attractive  opening  southward.  Naturally 
enough  the  Greeks,  like  the  Capuans  sixty  years 
before,  appealed  for  aid  to  Rome  (283-282  B.C.),  and 
like  the  Capuans  they  offered  in  return  to  recognise 

the  suzerainty  of  the  great  Latin  republic. 

Sfilm^.      A.     U      C 

'In  reply  a  Roman  force  under  C.  Fabricius 
marched  into  South  Italy,  easily  routed  the  maraud- 
ing bands  of  Lucanians,  Bruttians,  and  Samnites,  and 
established  Roman  garrisons  in  Locri,  Croton,  Rhe- 
gium,  and  Thurii.  At  Tarentum,  the  most  power- 
ful and  flourishing  of  the  Greek  seaports,  this  sudden 
and  rapid  advance  of  Rome  excited  the  greatest 
anxiety.     Tarentum   was    already   allied 

.««  A.  U  C 

by  treaty  (301  B.C.)  with  Rome,  and  she 
had  now  to  decide  whether  this  treaty  should  be 
exchanged  for  one  which  would  place  her,  like  the 
other  Greek  communities,  under  the  protectorate  of 
Rome,  or  whether  she  should  find  some  ally  able 
and  willing  to  assist  in  making  a  last  stand  for  inde- 

'  Livy,  EpiU^  xii.  ;  Polybius,  ii.,  20. 


Ch.2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  93 

pendence.  The  former  course,  in  Tarentum,  as 
before  at  Capua,  was  the  one  favoured  by  the 
aristocratic  party  ;  the  latter  was  eagerly  supported 
by  the  mass  of  the  people  and  their  leaders.  While 
matters  were  still  in  suspense,  the  appearance,  con- 
trary to  the  treaty,  of  a  Roman  squadron  off  the 
harbour  decided  the  controversy.  The  Tarentines, 
indignant  at  the  insult,  attacked  the  hostile  fleet, 
killed  the  admiral,  and  sunk  most  of  the  ships.  Still 
Rome,  relying,  probably,  on  her  partisans  in  the 
city,  tried  negotiation,  and  an  alliance  appeared 
likely  after  all,  when  suddenly  the  help  for  which 
the  Tarentine  democrats  had  been  looking 
appeared,  and  war  with  Rome  was  resolved 
upon  (281-280  B.C.).* 

King  Pyrrhus,  whose  timely  appearance  seemed 
for  the  moment  to  have  saved  the  independence  of 
Tarentum,  was  the  most  brilliant  of  the  military 
adventurers  whom  the  disturbed  times  following  the 
death  of  Alexander  the  Great  had  brought  into 
prominence.  High-spirited,  generous,  and  ambitious, 
he  had  formed  the  scheme  of  rivalling  Alexander's 
achievements  in  the  East  by  winning  for  himself  an 
empire  in  the  West.  He  aspired  not  only  to  unite 
under  his  rule  the  Greek  communities  of  Italy  and 
Sicily,  but  to  overthrow  the  great  Phoenician  state 
of  Carthage — the  natural  enemy  of  Greeks  in  the 
West,  as  Persia  had  been  in  the  East.  Of  Rome  it  is 
clear  that  he  knew  little  or  nothing ;  the  task  of  rid- 
ding  the  Greek  seaports  of  their  barbarian  foes  he  no 
doubt  regarded  as  an  easy  one;  and  the  splendid 

*  Livy,  Epit,^  xii. ;  Plut.,  Pyrrh.,  13. 


94  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  n 

force  he  brought  with  him  was  intended  rather  for 
the  conquest  of  the  West  than  for  the  preliminary 
work  of  chastising  a  few  Italian  tribes,  or  securing 
the  submission  of  the  unwarlike  Italian  Greeks. 
Pyrrhus's  first  measure  was  to  place  Tarentum 
under  a  strict  military  discipline ;  this  done  he 
advanced  into  Lucania  to  meet  the  Roman  consul 
Laevinus.  The  battle  which  followed,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Liris,  ended  in  the  complete  defeat  of  the 
Roman  troops,  largely  owing  to  the  panic  caused  by 
the  elephants  which  Pyrrhus  had  brought  with  him 
(280  B.C.).*  The  Greek  cities  expelled 
their  Roman  garrisons  and  joined  him, 
while  numerous  bands  of  Samnites,  Lucanians,  and 
Bruttians  flocked  to  his  standard.  But,  to  the  dis- 
appointment of  his  Greek  and  Italian  allies,  Pyrrhus 
showed  no  anxiety  to  follow  up  the  advantage  he 
had  gained.  His  heart  was  set  on  Sicily  and  Africa, 
and  his  immediate  object  was  to  effect  such  an 
arrangement  with  Rome  as  would  at  once  fulfil  the 
pledges  he  had  given  to  the  Greeks  by  securing 
them  against  Roman  interference,  and  set  himself 
free  to  seek  his  fortunes  westward.  But,  though 
his  favourite  minister,  Cineas,  employed  all  his  skill 
to  win  the  ear  of  the  senate,  and,  though  Pyrrhus 
himself  lent  weight  to  his  envoy's  words  by  advan- 
cing  as  near  Rome  as  Anagnia  (279  B.C.), 
nothing  could  shake  the  resolution  of  the 
senate,  and  Cineas  brought  back  the  reply  that  the 
Romans  could  not  treat  with  Pyrrhus  so  long  as 
he  remained  in  arms  upon  Italian  soil.  Disappointed 

'  Hin.,  N,  /T,,  ▼iii,,  6, 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  95 

in  his  hopes  of  peace,  Pyrrhus  in  the  next 
year  (278  B.c.)  turned  his  forces  against 
the  Roman  strongholds  in  Apulia.'  Once  more,  at 
Asculum,  he  routed  the  legions,  but  only  to  find 
that  the  indomitable  resolution  of  the  enemy  was 
strengthened  by  defeat.  Weary  of  a  struggle  which 
threatened  indefinitely  to  postpone  the  fulfilment  of 
his  dreams  of  empire,  Pyrrhus  resolved  to  quit  Italy, 
and,  leaving  garrisons  in  the  Greek  towns,  crossed 
into  Sicily.  Here  his  success  at  first  was  such  as 
promised  the  speedy  realisation  of  his  hopes.  The 
Sicilian  Greeks  hailed  him  as  a  deliverer ;  the  Car- 
thaginians were  driven  back  to  the  extreme  west 
of  the  island,  and  Eryx  and  Panormus  fell  into  his 
hands.  But  at  this  point  fortune  deserted  him.  His 
efforts  to  take  Lilybaeum  were  fruitless ;  the  Cartha- 
ginians recovered  their  courage,  while  the  unstable 
Greeks,  easily  daunted  by  the  first  threatenings  of 
failure,  and  impatient  of  the  burdens  of  war,  broke 
out  into  open  murmurs  against  him.  Soured  and 
disappointed,  Pyrrhus  returned  to  Italy  ^  .  „  -, 
(276  B.C.)  to  find  the  Roman  legions 
steadily  moving  southwards,  and  his  Italian  allies 
disgusted  by  his  desertion  of  their  cause.  One  of 
the  consuls  for  the  year  (275  B.C.)  M. 
Curius  Dentatus,  the  conqueror  of  Sam- 
nium,  was  encamped  at  Beneventum  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  his  colleague.  Here  Pyrrhus  attacked 
him,  and  the  closing  battle  of  the  war  was  fought. 
It  ended  in  the  complete  victory  of  the  Romans. 
Pyrrhus,  unable  any  longer  to  face  his  opponents  in 

>  Plut.,  Pyrrh.,  21. 


96  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  11 

the  field,  and  disappointed  of  all  assistance  from  his 
allies,  retreated  in  disgust  to  Tarentum,  and  thence 
crossed  into  Greece.' 

A  few  years  later  (272  B.C.)  Tarentum  was  sur- 

rendered  to  Rome  by  its  Epirot  garrison  ; 

it  was  granted  a  treaty  of  alliance,  but  its 
walls  were  razed  and  its  fleet  handed  over  to  Rome. 

484A.U.C.      ^'^  '^^^  ^'^'   Rhegium   also   entered  the 

ranks  of  Roman  allies,  and   finally,    in 

48SA.U.C.     26g  B.c  a  single  campaign   crushed  the 

last  efforts  at  resistance  in  Samnium.     Rome  was 

now  at  leisure  to  consolidate  the  position  she  had 

_      .  „  ^  won.    Between  273  B.C.  and  263  B.C  three 

48i*4gx  A.U.C. 

new  colonies  were  founded  in  Samnium 

481  486,491     ^'^^  Lucania — Paestum  in  273  B.C.,  Bene- 

A.u.c.         ventum  in  268  B.C.,  iEsemia  in  263  B.C. 

In  central  Italy  the  area  of  Roman  territory  was  in- 

creased  by  the  full  enfranchisement  (268 

B.C.)  of  the  Sabines,*  and  of  their  neigh- 

hours  to  the  east,  the  Picentes.    To  guard  the  Adri- 

_  .  „  ^      atic  coast,   colonies  were  established  at 

486  A.U.C. 

Ariminum  (268  B.C.),  at  Firmum,  and  at 
A.U.C.     Castrum  Novum  (264  B.C.),  while  to  the 
already  numerous  maritime  colonies  was 
added  that  of  Cosa  in  Etruria.' 

Rome  was  now  the  undisputed  mistress  of  Italy. 


>  Livy,  EpiU,  xiv. ;  Plut.,  Pyrrh,,  a6. 
•Veil.  Pat.,  i.,  14,  ** suffra^i ferendi jus  SaHnis datum," 
•  Veil.  Pat.,  i.,  14  ;  Livy,  E^.,  xv.   I  have  followed  Beloch  (liaL 
Bund,  142)  in  identifying  the  "  Cosa'*  of  Veil.,  ioc.  aX,  and  Lity^ 
E^(,t  xiv.,  with  Cosa  in  Etruria ;   c/,  Plin.,  A^  ^.,  iiL»  8»  |L 
Mommsen  and  Madvig  both  place  it  in  Lucania. 


Ch.  21  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  97 

The  limits  of  her  supremacy  to  the  north  were  repre- 
sented roughly  by  a  line  drawn  across  the 

t      r  ,  t        I.    1        A  ^om^  as  the 

penmsula  from  the  mouth  of  the  Amo  on     mistress  of 
the  west  to  that  of  the  iEsis  on  the  east.' 
Beyond  this  line  lay  the  Ligurians  and  the  Kelts ; 
all  south  of  it  was  now  united  as  "  Italy  *'  under 
the  rule  of  Rome. 

But  the  rule  of  Rome  over  Italy,  like  her  wider 
rule  over  the  Mediterranean  coasts,  was  not  an 
absolute  dominion  over  conquered  subjects.  It  was 
in  form  at  least  a  confederacy  under  Roman  protec- 
tion and  guidance  ;  and  the  Italians,  like  the  provin- 
cials, were  not  the  subjects,  but  the  "allies  and 
friends  "  of  the  Roman  people.'  Marvellous  as  are 
the  perseverance  and  skill  with  which  Rome  built  up, 
consolidated,  and  directed  this  confederacy,  it  is  yet 
clear  that  both  her  success  in  forming  it  and  its 
stability  when  formed  were  due  in  part  to  other 
causes  than  Roman  valour  and  policy.  The  disunion 
which  in  former  times  had  so  often  weakened  the 
Italians  in  their  struggles  with  Rome  still  told  in 
her  favour,  and  rendered  the  danger  of  a  combined 
revolt  against  her  authority  remote  in  the  extreme. 
In  some  cases,  and  especially  in  the  city  states  of 
Etruria,  Campania,  and  Magna  Graecia,  where  the 
antagonism  of  the  two  political  parties,  aristocrats 
and  democrats,  was  keen,  Rome  found  natural  and 
valuable  allies  in  the  former.  Among  the  more  back- 
ward peoples  of  central  Italy,  the  looseness  of  their 
political  organisation  not  only  lessened  their  power 

'  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  i.,  428,  note  ;  Nissen,  lial,  Landeskunde^  p.  71, 

*  Beloch,  Ital,  Bund^  203 ;  Mommsen,  R»  Cr.,  i.,  428,  note. 

f 


98  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  ii 

of  resistance,  but  enabled  Rome  either  to  detach 
tribe  after  tribe  from  the  confederacy,  or  to  attack 
and  crush  them  singly.  Elsewhere  she  was  aided  by 
ancient  feuds,  such  as  those  between  Samnites  and 
Apulians,  or  Tarentines  and  lapygians,  or  by  the 
imminent  dread  of  a  foe — Kelt,  or  Samnite,  or  Lu- 
canian — ^whom  Roman  aid  alone  could  repel.  And, 
while  combination  against  her  was  thus  rendered 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  by  internal  dissensions, 
feuds,  differences  of  interest,  of  race,  of  language, 
and  habits,  Rome  herself,  from  her  position  in  the 
centre  of  Italy,  was  so  placed  as  to  be  able  to  strike 
promptly  on  the  first  signs  of  concerted  opposition. 
All  these  advantages  Rome  utilised  to  the  utmost. 
We  have  no  means  of  deciding  how  far  she  applied 
elsewhere  the  principle  upon  which  she  acted  in 
northern  Etruria  and  Campania,  of  attaching  the 
aristocratic  party  in  a  community  to  Roman  interests, 
by  the  grant  of  special  privileges ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  she  endeavoured  by  every  means  in  her  power 
to  perpetuate,  and  even  to  increase,  the  disunion 
which  she  had  found  so  useful  among  her  allies.  In 
every  possible  way  she  strove  to  isolate  them  from 
each  other,  while  binding  them  closely  to  herself. 
The  old  federal  groups  were  in  most  cases  broken 
up,  and  each  of  the  members  united  with  Rome  by 
a  special  treaty  of  alliance.  In  Etruria,  Latium, 
Campania,  and  Magna  Graecia  the  city  state  was 
taken  as  the  unit ;  in  central  Italy,  where  urban  life  was 
non-existent,  the  unit  was  the  tribe.  The  northern 
Sabellian  peoples,  for  instance, — the  Marsi,  Paeligni, 
Vestini,  Marrucini,  Frentani, — ^were  now  constituted 


Ch.  2]  The  Conqtust  of  Italy.  99 

as  separate  communities  in  alliance  with  Rome.  In 
many  cases,  too,  no  freedom  of  trade  or  intermarriage 
was  allowed  between  the  allies  themselves,  a  policy 
afterwards  pursued  in  the  provinces.  Nor  were  all 
these  numerous  allied  communities  placed  on  the 
same  footing  as  regarded  their  relations  with  Rome 
herself.  To  begin  with,  a  sharp  distinction 

^  '  *^    ,  -         The  Latins. 

was  drawn  between  the  Latini  and  the 
general  mass  of  Italian  allies.  The  Latins  of 
this  period  had  little  more  than  the  name  in  com- 
mon with  the  old  thirty  Latin  peoples  of  the  days 
of  Spurius  Cassius.  With  a  few  exceptions,  sucli 
as  Tibur  and  Praeneste,  the  latter  had  either  disap- 
peared or  had  been  incorporated  with  the  Roman 
state,  and  the  Latins  of  268  B.C.  were 
almost  exclusively  the  Latin  colonies — 
that  is  to  say,  communities  founded  by  Rome,  com- 
posed of  men  of  Roman  blood,  and  whose  only 
claim  to  the  title  Latin  lay  in  the  fact  that  Rome 
granted  to  them  some  portion  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  formerly  enjoyed  by  the  old  Latin  cities 
under  the  Cassian  treaty.*  Though  nominally  allies, 
they  were,  in  fact,  offehoots  of  Rome  herself,  bound 
to  her  by  community  of  race,  language,  and  interest, 
and  planted  as  Roman  garrisons  among  alien  and 
conquered  peoples.  The  Roman  citizen  who  joined 
a  Latin  colony  lost  his  citizenship — to  have  allowed 
him  to  retain  it  would  no  doubt  have  been  regarded 
as  enlarging  too  rapidly  the  limits  of  the  citizen 
body ;  but  he  received  in  exchange  the  status  of  a 

'  For  the  coUmia  LaHnce  founded  before  the  first  Funic  war,  see 
Beloch,  136  sq. 


lOO  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  II 

favoured  ally.  The  Latin  colony  did  not,  indeed, 
enjoy  the  equality  and  independence  originally  pos- 
sessed by  the  old  Latin  cities.  It  had  no  freedom 
of  action  outside  its  own  territory,  could  not  make 
war  or  peace,  and  was  bound  to  have  the  same 
friends  and  foes  as  Rome.  But  its  members  had 
the  right   of  commercium.  and,  down  to 

486  A.U*C. 

268  B.C.,'  of  connubium  also  with  Roman 
citizens.  Provided  they  left  sons  and  property  to 
represent  them  at  home,  they  were  free  to  migrate 
to  Rome  and  acquire  the  Roman  franchise.  In  war 
time  they  not  only  shared  in  the  booty,  but  claimed 
a  portion  of  any  land  confiscated  by  Rome  and  de- 
clared public.  These  privileges,  coupled  with  their 
close  natural  affinities  with  Rome,  successfully  se- 
cured the  fidelity  of  the  Latin  colonies,  which 
became  not  only  the  most  efficient  props  of  Roman 
supremacy,  but  powerful  agents  in  the  work  of 
The  itEiian  Romanising  Italy.  Below  the  privileged 
•*"•■•  Latins  stood  the  Italian  allies ;   and  here 

again  we  know  generally  that  there  were  consid- 
erable differences  of  status,  determined  in  each 
case  by  the  terms  of  their  respective  treaties 
with  Rome.  We  are  told  that  the  Greek  cities 
of  Neapolis  and  Heraclea  were  among  the  most 
favoured';  the  Bruttii,  on  the  other  hand,  seem, 
even  before  the  Hannibalic  war,  to  have  been 
less  generously  treated.     But  beyond  this  the  ab- 

^  The  year  of  the  foundation  of  Ariminum,  the  first  Latin  colony 
with  the  restricted  rights  ;  Cic,  Pro  Ccec,  35  ;  Mommsen,  R,  G,^  i., 
421,  note  ;  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  i.,  53.  Beloch,  155-158,  takes 
a  different  view. 

»  Beloch,  Camp,,  39  ;  Cic,  Pro  Balbo,  33. 


Ch.2i  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  loi 

sence  of  all  detailed  information  does  not  enable 
us  to  go. 

Rome,  however,  did  not  rely  only  on  this  policy  of 
isolation.  Her  allies  were  attached  as  closely  to  her- 
self as  they  were  clearly  separated  from  each  other, 
and  from  the  first  she  took  every  security  for 
the  maintenance  of  her  own  paramount  authority. 
Within  its  own  borders,  each  ally  was  left  to  man- 
age its  own  affairs  as  an  independent  state.*  The 
badges  which  marked  subjection  to  Rome  in  the 
provinces — the  resident  magistrate  and  the  tribute — 
were  unknown  in  Italy.  But  in  all  points  affecting 
the  relations  of  one  ally  with  another,  in  all  ques- 
tions of  the  general  interests  of  Italy  and  of  foreign 
policy,  the  decision  rested  solely  with  Rome.  The 
place  of  a  federal  constitution,  of  a  federal  council, 
of  federal  officers,  was  filled  by  the  Roman  senate, 
assembly,  and  magistrates.  The  maintenance  of 
peace  and  order  in  Italy,  the  defence  of  the  coasts 
and  frontiers,  the  making  of  war  or  peace  with  fon 
eign  powers,  were  matters  the  settlement  of  which 
Rome  kept  entirely  in  her  own  hands.  Each  allied 
state,  in  time  of  war,  was  called  upon  for  a  certain 
contingent  of  men,  but,  though  its  contingent  usually 
formed  a  distinct  corps  under  officers  of  its  own,  its 
numerical  strength  was  fixed  by  Rome,  it  was  bri- 
gaded with  the  Roman  legions,  and  was  under  the 
orders  of  the  Roman  consul.* 

*  For  the  relation  of  the  socii  lialici  to  Rome,  see  Mommsen,  R.  G,, 
i.,  422  ;  Beloch,  Ital,  Bund,  cap.  x. 

*  Beloch,  203.  The  importance  of  this  duty  of  the  allies  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  phrase,  **  socii  naminisve  Latini  quUms  ex  formula 
iogaiorum  miliUs  in  terra  Italia  imperare  soleni" 


I02  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  li 

This  paramount  authority  of  Rome  throughout 
the  peninsula  was  confirmed  and  justified  by  the 
The  Roman  ^^^^  ^^^^  Rome  hcrself  was  now  infinitely 
■tate.  more  powerful  than  any  one  of  her  numer- 

ous allies.  Her  territory,  as  distinct  from  that  of 
the  allied  states,  covered  something  like  one-third  of 
the  peninsula  south  of  the  iEsis.  Along  the  west 
coast  it  stretched  from  Caere  to  the  southern  borders 
of  Campania.  Inland,  it  included  the  former  terri- 
tories of  the  iEqui  and  Hemici,  the  Sabine  country, 
and  even  extended  eastward  into  Picenum,  while 
beyond  these  limits  were  outlying  districts,  such  as 
the  lands  of  the  Senonian  Kelts,  with  the  Roman 
colony  of  Sena,  and  others  elsewhere  in  Italy,  which 
had  been  confiscated  by  Rome  and  given  over  to 
Roman  settlers.  Since  the  first  important  annexa- 
tion of  territory  after  the  capture  of  Veil 

SSB  A.U.C* 

(396  B.C.),  twelve  new  tribes  had  been 
formed,'  and  the  number  of  male  citizens  registered 
at  the  census  had  risen  from  152,000  to  290,000.* 
Within  this  enlarged  Roman  state  were  now  included 
Colonies  and  Humcrous  Communities  with  local  institu- 
municipia.  tions  and  government.  At  their  head 
stood  the  Roman  colonies  {colonia  civiunt  Romano- 
rum),  founded   to  guard   especially  the  coasts  of 

'  Four  in  South  Etruria  (387  b.c.),  two  in  the  Pomptine  territory 
(358),  two  in  Latium  (332),  two  in  the  territory  of  the  southern  Volsd 
and  the  Ager  Falemus(3i8),  two  in  the  iEquian  and  Hemican  territory 
(299).  The  total  of  thirty-five  was  completed  in  241  by  formation  of 
the  Velina  and  Quirina,  probably  in  the  Sabine  and  Picentine  districts, 
enfranchised  in  268.     See  Beloch,  ^2. 

'  Livy,  Epit,,  xvi.  ;  Eutrop.,  ii.,  18 ;  Mommsen,  If,  G.,  !.,  433 ; 
Beloch,  cap.  iv.,  p.  77  s^. 


Ch.2]  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  103 

Latium  and  Campania.'  Next  to  these  eldest  chil- 
dren of  Rome  came  those  communities  which  had 
been  invested  with  the  full  Roman  franchise,  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  old  Latin  towns  of  Aricia,  Lanu- 
vium,  Tusculum,  Nomentum,  and  Pedum.  Lowest 
in  the  scale  were  those  which  had  not  been  consid- 
ered ripe  for  the  full  franchise,  but  had,  like  Caere, 
received  instead  the  civitas  sine  suffragio,  the  civil 
without  the  political  rights.*  Their  members,  though 
Roman  citizens,  were  not  enrolled  in  the  tribes,  and 
in  time  of  war  served  not  in  the  ranks  of  the  Roman 
legions,  but  in  separate  contingents.  In  acldition  to 
these  organised  town  communities,  there  were  also  the 
groups  of  Roman  settlers  on  the  public  lands,  and 
the  dwellers  in  the  village  communities  of  the  en- 
franchised highland  districts  in  central  Italy. 

The  administrative  needs  of  this  enlarged  Rome 
were  obviously  such  as  could  not  be  adequately 
satisfied  by  the  system  which  had  done  well  enough 
for  a  small  city  state  with  a  few  square  miles  of  ter- 
ritory. The  old  centralisation  of  all  government  in 
Rome  itself  had  become  an  impossibility,  and  the 
Roman  statesmen  did  their  best  to  meet  the  altered 
requirements  of  the  time.  The  urban  communities 
within  the  Roman  pale,  colonies  and  municipiay  were 
allowed  a  large  measure  of  local  self-government.  In 
all  we  find  local  assemblies,  senates,  and  magistrates, 
to  whose  hands  the  ordinary  routine  of  local  admin- 
istration was  confided,  and,  in  spite  of  differences  in 

*  Ostia,  Antium,  Tarracina,  Mintumae,  Sinuessa,  and,  on  the 
Adriatic,  Sena  and  Castrum  Novum. 

*  To  both  these  classes  the  term  munuipia  was  applied. 


I04  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  ii 

detail,  e.  g,y  in  the  titles  and  numbers  of  the  magis- 
trates, the  same  type  of  constitution  prevailed 
throughout.*  But  these  local  authorities  were  care- 
fully subordinated  to  the  higher  powers  in  Rome. 
The  local  constitution  could  be  modified  or  revoked 
by  the  Roman  senate  and  assembly,  and  the  local 
magistrates,  no  less  than  the  ordinary  members  of 
the  community,  were  subject  to  the  paramount  au- 
thority of  the  Roman  consuls,  praetors  and  censors. 
In  particular,  care  was  taken  to  keep  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  well  under  central  control.  The 
Roman  citizen  in  a  colony  or  municipiutn  enjoyed,  of 
course,  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Roman  people  in  a 
capital  case.  We  may  also  assume  that  from  the 
first  some  limit  was  placed  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
local  magistrate,  and  that  cases  falling  outside  it 
came  before  the  central  authorities.  But  an  addi- 
tional safeguard  for  the  equitable  and  uniform  ad- 
ministration of  Roman  law  in  communities,  to  many 
„  ,  ^  of  which  the  Roman  code  was  new  and 

Prefects. 

unfamiliar,  was  provided  by  the  institu- 
tion of  prefects  {prcefecti  juri  dicundo)^  who  were 
sent  out  annually,  as  representatives  of  the  Roman 
praetor,  to  administer  justice  in  the  colonies  and  mu- 
nicipia.  To  prefects  was,  moreover,  assigned  the 
charge  of  those  districts  within  the  Roman  pale 
where  no  urban  communities,  and  consequently  no 


*  For  details,  see  Beloch,  JtaL  Bund^  caps,  v.,  vi.,  vii.  The  en- 
franchised communities  in  most  cases  retained  the  old  titles  for  their 
magistrates,  and  hence  the  variety  in  their  designations. 

^  For  ih^prcefecti^  see  Mommsen,  R,  C?.,  i.,  419,  and  Rom,  Siaats* 
recht,  ii.,  569  ;  Beloch,  130-133. 


Ch.  2]  The  Conqtust  of  Italy.  105 

organised  local  government,  existed.  In  these  two 
institutions,  that  of  municipal  government  and 
that  of  prefectures,  we  have  already  two  of  the 
cardinal  points  of  the  later  imperial  system  of 
government. 

A  word  must  lastly  be  said  of  the  changes  which 
the  altered  position  and  increased  responsibilities  of 
Rome  had  effected  in  her  military  sys-  Themiiiury 
tem.*  For  the  most  part  these  changes  sy»tcm. 
tended  gradually  to  weaken  the  old  and  intimate 
connection  between  the  Roman  army  in  the  field 
and  the  Roman  people  at  home,  and  thus  prepared 
the  way  for  that  complete  breach  between  the  two 
which  in  the. end  proved  fatal  to  the  republic.  It  is 
true  that  service  in  the  legion  was  still  the  first  duty 
and  the  highest  privilege  of  the  fully  qualified  citi- 
zen. Every  assiduus  was  still  liable  to  active  mili- 
tary service  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and 
forty-five,  and  proletarii  and  freedmen  were  still 
called  out  only  in  great  emergencies,*  and  then  but 
rarely  enrolled  in  the  legions.  But  this  service  was 
gradually  altering  in  character.  Though  new  legions 
were  still  raised  each  year  for  the  summer  campaigns, 
this  was  by  no  means  always  accompanied,  as  for- 
merly, by  the  disbandment  of  those  already  on  foot, 
and  this  increase  in  the  length  of  time  during  which 
the  citizen  was  kept  with  the  standards  had,  as  early 
as  the  siege  of  Veii,  necessitated  a  further  deviation 
from  the  old  theory  of  military  service — the  intro- 

*  Mommsen,  R,  C7.,  i.,  438  ;  Madvig,  Verf^  R,  Reicks^  ii.,  467 
sq»  ;  Livy,  viii.,  8  ;  Polybius,  vi.,  17-42. 

*  E,  g.f  before  the  battle  of  Sentinum  (296  B.Ci),  Livy,  x.,  2X. 


io6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ii 

duction  of  pay.'  Hardly  less  important  than  these 
changes  were  those  which  had  taken  place  in  the 
organisation  of  the  legion  itself.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  republic  the  same  divisions  served  for  the 
soldier  in  the  legion  and  the  voter  in  the  assembly. 
The  Roman  army  in  the  field,  and  the  Roman  people 
in  the  comitia  on  the  Campus,  were  alike  grouped 
according  to  their  wealth,  in  classes  and  centuricB. 
But  by  the  time  of  the  Latin  war  the  arrangement 
of  the  legion  had  been  altered.  In  the  new  manipu- 
lar  system,  with  its  three  lines,  no  regard  was  paid 
to  civic  distinctions,  but  only  to  length  of  service 
and  military  efficiency,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
more  open  order  of  fighting  which  it  involved  de- 
manded of  each  soldier  greater  skill,  and  therefore  a 
more  thorough  training  in  arms  than  the  old  phalanx. 
One  other  change  resulted  from  the  new  military  neces- 
The  pro-  sities  of  the  time,  which  was  as  fruitful  of 
consulate,  results  as  the  incipient  separation  between 
the  citizen  and  the  soldier.  The  citizen  soldiers  of 
early  Rome  were  commanded  in  the  field  by  the 
men  whom  they  had  chosen  to  be  their  chief  magis- 
trates at  home,  and  still,  except  when  a  dictator  was 
appointed,  the  chief  command  of  the  legions  rested 
with  the  consuls  of  the  year.  But,  as  Rome's  mili- 
tary operations  increased  in  area  and  in  distance 
from  Rome,  a  larger  staff  became  necessary,  and  the 
inconvenience  of  summoning  home  a  consul  in  the 
field  from  an  unfinished  campaign  became  intolera- 
ble. The  remedy  found,  that  of  prolonging  for  a 
further  period  the  imperium  of  the  consul,  was  first 

>  Livy,  iv.,  59. 


Ch.2l  The  Conquest  of  Italy.  \o^ 

applied  in  327  B.C.  in  the  case  of  Q.  4a7A.u.c. 
Publilius  Philo,*  and  between  327  and 
264  B.C.  instances  of  this  prarogatio  im- 
perii became  increasingly  common.  This  pro- 
consular authority,  originally  an  occasional  and 
subordinate  one,  was  destined  to  become  first  of  all 
the  strongest  force  in  the  republic,  and  ultimately 
the  chief  prop  of  the  power  of  the  Caesars.  Already, 
within  the  limits  of  Italy,  Rome  had  laid  the  foun- 
dation stones  of  the  system  by  which  she  afterwards 
governed  the  world — the  municipal  constitutions, 
the  allied  states,  the  proconsuls,  and  the  prefects. 

'  livy,  tUL,  as,  "  uifrocomuU  rem  gereret  quoad  tUbellaium  essit^ 


BOOK  in. 

ROME  AND  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 
STATES— 265-146  B.C. 


ROME  AND  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 
STATES— 26J-146  B.C. 


INTRODUCTION. 

We  have  now  reached  the  period  during  which  the 
Latin  community  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  already 
the  mistress  of  Italy,  established  her  suzerainty  over 
the  countries  bordering  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  For 
the  history  of  this  period  we  are  no  longer  depend- 
ent on  tradition.  The  events  of  the  struggle  with 
Carthage,  the  wars  with  Macedon,  and  with  Anti- 
ochus,  the  relations  of  Rome  with  the  states  of  west- 
em  Asia,  were  recorded  by  contemporary  historians, 
Greek  and  Roman,  and  in  contemporary  official 
documents.  Of  these  contemporary  authorities 
indeed,  only  a  few  fragments  are  now  extant.  We 
cannot  read  the  very  words  of  Fabius  Pictor,  of  L. 
Cincius  Alimentus,  the  prisoner  of  Hannibal,  or 
of  Hannibal's  companion  and  historiographer,  the 
Greek  Silenus,  or  handle  the  original  text  of  the 
treaties  with  Carthage  or  Antiochus.  But  the  im- 
portant fact  remains,  that  it  is  on  these  records  that 

III 


112  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  111 

our  two  chief  extant  authorities,  Polybius  and  Livy, 
based  their  narratives,  while  of  the  last  thirty  years 
of  the  period,  Polybius  himself  writes  with  the  au- 
thority of  a  contemporary. 

The  chief  interest  of  the  history  naturally  centres 
in  the  great  wars  which  for  a  hundred  years  absorbed 
the  energies  of  Rome.  In  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
state  there  is  at  first  sight  nothing  of  striking  import- 
ance to  record.  The  strain  and  stress  of  foreign  war 
left  little  energy  or  leisure  for  political  debate,  or 
reforming  zeal.  The  great  controversy  which  had 
divided  men  in  the  previous  period  was  closed ;  those 
which  were  to  divide  them  in  the  next  had  not  yet 
taken  definite  shape.  Yet  beneath  this  outward 
political  calm  changes  were  silently  at  work  of  the 
utmost  moment  for  the  future  of  the  state.  The 
Rome  which  emerged  victorious  from  the  conflicts 
of  a  century  was  still,  as  regarded  the  form  of  her 
political  system,  a  Latin  city  state, — in  fact,  she  was 
an  imperial  power  ruling  wide  and  distant  provinces, 
and  with  a  citizen  body  scattered  over  the  coasts  of 
the  Mediterranean.  Nor  could  the  disproportion 
betweeii  the  primitive  machinery  of  the  old  republi- 
can constitution  and  the  administrative  necessities 
of  an  empire  which  stretched  from  the  pillars  of 
Hercules  to  the  river  Halys,  long  escape  notice.  To 
these  administrative  difficulties  were  added  others, 
created  directly  or  indirectly  by  t?he  rapid  expansion 
of  Rome  during  this  period;  for  this  expansion 
brought  with  it  a  revolution  in  the  conditions,  habits 
and  beliefs  of  Roman  society,  which  undermined  the 
very  foundations  on  which  the  republican   system 


Int.]  Introduction.  113 

rested.  The  statesmen  of  the  Gracchan,  and  still 
more  of  the  Ciceronian,  age  had  consequently  to  face 
the  fact  that  the  ancient  constitution  was  almost  as 
ill-suited  to  the  temper  and  tone  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple as  it  was  inadequate  to  the  task  of  governing 
the  -civilised  world.  In  the  following  chapters  we 
shall  then,  first  of  all,  trace  the  growth  of  Roman 
dominion  outside  Italy,  and,  secondly,  consider  its 
effects  upon  the  Roman  state  itself. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ROME  AND  CARTHAGE — THE  CONQUEST  OF 

THE  WEST. 

Though  marked  out  by  her  geographical  position 
as  the  natural  centre  of  the  Mediterranean,  Italy  had 
hitherto  played  no  active  part  in  Mediter- 
ranean  politics,  but,  now  that  she  was  for 
the  first  time  united,  it  was  felt  throughout  the 
Mediterranean  world  that  a  new  power  had  arisen, 
and  Rome,  as  the  head  and  representative  of  Italy, 
found  herself  irresistibly  drawn  into  the  vortex  of 
Mediterranean  affairs.  With  those  of  the  eastern 
Mediterranean,  indeed,  she  was  not  immediately 
called  upon  to  concern  herself.  Her  repulse  of  Pyr- 
rhus,  and  the  news  that  the  Greek  cities  of  South 
Italy  had  acknowledged  her  suzerainty,  had,  it  is 
true,  suddenly  revealed  to  the  Eastern  world  the 
existence  of  a  powerful  Italian  state.  Egypt  sought 
her  alliance,  and  Greek  scholars  began  to  interest 
themselves  keenly  in  the  history,  constitution,  and 
character  of  the  Latin  republic  which  had  so  sud- 
denly become  famous.  But  this  was  all,  and  not 
until  fifty  years  after  the  retreat  of  Pyrrhus  did 

"4 


Rome  and  Carthage.  115 

Rome  seriously  turn  her  attention  eastward.  West- 
ward of  Italy  the  case  was  different.  The  western 
coasts  of  the  peninsula  were  the  most  fertile,  popu- 
lous, and  wealthy  ;  it  was  westward  rather  than  east- 
ward that  the  natural  openings  for  Italian  commerce 
were  to  be  found.  But  it  was  precisely  on  this  side 
that  Rome  had  serious  ground  for  anxiety.  The 
great  Phoenician  republic  of  Carthage  was  now  at 
the  height  of  her  power.  To  a  commercial  and 
maritime  supremacy,  as  great  as  that  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  had  ever  been,  she  had  added  a  dominion  by 
land,  of  a  kind  to  which  they  ,had  never  aspired. 
Not  content  with  her  wide  and  fertile  territories  in 
northern  Africa,  she  had  planted  her  feet  firmly  in 
Sardinia  and  Sicily,  in  close  proximity  to  the  shores 
of  Italy,  while  her  fleets  swept  the  seas  and  jealously 
guarded  for  her  benefit  alone  the  hidden  treasures 
of  the  West.  In  the  east  of  Sicily,  Syracuse  still 
upheld  the  cause  of  Greek  independence  against  the 
hereditary  foe  of  the  Greek  race  ;  but  Syracuse  stood 
alone,  and  her  resources  were  comparatively  small. 
What  Rome  had  to  fear  was  the  establishment,  and 
that  at  no  distant  date,  of  an  absolute  Carthaginian 
domination  over  the  Western  seas — a  domination 
which  would  not  only  be  fatal  to  Italian  commerce 
but  would  be  a  standing  menace  to  the  safety  of  the 
Italian  coasts.  Rome  had  indeed  long  been  con- 
nected with  Carthage  by  treaty,  and  the  older  purely 
commercial  treaties  had  quite  recently  been  replaced 
by  a  close  alliance  formed  in  face  of  the  common 
danger  to  which  both  had  been  exposed  by  the  ad- 
venturous schemes  of  Pyrrhus.    But  this  danger  was 


1 16  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  ill 

past,  and  it  is  probable  that  others  besides  Pyrrhus 
foresaw  that  on  the  old  battle-ground  of  Greeks  and 
Phoenicians  a  struggle  must  soon  be  fought  out  be- 
tween the  Phoenician  mistress  of  the  Italian  seas  and 
the  Latin  rulers  of  the  Italian  peninsula. 
War  ^°**^  It  was  above  all  things  essential  for 
S^SJa.uIc.  Ronic  that  the  Carthaginians  should  ad- 
48aA.u.c.  vance  no  farther  eastward.  But  already 
in  272  B.C.  Tarentum  had  almost  fallen  into  their 
grasp,  and  seven  years  later  Rome  was  threatened 
with  a  danger  at  least  as  serious,  the  establishment 
of  Carthaginian  rule  in  the  east  of  Sicily,  and  within 
sight  of  the  Italian  coast.  In  265  B.C.  a 
body  of  Campanian  mercenaries,  who  had 
seized  Messana,  found  themselves  hard  pressed  by 
Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse.  One  party  among  them 
appealed  for  aid  to  Carthage.  The  Carthaginians 
readily  responded,  and  a  Carthaginian  garrison  occu- 
pied the  citadel  of  Messana.  But  at  Messana,  as 
once  at  Tarentum,  there  were  others  who  turned  to 
Rome,  and,  as  Italians  themselves,  implored  the  aid 
of  the  great  Italian  republic,  offering  in  return  to 
place  Messana  under  the  suzerainty  of  Rome.  The 
request  was  a  perplexing  one.  Both  Hiero  and  the 
Carthaginians  were  allies  of  Rome,  and  Messana,  if 
rescued  from  the  latter,  belonged  of  right  to  Hiero 
and  not  to  Rome.  Apart,  too,  from  treaty  obliga- 
tions, the  Roman  senate  naturally  hesitated  before 
acceding  to  an  appeal  which  would  precipitate  a 
collision  with  Carthage,  and  commit  Rome  to  a  new 
and  hazardous  career  of  enterprise  beyond  the  sea. 
Finally,  however,  all  other  considerations  gave  way 


Ch.  11  Rome  and  Carthage.  117 

before  the  paramount  importance  of  checking  the 
advance  of  Carthage.  The  Roman  assembly  voted 
that  assistance  should  be  sent  to  the  Mamertines, 
and  in  264  B.C.  the  Roman  legions  for 
the  first  time  crossed  the  sea.  Mes- 
sana  was  occupied,  and,  after  sustaining  a  de- 
feat, the  Carthaginians  and  Syracusans  were  forced 
to  raise  the  siege  and  withdraw.  The  opening  years 
of  the  war  which  was  thus  begun  gave  little  promise 
of  the  length  of  the  struggle,  and  it  seemed  likely  at 
the  outset  that  Rome's  immediate  object,  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Carthaginians  from  Sicily,  would  be  soon 
attained.     The  accession  to  the  Roman 

401  A.U.C 

side  of  King  Hiero  (263  B.C.)  not  only 
confirmed  the  position  which  Rome  had  already 
assumed  in  Italy  of  the  champion  of  the  western 
Greeks  against  barbarians,  but  provided  her  in  east- 
em  Sicily  with  a  convenient  base  of  operations  and 
commodious  winter  quarters,  and  in  Hiero  himself 
with  a  loyal  and  effective  ally.  In  the  next  year 
(262  B.C.)  followed  the  capture  of  Agri- 
gentum,  and  in  261  B.C.  the  Roman  sen- 

11  1  .  t  493  A.U.C. 

ate  resolved  on  supplementmg  these  suc- 
cesses on  land  by  the  formation  of  a  fleet  which 
should  not  only  enable  them  to  attack  the        ^^^^  ^^^^ 
maritime  strongholds  which   defied    the  i^o«*nfl««*« 
assaults  of  their  legions,  and  protect  their  own  coasts, 
but  even  to  carry  the  war  into  Africa  itself.      In  the 
spring  of  260  B.C.  the  first  regular  Roman 
fleet,  consisting  of  one  hundred  quinque- 
remes  and  twenty  triremes,  set  sail  * ;  and  the  bril- 

'  Mommsen,  R,  G.,  i.,  515. 


1 1 8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      tBook  III 

liant  naval  victory  of  Mylae,  won  by  the  consul  C. 

Duilius  in  the  same  year,  seemed  to  promise  the 

Romans  as  much  success  by  sea  as  they  had  won  by 

land.     But  the  promise  was  not  fulfilled  : 
498A.U.C. 

and  in  256  B.C.  the  senate,  impatient  of 

the   slow  progress  made  in  Sicily,  determined  on 

boldly  invading  Africa.     It  was  a  policy 

The  invasion    .  i.i.i.ri..  11 

of  Africa  by  for  which,  if  Africa  were  once  reached, 
the  defenceless  state  of  the  Carthaginian 
territories,  the  doubtful  loyalty  of  her  Libyan  sub- 
jects, and  the  unwarlike  habits  of  her  own  citizens 
gave  every  hope  of  success,  and,  but  for  the  blunders 
of  the  Romans  themselves,  it  might  have  succeeded 
now  as  it  did  fifty  years  later.  The  passage  to  Africa 
was  opened  by  the  defeat  of  the  Carthaginian  fleet 
off  Ecnomus ;  the  two  consuls,  L.  Manlius  Vulso 
and  M.  Atilius  Regulus,  landed  in  safety  and  rapidly 
overran  the  country.  But  these  successes  led  the 
senate,  at  the  close  of  the  summer,  into  committing 
the  serious  blunder  of  recalling  one  of  the  consuls, 
Manlius,  with  a  large  portion  of  the  troops.  It  was 
one  of  many  instances  in  which  the  rules  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  old  republican  system  proved  themselves 
inconsistent  with  the  new  requirements  of  an  ex- 
tended warfare.  The  consul  came  back  to  hold  the 
elections;  his  soldiers  returned,  as  the  custom  had 
been,  to  their  homes  after  a  summer's  campaign ;  but 
the  efficiency  of  "the  expedition  was  fatally  impaired. 
The  rashness  and  over-confidence  of  Regulus  aggra- 
vated the  effects  of  the  senate's  action.  Emboldened 
by  further  successes,  and  notwithstanding  his  dimin- 
ished forces,  he  met  the  Carthaginian  proposals  for 


Ch.  1]  Rome  and  Carthage.  119 

peace  by  terms  so  harsh  that  the  latter,  though  the 
Romans  were  almost  at  their  gates,  their  soldiers  dis- 
heartened, and  the  nomad  tribes  swarming  on  their 
frontiers,  indignantly  broke  off  the  negotiations  and 
prepared  to  resist  to  the  last.  At  this  crisis,  so  the  story 
runs,  the  arrival  of  Xanthippus,  a  Spartan  soldier  of 
fortune,  changed  the  face  of  affairs,  as  that  of  Gylippus 
had  formerly  done  at  Syracuse.  His  superior  mili- 
tary skill  remedied  the  blunders  of  the  Carthaginian 
generals ;  confidence  was  restored ;  and  in 
255  B.C.  he  triumphantly  routed  the  Ro- 
man forces  a  few  miles  outside  the  city.  Regulus 
was  taken  prisoner,'  and  only  a  miserable  remnant  of 
two  thousand  men  escaped  to  the  Roman  camp  on 
the  coast.  Here  they  were  rescued  by  a  Roman 
fleet,  but  their  ill-fortune  pursued  them.  On  its  way 
home  the  fleet  was  wrecked,  and  all  but  80  vessels 
out  of  a  total  of  364  were  lost. 

Still,  though   abandoning  the   idea   of  invading 
Africa,   the    Romans  were   unwilling  to    renounce 
all  thoughts    of    facing  their   enemy   on   the  sea. 
But   fresh  disasters   followed.     The    hopes    raised 
(254  B.C.)  by  the  capture   of   Panormus     -x,  ^  u  c 
were  dashed  to  the  ground  the  next  year 
(253  B.C.)  by  the  total  destruction   in   a     ^  a.u.c. 
storm  of  the  victorious  fleet  on  its  way 
home  from  Panormus  to  Rome.     Four  years  later  a 
second  fleet,  despatched  under  P.  Claudius  to  assist 
in  the  blockade  of  Lilybaeum,  was  completely  de- 
feated off  Drepana,  while,  to  make  matters  worse, 

*  For  criticisms  of  the  story  of  R^[ulus,  see  Mommsen,  i.,  523; 
Ihne,  ii.,  69  ;  Ranke»  Weltgeschichie^  ii.,  185. 


1 20  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  111 

Claudius's  colleague,  L.  Junius,  who  had  been  hastily 
sent  out  with  reinforcements,  was  wrecked  near  the 
dangerous  promontory  of  Pachynus. 

Disheartened  by  these  repeated  disasters,  the 
senate  resolved  to  trust  only  to  the  legions,  and 
by  sheer  force  of  perseverance  slowly  to  force  the 
enemy  out  of  the  few  positions  to  which  he  still 
clung  in  Sicily.     But,  though  for  five  years  (248-243 

506-5x1  A.u.c.  ^-^O  ^^  fresh  naval  operations  were  at- 
tempted, no  compensating  success  by  land 
followed.  Hamilcar  Barca,  the  new  Carthaginian 
commander,  not  only  ravaged  with  his  fleet  the 
coasts  of  Italy,  but  from  his  impregnable  position 
at  Ercte  incessantly  harassed  the  Roman  troops  in 
the  west  of  the  island,  and  even  recaptured  Eryx. 
Convinced  once  more  of  the  impossibility  of  driving 
the  Carthaginians  out  of  Sicily  as  long  as  their  navy 
swept  the  seas,  the  Romans  determined  on  a  final 
effort.  The  treasury  was  empty  ;  but  by  the  liberal 
contributions  of  private  citizens  a  fleet  was  equipped, 
and  C.  Lutatius  Catulus,  consul  for  242 
5xa  A.u.c.  B,c^^  started  for  Sicily  early  in  the  sum- 
mer of  that  year  with  two  hundred  quinqueremes. 
From  Drepana,  whither  he  had  gone  to  aid  in  the 
blockade,  he  sailed  out  to  meet  a  Carthaginian  fleet 
despatched  from  Africa  against  him ;  and  a  battle 
took  place  at  the  i£gates  islands,  some  twenty  miles 
End  of  the  from  the  Sicilian  coast,  in  which  Catulus 
w*""-  completely  defeated  his  enemy.    The  end 

of  the  long  struggle  had  come  at  last.  The  Cartha^ 
ginian  government,  despairing  of  being  able  to  send 
further  aid   to   their  troops    in    Sicily,   authorised 


Ch.  1]  Rome  and  Carthage.  121 

Hamilcar  to  treat  for  peace.  His  proposals  were 
accepted  by  Catulus,  and  the  terms  agreed  upon 
between  them  were  confirmed  in  all  essential  points 
by  the  commissioners  sent  out  from  Rome.  The 
Carthaginians  agreed  to  evacuate  Sicily  and  the  ad- 
joining islands,  to  restore  all  prisoners,  and  to  pay 
an  indemnity  of  2,300  talents. 

In  its  duration  and  severity  the  first  Punic  war 
is  justly  ranked  by  Polybius  above  all  other  wars 
of  his  own  and  preceding  times,  though 
neither  in  the  military  talent  displayed  and  lessons 
nor  in  the  importance  of  its  results  can  "'*•"•'• 
it  be  compared  with  the  war  that  followed.  It  was 
distinguished  by  no  military  achievement  compara- 
ble with  Hannibal's  invasion  of  Italy,  and  with  the 
single  exception  of  Hamilcar  it  produced  no  general 
of  the  calibre  of  Hannibal  or  Scipio.  It  was  in  fact 
a  struggle  in  which  both  Rome  and  Carthage  were 
serving  an  apprenticeship  to  a  warfare,  the  condi- 
tions of  which  were  unfamiliar  to  both.  The  Roman 
legions  were  foes  very  unlike  any  against  which  the 
Carthaginian  leaders  had  ever  led  their  motley  array 
of  mercenaries,  while  Rome  was  called  upon  for  the 
first  time  to  fight  a  war  across  the  sea,  and  to  fight 
with  ships  against  the  greatest  naval  power  of  the 
age.  The  novelty  of  these  conditions  accounts  for 
much  of  the  vacillating  and  uncertain  action  observa- 
ble on  both  sides,  and  their  effect  in  this  direction 
was  increased  by  the  evident  doubts  felt  by  both 
antagonists  as  to  the  lengths  to  which  the  quarrel 
should  be  pushed.  It  is  possible  that  Hamilcar  had 
already  made  up  his  mind  that  Rome  must  be  at- 


122  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  1 1 1 

tacked  and  crushed  in  Italy,  but  his  government 
attempted  nothing  more  than  raids  upon  the  coast. 
There  are  indications  also  that  some  in  the  Roman 
senate  saw  no  end  to  the  struggle  but  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  Carthage ;  yet  an  invasion  of  Africa  was  only 
once  seriously  attempted,  and  then  only  a  half- 
hearted support  was  given  to  the  expedition.  But 
these  peculiarities  in  the  war  served  to  bring  out  in 
the  clearest  relief  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of 
the  two  contending  states.  The  chief  dangers  for 
Carthage  lay  obviously  in  the  jealousy  exhibited  at 
home  of  her  officers  abroad,  in  the  difficulty  of  con- 
trolling her  mercenary  troops,  and  in  the  ever-pres- 
ent possibility  of  disaffection  among  her  subjects  in 
Libya — dangers  which  even  the  genius  of  Hannibal 
failed  finally  to  surmount.  Rome,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  strong  in  the  public  spirit  of  her  citizens, 
the  fidelity  of  her  allies,  the  valour  and  discipline  of 
her  legions.  What  she  needed  was  a  system  which 
should  make  a  better  use  of  her  splendid  materials 
than  one  under  which  her  plans  were  shaped  from 
day  to  day  by  a  divided  senate,  and  executed  by 
officers  who  were  changed  every  year,  and  by  soldiers 
most  of  whom  returned  home  at  the  close  of  each 
summer's  campaign. 

The  interval  between  the  first  and  second  Punic 

wars  was  employed  by  both  Rome  and*  Carthage  in 

strengthening  their  respective  positions. 

ThA  Interval  o  ^  x  x^ 

between  the  Of  the  islands  lying  off  the  coast  of  Italy, 
second  the  most  important,  Sicily,  had  fallen  to 

Punic  wan.     ^  ,  .  ^    ,  ^, 

Rome  as  the  prize  of  the  recent  war.   The 
eastern  end  of  the  island  was  still  left  under  the  rule 


Ch.  1]  Rome  and  Carthage.  123 

of  King  Hiero  as  the  ally  of  Rome,  but  the  larger 
western  portion  became  directly  subject  to  Rome, 
and  a  temporary  arrangement  seems  to  have  been 
made  for  its  government,  either  by  one  of  the 
two  praetors,  or  possibly  by  a  quaestor.*  Sardinia 
and  Corsica  had  not  been  surrendered  to  Rome  by 
the  treaty  of  241  B.C.,  but  three  years  szsa.u.c. 
later  (238  B.C.)  on  the  invitation  of  the  5x6  a.u.c. 
Carthaginian  mercenaries  stationed  in  the  islands,  a 
Roman  force  occupied  them ;  Carthage  protested, 
but,  on  the  Romans  threatening  war,  she  gave  way, 
and  Sardinia  and  Corsica  were  formally  Annexation 
ceded  to  Rome,  though  it  was  some  seven  and  corSciu 
or  eight  years  before  all  resistance  on  ^RomM 
the  part  of  the  natives  themselves  was  p«'ovincc«. 
crushed.  In  227  B.C.,  however,  the  senate  ^  a.u.c. 
considered  matters  ripe  for  the  establishment  of  a 
separate  and  settled  government,  not  only  in  Sar- 
dinia and  Corsica,  but  also  in  Sicily.  In  that  year 
two  additional  praetors  were  elected ;  to  one  was 
assigned  the  charge  of  western  Sicily,  to  the  other 
that  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,'  and  thus  the  first 
stones  of  the  Roman  provincial  system  were  laid. 
Of  at  least  equal  importance  for  the  security  of  the 
peninsula  was  the  subjugation  of  the  Keltic  tribes  in 
the  valley  of  the  Po.  These,  headed  by  subjugation 
the  Boii  and  Insubres  and  assisted  by  and^inaubrei 
levies  from  the  Kelts  to  the  westward,  *°  **•  ""^y- 
had  in  225  B.C.  alarmed  the  whole  of  Italy     5*9  a.u.c, 

'  Marquardt,  RSm.  Staatsver.^  L,  92 ;  Mommsen,  R.  C?..  L.  543 ; 
Appian,  Sic,^  2. 
•  Livy,  EpU.^ 


124  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     LBook  III 

by  invading  Etruria  and  penetrating  to  Clusium, 
only  three  days'  journey  from  Rome.  Here,  how- 
ever, their  courage  seems  to  have  failed  them.  They 
retreated  northward  along  the  Etruscan  coast,  until 
at  Telamon  their  way  was  barred  by  the  Roman 
legions,  returning  from  Sardinia  to  the  defence  of 
Rome,  while  a  second  consular  army  hung  upon 
their  rear.  Thus  hemmed  in,  the  Kelts  fought  des- 
perately, but  were  completely  defeated  and  the 
flower  of  their  tribesmen  slain.  The  Romans  fol- 
lowed up  their  success  by  invading  the  Keltic  terri- 
tory. The  Boii  were  easily  reduced  to  submission. 
The  Insubres,  north  of  the  Po,  resisted  more  obsti- 
^  „  ^      nately,  but  by  222  B.C.  the  war  was  over, 

<M   AaU«C« 

and  all  the  tribes  in  the  rich  Po  valley 
acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  The  con- 
quered Kelts  were  not  enrolled  among  the  Italian 
allies  of  Rome,  but  were  treated  as  subjects  beyond 
the  frontier.  Three  colonies  were  founded  to  hold 
them  in  check — Placentia  and  Cremona  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Insubres,  Mutina  in  that  of  the  Boii ; 
TheViR  ^^^  ^^  great  northern  road  (Via  Fla- 
piaminia.  minia)  was  completed  as  far  as  the  Keltic 
border  at  Ariminum. 

On  the  Adriatic  coast,  where  there  was  no  Car- 
thage to  be  feared,  and  no  important  adjacent 
Chastisement  islands  to  be  annexed,  the  immediate  in- 
Sirates.  ^  ***  tercsts  of  Rome  were  limited  to  rendering 
Greece.  the  sea  safc  for  Italian  trade.  It  was 
^*  '  '  *  with  this  object  that,  in  229  B.C.,  the  first 
Roman  expedition  crossed  the  Adriatic,  and  in- 
flicted severe  chastisement   on  the  lUyrian   pirates 


Ch,  1]  Rome  and  Carthage.  125 

of  the  opposite  coast.*  But  the  resul|:s  of  the  expe- 
dition did  not  end  here,  for  it  was  the  means  of 
establishing  for  the  first  time  direct  political  rela^. 
tions  between  Rome  and  the  states  of  Greece  proper, 
to  many  of  which  the  suppression  of  piracy  in  the 
Adriatic  was  of  as  much  importance  as  to  Rome 
herself.  Alliances  were  concluded  with  Corcyra, 
Epidamnus,  and  Apollonia ;  and  embassies  explain- 
ing the  reasons  which  had  brought  Roman  troops 
into  Greece  were  sent  to  the  i£tolians,  the  Achxans, 
and  even  to  Athens  and  Corinth*  Ever3rwhere  they 
were  well  received,  and  the  admission  of  the  Romans 
to  the  Isthmian  games'  (228  B.C.)  formally 
acknowledged  them  as  the  natural  allies 
of  the  free  Greek  states  against  both  barbarian 
tribes  and  foreign  despots,  a  relationship  which  was 
destined  to  prove  as  useful  to  Rome  in  the  East  as 
it  had  already  proved  itself  to  be  in  the  West. 

While  Rome  was  thus  fortifying  herself  on  all 
sides,  Carthage  had  acquired  a  possession  which 
promised  to  compensate  her  for  the  loss  of 

.  1  r^        •  «-r«i  .  The  Carthft- 

Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica.     The  genius  *2°*if** 

of  her  greatest  citizen  and  soldier  Hamil- 
car  Barca,  had  appreciated  the  enormous  value  of 
the  Spanish  peninsula,  and  conceived  the  scheme  of 
founding  there  a  Carthginian  dominion  which  should 
not  only  add  to  the  wealth  of  Carthage,  but  supply 
her  with  troops,  and  with  a  base  of  operations  for 
that  war  of  revenge  with  Rome  on  which  his  heart 
was  set.    The  conquest   of  southern   and   eastern 

'  Polyb.,  ii.,  8  sq, 
«Polyb.,  ii.,  13, 


1 26  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBook  III 

5x8-5^  A.u.c.  Spajn,  begun  by  Hamilcar  (236-228  B.C.), 
and  carried  on  by  his  kinsman  Hasdrubal 
536-533  A.u.c.  ^228-22 1  B.C.),  was  Completed  by  his  son 
Hannibal,  who,  with  all  his  father's  genius  inherited 
also  his  father's  hatred  of  Rome,  and  by  2 19 
B.C.  the  authority  of  Carthage  had  been 
extended  as  far  as  the  Ebro.     Rome  had  not  watched 
this  rapid   advance  without  anxiety,  but,  probably 
owing  to  her  troubles  with  the  Kelts,  she  had  con- 
tented herself  with  stipulating  (226  B.C.) 
that  Carthage  should  not  carry  her  arms 
beyond  the  Ebro,  so  as  to  threaten  Rome's  ancient 
ally,  the  Greek  colony  Massilia,  and  with  securing 
the  independence  of  the  two  nominally  Greek  com- 
munities, Emporise  and  Saguntum,'  on  the  east  coast. 
But  these  precautions  were  of  no  avail  against  the 
resolute  determination  of  Hannibal,  with  whom  the 
conquest  of  Spain  was  only  preliminary  to  an  attack 
upon  Italy,  and  who  could  not  afford  to  leave  behind 
him  in  Spain  a  state  allied  to  Rome.     In 
'"''•"•*'•     219  B.C.,  therefore,  disregarding  the  pro- 
test  of  a  Roman  embassy,  he   attacked  and  took 
Saguntum,  an   act  which,  as  he  had  foreseen,  ren- 
dered a  rupture  with  Rome  inevitable,  while  it  set 
his  own  hands  free  for  a  further  advance. 

A  second  war  with  Carthage  was  no  unlooked-for 
Second  Punic  ^vcnt  at  Rome ;  but  the  senate  seems  to 
B^c!=^^  have  confidently  expected  that  it  would 
A.U.C.  jjg   waged   at  a  distance  from   Italy — in 

Africa  and  in  Spain,  where  Saguntum  would  have 
given  them  a  convenient  point  of  support ;  and  to 

*  Livy,  xxi.,  2,  5  ;  Polyb.,  iii.,  15,  31, 


Ch.  11  Rome  and  Carthage.  127 

this  hope  they  clung  even  after  Saguntum  was  lost. 
In  218  B.C.,  the  first  year  of  the  war,  one 
consul,  P.  Cornelius  Scipio,  was  despatched 
to  Spain,  and  the  other  T.  Sempronius  Gracchus,  to 
Sicily,  and  thence  to  Africa.  But  Hannibal's  secrecy 
and  promptitude  baffled  all  their  calculations.  Leav- 
ing New  Carthage  early  in  218  B.C.,  in  the  space  of 
five  months  he  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  reached  the 
Rhone  just  as  Scipio  arrived  at  Massilia  on  his  way 
to  Spain,  passed  the  Alps  in  spite  of  endless  difficul- 
ties and  hardships,  and  startled  Italy  by  Hannibai 
descending  into  the  plains  of  Cisalpine  *"^****^^^- 
Gaul.  In  two  battles  on  the  Ticinus  and  the  Trebia 
he  defeated  the  forces  hastily  collected  to  bar  his 
progress  southwards  ;  the  Keltic  tribes  rallied  to  his 
standard ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year  he 
prepared  to  realise  the  dream  of  his  life  and  carry 
fire  and  sword  into  Italy  itself.  His  own  force  num- 
bered 26,000  men ;  the  total  available  strength  of 
Rome  and  her  allies  was  estimated  at  over  700,000.* 
But  Hannibal's  hope  lay  in  the  possibility  that  by 
the  rapidity  of  his  movements  he  might  be  able  to 
strike  a  decisive  blow  before  Rome  could  mobilise 
her  levies,  or  get  her  somewhat  cumbrous  military 
machinery  into  working  order.  From  a  first  success 
he  expected  no  less  a  result  than  the  break-up  of  the 
Roman  confederacy,  and  the  isolation  of  Rome  her- 
self, while  it  would  also  increase  the  readiness  of  his 


*  Polybius  (ii.,  24  jf.)  enumerates  the  forces  of  Rome  and  her  aUies 
at  the  time  of  the  Keltic  invasion  of  225  B.c.  For  a  criticism  of  his 
account,  see  Mommsen,  R,  Forsch,^  ii.,  398  ;  Beloch,  Ital,  Bund^  80. 
For  Hannibal's  force  see  Polyb.,  iii.,  35,  56. 


1 28  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  ill 

own  government  to  render  him  effective  support. 
His  trust  in  himself  and  his  army  was  not  misplaced, 
for  to  the  last  he  had  the  advantage  over  the  Roman 
legions  wherever  he  met  them  in  person.  Except, 
however,  in  South  Italy,  his  brilliant  victories  and 
dashing  marches  brought  him  no  allies,  and  it  was  his 
inability  to  shake  the  loyalty  of  northern  and  cen- 
tral Italy  and  of  the  Latin  colonies  everywhere,  even 
more  than  the  indomitable  perseverance  of  Rome 
and  the  supineness  of  Carthage,  which  caused  his 
ultimate  failure. 

In  the  spring  of  217  B.C.  Hannibal  crossed  the 
Apennines  and  marched  southwards  through  the 
Battle  at  the  lowlands  of  eastem  Etruria,  the  route 
Lake."**"*  taken  before  him  by  the  Keltic  hordes. 
S37  A.u.c.  jj^  April  he  annihilated  Flaminius  and  his 
army  at  the  Trasimene  Lake,*  and  pushed  on  to 
Spoletium,  only  a  few  days'  march  from  Rome.  But 
Rome  was  not  yet  his  goal ;  from  Spoletium,  which 
had  closed  its  gates  against  him,  he  moved  rapidly 
eastward,  ravaging  the  territories  of  Roman  allies  as 
he  went,  till  he  reached  the  Adriatic  and  the  fertile 
lands  of  northern  Apulia,  where  supplies  and  espe- 
cially remounts  for  his  Numidian  cavalry'  were 
plentiful,  communication  with  Carthage  easy,  and 
where,  moreover,  he  was  well  placed  for  testing  the 
fidelity  of  the  most  recent  and  the  least  trustworthy 
of  the  Italian  allies  of  Rome.  A  second  victory 
here,  on  the  scale  of  that  at  the  Trasimene  Lake, 

'  For  the  date  see  Ovid,  Fast,^  ri.,  765  ;  Weissenborn  on  Livy, 
zzii.,  5  ;  Mommsen,  R.  G,,  i.,  594. 
*  Livy,  xxiv.,  20. 


Ch.  11  Rome  and  Carthage.  1 29 

might  be  the  signal  for  a  general  revolt  against 
Roman  rule.  It  was  not,  however,  until  the  summer 
of  the  next  year  that  his  opportunity  came.  The 
patient  tactics  of  Q.  Fabius  Cunctator  had  become 
unpopular  at  Rome  ;  and  the  consuls  of  216  B.C.,  L. 
-^milius  Paulus  and  M.  Terentius  Varro,  -^^wit  of 
took  the  field  in  Apulia,  at  the  head  of  a  Rcv?it"f 
larger  force  than  Rome  had  yet  raised,  andofsyrl^ 
and  with  orders  to  fight  and  crush  the  *^""ot" 
daring  invader.  The  result  realised  for  538A.U.C. 
the  moment  Hannibal's  highest  hopes.  The  Roman 
army  was  annihilated  at  Cannae ;  and  South  Italy, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Latin  colonies  and  the 
Greek  cities  on  the  coast,  came  over  to  his  side. 
Nor  did  the  Roman  misfortunes  end  here.  Philip 
of  Macedon  concluded  an  alliance  with    Hannibal 

(215  B.C.),and  threatened  an  invasion  of 

T    1        T       1  c^  539A.U.C. 

Italy.     In  the  very  next  year,  Syracuse, 

no  longer  ruled  by  the  faithful  Hiero,  revolted,  and 
a  Carthaginian  force  landed  in  Sicily  ;  lastly,  in  212 
B.C.  came  the  loss  of  the  Greek  cities  on 
the  south  coast.     But  the  truth  of  Polybi- 
us's  remark,  that  the  Romans  are  most  to  be  feared 
when  their  danger  is  greatest,  was  never  better  illus- 
trated than  by  their  conduct  in  the  face  of  these 
accumulated  disasters.     Patiently  and  undauntedly 
they  set  themselves  to  regain  the  ground  they  had 
lost.     Philip  of  Macedon  was  first  of  all  forced  ^to 
retire  from  the  allied  city  of  ApoUonia  which  he  had 
attacked  (214  B.C.),  and  then  effectually 
diverted  from  all  thoughts  of  an  attack  on     54©    .   .  . 
Italy  by  the  formation  of  a  coalition  against  him  in 


130  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      tBook  111 

Greece  itself  (211  B.C.)  ;  Syracuse  was  recaptured  in 
sieflre  and  re-  212  B.C.  after  a  lengthy  siege,  and  Roman 
Syracuse.       authority    re-established    in    Sicily.      In 

543  5^ 

A.UX.  Italy  itself  the  Roman  commanders  took 

advantage  of  Hannibal's  absence  in  the  extreme 
south  to  reconquer  northern  Apulia  ;  but  their  main 
efforts  were  directed  to  the  recovery  of  Campania, 
and  above  all  of  Capua.  The  imminent  danger  of 
this  town,  which  he  had  named  as  the  successor  of 
Rome  in  the  headship  of  Italy,  recalled  Hannibal 
from  the  south,  where  he  was  besieging  a  Roman 
garrison  in  the  citadel  of  Tarentum.  Failing  to 
break  through  the  lines  which  enclosed  it,  he  re- 
solved, as  a  last  hope  of  diverting  the  Roman  legions 
from  the  devoted  city,  to  advance  on  Rome  itself. 
But  his  march,  deeply  eis  it  impressed  the  imagina- 
tion of  his  contemporaries  by  its  audacity  and 
promptitude,  was  without  result.  Silently  and  rap- 
idly he  moved  along  the  course  of  the  Latin  Way, 
through  the  heart  of  the  territory  of  Rome,  to  within 
three  miles  of  the  city,  and  even  rode  up  with  his 
advanced  guard  to  the  Collin  a  gate.  Yet  no  ally 
joined  him  ;  no  Roman  force  was  recalled  to  face 
him  ;  no  proposals  for  peace  reached  his  camp ; 
and,  overcome,  it  is  said,  by  the  unmoved  con- 
fidence  of  his   foe,   he   withdrew,   as   silently  and 

rapidly  as  he  had  advanced,  to  his  head- 
Recovery  of 

Capua.  quarters  in  the  south.     The  fall  of  Capua 

followed   inevitably   (211    B.C.),'   and   the 

'  Livy,  xxvi.,  16,  33,  gives  the  sentence  passed  on  Capua  :  **Ager 
omnis  et  Ucta  publica  /*.  R,  facta^  habitari  ianium  tanquam  urbem^ 
corpus  nullum  Hvitatis  esse,**  For  the  condition  of  Capua  subse* 
quently,  see  Cic,  Z.  Agr,,  i.,  6  ;  compare  C  /.  Z.,  566  sq. 


Ch.1]  Conquest  of  the  West.  131 

Roman  senate  saw  with  relief  the  seat  of  war 
removed  to  Lucania  and  Bruttium,  and  a  prospect 
opening  of  some  relief  from  the  exhausting  exertions 
of  the  leist  five  years.  Their  hopes  were  quickly 
dashed  to  the  ground.  The  faithful  Massiliots  sent 
word  that  Hasdrubal,  beaten  in  Spain,  Defeat  of 
was  marching  to  join  Hannibal  in  Italy.  Sc^rivler  mc! 
The  anxiety  at  Rbme  was  intense,  and  taurus. 

every  nerve  was  strained  to  prevent  the  junction  of 
the  two  brothers.  Equally  great  was  the  relief  when 
the  news  arrived  that  the  bold  march  of  the  consul 
Claudius  had  succeeded,  and  that  Hasdrubal  had 
been  defeated  and  slain  on  the  river  Me-  a  t^  /* 

547  A..U.C 

taurus  (207  B.C.).     The  war  in  Italy  was 
now  virtually  ended,  for,  though  during  four  years 
more  Hannibal  stood  at  bay  in  a  corner  of  Bruttium, 
he  was  powerless  to  prevent  the  restoration  of  Ro- 
man authority  throughout  the  peninsula.     Sicily  was 
once  more  secure  ;  and  finally  in  206  B.C.,     kakmz 
the  year  after  the  victory  on  the  Metaurus, 
the  successes  of  the  young  P.  Scipio  in  Spain  (211. 
206  B.C.)  were  crowned  by  the  complete 

Expulsion  of 

expulsion  of  the  Carthasfinians  from  the    thecartha- 

Sfinians  from 

peninsula.  Nothing  now  remained  to  -^^?f*c- 
Carthage  outside  Africa  but  the  ground 
on  which  Hannibal  desperately  held  out,  and  popu- 
lar opinion  at  Rome  warmly  supported  Scipio  when 
on  his  return  from  Spain  he  eagerly  urged  an  im- 
mediate invasion  of  Africa.  The  senate  hesitated. 
Many  were  jealous  of  Scipio's  fame,  and  resented  his 
scarcely  concealed   intention   of   appealing  to  the 

people,  shQi^l4   the  senate  decline  bis  proposals^ 


132  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ill 

Others,  like  the  veteran  Q.  Fabius,  thought  the 
attempt  hazardous,  with  exhausted  resources,  and 
while  Hannibal  was  still  on  Italian  soil.  But  Scipio 
Invasion  of  gained  the  day.  He  was  elected  consul 
scfpio.^^  205  B.C.,  and  given  the  province  of  Sicily, 
549  A.U.C.     ^j^j^  permission  to  cross  into  Africa  if  he 

thought  fit.  Voluntary  contributions  of  men,  money, 
and  supplies  poured  in  to  the  support  of  the  popular 
hero  ;  and  by  the  end  of  205  B.C.  Scipio  had  collected 

in  Sicily  a  sufficient  force  for  his  purpose. 

In  204  B.C.  he  crossed  to  Africa,  where  he 
was  welcomed  by  the  Numidian  prince  Masinissa, 

whose  friendship  he  had  made  in  Spain. 

551  A.U.C. 

In  203  B.C.  he  twice  defeated  the  Cartha- 
ginian forces,  and  a  large  party  at  Carthage  were 
anxious  to  accept  his  offer  of  negotiations.  But  the 
advocates  of  resistance  triumphed.  Hannibal  was 
recalled  from  Italy,  and  with  him  his  brother  Mago, 
who  had  made  a  last  desperate  attempt  to  create  a 
diversion  in  Italy  by  landing  in  Liguria.  Mago  died 
on  the  voyage,  but  Hannibal  returned  to  fight  his 
Battle  of  ^^^^  battle  against  Rome  at  Zama,  where 
zama.  Scipio,  who  had  been  continued  in  com- 

mand as  proconsul  for  202  B.C.  by  a  special 

.•M  A  U  C 

vote  of  the  people,  won  a  complete  vic- 
tory. The  war  was  over.  The  Roman  assembly 
gladly  voted  that  the  Carthaginian  request  for  peace 
should  be  granted,  and  intrusted  the  settlement  of 
the  terms  to  its  favourite  Scipio  and  a  commission 
of  ten  senators.  Carthage  was  allowed  to  retain  her 
own  territory  in  Africa  intact ;  but  she  undertook  to 
wage  no  wars  outside  Africa,  and  none  inside  without 


Ch.l]  Conqttest  of  the  West.  133 

the  consent  of  Rome.  She  surrendered  all  her  ships 
but  ten  triremes,  her  elephants,  and  all  prisoners  of 
war.  Finally  she  agreed  to  pay  an  indemnity  of 
10,000  talents  in  fifty  years.  Masinissa  was  rewarded 
by  an  increase  of  territory,  and  was  enrolled  among 
the  "  allies  and  friends  "  of  the  Roman  people.* 

The  battle  of  Zama  decided  the  fate  of  the  West. 
The  power  of  Carthage  was  broken,  and 

I.  J     I.        ^u  •    u*.       r        The  West 

her  supremacy  passed  by  the  right  of  under  ro- 
conquest  to  Rome.  Henceforth  Rome 
had  no  rival  to  fear  westward  of  Italy,  and  it  rested 
with  herself  to  settle  within  what  limits  her  suprem- 
acy should  be  confined,  and  what  form  it  should 
take.  The  answer  to  both  these  questions  was 
largely  determined  for  her  by  circumstances.  For 
the  next  fifty  years  Rome  was  too  deeply  involved 
in  the  affairs  of  the  East  to  think  of  extending  her 
rule  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  rich  inheritance 
which  had  fallen  to  her  by  the  defeat  of 
Carthage;  and  it  was  not  until  125  B.C. 
that  she  commenced  a  fresh  career  of  conquest  in 
the  West  by  invading  Transalpine  Gaul.  But  with- 
in this  area  considerable  advance  was  made  in  the 
organisation  and  consolidation  of  her  rule.  The  rate 
of  progress  was  indeed  unequal.  In  the  gj^jj^  ^^^ 
case  of  Sicily  and  Spain,  the  immediate  Spain, 

establishment  of  a  Roman  government  was  impera- 
tively necessary,  if  these  possessions  were  not  either 
to  fall  a  prey  to  internal  anarchy,  or  be  recovered 
for  Carthage  by  some  second  Hamilcar.  Accord- 
ingly, we  find  that  in  Sicily  the  former  dominions 

>  Livy,  XXX.,  43  ;  Polyb.   xv.,  i8. 


134  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  II. 

of  Hiero  were  at  once  united  with  the  western  half 

of  the  island  as  a  single  province,  under 

553  A.U.C.     ^^^  j.^j^  ^£  ^  Roman  praetor  (201   B.C.)/ 

and  that  in  Spain,  after  nine  years  of  a 
548-557 

A.uTc.  provisional    government    (206-197    B.C.), 

two  provinces  were  in  197  B.C.'  definitely  estab- 
lished, and  each,  like  Sicily,  assigned  to  one  of  the 
praetors  for  the  year,  two  additional  praetors  being 
elected  for  the  purpose.  But  here  the  resemblance 
between  the  two  cases  ends.  From  201 
B.C.  down  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Slave 
6x8  A.u.c.  war  in  136  B.C.  there  was  unbroken  peace 
in  Sicily,  and  its  part  in  the  history  is  limited  to  its 
important  functions  in  supplying  Rome  with  com 
and  in  provisioning  and  clothing  the  Roman  legions.' 
It  became  every  year  a  more  integral  part  of  Italy ; 
and  a  large  proportion  even  of  the  land  itself  passed 
gradually  into  the  hands  of  enterprising  Roman  spec- 
ulators. The  governors  of  the  two  Spains  had  very 
different  work  to  do  from  that  which  fell  to  the  lot 
of  the  Sicilian  praetors.  Although  the  coast  towns 
readily  acquiesced  in  Roman  rule,  the  restless  war- 
like tribes  of  the  interior  were  in  a  constant  state  of 
ferment,  which  from  time  to  time  broke  out  into 
open  revolt.  In  Sicily  the  ordinary  praetorian  au- 
thority, with  at  most  a  few  cohorts,  was  sufficient, 
but  the  condition  of  Spain  required  that  year  after 

'  Livy,  xxvi.,  40.  The  union  was  apparently  effected  in  210  ;  but 
the  first  praetor  of  all  Sicily  was  sent  there  in  201. 

*  Livy,  xxxii.,  27  ;  cf,  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  i.,  100,  and  Habnei 
in  Hermes^  i. ,  105  sq, 

•Livy,  xxvii.,  5,  **pace  ac  heUo  fidissimum  annona  subsitUum"; 
cf.  xxxii.,  27. 


Ch.l]  Conquest  of  the  West.  135 

year  the  praetor  should  be  armed  with  the  consular 
authority,  and  backed  by  a  standing  force  of  four 
legions,  while  more  than  once  the  presence  of  the 
consuls  themselves  was  found  necessary.  Still,  in 
spite  of  all  difficulties,  the  work  of  pacification  pro- 
ceeded.    To  the   elder  Cato  (consul  195 

cm  A.  U  C 

B.C.),  and  to  Tiberius  Sempronius  Grac- 
chus (praetor  and  propraetor  180-179  B.C.),  574-575 
father  of  the  two  tribunes,  is  mainly  due  a.u.c. 
the  credit  of  quieting  the  Celtiberian  tribes  of  central 
Spain;  and  the  government  of  Gracchus  was  fol- 
lowed by  thirty  years  of  comparative  tranquillity. 
The  insurrection  headed  by  Viriathus  in  140 

60s  A.U.C. 

B.C.  was  largely  caused  by  the  exactions 
of  the  Roman  magistrates  themselves,  while  its 
obstinate  continuance  down  to  the  cap- 
ture of  Numantia  in  133  B.C.,  was  almost  ^"  a.u.c. 
as  much  the  result  of  the  incapacity  of  the  Roman 
commanders.  But  the  re-settlement  of  the  country 
by  Scipio  Africanus  the  younger  in  that  year  left  all 
Spain,  with  the  exception  of  the  highland  Astures 
and  Cantabri  in  the  north-west,  finally  and  tranquilly 
subject  to  Rome.  Meanwhile  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  interior  had  not  prevented  the  spread  of 
Roman  civilisation  on  the  seaboard.  Roman  traders 
and  speculators  flocked  to  the  seaport  towns  and 
spread  inland.  The  mines  became  centres  of  Roman 
industry  ;  the  Roman  legionaries  quartered  in  Spain 
year  after  year  married  Spanish  wives,  and  when 
their  service  was  over  gladly  settled  down  in  Spain, 
in  preference  to  returning  to  Italy.  The  first  Roman 
communities   established    outside   Italy  were  both 


136  Outlines  of  Rotnan  History.      [Book  ill 

planted  in  Spain,  and  both  owed  their  existence  to 
the  Roman  legions.*  Spain  even  in  133  B.C.  gave 
promise  of  becoming  in  time  "  more  Roman  than 
Rome  itself.'* 

In  Africa  there  was  no  question  at  first  of  the  in- 
troduction of  Roman  government  by  the  formation 
of  a  province.     Carthage,  bound  hand  and 
third  Punic    foot  by  the  treaty  of  201  B.C.,  was  placed 
1^46  B.C.    under   the    jealous  watch    of    the    loyal 
*  I  '   prince  of  Numidia,  who  himself  willingly 
acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  Rome.     But  it  was 
impossible  for  this  arrangement  to  be  permanent. 
Every  symptom  of  reviving  prosperity  at  Carthage 
was  regarded  at  Rome  with  feverish  anxiety,  and 
neither  the  expulsion  of  Hannibal  in  195 
57?a:u;c".     B.C.  nor  his  death  in  183  B.C.  did  much 
to    check  the   growing    conviction    that 
Rome  would  never  be  secure  while  her  rival  existed. 
It  was  therefore  with  grim  satisfaction  that  many  in 
the  Roman  senate  watched  the  increasing  irritation 
of  the  Carthaginians  under  the  harassing  raids  and 
encroachments  of  their  favoured  neighbour,  Masinissa, 
and  waited  for  the  moment  when  Carthage  should, 
by  some  breach  of  the  conditions  imposed  upon  her, 
supply  Rome  with  a  pretext  for  interfer- 
ence.    At  last  in  1 5 1  B.C.  came  the  news 
that  Carthage,  in  defiance  of  treaty  obligations,  was 
actually  at  war  with    Masinissa.     The  anti-Cartha- 
ginian party  in  the  senate,  headed  by  M.  Porcius 
Cato,  eagerly  seized  the  opportunity  ;  in  spite  of  the 
protests  of  Scipio  Nasica  and  others,  war  was  de- 

'  Italica  (206),  Appian,  Iber.,  38  ;  Carteia  (171),  Li^T»  3tl">«»  3- 


Ch.ll  Conquest  of  the  West.  137 

dared,  and  nothing  short  of  the  destruction  of  their 
city  itself  was  demanded  from  the  despairing  Car- 
thaginians. This  demand,  as  the  senate,  no  doubt, 
foresaw,  was  refused,  and  in  149  B.C.  the  siege  of 
Carthage  began.  During  the  next  two  years  little 
progress  was  made,  but  in  147  P.  Come-  • 

lius  Scipio  iEmilianus,  son  of  L.  -^milius 
Paulus,  conqueror  of  Macedonia,  and  grandson  by 
adoption  of  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  was,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-seven,  and  though  only  a  candidate  for 
the  aedileship,  elected  consul  and  given  the  command 
in  Africa.  In  the. next  year  (146  B.C.) 
Carthage  was  taken  and  razed  to  the 
ground.  Its  territory  became  the  Roman  province 
of  Africa,  while  Numidia,  now  ruled  by  the  three 
sons  of  Masinissa,  remained  as  an  allied  state  under 
Roman  suzerainty,  and  served  to  protect  the  new 
province  against  the  raids  of  the  desert  tribes. 
Within  little  more  than  a  century  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  first  Punic  war,  the  whole  of 
the  former  dominions  of  Carthage  had  been  brought 
under  the  direct  rule  of  Roman  magistrates,  and 
were  regularly  organised  as  Roman  provinces. 

In  Italy  itself  the  Hannibalic  war  was  inevitably 
followed  by  important  changes,  and  these  changes 
were,  naturally  enough,  in  the  direction  of 
an  increased  Roman  predominance.  In 
the  north  the  Keltic  tribes  paid  for  their  sympathy 
with  Hannibal  with  the  final  loss  of  all  separate 
political  existence.  Cispadane  Gaul,  studded  with 
colonies  and  flooded  with  Roman  settlers,  was  rap- 
idly Romanised.     Beyond  the  Po  in  Polybius's  time, 


138  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  ill 

about  sixty  years  after  the  Hannibalic  war,  Roman 
civilisation  was  already  widely  spread.     In  the  ex- 
treme north-east,  the  Latin  colony  of  Aquileia,  the 
last  of  its  kind,  was  founded  in  181  B.C., 

Kfn.  A  U  C 

to  hold  in  check  the  Alpine  tribes,  while 
in  the  north-west  the  Ligurians,  though  not  finally 
subdued  until  a  later  time,  were  held  in  check  by  the 
colony  of  Luna  (180  B.C.),  and  by  the  ex- 
tensive settlements  of  Roman  citizens  and 
Latins  made  on  Ligurian  territory  in  173 
B.C.*  In  southern  Italy  the  effects  of  the 
war  were  not  less  marked.  The  depression  of  the 
Greek  cities  on  the  coast,  begun  by  the  raids  of  the 
Sabellian  tribes,  was  completed  by  the  repeated 
blows  inflicted  upon  them  during  the  Hannibalic 
struggle.  Some  of  them  lost  territory' ;  all  suffered 
from  a  decline  of  population  and  loss  of  trade ;  and 
their  place  was  taken  by  such  new  Roman  settle- 
ments as  Brundusium  and  Puteoli."  In  the  interior 
the  southern  Sabellian  tribes  suffered  scarcely  less 
severely.  The  Bruttii  were  struck  off  the  list  of 
Roman  allies,  and  nearly  all  their  territory  was  con- 
fiscated.* To  the  Apulians  and  Lucanians  no  such 
hard  measure  was  meted  out ;  but  their  strength  had 
been  broken  by  the  war,  and  their  numbers  dwin- 

*  Livy,  xlii.,  4. 

^  E,g.^  Tarentum,  Livy,  xliv.,  16.  A  Roman  colony  was  established 
at  Croton  in  194,  and  a  Latin  colony  (Copia)  at  Thurii  in  193  (Livy, 
xxxiv.,  45,  53). 

'  Brundusium  was  established  after  the  first  Punic  war.  Puteoli 
was  fortified  during  the  second  Punic  war,  and  became  a  Roman 
colony  in  194  (Livy,  xxxiv. ,  45). 

^  Appian,  Hann,^  61  ;  Gell.,  x.,  3. 


Ch.1]  Conquest  of  the  WesU  1 39 

died ;  large  tracts  of  land  in  their  territories  were 
seized  by  Rome  and  allotted  to  Roman  settlers,  or 
occupied  by  Roman  speculators.     That  Etruria  also 
suffered  from  declining  energy,  a  dwindling  popula- 
tion, and  the  spread  of  large  estates  is  clear  from  the 
state  of  things  existing  there  in  133  B.C.      gj,  a  „  « 
It  was  indeed  in  central  Italy,  the  home 
of  the  Latins  and  their  nearest  kinsmen,  and  in  the 
new  Latin  and  Roman  settlements  throughout  the 
peninsula,  that  progress  and  activity  were  henceforth 
concentrated,   and   even   within  this  area  the  Ro- 
man, and  not  the  strictly  Latin,  element  tended  to 
preponderate.      Of    the    twenty    colonies 
founded  between  201  B.C.  and   146   B.C. 
only  four  were  Latin. 


1 1 


CHAPTER  II. 

ROME  AND  THE  EAST — 2OO-I33  B.C. 

Ever  since  the  repulse  of  Pyrrhus  from  Italy, 
Rome  had  been  slowly  drifting  into  closer  contact 
with  the  Eastern  states.  With  one  of  the  three  great 
powers  which  had  divided  between  them  the  empire 
of  Alexander,  with  Egypt,  she  had  formed  an  alli- 

481  A.u  c.  ^^^^  ^^  ^73  ^•^•»  ^"^  ^^^  alliance  had  been 
cemented  by  the  growth  of  commercial 
intercourse  between  the  two  countries.*  In 
5a6A.u.c.  228  B.C.  her  chastisement  of  the  Illyrian 
pirates  had  led  naturally  enough  to  the  establish- 
ment of  friendly  relations  with  some  of  the  states  of 
Greece  proper.  Further  than  this,  Rome  for  the 
time  showed  no  desire  to  go.  The  connections  al- 
ready formed  were  sufficient  to  open  the  eastern 
ports  to  her  trade,  and  the  engrossing  struggle  with 
Carthage  left  her  neither  leisure  nor  strength  for 
active  interference  in  the  incessant  feuds  and  rival- 
ries which  had  made  up  Eastern  politics  since  the 
falling  asunder  of  Alexander*s  Empire.     In  214  B.C. 


^  Egypt  had  supplied  corn  to  Italy  during  the  second  Punic  wat 
IPolyb.,  ix.,  44). 

140 


Rome  and  the  East.  1 4 1 

the   alliance   between    Philip    and    Hannibal,   and 
the  former's  threatened  attack  on  Italy,    Pint  Mace- 

forced   her  into  war  with  Macedon ;  but    doo*"  ^y- 

540A.U.C. 

even  then  she  contented  herself  with  head- 
ing a  coalition  of  the  Greek  states  against  him,  which 
effectually  frustrated  his  designs  against  herself ;  and 
at   the  first   opportunity    (205    B.C.)   she 
ended  the  war  by  a  peace  which  left  the 
position  unchanged.      Yet  the .  war  had  important 
consequences ;  it  not  only  drew  closer  the  ties  which 
bound  Rome  to  the  Greek  states,  but  inspired  the 
senate  with  a  genuine  dread  of  Philip's  restless  am- 
bition, and  with  a  bitter  resentment  against  him  for 
his  union  with  Hannibal.     The  events  of  the  next 
four  years  served  to  deepen  both  these  feelings.     In 
205  B.C.  Philip    entered    into  a  compact 
with  Antiochus  of  Syria  for  the  partition 
between  them  of  the  dominions  of  Egypt,*  now  left 
by  the  death  of  Ptolemy  Philopator  to  the  rule  of  a 
boy  king.    Antiochus  was  to  take  Coele-Syria  and 
Phoenicia,  while  Philip  claimed  for  his  share  the  dis- 
trict subject  to  Egypt  on  the  coasts  of  the  -^gean 
and  the  Greek  Islands.      Philip  no  doubt  hoped  to 
be  able  to  secure  these  unlawful  acquisitions  before 
the  close  of  the  second  Punic  war  should  set  Rome 
free  to  interfere  with  his  plans.     But  the  obstinate 
resistance  offered  by  Attalus  of  Pergamum  and  the 
Rhodians  upset  his  calculations.     In  201 
B.C.  Rome   made    peace  with  Carthage, 
and  the  senate  liad  leisure  to  listen  to  the  urgent  ap- 
peal for  assistance  which  reached  her  from  her  East- 


eai  I  or  assistance  wnicn  reacnea 

*  Polyb.,  iii.,  2,  xv.,  20;  Livy,  xxxi.,  14. 


142  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Booklil 

em  allies.  With  Antiochus,  indeed,  the  senate  was 
not  yet  prepared  to  quarrel ;  and  though  Egypt  was 
assured  of  the  continued  friendship  of  Rome,  Antio- 
chus was  allowed  to  work  his  will  in  Coele-Syria.* 
With  Philip  it  is  clear  that  the  senate  had  no  thoughts 
of  a  peaceful  settlement.  Their  animosity  against 
him  had  been  deepened  by  the  assistance  he  had  re- 
cently rendered  to  Carthage.  Always  an  unsafe  and 
turbulent  neighbour,  he  would,  if  allowed  to  become 
supreme  in  the  ^Egean,  prove  as  dangerous  to  her  in- 
terests in  the  East  as  Carthage  had  been  in  the  West ; 
nor,  lastly,  could  Rome,  in  honour,  look  quietly 
on  at  the  ill-treatment  of  states,  which,  as  Greeks 
and  as  allies  of  her  own,  had  a  double  claim  on  her 
protection.  To  cripple,  or  at  least  to  stay  the  growth 
of  Philip's  power  was  in  the  eyes  of  the  senate  a  ne- 
cessity ;  but  it  was  only  by  representing  a  Macedonian 
invasion  of  Italy  as  imminent  that  they  persuaded 
the  assembly,  which  was  longing  for  peace,  to  pass  a 
declaration  of  war  *  (200  B.C.),  an  ostensi- 

S54  A.U.C. 

ble  pretext  for  which  was  found  in  the 
invasion  by  Macedonian  troops  of  the  territory  of 
Rome's  ally,  Athens. 

The  war  commenced  in  the  summer  of  200  B.C.;  and, 
though  the  landing  of  the  Roman  legions  in  Epirus 

was  not  followed,  as  had  been  hoped,  by 

Second 

Macedonian  any  general  rising  against  Philip,  yet  the 

^•''-  latter  had  soon  to  discover  that  his  allies, 

=554-557  Jf  they  were  not  enthusiastic  for  Rome, 

A.U.C.  were  still  less  inclined  actively  to  assist 


'  Livy,  xxxiii.,  x^ 
•livy,  3p«i.,  6,  7- 


Ch.  2]  Rome  and  the  East.  1 43 

himself.  Neither  by  force  nor  diplomacy  could  he 
make  any  progress  south  of  Boeotia.  The  fleets  of 
Pergamum  and  Rhodes,  now  the  zealous  allies  of 
Rome,  protected  Attica  and  watched  the  eastern 
coasts.  The  Achaeans  and  Nabis  of  Sparta  were 
obstinately  neutral,  while  nearer  home  in  the  north 
the  Epirots  and  i£tolians  threatened  Thessaly  and 
Macedonia.  His  own  resources  both  in  men  and  in 
money  had  been  severely  strained  by  his  constant 
wars,'  and  the  only  ally  who  could  have  given  him 
effective  assistance,  Antiochus,  was  fully  occupied 
with  the  conquest  of  Coele-Syria.  It  is  no  wonder, 
then,  that,  in  spite  of  his  dashing  generalship  and 
high  courage,  he  made  but  a  brief  stand.  T. 
Quinctius  Flamininus  (consul  198  B.C.),  in  his  first 
year  of  command,  defeated  him  on  the  ^  a  u  c 
Aous,  drove  him  back  to  the  pass  of 
Tempe,  and  in  the  next  year  utterly  routed  him  at 
Cynoscephalae.  Almost  at  the  same  moment  the 
Achaeans,  who  had  now  joined  Rome,  took  Corinth, 
and  the  Rhodians  defeated  his  troops  in  Caria.' 
Further  resistance  was  impossible ;  Philip  submitted, 
and  early  the  next  year  a  Roman  commission 
reached  Greece  with  instructions  to  arrange  terms  of 
peace.  These  were  such  as  effectually  secured 
Rome's  main  object  in  the  war,  the  removal  of  all 
danger  to  herself  and  her  allies  from  Macedonian 
aggression.'  Philip  was  left  in  possession  of  his 
kingdom,  but  was  degraded  to  the  rank  of  a  second- 
rate  power,  deprived  of  all  possessions   in  Greece, 

*Livy,  xzxiii.,  3. 

'  Livy,  xxxiii.,  17. 

*  Polyb.,  xviii.,  44-7  ;  Livy,  xxxiii.,  30-4. 


/ 


144  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  ill 

Thrace,  and  Asia  Minor,  and  forbidden,  as  Carthage 
had  been  in  201  B.C.,  to  wage  war  without 

553  A.U.C.  r     T^  ,  „  , 

the  consent  of  Rome,  whose  ally  and 
friend  he  now  became.  Macedon  thus  weakened 
could  no  longer  be  formidable,  but  might  yet  be 
useful,  not  only  as  a  barrier  against  Thracians  and 
Kelts,'  but  as  a  check  upon  anti-Roman  intrigues  in 
Greece. 

The  second  point  in  the  settlement  now  effected 
by  Rome  was  the  liberation  of  the  Greeks. 

If*Qrcecc?**°'*  '^^^  "  freedom  of  Greece  "  was  proclaimed 
at  the  Isthmian  games  amid  an  outburst 

of  enthusiasm,'  which  reached  its  height  when  two 
years  later  (104  B.C.)  Flamininus  withdrew 

560  A.U.C.  ,  N    •  •  / 

his  troops  from  the  **  three  fetters  of 
Greece" — Chalcis,  Demetrias,  and  Corinth.*  There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that,  in  acting  thus,  not  only 
Flamininus  himself,  but  the  senate  and  people  at 
home,  were  influenced,  partly  at  any  rate,  by  feelings 
of  genuine  sympathy  with  the  Greeks  and  reverence 
for  their  past.  It  is  equally  clear  that  no  other  course 
was  open  to  them.  For  Rome  to  have  annexed 
Greece,  as  she  had  annexed  Sicily  and  Spain,  would 
have  been  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  pledges  she  had 
repeatedly  given  both  before  and  during  the  war; 
the  attempt  would  have  excited  the  fiercest  opposi- 
tion, and  would  probably  have  thrown  the  Asiatic 
as  well  as  the  European  Greeks  into  the  arms  of 


'  Polyb.,  xviii.,  37. 

•  Livy,  xxxiii.,  32,  33. 

•  Livy,  zxziv.,  48-52. 


Ch.  2]  Rome  and  the  East.  1 45 

Antiochus.  But  a  friendly  and  independent  Greece 
would  be  at  once  a  check  on  Macedon,  a  barrier 
against  aggression  from  the  East,  and  a  promising 
field  for  Roman  commerce.  Nor  while  liberating 
the  Greeks  did  Rome  abstain  from  such  arrange- 
ments as  seemed  necessary  to  secure  the  predomi- 
nance of  her  own  influence.  In  the  Peloponnese, 
for  instance,  the  Achaeans  were  rewarded  by 
considerable  accessions  of  territory ;  and  it  is 
possible  that  the  Greek  states,  as  allies  of  Rome, 
were  expected  to  refrain  from  war  upon  each  other 
without  her  consent.  The  failure  of  the  policy, 
after  all,  was  due  to  the  impracticability  of  the 
Greeks,  and  the  intensity  of  their  civic  and  tribal 
feuds.  To  suppose  as  some  have  done  that  Rome 
intended  it  to  fail  is  to  attribute  to  the  states- 
men of  the  generation  of  Scipio  and  Flamininus 
even  more  than  the  cynicism  of  the  time  of  L. 
Mumnriius.' 

Antiochus  III.  of  Syria,  Philip's  accomplice  in  the 
proposed  partition  of  the  dominions  of  w^rwith 
their  common  rival,  Egypt,  returned  from  Ant'orhu. 
the  conquest  of  Coele-Syria  (198  B.C.)  '^^^^•^; 
to  learn  first  of  all  that  Philip  was  hard 
pressed  by  the  Romans,  and  shortly  after- 
wards that  he  had  been  decisively  beaten  at  Cynos- 
cephalae.  It  was  already  too  late  to  assist  his  former 
ally,  but  Antiochus  resolved  at  any  rate  to  lose  no 

'  For  the  conflicting  views  of  modems  on  the  action  of  Rome, 

see  Mommsen,  i?.  C7.,  i.,  718  ;  and  on  the  other  side,  Ihne,  R,  (?., 

iii.,  52-63,  and  C.  Peter,  Studien  zur  Rdm.  Gesch,,  Halle,  1863, 

pp.  158  sq. 
10 


1 46  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  in 

time  in  securing  for  himself  the  possessions  of  the 
Ptolemies  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  eastern  Thrace, 
which  Philip  had  claimed,  and  which  Rome  now  pro- 
nounced free  and  independent.  In  197-196  B.C. 
557-558  ^^  overran  Asia  Minor  and  crossed  into 

A.u.c.  Thrace.'     But   Antiochus   was    pleasure- 

loving,  irresolute,  and  above  all  no  general, 
s6a  A.u.c.     ^^^  j^  ^2U5  not  Until  192  B.C.  that  the  urgent 

entreaties  of  the  ^Etolians,  and  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Roman  troops  from  Greece,  nerved  him  to  the 
decisive  step  of  crossing  the  JEgt^xi ;  and  even  then 
the  force  he  took  with  him  was  so  small  as  to  show 
that  he  completely  failed  to  appreciate  the  nature  of 
the  task  before  him.*  At  Rome  the  prospect  of  a 
conflict  with  Antiochus  excited  great  anxiety,  and  it 
was  not  until  every  resource  of  diplomacy  had  been 
exhausted  that  war  was  declared.'  At  a  distance, 
indeed,  Antiochus,  the  great  king,  the  lord  of  all  the 
forces  of  Asia,  seemed  an  infinitely  more  formidable 
opponent  than  their  better-known  neighbour  Philip, 
and  a  war  against  the  vaguely-known  powers  of  the 
East  a  far  more  serious  matter  than  a  campaign  in 
Thessaly.  War,  however,  was  unavoidable,  unless 
Rome  was  to  desert  her  Greek  allies,  and  allow  Anti- 
ochus to  advance  unopposed  to  the  coasts  of  the 
Adriatic.  And  the  war  had  no  sooner  commenced 
than  the  real  weakness  which  lay  behind  the  magnifi- 
cent pretensions  of  the  "  king  of  kings  "  was  revealed. 


•  Livy,  xxxiii.,  38  ;  Polyb.,  xviii.,  50, 

•  Livy,  XXXV.,  43. 

•  Livy,  XXXV.,  20,  xxxvi.,  i. 


Ch.  2]  Rome  and  the  East.  147 

Had  Antiochus  acted  with  enei^when  in  192  B.C. 
he  landed  in  Greece,  he  might  have  won 
the  day  before  the  Roman  legions  ap- 
peared. As  it  was,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of 
Hannibal,'  who  was  now  in  his  camp,  and  of  the 
iEtolians,  he  frittered  away  valuable  time  between 
his  pleasures  at  Chalcis  and  useless  attacks  on  petty 
Thessalian   towns.     In    loi    B.C.   Glabrio 

583  A.U.C. 

landed  at  the  head  of  an  imposing  force ; 
and  a  single  battle  at  Thermopylae  broke  the  courage 
of  Antiochus,   who   hastily   recrossed   the    sea    to 
Ephesus,  leaving  his  ^tolian  allies  to  their  fate. 
But  Rome  could  not  pause  here.     The  safety  of  her 
faithful  allies,  the  Pergamenes  and  Rhodians,  and  of 
the  Greek  cities  in  Asia  Minor,  as  well  as  the  neces- 
sity of  chastising  Antiochus,  demanded  an  invasion 
of  Asia.     A  Roman  fleet  had  already  (loi 
B.C.)  crossed  the  ^Egean,  and  in  concert 
with  the  fleets  of  Pergamum  and  Rhodes  worsted 
the  navy  of  Antiochus.     In  190  B.C.  the 
new  consul,  L.  Scipio,  accompanied  by  his 
famous  brother,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  led  the 
Roman  legions  for  the  first   time  into  Asia.      At 
Magnesia,  near  Mount  Sipylus  in  Lydia,  he  met  and 
defeated  the  motley  and  ill-disciplined  hosts  of  the 
great  king.*     For  the  first  time  the  West,  under 
Roman    leadership,    successfully    encountered    the 
forces  of  the  East,  and  the   struggle  began  which 
lasted  far  on  into  the  days  of  the  emperors.     The 


*  Livy,  xxxvi.,  ii. 

'  Livy  (xxxvii.,  40)  describes  the  composition  of  Antiochus's  army. 


1 48  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  III 

Settlement  ^^rn^s  of  the  pcacc  which  followed  the 
of  western  victory  at  Magnesia  tell  their  own  story 
clearly  enough.  There  was  no  question, 
any  more  than  in  Greece,  of  annexation ;  the  main 
object  in  view  was  that  of  securing  the  predominance 
of  Roman  interests  and  influence  throughout  the 
peninsula  of  Asia  Minor,  and  removing  to  a  safe 
distance  the  only  Eastern  power  which  could  be 
considered  dangerous.*  The  line  of  the  Halys  and 
Taurus  range,  the  natural  boundaries  of  the  peninsula 
eastward,  was  established  as  the  boundary  between 
Antiochus  and  the  kingdoms,  cities,  and  peoples 
now  enrolled  as  the  allies  and  friends  of  Rome. 
This  line  Antiochus  was  forbidden  to  cross  ;  nor  was 
he  to  send  ships  of  war  farther  west  than  Cape  Sar- 
pedon  in  Cilicia.  Immediately  to  the  west  of  this 
frontier  lay  the  small  states  of  Bithynia  and  Paph- 
lagonia  and  the  immigrant  Keltic  Galatae,  and  these 
frontier  states,  now  the  allies  of  Rome,  served  as  a 
second  line  of  defence  against  attacks  from  the  east. 
The  area  lying  between  these  "  buffer  states  "  and 
the  iEgean  was  organised  by  Rome  in  such  a  way  as 
should  at  once  reward  the  fidelity  of  her  allies  and 
secure  both  her  own  paramount  authority  and  her 
safety  from  foreign  attack.  Pergamum  and  Rhodes 
were  so  strengthened — the  former  by  the  gift  of  the 
Chersonese,  Lycaonia,  Phrygia,  Mysia,  and  Lydia, 
the  latter  by  that  of  Lycia  and  Caria — as  not  only 
amply  to  reward  their  loyalty,  but  to  constitute 
them  effective  props  of  Roman  interests  and  effective 


'  Livy,  xxxvii.,  55,  xxxviii.,  38  ;  Polyb.,  xxi.,  17 


Ch.  2]  Rome  and  the  East.  1 49 

barriers  alike  against  Thracian  and  Keltic  raids  in 
the  north  and  against  aggression  by  Syria  in  the 
south.  Lastly,  the  Greek  cities  on  the  coast,  except 
those  already  tributary  to  Pergamum,  were  declared 
free,  and  established  as  independent  allies  of  Rome. 

In  a  space  of  little  over  eleven  years  (200-189 
B.C.)  Rome  had  broken  the  power  of  Alexander's 
successors  and  established  throughout  the  554-565 

eastern  Mediterranean  a  Roman  protecto-  a.u.c. 
rate.  It  remained  to  be  seen  whether  this  protecto- 
rate could  be  maintained,  or  whether  Rome  would 
be  driven  to  that  policy  of  annexation  which  she 
had  adopted  from  the  first  in  Sicily  and  Spain. 

It  was  in  the  western  half  of  the  protectorate 
in  European  Greece  that  the  first  steps  in  the 
direction  of  annexation  were  taken.     The 

Third  Mace- 

enthusiasm   provoked   by   the   liberation    donian  war. 

of  the  Greeks  had  died  away,  and  its  place  „  '^!:^?,^'2' 

en     583-586  A.u.c. 

had  been  taken  by  feelings  of  dissatisfied 
ambition  or  sullen  resentment.  Internecine  feuds 
and  economic  distress  had  brought  many  parts  of 
Greece  to  the  verge  of  anarchy,  and,  above  all,  the 
very  foundations  of  the  settlement  effected  in  197 
B.C.  were  threatened  by  the  reviving  pow- 

Ksn  A  TT  O 

er  and  aspirations  of  Macedon.  Loyally 
as  Philip  had  aided  Rome  in  the  war  with  Antiochus, 
the  peace  of  Magnesia  brought  him  nothing  but 
fresh  humiliation.  He  was  forced  to  abandon  all 
hopes  of  recovering  Thessaly,  and  he  had  the  morti- 
fication to  see  the  hated  king  of  Pergamum  installed 
almost  on  his  borders  as  master  of  the  Thracian 
Chersonese.     Resistance  at  the  time  was  unavailing, 


150  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  ill 

5fi5-575  ^^^  from  189  B.C.  until  his  death  (179  B.C.) 

A.u.c.  hg  laboured  patiently  and  quietly  to  in- 

crease  the  internal  resources  of  his  own  kingdom/ 
and  to  foment,  by  dexterous  intrigue,  feelings  of 
hostility  to  Rome  among  his  Greek  and  barbarian 
neighbours.  His  successor,  Perseus,  his  son  by  a 
left-handed  alliance,  continued  his  father's  work. 
He  made  friends  among  the  lUyrian  and  Thracian 
princes,  connected  himself  by  marriage  with  Anti- 
ochus  IV.  of  Syria  and  with  Prusias  of  Bithynia, 
and,  among  the  Greek  peoples,  strove,  not  without 
success,  to  revive  the  memories  of  the  past  glories 
of  Greece  under  the  Macedonian  leadership  of  the 
great  Alexander.*  The  senate  could  no  longer  hesi- 
tate. They  were  well  aware  of  the  restlessness  and 
discontent  in  Greece ;  and  after  hearing  from  Eu- 
menes  of  Pergamum,  and  from  their  own  officers,  all 
details  of  Perseus's  intrigues  and  preparations  they 
declared  war.'  The  struggle,  in  spite  of  Perseus's 
courage  and  the  incapacity  at  the  outset  of  the  Ro- 
man commanders,  was  short  and  decisive.  The 
sympathy  of  the  Greeks  with  Perseus,  which  had 
been  encouraged  by  the  hitherto  passive  attitude 
assumed  by  Rome,  instantly  evaporated  on  the  news 
that  the  Roman  legions  were  on  their  way  to  Greece. 
No  assistance  came  from  Prusias  or  Antiochus,  and 
Perseus's  only  allies  were  the  Thracian  king  Cotys 
and  the  lUyrian  Genthius.     The  victory  gained  by  L. 


'  Livy,  xxxix.,  Z^sq, 

•  Livy,  xlii.,  5. 

•  Livy,  xlii.,  19,  36. 


Ch.  21  Rome  and  the  East.  151 

^milius  PauUus  at  Pydna  (168  B.C.)  ended 
the  war.*  Perseus  became  the  prisoner  of 
Rome,  and  as  such  died  in  Italy  a  few  years  later.* 
Rome  had  begun  the  war  with  the  fixed  resolution 
no  longer  of  crippling  but  of  destroying  the  Mace- 
donian state.  Perseus's  repeated  proposals  for  peace 
during  the  war  had  been  rejected  ;  and  his  defeat 
was  followed  by  the  final  extinction  of  the  kingdom 
of  Philip  and  Alexander.'  Yet  Macedonia,  though 
it  ceased  to  exist  as  a  single  state,  was  not  definitely 
constituted  a  Roman  province.*  On  the  contrary, 
tlhe  mistake  was  made  of  introducing  some  of  the 
main  principles  of  the  provincial  system — taxation, 
disarmament,  and  the  isolation  of  the  separate  com- 
munities— without  the  addition  of  the  element  most 
essential  for  the  maintenance  of  order — that  of  a 
resident  Roman  governor.  The  four  petty  republics 
now  created  were  each  autonomous,  and  each  sepa- 
rated from  the  rest  by  the  prohibition  of  comtner- 
cium  and  connubium^  but  no  central  controlling 
authority  was  substituted  for  that  of  the  Mace- 
donian king.  The  inevitable  result  was  confusion 
and   disorder,   resulting   finally  (149-146 

.    ,         -  >,  «  A        605-608  A, U.C. 

B.C.)  m  the  attempt  of  a  pretender,  An- 

driseus,  who  claimed  to  be   a  son  of   Perseus,  to 

resuscitate  the  ancient  monarchy.*    On   his  defeat 


•  Livy,  xliv.,  36-41  ;  Plut.,  JEtniL^  15  sq, 

•  Diod.,  xxxi.,  9  ;  Livy,  xlv.,  42  ;  Polyb.,  xxxvii.,  16. 

•  Livy,  xlv.,  9. 

•  Livy,  xlv.,  17,  29;  Plut.,  ^fwtV.,  28;   Mommsen,  R,  (7.,   i., 
769  ;  Ihne,  R,  G.,  iii.,  216  ;  Marquardt,  Rom,  Siaaisverw,,  i.,  160. 

•  Polyb.,  xxxvii.,  2  ;  Livy,  Epit,^  i. 


152  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  ill 

in  146  B.C.  the  senate  hesitated  no  longer, 
Roma?p!"  ^^^  Macedonia  became  a  Roman  pro- 
vince, vince,  with  a  Roman  magistrate  at  its 
"*•"•«=•     head.' 

The  results  of  the  protectorate  in  Greece,  if  less 
dangerous  to  Roman  supremacy,  were  quite  as 
Affaira  in  Unfavourable  to  the  maintenance  of 
Greece.  order.     But  from  189  B.C.  to  the  defeat 

565-587  ^'  Perseus  in  167  B.C.,  no  formal  change 

A.  u.c.  Qf  importance  in  the  status  of  the  Greek 
states  was  made  by  Rome.  The  senate,  though 
forced  year  by  year  to  listen  to  the  mutual  recrim- 
inations and  complaints  of  rival  communities  and 
factions,  contented  itself  as  a  rule  with  intervening 
just  enough  to  remind  the  Greeks  that  their  freedom 
was  limited  by  the  paramount  authority  of  Rome, 
and  to  prevent  any  single  state  or  confederacy  from 
raising  itself  too  far  above  the  level  of  general 
weakness  which  it  was  the  interest  of  Rome  to 
maintain.  After  the  victory  at  Pydna,  however,  the 
sympathy  shown  for  Perseus,  exaggerated  as  it 
seems  to  have  been  by  the  interested  representations 
of  the  Romanising  factions  in  the  various  states, 
was  made  the  pretext  for  a  more  emphatic  assertion 
of  Roman  ascendency.  All  Greeks  suspected  of 
Macedonian  leanings  were  removed  to  Italy,  as 
hostages  for  the  loyalty  of  the  several  communities,' 
and  the  real  motive  for  the  step  was  made  clear  by 
the  exceptionally  severe  treatment  of  the  Achaeans, 


'  For  the  boundaries  of  the  province,  see  Ptolemy,  iii.,  13  ;  Mat' 
quardt,  loc,  cit,^  161. 
•  Livy,  xlv.,  31. 


Ch.  21  Rome  and  the  East.  1 53 

whose  loyalty  was  not  feally  doubtful,  but  whose 
growing  power  in  the  Peloponnese  and  growing 
independence  of  language  had  awakened  alarm  at 
Rome.  A  thousand  of  their  leading  men,  among 
them  the  historian  Polybius,  were  carried  off  to  Italy. 
In  iEtolia  the  Romans  connived  at  the  massacre  by 
their  so-called  friends  of  five  hundred  of  the  oppo- 
site party.  Acarnania  was  weakened  by  the  loss  of 
Leucas,  while  Athens  was  rewarded  for  her  unam- 
bitious loyalty  by  the  gift  of  Delos  and  Samos. 

But  this  somewhat  violent  experiment  only  an- 
swered for  a  time.  In  148  B.C.  the  Achaeans  rashly 
persisted,  in  spite  of  warnings,  in  attempt-  settlement 
ing  to  compel  Sparta  by  force  of  arms  to  ^'l^Sf  c?.' 
submit  to  the  lea^^ue.  When  threatened  **  a.u.c. 
by  Rome  with  the  loss  of  all  that  they  had  gained 
since  Cynoscephalae,  they  madly  rushed  into  war.* 
They  were  easily  defeated,  and  a  "  commission  of 
ten,"  under  the  presidency  of  L.  Mummius,  was 
appointed  by  the  senate  thoroughly  to  resettle  the 
affairs  of  Greece.*  Corinth,  by  orders  of  the  senate, 
was  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  its  territory  confis- 
cated. Thebes  and  Chalcis  were  destroyed,  and  the 
walls  of  all  towns  which  had  shared  in  the  last 
desperate  outbreak  were  razed  to  the  ground.  All 
the  existing  confederacies  were  dissolved ;  no  cont- 
mercium  was  allowed  between  one  community  and 
another.  Everywhere  an  aristocratic  type  of  con- 
stitution, according  to  the  invariable  Roman  prac- 

*  Livy,  Epit,^  li.,  Hi, 

*  Livy,  EpiU^  Hi. ;  Polyb.,  xl.,  9  j^. ;  Pausanias,  vii.,  16  ;  Mommsen, 
R,  G,,  ii.,  47  Jf. 


154  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ill 

tice,  was  established,  and  the  payment  of  a  tribute 
imposed.  Into  Greece,  as  into  Macedonia 
in  167  B.C.,  the  now  familiar  features  of 
the  provincial  system  were  introduced — disarma- 
ment, isolation,  and  taxation.  The  Greeks  were 
still  nominally  free,  and  no  separate  province  with  a 
governor  of  its  own*  was  established,  but  the  needed 
central  control  was  provided  by  assigning  to  the 
neighbouring  governor  of  Macedonia  a  general 
supervision  over  the  affairs  of  Greece.  From  the 
Adriatic  to  the  iEgean,  and  as  far  north  as  the  river 
Drilo  and  Mount  Scardus,  the  whole  peninsula  was 
now  under  direct  Roman  rule.* 

Beyond    the    iEgean    the    Roman    protectorate 
worked    no    better    than    in    Macedonia 

The  Roman 

fn  Asfa**"**  ^  Greece,  and  the  demoralising  recrimi- 
5?5o8A*u  c  ^^^^^^s,  quarrels,  and  disorders  which 
flourished  under  its  shadow  were  aggra- 
vated by  its  longer  duration,  and  by  the  still  more 
selfish  view  taken  by  Rome  of  the  responsibilities 
connected  with  it.'  At  one  period  indeed,  after  the 
battle  of  Pydna,  it  seemed  as  if  the  more  vigorous, 
if  harsh,  system  then  initiated  in  Macedon  and 
Greece  was  to  be  adopted  farther  east  also.  The 
levelling  policy  pursued  towards  Macedon  and  the 

*  Mommsen,  he,  cii,^  note;  Marquardt,  Rom,  Staatsverw.^  i.,  164 
sq,;  A.  W.  Zumpt,  Commentt,  Epigraph,^  ii.,  153. 

'  North  of  the  Drilo,  the  former  kingdom  of  Perseus's  ally  Gen- 
thius  had  been  treated  as  Macedon  was  in  167  (Livy,  xlv.,  26) ;  cf, 
Zippel,  Rom,  Herrschaft  in  lUyrien^  Leipsic,  1877.  Epirus,  which 
had  been  desolated  after  Pydna  (Livy,  xlv.,  34),  went  with  Greece  ; 
Marquardt,  i.,  164. 

*  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  i.,  771-780,  ii.,  50-67. 


Ch.  21  Rome  and  the  East.  155 

Achaeans  was  applied  with  less  justice  to  Rome's  two 
faithful  and  favoured  allies,  Rhodes  and  Pergamum. 
The  former  had  rendered  themselves  obnoxious  to 
Rome  by  their  independent  tone,  and  still  more  by 
their  power  and  commercial  prosperity.  On  a  charge 
of  complicity  with  Perseus,  they  were  threatened 
with  war,  and  though  this  danger  was  averted  *  they 
were  forced  to  exchange  their  equal  alliance  with 
Rome  for  one  which  placed  them  in  close  dependence 
upon  her,  and  to  resign  the  lucrative  pos- 
sessions  m  Lycia  and  Cana  given  them  in 
189  B.C.  Finally  their  commercial  prosperity  was 
ruined  by  the  establishment  of  a  free  port  at  Delos, 
and  by  the  short-sighted  acquiescence  of  Rome  in  the 
raids  of  the  Cretan  pirates.  With  Eumenes  of  Per- 
gamum no  other  fault  could  be  found  than  that  he 
was  strong  and  successful ;  but  this  was  enough. 
His  brother  Attalus  was  invited,  but  in  vain,  to  be- 
come his  rival.  His  turbulent  neighbours,  the 
Galatae,  were  encouraged  to  harass  him  by  raids. 
Pamphylia  was  declared  independent,  and  favours 
were  heaped  upon  Prusias  of  Bithynia.  These  and 
other  annoyances  and  humiliations  had  the  desired 
effect.  Eumenes  and  his  two  successors — his  brother 
and  son,  Attalus  II.  and  Attalus  III. — contrived,  in- 
deed, by  studious  humility  and  dextrous  flattery  to 
retain  their  thrones,  but  Pergamum  ceased  to  be  a 
powerful  state,  and  its  weakness,  added  to  that  of 
Rhodes,  increased  the  prevalent  disorder  in  Asia 
Minor.     During  the  same  period  we  have  other  indi- 


*  Livy,  xlv.,  20 ;  Polyb.,  xxx.,  5. 


156  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  III 

cations  of  a  temporary  activity  on  the  part  of  Rome. 
The  frontier  of  the  protectorate  was  pushed  forward 
to  the  confines  of  Armenia  and  to  the  upper  Euphra^ 
tes  by  alliances  with  the  kings  of  Pontus  and  Cappar 
docia  beyond  the  Halys.   In  Syria,  on  the 

cQo  A«U*C« 

death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  (164  B.C.), 
Rome  intervened  to  place  a  minor,  Antiochus  Eupa- 
tor,  on  the  throne,  under  Roman  guardianship.     In 
168  B.C.  Egypt  formally  acknowledged  the 
suzerainty  of  Rome,'  and  in  163  B.C.  the 
senate,  in  the  exercise  of  this  new  author- 
ity, restored   Ptolemy  Philometor  to  his 
throne,  but  at  the  same  time  weakened  his  position 
by  handing  over  Cyrene  and  Cyprus  to  his  brother 
Euergetes. 

This  display  of  energy,  however,  was  short-lived. 
From  the  death  of  Eumenes  in  159  B.C.  down  to 
133  B.C.  Rome,  secure  in  the  absence  of 
'  any  formidable  power  in  the  East,  and  busy 
with  affairs  in  Macedonia,  Africa,  and  Spain,  relapsed 
into  an  inactivity  the  disastrous  results  of  which 
revealed  themselves  in  the  next  period  in  the  rise  of 
Mithradates  of  Pontus,  the  spread  of  Cretan  and 
Cilician  piracy,  and  the  advance  of  Parthia.  To  the 
next  period  also  belongs  the  conversion  on  the  death 
of  Attalus  III.  of  the  kingdom  of  Pergamum  into 
the  Roman  province  of  Asia. 

Both  the  western  and  eastern  Mediterranean  now 
acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  Rome,  but  her  rela- 
tions with  the  two  were  from  the  first  different.  The 
West  fell  to  her  as  the  prize  of  victory  over  Carthage, 
and,  the  Carthaginian  power  broken,  there  was  no 


MAP  //. 


Ch.  2]  Rome  and  the  East.  157 

hindrance  to  the  imniediate  establishment  in  Sicily, 
Sardinia,  Spain,  and  finally  in  Africa,  of  direct  Ro- 
man rule.  To  the  majority,  moreover,  of  her  west- 
ern subjects  she  brought  a  civilisation  as  well  as  a 
government  of  a  higher  type  than  any  before  known 
to  them.  And  so  in  the  West  she  not  only  formed 
provinces,  but  created  a  new  and  wider  Roman 
world.  To  the  East,  on  the  contrary,  she  came  as 
the  liberator  of  the  Greeks ;  and  it  was  only  slowly 
that  in  this  part  of  the  empire  her  provincial  system 
made  way.  In  the  East,  moreover,  the  older  civil- 
isation she  found  there  obstinately  held  its  ground. 
Her  proconsuls  governed  and  her  legions  protected 
the  Greek  communities,  but  to  the  last  the  East 
remained  in  language,  manners,  and  thought  Greek 
and  not  Roman. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  ROMAN  STATE  AND  PEOPLE  DURING  THE 
PERIOD  OF  THE  GREAT  WARS. 

At  the  close  of  a  century  first  of  deadly  struggle 
and  then  of  rapid  and  dazzling  success,  Rome  found 
herself  the  supreme  power  in  the  civilised  world. 
"  By  all  men,"  says  Polybius,  writing  at  the  end  of 
this  period,  "  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  nothing 
remained  but  to  obey  the  commands  of  the  Ro- 
mans." We  have  now  to  consider  how  this  period 
of  conflict  and  conquest  had  affected  the  victorious 
state. 

Outwardly  the  constitution  underwent  but  little 
change.  It  continued  to  be  in  form  a  moderate  de- 
The  consti-  niocracy.  The  sovereignty  of  the  people 
tution.  finally  established  by  the  Hortensian  law 

remained  untouched  in  theory.  It  was  by  the  peo- 
ple in  assembly  that  the  magistrates  of  the  year  were 
elected,*  and  that  laws  were  passed  * ;  only  by  "  order 

'  Cic,  Leg,  Agr.f  ii.,  7.  17,  **  omnes  potestaUs^  imperia,  euro- 
Hones ^  db  universo  populo  Romano  proficisci  canvenit" 

•  Cic,  Fro  Flacco^  vii,,  **  qua  sciscerei  plebs^  aui  quce  populus  ju- 
beret ;  summota  contione,  distrihuHs  pariibust  tribuHm  et  centuriO' 
fimjuberi  tfetarique  voluerunt" 

158 


The  Raman  State  and  People.  159 

of  the  people  "  could  capital  punishment  be  inflicted 
upon  a  Roman  citizen.  For  election  to  a  magis- 
tracy, or  for  a  seat  in  the  senate,  patrician  and 
plebeian  were  equally  eligible.'  But  between  the 
theory  and  the  practice  of  the  constitution  there 
was  a  wide  difference.  Throughout  this  period  the 
actually  sovereign  authority  in  Rome  was  that  of 
the  senate,  and  behind  the  senate  stood  an  order  of 
nobles  (  nobiles  \  who  claimed  and  enjoyed  privileges 
as  wide  as  those  which  immemorial  custom  had 
formerly  conceded  to  the  patriciate.  The  ascend- 
ency of  the  senate,  which  thus  arrested  the  march 
of  democracy  in  Rome,  was  not,  to  any  appreciable 
extent,  the  result  of  legislation.     It  was  ^|,^ 

the  direct  outcome  of  the  practical  neces-      awrendency 
sities  of  the  time,  and  when  these  no 
longer  existed,  it  was  at  once  and  successfully  chal- 
lenged in  the  name  and  on  the  behalf  of  the  consti- 
tutional rights  of  the  people. 

Nevertheless,  from  the  commencement  of  the 
Punic  wars  down  to  the  moment  when  with  the 
destruction  of  Carthage  in  146  B.C.  Rome's  only 
rival  disappeared,  this  ascendency  was  senate  and 
complete  and  almost  unquestioned.  It  MMmWy. 
was  within  the  walls  of  the  senate-house,  and  by 
decrees   of  the  senate,    that  the   foreign   and  the 


'  A  few  priestly  offices  were  still  confined  to  patricians,  e,  g,  those 
of  the  rex  sacrorum  and  the  Jiamen  diaHs,  The  first  plebeian  curio 
maximus  was  elected  in  209  B.C.  Only  a  patrician  could  fill  the 
occasional  office  of  inierrex.  On  the  other  hand,  no  patrician  could 
hold  a  plebeian  magistracy  (tribune  or  cdile  of  the/Zr^j).  Mommsen, 
R9m.  Forsch,,  i.,  77-127. 


i6o  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  \\\ 

domestic  policy  of  the  state  were  alik^  determined. 
It  is  true  that  the  rights  of  a  magistrate  to  propose, 
and  of  the  people  to  pass,  any  measure,  were  never 
formally  restricted.  But,  in  the  first  place,  it  became 
an  understood  thing  that  a  magistrate  should  not 
bring  any  proposal  before  the  assembly,  except  with 
the  approval,  and  by  the  direction  of  the  senate; 
and  the  initiative  thus  conceded  to  the  senate  was 
before  long  claimed  as  a  right.  The  action  of  the 
tribune  C.  Flaminius  (  232  B.C.),  in  carry- 
^^  '  '  '  ing  an  agrarian  law  in  the  teeth  of  the 
"  senate's  authority,"  *  and  that  of  the  praetor  M. 
Juventius  Thalna  (167  B.C.),  in  submit- 
ting the  question  of  war  with  Rhodes  to 
the  assembly  without  having  previously  consulted 
the  senate,*  were  condemned  as  dangerous  and 
unprecedented.  In  the  second  place,  there  was  an 
increasing  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates 
to  refer  to  the  assembly  only  in  those  cases  where 
the  authority  of  the  people  was  constitutionally 
necessary.  In  other  cases,  and  even  in  some  where 
a  reference  to  the  people  had  been  previously  cus- 
tomary, it  was  the  senate  alone  that  was  consulted, 
and  it  was  by  a  simple  decree  of  the  senate  that  the 
point  was  settled.  Thus  the  prolongation  of  a 
magistrate's  command  {prorogatio  imperii),  though 
at  the  time  of  the  Samnite  wars  it  was  held  to 
require  an  order  of  the  people,  was  during  the  Punic 
wars  and  afterwards  eflfected  as  a  rule  by  decree  of 

*  Polyb.,  ii.,  21 ;    Cic.  De  SenecU^  iv. 

'Livy,    xlv.,    21,    **no7M?   tnaloque   exemplo  rem  ingressus  eratt 
guod  rum  ante  consuUo  senatu    •     •     .     regationem  ferret.^ 


Ch. 3]  The  Roman  State  and  People.  i6i 

the  senate  alone.'  Though  a  treaty  could  only  be 
ratified  or  war  declared  by  the  people,*  it  was  in  the 
senate  that  the  terms  of  peace  were  settled,  and 
that  audience  was  given  to  foreign  ambassadors.  It 
was  the  senate  which  made  alliances,'  regulated  the 
yearly  levies  of  troops,*  decreed  the  annexation  of 
provinces,  and  laid  down  the  lines  on  which  they 
should  be  governed.*  In  matters  of  finance  its  author- 
ity was  equally  great.  The  control  of  the  supplies, 
the  most  powerful  weapon  that  a  popular  assembly 
can  wield,  was  wielded  at  Rome,  not  by  the  people, 
but  by  the  senate.  To  quote  Polybius,  "  the  senate 
was  master  alike  of  all  the  income  and  of  all  the 
expenditure  of  the  State."  *  Lastly,  in  the  various 
departments  of  domestic  administration,  it  was  to 
the  senate,  rather  than  to  the  people  that  questions 
of  difficulty  or  importance  were  referred.^ 

This  monopoly  of  government  by  the  senate,  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  people,  was  accompanied  by  a 
change  in  the  relations  of  the  senate  with  senate  and 
the  magistrates.  The  latter,  from  being  °««*»t«tc8. 
its  superiors,  became   its  subordinates,  seeking  its 


'For  the  older  practice,  see  Livy,  viii.,  23;  for  the  later,  Livy, 
xxvi.,  I,  XXX.,  27,  etc.  Polybius  (vi.,  15)  expressly  includes  the  proro* 
gation  of  a  command  among  the  prerogatives  of  the  senate. 

*Polyb.,  vi.,  14;  Livy,  xxi.,  18;  Sail.,  Jug,^  39. 

*Polyb.,  vi.,  13 ;  Livy,  xliii,,  6. 

^Livy,  xxiv.,  11,  ^^  de  republica  belloque  gerendo  et  quamtum 
copiarum  et  ubi  qucsque  essent  consuUs  ad  senatum  rettuUrunt,** 

'  Compare  the  decree  as  to  Macedonia,  Livy,  xlv.,  17,  18. 

•  Polyb.,  vi.,  13  ;  Cic.  In  Vdtimum,  xiii.,  36. 

^  E.  g,  the  prevalence  of  foreig^n  worships,  Livy,  xxv.,  i.  See  gen« 
eraUy  Mommsen,  Staatsrechi,  iii.,  11 74-1 193. 


IS 


1 62  Outlines  ef  Raman  History.      LBook  ill 

advice  on  all  occasions,  and  yielding  to  the  advice 
when  given  the  obedience  due  to  a  command.  It 
became  the  first  duty  of  a  magistrate  to  be  the  loyal 
minister  of  the  senate,  and  to  be  always  amenable  to 
its  authority.*  Senatorial  decrees  gradually  acquired 
something  of  the  binding  force  of  statutes.  Many  of 
them  were  acted  upon  year  after  year  by  successive 
magistrates,  and  were  quoted  as  authoritative  in  the 
law-courts.*  It  was  even  held  that  a  decree  of  the 
senate  could  suspend  for  a  time  the  operation  of  a 
law.'  It  was  only  natural  that,  as  the  senate  acquired 
this  new  and  commanding  position,  it  should  endea- 
vour to  get  rid  of  everything  in  its  composition  and 
forms  of  procedure  that  savoured  of  inferiority  or 
dependence.       In    one    most    important 

Th6  com- 

gMition  of  point  it  succeeded  completely.  Although 
the  magistrate's  original  prerogative  of 
creating  senators  was  not  taken  away,  he  was  grad- 
ually so  restricted  in  its  exercise  as  to  leave  him  no 
freedom  of  choice.*  It  is  clear  from  the  accounts 
we  possess  of  the  manner  in  which  the  vacancies  in 


*  Cicero  {Pro  SesHoy  Ixv.,  137)  states  this  view  fully:  ** senatum 
reipublica  cusUHlemyPrasidemyPropugnatorem  collocaverunt(fnajores); 
hujus  ordinis  atutoritaU  uti  magistratus  et  quasi  minisiros  grazdssimi 
consilii  esse  volueruni" 

'  E.  g.  those  which  regulated  the  organisation  and  administration 
of  provinces. 

'  E,  g,  the  law  of  appeal  was  held  to  be  suspended  by  the  decree 
**  dareni  operant  consules  ne  quid  respubUca  detrimenti  capereV* 
(Sail.,  Cat,,  29). 

^  Festus,  p.  246,  describes  the  kings  and  consuls  as  freely  selecting 
senators  *'  ut  reges  sibi  legebaut^  sublegebantque  quos  in  conciKo  pub- 
lico habereni  iUi  ,  ,  .  consults  •  .  .  conjuncHssimcs  sibi 
.     .     ,     legebantj* 


Ch.3]         TTie  Roman  State  and  People.  163 

the  senate  were  filled  up  in  216  B.C.,  that  there  was 
then  a  well  understood  order  of  preference,  which 
the  magistrate  was  expected  to  follow.  Those  who 
had  held  any  curule  magistracy,  if  not  already  sena- 
tors, had  the  first  claim ;  next  after  them  came  those 
who  had  been  tribunes  of  the  plebSy  aediles  of  the 
plebs^  or  quaestors;  finally  those  private  citizens 
who  had  won  distinction  in  war.*  But  in  that  year, 
thanks  to  the  losses  at  Cannae,  the  number  of  vacan- 
cies was  exceptionally  large.  Ordinarily,  we  may  be 
certain  that  the  magistrate  had  no  need  to  travel  be- 
yond  the  list  of  those  who,  as  having  held  a  magis- 
tracy since  the  last  revision  of  the  senate,  had  by  law 
or  custom  a  preferential  claim  to  a  seat.*  The  senate 
thus  ceased  to  be  a  body  of  advisers  freely  chosen 
by  the  magistrate  from  all  ranks  of  the  community. 
Instead,  it  was  regularly  recruited  according  to 
established  rules,  and  the  mag^istrate  had  practically 
no  choice  but  formally  to  admit  into  the  senate  the 
persons  entitled  to  a  seat.  But  it  was  not  only  the 
magistrate's  discretion  in  choosing  senators  that  was 
restricted.  It  seems  clear  that,  in  some  way  or 
other,  during  this  period  his  power  of  expulsion  was 
limited  also,  and  that  a  senator,  once  admitted,  re- 

*  Livy,  xxiii.,  23. 

*  Livy  (xxii.,  49)  speaks  of  those  "  qtd  eos  magistratus  gessissent, 
unde  in  senatum  legi  deberent"  and  these  magistracies  were  evidently 
the  curule  offices.  At  what  period  the  tribunate  of  the  plebs  first 
entitled  its  holder  to  a  seat  in  the  senate  at  the  next  revision  is  un- 
certain. The  privilege  was  first  legally  attached  to  the  quaestorship 
by  Sulla.  But  in  the  time  of  the  Gracchi  it  was  clearly  customary 
for  a  seat  in  the  senate  to  follow  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  quaes 
torship. 


164         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  ih 

tained  his  seat  for  life,  unless  he  were  found  guilty 
of  some  gross  and  scandalous  conduct.  One  other 
point  must  also  be  noticed.  The  senate  was,  under 
this  system,  not  only  recruited  without  reference  to 
the  discretion  of  the  magistrate,  but  it  was  recruited 
only  from  the  official  class,  from  those  who  had  held 
a  magistracy.  The  result  was  that  the  ky  element 
disappeared.  The  senate  of  the  latter  years  of  this 
period  consisted  entirely  of  magistrates  and  ex- 
magistrates.  It  became  an  essentially  bureaucratic 
and  official  body.  Nothing  more  clearly  proves  the 
Its  pro-  subordinate  relation  in  which  the  senate 
cedure.  originally  stood  to  the  magistrate  than  its 

rules  of  procedure.  They  were  evidently  based  on 
the  assumption  that  the  senate  could  only  advise 
the  magfistrate  when  consulted  by  him,  that  he 
might  accept  or  reject  its  advice  as  he  chose,  and 
that  its  expression  of  opinion  only  acquired  authori- 
tative force  when  adopted  and  acted  upon  by  him. 
But  this  assumption,  in  the  period  with  which  we  are 
dealing,  had  ceased  to  correspond  with  the  facts  of 
the  case,  and  it  appears  that  some  attempt  was 
made  to  bring  the  forms  and  rules  of  senatorial  pro- 
cedure into  closer  conformity  with  the  actual  state 
of  aflfairs.  It  was  probably,  to  take  a  few  instances, 
during  this  period  that  it  became  etiquette  for  a 
magistrate,  when  laying  a  matter  before  the  house, 
to  abstain  from  anticipating  the  decision  of  the  sen- 
ate by  making  any  proposal  of  his  own,*  and  that  the 


*  The  usual  fomuila  was  '*  quid  de  ea  fieri  placet,**     Cf.  Cic. 
Phil,^  X.,  17. 


Ch.  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  165 

anomalous  permission  was  conceded  to  a  senator, 
when  asked  for  his  opinion,  of  travelling  beyond  the 
question,  an  evasive  mode  of  enabling  him  to  intro- 
duce any  business  in  which  he  was  interested.' 
Equally  significant  is  the  fact  that,  whereas  in  ear- 
lier times  the  magistrate  was  said  to  act  "  in  accord- 
ance with  the  opinion  of  the  senate,"  he  was  now 
said  to  act  "  in  accordance  with  the  decree,  or  with 
the  authority,  of  the  senate."  *  But,  as  will  be  seen 
later  on,  these  changes  did  not  go  far  enough  to  re- 
move an  inconsistency  which  mattered  little  while 
the  senate  was  strong,  and  the  magistrates  weak,  but 
which  had  serious  consequences  when  the  case  was 
reversed. 

The  causes  of  the  ascendency  which  the  senate 
thus  acquired  at  the  cost  both  of  the  popular 
assembly  and  the  executive  magistracy  causes  of  the 
are  not  difficult  to  discover.  In  the  first  ascendency 
place,  the  two  assemblies,  through  which  **  *Nrture 
the  Roman  people  exercised  their  sover-  ©fthe 

.  .•  f      ^      M  •  ti*i  assembly. 

eign  prerogatives  of  election  and  legisla- 
.  tion,  the  comitia  of  the  populus  by  its  centuries, 
and  the  concilium  of  the  plebs  by  its  tribes, 
were  hampered  in  their  action  by  one  serious 
defect.  Neither  could  act  unless  set  in  motion  by  a 
magistrate.  They  could  only  meet  when  convened 
by  a  magistrate,  and  though  there  were  many  days 
on  which  a  magistrate  could  not  convene  an  assem- 


*  For  this  privilege,  **  egredi  relatianem"  see  Tac,  Ann,^  ii.,  38  ; 
Gell.,  iv.,  10;  Cic,  Ad  Fam,^  x.  28. 
'  Mommsen,  Staatsrecht,  iii.,  994. 


i66  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBook  111 

bly,*  there  were  not,  as  at  Athens,  any  fixed  days  on 
which  he  was  obliged  to  do  so.  Moreover,  when 
once  assembled  they  could  only  act  in  response  to 
the  question  {rogatio)  addressed  to  them  by  the  pre- 
siding consul,  praetor,  or  tribune.*  There  were,  of 
course,  certain  cases  in  which  the  magistrate  was 
bound  to  convene  an  assembly  and  to  ask  the  people 
to  express  their  will.  But  there  were  a  vast  number 
of  cases  in  which  this  procedure  was  not  constitution- 
ally necessary,  and  in  these  it  rested  with  the  magis- 
trate to  consult  the  people  or  not  as  he  chose.  A 
large  field  was  thus  left  to  his  discretion,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  his  discretion  he  was  guided  by  circum- 
stances. As  it  happened,  throughout  this  period 
circumstances  were  all  unfavourable  to  a  frequent 
consultation  of  the  people.  The  assembly,  whether 
of  the  populus  or  plebsy  could  only  meet  in  the  city, 
or  just  outside  the  walls  in  the  Campus  Martius. 
But  the  voters  were  a  large  body,  many  of  them 
resident  at  a  great  distance  from  Rome ;  or  away  on 
service  with  the  legions ;  to  get  them  together  was 
inconvenient  and  difficult ;  nor  when  assembled  were, 
they  specially  qualified  to  decide  the  intricate  ques- 
tions of  military  or  foreign  policy  which  occupied  the 
attention  of  Roman  statesmen  at  the  time.  By  com- 
parison with  the  assembly  the  senate  appeared  to 
great  advantage.     It   could   be   easily  and  quickly 

^'  E,  g,  dies  fasti  and  nefasti^  and  dajrs  set  apart  as  holidajrs  or  for 
thanksgiving.  In  Cicero's  time  the  number  of  days  on  which  comitia 
could  be  held  {flies  comitiales)  was  not  large. 

'  Gell.,  X.,  20,  **  Caput  ipsum  et  origo  et  quasi  frons  '  rogtUio '  est 
,  .  .  nam  ni  populus  aui  plebs  rogetur^  nullum  plebis  aut  popuU 
jussum  Jieri  potestr 


Ch.3]  The  Roman  State  and  People.  167 

summoned.  It  included  within  its  ranks  the  most 
experienced  soldiers  and  statesmen  of  the  day.  The 
fact  that  its  members  owed  their  seats  ultimately  to 
their  having  been  elected  by  the  people  to  a  magis- 
tracy, gave  it  some  sort  of  title  to  speak  with  author- 
ity in  the  people's  name.  Finally,  in  the  senate- 
house,  the  careful  and  deliberate  discussion  which 
the  forms  of  the  assembly  precluded  were  always 
possible. 

But  these  were  not  the  only  considerations  which 
led  the  magistrates  of  ,this  period  to  turn  ^^^  ^  ^^ 
to  the  senate  rather  than  to  the  people  for  the  magis- 
counsel  and  direction.     The  habitual  def-  ^^•^y* 

erence  which  they  paid  to  the  senate  was  largely  due 
to  changes  which  had  taken  place  in  the  magistracy 
itself,  and  in  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  work 
which  it  had  to  do.  Nothing  is  more  characteristic 
of  the  Roman  constitution  than  the  width  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  "  power  of  command "  (imperium) 
with  which  the  Roman  people  invested  their  chief 
magistrates.  The  magistrate  "  with  the  imperium  " 
was  in  theory  and  for  the  time  all-powerful.  Senate 
and  assembly  met  only  when  he  convened  them,  and 
considered  only  what  he  laid  before  them.  He  was 
equally  capable  of  administering  justice  at  home  and 
of  leading  the  legions  abroad.  While  holding  the 
imperium  he  was  irresponsible  and  irremovable.  But 
this  plenary  authority,  though  exercised  to  the  full 
by  the  first  consuls,  and  at  a  later  time  by  the 
Caesars,  was  exercised  in  a  much  more  restricted 
fashion  by  the  magistrates  of  the  period  of  the  great 
wars.     It  had  been,  as  we  have  seen,  the  object  of 


1 68  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  m 

attack  during  the  early  days  of  the  struggle  between 
the  orders.     The  Valerian  law  of  appeal  had  taken 
away  from  the  consuls  the  power  of  inflicting  capital 
punishment  upon  Roman  citizens  within  the  city, 
and  by  the  institution  of  the  tribunate,  their  action 
inside  the  city  bounds  was  rendered  liable  at  any 
moment  to  interference.     In  435  B.C.  the 
important    duties     connected    with    the 
census  were  separated  from  the  imperium  and  trans- 
ferred to  two  censores.     By  the  Hortensian  law  (287 
B.C.)  the  plebeian  tribunes  finally  obtained 
a  rival  and  independent  power  of  initiat- 
ing legislation,  and  to  this  was  added  afterwards  that 
of  convening  and  consulting  the  senate.*    But  it  was 
not   only  by  these  attacks   from  without  that  the 
position  of  the  magistrates  with  the  imperium  was 
weakened.      As  Rome  expanded,  and  the  business 
of  administration  increased,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  increase  their  number.      The  original  "  college  " 
of  two  praetor-consuls  was  gradually  enlarged.     In 
364  B.C.  a  third  praetor,  the  prcBtor  urbantis^ 
was    added,    and    the    civil    jurisdiction 
between  citizens  intrusted  to  him.*    A  hundred  and 
twenty  years  later,  a  fourth  was  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  cases  in  which  the  "  aliens,"  now  becoming 
numerous,  were  concerned.*     The  annexation  of  ter- 


^  Varro  (Ap.  GelL^  xiv.,  8)  implies  that  the  tribunes  obtained  this 
right  before  the  plebiscitum  Aiinium,  Unfortunately  the  date  of 
this  plebiscite  is  unknown.  Mommsen  would  assign  it  to  the  Grac- 
chan  period  (133-102  B.C.). 

•  Livy,  vi.,  42,  **  qui  Jus  inter  cives  dicer et,** 

•  Livy,  Epit,^  19,  *^ pratar peregrinus,** 


Ch.d]          The  Roman  State  and  People.  169 

ritories  beyond  the  sea  involved  a  further  enlarge- 
ment.    In  227  B.C.  two  praetors  were  first 

537  A.U.C. 

elected  to  administer  the  newly-formed 
provinces  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia ;  in  197 
B.C.  two  more  were  found  necessary  for  ^^  a.u.c. 
the  government  of  Hither  and  Farther  Spain.* 
Thus,  throughout  the  last  fifty  years  of  this  period, 
there  were  no  less  than  eight  magistrates  invested 
with  the  imperium,  to  whom  must  be  added  a 
variable  but  steadily  increasing  number  of  pro- 
consuls and  propraetors.  The  eight  actual  fnagis- 
tratus  cunt  imperio  elected  each  year  formed  a  col- 
lege, each  member  of  which  was  capable  individually 
of  exercising  any  or  all  of  the  powers  belonging  to 
the  imperiutn.  The  endless  confusion  which  the 
existence  of  so  many  parallel  authorities  was  likely 
to  produce  was  partially  guarded  against  by  certain 
rules  of  precedence.  To  the  two  original  members 
of  the  college,  now  known  as  "consuls,"  a  certain 
priority  was  granted  over  the  remaining  six;  to  whom 
the  old  title  prcBtores  was  confined.  The  consuls 
were  said  to  have  the  majus  imperium^ — a  convenient 
term  of  which  the  Caesars  made  dexterous  use, — and 
in  any  conflict  of  authority  the  lesser  imperiutn  of  the 
praetors  gave  way  to  theirs.*  So,  too,  a  collision 
between  equals,  between  consul  and  consul,  praetor 
and  praetor,  was  provided  for  by  the  rule  that  "  he 
who  prohibits  is  stronger  than  he  who  commands."  * 

*  Livy,  EpiU^  20 ;  ib,^  xxxii.,  27. 

*  Cic.  Ad  Ait. ^  ix.,  9,  ** prcetores  .  .  .  conlega  consulum^  quorum 
est  majus  imperium  ;  GelL,  xiii.,  15,  "  imperium  minus prator,  majus 
habet  consul " 

'  Cic.  De  Legg,^  3. 


1 70  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBook  m 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  these  rules  did  not  go 
very  far  towards  securing  either  the  exact  division  of 
labour  or  the  harmonious  and  well-directed  co-opera- 
tion, which  was  necessary  for  the  right  conduct  of 
the  ever-increasing  business  of  Roman  government. 
For  this  purpose  some  central  regulative  authority 
was  needed,  and  nowhere  but  in  the  senate  could 
such  an  authority  be  found.  As  early,  at  the  latest, 
as  the  commencement  of  the  second  Punic  war,  it 
was  the  senate  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
determined  what  the  departments  to  be  filled  should 
be,  and  decided  which  should  be  consular  and  which 
praetorian.*  The  individual  magistrates,  as  a  rule, 
readily  conceded  to  the  senate  a  control  which 
relieved  them  of  a  heavy  responsibility,  and  gave 
unity  and  cohesion  to  the  action  of  the  state,  and  the 
occasions  were  rare  on  which,  during  this  period,  a 
magistrate  ventured  to  dispute  its  authority. 

But  though  the  ascendency  of  the  senate  was 
mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  without  it  the  govern- 
^jj^  ment  of  the  state  could  scarcely  have  been 

nobility.  carried  on,  it  was  strengthened  and  con- 
firmed by  the  close  and  intimate  connection  which 
existed  between  the  senate  and  the  nobility.  This 
"  nobility "  was  in  its  nature  and  origin  widely 
diflferent  from  the  old  patriciate}  Though  every 
patrician  was  of  course  "  noble,*'  the  majority  of  the 
families   which   in    this    period    styled   themselves 

*  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  senate  each  year  the  new  consuls 
formally  referred  to  it  the  question  of  the  provinces ;  e,  g,  Livyi 
xxvi.,  I. 

'  Mommsen,  Rdm.  Gesch,,  i.,  789. 


Ch .  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  171 

noble  were  not  patrician  but  plebeian,  and  the 
typical  nobles  of  the  time  of  the  elder  Cato,  of 
the  Gracchi,  or  of  Cicero,  the  Metelli,  Livii,  or 
Licinii  were  plebeians.  The  title  nobilis  was  ap- 
parently conceded  by  custom  to  those  plebeian 
families  one  or  more  of  whose  members  had,  after 
the  opening  of  the  magistracies,  been  elected  to  a 
curule  office,  and  which  in  consequence  were  entitled 
to  place  in  their  halls,  and  to  display  at  their  funeral 
processions  the  imagines^  of  these  distinguished 
ancestors.  The  man  who,  by  his  election  to  a  cuaile 
office  thus  ennobled  his  descendants,  was  said  to  be 
the  "  founder  of  his  family,**  *  though  himself  only 
a  new  man.*  Legally,  therefore,  this  "  nobility " 
was  within  the  reach  of  any  citizen  who  obtained 
even  the  curule  aedileship.  Nor  did  it  carry  with  it 
any  rights  or  privileges  whatever.  It  is  certain, 
moreover,  that  during  the  first  sixty  or  seventy 
years  of  this  period  it  was  generally  accessible  in 
practice  as  well  as  in  theory,  and  that  almost  every 
year  some  fresh  plebeian  family  was  ennobled.  It 
was,  for  instance,  from  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars 
that  the  Caecilii  Metelli,  the  Aurelii  Cottae,  the 
Flaminii,  the  Calpurnii,  and  other  great  houses  of 
the  later  republic  dated  their  nobility.*     Gradually, 


'  Cicero  (Verr.^  v.,  14),  speaking  of  his  own  election  to  a  curule 
office,  says  that  it  gave  him  **  jus  imaginis  ad  memoriam  posteritO' 
tetnque prodendcs,**     Cf.  Polybius,  vi.,  53. 

'  **  Aucior  generis  sui"  or  **princeps"  Cic,  Ad  Fam,^  ix.,  21 ;  Z^ 
Leg.  Agr.f  ii.,  100. 

»  '*  Navus  homo,'*  Sail.,  Cat,,  23;  yug.,  63,  etc. 

^  See  the  calculations  of  Willems,  Le  SMat  Romain,  i.,  274,  3gg» 


1^2  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  in 

however,  a  more  exclusive  spirit  and  policy  pre- 
vailed. Office  brought  wealth  and  prestige,  and 
both  wealth  and  prestige  were  freely  employed  to 
exclude  "  new  men  "  and  to  secure  for  the  "  noble 
families"  a  monopoly  of  office.  The  ennobled 
plebeians  not  only  united  with  the  patricians  to 
form  a  distinct  order,  but  outdid  them  in 

537A.U.C.  .,  J  A  1 

pride  and  arrogance.     As  early  as  217  B.C. 
it  was  openly  said  that  the  only  true  plebeians  were 
the  "  new  men,"  and  that  the  plebeian  nobles  had 
begun  to  despise    the  plebs  ever  since  they  them- 
selves ceased  to  be  despised  by  the  patri- 

63X  A.U.C.  r  J  ir 

cians.*  By  the  close  of  this  period  (133  B.C.) 
it  was  already  rare  for  any  one  not  of  a  noble  family 
to  attain  high  office,  while  the  cadets  of  the  noble 
houses  looked  forward  to  an  official  career  as  their 
birthright."  Thus  both  the  magistracies  and  the 
senate  to  which  they  gave  admission,  though  open 
in  theory  to  all  freeborn  citizens,  were  in  fact  mon- 
opolised by  a  single  class.  And  in  return  the  whole 
wealth  and  influence  of  the  nobility  went  to  support 
the  senate,  whose  ascendency  they  regarded  as 
essential  to  the  maintenance  of  their  own  usurped 
position  as  the  governing  class,  and  which  was 
identified  with  themselves  in  its  sympathies  and 
interests. 


'  Livy,  xxii.,  34,  "  Non  finem  belli  ante  habituros^  quam  consuUm 
vere  pUbeium  id  est  kominem  novum  fecissent^  nam  plebeios  nobiles 
Jam  eisdem  (1.  e.  as  the  patricians)  initiatos  esse  sacris,  et  contemnere 
plebem  ex  quo  contemni  apatribus  desierunt,  capisse," 

'  The  consulship  in  particular  was  regarded  as  reserved  only  for 
nobles.     Sail.,  Cat,,  23  ;  ^ug-.,  63. 


Ch.  3]  The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 73 

The  establishment  of  senatorial  ascendency  was 
not  the  only  result  of  this  period  of  growth  ^j^^  Provin- 
and  expansion.  During  the  same  time  the  ^dMcprS 
foundations  were  laid  of  the  provincial  sys-  co°»«»»t«- 
tern,  and  with  this  of  the  new  and  dangerous  powers 
of  the  proconsuls. 

In  dealing  with  the  new  dependencies  beyond  the 
sea,  Rome  did  not  adhere  to  the  principles  which  she 
had  followed  in  Italy.  The  transmarine  communities, 
with  few  exceptions,  were  indeed  like  those  in  Italy, 
dignified  with  the  honourable  title  of  "  allies  "  (socii) 
and  in  the  case  of  some  of  them  the  alliance  was,  as 
in  Italy,  a  real  one  based  upon  an  actual  treaty  with 
Rome,  and  implying  some  sort  of  equality.  But  these 
"treaty  states  "  '  were  a  small  minority,  and  as  Rome 
grew  stronger  it  was  but  rarely  that  she  condescended 
to  admit  any  community  to  this  privileged  position. 
The  vast  majority  of  these  new  allies  were  allies  only 
in  name,  and  the  "  alliance  "  was  little  better  than  a 
fiction  which  imperfectly  concealed  their  actual  sub- 
jection. 

Between  them  and  the  genuine  allies  of  Rome,  in 
or  out  of  Italy,'  lay  all  the  difference  involved  in  the 
fact  that  they  were  disarmed,  were  taxed,  and,  above 


'  Cimtates  foederaia ;  of  the  sixty-eight  communities  which  in 
Cicero's  time  formed  the  province  of  Sicily,  three  were  fasderaice.  In 
Hither  Spain,  Pliny  mentions  only  one,  and  in  Farther  Spain  three,  of 
which  the  most  famous  was  Gades,  whose  treaty  dated  from  the 
second  Punic  war.  Cic,  Verr.y  iii.,  6;  Pliny,  N,  H,y  xxicvii., 
18-30. 

'  The  only  part  of  the  Italian  peninsula  that  was  treated  as  a  pro- 
vince was  Cisalpine  Gaul. 


1 74  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  Vk 

all,  were  grouped  as  provinces  under  the  immediate 
control  of  a  resident  Roman  magistrate.* 

The  creation  of  a  province,  that  is,  of  a  separate 
Formation  of  ^^^  permanent  magisterial  department  of 
xSmif "'  administration,  was  a  step  which,  as  virtu- 
provinciae.      ^jjy  implying  annexation,  Rome  was  often 

slow  in  taking.'  But  whenever  carried  out,  the  "  re- 
duction into  the  form  of  a  province  "  *  of  a  group  of 
communities  was  affected  in  much  the  same  way. 
The  main  lines  on  which  the  new  province  was  to  be 
organised  were  usually  laid  down  by  decree  of  the 
senate,  and  the  work  of  organisation  then  intrusted 
to  a  commission  of  senators."  *  The  result  of  their 
labours  was  embodied  in  what  was  called  the /ex  pro- 
vincial This  was  in  fact  a  provincial  constitution,  by 
which  the  extent  of  the  new  department,  the  number 
and  status  of  the  communities  included  within  it. 


'  It  was  this  creation  of  a  separate  department  under  a  resident 
Roman  magistrate  which  marked  the  '*  formation  of  a  province." 
Thus  Macedonia  was  disarmed  and  taxed  in  167  B.Cy  but  no  province 
was  created  there  till  146.  Provincia  meant  properly  the  '*  depart- 
ment "or  *'  sphere  of  command  "  assigned  to  a  Roman  magistrate. 

*  This  was  conspicuously  the  case  in  the  East.  See  above,  book 
iii.,  chap.  ii. 

*  **  In  formam provincia  redigere  "  (Tac,  Ann.,  ii.,  56). 

*  E,  g,  in  the  case  of  Sicily,  Cic,  Verr,,  ii.,  16,  40;  Macedonia, 
Livy,  xlv.,  29. 

^  The  lex  was  usually  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the  chief  com- 
missioner (e,  g,  the  **  lex HupiHa  "  [Sicily],  Cic,  /.  ^.  y  **  lexPompeia  " 
[Bith3mia],  Pliny,  Epp,  ad  TraJ,,  79),  who  was  said  **  dare  leges"  Livy, 
xlv. ,  30.  Lex  (= fixed  conditions)  was  similarly  used  of  the  municipal 
constitutions  granted  to  towns  by  Rome,  and  of  the  terms  fixed  by  the 
censors  for  the  collection  of  the  state  revenues  flex  censoriaj, 
Mommsen,  StaatsreckU  iii.,  308,  3og. 


Ch.  31  The  Roman  State  and  People.  175 

their  rights  and  obligations,  the  mode  and  amount 
of  the  taxation,  as  well  as  a  variety  of  details  con- 
nected with  the  administration  of  justice  and  with 
local  government  were  determined.  Its  provisions 
were  binding  not  only  upon  the  communities  of  the 
province,  but  also  upon  the  Roman  magistrate,'  nor, 
apparently,  could  they  be  modified  or  supplemented 
without  the  sanction  of  the  Roman  senate  or  people.' 
The  general  spirit  of  these  provincial  constitutions 
was  far  more  liberal  than  the  harshness  which  char- 
acterised the  actual  administration  of  the  provinces 
would  lead  us  to  expect,  though  the  liberality  may 
have  been  mainly  due  to  the  reluctance  of  the 
Roman  government  to  undertake  more  of  the  bur- 
dens of  administration  than  was  necessary,  to  its 
unwillingness  to  wound  the  susceptibilities  of  newly- 
conquered  allies,  and  no  doubt  also  to  a  sense  of  the 
danger  involved  in  leaving  too  wide  a  discretion  to 
its  own  officials  in  the  government  of  great  and  often 
distant  dependencies.  A  Roman  province,  as  a 
glance  at  the  lists  in  Pliny's  Natural  History  *  will 
show,  was  an  aggregate  of  separate  communities 


1  Cicero  charges  Verres  with  violating  the  provincial  constitution  of 
Sicily  ( lex  RupiUa)  which  all  governors  before  him  had  respected. 
Verr,,  ii.,  i6,  40. 

*  Not  only  were  these  constitutions  frequently  amended  by  decrees 
of  the  senate  or  statutes  of  the  assembly,  but  occasionally  a  complete 
revision  was  found  necessary.  The  Sicilian  constitution,  for  instance, 
was  thus  revised  after  the  great  slave  war  by  P.  Rupilius  (consul 
132  B.C.).  On  the  other  hand,  the  constitution  of  Bithynia  by  Pom- 
pey  (65  B.C.)  was  still  in  force  when  the  younger  Pliny  was  there  as 
governor  (iii  A.D.).     Pliny,  Epp.  ad  TraJ,,  79. 

'  Books  iii.  and  iv. 


I  yb  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  iir 

{civitates)y  and  in  fixing  the  number  of  these,  and 
the  extent  of  their  territories,  Rome  evidently  re- 
spected where  possible,  the  already  existing  political 
divisions.  It  is  true  that  federations  which  might 
prove  dangerous  were  dissolved,  or  reduced  to  harm- 
less religious  associations;  that  some  communities 
were  rewarded  by  an  accession,  others  punished  by  a 
loss  of  territory ;  but,  in  the  more  civilised  provinces 
especially,  the  integrity  of  the  existing  civitates  was, 
as  a  rule,  preserved  and  even  in  provinces  such  as 
Hither  Spain,  where  few  or  no  city  states  existed,  Rome 
did  not  refuse  at  starting  to  recognise  the  native  tribes 
or  clans,  though,  as  time  went  on,  these  older  lines 
of  division  were  gradually  obscured  by  the  growth  of 
towns,  and  the  formation  of  new  centres  of  life.' 

The  communities,  whether  urban  or  tribal,  within 
the  limits  of  a  province  were  all  subject  to  the 
suzerainty  of  Rome.  All  alike  were  required,  as 
indeed  the  Italian  allies  had  been,  to  have  the  same 
friends  and  foes  as  the  Roman  people,  to  contract  no 
independent  alliances,  and  not  to  violate  the  Roman 
peace   by  waging  independent  wars."     The  farther 


^  The  r^^w««  enumerated  by  Pliny  {N,  H.,  iii.,  i8)  along  the  sea- 
board of  Hither  Spain  all  bear  the  names  of  tribes,  and  appear  to 
represent  the  original  divisions  of  the  Roman  province.  In  parts  of 
Macedonia,  and  in  Gallia  Narbonensis  the  old  tribes  remained  intact 
as  civitates^  though,  as  happened  also  in  Spain,  the  tribal  name  was 
superseded  by  that  of  the  central  town,  the  caput  genHs^  such  as 
Vienna  AUobrogum  (Strabo,  i86).  In  other  cases  two  or  more  towns 
arose  within  the  tribal  canton  and  obtained  recognition  as  indepen- 
dent civitaies, 

'  Strabo,  189,  notes  the  beneficial  effect  in  Gaul  of  the  stoppage  by 
Rome  of  the  incessant  tribal  war»- 


Ch.  3]          The  Roman  State  and  People.  i77 

step  of  prohibiting  intermarriage  and  "  commerce/' 
between  the  separate  communities  of  a  province, 
seems  to  have  been  only  taken  by  Rome  in  the 
earlier  days  of  her  empire,  when  her  confidence  in 
her  strength  was  not  yet  fully  established.* 

Under  these  limitations  each  civitas  was  recog- 
nised as  a  self-governing  community,  though  the 
degree  of  self-government  allowed  varied  \^^^  .cif- 
widely.  There  was,  in  the  first  place,  a  government, 
wide  difference  between  the  "  free  states  "  and  the 
rest.  The  former,  whether  treaty  states,  like  Gades, 
or  states  to  which  Rome  had  voluntarily  granted 
"freedom,"  as  for  instance  Centuripae  in  Sicily," 
were,  strictly  speaking,  outside  the  province.  They 
were  not  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  resident 
governor,  they  paid  no  taxes,  and  they  enjoyed 
complete  local  independence,  subject  only  to  the 
recognition  of  Roman  suzerainty.*  The  autonomy 
of  the  ordinary  provincial  community  was  of  a  much 
more  restricted  kind.  They  paid  taxes,  and  were  con- 
sequently often  styled  stipendiarice^  or  in  Sicily 
decumance.  They  were  farther  directly  under  the 
control  of  the  Roman  governor.  It  would  also  seem 
that,  in  many  cases,  it  was  left  to  the  governor  to  de- 
cide what  amount  of  local  self-government  could  be 


'  The  prohibition  of  connubium  and  commercium  was  enforced  in 
Sicily  (Cic,  Verr,^  iii.,  40)  and  in  Macedonia  (Livy,  xlv.,  29). 

*  Cicero  describes  Centuripae  as  **sifu  feeder e  immunis  ac  libera  " 
{Verr,f  iii.,  13). 

'  They  could  be  called  upon  to  aid  Rome  in  war  with  men,  ships, 
and  supplies.  See  for  further  details  Marquardt,  !.,  347,  399.  No 
Roman  troops  could  be  quartered  on  a  free  state. 


xa 


1 78  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  III 

conceded  to  them,  and  that  he  had  the  right  to  super- 
vise the  local  officials,  to  examine  the  accounts,  and 
to  modify  or  even  cancel  the  local  constitution.*  But 
the  cases  in  which  a  provincial  community  was  abso- 
lutely refused  the  privilege  of  using  its  own  "  laws 
and  magistrates,"  must  have  been  very  few.  In  the 
relations  made  for  the  administration  of  justice  by 
the  Roman  officials,  a  similar  regard  was  shown  for 
local  usages  and  rights.  Even  in  the  matter  of 
taxation,  the  Roman  republic  left  things 

Taxation.  '  x-  o 

much  as  it  found  them.  In  Sicily,  with 
the  exception  of  certain  communities,  the  existing 
system  of  tithes  was  retained  unaltered  * ;  and  the 
same  was  the  case  at  first  in  the  province  of  Asia.' 
In  the  other  provinces  in  Spain,  Africa,  and  Mace- 
donia, Rome  merely  fixed  the  amount  of  the  tribute  * 
to  be  paid  annually,  and  left  the  local  authorities  to 
raise  it  as  best  they  could  in  their  own  way.  Nor, 
if  the  case  of  Macedonia  was  not  exceptional,  was  the 
amount  demanded  excessive.*    It  would  indeed  have 


'  Cicero  {Ad  AU,,  vi.,  2)  describes  himself  as  allowing  the  com- 
munities of  his  province  **  suit  legibus  etjudictis  uii"  and  as  having 
inspected  the  local  accounts  for  the  previous  ten  years,  Apamea,  on 
the  contrary,  protested  against  such  an  inspection  by  Pliny,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  privileged  ^*  sua  arbiirio  rempublicam  adminis^ 
irare**  {Epp.  ad  Tyaj\,  47),  Cicero  declares  that,  in  allowing  **  au- 
tonomy," he  was  following  the  policy  of  his  predecessor  Scsevola  (93 
B,c,)  **  ut  Graeci  inter  se  discepteni  suis  Ugibus  **  {AdAtt,,  vi.,  i). 

*  Compare  the  regulations  in  Sicily  mentioned  by  Cicero  (  Verr, ,  ii.  1 3). 
■Cic,  Vfrr,,  iii.,  6.     The  **  law  of  King  Hiero  "  {lex  ffieramca) 

continued  to  regulate  the  payment  and  collection  of  the  tithes. 

^  Cic,  Ad  Q,  /r.,  i.,  i,  33,  for  the  change  made  by  the  younger 
Gracchus. 

*  Cic,  Verr,^  iii.,  6  :  **  vecHgal certumquod sHperuUarutn  dicitur,^ 


Ch.  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 79 

been  better  had  the  republican  statesmen  gone  further 
and  anticipated  the  emperors  by  placing  the  taxa^ 
tion  of  the  provinces  on  a  sound  basis,  and  bringing 
it  directly  under  the  control  of  the  central  authorities. 
The  provincial  taxpayer  would  probably  have  paid 
less,  and  the  Roman  treasury  would  certainly  have 
received  more.* 

On  the  whole,  however,  little  fault  can  be  found 
with  the  regulations  made  by  Rome  for  her  pro- 
vincial allies.  The  misfortune  was  that  she  took  no 
sufficient  precautions  to  secure  their  observance* 
and  in  the  autocratic  power  wielded  by  the  governor 
in  charge  of  a  province  lies  the  explanation  of  her 
failure. 

The  governor  of  a  Roman  province  was  no  doubt 
in  theory  bound  to  respect  the  constitution  of  the 
province,  as  well  as  all  other  rules  laid 
down  for  his  guidance  by  senate  or  people ;  of*a  province! 
and  he  was,  like  any  other  magistrate, 
expected  to  ask  and  to  follow  the  advice  of  the 
senate  on  important  matters.  In  fact,  however,  his 
position  was  such  that  these  checks  were  of  little 
use.  He  held  the  intperium,  but  the  restrictions 
imposed  upon  its  exercise  in  Rome  ceased  to  operate 
across  the  sea.  He  shared  his  authority  with  no 
colleague ;  no  law  of  appeal  limited  his  power  of  life 
and  death  over  the  subject  provincials ;  he  was 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  tribune's  veto,  and  often  at 
a  safe  distance  from  the  senate.    The  supplies  voted 


*  The  Macedonian  tribute  was  half  that  previously  paid  to  th* 
Macedonian  kings.     Livy,  xlv.,  i8. 


i8o  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     IBook  ill 

him  from  home  *  and  the  taxes  paid  by  the  pro- 
vincials were  at  his  free  disposal."  If  he  needed 
more  he  had  ample  authority  to  requisition  what  he 
wanted  from  within  the  province* — while  his  demands 
were  backed  by  the  swords  of  his  Roman  troops. 
Even  in  matters  of  frontier  policy  a  wide  discretion 
was  allowed  him,  and  he  could  be  warlike  or  pacific 
as  his  tastes  and  ambitions  directed.  Nor  in  the 
exercise  of  this  absolute  and  undivided  authority 
was  he  assisted  or  controlled  by  any  body  of  ex- 
perienced civil  servants.  The  whole  administrative 
staff  •  came  out  and  went  back  with  him,  and  were 
strictly  subordinate  to  him.  Even  the  quaestor, 
though  deriving  his  authority  directly  .from  the 
Roman  people,  was  in  the  management  of  the 
finances  subject  to  the  governor's  authority ;  he  was, 
moreover,  a  young  untrained  man,  and  expected  to 
pay  to  his  chief  the  implicit  deference  of  a  son  to  a 
father.*     It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  men 


'  To  each  governor  was  voted  by  decree  of  the  senate  an  equip- 
ment {ornatio)  for  his  province.  The  decree  fixed  the  number  of 
his  legates,  the  size  of  his  army,  and  gave  him  besides  money  for  the 
payment  of  his  troops  and  the  expenses  of  himself  and  his  staff.  Cic, 
In  Fisan,^  xvi.,  37  ;   Verr,^  ii.,  I,  13,  14,  17. 

'  Except  in  the  case  of  the  two  tithe-paying  provinces,  Sicily  and 
Asia.  In  no  case  does  it  seem  that  before  the  Lex  Julia  of  59,  any 
strict  account  of  his  expenditure  of  public  money  was  exacted  from 
the  governor. 

'  These  requisitions,  especially  those  made  for  the  expenses  of  the 
governor  and  his  staff,  were  the  curse  of  the  provinces,  and  repeated 
efforts  were  made  to  check  them  by  law,  but  in  vain. 

*Of  Verres*  staff  {cohors  pratorid^  Cicero  says,  **//«j  malt  dedU 
SaUcia  quum  centum  cohorUs  fugitivorum,** 
.     »  Cic,  Pro  Planch,  28  ;  Ad  Q,  fr.,  i.,  l,  3. 


Ch.31  The  Roman  State  and  People.  i8i 

to  whom  this  absolute  power  was  given  were  not 
necessarily  experienced  administrators,  nor  were 
they  carefully  selected  for  the  posts  to  which  they 
were  sent.  It  must  often  have  happened  that  a  man 
went  out  to  a  province,  as  Cicero  did,  with  no  more 
knowledge  of  provincial  administration  than  he 
might  have  picked '  up  years  before  as  a  quaestor, 
while  to  which  province  he  went  was  a  point  decided 
by  mutual  arrangement,  or  the  chances  of  lot ;  nor 
did  the  brief  term  '  for  which  he  held  his  command, 
while  it  quickened  the  anxiety  of  the  worser  sort  to 
reap  the  golden  harvest  they  expected,  enable  the 
better  governors  to  master  the  varied  duties  of  their 
office. 

That  an  authority  so  wide,  exercised  at  such  a  dis- 
tance from  home,  and  amid  innumerable  temptations 
to  abuse '  should  have  been  frequently  abused  was 
inevitable.  Yet  for  the  abuse  of  his  powers  by  a 
governor  no  really  effective  penalty  was  provided. 
It  is  true  that  the  establishment  in  149 
B.C.  by  the  Lex  Calpurnia  of  a  special 
court  to  try  cases  of  magisterial  extortion  in  the 
provinces  *  gave  the  provincial  for  the  first  time  a 
recognised  means  of  obtaining  redress.  But  the 
remedy  did  not  fully  meet  the  case.     The  new  court 


*  The  normal  term  was  one  year,  though  towards  the  close  of  the 
republic  there  was  a  tendency  to  extend  it.  Verres  was  three  years 
in  Sicily. 

'  A  vivid  picture  of  these  temptations  is  drawn  by  Cicero  {Ad  Q, 
fr,,  i.,  i)  in  his  letter  to  Quintus  Cicero,  then  governor  of  Asia,  "/w 
vincia  corruptrtx"  as  Cicero  calls  it. 

•  This  law  established  the  first  **  quastio  perpeiua  de  pecumis  rt- 
petundisr    Cic,  BruU,  27  ;  De  Off,,  ii.,  21. 


1 82  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  III 

"  for  the  recovery  of  monies  "  sat  in  Rome,  and  to 
bring  documents  and  witnesses  to  Rome  from  Spain 
or  Asia  was  a  costly  matter.  It  was,  until  122  B.C., 
composed  of  senators,'  that  is,  of  men  who  either 
had  been  or  were  looking  forward  to  being  them- 
selves governors  of  provinces,  and  who  as  Romans 
and  nobles  were  more  in  sympathy  with  the  accused 
than  with  his  accusers.  No  proceedings,  moreover, 
could  be  taken  against  a  governor  until  his  term  of 
ofHce  was  over,  when  the  injuries  inflicted  were  often 
already  irreparable,  or  the  evidence  difficult  to  collect. 
But  extortion,  whether  it  took  the  shape  of  illegal 
requisitions,  of  systematic  blackmailing,'  or  straight- 
forward robbery,  was  after  all  an  evil  which,  under  an 
honest  governor, — and  there  were  many  such, — was 
mitigated  if  not  removed.  A  far  more  serious  defect 
in  the  system  was  that  it  rendered  a  comprehensive 
and  consistent  imperial  policy  impossible.  Under  it 
the  provinces  were  not  so  much  departments  of  one 
empire,  as  separate  principalities,  ruled  by  autocrats 
absolutely  independent  of  each  other,  and  virtually 
independent  of  the  home  government.  Even  within 
the  limits  of  the  single  province  one  governor  might 
undo  what  his  predecessor  had  done.  Neither  a 
settled  frontier  policy,  nor  a  proper  adjustment  of 
taxation,  nor  even  a  proper  estimate  and  control  of 
imperial  expenditure  were  possible. 

'  By  a  law  of  Gaius  Gracchus  men  of  equestrian  census  (400,000 
sesterces)  were  substituted  for  senators. 

^  E,  g.  the  vecHgal  pratorium^  the  sum  paid  by  communities  to 
avoid  having  Roman  troops  quartered  upon  them  (Cic,  Ad  Ait,,  v., 
21),  or  the.  vectigal  adilicium,  i.e,,  the  requisitioning  of  beasts  for 
the  aedile's  games  in  Rome  (Cic.,  Ad  Q.  fr,^  i.,  i,  9  ;  Livy,  xl.,  44). 


Ch.  31         The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 83 

But  this  independence  of  the  provincial  ^j^^  procon- 
governors  was,  in  addition,  a  source  of  ■«>*^- 
danger  to  the  republican  constitution.  While  the 
prevalent  confusion  and  misgovemment  brought  dis- 
credit upon  the  authority  of  the  senate  and  people 
of  Rome,*  their  authority  itself  and  that  of  the 
magistrates  of  the  state  was  seriously  weakened. 
To  this  result  a  change  which  was  made  towards  the 
end  of  this  period  largely  contributed.  At  the  out- 
set the  government  of  a  province  was  intrusted  to 
one  of  the  ".  magistrates  with  the  imperium  "  for  the 
year,  and,  unless  special  circumstances  called  for  the 
presence  of  a  consul,"  to  one  of  the  praetors.  But  as 
the  number  of  provinces,  and  also  the  amount  of 
business  devolving  upon  the  consuls  and  praetors  at 
home,  increased,  this  arrangement  broke 
down.  After  146  B.C.  the  praetors  were 
never  employed  abroad,  and  the  consuls  only  in  case 
of  war.  The  place  of  both  in  the  regular  government 
of  the  provinces  was  taken  by  "pro-magistrates. 


»» 4 


'  Compare  the  words  of  Tacitus  as  to  the  acquiescence  of  the 
provinces  in  the  rule  of  Augustus,  Ann,^  i.,  2 :  **  suspt'cto  sonatus 
populique  imperio  ob  certaminapotenHum  et  avariHam  magistratuum, 
invalido  legum  auxelioJ'* 

•  Sardinia  was  intrusted  to  a  consul  in  1 77  B.  c. ,  *  ^ pripter  Belli  tnagni- 
tudinem  *'  (Livy,  idi.^S)  ;  for  another  instance,  see  Livy,  xzxiii.,  45. 

'  In  167  B.C.  a  praetor  was  prevented  from  taking  his  province  by 
press  of  judicial  business  in  Rome  (Livy,  zlv. ,  16).  The  establish- 
ment of  the  qucestio  de  repetundis  (149  B.C.)  permanently  reduced 
the  number  of  praetors  available  for  foreign  service  to  three,  since 
neither  the  pr.-urbanus  nor  the  pr.-peregrinus  could  leave  Italy. 
Meanwhile  the  number  of  provinces  had  risen  to  six. 

^  For  this  convenient  term  see  Mommsen,  Siaatsrecht,  i.,  520.  Pro 
magUtratu  was  used  as  equivalent  to  pro  consult,  pro  prcstore^  ia 


184  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBook  ill 

by  men  invested  with  the  imperium  pro 
consule  ox  pro  prater.  It  is  true  that,  as 
early  as  327  B.C,*  Rome  had  been  obliged  to  de- 
part from  the  old  principle  that  the  imperium 
could  only  be  exercised  by  a  magistrate  duly  ap- 
pointed by  the  people.  But  the  departure  was  at 
first  slight.  The  appointment  of  a  pro-magistrate 
was  an  exceptional  thing, — it  required  an  express 
vote  of  the  people, — and  the  pro-magistrates  were,  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name,  the  deputies  and  subordinates 
of  the  actual  magistrates.  It  was  during  the  second 
Punic  war  that  they  were  first  commonly  employed,' 
and  at  the  same  time  it  became  customary  to  appoint 
them  simply  by  decree  of  the  senate  without  refer- 
ence to  the  people.  Their  real  importance,  however, 
dates  from  the  time  when  to  them  was  intrusted 
year  after  year  the  care  of  the  provinces  beyond  the 
sea.  The  effect  of  this  change  was  in  the  first  place 
to  deprive  the  people  of  any  direct  voice  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  men  who  were  to  govern  their  de- 
pendencies, an  infringement  of  their  constitutional 
rights  against  which  the  popular  leaders  of  the  fol- 
lowing period  effectively  protested.*  In  the  next 
place,  the  old  relations  between  the  magistrates  and 

legal  phraseology*  e,g.  in  the  Lex  Rabria  and  Lex  Acilia  de  ^cuniis 
repetundis. 

*  See  above,  p.  97. 

'  In  the  year  214  B.c.  there  were  at  least  seven  (Livy,  xxiv.,  10). 
They  were  then,  and  until  the  year  52  B.C.,  usually  the  consuls  and 
praetors  o£  the  preceding  year. 

^  E,g.^  in  the  case  of  Marius  and  the  command  in  Numidia; 
Pompey  in  67,  66,  and  55,  and  Caesar  in  59  received  their  commands 
directly  from  the  people. 


Ch.  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 85 

the  pro-magistrates  were  inverted.  The  pro-magis- 
tracies lost  their  occasional  subordinate  character. 
They  became  regular  offices,  filled  up  year  after  year, 
The  pro-consul  or  pro-praetor,  though  still  technically 
inferior  in  rank  to  the  consul  or  praetor,  was  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  independent  of  him.*  Nor  was 
this  all.  The  position  of  the  real  magistrates  in 
Rome,  of  the  responsible  heads  of  the  executive, 
could  not  compare  in  attractiveness  with  that  of  their 
supposed  deputies  abroad.  The  routine  duties  and 
restricted  authority  of  the  former  contrasted  unfavora^ 
bly  with  the  wide  powers  and  splendid  opportunities 
for  acquiring  wealth  and  fame  open  to  the  latter. 
By  the  close  of  this  period  even  the  consulship  was 
by  many  valued  chiefly  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
pro-consulship,  and  the  way  was  preparing  for  the 
time  when  the  authority  of  a  pro-consul  would  be  in- 
voked even  by  consuls  for  the  maintenance  of  order 
in  Rome,  and  finally  be  established  in  the  heart  of 
the  city  itself  as  the  supreme  power. 

The  opening  of  the  world  to  Rome,  and  of  Rome 
to  the  world,  produced  a  change  also  in  every  de- 
partment of  Roman  life,  and  every  class  ^^^  Roman 
of  Roman  society.  The  subjugation  of  people -the 
the  Mediterranean  countries,  by  placing  at  "*^  ^* 
the  disposal  of  Rome,  not  only  the  great  natural 
resources  of  Africa  or  Spain,  but  the  accumulated 
treasures  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  caused  a  sud- 
den and  rapid  rise  in  the  standard  of  wealth,  and 

'  Mommsen,  Staatsreekt^  ii.,  219.  The  consols  continued  in  theory 
to  enjoy  a  paramount  authority  {C'lc.^  Ad  Att,^  viii.,  15  ;  Phil,^  iv.,  9, 
"  cmnes  gnim  in  consults  Jure  et  imperio  debent  esse  provincicg  "). 


i86  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  II 

a  marked  change  both  in  the  sources  from  which 
that  wealth  was  derived,  and  in  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  distributed.  The  Roman  state  itself  no 
longer  drew  its  revenues  only  from  the  public  lands 
in  Italy  or  from  the  "  tribute  "  imposed  upon  its  own 
citizens.  In  every  province  it  was  the  owner  of  wide 
domains.  The  territory  of  Carthage  in  Africa,  the 
mines  of  Spain,  the  crown  lands  of  the  Macedonian 
kings,'  were  all  now  the  property  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple. To  them  also  belonged  the  tithes  of  Sicily,  the 
yearly  tribute  of  the  five  other  provinces,  and  the 
proceeds  of  the  customs  duties  throughout  the  em- 
pire. And  though,  thanks  to  a  wasteful  system  of 
finance,  these  new  sources  of  revenue  did  not  greatly 
enrich  the  Roman  treasury,  they  enabled  the  gov- 
ernment to  dispense  for  the  future  with  all  direct 
taxation  of  Roman  citizens.  After  167 
B.C.  the  tributum  was  never  again  levied 
in  Italy,  until  Italy  became  in  fact  a  province."  But 
the  wealth  drawn  from  the  provinces  by  the  state 
was,  after  all,  trifling  in  amount  compared  with 
that  which  flowed  into  the  pockets  of  individual 
citizens.  Of  the  booty  taken  in  war,  by  far  the 
greater  part  was  usually  appropriated  by  the  suc- 


*  See  the  list  of  properties  owned  by  the  Roman  state  in  the  prov- 
inces, Cicero,  Z?^  Z/^.  Agr,^  ii.,  5. 

'  The  tributum  was  an  occasional  tax  levied  to  meet  the  cost  of 
war.  When  the  state  of  the  treasury  rendered  it  possible,  it  was  re- 
mitted or  even  repaid,  e,g.^  in  293  B.C.  (Livy,  x.,  46),  and  in  187  B.C. 
(Livy,  xxxix.,  7).  That  it  was  not  levied  after  167  B.C.  is  stated  by 
Cicero,  De  Off.^  ii.,  22  ;  Pliny,  N,  H.y  xxxiii.,  56,  Its  re-introduc- 
tion, though  in  a  different  form,  into  Italy  was  the  work  of  Diocletian. 
Marquardt,  Siaatsverw,/\\,^  158,  171,  217. 


Ch.31  The  Roman  State  and  People.  187 

cessful  general  and  his  soldiers.'  Nor  was  it  only 
the  great  campaigns  against  Philip  or  Antiochus  that 
were  profitable ;  a  rich  harvest  was  yielded  even  by 
the  "  little  wars  "  with  Spanish,  lUyrian,  or  Keltic 
tribes,  and  the  gold  ornaments  of  the  latter  were  as 
welcome  as  the  "  royal  treasures  **  of  King  Antio- 
chus, and  the  statues  and  bronzes  of  Greek  cities.' 
The  spoils  of  peace  were  richer  than  those  of  war, 
and  were  more  easily  won.  To  every  class  the 
provinces  offered  a  field  for  money-making.  The 
nobles  who,  in  one  capacity  or  another,  as  governors, 
legates,  or  quaestors,  served  in  the  provinces,  the 
contractors  {publicani)  who  collected  the  customs 
duties  or  worked  the  state  lands  and  mines,  the 
"men  of  business"  {negotiatores)  who,  as  money- 
lenders, corn-brokers,  speculators  in  land,  or  as  mer- 
chants, penetrated  to  every  comer  of  the  empire, 
and  even  beyond  its  frontiers,  rivalled  each  other  in 
the  success  with  which  they  exploited  the  provinces 
for  their  own  profit.  Even  the  population  of  the 
capital  at  home  got  their  share  of  the  spoil  in  the 
frequent  distributions  of  corn  and  money,  and  in  the 


*  This  was  an  abuse,  and  Cato  protested  vigorously  against  this 
diversion  of  what  was  due  to  the  state  into  private  pockets.  See  the 
fragment  of  his  speech,  De  prceda  militibus  dividenda^  ap,  Gell.y  ii., 
18.  In  another  speech  Cato  takes  credit  to  himself  for  not  dividing 
the  spoils  of  war  among  his  friends  (Fronto,  Ep,  ad  Ani,^  i.,  2).  A 
glaring  instance  was  the  misappropriation  of  the  '  *  money  of  King 
Antiochus,"  Li vy,  xxxviii.,  54. 

*Livy,  xxxiv.,  4:  ^^jam  in  Graciam  Asiamque  transcendimus^ 
regiasetiam  atirectamus gazas^  signa  ab  Syracusis illata,**  In  184  B.C. 
C.  Calpumius  Piso  brought  back  from  Spain  eighty-three  golden 
crowns  and  12,000  lbs.  of  silver. 


1 88  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  ill 

splendid  spectacles  provided  for  their  benefit.*  It  is 
true  that  Horace  contrasts  the  age  of  Cato  with  his 
own  as  an  age  of  simplicity  and  frugality."  None 
the  less  is  it  certain  that  a  conspicuous  feature  in 
that  period  was  the  introduction  into  Roman  life  of 
a  sumptuousness  and  splendor  unknown  before. 
The  speeches  of  Cato  are  filled  with  passionate  pro- 
tests against  the  new  craving  for  wealth  which  had 
seized  upon  his  contemporaries,  and  against  the  lux- 
ury and  extravagance  which  the  possession  of  wealth 
encouraged.*     It  is  significant  that  in  215 

539  A.U.C.  ,    **,  .         ?  T> 

B.C.  the  long  series  of  Roman  sumptuary 
laws  was  opened  by  a  plebiscite,  the   Lex  Oppia,* 
which  was  directed  against  the  growing  love  of  Ro- 
man ladies  for  gold  jewellery,  fine  dresses,  and  car- 
riages ;  and  still  more  significant  is  the  fact  that  in 
195  B.C.  the  Oppian  law  was,  in  spite  of 
Cato's  protests,  repealed.*    The  "luxury 
of  the  table,"  the  favourite  vice  of  Roman  society 
for    long   afterwards,   became    a    subject   of    legis- 
lation in   181   B.C.,  and  the  Lex  Orchia," 
carried  in  that  year,  was  supplemented 
before   the    close   of    this  period   by    two    others, 

'  Plut.,  Cato^  8,  TOY  ^Poofiaioay  SijpLoay  copfirffiivov  dxaipoa^ 
Biti  dtrouerpiai  xai  dtavo/id?,  C/,  Livy,  xxxii.,  57.  The  first 
gladiatorial  show  was  exhibited  in  264  B.C.  The  Floralia  were 
instituted  in  238  B.  c,  the  Ludi  Apollinares  in  212  B.C. 

^Hor.,  Od,^  ii.,  15,  11. 

•  Livy,  zxxiv.,  4 :  **  avaritia  et  luxuria  civitatem  labor  are  ^* 

^  Livy,  xzxiv.,i :  **  «^  qua  mulierplus  semunciam  auri  haberet^  neu 
vestimento  versicolort  uteretur^  neujuncto  vehiculo  .  .  .  vekeretur*^ 
*Livy,  xxxiv.,  8. 

*  Macrob.,  5<i/.,ii.,i3  :  ** prima  decanis  lex prascribebat  numerum 


nvivarwnj* 


Ch.  3]  The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 89 

the  Lex  Faunia  in  161  B.C.,  and  the  Lex  Didia  in 
141  B.C.*     A  further  symptom  was  the  sud-  ^  ^  ^ 

den  and  enormous  increase  in  the  number  "3  a.u.c. 
of  slaves  imported  from  abroad,  some  captured  in 
war,  many  more  purchased  at  the  great  slave-marts, 
such  as  that  which  during  this  period  was  established 
at  Delos.  In  the  Roman  households,  on  the  Roman 
estates,  in  every  branch  of  Roman  business,  the  slave 
became  ubiquitous  and  indispensable. 

But  the  effects  of  this  influx  of  wealth  did  not  end 
here.  It  gradually  altered  the  whole  structure  of 
Roman  society,  by  destroying  the  equal-  ^^^  ^j^^ 
ity  and  homogeneity  which  had  once  been  distinction- 
its  chief  characteristic.  The  Roman  community, 
'at  the  time  when  Pyrrhus  landed  in  Italy,  was 
still  in  the  main  a  community  of  farmers,  tilling 
their  own  small  farms.  Differences,  of  course,  there 
were  between  patrician  and  plebeian,  rich  and  poor, 
and  the  Licinian  laws  prove  that  the  desire  of  "  add- 
ing field  to  field"*  had  been  growing,  as  Roman 
conquest  offered  fresh  facilities  for  its  gratification. 
But,  on  the  whole,  there  was  a  remarkable  equality 
of  conditions  and  a  uniformity  in  the  mode  of  living. 
Not  only  the  soldier  in  the  ranks  of  the  legions,  but 
even  the  consuls  who  led  them,  were  taken  from  the 
plough.*  This  state  of  things  could  not  long  survive 
the  acquisition  of  empire  beyond  the  seas.     While, 

'  Macrob.,  /.  c, ;  Cell.,  ii.,  24. 

•  Livy,  xxxiv.,  4 :  **  quid  legem  Liciniam  excitarntnisi  ingens  cupidc 
agros  coniinuandi, " 

'Cic,  Pro  Rose,  Am»,  50  :  "  ilUs  temparibusy  quum  ab  aratro  ar- 
cessebaniuTy  qui  consules  Jiereni.**  Manius  Curius  (consul  290,  275 
274  B.C.)  owned  only  a  few  fields  and  a  poor  homestead  (Plut.,  Cat, 


IQO  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      tBook  in 

on  the  one  hand,  the  harassing  demands  of  military 
service  in  Spain  or  Asia,*  the  importation  of  foreign 
com  and  foreign  slaves,  and  the  unequal  competi- 
tion with  capitalists  grown  rich  abroad,  rendered 
farming  in  Italy,  at  least  on  the  old  lines,  increas- 
ingly laborious  and  unprofitable,'  the  province  of- 
fered an  irresistibly  attractive  field  for  money-making 
on  a  scale  unknown  before.  The  result  was  not  only 
that  land  ceased  to  be  the  sole  or  even  the  main 
source  of  wealth,  but  that  the  community  began  to  be 
divided  more  sharply  by  differences  in  wealth,  and 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  wealth  was  acquired  and 
spent.  From  the  government  of  the  provinces  the 
nobles  returned  no  longer  to  live  in  honourable  pov- 
erty on  their  farms,  but  to  build  themselves  villas, 
which  they  filled  with  the  spoils  of  Greece  or  Asia, 
to  surround  themselves  with  troops  of  slaves  and 
dependants,  and  to  live  rather  as  princes  than  as  cit- 
izens of  a  republic.  Immediately  below  them  a 
second  "  order  "  was  beginning  to  assume  a  definite 
shape.  It  was  composed  of  the  state  contractors 
{publicani)  and  the  men  of  business  {negotiatores). 
These  men,  it  is  true,  had  not  yet  acquired  the  influ- 
ence which  they  afterwards  enjoyed,*  nor  were  they 


2).  For  the  similar  case  of  M.  Atilius  Regulus  (cons.  256  B.C.),  see 
Val.  Max.,  iv.,  4,6  But  in  Cato's  time  a  patrician  who,  like  L.  Va- 
lerius Flaccus  (consul  195  B.C.,  censor  184  B.C.),  tilled  his  farm  with 
his  own  hands  was  a  rarity  (Plut.,  CbA,  3). 

*  Compare  the  case  of  Spurius  Ligustinus,  Livy  xlii.,  34, 

•  See  below,  p.  205. 

'  The  law  of  C.  Gracchus  (122  B.C.),  which  gave  to  the  fudlicani 
the  collection  of  the  tithes  in  Asia,  enormously  increased  their  wealth 


Ch.  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  191 

yet  known  as  the  "  equestrian  order."  *  But  already 
the  wide  area  of  their  operations  opened  to  them  by 
the  expansion  of  Rome  had  greatly  increased  their 
wealth.  They  were  already  difficult  to  control,'  and 
the  Lex  Claudia  (218  B.C.) '  is  a  proof  that 

KfA  A.  U  C 

the  rivalry  between  them  and  the  nobles, 
which  in  the  next  period  inflicted  such  injury  upon 
the  state,  was  beginning  to  show  itself.  Below 
these  "  two  orders,"  as  they  came  to  be  called,  a 
third  class  was  rapidly  rising  into  importance,  that 
of  the  "  plebs  of  the  city,"  the  populace  of  Rome. 
Its  numbers  were  augmented  by  the  artisans  and 
traders  who  found  employment  in  supplying  the 
wants  of  the  growing  city,  by  the  impoverished 
farmers  and  peasants  who  were  attracted  to  Rome 
by  the  prospect  of  cheap  bread  and  games,  lastly,  by 
the  slaves  who,  year  by  year,  were  enrolled  in  its 
ranks  as  freedmen.*  It  was  a  misfortune  for  Rome 
that  this  plebs  urbana,  though  not  the  most  nu- 
merous, and  certainly  not  the  most  respectable  sec- 
tion of  the  community,  became,  thanks  to  the 
peculiarities  of  the  old  constitution,  a  political  force. 
Of  the  voters  in  the  thirty-five  tribes  who  legally 
constituted  the  Roman  people,  large  numbers  re- 

*  Pliny,  N,  II.  ^  xxxiii.,  34:  ^^judicum  appellatione  separare  eum 
orditum  instituere  Gracchi.** 

*  In  167  B.C.  the  senate  refused  to  lease  the  Macedonian  mines, 
**  nam  tuque  sine  publicano  exerceri  posse ^  et  ubi  pttblicantis  esset,  ibi 
aut  jus  publicum  vanum  aut  liberiatem  sociis  nullum  esse"  (Livy,  xlv., 
18).     For  the  money-lenders,  see  Livy,  xxv.,  7. 

*  Livy,  xxi.,  63  :  '*  »^  quis  senator^  cuive  senator  pater  fuisset^ 
maritimam  navem  qua  plus  quam  ccc  amphorarum  esset^  haberet." 

^  In  220  B.  c.  the  censors  of  the  year  ruled  that  freedmen  could 
only  be  registered  in  one  of  the  four  city  tribes.     Livy,  £pit.,  xx. 


192  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     CBook  in 

sided  at  such  a  distance  from  Rome  as  to  render 
their  attendance  at  the  cotnitia  and  the  exercise 
of  their  political  rights  difficult  if  not  impossible. 
In  ordinary  cases,  consequently,  it  was  the  voters 
resident  in  or  near  the  city  who  represented  the  sov- 
ereign people,  who  elected  the  magistrates  and 
passed  the  laws.  The  results  of  this  state  of  things 
were  disastrous  in  more  ways  than  one.  To  win  the 
support  of  the  city  plebs  became  a  necessity,  and  the 
means  employed  to  win  it  poisoned  the  political  life 
of  Rome.  The  new  wealth  derived  from  the  prov- 
inces was  freely  spent  in  bribery  of  every  kind,*  and 
the  populace  of  Rome  was  encouraged  to  claim  as 
the  price  of  its  support  a  share  in  the  spoils  of  the 
empire,  and  to  regard  all  political  questions  from  a 
purely  selfish  point  of  view.  Nor  was  this  all.  The 
absurdity  and  injustice  of  a  system  under  which  the 
sovereign  authority  of  the  Roman  people  was  wielded 
by  a  corrupt  minority  could  not  long  escape  notice, 
and  the  attempts  subsequently  made  to  secure  for 
the  assembly  a  larger  share  in  the  government  of 
the  empire  served  only  to  place  it  in  a  clearer  light. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  structure  and  composition 
of  the  Roman  community  that  underwent  a  trans- 
formation.    In  no  other  community  have 

The  new  ,  ,.  t       1  t  • 

learning  aod  established   custom    and    ancient    usage 

manners.  ,  , 

played   a  more    important    part,  and   in 
scarcely  any  community  have  they  been  subjected 

'In  181  B.C.  the  first  law  against  bribery  {lex  Cornelia  Babia  de 
atnbitu)  was  carried  by  the  consuls  (Livy,  xl.,  19).  A  second  was 
passed  in  159  B.C.  (Livy,  £piL,  xlvii,).  Among  Cato's  speeches  was 
one  De  Ambitu  (Priscian,  v.  12),  Meyer,  Orat,  Rom,  Fragm,^ 
p.  157. 


Ch.  3]         The  Raman  State  and  People.  1 93 

to  a  more  sudden  and  serious  assault  than  that  to 
which  they  were  exposed  in  Rome  by  the  sudden 
breaking  down  of  the  barriers  which  had  so  long 
isolated  Rome  from  all  but  occasional  contact  with 
the  civilisation  of  the  Mediterranean  countries. 
Among  the  new  influences  which  now  swept  like  a 
flood  over  Roman  society,  the  most  powerful  and 
lasting  was  that  exercised  by  the  Greek  civilisation, 
which  ruled  supreme  .throughout  the  Eastern  Medi- 
terranean.* With  this  Hellenism  Rome  was  brought 
face  to  face  first  of  all  with  the  Magna  Graecia,  and 
it  is  noticeable  that  the  names  with  which  the  history 
of  Roman  literature  opens  are  nearly  all  associated 
with  the  Graecised  districts  of  South  Italy.'  But 
during  the  fifty  years  which  followed  the  battle  of 
Zama,'  a  close  and  constant  intercourse  was  estab. 
lished  both  with  the  ancient  states  of  Greece  itself, 
and  with  the  scarcely  less  ancient  Greek  communities 
of  Asia  Minor.  To  Greeks  of  all  classes  the  Italian 
republic,  which  had  so  suddenly  become  the  greatest 
power  in  the  Mediterraneum,  which  had  overthrown 
the  Phoenician,  and  broken  the  power  of  Macedon 
and  Syria,  became  an  object  of  keen  interest.  On 
the  side  of  Rome,  along  with  the  political  sympathy 
felt  for  civilised  city  states,  enjoying  institutions  not 


*  See  besides  Mommsen,  R,  (?.,  i.,  873,  Saalfeld,  HeUenUmus  in 
Latium.    (Wolfenbuttel,  1883.) 

*  Livius  Adronicus  the  dramati^  was  brought  to  Rome  among  the 
prisoners  taken  at  Tarentnm  (272  B.C.).  Nsevius  came  from  Cam- 
pania, Ennius  from  Rudise  in  Calabria,  Pacavius  from  Brundusium. 

*  Compare  the  couplet  quoted  by  Cell.,  xvii.,  21 :  *' Paenico  belh 
seeundo  Musa  pinnaio  gradu^  JntuUt  se  belHcosam  in  Romuli  genUm 
/eramS 


194  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     Wook  ill 

unlike  her  own,  and  with  a  similar  interest  in  keep- 
ing at  a  distance  both  despots  and  barbarians,  there 
was  also  undoubtedly  a  genuine  admiration  and 
enthusiasm  for  the  literature,  the  langus^e,  the  art, 
and  even  the  political  life  of  Greece. 

At  the  outset,  especially,  the  results  were  good. 
The  Hellenism  which  fascinated  Rome  in  the  days 
of  fhe  Scipios  was  comparatively  pure.  It 
came  chiefly  from  the  least  degenerate 
seats  of  Greek  civilisation,  from  Achaia,  or  Athens, 
or  Rhodes,  and  its  prominent  representatives  were 
such  men  as  the  philosopher  Panaetius  or  the  states- 
man-historian Polybius.  Among  the  Romans  "  Phil- 
hellenism"  had  not  yet  degenerated  into  a 
fashion.  It  was  still  a  real  passion,  which  was 
strongest  in  the  best  minds  of  the  day,'  and  its 
effects  were  seen  most  clearly,  not  in  a  mere  affecta- 
tion of  Greek  manners  and  habits,  but  in  a  quicken^ 
intellectual  activity,  in  wider  sympathies  and  a  more 
humane  life.  It  created  a  Roman  literature  which, 
even  when  its  theme  was  the  struggles  and  victories 
of  Rome,  borrowed  its  form,  and  occasionally  its  lan- 
guage, from  Greece.*  The  study  of  Greek  and  of  the 
great  Greek  authors  became  a  regular  part  of  Roman 
education.*    Roman  politicians  trained  themselves 

'  As,  for  instance,  in  the  younger  Scipio  Africanus,  the  friend  of 
Polybius,  in  the  two  Gracchi,  and  their  mother  Cornelia,  in  L. 
iEmilins  Paullns,  the  conqueror  of  Macedonia. 

*  E,  g,  in  the  poems  of  Ennius.  For  the  Greek  chronicles  of  Q. 
Fabius  Pictor  and  L.  Cincius  Alimet&tus,  see  Teuffel,  Gesch,  derRdm, 
£f//.,  pp.  143-146. 

'  Even  Cato  learnt  Greek  in  his  old  age,  and  the  epitaph  on  Nsevius 
complains  that  after  his  death    *'the  Romans  forgot  to  speak  the 


Ch.  3]         The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 95 

for  the  forum  and  the  senate-house  by  mastering  the 
rules  of  Greek  rhetoric/  and  did  not  disdain  to  seek 
counsel  and  advice  in  the  writings  of  Greek  philoso- 
phersy  or  from  the  lips  of  the  learned  Greeks  whom 
they  admitted  to  their  friendship,  or  who  lectured 
in  Rome.* 

Yet  even  during  this  period  the  influence  of  Hel- 
lenism was  not  without  danger  to  the  established 
order  of  things.  As  once  before  in  Athens,  so  now  in 
Rome,  the  "  new  learning  "  was  a  disturbing  and  un- 
settling force.  The  Roman  citizen  was  not  only 
confronted  with  new  doctrines  in  politics  and  religion 
and  new  rules  of  conduct ;  he  was  invited  to  criticise 
and  discuss,  he  was  initiated  in  the  subtleties  of  Greek 
dialect,'  and  the  daring  speculations  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy. The  habits  of  mind  thus  formed,  and  formed 
too  at  a  time  when  new  opportunities  of  wealth  and 
distinction  were  opening  on  all  sides,  inevitably 
weakened  the  hold  of  the  "  ancient  usage."  Above 
all,  it  created  something  of  a  revolt  against  the  strict 
Roman  discipline  and  the  old  Roman  traditions  of 


Latin  tongue  "  (Teuffel,  /.  r.,  p.  loo).  Livius  Andronicns  earned  his 
freedom  by  instructing  Roman  youth  in  grammar  and  rhetoric,  and 
the  Greek  naiSay^ayoi  became  an  established  institution  in 
Rome. 

'  The  Gracchi  in  particular  were  carefully  trained  as  orators.  Cic, 
Orai.^  103  (of  Tiberius) :  *^ gracis  Uiteris  erudUU,**    Comp.  Plut., 

Cm     v.,    4* 

*  Crates,  in  157  B.C.,  gave  formal  lectures  in  Rome  (Saalfeld,  46). 
Diophanes  of  Mitylene  was  not  only  the  teacher  of  T.  Gracchus,  but 
assisted  him  in  his  scheme  of  agrarian  reform  (Cic,  Brut,,  Z03  ;  Pint., 
7-.  G. ,  8). 

•  Cf,  the  story  pf  (^MSppfi^iM  disQOursff  Pi>  justice  (15$  9.C.),  ?tet.. 
Cato^  32. 


196  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  III 

self-effacement,  and  of  unquestioning  obedience  alike 
to  established  custom  and  to  constituted  authority. 
The  desire,  characteristic  of  Greek  democracy,  for 
liberty  to  "live  as  one  likes,"  '  began  to  show  itself 
in  Rome.  The  great  nobles  who  had  conquered 
kings,  or  governed  wide  provinces  with  regal  author- 
ity  and  splendour,  could  not  contentedly  fall  back 
into  the  ranks  of  Roman  citizens.  The  new  craving 
for  individual  distinction  exhibited  itself  in  the  eager- 
ness  with  which  triumphs  were  claimed  even  for 
victories  which  had  never  been  won,*  in  the  adoption 
of  high-sounding  titles,*  in  the  largesses  heaped  upon 
the  people,  and  in  the  troops  of  slaves  and  depen- 
dants with  which  the  nobles  filled  their  halls.  The 
wealthy  contractor  or  financier  returned  from  the 
provinces  with  as  little  inclination  to  conform  to  the 
simple  life  of  his  home-keeping  forefathers.  Among 
the  lower  classes,  in  Rome  at  any  rate,  contact  with 
foreign  slaves  and  freedmen,  with  foreign  worships 
and  foreign  vices,  produced  a  love  of  novelty  which 
no  legislation  could  check.  Especially  significant 
were  the  symptoms  of  revolt  against  the  old  order 
which  now  appeared  among  the  women.  In  a  speech 
delivered  against  the  proposed  repeal  of 
the  Lex  Oppia  (195  B.c.)  Cato  denounced 
not   only  their  growing  extravagance  and  love  of 


»  rb  Zvy  *^  fiodXerai  rt J. 

'Cato  delivered  a  speech  De  J^'alsis Pu^is  (Gell.,  x.,  3)  againit 
Q.  Minucius  Thermus  (consul  Z96  B.c.)>  *'  ^uia  muitapralia  finge^ 
bat**  (Livy,  xxxvii.,  45). 

.  '  Livy,  xxxvii.,  58,  of  L.  Scipio,  **quine  cognomini  frairis eaient^ 
Asiaiicum  se  afcUari  voltUt^** 


Ch.  31         The  Roman  State  and  People.  1 9  Jr 

finery,  but  their  un-Roman  freedom  of  manners,  and 
their  impatience  of  control/ 

These  changes  were  not  unopposed,  though  in 
most  cases  the  opposition  was  prompted  by  a  con- 
servative dislike  of  innovation,*  and  a  Roman  con- 
tempt for  and  suspicion  of  everything  foreign,  rather 
than  by  any  clear  appreciation  of  the  danger  to  the 
republican  system  involved  in  them.  Repeated  ef- 
forts were  made  by  decree  of  the  senate  or  by  legis- 
lation to  check  the  growth  of  luxury  and  license,*  or 
to  exclude  from  Rome  and  Italy  foreign  religious 
rites,*  and  the  foreign  teachers  of  the  new  learning.* 
Of  this  opposition  the  heart  and  soul  was  M.  Porcius 
Cato  (consul  195  B.C.,  censor  184  B.C.),  the  559  a.u.c. 
type  for  all  time  to  come  of  the  old-  570  a.u.c 
fashioned  Roman  citizen.  To  all  the  new  fashions 
of  the  day  he  offered  an  indiscriminate  hostility, 
which  his  honesty,  fearlessness,  and  his  rude  elo- 
quence rendered  especially  formidable.  He  de- 
nounced the  Roman  official  who  carried  the  poet 
Ennius  with  him  in  his  train,*  with  scarcely  less  fer- 

•  Livy,  xxziv.,  2  ;  ef,  the  Lex  Voconia  (i6g  B.C.) :  '*  nequis  muHerem 
heredem  insHtuteret,'*  It  is  said  that  the  first  instance  of  divorce  at 
Rome  occurred  in  231  B.c.  (Dionysius,  ii.,  25). 

•  Livy,  xxvi.,  22.  Manlius  Torqaatus  (consul  211  B.C.)  declared : 
**  neque  ego  vestros  mores  f err e poteroy  neque  vos  imperitun  meum.** 

'  See  above,  p.  188. 

•  £,g.,  the  Bacchanalian  orgies  (186  B.C.),  Livy,  xxxix.,  18. 

•  £.g,t  the  expulsion  of  Cameades  in  155  B.C.  (Plut.,  Cdto^  22.  In 
161  B.C.  a  senatus-consultum  was  passed  against  *^ phiiosophi  et 
rhetores  Latini^  uti  Roma  ne  essent**  (Gell.  xv.,  11). 

•  Cic,  TusCy  i.,  2  :  **  oratio  Catonis  in  qtia  objecit  ut probrum  M, 
Nobiliori  (consul  189  B.C.)  quod  in  provinciam  poetas  duxixM^  x 
duxerat  autem — Ennium,** 


1 98  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     tBook  ill 

vour  than  he  attacked  those  who  robbed  the  treasury 

or  the  provincials,  in  their  haste  to  grow  rich.     As 

censor  (184  B.C.)  he -used  the  whole  au- 
570A.U.C. 

thority  of  the  office,  to  which  the  duty 

of  maintaining  ancestral  custom  specially  belonged, 

to  discourage  in  high  and  low  alike  any  departure 

from  the  ancient  ways.*     But  the  opposition,  even 

when  inspired  by  Cato,  was  powerless  to  stem  the  tide, 

and  the  feeble  resistance  offered  by  the  republican 

system  in  the  face  of  political  revolution  was  largely 

due  to  the  fact  that  Roman  society  was  already  in 

structure  and  temper  thoroughly  unrepublican. 

'  Livy,  XXXIX.,  41 :  *'  trUtis  tt  aspira  in  (fmms  onUnes  cemsmra^ 


BOOK  IV, 

THE    PERIOD    OF    THE    REVOLU- 

TION— 133-49  B.C 


THE  PERIOD  OF   THE    REVOLUTION- 

133-49  B.C. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM  THE  GRACCHI  TO  SULLA — 1 33-8 1  B.C. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  the  senate  had  governed 
Rome,  but  we  have  now  reached  the  moment  when 
its  supremacy  was  first  openly  and  seriously  chal- 
lenged, in  the  name  and  on  the  behalf  of  the  consti- 
tutional sovereign,  the  Roman  people.  Throughout 
the  greater  part  of  the  period  included  in  this 
chapter,  the  political  controversy  which  divided 
parties  was  that  between  the  rival  claims  of  the  sen- 
ate and  assembly.  In  the  next  period,  indeed,  this 
controversy  receded  into  the  background  before  a 
struggle  in  which  the  supremacy  of  senate  and 
assembly  alike  was  threatened  by  foes  from  without, 
the  legions  and  the  proconsuls.  But  down  to  81 
B.C.  the  chief  aim  of  the  popular  leaders  was  to  re- 
assert the  independence  of  the  assembly,  while  the 
re-establishment  of  senatorial  ascendency  was  the 
great  object  of  Sulla's  legislation. 

90X 


202  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     IBook  iv 

In  the  position  of  the  senate  there  was  from  the  first 
one  inherent  weakness.  Its  authority  had  no  sound 
^   ^        ,    constitutionalbasis,  and  with  the  removal 

▼▼  MUC&CM  Oi 

^Vo^ramwt!  ®^  *^^  accidental  supports  it  fell  to  the 
ground.  It  could  merely  advise  the 
magistrate  when  asked  to  do  so,  and  its  decrees  were 
strictly  only  suggestions  to  the  magistrate,  which  he 
was  at  liberty  to  accept  or  reject  as  he  chose.*  It  had, 
it  is  true,  become  customary  for  the  magistrate  not 
only  to  ask  the  senate's  advice  on  all  important  points, 
but  to  follow  it  when  given.  It  was  obvious,  how- 
ever, that  if  this  custom  were  weakened,  and  the 
magistrates  chose  to  act  independently,  the  senate 
was  powerless.  It  might  indeed  anathematise '  the 
refractory  official,  or  hamper  him  if  it  could  by  set- 
ting in  motion  against  him  a  colleague  or  the 
tribunes,  but  it  could  do  no  more,  and  these  meas- 
ures, though  as  a  rule  effective  in  the  case  of  magis- 
trates stationed  in  Rome,  failed  just  where  the 
senate's  control  was  most  needed  and  most  difficult 
to  maintain,  in  its  relations  with  the  generals  and 
governors  of  provinces  abroad.  The  vir- 
tual independence  of  the  proconsul  was 
before  146  B.C.  already  exciting  the  jealousy  of  the 
senate  and  endangering  its  supremacy.*    Nor  again 

'  The  senators'  whole  duty  is  senUnHam  dUere,  The  senator 
was  asked  quid  censes?  the  assembly,  quid  veHHs  jubeatist 
Cf.  also  the  saving  clause,  Si  eis  videretur  (sc>  c<msuiihus^  etc.), 
in  Scta,^  e.  g.,  Cia,  PAil.,  ▼.,  19. 

'  By  declaring  his  action  to  be  contra  rempubUcam*  The  force 
of  this  anathema  varied  with  circumstances.     It  had  no  legal  value. 

'  Livy,  xxxviii.,  42,  of  Cn.  Manlius  Vulso  in  Asia,  189  B.C.  ;  ef, 
also  the  position  of  the  two  Sdpios. 


Ch.  11  From  the  Gracchi  to  SttUa.  20  j 

had  the  senate  any  legal  hold  over  the  assembly. 
Except  in  certain  specified  cases,  it  rested  with  the 
magistrate  to  decide  whether  any  question  should  be 
settled  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  or  a  vote  of  the 
assembly.'  If  he  decided  to  make  a  proposal  to  the 
assembly,  he  was  not  bound  except  by  custom  to 
obtain  the  previous  approval  of  the  senate,"  and  the 
constitution  set  no  limits  to  the  power  of  the  assem- 
bly to  decide  any  question  whatsoever  that  was  laid 
before  it.  The  right  of  the  people  to  govern  was 
still  valid ;  and  though  it  had  long  lain  dormant,  any 
year  might  see  a  magistrate  in  office  resolved  on  re- 
calling the  people  to  a  larger  share  in  the  conduct  of 
affairs  by  consulting  them  rather  than  the  senate, 
and  an  assembly  bent  on  the  exercise  of  its  lawful 
prerogatives. 

And  from  167  B.C.  at  least,  onwards,  there  were 
increasing  indications  that  both  the  acqui-  _^  ^  „  c 
escence  of  the  people  and  the  loyalty  of  the 
magistrates  were  failing.  The  absorbing  excitement 
of  the  great  wars  had  died  away  ;  the  economic  and 
social  disturbance  and  distress  which  they  produced 
were  creating  a  growing  feeling  of  discontent ;  and 
at  the  same  time  the  senate  provoked  inquiries  into 
its  title  to  govern  by  its  failure  any  longer  to  govern 
well.  In  the  East  there  was  increasing  confusion ; 
in  the  West,  Viriathus  had,  single-handed,  defied  the 

"  Hence  the  same  things,  e,  g,,  founding  of  colonies,  are  done  in 
one  year  by  a  Sctum.,  in  another  by  a  iex ;  cf.  Cic,  De  Rep,^  ii.,  32  ; 
PhiL^  i.,  2,  of  Antony  as  consul,  **  muiata  omma,  nihil  per  seHatum^ 
omnia  per  populum, " 

•  There  was  no  legal  necessity,  before  Sulla's  time,  for  getting  the 
•*  senatus  auctoHtas  "  for  a  proposal  to  the  assembly. 


204  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      Iftook  IV 

power  which  had  crushed  Carthage.  At  home  the 
senate  was  becoming  more  and  more  simply  an  organ 
of  the  nobility,  and  the  nobility  were  becoming  every 
year  more  exclusive,  more  selfish,  and  less  capable 
and  unanimous/ 

The  first  systematic  attack  upon  the  senatorial  gov- 
ernment is  connected  with  the  names  of  Tiberius  and 
The  Gracchi,  Gaius  Gracchus,  and  its  immediate  occa- 
6m3£^*^"  sion  was  an  attempt  to  deal  with  no  less  a 
^•"•^*  danger  than  the  threatened  disappearance 

of  the  class  to  which  of  all  others  Rome  had  owed 
most  in  the  past."  For,  while  Rome  had  been  extend- 
ing her  3way  westward  and  eastward,  and  while  her 
nobles  and  merchants  were  amassing  colossal  for- 
tunes abroad,  the  small  landholders  in  many  parts 
of  Italy  were  sinking  deeper  into  ruin  under  the 
pressure  of  accumulated  difficulties.  The  Hannibalic 
war  had  laid  waste  their  fields  and  thinned  their 
numbers,  nor  when  peace  returned  to  Italy  did  it 
bring  with  it  any  revival  of  prosperity.  The  heavy 
burden  of  military  service  still  pressed  ruinously 
upon  them,'  and  in  addition  they  were  called  upon 


'  See  generally  Mommsen,  H,  ^.,  i.,  bk.  iii.,  cap.  6  ;  Lange,  J^dm, 
Alterih,^  vol.  ii.  ;  Ihne,  v.,  cap.  i.  The  first  law  against  bribery  at 
elections  was  passed  in  i8i  B.C.  (Livy,  xl.,  20),  and  against  magisterial 
extortion  in  the  provinces  in  149  (Lex  Calpurnia  depecuniis  repeiun^ 
dis).  The  senators  had  special  seats  allotted  to  them  in  the  theatre 
in  194  B.C.  (Livy,  xxxiv.,  44,  54), 

'  Mommsen,  i.,  bk.  iii.,  cap.  12,  bk.  iv.,  cap.  2  ;  Ihne,  iv.,  173 
Jf.,  V.  1-25  ;  Nitzsch,  Die  Graechen  ;  Long,  Decline  and  Fail  of  the 
Roman  Republic;  Beesiy,  The  Gracchi^  Marius^  and  Sulla  ;  Green- 
i^^.  History  of  Rome ^  yo\,  \. 

'  To  Spain  alone  more  than  150,000  men  were  sent  between  196 
and  169  (Ihne,  iii.,  319) ;  compare  the  reluctance  of  the  people  to  de- 


Ch.  11  Front  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla,  205 

to  compete  with  the  foreign  com  imported  from  be- 
yond the  sea,'  and  with  the  foreign  slave-labour  pur- 
chased by  the  capital  of  the  wealthier  men.  Farming 
became  unprofitable,  and  the  hard,  laborious  life 
with  its  scanty  returns  was  thrown  into  still  darker 
relief  when  compared  with  the  stirring  life  of  the 
camps  with  its  opportunities  of  booty,  or  with  the 
cheap  provisions,  frequent  largesses,  and  gay  spec- 
tacles to  be  had  in  the  large  towns.  The  small 
holders  went  off  to  follow  the  eagles  or  swell  the 
proletariate  of  the  cities,  and  their  holdings  were  left 
to  run  waste  or  merged  in  the  vineyards,  oliveyards, 
and  above  all  in  the  great  cattle-farms  of  the  rich, 
while  their  own  place  was  taken  by  slaves.  The  evil 
was  not  equally  serious  in  all  parts  of  Italy.  It  was 
least  felt  in  the  central  highlands,  in  Campania,  and 
in  the  newly  settled  fertile  valley  of  the  Po.  It  was 
worst  in  Etruria  and  in  southern  Italy ;  but  every- 
where it  was  serious  enough  to  demand  the  earnest 
attention  of  Roman  statesmen.  Of  its  existence  the 
government  had  received  plenty  of  warning  in  the 
declining  numbers  of  ablebodied  males  returned  at 
the  census,"  in  the  increasing  difficulties  of  recruiting 
for  the  legions,"  in  servile  outbreaks  in  Etruria  and 


clare  war  against  Macedon  in  200  b.c.,  and  also  the  case  of  Spurias 
Ligustinus  in  171  (Livy,  adii.,  34). 

*  Monunsen,  i.,  837  sq,  Ihne  (v.,  16)  thinks  that  Mommsen  has 
exaggerated  the  depressing  effects  of  foreign  competition,  but  hardly 
makes  out  his  case. 

*  Beloch,  Ital,  Bund,  80  sq, 

*  Livy,  xliii.,  14  ;  £pit.,  xlviii.,  !▼.  During  this  period  the  mini- 
mum qualification  for  service  in  the  legion  was  reduced  from  z  1,000 
to  4,000  asses. 


2o6  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  i  v 

554-594  Apulia.*    And  between  200  B.C.  and  160 

A.u.c.         B.C.  a  good  deal  was  attempted  by  way  of 
remedy.     In  addition  to  the  foundation  of  twenty 
colonies,'  there  were  frequent  allotments  of  land  to 
veteran  soldiers,  especially  in  Apulia  and  Samnium.* 
In  180B.C.  40,000  Ligurians  were  removed 
from  their  homes  and  settled  on  vacant 
lands  once  the  property  of  a  Samnite  tribe,*  and  in  160 
B.C.  the  Pomptine  marshes  were  drained  for  the  pur- 
pose of  cultivation.*    But  these  efforts  were  only 
partially  successful.  The  colonies  planted  in  Cisalpine 
Gaul  and  in  Picenum  flourished,  but  of  the  others  the 
majority  slowly  dwindled  away,  and  two  required 
recolonising  only  eight  years  after  their  foundation/ 
The  veterans  who  received  land  were  unfitted  to 
make  good  farmers ;  and  large  numbers,  on  the  first 
opportunity,  gladly  returned  as  volunteers  to  a  sol- 
dier's life.     Moreover,  after  160  B.C.  even 
these  efforts  ceased,  and  with  the  single 
exception  of  the  colony  of  Auximum  in  Picenum 
(157  B.C.)  nothing  was  done  to  cheok  the 
spread  of  the  evil,  until  in  133  B.C.  Tibe- 

Ha*  A  U  C 

rius  Gracchus,    on    his    election    to    the 
tribunate,  set  his  hand  to  the  work. 

Tiberius  "^^^  ^^^  tribune  was  by  no  means  the 

Gracchus,      conventional  demagogue.     Though  a  ple- 
beian, he  came  of  a  family  which  had  ranked  as  noble 

'  Livy,  zzxii.y  26,  zzxiii.,  36,  xxzix.,  29,  41. 
'  Sixteen  Roman  and  four  Latin  colonies.     See  Marquardt,  SiaaU» 
wrw.t  i,,  cap.  z.  . 
*£.  g,  Livy,  xxxL,  4,  12,  39  ;  xxzii.,  i. 

*  Livy,  xl.,  38. 

*  Livy,  EpU,^  xlvi. 

*  Sipontum  and  Buxentum  in  1S6  (Livy,  xxxix.,  2^ 


Ch.  13  From  the  Gracchi  to  SuUa.  20  J 

for  several  generations.  His  father  had  been  both 
consul  and  censor.  His  mother,  Cornelia,  was  the 
daughter  of  Scipio  Africanus  the  elder,  and  the  most 
accomplished  woman  of  her  time.  His  sister  was  the 
wife  of  the  younger  Scipio,  and  he  himself  married  a 
lady  of  the  great  Claudian  house.  Among  his 
friends  were  P.  Mucius  Scaevola  (consul  133  B.C.), 
the  greatest  jurist  of  his  time,  and  P.  Licinius  Cras- 
sus,  an  orator,  and,  like  Scaevola,  learned  in  the  law. 
Gracchus  himself  had  been  carefully  educated  by  his 
mother.  He  was  a  scholar,  an  eloquent  speaker,  and 
had  already  won  a  reputation  as  a  soldier  and  ad- 
ministrator. His  noble  birth  and  connections,  his 
abilities  and  accomplishments,  his  high  character,  all 
justified  the  expectation  that  he  would  be  able  to 
carry  through  the  delicate  task  of  reform  which  public 
opinion  summoned  him  to  undertake. 

The  lines  on  which  any  attempt  to  increase  the 
numbers  of  small  landowners  in  Italy  would  have 
to  be  made  were  sufficiently  clearly  Th***  public 
marked.  To  confiscate  private  land  for  immi*." 
the  purpose  was  out  of  the  question,  to  purchase 
it  would  have  been  ruinously  expensive.  But 
the  Roman  state  owned  vast  domains  in  Italy.* 
These  "  public  lands "  were  the  property  of  the 
Roman  people,  and  intended  for  their  benefit.  In 
fact,  however,  the  greater  portion  of  them  was  either 
held  in  occupation  by  wealthy  men  or  leased  out, 
chiefly  for  grazing,  to  large  cattle  farmers.  To 
abolish  this  monopoly  of  the  public  lands  by  a  rich 
minority,  and  to  use  them  for  the  advantage  of  the 

'  Mainly  in  S.  Italy,  where,  as  the  evidence  shows,  the  Gracchan 
commissioners  did  most  of  their  work. 


2o8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  iv 

community  was  a  course  for  which  there  was  ample 
precedent.  At  the  very  outset  of  Rome's  career  of 
conquest,  tribune  after  tribune  had  asserted  the 
principle  that  the  right  method  of  dealing  with  the 
lands  won  by  conquest  was  to  parcel  them  out  into 
allotments,  and  assign  them  to  the  poorer  citizens.' 
The  method  encouraged  agriculture,  increased  the 
number  of  landowners,  and  helped  the  poor.  But 
the  wealthier  citizens  had  always  preferred  another 
and  a  very  different  method  from  that  of  allotment. 
In  the  case  of  waste  lands,  the  custom  had  been  to 
invite  persons  to  settle  down  upon  them  {pccupare) 
and  cultivate  them,'  each  man  taking  for  himself '  as 
much  as  he  could  manage.  There  was  no  parcelling 
out  or  assigning  of  the  land.*  The  state  remained 
the  owner  ;  while  the  squatter  was  only  the  possessor. 
He  had  no  lease,  but  if  he  could  show  that  he  had 
"  squatted  "  with  the  permission  of  the  state,  he  was 
guaranteed  against  disturbance.*  This  method  was 
probably  intended  as  a  means  for  "  settling  up  "  lands 


'  Livy,  iv.,  48 :  **  ut  ager  ex  hostibus  captus  viriHm  dividereiur^* ; 
and  ibid.^  iv. ,  5 1.  The  technical  phrases  were  agrum  dividere^  agrum 
dare^  assignare.  The  land  was  carefully  surveyed  and  a  map  (fomui) 
showing  the  lots  and  their  boundaries  was  made.  The  allotments  be- 
came the  absolute  property  of  the  allottees. 

•  Appian,  ^.  C,  i.  7  :  iicsxrfpvTrov  rot?  iBeXov6ty  kxnovetr; 
ibid,^  i.,  718  :  xrfpvyfia  rtfv  dvejUTfror  HepxdZe66at, 

'  Sibisuniere  (Lex  Agraria,  line  2,  C.  /.  Z.,  i.,  200) 

^  Agrimensores  (ed.  Lachmann),  p.  138  :  *"*  horum  agrarum  nullum 
est  aeSt  nulla  forma  quoniam  non  ex  mensuris  acHs  quisque  accepit  sed 
quod  aut  excolmt^  aut  in  spent  colendi  occupavity  Livy  says  of 
Home  when  hastily  rebuilt  after  its  sack  by  the  Gauls  that  it  had  the 
look  of  a  city  **  occupata  magis  quam  divisce  **  (v.  55). 

^  By  the  prsetor*s  interdict,  the  squatter  had  to  show  that  he  had  not 
come  into  possession  *'  clam  autvi^  aut precario  "  (Bruns.  Pontes  Juris 
Rom,^  p.  181).     Against  resumption  of  his  land  by   the  state,   the 


Ch.  1]  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  209 


which  were  unfit  for  allotment.  But  its  character 
gradually  altered.  It  became  popular  with  the  rich  ; 
to  please  them  it  was  applied  to  other  than  waste 
lands;  the  occupations  increased  in  size,  and  the 
occupiers  in  many  cases,  instead  of  tilling  the  land, 
used  it  for  grazing,  or  even  for  pleasure-grounds. 
This  monopoly  of  the  state  lands  by  a  few  wealthy 
occupiers  was  rendered  more  irritating  by  the  fact 
that  even  from  the  open  pastures  belonging  to  the 
state  the  poor  citizen  was  gradually  excluded  by  the 
rich  graziers.  To  meet  these  evils  the  Licinian  law* 
had  forbidden  any  one  person  to  occupy  more  than 
500  acres,  or  to  turn  out  on  the  public  pastures  more 
than  100  cattle  or  500  sheep.  But  the  Licinian  law 
had  not  been  properly  enforced,  and  of  the  wide 
tracts  of  land  acquired  by  Rome  after  the  Samnite 
wars,  and  again  after  the  second  Punic  war,  the 
greater  part  had  either  passed  into  the  occupation 
of  rich  nobles,  or  had  been  leased  for  grazing  to 
wealthy  companies  of  cattle  and  sheep  farmers.^ 

The  remedy  proposed  by  Gracchus '  amounted  in 
effect  to  the  resumption  by  the  state  of  as  much  of 


occupier  could  only  plead   the  moral    claim    based    on    vetustas 
possessionis. 

'  It  is  probable  that  the  Licinian  law  was  of  much  more  recent  date 
than  tradition  would  have  us  believe.  The  maximum  of  500  acres 
implies  a  larger  area  of  public  land  than  could  have  been  owned  by 
Rome  in  377  B.C. 

*  The  extensive  grazing-grounds  fsaiius  pubHeij  in  Samnium  and 
Apulia  were  mostly  leased  io  pecuarii, 

»  Plut.,  T,  G,,  ^14 ;  Appian,  B,  C,  i.,  9-13  ;  Livy,  Epit,  Iviii. ; 
Cic,  Z.  A^.^  ii.,  31.  Compare  also  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  ii.,  68  sq,  ; 
Ihnc.  V. ,  25  ;  Marquardt,  Rdm.  Staatsverw,,  i.,  437,  sq, ;  Lange,  Rdm, 
Altertk^,  iii..  8  sq. ;  Nitsch,  Gracchen^  294;  Dureau  de  la  Malic, 
icon,  politique  des  Romains^  ii„  aSo. 
»4 


2  lo  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  IV 


The  pro-  *^^  "  common  land  "  as  was  not  held  in 
^beriiSi  occupation  by  authorised  persons  and 
Gracchus,  conformably  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Licinian  law.  Unauthorised  occupiers  were  to  be 
evicted ;  in  other  cases  the  occupation  was  reduced 
to  a  maximum  size  of  i,ooo  acres.'  The  land  thus 
rescued  for  the  community  from  the  monopoly  of  a 
few  was  to  be  distributed  in  allotments,'  and  a  com- 
mission of  three  men  was  created  for  the  double 
purpose  of  deciding  what  land  should  be  taken,  and 
of  carrying  out  the  work  of  allotment.*  It  was  a 
scheme  which  could  quote  in  its  favour  ancient  pre- 
cedent as  well  as  urgent  necessity.  Of  the  causes 
which  led  to  its  ultimate  failure  something  will  be 
said  later  on ;  for  the  present  we  must  turn  to  the 
constitutional  conflict  which  it  provoked.  The 
senate  from  the  first  identified  itself  with  the  in- 
terests of  the  wealthy  occupiers,  and  Tiberius  found 
himself  forced  into  a  struggle  with  the  senate,  which 
had  been  no  part  of  his  original  plan.  He  fell  back 
on  the  legislative  sovereignty  of  the  people ;  he  re- 
suscitated the  half-forgotten  powers  of  interference 
vested  in  the  tribunate  in  order  to  paralyse  the  action 
of  the  senatorial  magistrates,  and  finally  lost  his  life 

*  Or  possibly  750 ;  it  was  in  excess  of  the  limit  fixed  by  the  Li- 
cinian law ;  App.,  B.  C,  i.,  9. 

*  Compare  the  inscription  of  Popillius  Lsenas,  consul  132,  CI.L.^ 
i«»  551 »  Wordsworth,  Fragments  of  Early  Latin^  p.  221. 

*  The  allotments  were  to  be  inalienable,  and  were  charged  with 
payment  of  a  quit-rent  (App.,  B,  C,  i.,  10  ;  Plut.,  C.  (7.,  9).  Their 
size  is  not  stated.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  thirty  jugera  held  agri 
colendi causa  (compare  the  Lex  Agraria,  ill  B.c.)  refer  to  the  Sem- 
pronian  allotments.     See  C,  /.  Z.,  i.,  200,  and  Mommsen*s  notes. 


Ch.  1]  From  the  Gracchi  to  SuUa.  211 

in  an  attempt  to  make  good  one  of  the  weak  points 
in  the  tribune's  position  by  securing  his  own  re. 
election  for  a  second  year.  But  the  conflict  did  not 
end  with  his  death.  It  was  renewed  on  a  wider 
scale,  and  with  a  more  deliberate  aim,  by 
his  brother  Gaius,  who  on  his  election  to  oracchu^! 
the  tribunate  (123  B,C.)  at  once  came  for-  •a*  •  •  • 
ward  as  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  senate.  The  latter 
suddenly  found  its  control  of  the  administration 
threatened  at  a  variety  of  points.  On  the  invita^ 
tion  of  the  popular  tribune  the  assembly  proceeded 
to  restrict  the  senate's  freedom  of  action  in  assign- 
ing the  provinces.'  It  regulated  the  taxation  of  the 
province  of  Asia'  and  altered  the  conditions  of  mili- 
tary service.'  In  home  affairs  it  inflicted  two  serious 
blows  on  the  senate's  authority  by  declaring  the 
sununary  punishment  of  Roman  citizens  by  the 
consuls  on  the  strength  of  a  senatus  consultum  to  be 
a  violation  of  the  law  of  appeal/  and  by  taking  out 
of  the  senate's  hands  the  control  of  the  newly- 
established  court  for  the  trial  of  cases  of  magisterial 
misgovemment  in  the  provinces.'  Tiberius  had 
committed  the  mistake  of  relying  too  exclusively  on 
the  support  of  one  section  only  of  the  community ; 

*  Lex  Sempronia  de  provinciis  consularibus  ;  Cic,  Pro  Domo^  9  ; 
De  Prov,  Gms.^  2,  7 ;  Sail.,  Jug.,  27. 

*  Lex  de  provincia  Asia;  Cic,  Verr,,  3,  6;  Fronto,  Ad  Ventm, 
ii.,  p.  125. 

■  Hut.,  C  t7.,  5  ;  Diod.,  xxxiv.,  25. 

*  Hut.,  C.  G.,  4 ;  Cic  Pro  JDomo,  31 ;  Pro  Rab.  Perd.,  4. 

»  QtuesHo  de  repeiundis,  149  B.C.  See  Hut.,  C  G,,  5  ;  Livy,  Epit., 
Ix.;  Tac.,  Ann.^  xii.,  60;  App.,  B,  C,  i.,  21.  For  the  kindred  Lex 
Acilia,  see  C.  /.  Z.,  i.,  198  ;  Wordsworth,  Fragm,,  424. 


212  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

his  brother  endeavoured  to  enlist  on  the  popular 
side  every  available  ally.  The  Latins  and  Italians 
had  opposed  an  agrarian  scheme  which  took  from 
them  land  which  they  had  come  to  regard  as  right- 
fully theirs,  and  gave  them  no  share  in  the  benefit  of 
the  allotments/  Gaius  not  only  removed  this  latter 
grievance,'  but  ardently  supported  and  himself 
brought  forward  the  first  proposals  made  in  Rome 
for  their  enfranchisement.'  The  indifference  of  the 
city  populace,  to  whom  the  prospect  of  small  hold- 
ings in  a  remote  district  of  Italy  was  not  a  tempting 
one,  was  overcome  by  the  establishment  of  regular 
monthly  doles  of  corn  at  a  low  price.*  Finally,  the 
men  of  business — the  publicani^  merchants,  and 
money-lenders — were  conciliated  by  the  privilege 
granted  to  them  of  collecting  the  tithes  of  the  new 
province  of  Asia,  and  placed  in  direct  rivalry  with 
the  senate  by  the  substitution  of  men  of  their  own 
class  as  judges  in  the  qucestio  de  repetundis^  in 
place  of  senators.*  The  organiser  of  this  concerted 
attack  upon  the  position  of  the  senate  fell,  like  his 
brother,  in  a  riot. 


*  They  had  succeeded  in  129  in  suspending  the  operations  of  the 
agrarian  commission.  App.,  ^,  C,  i.,  18  !  Livy,  EpiU^  lix.;  Cic,  De 
Rep,^  iii.,  41  ;  cf.  Lex  Agraria,  line  81 ;  C.  /.  Z.,  i.,  200. 

'  Lange,  R,  A,^  iii.,  32  ;  Lex  Agraria,  lines  3,  15,  2i. 
"  The  Rogatio  Fulvia,  125  B.C.;  Val.  Max.,  ix.,  5,  i ;  App.,  -5.C., 
i.,  21. 

*  Plut.,  C.  (7.,  5  ;  App.,  i.,  21 ;  Livy,  EpiUy  Ix.;  Festus,  290. 

*  Hence  Gaius  ranked  as  the  founder  of  the  equestrian  order. 
Plin.,  N,H.t  xxziii.,  34 :  **judicum  appettoHone separare eum  ordinem 
.  .  .  instihieri  Gracchi** j  Varro,  Ap.  Non,,  454:  "  bicipiUm  civiia- 
kmfecitr 


Ch.  1]  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  213 

The  agrarian  reforms  of  the  two  Gracchi  had  little 
permanent  effect.*    The  agrarian  commis- 

.  ,  ,      ^  ^  .  Failure  ol 

sion,   though   between    120-122   B.C.    its    the  attempt 

°  ^  at  agrarian 

action  was  suspended  in  deference  to  the  "^"-  ..^i- 
outcry  raised  by  the  occupiers,  evidently 
made  some  progress  with  the  work  of  allotment, 
especially  in  south  Italy."  But  the  colonies  which 
Gaius  founded  in  Italy  to  supplement  his  brother's 
scheme  came  to  nothing.'  Even  in  the  lifetime  of 
Gaius  the  clause  in  his  brother's  law  rendering  the 
new  buildings  inalienable  was  repealed,  and  the  pro- 
cess of  absorption  recommenced.*  In  118 
B.C.  a  stop  was  put  to  further  allotment  of  ^  a.u.c. 
occupied  lands,*  and  finally,  in  1 1 1  B.C.,  the  543  a.u.c. 
whole  position  of  the  agrarian  question  was 
altered  by  a  law  which  converted  all  land  still  held 
in  occupation  into  private  land.  The  old  controversy 
as  to  the  proper  use  of  the  lands  of  the  community 
was  closed  by  this  act  of  alienation.     The  contro- 


'  Traces  of  the  work  of  the  commission  survive  in  the  Miliarium 
Popilianum  (C  /.  Z.,  i.,  551),  in  a  few  Gracchan  termini  {idid,,  552, 
553t  554i  555)t  ^^  the  limites  Gracchani  (Liber  Colon, ^  ed.  Lachmann, 
pp.  209,  210,  211,  229),  etc.  Compare  also  the  rise  in  the  numbers 
at  the  census  of  125  B.C.  (Livy,  Epit,^  Ix.). 

'  Livy,  EpiL^  ix.;  Appian,  B,  C,  i.,  23.  Two  of  them,  Tarentum 
(Plut.,  C,  G,f  8)  and  Scylacium  (Veil.  Pat.,  i.,  15),  were  clearly  in- 
tended to  supply  the  new  settlers  in  Calabria  and  Bruttium  with  con- 
venient ports. 

'  Lex  Minucia,  121  B.C.;  App.,  i.,  27  ;  Oros.,  v.,  12 ;  Festus,  201. 

*  The  so-called  Lex  Thoria ;  App.,  i.,  27 ;  Cic,  Brut.,  36  ;  cf, 
Wordsworth,  Fragm,,  441. 

*  The  Lex  Agraria  still  extant  in  a  fragmentary  condition  in  the 
museum  at  Naples.  See  Mommsen,  C.  /.  Z.,  i.,  200  ;  Wordsworth, 
441  sq,  ;  Bruns,  Pontes  Juris  Rom,,  54-67 ;  App.,  i.,  27, 


214  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

versy  in  future  turned,  not  on  the  right  of  the  poor 
citizens  to  the  state  lands,  but  on  the  expediency  of 
purchasing  other  lands  for  distribution  at  the  cost 
of  the  treasury/ 

But  though  the  agrarian  reform  failed,  the  political 
conflict  it  had  provoked  continued,  and  the  lines  on 
which  it  was  waged  were  in  the  main  those  laid  down 
by  Gaius  Gracchus.  The  sovereignty  of  the  people 
continued  to  be  the  watchword  of  the  popular  party 
and  a  free  use  of  the  plebeian  machinery  perfected 
during  the  old  struggle  between  the  orders,  of  the 
tribunate  of  the  plebs  and  the  concilium  plebis 
remained  the  most  effective  means  of  securing  their 
aims.  At  the  same  time  the  careers  of  both  Tiberius 
and  Gaius  had  illustrated  the  weak  points  in  this 
machinery — the  uncertain  temper  and  varying  com- 
position of  the  assembly,  the  limited  tenure  of  ofHce 
enjoyed  by  the  tribunes,'  the  possibility  of  disunion 
within  their  own  body,  and  lastly,  the  difficulty  of 
keeping  together  the  divergent  interests  which  Gaius 
had  for  a  moment  united  in  hostility  to  the  senate. 

Ten  years  after  the  death  of  Gaius  tYi^  populares 
once  more  summoned  up  courage  to  challenge  the 
Marius  Supremacy  of  the  senate;  and  it  is  im- 
J^™  ^•^-  portant  as  marking  a  step  in  advance  that 
A.u.c  i^  ^2is  Q^   a  question    not   of  domestic 

reform  but  of  foreign  administration  that  the  conflict 


'Cic,  Lex  Agr.^  ii.,  sect.  65. 

'  Efforts  were  repeatedly  made  to  get  over  this  difficulty,  e,  g,^  by  the 
LexPapiria,  131  B.C.  ;  Livy,  .^V.,  lix.  Gaius  was  himself  tribune  for 
two  years,  1 10-109  (^/.  Sall.,7«^.,  37  :  **  tribuni  continuare  magistr(i* 
turn  nitebantur  **),  and  Satuminus  in  100  B.C. 


Ch.  i]  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sutta.  215 

was  renewed.  The  course  of  affairs  in  the  client 
state  of  Numidia  since  Micipsa's  death  in 
II8B.C.  had  been  such  as  to  discredit  a  •a^^*^*^ 
stronger  government  than  that  of  the  senate.'  In 
open  defiance  of  Roman  authority,  and  relying  on 
the  influence  of  his  own  well-spent  gold,  Jugurtha 
had  murdered  both  his  legitimate  rivals,  Hiempsal 
and  Adherbal,  and  made  himself  master  of  Numidia. 
The  declaration  of  war  wrung  from  the  senate 
(112  B.C.)  by  popular  indignation  had  •4tA.u.a 
been  followed  by  the  corruption  of  a 
consul*  (ill  B.C.)  and  the  crushing  defeat  •«  A.u.a 
of  the  proconsul  Albinus.'  On  the  news  of  this 
crowning  disgrace  the  storm  burst,  and  on  the  pro- 
posal of  the  tribunes  a  commission  of  inquiry  was 
appointed  into  the  conduct  of  the  war/  But  the 
popular  leaders  did  not  stop  here.  Caecilius  Metellus 
who  as  consul  (109  B.C.)  had  succeeded  ^^j.  j,-* 
to  the  command  in  Numidia,  was  an  able 
soldier  but  a  rigid  aristocrat;  and  they  now  re- 
solved to  improve  their  success  by  intrusting  the 
command  instead  to  a  genuine  son  of  the  people. 
Their  choice  fell  on  Gains  Marius,  an  experienced 
officer  and  administrator  but  a  man  of  humble 
birth,  from  the  old  Volscian  town  of  Arpinum,  who, 
though  no  politician,  was  by  temperament  and  train- 
ing  a  hater  of  the  polished  and  effeminate  nobles 


>  Sallust,  T^Sf.,  5  sq,;  Livy,  EpiL,  Ixii.,  Ixiv. 
'  Calpumius  Bestia  ;  Sallust,  Jug,^  28. 

•/^.,  38.  39. 
*  Ib,^  40. 


a  1 6  Outlines  (f  Roman  History.     (Book  IV 

who  filled  the  senate.*  He  was  triumphantly  elected, 
and,  in  spite  of  a  decree  of  the  senate,  continuing 
Metellus  as  proconsul,  he  was  intrusted  by  a  vote  of 
the  assembly  with  the  charge  of  the  war  against 
Jugurtha,* 

Jugurtha  was  vanquished ;  and  Marius,  who  had 
been  a  second  time  elected  consul  in  his  absence 
arrived  at  Rome  in  January  104  B.C., 
bringing  the  captive  prince  with  him  in 
chains.'  But  further  triumphs  awaited  the  popular 
hero.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones  were  at  the  gates 
of  Italy ;  they  had  four  times  defeated  the  senatorial 
generals,  and  Marius  was  called  upon  to  save  Rome 
from  a  second  invasion  of  the  barbarians/  After 
two  years  of  suspense  the  victory  at  Aquae  Sextiae 
(102  B.C.),  followed  by  that  on  the  Rau- 
dine  plain  (loi  B.C.),  put  an  end  to  the 
danger  by  the  annihilation  of  the  invading 
hordes,  and  Marius,  now  consul  for  the 
fifth  time,  returned  to  Rome  in  triumph.  There 
the  popular  party  welcomed  him  as  a  leader,  and  as 
one  who  would  bring  to  their  aid  the  imperiunt  of 
the  consul  and  all  the  prestige  of  a  successful  general 
Once  more,  however,  they  were  destined  to  a  brief 
success,  followed  by  disastrous  defeat.  Marius  be- 
came for  the  sixth  time  consul  * ;  of  the  two  popular 

'  /^.»  63  ;  Pint.,  Marius^  9, 3.  For  the  qnestion  as  to  the  podtioo 
of  his  parents,  see  Madvig,  Vtrfoi.^  i.  179 ;  Diod..  xxziT.,  sS. 

•Sallust./jig'.,  73. 

'  /(.,  114.  For  the  chronology  of  tue  Jngurthine  war,  see  Monm 
sen,  R.  G.^  ii.,  146,  note;  Pelham,  Joum^  c/PhiL^  tiL  91. 

^  Liyy,  Epit,^  Ixvii. ;  Pint.,  Mar.^  12. ;  Mommsen,  tt.,  X71,  jy. 

'  lify,  ^fU.^  Ixix. ;  App.,  B,  C,  L  38  sg. 


•5s  A.U.C. 


«53  A.U.C. 


Ch.i]  From  the  Gracchi  to  SuOa.  217 

leaders  Glaucia  became  praetor  and  Satuminus  tri- 
bune. But  neither  Marius  nor  his  allies  satoraUi«i 
were  statesmen  of  the  stamp  of  the  Grac-  ApSSiSi 
chi ;  and  the  laws  proposed  by  Satuminus  ^^^"^ 

had  evidently  no  other  serious  aim  in  view  than  that 
of  harassing  the  senate.  His  com  law  merely  re- 
duced the  price  fixed  in  123  B.c  for  the 
monthly  dole  of  com,  and  the  main  point 
of  his  agrarian  law  lay  in  the  clause  appended  to  it 
requiring  all  senators  to  swear  to  observe  its  provi* 
sions.'  The  laws  were  carried ;  the  senators,  with 
the  exception  of  Metdlus,  took  the  oath ;  but  the 
triumph  of  the  popular  leaders  was  short-lived. 
Their  recklessness  and  violence  had  alienated  all 
classes  in  Rome;  and  their  period  of  office  was 
drawing  to  a  dose.  At  the  elections  fresh  rioting 
took  place,  and  at  last  Marius  as  consul  was  called 
upon  by  the  senate  to  protect  the  state  against  his 
own  partisans.  In  despair,  Satuminus  and  Glaucia 
surrendered;  but  while  the  senate  was  discussing 
their  fate  they  were  surrounded  and  murdered  by 
the  populace. 

The  popular  party  had  been  worsted  once  more  in 
their  struggle  with  the  senate,  but  none  the  less 
their  alliance  with  Marius,  and  the  position  in  which 
their  votes  placed  him,  marked  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  revolution.  The  six  consulships  of 
Marius  represented  not  merely  a  party  victory  but  a 
protest  against  the  system  of  divided  and  rapidly- 

'  For  the  kges  Appuleia^  see  Livy,  E^i^^  Ixix. ;  App.  !••  39 ;  Cic 
Pro  BaUfo,  21  \AucU  ad  Herennium^  1.,  12,  81.    They  Inclttded  also 
aUotmeots  to  Mvius's  vetenms;  AucU  4t  Vir^  HL.  69* 


2 1 8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  i  v 

changing  commands,  which  was,  no  doubt,  the 
system  favoured  by  the  senate,  but  was  also  an 
integral  element  of  the  republican  constitution ;  and 
in  assailing  it  the  populace  weakened  the  republic 
even  more  than  they  irritated  the  senate.  The 
transference  of  the  political  leadership  to  a  consul 
who  was  nothing  if  not  a  soldier  was  at  once  a  con- 
fession of  the  insufficiency  of  the  purely  civil  author- 
ity of  the  tribunate,  and  a  dangerous  encouragement 
of  military  interference  in  political  controversies. 
The  consequences  were  already  foreshadowed  by  thd 
special  provisions  made  by  Satuminus  for  Marius's 
veterans,  and  in  the  active  part  taken  by  the  latter 
in  the  passing  of  his  laws.  Indirectly,  too,  Marius, 
though  no  politician,  played  an  important  part  in 
this  new  departure.  His  military  reforms  *  at  once 
democratised  the  army  and  attached  it 
reforms  of  more  closcly  to  its  leader  for  the  time 
being.  He  swept  away  the  last  traces  of 
civil  distinctions  of  rank  or  wealth  within  the  legion, 
admitted  to  its  ranks  all  classes,  and  substituted 
voluntary  enlistment  under  a  popular  general  for  the 
old-fashioned  compulsory  levy.  The  efficiency  of 
the  legion  was  increased  at  the  cost  of  a  complete 
severance  of  the  ties  which  bound  it  to  the  civil 
community  and  to  the  civil  authorities. 

The  defeat  of  Satuminus  was  followed  by  sev- 
eral years  of  quiet;   nor  was  the  next  important 

'  Sallust,  Jtig,t  86 ;    ^^ipse  interea  pUHtes  terihtre^  nam  wi9re  ma- 
forum  neque  ex  elassibus,  sed  uH  cujusque  lubida  erat,  €apiU  tensn 
pierasque,**    For  details,  c/,  Mommsen,  ^.  C,  ii.  iga ;  Mtdvig. 
Fer/,,  ii.  468, 493 ;  Manjuaidt,  Staatsverw,,  ii.  417,  4%u 


Ciuu  From  ike  Grauht  to  SuUa.  219 

crisis  provoked  directly  by  any  efforts  of  the  discred* 
ited  popular  party.  It  was  due  partly  to  the  rivalry 
which  had  been  growing  more  bitter  each  year 
between  the  senate  and  the  commercial  class ;  and 
secondly,  to  the  long-impending  question  of  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  Italian  allies.  The pu6iicani^ 
negotiatores^  and  others,  who  constituted  what  was 
now  becoming  known  as  the  equestrian  order,  had 
made  unscrupulous  use  of  their  control  of  the  courts, 
and  especially  of  the  quastio  de  repetundiSf  against 
their  natural  rivals,  the  official  class  in  the  provinces. 
The  threat  of  prosecution  before  a  hostile  jury  was 
held  over  the  head  of  every  governor,  legate,  and 
quaestor  who  ventured  to  interfere  with  their  opera« 
tions.  The  average  official  preferred  to  connive  at 
their  exactions;  the  bolder  ones  paid  with  fines 
and  even  exile  for  their  courage.  In  93  ^^  „  ^ 
B.C.  the  necessit}'^  for  a  reform  was  proved 
beyond  a  doubt  by  the  scandalous  condemnation 
of  P.  Rutilius  Rufus,'  ostensibly  on  a  chaise  of 
extortion,  in  reality  as  the  reward  of  his  efforts 
to  check  the  extortions  of  the  Roman  rejmbticani 
in  Asia. 

The  need  of  reform  was  clear,  but  it  was  not  so 
easy  to  carry  a  reform  which  would  certainly  be 
opposed  by  the  whole  strength  of  the 
equestrian  order,  and  which,  as  involving  of  the  Italian 
the  repeal  of  a  Sempronian  law,  would 
arouse  the  resentment  of  the  popular  party.  The 
difficulties  of  the  Italian  question  were  more  serious. 
That  the  Italian  allies  were  discontented  was  noto- 

»  Lhry,  E^.,  Ixx. ;  VeL  Frt.,  IL,  13. 


220  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     [Book  1% 

rious.  After  nearly  two  centuries  of  close  alliance, 
of  common  dangers  and  victories,  they  now  eagerly 
coveted  as  a  boon  that  complete  amalgamation  with 
Rome  which  they  had  at  first  resented  as  a  dishon- 
oun  But,  unfortunately,  Rome  had  grown  more 
selfishly  exclusive  in  proportion  as  the  value  set 
upon  Roman  citizenship  increased.  The  politic 
liberality  with  which  the  franchise  had  once  been 
granted  had  disappeared.  The  allies  found  their 
burdens  increasing  and  their  ancient  privileges  di- 
minishing, while  the  resentment  with  which  they 
viewed  their  exclusion  from  the  fruits  of  the  con. 
quests  they  had  helped  to  make  was  aggfravated  by 
the  growingly  suspicious  and  domineering  attitude 
of  the  Roman  Government.'  During  the  last  forty 
years  feelings  of  hope  and  disappointment  had  rap- 
idly succeeded  each  other;  Marcus  Fulvius,  Gaius 
Gracchus,  Saturninus,  had  all  held  out  promises  of 
relief,  but  nothing  had  yet  been  done.  On  each 
occasion  they  had  crowded  to  Rome,  full  of  eager 
expectation,  only  to  be  harshly  ejected  from  the 
city  by  the  consul's  orders.*  The  justice  of  their 
claims  could  hardly  be  denied,  the  danger  of  con- 
tinuing  to  ignore  them  was  obvious,  yet  the  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  granting  them  were  formidable 
in  the  extreme.  The  temper  of  senate  and  people 
alike  was  still  jealously  exclusive ;  and  from  a  higher 
than  a  merely  selfish  point  of  view  there  was  much 

1  Mommsen,  JP.  G.^  ii.,  8x8 ;  Vtam^  !▼.,  151,  v.  253;  Marqoiidt, 
Staatsverw,^  L,  57,  58. 

*  Ltx  Junia^  Cic,  De  Of.^  iii.,  II ;  Lex  LUinia  MmeU,  On,,  ^f( 
Cfm,,  fr.  10 1  Asoon.,  p.  67. 


Ch.l]  From  the  Gracchi  to  SuOa.  221 

to  be  said  against  the  revolution  involved  in  so  sud- 
den  and  enormous  an  enlargement  of  the  citizen 
body. 

Marcus  Livius  Drusus,  who  as  a  tribune  gallantly 
took  up  the  task  of  reform,  is  claimed  by  Cicero  * 
as  a  member  of  that  party  of  the  centre 

^       ^  Marcus 

to  which  he  belonged   himself.     Noble,  uviu* 

wealthy,  and  popular,  he  seems  to  have  «aAu'c' 
hoped  to  be  able  by  the  weight  of  his 
position  and  character  to  rescue  the  burning  ques- 
tions of  the  day  from  the  grasp  of  extreme  partisans 
and  to  settle  them  peacefully  and  equitably.  But 
he,  like  Cicero  after  him,  had  to  find  to  his  cost  that 
there  was  no  room  in  the  fierce  strife  of  Roman 
politics  for  moderate  counsels.  His  proposal  to  re- 
form the  law-courts  excited  the  equestrian  order  and 
their  friends  in  the  senate  to  fury.  The  agrarian 
and  com  laws  which  he  coupled  with  it  *  alienated 
many  more  in  the  senate,  and  roused  the  old  anti- 
popular  party  feeling ;  finally,  his  known  negotiations 
with  the  Italians  were  eagerly  misrepresented  to  the 
jealous  and  excited  people  as  evidence  of  complicity 
with  a  widespread  conspiracy  against  Rome.  His 
laws  were  carried,  but  the  senate  pronounced  them 
null  and  void.*  Drusus  was  denounced  in  the  senate- 
house  as  a  traitor,  and  on  his  way  home  was  struck 
down  by  the  hand  of  an  unknown  assassin. 

*  Cic,  De  Orat,^  i.,  25,  and  De  Domo,  50  ;  Appian,  B.  C,  i.,  35  ; 
Diod.  Cic,  xx3cvii.,  10 ;  Ihne,  v.,  242. 

'  For  the  provisions  of  the  Leges  Livia,  see  App.,  B,  C,  i.,  35  ; 
Livy,  Epii,,  had.  They  included,  according  to  Pliny,  ZT,  JV,,  xzxiii., 
3,  a  proposal  for  the  debasement  of  the  coinage, 

»Cic.  ProDomo,  16 


222  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      EBook  \\ 

The  knights  retained  their  monopoly  of  the  courts, 
but  this  and  all  other  domestic  controversies  were 
^jjg  silenced  for  the  time  by  the  news  which 

oaSkTBx"'  followed  hard  upon  the  murder  of  Drusus 
664-665  A.u.c.^]^^^   the   Italians  were    in   open    revolt 

against  Rome.  His  assassination  was  the  signal  for 
an  outbreak  which  had  been  secretly  prepared  for 
some  time  before.  Throughout  the  highlands  of 
Central  and  Southern  Italy  the  flower  of  the  Italian 
peoples  rose  as  one  man.'  Etruria  and  Umbria  held 
aloof;  the  isolated  Latin  colonies  stood  firm;  but 
the  Sabellian  clans  North  and  South,  the  Latinised 
Marsi  and  Paeligni,  as  well  as  the  still  Oscan-speaking 
Samnites  and  Lucanians,  rushed  to  arms.  No  time 
was  lost  in  proclaiming  their  plans  for  the  future. 
A  new  Italian  state  was  to  be  formed.  The  Paelig- 
nian  town  of  Corfinium  was  selected  as  its  capital 
and  rechristened  with  the  proud  name  of  Italica. 
All  Italians  were  to  be  citizens  of  this  new  metropo- 
lis, and  here  were  to  be  the  place  of  assembly  and  the 
senate-house.  A  senate  of  five  hundred  members 
and  a  magistracy  resembling  that  of  Rome  com- 
pleted a  constitution  which  adhered  closely  to  the 
very  political  traditions  which  its  authors  had  most 
reason  to  abjure. 

Now,  as  always  in  the  face  of  serious  danger,  the 
action  of  Rome  was  prompt  and  resolute.  Both 
consuls  took  the  field*;  with  each  were  five  legates, 
among  them  the  veteran  Marius  and  his  destined 

'  For  the  Social  War,  see  besides  Mommsen,  Ihne,  Lange,  also 
Kiene,  D,  Romische  Bundesgenossenkrieg^  Leipsic,  1845. 
•App.,  ^.C,  i.  39-49;  Livy,  EpiU^  Ixxii.-lxxvi. 


Ch.li  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  223 

rival  L.  Cornelius  Sulla,  and  even  freedmen  were 
pressed  into  service  with  the  legions.     But  the  first 
year's  campaign  opened  disastrously.      In  Central 
Italy  the  Northern  Sabellians,  and  in  the  South  the 
Samnites,  defeated  the  forces  opposed  to  them.  And 
though  before  the  end  of  the  year  Marius  and  Sulla 
in  the  North,  and  the  Consul  Caesar  himself  in  Cam- 
pania, succeeded  in  inflicting  severe  blows  on  the 
enemy,  and  on  the  Marsi  especially,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that,  with  an  empty  treasury,  with  the  insurgents* 
strength  still  unbroken,  and  with  rumours  of  disaf- 
fection in  the  loyal  districts,  opinion  in  Rome  should 
have  turned  in  the  direction  of  the  more  liberal  policy 
which  had  been  so  often  scornfully  rejected,  and  in 
favour  of  some  compromise  which  should  check  the 
spread  of  the  revolt,  and  possibly  sow  discord  among 
their  enemies.     Towards  the  close  of  the     ^64  a.u.c. 
year  90  B.C.  the  Consul  Caesar  carried  the     ^*J[n«f  £ex 
lex  Juliay  by  which  the  Roman  franchise         papSia. 
was  offered  to  all  communities  which  had     ^  ^•"*^' 
not  as  yet  revolted ;  early  in  the  next  year  (89  B.C.) 
the  Julian  law  was  supplemented  by  the  lex  Plautia 
Papiria,  introduced  by  two  of  the  tribunes,  which 
enacted  that  any  citizen  of  an  allied  community  then 
domiciled  in  Italy  might  obtain    the   franchise  by 
giving  in  his  name  to  a  praetor  in  Rome  within  sixty 
days.      A  third    law    \lex    CalpttTtiicL)^   apparently 
passed  at  the  same  time,  empowered  Roman  magis- 
trates in  the  field  to  bestow  the   franchise  there  and 

»  For  the  Lex  yuHa  see  Cic,  Pro  Balba^  8  ;     Gell..  W.,  4;  ^^PP* 
B,  C,  i.,  49.  Yqx  Lex  Plautia  JF^apiria^  see  Cic,  Pro  ArMa^^^v^^ 
Schol,  Bob,^  p,  253, 


224  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  IV 

then  upon  all  who  were  willing  to  receive  it.  This 
sudden  opening  of  the  closed  gates  of  Roman  citi- 
zenship was  completely  successful,  and  its  effects 
were  at  once  visible  in  the  diminished  vigour  of  the 
insurgents.  By  the  end  of  89  B.C.  the 
Samnites  and  Lucanians  were  left  alone  in 
their  obstinate  hostility  to  Rome,  and  neither,  thanks 
to  Sulla's  brilliant  campaign  in  Samnium,  had  for 
the  moment  any  strength  left  for  active  aggfression. 
The  enfranchisement  of  Italy  was  an  accomplished 
fact,  though  the  exact  status  of  the  new  citizens  was 
not  settled  until  a  few  years  later.  Politically,  Italy 
ceased  to  be  a  confederacy  under  Roman  leadership, 
and  the  Italian  allies  of  Rome  entered  as  municipali- 
ties within  the  pale  of  the  Roman  state.  But  this 
act  of  enfranchisement,  just  and  necessary  though 
it  was,  added  to  the  difficulties  which  beset  the  old 
republican  constitution.  It  emphasised  the  absurdity 
of  a  system  which  treated  the  nobles  and  plebs  of  the 
city  of  Rome  as  the  representatives  of  the  Roman 
people,  and  which  condemned  the  great  mass  of  that 
people  to  a  virtual  exclusion  from  politics.  Between 
the  new  citizens  in  the  country  towns  and  districts, 
and  those  in  Rome  a  coolness  sprang  up.  The  con- 
tempt with  which  the  latter  regarded  the  municipales 
and  rustici  was  repaid  by  a  growing  indifference  on 
the  other  side  to  the  traditions  and  institutions  of  a 
narrow  polity  in  which  they  had  only  a  nominal 
place,  and  by  a  growing  mistrust  of  Roman  politi- 
cians and  politics.  When  the  crisis  came  even 
Cicero's  influence  failed  to  excite  among  them  any 
enthusiasm  for  the  republican  cause. 


Ch.13  From  the  Gracchi  to  SuUa.  225 

Meanwhile  the   termination  of  the   Social  War 
brought  no  peace  with  it  in  Rome.     The  old  quar- 
rels were  renewed  with  increased  bitterness,  while 
the  newly-enfranchised  Italians  themselves  resented 
as  bitterly  the  restriction/  which  robbed  them  of 
their  due  share  of  political   influence  by  allowing 
them  to  vote  only  in  a  specified  number  of  tribes. 
The  senate  itself  was  distracted  by  violent  personal 
rivalries,  and  all  these  feuds,  animosities,  and  griev- 
ances were  aggravated  by  the  widespread  economic 
distress  and  ruin  which  affected  all  classes.'     Lastly, 
war  with  Mithradates  had  been  declared ;  it  was  no- 
torious that  the  privilege  of  commanding  the  force 
to  be  sent  against  him  would  be  keenly  contested, 
and  that  the  contest  would  lie  between  the  veteran 
Marius  and  L.  Cornelius  Sulla.* 

It  was  in  an  atmosphere  thus  charged  with  the 
elements  of  disturbance  that  P.  Sulpicius  Rufus  as 
tribune*  brought  forward  his  laws.  He  p  suipicius 
proposed— (i)  that  the  command  of  the  *  itx:. 
^ithradatic  war  should  be  given  to  «6  a.u.c. 
^^li^^;^  (2)  that  the  new  citizens  should  be  distrib- 

«7)  f^f  ^*  ^*'"  "•'  *°  '  ^PP-  ^'  ^^  ^-^  ^^'  53.  Madvig  (R,  Verf,,  i., 
Hrere  *  -Appian  in  holding  that  the  tribes  to  which  the  new  voters 

TV^^   ^^nfined   were   newly-created  tribes.       Cf.  Mommsen,  Rom, 

Ijotiv   ^^*'  ^'  ^'*  ***  ^^'  *^^  Mithr.,  22 ;  Oros.,  v.,  i8;  Livy,  Epit, 

earjy  .    ^^  Already  been    declared  a  consular  province  for  87,  and 
seu^j  *^  88  seevas    to  liave  been  assigned  to  Sulla  by  decree  of  the 

'i.,  ^^  C/c,  JP^  f^^^r.,  i.,  25,  iii.^  31^  and  Brutus,  214;  Veil.  Pat., 
»3P.  ^.  j/orsalp^^^^   himself.     For  his  laws,  see  App.,  B.  C,  i.,  55 


226  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     [Book  iv 

uted  through  all  the  tribes,  (3)  that  the  freedmen 
should  no  longer  be  confined  to  the  four  city  tribes, 
(4)  that  any  senator  owing  more  than  two  thousand 
dendrii  should  lose  his  seat,  (5)  that  those  exiled  on 
suspicion  of  complicity  with  the  Italian  revolt  should 
be  recalled.  Whatever  may  have  been  Sulpicius's 
intentions,  these  proposals  inevitably  provoked  a 
storm.  The  old  voters  bitterly  resented  the  swamp- 
ing of  the  existing  constituency ;  the  senate  rallied 
its  forces  to  oppose  the  alteration  in  the  franchise  of 
the  freedmen  and  the  proposed  purging  of  its  own 
ranks ;  and  lastly,  both  the  senate  and  Sulla  himself, 
now  one  of  the  consuls,  prepared  to  resist  the  trans- 
ference of  the  Asiatic  command  to  Marius.  Both 
sides  were  ominously  ready  for  violent  measures. 
The  consuls,  in  order  to  prevent  legislation,  pro- 
claimed a  public  holiday.'  Sulpicius  replied  by 
arming  his  followers  and  driving  the  consuls  from 
the  forum.  The  proclamation  was  withdrawn  and 
the  laws  carried,  but  Sulpicius's  triumph  was  short- 
lived. From  Nola  in  Campania,  where  lay  the 
legions  commanded  by  him  in  the  Social  War,  Sulla 
advanced  on  Rome,  and  for  the  first  time  a  Roman 
consul  entered  the  city  at  the  head  of  the  legions  of 
the  republic.  Resistance  was  hopeless.  Marius  and 
Sulpicius  fled,*  and  Sulla,  summoning  the  assembly 
of  the  centuries,  proposed  the  measures  he  considered 


'  App.,  loc,  cit,^  r^fiip^y  apyiai  leoXXdSv — a  favourite  stroke  of 
policy.  C/.  Cicero,  Ad  Q,  F,^  ii.  4,  4  :  **dies  comitiales  exemit  omnes 
•     .     .    LaiinainstauraniurttucdegrantsuppluaHatus,** 

'Marius  finally  escaped  to  Africa  (see  Marius);  Sulpicius  was 
taken  and  killed ;  App.,  i.,  60b 


Ch.i3  From  ike  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  227 

necessary  for  the  public  security,  the  most  important 
being  a  provision  that  the  sanction  of  the  senate 
should  be  necessary  before  any  proposal  was  intro- 
duced to  the  assembly/  Then,  after  waiting  in 
Rome  long  enough  to  hold  the  consular  ^  ^^u.c. 
elections,  he  left  for  Greece  early  in  87  B.C. 

Sulla  had  conquered,  but  his  victory  cost  the 
republic  dear.  He  had  first  taught  political  parti- 
sans to  look  for  final  success,  not  to  a  Mariusand 
majority  of  votes  in  the  forum  or  campus,  ^*°"'- 

but  to  the  swords  of  the  soldiery ;  and  he  had  shown 
that  the  legions,  composed  as  they  now  were,  could  be 
trusted  to  regard  nothing  but  the  commands  of  a 
favourite  leader.  The  lesson  was  well  learnt.  Shortly 
after  his  departure,  Cinna  as  consul  revived  the  pro- 
posals of  Sulpicius  * ;  his  colleague  Octavius  at  the 
head  of  an  armed  force  fell  upon  the  new  citizens 
who  had  collected  in  crowds  to  vote,  and  the  forum 
was  heaped  high  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain.*  Cinna 
fled,  but  fled  like  Sulla,  to  the  legions.  When  the 
senate  declared  him  deposed  from  his  consulship,  he 
replied  by  invoking  the  aid  of  the  soldiers  in  Cam- 
pania on  behalf  of  the  violated  rights  of  the  people 
and  the  injured  dignity  of  the  consulship,  and,  like 
Sulla,  found  them  ready  to  follow  where  he  led. 
The  neighbouring  Italian  communities,  which  had 
lost    many   citizens    in   the   recent    massacre,   sent 

'  App.,  A  C,  i.,  59 :  nrfikvBTei  diepofiovXsvrov  etf  rdv  dtfjiiov 
id(pipe6Bat.  For  the  other  laws  mentioned  by  Appian,  see  Momm- 
sen,  ii.,258. 

•  Livy.  £pit,,  Ixxix.  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  20. 

•Cic,  Pro  Sestio,  77 ;  Cdtil,,  iiu,  34. 


228  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

their  new  champion  men  and  money ' ;  while  from 
Africa,  whither  he  had  escaped  after  Sulla's  entry 
into  Rome,  came  Marius  with  one  thousand  Numid- 
ian  horsemen.  He  landed  in  Etruria,  where  his  old 
veterans  flocked  to  his  standard,  and  at  the  head  of 
some  six  thousand  men  joined  Cinna  before  the 
gates  of  Rome.  The  Senate  had  prepared  for  a 
desperate  defence,  but  fortune  was  adverse,  and 
after  a  brief  resistance  they  gave  way.  Cinna  was 
acknoweledged  as  consul,  the  sentence  of  outlawry 
passed  on  Marius  was  revoked,  and  Cinna  and  Marius 
entered  Rome  with  their  troops.  Marius's  thirst  for 
revenge  was  gratified  by  a  frightful  massacre,  and  he 
lived  long  enough  to  be  nominated  consul  for  the 
seventh  time.  But  he  held  his  consulship  only  a  few 
weeks.     Early  in  86  B.C.  he  died,  and  for 

668  A.U.C. 

the  next  three  years  Cinna  ruled  Rome. 
Constitutional  government  was  virtually  suspended. 

669  A.U.C.      For  85  B.C.  and  84  B.C.  Cinna  nominated 

670  A.U.C.  himself  and  a  trusted  colleague  as 
consuls.'  The  state  was,  as  Cicero  *  says,  without 
lawful  authority.*  One  important  matter  was  carried 
through — the  registration  in  all  the  tribes  of  the 
newly-enfranchised  Italians,*  but  beyond  this  little 


*  Tibur  and  Prseneste  especially. 

'  The  consuls  of  86,  85,  84  were  all  nominated  without  election. 
Livy,  Epit.^  Ixxx.,  Ixxxiii.  ;  App.,  i.,  75. 

*  Brut,^  227. 

^  The  nobles  had  fled  to  SuUa  in  large  numbers  ;  Velleius,  ii.,  23. 

^  This  work  was  accomplished  apparently  by  the  censors  of  86 ; 
but  cf,  LAnge,  iii.,  133 ;  Mommsen,  R,  G,^  ii.,  315 ;  Livy,  EpiU^ 
toxiv. 


Ch.l]  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  229 

was  done.  The  attention  of  Cinna  and  his  friends 
was  in  truth  engrossed  by  the  ever-present  dread  of 
Sulla's  return  from  Asia.  The  consul  of  86  B.C., 
Valerius  Flaccus,  sent  out  to  supersede  gg-  ^  „  ^ 
him,  was  murdered  by  his  own  soldiers  at 
Nicomedia.*  In  85  B.C.,  Sulla,  though  *»  •  •  • 
disowned  by  his  government,  concluded  a  peace 
with  Mithradates.'  In  84  B.C.,  after  settling  affairs 
in  Asia  and  crushing  Flaccus's  successor  Fimbria, 
he  crossed  into  Greece,  and  in  the  ^hc  return 
spring  of  83  B.C.  landed  at  Brundusium,  ^'I^b.c! 
with  forty  thousand  soldiers  and  a  large  ^  a.u.c. 
following  of  /migr/  nobles.  Cinna  was  dead,*  mur- 
dered like  Flaccus  by  his  mutinous  soldiers ;  his 
most  trusted  colleague,  Carbo,  was  commanding  as 
proconsul  in  Cisalpine  Gaul ;  and  the  resistance 
offered  to  Sulla's  advance  was  slight.  At  Capua 
Sulla  routed  the  forces  of  one  consul,  Norbanus ;  at 
Teanum  the  troops  of  the  other  went  over  in  a  body 
to  the  side  of  the  outlawed  proconsul.  After  a  win- 
ter spent  in  Campania  he  pressed  forward  to  Rome, 
defeated  the  younger  Marius  (consul  82 
B.C.)  near  Praeneste,  and  entered  the  city 
without  further  opposition.  In  North  Italy  the  suc- 
cess of  his  lieutenants  Metellus,  Cn.  Pompeius,  and 
Marcus  Crassus  had  been  fully  as  decisive.  Cisal- 
pine Gaul,  Umbria,  and  Etruria  had  all  been  won  for 
him,  and  the  two  principal  leaders  on  the  other  side, 


'  Livy,  £pit.,  Ixxxii. ;  App.,  Mithr,,  52  ;  Plut.,  Sulla^  23. 
•  Livy,  EpiL,  Ixxxiii. ;  Veil.,  ii.,  23  ;  Plut.,  Sulla,  22. 
«  In  84  ;  App.,  B.  C,  1.,  78 ;  Livy,  £^t.,  IxxxiiL 


230  Outlines  0/  Roman  History.     (Book  l¥ 

Carbo  and  Norbanus,  had  each  fled,  one  to  Rhodes, 
the  other  to  Africa.  Only  one  foe  remained  to  be 
conquered.  The  Samnites  and  Lucanians,  whom 
Cinna  had  conciliated,  and  who  saw  in  Sulla  their 
bitterest  foe,  were  for  the  last  time  in  arms,  and  had 
already  joined  forces  with  the  remains  of  the  Marian 
army  close  to  Rome.  The  decisive  battle  was  fought 
under  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  ended  in  the  com- 
plete defeat  of  the  Marians  and  Italians.' 

For  a  period  of  nearly  ten  years  Rome  and  Italy 
had  been  distracted  by  civil  wars.  Constitutional 
government,  whether  by  Senate  or  Assembly,  had 
been  in  abeyance,  while  the  opposing  parties,  fought 
out  their  quarrels  with  the  sword,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  generals  at  the  head  of  legions  ready  and 
willing  to  follow  them  against  their  fellow-citizens 
and  against  established  authorities  of  the  state.  The 
strife  had  spread  from  the  Roman  forum  to  Italy, 
and  from  Italy  to  the  provinces ;  and  for  the  first 
time  the  integrity  of  the  empire  was  threatened  by 
the  conflicts  of  rival  governors.*  The  tottering  fabric 
of  Italian  prosperity  had  been  rudely  shaken  by  the 
ravages  of  war.  Class  hatreds  and  personal  feuds 
distracted  the  community,  while  the  enfranchisement 


'  Livy,  Epit,^  Ixxxviii. :  **  Cum  Samniiibus  ante  poriam  Collinam 
debellardt"  ;  Plut.,  Sulh,  29,  and  Crassus,  6.  According  to  App., 
i.,  93,  and  Livy,  loc,  ciL,  8,000  captives  were  massacred.  Florus 
(iii.,  21)  gives  4,000.  Prseneste  surrendered,  was  razed  to  the  ground, 
and  its  population  put  to  the  sword. 

*  In  Asia  between  Sulla  and  Fimbria.  In  82  Pompey  crushed  the 
Marian  leader  Carbo  in  Africa.  In  Spain,  Q.  Sertorius  maintained 
himself  for  ten  years  (82-72). 


Ch.i]  From  the  Gracchi  to  Sulla.  231 

of  the  Italians  was  in  itself  a  revolution  which  af- 
fected the  very  foundations  of  the  republic.  Such 
was  the  situation  with  which  Sulla  was  now  called 
upon  to  deal.  It  was  for  him  to  heal  the  divisions 
which  rent  the  state  asunder,  to  set  in  work  again 
the  machinery  of  civil  government,  and,  above  all, 
so  to  modify  it  as  to  meet  the  altered  requirements 
of  the  time. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  SULLA  TO  CiGSAR-— 81-49  B.C 

The  victory  at  the  Colline  Gate  was  followed 
almost  immediately  by  the  appointment  of  the  victor 

The  dictator-  ^°  *^^  office  of  dictator.  He  was  author- 
8hip  of  Sulla,  jggjj  ^Q  enact  laws  and  resettle  the  consti- 
tution ;  he  was  given  absolute  power  of  life  and 
death  over  Roman  citizens,  and  his  previous  acts 
were  formally  ratified.*  For  the  first  time  since  the 
expulsion  of  the  kings,  Rome  was  placed  under  the 
rule  of  a  single  man."  Dangerous  as  the  experiment 
was,  the  state  of  affairs  justified  Sulla's  plain  intima- 
tion to  the  senate  that  no  other  course  was  pos- 
sible. The  real  charge  against  Sulla  *  is  not  that  he 
failed  to  accomplish  a  permanent  reconstruction  of 
the  republican  constitution,  for  to  do  so  was  be- 
yond the  powers  even  of  man  so  able,  resolute, 
and    self-confident    as    Sulla,    armed    though     he 

'  App.,  B,  C,  i.,  98 :  hnl  Si6et  vofitov  xal  xara6Ta6st  rifi 
leoXtrela?.  Cic,  Zex  Agr,,  i.,  15:  **Zfjf,  ut  dictator  quern  veUet 
civium  impune  posset  occidere** ;  tb,  iii.,  2  :  **  ut  omnia  guaeunque 
tile  fecisset  esseni  rata"     Comp.  Plut.,  SulL^  33. 

*  App.,  B,  C,  i.,  98. 

'  Compare  especially  Mommsen's  brilliant  chapter,  which  is,  how* 
ever,  too  favourable  (ii.,  335-377),  and  also  Lange  (iii.,  144  sq,), 
where  most  of  the  special  literature  on  the  SuUan  legislation  is  given. 

232 


Ch.  2]  From  SuUa  to  Casar.  233 

was  with  absolute  authority,  and  backed  by  over- 
whelming   military    strength    and   the    prestige  of 
unbroken  success.     He  stands  convicted  rather  of 
deliberately  aggravating  some  and  culpably  ignoring 
others  of  the  evils  he  should  have  tried  to  cure,  and 
of  contenting  himself  with  a  party  triumph  when  he 
should  have  aimed  at  the  reorganisation   and  con- 
firmation of  the  whole  state.    By  the  next  generation 
the  '*  reign  of  Sulla  **  was  associated,  not  with  the 
restoration  of  order  and  constitutional  government, 
but  with  bloodshed,   violence,  and  audacious   ille- 
gality.    His  victory  was  instantly  followed,  not  by 
any  measures  of  conciliation,  but  by  a  series  of  mas- 
sacres, proscriptions,  and  confiscations,  of  gfl^^^^f  the 
which    almost    the   least   serious   conse-      suUanpro- 

Bcriptions. 

quence   was  the  immediate   loss  of  life 
which  they  entailed.'     From  this  time  forward  the 
fear  of  proscription  and  confiscation  recurred  as  a 
possible  consequence  of  every  political  crisis,  and  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  Caesar  himself  dissipated  the 
belief  that  his  victory  would  be  followed  by  a  SuUan 
reign  of  terror.  The  legacy  of  hatred  and  discontent 
which  Sulla  left  behind  him  was  a  constant  source  of 
disquiet  and  danger.     In  the  children  of  the  pro- 
scribed, whom  he  excluded  from  holding  office,  and 
the   dispossessed   owners  of  the  confiscated  lands, 
every  agitator  found  ready  and  willing  allies."     The 

'  App.,  I.,  95  sq.  ;  Dio  Cassius,  /r.  109  ;  Plut..  SuUa,  31.  The 
number  of  the  proscribed  is  given  as  4.700  (Valer.  Max.),  including, 
according  to  Appian,  2,600  members  of  the  equestrian  order. 

^E.  g,,  Catiline,  in  63  ;  SaU.,  Cat,,  21,  37.  For  the  **  Hberipro. 
scrtptorum;'  see  Velleius.  ii.,  a8. 


234  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  IV 

moneyed  men  of  the  equestrian  order  were  more 
than  ever  hostile  to  the  senatorial  government, 
which  they  now  identified  with  the  man  who  cher* 
ished  towards  them  a  peculiar  hatred/  and  whose 
creatures  had  hunted  them  down  like  dogs.  The 
attachment  which  the  new  Italian  citizens  might  in 
time  have  learnt  to  feel  for  the  old  republican  con- 
stitution was  nipped  in  the  bud  by  the  massacres  at 
Praeneste  and  Norba,  by  the  harsh  treatment  of  the 
ancient  towns  of  Etruria,  and  by  the  ruthless  desola- 
tion of  Samnium  and  Lucania.'  Quite  as  fatal  were 
the  results  to  the  economic  prosperity  of  the  penin- 
sula. Sulla's  confiscations,  following  on  the  civil  and 
social  wars,  opened  the  doors  wide  for  a  long  train 
of  evils.  The  veterans  whom  he  planted  on  the 
lands  he  had  seized  *  did  nothing  for  agriculture,  and 
swelled  the  growing  numbers  of  the  turbulent  and 
discontented.*  The  "  SuUan  men  "  became  as  great 
an  object  of  fear  and  dislike  as  the  **  SuUan  reign."  ' 
The  latifundia  increased  with  startling  rapidity — 
whole  territories  passing  into  the  hands  of  greedy 
partisans.*  Wide  tracts  of  land,  confiscated,  but 
never  allotted,  ran  to  waste/    In  all  but  a  few  dis- 


'  Cic,  Pro  Clueni.,  151. 

*Cic.,  Phil,^  v.,  43:  ''^  tot  muniapiorum  maxima  caiamitates,*' 
Cic,  Pro  Domo,  30 ;  Cic,  AdAtt,,  i.,  19  ;  Floras,  iii.,  21 ;  Strabo, 
p.  223,  254. 

'  Livy,  E^t,,  Ixzxix. ;  App.,  B,  C,  i.,  loo ;  Cic,  Catii,^  ii.,  2a 

^  Sail.,  Cat.,  28. 

'  Cic,  Z^x  Agr.,  ii.,  26. 

*  Cic,  Lex  Agr.^  ii.,  26,  28  ;  iii.,  2, — ^the  territoriet  of  Praeneste 
and  of  the  Hirpini. 

'  Cic,  Lix  Agr.,  ii.,  27  ;  iii.,  3, 


Ch.2]  From  Sulla  to  Casar.  235 

tricts  of  Italy  the  free  population  disappeared  from 
the  open  country ;  and  life  and  property  were  ren- 
dered   insecure    by    the     brigandage    which    now 
developed  unchecked,  and  in  which  the  herdsman 
slaves  played  a  prominent  part.    The  out- 
breaks of  Spartacus  in  73,  and  of  Catiline 
ten  years  later,  were  significant  commentaries   on 
this  part  of  Sulla's  work.*     His  constitu- 
tional legislation,  while  it  included  many     tionaUegU^ 
useful  administrative  reforms,  was  marked         **^uu»f 
by  as  violent  a  spirit  of  partisanship,  and 
as  apparently  wilful  a  blindness  to  the  future.     The 
re-establishment  on  a  legal  basis  of  the  ascendency 
which  custom  had  so   long  accorded  to  the  senate 
was  his  main  object.      With  this  purpose  he  had 
already,  when  consul  in  88  B.C.,  made  the  senatus 
auctoritas  legally  necessary  for  proposals 
to  the  assembly.     He  now  as  dictator " 
followed  this  up  by  crippling  the  power   of    the 
magistracy,    which    had    been    the    most  effective 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  senate's  opponents.  The 
legislative  freedom   of   the   tribunes    was    already 
hampered  by  the  necessity  of  obtaining  the  senate's 
sanction ;   in    addition,   Sulla  restricted  their  wide 
powers  of  interference  (intercessio)  to  their  original 
purpose  of  protecting  individual  plebeians,*  and  dis- 

*  See  especially  Cicero's  oration  Pro  Tullio»  YGt  the  pastores  of 
Apulia,  Sail.,  CaU^  28. 

'  For  Sulla's  dictatorship  as  in  itself  a  novelty,  see  App.,  !.,  98  t 
Plut.,  Sulla^  33  ;  Cic,  Ad  Ait,  ^  9,  15  ;  Cic,  De  Legg.,  i.,  I5« 

•Cic,  De  JLegg<,  iii.,  22:  **  injuria  facienda  potestatem  ademii 
auxilii  ferendi  reliquii**  €/•  Cic,  Verr,^  I.,  60 ;  Livy,  Epii.^ 
Izzzix. 


236  Outlines  0/  Raman  History.      tBook  IV 

credited  the  office  by  prohibiting  a  tribune  from 
holding  any  subsequent  magistracy  in  the  state.' 
The  control  of  the  courts  (questiones  perpettUB)  was 
taken  from  the  equestrian  order  and  restored  to  the 
senate.'  To  prevent  the  people  from  suddenly  in- 
stalling  and  keeping  in  high  office  a  second  Marius, 
he  re-enacted  the  old  law  against  re-election,*  and 
made  legally  binding  the  custom  which  required  a 
man  to  mount  up  gradually  to  the  consulship  through 
the  lower  offices.*  His  increase  of  the  number  of 
praetors  from  six  to  eight,*  and  of  quaestors  to 
twenty,*  though  required  by  administrative  neces- 
sities, tended,  by  enlarging  the  numbers  and  further 
dividing  the  authority  of  the  magistrates,  to  render 
them  still  more  dependent  upon  the  central  direction 
of  the  senate.  Lastly,  he  replaced  the  pontifical 
and  inaugural  colleges  in  the  hands  of  the  senatorial 

'  Cic,  Pro  Cornel,  fr»,  78;  Ascon.,  In  Com.,  78;  App.,  i., 
100. 

*  Velleius,  ii.,  32  ;  Tac,  Ann.,  xi.,  22  ;  Cic,  Vierr,,  i,,  13. 
•App.,  B.   C,  i.,  100;   c/,  Livy,  vii.,  42  (342  b.c.)  :  **  ne  quU 

eundem  magistraium  intra  decern  annos  caper ei,^* 

^  The  custom  had  gradually  established  itself.  Cf,  Livy,  xxxii.,  7. 
The  certus  ordo  magistratum  legalised  by  Sulla  was — quaestorship, 
prsetorship,  consulate  ;  App.,  i.,  100. 

*  Pompon.,  De  Orig,  Juris  {Dig.,  i.,  2,  2) ;  Velleius,  ii.,  89. 
Compare  also  Cicero,  In  Pison,,  15,  with  Id.  Pro  Milone,  15.  The 
increase  was  connected  with  his  extension  of  the  system  of  quasHones 
perpetuct,  which  threw  more  work  on  the  praetors  as  the  magistrates 
in  charge  of  the  courts. 

*  Tac.,  Ann,,  xi.,  22.  The  qusestorship  henceforward  carried  with 
it  the  right  to  be  called  up  to  the  Senate.  By  increasing  the  number 
of  quaestors  Sulla  provided  for  the  supply  of  ordinary  vacancies  in  the 
Senate  and  restricted  the  censors'  freedom  of  choice  in  filling  them 
up.  Fragments  of  the  ''Zsx  Cornelia  de  XX  qtiastoribus"  survive. 
See  C.  /.  Z.,  i.,  108. 


Ch.  21  From  Sulla  to  Gbsot.  237 

nobles,  by  enacting  that  vacancies  in  them,  should, 
as  before  the  Lex  Domitia  (104  B,C.),  be 
filled  up  by  co-optation.*  This  policy  of 
deliberately  altering  the  constitution,  so  as  to  make 
it  pronounce  in  favour  of  his  own  party,  was  open 
to  two  grave  objections.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  the  new  legal  safeguards  would  protect  the 
senate  any  more  efficiently  than  the  established  cus- 
tom and  tradition  which  the  Gracchi  had  broken 
down ;  and,  secondly,  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
popular  party  would  on  the  first  opportunity  follow 
Sulla's  example,  and  alter  the  constitution  to  suit 
themselves.  Still  less  was  Sulla  successful  in  forti- 
fying the  republican  system  against  the  dangers 
which  menaced  it  from  without.  He  accepted  as 
an  accomplished  fact  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
Italians,  but  he  made  no  provision  to  guard  against 
the  consequent  reduction  of  the  cotnitia  to  an 
absurdity,  and  with  them  of  the  civic  government 
which  rested  upon  them,*  or  to  organise  an  effective 

'  Dio  Cass.,  xxxviL,  37  ;  Ps.  Ascon.«  loa  (Orelli).  He  also  in- 
creased their  numbers ;  Livy,  EpiL,  Ixxxix. 

'  He  did  propose  to  deprive  several  communities  which  had  joined 
Cinna  of  the  franchise,  but  the  deprivation  was  not  carried  into  effect ; 
Cic,  Pro  Domo^  30,  and  Pro  Cacina^  33,  35.  The  inadequacy  of 
the  comitia,  as  representative  of  the  real  poptUus  Romanus^  was  in- 
creased by  the  unequal  manner  in  which  the  new  citizens  had  been 
distributed  among  the  old  thirty-five  tribes.  Though  each  tribe  had 
one  vote  and  no  more,  in  some  cases  the  tribe  represented  only  a 
small,  thinly-populated  district  of  the  Campagna,  with  the  addition 
of  one  or  two  outlying  Italian  communities,  in  others  it  included 
large  and  populous  territories.  Mommsen,  Siaatsr,^  3,  187;  Hermes ^ 
22,  loi  sqq^  Moreover,  since,  at  the  latest,  22u  B.C.,  the  "  tribe  ** 
had  been  the  basis,  not  only  of  the  eonHHum  pUHsy  but  of  iihteomitia 
ccnturiata. 


238  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     tBook  IV 

administrative  system  for  the  Italian  communities.' 
Of  all  men,  too,  Sulla  had  the  best  reason  to  appre- 
ciate the  dangers  to  be  feared  from  the  growing 
independence  of  governors  and  generals  in  the  pro- 
vinces, and  from  the  transformation  of  the  old  civic 
militia  into  a  group  of  professional  armies,  devoted 
only  to  a  successful  leader,  and  with  the  weakest 
possible  sense  of  allegiance  to  the  state.  He  had 
himself,  as  proconsul  of  Asia,  contemptuously  and 
successfully  defied  the  home  government,  and  he, 
more  than  any  other  Roman  general,  had  taught  his 
soldiers  to  look  only  to  their  leader,  and  to  think 
only  of  booty."  Yet,  beyond  a  few  inadequate  regu- 
lations, there  is  no  evidence  that  Sulla  dealt  with 
these  burning  questions,  the  settlement  of  which  was 
among  the  greatest  of  the  achievements  of  Augustus.* 

^  There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Sulla's  legislation  touched  at 
all  upon  municipal  government  in  Italy ;  cf,  Mommsen,  ii.,  361  sq. 
The  first  general  municipal  law  was  the  Lex  Julia  of  Caesar,  45  B.C. 
The  necessary  resettlement  of  the  local  constitutions  after  the  social 
war  was  possibly  carried  out  by  commissioners  sent  from  Rome  **  ut 
ei  Uges  in  munuipto  fundano  dareV*  (Lex.  Jul.  159,  Bruns.  p.  113). 
The  fragment  of  a  municipal  law  found  at  Tarentum  is  probably  a 
specimen  of  such  "  leges  data,**    See  Ephetn,  Epig,^  Ix.,  i. 

*  Sail.,  Cat,  ii.  :  *'  L,  Sulla  exercitum^  quo  stbi  fidum  facer et^  con- 
tra morem  majorum  luxuriose  nimisque  liberaliter  habuerat,^* 

•  There  was  a  '*  iJrjf  Cornelia  de  provinciis  ordinandis,'*  but  only 
two  of  its  provisions  are  known  : — (i)  that  a  magistrate  sent  out  with 
the  imperium  should  retain  it  till  he  re-entered  the  city  (Cic.  Ad 
Fam,,  i.,  9,  25),  a  provision  which  increased  rather  than  diminished 
his  freedom  of  action  ;  (2)  that  an  outgoing  governor  should  leave  his 
province  within  thirty  days  after  his  successor's  arrival  (Cic,  Ad 
Fam,^  iii,,  6,  4).  A  "Zfjc  Cornelia  de  majestate**  contained,  it  is 
true,  a  definition  of  treason  evidently  framed  in  the  light  of  recent 
experience.  The  magistrate  was  forbidden  **  exire  de  provincial 
educere  exercitum^  bellum  sua  sponte  ge  rere^  in  regnum  injussu pcpuli 
ac  senaius  accedere"  Cic,  In  Pis,,  21.  Sulla  also  added  pne  more  to 
the  long  list  of  laws  dealing  with  extortion  in  the  provinces.    But  the 


Ch.  2]  From  StUla  to  Qesar.  239 

This  omission  on  his  part  was  the  more  serious  since 
one  undoubted  result  of  Sulla's  reign  was  to  bring 
the  idea  of  the  rule  of  one  man  within  the  range  of 
practical  politics.  The  desire  to  play  the  Sulla,  to 
do  what  Sulla  had  done,  was  at  least  attributed  to 
M.  iEmilius  Lepidus,  to  Pompey,  and  to  Cssar,  and 
Sulla's  example  gave  a  new  and  dangerous  turn  to 
the  personal  ambition  of  powerful  nobles.*  One  ad- 
ministrative reform  of  real  importance  must,  lastly, 
be  set  down  to  his  credit.     The  judicial 

6qs  AUG 

procedure  first  established  in  149  B.C.  for 
the  trial  of  cases  of  magisterial  extortion  in  the  pro- 
vinces, and  applied  between  149  B.C.  and 
81  B.C.  to  cases  of  treason  and  bribery,  ifS"5? 

Sulla  extended  so  as  to  bring  under  it 
the  chief  criminal  offences,  and  thus  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Roman  criminal  law.* 


danger  lay,  not  in  the  want  of  laws,  but  in  the  want  of  security  for 
their  observance  by  an  absolutely  autocratic  proconsul.  I  cannot 
agree  with  those  who  would  include  among  Sulla's  laws  one  retaining 
consuls  and  praetors  in  Rome  for  their  year  of  office  and  then  sending 
them  out  to  a  province.  This  was  becoming  the  common  practice 
before  8i.  After  8i  it  was  invariable  for  prsetors,  as  needed  for 
judicial  work,  and  invariable  but  for  two  exceptions  in  the  case  of 
consuls  ;  nowhere,  however,  is  there  a  hint  that  there  had  been  any 
legislation  on  the  subject,  and  there  are  indications  that  it  was  con- 
venience and  not  law  which  maintained  the  arrangement.  Mommsen, 
ii..  355  ;  Marquardt,  Staaisverw,,  i.,  378.  Compare  also  Cic,  Ad 
Ait,  8,  15  :  ''  consules  quibus  more  majorum  concessum  est^  velomnes 
ctdire provincias.**  Ibid,,  Phil,,  4,9,  **  j»  consults  jure  etimperio 
omnes  debent  esse  prordncia,** 

*  Cic,  Ad  Att,,  8,  11:  ** genus  illud  SuUani  regni  pridem  ap- 
petitur^* ;  ib,^  9,  10:  **  quam  crebro  illud,  Sulla  potuit,  ego  non 
potero    .     .     .     ita  sullaturit  animus  ejus." 

*  For  this,  the  most  lasting  of  Sulla's  reforms,  see  Mommsen,  ii., 
359;  Rein,  Criminal- Rec ht ;  Zumpt,  Crimhial-Prozess  d,  R$mer ; 
Greenidge,  Legal  Procedure  of  Cicero* s  Time,  pp.  415  x^. 


240  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  iv 

The  Sullan  system  stood  for  nine  years,  and  was 
then  overthrown — as  it  had  been  established — by  a 

successful  soldier.  It  was  the  fortune  of 
of  the  Sullan  Cn.  Pompcius,  a  favourite  officer  of  Sulla, 
70  B.C.       '  first  of  all  to  violate  in  his  own  person  the  1 

fundamental  principles  of  the  constitution  ' 

re-established  by  his  old  chief,  and  then  to  overturn 
it.  In  Spain  the  Marian  governor  Q.  Sertorius  had 
defeated  one  after  another  of  the  proconsuls  sent 
out  by  the  senate,  and  was  already  in  JJ  B.C.  master 

of  all  Hither  Spain.      To  meet  the  crisis, 

the  senate  itself  took  a  step  which  was  in 
fact  the  plainest  possible  confession  that  the  system 
sanctioned  afresh  by  Sulla  was  inadequate  to  the 
needs  of  the  state.  Pompey,  who  was  not  yet 
thirty,  and  had  never  held  even  the  quaestorship, 
was  sent  to  Spain  with  proconsular  authority.*    Still 

Sertorius  held  out,  until,  in  73  B.C.,  he  was 

68x  A.U.C.  f         i  o  J 

foully  murdered  by  his  own  officers.    The 
native  tribes  who  had  loyally  stood  by  him  sub- 
mitted, and  Pompey  early  in  71   B.C.  re- 
turned  with  his  troops  to  Italy,  where, 
during  his  absence  in  Spain,  an  event  had  occurred 
Rising  of       which   had   shown    Roman   society   with 
spartacus.     startling  plainness   how  near  it  stood  to 
revolution.     In  73  B.C.  Spartacus,*  a  Thracian  slave 
escaped  with  seventy  others  from  a  gladi- 

68x  A.U.C.  r  y  o 

ators'  training-school  at  Capua.  In  an 
incredibly  short  time  he  found  himself  at  the  head 


'  Plut.,  Pomp.^  17  ;  Livy,  Epit.,  xci. 

'  App.,  i.,  116 ;  Livy,  Epit,^  xcv.  ;  Plut.,  Crass,,  8  sq. 


Ch.2]  From  SuUa  to  Casar.  241 

of  a   numerous   force   of  runaway  slaves,  outlaws, 

brigands,  and  impoverished  peasants.     By  the  end 

of  73  B.C.  he  had  seventy  thousand  men  under  his 

command,  had   twice  defeated   the  Roman  troops, 

and  was  master  of  southern  Italy.     In  72 

B.C.  he  advanced  on  Rome,  but,  though 

he  again  routed  the  legions  led  against  him  by  the 

consuls  in  person,  he  abandoned   his  scheme   and 

established   himself  in   the   now  desolate   country 

near  Thurii,  already  the  natural  home  of  brigandage. 

At  length,  in  71  B.C.,  the  praetor  Crassus, 

who  had  been  sent  against  him  with  no 

less  than  six  legions,  ended  the  war.     Spartacus  was 

defeated  and  slain  in  Apulia. 

In  Rome  itself  the  various  classes  and  parties 
hostile  to  the  Sullan  system  had,  ever  The  fir»t  con- 
smce  Sulla  s  death  m  78  B.C.,  been  m-  Pompey. 
cessantly  agitating  for  the  repeal  of  his  ^t^a.u.c. 
most  obnoxious  laws,  and  needed  only  a  leader  in 
order  successfully  to  attack  a  government  discredited 
by  failure  at  home  and  abroad.  With  the  return  of 
Pompey  from  Spain  their  opportunity  came.  Pom- 
pey, who  understood  politics  as  little  as  Marius,  was 
anxious  to  obtain,  what  the  senate  was  more  than 
likely  to  refuse  to  give  him,  and  what  he  was  not 
legally  entitled  to,  a  triumph,  the  consul- 
ship for  the  next  year  (70  B.C.),  and  as  the 
natural  consequence  of  this  an  important  command 
in  the  East.  The  opposition  wanted  his  name  and 
support,  and  a  bargain  was  soon  struck.  Pompey, 
and   with  him    Marcus   Crassus,  the   conqueror   of 

Spartacus,  were  elected  consuls,  almost  in  presence 
16 


242  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  iv 

of  their  troops,  which  lay  encamped  outside  the 
gates  in  readiness  to  assist  at  the  triumph  and 
ovation  granted  to  their  respective  leaders.  Pompey 
lost  no  time  in  performing  his  part  of  the  agreement. 
The  tribunes  regained  their  prerogatives.'  The 
''  perpetual  courts  "  were  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  senatorial  judices^  who  had  outdone  the  eques- 
trian order  in  scandalous  corruption,'  and  finally  the 
censors,  the  first  since  86  B.C.,  purged  the  senate  of 
the  more  worthless  and  disreputable  of  Sulla's  par- 
tisans.* The  victory  was  complete;  but  its  chief 
significance  for  the  future  lay  in  the  clearness  with 
which  it  showed  that  the  final  decision  in  matters 
political  lay  with  neither  of  the  two  great  parties  in 
Rome,  but  with  the  holder  of  the  military  authority. 
The  tribunes  of  the  plebs  were  no  longer,  as  the 
Gracchi  had  been,  political  leaders.  The  most 
prominent  and  active  of  them,  Gabinius,  Manilius, 
Clodius,  and  the  younger  Curio,  were  little  more 
than  the  lieutenants  of  this  or  that  great  military 
leader,  using  their  recovered  powers  to  thwart  his 
opponents  in  the  senate,  or  to  carry  measures  on  his 

'  The  exact  provisions  of  Pompey's  law  are  nowhere  given  ;  Livy., 
^iV.,  xcvii. :  **  tribuniciam  potestatem  resHtuerunt"  Cf,  Velleitts, 
ii.,  30.  A  lex  Aurelia,  in  75  B.C.,  had  already  repealed  the  law  dis- 
qualifying a  tribune  for  further  office  ;  Cic,  Com,,  ir.  78. 

'  This  was  the  work  of  L.  Aurelius  Cotta,  praetor  in  this  year.  The 
judices  were  to  be  taken  in  equal  proportions  from  senators,  equiUs, 
and  tribuni  ararii.  For  the  latter,  and  for  the  law  generally,  see 
Madvig,  Verf,,  i.,  182,  ii.,  222  ;  Lange,  R,  Alt,,  iii.,  193.  Com- 
pare also  Cicero*s  language.  In  Verr.,  i.,  i,  15.  The  prosecution  of 
Verres  shortly  preceded  the  lex  Aurelia. 

*  Livy,  Epit,,  xcviii.  Sixty-four  senators  were  expelled.  Cf. 
Plut.,  Pomp,,  22  ;  Cic.  In  Verr,,  i.,  i,  15. 


Ch.  2]  From  StUla  to  Casar.  243 

behalf  through  the  assembly.  The  change  was  fatal 
to  the  dignity  of  politics  in  the  city.  In  proportion 
as  the  mass  of  the  Roman  community  in  Italy,  and 
able  aspirants  to  power,  like  Caesar,  became  con- 
scious of  the  unreality  of  the  old  constitutional 
controversies,  they  became  indifferent  to  the  ques- 
tions which  agitated  the  forum  and  the  curia^  and 
contemptuously  ready  to  alter  or  disregard  the  con- 
stitution itself,  when  it  stood  in  the  way  of  interests 
nearer  to  their  hearts.  Of  this  growing  indifference 
to  the  traditional  politics  of  the  republic,  against 
which  Cicero  struggled  in  vain,  Pompey  is  an  excel- 
lent example.  He  was  absolutely  without  interest  in 
them,  except  in  so  far  as  they  led  up  to  important 
military  commands,  and,  though  he  was  never  rev- 
olutionary in  intention,  his  own  career,  in  its  quiet 
defiance  of  all  the  established  rules  of  the  consti- 
tution, did  almost  more  than  the  direct  attacks 
of  others  to  render  the  republic  impossible. 

When  his  consulship  ended,  Pompey  impatiently 
awaited  at  the  h^nds  of  the  politicians 
he  had  befriended  the  further  gift  of  a  ^"SSuta 
foreigjn  command.    He  declined  an  ordin-  **^^' 

ary  province,  and  from  the  end  of  70  B.C.  to  67  B.C. 
he  remained  at  Rome  in  a  somewhat  affec- 
tedly dignified  seclusion.*  But,  as  before 
in  the  case  of  Marius,  a  crisis  abroad  now  opened  the 
way  to  the  gratification  of  his  ambition,  and  the  popu- 
lar party  were  enabled  at  once  to  thwart  the  senate, 
and  to  reward  their  champion  by  measures  for  which 


'  VeUeitts,  ii.  31 ;  Plut.,  Pomp,^  23. 


244  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  IV 

the  safety  of  the  empire  could  be  pleaded  as  a  justi- 
fication. The  ravages  of  the  Cilician  pirates,  encour- 
agedy  in  the  first  instance,  by  the  inactivity  which 
had  marked  Roman  policy  in  the  East  after  167  B.C., 
and  by  the  absence  of  any  effective  Roman  navy  in 
the  Mediterranean,  had  now  risen  to  an  intolerable 
height,  and  the  spasmodic  efforts  made  since  81  B.C. 
had  done  little  to  check  them.  The  trade  of  the 
Mediterranean  was  paralysed,  and  even  the  coasts  of 
Italy  were  not  safe  from  their  raids.'  Aulus  Gabinius, 
a  tribune,  and  a  follower  of  Pompey,  now 
proposed  (67  B.C.)  to  the  people  to  intrust 
Pompey  with  the  sole  command  against  the  pirates.* 
His  command  was  to  last  for  three  years.  He  was  to 
have  supreme  authority  over  all  Roman  magistrates 
in  the  provinces  throughout  the  Mediterranean  and 
over  the  coasts  for  fifty  miles  inland.  Fifteen  legati^ 
all  of  prastorian  rank,  were  assigned  to  him,  with 
two  hundred  ships,  and  as  many  troops  as  he  thought 
desirable.  These  powers  were  still  further  enlarged  in 
the  next  year  by  the  Manilian  law  (66  B.c.) 
which  transferred  from  LucuUus  and  Gla- 
brio  to  Pompey  the  conduct  of  the  Mithridatic  war  in 
Asia,  and  with  it  the  entire  control  of  Roman  policy 
and  interests  in  the  East.'  The  unrepublican  char- 
acter of  the  position  thus  granted  to  Pompey,  and 
the  dangers  of  the  precedent  established,  were  clearly 
enough  pointed  out  by  such  moderate  men  as  Q. 
Lutatius  Catulus,  the  *•*•  father  of  the  senate,"  and 

'  See  the  brilliant  sketch  by  Mommsen,  R,  G,^  iii.  39  sq, 

'  Plut.,  Pomp,^  25  ;  Dio  Cassius,  xxxvi.  6 ;  Livy,  Epii,,  c. 

'  Cic.  Pro  Lege  AfaniHa;  Dio  Cassius,  xxxvi.  25 ;  Pint.,  Po/hp,,  30. 


Ch.  2]  From  Sulla  to  Casar.  245 

by  the  orator  Hortensius ;  but  in  vain.  Both  laws 
were  supported,  not  only  by  the  tribunes  and  the 
populace,  but  by  the  whole  influence  of  the  publi- 
cant  and  negotiatoreSj  whose  interests  in  the  East 
were  at  stake. 

Pompey  left  Rome  in  67  B.C.,  and  did  not  return 
to  Italy  till  towards  the  end  of  62  B.C.  c«tar 

The  interval  was  marked  in  Rome  by  a?&.^ 
the  rise  to  political  importance  of  Caesar 
and  Cicero,  and  by  Catiline's  attempt  at  revolution. 
When  in  70  B.C.  the  removal  of  the  restric-  ^  ^  ^  ^ 
tions  placed  upon  the  tribunate  restored  to 
the  popular  party  their  old  weapons  of  attack,  Caesar 
was  already  a  marked  man.  In  addition  to  his  patri- 
cian birth,  and  his  reputation  for  daring  and  ability, 
he  possessed,  as  the  nephew  of  Marius  and  the  son- 
in-law  of  Cinna,  a  strong  hereditary  claim  to  the 
leadership  of  the  popular  and  Marian  party.  He  had 
already  taken  part  in  the  agitation  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  tribunate ;  he  had  supported  the  Manilian 
law ;  and,  when  Pompey's  withdrawal  left  the  field 
clear  for  other  competitors,  he  stepped  at  once  into 
the  front  rank  on  the  popular  side.'  He  took  upon 
himself,  as  their  nearest  representative,  the  task  of 
clearing  the  memory  and  avenging  the  wrongs  of  the 
great  popular  leaders,  Marius,  Cinna,  and  Saturninus. 
He  publicly  reminded  the  people  of  Marius's  ser- 
vices, and  set  up  again  upon  the  Capitol  the  trophies 

*  Professor  Beesly,  in  his  essay  on  Catiline,  has  vainly  endeavoured 
to  show  that  Catiline  and  not  Caesar  was  the  popular  leader  from  67  to 
63  B.C.  That  this  is  the  inference  intentionally  conveyed  by  Sallust, 
in  order  to  screen  Caesar,  is  true,  but  the  inference  is  a  false  one. 


246  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

of  the  Cimbric  war.  He  endeavoured  to  bring  to 
justice,  not  only  the  ringleaders  in  Sulla's  bloody 
work  of  proscription,  but  even  the  murderers  of 
Satuminus,  and  vehemently  pleaded  the  cause  of 
the  children  of  the  proscribed.  While  thus  carrying 
on  in  genuine  Roman  fashion  the  feud  of  his  family, 
he  attracted  the  sympathies  of  the  Italians  by  his 
efforts  to  procure  the  Roman  franchise  for  the  Latin 
communities  beyond  the  Po,  and  won  the  affections  of 
the  populace  in  Rome  and  its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood by  the  splendour  of  the  games  which  he  gave 
as  curule  aedile  (65  B.C.),  and  by  his  lavish 
expenditure  upon  the  improvement  of  the 
AppianWay.  But  it  is  characteristic  of  Caesar  and  of  his 
time  that  these  measures  were  with  him  only  means 
to  the  further  end  of  creating  for  himself  a  position 
such  as  that  which  Pompey  had  already  won ;  and 
this  ulterior  aim  he  pursued  with  a  skill  and  with  an 
audacious  indifference  to  constitutional  forms  and 
usages  unsurpassed  even  by  Sulla.  His  coalition 
with  Crassus,  soon  after  Pompey's  departure,  se- 
cured him  an  ally  whose  colossal  wealth  and  wide 
financial  connections  were  of  inestimable  value,  and 
whose  vanity  and  inferiority  of  intellect  rendered  him 
680  A.  u  c.  a  willing  tool.  The  story  of  his  attempted 
coup  d^^tat  in  January  65  B.C.  is  probably 
false,*  but  it  is  evident  that  by  the  begin- 
ning of  63  B.C.  he  was  bent  on  reaping  the  reward 
of  his  exertions  by  obtaining  from  the  people  an 

'  The  story  is  so  told  by  Suetonius  i^Jul,  8).  In  Sallust  (CaL,  i8), 
it  appears  as  an  Intrigue  originating  with  Catiline,  and  Caesar's  name 
is  onitted. 


Ch.2]  From  Sulla  to  Casar.  247 

extraordinary  command  abroad,  which  should  secure 
his  position  before  Pompey's  return ;  and  the  agrarian 
law  proposed  early  in  that  year  by  the  tribune  Rul- 
lus  had  for  its  real  object  the  creation,  in  favour  of 
Csesar  and  Crassus,  of  a  commission  with  powers  so 
wide  as  to  place  its  members  almost  on  a  level  with 
Pompey  himself.'  It  was  at  this  moment,  when  all 
seemed  going  well,  that  Caesar's  hopes  were  dashed 
to  the  ground  by  Catiline's  desperate  outbreak, 
which  not  only  discredited  every  one  connected  with 
the  popular  party,  but  directed  the  suspicions  of  the 
well-to-do  classes  against  Caesar  himself,  as  a  possible 
accomplice  in  Catiline's  revolutionary  schemes.' 

The  same  wave  of    indignation    and    suspicion 
which  for  the  moment  checked  Caesar's 

Cicero. 

rise  carried  Marcus  TuUius  Cicero  to  the 
height  of  his  fortunes.  Cicero,  as  a  politician,  has 
been  equally  misjudged  by  friends  and  foes.  That 
he  was  deficient  in  courage,  that  he  was  vain,  and 
that  he  attempted  the  impossible,  may  be  admitted 
at  once.  But  he  was  neither  a  brilliant  and  unscrupu- 
lous adventurer  nor  an  aimless  trimmer,  nor  yet  a 
devoted  champion  merely  of  senatorial  ascendency.* 


^  Cic,  Lex,  Agr,^  ii.,  6:  **  nihil  aUud  actum  nisi  ui  tUcem  rege* 
consHtuerentur,  ** 

'  That  Caesar  and  Crassus  had  supported  Catiline  for  the  consulship 
in  64  B.C.  is  certain,  and  they  were  suspected  naturally  enough  of  fa- 
vouring his  designs  in  63  B.C.,  but  their  complicity  is  in  the  highest 
d^;ree  improbable. 

'  Mommsen  is  throughout  unfair  to  Cicero,  as  also  are  Drumann, 
and  Professor  Beesly.  The  best  estimates  of  Cicero's  political  posi- 
tion known  to  me  are  those  given  by  Professor  Tyrrell  in  the  Intro- 
duction to  his  edition  of  Cicero's  Letters^  and  by  Mr.  Strachaa 
Davidson  in  his  recent  volume  on  Cicero. 


248  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

He  was  a  representative  man,  with  a  numerous  fol- 
lowing, and  a  policy  which  was  naturally  suggested 
to  him  by  the  circumstances  of  his  birth,  connec- 
tions, and  profession,  and  which,  impracticable  as  it 
proved  to  be,  was  yet  consistent,  intelligible,  and 
high-minded.  Bom  at  Arpinum,  he  cherished,  like 
all  Arpinates,  the  memory  of  his  great  fellow-towns- 
man  Marius,  the  friend  of  the  Italians,  the  saviour 
of  Italy,  and  the  irreconcilable  foe  of  Sulla  and  the 
nobles.  A  municipal  himself,  his  chosen  friends 
and  his  warmest  supporters  were  found  among  the 
well-to-do  classes  in  the  Italian  towns.'  Unpopular 
with  the  Roman  aristocracy,  who  despised  him  as 
a  peregrinus^  and  with  the  Roman  populace,  he 
was  the  trusted  leader  of  the  Italian  middle  class, 
"  the  true  Roman  people,"  as  he  proudly  styles 
them.  It  was  they  who  carried  his  election  for  the 
6qx  a.u.c.  consulship  *  (63  B.C.),  who  in  58  B.C.  in- 
6g6  A.u.c.  sisted  on  his  recall  from  exile,*  and  it  was 
his  influence  with  them  which  made  Caesar  so 
anxious  to  win  him  over  in  49  B.C.  He 
represented  their  antipathy  alike  to 
socialistic  schemes  and  to  aristocratic  exclusiveness, 
and  their  old-fashioned  simplicity  of  life  in  contrast 
with  the  cosmopolitan  luxury  of  the  capital.*  By 
birth,  too,  he  belonged  to  the  equestrian  order,  the 
foremost  representatives  of  which  were  indeed  still 
the  publicani  and  negotiatareSy  but  which,  since  the 

'  Cic,  Ad  AiL^  i.,  491  :  **  locupletes  .   .  .  noster  exgrciius,** 

*  Cic,  Pro  Sulla^  7  ;  Sail.,  Cat.^  31  :  *'  inquilinus  urbis  Roma  J* 

*  See  the  De  Petiiione  Consulatusy  passim. 

*  De  Domo,  28  ;  Pro  Plancio,  97. 

*  Cic,  Pro  Quinciio,  31  \  Pro  Cluentio,  46,  153. 


Ch.  21  From  Sulla  to  Ccesar.  249 

enfranchisement  of  Italy,  included  also  the  sub- 
stantial burgesses  of  the  Italian  towns  and  the 
smaller  "squires"  of  the  country  districts.  With 
them,  too,  Cicero  was  at  one  in  their  dread  of  demo- 
cratic excesses  and  their  social  and  political  jealousy 
of  the  nobiles?  Lastly,  as  a  lawyer  and  a  scholar  he 
was  passionately  attached  to  the  ancient  constitu- 
tion. His  political  idea  was  the  natural  outcome  of 
these  circumstances  of  his  position.  He  advocated 
the  maintenance  of  the  old  constitution,  but  not  as 
it  was  understood  by  the  extreme  politicians  of  the 
right  and  left.  The  senate  was  to  be  the  supreme 
directing  council,*  but  the  senate  of  Cicero's  dreams 
was  not  an  oligarchic  assemblage  of  nobles,  but  a 
body  freely  open  to  all  citizens,  and  representing  the 
worth  of  the  community.*  The  magistrates,  while 
deferring  to  the  senate's  authority,  were  to  be  at 
once  vigorous  and  public-spirited  ;  and  the  assembly 
itself  which  elected  the  magistrates  and  passed  the 
laws  was  to  consist,  not  of  the  "  mob  of  the  forum," 
but  of  the  true  Roman  people  throughout  Italy.* 
For  the  realisation  of  this  ideal  he  looked,  above  all 
things,  to  the  establishment  of  cordial  relations  be- 
tween the  senate  and  nobles  in  Rome  and  the  great 
middle  class  of  Italy  represented  by  the  equestrian 
order,  between  the  capital  and  the  country  towns 
and  districts.  This  was  the  concordia  ordinuniy  the 
consensus  Italia  for  which  he  laboured.*     He  failed 


*  Cic,  In  Ver,^  ii.,  73  ;  De  Pet,  Cans,,  i.     He  shared  with  them 
their  dislike  to  Sulla,  as  the  foe  of  their  order  ;  Pro  CluenHo^  55. 

'  De  Rep,^  ii.,  36  ;  De  Legg,y  iii.,  12. 

*  Pro  SesHo^  65  ;  De  Legg,^  iii.,  4. 

*  Pro  Sestio,  49.  »  Ad  Ait.,  i.,  18. 


250  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Bookiv 

because  his  ideal  was  impracticable.  The  inveterate 
selfishness  and  exclusiveness  of  the  nobles,  the  in- 
difference of  the  Italians  to  constitutional  questions, 
and  their  suspicious  dislike  of  Roman  politicians, — 
above  all,  the*  incompetency  of  the  old  machinery, 
even  if  reformed  as  he  would  have  had  it  reformed, 
to  govern  the  empire  and  control  the  pro-consuls 
and  the  army,  were  insuperable  obstacles  in  his  way. 
Cicero's  election  to  the  consulship  for  63  B.C.,  over 
the  heads  of  Caesar's  nominees,  Antonius  and  Cati- 
line, was  mainly  the  work  of  the  Italian 

The  con- 

spiracy  of       middle  class,  already  rendered  uneasy  both 
53^;^.  by  the  rumours  which  were  rife  of  revolu- 

691  A.U.C.  / 

tionary  schemes  and  of  Caesar's  boundless 
ambition,  and  by  the  numerous  disquieting  signs 
of  disturbance  noticeable  in  Italy.  The  new  consul 
vigorously  set  himself  to  discharge  the  trust  placed 
in  him.  He  defeated  the  insidious  proposals  of 
Rullus  for  Caesar's  aggrandisement,  and  assisted  in 
quashing  the  prosecution  of  Rabirius.  But  with  the 
consular  elections  in  the  autumn  of  63  B.C.  a  fresh 
danger  arose  from  a  different  quarter.  The  "  con- 
spiracy *  of  Catiline  "  was  not  the  work  of  the  popu- 
lar party,  and  still  less  was  it  an  unselfish  attempt  at 
reform  ;  L.  Sergius  Catilina  himself  was  a  patrician, 
who  had  held  high  office,  and  possessed  considerable 
ability  and  courage ;  but  he  was  bankrupt  in  char- 
acter and  in  purse,  and  two  successive  defeats  in  the 

'  For  Catiline's  conspiracy,  see  Sallust,  Catiline;  Cicero,  In 
Catilinam ;  Plut.,  Cicero;  Mommsen,  R,  C7.,  iii.,  164  sq,;  and 
especially  C.  John,  EntsUhung  d,  CoHUnarischen  Verschworuug 
(Leipzig,  1876). 


Ch.2]  From  Sulla  to  Casar.  251 

consular  elections  had  rendered  him  desperate.  To 
retrieve  his  broken  fortunes  by  violence  was  a  course 
which  was  only  too  readily  suggested  by  the  history 
of  the  last  forty  years,  and  materials  for  a  conflagra- 
tion abounded  on  all  sides.  The  danger  to  be  feared 
from  his  intrigue  lay  in  the  state  of  Italy,  which 
made  a  revolt  against  society  and  the  established 
government  only  too  likely  if  once  a  leader  presented 
himself,  and  it  was  such  a  revolt  that  Catiline  en- 
deavoured to  organise.  Bankrupt  nobles  like  him- 
self, Sullan  veterans  and  the  starving  peasants  whom 
they  had  dispossessed  of  their  holdings,  outlaws  of 
every  description,  the  slave  population  of  Rome,  and 
the  wilder  herdsmen-slaves  of  the  Apulian  pastures, 
were  all  enlisted  under  his  banner,  and  attempts 
were  even  made  to  excite  disaffection  among  the 
newly  conquered  peoples  of  southern  Gaul  and  the 
warlike  tribes  who  still  cherished  the  memory  of 
Sertorius  in  Spain.  In  Etruria,  the  seat  and  centre 
of  agrarian  distress  and  discontent,  a  rising  actually 
took  place  headed  by  a  Sullan  centurion,  but  the 
spread  of  the  revolt  was  checked  by  Cicero's  vigor- 
ous measures.  Catiline  fled  from  Rome,  and  died 
fighting  with  desperate  courage  at  the  head  of  his 
motley  force  of  old  soldiers,  peasants,  and  slaves. 
His  accomplices  in  Rome  were  arrested,  and,  after 
an  unavailing  protest  from  Caesar,  the  senate  author- 
ised the  consuls  summarily  to  put  them  to  death. 

The  Catilinarian  outbreak  had  been  a  blow  to 
Caesar,  whose  schemes  it  interrupted.  To  Cicero, 
however,  it  brought  not  only  popularity  and  honour, 
but,  as  he  believed,  the  realisation  of  his  political 


25^  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  IV 

ideal.  The  senate  and  the  equestrian  order,  the 
nobles  of  Rome,  and  the  middle  class  in  the  country 
had  made  common  cause  in  the  face  of  a  common 
danger;  and  the  danger  had  been  averted  by  the 
vigorous  action  of  a  consul  sprung  from  the  people, 
under  the  guidance  of  a  united  senate,  and  backed 
by  the  mass  of  good  citizens. 

But  Pompey  was  now  on  his  way  home  after  suc- 
cesses more  brilliant  and  dazzling  than  had  fallen  to 
the  lot  of  any  Roman  general  since  the 

Return  of  _  n         i        < 

Pompey  great  wars.  In  a  marvellously  short  space 
of  time  he  had  freed  the  Mediterranean 
from  the  Cilician  pirates,  and  established  Roman 
authority  in  Cilicia  itself.  He  had  crushed  Mithri- 
dates,  added  Syria  to  the  list  of  Roman  provinces, 
and  led  the  Roman  legions  to  the  upper  Euphrates 
and  the  Caspian.  Once  more,  as  in  70  B.C.,  the  politi- 
cal future  seemed  to  depend  on  the  attitude  which 
the  successful  general  would  assume ;  Pompey  him- 
self looked  simply  to  the  attainment  by  the  help  of 
one  political  party  or  another  of  his  immediate  aims, 
which  at  present  were  the  ratification  of  his  arrange- 
ments in  Asia  and  a  grant  of  land  for  his  troops.  It 
was  the  impracticable  jealousy  of  his  personal  rivals 
in  the  senate,  aided  by  the  versatility  of  Caesar,  who 
presented  himself  not  as  his  rival,  but  as  his  ally, 
which  drove  Pompey  once  more,  in  spite  of  Cicero's 
Coalition  of  ^^0^^^,  into  the  camp  of  what  was  still 
caSaT  and  nominally  the  popular  party.  In  60  B.C., 
to  B*c'*  ^^  Caesar's  return  from  his  propraetorship 
694  A.u.c.  jj^  Spain,  the  coalition  was  formed  which 
is  known  by  the  somewhat  misleading  title  of  the 


Ch,2]  From  Sulla  to  Casar.  253 

first  triumvirate.*  Pompey  was  ostensibly  the  head 
of  this  new  alliance,  and  in  return  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  his  own  demands  he  undertook  to  support 
Caesar's  candidature  for  the  consulship.  The  wealth 
and  influence  of  Crassus  were  enlisted  in  the  same 
cause,  but  what  he  was  to  receive  in  exchange  is  not 
clear.  Cicero  was  under  no  illusions  as  to  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  coalition.  It  scattered  to  the  winds 
his  dreams  of  a  stable  and  conservative  republic. 
Pompey,  whom  he  had  hoped  to  enlist  as  the  cham- 
pion of  constitutional  government,  had  been  driven 
into  the  arms  of  Caesar.  The  union  between  the 
senate  and  the  equestrian  order  had  been  dissolved, 
and  the  support  of  the  publicani  lost  by  an  untimely 
quarrel  over  the  price  to  be  paid  for  collecting  the 
taxes  of  Asia,  and,  to  crown  all,  both  his  own  per- 
sonal safety  and  the  authority  of  the  senate  were 
threatened  by  the  openly  avowed  intentions  of 
Catiline's  friends  to  bring  the  consul  of  63  B.C.  to 
account  for  his  unconstitutional  execution 
of  Catiline's  accomplices.  His  fears  were 
fully  justified  by  the  results.  The  year  59  B.C.  saw 
the  republic  powerless  in  the  hands  of 
three  citizens.  Caesar  as  consul  procured 
the  ratification  of  Pompey's  acts  in  Asia,  con- 
ciliated the  publicani  by  granting  them  the  relief 
refused  by  the  senate,  and  carried  an  agrarian  law 
of  the  new  type,  which  provided  for  the  purchase  of 
lands  for  allotment  at  the  cost  of  the  treasury,  and 

'  Misleading,  because  the  coalition  was  unofficial.  The  *' tri- 
umvirs" of  43  B.C.  were  actual  magistrates:  "niviW  reipublUcs 
c(msHtuendtg  €ama," 


254  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     [Book  IV 

for  the  assignment  of  the  rich  ager  Campanus.^ 
But  Caesar  aimed  at  more  than  the  carrying  of  an 
agrarian  law  in  the  teeth  of  the  senate  or  any  party 
victory  in  the  forum.  An  important  military  com- 
mand was  essential  to  him,  and  he  judged 
g>mmand  in  correctly  cnough  that  in  the  West  there 
was  work  to  be  done  which  might  enable 
him  to  win  a  position  such  as  Pompey  had  achieved 
in  the  East.  An  obedient  tribune  was  found,  and 
by  the  lex  Vatinia  he  was  given  for  five  years  the 
command  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  and  lUyricum,  to  which 
was  added,  by  a  decree  of  the  senate,  Transalpine 
Gaul  also.*  It  was  a  command  which  not  only 
opened  to  him  a  great  military  career,  but  enabled 
him,  as  the  master  of  the  valley  of  the  Po,  to  keep 
an  effective  watch  on  the  course  of  affairs  in  Italy. 

Early  the  next  year  the  attack  upon  himself  which 

Cicero  had  foreseen  was  made.  P.  Clodius  as  tribune 

brought  forward  a  law  enacting  that  any 

and  recall  of  one  who  had  put  a  Roman  citizen  to  death 

Cicero.  ^ 

g-57B.c.  without  trial  by  the  people  should  be  in- 
terdicted from  fire  and  water.  Cicero,  find- 
ing himself  deserted  even  by  Pompey,  left  Rome  in  a 
panic,  and  by  a  second  Clodian  law  he  was  declared 
to  be  outlawed.*    With  Caesar  away  in  his  province, 

'  For  the  lex  yulia  agraria  and  the  Ux  Campana,  see  Dio  Cass., 
xxxviii.,  I ;  App.,  B,  C,  ii.,  lo;  Suet.,  Casar,  20;  Cic,  ad  Att.^ 
ii.,  16,  18. 

'  Sttet.,  Casar,  22 ;  Dio  Cass.,  xxxviii.,  8 ;  App.,  B,  C,  ii.,  13; 
Plat.,  Cos.,  14. 

'  Both  laws  were  carried  in  the  condUum  plebis.  The  first 
merely  reaffirmed  the  right  of  appeal,  as  the  law  of  Gaius  Gracchus 
had  done.    The  second  declared  Cicero  to  be  already  by  his  own  act 


Ch.2]  From  SuUa  to  Casar.  255 

and  Cicero  banished,  Clodius  was  for  the  time  mas- 
ter in  Rome.  But,  absolute  as  he  was  in  the  streets, 
and  recklessly  as  he  parodied  the  policy  of  the 
Gracchi  by  violent  attacks  on  the  senate,  his  tribu- 
nate merely  illustrated  the  anarchy  which  now  inevi- 
tably followed  the  withdrawal  of  a  strong  controlling 
hand.  A  reaction  speedily  followed.  Pompey,  be- 
wildered and  alarmed  by  Clodius's  violence,  at  last 
bestirred  himself.  Cicero's  recall  was  decreed  by  the 
senate,  and  early  in  August  57  B.C.,  in  the 
comitia  centuriatUy  to  which  his  Italian 
supporters  flocked  in  crowds,  a  law  was  passed  re- 
voking the  sentence  of  outlawry  passed  upon  him. 

Intoxicated  by  the  acclamations  which  greeted 
him,  and  encouraged  by  Pompey's  support,  and  by 
the  salutary  effects  of  Clodius's  excesses,  Renewal  of 
Cicero's  hopes  rose  high,  and  a  return  to  tion*!*56^Bx' 
the  days  of  63  B.C.  seemed  not  impossible.*  ^  a.u.c. 
With  indefatigable  energy  he  strove  to  reconstruct  a 
solid  constitutional  party,  but  only  to  fail  once  more. 
Pompey  was  irritated  by  the  hostility  of  a  powerful 
party  in  the  senate,  who  thwarted  his  desires  for  a 
fresh  command,  and  even  encouraged  Clodius  in  in- 
sulting the  conqueror  of  the  East.  Caesar  became 
alarmed  at  the  reports  which  reached  him  that  the 
repeal  of  his  agrarian  law  was  threatened,  and  that 

in  leaving  Rome  *'  interdicted  from  fire  and  water," — a  procedure  for 
which  precedents  could  be  quoted.  Clodius  kept  within  the  letter  of 
the  law. 

'  Cicero's  speech  Pro  Sesiio  gives  expression  to  these  feelings  ;  it 
contains  a  passionate  appeal  to  all  good  citizens  to  rally  round  the  old 
constitution.  The  acquittal  of  Sestius  confirmed  his  hopes.  See  Ad 
Q.  Fr,t  ii.,  4. 


256  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  IV 

the   feeling  against   the  coalition  was   growing   in 
strength ;  above  all,  he  was  anxious  for  a  renewal  of 
his  five  years*  command.     He  acted  at  once,  and  in 
the  celebrated    conference    at    Luca  ($6 
B.C.)  the  alliance  of  the  three  self-consti- 
tuted rulers  of   Rome  was  renewed.      Cicero  sue- 
cumbed  to  the  inevitable,  and  withdrew  in  despair 
from  public  life.     Pompey  and  Crassus  became  con- 
suls  for  55  B.C.     Caesar's  command  was 
renewed  for  another   five  years,  and  to 
each  of  his  two  allies  important  provinces  were  as- 
signed for  a  similar  period— Pompey  receiving  the 
two  Spains  and  Africa,  and  Crassus  Syria."     The 
coalition  now  divided  between  them  the  control  of  the 
empire.     For  the  future  the  question  was,  how  long 
the  coalition  itself  would  last.     Its  duration  proved 
Death  of        ^^  ^^  short.     In  $3  B.C.  Crassus  was  de- 
»  Bx!'*        feated  and  slain  by  the  Parthians  at  Car- 
701A.U.C.      yjjgg^  j^jjj  jyj  Rome  the  course  of  events 

slowly  forced  Pompey  into  an  attitude  of  hostility 
to  Caesar.  The  year  54  B.C.  brought  with 
it  a  renewal  of  the  riotous  anarchy  which 
had  disgraced  Rome  in  58-57  B.C.  Conscious  of  its 
own  helplessness,  the  senate,  with  the  eager  assent 
of  all  respectable  citizens,  dissuaded  Pompey  from 
leaving  Italy.  His  provinces  were  left  to  his  legates, 
and  he  himself  remained  at  home  to  maintain  order 
by  the  weight  of  his  influence.  It  was  a  confession 
that  the  republic  could  not  stand  alone.     But  Pom- 


'  Livy,  Epit,^  cv.;  Dio  Cass.,  xxxix.,  31.     For  Cicero's  views,  see 
Ep,  ad Fam,^  i.,  9  ;  Ad  AiU^  iv.,  5, 


Ch.  21  From  Sulla  to  desar.  257 

pey's  mere  presence  proved  insufficient.  The  anarchy 
and  confusion  grew  worse,  and  even  strict  constitu- 
tionalists like  Cicero  talked  of  the  necessity  of  in- 
vesting Pompey  with  some  extraordinary  powers  for 
the  preservation  of  order.*  At  last,  in  52  pompeysoie 
B.C.,  he  was  elected  sole  consul ;  and  not  ^^.c.* 

only  so,  but  his  provincial  command  was  '^  a.u.c. 
prolonged  for  five  years  more,  and  fresh  troops  were 
assigned  him.*  The  rile  of  "saviour  of  society" 
thus  thrust  upon  Pompey  was  one  which  flattered 
his  vanity,  but  it  entailed  consequences  which  it  is 
probable  he  did  not  foresee,  for  it  brought  him  into 
close  alliance  with  the  senate,  and  in  the  senate  there 
was  a  powerful  party  who  were  resolved  to  force 
him  into  heading  the  attack,  they  could  not  success- 
fully make  without  him,  upon  Caesar.  It  was  known 
that  the  latter,  whose  command  expired 

TO*  A  U  C 

in  March  49  B.C.,  but  who  in  the  ordinary 

course  of  things  would  not  have  been  replaced  by 

his  successor  until  January  48  B.C.,  was 

anxious  to  be  allowed  to  stand  for  his 

second  consulship  in  the  autumn  of  49  B.C.  without 

coming  in  person  to  Rome.*     His  opponents  in  the 


'  A  dictatorship  was  talked  of  in  Rome;  Plut.,  Pomp,\  54;  Cic. 
ad  Q,  Fr.^  iii.,  8.  Cicero  himself  anticipated  Augustus  in  his  picture 
of  a  princeps  eivitatis  sketched  in  a  lost  book  of  the  Dt  Republican 
written  about  this  time,  which  was  based  upon  his  hopes  of  what 
Pompey  might  prove  to  be;  AdAtt,^  viii.,  11 ;  August.  De  Civ.  Dei^ 

v.,  13. 

'  Plut.,  56;  App.,  B,  C,  ii.,  24. 

'  For  the  rights  of  the  question  involved  in  the  controversy  between 
Caesar  and  the  senate,  see  Mommsen,  Rechtsfrage  zw.  Cctsar  and  d. 
Senat;  Guiraud,  Le  Diffirend  entre  Cisar  et  le  Sinat  (Paris,  1878). 


258  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBookiv 

senate  were  equally  bent  on  bringing  his 

TciLa         command  to  an  end  at  the  legal  time,  and 

so  obliging  him  to  disband  his  troops  and 

stand  for  the  consulship  as  a  private  person,  or,  if 

he  kept  his  command,  on  preventing  his  standing 

for  the  consulship.    Through  5 1  B.C.  and 

50  B.C.  the  discussions  in  the  senate  and 

the  negotiations  with  Caesar  continued,  but  with  no 

result.     On  ist  January,  49  B.C.,  Caesar 

made  a  last  offer  of  compromise.    The 

senate  replied  by  requiring  him  on  pain  of  outlawry 

to  disband  his  legions.  Two  tribunes  who  supported 

him  were  ejected   from  the  senate-house,  and  the 

magistrates  with   Pompey  were  authorised  to  take 

c«sar  Grosses  "^^asures  to  protect  the  republic.     Caesar 

«  Bfc.**'*^**"*  hesitated  no  longer ;  he  crossed  the  Rubi- 

705  A.u.c.      ^Qj^  ^j^  J  invaded  Italy.  The  rapidity  of  his 

advance  astounded  and  bewildered  his  foes.  Pom- 
pey, followed  by  the  consuls,  the  majority  of  the 
senate,  and  a  long  train  of  nobles,  abandoned  Italy 
as  untenable,  and  crossed  into  Greece.'  At  the 
end  of  March  Caesar  entered  Rome  as  the  master 
of-  Italy. 

*  Cicero  severely  censures  Pompey  for  abandoning  Italy,  but  strate- 
getically  the  move  was  justified  by  the  fact  that  Pompey's  strength 
lay  in  the  East,  where  his  name  was  a  power,  and  in  his  control  of  the 
sea.  Politically,  however,  it  was  a  blunder,  as  it  enabled  Caesar  to 
pose  as  the  defender  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EMPIRE  DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  REVOLUTION. 

The  external  history  of  Rome  during  the  period 
covered  by  the  two  preceding  chapters  forms  an 
instructive  commentary  on  the  course  of  domestic 
politics.  The  inadequacy  of  the  old  machinery  to 
administer  successfully  the  affairs  of  an  empire  was 
amply  proved  by  the  repeated  disasters  for  which  the 
incapacity  or  inexperience  of  the  Roman  generals 
was  mainly  responsible,  by  the  insurrections  which 
the  exactions  of  Roman  officials  provoked^  and  by 
the  financial  exhaustion  which  maladministration 
produced  even  in  such  wealthy  provinces  as  Sicily 
and  Asia.  On  the  other  hand,  the  policy  which  the 
popular  leaders  favoured  as  a  ready  means  of  thwart- 
ing the  senate,  that  of  concentrating  a  wide  executive 
authority  in  the  hands  of  a  single  man  specially 
designated  by  vote  of  the  people,  was  justified  by 
the  brilliant  achievements  of  Marius,  Pompey,  and 
Caesar.  At  the  same  time,  the  position  which  such 
men  were  thus  enabled  to  attain  was  fraught  with 
danger,  not  only  to  senatorial  ascendency,  and  to  the 
system  of  divided  authority,  and  changing  magis- 
trates bound  up  with   it,  but  equally  so   to  the 

S$9 


26o  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     tBook  IV 

supremacy  of  the  popular  assembly  which  had  made, 
but  could  not  unmake,  its  powerful  favourites. 

The  circumstance  that  one  of  the  two  great  parties 
in  the  state  was  thus  always  ready,  for  its  own  pur- 
poses, to  set  aside  the  rules  and  restrictions  of  the 
old  system,  and  to  give  the  freest  possible  hand  to 
the  men  of  its  choice,  helps  to  explain  the  fact  that 
it  was  during  this  period  of  domestic  conflict,  and  I 

even  of  civil  war,  that  the  high-water  mark  of  Roman  , 

advance  was  reached.    With  the  nations  outside  i 

who  confronted  her  during  the  next  four  centuries, 
with  the  Germans  on  the  north,  and  with  Parthia  on 
the  east,  Rome  was  brought  face  to  face  by  the 
conquests  of  Caesar  in  Gaul  and  of  Pompey  in 
Asia. 

Between  Rome  and  the  Germans  at  the  opening 
of  this  period  lay  the  Keltic  tribes,  extending  as  they 
Rome  and  ^id  in  an  almost  unbroken  line  from  the 
ciL^piM*  Atlantic  to  the  Danube.  Over  the  Kelts 
^•"**  nearest  at  hand,  in  the  plains  of  North 

Italy,  Roman  supremacy  was  already  established, 
and  in  this  district,  apart  from  petty  wars  provoked 
by  the  raids  of  the  highland  Alpine  tribes,  or  by  the 
eagerness  of  Roman  nobles  to  earn  a  triumph,'  there 
is  nothing  to  record  but  a  steady  progress  in  civili- 
sation and  prosperity,  which  made  Cisalpine  Gaul  in 
the  time  of  Cicero  the  most  populous  and  thriving 
part  of  the  Italian  peninsula.*     South  of  the  Po,  not 

'  Cic,  In  Pison,^  26,  of  L.  Crassus  (consul  95  B.C.) :  ••  spectdis prope 
scrutaius  esiAlpes^  ut  uH  hostis  non  erat^  iH  triumphi  causam  aU^uam 
quarerei" 

'  Cic,  AdAU.^  i„  I ;  FkU^t  "•»  30« 


Ch.  3]     The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    261 

only  a  Roman  civilisation,  but  even  a  Roman  popu- 
lation must  have  been  firmly  established  before  the 
Social  war.  Along  the  line  of  the  Via  ^Emilia, 
running  from  Ariminum  westward,  lay  five  great 
colonies,  Bononia,  Mutina,  Parma,  Placentia,  and 
Cremona,'  all  founded  between  218-184  B.C.,  while 
farther  to  the  west  was  Dertona,*  on  the  road  leading 
southward  to  Genoa.  To  the  colonies  must  be  added 
not  only  the  fora^  established  by  Roman  magis- 
trates as  centres  for  traffic,  and  for  the  administration 
of  justice,*  but  the  numerous  settlements  of  Roman 
citizens  up  and  down  the  country,  with  their  charac- 
teristically euphemistic  names,  Industria,  Faventia, 
Pollentia,  Fidentia,  Valentia,  Florentia.  The  con- 
struction of  the  first  Roman  road,  the  Via  iCmilia, 
now  as  then  the  great  thoroughfare  through  the 
valley  of  the  Po,  had  been  followed  by  that  of  others, 
such  as  those  running  along  the  coast  past  Genoa  to 
the  Maritime  Alps,  and  northward  from  Genoa 
through  the  heart  of  the  Ligurian  highlands  to  Der- 
tona  * ;  north  of  the  Po,  there  were  besides  Cremona 


1  Cremona  lay  north  of  the  Po,  but  was  founded  at  the  same 
time  as  Placentia  (218  B.C.),  and  as  part  of  the  same  scheme  of 
defence. 

*  The  date  of  the  foundation  of  Dertona  is  uncertain  ;  Mommsen 
connects  it  with  the  construction  of  the  Via  Postumia  (148  B.C.),  Corf, 
/.  LaU^  v.,  p.  831. 

'  They  bear,  as  a  rule,  the  name  of  the  consul  or  proconsul  who 
established  them,  ^.  ^.,  Forum  Cornelii,  Forum  Livii,  etc. 

*  The  Via  iSmilia  from  Ariminum  to  Placentia  was  made  in  187 
B.C.  by  the  consul  M.  iEmilius  Lepidus.  The  Via  Postumia  (Sp. 
Postumius  Albinus,  cons.  148  B.c.)  ran  from  Placentia  by  Dertona  to 
Genoa.     M.  iEmilius  Scaurus  (censor  109  B.C.)  carried  a  second  Via 


262  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     tBook  l\» 

only  two  colonies,  Aquileia  and  Eporedia/  and  the 
traces  of  Roman  settlements  are  comparatively  slight. 
But  the  Keltic  tribes  in  this  region  were  being  rap- 
idly Romanised.  The  old  cantonal  organisation 
with  its  open  villages  was  breaking  down.  Old  tribal 
centres,  such  as  Mediolanium,"  were  becoming  large 
towns,  and  rapidly  superseding  the  tribes  as  the 
political  divisions  of  the  country.  How  great  the 
advance  had  been  was  shown  by  the  fact  that,  when 
in  89  B.C.  the  Roman  franchise  was  granted 
to  the  Cispadane  communities,  the  Trans- 
padanes  received  Latin  rights,  and  only  twenty 
years  later  were  fully  enfranchised.*  It  was  appar- 
ently by  Sulla,  in  81  B.C.,  that  the  whole 
of  Cisalpine  Gaul  was  formed  into  a  prov- 
ince with  a  proconsul  of  its  own.*  The  reasons  for 
the  step  are  probably  to  be  found  in  the  increasing 
administrative  needs  of  a  populous  region,  and  still 
more  in  its  military  importance  as  a  frontier  district. 
But  the  policy  of  the  step  was  doubtful.  The  pro- 
consul of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  wielding  the  autocratic 
authority  of  a  provincial  governor,  and  backed  not 
only  by  his  leg^ions,  but  by  the  great  resources  in 


Emilia  from  the  end  of  the  Via  Aurelia  at  Volaterrae,  past  Genoa  to 
Vada  Sabbata  ;    C,  /.  Z.,  v.,  p.  885. 

'  Aquileia  founded  184  B.C.,  to  protect  the  eastern  frontier.  Epo- 
redia  founded  lOO  B.C.,  in  the  extreme  north-west. 

'  The  '*  caput  gentis  '*  of  the  Insubres  ;  Polyb.,  ii.,  34  :  xvptoora" 

'  The  grant  of  the  **jus  Latii"  was  due  to  Cn.  Pompeius  Strabo, 
father  of  Pompey  the  Great ;  Ascon,  In  jPis,,  p.  3  (Orelli).  The 
Roman  franchise  was  given  in  49  B.C.  by  Caesar  ;  Dio  Cass.,  xli.,  36 

^Mommsen.  J^om,  Gesch,,  ii.,  371. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    263 

men  *  and  money  which  his  province  possessed,  was, 
as  Caesar  showed,  a  dangerous  neighbour. 
As  had  so  often  happened  elsewhere,  it     The  Trans- 

,    t  •J  r      -  r^        1        -a.     alphine Kelts: 

was  a  request  for  aid  from  a  Greek  city  snnexstion 
that  first  brought  Rome  into  collision  with  ^  °**gsui° 
the  Kelts  beyond  the  Alps.  .  Among  the  oldest  and 
most  faithful  of  the  allies  of  Rome  was  the  Phocsan 
colony  of  Massilia.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be 
in  the  tradition  which  dated  the  alliance  from  the 
time  of  Tarquinius  Priscus,  it  is  certain  that  from 
the  close  of  the  first  Piinic  war  onwards  it  was  close 
and  intimate.*  For  not  only  had  Rome  and  Massilia 
a  common  interest  in  checking  the  raids  of  Ligurian 
free-booters  and  pirates,  but  from  the  moment  when 
Rome  acquired  an  interest  in  Spain,  and  still  more 
after  the  formation  of  the  two  Spanish  provinces 
(107  B.C.),  Massilia  became  of  the  first  im- 

^    ^'  ^  ^  r  f  .    .  657A.U.C. 

portance  to  Rome  from  her  position  on 
the  route  to  Spain.     Roman  governors  on  their  way 
to  or  from  their  province  found  a  welcome  there,* 
and  the  powerful  aid  of  Rome  was  several  times  in- 
voked by  the  Massiliots  ag^ainst  their  Ligurian  neigh- 
bours.*    It  was,  however,  not  until   125 
B.C.  that  Rome  intervened  decisively  and 
effectually  in  Transalpine  affairs.     By  that  time  the 


^  In  58  B.C.  Caesar  was  able  in  a  few  days  to  raise  two  legions  in 
Gallia  Cisalpina  ;  Cses.,  B.  G,,  i.,  lo,  24. 

'  Herzog.,  Ga//,  Narbonensis^  pp.  37-42  (Leipzig,  1864). 

'  Livy,  xxxvii.,  57  and  xlii.,  4. 

*  In  154  B.C.  a  Roman  force  under  the  consul  Opimius  was  sent  to 
punish  the  Oxubii  and  Decietse,  who  had  attacked  Antipolis  and 
Nicsea  ;  Polyb.,  xxxiii.  5  ;  Livy,  EpiU^  xlvii. 


264  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  IV 

Ligurian  tribes  on  the  Italian  side  of  the  Alps  had 
been  thoroughly  subdued.  Roman  roads  had  been 
carried  through  the  Ligurian  highlands.  Roman 
settlements  have  been  planted  on  Ligurian  terri- 
tory, and  Roman  supremacy  extended  to  the  ver}' 
frontiers  of  southern  Gaul.  The  immediate  object 
of  the  expedition,  headed  by  Marcus  Fulvius  Flaccus 
^  i.  T,  ,,     (consul  125),  the  chastisement  of  the  Sal- 

039  A*  u.  c. 

luvii,  a  Ligurian  tribe  occupying  the  high- 
lands above  Massilia,  of  whose  raids  the  Massiliots 
had  complained,'  was  easily  effected  by  Flaccus,  and 
by  his  successor,  C.  Sextius  Calvinus,  who  finally 
defeated  the  Salluvii  in  123  B.C.,  and  estab- 
lished  on  the  site  of  the  old  tribal  strong- 
hold a  Roman  military  post,  afterwards  famous  as 
Aquae  Sextiae.* 

But  the  area  of  the  war  rapidly  extended  to  the 
neighbouring  Keltic  tribes.  The  Vocontii,  immedi- 
ately to  the  north,  and  in  the  rear  of  the  Salluvii, 
had  been  reduced  by  Flaccus.*  Beyond  the  Vocon- 
tii lay  the  AUobroges,  and  with  them  and  with 
their  powerful  patrons,  the  Arvemi,  across  the 
Rhone,*  an  ^excuse  for  war  was  found  in  the  raids 


*  Livy,  EpiUy  Ix. ;  Florus,  iii.  2.  For  the  geographical  position 
and  nationality  of  the  Salluvii,  see  Desjardins,  La  Gaule  Romaine^  i., 
pp.  65  sqq» 

'  Livy,  EpiU^  Ixi.  The/dw/J  records  a  triumph  of  Fluvius  in  123 
B.C.,  and  of  Sextius  in  122  B.C.  The  statement  of  Livy *s  epitomater, 
*^  Coloniam  Aquas  Sexiias  candidit"  is  probably  a  blunder.  See 
Herzog.,  Gall,  Narh,^  p.  50. 

'  Flaccus  triumphed  **  de  Vocontiis" 

*  Tac,  Ann,^  xi.,  25.  For  the  feud  between  the  Arvemi  and 
iEdui,  see  Caesar,  B,  (7.,  i.,  31. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revdulion.     265 

which  they  continued  to  make  upon  the  territory  of 
their  ancient  rivals,  the  iEdui,  now  the  allies  of 
Rome,  and  in  the  shelter  given  to  the  fugitive  king 
of  the  Salluvii.'  The  struggle  was  short  and  deci- 
sive.    In   121   B.C.  the  consul,  Q.  Fabius   ,    ,  „  ^ 

'     ^  633  A.  U.  C. 

Maximus,  defeated  the  united  forces  of 
the  two  tribes  at  the  confluence  of  the  Isfcre  and  the 
Rhone.*  The  Allobroges  at  once  submitted,  and  in 
the  next  year  a  second  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the 
proconsul,  Cn.  Domitius  Ahenobarbus,  broke  the 
spirit  of  the  Arvemi.'  The  victory  was  apparently 
followed  by  the  submission  to  Rome  of  the  tribes 
lying  between  the  Arverni  and  the  coast  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rhone,  over  whom,  as  over  the  Allobroges, 
the  Arverni  had  previously  claimed  suzerainty.*  It 
is  significant  of  the  importance  which  Rome  attached 
to  this  conquest,  that  she  proceeded  at  once  to  lay 
foundations  of  a  regular  provincial  organisation.*  No 
precise  settlement  of  the  bounds  of  the  new  province 
seem  to  have  been  attempted,  and  the  limits  of  the 
territory  now  brought  within  Rome's  "sphere  of 
influence  "  can  only  be  roughly  traced.     The  main 

'  Livy,  EpiUy  Ixi. ;  Floras,  iii.,  2. 

«  Pliny,  H.  N.,  vii.,  51  ;  Livy,  i?/»V..  Ixi. 

'  It  seems  clear  that  Fabius's  victory  on  the  Isire  preceded  that  of 
Domitius.     See  the  note  in  Herzog.,  Gall,  Narb,^  p.  46. 

*  The  most  important  of  these  tribes  were  the  Helvii,  the  Volcae 
Arecomici,  and  the  Volcse  Tectosages,  no  conquest  of  whom  is  men- 
tioned, but  all  of  whom  were  included  in  the  new  province.  Herzog. 
/.  c, 

'  The  settlement  of  the  new  territory  was  intrusted  to  Cn.  Domitius, 
who  remained  in  southern  Gaul  for  two  years  more.  He  celebrated 
his  triumph  at  Rome  in  218  B.C.     Mommsen,  H,  G,,  ii.,  163. 


266  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     iBook  i  v 

portion  of  it  lay  eastward  of  the  Rhone,  and  extended 
from  the  sea^oast  along  the  left  bank  of  that  river  to 
the  northernmost  limits  of  the  territory  of  the  Allo- 
broges  and  the  lake  of  Geneva,  while  to  the  east  it 
was  separated  from  Cisalpine  Gaul  by  the  still  unsub- 
dued tribes  of  the  Maritime  and  Cottian  Alpsf.  Be- 
yond the  Rhone  it  included  the  coast-land  as  far  as 
the  Pyrenees,  and  stretched  inland  to  the  foot  of 
the  Cevennes,  and  to  the  southern  borders  of  the 
Arverni.  That  this  territory  was  now  placed  under 
the  command  of  a  resident  Roman  proconsul  may 
be  taken  for  granted,  but  how  much  was  effected  for 
the  internal  organisation  of  the  province  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say.'  The  position  of  Massilia,  as  an  inde- 
pendent ally,  remained  technically  unaltered.  The 
native  Keltic  and  Ligurian  tribes,  though  not  broken 
up,  and  only  imperfectly  pacified,  probably  suffered 
some  loss  of  territory,  and  were  forced  to  pay  tribute. 
Two  Roman  castella  were  established,  one  at  Aquae 
Sextiae  in  the  eastern,  one  at  Tolosa  in  the  western 
portion  of  the  province.*  The  existing  coast  road 
from  the  Rhone  to  Spain  was  reconstructed  under 
the  name  of  the  Via  Domitia,"  and  to  guard  it  a 
Roman  colony  was  founded  at  Narbo,  as  an  outpost 
and  "  bulwark  of  the  Roman  empire."  * 

*  Herzog.,  pp.  47-59,  and  p.  63  note ;  Desjazdins,  Im  Gaule 
Romaine,  i.,  287  sqg, 

*  Strabo,  p.  180;  Dio  Cass.,  fragm.  90. 

*  Polybius,  3,  39,  mentions  a  coast  road  marked  with  Roman  mile- 
stones. Cic. ,  Pro  Fonteioy  7,  speaks  of  the  Via  Domitia  as  needing 
repair  {circa  75  B.C.). 

*  VeU.,  i.  15  ;  Cic,  BruU,  43  ;  Pro  Fonteio,  5  :  "  Narbo  Mar- 
Hus  coloma  twstrorum  civium,  specula  P.  A\  ac propugnaculum,** 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    267 

Nine  years  after  the  foundation  of  Narbo,  the 
eruption   of    the  Cimbri  and    Teutones 
threatened   Rome   for  the  moment,  not  ofthe 

Cimbri 

only  with  the  loss  of  all  she  had  won  in 
southern  Gaul,  but  with  an  invasion  of  Italy  itself. 
This,  the  first  recorded  descent  of  northern  barba- 
rians upon  southern  Europe,  was  no  doubt  provoked, 
like  those  that  followed  it,  by  the  need  of  more  land, 
and  a  craving  for  the  spoils  of  the  south.  Issuing 
from  their  homes  by  the  northern  sea,  where  their 
people  still  dwelt  in  the  days  of  Augustus,'  the  Ger- 
mans marched  southward,  with  their  women,  children, 
and  wagons,  till  they  reached  the  barrier  of  Keltic 
tribes  which  covered  the  frontiers  of  the  Roman 
empire,  from  the  Rhone  in  the  west  to  the  borders 
of  Thrace  in  the  east.  But  this  barrier  had  already 
been  weakened  by  Roman  attacks  from  the  south, 
and  at  the  point  where  the  Cimbri  first  touched  it 
the  Keltic  tribes  had  been  in  conflict  with  the 
legions  and  could  offer  little  resistance."  At  Noreia, 
in  the  heart  of  what  was  afterwards  the  province  of 
Noricum,  and  in  the  territory  of  the  Keltic  Teurisci, 
the  first  conflict  between  Romans  and  Germans  took 
place,  and  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the 
consul  Cn.   Papirius  Carbo    (113    B.C.).* 

*  Strabo,  292  :  **xai  ydp  vvv  ex<wdt  ri^v  x<^P^^  W  ^hc^^ 
itpoTspov,**  Their  home  was  the  Cimbric  Chersonese  (Jutland) ; 
Desjardins,  i.,  303. 

'  In  115  B.C.  M.  ^milius  Scaunis  celebrated  a  triumph  over  the 
Kelts  of  the  Camic  Alps.  In  141  b.c.  Livy,  Epit,^  Ixiii.,  mentions  a 
campaign  against  the  Scordisci  ;  according  to  Strabo,  p.  293,  the 
Cimbri,  after  being  repulsed  by  the  Boii.  crossed  the  Danube  to  the 
territories  of  the  Scordisci  and  Teurisci  **  xai  rovrovi  raXarai" 

•  Livy,  Epii,,  Ixiii. ;  Strabo,  p.  214,  mentions  the  scene  of  the  battle. 


268  Outlines  of  Raman  History,     tdook  l^ 

But  although  this  victory  appeared  to  lay  Italy 
open  to  attack  on  its  most  defenceless  side,  where 
the  colony  of  Aquileia  alone  guarded  the  entrance 
to  the  rich  plains  of  the  Po/  no  advantage  was 
taken  of  it.  When  the  Germans  reappeared,  four 
years  later,  in  109  6.C.,  it  was  on  the 
northern  frontier  of  the  territory  of  the 
Allobroges,  where  they  a  second  time  defeated  a 
Roman  consul,  M.  Junius  Silanus.'  It  would  seem 
that  in  the  interval  they  had  moved  westward 
behind  the  screen  of  the  Alps,  and  after  being 
repulsed  by  the  Belgic  Gauls,  had  reached  the 
frontiers  of  the  Roman  province  through  the  land 
of  the  Helvetii."  Again,  however,  the  victorious 
Germans  halted,  and  did  no  more  than  send  ambas- 
sadors to  the  senate  with  an  impossible  request  for 
lands/  But  their  presence,  and  the  sight  of  the 
booty  they  had  won,  stirred  the  ambition  of  the 
Helvetii,*  a  section  of  whom  had  already  joined 
them,  and  fought  by  their  side  against  Silanus/ 
Two  years  later  (107  B.C.)  the  same  Hel- 
^   '    *   *    vetian  clan,  the  Tigurini,  descended  into 


'  Aqnileia  was  founded  to  guard  the  entrance  into  Italy  from 
Xllyricum.  Strabo,  214:  ^^  hmrnxi^^y  roU  vftepxetjuivoti 
fiapfidpot^:' 

«  Livy,  £pii.,  Ixv. 

'  Strabo,  196,  says  that  they  were  repulsed  by  the  Belgae,  and, 
p.  293,  that  from  the  land  of  the  Teurisci  they  went  to  that  of  the 
Helvetii. 

*  Livy,  £piL,  Ixv. 

»  Strabo,  193 :  •'  kiei  Xpdreiar  TpaieeOBat  ra^  raSr  Ki/ifipoar 
€vieopiaM6rra%" 

•  The  Tigurini ;  Florus,  iii.,  3. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    269 

southern  Gaul,  swept  across  it  as  far  as  the  Atlantic, 
and  on.  their  return  met  and  routed  the  consul  L. 
Cassius  Longinus  in  the  country  of  the  Allobroges.* 
How  much  these  successive  defeats  had  weiikened 
Roman  prestige  was  proved  by  the  insurrection 
(106  B.C.)  of  the  Tolosates,  who  surprised 
and  captured  the  Roman  garrison  at  *^^"-^' 
Tolosa."  But  a  far  more  serious  catastrophe  was  at 
hand. '  In  105  B.C.  the  united  hordes  of 
Germans  and  Helvetians  invaded  the 
Roman  province,  routed  and  took  prisoner  the 
legate,  M.  Aurelius  Scaurus,'  and,  on  October  6th, 
utterly  annihilated  at  Arausio  (Orange)  two  com- 
plete Roman  forces,  under  the  command  respec- 
tively of  the  consul,  M.  Mallius,  and  the  proconsul, 
Q.  Servilius  Caepio.*  This  disaster,  following  as  it 
did  on  the  defeats  of  Carbo,  Silanus,  and  Cassius, 
raised  to  fever  height  the  popular  indignation  with 
senatorial  mismanagement,  which  the  Jugurthine 
scandals  had  already  excited.*  The  popular  hero, 
Marius,  though  still  absent  in  Africa,   was  elected 

*  Livy,  Epit^^  Ixv. :  "  consul  Cassius  a  Tigurinis  Gallispago  Helveii- 
orum  .  .  ,  in  finibus  Allobrogum  casus, ^  Cf,  Caesar,  B,  G,^  i.,  I2. 
Strabo,  pp.  183-293,  mentions  the  Tougeni.  Oros.,  v.,  15,  states 
that  the  invaders  reached  the  Atlantic. 

*  Dio  Cass.,  fragm.  90.  The  insurrection  was  crushed  by  Q. 
Servilius  Csepio,  who  carried  off  and  appropriated  to  his  own  use  the 
treasure  in  the  temple  at  Tolosa  {aurum  Tolosanum)  ;  Cic,  De  Nat, 
Deor,^  iii.,  30;  Strabo,  p.  188. 

•Livy,  Epit,  Ixvii. 

*  Livy,  EpiLy  Ixvii. ;  Oros.,  5,  16 ;  for  the  date,  see  Plut,, 
ZucuUuSf  27. 

'  Caepio  was  deprived  of  his  command,  and  bis  property  confiscated  ; 
Livy,  Epii,,  Ixvii. 


2  70  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

consul  for  104  B.C.,  and  intrusted  with  the 
task  of  repelling  the  invasion  of  Italy, 
which  seemed  to  be  imminent.*    Fortunately,  how- 
everj  for  Rome,  and  for  Marius,  the  Cimbri  passed 
on  southwards  into  Spain,  ravaging  as  they  went, 
while  their  kinsmen  the  Teutones,  and  their  Hel- 
vetian allies,  remained  stationary  and  inactive  in 
Gaul.*    Not  until  late  in  103  B.C.,  on  the 
return   of    the  Cimbri,  was  the '  attack 
which  all  Italy  had  been  anxiously  awaiting  decided 
upon.    It  was  arranged  that  while  the  Cimbri  re- 
traced their  steps  and  endeavoured  to  force  their 
way  into   Italy  from  the  side  of    lUyricum,  the 
Teutones  and  Helvetii  should  take  the  more  direct 
route  through  southern  Gaul.    The  duty  of  repel- 
ling the  Cimbri  was  assigned  to  Q.  Lutatius  Catulus, 
who  had  been  elected  consul  with  Marius 
^   '    *   *    for  102  B.C.      Marius  himself,  who  had 
spent  the  two  years  104  and  103  B.C.  in  quieting 
the  Keltic  tribes  within  the  province,*  and  in  pre- 
paring for  war,*  awaited  the  advance  of  the  Teutones 
at  Aquae  Sextis,  the  defences  of  which  he  had  en- 
larged and  strengthened,  and  here  in  two  successive 
battles  he  not    only  defeated,  but   destroyed   the 
invading  force.*     But  though  all  danger  from  the 

'  Sail.,  Jug^^  114 :   *  consul  absens  est  foetus  et  ei  decreta  provincia 
GaUia: 

•  Livy,  EpU,^  Ixvii. 

»  The  Volcee  Tectosages ;  Plut.,  SuU,,  4.     That  the  Ligurians  were 
also  meditating  revolt  is  implied  by  Ftontinus,  Strategem,^  i.  2,  6. 

•  Plut.,  Marius^  15  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  X2 :  "  terHus  (canstUatus)  inapparaiu 
belH  eonsumptus** 

•  Livy,  EpiLf  Ixviii.  ;  Plut.,  Marius^  /.  e. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revotution.    271 

Teutones  was  over,  the  Cimbri  had  still  to  be  met 
and  repulsed.  In  the  spring  of  loi  B.C., 
Marius,  now  consul  for  the  fifth  time,  53  .  .  • 
crossed  into  Italy  and  hastened  to  the  assistance  of 
his  former  colleague  Catulus,'  an  accomplished  man, 
and  the  head  of  the  '^optimate'*  party,  but  no 
soldier,  who  had  been  defeated  by  the  Cimbri  and 
driven  back  to  the  Adige.  On  July  30th,  loi  B.C., 
a  decisive  battle  was  fought  on  the  ^'Raudine 
Plains."*  One  hundred  thousand  of  the  enemy  were 
captured  or  slain,  and  the  first  German  invasion  was 
at  an  end. 

From  this  time  down  to  the  moment  when  Csesar 
assumed  the  command,  the  situation  in  Transalpine 
Gaul  underwent  but  little  change.  The  peace  of  the 
Roman  province  was  indeed  repeatedly  disturbed  by 
risings  among  the  Keltic  tribes.*  But  in  spite  of 
these,  and  of  the  distress  and  discontent  caused  by 
Roman  misgovemment,  Cicero's  speech  in  defence 
of  Fonteius,  governor  of  the  province  ^^ 
75-73  B.C.,  proves  that  southern  Gaul  was 
already  becoming  Romanised,  and  that  a  strong  tide 
of  immigration  from  Italy  had  set  in.  "  Gaul,"  he 
declares,  '^  is  crowded  with  Roman  men  of  business, 
farmers,    graziers,    money-lenders,    and     state-con- 

*  Veil.,  ii.,  12 ;  Livy,  EpiL^  Ixviii.  ;  Plut.,  Marius,  /.  r. 

•  Near  Vercellae.  Pint.,  Marius^  25  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  15.  Of  this  cam- 
paign a  good  account  is  given  by  Ihne,  R,  t7.,  v.,  188  sqq, 

'  In  77  B.C.  Pompey,  then  on  his  way  to  Spain,  had  to  suppress  a 
general  revolt.  In  66  B.c.  a  rising  of  the  Allobroges  was  pat  down 
by  Calpumius  Piso  ;  Dio,  zzxvi.,  3i.  Cicero  calls  Piso  pacificator 
AUobrogum  (Ad  Att,^  i.,  13).  A  second  rising  of  the  Allobroget 
occurred  in  62  b.c.  ;  Livy,  Epit.t  ciii. 


272  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Bookiv 


tractors."  "  No  money  passed/'  he  adds,  "  except 
through  Roman  hands."  * 

In  the  year  59  B.C.  Farther  Gaul  was,  together 
with  Cisalpine  Gaul  and  Illyricum,  placed  under  the 

command  of  Caesar  for  a  period  of  five 
Gaul.   69s     years,*    and    the  defence  of   the   entire 

northern  frontier  from  the  Rhone  to  the 
Save  and  Drave  was  thus  committed  to  his  care,  as 
the  defence  of  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  empire 
had  previously  been  to  Pompey.    The  wisdom  of 

TheHeivetii.  ^^  ®*^P  ^^  quickly  proved.  In  the 
696  A.  u.  c.  spring  of  58  B.C.,  the  news  reached  Rome 
that  the  Helvetii  were  again  in  motion,  but  on  this 
occasion  it  was  not  merely  a  raid  by  a  single  clan 
that  was  in  prospect.  The  whole  Helvetian  people 
had  deliberately  resolved  to  leave  their  land  and 

find  a  new  home  in  Gaul.  The  resolution 
693  A.  u.  c.  ,         .     ,  _ 

was  taken  m  61  B.C.,  and  two  years  were 
devoted  to  completing  the  arrangements  for  what 
was  intended  to  be  a  final  abandonment  of  their 
native  country.  Their  strongholds,  villages,  and 
crops  were  destroyed  ;  provisions  sufficient  for  three 
months  were  collected,  and  their  neighbours  to  the 
north  and  east,  the  Rauraci,  Tulingfi,  Latobriges, 
and  Boii,  persuaded  to  join  them.  Finally,  the  28th 
of  March,  58  B.C.,  was  fixed  as  the  day  on  which  the 
whole  body  should  assemble  on  the  right  bank  of 

*Cic.,  Pro  FontHo,  5:  ^' refer ia  Gallia  negoHaiorum  esi^  plena 
civium  Romanorum  y  nemo  Gallorum  sine  citfe  Romano  quic^nam 
negoHi  gerit;  nummus  in  GalHa  nuUut  sine  civium  Romanorum 
iabulis  commovetur--ex  ianio  negotiatorum,  colonorum,  pubHeaU' 
orum,  aratorum^  pecuariorum  numero** 

•Suet.,  Casar^  22  ;  Oros.,  vi.,  7. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    273 

the  Rhone,  near  Geneva,  whence  an  easy  and  open 
route  would  lead  them  through  the  territory  of 
the  Allobroges/ 

The  report  of  their  intention  reached  Caesar  in 
Rome.  Eight  days  later  he  reached  the  Rhone,* 
with  a  single  legion,  and  such  native  levies  as  he 
had  been  able  to  raise  on  his  way  among  the  tribes 
of  Farther  Gaul.  In  front  of  him,  across  the  river, 
lay  the  Helvetii  and  their  allies,  numbering  all  told 
368,000  persons."  Caesar  instantly  destroyed  the 
bridge  not  far  from  Geneva  by  which  the  motley 
host  had  hoped  to  cross,  and  then  carried  a  line  of 
entrenchments^  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhone, 
froni  the  lake  of  Geneva  to  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tains which  enclose  the  Pas  d'Ecluse.  These  pre- 
cautions were  effective,  and  the  Helvetii  were  forced 
to  attempt  the  difficult  and  toilsome  route  leading 
through  the  passes  of  the  Jura  into  the  territory  of 
the  Sequani,*  whence  they  hoped  to  make  their  way 
to  the  pleasant  lands  of  Aquitaine,  which  the 
Tigurini    had    reached    fifty    years    before.*       On 

iCsesar,  B,  G.,  i..  2-6. 

'Plat.,  Casar^  17.      He  apparently   travelled   by  the  Great  St. 
Bernard    route;    Desjardins,  La    Gaule  Komairu^  74,  75,  and  ii., 

597. 

*  Caesar,  B,  6^.,  i.»  29  ;    the  number  of  men  capable  of  bearing 

arms  was  92,000. 

^IHd,,  i.,  8  ;  for  the  position  and  nature  of  these  entrenchments, 
see  Desjardins,  ii. ,  599. 

*  Caesar,  B,  G,,  i.,  6;   Desjardins,  ii.,  601. 

•Caesar,    B,  G,^  i.,  10:     **it€r   in   Santonum  fines  facere^  qui 

non  longe  a  TolosaHum  fimbus  absunt^  qua  civitas  est  in pravincia,** 

The   description   of  the   Santones   as   '*  not  far  distant  from  the 

territory  of  Toulouse"  is  inaccurate.     See  Desjardins,  ii.,  603. 
18 


274  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     iBook  IV 

I  I  I        —^—1 1  1 1  ■—.■du.— —————— —I— —I     II     ■■■    »  I 

learning  their  intention,  Caesar  left  Labienus  to 
guard  the  defences  on  the  Rhone,  and  hurried  to 
Italy  to  collect  fresh  troops.*  At  the  head  of  five 
legions  he  recrossed  the  Alps,'  and  marched  rapidly 
through  the  territories  of  the  Vocontii  and  Allo- 
broges,  till  he  reached  the  Rhone  near  Vienne.' 
Then  turning  northwards  he  overtook  the  Helvetii 
while  crossing  the  Sadne  on  their  way  westward, 
between  Lyons  and  M4con,*  and  cut  to  pieces  their 
rearguard,  consisting  of  Rome's  former  enemies,  the 
Tigurini.  This  done,  he  crossed  the  Sadne,  and 
followed  the  main  body  of  the  enemy,  until  the 
difficulty  of  provisioning  his  army*  obliged  him  to 
turn  aside,  and  make  for  the  iEduan  stronghold 
Bibracte,  where  grain  in  plenty  was  to  be  had.* 
Finding,  however,  that  the  Helvetii,  taking  courage 
from  his  abandonment  of  the  pursuit,  had  resolved 
in  their  turn  to  become  his  pursuers,  he  halted  in  a 
strong  position,  some  eighteen  Roman  miles  south 
of  Bibracte,  and  awaited  their  attack.  The  battle 
which  followed  resulted  in  the  complete  defeat  of 

'  Caesar,  B,  t7.,  i.,  10. 

*  He  seems  to  have  followed  the  route  by  Susa  (Segusio)  through 
the  Cottian  Alps  ;  Desjardins,  ii.,  603. 

'Opposite  to  the  land  of  the  Segusiani.  Csesar,  B,  G,,  i.,  10: 
*'  ahAllobrogibus  in  Segusianos~~hi  sunt  extra  proT/inciam  trans 
Rhodanum  primi" 

*  Caesar,  B,  G,,  i.,  12;  Desjardins,  ii.,  605. 

'  The  difficulty  was  mainly  due  to  the  intrigues  of  the  iEduan 
chief  Dumnorix ;  Caesar,  B»  G,,  i.,  16-19. 

*  Ibid,^  i.,  23:  **  oppUo  jEduorum  longe  maxitmf  et  copiosissinw,** 
The  site  of  Bibracte  has  been  fixed  at  Mt.  Beuvray.  For  its  rela- 
tion to  the  later  tribal  capital,  Augustodunum  (Autun),  see  Des- 
jardins,  ii.,  609,  note. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    27  5 

the  Helvetii.'  The  survivors,  after  a  vain  attempt 
to  make  their  way  to  the  Rhone  through  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Lingones,  surrendered  at  discretion. 
They  were  disarmed  and  ordered  to  return  to  their 
homes,  but  of  the  mighty  host  which  in  the  spring 
had  mustered  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone,  less  than 
a  third  lived  to  recross  the  river.* 

The  task  which  Caesar  had  undertaken  of  defend- 
ing Gaul  against   invasion  was  not  ended  by  the 
defeat   of  the   Helvetii.     By  the   Gauls        ^    . 
themselves  he  was  at  once  mvited  to  nd       ^  «a<i  the 

Oennaiis. 

them  of  a  still  more  formidable  intru- 
der. Some  fourteen  years  before,*  on  the  invitation 
of  the  Arvemi  and  Sequani,  a  force  of  fifteen  thou- 
sand Germans,  under  Ariovistus,  had  crossed  the 
Rhine  to  aid  these  tribes  in  their  ancient  quarrel 
with  the  iGdui,^  and  after  a  protracted  struggle  had 
completely  defeated  the  JEAwi  in  60  B.C.  at  Mageto- 
briga.*    In  the  extremity  of  their  distress 

Ifa*^  i^  u  c 

the    latter   appealed    to    Rome  for  aid, 

but  with  little  effect,  for  in  59  B.C.  Ariovistus  was 


'  The  scene  of  the  battle  is  placed  at  Mont  Mort,  to  the  south 
of  Autun.  Stoffel,  Guerres  des  Cdsar  et  tTAricvisU^  p.  36  (Paris, 
1891). 

'  C«sar,  B,  (7.,  i.,  38,  29.  The  Boii  were  allowed,  at  the  request 
of  the  i£dui,  to  remain  in  the  territory  of  the  latter.  The  re- 
occupation  of  Helvetia  was  desirable  as  a  precaution  against  Ger- 
man inroads.  Floras,  iii.,  10:  ^*  gentem  in  sedes  suas  quasi  greges 
in  stabula  pastor  deduxit" 

'  Cf,  Caesar,  B.  t?.,  i.,  35,  where  Ariovistus  declares  that  his  Ger- 
mans had  not  slept  under  a  roof  for  fourteen  years. 

*  IHd.,  L,  31. 

•  Ibid.,  U.;  Cic,  Ad  AU.,  i.,  19. 


276  Outlines  0/  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

formally  enrolled  among  the  "  friends  "  of 
the  Roman  people,  and  the  title  of  "  king  '* 
which  he  had  assumed  was  recognized  by  the  senate/ 
The  plight  of  the  JEAwi  was  bad  enough,  but  that  of 
Ariovistus's  allies,  the  Sequani,  was  even  worse,  for 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Germans  were 
established  in  their  territory,  and  Ariovistus  had  re- 
cently ordered  them  to  make  room  for  twenty-four 
thousand  more.  At  a  council  of  chiefs,  the  iEduan 
Divitiacus,  whose  unswerving  loyalty  to  Rome  had 
won  him  the  full  confidence  of  Caesar,  urged  upon 
him  that  not  only  was  Rome  boynd  in  honour  to  res- 
cue her  faithful  allies  from  their  imminent  peril,  but 
that  she  could  not  afford  to  stand  by  and  allow  Gaul 
to  be  overrun  by  the  Germans.  Caesar  was  con- 
vinced, all  the  more  easily  as  the  territory  of  the 
Sequani,  where  Ariovistus  was  established,  was  only 
separated  by  the  Rhone  from  the  Roman  province 
of  Farther  Gaul.  Envoys  were  at  once  sent  to  Ario- 
vistus, but  brought  back  only  messages  of  haughty 
defiance,  while  at  the  same  time  the  news  arrived 
that  fresh  swarms  of  Suevi  were  about  to  cross  the 
Rhine  and  join  their  countrymen  in  Gaul.  In  order 
to  crush  Ariovistus  before  these  reinforcements 
reached  him,  Caesar  started  at  once;  he  occupied 
and  garrisoned  Vesontio  (Besangon),  the  chief 
stronghold  of  the  Sequani,  which  Ariovistus  was 
said  to  be  intending  to  attack.  Seven  days  later  a 
series  of  forced  marches  brought  him  by  a  circuitous 
route  within  reach  of  Ariovistus,  who  was  apparently 
encamped  on  the  farther  side  of  the  Vosges  moun- 

>  Cmar,  A  t?.,  i.,  34 ;  Pint.,  Cas€tr,  19. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    277 

tains  in  the  plain  country  between  that  range  and 
the  Rhine.*  After  ten  days  spent  partly  in  fruitless 
negotiation  and  partly  in  vain  attempts  on  Caesar's 
part  to  force  an  engagement,  a  decisive  battle  was 
fought.  The  Germans  were  defeated  ;  Ariovistus 
escaped  across  the  Rhine,'  and  the  Suevi,  abandon- 
ing their  projected  invasion  of  Gaul,  returned  home. 
Gaul  was  now  freed  from  invaders,  but  the  legions 
which  had  chased  the  Helvetii  to  their  homes,  and 
driven  Ariovistus  across  the  Rhine,  were 

The  BelgK. 

not  withdrawn  from  Gaulish  soil.  Though 
Caesar  returned  to  Cisalpine  Gaul,  his  troops  re- 
mained in  the  territory  of  the  Sequani,'  and  this 
military  occupation  was  naturally  interpreted  as  im- 
plying an  intention  on  the  part  of  Rome  to  extend 
her  suzerainty  beyond  the  limits  of  the  "  province." 
By  the  Belgae  especially,  the  most  warlike  of  the 
Gaulish  peoples,  the  presence  of  six  Roman  legions 
so  near  their  frontiers  was  regarded  as  menacing 
their  own  independence.*  A  council  of  chiefs,  sum- 
moned to  consider  the  situation,  declared  enthusias- 
tically for  instant  war,  and  contingents  from  the 
various  tribes  were  promised,  amounting  in  all  to 
nearly  three  hundred  thousand  men.*  But  the  pros- 
pect of  a  stubborn  resistance  which  these  formidable 
preparations  held   out  was  by  no   means  fulfilled. 


'  Desjardins,  ii.,  620-622  ;  Stoffel,  C^sar  et  Arundste^  53,  57. 
'  Caesar,  B,  G.,  53.     The  scene  of  the  battle  was  fifty  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  Rhine. 
'  Caesar,  B.  6^.,  i.,  54  ;  probably  at  Besan9or 

*  /Md.f  ii.,  I. 

*  /did.,  ii.,  4. 


278  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      tBook  iv 

When  Caesar,  in  the  spring  of  57  B.C., 
reached  the  Belgic  frontier,  at  the  head  of 
an  imposing  force,'  he  was  at  once  met  by  an  offer 
of  friendship  from  the  Remi,  the  most  southerly  of 
the  Belgic  tribes.  The  alliance,  which  was  eagerly 
accepted,  opened  the  route  to  the  river  Aisne,  on  the 
farther  banks  of  which  Caesar  entrenched  himself, 
with  the  friendly  territory  of  his  new  allies  in  the 
rear."  The  Belgic  host  advanced  with  great  firmness 
against  him,  but  after  being  twice  repulsed,  once  in 
an  attack  on  a  stronghold  of  the  Remi,  and  once  in 
an  attempt  to  cut  off  Caesar's  communications  with 
the  rear,  their  resolution  failed.  The  host  broke  up, 
and  the  various  clans  marched  back  to  their  own  ter- 
ritories, there  to  await  the  advance  of  the  legions.* 
But  Caesar's  rapid  movements  disconcerted  their 
plans.  Tribe  after  tribe  submitted  on  the  mere 
appearance  of  his  troops  in  their  territory,  and  in 
spite  of  the  desperate  stand  made  by  the  Nervii, 
the  end  of  the  summer  saw  the  suzerainty  of  Rome 
recognised  throughout  Belgic  Gaul.  An  unmistaka- 
ble  proof  of  the  Roman  advance  was  the  fact  that 
the  legions  this  time  wintered,  not  in  the  country  of 
the  Sequani*  but  in  the  very  heart  of  Northern  Gaul, 
in  the  region  of  the  Upper  Loire.* 

On  starting  for  Italy  in  the  autumn  of  57  B.C. 
Caesar  had  received  through  P.  Crassus  the  submis- 


'  He  had  raised  two  fresh  legions  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  bringing  the 
total  number  under  his  command  to  eight.    T^V/.,  ii.,  s. 

*  Ibid,,  ii.,  5. 

'  Caesar,  B,  G„  ii.,  10. 

*  Hid.,  ii.,  35  :  **  j'»  CamuUs,  Andes,  Turonesqtie,** 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     2  79 

sion  of  the  tribes  along  the  Atlantic  Thesubjn. 
seaboard  from  the  Loire  to  the  Seine.  iSStic^Jea- 
During  the  winter,   however,  the    news  *>»•'*. 

reached  him  that  these  tribes,  probably  encouraged 
by  his  absence,  were  in  open  revolt,  headed  by  the 
Veneti,'  a  sea-faring  folk  at  the  mouth  of  the  Loire, 
and  had  imprisoned  the  Roman  envoy  sent  to  collect 
provisions.  In  the  spring  of  56  B.C.,  as  6g8A.  u.c. 
soon  as  the  passes  were  open,  Caesar  returned  to  Gaul. 
Troops  were  hastily  despatched  to  prevent  the  re- 
volt from  spreading  to  other  districts :  Labienus 
was  commissioned  to  maintain  order  among  the 
Belgae,  while  Crassus  was  sent  to  check  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  tribes  south  of  the  Loire  to  assist 
the  insurgents.  To  a  third  force  of  three  legions 
was  intrusted  the  task  of  preventing  any  junction 
between  the  more  northerly  of  the  revolted  tribes," 
and  the  chief  offenders,  the  Veneti.  These  last 
Caesar  himself  prepared  to  subdue.  Driving  the 
enemy  before  him,  he  forced  the  whole  tribe  to  take 
refuge  among  the  islets  and  creeks  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Loire.'  Here,  and  in  sight  of  Caesar  and  his 
troops  on  the  mainland,  they  were  attacked  and  de- 
feated by  the  fleet  which  Caesar  had  built  for  the 
purpose  on  the  river.*  Of  the  survivors,  the  chiefs 
were  put  to  death,  and  the  rest  sold  as  slaves,  a  warn- 
ing to  barbarians  that  they  should  in  future  respect 


'  Ibid,,  iii.  9. 

'  Ibid,,  iii.y  II  :  "  if^  Vetuihs,  CuriosoliUu,  Lexoviosque,** 

'  Caesar,  B.  C,  iii.  14,  16 ;  for  the  topography,  see  Desjardins,  i., 

*  CKsar,  B.  G.,  iii.,  13,  14. 


28o  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

the  rights  of  envoys.'  At  the  same  moment  Caesar 
received  the  news  that  the  insurgent  tribes  to  the 
northward  had,  after  a  brief  resistance,  laid  down 
their  arms ;  while  south  of  the  Loire,  P.  Crassus  had 
achieved  even  more  important  results  by  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  whole  of  Aquitaine,  with  the  exception 
only  of  a  few  tribes  in  the  extreme  south-west."  A 
successful  expedition,  led  by  Caesar  himself,  against 
the  Morini  and  Menapii  on  the  north  coast,  com- 
pleted the  work  of  the  year. 

The  suzerainty  of  Rome  was  now  established,  in 
name  at  least,  over  nearly  the  whole  of  Gaul,  but 
Caesar  had  already  reason  to  know  how  readily,  on 
any  favourable  opportunity,  the  tribes  would  throw 
off  an  allegiance  extorted  from  them  by  superior 
force.  Above  all,  there  was  ground  for  fearing  that, 
as  a  last  resource,  the  Keltic  tribes  would  take  the 
desperate  step  of  calling  in  the  aid  of  their  ancient 
foes  the  Germans.  During  the  following  winter 
these  fears  were  realised.  Two  German  tribes,  the 
Usipetes  and  Tencteri,  on  being  expelled  from  their 
own  homes  by  the  Suevi,  crossed  the  Rhine  near  its 
mouth  and  settled  in  the  land  of  the  Menapii,  and 
699  A.  u.  c.  on  rejoining  his  legions  in  the  spring  of  55 
B.C.,  Caesar  found  that  the  Keltic  tribes  near  the 
Rhine  were  already  in  treaty  with  the  invaders.  The 
expulsion  of  the  latter  from  what  was  already  in 
theory  Roman  territory  was  a  necessity,  and  was 
easily  accomplished.     In  a  single  battle  fought  near 

•  Ibid.,  iii,,  27. 

'  Caesar,  B.  G.,  iv.,  i,  6. 


Ch .  3]    TTie  Empire  Duritig  the  Revolution.    281 

the  confluence  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Meuse  they 
were  defeated  and  cut  to  pieces."  The  Rhine  was 
now  established  as  the  frontier  not  only  of  Gaul,  but 
of  the  empire  of  the  Roman  people.*  Of  a  perma- 
nent advance  beyond  it  there  was  as  yet  no  thought  ; 
but  for  the  safety  of  the  frontier  it  was  essential  to 
impress  the  German  tribes  on  the  farther  bank  of 
the  river  with  a  wholesome  fear  of  the  power  of 
Rome,  and  to  show  that  even  in  their  own  homes 
they  were  not  beyond  the  reach  of  her  arm.  These 
considerations,  and  the  entreaties  of  the  one  trans- 
Rhenane  tribe  friendly  to  Rome,  the  semi-civilised 
Ubii,  determined  Caesar  to  enter  Germany,  and  for 
the  first  time  in  history  the  legions  crossed  the  Rhine 
by  a  bridge  specially  constructed  for  that  c«sar  crosses 
purpose/  The  German  tribes,  and  even  ****  Rhine, 
the  invincible  Suevi,  retreated  hastily  to  the  shelter  of 
their  impenetrable  forests ;  and  Caesar,  after  ravaging 
the  territory  of  the  Sugambri,  and  relieving  the  Ubii 
for  the  time  from  the  assaults  of  the  Suevi,  re-crossed 
the  Rhine.* 

It  was  not,  however,  beyond  the  Rhine  only  that 
a  military  demonstration  appeared  desirable.  The 
Kelts  across  the  sea,  in  the  island  of  zwtwt  in 
Britain,  had  throughout  actively  aided  Bnuin, 
their  kinsmen  on  the  mainland  in  their  resistance 
to  Rome,  and  it  was  time  that  they,  as  well  as  the 
Germans,  should  learn  that  Rome  could  tolerate  no 


»  Caesar,  B^  G,,  iv.,  12-15. 

»  Ibid,,  iv.,  16  :  *'popuH  Romani  imperium  Rkmum  fitUre:* 

•  IHd,,  iv.  17. 

*  JHd,,  iv.  19  :  *•  ditbus  decern  et  octo  trans  Rhenum  consumptis. 


ft 


282  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

disturbance  of  the  peace  within  what  were  now  the 
limits  of  her  empire.  It  is  clear,  too,  that  Caesar 
was  curious  to  learn  something  of  the  almost  un* 
known  land  whose  cliffs  were  visible  from  the  Gallic 
shore/  Although,  therefore,  the  summer  was  draw- 
ing to  a  close,  an  expedition  to  Britain  was  resolved 
upon.  A  fleet  was  hastily  collected,  of  which  the 
vessels  employed  against  the  Veneti  in  the  previous 
year  formed  a  part.  On  this  fleet  Cssar  placed  two 
legions,  which  he  considered  a  sufiicient  force  for 
what  was  intended  to  be  rather  a  military  reconnais- 
sance than  a  serious  invasion.  Sailing  from  the 
Portus  Itius,  near  Boulogne,  he  landed,  in  spite  of 
the  resistance  of  the  natives,  on  the  low  shore,  near 
Pevensey,"  where  he  erected  a  camp.  But  the  late- 
ness of  the  season,  and  the  damage  inflicted  upon 
his  fleet  by  a  high  tide,  decided  him  to  postpone 
further  operations  in  the  island  until  the  next  year, 
and  on  "  the  day  after  the  equinox "  he  re-crossed 
the  Channel. 

During  the  winter  preparations  were  made  for 
an  expedition  on  a  larger  scale,  and  late  in  the 
spring  of  54  B.C.,  after  a  delay  caused  by 
symptoms  of  disaffection  among  the  Gaul- 
ish tribes,  he  again  set  sail  from  the  Portus  Itius 
with  five  legions  and  2,000  Gaulish  cavalry.'  But 
this  second  expedition  had  scarcely  more  permanent 
results  than  the  first.     For  though  he  advanced  to 

'  Caesar,  B»  (7.,  iv.,  20. 

' '  Ibid,^  iv.,  23  ;  Desjardins,  i.,  348  sqq,  y  Ridgeway  in  Journal  of 
Philology^  vol.  zix.,  p.  200. 
» IHd.,  v..  8. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    283 

the  Thames/  and  crossed  it,  and  though  he  broke 
the  power  of  his  most  formidable  opponent  Cassive- 
launusy  and  received  the  formal  submission  of  several 
tribes  in  the  sputh-eastern  regions,  he  returned  at 
the  close  of  the  summer  without  having  done  more 
than  prove  for  the  benefit  of  his  successors  that  an 
invasion  of  the  island  was  feasible.' 

It    is  probable,  however,  that    Caesar      Risings  in 
would  not  have  remained  satisfied  with  ^•"*- 

these  meagre  results,  but  for  the  ominous  symptoms 
of  disturbance  and  discontent  which  were  showing 
themselves  in  Gaul.     The  attempted  rising 

ttxi  t^  ^  C 

of  the  Treveri  in  54  B.C.  was  followed  by  a 
series  of  insurrections  in  almost  every  part  of  the  coun- 
try. The  first  to  raise  the  standard  of  revolt  were  the 
tribes  in  the  north-eastern  districts,  who,  finding  that 
Caesar  had  been  compelled  by  the  scarcity  of  corn  to 
distribute  his  legions  for  the  winter  over  an  unusually 
wide  area,  determined  to  make  a  simultaneous  attack 
upon*  the  isolated  camps.'  The  Eburones,*  who 
struck  the  first  blow,  decoyed  from  its  camp,  and 
treacherously  cut  to  pieces,  the  legion  stationed  in 
their  territory ;  the  Nervii  attacked  Q.  Cicero ;  the 
Treveri  besieged  Labienus ;  while  in  the  west,  the 
Armorican  tribes  threatened  the  position  of  the 
single  legion  quartered  among  the  Esuvii.  But  the 
desperate  tenacity  with  which  Cicero  defended  his 
camp    gave    Caesar    time    to    march  to  his  relief. 


>  Csesar,  B,  G,^  v.,  ii. 

»  Jbid.,  v.,  11-23  ;  Elton,  Origim  of  EngUsh  History^  pp.  Z05-IXI. 

^  Ibid,,  v.,  24. 

^  Ibid,,  B.  G,,  v.,  26.58. 


284  Outlines  0/  Raman  Histoty.      CBook  IV 

The  Nervii  were  defeated;  the  Treveri,  who  had 
vainly  endeavoured  to  persuade  the  Germans  to 
come  to  their  aid,  were  routed  by  Labienus ;  while 
the  Armorican  tribes  dispersed  on  hearing  the  news 
of  the  Roman  successes.  In  spite,  however,  of  this 
severe  check,  the  insurrectionary  movement  was  by 
no  means  crushed.  Caesar  remained  in  Gaul  through- 
out  the  winter,  and  early  in  53  B.C.  he 
learnt  that  not  only  were  the  north- 
eastern tribes  again  taking  up  arms,  but  that,  south 
of  the  Seine,  the  Senones  and  Camutes  had  thrown 
off  their  allegiance,*  With  characteristic  prompti- 
tude he  resolved  to  strike  at  once  before  the  insur- 
gents could  complete  their  preparations.  From  his 
headquarters  at  Samarobriva  (Amiens)  he  marched 
rapidly  against  the  Nervii,  who,  taken  completely  by 
surprise,  at  once  submitted.  Moving  southward  he 
held  a  "  durbar  "  at  Paris,"  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Senones  and  Camutes.  The  chiefs 
of  the  latter  abstained  from  attending,  but  on 
Caesar's  advancing  against  them,  in  force,  their 
courage  failed,  and  they  laid  down  their  arms.  The 
rest  of  the  summer  was  devoted  to  the  pacification 
of  the  districts  along  the  Rhine,*  where  the  Menapii, 
Eburones,  and  Treveri  still  held  out.  By  the  autumn 
order  was  so  far  restored  that  Caesar,  after  holding 
his  usual ''  durbar ''  at  Reims,  was  able  to  revisit  Italy.* 


'  Caesar,  B.  (7.,  vi.,  2  sqq, 

'  IHd,^  vi.,  3  :  **  amcilium  LuUtiam  Parisiorum  trans/ert.'* 
'  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Csesar  for  the  second  time  crossed  the 
Rhine  ;  B.  G,,  iv.,  10-29. 
*  IHd,,  vi.,44. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     285 

His  departure  was,  however,  instantly  followed  by 
a  fresh  outbreak.  The  new  revolt  broke  out,  not  in 
north-eastern  Gaul,  but  among  the  tribes  Rising  in 
of  the  central  and  southern  districts.  The  ^•gSJihern 
leaders  in  the  movement  were  the  Arvemi,  ^*"ven:m- 
and  with  them  were  soon  united  most  of  getoHx. 
the  clans  dwelling  between  the  Seine  and  the  Ga^ 
ronne."  The  insurgents  were  thus  able  at  once  to 
threaten  the  Roman  province  of  Southern  Gaul,  and 
to  intercept  communication  between  that  province 
and  the  legions  in  the  north.  For  the  first  time, 
moreover,  the  insurgent  tribes  were  united  under  the 
leadership  of  a  single  able  and  resolute  man,  the 
young  Arvernian  chief  Vercingetorix.  Csesar,  who 
had  recrossed  the  Alps  on  the  first  news  of  the  out- 
break, found  himself  as  his  enemies  had  calculated, 
with  no  other  troops  at  his  disposal  but  such  as  he 
had  brought  from  Italy  or  could  raise  in  the  prov- 
ince. The  hope,  however,  which  the  Gauls  enter- 
tained  of  preventing  a  junction  between  the  legions 
and  their  general  was  disappointed.  Hastily  posting 
garrisons  to  check  the  threatened  invasion  of  the 
province  by  Lucterius,  chief  of  the  Cadurci,*  and  with 
only  a  small  force  of  cavalry,  he  crossed  the  Cevennes 
in  spite  of  the  deep  snow,  descended  as  if  from  the 
clouds  into  the  territory  of  the  Arverni,  pushed  on 
to  the  Rhone,  and  then  turning  northward  effected  a 
junction  with  his  legions  in  the  country  of  the  Lin- 


'  Caesar,  B,  G,,  vii.,  4 :  **  Senoms,  Parisios,  Pictones,  CadurcoSt 

TuroneSf  Auiercos^  Lemaznces^  Andes  reUquosqtu  amnes^  qm  Oceanum 

aUinpmt:* 
•  IHd.^  vii.,  7. 


286  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      iBook  i\i 

gones,  before  the  insurgents  had  recovered  from  their 
first  surprise.'  Once  at  the  head  of  his  legions, 
Caesar  assumed  the  offensive,  and  marching  south- 
wards, captured  in  rapid  succession  Vellaunodunum, 
Cenabum  (Orleans),  Noviodunum  (Nouan),  and  after 
a  protracted  siege  Avaricum  (Bourges),  the  chief 
town  of  the  Bituriges.*  The  winter  was  now  over, 
and  Caesar  (52  B.C.)  resolved  to  force  on 
a  decisive  battle  with  Vercingetorix  be- 
fore the  revolt  spread  further.  Sending  Labie- 
nus  with  four  legions  to  hold  the  Senones  in  check, 
and  secure  him  against  a  rising  in  his  rear,  he  re- 
solved to  march  at  once  upon  the  chief  Arvemian 
stronghold  Gergovia,*  whither  Vercingetorix  followed 
him.  But  his  hopes  of  thus  putting  a  speedy  end  to 
the  war  were  disappointed  by  the  unexpected  revolt 
of  his  old  and  faithful  allies,  the  JEAxxi.  Fearing 
that  their  example  might  be  followed  by  a  general 
rising  of  the  tribes,*  which  had  as  yet  remained  quiet, 
he  reluctantly  raised  the  siege  of  Gergovia,  and 
marching  northwards  again  joined  Labienus  and  his 
legions  in  the  country  of  the  Senones.  But  his 
retreat,  and  the  news  of  the  defection  of  the  JEdwx 
gave  the  signal  for  the  rising  which  he  had  feared. 
A  council  of  chiefs  from  all  parts  of  Gaul  was  held 
at  the  ^duan  capital  Bibracte,*  and  Vercingetorix, 
who  was  elected  commander-in-chief,  explained  the 


*  Caesar,  B.  G.,  vii.,  9. 

•  /did.,  vii.,  13-31. 

'  /^mT.,  viL,  34.     For  the  site  of  Gergovia,  see  Desjardins,   ii., 
67S  ;  it  was  five  miles  south  of  Clermont. 
<  Hid.,  vii.,  43.  » lUd,,  vii„  63. 


Ch.  31    The  Empire  During  theRevdution.      287 

plan  of  campaign  which  he  proposed  to  adopt. 
While  he,  with  the  main  body,  maintained  a  harassing 
guerilla  warfare  against  Caesar  and  his  legions,  the 
Roman  province  to  the  south  was  to  be  invaded  at 
three  separate  points  simultaneously/  On  learn- 
ing of  the  danger  which  threatened  the  province, 
Caesar  marched  to  its  relief.  The  direct  road  was 
closed  by  the  revolt  of  the  iEdui,  and  he  was  forced 
to  adopt  a  longer  and  more  circuitous  route  through 
the  territory  of  the  Lingones  and  Sequani.  On  his 
way  Vercingetorix  attacked  him  in  force,  but  was 
repulsed  and  forced  to  retreat  to  the  impregnable 
fortress  of  Alesia."  Thither  Caesar  followed  him, 
and  while  Vercingetorix  with  his  infantry  held  the 
town,  emissaries  were  sent  in  all  directions  inviting 
the  Gauls  to  rise  in  a  body  and  crush  the  invaders. 
In  response  to  the  appeal,  a  force  consisting  of  250,- 
000  infantry  and  8,000  cavalry,  drawn  from  every 
part  of  Gaul,  assembled  in  the  territory  of  the  ^dui, 
and  marched  to  Alesia.'  The  struggle  which  fol- 
lowed was  more  desperate  than  any  in  which  Caesar 
had  as  yet  been  engaged.  While  the  newly-arrived 
levies  endeavoured  to  carry  the  Roman  lines  of 
entrenchment  from  the  rear,  Vercingetorix,  issuing 
from  Alesia,  assaulted  them  in  front.  Twice  the 
legions  repulsed  the  enemy  with  great  slaughter. 


'  Caesar,  B,  G,,  vii.,  64, 

'  /did,,  vii.,  68  :  "  Alesiam,  quod  est  oppidum  MattduHorum,**  The 
latter  were  a  tribe  dwelling  on  the  borders  of  the  Sequanian  territory, 
and  were  possibly  clients  of  the  ^Edui ;  Desjardins,  ii.,  468.  Alesia 
is  identified  with  Alise  St.  Reine  ;  Ibid,,  ii.,  695. 

«  Caesar,  B.  G.,  vii.,  75, 


288  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  i\ 

only  to  find  themselves  attacked  a:  third  time  with 
even  greater  fury  than  before.  But  their  courage 
and  discipline  finally  triumphed.  Disheartened  by 
their  losses,  the  Gaulish  levies  dispersed  in  confusion 
to  their  homes,  and  their  retreat  sealed  the  fate  of 
their  kinsmen  in  Alesia.  Vercingetorix  counselled 
surrender,  and  chivalrously  offered  himself  as  a 
victim  to  appease  the  wrath  of  Rome.'  Seated  in 
front  of  the  entrenchments  which  had  been  so 
gallantly  attacked  and  defended,  Caesar  received  the 
submission  of  the  garrison,  and  announced  their 
fate.  Vercingetorix  himself  became  a  prisoner,  and 
was  reserved  to  grace  his  conqueror's  triumph  in 
Rome,  and  die  by  the  hands  of  a  Roman  execu- 
tioner. His  followers,  with  the  exception  of  the 
JEdm  and  Arvemi,  whom  Caesar  kept  as  hostages, 
were  distributed  as  part  of  the  spoils  of  war  to  the 
victorious  legions. 

The  final  effort  made  by  the  Gauls  to  recover  their 
liberty  had  failed.     The  capture  of  Alesia 
r*QauiV***"    1^2id  destroyed  their  confidence  in  the  im- 
pregnability   of    their    strongholds,    the 
best  of  their  warriors  were  dead  or  captured,  and 
with  Vercingetorix  they  had   lost  the  one   leader 
capable  of  enforcing  even  a  temporary  union  among 
their  tribes.     From  the  close  of  the  sum- 

fW%S    ^L      11    ^^ 

mer  of  52  B.C.  down  to  the  moment  of 

his  final  departure  for  Italy  at  the  end  of  the  year 

50  B.C.,  Caesar  had  merely  to  deal  with 

local  risings  chiefly  among  the  few  tribes 

who  had  not  as  yet  felt  the  full  weight  of  the  Roman 

» Caesar,  A  C?.,  vii.,  89. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    2  89 

arm,  and  of  these  all  but  two  were  checked  or 
suppressed  without  difficulty.  It  was  only  by  the 
Bellovaci"  in  the  north,  and  by  the  Cadurci  and 
their  allies  in  the  extreme  south,*  that  any  serious 
resistance  was  offered  to  the  Legions.     By  ^  „  ^ 

**  703  A.U.C. 

the  autumn  of  5 1  B.C.  the  pacification  of 
Gaul  was  complete,  even  the  Iberian  tribes  in  the 
south-west  of  Aquitaine  having  acknowledged  the 
suzerainty  of  Rome.*  The  year  50  B.C.  was, 
except  for  a  visit  to  Cisalpine  Gaul,  where 
he  received  an  enthusiastic  welcome  from  the  people, 
devoted  by  Caesar  to  strengthening  and  confirming 
the  authority  of  Rome,  more  especially  among  the 
Belgic  clans,  whose  love  of  war,  as  well  as  their 
proximity  to  the  Germans,  marked  them  out  as  the 
most  likely  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  country. 
Late  in  that  year,  after  reviewing  his  faithful  legions 
in  the  territory  of  the  Treveri,  he  left  for  Italy.* 

The  result  of  Caesar's  campaigns  had  been  to 
bring  the  whole  of  Gaul  within  the  Roman  sphere 
of  influence*  The  tribes  were  all  enrolled  as  the 
allies  of  Rome,  and  bound  to  respect  the  majesty  of 
the  Roman  people.  It  is  also  probable  that  Caesar 
required  from  them  both  hostages  and  the  payment 
of  a  tribute.  But  the  establishment  of  a  regular 
provincial  system  was  delayed  by  the  out- 
break (49  B.  C.)  of  the  great  Civil  War,  and 
was  in  fact  the  work,  not  of  Caesar,  but  of  Augustus. 

I  Caesar,  B,  (7.,  viii.,  7-aa 

*  IHd, ,  Yiii. ,  36.45. 

^  Ibid,^  viii.,  46. 

^JHd,,  viii.,  55. 
S9 


290  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBook  iv 

To  the  east  of  Italy,  in  the  regions  stretching  north- 
ward from  Epirus  and  Macedonia  to  the  Danube,  the 

advance  of  Rome  had  been  slow  and  ir- 
adi^ce  regular.  Nor  had  the  frequent  wars  with 
Danube.  ^*  Keltic,  Illyrfan,  and  Thracian  tribes,  which 

the  defence  of  the  frontier,  or  the  ambition 
of  Roman  generals  provoked,  resulted  in  any  large 
and  permanent  extension  of  Roman  rule/ 

Had  Caesar  lived,  he  would  no  doubt  have  brought 

under  Roman  authority  the  regions  lying 

immediately  eastward  of  Italy,  and  have 
carried  Roman  rule  up  to  the  Danube,  as  he  had 
already  carried  it  to  the  Rhine.  As  it  was,  how- 
ever, throughout  the  whole  of  the  period  we  are  con- 
sidering no  great  advance  was  made  in  this  direction. 
Wars  indeed  were  frequent,  and  triumphs  scarcely 
less  so :  we  read  of  expeditions  against  the  tribes 
which  lay  immediately  outside  the  "  gate  of  Italy," 
Aquileia,'  and  against  those  farther  south,  along  the 
Adriatic  seaboard.*  But  though  Istria  is  said  to 
have  been  conquered,*  and  though  the  frontiers  of 
the  so-called  province  of  Illyria  or  Illyricum  were 
possibly  pushed  as  far  north  as  Salona,*  no  real  con- 

'  Zippel,  Rom,  Herrschaft  in  lUyrien  (Leipzig,  1877)  ;  Cons,  La 
Province  Romaine  de  Dalmatie  (Paris,  1882). 

*  Against  the  lapudes  in  129  B.C.,  the  Stceni,  **  gentem  sub  radice 
Alpium  sitam"  in  118  B.C.,  the  Kami  in  115  ;  Livy,  E^t,^  lix.^  Ixii. 

'Against  the  Dalmatse  in  119,  117,  85  B.c. ;  App.,  Ilfyr,,  10; 
Livy,  Epit,  Ixii.;  Eutrop.,  iii.,  7. 

^  Pliny,  N,  H,^  iii.,  19,  states  that  Sempronius  Tuditanus  (cons. 
129  B.C.)  subdued  the  Istri. 

'  At  what  date  Illyria  was  made  a  separate  province  is  uncertain. 
It  was  already  so  when  Caesar  received  it  in  59  B.C.  See  Marquardt« 
SUuUsverw.^  i.,  141  sqq. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    29 1 

quest  of  the  districts  afterwards  known  as  Upper 
and  Lower  Illyricum  was  effected.  Very  much  the 
same  was  the  case  with  the  country  lying  between 
the  province  of  Macedonia  and  the  Dan- 

^  Macedonia* 

ube.  From  114  B.C.  down  to  92  B.C., 
raids  by  Keltic  or  Thracian  tribes  upon  the  province, 
and  retaliatory  expeditions  led  by  the  governors  of 
Macedonia,  follow  each  other  in  rapid  succession.' 
The  defeat  of  C.  Sentius  in  92  B.C.  was  followed  by 
a  series  of  attacks,  some  of  them  prompted  and 
assisted  by  Mithridates,  which  endangered  the  very 
existence  of  Roman  rule  in  Macedonia.  Though 
checked  for  a  time  by  Sulla's  vigorous  measures  in 
the  spring  of  85  B.C.,*  they  recommenced  with  re- 
newed vigour  in  78  B.C.,  and  several  years  of  in- 
cessant war  followed.*  The  successes  gained  by 
Curio  (75-73  B.C.),  and  by  Marcus  LucuUus  (73-70 
B.C.)*  broke  for  a  time  the  strength  of  the  most 
formidable  tribes,  and  Curio  actually  penetrated  to 
the  Danube.  But  the  defeat  of  Antonius  (consul 
63  B.C.)  by  the  Dardani  in  62,  and  the  description 
given  by  Cicero  of  the  state  of  affairs  on  the  Mace- 
donian frontier  six  years  later,*  sufficiently  prove 
that  the  situation  had  not  materially  changed.  Over 
the  regions  afterwards  included  within  the  provinces 
of  Thrace  and  Moesia,  as  over  Illyricum,  the  Repub- 
lic never  obtained  any  real  hold. 

'  Livy,  Epit,^  Ixiii.,  Ixx. 
•Eutrop.,v.,  7. 

'Eutrop.,  vi.,  2;  Livy,  EpiU^  zci. 
*Eutrop.,  vi.,  6,  7,  Oros.,  vi.,  3. 

'  Cic.  In  Pisonem^  16  :  '*«/  semper  Macedamcis  impertUariha*  iidem 
fcna  prauincuE  fturint^  qtdgladiorum  eUque  pihrnm^* 


292  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     [Book  iv 

The  year  which  was  marked  in  the  domestic  his- 
Rome  and  ^^^  ^^  Rome  by  the  tribunate  of  Tiberius 
the  BMt.  Gracchus,  witnessed  also  the  creation  of 
the  first  Roman  province  on  Asiatic  soil.  For  though 
The  province  ^^  province  of  Asia  was  not  definitely 
of  Asia.  organised  until  the  suppression  of  Aris- 
tonicus's  rising  in  129  B.C.,  the  year  133  B.C.,  in 
6S5A.U.C.  which  Attalus  III.,  king  of  Pergamus, 
bequeathed  his  kingdom  to  the  Roman 
people,  was  officially  accepted  as  the  year 
of  its  foundation.  *  The  new  province  included  Mysia, 
Lydia,  Ionia,  and  Caria,  the  most  fertile,  wealthy,  and 
populous  districts  of  the  peninsula  of  Asia  Minor. ' 
From  the  first  it  took  rank  as  Ihe  most  valuable  and 
lucrative  of  Roman  dependencies.  The  revenues 
derived  from  it  became  at  once  the  mainstay  of  the 
Roman  treasury,  and  a  source  of  profit  to  the  Roman 
publicani  wHo  collected  them,  while  Roman  officials 
and  Roman  men  of  business  found  there  an  inex- 
haustible field  for  money-making  in  every  form.  But 
the  results  of  this  first  annexation  of  Asiatic  terri- 
tory did  not  end  here.  The  creation  of  a  Roman 
province  of  Asia  brought  home  to  the  Eastern  world 
the  fact  that  the  "lordship  of  Asia,"  which  had 
anciently  belonged  to  the  half-mythical  kings  of 
Phrygia,  which  had  since   then   been   held  in  turn 

'  The  official  era  of  the  province  was  reckoned  from  133  B.c.  It 
was  actually  organised  in  129  B.c.  by  M.  Aquillius  and  a  commission 
of  ten  senators;  Strabo,  p.  646.  Comp.  Livy,  i^^/.,  Ivii.,  lix. ; 
Plin.,  N.  II,  t  xxxiii.,  140;  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,,  i.,  177. 

'  Phrygia  was  attached  to  the  province  in  116  B.C. ;  Justinns, 
xxxviii.,  5.  Comp.  the  inscription  edited  by  Ramsay,  youm,  IleU,^ 
1887,  p.  496  ;  Reinach,  Mithr.^  pp.  51,  457. 


Ch.  3J    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     293 

by  Cyrus  and  Darius,  by  Alexander  of  Macedon, 
and  by  Antiochus,  had  passed  to  Rome,  and  that  the 
place  of  the  Great  King,  the  king  of  kings,  was  now 
filled  by  an  Italian  republic. 

At  the  time,  indeed,  there  seemed  little  probability 
that  this  claim  of  a  Western  state  to  rule  in  Asia 
would  be  seriously  disputed.  Of  the  three  powers 
which  had  once  contended  for  supremacy  in  the  near 
East,  Macedon  was  a  Roman  province,  the  Ptolemies 
in  Egypt  were  the  obsequious  allies  of  Rome, 
while  the  Seleucid  monarchy  with  diminished  terri- 
tories was  distracted  by  dynastic  feuds,  and  men- 
aced by  foreign  invasion. .  Nor  within  the  peninsula 
of  Asia  Minor,  itself  was  there  apparently  any  state 
strong  enough  to  challenge,  with  any  hope  of 
success,  the  sovereignty  of  Rome.  Yet,  within  little 
more  than  forty  years  after  the  annexation  of  the 
Pergamene  kingdom,  that  sovereignty  was  all  but 
overthrown  by  the  ruler  of  a  hitherto  obscure  prin- 
cipality beyond  the  Halys;  and  this  danger  past, 
Rome  found  herself  face  to  face  on  the  Euphrates 
with  a  new  and  powerful  Oriental  kingdom,  whose 
pretensions  were  as  lofty  as  her  own,  and  whose 
rulers  had  assumed  the  titles  and  claimed  to  be  the 
heirs  of  Cyrus. 

The  kingdom  of  Pontus*  took  its  rise,  like  its 
neighbours  to  the  west  and  south,  Bithynia  and 
Cappadocia,  during  the  troublous  times  Mithndatc* 
which  followed   the  death  of  Alexander  ofo^tu.. 


'  Appian,  Miihridat,^  9  ;  Mommsen,  R,  G,^  ii.,  270  ;  Th.  Reinach, 
Mithridaie  Eupator  (Paris,  1890)  ;  Wroth.,  Coinage  of  Fontus  (Lon- 
don, 1889). 


294  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     tBook  iv 

the  Great.  Its  founder,  Mithridates  the  First  (281 
B.C.)  claimed  descent  from  one  of  the  seven 
Persian  nobles  who  conspired  against  the 
Pseudo-Smerdis,  or,  according  to  a  later  version,  from 
the  royal  house  of  the  Achaemenidae  itself.  *  More 
than  a  century  later,  in  the  reign  of  the  fifth  king,  Mith- 
584^  ridates  Euergetes  ( 1 56- 1 20  B.C.),  Pontus  was 

A.urc.  enrolled  among  the  allies  of  Rome,  and 

both  during  the  third  Punic  war  and  on  the  occap 
631^5  sion  of  Aristonicus'srebellion(i33-i29B.C.), 

A.U.C.  jjad  loyally  assisted  her  powerful  patron. 

Euergetes  died  in  120  B.C.,  and  six  years  later  his 
eldest  son  Mithridates  Eupator,  after- 
wards famous  as  Mithridates  the  Great,' 
suddenly  appeared  in  the  Pontic  capital,  Sinope, 
deposed  his  mother,  the  regent  Laodicfe,  and  reigned 
in  his  father's  stead. '  But  the  narrow  limits  *  of  his 
hereditary  kingdom  could  not  satisfy  the  boundless 
ambition  of  the  young  prince,  nor,  though  from 
motives  of  policy  he  continued  outwardly  the  loyal 
ally  of  Rome,  was  he  the  man  to  remain  content 
with  the  inglorious  position  of  a  client  king.  The 
object  which  he  set  before  himself  was,  if  not  at  first 
the  expulsion  of  the  Romans  from  Asia,  at  least  the 
creation  of  a  powerful  Asiatic  monarchy,  which  should 
set  bounds  to  European  aggression,  and  reclaim 
Asia  for  the  Asiatics.  For  such  a  task  he  was  pre- 
eminently well  qualified.  His  personal  beauty,  his 
marvellous  bodily  powers,   his  prowess  as   soldier, 

*  App.,  /.  c,  9,  192  ;  Sail.,  Hist,  fragm,^  2, 6. 
*Reinach,  55. 
'Strabo,  xii.,  3,  i. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  RevoltUian.    295 

and  huntsman,/  fascinated  the  warlike  tribes,  Thra- 
cian,  Scythian,  or  Colchian,  whom  he  enlisted  under 
his  banner.  To  the  native  populations  of  Asia 
Minor  he  appealed  as  the  lineal  descendant  of  the 
great  Persian  monarchs  who  had  formerly  claimed  all 
Asia  for  their  own,  *  while  to  the  Greek  cities  he  was 
recommended  as  the  son  of  a  father  whose  services 
to  them  had  won  him  the  title  of  **  the  Benefactor," 
and  as  a  prince  who,  though  Persian  by  descent,  was 
Greek  by  education,  who  everywhere  proclaimed 
himself  their  protector,  and  who  posed  as  the  suc- 
cessor, not  only  of  Cyrus  and  Darius,  but  of  Alex- 
ander. In  the  use  which  he  made  of  these  advantages 
Mithridates  was,  it  is  true,  unscrupulous,  treacherous, 
and  cruel,  but  he  showed  also  that,  both  as  a  states- 
man and  a  general,  he  had  few  equals  among  his 
contemporaries. 

Fortune,  too,  favoured  him ;  for  during  the  first 
fourteen  years  of  his  reign  the  attention  of  the 
Roman  senate  was  too  much  engrossed  by  affairs  in 
the  West,  by  the  Jugurthine  war  and  the  Cimbric 
invasion,  to  be  able  to  pay  any  close  attention  to 
the  East.  Mithridates  thus  succeeded,  almost  un- 
observed, in  carrying  out  the  first  part  of  his  great 
scheme.  By  95  B.C.  his  authority  was  recognised 
along  the  coasts  of  the  Euxine,  from  the  mouths  of 
the  Danube  to  Colchis  and  Lesser  Armenia,  alike  by 
the  Greek  cities  and  by  the  barbarian  tribesmen. 
Once  master  of  the  Euxine  and  of  its  inexhaustible 
resources  in  men  and  supplies,  he  turned  his  atten- 

*App.  Miihr,,  11*2. 

*  Hdt.,  i.,  4 ;  rrjr  ydp^A6iijy.    .    .  oixtfieCrrai  oi  Uispdat 


296  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

tion  to  strengthening  his  position  in  Asia  Minor,  and 

it  was  his  action  here  that  first  provoked  Roman 

intervention.  In  92  B.C.,  L.  Cornelius  Sulla, 

the  future  dictator,  was  sent  to  Cappado- 

cia,  with  orders  to  restore  King  Ariobarzanes,  whom 

Mithridates  had  deposed  in  favour  of  his  own  son 

Ariarathes.*     Mithridates   acquiesced,  but  only  for 

the  time  ;  and  when,  in  90  B.C.,  the  Social 

664  A.U.C.  1^1 

War  broke  out  in  Italy,  he  seized  his  op- 
portunity, and  not  only  once  more  expelled  Ario- 
barzanes, but  put  a  creature  of  his  own  on  the  throne 
of  Bithynia,  in  the  place  of  Rome's  ally  Nicomedes. 
Again  Rome  intervened,  and  again  Mithridates 
allowed  the  exiled  kings  to  be  restored,  and  professed 
unalterable  respect  for  the  authority  of  Rome. 
Meanwhile,  he  laboured  ceaselessly  and  secretly  to 
consolidate  and  extend  the  great  coalition  which  he 
hoped  to  lead  against  Rome.*  The  Greek  cities  of  the 
Euxine,  and  their  barbarian  neighbours,  Thracians, 
Scythians,  Bastami,  and  Sarmatae,  awaited  his  orders. 
The  kings  of  Greater  Armenia  and  Parthia  were  his 
allies,  and  emissaries  of  his  were  in  treaty  with 
Egypt  and  Syria.  In  Pontus  itself  he  had  collected 
and  equipped  an  army  of  250,000  infantry  and 
40,000  cavalry,  as  well  as  a  fleet  of  400  vessels.' 
Nothing  more  was  needed  but  a  pretext  for  war,  and 
this  was  supplied  by  the  incredible  rashness  and 
folly  of  the  Roman  officials  in  Asia.  Indeed,  no 
better  proof  of  the  weakness  of  the  republican  system 

'  Livy,  EpiU^  Ixx.;  Plutarch,  SuUa^  5  ;  App.,  Miihr,,  xo. 
*App.,  Mithr.,  15. 
•  App.,  MUhr,^  17. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    297 

could  be  given  than  the  fact  that  by  the  unauthorised 
action  of  a  few  representatives  abroad,  the  Roman 
government  found  itself,  without  any  previous  warn- 
ing, suddenly  engaged  in  a  serious  war  against  an 
opponent  more  formidable  than  any  whom  it  had 
encountered  since  the  fall  of  Carthage,  and  this  in 
the  midst  of  a  serious  domestic  crisis.  It  was  at  the 
instigation  of  M.  Aquillius '  that,  in  89  B.C., 
the  recently  restored  king  of  Bithynia,  s  .  .  . 
Nicomedes,  invaded  the  territories  of  Mithridates, 
and  ravaged  the  country  unopposed  as  far  as  Amas- 
tris.  Mithridates  formally  protested  against  the 
injury  inflicted  upon  him,  but  the  Roman  officers, 
possibly  deceived  by  his  pacific  attitude,  refused  all 
satisfaction,  and  peremptorily  ordered  his  envoy  to 
leave  the  camp.*    War  was  now  inevitable, 

^  First  Mithri- 

and  early  in  88  B.C.  Nicomedes  invaded  duitic  war. 
Pontus.  Oppius,  proconsul  of  Cilicia,  ad- 
vanced into  Cappadocia,  while  Aquillius  and  L. 
Cassius,  proconsul  of  Asia,  covered  Bithynia  and 
Phrygia.  Numerically,  their  forces  were  formidable 
enough,  but  they  consisted  for  the  most  part  of  un- 
trustworthy levies,  hastily  raised  in  Phrygia  and 
Galatia,  and  the  commanders  were  no  match  for 
Mithridates  and  his  experienced  Greek  generals, 
Neoptolemus  and  Archelaus.    The  cam- 

Successes  of 

pais^n  was  short  and  decisive :  Nicomedes  Mithridates 

,  1  ,  .  A  .  in  Asia. 

was  utterly  routed  on  the  river  Amnius, 


'  He  had  been  sent  out  from  Rome  to  effect  the  restoration  of  Nico- 
medes and  Ariobarzanes.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Aquillius  who,  in 
129  B.C.,  organised  the  province  of  Asia. 

'  App.,  Mithr,^  z6. 


298  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

and  fled  first  to  Pergamus  and  then  to  Rome,  leaving 
his  kingdom  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy.*  His 
Roman  allies,  whose  troops  for  the  most  part  refused 
to  fight,  were  even  more  easily  driven  from  their 
positions.  L.  Cassius  escaped  to  Rhodes,  Oppius 
and  Aquillius  were  both  captured,  and  the  latter  put 
to  death.  The  senate  at  Rome  learnt,  to  their 
amazement,  that  Mithridates  was  already  the  undis- 
puted master,  not  only  of  Bithynia,  Cappadocia,  and 
Phrygia,  but  of  their  own  province  of  Asia,  of  L)^ia 
and  Pamphylia.*  The  announcement  of  this  com- 
plete and  unexpected  revolution  was  followed  by  the 
still  more  terrible  news  of  the  simultaneous  massacre 
by  the  Greek  cities  of  the  Romans  resident  among 
them,  an  act  of  deliberate  barbarity  suggested  by 
Mithridates  himself.'  Meanwhile  the  latter,  though 
foiled  in  his  attack  on  Rhodes,  had  reduced  to  sub- 
jection the  islands  near  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor. 
But  his  dreams  of  conquest  were  not  yet  completely 
fulfilled,  and  he  aspired  to  detach  Greece  itself  from 
its  western  rulers,  and  unite  it  to  Asiatic  empire. 
Archelaus,  who  was  despatched  for  the  purpose,  met 
with  little  resistance ;  and  not  only  the  Athenians, 
but  the  Boeotians,  Achaeans,  and  Lacedaemonians, 
became  the  allies  of  the  king  of  Pontus.*  The 
suzerainty  which  Rome  had  won  for  herself  a  century 
before  on  the  field  of  M^agnesia  was  for  the  moment 

'  App.,  MUhr,,  18. 

^  IHdn^  20  ;  Livy,  Epit,^  xxvii. 

'  App.,  Mithr^t  23  ;  Livy,  EpiU^  Ixxvii.  Eighty  thousand  Romans 
and  Italians  perished  ;  Val.  Max.,  ix.,  8*3.  Plutarch  puts  the  num* 
ber  at  150,000  ;  Sulla^  24. 

*  App.,  Mithr.,  27-29. 


Ch.  31    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    299 

transferred  to  Mithridates.  His  success,  however, 
had  been  largely  due  to  the  domestic  troubles  which 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  Roman  govern- 
ment, to  the  incapacity  of  the  Roman  generals 
opposed  to  him,  and  to  the  absqnce  of  any  sufficient 
body  of  Roman  troops  in  Asia  Minor.  All  this  was 
changed  when,  early  in  87  B.C.,  Sulla,  in 
conformity  with  a  cjecree  of  the  senate,  ISua  tluiei 
assumed  the  command,  and  appeared  in  ****ii5SJd" 
Greece  at  the  head  of  five  legions.  His 
arrival  was  the  signal  for,  a  hasty,  repudiation  of 
their  newly-formed  alliance  with  Mithridates  by  the 
states  of  the  Peloponnese,  an  example  which,  as 
Mithridates  found  to  his  cost,  the  Greeks  of  Asia 
Minor  were  ready  enough  to  follow.  It  was  against 
Athens,  which  Archelaus  and  his  ally  Aristion 
occupied  in  force,  that  Sulla  directed  his  first  attack. 
The  defence  was  obstinate,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
spring  of  86  B.C.*  that  the  city  itself  first  of  668  a.u.c. 
all  and  then  the  Peiraeus  were  taken.  ^*ithen2f 
Sulla  now  marched  northwards  into  Boeotia  ^ch«iSica 
to  meet  the  army  despatched  by  Mithri-  *°  m^oT 
dates  for  the  conquest  of  Macedonia,  but  which 
was  now  hurrying  to  the  relief  of  Athens.  A 
battle  fought  on  the  historic  field  of  Chaeronea 
ended  in  a  complete  victory  for  Sulla,  and  a  few 
months  later,  at  Orchomenos,  he  gained  a  second 
victory  over  the  reinforcements  sent  from  Asia  to 
support  Archelaus.*  An  end  was  thus  put  to  Mith- 
ridates's  short-lived  supremacy  in  European  Greece. 

'  Athens  was  taken  on  March  I,  86  B.C.;  Plut.,  Sulla^  14. 

•  App.,  Mithr,,  42-44,  49  ;  Plut.,  Sulla,  15-21  ;  Eutrop.,  v.  6. 


3C»  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBopk  i  V 

In  Asia  Minor  his  cruelties  and  exactions  had  already 
made  him  unpopular,  and  the  growing  disaffection 
was  increased  by  the  news  of  Sulla*s  victory  at 
Chaeronea.  The  savage  measures  by  which  he  en- 
deavoured to  intimidate  his  new  subjects,  his  treach- 
erous murder  of  the  Galatian  chiefs,  and  his  brutal 
treatment  of  the  Chians,  alienated  barbarians  and 
Greeks  alike.  The  Galatians  expelled  the  satrap 
sent  to  govern  them,  and  several  of  the  Greek  cities, 
following  the  lead  of  Ephesus,  openly  declared  for 

Rome.'  The  defeat  at  Orchomenos  was  a 
fo?^ace!**°*  fresh  \>low  to  his  hopes,  and  he  at  once 

empowered  Archelaus  to  open  negotia- 
tions with  Sulla.'  Nor  was  Sulla  without  strong 
reasons  for  desiring  peace.  The  .counter  revolution 
in  Rome  which  followed  his  departure  for  Greece  * 
had  placed  his  bitterest  opponents  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  He  had  been  declared  an  outlaw,  and  his 
command  transferred  to  L.  Valerius  Flaccus,  consul 
for  86  B.c.^  It  was  true  that  he  could  trust  his  legions 
to  follow  him  as  readily  against  Flaccus  as  they  had 
followed  him  from  Nola  to  Rome  in  88  B.C.  But  before 
engaging  in  a  civil  war,  he  was  anxious  to  secure  the 
fruits  of  his  recent  victories,  and,  destitute  as  he  was 
of  ships  and  money,  there  seemed  no  better  method 
of  attaining  this  object  than  the  conclusion  of  an 
honourable  treaty.    The  terms  which  he  now  pro- 


'  App.,  Mithr,^  46-48.  Ephesus  declared  for  Rome  at  the  end  of 
87  B.C.  See  the  extant  decree  given  by  Reinach,  Mithr,^  p.  463. 
Le  Bas  and  Waddington,  No.  136. 

'  App.,  Miihr,^  54.  •  See  above,  p.  228. 

*Livy,  Epit,^  Ixxxii.;  App.,  Mithr.,  51  ;  Plut.,  Sulla^  22,  23. 


Ch,  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.    301 

posed  to  Archelaus  amounted,  in  effect,  to  the 
restoration  of  the  status  quo  as  it  existed  before  the 
war.  Mithridates  was  to  abandon  Cappadocia, 
Bithynia,  Asia,  and  Paphlagonia,  to  hand  over  «to 
Rome  seventy  fully  equipped  ships  of  war,  and  to 
pay  an  imdemnity  of  2,000  talents.*  In  reply,  Mith- 
ridates asked '  to  be  allowed  to  retain  Paphlagonia 
and  to  keep  his  ships.  Sulla,  however,  was  firm, 
and  the  course  of  events  during  the  early  -^^  .  „  -, 
part  of-  the  year  85  B.C.  increased  the 
anxiety  of  both  parties  for  a  peaceful  settlement. 
Sulla  had  spent  the  winter  of  86-85  in  Thessaly,  *  and 
had  apparently  devoted  the  spring  to  chastising  the 
various  tribes,  Keltic,  lUyrian,  and  Thracian,  who 
for  the  last  four  or  five  years  had  incessantly  har- 
assed the  province  of  Macedonia.^  Meanwhile  his 
destined  successor  Flaccus  had,  shortly  Murder  of 
after  reaching  Asia,  been  murdered  by  Fimbria  w 
Fimbria   at    Nicodem^a;*   the  latter  as-  ^"^•* 

sumed  command  of  the  troops,  and  though  a 
man  of  the  worst  possible  character,  showed  him- 
self no  mean  general.  He  advanced  into  the  Roman 
province  of  Asia,  captured  Pergamus,  and  finally 
forced  Mithridates  to  take  refuge  in  Mitylene.* 
These  successes  decided  the  latter  to  accept  what 

'App.,^«Mr.,  54;  Plut.,  Sulla,  22, 

^JHd.,  55. 

»/^tV.,  51. 

^ Ibid,,  51 ;  Livy,  ^//.,'lzxxiii.  ;  Eutrop.,  v.,  7. 

*App.,  Mithr,,  55  ;  Livy,  Epit,,  Ixxxii.  Flaccus  was  murdered 
either  at  the  end  of  86  B.c.  or  early  in  85  B.C.;  VeU.  Pat.,  ii.,  24. 

'App.,  Mithr,,  52.  In  this  campaign  Fimbria  sacked  Ilium, 
though  under  Sulla's  protection ;  Livy,  EpiU,  Ixxxiii. 


302  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  iv 

terms  he  could  get  from  Sulla,  while  Sulla  himself 
realised  that  no  time  was  to  be  lost  if  Fimbria  was 
to  be  prevented  from  carrying  off  the  honours  of  the 

war.  Advancing  through  Thrace  to  the 
A«iL— °  Hellespont,  where  Lucullus  joined  him 
Mith^dates.  with  the  long-cxpected  fleet,  he  crossed 

to  Asia.*  At  Dardanus,  in  the  Troad,'  he 
met  Mithridates,  and  peace  was  concluded  on  the 
terms  originally  proposed.  Mithridates  retired  to 
Pontus,  Nicomedes  and  Ariobarzanes  were  restored 
for  the  third  time  to  the  thrbnes  of  Bithynia  and 
Cappadocia,  and  finally  Fimbria,  deserted  by  his 
legions,  who  went  over  to  Sulla,  fell  by  his  own 
hand.*  In  calm  defiance  of  the  sentence  of  outlawry 
passed  upon  him,  Sulla  had  won  two  pitched  battles, 
had  concluded  an  important  treaty  with  a  foreign 
power,  and  now  proceeded  with  unshaken  confidence 
to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  province  of  Asia  which  he 
had  recovered. 

The  measures  he  took,  if  partially  justified  by 
the  savage  massacre  of  88  B.C.,  were  at  any 
Bulla's  rate  not  calculated  to  restore  peace  and 

settlement  tit 

of  Asia.  prosperity  to  a  country  harassed  by  war 
and  impoverished  by  the  exactions  of  Mithridates. 
All  persons  who  had  been  prominent  as  partisans  of 
the  king  were  arrested  and  put  to  death.*  The  whole 
province  was  ordered  to  pay  not  only  the  arrears  of  the 
"  tithe  "  which  had  accumulated  during  the  last  five 

'  App.,  Mithr,^  56.     Lucullus,  as  quaetor,  had  been  engaged  for  a 
year  and  a  half  in  collecting  ships  from  Phoenicia,  Rhodes,  Cyprus,  etc. 
*  Plut,  SuUa^  24.  '  App.,  MUhr,^  6a 

^IM.f  61 ;  Gran.  Licinianus,  p.  35, 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     303 

years,  but  also  a  further  sum  of  20,000  talents,  as  an 
indemnity  for  the  costs  of  the  war/  With  a  view  to 
the  payment  of  this  indemnity,  Sulla  divided  the 
province  into  forty-four  districts,'  and  fixed  the 
quota  which  each  district  should  pay,"  as  well  as  the 
time  of  payment.  It  is  true  that  he  did  not  omit  to 
reward  the  fidelity  of  such  communities  as  had  re- 
mained loyal  by  a  grant  of  "  freedom,"  and  in  some 
cases  of  an  extension  of  territory.*  But  these  fa- 
vours counted  for  little  by  comparison  with  the  finan- 
cial ruin  which  his  demands  brought  about  in  the 
province  which  he  claimed  to  have  reorganised.'  In 
order  to  meet  them,  the  communities  of  Asia  were 

*App.,  Mithr,  6i  :  leivre  trdSr  <p6pov^  ideriyxetv  avrtxa 
.  xai  TTfv  rov  TioXe/iov  daicdrrfv.  The  amount  of  the 
war  indemnity  is  given  by  Plutarch  {Sul/a^  25).  There  seems  no 
reason  to  suppose,  as  Mommsen  does  (/?.  G,,  ii.,  351),  that  Sulla 
abolished  the  *'  tithe,"  or  the  collection  of  it  by  publicani.  He  de-  , 
manded  (i)  the  immediate  payment  of  the  arrears  of  unpaid  tithe  ; 
(2)  a  war  indemnity  to  be  paid  down  within  a  certain  date. 

'Cassiodorius,  Chron,  ad.  ann.  670  A.U.C.:  ^^  Asiam  in  xliv, 
regiones  Sulla  divisit,** 

*Ap]p,,  i.  c: 'dtcapi^oo  Hard  «dAet$.  Cic.  Pro  Flacco^  i^i 
"  omnes  Asi(B  civiiates pro porHone  descripsisseV* ;  Ad  Q,  J*rat,,  i.,  i, 
11;  **  vecHgalf  quod  Us  aqualiter  Sulla  discripserat,**  The  indem- 
nity for  war  expenses  exacted  by  Pompey  in  64  B.C.  was  assessed 
according  to  Sulla's  arrangement ;  Cic.  Pro  Flacco^  /.  c, 

^Appian(Jf/Mr.,  61)  mentions  Ilium,  Chios,  Lycia,  Magnesia; 
Tacitus  (Ann.f  iii.,  62)  Rhodes.  To  the  Rhodians  were  assigned  the 
Caunians  on  the  south  borders  of  the  province,  and  some  of  the 
islands;  Cic,  Ad  Q,  Pr.,  i.,  i,  11.  Laodicea  (ad  Lycum)  and 
Ephesus  were  also  declared  free  ;  C  /.  Z.,  i.,  587  sqq, 

'  App.,  /.  c.  What  the  extent  of  the  reorganisation  was  it  is  im- 
possible to  say,  but  the  era  in  use  throughout  Phrygia  and  Lydia 
was  reckoned  from  85  B.C. ;  Marquardt,  Slaatsverw,,i»f  180 ;  Ramsay, 
Geog^,  of  Asia  Minor  441,  452. 


304  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Bookiv 

forced  to  borrow  at  exorbitant  rates  from  Roman 
money-lenders ;  with  the  result  that  fourteen  years 
later  their  debt  had  increased  to  six  times  its  origi- 
nal amount.'  To  add  to  their  difficulties,  the  Cilician 
pirates  began,  even  before  Sulla  left  the  province,  a 
series  of  devastating  raids,  which  he  took  no  measures 
to  check* ;  while  the  legions  which  he  left  behind  him 
were  content  to  live  in  luxurious  ease  at  the  expense 
of  the  hard-pressed  provincials  whom  they  should 
have  protected,  and  to  carry  out  only  too  faithfully 
the  demoralising  lessons  which  Sulla  had  taught 
them.*  Greece,  the  scene  of  Sulla's  victories,  suf- 
fered only  less  than  Asia.  There,  too,  Sulla's  course 
was  marked  by  robbery,  devastation,  and  distress,^ 
the  traces  of  which  were  plainly  visible  forty  years 
later.*  Even  more  characteristic  of  Sulla's  cynical 
indifference  to  all  but  the  object  immediately  in 
view,  was  his  omission  to  guard  against  a  recurrence 
of  the  danger  which  he  had  for  the  moment  repelled. 
The  province  of  Asia  was  left  as  defenceless,  the 
restored  kings  of  Bithynia  and  Cappadocia  as  help- 
less, as  before,  while  Mithridates  himself  was  free  to 
recruit  his  strength,  and  plan  fresh  schemes  of  con- 
quest. ' 

It  is  probable,  indeed,  that  neither  side  accepted 
the    settlement    made   at    Dardanus  as   final.      In 


'  Plut.,  Luc.^  vii.,  ao ;  it  had  risen  to  120,000  talents. 

'  App.,  Miihr,,  62. 

^Ibid,,  64  ;  ballast,  Cb/.,  zi — "  Sulla  exercitum  .  .  .  quo  siH 
fidum  faceret  .  .  .  luxuricse  nimisque  libtraliUr  habu<rat  .  .  . 
IHprimum  insuevit  exercitus  populi  Romani  amare^  potare"  etc. 

^  Plut.,  Sulla^  12 ;  Diodor.,  fr.  38,  37  ;  Reinach,  Mithr,,  155. 

'  See  Servius's  letter  to  Cicero,  Ad  Fam,^  It.,  5. 


» 

Ch.  3]   The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     305 

83,  82,  and  81,  L.  Murena,  then  gov- 
ernor of  Asia,  conducted  three  expeditions  MithridaSc 
into  the  territory  of  Mithridates ;  *  and  CTx.ew,^,' 
though  these  raids,  which  Appian  digni- 
fies with  the  title  of  the  "  Second  Mithridatic  war," 
were  stopped  by  Sulla's  orders,  Murena  was  granted 
the  triumph,'  which  had  been  his  main  object  in 
making  them,  and  the  Roman  senate  steadily  de- 
clined to  grant  the  king's  repeated  requests  for  a 
formal  written  treaty.  On  the  other  hand,  Mithri- 
dates  retained  his  hold  over  at  least  a  part  of  Cap- 
padocia,  and  continued  his  preparations  for  a 
renewal  of  hostilities  with  Rome. 

The  death  of  Sulla  in  78  B.C.,  the  sue-     ^^  a.u.c. 
cess    of    Sertorious   in    Spaing    and    the 
outbreak  of  a  serious  frontier  war  in  Macedonia ' 
(77  B.C.)  emboldened  Mithridates  to  make     . 
more  overt  steps  for  recovering  his  lost 
position.   With  all  his  old  activity  he  sought  allies  in 
every  direction  against  the  common  enemy.    Once 
more  he  summoned  to  his  aid  the  warlike  tribes  to 
the  north  of  the  Euxine.*     His  son-in-law  Tigranes, 
now  the  ruler  not  only  of  Armenia  but  of  Syria,  was 
persuaded  to  invade  Cappadocia.  *     The  friendship 
of  the  Cilician  pirates  was  assured  by  the  efforts  which 
Rome  was  at  last  making  to  crush  them. '     Finally, 

'  App.,  Mithr,,  64-66. 

*  Cic,  Pro  Lege  Maml.^  3. 
'Eutrop.,  vi.,  2  ;  Livy,  EpiU^  xci. 
'App.,  Mithr,,  69. 

*  App.,  Mithr,^  67.  Tigranes  carried  off  300,000  men  to  people  his 
new  capital  Tigranocerta. 

*  In  78  B.C.  P.  Servilios  was  sent  against  them  ;  Oros.,  v.,  23. 


3o6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBook  IV 

he  solicited  and  obtained  an  alliance  with  Sertoriu» 
in  the  far  West,  thus  uniting,  as  Cicero  said,  "  the 
Atlantic  with  the  Euxine  **  '  in  his  great  coalition. 

Early  in  74  B.C.  Nicomedes,  the  sorely-tried  king 
Third  ^'  Bithynia,  died,  leaving  his  kingdom, 

win^******"  as  Attalus  had  done,  to  the  Roman  people, 
680  A.u.c.  and  the  senate  at  once  declared  Bithynia 
a  Roman  province. "  Mithridates  replied  by  invading 
the  vac^it  kingdom,  possibly  in  the  name  of  a  sur- 
viving son  of  Nicomedes,"  at  the  head  of  a  large 
force,  and  supported  by  a  well-equipped  fleet.  Both 
the  two  consuls  of  the  year  were  sent  from  Rome  to 
repulse  him,^  a  most  unusual  measure  at  the  time,  one 
of  them,  M.  Aurelius  Cotta,  being  specially  charged 
with  the  defence  of  Bithynia.  But  Cotta  was  no 
general ;  he  was  easily  defeated  by  Mithridates,  and 
forced  to  take  refuge  within  the  walls  of  Chalcedon, 
leaving  Bithynia  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy.  Mithri- 
dates next  advanced  against  Cyzicus — the  capture  of 
which  would  have  supplied  him  with  an  admirable 
base  of  operations  by  sea  and  land  against  the 
western  and  most  wealthy  districts  of  the  province  of 
Asia* — ^while  a  second  force  invaded  and  overran 
Phrygia.  But  Mithridates  was  not  destined  to  sweep 
sieeeof  ^^^  before  him  as  he  had  done,  in  88 
cyicuB.        g  Q     'pjjg  citizens  of  Cyzicus  obstinately 


*Cic.,  Pro  Mur.^  15  ;  App.,  Miihr,^  68. 

'  App.,  Mithr,^  69  ;  Eutrop.,  vi.,  6  ;  Livy,  EpiU^  xciii. 

'See  his  letter  to  the  Parthian  king  Arsaces  ;  Sail.,  Hist.^  4.  fr. 
20,  9. 

^App.,  MiiAr,,  jo;   Cic,  Pro  Mur,,  15. 

*  App.,  Mitkr,,  72  ;  Eutrop.,  vi.,  6  ;  Cic,  Pro  Afur.,  15  :  **  Asia 
januam,  qua  eiffracta  et  revolsa.^  iota  pateret provincia,** 


Ch.  3]   The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     307 

defended  their  city,  and  in  the  consul  L.  LucuUus 
he  had  to  deal  with  a  general  far  more  able  than 
those  whom  he  had  then  defeated,  and  supported, 
not  by  raw  Asiatic  levies,  but  by  five  Roman  legions.  * 
While  his  colleague  Cotta  remained  ingloriously  at 
Chalcedon,  Lucullus  advanced  to  the  relief  of  Cyzicus. 
Without  risking  an  engagement  with  the  more 
numerous  forces  of  the  enemy,  he  took  up  a  position 
which  enabled  him  to  prevent  any  supplies  from 
reaching  Mithridates  by  land,  while  he  trusted  to 
the  approach  of  the  stormy  season  to  intercept  or 
delay  those  which  came  by  sea. '  His  plan  was 
completely  successful.  The  winter  drew  on,  Cyzicus 
still  held  out,  and  the  vast  army  of  Mithridates  began 
rapidly  to  melt  away  under  the  effects  of  hunger  and 
disease.  At  last,  toward  the  close  of  74 
B.C.,  the  king  raised  the  siege,  and  with  a 
part  of  his  fleet  and  army  retreated  by  sea  to  Nico* 
media  and  thence  to  Pontus.*  Lucullus  entered  Cyzi- 
cus in  triumph,  having,  as  he  had  predicted,  defeated 
the  enemy  without  fighting  a  battle.  A  naval  victory 
off  Lemnos  completed  the  ruin  of  the  Pontic  arma^ 
ment,  and  finally  cleared  Asia  and  Bithynia  of  the 
invaders.  But  Lucullus  had  no  intention  of  leaving 
Mithridates,   as    Sulla   had    left  him,   in 

Invasion  of 

undisturbed  possession  of  his  hereditary      Pontutby 

kingdom,  to  prepare  at  his  leisure  for  a 

third  outbreak.     In  the  autumn  of  73  B.C.     ""  ^'^'^' 


'  App.,  Miihr,^  72.    Two  of  them  were  the  old  legions  of  Fimbria, 
which  had  been  quartered  in  Asia  since  85  B.C. 
'  App.,  J/»Mr.,  72. 


3o8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  i v 

he  led  his  legions  into  Pontus,  and  laid  siege  to 
Amisus  and  Themiscyra. '  Learning,  however  that 
Mithridates  had  collected  a  considerable  force  at 
Cabira,  in  the  valley  of  the  Lycus,  he  resolved,  if 
possible,  to  attack  and  crush  him  before  his  more 
distant  allies,  and  above  all,  his  son-in-law  Tigranes, 
could  come  to  his  assistance.  In  the  spring,  there- 
fore, of  72  B.C., '  leaving  Murena  to  con- 

68s  A.U*C. 

tinue  the  siege  of  Amisus,  he  crossed  the 
mountains  into  the  Lycos  valley,  and  avoiding  the 
level  ground,  where  Mithridates's  swarms  of  light 
cavalry  would  have  had  the  advantage,  he  occupied 
a  position  on  the  hills  commanding  the  enemy's 
camp.  Here,  just  as  provisions  were  beginning 
to  fail  him,  fortune  came  to  his  aid.  A  Roman  for- 
aging party  repulsed  with  loss  the  cavalry  sent  by 
the  king  to  intercept  them.  The  repulse  was  mag- 
nified by  rumour  into  a  serious  defeat,  and, 

Defeat  and  ^ 

flijrht  of  with  characteristic  indifference  to  the  fate 
of  his  followers,  Mithridates  prepared  for 
flight.  The  discovery  of  his  intention  created  a  gen- 
eral panic,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  Romans 
attacked  and  took  the  camp  with  all  the  royal 
treasure.  Mithridates,  however,  escaped  in  the  con- 
fusion to  Comana,  and  thence  made  his  way  to 
Tigranes. '  But  though  the  king  had  escaped,  his 
kingdom  became  the  prize  of  the  victor.  During 
71   B.C.   Lucullus  rapidly  made    himself 

683A.U.C.         '  ,  r     -rf  , 

master  not  only  of  rontus,  but  of  Lesser 
>/«</.,  78. 

"yW</.,  79  ;  Plut.,  Luc.,  15. 

•App.,  Mithr,,  79-8 1  ;  Plut.,  Z«r.,  15,  sqq, ;  Eutrop.,  vi.,  .6. 


Ch.  31  The  Empire  During  the  Revdution.     309 

Armenia,  and  received  the  submission  of  Mithri- 
dates's  own  son,  Machares,  king  of  the  Bosporani. ' 
This  accomplished,  he  returned  to  the  province  of 
Asia,  where  he  seems  to  have  spent  the  greater  part 
of  the  next  year  (70  BX.).  His  policy  684A.U.C. 
there  was  a  welcome  contrast  to  that  of  th"p??vince 
Sulla.  He  had  already  given  proof  of  his  of  aiu. 
Hellenic  sympathies  by  restoring  its  freedom  to 
Amisus,*  and  he  now  set  himself  to  mitigate  the 
evils  caused  by  Sulla's  exactions.  A  frightful  load 
of  debt  oppressed  the  unhappy  provincials,  who,  to 
meet  the  demands  of  the  Roman  money-lenders  and 
publicaniy  had  been  forced  not  only  to  part  with  their 
temple  treasures  and  works  of  art,  but  to  sell  their 
sons  and  daughters  into  slavery.  *  LucuUus  at  once 
prohibited  the  exorbitant  interest  hitherto  charged  ; 
he  fixed  the  maximum  rate  at  12  per  cent.,  and  for- 
bade  the  creditors  to  add  the  unpaid  interest  to  the 
capital  of  the  debt.  Where  land  had  been  mortgaged, 
the  creditor  was  to  receive  only  one  fourth  of  the 
yearly  revenue,  and  leave  the  rest  to  the  debtor.  A 
portion  of  the  indemnity  imposed  by  Sulla  was  still 
in  arrear,  and  for  the  gradual  payment  of  this  Lucullus 
provided  by  taxation.  *  The  success  of  his  measures, 
which  enraged  the  Roman  negotiatores  as  much  as 
they  gratified  the  provincials,  was  shown  by  the  fact 
that,  within  four  years,  the  burden  of    debt  was 

*App.,  Miikr,,  82,  83,  Plutarch  (Z«r.,  24),  however »  places  the 
submission  of  Machares  early  in  89  B.C.,  on  the  eve  of  Lucullus's 
advance  against  Tigranes. 

'  And  to  Sinope  in  69  b.c.  ;   Plut.,  Luc,^  23. 

■Plut.,  Z«f.,  20. 

*App.,  Mithr,,  83. 


3IO  Outlines  of  Roman  History,     tftook  IV 

removed,*  and  that  some  of  his  arrangements  were 
still  in  force  in  45  B.C.  * 

Towards  the  close  of  70  B.C.,  or  early  in  69  B.C., 
gg^g  the  young  Appius  Claudius,   LucuUus's 

inva^on  of  brother-in-law,  returned  from  the  danger- 
Armenia.  ^^g  mission  on  which  he  had  been  sent  to 
Tigranes.  He  had  reached  Antioch  in  Syria,  and 
delivered  his  message  with  an  outspokenness  new  to 
the  ears  of  the  Eastern  despot,  but  his  demand  that 
Mithridates  should  be  surrendered  and  reserved  to 
grace  Lucullus's  triumph  in  Rome  was  refused.  The 
refusal  was  probably  expected,  and  Lucullus  at  once 
resolved  upon  the  bold  step  of  invading  Armenia. 
The  undertaking  was  at  first  sight  a  rash  one,  and 
was  so  considered  both  by  LucuUus's  own  troops 
and  by  politicians  in  Rome.*  The  distance  was  great. 
The  kingdom  Armenia  itself  was  a  broken  and  difficult 
of  Armenia,  country  ;  its  rulcr,  Tigranes,  was  for  the 
moment  the  greatest  of  all  the  monarchs  of  the  East, 
and  the  holder,  by  right  of  conquest,  of  the  proud 
title  "  King  of  Kings."  *  A  century  and  a  half  before, 
Armenia,  the  mountainous  district,  bounded  on  the 
north  by  the  Caucasus,  on  the  west  by  Cappadocia, 
on  the  east  by  Media,  and  on  the  south  by  Mesopo- 
tamia, had  been  an  appanage  of  the  Seleucid  kings. 
After  the  defeat  of  Antiochus  at  Magnesia  (189  B.C.), 
it  became  independent,  and  grew  in  strength  until. 


>  Plut.,  Luc,,  20. 

'Cic,  Acad,  prior.  ^  i.   1,  3  :    **  hodic  siei  Asia  LucuUi  insHiutis 
servandis" 

•Plut.,  X«tf.,  24. 

*Reinach,  Ar»Mr.,pp.  103-105,  311-313.  343-347  ;  Plut.,  Luc,,  21. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     3 1 1 

towards  the  dose  of  the  second  century  B.C.,  when 
its  growth  was  checked,  and  the  existence  of  the 
kingdom  endangered,  by  the  advance  of  the  Parthians, 
who,  after  wresting  Media  and  Mesopotamia  from  the 
Seleucids,  invaded  Armenia,  defeated  the  Armenian 
king  Artavasde^,  and  annexed  a  considerable  slice 
of  his  kingdom.  In  95  B.C.,  when  his  son  650  a  u  c 
Tigfranes  ascended  the  throne,  the  fortunes  ^.j^^/^j^JJ 
of  Armenia  were  at  their  lowest  ebb.  But  "*•  •™p***- 
the  next  twenty-five  years  witnessed  one  of  those 
rapid  revolutions  characteristic  of  Eastern  history. 
The  new  king,  though  inferior  in  ability  to  Mithri- 
dates,  was  to  the  full  as  ambitious,  and  circumstances 
favoured  his  ambition.  The  advance  of  the  Par- 
thians  was  arrested,  and  their  power  crippled  for  the 
time,  by  the  attacks  of  Tartar  tribes  from  the  steppes 
to  the  north-east.*  Tigranes  seized  his  opportunity, 
and,  about  the  time-of  the  first  Mithridatic  war,  he 
not  only  recovered  the  part  of  Armenia  ceded  in  95 
B.C.,  but  acquired  also  Media,  and  the  opposite  dis- 
tricts of  Mesopotamia.  To  the  northward  he  imposed 
his  authority  on  the  Iberians  and  Albanians.  Syria 
in  the  south  fell  an  easy  prey  to  his  troops 
(83  B.C.),  while  to  the  westward  he  pene- 
trated into  the  lowlands  of  Cilicia  and  into  Cappa- 
docia  (78  B.C.).*  When  the  young  Roman  g^  ^  y  « 
patrician  Appius  Claudius  met  him  at 
Antioch  (70  B.C.),  he  was  the  ruler  of  an  empire  which 
extended  from  the  Caucasus  to  the  fron-     _   ^  „  ^ 

1      i-  1         «-r^  ^  A.U.C. 

tiers  of  Judaea,  and  from  the  Taurus  to 

^  Reinach,  p.  310,  where  the  authorities  are  given. 
*Flttt.  Ztff.,  21  ;  App.,  Miihr.,  67  ;   Reinach,  p.  312. 


312  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

the  eastern  limits  of  Media.  Vassal  kings  waited 
upon  him  at  table,  or  ran  as  footmen  before  him 
when  he  rode.'  Under  his  banner  were  enrolled 
Greek  hoplites  from  Asia  Minor,  Median  archers, 
Albanians  from  the  shores  of  the  Caspian,  and  nomad 
Arabs  from  the  desert.'  As  a  monument  of  his 
wealth  and.  greatness,  he  had  built  himself  a  great 
city,  "  the  city  of  Tigranes,"  and,  after  the  fashion  of 
the  old  Assyrian  kings,  had  transplanted  thither  a 
motley  population  drawn  from  the  various  subject 
provinces." 

But  though  as  great  a  lord  as  Antiochus  had  been, 
he  was  scarcely  better  fitted  to  resist  the  shock  of  a 
Roman  attack.  No  tie  but  the  common  fear  of  his 
power  and  cruelty  held  together  the  miscellaneous 
elements  of  which  his  empire  was  composed.  Nor 
were  his  vast  ill-disciplined  armies  any  match  for  the 
legions  of  Rome. 

In  the  spring  of  69  B.C.^  Lucullus  left  Asia,  re- 
joined his  troops  in  Pontus,  and  led  them 
through  Cappadocia,  across  the  Euphrates 
into  Armenia.     His  march  was  unopposed,  for  his 
kindly  attitude,  and  the  strict  discipline 
Armenia/"    which  he  enforced  upon  his  legions  con- 
ciliated the  natives.   Tigranes,  intoxicated 
by  a  sense  of  overwhelming  strength,  refused  even 

*  Plut.,  Luc,,  21. 
« Ibid.,  26. 

'For  Tigranocerta,  see  App.,  Miihr,,  84;  Plut.,  Luc,,  25,  26; 
Strabo,  11,  14,  16,  i ;  Reinach,  p.  345.  Mommsen  and  Kiepert, 
Hermes,  9,  129  sqq.  It  was  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Upper 
Tigris,  the  confines  of  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia. 

*  App.,  Mitkr,,  84  ;  Plut.,  Luc,,  23. 


Ch.  33    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     3 1 3 

to  believe  in  the  rumours  that  the  Romans  whom  he 
was  preparing  to  drive  out  of  Asia  were  actually 
invading  his  own  territory.  Even  when  convinced 
of  the  truth  of  the  report,  he  merely  sent  a  detach- 
ment  of  troops  with  orders  to  bring  Lucullus  before 
him  alive.'  The  defeat  of  this  force  did  indeed  for 
a  moment  shake  his  confidence,  but  the  sight  of 
the  vast  host  which  rallied  to  his  standard  in  obedi- 
ence  to  his  call '  revived  his  courage  and  confirmed 
his  resolution,  in  spite  of  the  prudent  advice  of  Mith- 
ridates  to  crush  the  invaders  in  a  single  battle.  On 
the  news  of  his  approach,  Lucullus,  who  was  be- 
sieging Tigranocerta,  and  who  with  better  reason 
was  no  less  an^^ious  to  force  on  an  engagement,  left 
Murena  to  continue  the  siege,  and  with  a  force  "  too 
large,"  as  Tigranes  said,  "  for  an  embassy,  and  too 
small  for  an  army,"*  advanced  to  meet  the  enemy. 
He  forded  the  Tigris  unopposed,  and 
while  Tigranes  was  still  endeavouring  to  Ti|Sl?e!^ 
get  his  unwieldy  host  into  order  of  battle,  TigSSoccrtiL 
he  attacked  the  iron-clad  cavalry,  on  whom 
the  king  chiefly  relied.*    The  battle  was  over  almost 


'  Plut.,  Luc,,  25. 

'  The  total  numbers,  as  stated  by  the  ancient  authorities,  vary 
considerably.  Appian  (Miihr.,  85)  puts  them  at  300,000  men ; 
Plutarch  (Xt#r.,  26)  at  about  250,000  ;  Eutropius  (vi.,  9)  at  107,500 ; 
Memnon  (Frag,  HisLGnEC,  3,  p.  556)  at  80,000.  In  any  case  they 
largely  exceeded  those  of  Lucullus's  army,  which,  at  the  highest 
estimate,  was  only  15,000  strong  (Plut.,  Luc,,  24).  It  consisted  of 
two  legions  and  3,000  cavalry,  mainly  Thhtcian  and  Galatian. 

•Plut.,Zi«'.,27. 

'  The  xard(ppaxrot.    They  were  chiefly  drawn  from  Armenia, 
Iberia,  and  Albania  ;  Reinach,  p.  343. 


314  Outlines  qf  Roman  History.     [Book  iv 

before  it  had  beg^n,  for  the  cavalry,  without  await- 
ing the  Roman  attack,  fell  back  in  disorder  on  the 
crowded  masses  of  the  infantry.  A  general  panic 
and  rout  followed,  in  which  it  is  said  that  100,000  of 
the  enemy's  infantry,  and  nearly  all  his  cavalry,  were 
slain,  while  of  Romans  only  five  were  killed  and  a 
hundred  wounded/  The  victory  was  followed  by 
the  fall  of  Tigranocerta,  which  was  surrendered  to 
the  Romans  by  the  Greek  mercenaries,  who  formed 
part  of  the  garrison."  The  half-finished  city,  which 
Tigranes  had  destined  to  be  a  lasting  memorial  of 
his  greatness,  was  destroyed,  and  in  the  time  of 
Strabo  was  only  a  small  village.' 

Late  in  the  spring  of  68  B.C.,*  LucuUus,  who  had 
spent  the  winter  in  the  south  of  Armenia, 

686  AUG 

marched  northward  across  the  Taurus  in 
the  hope  of  striking  a  final  blow  at  Ti- 
upon  ^Arux-  granes,  who,  assisted  by  Mithridates,  had 
dSeat'Sf**"**  succeeded  in  getting  together  a  second 
Tiffranes.  ^rmy,  and  was  preparing  for  the  defence  of 
his  hereditary  kingdom.  Finding  that  the 
two  kings  were  resolved  not  to  hazard  a  fresh  defeat, 
he  determined  to  march  directly  upon  the  ancient 
Armenian  capital  Artaxata,  and  thus,  as  he  hoped, 
force  Tigranes  to  fight  in  its  defence.  His  plan 
succeeded.  As  he  advanced  up  the  valley  of  the 
Arsanias  he  was  met  by  the  two  kings  at  the  head 
of  their  forces.    The  battle  that  ensued  was  a  repeti- 

'  Plut.,  Luc,,  28. 

•  App.,  Mithr,,  86 ;  Plut,  Luc,^  29. 
'  Strabo,  11,  14,  15. 

*  Plut.,  Luc,,  31 ;  App.,  Mithr,,  87. 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revdution.     %\^ 

tion  of  that  fought  the  year  before  in  the  south. 
At  the  sight  of  the  advancing  legions,  and  the  sound 
of  their  war-cry/  the  Asiatics  turned  and  fled  in  a 
disgraceful  panic.  The  way  now  lay  open  to  Artax- 
ata,  but  the  short  highland  summer  was  over,  and 
the  approach  of  winter,  added  to  the  unwilling- 
ness of  his  troops  to  risk  a  farther  advance,  com- 
pelled LucuUus  reluctantly  to  turn  southwards.* 
He  re-crossed  the  Taurus  into  the  warmer  regions 
south  of  the  Tigris,  where  the  capture  ca^ure  of 
of   the  important  city  of   Nisibis"  par-  ******** 

tially  compensated  him  for  his  failure  to  reach  the 
"  Armenian  Carthage.**  *  Up  to  this  time  his  career 
of  success  had  been  almost  unbroken.  He  had 
driven  Mithridates  from  Asia  Minor,  and  the  senate 
at  home  was  already  preparing  to  add  Pontus  to  the 
list  of  Roman  provinces.  He  had  led  the  Roman 
legions  for  the  first  time  across  the  Tatirus,  had 
twice  defeated  Tigranes,  taken  his  new  capital,  and 
wrested  from  him  nearly  all  the  provinces  he  had 
acquired  since  95  B.C.  To  complete  his  success, 
and  to  bring  all  the  near  east  under  the  suzerainty  of 
Rome,  it  only  remained  to  humble  the  Parthian 
king,  and  we  are  told  that  he  was  already  planning 
an  invasion  of  Parthia. 


*  Plut.,  Luc, J  31  :  ov^k  rifv  xpavyrjv  roSv  '"Poo/ioioor  ava6^ 
XOMSvoi. 

•  Plut.,  Luc,,  32  ;  App.,  Mithr,,  87. 

'  Nisibis  lay  £.  S.  £.  of  Tigranocerta,  in  Mygdonia.  It  had  been 
founded,  or  re-founded,  by  the  Seleucids,  and  named  Antioch  in 
Mygdonia;  Plut.,  l,c, 

'  Its  site  was  said  to  have  been  selected  by  Hannibal  when  a  refugee 
at  the  court  of  Armenia;  Plut.,  Luc,  51. 


3 1 6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     tBook  w 

But  his  good  fortune  now  deserted  him.  Lucullus 
has  always  disdained  to  .attach  his  soldiers  to  him- 
self, as  Sulla  had  done,  by  allowing  them  unbounded 
license,  nor  had  he  the  art,  which  Cassar  possessed, 
of  winning  their  affections.  Wearied  out  with  a 
seemingly  endless  war,  they  now  flatly  refused  to 
follow  Lucullus,  not  only  against  the  Parthians,  but 
even  against  Tigranes,  who,  during  the  winter  (68- 
gj5.^  67  B.C.),  had  once  more  got  together  an 

A.U.C.  army.      It   was  only  when  the  news  ar- 

rived that  Mithridates,  taking  advantage  of  Lucul- 
lus's  forced  inactivity,  had  re-entered  Pontus  and 
defeated  LucuUus's  legate,  M.  Fabius,  that  they  con- 
sented to  march,  Lucullus  led  them  at  once  through 
Cappadocia  into  Pontus,  where  he  found  that 
Mithridates  had  gained  a  second  victory  over  C. 
Triarius  (67  B.C.).  On  his  approach  Mith- 
ridates retired  eastward  to  Lesser  Ar- 
menia; but  when  Lucullus  attempted  to  follow 
him,  his  soldiers,  headed  by  the  two  old  legions  of 
Fimbria,  openly  mutinied,  encouraged  by  the  news 
that  the  senate  at  home  had  superseded  Lucullus  in 
the  command,  and  granted  their  discharge  to  his 
soldiers.  Throughout  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
6^  B.C.  Lucullus  was  forced  to  remain  passive,  while 
Mithridates  openly  reinstated  himself  as  king  in 
Pontus,  and  Tigranes  ravaged  Cappadocia  at  his 
will.  At  the  end  of  that  year  the  Manilian  law 
transferred  the  command  of  the  war  to 

688  A.U.C. 

Pompey,  and  in  66  B.C.  Lucullus  finally 
left  Asia  for  Rome. 

His  successor  had  already  accomplished  one  part 


Ch.  31   The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     3 1 7 

of  the  task  now  intrusted  to  him,  that  of  re-estab- 
lishing Roman  authority  in  the  East.  The  po^-ey  and 
pirates'  power,  who,  for  the  last  twenty  *»»«Pi«t«». 
years,  has  ruled  supreme  throughout  the  Mediter- 
ranean,  owed  much  of  their  success  to  the  indiffer- 
ence, or  at  least  to  the  inactivity  of  the  Roman 
Government.*  But  of  late  these  masters  of  the  sea 
had  ceased' to  confine  their  ravages  to  the  territories 
and  the  persons  of  Rome's  allies.  A  pirate  squadron 
had  boldly  sailed  into  the  roadstead  of  Ostia,  and 
burnt  the  vessels  lying  there;  a  pirate  band  had 
landed  on  the  Latin  coast,  and  carried  off  two 
Roman  praetors  as  they  travelled  along  the  Appian 
Way.  Worse  than  all,  the  corn  supplies  from  the 
provinces  were  intercepted,  and  Rome  itself  was 
threatened  with  famine.  Against  an  enemy  so  well 
organised  and  ubiquitous,  the  isolated  efforts  of 
the  ordinary  propraetor  or  proconsul  were  unavailing, 
and  it  was  with  the  approval  of  every  one  outside  the 
high  official  circles  that  Aulus  Gabinius, 

•  .,  ,,/^  V  '     t       %  ^  A.U.C. 

tribune  of  the  plebs  (67  B.C.),  earned  a  law 
intrusting  the  supreme  command  of  the  high  seas  to 
the  popular  favourite,  who  had  crushed  Sertorius, 
and  restored  to  the  tribunes  the  powers  taken  from 
them  by  Sulla.  The  commission  thus  given  to 
Pompey  was  wider  than  any  before  intrusted  to  a 
single  Roman.  His  "  province  "  embraced  the  entire 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  the  coasts  for  fifty  miles 
inland.  He  had  under  him  twenty-five  legates  of 
praetorian  rank  and  authority,  120,000  legionaries, 
4,000  cavalry,  and  a  fleet  of  276   ships.     He  was. 

*  Plttt,  rpmf.,  34  ;  DiQ  Cftss,,  xxxvi.,  w  ;  App..  Mithr.,  9a. 


3 1 8  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  i  V 

authorised,  in  addition,  to  levy  such  contributions 
of  men  and  supplies  as  he  thought  fit ;  and  orders 
were  sent  to  all  governments  of  provinces,  and  to  all 
allied  kings,  princes,  and  cities,  requiring  them  to 
render  him  loyal  assistance.  The  success  of  this 
new  and  startling  experiment  was  complete.  Forty 
days  sufficed  to  clear  the  western  Mediterranean  of 
the  pirate  vessels;  and  then  sailing  eastwards, 
Pompey,  while  his  legates  swept  the  Levant, 
attacked  the  headquarters  of  the  pirate  power  in 
Cilicia.  Their  ships  were  captured  or  destroyed, 
their  strongholds  razed  to  the  ground,  their 
arsenals  and  dockyards  destroyed.  It  was  while 
thus  engaged  in  Cilicia  that  Pompey  received 
the  news  that  the  grateful  people  had  con- 
ferred upon  their  idol  a  fresh  command,  which 
opened  even  more  dazzling  prospects  to  his  ambition 
than  that  which  he  had  already  held.  By  the 
—  *  „  «       Manilian  law  (66  B.C.)  he  received,  in  addi- 

688A.U.C.  - 

tion  to  the  control  of  the  high  seas,  not 
merely  the  charge  of  the  war  against  Mithridates, 
but  a  wide  command-in-chief  over  the  entire  Roman 
East.  The  position  was  such  that  ho  Roman  had 
occupied  before  him,  iand  it  opened  to  him  indefinite 
possibilities  of  conquest  and  of  triumphs  which  would 
throw  into  the  shade  all  that  he  had  achieved  hitherto. 
That  Caesar  would  have  effected  greater  things 

Pompey  ifk  ^^^^  ^^^^  resources  as  Pompey  now  had 
the  Bast.       ^^  jj|g  disposal  IS  probable ;  yet  Pompey's 

campaigns  in  Asia  between  66  and  62  B.C.  mark  a 
jjg^^  decisive  epoch  in  the  history  of  RomaA 

A.u.a         rule  in  Western  Asia,    His  first  movement 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     319 

was  indeed  directed  against  Mithridates/  But  though 
the  old  kmg*s  courage  was  unbroken,  and  his  hatred 
of  Rome  as  unquenchable  as  ever,  his  means  of  resist- 
ance were  almost  exhausted.  As  Pompey  advanced 
into  Pontus  he  retired  eastward,  and  though  over- 
taken and  defeated  in  Lesser  Armenia,'  he  escaped 
with  a  few  followers  to  Colchis,  and  thence  made  his 
way  along  the  northern  shore  of  the  Euxine  to  the 
Cimmerian  Bosporus,  there  to  form  wild  plans  for 
leading  the  tribesmen  of  Scythia  and  Thrace  in  a 
last  attack  upon  Italy.  Pompey,  however,  did  not 
follow  him ;  and  intrusting  to  the  Roman  fleet  in 
the  Euxine  the  duty  of  watching  his  movements  and 
intercepting  his  supplies,  he  turned  southwards  to 
regions  where  more  attractive  work  awaited  him 
than  a  toilsome  and  difficult  pursuit  of  a  sabmiMion 
fugitive  king*.  Tigranes  was  still  the  o^Tigrane*. 
normal  ruler  of  all  the  territories  lying  between  the 
Caucasus  and  the  frontiers  of  Egypt ;  but  he  was  in 
no  condition  to  make  a  stand  against  the  generalis- 
simo of  Rome.  Disheartened  by  the  desertion  of 
his  son  and  by  his  previous  defeats,  he  abandoned 
all  thought  of  resistance ;  and  when  Pompey,  in  the 
autumn  of  66  B.C.,  entered  Armenia,  he  went  to  his 
camp,  and  there  in  person  tendered  his  submission. 
He  was  graciously  allowed  to  retain  his  hereditary 
kingdom,  but  at  the  expense  of  surrendering  all  that 
he  had  acquired  beyond  its  borders,  in  Asia  Minor 
and  in  Syria. 

*  Pint.,  Pomp,^  32  sqq, ;  Dio,  xxxvii.  53  ;  App.,  Mithr,^  97. 
'  The  city  of  Nicopolis  was  founded  by  Pompey  on  the  site  of  his 
victory. 


320  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  iv 

Pompey  was  unable  at  once  to  take  advantage 
of  this  bloodless  victory  over  the  king  of 
of  the  kings.    The  submission  of  Tigranes,  and 

the  encampment  of  a  lai^e  Roman  force 
in  their  immediate  neighbourhood  alarmed  the 
independent  tribes  of  the  Caucasus;  and  during 
the  winter  (66-65  B*^-)  ^^^  Albanians  attacked  his 
quarters  in  the  valley  of  the  river  Cyrus  (Kur).  The 
summer  of  65  B.c.  was  consequently 
devoted  to  the  chastisement  of  these 
warlike  peoples :  first  of  all  the  Iberians,  and  then 
the  Albanians  were  reduced  to  submission;  and 
Roman  troops  for  the  first  time  penetrated  north- 
ward into  Colchis,  to  the  fabled  home  of  Medea,  and 
eastward  to  the  regions  bordering  on  the  mysterious 
Caspian  Sea. 

From  the  Caucasus  Pompey  returned  to  spend  the 
Annexation  winter  (65-64  B.C.)  in  Pontus,  and  in  the 
of  Byria.  summcr  of  64  B.C.  he  was  at  length  free 
to  enter  on  behalf  of  the  Roman  people  into  the 
rich  inheritance  ceded  by  Tigranes,  and  to 
complete  the  circle  of  his  triumphs  by 
establishing  the  authority  of  Rome  on  the  southern 
ocean,  as  he  had  already  established  it  on  the  Atlan- 
tic seaboard  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian.^ 
Entering  Syria,  he  at  once  annexed  it,  and  thus 
finally  brought  to  a  close  the  kingdom  of  the 
Seleucidae ;  and  then,  advancing  southward,  he 
besieged  and  took  Jerusalem.  The  Jewish  prince 
Aristobulus  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Rome,  and  his 
brother  Hyrcanus  placed  on  the  throne  as  the  friend 

*  Plut.,/*^/?!/.,  38. 


ch.  31    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     32 1 

and  ally  of  the  Roman  people.'  Farther  south  still 
lay  the  kingdom  of  Aretas,  king  of  the  Nabataeans. 
But  Pompey's  hopes  of  extending  the  sway  of  Rome 
southward  to  the  Arabian  Gulf  were  disappointed. 
A  revolt  of  the  Jews  obliged  him  to  ^^^^^  ^^ 
retrace  his  steps  northward  ;  and  while  in  Mithridates. 
Palestine,  the  news  reached  him  that  Mithridates, 
deserted  by  his  troops,  and  closely  besieged  in  the 
citadel  of  Panticapaeum  by  his  own  son  Pharnaces, 
had  put  an  end  to  his  life  (63  B.C.). 
Thedeath  of  Mithridates  removed  for  the 
time  all  fear  of  any  open  resistance  to  Rome  in 
Western  Asia.  Pompey  returned  first  of  all  to 
Pontus,  where  he  received  the  submission  of 
Pharnaces,  and  thence  by  slow  degrees  through 
Greece  to  Italy. 

From  a  military  point  of  view,  Pompey's  achieve- 
ments in  the  East  cannot  bear  comparison 

Tho  results 

with  those  of  Caesar  in  the  West.  But  ofPompcy's 
they  impressed  the  public  imagination  far 
more  deeply,  and  their  historical  results  were  at  least 
as  important.  It  is  true  that  an  air  of  Oriental 
exaggeration  pervades  the  accounts  which  have 
come  down  to  us  of  his  triumphal  return."  He  was 
welcomed  as  a  conqueror,  not  only  of  Mithridates, 
but  of  the  kings  and  peoples  of  the  East,  and  as  the 
man  who  had  extended  the  rule  of  Rome  to  the 
Euphrates  and  to  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  On  a 
tablet,  carried  aloft  in  his  triumphal  procession,  he 
claimed  to  have  taken  800  vessels  of  war,  to  have 

'/(W</.,  39 ;  Dio,  xxxvii.,  15  ;  App.,  Syria^  48, 
•  App.,  Mithr,,  114-118. 

91 


322  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      CBook  i  v 

founded  twenty-nine  cities  and  conquered  seven 
kings, — claims  to  which  the  long  train  of  captive 
princes  which  followed  his  car,  and  the  splendid 
trophies  in  gold  and  silver  which  were  paraded 
before  the  eyes  of  the  Roman  populace,  lent  a 
powerful  support. 

And  exaggeration  apart,  he  had  in  fact  achieved 
great  things,  and  his  name  must  be  as  closely  identi- 
fied with  the  rule  of  Rome  in  the  East,  as  that  of  his 
future  rival,  Caesar,  was  destined  to  be  with  the  rule 
of  Rome  in  the  West.  On  this  side  the  Euphrates 
no  power  was  left  capable  of  disputing  with  Rome 
the  sovereignty  over  Western  Asia.  There  were 
still  kings,  but  there  was  no  longer  "a  king  of  kings," 
for  even  the  claim  of  the  Parthian  monarch  to  this 
title  was  explicitly  rejected  by  Pompey.*  The 
re-establishment  of  Roman  suzerainty  in  the  near 
East  was,  moreover,  accompanied  by  important 
extensions  of  Roman  territory.  Bithynia,  which 
had  been  bequeathed  to  Rome  in  74  B.C.,  was, 
together  with  the  western    half  of   the 

680  A.U.C.  . 

kingdom  of  Pontus,  formed  into  a  prov- 
ince, and  the  constitution  now  framed  for  it  by 
Pompey,  was  still  in  force  in  the  reign  of  Trajan.* 
Cilicia  was  placed  permanently  under  a  Roman 
governor,  and  the  bounds  of  his  province  were 
extended  to  include  Pamphylia  and  Isauria.  Farther 
still  to  the  east  the  fertile  region  lying  between  the 
sea  and  the  Syrian  desert  was  incorporated  with  the 


*  Plut..  Pomp.,  38. 

•Strabo,  p.  541  ;  Plin.,  Epp.  ad  Traj,^  112  ;  Marqtiardt,    Stoats- 
verw,,  i.,  191. 


Ch.  31    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     323 

empire  as  the  province  of  Syria.  Outside  these 
provinces  the  area  covered  by  the  Roman  protec- 
torate was  still  left  in  the  hands  of  native  rulers,  of 
whom,  within  Asia  Minor  itself,  the  two  most 
important  were  Ariobarzanes,  king  of  Cappadocia, 
and  the  Keltic  chief,  Deiotarus  of  Galatia,  whose 
services  to  Rome  in  the  recent  wars  were  rewarded 
by  extensive  grants  of  territory  in  the  north-east. 
These  two  great  native  states  were  to  be  the  chief 
props  of  Roman  ascendency  in  the  central  and 
eastern  districts  of  the  peninsula.' 

It  is,  moreover,  to  Pompey's  credit  that  he  recog- 
nised the  fact  that  the  natural  allies  of  Rome  in  the 
East  were  the  city  communities  rather  than  the 
native  chiefs  and  tribesmen,  and  that  in  binding 
these  closely  to  Rome,  and  in  increasing  their  num- 
ber lay  the  best  security  for  the  permanence  of 
Roman  rule.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  personal 
vanity  quickened  his  sense  of  the  value  of  this 
policy,  and  that  the  most  recent  conqueror  of  the 
East  was  not  unwilling  to  appear  as  a  founder  of 
cities  after  the  manner  of  Alexander  and  the  Seleucid 
kings.  But  the  policy  was  a  sound  one,  and  did  as 
much  to  attach  the  Greek  communities  to  Rome  as 
Sulla's  shortsighted  harshness  had  done  to  alienate 
them  from  her.  Even  the  Greek  names  given  to  the 
new  cities  are  significant  of  the  intentions  with 
which  they  were  founded.  Pompeiopolis,  Nicopolis, 
Magnopolis  are  as  characteristic  of  Roman  policy 
in  the  East  as  the  Latin  names  of  the  new  towns 


^App.,  Mithf^f  114  ;MommseQ,  ^,  (7.,  iii.,  141  s^. 


324  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  IV 

in  Spain  and  Gaul  are  of  Roman  policy  in  the 
West. ' 

Not  the  least  important  result  of  Pompey's  work 
was  that  Rome  was  now  brought  directly  face  to 
face  with  the  Oriental  kingdom,  which,  throughout 
the  history  of  the  empire,  divided  with  her  the 
allegiance  of  the  eastern  world.  It  was  not,  indeed, 
possible  as  yet  for  a  Roman  historian  to  write  of  the 
king  of  Parthia  as  the  rival  on  equal  term  of  the 
Roman  Caesar.*  Pompey  treated  with  contempt 
the  claim  of  King  Phraates  to  be  styled  "  king  of 
kings " ;  he  refused  the  latter's  request  that  the 
Euphrates  should  be  recognised  as  the  boundary 
between  Rome  and  Parthia,'  and  even  assigned  to 
Rome's  now  dependent  ally,  the  king  of  Armenia, 
provinces  nominally  subject  to  Parthian  rule.  It  is 
possible  that  he  contemplated  bringing  the  fertile 
district  of  Mesopotamia  within  the  area  of  the 
Roman  protectorate.  But  the  fact  remained  that, 
with  the  collapse  of  Tigranes's  power  and  the 
annexation  of  Syria,  the  responsibility  devolved  upon 
Rome  of  protecting  the  Greek  East  against  the 
advance  of  a  purely  Oriental  power. 

What  this  responsibility  might  mean  was  shown 

The  defeat  of  c'^^^'y  enough  Only  eight  years  later, 
crassue.  when  M.  Licinius  Crassus  was  defeated 
and  slain  in  Mesopotamia*  (53   B.C.).     Under  the 

'  App.,  Miihr,,  115  ;  Mommsen,  H,  (7.,  iii.,  144. 

'TacitQS,  Ann,^  ii.,  56  of  the  Armenians:  ** Maximis 
imperils  itUerjecti**  Cf,  ibid,^  ii.,  60:  **  vi  Parthorwn  ant 
Jiomana  potentia, " 

»Plut, /»<ww/.,  33. 

^  Plut,,  Crassu$f  17  sqg*  y  Pio  Cass,  xl.,  12,  j^f. 


Ch.  31    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     325 

terms  agreed  upon  in  the  conference  at  Luca^ 
Crassus  succeeded  to  Aulus  Gabinius  in 
the  governorship  of  Syria.  It  was  his  ^  •  •  • 
ambition  to  perform  exploits  which  should  raise 
him  to  the  same  high  level  of  fame  as  his  two  great 
colleagues  in  the  coalition,  Caesar  and  Pompey,  and  to 
reconquer  for  the  West  and  for  Rome  the  vast  regions 
stretching  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Indus,  once 
ruled  over  by  Alexander.  A  pretext  for  invading 
Parthia  had  been  supplied  by  the  Parthian  king, 
who  had  declared  war  upon  Rome's  ally,  the  king 
of  Armenia.  At  the  moment,  too,  Parthia  was  dis- 
tracted by  civil  war,  and  the  aid  of  the  Romans  had 
been  invoked  by  the  weaker  party.  With  a  force  of 
seven  legions  Crassus  crossed  the  Euphrates  and 
plunged  into  the  sandy  wastes  beyond  it.  A  toil- 
some desert  march  exhausted  his  troops,  and  the 
Arab  sheik  who  guided  them  proved  faithless. 
Suddenly  the  enemy  they  were  seeking  appeared. 
On  all  sides  the  Parthian  squadrons  encircled  the 
invading  force.  For  a  moment  some  relief  was 
given  by  the  young  Publius  Crassus,  who,  at  the 
head  of  the  Keltic  cavalry  he  had  brought  from  the 
far  West,  charged  the  Parthians  and  forced  them  to 
retreat.  But  it  was  only  for  the  moment :  Crassus, 
cut  off  from  the  main  body,  and  surrounded  by  over- 
whelming numbers,  fell  by  the  hand  of  his  shield 
bearer.  Of  the  6,000  men  who  followed  him,  500 
were  made  prisoners,  and  the  rest  slain.  Through- 
out the  rest  of  the  day  the  Parthian  lancers  and 
archers  wrought  havoc  in  the  dense  ranks  of  the 
helpless  legions ;  at  nightfall  they  withdrew,  and  tJbe 


326  Outlines  0/  Raman  History.      tBook  IV 

Romans,  leaving  their  wounded  behind,  made  their 
way  northwards  to  Carrhae,  and  thence  to  Sinnaka, 
hoping  to  find  shelter  from  the  pursuing  cavalry  in 
the  mountains  of  Armenia.  The  Parthians  followed, 
and,  at  the  request  of  the  Parthian  leader,  Crassus 
consented  to  a  personal  interview  for  the  arrange- 
ment of  terms  of  peace.  The  interview  ended  as 
might  have  been  expected.  The  Roman  officers 
who  accompanied  Crassus  suspected  treachery, 
attempted  resistance  and  were  instantly  cut  down, 
together  with  their  general  himself.  Of  the  troops 
left  behind  in  camp  some  were  made  prisoners,  and 
the  rest  dispersed  ;  of  the  splendid  force  which  had 
crossed  the  Euphrates,  scarcely  a  fourth  part 
returned.  Ten  thousand  Roman  soldiers  were  car- 
ried away  into  captivity,  and  the  eagles  of  the  legions 
passed  into  the  keeping  of  the  Parthian  king. 

The  defeat  and  death  of  Crassus  were  not  fol- 
lowed, as  might  have  been  expected,  by  a  Parthian 
invasion  of  Syria  or  Asia  Minor.  But  they  opened 
the  eyes  of  Roman  statesmen  to  the  formidable 
strength  of  this  new  rival,  and  thenceforward  Roman 
policy  in  the  East  aimed  either,  as  under*  Caesar,  at 
crippling  the  power  of  Parthia,  or,  as  under  Augus- 
tus, at  establishing  a  definite  and  defensible  frontier 
along  the  line  of  the  Euphrates. 

The  campaigns  of  Pompey  and  Caesar  had 
state  of  the  extended  the  sovereignty  of  Rome  up  to 
Empire.  |.jjg  natural  geographical  limits  formed  by 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Rhine  in  the  west  and  north, 
and  by  the  Euphrates  in  the  east.  On  the  south, 
the  belt  of  fertile  land  stretching  along  the  African 


Ch.  3]    The  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     327 

coast  westward  from  the  mouth  of  the  Nilie  was,  by 
the  close  of  the  revolutionary  period,  either  depend- 
ent upon  Rome  or  directly  subject  to  her  rule. 
Egypt  was  a  vassal  state,  while  the  former  domin- 
ions of  the  Ptolemies  in  the  Cyrenaica  had  been 
annexed  by  Rome  and  formed  into  a  province 
(74  B.C.).'  Westward  of  the  Cyrenaica  lay  the  old 
province  of  Africa,  and  westward  again  the  kings  of 
Numidia  and  Mauretania  were  the  sworn  5-^  ^  „  ^ 
allies  and  friends  of   the  Roman  people. 

But  though  the  empire  of  Rome  had  been 
extended  over  the  whole  civilised  Mediterranean 
world,  and  though  its  boundaries  everywhere  touched 
the  confines  of  the  surrounding  barbarism,  there 
had  been  no  corresponding  advance  in  internal 
stability.  The  defects  in  the  administrative  system 
which  were  noticed  in  an  earlier  chapter'  had 
become  more  conspicuous  than  ever.  The  control- 
ling authority  of  the  senate  had  been  fatally  weak- 
ened by  the  attacks  of  the  popular  party.  Political 
dissensions  had  led  to  civil  war,  and  civil  war  had 
more  than  once  threatened  to  bring  about  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  empire.  In  Spain,  in  Africa,  and  in 
Asia,  the  provincials  had  seen  rival  representatives 
of  Roman  authority  in  open  conflict  with  each 
other,  and  their  own  resources  squandered  in  the 
quarrels  of  their  rulers.  Even  when  this  was  not 
the  case,  the  absence  of  any  central  authority  strong 
enough  to  control  the  pro-consuls,  and  to  enforce  a 
stable  imperial  policy,  produced   chronic  confusion 

'App.,  B.  C,  i.,  Ill  ;  Marquardt,  StaaUverw*t  i.,  300. 
'  See  above,  Book  in.,  chap.  3. 


328  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBookiv 

and  misgovernment.  In  addition  to  the  havoc 
wrought  by  civil  war,  by  foreign  invasion,  or  by  the 
scourge  of  piracy,  the  provinces  had  to  suffer  from 
the  inexperience  and  incapacity,  or  from  the  avarice 
and  ambition,  of  the  men  whom  the  chances  of  lot, 
or  of  political  party-strife  in  Rome,  sent  out  to  govern 
them,  and  who  ruled  each  in  his  own  province  as  an 
independent  autocrat.  The  pictures  which  Cicero 
has  drawn  for  us  of  Sicily  under  Verres,  of  Asia 
during  the  Mithridatic  wars,*  or  of  Macedonia  under 
Piso,'  cannot  probably  be  taken  as  typical  of  the 
normal  condition  of  a  province,  under  a  governor  of 
average  capacity  and  honesty.  But  the  state  of 
Cilicia  as  he  found  it  in  5 1  B.C.  was  a 
a  disgrace  to  civilised  -government.  He 
describes  in  vivid  colours  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
communities,  the  peculations  of  the  native  magis- 
trates, the  exactions  of  Roman  money-lenders,  and 
the  blackmail  regularly  levied  under  one  pretext  or 
another  by  the  Roman  governors.'  Parts,  at  least, 
of  Achaia  were,  as  we  learn  from  Cicero's  corres- 
pondent,.Servius  Sulpicius,  in  no  better  condition. 
"Behind  me,"  writes  the  latter,  "was  iEgina,  in  front 
Megara,  the  Peiraeus  on  my  right,  on  my  left  Cor- 
inth, in  former  days  thriving  towns,  now  prostrate 
and  ruinous."  *  That  a  government  under  which 
such  misrule  was  possible  should  have  been  unpop- 


'  Cic. ,   Pro  Lege  Manilia, 
•  Cic,  De  Fro9,  Qmsularidus,  and  In  Pisonem, 
'Cic,   Ad  AU»,  v.,    16:     **  Inperditam^etplane  eversaminpeT'' 
petuumprovinciam  me  venisse"  ;  IHd,,  Ad  Atl,,  v.,  21,  6,  2. 
*Cic,  AdFam,^  iv.,  5. 


Oh.  31    TTie  Empire  During  the  Revolution.     329 

ular  was  inevitable,'  and  it  is  probable  that  6nly  the 
consciousness  of  their  own  weakness,  and  a  sense  of 
that  Roman  rule,  bad  as  it  might  be,  was  yet  pre- 
ferable to  the  anarchy  which  would  follow  its  over- 
throw, kept  the  provincials  quiet.  The  danger  to 
the  republican  government,  however,  lay  not  in  the 
prospect  of  a  provincial  outbreak,  but  in  the  justi- 
fication which  its  own  maladministration  afforded  for 
the  ambitious  schemes  and  independent  authority 
of  powerful  individuals.  It  was  well  enough  for 
Sulla  to  carry  a  law  declaring  it  to  be  treasonable  for 
a  provincial  governor  to  leave  his  province,  to  lead 
an  army  across  the  frontiers,  to  make  war  on  his 
own  authority,  or  to  enter  a  kingdom  without  orders 
from  the  people  and  senate.'  But  Sulla  had  done 
these  things  himself  with  impunity.  The  wide 
powers  given  to  Pompey  in  67-66  B.C.  were  a  con- 
fession of  the  necessity  which  existed  for  a  change 
in  the  old  system,  and  Cicero  himself  recognised 
that,  in  the  conflict  which  broke  out  in  49 
B.C.,  the  question  at  issue  was  not 
whether  personal  rule  in  some  form  was 
necessary,  but  by  which  of  two  powerful  rivals  it 
should  be  exercised." 


^  IHd,^  Pro,L,  Af anil,,  22:  *^  difficiU  est  dUere    .     .     .     qutMto 
in  odio  sumus," 

•  7Hd,,  In  Pisan,^  21. 

^  J^id.,  Ad  Ait.,  viii.,  11.  9,  7. 


BOOK  V. 

THE     FOUNDATION    OF    THE     IM- 
PERIAL SYSTEM  AND  THE  RULE 
OF  THE  EARLY  C^SARS— 

* 

49  B.C.  TO  69  A.D. 


> 


THE  FOUNDATION   OF    THE  IMPERIAL 

SYSTEM  AND  THE  RULE  OF  THE 

EARLY  CiCSARS— 49  B.C.  TO 

69  A.D. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  DICTATORSHIP  OF  JULIUS — ^49-44  B.C. 

By  the  end  of  March  49  B.c.  Caesar  was  in  Rome, 
and  was  master  of  Italy.  But  his  position  was  criti- 
cal in  the  extreme.  From  his  camp  in  ^^^  ^^^^^ 
Epirus   Pompey  was  summoning  to  his  ^»"'- 

assistance  the  forces  of  the  East,  throughout  which 
his  name  was  all-powerful.  The  kings,  princes,  and 
peoples  of  Western  Asia  were  arming  in  his  defence, 
while  in  the  seaport  towns  of  the  iEgean  and  the 
Euxine,  on  the  Syrian  coast  and  in  Egypt,  a  fleet 
was  being  made  ready  for  the  blockade  of  Italy.* 
In  the  West,  Spain,  with  its  resources  in  men  and 


'Cses.,  B.C.,  iii.,  3;  **gx  Asia  Cycladibusque  insuiis^  Carcyra, 
Aihenist  Ponto^  BUhynia^  Syria,  CiHcia,  Fhcfmce,  jEgypio  <iassetn 
cotgerat*^ 

333 


334  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       CBook  V 

money,  was  held  for  Pompey  by  his  three  legates, 
Afranius,  Petreius,  and  M.  Terentius  Varro,  with 
seven  legions.  In  Spain,  too,  as  in  Asia  Minor, 
Pompey's  name  was  familiar  and  his  prestige  widely 
spread,  while  Caesar  was  comparatively  unknown. 

The  latter's  decision  was  soon  taken.  He  resolved 
cmarin  *^  secure  the  West,  and  remove  all  danger 
Spain.  Qf  attack  upon  that  side  before  following 

Pompey  across  the  Adriatic.  Two  of  his  officers 
occupied  with  ease  Sardinia  and  Sicily,  and  to  one 
of  them.  Curio,  was  intrusted  the  more  difficult  task 
of  securing  Africa.'  Caesar  himself,  after  a  brief 
stay  in  Rome,  set  out  for  Spain  by  way  of  Massilia, 
sending  orders  to  his  legate  there,  C.  Fabius,  to  con- 
centrate the  six  legions  stationed  in  Gaul,  and  at 
once  force  the  passes  of  the  Pyrenees.  After  a  short 
delay,  caused  by  the  refusal  of  the  Massiliots  to 
supply  him  with  ships,  or  to  admit  him  within  their 
gates,  he  pressed  on  to  Spain,  with  an  escort  of  900 
horse ;  on  June  23d  he  joined  his  legions,  who  were 
already  within  striking  distance  of  the  enemy.  The 
Pompeian  forces,  under  Afranius  and  Petreius,  were 
massed  at  Ilerda  (Lerida),  on  the  Sicoris,  with  the 
view  of  barring  the  passage  across  the  Ebro,  while 
Varro,  with  two  legions,  held  the  southern  province 
of  Farther  Spain.* 

The  opposing  armies  were  of  fairly  equal  strength, 
and  both  were  encamped  upon  the  right  bank  of  the 
Sicoris.    But  the  Pompeians  had  all  the  advantages 

'  Cses.,^.  C,  i.,  30>  3X. 

*Ibid.,  i.  37^1.     Cf.  for  this  campaign,  Stoffel,  Hist,  de  yules 
Cdsarj  Guerre  CiviU,  vol.  i.  (Paris,  1887). 


Ch.  n  The  Dictatorship  of  Julius.  335 

of  position :  they  had  a  friendly  province  in  their 
reair;  they  held  the  town  of  lierda,  which  was  well 
stocked  with  provisions,  and  with  it  a  stone  bridge, 
v\rhich  gave  them  easy  and  sure  communication  with 
the  country  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  Cxsar, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  to  rely  for  supplies  mainly 
on  convoys  from  Gaul,  which  to  reach  him  would 
have  to  cross  the  river  by  means  of  two  temporary 
bridges  hastily  thrown  across  it  by  Fabius,  while  his 
own  foraging  parties  were  perpetually  harassed  by 
the  Spanish  auxiliaries  of  the  enemy,  mountaineers 
familiar  with  the  country,  and  skilled  in  guerilla 
warfare.  Caesar's  first  move  was  an  attempt  to 
equalise  matters  by  seizing  a  position  midway 
between  the  Pompeian  camp  and  Ilerda,  and  thus 
cut  the  enemy  off  both  from  the  town  and  the 
bridge/  But  the  attempt  failed,  and  a  flood  which 
swept  away  his  two  bridges  increased  the  difficulties 
of  his  situation.  His  supplies  ran  short,  and  he  was 
hemmed  in  by  impassable  rivers  to  the  right  and 
left,  with  a  strongly  entrenched  hostile  force  in  front. 
The  exultant  Pompeians  regarded  the  war  as  already 
over,  when  by  a  brilliant  manoeuvre  Caesar  changed 
the  aspect  of  affairs.  A  convoy  of  provisions  from 
Gaul  had  reached  the  left  bank  of  the  Sicoris  some 
miles  above  his  camp.  Hastily  constructing  light 
coracles,  such  as  he  had  learnt  the  value  of  in 
Britain,*  he  sent  them  by  night  up  the  right  bank  in 
carts.  At  a  distance  of  twenty-two  miles  from  the 
camp  the  soldiers  crossed  in  the  boats  and  fortified 

» Caes.,  B.  C,  i.  43. 
•/W^.,i.,54. 


336  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  V 

a  post  on  the  other  side ;  a  bridge  was  built,  and  the 
convoy  brought  in  safety  to  its  destination.  Cxsar 
was  once  more  out  of  the  reach  of  famine,  his  com- 
munications with  the  left  bank  were  restored,  while 
the  news  of  this  first  success  brought  him  welcome 
offers  of  alliance,  not  only  from  neighbouring  Spanish 
communities,  such  as  Osca,  but  even  from  those  at  a 
greater  distance. 

The  Pompeian  generals  now  resolved  to  abandon 
Ilerda,  and  re-crossing  the  Ebro,  to  transfer  the  seat 
of  war  to  Celtiberia/  where  the  influence  of  Pompey's 
name  was  especially  great.  But  Caesar's  rapidity  of 
movement  upset  their  calculations.  They  reached  ' 
the  rocky  ground  near  the  Ebro  only  to  find  the 
way  closed  by  Caesar's  infantry,  while  his  cavalry 
hung  upon  their  rear.  Despairing  of  being  able  to 
advance  southward,  the  Pompeians  attempted  to 
retrace  their  steps  to  Ilerda,  but  with  no  better 
success..  They  were  once  more  surrounded,  their 
supplies  cut  off,  and  four  days  after  the  retreat  had 
begun  they  surrendered  at  discretion.*  Caesar, 
anxious  as  ever  to  show  that  Sulla's  methods  were 
not  his,  and  that  he  had  no  revenge  to  wreak  on 
Roman  citizens,  contented  himself  with  merely 
requiring  that  the  troops  should  be  disbanded. 
Those  who  had  homes  in  Spain  were  discharged 
at  once,  the  rest  were  escorted  by  two  of  Caesar's 
legions  as  far  as  the  frontiers  of  Italy,  and  there 
dismissed." 


>  The  central  district  pf  Hither  Spain. 
•Caes.,  B.  C,  i.,  84. 
»/^«/.,i.,  85-87. 


Ch.  1  The  Dictatorship  of  yulius.  337 

The  surrender  of  Afranius  and  Petreius  deter- 
mined the  fate  of  the  peninsula.     Farther  Spain 

declared  for  Caesar,  and  Varro,  unable  to      «k 

resist  the  tide  of  opinion,  himself  sub-  p«icn  of 
mitted  to  the  conqueror.'  Caesar  returned  p*>»"»*"»- 
to  Rome,  receiving  on  his  way  the  submission  of 
Massilia,  and  after  devoting  a  few  days  in  the  capi- 
tal to  the  holding  of  the  Consular  elections,  which  he 
held  as  dictator,  and  to  other  necessary  business,  he 
left  again  for  Brundusium,  and  the  decisive  conflict 
with  Pompey  (December,  49  B.C.).* 

The  latter  had  been  employed  since  the  spring  in 
strengthening  his  position.  In  addition  to  nine 
legions  he  had  concentrated  in  Epirus  a  motley  force 
of  auxiliaries,  whose  barbaric  appearance  probably 
shocked  others  besides  Cicero.*  Vast  stores  had  been 
collected  at  Dyrrhachium,  and  a  numerous  fleet  under 
the  command  of  Caesar's  ancient  enemy,  M.  Bibulus, 
was  stationed  along  the  coast.  It  seems  clear  that 
both  Pompey  and  the  emigre  nobles  who  surrounded 
him  looked  forward  to  invading  Italy  at  their  ease 
when  all  was  ready,  and  expected  nothing  less  than 
to  be  themselves  attacked  by  Caesar.  The  shock  to 
their  confidence  was  all  the  greater  when  the  news  of 
Caesar's  success  in  Spain  was  rapidly  followed  by  the 
still  more  startling  intelligence  that  he  had  actually 
effected  a  landing  unopposed  on  the  Epirot  coast, 
that  Oricum  first  of  all,  and  then  ApoUonia,  had 
opened  their  gates  to  him,  and  that  he  was  advanc- 


» JHd.,  ii.,  20. 

*  Caes.,  B.  C,  iii.,  i. 

'  Cic,  AdAtt,,  ix.,  la 


338  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Bookv 

ing  on  Dyrrhachium/  For  the  moment  it  seemed 
as  if  he  would  repeat  in  Epirus  and  Macedonia  the 
brilliant  march  by  which  he  had  won  Italy  in  the 
spring  of  49  B.C.  But  Pompey  arrived  from  Mace- 
donia in  time  to  arrest  the  enemy's  advance  at  the 
river  Apsus,  and  Caesar,  who  had  only  half  his  army 
with  him,  was  obliged  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  rest 
of  his  troops,  under  M.  Antonius,  before  resuming 
the  offensive.  At  last  came  the  news  that  they  had 
landed,  but  at  a  spot  considerably  higher  up  the  coast, 
at  Lissus,  so  that  Pompey  might  easily  have  pre- 
vented their  junction  with  Caesar.  Once  more,  how- 
ever, Caesar  was  too  quick  for  the  leisurely  pace  of  his 
dignified  opponent.  He  not  only  succeeded  in  join- 
ing Antony,  but,  by  a  sudden  dash,  seized  and  occu- 
pied the  neck  of  land  by  which  alone  Dyrrhachium 
could  be  approached,  and  thus  cut  off  Pompey  from 
his  headquarters  and  his  supplies.  The  latter,  how- 
ever, with  forces  numerically  superior,  and  with 
absolute  command  of  the  sea,  seems  to  have  thought 
with  Philip  I.  of  Spain  that  time  and  he  were  a 
match  even  for  Caesar,  and  entrenching  himself  at 
Petra,  a  short  distance  south  of  Dyrrhachium,  re- 
mained obstinately  on  the  defensive.  To  this  policy 
of  masterly  inactivity  Caesar  replied  by  an  attempt, 
which  nearly  succeeded,  to  blockade  Pompey  where 
he  stood.  But  the  extent  of  ground  over  which 
Caesar  had  to  carry  his  lines  of  circumvallation  was 
too  great.  Just  when  Pompey  was  beginning  to  feel 
the  pressure  of  scarcity,  a  weak  point  in  the  lines  was 
discovered.    Through  this  he  forced  his  way,  tnflict- 

»  Caes.,  B,  C,  iii.,  8-12. 


Ch.  11  The  Dictaiarship  of  Julius.  339 

ing  such  heavy  loss  on  the  enemy  that  Caesar,  by  his 
own  confession,  was  within  an  ace  of  complete  and 
ruinous  defeat,' 

With  Pompey's  escape  from  Petra  the  last  stage  of 
the  conflict  begins.  Caesar's  object  now  was  to  draw 
his  enemy  away  from  his  natural  base  of  operations 
on  the  coast,  and  transfer  the  seat  of  war  to  the  in- 
terior. Pompey  was  expecting  reinforcements  from 
the  East  by  way  of  .Macedonia,  and  Caesar  hoped  by 
marching  in  force  against  these  to  oblige  Pompey  to 
move  to  their  assistance.  His  plan  completely  suc- 
ceeded. From  Apollonia  he  marched  into  Thessaly, 
recalled  the  two  legions  previously  despatched  to 
hold  Pompey*s  reinforcements  in  check,  and  encamped 
with  his  entire  force  near  Pharsalus.  Pompey  fol- 
lowed him,  and  taking  up  the  fresh  troops  from  the 
East  on  his  way,  encamped  at  Larissa,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Thessalian  plain,  some  miles  north  of  Phar- 
salus. Reluctant  as  ever  to  risk  a  decisive  engage- 
ment, he  would  have  halted  there,  but  the  nobles  jn 
his  camp  would  hear  of  no  delay,'  and,  against  his 
better  judgment,  he  advanced  to  Pharsalus.  Even 
now,  when  the  two  armies  were  face  to  face,  some 
days  elapsed  before  a  blow  was  struck.  Pompey's 
position  was  too  strong  to  be  attacked,  and  he  could 
not  be  induced  to  leave  it.  At  last,  on  August  9, 
Caesar,  who  had  resolved  by  a  feigned  retreat  to  decoy 
the  enemy  from  their  vantage-ground,  noticed  that 
the  Pompeians  were  drawn  up .  in  line  at  a  greater 

'  Caes.,  B,  C,  iii.,  42  s^^,     Stoffel,  Guerre  Civile,  i.,  764  sqq, 
•  Cses.,  B,  C,  iii.  83  :  '*  nee  guibtis  rationibus  superare possent,  sed 
quemadmodum  uH  victoria  debermt,  cogitabanV* 


340  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

distance  than  usual  from  the  hill  on  which  their  camp 
was  placed.  He  at  once  abandoned  all  thoughts  of 
a  retreat,  and,  in  spite  of  his  inferiority  in  numbers, 
prepared  for  an  instant  attack.'  Perceiving  that  his 
chief  danger  lay  in  the  possibility  that,  while  his 
centre  was  engaged,  Pompey's  numerous  cavalry 
would  turn  his  right  wing  and  take  him  in  the  rear, 
he  trusted  that  part  of  kis  line  to  the  famous  tenth 
legion,  and  supported  it  by  his  cavalry  and  a  reserve 
force  of  infantry,  the  whole  being  under  the  com- 
mand, strangely  enough,  of  a  nephew  of  the  man 
from  whose  hands  Cxsar  had  once  barely  escaped 
with  his  life,  the  dictator  Sulla.  Next  to  these  troops 
Caesar  stationed  himself,  facing  that  portion  of  the 
enemy's  line  where  Pompey  himself  was  in  command. 
The  centre  he  intrusted  to  Domitius  Calvinus,  the 
left  to  Antony."  His  own  infantry  numbered  in  all 
about  22,000  men,  that  of  the  enemy  over  45,000. 
The  disparity  in  cavalry  between  the  two  forces  was 
still  greater,  and  the  Pompeians  confidently  awaited 
the  moment  when  Caesar's  legions,  exhausted  by  their 
charge,  should  be  encircled  and  swept  away  by  the 
horsemen  of  the  East. 

When  the  battle  began  it  seemed  as  if  Pompey's 
confidence  in  the  result  would  be  justified.  His 
infantry  received  without  flinching  the  charge  of  the 
Caesarians,  while  his  cavalry,  supported  by  the 
archers  and'  slingers,  advanced  on  the  left,  drove 
back  the  cavalry  opposed  to  them,  and  began  the 
flanking  movement  which  was  to  decide  the  fortune 

»  JHd.,  iii.,  85. 

'  C?^.,  B.  C,  iii.,  89. 


Ch.  11  The  Dictatorship  of  yulius.  341 

of  the  day.  But  at  this  moment  the  aspect  of  affairs 
was  suddenly  changed  by  the  valour  of  the  six 
cohorts  stationed  by  Caesar  on  his  right  wing.  This 
reserved  body  of  picked  troops  charged  and  routed 
the  Pompeian  horsemen,  who  fled  in  disorder :  then 
driving  before  them  the  archers  and  slingers,  they 
fell  with  fury  upon  the  left  flank  of  the  infantry.  At 
the  same  moment  Caesar  ordered  the  whole  of  his 
reserve  to  advance,  and  this  last  movement  was 
decisive.  The  Pompeian  legions,  exhausted  by  their 
gallant  resistance  to  the  first  charge  of  the  enemy, 
deserted  by  the  cavalry  and  light  troops,  and  now 
attacked  both  in  front  and  on  the  flank,  broke  and 
fled.  The  victorious  Caesarians,  pressing  forward,  in 
spite  of  the  mid-day  heat,  stormed  and  took  the 
Pompeian  camp,  and,  without  waiting  to  seize  on 
the  rich  spoil  it  contained,  started  in  pursuit  of  the 
main  body  of  the  fugitives.  Early  the  next  morn- 
ing, what  remained  of  Pompey's  army,  some  24,000 
men,  surrendered  at  discretion. 

So  ended  the  first  of  the  three  historic  battles, 
Pharsalus,  Philippi,  and  Actium,  which  decided  the 
fate  of  the  Roman  world.  All  three  were  fought  in 
the  debatable  land  of  the  Greco-Macedonian  penin- 
sula ;  all  three  were  in  some  degree  a  trial  of 
strength  between  East  and  West;  and  in  all, 
Western  discipline  and  courage  triumphed  over  the 
less  trustworthy  levies  of  the  East.  Nor  must  it  be 
forgotten  that  the  success  of  Caesar  at  Pharsalus, 
like  that  of  his  g^eat  nephew  at  Actium,  was  gained 
in  defence  of  Rome  and  Italy,  against  a  would-be 
invader,  who,  though  Roman,  relied  chiefly  on  the 


342  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  v 

resources  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  East.  It  was 
consequently  with  the  Caesars,  and  not  with  their 
opponents,  that  the  growing  sentiment  of  Italian 
patriotism  was  allied. 

Pompey  himself  had  not  perished  on  the  scene 
of  his  first  defeat.     When  his  camp  was 

Plight  and  _     ,  ,  '  ,  ,        , 

death  of  stormcd  he  escaped  on  horseback  to 
Larissa,  and  thence  to  the  coast.  His 
case  was  not  yet  desperate,  for  his  fleet  commanded 
the  seas,  and  the  province  of  Africa  was  still  his. 
But  the  shock  of  misfortune  paralysed  his  energies ; 
accustomed  for  years  to  unbroken  success,  and  to  be 
hailed  on  all  sides  as  ''  Pompey  the  Great,"  he  could 
not  set  himself  to  the  task  of  rebuilding  his  shattered 
fortunes,  and  the  conviction  that  his  cause  was  lost, 
which  Cicero  tells  us  had  filled  the  minds  of ''  all 
kings  and  peoples  *'  *  was  clearly  shared  by  himself. 
From  the  Thessalian  coast  he  crossed  the  iEgaean, 
over  which  eighteen  years  before  he  had  sailed  in 
triumph,  to  Mitylene,  and  thence  to  Cilicia  and 
Cyprus,  only  to  find  that  the  power  of  his  name  was 
gone,  and  that  the  East  would  no  longer  rise  at  his 
call.  From  Cyprus  he  went  to  Egypt,  hoping  to 
find  an  ally  in  the  boy-king  Ptolemy,  and  there,  as 
he  landed  at  Pelusium,  he  was  treacherously 
murdered.* 

The  victory  at  Pharsalus,  followed  as  it  was  by 
The  Aiexan-  ^^®  death  of  his  great  rival,  might  have 
drine  war.  been  cxpcctcd  to  sccure  for  Caesar  undis- 
puted supremacy,  and  set  him  free  to  reorganise  the 

^aa^^  I       I-      ■     ■  ■- 

^  C\c„  Ad  Att,,  xi..6. 

•  Caes.,  B,  C,  Hi.,  103,  104 ;  Plut.,  Pomp.,  77-79. 


Ch.  1]  The  Dictatorship  of  yulius.  343 

government  of  the  state.  But  although  the  wiser 
men  of  the  vanquished  party,  headed  by  Cicero, 
accepted  defeat,'  Caesar's  own  rashness,  in  the  first 
place,  and  then  the  irreconcilable  animosity  of  some 
of  the  Pompeian  leaders,  involved  him  in  a  series  of 
fresh  conflicts.  Hurrying  in  pursuit  of  Pompey,  he 
reached  Alexandria  (October  48  B.<:.)  with  -^e  a  u  c 
a  small  force — only  to  hear  of  his  death. 
His  demand  that  the  young  king  Ptolemy  and  his 
sister  and  rival  Cleopatra  should  disband  their  forces 
and  submit  to  his  arbitration  was  resented  as  an 
unwarrantable  interference,*  ai\d  he  found  himself 
blockaded  in  Alexandria  by  the  royal  forces.  Even 
when  set  free  by  the  arrival  of  a  relieving  force 
under  the  command,  strangely  enough,  of  a  reputed 
son  of  the  great  Mithridates,  he  lingered  in  Egypt, 
held  a  prisoner,  it  was  said,  by  the  charms  of  Cleo- 
patra. It  was  not  until  June  47  B.C.  that  ^  ^,  ^ 
*,■,           -               ,,        707A.U.C. 

he  left  for  Syria,  and  was  there  met  by  the 
news  that  Phamaces,  the  son  and  heir  of  Mithridates 
the  Great,  taking  advantage  of  the  master-  Defeat  of 
less  condition  of  Asia  to  renew  on  a  p*»»™»«««- 
smaller  scale  his  father's  ambitious  schemes,  had 
defeated  Domitius  Calvinus,  and  recovered  his  he- 
reditary kingdom  of  Pontus,"  Leaving  Syria  in 
the  charge  of  Sextus  Caesar,  he  sailed  to 
Cilicia.  In  a  durbar  held  at  Tarsus,  he  hastily 
arranged  the  affairs  of  the  province,  and  then 
marched  through  Cappadocia  to  Pontus — where  a 

*Cic.,  A<iAtt,,xL,  6  ;  Ad,  Fam,,  xv.,  15. 

•  Caes.,  B»  C,  iii.,  107. 

*  Bf//,  A^x.f  34-40. 


344  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

single  battle   decided  the  fate  of  Pharnaces,  who 

was  completely  defeated  at  Zela.*     Towards. the  end 

of  47  B.C.,  Caesar  at   last  reached  Italy. 

The  African     ,  ,  ,  .  .  -         , 

War.  but  only  to  leave  it  again  at  once,  for  the 

enemies  whom  he  had  crushed  in  the  East 

were  now  making  head  against  him  in  the  West. 

Africa  was  wholly  in  their  hands,  and  the  allegiance 

of  Spain  had  been  shaken  by  the  misgovemment  of 

Caesar's  legate,  Cassius  Longinus.    The 

African  campaign  occupied  the  spring  of 

46  B.C.     It  was  closed  by  the  battle  of  Thapsus 

(April  46  B.C.)  and  by  the  suicide  at  Utica  of  the 

Death  of  catoy^^^S^^  Cato,  the  inflexible  stoic  and 
at  utica.  republican,  who,  far  more  than  the  so- 
called  "last  of  the  Romans,"  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
represented  all  that  was  best  in  the  opposition  to 
Caesarism.*  Between  June  46  B.C.,  when  he  left 
Africa,,  and  the  end  of  October  in  that  year,  Caesar 
enjoyed  a  brief  respite  from  campaigning ;  but  in 
November  he  was  again  in  the  field.  Farther  Spain, 
^     irritated  by  the  misrule  of  Cassius,  and 

The  second  ,   ,  *  «.   ▼     ,  . 

Spanish         encoutaged  by  the  presence  of  Labienus 

and  of  Pompey's  eldest  son,  was  in  open 

revolt.     Caesar  hurried  to  the  province,  and  the  last 

^  „  ^      of  his  victories  was  won  at  Munda,  in 

southern .  Spain,  on  the  17th  of  March  45 

B.C.*    Towards  the  end  of  the  summer  he  returned 

to  Italy,  he  received  fresh  honours  from  senate  and 

people,  and  to  take  up  again  the  work  of  reform  so 

>  Ibid.,  72-77. 

*  B,  Afr,,  ^sqq, 

•  B,  ffispan,^  27  sqq. 


Ch.  11  The  Dictatorship  of  JmHus.  345 

often  interrupted.  His  civil  wars  were  over,  and  he 
was  at  leisure,  not  merely  to  restore  order  at  home, 
but  to  frame  schemes  worthy  of  the  wide  authority 
he  wielded,  for  the  consolidation  of  the  empire.  In 
especial,  he  was  anxious  to  secure  it  against  attack 
from  without,  and  it  was  no  doubt  with  this  view,  as 
well  as  from  a  desire  to  avenge  the  defeat  of  Crassus, 
and  recover  the  lost  standards,  that  he  Murder  of 
planned  an  expedition  against   Parthia.*  CM«r. 

But  his  dazzling  successes,  and  still  more  the  avowed, 
though  humane,  absolution  of  his  government,  were 
intolerable  to  the  Roman  nobles,  who  could  see  in 
his  rule  only  the  degradation  of  their  order,  and  in 
the  ruler  nothing  but  a  tyrant  of  the  Greek  type.* 
On  the  fated  ides  of  March  44  B.C.  he  was 
attacked  in  the  senate-house  and  murdered, 
leaving  his  task  but  half  accomplished,  and  the 
Roman  world  a  prey  to  renewed  anarchy  and  civil 
war. 

Yet  short  as  were  the  intervals  of  rest  allowed  him 
during  the  five  stormy  years  which  followed  his  entry 
into  Rome  in  March  49  B.C.,  it  is  difficult  to  overrate 
the  importance  of  the  work  he  did.  The  fact  that  he 
dissociated  the  idea  of  personal  rule  from  the  evil 
SuUan  traditions  of  party  revenge,  and  made  it  rather 
the  embodiment  of  imperial  unity  and  good  order, 
is  sufficient  of  itself  to  justify  his  claim  to  be  regarded 
as  the  founder  of  that  system  of  government  under 
which  the  civilised  world  lived  contentedly  for  three 
centuries. 


>  Plut.»  Ctis,^  64;  App.,  B.  C,  ii.,  zzo, 
*  Cic,  Ad  Fam,^  iv.,  5. 


346  Outlines  if  Raman  History.       [Book  v 

The  task  which  he  had  to  perform  was  no  easy 
Dictatorship  one.  It  Came  upon  him  suddenly;  for 
2^44B?c.  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  to  believe 
^^  *  '  *  that  Caesar  had  long  premeditated  revolu- 
tion, or  that  he  had  previously  aspired  to  anything 
more  than  such  a  position  as  that  which  Pompey  had 
already  won,  a  position  unrepublican  indeed,  but 
accepted  even  by  republicans  as  inevitable/  War 
was  forced  upon  him  as  the  alternative  to  political 
suicide,  but  success  in  war  brought  the  responsibili- 
ties of  nearly  absolute  power,  and  Caesar's  genius 
must  be  held  to  have  shown  itself  in  the  masterly 
fashion  in  which  he  grasped  the  situation,  rather 
than  in  the  supposed  sagacity  with  which  he  is  said 
to  have  foreseen  and  prepared  for  it.  In  so  far  as  he 
failed,  his  failure  was  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  his 
tenure  of  power  was  too  short  for  the  work  which  he 
was  required  to  perform.  From  the  very  first  moment 
when  Pompey *s  ignominious  retreat  left  him  master 
of  Italy,  he  made  it  clear  that  he  was  neither  a 
second  Sulla  nor  even  the  reckless  anarchist  which 
many  believed  him  to  be.*  The  Roman  and  Italian 
public  were  first  startled  by  the  masterly  rapidity 
and  energy  of  his  movements,  and  then  agreeably 
surprised  by  his  lenity  and  moderation.     No  pro- 

^  On  this,  as  on  many  other  points  connected  with  Caesar,  diver- 
gence has  here  been  ventured  on  from  the  views  expressed  by 
Mommsen  in  his  brilliant  chapter  on  Csesar  (^.  (?.,  iii.,  446  sq,)  Too 
much  stress  must  not  be  laid  on  the  gossip  retailed  by  Suetonius,  as 
to  Caesar's  early  intentions. 

'Cicero  vividly  expresses  the  revulsion  of  feeling  produced  by 
Caesar's  energy,  humanity,  and  moderation  on  his  first  appearance  in 
Italy.    Compaxe  Ad  Att,,  vii.,ii,  with  Ad  Aft,,  viii.,  13. 


Ch.  11  The  Dictatorship  of  Jtilius.  547 

scriptions  or  confiscations  followed  his  victories,  and 
all  his  acts  evinced  an  unmistakable  desire  to  effect 
a  sober  and  reasonable  settlement  of  the  pressing 
questions  of  the  hour;  of  this,  add  of  his*  almost 
superhuman  energy,  the  long  list  of  measures  he 
carried  out  or  planned  is  sufficient  proof.  The 
"  children  of  the  proscribed  "  were  at  length  restored 
to  their  rights,*  and  with  them  many  of  the  refugees' 
who  had  found  shelter  in  Caesar's  camp  during  the 
two  or  three  years  immediately  preceding  the  war ; 
but  the  extreme  men  among  his  supporters  soon 
realised  that  their  hopes  of  nova  tabula  and  grants 
of  land  were  illusory.  In  allotting  lands  to  his  vet- 
erans, Caesar  carefully  avoided  any  disturbance  of 
existing  owners  and  occupiers,"  and  the  mode  in 
which  he  dealt  with  the  economic  crisis  produced  by 
the  war  seems  to  have  satisfied  all  reasonable  men.* 
It  had  been  a  common  charge  against  Caesar  in 
former  days  that  he  paid  excessive  court  to  the  pop- 
ulace of  Rome,  and  now  that  he  was  master  he  still 
dazzled  and  delighted  them  by  the  splendour  of  the 
spectacles  he  provided,  and  by  the  liberality  of  his 
largesses.  But  he  was  no  indiscriminate  flatterer  of 
the  mob.  The  popular  clubs  and  guilds  which  had 
helped  to  organise  the  anarchy  of  the  last  few  years 

/    >  Dio,  xli.,  iS. 

*  App.,  ii.,  48 ;  Dio,  xli.,  36. 

'Plut.,  Cas.^  51  ;  Sueton.,  37  :  **  adsignatnt  agros^sed  turn  con- 
tinuoSf  ne  quis possessorum  expelUretur"     Cf»t  App.,  ii.,  94. 

^  For  atit*^  Ux  JuHa  depecumis  mutuis,**  see  Sueton.,  42  ;  Caesar, 
B,  C  iii.,  i;  Dio,  xli.,  37;  App.,  ii.,  48.  T\i^  fceruratores  were 
satisfied  ;  Cic,  Ad  Fam,,  viii.  17.  But  the  law  displeased  anarchists 
like  M.  Cselius  Rufus  and  P.  Cornelius  Ddabella. 


34^  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       tBook  V 

were  dissolved.*  A  strict  inquiry  was  made  into  the 
distribution  of  the  monthly  doles  of  corn,  and  the 
number  of  recipients  was  reduced  by  one-half.* 
Finally,  the  po&ition  of  the  courts  of  justice  was 
raised  by  the  abolition  of  the  popular  element  among 
the  judices.*  Nor  did  Csesar  shrink  from  the  attempt, 
in  which  so  many  had  failed  before  him,  to  mitigate 
the  twin  evils  which  were  ruining  the  prosperity  of 
Italy, — ^the  concentration  of  a  pauper  population  in 
the  towns,  and  the  denudation  and  desolation  of  the 
country  districts.  His  strong  hand  carried  out  the 
scheme  so  often  proposed  by  the  popular  leaders 
since  the  days  of  Gaius  Gracchus,  the  colonisation 
of  Carthage  and  Corinth.  Allotments  of  land  on  a 
large  scale  were  made  in  Italy ;  decaying  towns  were 
reinforced  by  fresh  drafts  of  settlers ;  on  the  large 
estates  and  cattle  farms  the  owners  were  required  to 
find  employment  for  a  certain  amount  of  free  labour ; 
and  a  slight  and  temporary  stimulus  was  given  to 
Italian  industry  by  the  re-imposition  of  harbour  dues 
upon  foreign  goods,*  To  these  measures  must  be 
added  his  schemes  for  the  draining  of  the  Fucine 
Lake  and  the  Pomptine  Marshes,  for  a  new  road 
across  the  Apennines,  and  for  turning  the  course  of 
the  Tiber.'  It  is  true  that  these  vigorous  efforts  to 
revive  the  agrarian  prosperity  of  Italy  were  made 
along  the  old  lines  laid  down  eighty  years  before 


'  Sueton.,  42. 

*Sueton.,  41 ;  Dio,  xliii.,  21. 

»  Sueton.,  40 ;  Dio,  Ixiii.,  25. 

^Sueton.,  42,  43. 

•Plut.,  Oj.,  58;  Sueton.,  44:  Dio,  xliii.,  51. 


Ch,  11  The  DictcUarship  of  Julius.  349 

by  the  Gracchi,  and  that  their  final  success  was  no 
greater  than  that  of  preceding  efforts  in  the  same 
direction ;  but  they  are  a  proof  of  the  spirit  in  which 
Csesar  understood  the  responsibilities  of  absolute 
power,  and  their  failure  was  due  to  causes  which  no 
legislation  could  remove.  The  reform  of  the  cal- 
endar '  completes  a  record  of  administrative  reform 
which  entitles  Caesar  to  the  praise  of  having  governed 
well,  whatever  might  be  thought  of  the  validity  of  his 
title  to  govern  at  all. 

But  how  did  Caesar  deal  with  what  was,  after  all, 
the  greatest  problem  which  he  was  called  upon  to 
solve — the  establishment  of  a  satisfactory  govern- 
ment for  the  empire?  One  point,  indeed,  was 
already  settled — the  necessity,  if  the  empire  was  to 
hold  together  at  all,  of  placing  the  army,  the  prov- 
inces, and  the  control  of  the  foreign  policy  in  more 
vigorous  hands  than  those  of  a  number  of  changing 
magistrates  independent  of  each  other,  and  only  very 
imperfectly  controlled  by  the  senate  at  home.  Some 
centralisation  of  the  executive  authority  was  indis- 
pensable, and  this  part  of  his  work  Csesar  thoroughly 
performed.  From  the  moment  when  he  seized  the 
moneys  in  the  treasury  on  his  first  entry  into  Rome,' 
down  to  the  day  of  his  death,  he  recognised  no 
other  authority  but  his  throughout  the  empire.  He 
alone  directed  the  policy  of  Rome  in  foreign  affairs; 
the  legions  were  led,  and  the  provinces  governed, 
not  by  independent  magistrates,  but  by  his  legates ' 

'  See  Mommsen,  R,  (?.,  iii.,  550;  and  Fischer,  R9m.  ZeUtafeln^ 
39a  sq. 
•  Plttt.,  35.  »  Die,  diii.,  47» 


3  50  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       tBook  v 

and  the  title  imperator,  which  he  adopted,  was 
intended  to  express  the  absolute  and  unlimited 
nature  of  the  imperium  he  claimed,  as  distinct 
from  the  limited  spheres  of  authority  possessed  by 
republican  magistrates/  In  so  centralising  the  ex- 
ecutive authority  over  the  empire  at  large,  Csesar 
was  but  developing  the  policy  implied  in  the  Gabin- 
ian  and  Manilian  laws,  and  the  precedent  he  estab- 
lished was  closely  followed  by  his  successors.  It 
was  otherwise  with  the  more  difficult  question  of  the 
form  under  which  this  new  executive  authority 
should  be  exercised,  and  the  relation  it  should  hold 
to  the  republican  constitution.  We  must  be  con- 
tent to  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  precise  shape 
which  Caesar  intended  ultimately  to  give  to  the  new 
system.  The  theory  that  he  contemplated  a  revival 
of  the  old  Roman  kingship  *  is  supported  by  little 
more  than  the  popular  gossip  of  the  day,  and  the 
form  under  which  he  actually  wielded  his  authority 
can  hardly  have  been  regarded  by  so  sagacious  a 
statesman  as  more  than  a  provisional  arrangement. 
This  form  was  that  of  the  dictatorship;  and  in 
favour  of  the  choice  it  might  have  been  urged  that 
the  dictatorship  was  the  office  naturally  marked  out 
by  republican  tradition  as  the  one  best  suited  to  carry 
the  state  safely  through  a  serious  crisis,  that  the 
powers  it  conveyed  were  wide,  that  it  was  as  dic- 

^  Sueton.,  40  ;  Dio.,  xliii.,  44.  For  this  use  of  the  title  imperator^ 
see  Mommsen,  H,  (?.,  ill.,  466,  and  note. 

'  See  Mommsen,  iii.,  467,  and  Ranke,  WeUgeschichU^  ii.,  319  sq. 
According  to  Appian  (ii.,  no)  and  Plutarch  (Cas,^  64),  the  title 
rex  was  only  to  be  used  abroad  in  the  East,  as  likely  to  strengthen 
C«?sar*s  position  against  the  Parthians. 


Ch.  1]  The  Dictatorship  of  Julius.  35 1 

tator  that  Sulla  had  reorganised  the  state^  and  that 
a  dictatorship  had  been  spoken  of  as  the  readiest 
means  of  legalising  Pompey's  protectorate  of  the  re- 
public in  53-52.  The  choice,  nevertheless,  ^^^^ 
was  a  bad  one.  It  was  associated  with  a.  u.  c. 
those  very  SuUan  traditions  from  which  Caesar  was 
most  anxious  to  sever  himself;  it  implied  neces- 
sarily the  suspension  for  the  time  of  all  constitu- 
tional government ;  and,  lastly,  the  dictatorship  as 
held  by  Caesar  could  not  even  plead  that  it  con- 
formed  to  the  old  rules  and  traditions  of  the  office. 
There  was,  indeed,  a  precedent  in  Sulla's  case  for  a 
dictator  **  reipublicce  constituendce  causa,**  but  Caesai 
was  not  only  appointed  in  an  untisual  manner,  but 
appointed  for  an  unprecedentedly  long  period,*  and 
the  "  perpetual  dictatorship  "  granted  him  after  his 
crowning  victory  at  Munda  (45)  was  a  *  «  o 
contradiction  in  terms  and  a  repudiation 
of  constitutional  government  which  excited  the  bit- 
terest animosity."  The  dictatorship  served  well 
enough  for  the  time  to  give  some  appearance  of 
legality  to  Caesar's  autocratic  authority,  but  it  was 
not — even,  it  is  probable,  in  his  own  eyes — a  satis- 
factory solution  of  the  problem. 

A  second  question,  hardly  less  important  than  the 
establishment  and  legalisation  of  a  strong  central  ex- 
ecutive authority  over  the  army  and  the  provinces, 

'  Caesar's  first  dictatorship  in  49  was  simply  **  comiHorum  haben» 
dorum  causa^^  and  lasted  only  eleven  days.  He  was  appointed 
dictator  again  for  one  year  in  48,  for  ten  years  in  46,  and  for  life  in  45. 

■Cicero  (Phil,^  i.,  2)  praises  Antony,  **  quum  dictaioris  nomen 
•  •  •  propter  perpetua  diciaiurce  receniem  memoriam  funditus  ex 
republica  sustuUsset.** 


352  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      iBook  ^ 

was  that  of  the  position  to  be  assigned  to  the  old 
constitution  by  the  side  of  this  new  power.  So  far  as 
Caesar  himself  was  concerned,  the  answer  was  for  the 
time  sufficiently  clear.  The  old  constitution  was  not 
formally  abrogated.  The  senate  met  and  deliberated; 
the  assembly  passed  laws  and  elected  magistrates : 
there  were  still  consuls,  praetors,  aediles,  quaestors, 
and  tribunes ;  and  Caesar  himself,  like  his  successors, 
professed  to  hold  his  authority  by  the  will  of  the 
people.  But  senate,  assembly,  and  magistrates  were 
all  alike  subordinated  to  the  paramount  authority  of 
the  dictator ;  and  this  subordination  was,  in  appear- 
ance at  least,  more^  direct  and  complete  under  the 
rule  of  Caesar  than  under  that  of  Augustus.  Caesar 
was  by  nature  as  impatient  as  Augustus  was  tolerant 
of  established  for-ms  ;  and,  dazzled  by  the  splendour 
of  his  career  of  victory,  and  by  his  ubiquitous 
energy  and  versatility,  the  Roman  public,  high  and 
low,  prostrated  themselves  before  him  and  heaped 
honours  upon  him  with  a  reckless  profusion  which 
made  the  existence  of  any  authority  by  the  side  of 
his  own  an  absurdity.*  Hence,  under  Caesar,  the  old 
constitution  was  repeatedly  disregarded,  or  suspended 
in  a  way  which  contrasted  unfavourably  with  the 
more  respectful  attitude  assumed  by  Augustus. 
For  months  together  Rome  was  left  without  any 
regular  magistrates,  and  was  governed  like  a  subject 
town    by  Caesar's  prefects.*    At    another   time  a 


>  For  the  long  list  of  these,  see  Appian,  ii.,  io6  ;  Dio,  xliii.,  43-45; 
Plat.,  57;  Sueton.,  76.  Cf,  also  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  iii.,  463  sq,\ 
Watson,  Cicero* s  Letters^  App.  x. ;  Zumpt,  Studia  Romana^  199  sq, 
(Berlin,  1859).  .     *Zampt,  Siud,  Ram,^  241;  Sueton.,  76. 


Ch.  1]  The  Dictatorship  of  Julius.  353 

tribune  was  seen  exercising  authority  outside  the 
city  bounds  and  invested  with  the  imperium  of 
a  praetorJ  At  the  elections  candidates  appeared 
before  the  people  backed  by  a  written  recommenda- 
tion from  the  dictator,  which  was  equivalent  to  a 
command.'  Finally,  the  senate  itself  was  trans- 
formed out  of  all  likeness  to  its  former  self  by  the 
raising  of  its  numbers  to  900,  and  by  the  admission 
of  old  soldiers,  sons  of  freedmen,  and  even  ''  semi- 
barbarous  Gauls."  •  But,  though  Caesar's  high-handed 
conduct  in  this  respect  was  not  imitated  by  his  im- 
mediate successors,  yet  the  main  lines  of  their  policy 
were  laid  down  by  him.  These  were  (i)  the  muni- 
cipalisation  of  the  old  republican  constitution,  and 
(2).  its  subordination  to  the  paramount  authority  of 
the  master  of  the  legions  and  the*  provinces.  In  the 
first  case  he  only  carried  further  a  change  already 
in  progress.  Of  late  years  the  senate  had  been 
rapidly  losing  its  hold  over  the  empire  at  large. 
Even  the  ordinary  proconsuls  were  virtually  inde- 
pendent potentates,  ruling  their  provinces  as  they 
chose,  and  disposing  absolutely  of  legions  which 
recognised  no  authority  but  theirs.  The  consuls 
and  praetors  of  each  year  had  since  81 
been  stationed  in  Rome,  and  immersed  in 
purely  municipal  business;  and,  lastly,  since  the 
enfranchisement  of  Italy,  the  camitia,  though  still 
recognised  as  the  ultimate  source  of  all  authority, 

'Cic.  Ad  Aft,,  X.,  8a. 

'Seuton.,41  :     **Casar  dictator  .   .   .   commendo  voHs  iilum,  ft 
illum^  ut  vestro  suffragio  suam  dignitatem  teneani,*^ 
'Sueton.,  41,  76;  Dio,  xliii.,  47. 

•3 


354  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      LBook  v 

had  become  little  more  than  assemblies  of  the  city 
populace,  and  their  claim  to  represent  the  true 
Roman  people  was  indignantly  questioned,  even  by 
republicans  like  Cicero.  The  concentration  in 
Caesar's  hands  of  all  authority  outside  Rome  com- 
pletely and  finally  severed  all  real  connection 
between  the  old  institutions  of  the  republic  of 
Rome  and  the  government  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
And  though  Augustus  and  Tiberius  elevated  the 
senate  to  a  place  beside  themselves  in  this  govern- 
ment, its  share  of  the  work  was  a  subordinate  one, 
and  it  never  again  directed  the  policy  of  the  state ; 
while  from  the  time  of  Caesar  onwards,  the  old 
magistracies  are  merely  municipal  offices,  with  a 
steadily  diminishing  authority,  even  in  the  city,  and 
the  comitia  retain  no  other*  prerogative  of  imperial 
importance  but  that  of  formally  confirming  the 
ruler  of  the  empire  in  the  possession, of  an  authority 
which  is  already  his.  But  the  institutions  of  the 
-epublic  not  merely  became,  what  they  originally 
had  been,  the  local  institutions  of  the  city  of  Rome ; 
they  were  also  subordinated  even  within  these  nar- 
row limits  to  the  paramount  authority  of  the  man 
who  held  in  his  hands  the  army  and  the  provinces. 
And  here  Caesar's  policy  was  closely  followed  by  his 
successors.  Autocratic  abroad,  at  home  he  was  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  commonwealth;  and  this 
position  was  marked,  in  his  case  as  in  that  of  those 
who  followed  him,  by  a  combination  in  his  person 
of  various  powers,  and  by  a  general  right  of  preced- 
ence, which  left  no  limits  to  his  authority  but  such 
as  he  chose  to  impose  upon  himself.     During  the 


Ch.  1]  The  Dictatorship  of  Julius.  355 

greater  part  of  his  reign  he  was  consul  as  well  as 
dictator.*  In  48,  after  his  victory  at 
Pharsalus,  he  was  given  the  tribunicta 
potestas  for  life/  and  after  his  second  success  at 
Thapsus  the  prafectura  morum  for  three  years.* 
As  chief  magistrate  he  convenes  and  presides  in  the 
senate,  nominates  candidates,  conducts  elections, 
carries  laws  in  the  assembly,  and  administers  justice 
in  court.*  Finally,  as  a  reminder  that  the  chief 
magistrate  of  Rome  was  also  the  autocratic  ruler  of 
the  empire,  he  wore,  even  in  Rome,  the  laurel  wreath 
and  triumphal  dress,  and  carried  the  sceptre  of  the 
victorious  imperator.* 

Nor  are  we  without  some  clue  as  to  the  policy 
which  Caesar  had  sketched  out  for  himself  in  the  ad- 
njinistration  of  the  empire,  the  government  of  which 
he  had  centralised  in  his  own  hands.  The  much- 
needed  work  of  rectifying  the  frontiers  he  was  forced, 
by  his  premature  death,  to  leave  to  other  hands,  but 
our  authorities  agree  in  attributing  to  him  the  design 
of  extending  the  rule  of  Rome  to  its  natural  geogra- 
phical limits — to  the  Euphrates  and  the  Caucasus  on 
the  East,  to  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine,  or  possibly 
the  Elbe,  on  the  North,  and  to  the  ocean  on  the 
West.  Within  the  frontiers  he  anticipated  Augustus 
in  lightening  the  financial  burdens  of  the  provincials. 


'  Watson,  ifp.  Hi.,  App.,  x.;  Zumpt,  Siud,  J^om.,  Uc,dt,;  Sueton., 
76  :  **ieriium  et  guar  turn  SnsuicUum  HitUo  tenus  gessU,** 
'Dio,  xlii.,20. 

'/3t</.,xliii.,  14 y  Sueton.,  76. 

^Sueton.,43:  "yW  iaboriosissime  ac  severissimc  dixU^ 
*  App.,  ii.,  Z06;  Dio,  xliii.,  43.    . 


356  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  h 

and  in  establishing  a  stricter  control  over  the  pro- 
vincial governors,  while  he  went  beyond  him  in  his 
desire  to  consolidate  the  empire  by  extending  the 
Roman  franchise  and  admitting  provincials  to  a  share 
in  the  government.  He  completed  the  Romanisation 
of  Italy  by  his  enfranchisement  of  the  Transpadane 
Gauls,  and  by  establishing  throughout  the  peninsula 
a  uniform  system  of  municipal  government,  which, 
under  his  successors,  was  gradually  extended  to  the 
provinces. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  TRIUMVI- 

RATE — ^44-27  B.C. 

Between  the  day  of  Caesar's  murder  in  7x0  a.u.c. 
March,  44  B.C.,  and  the  ist  of  January,  27  727  a.u.c. 
B.C.,  when  his  great  nephew  restored  the  ^he  ■tmnie 
republic,  under  the  presidency  of  himself  afte?cE«?i 
as  princepSy  or  first  citizen,  lies  a  dreary  d«*th. 

period  of  anarchy  and  bloodshed.*  The  knot  of 
jealous  and  resentful  nobles  who  had  assassinated 
the  great  dictator  claimed,  indeed,  to  have  freed 
Rome  from  the  rule  of  a  tyrant,  but  the  general  feel- 
ing was  one  of  dismay  at  the  prospect  of  renewed 
confusion  and  conflict.  "  If  Caesar,"  writes  a  Roman 
man  of  business  to  Cicero,  "  could  not  find  a  way  out 
of  our  difficulties,  who  will  find  one  now  ?  "  •  Even 
Cicero,  earnestly  as  he  strove  to  convince  himself  and 
others  that  a  genuine  restoration  of  the  republic  was 
now  impossible,  was  forced  to  confess  that  the  "libera- 

>  For  this  period  see  Merivale,  Romans  Under  the  Empire y  vol.  iii.; 
Gardthausen,  Augustus;  Lange,  RSm,  Alierthilmery  iii.,  476  sqq.  The 
chief  ancient  authorities,  besides  Cicero,  are  Dio  Cass.,  bks.  xliy.-U., 
App.,  B,  C,  ii.-v. 

•  Cic,  Ad  Att,,  xiv.,  i. 

357 


35^  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  v 

tors  "  had  not  half  done  their  work,*  and  though  he 
set  himself  with  indefatigable  energy  to  the  task  of 
re-establishing  the  old  constitution^  it  was  beyond  his 
powers  to  alter  the  course  of  events.  The  tragedy  of 
the  Ides  of  March  was  followed,  not  by  a  republican 
restoration,  but  by  a  war  of  succession,  a  conflict  in 
which  even  Cicero's  eloquence  went  for  little  by 
comparison  with  the  swords  of  the  l^onaries.  Of 
the  rival  claimants  to  the  place  which  Caesar  had  filled, 
the  most  conspicuous  at  the  moment  of  Caesar's  death 

was  Marcus  Antonius,  once  Caesar's  master 
'of  the  horse,  and  his  lieutenant  in  Italy, 
now  sole  consul,  and  as  such  the  official  head  of  the 
state.  A  brilliant  soldier,  an  effective  speaker,  and 
the  close  friend  of  the  great  dictator,  he  was,  as  Cicero 
recognised,  a  far  more  formidable  person  than  either 

M.  iEmilius  Lepidus  or  Sextus  Pompeius. 
&mSsT    The  former,  though  a  great  noble,  and 

governor  of  the  two  important  provinces 
of  Hither  Spain  and  Narbonese  Gaul,  possessed 
neither  ability  nor  resolution  enough  to  win  for  him- 
self the  prize  to  which  he  aspired.  The  latter,  though 
he  had  succeeded  in  collecting  a  force,  and  making 
good  a  position  in  Farther  Spain,*  was  as  yet  an  out- 
law, bearing  indeed  a  great  name,  but  a  man  of  whom 
little  was  known,  and  from  whom  little  was  feared. 
Moreover,  with  both  Lepidus  and  Sextus  Pompeius 
Antony  had  established  friendly  relations.  He  had 
given  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  Lepidus's  son,  and 

>  Ibid.,  xiv.,  12 :  cS  lepdU^i  xaX^i  fikr  dreXovi  8^/-^/.  ibid., 
xiT.,  21. 
•  Dio,  xIt.,  la 


Ch.  2]       Government  of  the  Triumviraie.        359 

promised  to  secure  for  the  father  the  office  olpontifex 
tnaximus  left  vacant  by  Caesar's  death.'  The  bribe 
offered  to  Sextus  was  the  repeal  of  the  sentence  of 
outlawry  and  the  restoration  of  his  father's  property.* 

Matters  thus  arranged  with  the  only  rivals  whom 
he  saw  any  reason  to  fear,  Antony  proceeded,  in  his 
own  reckless  fashion,  to  play  the  part  of  Caesar  in 
Rome.  Caesar's  papers*  had  been  intrusted  to  his 
care  by  the  dictator's  widow  Calpumia,  and  of  these 
he  made  unscrupulous  use  ;  laws  were  carried,  prov- 
'  inces  assigned,  exiles  recalled,  property  granted  or 
confiscated ;  and  for  everything  Antony  professed 
that  he  found  authority  in  .the  "Acts  of  Caesar."' 
The  one  thing  wanting  to  establish  his  position,  a 
military  command,  he  proposed  to  secure  by  trans- 
ferring to  himself  the  province  of  Cisalpine  Gaul, 
with  the  legions  at  present  in  Macedonia.* 

But  he  had  now  to  reckon  with  an  opponent  in- 
finitely more  dangerous  than  Lepidus  or  Sextus. 
Gaius  Octavius  was  at  Apollonia  when  his 

Octftvins. 

great  uncle  was  murdered.     On  hearing 

that  Caesar  had  made  him  his  heir  he  crossed  to  Italy 

(April,  44  B.C.),  and  travelled  to  Rome  to 

claim  his  inheritance.'    He  was  only  in     """ 

his  nineteenth  year,  and,  as  yet,  had  little  to  rely 

upon  but  his  relationship  with  Caesar.     But  from  the 

first  he  displayed  all  the  astuteness,  self-control,  and 


>  IHd„  xUv.,  53. 

•  IHd,^  xlv.,  la 

»  Cic.  PHL,  i.,  8-10. 

^  Dio,  xlv.,  9 ;  it  had  been  assigned  to  Decimus  Brutus. 

'  Jbid.^  xlv.,  3  ;  Sueton.,  Aug.^  8. 


360  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

tenacity  of  purpose  which  made  him  ultimately  far 
more  than  a  match  for  his  reckless  and  headstrong 
rival.  While  professing  to  have  no  other  object 
than  to  claim  his  rights  as  Caesar's  heir  and  adopted 
son,  and  avoiding  all  risk  of  rupture  with  Antony/ 
he  quietly  strengthened  his  position,  both  with  the 
veterans  who  es^erly  welcomed  a  second  Caesar,  and 
with  the  Roman  populace.  In  October,  Antony, 
already  alarmed  at  the  growing  popularity  of  his 
young  rival,  went  to  Brundusium  to  meet  the  legions 
from  Macedonia.  Octavius  seized  the  opportunity 
to  tamper  with  the  newly-arrived  troops,  and  ulti- 
mately succeeded  in  detaching  from  Antony  one 
whole  legion.  At  the  same  time  he  raised  a  force 
The  war  of  i^^m  among  Caesar's  veterans  in  Cam- 
icutina.  pania.*  He  was  now  at  the  head  of  a 
considerable  body  of  troops,  but  what  use  he  would 
make  of  them  was  still  uncertain,  and  as  yet  he  held 
no  command  from  senate  or  people.'  In  December, 
however,  Antony  arrived  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  shut  up  * 
D.  Brutus  in  Mutina,  and  proceeded  to  take  forcible 
possession  of  his  province.  Octavius  saw  his  oppor- 
tunity. He  came  forward  as  the  defender  of  the 
republic  against  Antony,  and  marched  northward  to 
the  relief  of  Brutus.  On  January  i,  43 
B.C.,*  the  senate  formally  recognised  their 

*  Dio,  xlv.,  5.  •  Dio,  xlv.,  12,  13. 

'  Mon,  Aftc,  Lat,t  i.,  i :  **  annos  undevigirUi  naius  exerdtum  prU 
vato  consiUo  ei  privata  impensa  comparavi ;  per  quern  rempubHcam 
\do\tninatione  factumis  oppressam  in  libertatem  viruiua[vt],** 

^  Cic,  PAi/»,  v.,  17  ;  Dio,  xlvi.,  29.  That  this  was  Octavius's 
object  Cicero  clearly  saw^  Ad  AU,,  xvi.,  8  (November  44  B.C.): 
^* plane  hoc  spectat  ut  se  duce  beUum  geratur  cum  Aniamo** 


Ch.  2]       Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        361 

self-appointed  champion.  Octavius  was  made  a 
senator^  with  consular  rank,  invested  with  the  im- 
perium^  and  authorised  to  conduct  the  war  against 
Antony  in  conjunction  with  the  two  consuls  of  the 
year/  The  so-called  "  War  of  Mutina  "  was  ended, 
toward  the  close  of  April,  by  a  battle  near  Mutina, 
in  which  Antony  was  defeated  and  compelled  to 
raise  the  siege  of  that  town.  But  the  consul  Hirtius 
was  killed  in  the  battle,  and  his  colleague  Pansa  died 
shortly  afterwards  of  wounds  received  in  an  earlier 
engagement."  Octavius  had  now  every  right  to  ex- 
pect that  the  sole  command  would  be  given  to  him ; 
at  Cicero's  suggestion,  however,  the  senate  passed 
him  over  in  favour  of  Decimus  Brutus,  and  refused 
his  demand  to  be  elected  consul.'  He  replied  by 
marching  on  Rome  at  the  head  of  eight  legions,  and 
his  arrival  decided  the  matter.  On  Au-  ocuvius 
gust  19  he  was  elected  consul,  though  coiSwi! 
only  twenty  years  of  age.*     Meanwhile  43B.C. 

Antony  had  already,  in  May,  joined  forces  with 
Lepidus  near  Forum  Julii.    Later  in  the  ^  „  ^ 

autumn  they  were  strengthened  by  the 
adhesion  first  of  Asinius  PoUio,  governor  of  Farther 
Spain,  and  then  of  Plancus,  governor  of  Northern 
Gaul.    A  final  blow  to  the  hopes  of  Cicero  and  his 

'  Mon,  Anc,  Lai.^  !.,  3 :  "  Senatus  ,  ,  .  in  frdinem  suum 
m\(t  adiegii]  .  . '  .  coH\suld\rem  locum  {simuidans]  •  •  .  fVv- 
perium  mihi  dedit*^    App.,  B,  C,  iii.,  xi. 

»  Dio,  xlvi.,  38,  39 ;  App.  B^  C,  iii.,  71, 

•  Dio,  xlvi.,  41. 

^  Man,  Anc,  Lot,  i.,  7,  8  ;  Dio,  xlvi.,  44.  He  had  been  saluted  as 
**ifnperator"  after  the  defeat  of  Antony  in  April ;  Dio,  xlvi.,  38  ; 
C.  /.  X.,  s.,  8375. 


362  Outlines  0/  Raman  History.       [Book  V 

friends  was  the  death  of  Decimus  Brutus  at  Aqui- 
leia.*  The  legions  of  M.  Brutus  and  Cassius  were 
too  far  off  to  be.  of  immediate  service,  and  the  sen- 
ate could  only  await  in  passive  helplessness  the  issue 
of  the  approaching  meeting  between  the  young 
Caesar  and  his  rivals.  Octavius  marched  from  Rome 
at  the  head  of  his  legions,  and  met  Antony  and  Lep- 
idus  in  conference  near  Bononia.'  A  coalition  was 
The  second  formed,  and  a  division  of  power  agreed 
Triumvirate,  upon.  In  November  the  three  new  mas- 
ters of  the  Roman  world  appeared  in  Rome,  and  by 
a  hurried  vote  of  the  terrified  people  the  provisional 
government^  usually  known  as  the  Second  Triumvi- 
rate, was  established,  Antony,  Lepidus,  and  Octavius 
being  appointed  commissioners  "  for  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  state  "  for  a  period  of  five  years.'  Their 
first  acts  were  of  evil  omen  for  the  peace  and  order 
of  the  empire.  They  revived  the  hateful  SuUan 
traditions*  of  proscription  and  confiscation,  and 
Death  of  among  their  victims  was  the  great  orator, 
Cicero.  ^Jjq  {q^.  ^Jj^  jg^g^  eighteen  months  had  been 

waging  an  unequal  contest  "with  words  against 
swords,"  *  on  behalf  of  the  ancient  civic  constitution, 


^  He  was  murdered  while  making  his  way  to  join  M.  Bmtns  in 
Macedonia;  Dio,  xlvi.,  53 ;  App.,  B,  C,  iii.,  97. 

•  Dio,  xlvi.,  55  ;  App.,  B»  C,  iv.,  2. 

*  Mon.  Anc,  Lai.^  i.,  9.  Livy,  Epii.^  cxx. :  **  «/  Illviri  reipub^ 
HccB  consiituenda per  qtdnquenmum  essent"  Dio,  xlvi.,  56 ;  App., 
B,  C,  iv.,  7. 

^  Dio,  xlvii.,  ^i  vd  8k  aXX,a  06a  iici  rov  2i}XXov  fcporepov 
iieifcpaxTo  xai  Tore  6vre<pipeTo. 

'  Cic,  Ad  Fam,y  xii.,  22  :  "n^ii  pari  condUione,  contra  arma 
verbis" 


Cm  2]      Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        363 

which  he  had  once  saved,  and  which  he  did  not  care 
to  outlive.  His  murder  was  Antony's  reply  to  the 
Philippics^  and,  brutal  as  the  act  was,  it  significantly 
marked  the  changed  order  of  things.  The  irrecon- 
cilable Puritanism  of  Cato  found  many  imitators 
under  the  rule  of  the  Caesars,  but  the  long  line  of 
orator  statesmen,  who  swayed  the  destinies  of  free 
civic  communities  by  the  force  of  persuasive  speech, 
closed  with  Cicero.' 

Throughout  December  43  B.C.,  and  through  the 
early  months  of  42  B.C.,  the  reign  of  ter- 
ror lasted."     Its  horrors  are  said  to  have     ^*    •  •  • 
exceeded  those  of  the  Marian  and  Sullan  proscrip- 
tions, and  they  were  aggravated  by  the  desperate 
straits  to  which  the  triumvirs  were  driven 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
turbulent  soldiery*  who  filled  the  city,  and  to  pre- 
pare for  the  war  with  Brutus  and  Cassius.    . 

*  .  ...  •         1        ^  Reign  of 

There  is  a  certain  grim  irony  in  the  fact        te^or  in 

Rome. 

that   the    authors    of.    these    enormities 
ostentatiously  represented    their  work    as  one   of 
righteous  vengeance  on  the  murderers  of  Caesar.* 
The  name  of  the  dictator  was  invoked  to 

Honours 

justify  a  policy  of  bloodshed  and  plunder  paid  to 

— ^which  was  the  very  reverse  of  his  own, — 
and  while  the  forum  swam  with  blood,   and  the 
streets  were  incumbered  with  corpses,  the  supreme 

'  For  Cicero's  murder,  see  Plut.,  Cicero^  47;  Dio,  xlvii.,  8. 

*  Dio,  xlvii.,  1-17  ;  App.,  B,  C,  iv.,  5. 

•  According  to  Appian  (B,  C,  iv.,  3),  the  territories  of  eighteen 
Italian  towns  were  selected,  and  lands  assigned  to  the  soldiery 
in  them. 

*App.,  B,  r.,  iv.,  ^sqq. 


364  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      tBook  \ 

honour  of  deification  was  paid  to  the  dead  Julius.' 
The  foundations  of  a  temple  dedicated  to  his 
memory  were  laid  on  the  spot  where  his  body  had 
been  burnt,  and  triumvirs,  senate,  and  people  swore 
always  to  observe  and  uphold  his  ordinances.*  The 
chief  responsibility  for  the  atrocities  is  laid  upon 
Antony  and  Lepidus,  but  the  audacious  fiction 
which  described  them  as  nothing  more  than  an  act 
of  filial  duty  to  a  murdered  father  is  at  least 
characteristic  of  Octavius.' 

The  triumvirs  were  now  masters  of  Rome  and 
Italy ;  of  the  provinces,  Spain  and  Gaul 
were  also  theirs.      But  they  were  far  from     Brutu*  and 

Cftssius* 

being  supreme  throughout  the  empire. 
In  the  West  Sextus  Pompeius  was  daily  growing 
stronger.  His  fleet  comitianded  the  western  Medi- 
terranean, he  was  in  possession  of  Sicily,  and  the 
recent  massacres  had  sent  hundreds  of  fugitives  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  his  adherents.*  In  the  East,  Brutus 
and  Cassius  had  overborne  all  opposition,  and  were 
masters  of  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  of  Asia  Minor 
and  Syria.  The  attempt  to  dislodge  Sextus  Pom- 
peius from  Syria  was  abandoned  as  impracticable,* 


>  /.  R,  N,^  5014 :  "  quent  Senatus  Pepulusque  Romanus  in  deorum 
numerum  rettulit,**  The  deification  probably  took  place  early  in 
42  B.C.  ;  Mommsen,  St,  R,,  ii.,  717. 

*  Dio,  xlvii.,  18  ;  the  "  A^oum  ^uUi,*'  or  '*ades  divi  JulU:'  was 
dedicated  by  Octavius  in  30  B.C. 

'  The  reference  to  the  proscriptions  in  the  Ancyran  Monument  is 
significant ;  Man.  Anc,  Lat^  i.,  10:  **  qtd  farettiem  meum  [inters 
/ecer]  unt  in  exilium  expuli,** 

*Dio,  xlvii.,  12,  36. 

»  IHd.,  xlvii.,  37. 


Ch.  2]      Grovernment  of  the  Trtunwtrate.        365 

and  leaving  Lepidus  to  look  after  Italy,  Antony  and 
Octavius  sailed  early  in  the  autumn  from  Brundusium 
to  face  Brutus  and  Cassius  at  Philippi,  in  Macedonia, 
where  the  latter  were  already  encamped  within  easy 
reach  of  the  sea  and  of  their  fleet/  The  circum- 
stances of  the  final  encounter  bore  a  certain 
resemblance  to  those  which  attended  the  battle  at 
Pharsalus.  The  forces  of  Antony  and  The  battle 
Octavius  were,  like  those  of  Caesar,  drawn  **  '^Jl^^.^; 
mainly  from  Italy  and  the  West,  while  TxaA.u.c. 
the  more  numerous  army  of  their  opponents  was 
largely  composed,  as  that  of  Pompey  had  been,  of 
eastern  auxiliaries.*  Moreover,  while  it  was  the 
object  of  the  triumvirs,  as  of  Caesar  before  them,  to 
force  on  an  engagement,  Brutus  and  Cassius  had, 
like  Pompey,  everything  to  gain  by  delay,  and  it 
was  only  the  impatience  of  their  troops  which 
obliged  them  to  fight.  The  first  day's  battle  was 
indecisive.  Brutus  defeated  the  troops  opposed  to 
him  under  Octavius ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Cassius 
was  out-manoeuvred  by  Antony,' and  hastily  imagin- 
ing that  all  was  lost,  slew  himself.  Brutus  now 
assumed  the  sole  command,  and  prepared  to  wear 
out  his  enemy  by  a  policy  of  masterly  inactivity. 
The  triumvirs  found  their  supplies  running  short, 
and  winter  coming  on ;  and  their  position  was  fast 
becoming  untenable,  when  Brutus,  like  Pompey,  was 


'  /<W.,  xlvii.,  37-49 ;  App.,  B.  C,  iv.,  87  sqq,  ;  Plut.,  Brutus, 

38,  53. 

'  Gardthausen,  Augustus,  i.,  170;  App.,  B.  C,  iv.,.88.  With 
Brutus  and  Cassius  were  not  only  Thradans  and  lUyrians,  but 
mounted  archers  from  Arabia,  Media,  and  Parthia. 


366  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      CBook  V 

reluctantly  forced  by  his  officers  to  leave  his 
entrenchments  and  fight.  The  battle  ended  in  his 
complete  defeat.  The  last  of  the  republican  leaders 
fell  by  the  hand  of  a  friend.  His  troops,  to  the 
number  of  some  14,000  men,  surrendered  at  discre- 
tion ;  of  his  officers,  some,  like  Horace,  escaped  by 
flight,  others  were  captured,  or  avoided  capture  by 
suicide.  The  fleet  alone  sailed  away  unharmed,  the 
greater  part  of  it  going  to  swell  the  growing  forces 
of  Sextus  Pompeius,  while  a  squadron  under  Cn. 
Domitius  Ahenobarbus  remained  in  the  ^gaean. 

The  victory  was  followed  by  a  fresh  division  of 
Division  of  authority  between  the  conquerors.*  An- 
theBmpiro.  ^^^y  undertook  what  no  doubt  seemed 
at  the  time  the  more  attractive  and  lucrative  task  of 
restoring  order  in  the  unsettled  provinces  and  vassal 
states  of  the  East,  and  of  collecting  there  the  funds 
needed  to  redeem  the  promises  made  to  the  victor- 
ious legions.  To  Octavius  was  intrusted  the  duty 
of  allotting  the  promised  lands  in  Italy  to  the  veter- 
ans, and  of  crushing  Sextus  Pompeius.  The  arrange- 
ment had  consequences  which  it  is  possible  that 
Octavius  at  least  foresaw.-  While  Antony  was 
launched  on  a  wild  career  of  extravagant  adventure 
in  the  East,  which  gradually  alienated  from  him  the 
sympathies  of  the  Roman  world,  Octavius,  securely 
established  at  Rome,  in  the  ancient  seat  of  govern- 
ment, and  with  full  control  of  the  constitutional 
machinery  of  the  state,  became  not  only  master  of 
the  West,  but  the  recognised  champion  of  Roman 
civilization  and  supremacy. 

>  Dio,  xlviii,,  i. 


Ch.  21       Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        367 

At  the  outset,  however,  such  results  as  these 
seemed  remote  enough.  In  carrying  out  ocuviusin 
the  allotments  of  land  to  the  veterans,  a  The  Perusine 
work  which  he  commenced  early  in  41  7x3A.u.c! 
B.C.,  Octavius  provoked  a  crisis  which,  for  a  few 
months,  threatened  entirely  to  ruin  his  position. 
Antony's  brother  Lucius,  encouraged  and  directed 
by  the  former's  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  wife 
Fulvia,  after  failing  to  get  himself  associated  with 
Octavius  in  the  business  of  allotment,  came  forward 
as  the  patron  of  all  those  who  had  been  evicted  or 
were  threatened  with  eviction  from  their  lands.' 
Supported  by  these  malcontents,  by  such  of  the 
soldiery  as  bribes  or  their  own  attachment  to  his 
brother  Marcus  could  detach  from  Octavius's  side, 
and  by  a  few  senators,  he  formed  a  formidable  party, 
seized  one  or  two  strong  places,  and  prepared  to 
supersede  Octavius  in  the  government  of  Italy. 
The  outbreak  of  actual  hostilities  was  delayed  by 
fruitless  negotiations,  but,  probably  towards  the  end 
of  the  summer,  Lucius  marched  upon  Rome,  and 
entered  it.  On  Octavius's  advance,  however,  he 
again  left  the  city  and  moved  northwards.  At  Per- 
usia  he  was  overtaken  and  blockaded.  The  siege 
seems  to  have  lasted  throughout  the  autumn  and 
early  winter,  but  in  January  40  B.C.  Lucius 
surrendered,  and  the  last  civil  war  waged 
on  Italian  soil  for  more  than  a  century  came  to  an 
end.*    The  victory  at   Perusia  gave  Octavius  the 

'  Dio,  xlviii.,  5  sqq. 

*  For  the  Perusine  war,  see  Livy,  Epit,^  cxxv.;  Veil.  Pat,,  ii.,  74 ; 
Dio,  zlviii.,  13  sqq,;  App.,  i^.C,  v.,  21  sqq. 


368  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

control  of  Italy,  and  he  now  hastened  to  secure  for 
himself  the  entire  West,  before  the  news  of  his 
brother's  defeat  should  rouse  Antony  to  action. 
Spain  and  Numidia  had  been  assigned  to  him  by  the 
agreement  made  after  Philippi ;  but  Gaul  and  the 
old  province  of  Africa  belonged,  under  the  terms  of 
the  same  agreement,  to  Antony.  Nevertheless,  in 
July  40  B.C.,  Octavius  crossed  into  Gaul 
and  secured  it,  while  Africa  was  offered  to 
Lepidus  in  exchai^^e  for  his  nominal  rule  of  Italy, 
an  offer  which  Octavius  hoped  would  bind  both  that 
province  and  Lepidus  to  his  own  side.  Meanwhile 
he  prepared  to  take  decisive  measures  against  Sex* 
tus  Pompeius,  whose  power  was  daily  on  the  increase, 
and  whose  fleet  was  not  only  ravaging  the  Italian 
coasts,  but  intercepting  the  corn  supplies  of  Rome 
itself.  Marcus  Vispanius  Agrippa,  who  now  first 
appears  as  the  ablest  and  most  devoted  of  his  lieu- 
tenants, was  despatched  to  South  Italy,  with  orders 
to  dislodge  Sextus  from  his  formidable  position  in 

Sicily. 

For  the  moment,  however,  all  operations  against 
Antony  in  Sextus  Were  suspended  by  the  news  that 
the  But.  Antony,  yielding  at  last  to  the  entreaties 
of  his  partisans,  was  on  his  way  to  Italy  to  assert  his 
rights.  The  period  which  had  elapsed  since  the 
victory  at  Philippi  he  had  spent  in  the  East,  where 
his  conduct  had  been  that  rather  of  a  reckless  soldier 
of  fortune  than  of  a  responsible  statesman.*  The 
enormous  sums  which  he  levied  from  the  Greek  com- 
munities he  squandered  in  riotous  living,  and  his 

'  Dio,  zlviii.,  24  sqq,\  Plut.,  Anton,  ^  24  sqq* 


Ch,  23       Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        369 

own  extravagance  was  equalled  by  that  of  his  favour- 
ites, male  and  female.  Penalties  and  rewards  were 
di|5tributedy  rulers  set  up  and  deposed,  as  the  fancy 
of  the  moment  dictated.  Discarding  the  severe 
dignity  of  the  Roman  imperator,  this  new  master  of 
the  East  preferred  to  parade  himself  before  the 
Greeks  under  the  style  and  title  of  the  god  Dionysos. 
At  Tarsus,  where  he  had  summoned  the  vassal  kings 
and  princes  to  appear  before  him  and  learn  his  pleas- 
ure, he  first  met  the  brilliant  and  ambitious  Meeting  with 
princess  who  now  claimed  to  be  the  rep-  Cleopatra, 
resentative  and  heiress  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  in  an 
evil  moment  for  himself  he  became  the  devoted 
lover  and  obedient  slave  of  Cleopatra.  When  she 
returned  to  Egypt  he  followed  her,  and  lounged 
away  the  winter  of  41-40  B.C.  as  the  fore- 
most  of  her  favourites  and  courtiers  at  a.u.c. 
Alexandria. 

In  the  spring  of  40  B.C.  he  at  last  nerved  himself 
to  leave  Egypt :  he  sailed  to  Asia,  and 
thence  to  Greece,  where  he  learnt  from 
Fulvia  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Perusia.  He  at 
once  crossed  to  Italy,  and  on  being  refused  admis- 
sion into  Brundusium,  landed  with  troops  and  com- 
menced to  lay  siege  to  the  town. 

A  renewal  of  civil  war  seemed  inevitable,  but  in 
reality  neither  Octavius  nor  Antony  were     The  Treaty 

,  '        ,  of  Brundna- 

anxious  to  push  matters  to  an  extremity.  iym. 

The  former,  though  overwhelmingly  su-  Wbx! 

perior  by  land,  had  every  reason  to  dread  a  coalition 
between  Sextus  Pompeius  and  Antony,  whose  united 
fleets  could  easily  blockade  Italy,  and  cut  off  all  sup- 


3  JO  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  V 

plies  from  outside/  On  his  side  Antony  had  compara- 
tively few  troops,  and,  above  all,  he  was  anxious  to 
get  back  to  the  East,  where  a  Parthian  war  had 
broken  out.  A  formidable  obstacle  to  peace  was 
removed  by  the  death  of  his  wife  Fulvia,  and  during 
the  autumn  the  "  treaty  of  Brundusium  "  postponed 
for  nine  years  more  the  final  struggle  between  the 
two  rivals.*  For  the  third  time  a  partition  of  the 
empire  was*made.  Octavius  retained  Italy  and  the 
western  provinces,  while  Antony  took  over  the  whole 
of  the  East,  including  Macedonia  and  Achaia.  Lepi- 
dus,  whom  neither  of  his  colleagues  cared  even  to 
consult,  was  obliged  to  be  satisfied  with  the  single 
province  of  Africa.  Finally,  as  a  pledge  of  their 
renewed  friendship,  Antony  married  his  rival's  sister, 
Octavia.  In  the  next  year,  39  B.C.,  to  the 
The  Treaty    infinite  relief  of  Rome  and  Italy,  a  treaty 

of  Misenum.  j  ^  j 

concluded  at  Misenum  put  a  stop,  though 
only  as  it  proved,  for  a  short  time,  to  the  piratical 
raids  of  Sextus  Pompeius.*  In  the  course  of  the 
summer  Octavius  left  Rome  for  Gaul,  to  resume  the 
work  of  organisation  there  which  the  threatened  war 
with  Antony  had  interrupted,  and  about  the  same 
time  Antony  departed  from  Greece. 


*  Dio,  xlvii. ,  29.  The  two  had,  in  fact,  agreed  to  make  common 
cause  against  Octavius. 

*  Die,  xlviii.,  28  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  76 ;  App.,  B.  C,  v.,  60-65. 

»  Livy,  EpiU^  cxxvii.;  Veil.,  ii.,  77 ;  Dio,  xlviii.,  34.  Sextus  was 
confirmed  in  possession  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  and  was  given  in 
addition  the  province  of  Acadia,  for  five  years.  A  free  pardon  and 
permission  to  return  to  Italy  was  granted  to  those  who  had  taken 
refuge  with  him. 


Ch,«      Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        371 
Meanwhile,  in  the   East,  matters  had 

*  %      m    .  J      .  The  Parthian 

gone  from  bad  to  worse,  and  at  one  mo-      invasion  of 
ment  it  seemed  as  if  Rome  was  destined  40  b.c. 

to  lose  all  that  she  had  won  in  Western 
Asia.  The  necessities  of  pivil  war  had  compelled 
Brutus  and  Cassius  to  seek  the  alliance  of  the  Par- 
thian king  Orodes,  and  a  body  of  Parthian  cavalry 
had  fought  side  by  side  with  their  legions  at  Philippi. 
The  defeat  of  his  allies,  and  the  news  that  Antony 
was  coming  eastward,  intent,  it  was  said,  on  that  in- 
vasion of  Parthia  which  Caesar  had  planned,  no  doubt 
deterred  Orodes  from  seizing  the  reward  of  his  alli- 
ance, and  occupying  the  defenceless  province  of 
Syria.  But  Antony  passed  on  to  Egypt  to  waste 
precious  time  at  the  feet  of  Cleopatra,  leaving  both 
Syria  and  Asia  Minor  at  the  mercy  of  any  invader. 
It  was,  however,  by  a  Roman  officer  that  Orodes 
was  persuaded  to  seize  this  opportunity  of  ousting 
the  Romans  from  Asia.  Q.  Labienus,^  the  son  of 
the  man  who  had  been  at  first  Caesar's  most  trusted 
officer  and  then  his  bitterest  enemy,  had  visited  the 
Parthian  court  as  the  envoy  of  Brutus  and  Cassius, 
and  after  their  defeat  had  remained  there  under 
Parthian  protection.  Forgetful,  like  his  father,  of 
his  duty  to  Rome  in  his  desire  for  revenge,  he  urged 
Orodes  to  strike  at  once,  and  promised  himself  to 
lead  the  armies  of  Parthia.  His  arguments,  backed 
as  they  were  by  Orodes's  fiery  son  Pacorus,  prevailed, 
and  the  Parthian  forces  crossed  the  Euphrates.  The 
Roman  troops  in  Syria  who  had  fought  for  Brutus 
and  Cassius  were  easily  won  over  by  Labienus*  and 

»  Dio,  xlviii. ,  24.  « IHd. .  javiii. ,  25. 


3  72  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       tBook  V 

with  the  exception  of  the  impregnable  seaport  of 
Tyre,  both  Syria  and  Judaea  submitted  to  the  in- 
vader. Crossing  the  Taurus,  Labienus  overran 
Cilicia,  and  entering  the  province  of  Asia,  forced 
Antony's  legate,  Munatius  Plancus,  to  abandon 
the  mainland  and  take  refuge  in  the  is- 
lands. By  the  end  of  the  year  40  B.C., 
while  Octavius  and  Antony  were  celebrating  their 
reconciliation  by  festivities  in  Italy,  the  provinces 
beyond  the  sea  were  in  Parthian  hands,  lost  as  they 
had  been  once  before  in  88  B.C.,  thanks  to  the  ruinous 
quarrels  which  paralysed  the  power  of  Rome. 

The  treaty  of  Brundusium,  followed  as 
liiusin  "*  ^^  w^  early  in  39  B.C.  by  the  conclusion 
m  A.UX.  ^'  peace  with  Sextus  Pompeius,  must 
have  sorely  disappointed  Labienus,  who 
had  relied,  with  some  reason,  on  the  prospects  of 
a  destructive  civil  war  in  Italy.  Antony,  indeed,  loi- 
tered as  usual  on  his  way  eastward,'  with  characteristic 
indifference  to  his  own  reputation  and  to  the  plight 
of  the  unhappy  provincials  of  Asia,  who  in  the  space 
of  three  years  had  suffered  from  the  exactions  of 
three  different  masters.  Fortunately,  however,  he 
sent  on  in  advance  P.  Ventidius  Bassus,  an  ofHcer  of 
vigour  and  ability,  whose  career,  with  its  marked 
vicissitudes,  was  characteristic  of  the  stormy  times  in 
which  he  lived.*  Made  a  prisoner  as  a  boy  at  the 
siege  of  Asculum  during  the  Social  war,  he  had  fig- 
ured as  a  captive  in  the  triumphal  procession  of  Cn. 
Pompeius  Strabo  (89  B.C.) ;  after  earning  a  living,  so 

*  Dio,  xlviii.,  39. 

«  Gell.,  Noct.  AU.,  XV.,  4. 


Oh.  2]      Government  of  the  Triumvirate.  -      373 

his  enemies  said,  as  a  dealer  in  mules/  he  entered  the 
army  as  a  common  soldier,  where  he  attracted  the 
notice  of  Caesar.  Thanks  to  Caesar's  patronage,  he 
rose  rapidly,  becoming  tribune  of  the  plebs  and 
praetor.  After  Caesar's  death  he  joined  Antony,  and 
was  outlawed  by  the  senate  along  with  his  leader. 
On  the  formation  of  the  second  triumvirate  he  re- 
turned to  Rome,  and  at  the  close  of  43  B.C. 

7X1  AUG 

was  rewarded  with  the  consulship,*  and 
then  with  the  governorship  of  Narbonese  Gaul. 

The  duty  now  intrusted  to  him  of  reconquering 
the  eastern  provinces  was  discharged  with  brilliant 
success.  He  at  once  crossed  to  Asia,  and  Labienus, 
takeni  completely  by  surprise,  at  once  evacuated  the 
peninsula,  and  retreated  to  the  Taurus,*  where  he 
summoned  the  Parthian  force  in  Syria  to  his  aid. 
Ventidius  followed,  and  in  a  single  battle  decisively 
defeated  both  Labienus  and  his  allies.  Labienus's 
army  dispersed,  and  Ventidius,  pressing  forward  a 
second  time,  routed  the  Parthians,  who  were  holding 
the  passes*  into  Syria.  The  latter,  however,  were 
not  yet  reconciled  to  the  loss  of  their  acquisitions 
west  of  the  Euphrates.     In  the  following 

trfi  J^  II  C 

spring  (38  B.C.)  a  Parthian  army  crossed 

the  river,  but  only  to  be  again  defeated  with  fright- 

'  Gell.,  Noct,  Aii,t  XV.  4:  **  camparandis  mulis  et  vehiculis  .  .  . 
magisiratibus  qui  sortiti provinHas  forent"  According  to  Gellius,  it 
was  in  the  perfonnance  of  these  commissariat  duties  that  he  became 
known  to  Caesar. 

*  Gellius  (xv.,4)  quotes  the  verses  written  in  Rome  on  the  occasion: 
**  mulos  qui  fricabaU  consul  foetus  fsi," 

•Dio,  xlviii.,  39. 
.^  The  passes  of  Mons  Amanus  ;  Dio,  zlviii.,  41. 


374  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      tSook  H 

ful  slaughter,  among  the  dead  being  their  prince 
Pacorus/  Ventidius  had,  in  the  course  of  little  more 
than  a  year,  restored  Roman  ascendency  in  the  East. 
In  the  autumn  of  38  B.C.  he  returned  to  Rome,  and 
rode  in  triumph  through  the  streets,  along  which 
fifty  years  before  he  had  been  led  as  a  captive.* 

Ventidius's  recall  is  said  to  have  been  due  to  An- 
tony's jealousy  of  his  lieutenant's  success.  At  any 
rate,  in  the  summer  of  38  B.C.  he  left  Greece  and  its 
pleasures,  and  started  for  the  East.  The  two  rivals, 
who  parted  from  each  other  after  the  peace  of  Mise- 
num  in  39  B.C.,  were  destined  to  meet  but  once 
again  before  the  final  conflict  at  Actium.  The  inter- 
val was  spent  by  each  in  a  manner  thoroughly 
characteristic  of  their  different  characters.  Octavius 
was  engaged  without  intermission  in  patiently  con- 
solidating his  power  in  the  West,  in  restoring  pros- 
perity and  confidence,  and  in  obliterating  by  good 
government  the  memories  of  the  bloodshed  and 
robbery  which  had  stained  the  commencement  of 
his  rule.  On  the  other  hand,  Antony  ran  riot  in  a 
wild  career  of  adventure  and  pleasure,  better  befitting 
an  Eastern  sultan  than  a  Roman  noble  and  senator. 
In  the  West  Octavius  succeeded  at  least  in  establish- 
ing order ;  while  in  the  East  the  anarchy  consequent 
on  ten  years  of  civil  war  was  made  worse  instead  of 
better  by  the  reckless  ambition  and  capricious  ex- 
travagance of  his  rival. 

>  The  battle  was  fought  at  Gindarus,  on  June  9,  38  B.C.,  on  the 
same  day  of  the  year  as  the  defeat  of  Crassus  in  53  B.C.;  Dio,  xlix., 
21;  Strabo,  p.  751. 

*  Dio,  xlix.  ,21.  It  was  the  first  Parthian  trinmph  celebrated  in  Rome. 


Ch.  2]       Governtnent  of  the  Triumvirate.        375 


It  was  probably  early  in  38  B.C.  that 


Octavius  in 

Octavius    married    Livia,*    the  wife    of       ^,?i??- 

39-39  0.C 

Tiberius  Claudius  Nero,  once  a  warm  ^J*^.^™ 
supporter  of  L.  Antonius,  to  whom  she  ^***  ^™- 
had  already  borne  one  son,  the  future  Emperor 
Tiberius,  and  by  whom  she  was  already  pregnant 
with  another,  when  her  husband  was  forced  to  sur- 
render  her  at  the  bidding  of  her  powerful  lover.  The 
second  son,  Drusus,  bom  three  months  after  the 
marriage,  became  famous  as  the  conqueror  of  the 
Raeti,  and  as  the  father  of  Germanicus,  and  of  the 
Emperor  Claudius.  Livia  herself  became  the  con- 
stant and  prudent  counsellor  of  her  new  husband, 
and  after  his  death  guided  as  empress-mother  the 
policy  of  Tiberius. 

The  truce  which  had  been  patched  up 
between  Octavius  and  Sextus  Pompeius  seztus 

#  X  fl  «     tt  •      -r  Pompeius. 

(39  B.C.)  was  but  a  hollow  one.      It  was 
impossible  for  the  former  to  leave  Sicily  longer  than 
he  could  help  in  the  hands  of  a  rival,  and  the  latter 
had  every  reason  to  suspect  that  Octavius  would 
only  respect  the  treaty  of  Misenum  while  it  suited 
his  convenience  to  do  so.     The  inevitable  rupture 
between  them  was  provoked  (38  B.c.)  by 
the  treachery  of  Sextus's  freedman  and 
admiral  Menas,*  who  surrendered    Sardinia  to  Oc- 
tavius, together  with  the  fleet  and  troops  under  his 


'  Dio,  xlviii.,  44.    He  had  divorced  his  wife  Scribonia  the  year 

before ;  iHd.t  xlviii.,  34. 

'Tac.,  Ann,,  !.,  10;  **  Pompeium  imagine  pads  .  .  .  deceptum,** 
*  Dio,  xlviii.,  45.  Appian  {JB,C  ▼•  78)  calls  the  freedman ' '  Meno- 

dGms." 


376  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

command.  Octavius  had  no  scruple  in  profiting  by 
this  act  of  perfidy.  Menas  was  rewarded  with  the 
rank  of  a  Roman  knight,  and  received  a  post  in  the 
service  of  his  new  master.  War  followed  at  once ; 
but  though  Octavius  can  have  expected  no  other 
result,  he  found  to  his  cost  that  Sextus's  well- 
equipped  fleet  and  skilful  admirals  were  far  more 
than  a  match  for  his  own  clumsily  handled  vessels. 
In  the  first  sea-fight,  of!  Cumx,  neither  side  could 
claim  any  decided  advantage ;  but  in  the  second,  off 
the  Scyllaean  promontory,  the  Pompeians,  assisted  by 
a  storm,  completely  defeated  their  enemy.  Sextus, 
elated  with  his  success,  was  hailed  by  his  Greek  sail- 
ors as  the  son  of  Poseidon,  and  the  invincible  master 
of  the  sea.^  Octavius  abandoned  his  projected  inva- 
sion of  Sicily  and  contented  himself  with  posting 
garrisons  to  protect  the  coasts  of  Italy,  while  he  set 
about  constructing  a  new  and  more  numerous  fleet 
with  which  to  renew  the  war.  With  a  wisdom  justi- 
fied by  the  result,  he  intrusted  the  duty  of  preparing 
7x7  A.U.C.  ^^^  fresh  armament  to  Marcus  Agrippa, 
now  consul  (37  B.C.),  whom  he  recalled 
from  Gaul  for  the  purpose. 

It  was  during  the  year  37  B.C.*  that  the  last  friendly 

Renewal  of      fleeting  between  Octavius  and  Antony 

wSiu.*""*"      ^^^^  place.     The  latter  arrived  off  Brun- 

r?7  A^u.  c.     dusium  with  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  sail, 

professedly  in  response  to  Octavius's  ap- 

'  Dio,  xlviii..  48 ;  Plin.,  N.  H„  ix.,  55. 

*  The  date  is  uncertain.  Apptan  (B,  C,  v.  93)  places  the  meeting 
in  the  spring  of  37  b.c.  Dio  (xlix.,  i)  puts  it  at  the  close  of  that  year 
or  the  beginning  of  the  next. 


Ch.  2]      Governmeni  of  the  Triumvirate.       377 

peal  for  assistance  against  Sextus  Pompeius.  But 
nowy  as  before,  in  40  B.C.,  the  harbour  of  Brundusium 
was  closed  against  him,  and  he  landed  instead  at 
Tarentum,  full  of  resentment  against  his  colleague. 
For  the  second  time,  however,  a  reconciliation  was 
effected,  thanks  to  the  mediation  of  Octavia,  and 
probably  also  to  the  skilful  diplomacy  of  Maecenas, 
who  from  this  time  forward  shared  with  Agrippa  the 
confidence  of  Octavius.*  The  provisional  govern- 
ment of  the  triumvirate  was  renewed  for  five  years 
more.*  Antony  gave  Octavius  one  hundred  and 
twenty  ships  to  assist  him  in  the  war  with  Sextus, 
and  received  in  exchange  twenty  thousand  Roman 
legionaries.'  Matters  being  thus  amicably  settled,  the 
rivals  parted ;  Antony  sailed  away  to  Syria,  leaving 
his  wife  Octavia  behind  in  Italy,  and  Octavius  pro- 
ceeded quietly  with  his  preparations  against  Sextus. 
By  the  summer  of  36  B.C.  all  was  ready.  A  nu- 
merous fleet  had  been  built,  the  vessels  -,8a  u  c 
being  of  unusual  height  and  strength,  and  ^°^*^jj|f ^ 
equipped  with  moveable  wooden  towers, 
from  which  the  soldiers  on  board  could  command 
the  enemy's  decks.*  Twenty  thousand  slaves  had 
been  enlisted  to  man  the  ships ' ;  and  throughout  the 

*  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Horace  accompanied  Maecenas  to 
Brundusium  ;  Sat,^  i.,  5. 

'  The  period  for  which  the  triumvirs  had  been  appointed  expired 
on  December  31,  38  B.C.  It  was  now  extended  to  the  end  of  33 
B.C.     Mommsen,  Siaatsr,,  ii.,  675. 

*  App.,  B,  C,  v.,  95.  The  agreement  was  known  as  the  **fcBdus 
Tarentiuum"  ;  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  10. 

^  Dio,  xlix.y  I  ;  Serv.,  Ad  Ann,  ^  viii.,  693. 

*  Stteton.,  Aug,^  16. 


3  78  Outlines  of  Roman  History,       CBook  v 

winter  the  crews  had  been  carefully  drilled  in  the 
secure  and  spacious  harbour  which  Ag^ppa  had  con- 
structed  in  the  innermost  comer  of  the  roadstead  of 
Baiae/ 

On  July  1st  the  fleet  set  sail  for  Sicily ;  the  island 
was  to  be  invaded  from  three  sides  at  once,  by  Oc- 
tavius  and  A^^ippa  on  the  north,  by  the  squadron 
which  Antony  had  left  behind  on  the  East,  and  by 
Lepidus  from  Africa  on  the  south.'  The  concerted 
attack  was,  however,  at  first  a  failure.  Lepidus  was 
in  no  hurry  to  assist  his  powerful  colleague,  and 
a  gale  obliged  Octavius  to  seek  shelter  at  Lipara. 
Leaving  his  fleet  there  he  returned  to  Italy,  and 
putting  his  legions  on  board  the  Antonian  squadron, 
which  had  reached  the  Straits  of  Messina,  he  landed 
at  Tauromenium.  But  here  he  was  instantly  attacked 
by  Sextus  Pompeius.  Once  more,  it  was  said,  his 
courage  failed  him,  and  he  sought  safety  on  the 
mainland.  The  legions,  which  he  had  deserted,  were 
now  harassed  on  all  sides  by  the  light  troops  of  Sex^ 
tus.  Their  supplies  began  to  run  short,  and  they 
were  helpless  before  the  attacks  of  an  enemy  who 
obstinately  refused  to  come  to  close  quarters.*  As 
a  last  resource,  their  leader  Comificius  resolved  to 
force  his  way  across  the  island,  to  effect  if  possible 

'  It  was  in  reality  two  harbours,  the  inner  one  being  formed  by 
the  lake  of  Avemus»  the  outer  by  the  Lucrine  lake.  A  canal  con- 
nected the  two.  Access  to  the  Lucrine  lake  from  the  open  roadstead 
was  given  by  cutting  through  the  dam  known  as  the  Via  Herculanea. 
Dio,  xlviii.,  50 ;  Virg.,  Ge^g.^  ii.,  161 ;  Veil.  Pat,  ii.,  79  ;  Gardt^ 
hausen,  A%^,^  i.,  257 ;  Beloch,  Companion^  169. 

•  App.,  B.  C,  v.,  97,  98. 

*  Dio,  xlix.,  7 ;  App.,  B.  C,  v.,  116. 


Ch.il       Government  of  the  Triumviraie.        37^ 

a  junction  with  Agrippa,  who,  after  defeating  Sex- 
tus*s  Admiral  Demochares  off  Mylae,  had  captured 
both  Mylae  and  Tyndaris.  The  attempt  succeeded, 
and  from  this  moment  the  fortune  of  war  changed. 
Sextus,  now  fully  engaged  with  Agrippa  and  Comi- 
ficius,  was  unable  to  prevent  Octavius  from  again 
landing  in  Sicily.  At  the  same  time  Lepidus  at  last 
arrived  in  the  island,  and  the  two  joined  Cornificius 
and  Agrippa  at  Mylae.  Against  such  a  force  Sextus 
could  effect  nothing,  his  only  hope  lay  in  recovering 
his  mastery  of  the  sea.     On  September 

Victory  at 

3rd,  36  B.C,,*  off  the  promontory  of  Nau-  Nauiochu*. 
lochus,  and  in  full  view  of  the  legions  on 
shore,  his  fleet  engaged  that  of  Agrippa,  and  was 
completely  defeated.  Sextus  himself  escaped  with  a 
few  ships,  but  the  rest  of  his  vessels  were  captured 
or  destroyed,  and  his  land  forces  at  once  surrendered. 
Octavius  had  now  to  reckon  with  his  col-  Depotition 
league  Lepidus.  The  latter  had  occupied  ©fi^epw***. 
Messina ;  he  was  at  the  head  of  twenty-two  legions,' 
and  the  moment  seemed  to  have  arrived  when  he 
might  demand  satisfaction  for  the  wrongs  which  he 
had  suffered  during  the  past  seven  years  at  the  hands 
of  his  colleagues  in  the  triumvirate.  But  his  soldiers 
were  tired  of  war;  they  listened  readily  to  the  solici- 
tations of  Octavius,  and  deserted  their  leader.  Lepi- 
dus had  now  no  choice  but  to  submit.  His  life  was 
spared,  but  he  was  deposed  from  office,  and  sent  a 

*  This  date  is  given  by  the  Kalendar  of  Amitemum,  C,  /.  Z.,  x., 
^375*  But  the  reference  may  be  to  the  surrender  of  Lepidus.  If  so, 
the  battle  at  Naulochus  was  fought  towards  the  end  of  August. 

•  Sueton.,  Au^,,  i6;  Vdl.,  ii.,  80;  App.,  B,  C,  v.,  123. 


380  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       TBook  V 

prisoner  to  Circeii,  where  he  resided  until  his  death 
in  12  B.C.*  The  adventurous  career  of  Sextus  Pom- 
74a  A.  u.  c.  peius  came  to  an  end  in  the  year  following 
Sextos*^  his  defeat.  He  had  escaped  to  Lesbos,  in- 
pom^ciu..  tending  to  sepk  the  protection  of  Antony, 
719  A.  u.  c.  Encouraged,  however,  by  rumours  that  the 
latter  had  met  with  disaster  beyond  the  Euphrates, 
he  was  already  forming  plans  for  making  himself 
master  of  Asia  Minor,  when  he  was  arrested  and  put 
to  death  by  Antony's  legates.*  If  he  achieved  noth- 
ing else,  he  at  least  proved  the  value  of  that  maritime 
supremacy,  the  advantages  of  which  his  father  had 
thrown  away  after  his  defeat  at  Pharsalus.  For  seven 
years,  with  a  fleet  commanded  by  Greek  freedmen, 
and  manned  by  runaway  slaves,  he  had  held  his  own, 
and  the  son  of  the  conqueror  of  the  pirates  made  a 
name  for  himself  as  the  last  and  the  most  formidable 
of  the  corsair  chiefs  in  the  Mediterranean.* 

After  thirteen  stormy  years,  the  West  was  at  last 
octaviuB  as    peacefully  united  under  the  rule  of  a  single 

master  of  the  *^  ,  .  ^a^-.  « 

West;  man.   The  two  provmces  of  Afnca,  so  long 

718-791  A.u.c.  the  prey  of  contending  parties,  were  quietly 
occupied  and  firmly  governed  by  Statilius  Taurus.* 
In  Spain  the  last  echoes  of  disturbance  had  died 
away  under  the  vigorous  rule  of  Domitius  Calvinius.' 
In  Northern  Gaul  Marcus  Agrippa  had  assisted  his 

'  Sueton.,  Aug,^  16;  Dio,  xlix.,  12;  Livy,  Epit.^  cxxix. 

*  Dio,  xlix.,  17.  18;  Veil.,  ii.,  79;  Livy,  EpiU,  cxxxi. 

'  Comp.  Augustus's  record  of  his  victory,  Man.  Anc,  Lat,^  v.,  I ; 
"  marepacavi  a fratUmibus**  IHd»,  v.,  33  ;  '*  SiciUam  et  Sardimam 
occupatas  bello  serviH  reciperavi,** 

*  Dio,  xlix.,  14. 
»  Veil.,  ii.,  78. 


Ch.2]       Gaoemment  of  the  Triumuirate.       381 

master  in  building  up  the  system  of  government  to 
which  Livia*s  infant  son  Drusus  was  destined  to  put 
the  finishing  touch  twenty-four  years  later.  In  Italy 
itself  there  was  no  individual  or  party  able  or  willing  to 
challenge  the  supremacy  of  the  conqueror  of  Sextus. 
Already  men  spoke  as  if  the  age  of  civil  war  was 
over,  and  a  period  of  peace  and  prosperity  about  to 
begin.*  But  everything  depended  on  the  use  which 
Octavius  would  make  of  his  success.  Would  he,  as 
in  43  B.C.,  be  only  a  revengeful  partisan,  or  would  he 
follow  the  example  of  the  great  dictator  whose  name 
he  bore?  Octavius  was  now  only  in  his  twenty- 
seventh  year,  and  he  had  as  yet  had  little  oppor- 
tunity for  showing  that  his  claim  to  be  Caesar's  heir 
was  justified  by  his  ability  to  carry  on  Caesar's  work. 
But  his  conduct  during  the  four  years  of  comparative 
quiet  which  followed  the  victory  at  Naulochus  was  a 
sufficient  answer  to  all  doubts ;  and  when,  in  32  B.C., 
war  with  Antony  became  imminent  and  inevitable, 
he  had  already  won  the  complete  confidence  of  the 
western  world. 

Before  leaving  Sicily  he  had  succeeded  in  staving 
off  a  threatened  mutiny  among  his  soldiers.  The 
huge  force  now  under  his  sole  command,  consisting, 
we  are  told,  of  45  legions,  24,000  cavalry,  and  more  than 
35,000  light  troops,'  could  not  safely  be  disbanded. 
But  the  veterans  who  had  fought  at  Mutina  and 
Philippi  were  discharged,  and  lands  were  found  for 
them  in  Italy  and  in  Southern  Gaul.*    A  handsome 

'  App.,  B,  C,  v.,  130.  •  IHd,^  v.,  127. 

*Ihid,^  v.,  128  ;  Dio,  xlix.,  13,  54 ;  Man,  Am.  Lat.^  v.,  36 ;  Stmbo, 

p.  »59. 


382  Outlines  0/  Reman  History.      [Book  v 

I' 

donative  temporarily  satisfied  the  rest.  His  return 
to  Rome  in  November  was  followed,  not  by  proscrip- 
tions and  confiscations,  but  by  vigorous  measures 
for  securing  the  public  safety  and  restoring  confi- 
dence. Of  the  runaway  slaves  who  had  taken  refuge 
with  Sextus  Pompeius  6,000  were  crucified,  and 
30,000  sent  back  to  their  masters.  ^  The  brigands  of 
all  kinds,  whether  impoverished  peasants,  discharged 
soldiers,  or  men  rendered  desperate  by  the  loss  of 
property  and  position  during  the  civil  wars,  were 
sternly  repressed  alike  in  Rome  and  in  the  country 
districts  of  Italy.'  Some  of  the  taxes  recently 
imposed  were  taken  off,  arrears  due  to  the  treasury 
were  cancelled,  while,  as  a  pledge  of  restored  peace 
and  harmony,  the  records  of  the  reign  of  terror,  the 
lists  of  suspected  persons,  the  sentences  of  outlawry, 
and  similar  documents  were  publicly  burnt.*  Octa^ 
vius  even  professed  now,  as  afterwards  in 
28  B.C.,  his  desire  to  restore  the  regular 
constitutional  government,  which  had  been  virtually 
suspended  since  the  creation  of  the  triumvirate.  Its 
formal  restoration  must,  he  declared,  be  postponed 
until  Antony's  return;  meanwhile  he  encouraged 
the  ordinary  magistrates  to  resume  their  duties.  It 
is  true  that  during  his  own  absences 
'from  Italy  in  35  and  34  B.C.  the  main- 
tenance of  order  was  intrusted,  as  it  had  been  in 


*  App.,  B.  C,t  v.,  129 ;  Man,  Anc.  Lat»,  v.,  i. 

*  Appian  (B,  C,  v.,  132)  dates  the  establishment  of  a  regular  police 
in  Rome  from  this  time.  Sueton.,  Aug,^  32  :  *^ grassaturas dispoHHs 
per  opportuna  hca  staHomUms  inAiAmt,"  For  inscriptions  referring  to 
tliose  patrols,  see  C  /.  Z.,  ix.,  3907, 4503.     '  App.,  B.  C,  v.,  139. 


Cli.  2]       Government  of  the  Triumuirate.        383 
36  B.C..  to  Maecenas,  who  was  neither  a 

7x8  AUG 

magistrate  nor  even  a  senator/     But  the 
xdileship  of  Marcus  Agrippa  in   33  B.C.,  with  its 
splendid  achievements  for  the  well-being 

991  A  O  C 

of  Rome,  was  a  testimony  at  once  to  the 
good  intentions  of  the  new  authorities  and  to  their 
respect  for  republican  tradition.*  At  the  same  time 
public  opinion  already  clearly  pointed  to  the  personal 
supremacy  of  Octavius  as  essential  to  the  welfare  of 
the  state.  The  honours  showered  upon  him  on  his 
return  from  Sicily  in  36  B.C.,  and  in  particular  the 
grant  of  the  tribunician  power/ at  once  raised  him 
above  the  level  of  a  republican  magistrate.*  He  was 
already,  over  one-half  of  the  empire,  "master  of 
all,'*  *  and  with  him  were  already  associated  the 
able  ministers  Agrippa  and  Maecenas,  whose  names 
were  to  be  inseparably  connected  with  his. 

The  only  war  in  which  Octavius  was  engs^ed 
between  36-32  B.C.  was  waged,  not  against  punnonian 
political  rivals,  but  in  furtherance  of  the  ^ 

work  which  now  devolved  upon  him  as  iPffJc! 
ruler  of  the  West,  the  rectification  and 
defence  of  the  frontiers.  The  tribes  of  Illyria  had 
long  been  dangerous  neighbours  to  Italy,  and  during 
the  civil  wars  both  the  lapydes  immediately  east  of 
Aquileia  and  the  Pannonians  along  the  line  of  the 


'  Dio,  xlix.  16  ;  Tac.,  Ann,^  vi.,  ii. 

*  For  Agrippa's  work  as  sedile,  and  especially  his  reformation  of 
the  water-supply  of  Rome,  see  Frontinus,  DeAquaducHbus^  9 ;  PUn., 
N,  H,^  xxxvi.,  24;   Dio,  xlix.,  43. 

*Dio,  xlix.,  15  ;   Oros.,  vi.,  18. 

*Man.  Anc.f  vi.,  14. 


384  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       CBook  ¥ 

Save  had  made  frequent  forays  across  the  frontier. 

In  the  summer  of  35  B.C.  Octavius  marched 
719A.U.C.  against  them/  The  I apydes  were  easily 
quieted,  but  the  Pannonians,  a  warlike  race,  who 
could  put  100,000  men  in  the  field,'  offered  a  more 
obstinate  resistance.  The  capture,  however,  of  their 
great  stronghold  Siscia  (Sessik),  on  the  Save,  broke 
their  spirits  for  the  time,  and  with  the  occupation  of 
Siscia  by  a  Roman  garrison  the  way  was  prepared 
for  a  final  establishment  of  Roman  authority  along 
the  lines  of  the  Save  and  the  Drave.     Further  than 

this  Octavius  could  not  go.   In  the  summer 

of  33  B.C.  the  menacing  attitude  of  Antony 
obliged  him  to  abandon  all  other  schemes  and  pre- 
pare for  the  final  conflict  with  his  colleague  and  rival. 
While  in  the  western  half  of  the  empire  men  were 

already  congratulating  themselves  on  the 

Antony  in  "^   .         ^  .  **        ,  , 

theSMt.  restoration  of  peace,  under  the  auspices 
7x6^1 '  *       of  a  second  Caesar,  matters  in  the  East 

had  gone  from  bad  to  worse.  Antony  had 
indeed  shown  no  reluctance  to  play  the  king ;  but 
his  policy,  when  it  ceased  to  be  regulated  by  his 
own  caprices,  was  dictated    by  the  overmastering 

ambition  of  Cleopatra.  He  had  set  out 
7x6  A.u.c.     £j.^j^  Athens  in  38  B.C.  full  of  his  intended 

Parthian  war,  but  after  a  brief  stay  in  the  East  had 
returned  to  Italy.     Towards  the  end  of 

7x7  A.u.c.  -^       .       .       cs.-^^''-%..^^  ^    ^u. 

37  B.C.  he  was  again  m -^y ria/^nd  this 


'  Dio,  xlix.,  34  ;  App.,  Ilfyr,^  16.  > 

*  App.,  Illyr,^  22.     For  this  war  and  its  results,  see  Mommsen* 
R,  (7.,  v.,  pp.  8,  9. 

'  Dio  Cass.,  xlix.,  22  sqq,  ;  Plut.,  Ant^  36j^f. 


Ch.  21      Government  of  the  Trtunwiraie.        385 

time  everything  seemed  to  favour  the  execution 
of  his  long-talked-of  scheme.  His  legate  in  Syria, 
C.  Sosius,  had  completed  the  work  which  Ventidius 
had  begun,  by  taking  Jerusalem  and  deposing  the 
Parthian  nominee  Antigonus,  while  P.  Canidius 
Crassus  had  temporarily  re-established  the  suzerainty 
of  Rome  over  the  tribes  of  the  Caucasus.  In 
Parthia  itself  there  was  a  new  king,  Phraates  IV., 
whose  cruelties  ^  had  alienated  many  of  the  Parthian 
nobles,  and  driven  one  of  them,  Monaeses,  to  seek  a 
refuge  within  the  Roman  province  of  Syria.  Elated 
by  the  favourable  turn  of  events,  Antony  resolved  to 
invade  Parthia ;  but  again  the  enchantments  of  Cleo- 
patra, whom  he  summoned  to  join  him,  held  him  spell- 
bound  in  the  luxurious  city  of  Antioch."  Here  he 
spent  the  winter  and  spring  (37-36  B.C.), 
at  one  moment  gratifymg  his  vanity 
by  putting  down  and  setting  up  kings  and 
princes,  at  another  shocking  Roman  feeling  by 
robbing  the  Roman  people  to  enrich  his  Greek 
mistress.  Herod  replaced  Antigonus  on  the  throne 
of  Judea;  Amyntas,  once  the  secretary  of  King 
Deiotarus,  was  installed  as  ruler  of  Galatia;  in 
Cappadocia  the  old  dynasty  was  ousted  in  favour 
of  the  Greek  Archelaus,  whose  mother  Glaphyra  had 
for  a  moment  caught  the  fancy  of  the  amorous  sol- 
dier. To  Cleopatra  were  given  grants  of  territory, 
not  only  in  Arabia  and  Palestine,  but  even  in  the 
Roman  provinces  of  Syria  and  Cilicia.* 

'  Dio,  xlix.  23. 

•Plut.,  Ani,^  36 ;  Livy,  Epii,^  cxxx. 

•Dio,  xlix.,  22,  32  ;  Plut.,  Ant,,  36. 
95 


386  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      Wook  v 

At  length,  early  in  the  summer  of  36  B.C.,  Antony 
started,  at  the  head  of  an  imposing  force 

The  PftfthiftD  ,  ,,  .  «i»«^  i 

war.  30  B.C.,  of  Sixteen  legions  and  40,000  alhed  troops. 
He  crossed  the  Euphrates,  but  instead  of 
invading  Parthia,  he  yielded  to  the  request  of  Arta- 
vasdes,  king  of  Greater  Armenia,  and  marched 
northwards  against  Artavasdes's  personal  enemy, 
the  king  of  Media.  A  long  and  circuitous  route 
brought  him  to  the  frontiers  of  Media,  and  there 
leaving  his  baggage  and  two  legions  under  Oppius 
Statianus  behind  him,  he  pressed  forward  to  attack 
the  Median  fortress  of  Gazaca.'  Scarcely,  however, 
had  he  begun  the  siege  when  the  news  arrived  that 
Oppius  had  been  attacked  by  a  combined  Median 
and  Parthian  force.  Antony  hurried  to  the  rescue 
of  his  legions,  but  arrived  only  to  find  that  Oppius 
and  his  troops  had  been  overwhelmed  by  numbers 
and  cut  to  pieces.  Returning  to  Gazaca,  he  resumed 
the  siege.  Gazaca,  however,  held  out  obstinately, 
while  the  Parthian  and  Median  forces  harassed  him 
by  constant  attacks  and  cut  off  his  supplies.  The 
summer,  too,  was  over,  and  the  approach  of  winter 
made  it  impossible  either  to  advance  farther  or  to 
remain  where  he  was.  The  inevitable  retreat  was 
commenced  in  October.  Avoiding  the  plains,  for 
fear  of  the  Parthian  cavalry,  the  legions  marched 
toilsomely  through  a  wild  and  mountainous  country.* 

*  Veil.,  ii.,  82  ;  Livy,  E^t,  cxxx.  ;   Plut.,  Ani.^  31. 

•*Or  Phraaspa;  Dio,  xlix.,  25  ;  Strabo,  p.  523  ;  Gardthausen,  .^«^., 

a.  p.  153. 

'  The  route  was  indicated  by  a  Roman  soldier  who  had  been  taken 
atCarrhae;  Veil.,  ii..  82. 


eveiy  step  by  the  li^J*  ,  ""^^'■'  and   harassed  at 
^t'  on   the  VS.  dfv   .r°°^  °'  *^«  ^^"^'"y-    At 

faith  of  the  Armeniln  t       '"  '*''"''*  ^^  *«  good 
join  Cleopatra  T^i         ^^'  ^^  ''■*»™  an^'^ty  ^  re- 

a«  the  se^o^wt  1:';,''°"'''  "°'  ^^*  ^"~-    L^*« 

the  bleak  Arme^kn  k^  u?^"^  southwards,  through 

^asion  of  PaiSrS  ^'^^^*"^«.  to  Syria.    The  fn- 

-^y  •'  was  a  wreck^  ^Zu"  T'^'"^'  *^^  "  S^"** 

^d  difficulties  of  th;  ret    *  f  °k"^u  *'"'**  '^^  ^*"Sers 

once  more  a   rn..^  ^  ^^d  proved  himself 

issue  of  the  camo^^°"^  *"''   ^'^"f"'  soWier.  the 
prestige.         ^""P*^  '"A'^^ted  a  fatal  blow  on  his 


Antony  in 


««i«y  of  cL  °  .      consolation  in  the      X^ai? 

«'.3S  B.c.-he  prop^  t"  "sS'onr"  '"  ""  ^"°« 
paigrn.    Biif  fK-.        •  second  cam- 

himself  at  the  hTJ    f u^'      *'  ^^  ^*^"  P"t     »»  *"<=• 
'his  time  wL  „:t1ht  ^^^^^^^^       "'^  ^'^i-t.  however. 

the  humiiiatior  :f  ^rf^rr  ll!rth\^"^  ''''''' 
"■enia.  to  whose  lukewarm^eTs  Tf  „  ^^  ^^"^  °*  A"-' 
«tnbuted  the  disastrousTmpail'''^^  treachery,  he 

11 V"  ""^  ^^-piy  "tXr  1  ^^  ^-^^  -^  >^ 

^uced,  under  pretence  of  a  frien,ii        ^''^^^^^  "^^ 
!::^e  Roman  camp,  and  was  a^^  'Conference,  to 

■Wo,  xji:,..  ^  .  Li  ^  ^«vce  imprisoned 

'  Veil..  «..  8a.       ^*^'  ^^-  ^'-     ^ 


388  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  V 

and  deposed,  while  his  son  Artaxes,  whom  the 
Armenian  troops  had  placed  on  his  father's 
throne,  found  resistance  hopeless,  and  fled  to 
Parthia.'  Antony  returned  to  Alexandria,  taking 
with  him  Artavasdes  and  his  family,  and  there 
commemorated  in  due  form  his  inglorious  conquest 
of  Armenia. 
Of  far  more  serious  consequence  were  the*  events 

that  followed.  His  proceedings  in  Egypt 
Cleopatra  in  during  the  next  few  months  (34-33  B.C.) 
710-791  A.u.c.S^iv®  convincing  proof,  not  only  of  the 

ascendency  which  Cleopatra  had  gained 
over  him,  but  of  her  intention  to  use  that  ascendency 
to  wrest  the  sovereig^nty  of  the  East  from  Rome. 
The  Roman  world  was  startled  by  the  announce- 
ment that  Cleopatra  had  been  proclaimed  ''  queen  of 
kings," '  that  to  her  and  her  sons  had  been  assigned 
the  Roman  provinces  of  Syria,  Cilicia,  Cyprus, 
Africa,  and  the  Cyrenaica ;  and  that  Caesarion,  her 
natural  son  by  Cxsar,  was  openly  put  forward  as 
the  true  heir  of  the  great  Julius,  in  opposition  to 
Octavius.*  It  was  even  rumoured  that  Cleopatra 
would  not  be  content  with  the  lordship  of  Asia, 
which  she  claimed  as  the  heiress  of  the  Ptolemies, 
but  that  she  aspired  to  be  enthroned  as  queen  on 
the  Capitol  at  Rome.*  It  was  in  any  case  clear  that 
Antony  must   henceforth    be  regarded,   not  as  a 


'  Dio,  xlix.,  39-40;  Livy.-ff/.,  131;  Plut,  Ant.,  50;  Veil.,  u.^Ss, 

*  Dio,  xlix.,  41;  Plut.,  AnU,  54;  Cohen,  Midtnlles  Jiom,^  i.,  p.  57^* 
"  regina  regutn,  fiUarum  regum" 

•  Dio,  /.  c,  ;  Plut.,  Ant.,  54, 

^  Honce,  Od,/i,,  37,  6,  ;  Eutrop.,  vii.,  7  ;  Dio,  1.,  5. 


Ch.  2]       Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        389 

Roman  triumvir,  but  as  the  obsequious  servant  of  a 
foreign  potentate. 

That  a  struggle  with  Antony  was  inevitable,  Octa- 
vius  had  for  some  time  foreseen,  but  that  ^^^  rupture 
it  should  come  in  a  form  which  enlisted  au^JTmS 
Italian  sympathy  on  his  own  side,  as  the  Ocuviu*. 
defender  of  Rome  against  Oriental  aggression,  was 
more  than  he  could  have  hoped  for.  As  it  was,  he 
eagerly  took  up  the  challenge  which  Antony  had 
rashly  thrown  down,  and  alike  in  the  senate  house 
and  the  forum  he  denounced  his  fellow  triumvir  as  a 
traitor  to  the  State.  In  the  summer  of  33 
B.C.  war  seemed  imminent,  for  Antony, 
after  once  more  visiting  Armenia,  where  he  formed 
an  alliance  with  his  former  foe,  the  king  of  Media,' 
turned  westward  to  Ephesus,  and  with  a  large  force 
crossed  into  Greece."  At  Athens,  however,  he 
halted,  and  spent  the  winter  feasting  with  Cleopatra. 
Meanwhile  at  Rome  the  tide  of  indignation  against 
him  rose  rapidly ;  his  will,  in  which  Cleopatra's  sons 
were  named  as  his  heirs,  was  discovered  and  pub- 
lished,* and  the  discovery  was  followed  by  the  news 
that  he  had  divorced,  evidently  at  the  bidding  of 
Cleopatra,  his  injured  wife  Octavia.  While  the  indig- 
nation was  at  its  height,  Octavius  struck  y^,  a.u.c. 
the  decisive  blow.  Early  in  32  B.C.  the 
senate  by  decree  deprived  Antony  of  his  command, 
and  declared  war  upon  Cleopatra.^ 

'  Dio,  xlix.,  44. 

'  Plut.,  Ant,^  56.     He  had  i6  legions  and  800  ships. 

•  Dio,  1.,  3  ;  Suet.,  Aug.^  17. 

*  Dio,  /.  r.,  4. 


39<3^  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  V 

Once  more  Octavius  had  reason  to  be  thankful  for 
his  rival's  want  of  promptitude.    Antony 

AcSiJ^!'  ^^  ^^>  ^"  3^  ^•^•»  ^^^  better  prepared  for  war 
than  his  opponent.  He  was  in  Greece, 
within  striking  distance  of  Italy ;  he  had  a  large 
army,  a  numerous  and  well-equipped  fleet,  and  above 
all,  the  money,  which  Octavius  could  with  difficulty 
raise  by  fresh  demands  upon  the  hardly  tried  popu- 
lation of  Italy,  was  showered  upon  Antony  by  the 
lavish  hand  of  Cleopatra.' 

Had  Antony  invaded  Italy  in  32  B.C.  the  issue,  of 

the  war  might  have  been  different.    As  it  was,  he 

advanced  no  farther  than  Corcyra,  and  then,  leaving 

the  bulk  of  his  fleet  and  army  at  Actium,  returned 

to  winter  at  Patrae.     The  spring  of  31  B.C. 

1VK  AUG  4^         o  */ 

found  Octavius  ready  to  take  the  field. 
His  plan  of  campaign  was  simple.  Sending  Agrippa 
forward  with  a  fast-sailing  squadron,  to  occupy 
Antony's  attention  by  harassing  his  garrisons  on  the 
Pelopontiesian  coast,  and  intercepting  his  supplies 
from  Egypt  and  Asia,"  Octavius  himself  crossed  from 
Brundusium  to  the  Epirot  coast,  hoping  to  shut  up 
Antony's  fleet  in  the  land-locked  gulf  where  it  had 
Iain  through  the  winter,  and  thus  prevent  the 
threatened  invasion  of  Italy.  The  plan  was  com- 
pletely successful.  The  entrance  to  the  narrow 
strait  which  gives  access  to  the  Ambraciot  gulf  is 
commanded  by  two  promontories.  The  southern 
one,  crowned  by  the  ancient  temple  of  Actian  Apollo, 
was  occupied  by  the  Antonian  troops,  while  close  by, 

»  Dio,  1.,  10  ;  Plut.,  Ant,,  Ivi.,  58. 
*  DiOy  i,  c  ,  12  ;  Oros.,  vi.,  19,  23. 


Ch.  21      Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        391 

<     _ 

and  just  within  the  straits,  their  fleet  was  moored 
in  the  bay  of  Prevesa,'  Octavius  on  his  arrival  at 
once  stationed  his  own  vessels  so  as  to  close  the 
mouth  of  the  straits,  while  his  legions  were  posted 
on  the  northern  promontory,  and  protected  by  in- 
trenchments  from  any  attack  on  the  landward  side. 
Antony  arrived  from  Patrae  only  to  find  his  fleet 
imprisoned  within  the  straits,  while  his  enemy  was 
unassailable  by  land,  and  in  complete  command  of  the 
open  sea.  It  was  still  possible  for  him  to  withdraw 
his  troops,  and  decoy  Octavius,  as  Caesar  had 
decoyed  Pompey  into  the  open  plains  of  Thessaly, 
where  his  superior  numbers  and  greater  military 
skill  might  have  given  him  the  advantage ;  and  such 
was  the  advice  pressed  upon  him  by  his  Roman 
officers.  Antony,  however,  refused  to  move,  and 
instead  wasted  time*  in  useless  attempts  to  invest 
Octavius's  position.  Towards  the  close  of  the  sum- 
mer Agrippa  arrived  with  his  fleet  o£F  the  mouth  of 
the  strait,  and  a  second  time  his  officers  implored 
Antony  to  retreat,  while  there  was  still  time,  from  a 
position  which  was  fast  becoming  untenable.  But 
though  his  supplies  were  failing,  and  though  sick- 
ness and  desertion  were  thinning  his  ranks,"  Antony 
could  not  bring  himself  to  take  a  step,  which  not 
only  was  opposed  by  Cleopatra,  but  would  involve 
the  sacrifice  of  his  fleet,  and  possibly  the  withdrawal 
of  his  Asiatic  allies,  whose  courage  was  visibly  sink- 
ing, and  some  of  whom,  notably  the  astute  Greek 
adventurer  Am;y^ntas,  had  already  deserted  his  cause. 

'  Dio,  /.  ^,,  12. 

•  Dio.  /.  c,  13-15  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  84  ;  Hor,.  Epod.y  ix.,  xx. 


392  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  v 

He  resolved  instead  to  adopt  the  only 
Actium**'  alternative  open  to  him,  and  force  a  pas- 
sage to  open  sea  through  the  blockading 
fleet.  As  many  of  his  troops  as  possible  and  all  his 
treasure  were  placed  on  shipboard,'  and  on*  Septem- 
ber 2,  31  B.C.,*  the  fleet  advanced  in  close 
order  to  the  mouth  of  the  strait.  In  front 
were  the  huge  unwieldy  galleys,  which,  with  their 
six  or  even  ten  banks  of  oars^  their  lofty  sides,  and 
deck-towers  crowded  with  soldiers,  resembling  float- 
ing castles  rather  than  ships.*  In  the  rear  was  the 
fast-sailing  Egyptian  squadron  attached  to  the  service 
of  Cleopatra  herself.  From  the  shores  on  each  side 
the  opposing  legions  watched  the  fight  which  was  to 
decide  their  fate.  The  intention  of  the  Antonian 
admirals  was  to  await  the  enemy's  attacks  within  the 
straits.  Agrippa,  who  commanded  Octavius*s  fleet, 
was  equally  resolved  not  to  risk  an  engagement  in  a 
confined  space,  where  his  light  cruisers  would  be  of 
little  avail  against  the  huge  vessels  of  Antony.*  At 
length,  about  eleven  o'clock,  fortune  once  more 
favoured  Octavius.  The  wind  freshened,  and  An- 
tony, to  obtain  more  sea  room  for  his  crowded  ships, 
was  forced  to  leave  the  shelter  of  the  straits  and  ad- 
vance into  open  water.  He  was  instantly  attacked 
in  the   front   and  on  the  flanks.    The    Antonian 


>  Plut.,  Ani„  64. 

*  Kal.  Amit,  C.  /.  Z.  10,  8375  ;  Die,  11.,  i. 

*  Plut.,  Ant,^  61  ;  Floras,  iv.,  11  ;  Verg.,  jEn,^  viii.,  69a. 

*  Plut.,  Ant,  65  ;  Dio,  /.  ^.,  16,  32  ;  Floras,  iv.,  11  ;  Agrippt's 
vessels  were  built  on  the  model  of  the  notorions  Liburnian  pirate 
galleys. 


Ch.  2]       Government  of  the  Triumvirate.        393 

vessels  fought  like  "  hoplites  in  a  square,"  while 
Agrippa*s  light  galleys  darted  hither  and  thither, 
now  charging  at  full  speed  and  then  as  quickly  re- 
treating out  of  reach  of  the  fire  from  the  deck-towers 
and  of  the  deadly  grappling  irons.  Suddenly,  while 
the  fight  was  at  its  hottest,  the  Egyptian  squadron, 
headed  by  Cleopatra's  own  galley,  was  seen  to  hoist 
sail  and  make  for  the  open  sea,  followed  closely  by 
Antony  himself,  a  piece  of  selfish  treachery  and 
cowardice  which,  it  was  afterwards  said,  had  been 
previously  agreed  upon  between  the  two  lovers. 
Still  the  Antonian  fleet  fought  on,  until  towards  the 
close  of  the  afternoon,  the  fireballs,  with  which 
Octavius  supplied  his  ships,  decided  the  issue  of 
the  battle.*  One  after  another  the  great  ships  of 
this  earlier  armada  took  fire,  and  the  rising  wind 
spread  the  flames  with  a  rapidity  which  no  efforts 
could  check.  By  nightfall  the  splendid  fleet  was  a 
wreck,  and  the  morning  light  showed  only  smoking 
hulks  and  a  sea  strewn  broadcast  with  the  rich  spoils 
of  Egypt  and  the  East.*  A  few  days  later  the  An- 
tonian  troops  at  Actium,  disheartened  by  the  de- 
struction of  the  fleet,  and  deserted  by  their  leader, 
laid  down  their  arms.* 

The  victory  at  Actium  had  been  mainly 
the  work  of  Agrippa ;  it  now  remained  for    ^asu 'af-io 
Octavius,  always  more  statesman  than  sol-  7,3.734  a.u.c*. 
dier,  to  reap  the  fruits.     Above  all,  it  was 
necessary  to  recover  for  himself  and  for  Rome  the 

'  Dio,  /.  c.  34 ;  Suet.,  At^.y  17  ;  Verg.,  Mn,,  viii.,  694; 

'  Floras,  iv.,  11 ;  Oros.,  vi.,  22. 

*  Veil.,  ii.,  85  ;  Dio,  li.,  i  ;  Zodaras,  x.,  30. 


394  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      (Book  v 

provinces  and  vassal  states  be3rond  the  i£gaean  which 
Cleopatra  had  audaciously  claimed  for  her  own,  and 
to  effect  such  a  settlement  of  Eastern  affairs  as  would 
at  least  secure  order  until  he  had  leisure  to  under- 
take in  earnest  the  work  of  reorganisation.  Of  any 
open  resistance  to  the  conqueror  of  Antony  there 
was  little  fear,  and  Octavius'  skilful  diplomacy  made 
submission  easy.  The  Roman  provinces  were  at 
once  "  recovered  "  for  the  Roman  State/  and  the 
Greek  cities  discovered  to  their  relief  that  the  new 
general  of  the  republic  had  some  other  policy  than 
that  of  plunder.  Their  stolen  statues  and  treasures 
were  restored,  their  municipal  liberties  respected,  and 
the  second  Caesar  showed  himself  as  warm  an  admirer 
of  Greek  literature  and  Greek  traditions  as  the  first.* 
The  rulers  of  the  native  states,  many  of  whom  had 
sided  with  Antony*  as  much  from  necessity  as  from 
choice,  were  as  ready  as  the  provincials  to  tender  their 
submission,  and  found,  as  the  provincials  had  done, 
that  they  had  now  to  deal,  not  with  a  reckless  soldier 
of  fortune,  but  with  a  prudent  statesman.  The  more 
powerful  among  them  had  been  placed  on  their 
thrones  by  the  favour  of  Antony,  and  no  doubt  ex- 
pected that  his  downfall  would  involve  their  own. 
One  and  all,  however,  Am}aitas  in  Galatia,  Archelaus 
in  Cappadocia,  Polemo  in  Pontusand  Lesser  Armenia, 
Herod  in  Judaea,  were  confirmed  in  the  possession  of 


1  Jit&H,  Anc,  L.,  5,  ^2,frwiMaas — reHperatn.  Compare  the  l^^d 
"  AHa  recepta  "  on  coins  ;  Cohen,  i.,  p.  64. 

*  MoH,  Anc,  Z.,  4,  49  ;  Dio,  li.,  2. 

'  Plttt.,  Ant,,  61,  gives  a  list  of  those  who  either  acoomptnied  An- 
tony to  Europe,  or  sent  troops  to  his  aid. 


Ch.  2]      Government  of  the  Triumvirate.       395 

their  dominions.  Even  Artaxes  II.,  son  of  the  An 
tavasdes  whom  Antony  had  treacherously  seized  and 
carried  off  to  Egypt,  though  the  ally  and  almost  the 
vassal  of  Parthia,  was  for  the  present  left  undisturbed 
in  Greater  Armenia.'  Nor,  fortunately  for  Octavius, 
was  Parthia  herself  in  a  condition  to  necessitate  active 
measures  against  her.  Phraates  IV.  had  in 

9SI  AUG 

33  B.C  been  expelled  by  a  rival  claimant 
and  kinsman  Tiridates,  and  though  when  Octavius 
reached  Syria  in  30  B.C  he  was  again  on 
the  throne,  he  was  in  no  position  to  do 
more  than  solicit  the  friendship  and  alliances  of  Rome. 
Octavius,  postponing  to  a  future  occasion  the  recla- 
mation of  the  standards  lost  at  Carrhae,  granted  his 
request,  but  at  the  same  time  conceded  to  his  rival 
Tiridates  an  asylum  in  the  province  of  Syria,  where 
his  presence  would  serve  as  a  wholesome  check  on 
any  anti-Roman  schemes  which  Phraates  might  form.* 
To  the  conciliatory  policy  which  Octa-    octawna  ta 
vius  adopted  in  the  East  there  was  one  "^yp^ 

necessary  exception.  It  was  impossible  to  leave 
Cleopatra  in  possession  even  of  the  semblance  of 
power,  and  the  kingdom  of  Egypt  could  not  be 
simply  "  mediatised  "  like  a  second-rate  native  state 
in  Asia  Minor.  Indeed,  Cleopatra  had  no  sooner 
reached  Alexandria  in  safety,  and  been  there  joined 
by  Antony,*  than  she  gave  ample  proof  that  she  was 
still  dangerous.  Treasures  were  collected,  ships  built, 
the  kings  and  princes  of  the  East  were  again  invited 

'  Dio,  li.,  16  ;  Tac.,  Ann.^  ii.,  3. 
*  Dio,  li.,  x8  ;  Jusdnus,  43. 
»Dio,  li.,  I ;  Plut.,  Ani„  69. 


39^  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      CBook  V 

to  enrol  themselves  under  the  heiress  of  Alexander, 
and  vague  schemes  were  formed  of  landings  in  Gaul 
or  Spain,  or  of  a  new  empire  to  be  founded  in  the 
remote  East/ 

Even  when  her  newly-built  ships  were  burnt,  and 

her  efforts  to  rally  the  East  around  her  failed,  she 

did,  not  despair.     Determined  to  save  herself  and  her 

kingdom,  and  confident  in  her  powers,  she  opened 

AUG  '^^g^^ti^tions  with  Octavius  (31-30  B.C.). 

But  she  had  now  to  deal  with  a  nature  as 
crafty  and  as  tenacious  of  its  purpose  as  her  own. 
Octavius,  who  was  busy  in  Asia,  accepted  her  gifts 
and  amused  her  with  empty  promises  of  safety  until 
his  work  there  was  done.     But  in  the  spring  of  30 

B.C.'  he  advanced  from  Syria  and  seized 

Pelusium,  while  from  the  west  Cornelius 
Gallus,  at  the  head  of  some  of  Antony's  old  legions, 
marched  upon  Alexandria.  Antony,  to  whose  offers 
of  negotiation  and  most  characteristic  challenge 
to  single  combat  Octavius  had  vouchsafed  no  reply/ 
deserted  by  his  former  troops,  and,  it  was  rumoured, 
betrayed  by  the  mistress  for  whom  he  had  sacrificed 
everything,  now  made  a  last  effort  to  stop  the  invaders. 
But  the  conflict  was  too  unequal.  His  fleet  went 
over  to  the  enemy,  and  his  inferior  levies  were  easily 
routed.     In  despair,  increased,  it  was  said,  by  a  false 

report  of  Cleopatra's  death,  he  fell  by  his 

Antony  and    own  hand.      Octavius  occupied  Alexan- 

eopa  ra.     jj.j^ « |j^^  ^jjg  proud  princcss,  whom  he  had 

*  Dio,  li.,  6  ;  Verg.,  jEn,^  viii.,  687. 

•  Plut.,  Ant,,  74.  »  Plut.,  Ant.,  7a  ;  Dio,  /.  c, 
^  On  August  I,  30  B.C.  ;  Dio,  li.,  4  ;  Oros.,  vi.,  19. 


Ch.  2]       Gavernmeni  of  the  Triumvirate.        397 

*- 

destined  to  be  the  choicest  ornament  of  his  triumph, 
eluded  his  grasp.  From  the  unbearable  ignominy  of 
entering  as  a  captive  the  city  where  she  had  hoped 
to  be  enthroned  as  queen,  she  saved  herself  by  death. 

Octavius  was  politic  and  perhaps  chivalrous  enough 
to  pay  due  honour  to  the  remains  of  his  former  col- 
league, and  of  the  daughter  of  a  line  of  kings,  whose 
hold  on  the  reverence  of  the  Egyptian  people  was 
still  strohg.  Antony  and  Cleopatra  were  buried  to- 
gether in  the  mausoleum  of  the  Ptolemies.  The  two 
boy  kings,  who  were  to  have  divided  between  them 
the  empire  of  the  East,  were  sent  to  Rome,  and 
found  a  shelter  with  Antony's  injured  wife,  Octavia.* 
For  Octavia's  own  daughters  by  Antony  a  more 
splendid  destiny  was  in  store.  From  one,  by  her 
marriage  with  Cn.  Ddmitius,  was  descended  the  Em- 
peror Nero,  from  the  other,  who  became  the  wife  of 
Drusus,  the  Emperors  Gaius  and  Claudius. 

Egypt  itself,  the  splendid  inheritance  of  the  Ptole- 
mies, was  formally  annexed  as  a  province  to  the 
dominions  of  the  Roman  people,  while,*  as  Annexation 
if  to  mark  the  fact  that  the  sceptre  of  of  Egypt. 
Alexander  had  passed  finally  into  Roman  hands, 
Octavius  had  the  head  of  Alexander  engraved  upon 
his  signet  ring,  and  in  imitation  of  the  great  Mace- 
donian, founded  near  Canopus  a  new  city  to  com- 
memorate his  victory.* 

>  Plut..  Ant.^  87  ;  Dio.  li.,  15. 

•  Dio,  li,,  17  ;  Mm,  Anc,  Lai,,  v.,  24  ;  C,  I,  Z.,  6,  701,  2.  **j£gypto 
inpotestaUm  P,  R,  redaeta" 
'  Suet.,  Atig,^  50  ;  Dio,  li.,  18 ;  Strabo,  p.  795. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   FOUNDATION   OF  THE  PRINCIPATE  AND  THE 

RULE  OF  AUGUSTUS. 

The  capture  of  Alexandria  took  place  on  August 
I,  30  B.C.  On  January  11,  29  B.C.,  the  temple  of 
7S4  A  u  c  J^^^^  was  closed,  for  the  first  time  for  two 
—  A  Tf  o  hundred  years/  In  the  summer  of  that 
year  Octavius  returned  to  Italy,  and  in 
Ktura to*  August  he  celebrated  in  Rome  a  three 
^^^'  days'  triumph.*      On   all    sides  he  was 

greeted,  not  as  the  successful  combatant  in  a  civil 
war,  but  as  the  man  who  had  re-established  the 
sovereignty  of  Rome  throughout  the  civilised  world, 
as  the  restorer  of  peace,  and  the  saviour  of  the  repub- 
lic, and  of  his  fellow-citizens.*  Nor  was  Octavius 
backward  in  showing  that,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned, 
the  long  years  of  conflict  and  bloodshed  were  over, 
and  a  new  and  better  age  about  to  commence.  Lands 
were  allotted  to  the  veterans,  but  the  soldiers  of  An- 
tony shared  with  his  own  in  the  distribution,  and 

>  C,  /.  JL,  i.,  p.  384 ;  Dio,  li.,  so. 

*  Jlfm»  Anc.  JL^  i.,  ai  ;  Macrob.,  Sai,,  !.,  zs,  35  ;  Dio,  IL,  21 ; 
Suet.,  Atig,^  23. 

*Colien,  M^d,^  i.,  p.  6a  **€ivUut  servaUis!^  C.  /.  Z.,  6»  783^ 
"  rgpubHca  emsertwia,** 

398 


Ch.  3]        Foundation  of  the  Principate^  399 

the  lands  taken  for  allotment  were  obtained,  not  as 
in  43  B.C.  by  confiscation,  but  by  purchase/  Antony's 
Roman  partisans  were  allowed  to  return  home  in 
peace,  and  it  was  regarded  as  of  happy  omen  for 
the  future  that  Octavius's  colleague  in  the  consulship 
(30  B.C.),  and  his  legate  in  Mcesia,  M.  Licinius  Cras- 
suSy  had  been  an  adherent  both  of  Sextus  Pompeius 
and  of  Antony,  and  that  Carrinas,  who  shared  his 
triumph^  was  one  of  those  "  sons  of  the  proscribed  " 
whom  Sulla  had  declared  to  be  for  ever  incapable 
of  holding  office  in  the  State.*  Scarcely  less  welcome 
was  the  relief  which  the  treasures  of  Egypt  enabled 
him  to  give  to  the  impoverished  population  of  Italy. 
Arrears  of  taxation  were  cancelled,*  and  a  munificent 
largesse  distributed  among  the/Zf^x  of  Rome.*  As 
a  proof  of  returning  confidence  it  was  noticed  that 
the  rate  of  interest  in  the  capital  fell  from  12  to  4 
per  cent.* 

.  Octavius  was  now  as  unquestionably  supreme  as 
Julius  had  ever  been,  and  he  had  already  shown 
that  in  the  use  of  his  power  he  intended  ^h.  RMton. 
to  follow  the  example,  not  of  Sulla,  but  tioa  or  th« 
of  Julius.  But  he  had  still  to  solve  the  **"  ** 
problem,  which  the  latter  had  been  forced  to  leave 
untouched,  that  of  investing  an  authority  won  by  the 
sword,  with  a  constitutional  character,  and  of  har- 


^  MoH,  Anc.  Z.,  iii.,  33,  *^ pecumam  [pro]  agris  qitat  w  cannUaiu 
meo  quarto   .    .  adngnavi  mtUHhus^  sohn  mtmkipis  "—-the  sum 

paid  was  600, ooo»ooo  sesterces ;  Dio,  li.,  4. 

*  Dio,  li.,  4,  81.  *  Dio,  U.,  ai ;  liU.,  s. 
^  Mon,  Anc,  Z.,  iii.,  7  ;  Snet,  ^«Sf.»  41. 

*  Dio,  IL,  ai ;  Suet.,  Attg^,  41 ;  Oros.,  vi.,  19. 


400  Outlines  of -Roman  History.      [Book  ¥ 

monising  it  with .  the  institutions  and  traditions  of 
the  old  republic.  That  such  an  authority  was  neces- 
sary the  experience  of  a  century  had  conclusively 
shown;  that  as  things  stood,  Octavius  alone  could 
wield  it  was  equally  clear.  But  it  was  also  essential 
that,  after  twenty  years  of  irregular  and  provisional 
rule,  the  State  should  have  a  government  not  only 
strong,  but  legitimate.  An  undisguised  autocracy 
would  have  shocked  public  opinion  in  Rome  and 
Italy,  and  might  have  involved  the  second  Caesar  in 
the  fate  of  the  first.  On  the  other  hand,  a  literal 
Character  of  restoration  of  the  republic  meant  renewed 
octavjus.  anarchy.  To  the  delicate  task  of  recon- 
ciling personal  rule  with  at  least  the  forms  of  repub- 
licanism. Octavius  now  set  hhnself,  and  no  man  was 
ever  better  fitted  for  the  task.  By  birth  and  tem- 
perament, in  habits  of  mind  and  life,  he  had  far  more 
in  common  with  the  average  Italian  than  his  great 
uncle,  whose  daring  genius  and  dazzling  patrician-^ 
descent  from  gods  and  heroes  removed  him  to  an 
infinite  distance  above  the  level  of  ordinary  men. 
But  Octavius  belonged  by  birth  to  that  municipal 
aristocracy,*  of  which  Cicero  had  been  the  representa- 
tive and  the  panegyrist.'  With  this  Italian  hour- 
geoisUy  which,  far  more  than  the  nobles  or  plebs  of 
the  capital,  represented  all  that  was  most  healthy 
and  vigorous  in  the  Roman  people,  Octavius  was 
naturally  in  touch.  He  shared  their  thrifty  habits, 
their  simplicity  of  life,  their  respect   for  respecta^ 

^  His  grandfather  was  a  burgher  of  Velitrae,  **  mumcipaUbus  magu^ 
ierUs  conientus" ;  Suet.,  Aug.,  2. 
'  See  above,  p.  248. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  401 

bility,  and  even  the  vein  of  homely  superstition, 
which  in  him,  as  in  Louis  XI.  of  France,  contrasted 
curiously  with  great  political  acuteness  and  resolute 
tenacity  of  purpose/  To  them  also  his  political  ideal 
of  a  united  and  imperial  Italy  was  infinitely  more 
attractive  than  either  the  selfish  narrowness  of  the 
nobles,  who  had  ridiculed  Cicero  as  a  **  foreigner,** 
or  the  spirit  of  cosmopolitan  comprehensiveness 
which  animated  Julius.*  Nor  would  the  more 
splendid  qualities  of  the  great  dictator  have  served 
Octavius  better  in  the  work  he  had  to  do  than  his 
own  inbred  caution  and  self-control,  his  astuteness, 
and  his  invariable  indifiference  to  the  mere  externals 
of  power.  To  these  qualifications  he  added,  as  all 
authorities  agree,  the  art  of  choosing  his  friends  and 
ministers  well,  and  retaining  them  firmly. 

Both  the  constitutional  settlement  which  he 
efifected,  and  the  mode  in  which  he  carried  it  out, 
were  characteristic  of  the  man.'  The  ^^^  setue- 
political  drama  was  skilfully  arranged,  and  JJf  b.cV*°" 
the  chief  actor  played  his  difficult  part  7a«A.u.c. 
with  a  success  which  deserved  and  has  won  the 
applause  of  the  world.  The  drania  opened  with  a 
series  of  measures  all  calculated  to  convince  Roman 
society  that  a  restoration  of  the  old  days  was 
seriously  intended.  The  overgrown  senate  was 
purged  of  its  unworthy  members,  and  restored  to 


'  Suet.,  Aug,^  90-9S 
*  Suet.,  Aug,^  66. 


*  Mommsen,  Staatsr,^  ii.,  707  sqq,;  Hefzog.,  Gesch  v.  System  d. 
rdm,   Verfasstmg,  ii.,  pp.  126  sqq. ;  Pelham,  Journal  of  PkUol^ 

VIM .     an. 


viu.,  30. 
a6 


402  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

its  "  ancient  shape  and  dignity/*  *     The  temples  and 
shrines  of  the  gods  throughout  the  city  were  re- 
stored, foreign  rites  were  prohibited ' ;  and  after  an 
interval  of  forty  years,  the  solemn  purification  of 
the   people  was  duly  performed    in    the  Campus 
Martins.'    In  the  course  of  his  sixth  con- 
sulship   (28   B.C.),    Octavius    issued    the 
famous  edict,*  in  which  he  cancelled  the  irregular 
enactments  made  under  the  triumvirate, 
and  fixed  January  i,  27  B.C.,  as  the  day 
on  which   he  would    lay  down   his  extraordinary 
authority.*     On  the  day  named,  the  first  day  of  his 
seventh  consulship,  he  entered  the  senate  house  and 
formally  "gave  back  the  Commonwealth   into  the 
keeping  of  the  senate  and  people."  *     In  return,  and 
unquestionably  in  accordance  with  his  own  inten- 
tions,  Octavius  received  back  from  the  hands  of 
the  senate  and   people  the  more  essential  of  his 
former  powers.     He  was  given  the  imperium  for 


^  Suet.,  Aug,^  35 :  '*  senaiorum  affluenUm  numerum  deformietincon' 
dita  turba  .  .  ,  ad  tnodum  pristinum  et  spUndorem  redegit.**  This 
purging  of  the  senate  was  carried  out  by  Octavius  and  Agrippa,  in 
virtue  of  the  **  censoriapoiestas"  given  them  for  the  purpose. 

'  Mon.  Anc.  Z.,  iv.,  17  ;  Dio,  liii.,  2  ;  Hor.,  Od,y  iii.,  6-1. 

'  Mon.  Anc.  Z.,  ii.,  2  ;  Dio,  liii.,  i  ;  C.  I,  L.^  ix.,  422. 

■*  Tac.,^»».,  iii.,  28,  **  sexto  cotisulaiu  .  .  .  qua  triumviratu  jus^ 
serat  aboUvit,**  Dio,  liii.,  2.     di  ivoi  lepoypd/i/iaro?  xareXvdsr. 

*  This  authority  Octavius  describes  as  resting  on  public  consent. 
Mon.  Anc,  L,f  yi.,  14,  *^per  consensum  universorum."  Posnbly  the 
powers  of  the  triumvirate  which  legally  expired  at  the  end  of  33  B.C., 
were  held  to  have  continued.     Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  2  **pojiUf  triumviri 


nomine" 


*  Mon,  Anc,  Z.^  vi.,  14  ;  "  rempublicam  ex  mea  poUstate  in  senat" 
\uspopulique  Romani  a'\rbitrium  transtuU," 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  403 

ten  years,  with  the  government  of  certain  specified 
provinces/  He  was,  moreover,  declared  commander- 
in-chief  of  all  the  forces  of  the  State,  and  granted 
the  exclusive  right  of  levying  troops,  of  making 
war  and  peace,  and  of  concluding  treaties.'  This 
authority  abroad,  an  authority  wider  than  that  given 
to  Pompey  in  67-66  B.C.,  he  was  to  exercise  as  consul ; 
and  he  would  consequently  be  also  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  the  State  at  home,  with  precedence  over  all 
other  magistrates  in  Rome  or  in  the  provinces. 
Finally,  in  recognition  of  his  pre-eminent  services, 
he  was  authorised  by  decree  of  the  senate  to  assume 
the  cognomen  of  Augustus.* 

Such  in  its  original  form  was  the  famous  settle- 
ment on  which  in  theory  the  rule  of  the  Roman 
Caesars  was  based.     It  was  a  transaction 

General 

which    admitted,   and    was    intended    to  nature  of  the 

settlement. 

admit, .of  different  interpretations.  Ac- 
cording to  the  official  version  of  things,  there  had 
been  a  restoration  of  the  republic.  The  affair  was  so 
described  by  Augustus  himself,*  and  by  the  courtly 
writers  of  the  time.*  The  13th  of  January  27,  B.C., 
the  day  on  which  the  settlement  was  completed,  was 
marked  in  the  calendar  as  the  day  on  which  the  re- 
public was  restored ;  *    and  on  coins  Augustus  was 

'  Dio,  liii.,  12  ;  Suet.,  Aug,^  47. 

*  Dio,  /.  c,  Strabo,  p.  840.     Wilmanns,  Exempla,  917. 
'  Mon.  Anc,  Z.,  vi.,  16. 

^  Mon,  Anc,  Z.,  vi.,  14. 

*  Ovid,  FasHy  i.,  589  :  '*  reddiiaque  est  omnis  populo provincia  nos- 
tro"  ;  Veil.,  ii.,  89  ;  Tac,  Ann.^  i.,  9. 

*  C.  /.  X.,  i.,  p.  384  :  ^^  quod  rempublicam  P,  B,  restituii"  id,,  6, 
1527,  *^ pacato /vrbe  terrarum,  resHtuia  repubUca,** 


404  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

honoured  as  "  the  champion  of  the  freedom  of  th6 
Roman  people/'  *  But,  for  the  genecal  public,  the 
essence  of  the  matter  lay  in  the  recognition  by  law 
of  the  supremacy  of  Caesar,  and  in  the  establishment 
not  of  a  republic,  but  of  a  personal  government. 
Such  was  the  view  taken  by  the  municipalities  of 
Italy  and  the  provinces,  and  by  Greek  provincial 
writers.  To  them  Augustus  was  not  so  much  the 
first  citizen  of  a  free  commonwealth,  as  the  "  guardian 
of  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  governor  of  the  whole 
world.** '  Both  versions  were,  in  fact,  correct.  The 
republic  was  in  a  sense  restored  ;  the  old  constitu- 
tional machinery  was  set  going  again  ;  senate,  assem- 
bly, and  magistrates  resumed  their  old  functions.* 
Nor  was  the  position  assigned  to  Augustus  techni- 
cally inconsistent  with  republican  law  and  custom. 
He  was  not  king,  dictator,  or  triumvir.*  He  could 
state  truly  that  he  accepted  no  office  which  was  "  con- 
trary to  the  usage  of  our  fore-fathers,"  *  and  it  was 
only  in  dignity  that  he  took  precedence  of  his  col- 
leagues.°     Other    citizens   before    him    had    been 

*  Eckhel.,  Doctr,  Nutntn.^  vi.,  83  :    ^*  Imp.  Oxsar  divi  f,  cos  VI. 
UbertaHs  P,  R,  idmlex" 

*  Wilm.,  Ex,,  883 (cenotaphia  Pisana)  ;  C.  /.  Z.,  xii.,  4333  ;  Strabo, 
p.  840;  Dio,  Hi.,  I :  ixdi  rovrov  /lovapx^^^^"^  avOti  dxptfidSi 

*  Veil. ,  ii. ,  89  :  * '  prisea  et  aniiqua  reipubiica  forma  revoeaia  "/  Suet. , 
''^^^•t  40  ;  "  comiHorum pristinum  ius  reduxiL** 

^  Tac,  Ann,,  !•»  9  ^    '*  ^'^^  regno  tam^n^  neque  dUtatura,  sed  prin- 
cipis  nomine  cotistituiam  rempublieam," 

*  Mon,  Anc,  Gk,,  Hi.,  17  :  e^pp^v  ot^^c/i^ay  leafid  rd  ledrpua  ^tf 
dtdofjievrfv  dveSe^djurfv, 

*  Afon,  Anc,  Gk,,  xviii,,  6  :    d%t(ofiari  icdrroav  dtrfvtyKa  cSor- 
0ia%  di  ovdir  nXeiov  Stxov  rcoV  6vrap^drT09y  /loi. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  405 

invested  by  senate  and  people  with  special  powers 
for  a  definite  period,  and  so  far  his  position  was  the 
same  in  principle  as  that  given  to  Pompey  in  (>j  B.C., 
or  to  Caesar  in  59  B.C.  Though,  moreover,  the  con- 
suls of  the  year  had  for  long  been  limited  by  custom 
to  domestic  duties  in  Rome,  there  was  nothing  un- 
precedented  in  the  assignment  to  a  consul  of  pro- 
vinces and  legions.  More  than  twenty  years  earlier 
Cicero  himself  had  argued  in  favour  of  such  a  con- 
stitutional "  primacy  **  or  "  principate,"  as  was  now 
conceded  to  Augustus* ;  and  ** princepSy*  the  title  of 
courtesy,  which  public  opinion  fastened  on  as  best 
describing  his  position,  was  one  sanctioned  by 
republican  usage.' 

There  was,  however,  another  side  to  the  picture. 
The  powers  now  granted  to  Augustus  were,  in  fact, 
so  wide,  that,  coupled  with  the  personal  ascendency 
and  prestige  naturally  attaching  to  the  heir  of  Caesar 
and  the  conqueror  of  Antony,  they  constituted  him 
the  real  ruler  of  the  empire.  By  the  side  of  the  man 
who  was  generalissimo  of  the  forces  of  the  State,  sole 
arbiter  of  peace  and  war,  governor  of  Hither  Spain, 
Gaul,  Syria,  and    Egypt,  who,  as   consul,  was   the 


>  In  a  lost  book  of  the  De  Republica,  referred  to  by  Augustine  (Z>< 
dvit,  Dei^  v.,  13)  :  *•  ubi  loquitur  de  insHtuendo principe  civitaHs  "  / 
and  by  Cicero  himself  {Ad  Att^  viii.,  11.). 

•  **  Prineeps  **  =  **princgps  civitatis  "  or  **  first  citizen  "  was  not  an 
official  title  ;  the  Greek  equivalent  Is  rfyefifov.  It  had  been  used  of 
Pompey  and  of  Csesar  in  asimilar  sense.  Cic,  Ad  Att,^  viii.,  9  ;  Ad 
Fam.^  vi.,  6  ;  Sallust,  Hist,^  3,  fr.  81  ;  Suet.,  Jul,^  26.  As  implying 
only  primacy  in  a  free  commonwealth, it  is  contrasted  with  **  dominus^^' 
Plin.,  Paneg.  55  and  '*  imperator  " ;  Dio,  Ivii.,  8  ;  See  Diet  Antiq,  s 
V.  Prineeps, 


4o6 


Outlines  of  Raman  History.      rsook  v 


acknowledged  head  of  the  executive,  and  who  finally 
possessed  in  addition  the  tribunician  power  given 
him  in  36  B.C.,  the  existence  of  any  other  real 
authority  was  impossible.  The  ingenious  compromise 
by  which  room  was  found  for  the  master  of  the 
legions  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  old  constitu- 
tion,  and  the  personal  claims  of  the  young  Caesar 
reconciled  with  the  dignity  of  the  republic,  was  from 
the  first  only  a  compromise  upon  paper. 

Its  unreality,  and  the  ambiguities  it  in- 

The  revised  .  . 

•ettiement  of  volvcd,  were  increased  by  the  modification 
which  it  underwent  only  four  years  later. 
On  June  27,  23  B.C.,*  Augustus  laid  down  the  con- 
sulship which  he  had  held  year  by  year 
since  31  B.C.  The  imperium  granted  to 
him  for  ten  years  in  27  B.C.  he  still  retained ;  but  he 
now  held  it  only  ^^  pro-consule^''  like  the 
ordinary  governor  of  a  province,*  and  it 
therefore  ceased  to  be  valid  within  the  city.'  His 
renunciation  of  the  consulship  entailed  also  the  loss 
both  of  the  precedence  {mains  imperium)  over  all 
other  magistrates,  which  a  consul  enjoyed,*  and  of  the 
consul's  rights  of  convening  the  senate,  and  of  holding 
assemblies  of  the  people.     It  struck,  in  short,  at  the 


73X  A.U.C. 


733  A.U.C. 


*  C.  I.  Z.,  vi.,  2014  ;  Dio,  liii.,  32  ;  Suet.,  Aug,^  26. 

'The  phrase  ^* proconsulare imperium"  (i,  ^.,  consular  imperivm 
held  by  one  who  is  not  a  consul)  does  not  occur  in  republican  writers ; 
and  Augustus  in  the  Mon.  Ancyr,  uses  the  orthodox  **  consulare  im- 
perium "  {M,  A .  Lat. ,  XXV. ,  8). 

•Ulp.,  Dig.^  i.,  16^16:  ** proconsul  ad  portam  urbis  depofdtim" 
perium" 

^  He  would  only  possess  like  Pompey  in  67  B.C. :  **  imperium  cequum 
in  omnibus protdnciis  cum  ^roconsulibus  "  /  Veil.,  ii.,  31. 


Ch.  3]        Foundation  of  the  Principaie.  407 

very  root  of  that  administrative  unity  which  was 
essential  to  the  good  government  of  the  empire,  and 
threatened  to  reintroduce  the  dual  control,  which  had 
worked  such  evil  before,  of  consuls  and  senate  at 
home,  and  of  powerful  proconsuls  abroad.  In  Rome 
and  Italy  the  liveliest  anxiety  was  excited  by  the 
prospect  that  Caesar  would  no  longer  visibly  reign 
over  them,  and  they  pressed  upon  his  acceptance  one 
extraordinary  office  after  another.  All  alike  were 
refused  as  unconstitutional ' ;  but  what  Augustus 
lost  by  resigning  the  consulship  was  made  good  to 
him  by  a  series  of  enactments  which  determined  the 
form  of  the  "  principate  *'  for  three  centuries  to  come. 
In  the  first  place,  he  was  exempted  from  the  disability 
which  attached  to  the  tenure  of  the  imperium  by 
one  who  was  neither  consul  nor  praetor — that  is  to 
say,  he  was  allowed  to  retain  and  to  exercise  his 
imperium  even  in  Rome.'  Secondly,  his  imperium 
was  declared  to  rank  as  equal  with  that  of  the  con- 
suls, and  consequently  as  superior  to  that  of  all  other 
holders  of  imperium  at  home  or  abroad.'  Thirdly,  he 
was  granted  equal  rights  with  the  consuls  of  con- 
vening the  senate  and  introducing  business/  of  nomi- 


'  He  was  offered  a  dictatorship,  a  life  consulship,  a  ''  cura  legum  et 
morum"  The  statements  of  Suetonius  and  Dio  that  he  accepted  the 
two  last  named  are  refuted  by  the  language  of  the  Jlf(m.  Ancyr,  Lat,^ 
i.,  31  ;  Gk.^  iii.,  ii  ;  cf.  Suet.,  53  ;  Dio,  liv.,  10;  Pelham,  ,?^ni.  ^/ 
Phihl,,  xvii.,  47. 

*  In  23  B.C.  ;  Dio,  liii.,  32. 

»  Dio,  /.  c. 

^  In  23  B.c.  and  22  B.C.  ;  Dio,  liii.,  32  and  liv.,  3  ;  Wilm.,  Exempla, 
9x7  (Ux  de  imperiQ  Vespasiam  ). 


4o8  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  v 

nating  candidates  for  election  by  the  people,'  and  of 
issuing  edicts.'  Fourthly,  he  was  placed  on  a  level 
with  the  consuls  in  outward  rank.  Twelve .  lictors 
were  assigned  to  him,  and  an  official  seat  between 
those  of  the  consuls  themselves.' 

The  proconsular  authority  was  thus  for  the  first 
time  admitted  within  the  walls  of  Rome,  and  placed 
side  by  side  with  that  of  the  consuls ;  and  for  the 
first  time  the  imperium  was  wielded  in  the  city,  as  it 
had  long  been  wielded  in  the  provinces  and  camps 
by  some  one  else  than  the  elected  magistrates  of  the 
year.  But  Rome  could  not  yet  be  openly  governed 
by  a  proconsul,  and  Augustus  was  characteristically 
anxious  to  find  a  title  for  his  authority  which  should 
savour  less  of  military  autocracy.  This  he  found  in 
the  *'  tribunician  power,"  which  he  had  held  since 
36  B.C.;  and  which,  from  its  essentially  urban  and 
democratic  traditions,  was  well  suited  to  serve  in 
Rome  as  '*  a  term  to  express  his  high  position."  * 
From  the  year  23  B.C.  dates  its  first  appearance  after 
his  name  in  official  inscriptions*;  and  the  numbers 
appended,  to  indicate  for  how  many  years  it  had 
been  held,  are  reckoned  from  that  year.'  It  was  on 
this  power,  as  he  tells  us,  that  he  relied  for  carrying 


'  This  is  proved  by  the  practice  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius ;  Tac., 
Attn,  1 1.,  oX. 

*  Wilm.,  Exempla^  917. 
'In  19  B.C. ;  Dio,  liv.,  10. 

*  Tac,  Ann,^  iii,,  56  :  "  Summi  ftuHgii  vocabulum  repperit  .    .    . 
ac  iamen  appeUaHone*aHqua  cetera  imperia  pramineret" 

*  See  the  coins  with  the  legend:  **  Casar  Atig,  tribun,  potest" ; 
Cohen,  i.,  p.  117. 

^  Man,   Anc,  Lat,,  i.,   29;  Tac,   Ann,  i.,  9 :    **  eonHmtata  per 
septem  et  triginta  annos  (23  B.C.-14  A.D.)  tribunicia  potestas,** 


Ch.  3]        Foundation  of  the  Principate.  409 

out  the  social  reforms  in  Rome  and  Italy  demanded  by 
the  senate.*  Henceforwiird  the  tribunicia  potestas, 
though  far  inferior  in  actual  importance,  ranked  along 
with  and  even  above  the  imperium  as  a  distinctive 
prerogative  of  the  emperor  or  of  his  chosen  colleague.' 

To  sum  up  the  result  of  these  changes  :  Augustus 
was  now  placed  by  the  act  of  the  senate  and  people 
by  the  side  of  the  regular  magistrates.  At  home, 
though  not  consul,  he  possessed  a  rank  and  authority 
equal  to  theirs,  and  took  precedence,  as  they  did  of 
all  other  magistrates,  from  the  praetors  downwards. 
Abroad,  a  wide  department  was  committed  to  his 
care.  YWsprovincia  included  the  government  of  the 
great  frontier  provinces,  the  command  of  the  troops, 
the  control  of  foreign  policy ;  while  over  the  govern- 
ors  of  the  other  provinces  he  enjoyed  the  same 
precedence '  {mains  imperium)  which  he  enjoyed  in 
Rome  over  all  magistrates  below  the  consuls.  He  was 
distinguished,  in  addition,  by  special  marks  of  honour 
— the  cognomen  of  Augustus,  the  laurels  in  front  of 
his  house,  the  "  civic  crown  "  above  his  door.* 

The  arrangement    undoubtedly    satisfied  the  re- 
quirements  of  the  moment.     It  saved,  at 
least  in  appearance,  the  integrity  of  the    exceptional 
republic,  while  at  the  same  time  it  recog-     the  Princi- 
nised  and  legalised  the  authority  of  the 


*  Man,  Anc.  Gk,^  iii.,  ig  ;  Dio,  liv.,  i6. 

'  Mommsen,  Staatsr,,  ii.,  1050  ;  Dio,  liii.,  32  ;  liv.,  I2  ;  Tac,  Ann,^ 
i.,  3.  Of  Tiberius  as  colleague  of  Augustus  :  **  Collega  imperii^  coiu 
SOTS  tribunicia  poiestaHs, " 

*  Dio,  liii.  52  :  hv  T(S  vitrjHWM)  itX^or  rdor  ixadraxoBi 
dpxovToor  i6xv£ty,** 

*  M<m»  Anc.  Lai,,  vi.,  16,  18. 


4 1  o  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

man,  who  was  already  by  common  consent  "  master 
of  all  things " ;  and  this  it  effected  without  any 
formal  alteration  of  the  constitution,  without  the 
creation  of  any  new  office,  and  by  means  of  the  old 
constitutional  machinery  of  senate  and  assembly. 
But  it  was  an  arrangement  avowedly  of  an  excep- 
tional and  temporary  character.  The  powers  voted 
to  Augustus  were,  like  those  voted  to  Pompey  in 
67  B.C.,  voted  only  to  him,  and,  with  the  exception 
of  the  tribunician  power,  voted  only  for  a  limited 
time.*  No  provision  was  made  for  the  continuance 
of  the  arrangement,  after  his  death,  in  favour  of  any 
other  person.  And  though  in  fact  the  powers  first 
granted  to  Augustus  were  granted  in  turn  to  each  of 
the  long  line  of  Roman  Caesars,  the  temporary  and 
provisional  character  impressed  upon  the  **  princi- 
pate  **  at  its  birth  clung  to  it  throughout.  When  the 
princeps  for  the  time  being  died  or  was  deposed,  it 
was  always  in  theory  an  open  question  whether  any 
other  citizen  should  be  invested  with  the  powers  he 
had  held.  Who  the  man  should  be,  or  how  he  should 
be  chosen,  were  questions  which  it  was  left  to  cir- 
cumstances to  answer,  and  even  the  powers  to  be 
assigned  to  him  were,  strictly  speaking,  determined 
solely  by  the  discretion  of  the  senate  and  people  in 
each  case.  It  is  true  that  necessity  required  that 
some  one  must  always  be  selected  to  fill  the  position 
first  given  to  Augustus ; '   that  accidents,  such   as 


'  Originally  for  ten  years  (Dio,  liii.,  13),  it  was  afterwards  renewed 
for  successive  periods  of  five,  five,  ten,  and  ten  years  (/^.,  liii.,  16). 

•  Vii,  Hadr,^  6  :  **  esse  respublUa  sine  imperatore  rum  potest;  "  VU. 
Tacitly  3  :  *'  imperator  est'deligendus  quia  cogii  necessitas. 


"  i 


Ch.  31         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  411 

kinship  by  blood  or  adoption  to  the  last  emperor, 
military  ability,  popularity  with  the  soldiers  or  the 
senate,  determined  the  selection ; '  and  that  usage 
decided  that  the  powers  conferred  upon  the  selected 
person  should  be  in  the  main  those  conferred  upon 
Augustus.*  But  to  the  last  the  Roman  emperor  was 
legally  merely  a  citizen  whom  the  senate  and  people 
had  freely  invested  with  an  exceptional  authority 
for  special  reasons.  Unlike  the  ordinary  sovereign, 
he  did  not  inherit  a  great  office  by  an  established  law 
of  succession ;  and  in  direct  contrast  to  the  modern 
maxim  that  "  the  king  never  dies,"  it  has  been  well 
said  that  the  Roman  "  principate,**  died  with  the/ri»- 
ceps^  Of  the  many  attempts  made  to  get  rid  of  this 
irregular,  intermittent  character,  none  were  com- 
pletely successful,  and  the  inconveniences  and 
dangers  resulting  from  it  are  apparent  throughout 
the  history  of  the  empire.* 

Two  other  features  in  the  original  arrangement 
deserve  notice.     Under  it  Augustus  was 
entrusted   with   a  special  department  of  power  of  the 
administration,  all  outside  of  this  remain- 


*  jfoum,  of  FhiloLf  xvii.,  47,  sqq, 

^  These  powers  were  at  an  early  period  embodied  in  a  form  of 
statute,  which  was  carried  for  each  emperor  in  turn;  Dio,  liii.,  32. 
Of  the  statute  carried  in  favour  of  Vespasian,  several  clauses  are  still 
extant ;  Wilm.,  Exempla^  917.  The  statute  is  referred  to  by  Gains, 
i.,  5,  as  the  source  of  the  emperor's  authority  :  *'  Ipse  imperator  per 
legem  imperium  accipiat"  and  Ulpian,  Dig,^  i.»  41  :  *^  Leg^  q*^  de 
imperio  eius  lata  est,** 

'  Mommsen,  Staatsr,,  ii.,  1038.  He  notices  that  the  institution  ol 
the  interregnum  did  not  apply  to  the  principate. 

^  See  below,  Bk.  vi.,  chap.  i. 


412  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      tBook  V 

ing  under  the  control  of  those  whom  he  himself  calls 
his  "  colleagues." '  Within  this  department  he  was  as 
absolute  as  a  provincial  governor  in  his  province.  Its 
limits  were  fixed,  and  could  be  altered,  in  the  or- 
dinary way,  by  decree  of  the  senate  or  vote  of  the 
assembly.  In  fact,  even  during  the  lifetime  of 
Augustus  these  limits  rapidly  extended,  and  the  ex- 
tension continued  under  his  successors.  By  the  close 
of  the  first  century  a.d.  the  department  assigned  to 
the  princeps  covered  three  fourths  of  the  area  of  the 
empire,'  and  included,  in  Rome  and  Italy,  such  im- 
portant branches  of  administration  as  the  control  of 
the  roads,  of  the  com  supply,  the  water  supply,  and 
the  police.*  But  it  was  not  only  by  the  steady  expan- 
sion of  his  own  department  that  the  authority  of 
Caesar  grew.  Augustus  had  been  invested  also  with 
a  mains  imperium  over  all  officials  of  state  other  than 
the  consuls ;  and  this  was  gradually  interpreted  as 
gfiving  him  and  his  successors  a  direct  control  even 
over  those  departments  which  technically  lay  outside 
their  jurisdiction.  The  original  independence  of 
praetors  in  Rome,  and  of  proconsuls  abroad,  was 
rapidly  lost,  and  they  became  as  completely  sub- 
ordinate to  Caesar  as  his  own  legates  ;  *  even  the 
consuls,  though  in  law  his  equals,  found  the  equality 
impossible  to  maintain,  when  the  strength  lay  all  on 
one  side.* 


*  Mon,  Anc,  Lat,^  vi.,  23. 

'  The  number  of  provinces  governed  by  Caesar  had  reached 
twenty-five. 

'  These  had  all  been  transferred  to  Csesar  by  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Claudius,  and  most  of  them  in  the  lifetime  of  Augustus. 

*  See  Diet,  Antiq.^  s.  v.  Princeps,  ii.,  p.  487,  and  below. 

'  Tiberius  in  one  place  describes  the  consul  as  the  chief  magistrate : 


Ch.  31         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  4 1 3 

For  a  period  of  forty  years  Augustus  himself  pre- 
sided  over  the  working  of  the  system 
which  he  had  established.    To  gain  a  clear   ^^uJSlltM. 
idea  of  what  he  accomplished  during  that 
time,  it  will  be  convenient  to  follow  as  far  as  possible 
the  chronological  order  of  events.     Roughly  speak- 
ing, it  may  be  said  that  from  27  B.C.  to  a  u  c 
October,  19  B.C.,  he  was  mainly  occupied 
with  the  reorganisation  of  the  provinces  and  of  the 
provincial  administration.     From  October,  19  B.C., 
until  some  time  early  in  16  B.C.  he  was 
busily  engaged  at  Rome  in  the  work  of 
domestic  reform,  and  to  this  period  belongs  the  great 
series  of  the  Julian  laws.     By  the  close  of  the  ten 
years*  term,  for  which  his  imperium  had  originally 
been  voted  to  him,  he  had  at  least  laid  the  foundations 
of  that  new  and  better  order  of  things  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  commencement  of  which  was  commemo- 
rated by  the  celebration  of  the  Saecular  games  in 
June,  17  B.C.*   During  the  remainder  of  his 
principate,   though   many   important   re-     ""' 
forms  were  made,  the  questions  which  came  most 
prominently  forward  were  those  of  the  relations  of 


"  cuius  vigiliis  niteretur  respublica  "  {Ann,,  iv.,  19)  ;  in  another  (7^., 
iii>>  53)  ^c  claims  a  higher  dignity  for  ihitprinceps  :  *'  non  ego  consults 
aut  prceioris  .  .  .  partes  susHmo^  maius  quiddam  et  excelsius  a 
principe  postulaiur, " 

*  Mon,  Anc,  Lat,  iv.,  37  ;  Dio,  liv.,  18.  The  official  record  of  the 
celebration  of  these  games,  inscribed  by  order  of  the  senate  on  a 
marble  pillar,  has  recently  been  found  at  Rome.  It  states  that  the 
hymn  sung  on  the  third  day  of  the  festival  was  composed  by  Q.  Hora- 
tins  Flaccus.  The  text  of  the  inscription  and  a  commentary  by 
Momrasen  will  be  found  in  the  Monimenii  AnHchiy  vol*  i* ,  part  3,  of 
the  AcacUmia  dei  Z>»fM*(Rome,  1892X 


4 1 4  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  v 

the  empire  to  the  northern  barbarians,  and  of  the 
designation  of  a  successor* 

To  the  existing  number  of  provinces  Augustus 
added   thirteen,   eight    of   which  were  created    by 

him  while  reorganising  the  provinces  be- 
JanisaSon  tween  2/  and  19  B.C.  With  the  annexa- 
Jrovinccs.      ^^^^  ^^  Egypt,  the  north  coast  of  Africa 

from  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  to  the 
eastern    frontiers   of    Mauretania    became    Roman 

m 

territory.  In  Spain  the  highland  tribes  in  the  north- 
west of  the  peninsula  were  finally  pacified,*  and  the 
hold  of  Rome  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  strengthened 
by  the  formation  of  the  province  of  Lusitania.'  In 
Gaul  the  whole  country  north  and  west  of  the  old  pro- 
vince of  Gallia  Narbonensis  had  been  reduced  to 
subjection  by  Caesar.  It  was,  however,  by  Augustus 
that  the  regular  provincial  system  was  first  intro- 
duced, and  to  him  without  doubt  was  due  the 
creation  of  the  "  three  Gauls,"  as  they  were  com- 
monly called,  Aquitania,  Lugdunensis,  and  Belgica.' 
In  the  eastern  half  of  the  empire  the  only  important 
addition  to  Roman  territory  was  made  in  25  B.C., 
when,  on  the  death  of  Amyntas,  the  dominions 
granted  to  him  by  Antony  in  37  B.C.,  and  secured  to 
him  by  Augustus  in  30  B.C.,  were  annexed,  and  the 
two  provinces  of  Galatia  and  Pamphylia  established.* 

*  Dio,  liii.,  25,  28  ;  »^.,  liv.,  5. 

*  The  colony  **  Augustus  Emerita"  (Merida)  was  founded  in  25  B.C. 
Dio,  liii.,  25,  App.,  Hisp,  102,  Strabo,  p.  166,  imply  that  Lusitania 
was  organised  as  a  separate  province  by  Augustus.  Cf.  Mommsen, 
H,  G,f  v.,  5^* 

'Augustus  was  in  Gaul  27-25  B.C.;  Dio,  liii.,  22  :    anoyfiaqtdi 
liCoiTf6aTo  xai  toy  fiiov  rrjy  re  noXtreiar  dtexidMV^sy' 
«  Pio,  lui.,  26. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  4 1 5 

The  work  accomplished  by  Augustus  during  the 
first  ten  years  of  his  principate  was  not, 
however,  limited  to  the  creation  of'  these       province* 

of  Caesar. 

new  provinces.      Of  still  greater  import- 
ance were  the  reforms  he  effected  in  the  system  of 
provincial  administration.      Among  these  the  first 
place  must  be  given  to  the  establishment  of  an  ef- 
fective, central,  controlling  authority.     Under  the 
republic  the  provinces  had  been  so  many  isolated 
principalities,  each  governed  at  discretion  by  its  own 
proconsul,  who,  though  nominally   subject   to    the 
authority  of  consuls,  senate,  and  people  at  home, 
was  in  reality  an  autocrat.     But  all  the  provinces 
were  now  subjected  to  the  imperium  of  Augustus ; 
they  became  departments  of  a  single  state,  controlled 
by  a  single  authority.     Under  the  settlement  of  27 
B.C.   Hither    Spain,  the  whole  of  Gaul,  Syria,  and 
Egypt  had  been  assigned  to  Augustus.     To  these 
were  added,  before  19  B.C.,  Lusitania  in  the  west, 
and  in  the  east  Cilicia,  Galatia,  and  Pamphylia.  The 
group  of   frontier    provinces  formed  after   16  B.C., 
Moesia,  Pannonia,  Noricum,   and  Raetia,  were  also 
assigned  to  Caesar.     Over  the  whole  of  this  immense 
area,  which  included  the  most  warlike,  populous,  and 
wealthy  territories   of  the  empire,   Augustus    was 
absolute   master ;   as   absolute  as  Cicero  in  Cilicia 
or  Verres  in  Sicily.     Within  what  was  really  one 
great  province  the  administration  was  conducted  by 
men  who  were  nothing  more  than  his  subordinate 
officers,  appointed  only  by  him,  responsible  to  him 
alone,   and    holding  office    at   his    good    pleasure. 
Highest  in  rank  among  them  were  the  legati — sena^ 
tors  of  consular  or  praetorian  rank — to  whom  was 


41 6  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

intrusted  the  charge  of  the  more  important  pro- 
vinces.* Below  the  legati  in  dignity  stood  the  pro- 
curatoreSj  the  agents  or  stewards  of  Cdesar,  men,  at 
the  highest,  of  only  equestrian  rank,  to  some  of  whom 
was  given  the  government  of  a  minor  province,*  to 
others  the  mianagement  of  the  provincial  finances 
and  of  the  property  of  Caesar.  We  meet  also,  as 
under  Cicero  in  Cilicia,  with  pnefectiy  pre-eminent 
among  whom  was  the  prefe.ct,  who  now  ruled  in 
Caesar's  name,  and  in  the  room  of  her  former  kings, 
over  the  wealthy  province  of  Egypt.'  The  impor- 
tance of  this  change,  which  concentrated  three 
fourths  of  the  empire  under  the  sole  and  direct  con- 
trol of  Caesar  and  his  personal  servants,  can  scarcely 
be  over-estimated.  Not  merely  was  it  a  great  step 
towards  the  unification  of  the  empire,  it  also  gave 
Augustus  and  his  successors  a  clear  field  in  which  to 
develop  a  sound  administrative  system ;  and  the 
system  developed  within  the  limits  of  Caesar's  own 
vast  "province"  became  first  the  envy  of  the  less 
fortunate  territories  outside  it,  and  was  finally  ex- 
tended over  the  whole  area  of  the  empire.  It  was 
conspicuously  free  from  the  graver  defects  of  the 
republican  method  of  administration.  The  men  sent 
by  Caesar  to  govern  his  provinces  did  not  owe  their 
appointments  to  the  chances  of  lot,  but  were  freely 
selected  by  their  chief.  Efficiency  was  rewarded 
by  promotion,  and  under  Augustus  as  well  as  under 

^  Besides  the  Ugati  in  charge  of  provinces,  we  find  legati  in  com- 
mand of  armies,  e,  g,  those  of  Upper  and  Lower  Gemany,  or  of  single 
legions,  or  intrusted  with  some  special  duty,  e»  g,  the  taking  of  the 
census. 

•  E.  g,  of  Raetia  and  Noricum. 

'  The  reasons  for  this  special  treatment  of  Egypt  are  given  by 
Tacitus,  Ann,,  ii.,  59 ;  Hist.^  i.;  11. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate         4 1 7 

Tiberius,  a  capable  administrator  was  sure  of  con- 
tinuous employment.  Thus  provincial  administra- 
tion became  a  career  to  which  men  devoted  years  of 
their  lives,  and  these  trained  experts  contrasted  fav- 
ourably with  the  amateur  governors  of  republican 
days.'  Nor  did  Caesar's  officials  enjoy  the  danger- 
ously irresponsible  and  absolute  authority  possessed 
by  the  republican  proconsul.  The  legate  of  Caesar 
had  soldiers  under  him,  but  they  were  the  soldiers 
of  Caesar,  by  whom  they  were  enrolled  and  dis- 
charged, and  from  whom  they  received  their  pay 
during  service,  and  their  rewards  on  leaving  it.  The 
legate  might  have  the  conduct  of  a  war,  but  it  was 
waged  under  the  auspices  of  Caesar ;  it  was  Caesar 
whom  the  soldiers  saluted  as  imperator  after  a  vic- 
tory, and  to  Caesar  belonged  the  triumph.'  In  the 
ordinary  business  of  government  the  legate  was 
subject  to  the  directions  of  his  superior,  whose  man- 
dates and  rescripts  carried  infinitely  more  weight 
than  decrees  of  the  senate  had  ever  done.  From 
his  decisions  there  lay  that  appeal  to  Caesar,  as  the 
higher  power,  which  gradually  became  as  dear  to  the 
provincials  as  the  old  appeal  to  the  people  had  been 
to  the  Roman  citizen.  Nor  was  the  legate  the  sole 
authority  within  his  province.  The  management  of 
the  finances,  which  had  formerly  been  vested  in  the 
proconsul,  was  now  intrusted  to  a  procurator^  who. 


'  Ummidius  Quadratus  was  legate  in  Lusitania  under  Tiberius,  in 
Illyricum  under  Claudius,  in  Syria  under  Claudius  and  Nero.  He 
was  also  proconsul  of  Cyprus.  Dessan, /iwm.^  Z«/,  973.  Cf,  Tac, 
Ann,,  i.,  80  ;  iv.,  6. 

*  It  was  treasonable  for  a  l^ate  to  levy  troops  or  wage  a  war : 
»*  injussu principis"  Dig,,  xlviii.,  4,  3  ;  Tac,  Ann,,  vi.,  3  :  *'qnidilH 
cum  inUiiibus  quos  neque  dicta  neque  pramia  nisi  ab  imperator e  acci- 
fere  par  esset,** 

27 


4 1 8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  V. 

unlike  the  quaestor  of  former  times,  was  not  a  mere 

subordinate,   but  an   independent  official,   directly 

responsible  to  Csesar  himself,  and  in  consequence  a 

real  check  upon  the  legate.* 

In  the  provinces,  which  were  not  his  own,  the  re- 

The"  public  forming  energy  of  Augustus  had  less  free 
province."    ^^^^^ .  ^^^  jj^  ^j^^^^  «  i^mMCxz  provinces  "  the 

evils  and  abuses  of  the  old  system  still  lingered.  But 
though  the  same  careful  selection  of  the  officials  and 
the  strict  personal  supervision  over  them  were  not 
possible  here,  yet  a  considerable  improvement  was 
effected."  The  proconsuls  of  the  public  provinces 
were  still  selected  by  lot  from  among  the  consulares 
and  prcBtorii^  of  at  least  five  years'  standing;  they 
still  took  out  with  them  a  quaestor  and  legate,  and 
their  term  of  office  was  limited  to  a  single  year.' 
Technically,  too,  they  were  responsible  as  before,  not 
to  Caesar,  but  to  the  consuls  and  senate.*  On  the 
other  hand,  the  prerogatives  reserved  to  Augustus 
by  the  settlement  of  27.B.C.  imposed  considerable 
limitations  on  their  authority.  The  majority  of  the 
**  public  provinres  "  were  situate  in  the  peaceful,  cen- 
tral districts  of  the  empire,  where  few  troops  were 

>  For  the  relations  between  legate  and  procurator,  see  Tac,  Agri- 
I  cokt^  15,  Ann.^  xiv.,  39. 

^  ^xxtt.^  Aug, y^T.*^provindas vaUdiores  ipse suscepit  .  .  .  eetara 
froconsulibus  sortito permisit"  Tac,  Ann»,  ii.,  43  J  **  w-f*  ^«'  ^^^ 
aui  missu  principis  obtinerent" 

•  Tac,  Ann.,  iii.,  58.     **  unius  anni proconsulare  imperium" 

*  Suet.,  Tib,,  31.  A  deputation  from  Africa  to  Tiberius  was  by 
him  referred  to  the  consuls.  Tac. ,  Ann, ,  xiii.  ,4,  *  *  x^  (Nero)  mandatis 
exercitibus  consulturum  cansulum  tribunaUbus  Italia  et  pubhece  pro- 
vincia  adsistereni,** 


Ch,  3]        Foundation  of  the  Principate.  419 

needed;  and  questions  of  frontier  policy   did  not 
arise.*     In  any  case  the  supreme  military  authority, 
and  the  exclusive  control  of  foreign  aflairs  now  be- 
longed to  the  princeps.     In  financial  matters,  too, 
the  proconsul's  powers  were  restricted.     The  right 
of  making  requisitions  within  his  province,  the  most 
fruitful  source  of    oppression   under  the  republic, 
was  taken  away ;  and  of  the  revenues  drawn  from  the 
province,  all  those  appropriated  to  Caesar  were  man- 
aged not  by  himself  or  his  quaestor,  but  by  Caesar's 
procurators.     It  would  seem,  too,  that  the  discretion- 
ary power  formerly  enjoyed  by  proconsuls  in  grant- 
ing freedom  or  immunity  to  provincial  communities, 
and  in  enfranchising  individual  provincials,  was,  if 
not  taken  away  from  them,  yet  rarely  if  ever  exer- 
cised.    Above  all,  the  mains  imperium  granted  to 
Augustus  over  proconsuls  was  interpreted  by  both 
parties  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  the  former  a   real 
control  even  over  the  public  provinces.     We  read  01 
instances  in  which  appeals  from  such  provinces  are 
heard  by  him,  and  not  by  the  consuls  and   senate, 
and  of  instructions  issued  by  him  to  proconsuls,  as 
well  33  to  his  own  legates  ;  while  in  the  course  of  His 
journeys  between  27-19  B.c,  he  visited  and  arrange 
the  affairs  of  public  provinces  such  as  Sicily  or  Bitny- 
nia,  as  well  as  those  of  Gaul  or  Syria.     Naturally 
enough  it  was  to  Caesar  rather  than  to  the  consuls  and 
senate  that  both  the  proconsul  and  the  provincials 
he  governed    looked  for   guidance   or   for    redress. 
The  division    of    authority   in   the  provinces     was 

>  Tac,  Hist.,  iv.,  48  :  ^'prazdncia  inermes:* 


420  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBookV 

real  enough  to  hamper  and  delay  reform,  but  it  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  ever  seriously  impaired  the 
supremacy  of  Caesar. 

Twenty  years  of  civil  war  following  upon  a  century 
and  a  half  of  extravagance,  mismanagement,  and 
peculation  had  produced  complete  financial  exhaus- 
tion throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  empire. 

The  change  from  this  state  of  things  to  the 
Financial  widely  diffused  prosperity,  of  which 
reforms.  PHny's  Natural  History  gives  perhaps  the 
best  picture,  was  not  wholly  due  to  the  reforms 
which  Augustus  introduced  into  the  financial  sys- 
tem. We  must  take  into  account  the  cessation  of 
the  desolating  wars  which  had  left  scarcely  a 
single  province  untouched,  the  re-establishment 
of  settled  government,  the  suppression  of  brigand- 
age by  land  and  piracy  by  sea,  and  the  improve- 
ments effected  in  the  means  of  communication.  Yet 
the  financial  system,  of  which  he  at  least  laid  down 
the  main  lines,  played  an  important  part.  Under 
the  republic  there  was  no  possibility  of  estimating 
either  the  income  or  the  expenditure  of  the  empire 
as  a  whole,  and  neither  over  income  nor  expenditure 
was  there  any  central  control.  It  was  Augustus  who 
first  attempted  to  lay  a  sound  foundation  for  an 
imperial  system  of  finance,  by  obtaining  an  estimate 
of  the  resources  of  the  state.  He  compiled  a  statis- 
tical survey,  which  included  great  part,  if  not  all,  of 
the  empire;  and  brought  together  a  vast  mass  of 
information  as  to  the  number  and  status  of  the  com- 
munities in  each  province.* 

The  imperial  census,  which  was  so  prominent  an 

'  On  the  survey  and  census  of  Augustus,  see  generally  Marquardt, 
Staaisvcrw,^  ii.,  198-599  ;  Hirschfeld,  UnUrsuchungen,  pp.  1-52. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.  42 1 

institution  in  the  second  century  A.D.,  with  its  elabo- 
rate returns  of  land  and  owners,  was  but  a  develop- 
ment of  the  census  taken  by  Augustus's  orders  in 
his  own  provinces.'  It  seems  probable,  too,  that  on 
the  basis  of  this  census  he  established  the  two  great 
imperial  taxes  which  replaced  the  miscellaneous  im- 
ports levied  under  the  republic,  the  land  tax,{tributum 
soli,)  and  the  tax  on  personal  property ^{triduium  capi^ 
tis).  Over  the  revenue  raised  and  over  its  expendi- 
ture Augustus  had  complete  control  within  the  limits 
of  his  own  provinces;  and  even  outside  these  limits, 
over  the  revenues  accruing  to  the  old  state  treasury, 
and  over  their  expenditure,  both  in  Rome,  and  in  the 
provinces,  he  exercised  an  authority  which,  if  less 
direct,"  was  not  less  real.  From  him  dates  consequent- 
ly the  first  approach  to  anything  like  a  comprehensive 
imperial  budget.  He  published  year  by  year  the 
accounts  of  the  empire,*  and  he  left  behind  him  after 
his  death  a  complete  statement  of  the  financial  condi- 
tion of  the  empire.*  In  other  ways,  alSo,  he  brought 
relief  to  the  provincials.  The  multifarious  requisi- 
tions, legal  and  illegal,  which  Roman  officials  had  been 
accustomed  to  levy  were  abolished,  and  fixed  allow- 
ances  substituted/  The  resources  of  the  provinces 
were  developed  by  a  liberal  expenditure  on  public 
works,  while  provincial  commerce  and  industry  were 
freed  from  the  crippling  restrictions  which  the  re- 
public had  imposed  upon  them.  Finally,  whereas 
hitherto  the  burden  of  taxation  had  fallen  mainly  on 


*  E.g»t  in  Gaul«     Livy.,  Epit^  cxxxiv.;  Dio,  liii.,  22  ;  Tac,  Ann,^ 
1.,  31  ;  in  Syria,  Luke,  ii.,  i  ;  in  Lusitania,  Wilmanns,  1608. 

"  It  seems  to  have  been  exercised  through  a  decree  of  the  senate. 

*  Suet.,  Calig.^  16  :  '*  rationes  imperii  ah  Augusta  proponi  soliias.'' 

*  Tac,  Ann.,  i.,  i ;  Suet.,  Aug,,  loi.  ^  Suet,.  Aug.,  36, 


4^2  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  V 

the  provincials,  Augustus,  while  maintaining  the 
immunity  of  Italian  soil  from  tribute,  forced  Roman 
citizens  to  bear  a  share,  if  not  a  large  one,  of  the 
cost  of  governing  and  protecting  the  empire.' 

The  aim  which  Julius  is  said  to  have  placed  before 
CMar-  himself  of  welding  the  diverse  communi- 

worship        ^jgg  jijjj  races  of  the  empire  into  a  single 

the  Provin-  State,  with  equal  laws  and  rights,  was  not 
ciai  Councils,  ^j^^  ^^j^^  ^f  Augustus.    While  improving 

the  government  of  the  provinces,  he  held  fast  to  the 
political  ascendency  of  Rome  and  Italy,  and  to  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Roman  state  and  its  dependent 
allies.  With  the  policy  of  assimilation,  initiated  by 
Julius,  and  revived  by  Claudius  and  the  Flavian  em- 
perors, he  had  little  sympathy.*  But  if  the  bond  of 
union  created  by  the  spread  of  Roman  citizenship, 
Roman  law,  and  Roman  municipal  institutions  was 
the  work  of  his  successors,  it  was  otherwise  with  the 
powerful  tie  of  allegiance  to  the  central  authority  of 
Caesar. 

Caesar- worship  as  a  whole  was  not  the  creation  of 
any  Caesar.  It  was  the  natural  expression  of  a  wide- 
spread sentiment  of  homage  which  varied  in  form  in 
different  parts  of  the  empire,  and  in  different  classes 
of  society,  and  which  had  its  roots  in  long-established 
ideas  and  customs.'     But  the  statecraft  of  Augustus 

'  Especially  by  means  of  the  legacy  duty,  established  in  6  A.D. ; 

Suet,  Aug,^  49  ;  Dio,  Iv.,  25. 
*  Suet.,  Aug.t  40:  **  civiiatem  Romanam parcissime  dedit** 
*On  this  point  see  Mr.  Bevan's  article  Et^,  ffist.  Review,  No.  64 

(October,  1901),  also  Komemann  in  Beitr&ge  s.  alUn  GeschichU,  i., 

p.  51. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate,         42 3 

was  conspicuously  shown  in  the  skill  with  which  he 
made  use  of  this  sentiment  to  develop  something 
like  an  imperial  patriotism  and  connect  it  closely  with 
the  rule  of  the  Caesars.  The  worship  of  the  deified 
Julius,  alike  in  Rome  and  in  the  provinces,*  was  the 
starting  point  of  that  official  worship  of  the  deified 
Caesars,  the  dvv%  which  invested  the  long  and  irregu- 
lar succession  of  the  emperors  with  a  certain  sanctity 
and  with  an  appearance  at  least  of  continuity.  Of 
more  importance  politically  was  the  worship  of  Rome 
and  Augustus.  As  early  as  29  B.C.  this  worship  was 
formally  authorised  in  Asia  Minor*;  but  its  definite 
establishment  as  the  public  official  worship  of  a  pro- 
vince or  part  of  a  province  dates  from  the  foundation 
in  12  B.C.  of  the  famous  altar  to  Rome  and  Augustus 
at  Lyons,  as  a  new  religious  centre  for  the  "  three 
Gauls.""  With  the  altar  were  connected  the  provin- 
cial council,  the  annually  chosen  priests  of  Rome  and 
Augustus,  and  the  annual  festival.  The  gradual 
diffusion  of  this  new  imperial  cult  cannot  be  traced 
here.*     But  by  the  commencement  of  the  second  cen- 


Mn  29  B.C.  the  worship  of  divus  Julius  and  Rome  was  authorised 
for  Roman  citizens  in  Ephesus  and  Nicsea,  Dio,  li.,  20. 
«Dio.  li.,20. 

•  Mommsen,  R,  C7.,  v.,  p.  84  ;  C.I.L,^  xiii.,  pp.  ittj  sq.  Cf.  ibid,^ 
no.  1674  :  "  Sacerdos  Roma  et  AugusH  cui aram  ad canfluentes  Araris 
et  Rhodaniy 

*  The  ara  Roma  et  Augusti  in  the  territory  of  the  Ubii  was  clearly 
meant  to  be  the  centre  of  the  worship  for  the  short-lived  province  of 
Germany,  and  must  have  been  erected  before  the  defeat  of  Varus  in 
9  A.D. 


424         Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Bookv 

tury  A.D.  each  province  of  the  empire  had  its  council, 
its  priests,  its  altar  and  temple  of  Augustus;  and 
Caesar-worship  in  this  form  was  the  one  official  cult 
common  to  the  whole  empire,  a  symbol  at  once  of 
imperial  unity,  and  of  the  rule  of  the  Caesars/ 

In  October,  19  B.C.,  Augustus  returned  to  Rome 
_        .        from  the  East.    The  reorganisation  of  the 

Domestic  ,  ^ 

reforms.        provinces  imd  of  the  provincial  adminis- 

MMC    A    U    C 

tration  was  practically  completed,  and  he 

now  turned  his  attention  to  Rome  and  Italy.     But 

though  the  legislation  of  the  next  two 

736-737  A.U.C  11.1. 

years  (18-17  B.C.)  was  regarded  by  him- 
self and  by  the  republic  as  inaugurating  a  new  and 
better  age  for  the  Roman  people,*  it  can  only  be 
fairly  judged  if  taken  in  connection  with  his  gener- 
al domestic  policy.  The  formal  restoration  of  the 
republic  nine  years  before  was  of  little  use  of  itself. 
The  old  constitutional  machinery  needed  both  re- 
pair and  alteration  befpre  it  could  be  adopted  to  the 
new  situation.  The  fabric  of  Roman  society,  shat- 
tered by  half  a  century  of  revolution  and  civil  war, 
had  to  be  reconstituted,  and  finally,  alike  in  the 
city  and  in  Italy,  an  efficient  system  of  administra- 
tion had  to  be  created.  In  the  performance  of  these 
difficult  tasks  Augustus  followed  steadily  the  policy 


'  See  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  i.,  366 ;  Hardy,  Eng,  Hist,  RevUw^ 
vol.  v.,  p.  221. 

'  This  was  the  lesson  taught  by  the  celebration  in  June,  17  B.C.,  of 
the  Ludi  Saculares^  and  in  the  Carmen  Sacuiare  composed  by 
Horace  for  the  occasion. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.        42  5 

_ 

which  had  guided  his  actions  in  27  B.C.  The  political, 
social,  and  administrative  order,  which  he  established, 
was  outwardly  based  on  a  restoration^ of  what  had 
existed  before.  In  reality  it  was  a  new  order,  created 
by  himself,  subject  to  his  control,  and  stamped  inef- 
faceably  with  the  impress  of  his  own  name. 

Not  the  least  delicate  of  the  problems  with  which 
he  had  to  deal  was  that  of  adjusting  the  relations 
between  his  own  authority  and  the  ancient  jj,^  ^j^ 
prerogatives  of  the  assembly,  senate,  and  ^oMtitution. 
magistrates.  To  abolish  them  was  impossible,  and 
it  was  as  impossible  to  restore  them  to  their  former 
supremacy  and  vigour.  Under-  the  policy  laid  down 
by  Augustus  these  venerable  institutions  were  pre- 
served as  stately  and  picturesque  survivals,  but  their 
sphere  of  action  was  carefully  limited,  and,  even 
within  the  limits  marked  out  for  them,  they  acted, 
with  rare  exceptions,  only  on  his  impulse,  and  under 
his  direction.  It  was  a  policy  which  saved  the 
dignity  of  the  republic,  and  gratified  the  amour 
propre  of  the  Roman  nobility  and  populace  with- 
out seriously  impairing  the  supremacy  of  Caesar. 
At  the  same  time  it  was  a  policy  which  scarcely  any 
one  but  Augustus  could  have  carried  out,  and  which 
overtaxed  the  patience  of  his  successors. 

The  ancient  assemblies  of  the  populus  and 
plebs  had  long  ceased  to  represent  eflfectually  the 
Roman  people,  and  that  the  disorderly  city  ^j^^ 

populace,  of  which  they  were  ordinarily  •"•mwy. 
composed,  should  exercise  any  real  sovereignty  was 
out  of  the  question.     It  is  true  that  Augustus  **  re- 


426         Outlines  of  Raman  History.        [Bookv 

stored  their  ancient  rights,"  *  and  while  he  lived  they 
continued  to  elect  the  magistrates  of  the  year,  and 
occasionally  to  pass  laws.'  The  corruption  and  dis- 
order which  accompanied  their  proceedings  were 
checked,'  and  the  political  clubs  which  were  the  chief 
source  of  both,  were  suppressed.*  But  their  power 
was  gone,  never  to  return.  As  electors  they  did  little 
more  than  accept  the  candidates  put  forward  by 
Augustus,*  in  legislation  they  simply  approved  the 
measures  introduced  by  him  or  at  his  suggestion. 
The  consultation  of  the  people  had,  by  the  end  of 
his  reign,  become  merely  a  troublesome  formality, 
of  little  interest  except  for  the  students  of  Roman 
antiquities.  The  sovereignty  of  the  people,  as  the 
ultimate  source  of  all  authority,  was  never  denied ; 
it  was,  indeed,  the  foundation  on  which,  in  theory, 
the  authority  of  Caesar  rested,*  but  it  was  in  reality 
only  a  convenient  fiction,  and  in  the  history  of  the 
empire  the  Roman  comitia  play  no  part. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  maxim  of  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  people  was  that  of  the  supremacy  of 
The  MftKis-  ^^  magistrates,  consuls,  and  praetors  to 
tracies.         whom,  year  by  year,  the  people  intrusted 


*  Suet.,  i4«^.,  40 :  ** comitiorum prUHnum  ius  reduxit** 

'  Such  as  the  Leges  Julice  proposed  by  Augustus  himself,  the  Lex 
Papia  Poppaa  carried  by  the  consuls  of  9  a.d.,  or  the  Lex  Ailia 
Sentia^  4  A.D. 

2  For  the  Lex  yulia  de  ambitu,  Suet.,  Aug.,  34,  40  ;  Dio,  liv., 
16,  Iv.,  5  ;  Paulius  Sent,,  v.,  30. 

*  Suet.,  Aug,,  32 ;  Dio,  liv.,  2. 

*  Dio,  liii.,  21  ;  ov  fiivToi  iTtparrerd  rv  b  nif  xai  kx£iy<^ 
^pe6xB. 

*  Gaius,  i,,  5  :  •*  eum  ipse  imperator  per  legem  imperium  accipiat" 


Ch.3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         427 

the  imperium.  It  was  true  that  for  more  tHan  half 
a  century  these  magistrates  had  ceased  to  exercise 
their  authority  outside  Italy.  But  though  they  no 
longer  led  the  legions  or  governed  provinces,  they 
were  still  the  chief  executive  officers  of  the  state,  to 
whom  all  other  officials  were  at  least  in  theory  subor- 
dinate, and  above  them  there  was  no  authority  but 
that  of  the  people  from  whom  their  powers  were 
derived.  But  there  was  now  in  the  state  an  authority 
the  equal  of  theirs  in  rank,  derived  like  theirs  directly 
from  the  people,  and  backed  by  overwhelming  force. 
Augustus  was  indeed  careful  to  respect  the  dignity 
of  his  supposed  colleagues,  but  a  real  partnership  in 
the  government  of  the  empire  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. Even  during  his  lifetime  their  relation  to  him 
became  that  of  subordinates  rather  than  equals. 
Though  still  elected  by  the  people,  it  was  the  ap- 
proval of  Caesar  rather  than  of  the  voters  that  was 
essential  to  success.  His  nomination,  and  still  more 
his  personal  recommendation  of  a  candidate  were 
decisive.*  The  change  by  which  these  magistracies 
became  merely  places  of  preferment  at  Caesar's  dis- 
posal was  gradual,  but  it  may  be  said  that,  even  by 
the  end  of  Augustus's  reign,  the  creation  of  consuls 
and  praetors  might  be  described  in*  the  words  used 
by  Ulpian  two  centuries  later,  as  a  niatter  lying 
wholly  within  the  discretion  of  ^^  princeps^  Once 
elected,  consuls  and  praetors  alike  were  necessarily 

*  For  these  two  rights  see  DicU  Ant,^  s.  v.,  Princeps  ;  Moxnmsen, 
Staatsr,^  ii.,  860  ;  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  14,  15,  81. 

' /^.,  xlviii.,  14.*  **ad  curam  principis  magUtratuutn  creatit 
pertinet^  non  ad popuH  favorem,^* 


428         Outlines  of  Roman  History.        LBookV 

overshadowed  by  the  dominant  authority  of  Caesar. 
From  the  wide  department  assigned  to  Caesar  abroad 
— the  control  of  the  legions,  of  the  foreign  policy, 
the  administration  of  his  provinces — ^they  were  ab- 
solutely excluded.  Even  the  paramount  authority 
over  the  "  public  provinces,"  which  belonged  of  right 
to  the  consuls,  had  in  practice  to  give  way  to  the 
majus  imperium  enjoyed  by  ih&  princeps!^  In  Rome 
and  Italy  their  position  was  not  much  better.  The 
consuls  could  still  be  described  as  responsible  for  the 
safety  of  the  commonwealth,"  but  the  responsibility 
became  nominal  when  one  department  after  another 
of  the  home  administration  was  transferred  to  Caesar. 
Within  the  lifetime  of  Augustus  the  care  of  the  com 
and  water  supply  of  Rome,  the  maintenance  of  public 
order  in  the  city  and  the  public  roads  in  Italy,  the 
protection  of  the  coasts,  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Caesar  and  his  officials.'  Even  within  the  limited 
area  left  open  to  them,  they  had  to  face  the  dangerous 
rivalry  of  a  co-ordinate  imperial  authority.  Caesar 
was  equally  competent  with  the  consuls  to  convoke 
the  assembly,  to  hold  elections  and  propose  legisla- 
tion, to  convene  the  senate,  and  consult  it,  and  as 
able  as  the  praetors  to  expound  and  administer  the 
civil  law.  Under  these  circumstances  independence 
was  impossible.  The  old  republican  magistracies, 
though  they  continued  to  be  attractive  posts,  con- 
ferring social  distinction,  and  leading  on  to  legate- 


'  See  above,  pp.  418,  41Q. 

*  Tac,  /Inn.,  iv.,  I9:  **cu/us  vigiiiis  nUereiur  respublica^^    Even 
Pliny  {Paneg,^  59)  speaks  of  the  consulship  as  '*  sumttia pvtestas.** 

*  See  below,  p.  445  sqq. 


Ch,  33         Foundation  of  the  Principate,         429 

ships  and  proconsulships  abroad,  gradually  became 
in  all  but  the  name  subordinate  offices,  with  purely 
departmental  duties  under  the  control  and  super- 
vision of  Caesar.* 

Augustus  had  inaugurated  his  work  of  constitu- 
tional restoration  by  a  purification  of  the  senate.  Its 
unwieldy  numbers  were  reduced,  and  un- 
worthy members  expelled;  decency  and 
order  were  restored  in  its  proceedings.'  But  it  was 
no  part  of  Augustus's  policy  to  replace  the  senate  in 
the  position  of  ascendency  which  it  had  formerly  oc- 
cupied. Its  dignity  was  respected,  the  privileges  and 
distinctions  enjoyed  by  its  members  were  maintained 
and  enlarged,  while  the  declining  importance  of  the 
camitia  and  of  the  old  magistracies  increased  its 
prestige.  But  its  control  of  the  policy  of  the  state 
was  gone  for  ever.  The  part  assigned  to  it  by 
Augustus  was  indeed  dignified  and  useful,  but  it  was 
a  subordinate  and  not  a  leading  part. 

With  the  important  question  of  the  composition 
of  the  senate,  Augustus  dealt  in  a  manner  which  en- 
abled him,  without  too  rudely  wounding  composition 
the  pride  of  the  old  nobility,  to  bring  the  .  •enate. 
senate  in  this  respect  into  harmony  with  the  new 
system.  In  the  first  place,  admission  to  the  senate 
henceforward  depended  on  his  favour.  Election  to 
the  quaestorship  continued  to  entitle  a  man  to  a  seat 


>  Tac.,  Ann.^  iii.,  53:  Tiberius  declares  ^^tum  adiHs^  aut  pra- 
torts,  auteonsuUs  partes  stisiineo,  majus  aHquid  et  excelsius  a  principe 
postuiatur"  Comp.  the  phrase  **  caput  reipubHca^**  Tac,  Ann,^  i,  13. 

*Suet.,  A  tig.,  35.  See  generally  Diet.  Antiq,^  s.  v.,  Senatus  ; 
Mommsen,  Staatsr,^  ii.,  834  /^^.,  875  sqq, ;  iii.,  1252  sqq. 


430         Outlines  of  Roman  History,        iBook  v 

« ■■  -       II      ■     — — ^— *i^— ^— —     .11..     ■  »         • 

in  the  senate,  but  over  the  elections  to  the  quaestor- 
ship  Augustus's  rights  of  nomination  and  commenda- 
tion gave  him  full  control.  The  direct  admission  of 
persons  not  so  qualified  was  an  ancient  magisterial 
prerogative,  which,  during  the  last  century  of  the 
republic,  had  fallen  into  disuse.  By  the  dictator 
Julius,  and  by  the  triumvirs  it  had  been  on  the  con- 
trary used  with  a  freedom  which  shocked  Roman 
opinion.*  Augustus  was  more  prudent.  If  we  except 
the  three  occasions  on  which  he  carried  out  a  whole- 
sale revision  of  the  senatorial  register,"  he  seems  to 
have  abstained  from  the  use  of  this  method,  which 
under  the  name  of  adlectio  became  so  popular  with 
his  successors.  The  means  he  employed  were  more 
indirect  but  not  less  effective.  From  him  apparently 
dates  the  rule,  written  or  unwritten,  that  candidates 
for  the  quaestorship  must  be  persons  entitled  to  wear 
the  latus  clavuSy  the  broad  purple  stripe  distinctive 
of  the  senator."  This  right  Augustus  granted  to  all 
sons  of  senators,*  but  he  could  at  his  discretion  confer 
it  upon  any  one  he  pleased,  and  thus  indirectly  open 
the  door  of  the  senate  house  to  those  whom  he  de- 
lighted to  honour.*    Augustus,  moreover,  could  not 

*  Suet.,  JuU^  41 ;  A^,^  35 :  ^*  indignissimi^  post  necem  Casaris 
per  gratiam  etprctmium  adUcii»* 

'  Mon,  Anc,  Lat.^  ii.,  i  :  **^  senatum  ter  legi"  These  leciiones  took 
place  probably  in  28  B.C.,  8  B.C.,  and  14  a.d.  Mommsen,  Ad  Mon, 
Anc,y  p.  35. 

*  Mommsen,  Staatsr,,  iii.,  466. 

*  Suet.,  Aug,y  38  :  *'  liberis  senatorum proHnus  a  viriH  togo  latum 
clavum  induere    •     •     •    permisitj'* 

^  That  the  grant  of  the  latus  clavus  not  only  entitled,  but  morally 
obliged  the  recipient  to  stand  for  the  quaestorship  and  enter  the  senatei 
seems  clear  from  Ovid's  case.     Tristia^  iv.,  10,  35. 


Ch.  3 J         Foundation  of  the  Principate.       .  43 1 

only  admit,  he  could  also  expel,  and  that  not  only  at 
the  periodic  lectiones,  but  on  the  occasion  of  his  yearly 
revision  of  the  senatorial  roil/  Such  powers  clearly 
placed  the  composition  of  the  senate  at  his  mercy, 
and  in  his  use  of  them  a  definite  aim  is  plainly  visible. 
He  inaugurated  the  policy  successfully  pursued  by 
his  successors  of  creating  in  connection  The«en«. 
with  the  senate  a  new  aristocracy,*  whose  **'*■*  **'***'• 
claim  to  nobility  was  derived  from  him,  and  whose 
ranks  he  could  recruit  at  his  own  discretion. 

Under  the  later  republic  the  senate  had  been 
closely  identified  with  the  nobles,  from  whose  ranks 
the  great  majority  of  the  senators  were  drawn.  But 
the  nobility,  not  only  of  a  patrician  Cornelius  or 
Julius,  but  of  a  Sempronius  Gracchus  or  a  Caecilius 
Metellus,  was  not  derived  from  the  seat  in  the 
senate,  to  which  almost  as  a  matter  of  course  he 
attained.  Noble  they  were  born  and  noble  they 
remained.  This  nobility  Augustus  proposed  to 
replace  by  one  based  entirely  upon  the  senate. 
Hitherto  most  nobles  had  become  senators,  in  future  . 
only  senators  were  to  bq  noble.  The  change  was 
gradually  made.  The  republican  nobility  was  left 
as  it  stood.  But  outside  the  narrowing  circle  of  the 
old  families  a  new  aristocracy  was  slowly  formed. 
The  starting-point  was  the  permission  to  wear  the 
broad  stripe.  This  privilege  was  granted  to  all  sons 
of  senators  as  a  right,  to  others  by  special  grant  of 
the  emperor.  The  recipients  ranked  thenceforward 
as  members  of  the  senatorial  order,  sharing  many  of 

'  Dul.,  Antiq,,  s.  v.,  Senatus ;  Mommsen,  St€Mtsr,/\\\.^  88i ; 
Dio,  liii.»  17.  '  Mommsen,  Staatsr,,  iii.,  466. 


432  .      Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [BookV 

the  privileges,  and  bound  by  many  of  the  obliga- 
tions attaching  to  actual  senators.'  On  reaching  the 
legal  age,*  they  were  expected  •  to  take  their  seats  in 
the  senate  through  election  to  the  quaestorship,  and 
their  sons  in  turn  inherited  the  same  privileges  and 
responsibilities.  But  even  a  senator's  son,  if  through 
poverty  *  or  disinclination  he  abstained  from  taking 
his  seat,  forfeited  his  rank.*  This  new  senatorial 
nobility  was  thus  in  a  sense  hereditary,  but  its  trans- 
mission from  father  to  son  depended  on  the  approval 
of  Caesar ;  it  could  by  him  be  given  to  those  who  had 
no  claim  to  it  by  birth,  and  he  could  by  expulsion 
from  the  senate  take  it  away. 

The  senate  had  never,  in  law,  possessed  any  other 
Function,  of  prerogative  but  that  of  advising  the  magis- 
the  senate,     tratcs  whcn  consultcd.    This,  function  it 


'  They  were  allowed  to  be  present  at  meetings  of  the  senate 
(Suet.,  Aug,^  38) ;  in  the  legion  they  were  distinguished  from  other 
officers  as  tribuni  laiiclavii ;  they  shared  the  exemption  granted  to 
actual  senators  from  municipal  burdens,  and  were  prohibited  like 
them  from  intermarriage  with  freedwomen.  Mommsen,  Staatsr,^ 
iii.,  473  ;  Digest,  xxiii.,  2,  44. 

^  The  minimum  age  for  the  quaestorship  was  fixed  by  Augustus  at 
twenty-five ;  Dio,  Ixii.,  20.  Tacitus  (Ann,,  xv.,  28)  calls  this  **  sen- 
atoria  atas,** 

'  That  there  was  no  legal  obligation  as  yet  is  certain.  Ovid 
Tristia,  iv.,  10,  35  ;  Tac,  Ann,,  xvi.,  17.  Dio(lxvi.,  26) mentions  a 
case  in  which  Augustus  compelled  such  persons  to  enter  the  senate. 

^  A  property  qualification  of  1,000,000  sesterces  was  necessary  for 
candidates  for  the  qusestorship,  1.  ^.,  for  the  senate.  According  to 
Dio  (Ixiv.,  17),  it  was  instituted  by  Augustus  in  18  B.c.  Cf,  Suet., 
Aug.,  17  ;  Tac,  Ann,  i.,  75  ;  Ovid,  TrisHa,  iv„  10 ;  **  curia  pau^ 
peribus  elausa  est,  dai  census  honor es** 

»  **  Ordinem  exuere,*^  Tac.,  Hist,,  ii.,  86;  Ovid,  /.  c:  **clatn 
mensura  coacta  est. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         433 

continued  to  discharge.  But  its  advice  was  no  longer 
asked  as  a  matter  of  course,  nor  when  given  was  it 
equivalent  to  a  command.  It  was  still  consulted,  as 
formerly,  by  the  regular  magistrates  on  matters 
affecting  their  own  departments.  But  the  great 
questions  of  policy,  which  the  republican  consuls 
had  habitually  referred  to  the  senate,  were  beyond 
the  province  of  their  successors  under  the  empire, 
and  even  less  important  matters  were  not  often 
brought  forward  by  them  unless  at  the  suggestion 
or  with  the  approval  of  the  princeps^  Moreover, 
Augustus  was  not  only  a  senator  with  the  right  to 
give  an  opinion  to  which  his  position  gave  decisive 
weight,*  but  in  virtue  of  his  tribunician  power  he 
could  at  any  moment  prevent  or  arrest  discussion.* 
He  had,  as  has  been  said,  been  given  power  to  con- 
sult the  senate,  himself,  and  in  this  way  no  doubt 
matters  of  the  g^ravest  importance  were  still  brought 
before  the  senate.*  But  in  these  cases  the  senate's 
part  was  limited  to  hearing  announcements  or  pass- 
ing decrees  proposed  by  a  confessedly  superior 
authority.  For  these  purposes  both  Augustus  and 
the  Caesars  who  followed  him  made  frequent  use 
of  the  senate.  To  govern  by  decree  of  the  senate 
rather  than  by  edict  gave  a  constitutional  appear- 

'  The  reluctance  of  the  senate  and  magistrates  to  decide  or  even 
discuss  questions  on  their  own  authority  is  evident  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius;  Tac,  Ann,^  ii.,  35;    iii.,  32. 

*  Tac,  Ann,y  i.,  74  :  ^^  quo  loco  censeHs,  Casar^  si  primus,  habebo 
quod  sequar,** 

•  Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  13;    iii,,  70. 

«  Compare  the  list  of  matten  on  which  Tiberius  consulted  the 
senate ;  Suet,  Tib,,  3a 


434  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       iBook  v 

ance  to  their  rule,  and  lightened  their  personal 
responsibility.  But  between  a  decree  of  the  senate 
passed  on  the  proposal  of  Caesar,  and  an  edict  issued 
on  Caesar's  sole  authority,  there  was  little  more 
than  a  formal  difference.  Of  the  senate  it  may  be 
said,  as  was  said  of  the  comitia^  that  nothing  was 
done  which  Caesar  did  not  approve. 

In  outward  splendour  and  dignity  the  senatorial 
order  gained  rather  than  lost,'  and  the  wealth  and 
influence  of  its  members  made  them  not  unfre- 
quently  formidable  rivals  to  the  emperor.'  As  an 
institution  the  senate  itself  commanded  the  respect 
of  the  empire,  and  the  warm  loyalty  of  men,  who, 
like  Tacitus,  saw  in  it  the  one  surviving  representa- 
tive of  the  free  republic.  But  the  position  which  it 
had  enjoyed  during  the  period  of  the  great  wars,  and 
which  Cicero  claimed  for  it  as  its  right,  it  never 
regrained. 

The  religious  and  social  reforms  of  Augustus  ex- 
ReiiffiouB  hibit  the  same  spirit  of  compromise  be- 
reforms.  tween  the  old  and  the  new  which  appears 
in  his  treatment  of  the  republican  institutions.  Just 
as  he  had  refused  to  follow  Julius  in  opening  the  doors 
of  the  senate-house  to  provincials,  or  in  largely  ex- 
tending the  Roman  franchise,  so  he  upheld  the  as- 
cendency of  the  old  gods  of  Rome  against  alien 
deities,*  of  the  old  Roman  dress  and  manners  against 


>  Mommsen,  Staaisr,,  iii.,  886. 

*  Cf,  Tacitus,  Ann.,  ii.,  43,   of  Piso:  **vix  Ttberio  comedire^ 
Uberos  ejus  et  multum  infra  despeciare** 

*  Suetonitts  {Aug.,  93)  iUustrates  his  contempt  for  stimnge  deities 
■nd  rites. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         435 

■I  ■        ■  '  '  .    " 

foreign  fashions,  and  carefully  maintained  the  dis- 
tinctive pre-eminence  of  the  freeborn  Roman  citi- 
zens, the  imperial  race,  over  provincials,  freedmen, 
and  slaves.  But  the  Rome  which  he  restored  was 
not  the  narrow  city-state  which  had  refused  to  en- 
franchise the  Italians,  and  which  despised  Cicero  as 
a  foreigner.*  It  was  the  wider  Rome,  co-extensive 
with  the  limits  of  Italy,  whose  faith  and  manners  he 
re-established,  and  whose  patriotic  pride  he  endeav- 
oured to  stimulate.  And  with  this  revived  faith  in 
the  old  gods  and  loyalty  to  the  old  manners  and 
traditions  was  dexterously  and  closely  associated  the 
new  allegiance  due  to  himself.  On  his  scheme  of 
reform,  as  on  the  altars  in  the  provinces,  the  names  of 
Rome  and  Augustus  were  jointly  inscribed.  The 
ideal  which  he  presented  to  a  community  wearied 
with  civil  war,  and  sick  of  the  faction  fights  and  cor- 
ruption which  made  up  politics  in  the  city,  was  that 
of  a  united  and  imperial  Italy,  proud  of  its  great 
past,  faithful  to  the  gods  and  to  the  virtues  by  which 
"  the  Latin  name  and  the  strength  of  Italy  had  grown 
great," "  and  performing  its  mission  of  ruling  the  world 
under  the  guidance  of  a  man  who,  by  descent,  was  on 
one  side  Italian  to  the  core,  and  on  the  other  traced 
his  ancestry  back  to  the  founders  of  Rome  and  to  the 
gods  of  the  city,  and  who  by  divine  favour  and  help 
had  saved  Rome  and  Italy  alike  from  a  foreign  foe. 


*  Cic,  Pro  SuUa^  7. 

*  Horace,  Od,^  £▼.,  15,  la :  "  veUres  revocavit  artesper  quas  Latu 
num  nomen  et  JiaHa  crevere  vires. ^*  So  Od, ,  iii. ,  5 , 9  the  Maniftn  and 
Apttlian  are  heirs  of  the  glories  of  Rome.  Compare  Sellar ;  Vergil, 
p.  327. 


436  Outlines  0/  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

The  lesson  was  taught  in  a  hundred  different  ways. 
The  old  '^^^  gods  whose  ruined  temples  he  re- 
worahipa.  built,*  and  whose  ancient  festivities  he 
revived  *  were  for  the  most  part  the  older  deities 
whose  worship  was  common  to  all  Italians.  Such 
were  Jupiter,  Juno,  Mars,  the  Dea  Dia,  the  Penates 
and  Lares.*  But  side  by  side  with  the  temples  of  the 
old  national  gods  rose  others  which  reminded  the 
people  of  the  debt  which  they  owed  to  Cxsar  and 
his  house.  The  temple  of  the  'Meified  Julius"  in  the 
old  forum,  and  that  of  Mars  the  Avenger*  in  the  new 
forum  of  Augustus,  commemorated  the  services  of 
the  great  dictator  and  the  vengeance  which  had  over- 
taken his  murderers.  More  impressive  than  either  was 
the  temple  built  on  the  Palatine  Mount,*  on  the  site 
of  the  City  of  Romulus,  and  dedicated  to  the  god 
Apollo  who,  from  his  shrine  at  Actium,  had  helped 
to  win  the  day  for  Rome.  To  these  memorial  tem- 
ples must  be  added  the  numerous  public  prayers, 
thanksgivings,  and  festivals,  in  which  the  safety  of 
Augustus  was  prayed  for,  and  his  victories,  his  ser- 


>  Man,  Ant,  Lai,^  4,  17 :  *^diio  et  actoginta  tempJa  deum  in  urbe 
consul  v\,    .     .  re  fed,**    Ovid,  Fiisti^  ii.,  59;  Hor.,  Od,,  iii.,  6. 

*  Suet.,  Aug,^  31:  ^*' nonnulla  ex  antiqtds  cesrimomis  paullaiim 
abolita  restittdt  ut  SaluHs  augurium^  DiaUJlaminium^  sacrum  Luper<^ 
cale^  ludes  Saculares  et  Compitalicia,* 

*  Man,  Anc,  Lat. ,  iv.,  1-26.  The  Dea  Dia  was  the  goddess  honoured 
by  the  Arval  Brethren,  for  the  restoration  of  this  priestly  college. 
See  Henzen,  Acta  Fratrum  Arvalium  (Berlin,  1874). 

^  Man,  Anc,  Lat,^  V9,y2i\  Suet.,  Aug.^  29. 

*  Mon,Anc.  Lat,^  iv.,  2;  Suet.,  Aug,,  39.  Landani  {AncUnt^ome, 
p.  no)  gives  a  graphic  description  of  the  temple  and  the  buildings 
connected  with  it.     C/,  also  Propertius,  ii.,  3i* 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.        437 

'    .     ■ I  '     I 

vices,*  even  the  chief  anniversaries  of  his  life,  were 

commem  orated. 

From  this  close  association  with  the  gods  to  his 
enrolment  among  their  number  was  not  The  worship 
a  long  step.  Officially,  indeed,  Augustus  of  cwar. 
was  not  added  to  the  list  of  gods  worshipped  by  the 
Roman  people  until  after  his  death.  Yet  during  his 
life  he  was  clearly  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  not 
only  in  the  language  of  courtly  poets,  "  a  present 
deity.""  In  the  country  towns  of  Italy  there  were 
temples  of  Augustus  and  priests  of  Augustus.*  In 
private  houses  and  in  the  wards  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
the  genius  of  Augustus  was  placed  with  the  Lares, 
and  shared  the  worship  offered  to  them,  as  a  **  third 
god."  *  That  this  homage  was  spontaneous  there  is 
little  reason  to  doubt,  but  we  cannot  doubt  either 
that  Augustus  himself  realised  the  political  useful- 
ness of  a  worship  which,  without  degenerating  into 
direct  adoration  of  a  living  man,  conveniently  ex- 
pressed the  common  allegiance  to  the  one  ruler  of 
the  empire. 


*  Of  the  number  of  these  commemoration  prayers  and  festivals,  the 
extant  ancient  calendars  afford  ample  proof.  See  Mommsen,  C.  /. 
Z.,  i.  pp.,  382-410. 

'  With  the  language  of  Ovid  (Fasti,  iv.,  949),  Horacq  ((?</.,  iii.,  5), 
*' prasens  divus,**  compare  Suetonius's  story  (Aug,,  98)  of  the  homage 
paid  by  the  sailors  in  the  harbour  of  Puteoli :  **  candidati  coronatique 
et  tura  libanUs** 

»  At  Pompeii  (7.  R.  N,,  2231,  4,  5),  Pisae  (Wilm.,  883),  Perusia, 
(Orelli,  6o7)»  Pola  (Orelli.  686). 

*  Ovid,  Ep,,  ii.,  8,  9 ;  Hor.,  Od.,  iv.,  5,  31  ;  Dio,  li.,  19 ;  for  this 
worship  in  the  vici  of  Rome,  Ovid,  Fasti,  v. ,  145  :  *  *  vici  numina  trina 
colunty    Cf.  C,  7.  7.,  vi.,  445-454. 


438  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

The  measures  by  which  Augustus  endeavoured  to 
Social  reform  the  morals  of  the  time  were  as 

refornM.  much  dictated  by  political  considerations 
as  his  reform  of  religion.  In  order  to  preserve 
the  purity  and  vigour  of  the  ruling  race,*  he  en- 
deavoured  to  bring  back  society  to  the  simpler  and 
purer  life,  which  had  once  been  the  glory  of  Rome, 
and  which  still  flourished  in  the  country  districts  of 
Italy.  At  the  same  time,  while  reforming  the  society, 
he  strove  to  bring  its  arrangements  into  harmony  with 
the  new  order  of  things  and  with  his  own  policy. 
Side  by  side  with  such  measures  as  the  Lex  Julia  de 
adulteriis^  with  the  regulations  enforcing  decency 
at  public  shows  and  games,  and  restricting  extrava^ 
gance  in  dress  or  at  the  table,'  we  find  provisions  of 
a  different  character.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  the 
famous  law  about  "the  marrying  of  the  orders," 
over  and  above  its  ostensible  object,  the  encourage- 
ment of  marriage  and  the  increase  of  the  population, 
there  is  an  endeavour  to  establish  and  perpetuate  a 
The  two  particular  social  order,  the  peculiar  feature 
orders.  q£  ^hj^h  jg  not  republican  equality,  but  a 

regular  gradation  of  classes,  each  with  its  distinctive 
rights,  privileges,  and  obligations,  and  each  abo  with 
its  own  relation  to  himself  as  the  head  of  all.^     It 

'  Suet,  Aug.^  40:  **magni  existimans  sincerum  atque  ab  omni 
colluvione  peregritii  ac  serviHs  sanguinis  incorrupium  servare 
populum,** 

'  Suet.»  Aug,^  34 ;  Dio,  liv.,  16 :  it  was  carried  late  in  18  B.c.  or 
early  in  the  next  year ;  Ovid,  Fasti,  ii.,  139  ;  Hor.,  O/.,  iv.,  5. 

«  Dio,  liv.,  16  ;  Aug.,  31,  44 ;  Gell.,  ii.,  24. 

*Suet,,  Aug,,  34:  ^^  de  maritandis  ordinihus,**  it  was  carried  in 
z8  B.C.  and  supplemented  in  9  a.d.  by  the  Lex  Papia  Poppea.     It 


Ch.  33         Foundation  of  the  Principate.        439 

was  a  policy  partly  justified  by  the  social  anarchy 
which  the  civil  wars  had  produced.  To  some  extent, 
also,  it  merely  followed  the  lines  of  class  division 
already  recognised  in  the  days  of  Cicero;  but  in 
stamping  these  with  the  sanction  of  law  it  prepared 
the  way  for  that  rigid  caste-system  which  in  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries  paralysed  the  energies  of 
the  empire.  The  highest  place  in  this 
social  hierarchy  was  occupied  by  the 
senatorial  order,  which  replaced  the  old  nobility, 
and  which  gradually  became  known  as  the  amplis- 
simus  ordo.  Immediately  below  it  stood  the  order 
of  knights,  an  order  which   had   existed 

^  The  knights. 

m  name  under  the  republic.  Round  the 
ancient  corps  of  the  equites  proper  a  class  of  titu- 
lar knights  had  grown  up,  whose  only  claim  to  the 
title  lay  in  their  possession  of  the  equestrian  census, 
and  who  had  not  any  more  than  the  nobility  an  ex- 
istence in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  This  order  of  knights 
by  courtesy  shared  the  fate  of  the  nobles.'  As 
Augustus  replaced  the  latter  by  a  senatorial  order 
with  a  legal  status  and  privileges,  so  he  now  limited 
the  rank  and  title  of  knight  to  members  of  the  corps 
of  knights  itself.'  The  numbers  of  the  corps  were 
largely    increased,'    and    its    internal    organisation 

imposed  various  penalties  on  celibates,  and  conceded  privileges  to 
parents  of  at  least  three  children.     Hor.,  Carm,  Sacul,^  17. 

'  Mommsen  (StaaUr,^  iii.,  476-569)  has  for  the  first  time  clearly 
explained  Augustus's  policy  with  regard  to  the  eqmUs* 

*  From  the  time  of  Augustus,  all  equites  JRomani  are  equites 
equo  publico^  i,  e,,  members  of  the  corps.  The  squadron  to  which  a 
man  belonged  is  often  mentioned  on  inscriptions. 

'  Dionys.  (vi.,  13)  mentions  5,000  knights,  roSv  hx^'^^^  "^^^ 


440  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       iBookV 

altered/  but  its  traditional  military  character  was 
preserved.  Of  this  corps  of  knights  Augustus 
formed  a  second  "  order/*  even  more  closely  de- 
pendent upon  himself  than  the  senatorial.  Admis- 
sion to  it  was  granted  only  by  him.'  By  him  or  by 
his  officers  the  roll  of  the  order  was  revised,  the  un- 
worthy expelled,  and  the  meritorious  occasionally 
promoted  to  senatorial  dignity.'  As  at  the  head  of 
the  roll  of  senators  his  own  name  was  placed/  so  the 
first  place  in  the  order  of  knights  was  filled  by  the 
younger  members  of  his  house.*  The  titular  knight- 
hood of  Cicero's  days  had  been  hereditary,  like  the 
titular  nobility,  and  the  sons  of  senators  possessed  a 
presumptive  claim  to  succeed  to  senatorial  dignity. 
But  the  son  of  a  Roman  knight,  under  the  arrange- 
ments of  Augustus,  had  no  such  claim.  The  rank 
was  strictly  personal,  and  no  one  had  any  title  to  it 
unless  himself  admitted  to  the  corps  by  the  em- 
peror. To  this  second  order  was  assigned  a  career 
which  in  time  became  as  definite  and  well  under- 


6Tifi66tov  tnieovy  as  taking  part  in  the  procession  on  the  Ides  of 
July. 

'  It  was  divided  into  six  squadrons  (turmal)  officered  by  *'  seznH 
equitum  Homatufrum"  and  into  decuria ;  Suet.,  Aug.^  38;  Dio, 
Iv.,  10;  C.  /.  Z.,  v.,  6360,  7447,  5S10. 

'  Dio,  liii.,  17  ;  Suet.,  7V^.,  41.  Qualified  candidates  presented  a 
petition  {Ubellus)  to  the  emperor  asking  for  admission,  the  qualifica- 
tions were  the  equestrian  census  and  free  descent  for  two  generations. 

'  Suet.,  ^M^.,  38:  **  frequenter  recogtundi;  unumquemque  equi' 
turn  vita  rationem  reddere  caegit"  7^.,  Aug,,  37,  mentions  a  '*  /in- 
umviratum  recognoscendis  turmis  equitum  "  instituted  by  Augustus. 

*  M<m,  Anc.  Gk*,  iv.,  2. 

*  As  **principes  inventuHs,*  e,  g,^  Gains  and  Lucius  Caesar  ;  Mam, 
Afu,  Lat,f  iii.,  5  ;  Ovid,  Ars  Amat,,  i.,  ig^ 


Cb.  3]       Foumiatton  of  the  Principate.  44 1 

stood  as. that  assigned  to  the  order  above  it.  For 
the  latter  were  reserved  the  old  republican  magis- 
tracies from  the  quaestorship  upwards,  the  governor- 
ships of  the  public  provinces,  and  of  the  more 
important  of  these  belonging  to  Csesar.  It  was,  on 
the  other  hand,  from  among  the  knights  that  Augus- 
tus recruited  his  own  service.  Though  the  highest 
posts  in  that  service,  the  legateships,  were  filled  by 
senators,  and  the  lowest  by  freedmen  or  slaves,  yet 
to  knights  were  given  *  the  governorships  of  Egypt, 
Raetia,  and  Noricum ;  the  prefectures  of  the  prae- 
torian guard,  of  the  city  police,  and  of  the  corn 
supply.  They  commanded  the  naval  squadrons  at 
Misenum  and  Ravenna,  and  in  some  cases  took 
charge,  as  procurators,  of  the  revenues  of  Caesar  s 
provinces.  Of  the  future  development  of  this  order 
of  knights  this  is  not  the  place  to  speak ;  but  to 
Augustus  it  rendered  valuable  service  by  attaching 
to  him  the  middle  class  of  Italy,  from  whom  its 
members  were  chiefly  drawn,  and  to  whom  it  offered 
a  rank  and  career  which  at  once  gratified  their  am- 
bition and  bound  them  closely  to  Caesar  as  their 
patron. 

Below  the  two  orders  of  senate  and  knights  stood 
the  plebs^  a  term  which  had  long  ceased 
to  denote  merely  the  non-patrician  ele-  **** 
ment  in  the  community,  and  was  used  to  designate 
the  common  people,  the  tenniares  or  humiliores, 
as  they  were  already  frequently  styled.'  Politically, 
however,  the  term  had  a  narrower  application  still. 

>  FriedUender,   SitUt^sekickU,  i.,  345  s^q.;  Momnuen,  StaaUr.^ 
"..  444. 


442  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

-  - 

It  denoted  par  excellence  the  populace  of  the  city  of 
Rome,  the  plebs  urbana '  which  had,  in  the  latter 
days  of  the  republic,  posed  as  the  representative  of 
the  populus  Ramanus.  It  was  this  plebs  which 
had,  as  a  rule,  exercised  the  prerogatives  of  the  peo- 
ple, had  elected  magistrates  and  passed  laws,  and  it 
was  for  its  benefit  that  games  were  exhibited,  com 
distributed,  and  money  lavished  in  bribery.  At  the 
same  time  it  was  in  danger  of  ceasing  to  be  Roman, 
except  in  name,  owing  to  the  admixture  of  alien 
blood.  Augustus,  true  to  his  policy  of  maintaining 
the  ascendency  and  purity  of  the  imperial  race,  at^ 
tempted,  though  without  much  success,  to  check 
this  evil.  He  placed  a  variety  of  restrictions  on  the 
emancipation  of  slaves,  and  slaves  of  bad  character, 
even  if  freed,  were  debarred  from  Roman  citizen- 
ship ; '  it  is  even  possible  that  all  f reedmen  were  de- 
prived of  the  right  to  vote,  not,  as  things  stood,  a 
very  serious  penalty.*  In  a  similar  spirit  he  strove 
to  awaken  self-respect  by  enforcing  the  wearing  of 
the  toga^^  and  maintaining  decency  and  order  at  thci 
public  shows  and  games.  Their  old  political  in- 
terests and  activity  he  did  not  attempt  to  revive, 
and  with  the  suppression  of  the  political  clubs,  the 
restrictions  on  bribery,  and  the  palpable  unreality  of 
the  proceedings  in  the  assembly,  politics  had  lost 


'  Oi  plebs  Romana;  Mon,  Anc»  Lat,^  iii.,  7. 

*  Stteti,  Aug.^  40.  The  reference  there  is  specitlly  to  the  iex  jCM 
SeHiia{4  a.d.,)  and  to  the  Ux  Furia  Camma  (8  A«D.) ;  G«itti.»  i.,  13, 
42 ;  ii.,  226. 

'  Mommsen,  Staaisr.,  iii.,  45a 

*  Suet.,  Aug",,  4a 


Cb.  S]       Foundation  of  the  Princtpaie.  445 

their  attraction.  The  eager,  stirring,  municipal  life, 
which  in  the  Italian  towns  was  an  effective  substi- 
tute for  politics,  was  impossible  in  Rome,  which,  like 
London,  had  neither  municipal  life  or  organisation. 

The  plebs  Romana  was  indeed  only  the  city 
populace,  and  the  annual  magistrates  whom  it  elected 
were  in  their  duties  not  much  more  than  local  offi- 
cials, but  both  alike  still  claimed  to  be  the  ruling 
authorities,  not  merely  of  the  city  of  Rome,  but  of 
the  Roman  State :  Rome  could  not  yet  be  treated 
as  one,  if  the  first,  of  the  municipalities  of  the  em- 
pire. Nor  on  the  other  hand  could  Augustus  safely 
deprive  the  plebs  of  its  pleasures  and  emoluments. 
The  distribution  of  com,  the  largesses  of  money 
were  continued,  the  games  were  more  numerous  and 
more  splendid  than  ever.'  Yet  he  did  something  to 
provide  the  Roman  plebs  with  more  wholesome  in- 
terests. It  is  possible  that  his  reconstruction  of  the 
city  wards  {pici)  with  their  annually  elected  headmen 
{magistri)  was  meant  as  a  step  towards  a  system  of 
municipal  government,  and  though  in  this  direction 
there  was  no  further  advance,  yet  the  ward,  with  its 
common  worship,  chapel,  and  festivals,  remained  a 
centre  of  corporate  life,  and  the  position  of  magis^ 
ter  vici    an  object  of  plebeian  ambition."    Of  far 


^  Mon,  Anc.  LaL/\\\,^  7-21  and  iv.,  31-48,  supplies  a  list  of 
Augustus's  largesses  and  games. 

*  Suet.,  Aug,t  30 :  "  spatium  urHs  in  regiones  vicosqtu  ditdnt^  in^ 
stiiuiiqu€  ut  ilhs  annui  magistratus  sortito  tuerentur^  has  magistri 
t  pUbe  cujusque  vicinia  Ucti  ";  Dio  (Iv.,  S)  assigns  the  measure  to  the 
year  7  B.C. ;  comp.  C  /.Z.,  vi.,  454,  761.  Besides  the  care  of  the 
l^res  compitaUs  and  tl^e  compitalicia  the  magistri  had  to  extinguish 
fires  (Dio,  /.  c,)^  to  inspect  weights  and  measures  (C.  7.  L,  vi.,  282). 


444  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Sook  v 

more  importance,  however,  as  centres  ot  plebeian  life 
and  interest,  and  that  not  only  in  Rome,  were  the 
guilds  {collegia)}  The  disorderly  associations  which 
had  multiplied  in  the  declining  days  of  the  repub- 
lic were  suppressed,  those  which  were  "  ancient  and 
lawful  "  being  allowed  to  remain.'  For  the  future 
Augustus  provided  that  any  new  guild  might  on 
certain  conditions  get  itself  recognised,  and  regis- 
tered as  legitimate  by  decree  of  the  senate.*  That 
in  addition  to  these  registered  guilds,  he  encouraged, 
or  at  least  tolerated,  the  formation  of  associations 
among  the//I?fo,  provided  they  were  useful  or  harm- 
less, may  be  inferred  from  their  rapid  increase  in 
numbers,  of  which  fact,  as  of  the  prominent  part 
they  played  in  the  daily  life  of  the  plebs^  the  in- 
scriptions give  ample  proof.  That  Augustus  was 
not  unfavourable  to  them  is  also  implied  by  their 
existence  among  the  recipients  of  the  imperial  doles 
of  com,  the  plebs  frumentariay  a  body  under  con- 
stant supervision  by  imperial  officials/ 

and  possibly  to  revise  the  lists  of  those  entitled  to  share  in  the  com 
doles  ;  Suet.,  Aug,^  ^o\  Dio,  Iv.,  lo. 

'  Liebenam»  Zur  Gesch,  und  Ori^^amsaHon  d,  rdm.  VtrHnsw<sen^ 
(Leipzig,  1890)  ;  Walzing,  Lts  Corporations  Pro/essiom//es  (Lovivaint 
1895-1903). 

'Suet.,  Aug.,  32  ;  Dio,  liv.,  2. 

'A  V*  Lex  Julia  "  (de  collegiis)  is  mentioned  in  an  inscription  of 
the  time  of  Augustus,  C.  /.  Z.,  vi.,  2193,  referring  to  a  ^*  collegium 
symphoniacorum  quibus  senatus  coire^  convocari,  cogi  permisit  e  lege 
Julia ,  ex  auctoritate  AugusH  ludorum  causa*^;  Liebenam,  /.  r.,  pp. 
29,  225.     The  more  usual  formula  was  ^''  quibus  ex  S'*^.  coire  licit,*' 

^  For  these  corporations  see  Mommsen,  Kdm,  Tribus,  p.  194 ; 
Sidatsr.^  iii.,  44.7:  they  were  based  on  the  old  divisions  of  the 
thirty-five  tribes.  Cf,  also  the  numerous  inscriptions  relating  to 
them  ;  C,  I.  Z.,  vi,,  passim. 


Ch.  3]        Foundation  of  the  Principate.  445 

I 

■■     ■  ■  I  I  II  \  ■!■■■■ 

Lastly  this  plebs  was  bound  by  special  ties  to  the 
emperor.  The  ''tribunician  power"  constituted 
him  their  official  leader  and  protector/  It  was  he  who 
provided  them  with  "bread "  and  the  games."  His 
name  and  genius  were  associated  with  their  ward  wor- 
ships, and  festivals,  and  meetings.'  They  styled  them- 
selves his  clients,  and  honoured  him  as  their  patron.^ 

The  government  of  the  city  of  Rome  belonged  of 
right  to  the  annually-elected  magistrates  Theadmini* 
of  the  republic  and  to  the  censors.  How  RoSlJ'SiJd 
inefficient  their  administration  had  been,  "**^' 

readers  of  Cicero  can  judge  for  themselves.  Rome, 
with  a  population  of  nearly  a  million/  was  without 
police,  and  without  any  adequate  supply  of  water  or 
corn.  Against  the  frequent  floods  and  still  more 
frequent  fires  no  proper  precautions  had  been  taken. 
In  the  forum  and  in  the  streets  scenes  of  violence 
and  rioting  were  of  daily  occurrence.  As  triumvir, 
Augustus,  aided  by  Agrippa,  when  aedile 
in  38  B.C.  had  commenced  the  work  of  re- 
form, and  more  had  been  effected  in  28-27  B.C.  It 
was,  however,  after  23  B.C.  that  he  seri-y^yj^^^  ^  ^^ 
ously  took  in   hand   a  work,   which,   to    ^3'  ^-  "•  ^* 

>  Tac.  Ann.^  i.,  2:  "adiuendam  plebem  tribunido  iure  con^ 
tenium" 

'  The  cost  of  the  com  distributing  was  borae  by  Augustus  after  22 
B.C.     Mommsen,  Ad  Mon,  Anc. ,  p.  25. 

'  The  worship  of  the  genius  AugusH  was  associated  with  that  of 
the  Lares  compiiaUs^  under  the  care  of  the  magistri  vuorum. 
The  latter  entered  office  on  the  first  of  August. 

*C./,Z,f  vi.,  1 104,  5823,  10215.  Among  the  corporations  of 
the  pleis  frumentaria  we  find  a  Corpus  yulianum  and  a  Carpus 
Augusiale, 

*  Friedlaender,  Sittengesfh,^  i.,  23. 


446  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

quote  the  words  of  Ulpian,  ''  especially  concerned 
Caesar,  and  which  Cssar  alone  could  accomplish." ' 
It  was  carried  out  with  characteristic  dexterity  and 
caution.  The  care  of  the  city  was  not  formally 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  consuls,  praetors,  and 
aedites,  and  even  where  a  department  of  administra- 
tion was  transferred  to  Caesar,  the  change  was  made 
with  due  regard  to  republican  susceptibilities. 

In  22  B.C.  Augustus  undertook  the  cura  annona; 
the    maintenance    and     regulation    not 

739  A  U  C 

The  com'  merely  of  the  monthly  distributions  of 
com  to  the  poor,  but  of  the  com  supply 
needed  for  the  wants  of  the  g^eat  city.*  At  first 
the  execution  of  this  double  duty  was  entrusted  to 
commissioners,  who,  though  subject  to  imperial 
authority,  were  senators  of  at  least  praetorian  rank, 
and  elected  by  the  people  each  year.  Not  till 
towards  the  close  of  his  reign  we^e  they  replaced  by 
an'  officer  of  his  own.  This  official,  the  prafectus 
annotuB^  was  appointed  by  the  emperor,  and  re- 
sponsible  only  to  him.  He  was  selected  always 
from  among  the  knights,  and  the  prefecture  ranked 
with  those  of  Egypt  and  the  praetorian  guard  among 
the  great  prizes  open  to  Roman  knights  in  Caesar's 
service. 
The  water  supply  of  Rome  had  been  reformed  by 


>  Digisi,  i.,  15. 

*  Mon,  Anc*  Gk,^  iii.,  5  ;  Dio,  liv.,  i :  cf.  also  Mommsen,  Ad 
Mon,  Anc,,  p.  25  ;  Hirschield,  C/ntersuc A, ,  p.  128  ;  Suet.,^«^.,  37. 

'  The  office  was  in  existence  at  the  time  of  Tiberins's  accession 
(14  A.D.) ;  Tac.,  Ann,,  i„  7,  There  were  stiU  commissioners  in  6 
A.D.;  Dio,  Iv.,  31. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         447 
Agrippa  in  33  B,c*    On  his  death  in  12     ^    ■ 

D    *  *  •'•'  The  water 

B.C.  the  "  care  of  the  public  waters,  tradi-  "^^i* 
tionally  the  duty  of  the  aediles,  was  by 
decree  of  the  senate  transferred  to  a  commissioner 
of  consular  rank,  who  was  nominated  by  Augustus.' 
By  Augustus  also  was  now  borne  the  cost  of  keep- 
ing the  aqueducts  in  proper  repair.*  In  a 
similar  fashion  commissioners  were  also  pabuebuiid. 

Ings  and  of 

created  for  the  care  of  the  sacred  build-    theb«nk»of 

the  Tiber. 

mgs,  of  public  works  and  places,  and  of 
the  banks  and  bed  of  the  Tiber,  matters  formerly 
left  in  a  somewhat  ill-defined  fashion  to  the  censors 
and  aediles.^ 

A  still  more  severe  blow  was  struck  at  the  author- 
ity of  the  old  magistracies  by  the  appoint* 
ment  of  an  imperial  prefect  charged  with  prefectur«s^or 
the  duty  of  maintaining  order  in  the  city, 
a  duty  which  had  always  rested  with  the  consuls. 
The  new  enactments  against  disorder  required  en- 
forcing, and  Augustus  himself  declared  that  he  could 
neither  leave  Rome  without  a  master,  nor  remain 

there  to  keep  order  himself.*    He  therefore  chose 

• 

'  Pliny,  iV.  ff,^  xxxvi.,  121  ;  Frontinas,  ix.,  10;  Suet.,  Aug.^  42  : 
**  satis provisum  esse  a  genero  sua  Agrippa^  perducHs  pluribus  aquisy 
ne  homiHis  siHreni"  Both  the  Aqua  Julia  and  the  Aqua  Virgo  were 
constructed  by  him.  For  the  whole  subject  see  Lanciani,  Cpmenlarii 
di  FranHnc  (Rome,  1880)  and  Hirschfeld,  C/niersucA.,  161  sq^, 

*  Frontinus  (100)  quotes  the  S*=***™. :  **de  its  quicuratores  aqua- 
rum  pubHforum  ex  consensu  senatus  a  Qesare  Augustc  namistaH 
esseni.** 

*  Frontinus,  125  ;  C  /.  Z.,  vi.,  1343 ;  M&n,  Anc,  Lat,,iy.,  10. 

^  For   these    curatores   see    Hixschfeld,  149,    154 ;   Mommsen, 
Staatsr,^  ii.,  974  sqq, 
»  Dio,  liv..  6. 


448  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

from  among  the  consulars  one  who  should  keep  in 
check  the  slaves,  and  the  turbulent  spirits  among 
the  citizens.'  This  officer  bore  an  ancient  title, 
"prefect  of  the  city,"  but  his  office  was  in  all  but 
the  name  a  new  one.  The  prefect  of  the  city  was 
not  a  magistrate,  but  a  servant  of  Caesar's,  and  at 
first  acted  only  in  his  absence."  It  was  not  long, 
however,  before  the  office  became  a  standing  one. 
Of  its  rapid  growth  we  shall  speak  elsewhere,'  but 
no  change  made  by  Augustus  was  more  significant 
of  the  revolution  which  had  really  taken  place,  than 
that  which  placed  Rome,  as  if  it  were  a  small  pro- 
vincial district,  under  the  control  of  a  prefect.* 

Lower  in  rank  and  importance  than  the  prefect  of 
The**pm.  ^^  ^^^Y  ^^^  t\it  pTafectus  vtgilum.^  In 
wgiSim."  22  ^'^^  Augustus  had  created  a  body  of 
73S  A.U.C.  slave  firemen,  whom  he  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  aedilesy  for  the  extinction  of  fires.'  In 
7  B.C.  this  duty  and  the  firemen  with  it 
were  transferred  to  the  magistri  vicorum,^ 
Finally,  m  6  A.D.  Aug^ustus  was  compelled  to  ap- 
point a  prefect  of  his  own,  who  was  not  merely  the 
chief  of  a  fire  brigade,  but  had  also  a  police  jurisdic- 

^  Tac,  Ann,,  vi.,  ii ;  Mommsen,  Staatsr,^  ii.,  980. 

*  The  first  prefect,  Messalla  Corvinus,  was  appointed  in  25  B.C., 
when  Augustus  was  away  in  Gaul.  Statilius  Taurus  was  prefect  in 
16  B.C.,  also  in  the  absence  of  Augustus ;  Dio,  liv.,  19. 

*  The  office  became  continuous,  it  appears,  in  connection  with 
Tiberius's  long  absence  from  Rome  after  27  a.d.,  and  in  the  pre- 
fecture of  Piso  ;  Tac,  /.  c:  "  recens  conHnuam  poUstaiem*^  Seneca 
[Ep,  83)  assigns  to  the  prefect  the  "  tuUla  urbis.** 

*  Tac,  /.  tf.,  calls  it  justly  **  incivilis poiestas*^ 

»  Dio,  liii.,  26 ;  Digest^  i.,  15;  Mommsen,  SttMisr*,  ii.,  978. 

*  Dio,  liv.,  2.  '  Dio.  Iv.,  8. 


Ch.  3]       Foundation  of  the  Principate.  449 

tion  over  incendiaries,  burglars,  and  other  nocturnal 
disturbers  of  the  peace.*  Both  the  city  prefect  and 
the  prcBfectus  vigilum  had,  moreover,  what  no  re- 
publican magistrate  had  ever  possessed  in  the  city, 
a  regular  and  numerous  force  of  police.* 

The  establishment  of  an  efficient  local  administra^ 
tion  was  not  the  only  service  which  Au-  ^  „^ 

t  %  1         .  r  T-»  r«,  New  build- 

gustus  rendered  to  the  city  of  Rome.   The  in««  •«>«*  *»• 

"  ^  provements. 

magnificent  buildings  erected,  and  the 
improvements  made  by  himself  and  his  friends, 
altered  the  whole  aspect  of  the  city.  The  list  of 
them  is  too  long  to  be  given  here,'  but  it  is  charac- 
teristic of  Augustus's  policy,  that  while  no  gorgeous 
palace  was  built  for  the  new  ruler/  his  forum  was 
adorned  with  statues  of  famous  republican  heroes,* 
and  that  on  the  Campus  Martius  a  splendid  building 
was  constructed  for  the  convenience  of  voters  in 
those  comitiay  whose  *  importance  as  a  political 
force  was  already  gone.* 

Italy  stood  scarcely  less  in  need  of  reorganisation 
than  Rome,  but  as  to  Augustus's  work  in  Admiia«tm- 
Italy  our  information  is  but  meagre.    Yet  **•"  ®^  ^*^y* 

»  Dio,  Iv.,  26. 

'  Under  the  city  prefect  were  the  ^*cohorUs  urbana,**  under  the 
praf actus  vigilum  the  **  cohortes  vigilum  "  /  Mommsen,  /.  c, 

*  See  Mon.  Anc,  Lat,^  iv.,  1-25  ;  Suet.,  Aug.,  28  :  **  marmorecuii  se 
relinquere^  quam  latericiam  accepisset";  Lanciani,  Ancient  Rome^ 
chaps.  4,  5  ;  Friedlaender,  Sittengesch,,  i.,  i. 

*.  Suetonius  {Aug»^  72)  remarks  on  the  simplicity  of  Augustus's 
house  on  the  Palatine. 

*  Suet.,w4M^.,  31. 

*  For  the  Septa  Julia  and  the  Diribitorium  (where  the  votes  were 

counted)  see  Pliny,  N,  H,,  xxxvi  ,  4,  24  ;  Dio,  Ivi.,  i ;  Suet.,  Aug,, 

43  ;  Middleton,  Ancient  Rome^  390. 
a© 


450  Outlines  of  Roman  History,       [Book  v 

enough  is  known  to  justify  the  assertion  that  to  him 
belongs  a  large  share  of  the  credit  for  its  prosperous 
condition  in  the  time  of  the  elder  Pliny.  The  po- 
litical  unification  of  the  peninsula  had  been  affected 
714A.U.C.  ^  early  as  43  B.C.,  when  Cisalpine  Gaul 
oftie*?!-**"  ceased  to  be  a  separate  province,*  and 
pine  tribes,  became  a  part  of  Italy,  a  step  fully  justified 
by  recent  experience;  thenceforward  it  could  no 
longer  serve  as  a  convenient  basis  of  operations  from 
which  an  ambitious  governor  could  overawe  the 
authorities  in  Rome.  But  this  step  involved  another. 
The  farmers  in  the  rich  lowlands  had  been  con- 
stantly harassed  by  the  raids  of  the  highland  clans 
of  th^  Alps,*  and  were  even  liable  to  attack  from 
the  lUyrian  tribes  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic.  The 
former,  the  Inalpini,  a^  they  were  called,  were  re- 
duced to  subjection,  and  the  pacification  of  the 
highlands  was  commemorated  by  a  trophy  set  up 
near  Monaco,  on  which  the  names  of  the  conquered 
Alpine  peoples  were  inscribed.*  Towards  lUyricum 
the  bounds  of  Italy  were  extended  to  include  the 
peninsular  of  Istria,*  and  to  the  old  frontier  colony 
of  Aquileia  were  added  a  group  of  military  settle- 

*  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  i.,  21. 
»  Pliny,  iV.  ^.,  xviii..  182. 

'  The  inscription  is  quoted  by  Pliny,  AT.  ff,,  iii.,  136 :  it  was  set 
up  in  7-6  A.D.,J>ut  the  pacification  was  probably  completed  by  14 
B.C.,  Cf.  Man,  Ane,  Lat^  v.,  12  ;  Schiller,  Gesch,  d.  Kaiserteit^  i., 
215.  Of  the  tribes  some,  e.  ^.,  the  Salassi,  were  almost  exterminated, 
others  were  added  to  the  territory  of  some  neighbouring  lowland  town 
such  as  Brixia  or  Verona,  while  others,  e,  g. ,  those  of  the  Cottian 
Alps,  were  left  as  dependent  native  states  under  native  rulers. 

*  C.  /.  Z.,  v.,  1,  pp.  I  sqq, ;  Pliny,  iV.  H.^  iii.,  126.  It  was  in- 
cluded in  the  tenth  of  the  Augustan  resumes. 


Oh.  33       Foundation  of  the  Principate.  45 1 

ments/  intended  to  guard  the  approaches  to  Italy 
on  this  side.  The  security  of  the  "  sacred  land  **  * 
was  rendered  still  more  complete  by  the  conquest 
and  annexation  of  the  districts  lying  on  the  farther 
side  of  the  Alps,  Rstia  and  Noricum,*  and  by  the 
final  subjugation  of  Pannonia.* 

To  the  peninsula  itself  Augustus  gave  not  only 
the  quiet  for  which  it  craved  after  twenty  years  of 
turmoil,  but  means  and  opportunities  for 
developing  its  natural  resources.  The  ''JSton'iet. 
great  roads,  notably  the  great  north  road,  ' 
the  Via  Flaminia,  were  repaired,*  the  extension  of 
the  Italian  road  system  to  the  provinces  was  taken 
in  hand,'  and  while  these  measures,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  brigandage  stimulated  traffic  by  land,  the 
high  seas  were  at  length  rendered  safe  for  that  sea- 
going commerce,  the  rapid  extension  of  which,  in  his 
own  day,  struck  Pliny  as  almost  a  sinful  tempting  of 
Providence/    The  practice  of  providing  for  time- 

^  Concordia,  Tergeste,  Pola,  and  possibly  Parentium  ;  C,  7.  Z.,  v., 

1;  iii.,5. 
»  Pliny,  N.  H,,  iii.,  138  :  "  Hac  est  Italia  diis  saerar 
'  The  Rsti  and  Vindelici  were  conquered  by  Tiberius  and  Drusus 

in  15  B.C. ;  Veil.,  ii.,  39  ;  Livy,  ^/.,  138  ;  Hor.,  0</.,iv.,  4,  17  ; 

Noricum,  by  P.  Silius  in  16  B.C.  ;  Dio,  liv.,  so  ;  Marquardt,  Stoats- 

z«rw.,i.,  134,  155  ;  Mommsen,  ^.  Cr.,.va.,  chap.  I. 

*  In  9  A.D.,  after  the  great  Pannonian  war ;  Mommsen,  R,  G*^  /.  c, 

*  Dio,  liii.,  22  :  cf,  inscription  on  arch  at  Rimini  (C  /.  Z.,  xi., 
365)  *'  V  \iajlamint\a  [et  reHqun\s  ceUberrimeis  Italia  vieis  consitio 
[et  sumptiii]us  [eius  mu\mteis,**  Mon,  Anc,  Lot,,  iv.,  19,  places  the 
repair  of  the  Flaminian  Way  in  27  B.C. 

*  Mommsen,  R,  t7.,  v.,  17 :  the  communication  thus  established 
was,  as  Mommsen  remarks,  as  important  from  a  commercial  as  from 
a  military  point  of  view. 

'  Pliny.  A^,  ^„  vx. ,  3-6. 


45  2  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

expired  legionaries  by  grants  of  land  in  Italy  had, 
as  carried  out  by  Sulla,  or  by  the  triumvirs,  been  pro- 
ductive only  of  confusion,  discontent,  and  distress. 
But  Augustus,  when  founding  colonies  and  allotting 
lands  after  the  crowning  victory  at  Actium,  avoided 
the  errors  of  which  he  himself,  as  triumvir,  had  been 
guilty.  Where  lands  were  taken  from  municipalities 
they  were  fairly  paid  for ;  *  in  other  cases  the  oppor- 
tunities were  seized  to  repopulate  and  bring  again 
into  cultivation  some  of  the  districts  which  had  been 
deserted  and  run  to  waste.  Perusia  rose  from  her 
ashes,  and  even  Veii  once  more  took  her  place  among 
the  towns  of  Italy.* 

As  regards  administration,  the  military  patrols  in 
the  country  districts  and  the  squadrons  at  Misenum 
and  Ravenna  were,  of  course,  under  Augustus's  sole 
authority,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  gfreat  high- 
roads were  so  also.*  Generally  speaking,  however, 
Italy  remained  still  in  theory  subject  to  the  super- 
vision  and  jurisdiction  of  the  consuls  and  praetors,* 

*  M<m  Ane,  Lat,^  iii.,  22  :  of  lands  taken  in  30  B.C.,  and  afterwards. 

*  For  Perusia,  see  C.  /.  Z.,  xi.,  1923  ;  for  Veii,  C.  /.  Z.,  xi.,  3797. 
In  MoH,  Anc,  Lai.^  v.,  35,  Augustus  states  that  he  had  founded  twenty- 
eight  colonies  in  Italy,  which  were  all  thriving.  A  complete  list 
cannot  be  made  with  certainty,  but  among  them  were,  besides  those 
mentioned  above,  Augusta  Praetoria,  Augusta  Ta.urinorum,  Brixia, 
Ateste,  Fanum,  Firmum,  Hispellum,  Tuder,  Capua,  Venafrum, 
Nola,  Mintumse,  Beneventum.     Cf,  Mommsen,  Hermes^  xviii.,  160. 

'  Hirschfeld  ( £/>f //rxfiM. ,  p.  109)  following  Suetonius  (Aug,  37), 
includes  the  *'  cura  tdarum  **  among  the  new  offices  instituted  by  Au- 
gustus. The  '*  curatores  viaruni "  were  senators  of  at  least  praetorian 
rank.  They  are  mentioned  in  the  S^^*™.  of  11  B.C.,  quoted  by  Fron- 
tinus,  loi. 

*  Tac,  Ann.,  xiii.,  4:  "  Cansulum  tribunaHbus  ItaHa  et pubUem 
frovincia  adsht^rtnt^** 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Prtncipaie.         453 

to  whom  we  may  assume  that  the  quaestors  stationed 
at  Ostia  and  elsewhere  were  subordinate/ 
But  it  was  by  the  local  authorities  of  the  ^^l^^, 
municipalities  that  the  routine  work  of 
administration  was  carried  on,  and  to  Augustus  must 
be  assigned  the  credit  of  encouraging  a  healthy  and 
vigorous  municipal  life  as  a  substitute  for  those 
political  interests  and  ambitions,  from  which,  after 
all,  the  average  Italian  had  been  practically  excluded 
by  distance  from  Rome,  if  not  by  Roman  law. 
Under  his  auspices  the  work  begun  by  the  great 
"  Local  Government  Act  *'  of  Caesar,  the  "  Lex  Julia 
Municipalis  "  was  completed."  The  account  of  Italy 
given  by  Pliny  is  confessedly  based  on  Augustus's 
description  of  all  Italy,*  and  it  proves  that,  with 
a  few  exceptions,  the  municipal  system  prevailed 
throughout  the  peninsula,  even  in  the  more  back^ 
ward  districts  of  Transpadane  Gaul.  What  modifi- 
cations Augustus  may  have  introduced  into  the 
municipal  constitutions  is  uncertain,  but  one  munici- 
pal institution  which  dates  from  his  time  is  so 
characteristic  of  his  policy  as  to  require  a  brief 
notice.     There  is  much  that  is  obscure  connected 


*  Dio,  ly.,  4 ;  Tac,  Ann,^  iy.,  27  ;  Suet.,  Claud,,  24. 

*  For  the  Lex  Julia,  see  C.  /.  L.,  i.,  p*  119 ;  it  was  carried  in  45 
B.C.,  probably  only  a  few  months  before  Csesar*s  death.  It  can  hardly 
have  come  into  full  operation  until  Italy  settled  down  under  the  rule 
of  Augustus  in  36  B.C. 

'Pliny,  N,  H.,  iii.,  46:  *'^  avctorem  nos  divum  Augustum  secu^ 
toros,*^  His  colonisation  and  allotments  involved  a  considerable 
rearrangement  of  municipal  territories.  The  Agrimensores  (ed. 
Lachmann),  i.,  119  ;  t'^,,  i.,  18,  refer  to  an  **  oratio  dim  Augusti  di 
statu  mumdpiorum,** 


454  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

Yh,  with  the  origin  and  position  of  the  Au. 

AuffustaiM.  gustales,*  but  that  they  were  instituted  by 
Augustus  cannot  be  doubted ;  nor  that  the  object 
of  the  institution  was  to  find  an  outlet  for  the 
social  ambition  of  the  freedmen,  and  to  connect  them 
with  himself  and  his  rule.  True  to  his  policy  of 
defining  clearly  the  line  between  the  free-born  citizen 
and  the  emancipated  slave  or  alien,  he  declared  freed- 
men  to  be  ineligible  for  municipal  office,  or  for  a  seat 
in  the  municipal  council.'  As  a  compensation,  he 
created  for  their  benefit  a  magistracy  and  a  council, 
in  which  nothing  was  real  but  the  cost  and  the  out- 
ward show.*  The  sexviri  Augustales  were  f reed- 
men,*  appointed  each  year  by  the  local  senate  of 
their  town.*  Their  office  was,  in  a  sense,  purely 
honorary,  for  its  holders  had  no  magisterial  duties 
or  authority,  but  the  honour  had  to  be  paid  for 
by  a  contribution  to  the  municipal  chest,  and  by 
the  exhibition  of  games.  Out  of  these  annual  sex- 
viri Augustales  grew  an  or  do  Augustalium^  a 
freedman-aristocracy,  which  ranked  inimediately  be- 
low the  genuine  municipal  aristocracy  of  the  decuri- 
oneSy  much  as  the  order  of  Roman  knights  did  below 
the  senate.''     To  gain  a  place  among  the   Augus- 


*  Mommsen,  Siaatsr,^  in,,  453/^. 

*  Mommsen,  /.  r.,  453,  note  i.  '  Ibid,^  p.  454. 

^  For  the  exceptions,  mostly  in  North  Italy,  see  Mommsen,  /.  c, 
454,  note  2. 

^  C,  /.  Z.,  V.  5465:  "sezfir  Augustalis  f[reatus\  d[tcurionum] 
i[ecreio\.     Cf,  id,,  5749,  5859. 

*  C,  I,  Z.,  V.  1968,  4203,  5859  :  **  sevir  ei  Augustalis  qui  inter 
primos  Augustales  a  decurionibus  Augustalis  foetus  est,** 

'  Wilm..  1750 :     ••  dedit  ordim  [decurt\onum  sing  HS.  VIII,  item 


Ch.  3]       Foundation  of  the  Prtnctpate.  455 

tales  became  an  object  of  ambition  to  the  richer  freed- 
men,  to  whom  it  gave  a  recognised  station  in  their 
community,  and  welcome  opportunities  of  displaying 
their  wealth  and  public  spirit/ 

It  was  in  the  year  following  the  celebrap 
tion  of  the  Saecular  Games  in  June,  17  B.C.,  olthJ7mpS?. 
that  the  question  of  the  delimitation  and 
defence  of  the  northern  frontier  of  the  empire  be- 
came acute,'  and  it  continued  to  engross  a  large 
share  of  Augustus's  attention  during  the  rest  of  his 
life.  The  concentration  in  his  hands  of  the  control, 
both  of  the  foreign  policy  and  of  the  military  forces 
of  the  state,  rendered  possible  what,  under  the 
republic,  had  scarcely  been  attempted,  the  establish- 
ment of  definite  frontiers,  of  a  system  of  frontier 
defence,  and  of  a  frontier  policy.  Under  each  of 
these  heads  Augustus  left  very  much  to  be  done  by 
his  successors,  and  the  frontier  defences  in  particular 
were  due  in  the  main  to  the  emperors  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries.  Yet  in  many  important  points 
Augustus  laid  down  the  lines  on  which  they  worked. 
The  frontier  problem  varied  in  kind  and  difficulty  in 
the  different  quarters  of  the  empire.  On 
the  west  the  Atlantic  Ocean  supplied  a  andsouthem 

«    1  t  «         *  frontiers. 

natural  boundary,  nor  by  Augustus  was 

any  attempt  made  to  extend  the  rule  of  Rome  be- 


ardini  AugusiaKum^  etc.;  2038  ordo  decurionum  et  Augustalium  et 
plebs  universa," 

'  Trimalchio  in  Petronius  Satyricon  boasts  that  he  has  risen  to  be  a 
*sevir  Augustalis" :   lb,  (ed.   Buecheler)  p.  67.     The  institution 
rapidly  spread  beyond  Italy  into  the  western  provinces. 

*  On  the  defeat  of  LoUius  by  the  Germans,  Dio,  liv.,  20;  Suet., 
Aug,,  23. 


456  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Bookv 

yond  the  Channel  into  the  island  of  Britain/  On  the 
south,  after  the  annexation  of  the  kingdom  of  Egypt 
in  30  B.C.  and  of  the  kingdom  of  Numidia  in  25  B.a« 
the  coastland  of  North  Africa  from  the  Nile  to  the 
Atlantic  was  either  under  Roman  rule,  or  as  was  the 
case  with  the  kingdom  of  Mauretania,  acknowledged 
Roman  suzerainty,  while  behind  this  coastland  stretch  • 
ed  the  interminable  expanse  of  the  African  desert* 
The  only  danger  here  arose  from  the  incursions  of  the 
nomad  tribes,  Gstuiians  and  others,  and  more  than 
once  during  the  reign  of  Augustus,  we  find  the  Roman 
forces  engaged  in  frontier  wars  with  thesetroublesome 
neighbours.'  But  the  elaborate  system  of  frontier  de- 
fence, with  its  permanent  camps,  frontier  stations,  and 
connecting  roads,  of  which  such  splendid  remains  are 
still  extant,  belongs  to  a  later  period. 

In  the  East,  Rome  was  confronted,  not  by  a  dis- 
orderly  mass  of  barbarous  tribes,  but  by  a 
frSStJJ?*"'    single  powerful  state,  whose  ruler  styled 
himself  '^  King,  of  Kings,"  and  claimed  to 
be  the  lord  of  Asia,  a  state  which  had  once  at 
least  all  but  wrested  from  Rome  her  Eastern  prov- 
inces.    The   annexation   of  Syria  in  62 
B.C.  had  brought  Parthia  and  Rome  face  to 
^„_      face.     The  disaster  at  Carrhae  (53   B.C.) 

70X  A.U.C.  ^•'•'  ' 

had  created  a  genuine  fear  of  this  new 
power,  which  the  Parthian  invasion  in  Asia  Minor 
in  40  B.C.  and  the  failure  of  Antony's  expedition  in 


'  Tac,  Agr,^  13  :  ^^hnga  obiivio  Britannia  J* 

'  Mommsen,  R,  G,y  v.,  chaps,  xii.,xiii.:  Cagnat,  V Arm/e Romaifm 
tTAfrique^  Paris,  1892. 

'  Floras,  ii.,  31 ;  Dio,  hr.,  38  ;  Mommsen,  Ad  Man,  Anc,^  p.  170; 
Cagnat,  /.  c^  chap.  i. 


Ch.  3]        Foundation  of  the  Prtncipate.         45  7 

36  B.C.  had  deepened  and  confirmed.  On  714  a.u.c. 
the  other  hand,  the  restoration  of  peace  .y**^-"^. 
and  unity  to  the  empire  after  the  victory  at  Actium, 
and  the  internal  dissensions  which  temporarily  crip- 
pled the  power  of  Parthia/  relieved  the  public 
anxiety,  and  when  in   2C  B.C.   the  mere  ^  „  _ 

presence  of  Augustus  in  Syria  was  enough 
to  induce  Phraates  to  restore  the  lost  standards,  and 
"  solicit  the  friendship  of  the  Roman  people," "  the 
Roman  public  at  any  rate  ceased  to  alarm  itself 
about  the  possible  designs  of  Parthia.  But  Au- 
gustus, as  the  guardian  of  the  Roman  peace,  must 
have  realised  the  importance  of  arriving  at  some 
definite  settlement  of  the  future  relations  between 
the  two  powers  which  divided  the  allegiance  of  the 
East  between  them.  The  invasion  of  Parthia  was 
an  enterprise  for  which  he  had  little  taste,  and 
which,  even  if  successful,  must  have  been  both  costly 
and  hazardous.  Nor  was  the  frontier  line  very 
clearly  defined.  It  is  true  that  the  province  of 
Syria  possessed  natural  boundaries  to  the  eastward 
in  the  desert  and  the  Euphrates,  but  north  of  this  it 
was  otherwise.  Between  the  most  easterly  of  the 
Roman  provinces  in  Asia  Minor,  Bithynia,  Galatia, 
and  Cilicia,  and  the  Euphrates  lay  the  three  native 
states  of  Pontus,  Cappadocia,  and  Commagene, 
whose  fidelity  to  Rome  was  tolerably  secure,  but 
whose  value  as  a  bulwark  against  invasion  was  more 
doubtful.  Their  annexation  was  unquestionably  a 
necessary  step   if    the   Euphrates   line   was  to   be 

'  Comp.  Noldeke*s  article  "Persia"  in  EncycL  ^rj/./ Gardner's 
Parthian  Coinage ^  pp.  lo  sqq.;  Mommsen,  R,  C?.,  v.,  chap.  9. 
,  *  Mam»  An€.  Lat,,  y.,  40 ;  Dio,  liy.,  8. 


458  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      LBookV 

effectively  defended ;  but  Jt  was  one  which  Augus- 
tus left  for  his  successors  to  take.     Beyond  the  Upper 
Euphrates  lay  Armenia,  a  district  which  seemed 
marked  out  by  nature  as  a  debatable  land.     Its  an- 
nexation could  not  be  urged  as  a  matter  of  neces- 
sity, and  Augustus  tells  us  that  he   deliberately 
rejected  the  idea.*    He  preferred  to  leave  it  a  friendly 
and  independent  state  within  what  we  should  now 
call  the  Roman  "  sphere  of  influence,"  and  guided  in 
its  policy  by  Roman  counsels.     It  was  the  restora- 
tion of  Roman  influence  in  Armenia  and  nothing 
more  that  prompted  the  expedition  of 
Tiberius  in  20  B.C.,*  and  of  Gaius  Caesar 
in  4  B.C.,'  and  in  this  respect  Augustus's  policy  was 
followed  by  all  the  emperors  of  the  first 
century.    Like  Afghanistan  between  Eng- 
land and  Russia,  Armenia  remained  planted  between 
the  two  great  empires  of  the  world,  inclining  now  to 
Rome  and  now  to  Parthia/    On  the  eastern  frontier, 


'  Men,  Ane  Lat,^  v.,  24:  **  Armemam  major^m^  inter fecto  rege 
ejus  Artctxe  c\u\m  possem  facere  provinciam^  malui  majorum  nostra^ 
rum  exemplo  regnum  id  Tigrani  .  .  .  reddere^  Of  Armenia^ 
Tacitus  remarks  {Ann,^  ii.,  56):  **  amHgua  gens  ea  antiquitus  Aomi" 
Hum  ingeniis  ei  situ  terrarum.** 

•  Mon,  Anc,^  /.  c.  The  investiture  of  Tigranes  with  the  Armenian 
crown  was  described  as  a  recovery  of  Armenia  on  the  coins  and  by 
the  historians.     Cohen,  M/dailles,  i.,  p.  64.     Suet./^^^.,  21.   Yell, 

ii.,  95. 

'  Since  20  B.c.  Parthian  influence  had  again  become  dominant. 
Afon.  Anc,^  /.  f.  .*  '*  Eandem  gentem  postea  d^escis^  centem  et  rebellan- 
tem^  domiiam  per  Gaium  filium  tneum^  regi  Ario[barz\ani  .  .  . 
regendam  trctdidi"    Dio,  Iv.,  9 ;  Tac,  Ann,,  ii.,  3. 

*  Tac.  Ann,,  ii.,  3  :  "  inter  Parthorum  et  Romanas  otes  injida^ 
Ib,^  ii.,  56  :  "  Maximis  imperiis  interjecti.** 


Ch.  31       Foundation  of  the  Principate.  459 

as  on  the  southern,  the  organisation  of  an  efficient 
system  of  frontier  defence  was  not  among  the 
achievements  of  Augustus.  But  here,  as  on  the 
north,  he  seems  to  have  recognised  the  necessity  of 
placing  over  the  heads  of  the  provincial  governors 
a  trusted  officer,  invested  with  the  command  of  the 
East.  This  important  command,  entrusted  to 
Agrippa  for  ten  years  (23-13  B.C.),*  ^^^^,^4,  a.u.c. 
analogous  to  those  established  on  the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube ;  and  in  the  East  as  in  the 
West,  it  did  much  to  remedy  the  evils  which  the 
decentralisation  of  authority  customary  in  former 
days  had  produced. 

On  the  north  the  considerations  in  favour  of  a 
forward  policy  were  stronger/  The  con- 
quest  of  Gaul,  and  the  increasing  weakness  '^'"•'fcjSS?. 
of  the  Celtic  and  lUyrian  tribes  which  still 
lay  between  the  civilised  Mediterranean  lands  and 
the  great  rivers,  had  imposed  upon  Rome  the  duty 
of  protecting  the  former  against  the  northern  bar- 
barians. In  this  direction  the  traditional  policy' 
to  which  Augustus  had  adhered  in  the  East  was  im- 
possible, for  with  the  single  exception  of  the  kingdom 
of  Noricum,^  there  were  no  states  capable  of  filling 
the  place  of  "  buffer  "  between  Rome  and  her  foes. 
Annexation    was    inevitable,     and    Augustus    ac- 

*  Josephus,  Antiq.^  xv.,  9,  10 ;  xvi.,  3. 

*  Mommsen,  R,  (r.,  v.,  chaps,  i,  4,  and  6. 

'  Mon,  Anc,  LaL^  v.,  36  :  "  majorum  nosirorum  exanpb,**  Tac., 
Agric.^  xiv.  :  *'  vetere  ac  jam  pHdem  recepta  P,  R.  consuetudine^  ut 
haberet  instrumenta  servituHs  et  reges,** 

^  Noricum,  after  its  conquest,  was  still  styled  a  kingdom,  though 
administered  by  a  procurator,  as  resident  political  agent.  Marquardt, 
Staatsv€rw.t  i.,  136  ;  C.  /.  Z.,  iii..  4828  :  ''procurator  regni Norici,** 


460  Outlines  of  Roman  History,       [Book  V 

cepted  the  necessity.  By  the  close  of  his  reign  a 
continuous  chain  of  provinces  had  been  formed 
along  the  line  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube  from 
the  German  Ocean  to  the  Black  Sea.  These 
frontier  provinces,  Gallia  Belgica,  Raetia 
(15  B.C.),  Noricum  (15  B.C.),  Pannonia* 
(10  A.D.),  Moesia  (6  A.D.),"  completely  covered  the 
peaceful  districts  to  the  south,  and  all  were  under 
Caesar's  rule.  The  debatable  land  between  Romans 
and  Germans  had  thus  been  annexed  by  Rome,  but 
a  further  question  remained  to  be  decided:  Was 
the  natural  boundary  line  of  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube  to  be  accepted  as  marking  the  frontier?  In 
the  case  of  the  Danube  *  the  question  seems  to  have 
been  at  once  answered  in  the  affirmative,  but  with 
the  Rhine  it  was  otherwise.  The  Elbe  offered  an 
alternative  frontier-line,  which,  if  adopted,  would 
have  removed  the  danger  of  a  German  invasion 
farther  from  Italy  and  southern  Gaul,  and  which 
Julius  himself  is  said  to  have  preferred.*  Nor  can 
we  doubt  that  the  object  of  the  campaigns  carried 
on  beyond  the  Rhine  by  Augustus's  two 
step-sons,  Drusus  and  Tiberius  (13  B.C.- 
6  A.D.),  had  for  their  object  the  extension  of  Roman 
rule  up  to  that  river.     For  a  time,  too,  this  forward 

^  After  the  great  Pannonian  war,   6-9  a.d.     Marquardt,   /.  r., 

i..  137. 

*  The  first  mention  of  a  legate  of  Moesia  belongs  to  this  year.     Dio. 

Iv.,   29.     The  country  had  been  subdued  as  early  as  29  B.C.  by  P. 
Crassus,  proconsul  of  Macedonia.     Dio,  li  ,  25. 

*  Mon,  Anc,  Lat,^  v.,  45  :  '•^ protuHque  fines  Illyrici  \(xd\  ri\p\am 
fiuminis  Dan[uv]i  "    The  expedition  *  *  [tran]s  Daituvium  *'  in  A  nc. , 
/.  c.   49,  merely  chastised  the  Dacians ;  it  is  placed  by  Mommsen  in 
5  A.D.     Mommsen,  Ad Mon,  Anc  p,  132. 

*  Plut.,  Casar,  58. 


Cb>  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         46 1 

policy  seemed  to  be  justified  by  success. 
Drusus  reached  the  Elbe  in  9  B.C./  and 
after  his  death  in  that  year  Tiberius  carried  on  his 
work.    By  9  A.  D.  considerable  progress  had      ^  ^  „  ^ 

1    •  ■%         \  *  r  7^5  A.U.C. 

been  made  towards  the  creation  of  a 
Roman  province  of  Germany  beyond  the  Rhine. 
Roman  troops  were  regularly  stationed  there. 
Bridges,  roads,  and  canals  were  in  course  of  con- 
struction. Roman  administration  and  Roman  taxa- 
tion had  been  introduced,  and  Roman  civilisation  was 
beginning  to  make  way  among  the  natives,  and,  most 
significant  of  all,  the  official  worship  of  Rome  and 
Augustus  had  been  introduced,  the  chief  seat  of  which 
was  the  altar  of  Augustus  in  the  territory  of  the  Ubii.* 
But  this  gradual  work  of  pacification  was  brought  to 
an  abrupt  end  by  the  defeat  of  Varus  (9  A.D.),*  and  Au- 
gustus, already  failing  in  health  and  strength,  had  not 
the  heart  to  renew  it.  He  withdrew  behind  the  Rhine, 
and  in  his  last  testament  solemnly  warned  his  succes- 
sors against  attempting  to  advance  beyond  it.*  Of  the 
final  adoption  of  the  Rhine  frontier,  and  of  the  system 
of  defence  organised  both  on  the  Rhine  and  the  Dan- 
ube by  his  successors,  we  shall  speak  in  a  later  chapter. 

» Dio,  Iv.,  I. 

*  Mon,  Anc,  Gk.,  xiv.,  5;  Fefjuaytav  .  .  .  ^ixpft.6t6fJiaroi 
'AXfitoi  fcorafjio  (v)  kv  stfnjyp  xaredrr;da, 

'  Dio,  Ivi,,  18.  Tacitus  mentions  a  fort  of  Drusus  on  the  Taunus 
(Ann»t  i.«  56),  a  casteilum  on  the  Lippe  (f^.,  ii.,  7) ;  pontes  Ufngi 
(id,,  i.,  63)  ;  fffssa  Drusiana  {id.,  ii.,  3),  for  the  ara  C/diorum,  sec 
Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  57. 

*  Dio,  Ivi.,  18  J^^.  On  the  vexed  question  of  the  scene  of 
Vams's  defeat,  see  Mommsen,  ^.  Oert&chkeit  d.  Varussehlachi 
(Berlin,  1885);  1^.,  R.  (7.,  v.,  43.  Hofer,  Die  Varussehlachi 
(Leipzig,  1888).     It  was  near  Paderbom  in  MQnster. 

*  Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  11 :  '*  addiderat  connUum  coercendi  intra  termines 
imperii. 


•• »» 


463  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       iBook  v 

In  the  north,  however,  as  in  the  east,  Augustus  fol- 
lowed the  policy  of  centralising  the  administration. 
Throughout  nearly  the  whole  of  his  reign  the  com- 
mand of  the  Rhineland  was  united  with  the  governor- 
generalship  of  the  "  three  Gauls,"*  and  for  a  time  at 
least  the  Danubian  provinces  were  similarly  united 
under  one  authority/ 

The  military  reforms  of  Augustus  are  inseparable 
from  his  frontier  policy.    At  the  close  of  the  repub- 
lican period  the  Roman  army  was  at  once 

The  army.  *^  ,.   .      *     1  it 

a  source  of  political  danger  to  the  home 
government  and  an  intolerable  burden  upon  the 
provincials.  In  theory,  it  was  still  a  militia  called 
out  year  by  year  for  the  defence  of  the  state;  in 
fact,  it  had  become  a  standing  army,  and  the  result 
was  complete  confusion.  The  old  regulations,  under 
which  every  Roman  citizen  took  his  turn  of  service 
in  the  legion,  and  when  the  campaign  was  over 
returned  home  to  resume  his  ordinary  business,  had 
become  obsolete.  Large  numbers  never  served  at 
all,  nor  for  those  who  did  was  any  definite  period  of 
service  fixed.  When  discharged  the  veteran  had  no 
legal  claim  to  pension  or  reward ;  his  sole  hope  lay 
in  the  ability  of  his  leader  to  procure  from  senate 
and  people  by  political  agitation  a  grant  of  money 
or  land,  in  return  for  which  he  was  expected  to  sup- 
port by  his  vote,  or  even  by  his  sword,  his  leader's 
political  schemes.  Nor  was  this  army  subject  to 
any  single  control ;   it  was,  in  fact,  not  so  much  an 


1  The  command  was  held  by  Agrippa,  Tiberins,  and  Drustts  in  turn. 
Marquardt,  Staatsverw^  i.,  116. 

'  Under  Agrippa  in  13  B.C.  (Dio,  liv.,  28)  ;  Tiberius  in6  A.p.<Dio, 
lv„  20). 


Ch.  31         Foundation  of  the  Prtnctpate.         463 

army  as  a  group  of  armies  raised^  led,  and  maintained 
by  independent  and  often  hostile  generals  ;  faithful 
to  these  rather  than  to  the  state,  but  faithful  even 
to  them  only  while  booty  was  plentiful.  In  the  in- 
tervals  of  active  service  the  soldiers  lived  at  free 
quarters  in  the  provinces  at  the  expense  of  the  pro- 
vincials. During  the  stormy  period  of  the  civil  wars 
the  total  number  of  troops  arrayed  under  the  ban- 
ners of  rival  leaders  increased  rapidly,  and  at  the 
close  of  that  period  there  were  no  less  than  fifty  legions 
on  foot.*    Augustus's  first  act  was  to  re-  ..^  .  _. 

^  The  lagiont. 

duce  this  unwieldy  force  by  one  half,  the 
discharged  soldiers  being  either  granted  lands  or  sent 
home  with  a  gratuity  in  money.*  The  remainder, 
consisting  of  about  twenty-five  legions,*  he  organised 
as  a  permanent,  regular  force  for  the  defence  of  the 
empire.  The  supreme  command  was  vested  in  him- 
self. Only  by  his  orders  could  fresh  levies  be  raised.* 
Each  recruit  took  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Caesar, 
according  to  a  form  drawn  up  by  Augustus  himself ;  * 
from  Augustus  he  received  his  pay  while  serving 
with  the  eagles,  his  formal  discharge  when  his  time 

*  Mommsen,  Ad  Mon,  Anc,^  p.  7. 

*Afon,  Anc,  Lat^  i.,  17-19.  The  number  discharged  he  gives  at 
more  than  300,000,  but  these  figures  possibly  include  those  disbanded 
after  Philippi,  and  again  after  the  defeat  of  Sextus  Pompeius  in  36 
B.C.  Ib,^  Aj/.,  iii.,  17,  states  that  in  29  B.C.  about  120,000  discharged 
soldiers  in  his  colonies  received  gratuities. 

'  Tac,  Ann,,  iv.,  5,  about  150,000  men.         « 

*Dio,  liii.,  17  ;  Dig,,  xlviii.,  4,  3. 

*  Dio,  Ivii.,  3.  Suet.,  Aug,,  ^\  **  ad  ceriam  sHpendwrum,  pra^ 
miorumque  farmulam  adstrinxit,  definiiispro  gradu  cujusque  ei  tem* 
paribus  militia,  ei  iommodis  missianum,  ne  aut  aiate  aui  inopia  post 
missionem,  solhcitari  ad  res  novas,  possent,** 


464         Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  Y 

was  up,  and  his  reward  in  land  or  money.  The  con- 
ditions of  service,  moreover,  were  fixed.  The  old 
liability  to  military  service  resting  on  all  Roman 
citizens  was  not  abolished,  nor  could  any  one  but  a 
Roman  citizen  serve  in  the  legions.  But  it  was  only 
rarely  that  a  forced  levy  was  necessary.*  The  estab- 
lishment of  peace  diminished  both  the  demand  for 
fresh  troops  and  the  losses  by  war ;  the  spread  of 
the  Roman  franchise  enlarged  the  area  from  which 
recruits  could  be  drawn,  and  the  fresh  drafts  required 
to  keep  the  legions  effective  were,  as  a  rule,  obtained 
by  voluntary  enlistment.  The  term  of  service  in  the 
ranks  was  fixed  at  sixteen  years,  and  four  years' 
more  were  spent  in  the  reserve.*  After  twenty  years' 
service  the  legionary  could  claim  his  discharge  and  a 
gratuity — the  money  for  the  latter  being  provided 
out  of  a  "  military  chest  **  created  by  Augustus  in  6 
A.D.  and  fed  by  special  taxes.* 

The  legion  now  became  in  theory,  as  well  as  in 
practice,  a  standing  corps,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  of  the  twenty-five  legions  on  foot  at  the  acces- 
sion of  Tiberius,  eighteen  were  still  in  existence  in 

^  E.g»t  after  the  defeat  of  Varus  in  9  a.d.  Tac.,  Atm,^  i.,  31. 
Cf.,  id.,  iv.,  4  ;  xiii.,  7. 

*  This  term  was  probably  fixed  when  the  "  pension  chest "  was 
created  in  6  A.D.  Afon,  Anc,  Lat,,  iii.,  38,  gives  twenty  years' 
service  as  the  minimum  period  entitling  to  a  gratuity,  and  this  regula- 
tion was  upheld  by  Tiberius.     Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  78. 

•  "  Sud  vexillis"  Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  17  ;  ib,,  i.,  36  :  **  missianem  dart 
vicena  sHpendia  meriiis,  exauctorari  qui  sena  dena  fecissetU,  ac  retimre 
sub  vexillo,  ceterorum  immunes,  nisi  propulsandi  hosies** 

^  The  ' '  arariutn  tniUtare  "  established  6  A. D.  M^n,  Anc,  Lot, ,  iii. , 
36  ;  Suet.,  Aug,,  49.  It  was  fed  by  the  legacy  duty  and  the  *'  cente- 
sima  rerum  venalium,"    Dio,  Iv.,  25  ;  Tac,  Ann.,  i.,  78  ;  ii.,  4a. 


Ch.  3]         Foundation  of  the  Principate.         465 

the  third  century ;  *  it  bore  a  distinctive  number  and 
name,  and  was  commanded  by  Its  own  legionary 
legate.'  Naturally,  too,  the  characteristic  features 
of  the  ancient  civic  militia  disappeared.  The  old 
principle,  according  to  which  the  people  chose  the 
men  who  were  to  "  go  before  them  '*  to  battle,*  was 
finally  abandoned.*  The  Roman  of  senatorial  or 
knightly  dignity  no  longer  entered  the  ranks,  and 
the  common  soldiers  only  rarely  rose  to  the  rank  of 
officer.' 

The  legions,  under  the  system  introduced  by 
Augustus,  formed  the  first  line  of  the  imperial  army. 
Behind  them  stood  the  auxiliary  forces, 
the  "allies,"  as  they  continued  to  be  auxiliaries* 
called,  in  memory  of  the  days  when  the 
Italian  contingents  had  fought  side  by  side  with  the 
legions  of  Rome.  Auxiliary  troops  drawn  from  the 
provinces,  or  from  vassal  states,  or  even  from  warlike 
frontier  tribes,  had  been  largely  used  in  the  latter 
days  of  the  republic,  and  still  more  during  the  civil 
wars.  But  from  Augustus  dates  their  institution  as 
a  regular  supplement  to  the  legions.*    They  were 

*  Dio,  Iv.,  23  ;  Plitzner,  GeschichU  d,  rSm,  KaiserUgianen  (Leip- 
zig, 1 881).     Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  ii.,  ^30  sqq, 

*  The  **  Ugatus  Ugitmis**  was  a  senator,  and  usually,  though  not 
always,  of  praetorian  rank  ;  Tac,  Hist.^  i.,  48  I  Ann,^  ii.,  36. 

*  1\it praior  r-z  6TpoiT7fyoi, 

^  A  proportion  of  the  "  tribuni  militum  "  had  been  elected  by  the 
people,  and  these  **  tribuni  militum  a  populo  **  occur  on  inscriptions 
of  the  Augustan  period.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  if  they  really 
served  ;  Mommsen,  StcuUsr,^  ii.,  543. 

*  The  two  forms  of  service  were  distinguished  as  *'  militia  equesiris  " 
and  '*  militia  caligata" 

*  Marquardt,  Stcuitsverw.^  ii.,  448  sqq, 

30 


466  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

drawn  from  the  more  warlike  provinces,  and  the 
martial  spirit  of  Gauls,  Spaniards,  and  Galatians  was 
thus  afforded  an  outlet,  which  compensated  them  for 
the  dull  days  of  peace,  which  had  come  with  Roman 
rule,  and  at  the  s^me  time  bound  them  by  the  tie 
of  military  loyalty  to  Rome  and  to  Csesar.  These 
auxiliary  cohorts  and  squadrons  bore  the  name  of 
the  tribe  or  district  from  which,  at  least  in  the  early 
days  of  the  empire,  they  were  recruited,  and  retained 
in  some  cases  their  native  equipments  and  mode  of 
fighting/  But  while  their  national  or  tribal  pride 
was  thus  gratified,  long  service  with  the  legions, 
usually  under  Roman  officers,  far  away  from  their 
native  land,  helped  to  make  them  soldiers  of  Rome, 
while  when  his  twenty-five  years  of  service  were  over, 
the  auxiliary  received,  on  his  discharge,  the  full 
citizenship  of  Rome  for  himself  and  his  descendants/ 
The  distribution  of  this  force  clearly  indicated  the 
chief  purpose  which  it  served.     Italy  and  the  peace- 

ful  provinces  in  the  heart  of  the  empire 
?f ?hea?my°    saw  little  or  nothing  of  the  force  which 

protected  them,  and  gradually  ceased  even 
to  contribute  soldiers  to  its  ranks.  At  the  end  of 
Augustus's  reign  *  twelve  legions  guarded  the  north- 
ern  frontier,  four  were  stationed  in  Syria,  and  four 
more  garrisoned  Egypt  and  the  African  provinces. 
There  were,  besides,  three  in  Spain  and  two  in 
Dalmatia. 


"  lb,,  /.  <-.,  454  ;  Tac,  Ann,,  ii.,  i6  ;  xiii.,  37. 
*  Marquardt,  /.  r.,  525  ;  and  the  numerous  inscriptions  giving  the 
order  of  disdiarge  granted  to  auxiliaries. 
•Tac,,  Ann,,  iv.,  5. 


Ch.  3]  Foundation  of  the  Principate.        467 

Augustus  had  used  the  powers  entrusted  to  him 
well.    He  had  reformed  the  administration  _ 

The  question 

both  in  the  provinces  and  at  home;  he  had  ©ftnc 

^  successioo. 

at  least  marked  out  the  frontiers  of  the  em- 
pire, and  organised  an  iniperial  army  for  their  defence. 
Within  these  bounds  the  '*  Roman  peace  "  was  se- 
curely established,  and  the  echoes  of  distant  border 
wars  scarcely  reached  the  ears  of  the  quiet  populations 
of  the  central  provinces.  But  his  powers,  though  con- 
tinued to  him  during  his  life,  by  successive  renewals,* 
would  expire  with  his  death,  and  it  was  urgently 
necessary  to  provide  beforehand  that  there  should 
be  some  one  able  and  ready  to  fill  his  place.  He 
could  not  transmit  his  authority  by  any  act  of  his 
own,  nor  on  his  death  would  the  senate  and  people 
be  legally  obliged  to  grant  such  powers  to  any  one 
at  all.  What  he  could  do,  was  to  make  clear  to 
every  one  who  it  was  that  he  wished  should  succeed 
him,  and  to  give  him  opportunities  of  gaining  the 
necessary  experience  and  prestige.  This  object 
Augustus  kept  steadily  in  view  almost  from  the 
commencement  of  his  principate,  in  spite  of  disap- 
pointments which  might  have  daunted  a  weaker 
man.'  The  trusted  friends  of  his  early  days,  Mae- 
cenas and  Agrippa,  were  too  old  for  his  purpose, 
though  both  were  valuable  colleagues,  and  though 
Agrippa  for  fifteen  years  was  his  partner  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  empire,  vested  with  the  imperium 
and  with  the  tribunician  power.*     He  had  no  sons 

• 

'  Dio,  liii.,  16;  yournal  of  Philology t  xvii.,  27. 

'  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  3, 

•  From  28-12  B.C,;  Dio,  liv.,  12 :  ccWa  re  k^  C^ov  nij  iavrta 


468  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

of  his  own,  and  it  was  on  his  nephew  Marcellus,' 
the  son  of  his  sister  Octavia,  that  his  choice  first 
^   .  ,,  -       fell.     But  in  23  RC.  Marcellus  died,  at  the 

age  of  nineteen,  to  the  grief  of  the  Roman 
people,  by  whom,  for  his  own  and  his  mother's 
sake,  he  was  sincerely  loved.".  Augustus's  thoughts 
seemed  to  have  turned  next  to  his  two   step-sons, 

Tiberius  and   Drusus.     On   the  death  of 

743A.U.C.  A  .  /  V     t  t 

Agrippa  (12  B.C.)  both  were  promoted  to 

high  commands  in  lilyricum  and  in  Germany.*     But 

Drusus  died  in  o  B.c,  and  though  three 

745  A.U.C.  1  .^  1       . 

years  later  Tiberius  was  invested  with  the 

tribunician  power  (6  B.C.)  and  entrusted  with  a  mis- 

sion    to    Armenia,*    Augustus's    special 

favour  was  bestowed  on  the  two  young 

sons  born  to  Agrippa  by  his  own  daughter  Julia, 

whom   he   had   adopted   in    17   B.C.*    In 

spite   of  the   fact   that   Julia  had,    after 

Agrippa's  death,  been  married  to  Tiberius,  the  latter 

found  himself  thrown  into  the  shade  by  the  two  young 

Caisars.*     It  was,  however,  only  for  a  time.     Lucius 


nal  rify  Hovdiav  rifv  dtfjLtapxtwfv  (jS  B.C.).  At  the  Ssecular 
Games  in  the  next  year,  the  prayers  and  sacrifices  were  offered  by 
Augustus  and  Agrippa,  as  the  recently  discovered  record  of  the  festi- 
val tells  us.  For  the  legal  nature  of  the  colleagueship,  see  Momm- 
sen,  Staatsr,,  ii.,  1040  sqq. 
'  His  father,  C.  Claudius  Marcellus,  was  consul  in  50  B.C. 

*  Dio,  liii.,  30 ;  Plin.,  N.  /^.,  xix.,  6 ;  Propertius,  iii.,  18,  15  ; 
Serv.  ttd  jEn,f  vi..  862  ;  Veil,  ii.,  93  ;  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  3. 

*  Dio,  liv.,  31,  32.  V  *  Dio,  iv.,  9. 

*  Dio,  liv.,  18  ;  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  3. 

•Suet.,  Tib,^  10;  Afon,  Anc,  Z.,  iii.,  1-6;  Tac,  Ann.,  i.,  3; 
*'prina^s  juventuHs  appeUari,  destinari  €onsules,'*  Cf.  Wilmanns, 
883. 


Ch.3]         Foundation  of  the  Principaie.         469 

Caesar  died  at  Massilia  in  2  A.D.,  and  in  the  next 
year  his  elder  brother,  Gaius,  who  had  been  consul 
in  I  A.D.,  died  on  his  way  home  from  Armenia, 
the  death  of  both  being  hastened,  it  was  said, 
by  the  arts  of  Tiberius*s  ambitious  mother,  Livia.* 
In  the  year  following  (4  A.D.),  Tiberius  was  adopted 
by  Augustus  as  his  son,  and  reinvested  with  the  im- 
perium  and  the  tribunician  power."  Ten  years  later 
(13  A.D.)  he  was  formerly  authorised  to  ^g-^uc 
take  the  census,  and  to  administer  the 
provinces  in  conjunction  with  Augustus.' 

On  August  19,  14  A.D.,  the  anniversary  of  his 
election  to  his  first  consulship,  Augustus  \y^9x\i  of 
died  at  Nola,  at  the  age  of  75/  During  Augustus. 
forty-one  years  hehad  successfully  played  the  difficult 
part  of  ruling  without  appearing  to  rule,  of  being  at 
once  the  autocratic  master  of  the  civilised  world,  and 
the  first  citizen  of  a  free  commonwealth.  He  had 
gained  the  afifections  of  the  provincials  and  of  the 
Italian  people,  he  had  pleased  the  Roman  plebs^ 
and  he  had  done  his  best  to  conciliate  the  nobility. 
He  left  behind  him  an  adopted  son,  of  whose  fitness 
to  fill  his  place  there  could  be  little  doubt,  a  trained 
administrator,  a  tried  soldier,  and  by  birth  as  noble 
as  any  Caesar.  It  was  with  good  reason  that  he 
asked  for  the  applause  of  his  audience  as  he  left  the 
stage.*     His  ashes  were  deposited  in  the  Mausoleum 

*  Tac,  Ann,  i.,  3  ;  Dio,  Iv.,  12.  '  Dio,  Iv.,  13. 

'  Dio,  Iv.,  28  ;  Mon,  Anc,  Z.,  ii.,  9;  Veil,  ii.,  21 :  "  ut  aquum  ei 
Jus  in  omnibus provinciis  exercitibusque  esset"     Suet.,  7V^.,  21. 

*  Tac,  Ann,  i.  9  ;  Suet.,  Aug,^  100  ;  Dio,  Ivi,,  30. 

^  Suet.,  Aug,,  99  :  '*  ecquid  videretur  mimum  vita  commode  trans- 
egisse^^  et  sqq. 


470  Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  v 

which  he  had  erected  at  Rome,*  and  near  which 
stood  the  bronze  tablets/  on  which  were  recorded 
by  his  orders,  "  his  acts  and  all  that  he  did,  how  he 
brought  the  world  under  the  rule  of  Rome,  and  the 
moneys  which  he  spent  upon  the  commonwealth  and 
the  Roman  people."  Of  this  unique  epitaph  a  copy 
is  still  extant,  the  famous  *'  Ancyran  Monument." ' 


*  Suet.,  Aug,^  lOO:  ''*' inter  Flaminiam  vianiy  rtpamque  Tiberis" 
'  Suet.,  Aug,^  loi :  **  qua  ante  Mausoleum  siatuerentur" 

*  So  called  from  Ancyra  in  Galatia,  where  it  was  found.  The  best 
edition  (with  commentary)  is  that  by  Mommsen,  Berlin,  1883.  The 
extant  copy  is  headed,  '*  Rerum  gestarum  divi  Augusti^  qmbus  orbem 
terra\runi\  imperio  populi  Rom,  subjecit  et  impensarum  guas  in  rem- 
publicam  populumque  Ro[ma]num  fecit^  incisarum  in  duabus  aheneis 
pilis^  qua  su\n\t  Roma  posita,  exemplar  S9$b[j\ectumj'* 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  JULIO-CLAUDIAN  UNE.      I4  A.D.-^  A.D. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  after  the  death  of 
Augustus,  his  place  was  filled  by   emperors  who, 
either  by  blood  or  adoption,  claimed  kin- 
ship with  himself  and  with  Julius,  and  all      Emperort! 
of  whom  at  least  professed  to  rule  accord- 
ing to  the  "  maxims  of  Augustus."*    The  first  and 
by  far  the  ablest,  Tiberius,  was  over  fifty  at  the  time 
of  his  accession.'     He  is  described  as  tall 
and  noble-looking,   with    great    physical 
strength  and  an  iron  constitution.*     He  was  highly 
cultivated,  and  both  on  his  father's  and  his  mother's 
side  he  came  of  a  distinguished  line  of  ancestors.* 
In  addition,  he  had  shown  himself   a  brave  and 
skilful  commander;  he  had  ruled  great  provinces. 


*  Suet.,  Nero^  10:  **  ex  AugusH prascripto" 

*  He  was  bom  in  4a  B.C.  and  was  therefore  fifty-six  years  old. 
Suet..  Tib.,  5  ;  Dio,  Ivii.,  2,  14. 

«  Suet.,  Tib,,  68. 

^  His  father  was  Tiberius  Claudius  Nero  ;  his  mother  Livia  came  of 
one  of  the  noblest  of  the  plebeian  families.  Among  her  ancestors  were 
the  consul  of  207  B.C.,  M.  Livius  Salinator,  the  conqueror  of  Has- 
drubal,  and  M.  Livius  Drusus,  the  tribune  of  91  B.C.  Before  his 
adoption  by  Augustus  he  was  styled  *  *  Tiberius  Claudius  Ti,  fil  Nero,  ** 
afterwards  Tiberius  Caesar,  finally  **  Tiberius  Ccesar  divi  Aug.  /• 
AugustusJ** 

471 


472  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

and  was  thoroughly  well-versed  in  the  business  of 
administration  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Yfet  few 
rulers  have  ever  been  more  unpopular  in  their  life- 
time, or  more  violently  denounced  when  dead.  Of 
his  unpopularity  there  seems  no  doubt,  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  explain.  Its  causes  are  to  be  found 
partly  in  his  personal  temperament,  partly  in  the 
circumstances  of  his  position.  Unfortunately  for 
himself,  he  inherited  to  the  full  the  hereditary  pride, 
which  had  made  the  great  Claudian  house  proverbi- 
ally unpopular  with  nobles  and  commons  alike.' 
Towards  those  who  stood  nearest  to  him,  towards 
his  mother  Livia,  his  brother  Drusus,  and  his  first 
wife  Agrippina,"  he  was  capable  of  intense  and  en- 
during affection  ;  but  towards  the  rest  of  the  world 
he  showed  himself  cold,  reserved,  and  taciturn,  with 
something  more  than  a  tinge  of  cynical  melancholy.' 
These  traits  in  his  character  had  been  developed  and 
confirmed  by  the  dangers,  sorrows,  and  disappoint- 
ments which  clouded  the  first  forty-six  years  of  his 
life.  The  hardships  of  his  childhood,*  the  forced 
separation  from  Agrippina,*  his  ill-starred  marriage 

'  Tac,  Ann,^  i**  4  :  *'  maturutn  annis,  speciaium  heUo^  sed  vetere 
atque  insita  Claudia  familits  super bia" 

*  Suet.,  Tib.^  vii.,  8  ;  Tac,  Ann.^  v.,  3  :  **  inveteratum erga  matrem 
obsequium" 

^  Our  chief  ancient  authorities  for  Tiberius*s  character  and  policy 
are  Tacitus,  Suetonius,  and  Dio  ;  for  modern  literature  see  Schiller, 
Gesch,  d,  Kaiserzni^  i.;  Furneaux,  Annals  of  Tacitus ^  vol.  i., 
Introd. ;  Freytag.  Tacitus  u.  Tiberius  (Berlin,  1870).  Tarver, 
Tiberius  the  Tyrant  (London,  1902).  Pelham,  Quarterly  Review^ 
April,  IQ05. 

*  Suet.,  7V^.,  6  :  **  infantiam  laboriosam  et  exercitam"  owing  to  the 
exile  of  his  parents  after  the  Perusine  war. 

•Suet,  Tib.,  7. 


Ch.4j  The  JulichClaudian  Line,  473 

■ 

with  Julia,  the  death  of  his  brother  Drusus,  and  the 
gloomy  years  of  seclusion  from  6  B.C.  to  2  A.D., 
when  he  saw  himself  thrust  aside  in  favour  of  the 
two  young  Caesars,  had  all  left  their  marks  upon 
him.* 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  irksome  such  a  man 
must  have  found  the  difficult  and  delicate  part, 
which  tried  the  patience  even  of  so  accomplished  and 
versatile  an  actor  as  Augustus.  For  the  serious 
business  of  government  he  had  both  a  liking  and  a 
rare  capacity,  but  to  govern,  under  the  condition  of 
respecting  fictions,  in  which  no  one  believed,  of 
pampering  the  tastes  of  a  populace  whom  he  despised, 
and  of  conciliating  a  nobility  whom  he  disliked  and 
suspected,  was  a  task  which  was  for  him  "  a  wretched 
and  oppressive  slavery,"  *  and  for  which  he  was,  of 
all  men,  the  most  unfitted.  The  plebs  of  Rome 
resented  his  contemptuous  indifference  to  their 
pleasures,  his  parsimony  in  the  matter  of  g^mes,'  and, 
though  far  less  deeply,  the  withdrawal  from  them  of 
the  right  to  play  at  electing  the  magistrates  of  the 
year.*  The  nobles  both  feared  and  disliked  the  dour 
and  stern  Caesar,  whose  exclusiveness  offended,  and 
whose  somewhat  cynical  courtesies  frightened  them. 
Nor  outside  Rome,  in  Italy  and  the  provinces,  though 
respected  as  a  just  and  vigorous  ruler,  did  he  win,  or 
even  care  to  win,  popularity.  Augustus  was  personally 


*  Suet.,  T%b,y  la ;  Dio,  Iv.,  g. 

*  Suet.,  24 :  '*  miser  am  ft  onerosam  servitutemj** 

'Suet.,   34;   Tac,   Ann.^  i,^   ^^\^^  civile  rebatur  (Aug.)  misceri 
voluptatibus  volgi^  aUa  Tiberio  morum  via** 

*  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  15. 


474  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

known  in  every  province ;  Tiberius's  longest  journey 
was  to  Capri.*  His  severe  economy  was  an  unwel- 
come contrast  to  the  splendid  liberality  of  Augustus. 
He  exhibited  no  ganles  ;  he  gave  but  few  largesses, 
and  he  was  no  munificent  builder  of  temples,  aque- 
ducts, and  bridges.' 

The  situation,  too,  was  difficult:  Tiberius  did 
not  enjoy  the  unbounded  personal  prestige  which 
strengthened  Augustus's  hands  in  27  B.C.  The 
anomalous  character  of  the  princeps'  position,  which 
had  been  forgotten  during  the  long  reign  of  his 
predecessor,  became  evident  the  moment  that  it  had 
to  be  created  afresh  for  his  successor,'  and  even  his 
claim  to  fill  it  might  not  impossibly  be  disputed  by 
this  or  that  wealthy  noble,*  or  even  by  his  nephew 
and  adopted  son  Germanicus.'  The  mutinies  in 
Pannonia  and  on  the  Rhine  (14  A.D.),  and  the  con- 
spiracy of  Libo  Drusus  (16  a.d.)  indicated  the  quar- 
ters whence  dangers  threatened  him  as  it  threatened 
not  a  few  emperors  after  him.  The  latter  event, 
specially  deepened,  if  it  did  not  first  arouse,  that 
suspicious  mistrust  of  the  old  nobility,  the  irrecon- 
cilable foes  of  Julius,  the  secret  rivals  occasionally 
even  of  Augustus,  which  ultimately  drove  him  into 
a  violent  onslaught  upon  them.'    Yet  even  Tacitus 

*  Suet.,  38.,  39. 

'  lb,,  46  :    **pecutiia  parens  actenaxe  "  ;  47 :   *'  nt^ce  opera  uUa 
magnificia  fecit ;  neque  spectacula  omnino  edidit**  id,,  48. 

*  Tac,  Ann,f  i.,  12  ;  Suet.,  34. 

^  Augustus  had  indicated  three  possible  rivals.       Tac,    Ann,^ 

i.,  13. 

*  Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  7. 

'  Tac,  Ann,,  ii.,  27  ;  Suet.,  27  :  **  lupum  auribus  teneo.** 


Ch.  41  The  yuliO'Claudian  Line.  475 

can  praise  his  conduct  of  the  government  during  the 
first  nine  years  of  his  reign.*  From  that  period  on- 
wards everything  conspired  to  intensify  the  defects 
in  his  character.  The  deaths  of  his  own  son  Drusus, 
his  destined  successor  (23  A.D.),  and  of  his  mother 
and  constant  counsellor,  Livia,*  seemed  to  leave  him 
alone  among  open  or  secret  enemies.  His  court  was 
distracted  by  palace  intrigues  and  feuds,'  and  even 
his  closest  adviser,  the  ambitious  and  unscrupulous 
Sejanus,  proved  faithless  and  unworthy.  For  the 
remaining  six  years  of  his  life,  the  lonely  old  man, 
soured  and  disappointed,  lived  unattended,  except 
by  dependents  in  the  island  of  Capri. 

Such  was  one  side  of  the  picture,  and  it  is  the  one 
which  the  genius  of  Tacitus  has  fixed  in  the  memory 
of  posterity.  He  drew  his  materials,  for  the  most 
part,  from  writers  bitterly  hostile  to  Tiberius,  who 
exaggerated  his  faults,  misinterpreted  his  motives, 
and  recklessly  adopted  any  story,  however  baseless, 
which  agreed  with  their  view  of  his  character.*  They 
belonged,  as  a  rule,  to  the  senatorial  order,  or  to  the 
literary  and  philosophic  circles  with  whom  republi- 
canism was  the  fashion,  or,  like  the  younger  Agrip- 


*  Tac,  Ann,^  iv.,  6,  7. 

'  /^.,  v.,  X.    Livia  died  in  29  A.D. 

*  These  family  feuds  had  begun  earlier.  Tac.,  Ann,y  ii.,  43  . 
'*  divisa  namque  et  discors  aula  erai^  iacitis  in  Drusum  aut  Germani' 
cum  studtis,**  cf,  ib,  iv.,  1 7,  40.  The  women  played  a  prominent  part, 
Livia  on  one  side,  and  the  two  Agrippinas,  Germanicas*s  wife  and 
daughter,  on  the  other. 

^  Tac,  Ann,^  iv.,  ti  :  as  to  the  story  that  Tiberius  poisoned  his  son 
Drusus,  "  tuque  quisquam  scriptor  tarn  insensus  exsHHt  ut  TUerio  ob* 
jectatet^  cum  omnia  aha  conquirereni^  intinderenique** 


476         Outlines  of  Roman  History,      tBook  V 

pina,  had  personal  and  family  wrongs  to  avehge/ 
and  they  painted  Tiberius  as  nothing  but  a  treacher- 
ous and  cruel  tryant.  The  version  of  his  conduct, 
which  they  had  set  in  circulation,  Tacitus  accepted, 
not,  it  is  true,  without  doubts  and  reservations,  but 
with  far  too  ready  a  faith,  and  devoted  himself  rather 
to  heightening  its  effects  by  all  the  devices  of  rhet- 
oric, than  to  weighing  .the  evidence  on  which  it 
rested.  It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  it  was  in 
Rome,  and  in  his  relations  with  Roman  society,  that 
Tiberius  was  seen  at  his  worst.  Yet  beyond  these 
narrow  limits,  neither  Tacitus  nor  his  authorities 
cared  to  cast  more  than  a  passing  glance.  They 
judged  of  the  emperor  and  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment from  this  point  of  view.  Of  the  manner  in 
which  the  empire  was  ruled,  of  the  condition  of  the 
provinces,  they  tell  us  little,  and  probably  did  not 
care  to  know  much.  But  a  critical  study  even  of 
their  narrative,  and  still  more  of  the  comparatively 
impartial  evidence  supplied  by  provincial  writers, 
and  by  inscriptions,  enables  us  to  form  a  more  correct 
judgment.  Tiberius  was  not  a  lovable  man ;  he  was 
morose  and  suspicious,  and  suspicion,  as  it  increased 
its  hold  upon  him,  made  him  in  his  later  years  a 
terror  to  all  who  could  be  suspected  of  treason.  He 
was  hated  in  Rome,  and  not  without  cause.  Yet 
there  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  a  capable  and  vigorous 
ruler,  and  that  the  empire  fared  well  under  his  care. 
He  enforced  justice  in  the  government  of  the  pro- 
vinces ;  he  maintained  the  integrity  of  the  frontiers 

'  Tacitus  refers  by. name  to  the  ''Commentaries  of  the  Yottnger 
Agrippina/'  as  an  authority.    Ann,^  iv.,  53. 


Ch,4l  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  477 

and  the  discipline  of  the  legions ;  he  husbanded  the 
finances,  and  left  a  full  treasury  behind  him.  In  the 
details  of  administration,  and  on  questions  of  social 
and  economic  reform,  he  displayed  judgment  and 
common-sense.  Utterly  unlike  as  he  wa&  to  Augus- 
tus, yet,  as  the  ruler  of  a  great  empire,  he  justified 
the  latter's  choice  of  a  successor,  and  his  deliberate 
opinion  that  the  virtues  of  his  adopted  son  out- 
weighed his  vices.* 

A  very  different  verdict  must  be  passed  on  the 
three  remaining  emperors  of  the  Julian 
line.  All  three  were  immeasurably  inferior 
in  capacity  and  force  of  character,  and  only  one,  the 
Emperor  Claudius,has  any  claims  to  serious  considera- 
tion as  a  statesman.  Tiberius  died  in  March,  37  A.D., 
and  a  few  days  later'  Gaius  Caesar  was  saluted  as 
imperator,  and  invested  with  the  prerogatives  once 
given  to  Augustus.*  The  new  princeps  was  ac- 
cepted with  enthusiasm.  He  was  young*;  he  was 
the  son  of  Germanicus,  the  grandson  of  Drusus,  and, 
through  his  mother  Agrippina,  the  g^eat  grandson 
of  Augustus  himself;  a  relationship  on  which  he 
laid  especial  stress.*  The  legions  in  particular  wel- 
comed the  son  of  their  favourite  general,  who  had 
himself  been  brought  up  in  their  midst.*  At  first, 
too,  Gaius's  own  conduct  served  to  justify  the  gen- 

'  Suet.,  21. 

*  On  March  i8.    Acta  Fratr,  Arv,^  cd.  Henzen,  p.  63, 

*  Dio,  lix.  3  ;  Suet.,  Gaius^  13. 

^  He  was  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  having  been  bom  in  12  A.  D. 

*  He  frequently  mentions  it  on  coins,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  re- 
lationships.    Cohen,  M^d,,  i.,  p.  237. 

*  Suet.,  Gaius ^  9 ;  hence  his  cognomen  "  Caligula," 


4  78  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

eral  hope  of  a  return  to  the  liberal  and  genial  govern- 
ment of  Augustus.  The  senate  was  gfratified  by  his 
declared  intention  of  respecting  its  prerogatives  ajid 
those  of  the  magistrates/  though  it  probably  laughed 
in  secret  at  his  idea  of  restoring  to  the  people  the 
elective  duties  which  Tiberius  had  taken  from  them.' 
Equally  popular  were  his  remissions  of  taxation,  his 
release  of  political  prisoners,  his  removal  of  the  ban 
placed  on  the  writings  of  Cremutius  Cordus,  and, 
above  all,  the  revival  of  the  public  largesses  and 
games.  But  Gaius  had  sat  but  a  few  months  in  the 
seat  of  Augustus  before  the  difference  between  the 
''  young  Augustus  "  as  he  was  called,  and  his  great 
namesake  became  clear  to  every  one.  Even  Tiberius 
was  regretted,  for  Tiberius,  stem  and  gloomy  though 
he  was,  had  at  least  ruled,'  while  Gaius  was  the  slave 
of  all  who  pandered  to  his  pleasures,  and  neither  in 
his  good  nor  his  bad  actions  knew  any  other  guide 
than  his  own  wild  caprices  and  uncontrolled  passions. 
If  he  posed  at  first  as  a  liberal  and  popular  ruler  it 
was  from  a  desire  to  insult  the  memory  of  Tiberius 
and  glorify  himself,  rather  than  from  any  serious  con- 
siderations of  policy.  But  this  mood  soon  passed, 
and  his  conduct  during  the  rest  of  his  brief  reign  was 
that  of  a  madman  intoxicated  with  a  delirious  sense 
of  omnipotence,  and  with  no  other  aim  in  the  use  of 
his  power  than  the  gratification  of  the  fancy  of  the 
moment.  He  wasted  the  savings  accumulated  by 
Tiberius  in  countless  excesses,  and  when  they  were 

>  Dio,  lix.  3 ;  Saet.,  Gauis^  zv.,  x6. 
*  Dio,  lix.,  9  ;  Suet.,  /.  r.,  x6. 
'  Dio,  lix., 


Ch.4l  The  yuli(hClaudian  Line.  479 

gone  he  plundered  the  rich,*  and  alike  in  Italy  and 
in  Gaul  men  were  hurried  to  execution,  whose  only 
crime  was  their  wealth.  While  claiming  divine  hon- 
ours for  himself,  he  heaped  insults  on  the  senate  and 
magistrates,  and  preferred  the  society  of  glooms 
and  jockeys.  Abroad,  the  contrast  with  the  firm  rule 
of  Tiberius  was  shown  by  his  mock  invasions  of 
Germany  and  Britain,*  by  his  reckless  liberality  to 
worthless  native  princes  at  the  expense  of  the  dignity 
and  safety  of  the  empire,  and  by  the  insult  wantonly 
offered  to  the  religious  feelings  of  the  Jews.  That 
Rome  tolerated  him  so  long  proves  the  helplessness 
of  the  community  before  the  master  of  the  praetorian 
guards ;  that  he  inflicted  no  more  lasting  injury  on 
the  empire  was  due  partly  to  the  stability  which  the 
administrative  system  had  acquired  under  Augustus 
and  Tiberius,  partly  to  the  small  share  of  attention 
he  cared  to  give  to  the  affairs  of  the  government. 
On  January  14,  41  A.D.,  this  parody  of  a  reign  was 
ended  by  the  assassination  of  Gaius  in  one  of  the 
passages  of  the  vast  palace  which  he  had  built  for 
himself  on  the  Palatine.' 

Tiberius  Claudius  Caesar,^  the  son  of 
Drusus  and   the  brother  of  Germanicus,      ^IJJaId'. 
was  fifty  years  old  at  the  time  of  his 

'  Dio,  lix.,  xo. 

'  Dio,  lix.,  21,  59;  Saet.,  xliii.  44;  Tac,  Germanicus, ^  37: 
**%ngenUs  C  Casaris  mina  in  ludibrium  versa,** 

«  Suet.,  Gaius,  58  ;  C.  I,  Z,  i.,  p.  385. 

^  For  the  reign  of  Claudius  see  besides  Merivale  and  Schiller, 
Gesch,  d,  Kaiserweit^  i.,  314  sqq, ;  Lehmann,  Claudius  v,  ihre  Zeii 
(Gotha,  1858). 


480  Outlines  0/  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

nephew's  murder.'  That  he  should  ever  wear  the 
imperial  purple  had  been  considered  by  every  one 
both  improbable  and  undesirable.  From  his  boy- 
hood upwards  his  sluggishness,  his  ungainly  figure, 
awkward  manners,  and  indistinct  utterance,  had  made 
him  an  object  of  contempt  and  ridicule.*  Even  his 
mother  declared  that  ''  nature  had  begun  but  never 
finished  him.*'  His  grandmother  Livia  heartily 
despised  him,  and  Augustus  despaired  of  ever  mak- 
ing him  a  presentable  figure  in  the  eyes  of  the  Ro- 
man  public'  Throughout  the  reign  of  his  uncle 
Tiberius  he  lived  in  seclusion.  He  was  known  to  be 
a  student,  with  a  love  of  curious  learning,  but  with 
an  equally  strong  love  for  low  society  and  coarse 
pleasures,  a  combination  of  tastes  in  which,  as  in 
other  points,  he  curiously  resembled  our  own  King 
James  I.  On  the  accession  of  his  nephew  Gaius  he 
was  made  consul,  to  the  amusement  and  surprise  of 
Rome ;  but  his  consulship  over,  he  relapsed  into  his 
former  position.  His  constitutional  timidity  and 
indolence,  and  his  boorish  habits,  made  him  the  butt 
of  the  court,  while  even  his  life  was  not  always  safe 
from  his  nephew's  wild  outbreaks  of  fury  against 
everybody  and  everything  around  him.  When, 
after  the  murder  of  Gaius,  he  was  dragged  from  his 
hiding-place  in  the  palace,  and  carried  to  the  praetorian 
camp,*  neither  he  himself  nor  the  senate,  whidi  was 


'  Suet.,  Claud, t  2.    He  was  bom  at  Lugdunum  on  Aug.  i,  10  B.C., 
the  day  on  which  the  altar  to  Rome  and  Augustus  was  dedicated. 
*  Suet.,  Claud, ^  iii.,  7.  •  Suet.,  /.  c, 

^  Suet.,  10 ;  Dio,  Ix.,  i.  The  discovery  of  the  only  surviving 
Csesar  is  commemorated  by  the  coins,  bearing  the  legend,  **impe9* 
\aiore\  recept[p'\"    Cohen,  i.,  p.  254. 


Ch.  41  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  48 1 

already  discussing  the  restoration  of  the  republic/ 
nor  the  passers-by,  who  imagined  that  he  was  being 
hurried  to  execution/  thought  of  him  as  a  successor 
to  Augustus.  But  the  populace  and  the  guards 
demanded  "  a  single  ruler  ** " ;  the  senate  gave  way ; 
and  after  two  days  of  painful  suspense,  Claudius  was 
formally  invested  with  the  customary  honours  and 
powers  of  the  principate. 

Of  his  merits  as  a  ruler  during  the  thirteen  years 
of  his  reign,  it  is  not  easy  to  form  a  clear  opinion. 
On  the  one  hand,  our  authorities  are  never  weary  of 
representing  him  as  a  dull,  undignified,  pedantic, 
and  timid  man,  ruled  by  women  and  freedmen,'  and 
addicted  to  coarse  pleasures.  Yet  even  the  ancient 
historians  recognise  that  he  was  something  more 
than  this,  and  the  record  of  what  was  achieved  by 
him  or  in  his  name  confirms  the  impression.  No 
doubt  the  mixture  of  good  sense  and  folly,  which 
Suetonius  notices,^  is  as  apparent  in  him  as  in 
James  I.  His  blind  belief  in  unworthy  favourites 
frequently  misled  him ;  his  pedantic  antiquarianism, 
and  fussiness,  were  constantly  exciting  ridicule,  and 
occasionally  marred  the  effect  of  his  most  statesman- 
like acts ;  it  must  be  allowed,  too,  that  his  nervous 
timidity  was  apt  to  make  him  suspicious  and  cruel. 
Yet  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  fact  remains  that 

'  Saet.,  Gains ^  60 ;  Claud,  ^  10:  **  asserturi  commutum  lihertatem** 
Dio,  Ix.,  I. 

•  Suet.,  /.  f . :  **  unum  rectorem  exposcente,** 

•  Dio,  Ix.,  2  ;  kSovkoHparifStf  re  cifia  xocC  iyvYOcixoxparrjBrf, 
So  the  writer  (?  Seneca)  of  the  skit  on  Claudius's  apotheosis,  describing 
his  reception  by  the  gods,  *' putares  amnes  illius  esse  Hbertos^  adf 
ilium  nemo  curadai." 

•  Suet.,  Claud,,  15. 

31 


482         Outlines  of  Roman  History.         [Bookv 

the  rule  of  Claudius  left  a  deep  and  abiding  mark  on 
the  history  of  the  empire.  To  his  reign  belongs  the 
annexation  of  Mauretania,  of  South  Britain,  of 
Thrace,  and  Judaea/  The  Romanisation  of  the  fron- 
tier lands  along  the  Rhine  and  Danube  received  its 
first  powerful  impulse  from  him/  by  the  foundation  of 
Cologne  (Colonia  Claudia  Ara  Agrippinensis)  on  the 
Rhine,  and  the  gift  of  Roman  rights  to  several  towns 
in  Noricum.  The  chiefsof  the  Gaulish  clan  of  the  JEAwi 
were  admitted  to  senatorial  dignity,  and, 'if  Seneca 
may  be  trusted,  Claudius  was  as  lavish  of  the  Roman 
franchise  as  Augustus  had  been  sparing.'  In  Rome 
and  Italy  his  name  was  commemorated  by  solid  and 
useful  works,  which  contrasted  equally  with  the  par- 
simony of  Tiberius  and  the  senseless  extravagance  of 
Gaius,  the  two  great  aqueducts.  Aqua  Claudia  and 
Anio  Novus,  the  harbour  at  Ostia,  the  draining  of  the 
Fucine  lake,  and  the  continuation  along  the  Adriatic 
coast  of  the  Via  Valeria/  It  was  under  Claudius,  too, 
that  a  most  important  advance  was  made  in  the  exten- 
sion and  organisation  of  that  imperial  administrative 
machinery,  which  Hadrian  was  to  develop  still  further.* 
The  quaestor  at  Ostia  was  replaced  by  a  procurator  of 
Caesar,*  an  imperial  procurator  of  "the  public  waters** 
appears  for  the  first  time,'  and,  more  significant  still, 

*  See  below,  p.  502  sqq, 

*  Plin.,  N,  ff»f  iii.,  146.  The  construction  o£  the  Via  Claudia 
Augusta  over  the  Brenner  Pass,  **  a  flumine  Pado  adfluvium  Danu- 
vium"  Wilm.,  818,  was  an  important  part  of  the  work. 

*  Tac,  Ann.^  xi.,  23;  Class.  Review,  1895,  p.  441. 

^  Suet.,  20 :  **  opera  magna^ potiusque  necessaria  quant  muUa  per'- 
fecit"    Dio,  Ix.,  11 ;  /.  R,  N.,  6256. 

*  Hirschfeld,  C/ntersucA,,  286  sqq, 

'  Suet.,  Claud, ^  24.  ^  Frontinus,  De  Aquced,^  116,  xi8. 


Ch.  41  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  483 

these  private  servants  of  Csesar  w6re  now  first  invested 
with  a  jurisdiction  which  elevated  them  to  the  rank  of 
public  officials.*  With  Claudius  also  commenced  the 
transformation  of  Caesar's  household  servants  into  min- 
isters of  state.  The  power  and  influence  wielded  by 
his  three  famous  freedmen.  Narcissus,  his  secretary, 
Pallas,  the  comptroller  of  accounts,  and  Polybius,  his 
director  of  studies,'  were  an  offence  and  a  scandal  in 
the  eyes  of  Roman  society ;  but  the  way  was  thus 
prepared  for  the  establishment  of  a  central  imperial 
ministry  in  Rome,  in  which,  before  long  even  Roman 
knights  were  eager  to  fill  a  place.  If  we  add  to  these 
achievements  his  reforms  in  the  civil  law,  his  assidu- 
ity in  the  administration  of  justice,' and  the  numerous 
proofs  which  exist  of  the  attention  he  paid  to  the 
details  of  administration,*  we  must  acknowledge  that 
many  greater  and  better  men  have  been  worse  rulers, 
and  that  in  spite  of  Seneca's  sarcasms,  it  was  not 
without  reason  that  Claudius  alone,  of  the  Csesars 
between  Augustus  and  Vespasian,  received  the 
honour  of  deification,  or  that  the  Gaulish  noble  and 
Roman  senator  Vindex  coupled  his  name  with  that 
of  Augustus  as  deserving  of  allegiance  sCnd  honour.* 


*  Suet.,  Claud,,  12. 

'  Suet.,  Claud,,  28  :  for  the  offices  of  the  freedmen  **fl^  epistulis** 
aud  **  a  ratumibusy*  see  Hirschfeld,  Untersuch,,  31  sqq, ;  Liebe- 
nam,  Laufbahn  d,  Procuratoren  (Jena,  1886),  50  sqq, ;  Fried- 
lander,  Sittengesch,,  i.,  160  sqq, 

'  Suet.,  Claud, y  14. 

*  In  the  improved  arrangement  for  the  com  supply,  Suet,,  Claud,^ 
18  ;  the  establishment  of  fire  brigades  at  Ostiaand  Puteoli,  ibid,,  25  • 
and  generally  Schiller,  i.,  329  sqq, 

*  Dio,  Ixiii.,  32. 


484  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  V 

■  -* 

With  Claudius's  successor,  Nero,  the  "  family  of 
the  Caesars  '*  ended.    He  was  the  son  of  Germanicus's 

strong-willed  daughter  Agrippina,  and  of 
Jj5sB*A.D.      Cn.  Domitius  Ahenobarbus.    He  was  thus 

descended,  through  his  mother,  from 
Augustus  himself,  and  through  his  father  from 
Augustus's  sister  Octavia,*  a  pedigree  which,  added 
to  the  respect  felt  for  the  memory  of  his  grandfather 
Germanicus,  stood  him  in  good  stead  with  the 
Roman  public.  His  accession,  on  the  death  of 
Claudius  in  54  A.D.,  was,  indeed,  mainly  due  to  the 
indomitable  and  unscrupulous  perseverance  of  his 
mother,  who,  after  the  fall  of  Messalina,  had  gradu- 
ally acquired  so  complete  an  ascendency  over 
Claudius,  that,  in  spite  of  their  relationship,  he  mar- 
ried her.'  Before  Claudius  died  Nero  was  already 
looked  upon  as  his  successor,  to  the  exclusion  of 
Claudius's  own  son  Britannicus;  and  on  the  an- 
nouncement of  his  death  he  was  at  once,  and  with- 
out opposition,  saluted  as  emperor."  Nero  ruled  for 
fifteen  years,  and  his  reign,  with  its  brilliant  opening 
and  tragic  close,  its  fantastic  revels  and  frightful 
disasters,  left  a  deep  impression  on  the  imagination 
of  men.  The  insolent  splendours,  the  savage  cruelty, 
the  disgraceful  vices  of  Nero,  stood  out  in  lurid  con- 
trast with  the  soberer,  quieter  times  that  followed. 

mm 

In  pagan  literature  he  became  a  type  of  vftfit^,  which 


'  Agrippina*s  mother,  the  elder  Agrippina,  was  the  daughter  of 
Julia.  Cn.  Domitius's  mother  was  Antonia,  daughter  of  Octavia. 
Suet,  Ndro^  5, 

•  Tac,  Ann,^  xii.,  5,  6. 

•ZJiV.,  xii.,  69;  Suet.,  /Zero,  8;  the  date  was  October,  13,54 
A.D.  Comp.  Acta  />.  Arv.,  p.  63  ;  for  the  principate  of  Nero,  see 
Schiller,  GfuA,  d,  Kaiser%tit^  i. ;  Henderson,  Nero  (Methuen,  zgos). 


Ch.41  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  485 

justly  provokes  the  anger  of  the  gods  ;  to  the  Chris- 
tians he  was  a  persecutor,  drunk  with  the  blood  of 
the  saints,  the  very  incarnation  of  the  power  of  evil. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  all,  the  name  of  the  last  of  the  race 
of  Augustus  was  always  invested  with  something  of 
romantic  history,  not  unmingled  with  regret.  His 
memory  was  long  cherished  by  the  Roman  populace, 
as  that  of  an  open-handed  patron,  and  in  Greece  the 
recollections  of  his  magnificence,  his  liberality,  and 
his  enthusiasm  for  art,  were  still  fresh  when  Pau- 
sanias  visited  the  country/  Into  the  details  of 
Nero's  rule  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter.  The  first 
five  years,  before  "  the  wild  beast  had  tasted  blood," 
and  while  his  course  was  guided  by  the  philosopher 
Seneca  and  his  trusted  ally  Afranius  Burrus,  prefect 
of  the  praetorian  guard,  were  prosperous  and  un- 
eventful.' But  from  59  onwards  there  was  a  rapid 
change  for  the  worse.  The  murder  of  his  mother 
Agrippina  (59  A.D.)  was  followed  by  the  death  of 
Burrus  (62  A.D.)  and  the  retirement  of  Seneca,  and 
their  place  was  taken  by  Tigellinus  and  Poppaea,  to 
make  room  for  whom  Nero's  innocent  wife  Octavia 
was  sacrificed.  The  forebodings  of  evil,  excited  by 
the  earthquake  at  Pompeii,  and  the  reverses  which 
befell  the  Roman  legions  in  Armenia,  were  confirmed 
by  the  great  fire  which  broke  out  in  September,  64 
A.D.,  and  which  was  universally  regarded  as  a  proof 
of  the  displeasure  of  the  gods.  Nor  was  the  belief 
that  the  reckless  Caesar  was  doomed,  or  the  discon- 
tent with  his  rule  weakened  by  the  spectacle  of  the 

»  Suet.,  Nero,  57. 

*  Both  were  by  origin  provincials,  Seneca  being  a  Spaniard,  and 
Burrus  a  native  of  Vaison  (Vasio),  in  Narbonese  Gaul.  C./.Z.,  xii., 
5842,  gives  his  previous  career,  as  procurator  to  Li  via,  Tiberius,  and 
Claudius. 


486  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      tBook  V 

famous  "  golden  house,"  which  he  built  for  himself, 
and  to  defray  the  cost  of  which  both  Italy  and  the 
provinces  were  ruthlessly  pillaged.  In  65  the  failure 
of  Piso*s  conspiracy  directed  the  fierce  fury  of  the 
emperor  against  the  nobles,  while  a  pestilence  deci- 
mated the  populace  of  Rome.  But  the  end  was  not 
far  off.  The  anxiety  to  be  rid  of  an  emperor  who 
disgraced  the  name  of  Augustus  had  spread  from 
Rome  to  the  provinces.  In  the  midst  of  a  triumphal 
progress  through  Greece,  which  scandalised  Rome 
and  the  West  almost  as  much  as  his  vices  and 
crimes,  Nero  was  startled  by  rumours  of  disaffection 
in  the  western  provinces.  He  reached  Italy  (March 
68  A.D.)  only  to  learn  first  that  Gaul,  Spain,  Africa, 
and  the  legions  on  the  Rhine  were  in  revolt  against 
him,  and  then  that  Galba  was  marching  upon  Rome. 
Deserted  by  every  one,  by  senate,  people,  and  even 
the  praetorian  guards,  he  sought  shelter  in  the  villa 
of  his  freedman  Phaon,  outside  the  city.  There  he 
heard  of  the  proclamation  of  Galba  as  emperor,  and 
of  the  sentence  of  death  passed  upon  himself,  and 
there,  on  June  9,  68  A.D.,  he  anticipated  the  ven- 
geance of  his  enemies  by  suicide. 

If  we  turn  from  the  Caesars  themselves  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  empire,  we  notice  how  comparatively 
.  slight  was  the  effect  produced  even  by 

Condition  of         **  ^  ^ 

the  emmre.    the  wild  exccsscs  of  Gaius  or  Nero.    On 

i4r68A.D. 

the  whole,  there  was  a  stability,  a  tran- 
quillity and  even  a  prosperity,  which  contrasts 
curiously  with  the  atmosphere  of  intrigue,  blood- 
shed, and  profligacy  which  surrounded  the  persons 
of  the  emperors  themselves.    The  explanation  is,  no 


Ch.4]  The  yuli(hClaudzan  Line.  487 

doubt,  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  provinces 
were  on  the  one  hand  scarcely  affected  by  the  vices 
and  crimes  of  the  individual  emperors,  and  were,  on 
the  other,  keenly  sensible  that  the  only  alternative 
to  Caesarism  was  anarchy,  and  that  a  bad  Caesar  was 
better  than  none  at  all. 

Outwardly,  the  concordat  established  by  Augus- 
tus, between  the  old  republican  constitution  and  the 
authority  of  Caesar,  had  been  maintained 
under  his  successors;  and  Nero  himself  government! 
had  openly  accepted  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, that  Caesar  was  only  a  citizen  charged  with 
particular  departments  of  administration,  and  bound 
as  such  to  recognise  the  independent  authority  of 
his  coUes^ues,  the  regular  magistrates/  But  the 
unreality  of  this  partition  of  power  was  not  to  be 
concealed  by  such  professions  of  respect  for  the 
"  maxims  of  Augustus  " ; '  and  the  tendency  to  make 
the  temporary,  exceptional,  and  limited  authority 
givea  to  Augustus,  permanent,  regular,  and  abso- 
lute, was  irresistible.  Augustus's  powers 
had  been  granted  to  him  for  a  certain  '^*'oFc«m?. 
number  of  years,  and  the  grant  was 
periodically  renewed.  But  his  successors  received 
their  powers  for  life.  Strictly  speaking,  there  was 
no  necessity  that  any  successor  to  Augustus  should 
be  selected,  or  that  when  selected  he  should  receive 


'  Tat.,  Ann,,  xiii.,  4:  ''  teneret  antiqtta  munia  senatus^  consulum 
tribunalibus  Italia  et  publica  provincia  adsisUreni  .  »  ,  se  man- 
datis  exercitibus  consui/urum." 

'  Suet,  JVero,  10:  **  ex  AugusH  prascripto  se  imperaturum  pro- 


488  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  v 

the  same  prerogatives.  Except,  however,  for  a  brief 
interval  after  the  death  of  Gaius,  and  again  after  the 
fall  of  Nero,  the  first  question  was  not  even  raised, 
and  from  the  accession  of  Gains  onwards,  a  cus- 
tomary list  of  powers  and  privileges  was  voted  en 
bloc  and  with  little  change  to  each  Caesar.*  More- 
over, the  "  principate  **  granted  to  Augustus  in  recog- 
nition of  his  great  services,  was  not  only  in  process 
of  being  converted  into  a  permanent  institution  with 
recognised  prerogatives;  it  seemed  also  in  a  fair  way 
to  become  a  hereditary  office,  and  the  house  of  the 
Caesars  was  fast  assuming  the  position  of  a  ruling 
house,  with  exclusive  claims  to  sovereigjnty.  It  may 
be  said,  indeed,  that  the  principate  was  never  so  near 
becoming  a  legitimate  monarchy,  as  on  the  eve  of 
the  catastrophe  which  overthrew  Nero. 

If  it  ceased  to  be  possible  to  treat  the  principate 
as  a  temporary  and  exceptional  addition  to  the  con- 
^^^  stitution,  which  might  be  dispensed  with 

Sbm's*"  **^  or  retained  at  the  discretion  of  senate  and 
power.  people,  it  was  even  more  difficult  to  keep 

up  the  fiction  that  a  clear  line  could  be  drawn 
between  the  authority  of  the  princeps  and  that  of 
the  regular  magistrates.  The  department  originally 
assigned  to  Augustus  had,  during  his  long  rule,  been 
so  widened  and  extended  as  to  reduce  all  others  to 
insignificance,  and  under  his  successors  during  this 
period,  it  continued  to  grow,  though  at  a  less  rapid 
rate.  Abroad  the  number  of  Caesar's  provinces  had, 
by  68*  A.  D.,  risen  to  twenty-five.  .  On  the  south  he 

*  Dio,  lix.,  3  ;  Pelham,  Journ,  of  Phil,  ^  xvii.,  45,  where  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  fragment  usually  entitled  **£^';ri/^tm/m^  Vespasiani** 
is  discussed. 


Ch.  41  The  yulio-Claudian  Line,  489 

was  master  of  Egypt,  Numidia,  and  Mauretania ;  in 
the  West,  two  thirds  of  Spain,  three  fourths  of  Gaul 
and  South  Britain  were  subject  to  him.  Along  the 
northern  frontier  his  authority  stretched  in  an  un- 
broken line  from  the  German  Ocean  to  the  Euxine, 
while  in  the  East  it  covered  the  eastern  half  of  the 
peninsula  of  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Judaea.  Within 
the  limits  of  Italy  the  defence  of  the  coasts,  the 
maintenance  of  the  public  roads,  and  the  man- 
agement of  the  public  lands  were  in  his  hands.  In 
Rome  itself  he  was  responsible  for  the  corn  supply, 
for  the  water  supply,  and  for  the  police.  It  is  easy 
to  realise  that  an  authority,  recognised  as  supreme 
over  so  vast  an  area,  must  have  been  virtually 
supreme  everywhere. 

Under  the  shadow  of  Csesar  no  independent  au- 
thority could  flourish.  The  assemblies  of  the  Roman 
people  ox  plebs  lost  even  the  little  reality 
they  retained  under  Augustus.  After  the  «a.embiyl 
change  made  by  Tiberius,*  they  ceased 
even  in  form  to  elect  the  annual  magistrates  from  the 
prsetorship  downwards,  and  in  the  case  of  the  con- 
sulship, they  merely  accepted  the  candidates  nomi- 
nated  by  Caesar.*  Assemblies,  it  is  true,  were  still 
held  to  confer  his  authority  upon  each  new  emperor, 
but  otherwise  they  ceased,  with  one  or  two  excep- 


'  Tac.,i4ffff.,  i.,  15:  ^^tumprimumecampocomitaadpairestrttnS'' 
lata  sunt"  ;  Mommsen,  Staaisr,,  ii.,  860,  iii.,  347.  According  to 
Velleius  Patercttlus  (ii.,  134),  the  change  had  been  planned  by 
Augustus. 

'  Pliny  in  the  Panegyric,  clearly  implies  that  the  consuls  were  stiL 
elected  with  the  old  formalities  in  the  Campus  Martius. 


490  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

tionsy  to  exercise  their  ancient  prerogative  of  leg- 
islation.'    It  was  still  the  fashion  to  speak  of  the 

consulship  as  the  "supreme  power,*"  but 
Jonsuiship.    Tiberius  could  truly  say  that  **  something 

greater  and  higher  was  expected  of  the 
princeps^  The  consuls  still  gave  their  name  to  the 
year:  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  consuls  sitting 
with  the  senate,  there  was  no  appeal  to  Caesar,* 
and  the  consulship  was  still  a  coveted  prize.  Yet 
when  Caligula  made  his  hofse  a  consul,  he  only  ex^ 
pressed,  in  a  coarse  and  exaggerated  form,  the  actually 
dependent  position  of  the  ancient  chief  magistracy 
of  state.  The  consuls  were  avowedly  Caesar's  nomi- 
nees ;*  they  held  office  at  the  most  for  six  months,* 
and  their  exclusive  dignity  was  impaired  by  the 
growing  frequency  with  which  the  emperors  be- 
stowed the  consular  rank  and  insignia  upon  favour- 
ites of  their  own.  .  As  presidents  of  the  senate,  they 
ventured  but  rarely  to  introduce  business  without 
Caesar's  previous  knowledge  and  approval,  and  even 
the  criminal  jurisdiction  which  they  enjoyed  jointly 
with  the  senate  became  more  and  more  depen- 
dent on  Caesar's  sufferance.     The  relations  which 


^  Instances  of  legislation  by  the  comiHa  occur  nnder  Tiberias  and 
Claudius.  Tac,  y^ifif.,  iv.,  i6  ;  xi.,  13;  Z>»]^.,  xl.^  i,  24.  A**Ux 
agraria  **  of  Nerva  is  also  mentioned,  Dio,  Ixviii.,  2. 

•  Suet.,  Calig,^  26:  *•*  fuitque  per  triduum  sine  summa  poUslaU 
respublica^\;  Tac,  Ann,,  iv.,  19  ;  Plin.,  Paneg,^  59*    . 

•  Tac,  Ann,f  iii.,  53. 
^  /?(f.t  xlix.,  2. 

•  Seneca,  De  /ra,  iii,,  31 ;  Plin.,  Paneg.^  77  "  ^sum  [jr.  Casttrern\ 
qui  cofisules  facit,** 

•  Suet.,  Nero^  15. 


Ch.4]  The  yulichClaudtan  LifU.  491 

existed   between   the    emperors    of    this    ^^ 

^  The  senate. 

period  and  the  senate,  afford  equally  clear 
proof  of  the  unreality  of  the  compromise  effected  by 
Augustus.  Tiberius,  during  the  greater  part  of  his 
reign,  showed  an  unmistakable  desire  to  make  the 
senate  of  real  use  in  the  work  of  government.  Not 
only  did  he  habitually  bring  before  the  senate 
matters  of  importance  within  his  own  department, 
consulting  it  even  on  questions  so  entirely  within  his 
own  pirerogative,  such  as  the  grievances  of  the 
soldiers,  or  negotiations  with  foreign  powers;  but  he 
encouraged  it  to  deal  independently  with  those  mat- 
ters which  nominally  belonged  to  its  own  province^ 
with  the  administration  of  the  "  public  provinces," 
or  with  the  condition  of  Italy.*  But  the  task  was  a 
thankless  one.  From  a  body  at  once  so  sensitive  on 
the  score  of  its  dignity,  so  suspicious  of  the  emperor's 
intentions,  and  so  conscious  of  its  own  powerlessness, 
no  effective  assistance  could  be  expected.  The 
senate  accepted. Caesar's  proposals  submissively,  and 
when  left  to  act  by  itself,  it  either  did  nothing,  or,  as 
Tiberius  complained,  "  cast  all  its  cares  upon  him."' 
During  the  glodmy  years  which  followed  his  retire- 
ment to  Capri,  it  merely  awaited  in  trembling 
anxiety  the  despatches  which  announced  the  em* 
peror's  pleasure.  Under  Tiberius's  successors  things 
were  much  the  same.  Before  the  wild  outbursts  of 
Gaius  or  Nero  it  cowered  in  terror.'  In  quieter 
times,  its  nervous  readiness  to  do  what  Caesar  pro< 

»  S^et.,  Tib,,  30. 

•  Tac,  Ann.,  iii.,  35. 

'  Suet.,  Gaius,  26;  Dio,  lix.,  94* 


49  2  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

posed,  was  only  equalled  by  its  reluctance  to  do 
anything  else!  But  powerless  as  the  magistrates  and 
senate  were,  by  comparison  with  Caesar,  it  was  not 
yet  possible  for  the  latter  frankly  to  treat  them  as 
subordinates,  or  to  ignore  them.    And  the  reason 

lay  not  so  much  in  the  prestige,  which 
Mbieue.       ^^^  attached  to  these  ancient  institutions, 

as  in  their  close  connection  with  the  old 
nobility,  with  whom,  and  not  with  the  senate  as 
such,  the  early  Caesars  lived  at  feud/  The  old 
noblesse  were  the  natural  enemies  of  the  new  rigime^ 
which  had  raised  the  Julii  and  Claudii  so  far  above 
the  rest  of  their  order ;  they  resented  their  dimin- 
ished importance,  and  while  afraid  openly  to  oppose 
Caesar,  they  no  less  disliked  obeying  him.  Nor 
could  the  more  powerful  and  ambitious  among  them 
forget  that  legally  the  position  of  princeps  was  as 
open  to  them  as  to  any  Julius  or  Claudius;  while  in 
his  turn  the  emperor  looked  upon  each  of  them  as 
possible  if  not  actual  rivals.*  Even  the  rule  of  Au- 
gustus himself  was  not  borne  always  with  acquies* 
cence;  under  his  successors  there  was  a  standing 
quarrel.  While  the  nobles  intrigued  and  conspired, 
Caesar  replied  by  a  stringent  law  of  treason,  and  by 
the  hateful  system  of  informers.  It  was  a  feud 
which  harassed  and  hampered  in  turn  Tiberius, 
Gaius,  Claudius,  and  Nero,  and  which  has  left  an  in- 
effaceable mark  on  the  records  of  their  reigns.  The 
task  of  the  emperors,  from  Vespasian  onwards,  was 

>  G.  Boissier,  VO^siium  sous  Us  Cisars  (Paris,  1875).     Fried- 
Under,  Sittengesch.^  i.,  185  sqq, 
•  Tac,  Ann,^  i.,  13. 


Ch.4]  The  yuluhClaudian  Line.  493 

as  much  facilitated  by  the  virtual  extinction  of  this 
noblesse,  as  that  of  our  Tudor  sovereigns,  by  the 
decimation  of  the  English  nobility  in  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses.  The  senatorial  nobility  of  their  day  was 
easily  satisfied  by  a  show  of  courtesy,  while  readily 
accepting  a  purely  subordinate  place. 

The  undeniable  fact  that  even  during 
this  peiiod  Caesar  was  master,  gradually  **tendendel! 
but  inevitably  told  upon  his  position  and 
upon  his  government.  The  former  approached 
more  and  more  nearly  to  that  of  a  sovereign,  the 
latter  needed,  and  to  some  extent  secured,  a  regular 
and  recognised  organisation.  Augustus  had  en- 
deavoured to  enforce  by  example  and  precept  the 
view  that  he  was  only  a  citizen  among  citizens,*  and 
Tiberius  set  his  face  against  the  extravagant  homage 
offered  to  him.'  But  the  tendency  to  place  Caesar, 
and  even  Caesar's  house,  on  a  higher  level  than  that 
of  private  citizens,  and  to  surround  him  with  many 
of  the  outward  accessories  of  royalty,  was  too  strong 
to  be  resisted.  It  is  true  that  no  emperor  but  Gaius 
claimed  to  be  a  god,  and  that  the  grosser  kinds  of 
Caesar-worship  were  discouraged  both  by  the  em- 
perors themselves  and  by  the  republican  traditions 
of  Roman  society.  Yet,  apart  from  the  fact  that  to 
the  provincials  and  to  the  half-servile  plebs  of  Rome 
and  Italy  the  omnipotent  Caesar  was  already  more 
than  human,  Caesar-worship  in  its  official  and  recog- 
nised forms  was  gradually  elevating  Caesar  to  a 
position  very  near  that  of  the  gods  of  the  state. 


'  Suet.,  Afig.,  53,  56.  •  ZJ.,  Tib.,  xxxvi.,  27. 


494  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      LBook  v 

The  deification  of  Julius  and  Augustus  cast  some- 
thing of  a  special  glory  over  their  descendants,  while 
the  public  and  widespread  worship  of  the  genius 
or  numen  of  Augustus  consecrated  the  rule,  if  not 
the  person,  of  Caesar  throughout  the  empire.  The 
emperors  from  Tiberius  to  Nero  were  at  least  the 
sons  and  grandsons  of  gods,  and  ruled  by  something 
like  a  divine  right.  These  emperors,  moreover,  were 
all,  in  one  way  or  another,  of  the  race  of  Augustus, 
and  the  house  of  the  Caesars  thus  acquired  the 
prestige  of  a  royal  house.     In   direct  violation   of 

republican  usage,  and  even  of  the  theory 
ofcaesa?!***"  ^^  ^^^  principatc,   the   incipient   royalty 

of  Caesar  was  shared  by  the  members 
of  his  family.  They  were  associated  with  him 
in  the  public  prayers.'  The  males  of  his  house  were 
decorated  at  an  early  age,  and  in  rapid  succession 
with  public  offices  and  honours,*  while  even  more 
significant  was  the  public  recognition  given  to  the 
wives,  daughters,  and  sisters.  Their  heads  appear  on 
the  coins,"  they  bear  the  title  Augusta,*  a  guard  of 
honour  attended  them,  and  in  one  or  two  cases  they 
were  deified  after  death.*  A  similar  promotion 
awaited  the  ''household  of  Caesar'':  it  acquired  a 
privileged   position   and    a  public  character.    The 


'  This  was  so  in  the  provinces  even  under  Augustus.  Wihn., 
Exempla^  104.  From  the  time  of  Vespasian  onwards  the  **  Domus 
Casaris  "  appears  in  the  Acts  of  the  Arval  College. 

•  Mommsen,  Staatsr,^  ii.,  772  sqq, 

'  E»  g,,  in  the  cases  of  Livia,  of  Gaius's  sisters,  of  Agrippina  after 
her  marriage  with  Claudius. 
^  It  was  given  to  Livia,  Agrippina,  Poppsea. 

*  Livia  and  Poppsea.    See  Mommsen,  /.  c* 


Ch.  4]  The  yuluhClaudian  Line,  495 

circle  of  Caesar's  friends'  rapidly  developed  into  a 
court.  Even  under  Tiberius  the  cohors 
amicorufn*  was  a  recognised  institution.  ""JixIeM?.* 
Under  Claudius  the  cura  amicorum  was 
a  special  office.'  Admission  to  Csesar's  friendship 
was  a  formal  act ;  expulsion  from  it  was  equivalent 
to  a  sentence  of  exile.*  The  "  friends  "  themselves 
were  ranged  in  classes,  with  varying  privileges  and 
emoluments,  and  in  particular  with  rights  of  admis- 
sion to  Caesar's  presence,  as  nicely  regulated  as  in 
the  court  of  Louis  XIV.*  In  the  magnificent  palaces 
with  which  Gaius  and  Nero  replaced  the  simple  resi- 
dence which  had  satisfied  Augustus  all  the  signs  of 
royal  state  were  visible — the  crowds  of  courtiers,  the 
elaborate  court  ceremonial,  the  household  troops,  who 
guarded  the  doors  and  lined  the  ante-chambers.  It 
would  be  a  mistake  to  ascribe  these  changes  merely 
to  the  vanity  of  Gaius  or  Nero,  or  to  the  servility  of 
those  about  them.  There  were  reasons  of  policy 
also.  The  increased  outward  splendour  of  Caesar's 
position  was  even  more  useful  than  the  increased 
stringency  of  the  law  of  treason  in  checking  the  am- 
bition of  aspiring  nobles,  and  confirming  the  allegi- 
ance of  the  public.  Nor  was  it  less  desirable  that 
the  Roman  Caesar  should  be  able  to  challenge  com- 
parison in  these  respects  with  his  great  rival  the 
King  of  Kings  beyond  the  Euphrates. 

*  For  the  *' amici  Casaris'*  see  FriedlSnder,  SitUngesch,,  i.,  ii8 
tqq,     Mommsen,  Hermes ^  iv.,  120 ;  Diet.  Antiq,  s.  v.  Princeps, 

'  Valerias  Maximus  (ix.,  15)  speaks  of  the  *'  Cohors  Atigusta** 
»  Orelli,  158S. 

*  Tac,  Ann,,  vi.,  9  ;  id..  Hi.,  12,  24  ;  Suet.,  Tid.,  56. 

*  Plin.,  N.  If.,  xxxiii.,  41  ;  Seneca,  De  Bene/.,  vi.,  34  ;  De  CUm.^ 
i.,  10;  Suet.,  Tib,,  46. 


49^  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  v 

The  transformation  of  Caesar's  personal  servants 
into  officials  of  state  was  even  more  than  the  trans- 
formation   of    his  personal  friends  into 
cieSa?'  courtiers  a  political  necessity.'    The  more 

important  of  the  offices  in  Caesar's  service, 
such  as  the  prefecture  of  the  com  supply,  the  pre- 
fecture of  Egypt,  the  provincial  procuratorships, 
inevitably  ranked  from  the  first  as  virtually  public 
posts,  and  were  filled  almost  invariably  by  Roman 
knights.  But,  before  the  time  of  Vitellius,  the  do- 
mestics offices  in  his  household  and  about  his  person 
were  filled,  as  in  private  households,  by  freedmen 
and  slaves.*  The  influence  wielded  by  the  imperial 
freedmen,  especially  under  Claudius  and  Nero,  was 
naturally  a  sore  point  with  the  Roman  aristocracy.' 
It  was  bad  enough  that  a  low-bom  prefect  of  the 
praetorian  guard  should  be  a  greater  man  than  the 
consuls  and  praetors,^  but  the  wealth  and  power  of  a 
Pallas  or  a  Polybius  were  a  worse  scandal  still.  The 
truth,  however,  is  that  neither  the  weakness  of 
Claudius,  nor  Nero's  dislike  of  affairs,  nor  even  their 
own  ability,  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  prominence 
of  these  freedmen,  as  the  vast  importance  of  the  out- 
wardly humble  posts  they  held.    A  great  part  of  the 

'  For  what  follows  see  Friedlender,  Sittengesch,^  i.,  63  ;  Hirchsfeld, 
Uniertuchungen^  passim, 

'Tac,  Hisi,^  I.,  58:  **  mimsteria pHnHpaius  a  H^eriis  nf^  soUta,** 

'Tacitus,  Ann,,  iv.,  7,  says  of  Tiberias,  ** modesta  servitia,  pauci 
Hberti,**  Cf,  Claudis,  ^wm.,  12-60 :  ** liber tos  quos  rei  familiari praf- 
ecerat,  sibique  et  legibus  adaquaverit,**     Cf»  ib,,  xiv.,  39  (Nero). 

^A  newly-discovered  inscription  (C  /.  L.,  xii.,  5842),  gives  the 
career  of  Afranius  Burrus,  Nero's  praetorian  prefect  and  minister. 
He  was  procurator  to  Livia,  and  then  to  Tiberius  and  Claudius. 


Ch.  41  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  497 

business,  which  a  modern  sovereign  transacts  through 
his  ministers,  was  performed  for  the  early  Cissars  by 
their  freedmen.  Through  the  hands  of  the  freed- 
man,  ab  epistulis^  passed  the  official  correspondence 
from  Rome,  Italy,  and  the  provinces,  while  the 
freedman,  a  rationibus^  had  the  management  of  the 
vast  revenues  which  accrued  to  Caesar  from  all  parts 
of  the  empire.*  It  was  inevitable  that  posts  of  such 
importance  should  in  time  cease  to  be  merely  do- 
mestic household  offices,  and  that  the  finance  of  two 
thirds  of  the  empire  could  not  long  be  treated  as  if 
it  were  a  matter  only  of  Caesar's  private  property. 
Vitellius  first  took  the  important  step  of  filling  these 
posts  with  Roman  knights,  but  before  his  time, 
Claudius  had  done  something  to  place  the  financial 
department  at  least  on  a  better  footing.  There  is 
good  reason  for  ascribing  to  him  the  formation  in 
Rome,  and  under  the  care  of  the  freedman,  a  ration-^ 
ibus  of  a  central  imperial  treasury  (fiscus)^  to  which 
Caesar's  revenue  officers  (procuratores)  throughout 
the  empire  had  to  render  accounts.'  It  was  Claudius 
also  who  first  gave  something  of  a  magisterial  charac- 
ter to  these  agents  of  his  by  investing  them  with 
jurisdiction  in  fiscal  cases,^  who  largely  increased 
their  numbers,  and  even  rewarded  some  among  them 
with  the  consular  insignia.* 

1  Hirschfeld,  Untersuch,,  30  and  X92  sqq,;  Liebenam,  Laufbahn 
der  Procuraioren  (Jena,  1888). 

*  With  these  may  be  ranked  t^e  freedman,  a  libelHs^  throngh  whose 
hands  passed  all  petitions  addressed  to  Caesar. 

'  Mommsen,  Staatsr.^  ii.,  933  ;  Hirschfeld,  /.  f.,  30;  Liebenam 
/.  r.,  141. 

*  Tac.,  Ann,^  xii„  60.  »  Suet.,  Claud,,  24. 

3a 


498  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

It  has  been  already  said  that  the  history  of  the 
empire  at  large  shows  but  few  traces  of  the  bad  ef- 
fects which  the  vice  or  weakness  of  some 
th  °empi?e!'  ^^  ^^s  rulers  might  have  been  expected   to 
produce.     The  frontiers  of  the  empire  re- 
mained, for  the  most  part,  as  Augustus  had  left  them. 
The  expeditions  of  Germanicus  *  beyond 
frontiers.       thc  Rhine  in  volvcd  a  temporary  departure 

The  Rhine.  ^'^^"^  ^^^  policy  adopted  after  the  defeat 
of  Varus  (9  A.D.),  but  the  departure  was 
due  rather  to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment,  than 
to  any  change  of  view  on  the  part  of  Tiberius. 
Over  and  above  the  desirability  of  gratifying  the 
martial  ardour  of  Germanicus,  and  of  finding  occu- 
pation for  the  mutinous  legions,  the  recovery  of 
the  standards  lost  by  Varus,  and  the  infliction  of 
a  severe  blow  upon  the  growing  power  of  Arminius, 
were  of  importance  alike  for  the  prestige  of  the  new 
emperor,  and  for  the  safety  of  the  frontier.  These 
objects  Germanicus  accomplished,  and  was  then  re- 
called by  Tiberius(  16 A.D.).  Thenceforward  the  Rhine 
was  definitely  accepted  as  the  military  frontier. 
Rome  did  not,  indeed,  abandon  all  claim  to  suzerainty 
beyond  the  river.  The  Frisii,  in  particular,  were 
treated  as  a  subject  tribe,  liable  to  taxation  and  con- 
scription, and  their  occasional  attempts  to  shake  off 
the  Roman  yoke*  were  sternly  repressed.    Nor  was 


'  Tac.,  Ann,^  Bks.  i.  and  ii. ;  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  v.,  45  sqq. ;  Knoke, 
KriegstUge  der  Germanicus  (Berlin,  1887).  There  were  three  cam- 
paigns in  14,  15,  and  16  a.d. 

'  Under  Tiberius,  28  A.D.  (Tac,  Ann,^  iv.,  72);  under  Claudius, 
47  A.D.   (Ann, ,  xi. ,  19) ;  they  were  pacified  by  Corbulo,  who  gave  them 


Ch.4)  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  499 

it  until  the  reign  of  Claudius,  that  the  scattered 
military  stations  beyond  the  Rhine  were  abandoned/ 
But  from  17  a.d.  down  to  the  time  of  Vespasian,  the 
frontier  line  of  defence  ran  along  the  left  bank  of  the 
great  river ;  nor  was  any  important  change  made  in 
the  arrangements  adopted  for  its  defence.  The  army 
of  the  Rhine  was  divided  into  two  corps,  the  armies 
of  Lower  and  of  Upper  Germany,*  as  they  were 
sometimes  boastfully  styled,  each  consisting  of  four 
legions,  and  of  an  uncertain  number  of  auxiliary 
cavalry,  and  infantry.  The  headquarters  of  the 
former  were  at  Vetera,"  those  of  the  latter  at  Mogon- 
tiacum  (Mainz).  Each  army  was  commanded  by  a 
legate,  and  with  the  command  of  the  troops  the 
legates  united  the  administrative  control  of  the 
frontier  districts,  the  so-called  provinces  of  Lower 
and  Upper  Germany ;  although  for  revenue  purposes, 
these  districts  were  included  in  the  province  of  Gallia 
Belgica.  The  defence  of  the  frontier  was  further 
strengthened  by  a  military  road,  which  ran  along  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  connected  the  military 
stations  with  each  other;  a  flotilla  of  galleys  was 
maintained  on  the  river  itself,  and  along  the  right 
bank  a  strip  of  territory  was  cleared  of  its  inhabi- 


senatum,  magistratuSy  leges ^  and  apparently  confined  them  to  a  certain 
reserved  territory. 

*  Tac,  Ann.y  xi.,  19. 

*  Mommsen,  R,  (?.,  v.,  106  ;  Hirschfeld,  in  Comm,  Philol,  in  hon- 
or em  Th,  Mommsen,  433;  Tac.,  Ann.,  i.,  31  ;  ''duo  apud  ripam 
Rhewi  exercitus**\  ib,,  iv.,  73:  ••  legaius  inferioris  Germania propra- 
tori.^    Wilm.,  867  :  **  legatus  exereitus  Germanki  fuperioris," 

'  X^nten,  below  Cologne. 


500         Outlines  of  Raman  History.         [Book  v 

tants,  and  probably  of  the  forests,  which  might  have 
sheltered  a  hostile  tribe/ 

The  state  of  things  on  the  Danube  was  somewhat 

different.    At  the  accession  of  Tiberius,   it   already 

marked   the  extreme  northward  limit  of 

The  DAnube. 

Roman  suzerainty,  and  among  the  tribes 
beyond  it  none  were,  like  the  Frisii,  vassals  of  Rome. 
But  it  was  not  yet  the  military  frontier,  and  even  in 
69  A.D.  no  system  of  frontier  defence  such,  as  existed 
on  the  Rhine,  had  been  organised,  mainly,  no  doubt, 
because  the  Roman  government,  during  this  period, 
was  more  concerned  with  the  pacification  of  the 
tribes  on  their  own  side  of  the  river,  than  with  the 
prevention  of  incursions  from  beyond  it.*  It  is  true 
that  by  the  annexation  of  Thrace,  Claudius  comple- 
ted the  chain  of  frontier  provinces  from  the  German 
Ocean  to  the  Euxine,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  two 
legions  which  formed  the  garrison  of  Mcesia,  had 
their  camps  on  the  Danube.'  But  along  the  upper 
part  of  the  river  seems  to  have  been  the  only  military 
station  before  the  time  of  Vespasian.  In  Noricum 
there  were  no  legions,  and  the  legions  in  Pannonia 
were  stationed,  not  on  the  Danube,  but  along  the  lines 
of  the  Drave  and  the  Save.^     The  defence  of  the 


*  Tac,  Ann,f  xiii.,  54  :  **  agros  vacucs  et  miliium  usui  sipositos." 
The  limiiem  a  Tiberio  coeptum  of  Ann,,  i.,  50,  may  have  marked  the 
farther  boundary  of  this  cleared  land. 

'  According  to  Tacitus,  Ann,,  iv.,  5,  besides  the  two  legions  in 
Moesia,  there  were  two  in  Pannonia  and  two  in  Dalmatia. 

'  At  Viminacium  and  Singidunum. 

^  The  legions  were  at  the  time  of  the  mutiny  in  Pannonia  (14  A.D.) 
stationed  on  the  line  of  the  Save  and  the  Drave.     Poetovio  (Pettau) 


Ch.4]  The  yulio-Claudian  Line.  501 

Danube  was  the  work  of  the  Flavian  and  Antonine 
emperors. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  empire,  the  difRculty  of 
maintaining  Roman  ascendency  in  the  debatable  land 
of  Armenia  increased  rather  than  diminished,  and 
at  the  commencement  of  Nero's  reign  it  Eastern 
reached  an  acute  stage.  The  occupation  of  frontier. 
Armenia  by  the  Parthian  king,  Vologseses,  provoked 
a  war/  in  which,  as  had  so  often  happened  before 
Armenia  was  recovered  only  to  be  lost  again.  In  66 
A.D.,  a  compromise  was  efifected  by  which  the  crown 
of  Armenia  was  given,  not  to  a  prince  sent  out  from 
Rome,  but  to  Tiridates,  a  brother  of  the  Parthian  king, 
who,  however,  came  to  Rome  and  there,  in  the  Forum, 
was  formally  invested  with  his  authority  by  the  Rom- 
an  emperor,  Nero.  This  compromise  was  followed  by 
the  annexation  of  the  three  native  states  of  Pontus, 
Cappadocia,  and  Commagene,"  and  the  consequent 
extension  of  Roman  territory,  and  Roman  adminis- 
tration up  to  the  frontiers  of  Armenia. 


was  the  headquarters  of  the  13th  legion  in  69  A.D.,  Tac,  Hist^  iii., 
i;  Mommsen,  R,  (7.,  v.,  186. 

^  On  the  campaigns  of  Corbolo,  see  Tac,  Ann  ,  xiii.,  7  sqq^  ; 
Fumeaux,  Annals^  ii.,  107  ,  Mommsen,  R,  G,  ^  v.,  380;  Henderson, 
Nero^  Chap.  5, 

^  Cappadocia  was  annexed  in  17  A. d.  ;  Tac.,  Ann,^  ii.,  42.  Comma- 
gene  was  annexed  in  17  a.  D.  (Tac,  Ann,^  ii.,  56),  but' was  given  back 
to  Antiochus  IV.  It  finally  became  part  of  the  province  of  Syria 
in  72  A.D.  (Vespasian);  Marquardt,  Staaisverw,^  i.,  240.  Pontus 
(Polemoniacus)  was  annexed  in  63  A.D.  by  Nero,  and  incorporate^ 
with  Galatia  and  afterwards  with  Cappadocia ;  Suet.,  Nero^  18 ; 
Marquardt,  /.^. 


502  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       idook  V 

On  the  southern  frontier  two  changes  of  import- 
southern  ance  was  made  during  this  period.  In 
frontier.        ^^    ^  j^^    ^j^^    coHimand    of    the    troops 

and  of  the  frontier  districts  was  taken  from  the 
proconsul  of  Africa  and  intrusted  to  an  imperial 
legate.'  Under  Claudius  the  native  kingdom  of 
Mauretania  was  annexed  and  divided  into  two 
Roman  provinces,*  under  the  rule  of  procurators. 
These  changes  rendered  possible  the  organisation  of 
a  system  of  military  occupation  and  frontier  defence, 
for  the  entire  strip  of  territory  lying  between  the 
sea  and  the  desert,  and  extending  from  the  lesser 
Syrtis  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  a  step,  the  neces- 
sity for  which  had  been  amply  proved  by  the 
insurrection  headed  by  Tacfarinas,  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius. 

To  the  same  emperor,  Claudius,  whose  annexation 
Annexation  ^^  Thrace  and  of  Mauretania  completed 
of  Briuin.  ^jjg  Roman  occupation  of  the  frontier  ter- 
ritories lying  along  the  Danube  in  the  north,  and  the 
African  deserts  in  the  south,  belongs  also  the  credit 
of  the  one  important  advance  made  during  this 
period  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  empire,  as  fixed  by 
Augustus.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the 
expedition  of  Caesar  no  further  attempt  was  made  to 
conquer  Britain,  and  we  can  only  guess  at  the  rea- 
sons which  led  Claudius  in  43  A.D.  to  send  a  well- 


>  Tac,  HisUy  iv.,  48;  Cagnat,  VArm/e  Romaine  d^Afriqtu^ 
(Paris,  1892),  23  sqq.;  Marquardt,  /.  f.,  308  ;  Mommsen,  R,  C,  v., 
626.  Numidia,  however,  was  not  formally  recognised  as  a  separate 
province  until  the  close  of  the  second  century  a.d. 

•  In  41  A.D.  Die,  Cass.^  Ix.,  9  ;  Plin.,  N,  H,^  v.,  11. 


ch.4]  The  yulto-Claudian  Line.  503 


equipped  force  of  four  legions  across  the  Channel* 
There  are,  however,  one  or  two  considerations  which 
make  this  sudden  intervention  intelligible.  During 
the  period  of  what  Tacitus  calls  "  a  long  f orgetful- 
ness,"  •  Southern  Britain  was  evidently  regarded  by 
the  Roman  government  as  within  its  sphere  of 
influence,  and  between  it  and  Rome  there  was  a 
somewhat  close  political  and  commercial  connection. 
The  British  chiefs  in  the  southern  parts  of  the  island 
were  the  allies  and  friends  of  the  Roman  people. 
They  sent  embassies  to  do  homage  to  Augustus  in 
27  B.C.  They  visited  Rome  and  dedicated  offerings 
in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus.  When  worsted 
in  feuds  with  their  neighbours,  they  sought  the  pro- 
tection of  Caesar.*  They  had  even  begun  to  imitate 
the  Roman  emperors  in  the  style  and  in  the  legends 
of  their  coins.  The  importance  of  the  trade  between 
Rome  and  Britain,  towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  is  attested  by  Strabo,  who  tells  us  that 
the  duties  levied  on  goods  crossing  the  Channel  to 
and  from  Britain  were  a  considerable  source  of  reve- 
nue to  the  Imperial  government.  The  existence  of 
this  political  and  commercial  connection  would 
naturally  render  the  condition  of  affairs  in  South 
Britain  a  matter  of  direct  interest  to  the  Roman 


»  Dio,  Ix.,  19  sqq,  ;  Suet.,  Claud,^  17  ;  Tac,  Ann,^  xii.,  31  sqq,  ; 
Agric,  13 ;  Mommsen,  R,  G,,  v.,  157 ;  Fumeaux,  Annals,  ii.,  126. 
Of  the  four  legions  despatched  in  43  A.D.,  two— -the  li.  Augusta  and 
the  XX.  Valeria  Victrix — remained  in  Britain  throughout  the  Roman 
occupation. 

•Tac,  Agric, ^  13. 

»  Dio,  liii.  22  ;  Strabo,  iv.  5  ;  Mon.  Ancyr.  Lot.,  vi,  2. 


504  Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v 

government,  and  very  shortly  after  the  accession  of 
Claudius  a  political  crisis  occurred  which  must 
inevitably  have  arrested  the  attention  of  Roman 
statesmen.  The  dominant  power  in  South  Britain 
was  that  of  Cunobeline,  chief  of  the  Catuvellauni, 
who  had  made  himself  master  of  nearly  all  South- 
Eastern  Britain,  and  who  is  styled  by  Suetonius, 
King  of  the  Britons.*  Cunobeline  had  been  the 
ally  of  Rome,  and  his  strong  rule  was  no  doubt 
regarded  as  a  guarantee  for  peace  and  order  in 
Southern  Britain.  His  death,  which  must  have 
taken  place  in  the  first  or  second  year  of  Claudius's 
reign,  seems  to  have  been  immediately  followed  by 
a  war  of  succession  amongst  his  sons,  the  ablest  of 
whom,  moreover,  Caractacus,  was  probably  already 
known  to  entertain  feelings  hostile  to  Rome.  The 
situation  was  one  which,  as  threatening  the  disturb- 
ance of  peace,  the  disorganisation  of  Roman  tra.de, 
and  loss  of  property,  and  probably  life,  to  Roman 
citizens,  may  well  have  seemed  to  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment to  call  for  armed  intervention.  The  expe- 
dition, which  in  43  A.D.  crossed  the  Channel  under 
the  command  of  Aulus  Plautius,  evidently  had  for 
its  object  the  annexation  by  Rome  of  Cunobeline's 
dominions,  and  its  success  was  assured  by  the  cap- 
ture of  Cunobeline's  capital,  Camulodunum  (Col- 
chester)— an  achievement  in  which  Claudius  himself 
took  part.  The  remaining  years  of  Plautius's  com- 
mand (44-47  A.D.)  seem  to  have  been  devoted 
to  the  settlement  of  South-Eastern  Britain;  but  a 

*Suet.,  CaHg,^  44;  Dio,  Ix,,  i^sqq,j  Evans,  Coins  of  the  Ancient 
BritonSy  pp.  284  sqq. 


Ch.4]  The  yulichClaudian  Line.  505 

Roman  force  under  Vespasian,'  after  establishing 
Roman  authority  in  the  western  portion  of  Cuno- 
beline's  kingdom,  and  capturing  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
penetrated  further  west ;  and  there  are  reasons  for 
thinking  that  before  the  end  of  Plautius's  command 
Roman  arms  had  penetrared  as  far  as  the  hot  springs 
of  Bath  and  the  lead-works  on  the  Mendip  Hills.' 
Aulus  Plautius  was  succeeded  in  his  command  by 
Ostorius  Scapula,  who  was  legate  in  Britain  from 
the  latter  part  of  47  A.D.  down  to  his  death  in  52 
A.D.  His  first  achievement  would  seem  to  have 
.been  the  pacification  of  the  midland  districts  lying, 
to  the  north  of  the  already  conquered  regions  of 
South  Britain,  an  undertaking  rendered  necessary  by 
the  constant  raids  made  by  the  midland  tribes  upon 
the  allies  of  Rome." 

His  proposed  disarmament  and  subjugation  of 
these  districts  awakened  the  hostility  of  the  power- 
ful tribes  to  the  east,  north,  and  west,  but  the 
threatened  disturbances  were  in  two  out  of  three 
cases  easily  averted.  Neither  the  Iceni  on  the  east, 
nor  the  Brigantes  on  the  north,  made  any  determined 
attempt  to  interfere  with  the  Roman  advance.  Os- 
torius was  thus  left  free  to  deal  with  the  Silures  on 
the  west,  an  irreconcilable  foe  whose  raids  were  a 


'  Suet.,  Vesp  ,  4 ;  Tac.,  Agric,^  13,  14. 

•  C  /.  Z.,  vii.,  1201. 

*  Ann*,  xii.,  31,  ''  effusis  in  agrum  sociorum  hostibus."  It  is  only 
by  supposing  that  the  midlands  were  the  scene  of  these  operations 
that  we  can  explain  the  resentment  which  they  excited  among  the 
Brigantes  and  Iceni.  I  am  inclined  to  prefer  the  reading  *'  cuncta 
cis  Trisantonam  et  Sabrinam  fluvios  cohibere  parat/*  ».^.,  east  of  the 
Severn  and  south  of  the  Trent. 


5o6  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  v 

—  — 

continual  menace  to  the  Roman  peace/  In  50  A.D. 
he  defeated  Caractacus,  who  after  the  loss  of  his 
kingdom  in  the  south-east  had  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  western  tribes  opposed  to  Rome.  Two 
years  of  guerilla  warfare  followed,  but  in  52  A.D. 
Ostorius  died,  worn  out,  it  is  said,  with  fatigue.' 
The  most  important  result  of  his  operations  on  the 
Welsh  border  was  probably  the  foundation  of  a 
legionary  camp  on  the  Silurian  frontier,  which  can 
hardly  have  been  any  other  than  that  which  re- 
mained for  centuries  the  headquarters  of  the  second 
legion,  Isca  Silurum,  the  modem  Caerleon.*  During 
the  six  years  which  followed  Ostorius*s  death,  the 
Romans  seem  to  have  -  been  mainly  busied  in 
strengthening  their  position  on  the  Welsh  border/ 
It  was  probably  during  this  period  that  a  second 
camp  was  established  at  Viroconium  (Wroxeter), 
and  a  military  post  may  have  been  planted  as  far 
north  as  Deva  (Chester).  In  the  east  of  England, 
Camulodunum,  from  which  the  legion  had  been 
moved  by  Ostorius,  became  a  Roman  colony;* 
Verulam,  if  Tacitus '  may  be  trusted,  had  acquired 
municipal  rights,  and  London  was  already  a  popu- 
lous centre.  It  seems  also  that  a  Roman  road  had 
been  carried  as  far  as  Lincoln,  and  a  Roman  garri- 

*  Tac.,  Ann,^  i.,  32,  **non  atrocitate  non  dementia  mntabatnr." 

*  Tac.,  Ann,^  i.,  39. 

'  Tac.,  Ann,^  I.e.     For  Isca  SUuram,  see  C.LL,^  vii.,  p.  36. 

*  Tac.,  Agrie.f  14 :  **  Didius  Gallus  (52-57  a.d.  partes  a  prioribus 
continuit,  paucis  admodum  castellis  in  nlteriora  promotis."  lb,  Ann, , 
ziv.,  29:  *  'Veranins  (57-58  A.D.)  modicis  ezcorsibus  Silures  populatus." 

'  Tac.,  Ann,^  zii.,  32,  andziv.,  31. 

'**  Mttnidpio  Venilamio,"  Ann,^  xiv.,  33. 


Ch.  41  The  yutio-Ctaudian  Line.  507 

son  stationed  there.  The  legateship  of  Suetonius 
PauHnus  was  rendered  memorable  by  the  revolt  of 
the  Iceni  (61  A.D.)  under  Queen  Boadicea.  Prasutag^s, 
king  of  the  Iceni,  had  voluntarily  become  the  friend 
and  ally  of  Rome  in  43  A.D.»  and  his  adhesion  had 
been  of  the  utmost  value.  On  his  death  in  61  A.D. 
his  kingdom  lapsed  to  Rome,  and  his  property  was 
left  to  the  Roman  emperor  jointly  with  his  two 
daughters.*  The  Roman  officials  eagerly  seized  their 
opportunity,  and  proceeded  to  annex  the  Icenian  ter- 
ritory as  if  it  had  been  conquered  in  war.  Their 
excesses  provoked  a  rising  which  threatened  to  sweep 
the  Romans  altogether  out  of  Britain.  The  insur 
gents  pouring  into  Essex  stormed  the  infant  colony 
at  Colchester,  and  cut  to  pieces  the  9th  legion  which 
was  hastily  marching  against  them  from  Lincoln; 
nor  was  it  until  they  had  sacked  Verulam  and  Lon- 
don  that  they  were  defeated  and  the  revolt  crushed 
by  Suetonius  Paulinus.  That  his  victory  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  formal  annexation  of  the  territory  of 
the  Iceni,  and  the  consequent  inclusion  within  the 
Roman  province  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  may  be 
taken  for  granted.  Otherwise  the  remaining  years 
of.  Nero's  reign  witnessed  no  important  advance, 
and  in  69  A.D.  Chester  and  Lincoln  were  still  the 
most  northerly  posts  held  by  Roman  troops. 

Within  the  frontiers  the  administration  of  the 
provinces  were  conducted,  in  the  main,  on 
the  lines  laid  down  by  Augustus.     Instan-    condft^USf 
ces  of  misgovernment  are  mentioned,  but     ****  •"«»*'•• 
almost  without  exception,  in  the  "  public  provinces," 

*  Tac,  Ann.^  xiv,,  31  sqq. 


5o8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  V 

and  the  superiority  of  Caesar's  administration  over 
that  of  the  proconsuls,  was  shown  not  only  by  the 
transference  to  him,  early  in  Tiberius's  reign,  of 
Achaia  and  Macedonia,'  but  by  the  case  of  Sardinia, 
which  in  6  A.D.  was  placed  under  the  care  of  Au- 
gustus, and  in  67  a.d.  was  restored  to  the  con- 
suls and  senate  in  a  prosperous  condition.'  Of 
discontent  in  the  provinces  the  traces  are  few, 
Tacfarinas,  in  Africa,  was  the  leader,  not  so  much 
of  an  insurrection  from  within  as  of  a  hostile 
attack  from  without.  The  rebellion,  headed  by 
Julius  Sacrovir,  in  North-Eastem  Gaul,"  was  almost 
entirely  confined  to  the  less  civilised  tribes  near  the 
Rhine  frontier,  who  had  to  bear  the  burden  of  the 
German  wars,  to  whom  the  orderly  methods  of 
Roman  government,  the  census,  and  the  regular  tax- 
ation were  irritating  novelties,  and  who  resented  still 
more  keenly  the  omnivorous  activity  of  Roman 
traders  and  usurers.  Elsewhere,  too,  the  establish- 
ment of  civilised  government  among  a  barbarous  or 
half-civilised  people  produced,  naturally  enough, 
friction  and  disturbance.^  But  against  these  isolated 
instances,  must  be  set  the  abundant  evidence  which 
exists,  of  a  widespread  prosperity.  The  Natural 
History  of  the  elder  Pliny  bears  witness  to  a  rapid 
development  of  commerce,  to  the  advancing  civilisa- 
tion of  the  new,  and  to  the  revived  prosperity  of 
many  of  the  old  provinces;  above  all,  to  a  marked 


^  Tac,  Ann,,,  i.,  76. 

*  Pausanias,  vii.,  17. 

*  In  21  A.D.,  Tac,  Ann,y  iii,,  34. 

*  In  Cappadocia,  Tac,  Ann,,  vi.,  41;  among  the  Frisii,  i^.,  iv,,  71 


Ch.4]  The  Julio'Claudian  Line.  509 

rise  in  the  general  standard  of  wealth.  Spain  and 
Gaul*  were  fast  becoming  Roman  in  language  and 
manners,  and  beginning  to  contribute  honoured 
names  to  the  ranks  of  Latin  oratory  and  literature. 
From  Cordova  came  the  two  Senecas,  and  the  poet 
Lucan.  Autun  (Augustodunum),  and  still  more 
Lyons  (Lugdunum),  were  rising  into  fame  as  schools 
of  rhetoric.  Valerius  Asiaticus,  a  senator  of  high 
rank,  and  a  great  orator,  was  a  native  of  Vienne,* 
while  Gaius  Julius  Vindex/ legate  of  Gallia  Lugdu- 
nensis  in  68  A.D.,  was  an  Aquitanian  chief. 

In  the  eastern  half  of  the  empire,  in  the  "provin- 
ces beyond  the  sea,"  there  is  nothing  corresponding 
to  the  rapid  advance  made  by  Gaul  and  Spain. 
Here,  and  especially  in  Asia  Minor,  the  dominant 
civilisation  was  not  Latin,  but  Greek,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  Greek  civilisation  over  the  central  and  eastern 
regions  of  the  peninsula  belongs  to  the  second  and 
third  centuries  rather  than  to  the  first.  In  Asia 
Minor  again  the  reforming  energy  of  the  Caesars  had 
less  scope.  Throughout  great  part  of  this  period, 
there  still  existed  important  native  states,  under 
native  rulers,  and  even  within  the  limits  of  Roman 
territory  there  were  still  free  towns,  within  whose 
bounds  the  Roman  governor  had  in  theory  no  juris- 
diction, holy  cities  governed  or  misgoverned  by 
priestly  dynasts,  and  half-civilised  tribes  ruled  by 
their  own  chieftains.  But  the  East  shared  with  the 
West  the  benefits  of  the  Roman  peace,  and  if  not 
progressive,  was  at  least  prosperous. 

*  Moiximsen,  R,    C7.,   v.,  chaps.  8  and  3 ;  Jung,  D,  romamsehen 
Landschaften^  chaps,  i  and  3. 
'  Tac,  Ann,^  xi.,  I, 


BOOK  VI. 

THE   ORGANISATION   OF   CAESAR'S 

GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  FIRST 

CONFLICTS  WITH  THE 

BARBARIANS. 


THE    ORGANISATION    OF    CiCSAR'S 

GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  FIRST 

CONFLICTS  WITH  THE 

BARBARIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  FLAVIAN  AND  ANTONINE  CiGSARS  69-I93  A.D. 

The  fall  of  Nero,  and  the  extinction  of  the  "  pro- 
geny of  the  Caesars,"  *  was  followed  by  a  war  of 
succession,  in  which  the  legions  of  Spain,  the  house- 
hold troops  in  Rome,  the  army  of  the  Rhine,  and, 
finally,  the  army  of  Syria,  in  turn  awarded  the 
imperial  purple  to  the  man  of  their  choice,  and  in 
which  Italy,  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  became 
once  more  the  theatre  of  civil  war. 

The  signal  for  revolt  against  Nero  was  given  by  C. 
Julius  Vindex,  legate  of  Gallia  Lugdunensis  (March, 
68  A.D.).  By  descent  he  was  a  Gaulish  chief  of  high 
rank,  and  this  circumstance,  coupled  with  the  fact  that 
he  relied  for  support  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  on  Gaulish 
levies,  gives  some  colour  to  the  view,  apparently  held 
at  the  time,  that  his  real  aim  was  the  restoration 


»  Suet.,  Galba,  i :  '*  progenies  Casarum  in  Neront  deficit*^ 
33  513 


5 1 4        Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  vi 

of  Gallic  independence.'  But  his  hastily  raised  forces 
were  no  match  for  the  legions  of  the  army  of  Upper 
Germany,  who,  though  indifferent  to  Nero,  were  ready 
enough  to  crush  a  Gaulish  revolt.  Defeated  at 
Besan^on  (May,  68  A.D.),  he  fell  by  his  own  hand. 

Somewhat  better  fortune  attended  on  Servius  Sul- 
picius  Galba,  legate  of  Hither  Spain.  In  response 
to  an  appeal  from  Vindex  he  had,  after  a  moment's 
hesitation,  thrown  off  his  allegiance  to  Nero,  without 
at  first  himself  claiming  the  succession.  But  early  in 
April  he  was  saluted  ''imperator"  by  his  troops,  and 
in  June,  on  hearing  of.  Nero's  death,  he  adopted  the 
cognomen  ''  Caesar.'"  His  claims  to  sit  in  the  seat  of 
Augustus  were  considerable,  for  not  only  was  he  a 
consular  and  a  patrician,  but  he  was  reputed  to  be  a 
good  soldier  and  an  efficient  and  upright  administra- 
tor; and  when  he  reached  Rome  in  October,  it  seemed 
as  if  these  claims  were  generally  recognised  not  only 
by  the  senate  but  by  the  army.*  On  January  i,  69, 
Galba  entered  as  emperor  upon  his  second  consul- 
ship, and  on  January  loth,  in  view  of  his  advanced  age, 
he  provided,  as  he  hoped,  for  a  peaceful  succession 
by  adopting  as  his  son  L.  Calpurnius  Piso.^  But 
there  were  already  two  rivals.  The  nearest  at  hand 
and  the  first  to  strike  was  M.  Salvius  Otho,  who, 
as  legate  of  Lusitania,  had  joined  Galba  and  accom- 

>  Mommsen,  Hermes ^  xiii.,  90 ;  Henderson,  Nero^  pp.  395,  496. 

•  Suet,  Galba^  9-1 1 ;  Plutarch,  Galba,  4-7  ;  Dio,  Ixiv.,  6. 

»  Tac.  Hist,,  i.,  6-11;  ibid.,  49:  ''omnium  consensu  capax  imperii, 
nisi  imperassety 

*  C.  /.  Z.,  vi.,  1268,  2051  ;  on  adoption  he  took  the  name  **  Scnr. 
Sulpicius  Galba  Caesar."     C/.  Tac,  Hist.,  i.,  18. 


Ch.i]        Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.        515 

panied  him  to  Rome.*  Taking  advantage  of  the  dis- 
content existing  among  the  praetorian  cohorts,  who 
looked  coldly  on  a  Caesar,  not  of  the  old  line, 
nor  chosen  by  themselves,  and  whose  frugality  con- 
trasted disagreeably  with  Nero*s  lavishness,  Otho 
easily  secured  their  support  for  his  own  claims.  On 
January  15th  he  was  saluted  "imperator,"  and  on  the 
same  day  both  Galba  and  his  adopted  son  were  mur- 
dered in  the  Forum.*  On  January  i6th  the  new  em- 
peror was  duly  invested  by  the  senate  with  the 
customary  powers  and  titles.'  Otho  was  popular  with 
the  soldiery  and  populace  of  Rome,  to  whom  the 
comparatively  young  and  dashing  noble  was  infinitely 
more  attractive  than  Galba  could  ever  have  been; 
and  outside  Rome  his  accession  was  at  least  acqui- 
esced in  by  the  Illyrian  legions,  and  by  those  of  Syria 
and  Judaea.*  But  the  armies  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Germany  had,  even  before  the  adoption  of  Piso,  put 
forward  a  candidate  of  their  own.  On  January  2d  the 
lower  army,  led  by  Fabius  Valens,  legate  of  the  ist 
legion,  had  saluted  as  emperor  their  newly  arrived 
commander,  Aulus  Vitellius,  and  on  January  3d  the 
upper  army  followed  their  example.*  Without  delay 
two  strong  columns  under  Valens  and  Caecina  were 
despatched  southward,  and  when  on  March  14th  Otho 
left  Rome  to  encounter  these  formidable  opponents 
the  Vitellian  forces  had   already  crossed  the  Alps. 

»  Tac,  Hist.,  i.,  13  ;  Suet.,  Otho,  3  ;  Plut.,  Galb,,  20. 
«  Tac,  Hist.,  i.,  27. 

•  Tac,  Hist.,  i.,  47  ;  t^«  confirmation  by  the  people  was  given  on 
February  28,  Acta  Fr.  Arv,  (ed.  Henzen),  xcii.  and  p.  65. 

*  Tac,  Hist.,  i.,  76.  »  Tac,  Hist,,  i.,  57. 


5  T  6        Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  Vl 

A  month  later,  at  Bedriacum/  between  Cremona  and 
Mantua,  Otho*s  troops  were  defeated,  and  Otho  com- 
mitted suicide.     In  July  Vitellius  entered  Rome. 

But  the  victory  of  the  German  legions  and  their 
leader  was  at  once  followed  by  the  news  that  the  East 
had  declared  for  Vespasian.  On  J  uly  i  st,  the  day  from 
which  he  afterwards  dated  his  reign,'  the  troops  in 
Egypt  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him ;  and  before 
the  end  of  the  month  he  had  been  adopted  as  em- 
peror not  only  by  the  legions  in  Syria  and  Judaea, 
but  by  those  nearer  to  Italy  in  Mcesia,  Pannonia, 
and  Dalmatia.  Early  in  the  autumn  the  latter,  led 
by  Antonius  Primus,  swept  into  Italy ;  towards  the 
end  of  October,  Cremona,  where  the  Vitellian  legions 
had  entrenched  themselves,  was  taken  and  sacked.* 
The  fleet  at  Ravenna  had  already  joined  the  Flavians, 
and  on  December  17th  the  praetorian  cohorts,  which 
were  on  their  way  northward  to  arrest  the  advance  of 
Antonius,  declared  for  Ve'^pasian.*  Three  days  later 
the  Flavian  troops  entered  Rome.  Vitellius  was 
seized  while  attempting  to  escape  and  put  to  death. 
On  December  21,  69  A.D.,  the  senate  for  the  third  time 
within  twelve  months  conferred  the  name  of  Augus- 
tus, the  tribupician  power,  and  the  other  prerogatives, 
upon  a  new  princeps.* 

With  the  accession  of  Vespasian,  the  history  of 
the  empire  entered  upon  a  new  phase.    Although  the 


I  For  the  topographical  and  other  difficulties  connected  with  the 
battle  of  Bedriacum,  see  Mommsen,  Hermes^  v.,  pp.  161  sqq, 
«  Tac.  Hist.,  ii.,  79 ;  Suet.,  Vesp.,  6.       »  Tac.,  Hist,,  iii.,  26-34. 
^  IHd,^  iii.,  67.  *  Tac,  Hist,^  i^«i  3  ;  I^io,  Izri.,  i. 


Ch.  1]     The  Flavian  and^  Antonine  Casars.    5 1 7 

name  and  traditions  of  Augustus  were  still  appealed 
to,  yet  in  almost  every  department  of  government 
there  was  a  departure  from  the  Augustan  policy,  and 
a  corresponding  change  in  the  aspect  and  condition 
of  the  empire. 

The  anomalous  position  of  the  princeps  had  not 
been  without  inconvenience,  even  under  potitionof 
Caesars    whose     relation     to     Augustus  CK«ar. 

silenced  all  questions  as  to  their  claims  to  inherit  his 
powers.  But  it  was  found  intolerable  when,  on  the 
extinction  of  the  old  line,  the  principate  became  in 
fact,  as  well  as  in  theory,  a  prize  open  to  all  comers. 
For  the  integrity,  tranquillity,  and  good  govern- 
ment of  the  empire,  it  was  essential  that  the  position 
and  authority  of  the  princeps  should  be  placed  on  a 
more  regular  footing,  that  the  rule  of  Caesar,  which 
was  acknowledged  to  be  indispensable,  should  be 
declared  legitimate  and  recognised  as  permanent. 

The  necessity  of  in  some  way  legalising  Caesarism, 

pressed  with  especial  force  upon  Vespa-^he  emperor, 
sian  himself.  He  succeeded  to  power  at '**'****■  p*'*^**- 
a  moment  when  public  confidence  had  been  rudely 
shaken  by  insurrection  and  civil  war,  and  his  low 
birth  provoked  contemptuous  comparisons,  not  only 
with  the  Julii  and  Claudii,  but  with  Galba,  Otho, 
and  Vitellius.  Galba  was  after  all  a  patrician  ;'  Otho 
came  of  an  old  and  honourable  Etruscan  house,  and 
both  his  father  and  grandfather  had  been  senators ; 
even  Vitellius  was  at  least  the  son  of  a  senator,  and 
the  grandson  of  a  Roman  knight.'     But  Vespasian 

'  The  Sulpician  gens  was  patrician  ;  Suet.,  Galba^  ii.,  3. 
•  Suet.,  Otho^  I ;  Vitellius ^  i. 


5 1 8         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       iBook  v  I 

was  not  even  of  equestrian  rank.  His  grandfather, 
a  native  of  the  little  Sabine  town  of  Reate,  had  been 
a  centurion,  and  then  a  collector  of  small  debts. 
His  father,  after  being  a  collector  of  customs 
duties  in  Asia,  ended  his  life  as  a  money-lender 
among  the  Helvetii.'  Verginius  Rufus,  l^ate  of 
Upper  Germany,  and  the  conqueror  of  Vindex,  is  said 
to  have  considered  his  birth  a  disqualification  for  the 
position  of  emperor,  but  compared  with  Vespasian, 
Verginius  Rufus  was  noble.  Of  Vespasian's  suc- 
cessors during  this  period  none  were  so  hopelessly 
plebeian  as  he  was.  Yet  with  the  exception  of  Nerva, 
not  one  belonged  by  descent  to  the  old  governing 
class,  and  with  the  exception  of  Vespasian's  two 
sons,  Titus  and  Domitian,  and  of  Commodus,  none 
had  any  dynastic  claim  to  the  throne.  Trajan  and 
Hadrian  were  Spaniards,  Marcus  Aurelius  was  of 
Spanish  descent,  while  the  family  of  his  predecessor, 
Antoninus  Pius,  came  from  Neniausus  (Ntmes)  in 
Transalpine  Gaul. 

For  emperors  so  circumstanced,  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  the  endeavour  to  make  of  the 

Attempt  to  .       .  /v  .  t 

ugaiise  pnncipate  a  permanent  otnce  with  a  regu- 
lar law  of  succession,  and  inherent  prerog- 
atives. There  was,  indeed,  no  open  or  formal  break 
with  the  Augustan  traditions,  but  the  drift  of  their 
policy  is  unmistakable.  Vespasian  himself,  the 
shrewd,  thrifty,  homely  Sabine,  who  made  no  secret 
of  his  birth,  and  treated  with  equal  contempt  the 
sneers  of  Roman  society  and  the  clumsy  compliments 
of  courtly  pedigree-makers,*  was  as  conscious  of  the 
greatness  of  his  position,  and  as  firmly  resolved  to 

*  Suet.,  Vesp,^  i.  •  Suet.,  Vesp.^  12. 


Ch.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars,   5 1 9 

--—    ^^^—M  m  ■»■■■  MMIM  .^1  .»    ■■■!■  I       ■■■■■■  ■  ■■—  W  I  I  ■        -  ■  ■■!  1 

maintain   and   transmit  it,  as  any  of  the  Caesars.* 
From  him  dates  the  final  transformation  ^^^ 

of  the  family  names  of  the  early  Caesars  «ttti»turc. 
into  an  official  titulature,  borne  by  all  emperors  in 
turn,  and  which,  as  such,  not  only  expressed  the 
continuity  of  the  office,  but  distinguished  the  emperor 
from  all  private  citizens,  and  placed  him  on  a  level 
with  the  Parthian  "  king  of  kings."  Thenceforward^ 
though  additions  were  made  by  the  vanity  of  later 
Caesars,  or  the  servility  of  their  subjects,  the  "  Im- 
'  perator  Caesar  Augustus  **  could  challenge  compari- 
son with  the  /SatTtXcifS  ftaatkioov  SlxatoS  inKpaviji 
qnXiXXr^  beyond  the  Euphrates.*  To  establish  a 
law  of    succession  was  a  more    difficult  ^j,^ 

matter,  and,  in  fact,  no  rule  of  succession  •ttcc«M*on. 
was  ever  formally  laid  down.  Yet  the  attempt  was 
made,  not  without  some  measure  of  success,  to  es- 
tablish at  least  the  fiction  of  hereditary  descent.  Ves- 
pasian was  fortunate  in  the  possession  of  two  grown 
sons.*  Nerva,  Trajan,  and  Hadrian,  in  default  of  any 
natural  heirs,  had  recourse  to  adoption.  Moreover, 
the  son,  whether  real  or  adopted,  was  marked  out  as 
the  intended  heir  in  a  somewhat  novel  manner.  The 
old  family  surname  **  Caesar  "  now  begaa  to  be  the 
distinctive  title  of  the  heir  apparent,  and  it  was  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  a  formal  and  public  act.*  His  head 

^  Dio,  Ixvi.,  10. 

*  For  the  style  and  titles  of  the  Parthian  kings,  see  Gardner,  TA^ 
Parthian  Coinage^  London,  1877. 

*  Vespasian  frankly  designated  Titus  as  his  successor ;  Dio,  Ixvi.,  12 : 
kfih  fikv  vioi  dtada^erav  v  ovSeii  aXXoi 

*  In  the  senate-house,  Dio,  Ixvi.,  i ;  Ixviii.,  4  :  kv  TQ.dvysdfiiaj 
Kai6apa  ditedet^e  (Nerva^Trajan) ;  so  Antoninus  Pius  received  the 
name  from  Hadrian. 


5  20  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  v  i 

appeared  on  the  coins,  and  his  name  was  coupled 
with  that  of  the  emperor  in  the  public  prayers.*  To 
the  same  desire  to  invest  Cxsarism  with  an  hereditary 
character,  we  may  attribute  the  prominence  given  to 
the  recitation,  on  inscriptions,  of  an  official  imperial 
pedigree,  the  apparent  continuity  of  which  concealed 
the  actual  breaks  in  the  line.  Just  as  Vespasian  ap- 
propriated the  names  which  belonged  of  right  to  the 
Julian  emperors,  so  Severus  not  only  adopted  the 
name  of  Pertinax,  but  styled  himself  the  son  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Caracalla  was  thus  able  to' 
represent  himself  as  the  lineal  descendant  of  Nerva.* 
This  official  pedigree  was,  moreover,  dignified,  and 
the  sanction  of  religion  given  to  the  authority  of  the 
reigning  emperor,  by  the  deification  of  his  predeces- 
sors. Of  the  nine  emperors  of  this  period,  all  but 
two,  Domitian  and  Commodus,  were  deified,  and 
thus  a  line  of  deified  ancestors  was  formed,  which 
linked  each  new  Caesar  with  the  past.  The  official 
list  of  the  "  Divi,"  the  public  worship  of  the  "  Divi," 
and  the  commemoration  of  their  birthdays,  were 
synibob  of  the  continuity  of  and  legitimacy  of 
Caesarism.' 

These  attempts  to  disguise  the  fact  that  the  au- 
thority of  each  Caesar  was  a  purely  personal  author- 
ity, which  he  had  not  inherited,  which  he  could  not 
transmit,  and  which  expired  with  him,  were  power- 
fully aided  by  the  practical  necessities  of  administra^ 

^  E,g„,iSL  Acta  Fr,  Arva&um,  See  generally,  Mommsen,  Staattr,^ 
ii.,  1044  s^g. 

*  See  Wilmanns,  989,  AcUi  Fr,  Arval,  (ed.  Henzen),  p.  186. 

'  Acta  Fr\  Arv.,  p.  186,  records  a  sacrifice  to  the  **  Dm/'  sixteen 
in  number. 


Ch.1]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    521 

- 

tion.  The  maxim  that  the  **  king  never  dies  "  was 
never  explicitly  laid  down  by  Roman  lawyers.  But 
the  permanence  and  continuity  of  Caesar's  authority 
were  assumed  as  a  working  hypothesis  alike  by  the 
officiab  who  administered,  and  by  the  jurists  who 
formulated  and  interpreted  the  law.  The  patronage 
which  the  emperors  of  this  period  extended  to  the 
latter,  was  amply  repaid  by  the  service  which  they 
rendered  in  making  Caesarism  an  integral  part  of  the 
constitution. 

The  division  of  labour  established  by  Augustus 
between  Caesar   and  the    regularly    con- 

Cswir  And 

stituted  authorities  of  the  state,  the  mag-  the  republican 
istrates  and  the  senate,  had  been  unreal 
enough  in  the  first  century.  In  the  second,  even 
the  professed  respect  for  it  shown,  for  example,  by 
Nero  on  his  accession,  became  superfluous,  as  the 
reasons  of  policy  which  prompted  it,  the  desire  to 
conciliate  republican  feeling,  and  to  avoid  wounding 
the  pride  of  the  old  republican  noblesse,  ceased  to 
exist.  Though  in  certain  circles  of  Roman  society 
it  was  still  the  fashion  to  affect  a  Platonic  admiration 
for  the  republic,'  republicanism  was  extinct  as  a  polit- 
ical force ;  and  though  the  senate  could  still  be 
offended  by  discourtesy,  or  goaded  into  hostility 
by  persecution,'  the  applause  of  the  new  men,  the 
municipals  or  provincials  who  filled  the  senate  house, 
was  easily  purchased  by  a  few  compliments,  while 
their  acquiescence  in  the  supremacy  of  Caesar  was 


*  An  admiration  quite  compatible,  as  in  the  cases  of  Tacitus  and 
the  younger  Pliny,  with  loyal  service  to  Caesar. 
'  As,  for  instance,  in  the  latter  part  of  Domitian's  reign. 


522         Outlines  of  Raman  History.       [Book  v  i 

complete  and  unquestioning.  The  "  dual  control " 
The  set  up  by  the  Augustan  system  was  always 

mftfftotracies.  inconsistent  with  efficient  government, 
and  though  not  formally  abolished,  was  systemati- 
cally ignored  in  practice.  On  the  one  hand,  the  re- 
stricted sphere  of  administration  which,  at  the  close 
of  the  first  period,  had  been  left  to  the  old  magis- 
tracies, was  still  further  narrowed.  The  administra- 
tive and  judicial  supremacy  of  consuls  and  praetors 
in  Rome  and  Italy  was  destroyed  by  the  ever-widen- 
ing authority  of  Caesar's  prefect  of  the  city,*  and  of 
the  prefect  of  the  praetorian  guard.  It  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that,  of  the  judicial  business  from  Rome 
and  Italy,  which  formerly  came  before  consuls  and 
praetors,  the  greater  part  now  went  to  one  or  other 
of  these  two  great  officers.  A  further  movement  in 
the  same  direction  is  indicated  by  the  appearance 
under  Trajan  of  imperial  commissioners  intended  to 
supervise  the  local  government  of  Italian  towns,*  and 
by  the  creation  under  Hadrian  arid  M.  Aurelius 
of  the  consulars  and  juridici}  By  the  close  of 
the  century  such  jurisdiction  as  remained  to  the 
consuls  and  praetors  was  of  a  strictly  departmental 
and  subordinate  kind.  Even  the  criminal  jurisdiction 
of  the  consuls  sitting  with  the  senate,  though  still 

*  Under  Domitian,  the  eity  prefect  already  exercised  jurisdiction 
outside  Rome.  At  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  Ulpian 
states  iJDig,y  i.,  12)  ^^  omnia  omnino  crimina prafeeiura  urHs  siH 
vindicavit    .     .     .     extra  urbem  intra  ItaUam,** 

*  For  these  curatores  see  Marquardt,  Staatsverw,^  i.,  487, 

*  Marquardt,  Staatsverw  ,  i.,  72  ;  Vit,  Hadr,^  22  :  **  quattuar  am^ 
sulares per  omnem  Italiam  judices  constituit^*  ;  Vit,  M,  Aur,^  11 : 
^*  daiis  juridicis  Italia  consuluit,'* 


Ch.lJ    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    523 

exercised,  was  exercised  more  and  more  rarely,  and, 
as  a  rule,  only  at  the  suggestion,  or  by  the  permission 
of  the  emperor.*  Not  less  significant  as  a  symptom 
of  the  decline  of  these  magistracies  was  the  growing 
importance  attached  to  the  obligation  of  exhibiting 
games,*  a  duty  which  survived  all  the  more  impor- 
tant  functions.  The  senate  suffered  scarcely    ^^ 

"*       The  aenate. 

less.  Apart  from  Caesar,  it  rarely  ventured 
to  act,  and  though  most  of  the  emperors  of  this 
period  attended  its  meetings  when  in  Rome,  laid 
business  before  it,  and  used  its  degrees  as  an  im 
strument  of  legislation,  the  proceedings,  as  a  rule, 
consisted  only  of  the  imperial  speech,  and  the  "  ac- 
clamations*' which  invariably  followed  it.'  After 
Hadrian  the  senate,  even  as  a  channel  of  legislation, 
ceased. 

In  proportion  as  the  importance  of  the  old  magis- 
tracies and  of  the  senate,  regarded  as  ^^-lYi^^^n^xof^^x 
sar's  colleagues  in  the  work  of  government,  •*■*•*■• 

declined,  their  importance  as  constituting  an  imperial 
aristocracy  increased.  The  development  of  the  sena- 
torial order  into  an  imperial  peerage  received  a  power- 
ful impulse  from  Vespasian.  The  precedent  set  by  him 
of  freely  admitting  to  the  senate  men  not  qualified 
by  election  to  the  quaestorship  was  followed  by  his 


^  Instances  of  the  trial  of  a  proconsul  before  the  senate  are  rare 
after  Trajan.  Dio  (Ixxi.,  28)  represents  the  exercise  of  this  jurisdic- 
tion as  a- concession  on  the  part  of  Caesar;  comp.  Vit,  Marci^  10. 
Under  Commodus,  a  proconsul  of  Sicily  was  tried  by  the  prafectus 
inratorio. 

•  Tac,  Agricy  6. 

"  Pliny,  Epp,  vii.,  14 ;  Mommsen,  Staatsr,,  iii.,  951, 


524        Outlines  of  Roman  History.        tBook  VI 

successors.*  The  number  of  men  thus  ennobled  di- 
rectly by  Caesar,  and  the  popularity  of  this  short  and 
easy  road  to  senatorial  honours,  steadily  increased. 
One  result  was  to  swamp  the  element  in  the  senate, 
which  had  given  the  early  Cssars  most  trouble. 
The  old  Roman  families  gradually  disappeared,  and 
their  place  was  filled  by  new  men  of  a  different 
stamp,  with  different  traditions,  and  often  of  low 
birth."  Their  claims  to  promotion  were  various :  in 
some  cases  wealth  and  local  influence,  in  others  fame 
as  an  orator,  sophist,  or  lawyer;  in  others  again, 
good  work  done  as  an  official  in  Caesar's  service.* 
The  senatorial  dignity  became  an  imperial  order  of 
merit  open  to  the  whole  empire.  At  the  same  time  its 
connection  with  the  tenure  of  the  old  magistracies 
and  with  the  senate  became  looser.  It  was  no  longer 
necessary,  either  for  entrance  into  the  senate  or  for 
promotion  to  a  higher  grade,  to  have  held  a  magis- 
tracy. In  many  cases  a  man  was  (>laced  on  admis- 
sion among  th^pratorii^  and  thus  at  once  qualified 
for  the  consulship;  and  though  in  this  period  the 
highest  rank,  that  of  consularis^  was  not  given,  ex- 


'  For  the  use  of  the  method  of  adUcHo^  see  Diet  Antiq,^  s.  v. 
'*  Senatus  "  ;  Mommsen,  Staaisr,,  ii.,  877. 

•  Vit,  M,  Aur„  10:  multos  ex  amieis  adlegit**;  Vit  Pert,^  6: 
*  *  Cammodus  adUctiotdbus  inn  umeris  pratorios  miseuisset, "  Pertinax 
himself  was  "  Hbertini  filius,**  and  was  a  procurator  in  Dacia  at  the 
time  of  his  promotion  to  senatorial  rank. 

'  Instances  in  point  are  Herodes  Atticus,  Fronto,  Polemo,  and 
Favorinus.  Among  those  thus  promoted,  the  inscriptions  mention 
municipal  magistrates  (Wilm.,  1151),  %.prafecius  virgilum  (C  7.  Z., 
xii.,  3166),  a  subprafecius  vehicuiorum  {ib,,  xii.,  X857),  a  procurator 
of  Lttsitania  {ib,,  vi.,  1359). 


Ch.  1]     The  Flavian  and  Antanine  Casars.   525 

cept  to  those  who  had  been  actually  consuls,  the 
consulship  was  now  held  only  for  two  months,  so 
that  there  must  have  been  many  cansulares  whose 
tenure  of  office  in  Rome  was  limited  to  this  brief 
period,  and  who  had  never  been  praetors,  aediles, 
quaestors,  or  tribunes.  To  such  men  the  rank  of  con- 
suldris  was  of  far  greater  importance  than  the 
consulship.  There  are  indications  also  that  the 
possession  of  senatorial  dignity  no  longer  implied 
that  its  holder  sat  and  voted  in  the  curia^  or  even 
resided  in  Rome.  The  provincial  who  had  risen 
almost  at  a  bound  to  consular  rank  had  few  ties  with 
Rome,  and  probably  little  liking  for  the  business  of 
the  senate-house.  He  preferred  to  return  home,  to 
air  his  new  dignity  among  his  neighbours,  and  trans- 
mit it  to  his  children.  Trajan,  indeed,  enacted  that 
all  senators  of  foreign  birth  should  invest  one  third 
of  their  property  in  Italian  land ; '  but  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  reduced  the  portion  to  one  fourth.'  In  the  latter 
part  of  this  period  the  senator  of  consular  rank  is  a 
distinguished  and  not  infrequent  figure  in  provincial 
society.'  In  proportion  as  the  magistracies  .and 
senate  tended  to  become  municipal  institutions  of 
the  city  of  Rome,  the  senatorial  order  became  im- 
perial in  extent  and  distribution,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  was  more  closely  connected  than  ever  with 
Caesar. 


,  >  Pliny.  Epp„  vi.,  19.  •  Vit.  M.  Aur„  ii. 

*  Philostratus  (FiV.  Sophist)  supplies  many  instances  of  provincial 
families  of  consular  rank  {yivo%  i&icar'LKdy)  \  C.  /.  Z.,  ii..  1174 
(Spain):  *' eonsularis  fiUa^  senatoris  uxor,  soror,  mater**;  »^.,  ii., 
4129:  *"•  consularis fiUa** 


5  26         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  v  t 

One  more  change  in  the  machinery  of  government 
remains  to  be  noticed,  the  complete  organisation 
The  imperial  ^'  Caesar's  own  administrative  service, 
•ervice.  Throughout  thc  first  century,  but  espe- 
cially  under  Claudius,  this  service  had  steadily  grown 
in  numbers  and  importance,  as  the  business  which 
fell  to  Caesar  increased  in  amount.  It  was,  however, 
from  the  emperors  of  the  second  century  that  it 
received  its  elaborate  organisation,  and  its  official 
recognition  as  a  state  service,  and  among  these 
emperors  the  credit  for  the  work  belongs  mainly  to 
Hadrian.'  Under  him,  the  most  important  of  the 
household  offices  were  taken  out  of  the 
hands  of  freedmen,  and  intrusted  to 
Roman  knights.*  These  offices  thenceforward  ranked 
as  *'  procuratorships,**  and  were  incorporated  with  the 
regular  civil  service  of  the  empire.*  Within  this  ser- 
vice a  regular  system  of  promotion  was  established, 
leading  up  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  posts.*     Its 


'  See  besides  Hirschfeld,  Untersuchungen,  and  Liebenam,  D.  Lauf- 
lahn  d,  Procurataren^Schyxxz^  De  MuiaHanibus  in  Imperio  Romano  ad 
Hadriano  Factis,     (Bonn,  1883.) 

'  Vii,  ffadr, ,  21 ;  *'  o^  epistuUs  et  a  libellis primus  equiUs  Romanes 
Aaduii/*    To  these  must  be  added  the  office  **  a  ratumibus" 

•  C.  /.  Z.,  ix..  5440:  ^^ proc.  Aug,  a  ratienibus** ;  Orelli,  Soi : 
**proc,  ab  epistuUs ^^^    Comp.  Friedlilnder,  SitUngesch,^  i.,  160  sqq, 

^  See  the  tables  of  precedence  in  Liebenam.  M.  Bassseus  Rufus, 
praetorian  prefect  under  M.  Aurelius,  was  successively  procurator  of 
Asturia  and  Gallaecia,  procurator  of  Noricum,  procurator  of  Belgica 
and  the  two  Germanies,  proc,  a  ratianibus^  prafecius  annona, 
prefect  of  Egypt,  and  praetorian  prefect,  C,  /.  Z.,  vi.,  1599.  In 
ibid.,  1625,  the  order  is  *^ procurator  ptomta,  procurator  xx  heredi' 
tatum,  proc,  BdgiecSs  proc.  a  rationibus,  praf,  annona^  P^^f» 
MgypU: 


Lf    »» 


Ch.1)    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  CcBsars.   527 


sphere  of  action  was  enlarged  by  the  final  abolition 
of  the  old  system  of  farming  taxes/  and  by 
committing  to  the  care  of  imperial  officials  the  main- 
tenance of  the  imperial  post.'  As  its  field  of  opera- 
tions widened,  a  more  minute  subdivision  of  labour 
and  a  more  complete  official  apparatus  became 
necessary.  The  inscriptions  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
second  century  indicate  an  increase  in  the  number, 
not  only  of  procurator^,  but  of  the  subordinate 
officials  attached  to  them,  and  of  the  separate 
bureaux^  each  with  its  staff  of  clerks  and  assistants.' 
It  was   no  doubt   in  the   department   of   The  Kdmini. 

.        .   ^  •tratlonof 

finance  that  the  organisation  was  most  justice, 
complete,  but  it  is  noticeable  in  all  the  various 
departments  of  government.  In  the  administration 
of  justice,  especially,  important  changes  were  made. 
The  amount  and  variety  of  the  judicial  business 
falling  to  Caesar  obliged  even  the  most  industrious 
of  emperors  to  delegate  a  portion  of  it  to  others. 
Jurisdiction,  indeed,  continued  to  form  an  important 
part  of  the  emperor's  work,  not  only  when  he  was 
in  Rome,  but  when  on  his  travels,  or  residing  at  one 
or  another  of  his  country  houses  in  Italy.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  the  practice  of  delegating  juris- 
diction to  others  became  more  regular  and  syste- 
matic.    Such  a  delegated  jurisdiction  was  already 


'  Dio,  Ixix.,  16. 

•  ViU  H.,  T.  '' eursum  Jisealem  instituit"  For  the  officials  in 
charge,  the  **pra/ecH  vehiculorum^^*  see  Liebenam,  p.  50. 

•  Thus  we  find  a  sub-praf,  annoncf^  sub-praf,  vehiculorum^  an 
**adjutor  ad  epistuHs"  a  **'proxumusa  rationibusy  See  Liebenam's 
tables.     See  also  Ephemeris  Epigraphica^  v.,  p.  105. 


528  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     iBook  vi 

exercised  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  in  Rome 
and  over  great  part  of  Italy,  by  the  imperial  prefect 

of  the  city.  In  the  course  of  the  second 
prietorio.  ccntury  occurred  the  curious  change  by 
which  the  prefect  of  the  praetorian  guard  was  trans- 
formed into  a  high  judicial  officer.*  At  first  occa- 
sionally used  by  the  emperors  as  their  representative, 
the  prefect  was,  by  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,  formally  invested  with  both  criminal  and 
civil  jurisdiction.  He  was  occasionally  in  this  period, 
and  more  regularly  in  the  next,  a  trained  lawyer,  and 
he  was  assisted  by  a  deputy  prefect  and  by  a  council 
of  expert  advisers.* 

The  concentration  of  the  supreme  judicial  author- 
ity in  Caesar's  hands  as  the  "  fountain  of  justice  "  gave 

a  new  importance,  not  only  to  the  judicial 
pSncipST      officers  to  whom  he  delegated  jurisdiction, 

but  to  the  assessors  whom  he  consulted.' 
Under  the  early  emperors  the  practice  had  prevailed 
of  inviting  persons,  usually  senators,  in  whom  the 
emperor  placed  confidence,  to  assist  him  with  their 
counsel.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  it  was  in 
Hadrian's  reign  that  the  '*  imperial  council "  was  first 
put  upon  a  permanent  footing.  He  admitted  to  it 
not  only  his  personal  friends,  but  professional  law- 
yers,^ and  after  his  reign  the  position  of  *'  cansiliarius 


'  Mommsen,  Slaatsr^^  ii.,  907,  1205. 

*  The  jurist  Papinian  was  advocatus  fisci  under  M.  Anrelius,  proCm 
a  HbelHs  under  Sept.  Severus,  and  ihtnpraf,  pratorio, 

*Mommsen»  Staatsr.,  ii.,  925  ;  Hirschfeld,  UuUrsuch,,  2x5. 

*  Vit.  Hadr.^  18.    Among  the  jurists  were  CeUos  and  Salvius 
Jttlianus. 


Ch.u    The  Flavian  and  Antontne  Ccesars.    529 

« 

AugustV'^  was  definite  and  well  recognised.  This 
council,  consisting  partly  of  high  imperial  officials 
and  prominent  senators,  partly  of  jurists,  rapidly 
became,  in  fact,  the  emperor's  privy  council.  In  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries  it  was  known  as  the  "  sacred 
consistory,"  and  both  the  name  and  the  institution 
were  borrowed  by  the  Popes  of  Rome  from  the 
Roman  Caesars. 

Such  is  one  aspect  of  the  work  accomplished  by 
the  succession  of  able  and  vigorous  men  who  sat  in 
the  seat  of  Augustus  during  this  period : — the  legal- 
isation of  Caesarism  as  a  permanent  institution,  the 
practical  abolition  of  the  dual  control  shared  by 
Caesar  with  the  regular  magistrates,  and  the  organi- 
sation under  Caesar  of  an  elaborate  administrative 
machinery,  controlled  exclusively  by  him,  and  de- 
riving its  authority  from  him  alone,  as  the  fountain 
at  once  of  power  and  of  justice.  In  one  important 
point  they  failed.  While  they  succeeded  in  defining 
and  establishing  the  position  of  Caesar,  they  left  the 
question  who  the  Caesar  for  the  time  should  be, 
dangerously  open,  and  the  omission  to  fix  a  law  of 
succession  again  and  again  imperilled  the  unity  of 
the  empire  in  the  stormy  times  of  the  third  century. 

To  the  emperors  who  thus  consolidated  the  au- 
thority of  Caesar  belongs  naturally  enough  the  credit 
of  attempting  to  weld  the  empire  into  a 
single  state  under  his  supreme  rule,  and      «<>«»  of  the 

**  empirs. 

of    abandoning    the    old    theory    which 


'  The  consiHarii  were,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  classified 
like  the  procuratores^  according  to  the  rate  of  their  pay,  as  centenarii 
(100,000  sesterces),  and  sexagenarii  (60,000  sest.) ;  Hirschfeld,  /.  <*• 
34 


530         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  vi 

regarded  it  as  a  federation  of  allied  communities 
under  the  hegemony  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth. 
Their  task  was,  no  doubt,  made  easier  by  the  gradual 
disappearance  of  distinctions  of  language  and  man- 
ners, by  the  assimilating  influence  of  commercial  and 
social  intercourse,  and  by  the  extinction  of  national 
jealousies  and  aspirations.  But  it  is  equally  certain 
that  the  tendency  of  imperial  policy  was  in  the  same 
direction.     The  federal  theory  of  the  em- 

Bxtentlon  .        .  ,  - 

o'the  pire  mvolved  the  maintenance  of  a  clear 

franchise.         ^ 

distinction  between  the  dominant  Roman 
community  and  its  alien  allies.  But  the  emperors  of 
this  period  were  as  liberal  as  Augustus  had  been 
sparing  in  granting  Roman  and  Latin  rights,  and  in 
thus  gradually  assimilating  the  political  status  of 
all  the  free-born  inhabitants  of  the  empire.  The  en- 
franchisement by  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius,  of  sev- 
eral cantons  in  the  "  three  Gauls,''  was  probably  due 
rather  to  a  desire  to  reward  their  own  adherents,  or 
to  gain  fresh  ones,  than  to  any  more  statesmanlike 
motive.*  But  the  liberal  policy  enunciated  by 
Claudius  was  consistently  followed  by  Vespasian 
and  his  successors.  Vespasian,  besides  admitting 
provincials  to  the  senate,  granted  Latin  rights  to  all 
the  non-Roman  communities  of  Spain,*  and  the  in- 
scriptions record  the  names  of  some  forty  "  Flavian 
towns  '*  in  the  Peninsula.*  It  is  probable  that  Hadrian 
completed  the  work  by  fully  enfranchising  his  native 
country.*    Of  similar  wholesale  grants  of  the  fran« 


1  Tac,  Hist,  i.,  8,  51,  78.  *  See  the  indices  to  C.  /.  Z.,  ii. 

'  Pliny.,  N.  ff»,  ii.,  30.  *  Mommsen,  Hermes,  xvi.,  471. 


Ch.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antanine  Casars.    53 1 

chise,  we  have  no '  more  instances  until  we  reach 
the  famous  edict  of  Caracalla  at  the  commencement 
of  the  next  period.  But  apart  from  the  sneer  which 
Tacitus  allows  himself  at  the  freedom  with  which 
the  franchise  was  granted  in  his  own  time/  the  large 
number  of  towns  which  owed  their  rank  as  Roman 
municipia  or  colonies  to  the  emperors  of  the  second 
century  proves  that  Vespasian's  successors  continued 
his  policy.  They  are  to  be  found  chiefly,  no  doubt, 
in  the  frontier  provinces  of  the  north,  in  Pannonia, 
Mcesia,  and  Thrace,  and  in  Trajan's  own  creation, 
the  province  of  Dacia,'  but  they  occur  also  in  Africa, 
and  in  the  East.'  To  these  municipia  and  colonies 
must  be  added,  if  we  are  to  form  a  just  idea  of  the 
rapid  extension  of  the  Roman  citizen-body,  the  allot- 
ments of  lands  in  the  provinces  to  veterans/  the  new 
openings  for  Roman  settlers  afforded  by  the  inclusion 
of  the  agri  decumates  within  the  empire,'  and  by  the 
annexation  of  Dacia ;  finally,  the  liberality  with  which 
the  franchise  was  bestowed  on  individual  provincials 
must  be  taken  into  account. 

The  communities  composing  the  empire  exhibited, 

*  Tac,  Ann.f  iii.,  40:  * Wfw  cum  idrarum  necnisi  virtuH pretium" 

*  In  Pannonia,  Sisda  and  Sirmium  were  created  colonies,  Novio- 
dunum  and  Scarbanti,  municipia,  by  Vespasian.  .Pcetovio  became 
a  colony  under  Trajan ;  Mursa  (col.),  Aquincum  Vindobona,  and 
Carnuntum  (mun.)  belong  to  Hadrian.  In  Moesia,  CEscus  and 
Ratiaria  (col.)  date  from  Trajan,  Viminacium  and  Nicopolis  (mun.)^ 
from  Hadrian.  To  Hadrian  belongs  also  Augusta  Vindelicorum,  in 
Raetia. 

»  DUrr,  Reisen  d,  K.  Hculrian  (Wien,  1881).  p.  40,  mentions  seven 
municipia  incorporated  by  Hadrian  in  Africa. 
^  E.g.,,  in  Pannonia,  by  Trajan.    Agrimensores^  i.,  xai. 
»  Tac„  Germ,^  29. 


532         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  vi 

I ^^^^ 

at  the  close  of  the  first  century,  great  varieties  in 
outward   form  and  in  their  local  institu- 

The 

municipal  tions  and  laws.  These  varieties  had  not 
disappeared  by  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  but  they  were  to  be  found,  for  the  most 
part,  only  in  the  remoter  or  more  inaccessible  districts ; 
in  almost  every  province  the  political  unit  was  a 
town  with  a  certain  area  of  territory  attached  to  it, 
and  with  a  municipal  constitution.  These  urban 
communities,  moreover,  exhibit  a  strong  tendency  to 
uniformity,  both  in  their  internal  arrangements  and 
in  their  relations  to  the  central  authority. 

In  the  case  of  the  Roman  towns,  this  uniformity 
IS  unmistakable.  In  Italy,  it  is  true,  many  of  the 
older  towns  retained  distinctive  features, 
KSn  tow2«.  dating  from  the  days  of  their  indepen- 
dence. Yet  these  were,  as  a  rule,  limited 
to  the  titles  borne  by  their  magistrates,  or  to  small 
points  of  local  usage ;  in  the  main,  the  statement  of 
a  writer  in  the  second  century  that  the  "  distinctive 
rights  of  the  municipalities  have  been  obliterated  " 
holds  good.*  In  the  Roman  towns  in  the  provinces, 
even  these  superficial  variations  are  rarely  traceable. 
The  vast  majority  had  been  founded  or  incorporated 
by  the  Caesars,  and  their  constitutions  were  all  framed 
upon  the  same  lines.'  Among  the  non-Roman  towns 
— the  "  allied  communities  " — the  case  is  much  the 


'  Aul.,  GelL^  xvi.,  13. 

*  These  lines  were  laid  down  by  the  Lex  yuHa  MunieipaHs  (45  B.C.). 
The  charters  granted  by  I)omitian  to  the  two  Spanish  towns  of  Sal- 
pensa  and  Malaga  are  extant.  See  C.  /.  Z.,  ii.,  s.  v.  Mommsen, 
DH  SUuUreckU,  Sa^.  u,  Malaga  (Berlin,  1855). 


Ch.  11    The  Flavian  and  Antontne  Casars,    533 

same.  The  Latin  towns,  once  the  most  favoured 
allies,  were  under  the  empire  not  so  much  allies  as 
Roman  towns  with  inferior  rights,  and  the  grant 
of  the  "  Latin  rights "  was  a  stepping-stone  to 
the  acquisition  of  the  full  franchise ;  the  Latin 
town  received,  on  incorporation,  a  constitution 
closely  similar  to  that  of  the  Roman  colony  or  muni- 
cipium,  and  was  subject  to  Roman  laws/ 

Among  the  genuinely  foreign  allied  communities, 
the  local  differences  were  no  doubt  more  numerous 
and  more    strongly  marked.     Here  and      ^^    „^  ^ 

.  .  r    r^       %  The  allied 

there,  among  the  communities  of  Gaul,  communi- 
traces  of  Keltic  institutions  and  usages  sur- 
vived.* The  Greek  communities  of  the  Eastern  prov- 
inces retained  their  own  institutions  and  laws,  and  the 
necessity  of  respecting  local  law  and  custom  is  insisted 
upon  by  both  Roman  emperors  and  Roman  lawyers.* 
But  alike  in  the  Greek  East  and  in  the 
Latin  West,  the  tendency  to  uniformity  municipal 
was  strengthened  by  the  steady  and  contin- 
uous action  of  the  authority  of  Caesar.  The  interests 
of  the  empire  were  so  intimately  bound  up  with  the 
prosperity  of  the  municipalities,  that  the  supervision 
of  the  latter  became  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  im- 
perial government,  and  how  close  and  constant  this 
supervision  became  is  shown  by  the  letters  of  the 
younger  Pliny  from  Bithynia,  and  by  the  numerous  im- 
perial rescripts  quoted  in  the  Digest.    The  first  duty 

»  Plin..  Epp,,  X.,  93. 

*  Hirschfeld,  GallUche  Studien,  X.  (Wien,  1884.) 

•Plin.  (Epp.^  X.,  109,  113,  etc.)  refers  to  the  **/<rjr  cujusque  civi- 

tatis, "  an  d  the  *  *  consuetudo  proidncia. "    Gains,  i. ,  92 :  *  *  Ifges  moresque 

peregrinorum, " 


534        Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  vi 

of  the  proconsul,  or  legate,  was  to  see  that  the  condi- 
tion of  the  communities  under  his  care  was  such  as  to 
enable  them  to  discharge  their  duties  to  the  empire. 
In  serious  cases  a  special  commissioner  was  sent,  and 
even  the  free  towns  were  not  exempt  from  inspec- 
tion. As  these  officials  were  all  responsible  to  Caesar, 
and  referred  to  him  for  guidance  in  all  doubtful 
points,  a  code  of  regulations  was  gradually  formed, 
which  constituted  a  common  municipal  law  for  the 
whole  empire,  and  superseded  the  old  local  or 
provincial  constitutions,,  the  decrees  of  the  senate, 
and  the  edicts  of  former  governors.'  It  is  clear  that 
when  Ulpian  wrote,  there  was  already  a  body  of  law, 
based  mainly  on  imperial  edicts  and  rescripts,  and 
current  throughout  the  empire,  which  regulated  all 
points  in  the  internal  government  of  the  municipali- 
ties where  imperial  interests  were  even  indirectly 
concerned,  or  on  which  the  decision  of  Cxsar  had 
been  asked  for  and  given.' 

This  increasing  regulation  of  municipal  affairs  by 
imperial  authority  no  doubt  resulted  in  the  reform 
of  abuses,  and  quickened  the  sense  of  imperial 
unity.  But  at  the  same  time  it  tended  to  weaken 
municipal  patriotism  and  energy,  and  to  produce  an 
excessive  dependence  on  the  central  power.  The 
restless  energy,  the  unceasing  vigilance,  and  the  pro- 
fuse liberality  of  Hadrian  were  not  without  their 

'  For  the  universal,  authority  of  the  rescripts  of  Caesar,  see  Pliny, 
Epp,^  X.,  42  :  "  quodin perpeiuuM  mausurum  est,  a  ie  cansiUui debet,** 
Ulpian,  Dig,,  xlvii.,  12. 

'  Of  this  common  municipal  law,  a  good  idea  may  be  formed  from 
the  50th  book  of  the  Digest^  especially  the  sections,  "  ad  municipaf*^ 
et  de  incolis,**  *^  de  decurioptibus"  **de  muueribus  et  honoribus,** 


Ch.ll    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.     535 

■■MP  ■■■■■■  ■■■■  ■■■■[■■■■I  ^^-^■^^^^— ^— 1— — — ^^— ^M^— ■^■^^^■^— ^—^^M^—^^— ^.^^^^—M W^M^lil^^M^^M^i— — 

dangers,  and  among  the  symptoms  of  weakness 
apparent,  amidst  the  prosperity  of  the  age  of  the 
Antonines,  the  flagging  vigour  of  the  municipalities 
was  one  of  the  most  serious. 

Not  the  least  important  achievement  of  the  em- 
perors of  this  period  was  that  of  developing  and 
completing  the  system  of  frontier  defence,  ^he 

which  Augustus  had  sketched  in  outline,  frontiers, 
but  to  which  his  successors,  in  the  first  century,  had 
added  little.  The  care  and  attention  which  Ves- 
pasian, Trajan,  and  Hadrian  bestowed  upon  the 
frontier  defences  were  not  entirely  due  to  their  own 
soldierly  training.  The  visions  of  world-wide  empire, 
in  which  the  generation  of  Horace  indulged,  had 
passed  away,  and  the  prayer  of  Tacitus,  "May  the 
nations  continue,  if  not  to  love  us,  at  least  to  hate 
each  other,"*  contrasts  significantly  with  the  ex- 
uberant confidence  of  the  Augustan  age.  The  fron- 
tier lines  which  Augustus  had  marked  out  as  fixing 
the  limit  of  Roman  aggression  were  now  to  be  the 
defences  of  Rome  against  barbarian  invasion.  The 
pressure  which,  in  the  third  century,  drove  one  bar- 
barian tribe  after  another  into  Roman  territory,  was 
making  itself  felt  even  in  the  time  of  Vespasian,  and 
was  the  justification  both  for  Trajan's  annexation  of 
Dacia,  and  for  Hadrian's  elaborate  fortifications. 

Recent  researches  have  led  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  share  of  the  Flavian  emperors  in  this  work  of 
frontier  defence  was  larger  than  had  been  generally 
supposed.    On  the  Rhine,  Danube,  Euphrates,  and  in 

»  Tac,  Germania,  33;  cf,  his  remarks  on  the  camps  by  the  Rhine, 
Hist,^  iv  23. 


536         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [BookVi 

Britain,  Vespasian  and  Domitian  laid  the  foundations 
on  which  their  successors  built. 

On  the  Rhine,  Vespasian,  at  the  very  commence- 
ment of  his  principate,  was  called  upon  to  face  the 
ThcRhins.  ^^^st  serious  crfsis  that  had  arisen  there 
Revolt  of  since  the  defeat  of  Varus  sixty  years  be- 
civuit.  £^j.^^  ^j^^  mutiny  of  the  entire  auxiliary 

force  stationed  on  this  frontier.  The  danger  of  the 
outbreak  was  increased,  not  only  by  the  withdrawal 
of  the  picked  troops  which  had  marched  with  Valens 
and  Caecina  to  Italy,  but  by  the  peculiar  composition 
of  the  auxiliary  force  itself.  The  regiments  com- 
posing it  were  not,  as  was  the  case  elsewhere, 
brought  from  some  distant  province,  and  conse- 
quently strangers  both  to  each  other  and  to  the 
surrounding  population.  They  were  recruited  from 
the  neighbouring  districts  of  Gallia  Belgica  and  from 
the  Delta  of  the  Rhine*  They  were  clan  regiments, 
each  composed  of  men  belonging  to  the  same  tribe, 
Batavians,  Nervians,  Lingones,  or  Treveri,  and  of- 
ficered, as  a  rule,  by  their  own  chiefs  or  men  of 
rank.'  They  were  in  addition  distinguished  for  their 
martial  spirit  and  warlike  prowess.  For  more  than 
seventy  years  this  native  army  had  loyally  guarded 
the  Rhine  frontier  side  by  side  with  the  legions,  and 
its  fidelity  had  seemed  to  justify  the  policy  of 
Augustus  and  his  successors.  Yet  the  risks  were 
great,  for  disaffection  might  mean  a  conflagration  on 
both  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  form  assumed  by 
the  rising  of  Vindex  had  been  a  plain  warning  of 

'  Tac.,  Hist^  iv.,  12;   of  the  Batavians,   **  vetere  insHtuto  no* 
HHsHmi pcpulariwn  r^fftianf";  cf.  Hid.,  iv.,  19;  iv.,  $$• 


Ch.  1]     The  Flavian  and  Antontne  Casars.   537 


-r-^ 


what  these  favoured  and  trusted  troops  might  do,  if 
for  any  reason  they  threw  off  their  allegiance  to 
Rome.  But  Vindex  had  to  face  the  legions  of 
Upper  Germany  in  their  full  strength  and  under  a 
capable  commander.  The  outbreak  of  the  great 
mutiny  in  the  summer  of  69  found  the  legionary 
camps  depleted  of  their  best  men,  the  chief  com- 
mand in  the  hands  of  the  incompetent  Hordeonius 
Flaccus/  and  the  imperial  government  paralysed  by 
civil  war.  The  insurgent  leader  was  Julius  Civilis, 
at  once  a  Batavian  chief  and  commander  of  an 
auxiliary  cohort ;  and  he  was  supported  at  first  only 
by  his  own  tribesmen  and  their  neighbours  in  the 
Delta  of  the  Rhine.  But  the  revolt  quickly  spread. 
Other  native  regiments,  notably  the  eight  Batavian 
cohorts  which  had  marched  to  Italy,  but  had  been 
sent  home  by  Vitellius,'  joined  Civilis,  and  beyond 
the  Rhine  the  German  tribes  nearest  the  river  rose 
also.  Early  in  the  next  year  (70  A.D.)  the  Treveri, 
encouraged  by  the  news  of  the  burning  of  the  Cap- 
itol, declared  for  a  free  Gaul.'  Finally,  towards  the 
close  of  the  same  year  the  great  legionary  camp  at 
Vetera  was  actually  taken,  and  the  legions  there 
and  in  Upper  Germany  swore  allegiance  to  the  im- 
per  turn  Galliarum,^  The  capture  of  Vetera  was 
the  last  as  it  was  the  greatest  success  obtained  by 
Civilis.  During  the  next  few  weeks  dissensions 
weakened  the  mutineers,  the  Gauls  showed  signs  of 

'  Tac,  Hist,^  L,  9. 

•  Ibid.,  ii.,  69, 
^  Jbid,,  iv.,  55. 

*  Ibid.,  iv.,  57--60, 


538         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  vi 

wavering,  and  the  imperial  government,  freed  from 
the  distraction  of  civil  war,  was  able  to  take  prompt 
and  effective  measures  for  restoring  order.  The  ar- 
rival of  Petilius  Cerialis  *  was  followed  by  the  sub- 
mission of  many  of  the  insurgent  clans.  Civilis  was 
driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  "  Batavian  island," 
and  his  people  renewed  their  allegiance  to  Rome." 

The  reorganisation  of  the  Rhine  armies  which  fol- 
lowed,  showed  that  Vespasian  had  taken  to  heart  the 
lessons  of  the  mutiny.  The  legions  which  had  dis- 
graced themselves  were  disbanded,  and  their  places 
taken  by  others';  but,  more  significant  still,  the 
native  army  was  completely  reconstituted.  After 
71  A.  D.  hardly  a  trace  is  discoverable  of  the  old 
native  clan  regiments  on  the  Rhine ;  some  were  dis- 
banded, others  transferred  to  Britain,  and  Roman 
officers  were  substituted  for  native  chiefs  as  com- 
manders.* Thenceforward  throughout  this  period 
there  was  peace  on  the  Lower  Rhine. 

On  the  Upper  Rhine  the  rule  of  the  Flavian  em- 
perors was  made  memorable  by  a  successful  annexa- 

Annexation  ^^°"  ^^  territory  beyond  the  river,  the 
beyond  the  first  since  the  abandonment  of  the  short- 
Rhine.  lived  province    of    Germany   in    9  A.D, 

For  though  the  forts  and  entrenchments  constitut- 


*  Tac,  Hist.,  iv.,  71. 
'  Ibid.,  v.,  14-22. 

*  The  1st  and  i6th  legions. 

^  Some  of  the  Batavian  regriments  were  disbanded.  Regiments  of 
Nervii,  Menapii,  and  Morini  were  sent  to  Britain.  We  know  the 
names  of  twenty-three  regiments  stationed  in  Upper  Germany 
between  70-90  A.D.     None  of  them  was  from  Gallia  Belgica. 


Ch.t]    The  Flavian  and  Antanine  Casars.   539 

ing  the /i»«^j  Transrenanus^  date  for  the  most  part 
from  a  later  period,  it  seems  certain  that  it  was  by 
Vespasian  and  Domitian  that  the  territory  which 
they  enclose  was  added  to  the  empire/  The  south- 
ern portion  (Baden  and  Wiirtemberg),  once  the 
home  of  the  Helvetii  and  then  of  the  Marcomanni, 
had,  since  the  latter  removed  eastward,  been  a  **  no 
man's  land." '  Settlers  from  the  Roman  side  of  the 
Rhine  had  found  homes  there,  and  it  was  presum- 
ably the  necessity  of  protecting  these  emigrants  that 
led  the  Roman  government  to  depart  from  the  policy 
of  Augustus  and  annex  the  country.  The  annexa- 
tion was  an  accomplished  fact  when  Tacitus  wrote 
the  Gertnania  in  98  A.D.,  *  and  we  may  connect  it  with 
a  successful  campaign  made  by  Vespasian  beyond 
the  Rhine  in  74  A.D.,*  and  with  the  erection  at 
Rottweil  of  the  "  Flavian  altars,"  presumably  as  the 
centre  of  the  official  Caesar-worship  for  the  new 
territory/ 

»  Vita  TaHH,  iv.  The  fullest  information  as  to  the  "  limes"  is  to 
be  found  in  the  official  publications  of  the  "  Reichs4imes  Commis- 
sion" ;  cf,  also  Mommsen,  R,  G„  v..  136-146. 

•  Zangemeister,  N,  Heidelb,  Jahrb,^  1893. 
•Tac,  Germ,,  28  :  **  duHa  possessionis  solum" 
*Tac.,  Germ.,  28. 

»Cn.  Cornelius  Clemens,  legate  of  Upper  Germany  in  74  A.D., 
received  *  *  ornamenta  trtumphalia "  for  a  success  in  Germany 
{C.  /.  X.,  xi.,  5274)-  In  this  year  also  Vespasian  was  twice  saluted 
''imperatar"  Eph.  Epig.,  iv.,  807.  Cf.  Zangemeister,  N.  Heidelb. 
Jahrb,,  1893,  for  evidence  of  road-making  beyond  the  Rhine  at  this 
time  (a  milestone  at  Offenburg,  on  a  road  from  Strassburg  to  (?) 
Raetia). 

•  Ptolemy,  xi.,  15  ;  Tab.,  Pent,  ii.,  r.  The  "'arte"  were  at  cross- 
roads   (Brambach,  1643)  on  the  route  from  Vindonissa  to  Aug. 


540  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  vi 

The  annexation  of  the  northern  portion  of  this 
area,  of  the  Taunus  and  the  lowlands  watered  by  the 
Main,  was  due  to  different  causes,  and  was  apparently 
the  work  not  of  Vespasian  but  of  Domitian.  Here, 
too,  it  is  true  there  were  Roman  interests  beyond  the 
river  which  the  imperial  government  could  not  neg- 
lect. The  hot-springs  at  Wiesbaden,  and  the  mines 
in  **  the  land  of  the  Mattiaci," '  had  attracted  Roman 
settlers  and  Roman  capital  before  the  accession  of 
Vespasian.  But  the  dominant  factor  in  the  situation 
was  the  ever-present  danger  of  raids  by  the  powerful 
tribe  of  the  Chatti  and  their  dependent  septs  nearer 
the  Rhine,  such  as  the  Mattiaci  of  the  Taunus.'  As 
far  back  as  the  time  of  the  elder  Drusus  two  forts  had 
been  built,  one  to  guard  the  passage  of  the  Rhine  op- 
posite Mainz,'  and  a  second  to  keep  open  the  road  up 
the  Main  valley,  by  which  punitive  expeditions  from 
Mainz  would  advance.^  But  Domitian  seems  to  have 
made  up  his  mind  that  nothing  short  of  annexation 
would  be  an  effective  remedy.  He  crossed  the 
Rhine,'  and  after  some  fighting  not  only  annexed 
the  Taunus  district,  but  marked  out  a  frontier,  and 
protected  it  by  forts  and  a  dyke.'  He  thus  at  once 
barred  the  advance  of  the  Chatti  towards  the  Rhine, 


Vindelicomm.      Strassburg    and  Windisch,   as    legionary    camps, 
would  be  the  natural  bases  of  the  road  system  in  the  new  territory. 
>  Plin.,  A^.  H,^  zxxi.,  30 ;  Tac,  AnH,^  xi.,  20. 

*  Tac.,  Hist,  iv.,  37 ;  Ann,,  i.,  56 ;  xii.,  27  ;  Germ.^  29. 
'  Dio,  liv.,  33.     Now  Castel. 

^  Tac,  Ann,,  i.,  56.     Probably  at  Heddemheim. 

*  Probably  in  83  a.d.     Frontinus,  Sirat.,  i.,  I,  8 ;  Dio»  IzviL,  3* 

*  Front.,  Strat,^  i.,  3,  10 ;  ii.,  11,  7, 


•/ 


ch.u    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Citsars.    541 

and  cut  off  the  tribes  included  within  the  area 
annexed  from  their  natural  allies.'  Of  the  two  tribes 
chieily  in  question,  the  Mattiaci  in  98  A.D.  are  de- 
scribed as  loyal  subjects  of  Rome^  paying  no  tribute, 
but  furnishing  soldiers,"  while  the  Usipii  supplied 
a  regiment  for  service  in  Britain  under  Agricola.' 

The  peaceful  settlement  of  the  country  thus  ac- 
quired by  Vespasian  and  Domitian  beyond  the  Rhine 
was  for  a  moment  arrested'  by  the  revolt  of  L.  An- 
tonius  *  (88  A.D.),  legate  of  the  army  of  Upper  Ger- 
many, and  in  immediate  command  of  two  legions  at 
Mainz.  The  revolt  excited  serious  alarm.  Domitian 
himself  prepared  to  start  from  Rome,  and  Trajan 
was  summoned  from  Spain.  Before,  however,  either 
could  arrive,  the  rising  was  suppressed  by  L.  Appius 
Norbanus,  possibly  legate  of  the  8th  legion  at  Strass- 
burg.  His  task  was  made  easier  by  the  sudden 
breaking-up  of  the  ice  on  the  Rhine,  which  prevented 
Antonius's  German  allies  from  crossing  the  river. 
One  incidental  result  of  the  outbreak  was  the  aband- 
onment of  the  old  system  of  double  camps.  Hence- 
forward each  legion  was  to  have  its  own  camp.* 

The  whole  of  the  new  territory  was  now  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  legate  of  Upper  Germany  ; 
a  cordon  of  forts  garrisoned  by  auxiliary  regiments 
protected  the  frontier,  while  in  reserve  on  the  Rhine 
were  the  legions  at  Mainz  and  Strassburg, 

'  Front.,  SiraU^  i.,  3,  10. 
•  Tac,  Germ,^  29. 
•Tac,  Agr,,  28. 

*Suet.,  Dom,^  6,  7;  Dio,  Ixvii.,  3;  Mommsen,  i?.  (?„  v„  137; 
Hermes t  xix.,  437  ;  Schiller,  Gesch,  d,  JCaUerneit^  i, ,  534. 
•Suet.,  Dom,t  7. 


542         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  vi 

The  frontier  defences  on  the  Danube  were  far  less 

complete  than  on  the  Rhine.    There  were  no  legions 

in  Raetia  or  Noricum ;  along  the  frontier 

The  Duiub0( 

of  Pannonia,  Carnuntum  was  the  only 
legionary  camp  ;  while  east  of  Oescus,  along  the  en- 
tire course  of  the  Lower  Danube  there  was  none  at 
all.  At  the*  same  time  there  were  disquieting 
symptoms  of  unrest  beyond  the  river,  from  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Marcomanrii  eastward  to  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian.  The  movements  and  migration  of 
peoples  within  this  area  are,  as  a  rule,  only  known 
to  us  when  for  a  moment  the  veil  is  lifted  and  some 
tribe  or  tribes  are  forced  against  the  barrier  of  the 
Roman  frontier  by  pressure  from  behind.  Such  a 
glimpse  is  given  by  the  epitaph  of  Ti.  Plautius  Sil- 
vanus,  legate  of  Mcesia  under  Nero.*  He  describes 
himself  as  having  given  shelter  in  Roman  territory 
to  100,000  tribesmen  from  beyond  the  Danube  with 
their  wives  and  children,  as  having  repressed  a 
"  movement  "  of  Sarmatians,  and  taken  hostages  from 
kings  of  the  Bastarnae  and  Roxolani.  In  69  a.d. 
the  outbreak  of  civil  war  encouraged  the  latter 
people  to  make  a  raid  in  force  into  Moesia,  which, 
however,  ended  in  their  complete  defeat."  In  70 
the  attempt  was  repeated  on  a  larger  scale,  the 
Roxolani  being  on  this  occasion  joined  by  Dacians 
and  by  their  own  kinsmen  the  Sarmatian  lazyges. 
They  crossed  the  Danube,  stormed  the  forts  held  by 
the  auxiliaries,  and  were  threatening  the  legionary 
camps  when  they  were  driven  back  by  Mucianus,* 

'  C.  /.  Z.,  xiv.,  3608. 

*  Tac.i  Hist,,  i.,  79. 

•  Tac.,  Jiist^  iii.,  46,  47  ;  Josephus,  B.Jud.,  vii.,  4,  3. 


Ch.  11    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    543 

then  on  his  march  from  the  East  to  Italy.  As 
serious  a  matter,  however,  as  these  occasional  raids 
was  the  rapid, development  of  the  highland  king- 
dom of  Dacia. 

The  accession  of  Vespasian  was  followed  by  some 
fifteen  years  of  peace,  but  he  did  not  entirely  over- 
look the  necessity  for  strengthening  the  frontier. 
The  camp  at  Carnuntum  was  rebuilt  and  enlargedt 
and,  probably,  a  new  camp  formed  at  Vindobona. 
The  two  legions  hitherto  stationed  in  Dalmatia  were 
moved  up  to  the  front,  and  additional  camps  pro- 
vided at  Ratiaria  and  at  Oescus.' 

Domitian,  however,  had  to  face  something  like  a 
general  rising,  in  which  the  Suevian  Marcomanni 
and  Quadiy  the  Sarmatian  lazyges,  and  the  Dacians 
were  all  concerned,  and  which  coincided  significantly 
with  the  accession  to  the  Dacian  throne  of  the 
ablest  of  its  kings,  Decebalus.' 

The  Dacian  war  (85  or  86  A.  D.)  began  with  a 
Dacian  raid  into  Moesia,  in  which  the  legate  of 
Moesia,  Oppius  Sabinus,  was  defeated  and  killed. 
No  better  fortune  befell  Cornelius  Fuscus,  prefect  of 
the  praetorium,  who,  apparently  in  the  next  year,  in- 
vaded Dacia  with  a  large  force.  The  relics  of  Fuscus 
and  his  troops  were  found  by  Trajan.  Tettius 
Julianus  in  88  A.D.  was  more  successful,  and  ad- 
vanced far  enough  to  threaten  the  Dacian  capital 
Sarmizegethusa.  Decebalus  sued  for  peace,  and 
Domitian,  already  engaged  in  the  Suebo-Sarmatian 
war,  granted  terms,  usual  enough  in  the  history  of 


'  Rhein.  Museum,  1893,  C.  /.  Z.,  iii. 

*  Dio,  Ixvii.,  6 ;  Suet.,  Dom,^  6  ;  Jordanes,  GeL^  13. 


544       Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  vi 

L ■_  ._  Il_  IMMMII     I'^M  ■ 

Roman  frontier  policy,  though  denounced  as  dis- 
graceful by  the  panegyrists  of  Trajan.* 

Of  the  Suebo-Sarmatian  war  (89-92  A.D.)  we  know 
little  more  than  that  the  tribes  taking  part  in  it  were 
the  Quadiy  Marcomanni,  and  the  lazyges,'  and  that 
in  the  course  of  it  a  legion  was  cut  up  and  its  legate 
killed.  It  is  also  noticeable  that  Domitian  celebra- 
ted no  triumph  for  this  war,  and  that  the  "  Suevi "  are 
found  in  arms  again  under  Nerva.  Th^se  renewed 
disturbances  led  naturally  to  fresh  precautions  on 
the  Roman  side.  A  legionary  camp  was  formed  at 
Aquincum  to  watch  the  lazyges,  and  Moesia  was 
divided  into  two  provinces,  each  with  its  own  legate 
and  legions. 

In  two  other  quarters  <>f  the  empire  the  Flavian 

emperors   accomplished  results  of  importance,  in 

Britain,  and  on   the   Euphrates  frontier. 

Britain 

In  the  former  case  the  recall  of  Suetonius 
Paulinus  in  61  A.  D.  has  been  followed  by  ten  years 
inaction.  But  with  the  accession  of  Vespasian  a 
fresh  stage  in  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  the 
island  began.  A  succession  of  able  legates,  Petilius 
Cerialis  (71-74),  Julius  Frontinus  (?  74-78),  and  finally 
Cn.  Julius  Agricola  (78-84),  advanced  the  limits  of 
Roman  authority  as  far  north  as  the  line  of  the 
Forth  and  Clyde.'  The  most  permanent  result  of 
these  campaigns  *  was,  however,  the  addition  to  Ro- 


'  Pliny,  Pan.^  I8.         •  Dio,  Ixvii.,  7,  12  ;  Tac.,  Hist,  i.,  8. 

■  Tac.,  Agric,,  23. 

^  The  phrase,  Tac,  Hist,,  i.,  2,  *^ perdomita  Britannia  et  staHm 
missa,**  may  possibly  refer  to  the  abandonment,  after  84,  of  the  terri- 
tory north  of  the  **  Wall,*'  which  Agricola  had  temporarily  occupied. 


Cb.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    545 

man  Britain  of  the  area  known  as  Brigantia,  from 
the  Brigantes,  the  most  numerous  and  powerful  tribe 
within  ity  and  extending  from  the  Mersey  and  the 
H  umber  northward  to  the  line  afterwards  marked 
by  Hadrian's  Wall  from  the  Solway  to  Tynemouth.* 
York  was  occupied,  and  served  with  Chester  as  a  base 
for  all  operations  to  the  northward.' 

The  annexation,  under  Nero,  of  the  kingdoms  of 
Pontus  and  Armenia  Minor  had  extended  Roman 
rule  to  the  line  of  the  Upper  Euphrates 
and  the  borders  of  Greater  Armenia.  But 
this  new  frontier  was  as  yet  unguarded  by  legions,  and 
the  responsibility  for  its  safety  seems  to  have  been 
divided  between  the  legate  of  Galatia,  who  had  no 
legions,  and  the  legate  of  Syria,  whose  legions  had 
plenty  to  do  elsewhere.'  In  71  or  72  Antiochus  IV. 
of  Commagene  was  deposed ;  his  kingdom  was  an- 
nexed and  added  to  the  province  of  Syria,*  whose 
north-western  limits  were  thus  made  coterminous 
with  the  south-eastern  limits  of  the  province  of 
Cappadocia.  The  latter  province,  with  Pontus  and 
Armenia  Minor,  was  placed   under  the  legate  of 


'  Tac.,^^^.,  17  :  ^^civitas  numeroHssima  toHus pravincia,^  The 
territory  of  Brigantes  extended  ea^t  and  west  from  sea  to  sea. 

'  The  9th  legion  must  have  been  transferred  to  York  from  Lincoln. 
Chester  was  still  a  double  camp  occupied  by  the  20th  and  the  2nd 
(adjutrix)  legions,  and  was  the  headquarters  of  the  legate  of  the 
province.  In  Britain,  as  in  Upper  Germany,  the  frontier  posts  were 
garrisoned  by  auxiliaries,  the  legions  remaining  in  reserve. 

■  Tac,  /TiV/.,  ii.,  81 :  '*inermes  Ugati  regebant^  nondum  odditis 
Cappadocia  Ugionibus,*^ 

*  Jos.,  Bell,  Jud,,  vii.,  7. 

35 


546        Outlines  of  Raman  History.        [Book  vi 

Galatia,  who  had  thus  the  charge  of  the  eastern 
frontier  from  Melitene  northward  to  Trapezus  on 
the  Euxine.*  For  its  defence  "  legions  were  added,"  * 
a  legionary  camp  was  formed  at  Melitene,'  and  pro- 
bably a  second  farther  north  at  Satala/  Cilicia  was 
definitely  organised  as  an  imperial  province  under  a 
legate,  and  the  same  fate  befell  Judsa  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus. 

Trajan  *  figures  in  history  as  the  soldier-emperor 
whose  exploits  revived  the  military  prestige  of  Rome, 
Trajan.  His  brilliant  campaigns  threw  into  the 
98-117  A.D.  shade  the  comparatively  uneventful  annals 
of  his  predecessors,  and  recalled  the  heroic  days  of 
Caesar  and  Pompey.  But  Trajan,  though  a  soldier, 
and  a  soldier  with  a  dash  of  Chauvinism  in  his 
nature,  was  something  more.  The  author  of  the 
rescripts  to  Pliny,  and  the  organised  of  the  "ali- 
mentary foundations  "  in  Italy,  was  clearly  a  states- 
Annexation  man.  Nor  as  a  soldier  was  he  merely  a 
ofDacia.  rcckless  conqueror.  The  conquest  of 
Dacia,  the  achievement  by  which  he  is  best  known, 
was  anything  but  a  mere  military  adventure  prompted 
by  vainglory.  It  was  the  result  of  a  deliberate  pol- 
icy, which  had  for  its  principal  aim  the  security  of 
the   Danube  frontier,  in  view  of  the   increasingly 

»  C,  /.  z,,  iii.,  291,  312. 

•  Suet.,  Vesp,,  8. 

'  Jos.,  BelL  Jud,^  vii.,  7.  The  12th  legion  was  sent  to  Melitene 
in  70  A.D. 

^  The  15th  legion  seems  to  have  been  transferred  from  Camuntum 
to  Satala  before  the  accession  of  Trajan. 

»  Mommsen,  R,  (?.,  v.,  chaps,  vi.,  ix. ;  Schiller,  Gesch,  d,  Kaiserneit, 
!•»  543  '^^•;  Francke,  Trajan  (Leipzig,  1840). 


Ch.1]    The  Flavian  and  Antontne  Ccesars.    547 

menacing  attitude  of  the  tribes  beyond.  The  Dacian 
kingdom,  as  it  stood,  was  the  natural  centre  round 
which  Suevians  and  Sarmatians  rallied,  and  its  king, 
Decebalus,  was  even  better  fitted  than  Arminius 
had  once  been  on  the  Rhine  to  form  and  to  lead  a 
powerful  coalition  against  Rome.  But  if  this  moun- 
tain fortress,  overlooking  the  plains  to  the  west,  ^ 
north,  and  east,  were  in  Roman  hands,  Rome  would 
gain  a  commanding  position  from  which  to  watch 
and  check  all  movements  that  might  threaten  danger. 
She  would  acquire  also  a  territory  rich  in  mineral 
wealth  and  in  fighting  men. 

Moreover,  war  with  Dacia  was  inevitable;  the 
peace  patched  up  by  Domitian  was  hollow  and  un- 
satisfactory. Decebalus  was  notoriously  arming,  and 
his  Suevic  allies  seem  to  have  been  actually  in  the 
field  in  97.*  That  Trajan  fully  realised  the  situation 
is  implied  by  what  is  known  of  his  doings  from  the 
moment  when  he  became  legate  of  Upper  Germany 
in  97,  down  to  his  return  to  Rome  as  emperor  at  the 
end  of  99  A.D.  On  the  Rhine  frontier,  it  is  clear 
that  the  development  of  civil  life  and  municipal 
institutions  went  quietly  forward.'  But  in  proportion 
as  the  Rhine  frontier  ceased  to  cause  anxiety,  it  be- 
came desirable  to  establish  more  direct  communica- 

'  At  the  moment  of  Trajan*s  adoption  by  Nerva,  news  arrived  of 
a  success  gained  by  Trajan  on  the  Pannonian  frontier  (Plin.,  Pan., 
8  ;  Dio,  Ixviii.,  3).  C.  /.  Z.,  v.,  7425,  mentions  the  decoration  of  a 
tribune  of  leg.  i  adjutrix  by  Nerva  for  services  **  belh  SuebicoJ'^ 

*  Eutrop.,  8.  Col.  Ulpia  Traiana  was  founded  near  Xanten.  The 
transformation  of  the  military  districts  occupied  by  the  armies  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Germany  into  provinces  was  the  work  cither  of 
Domitian  or  Trajan. 


548       Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Bookvi 

tions  between  the  camps  at  Mainz  and  Strassburg 
and  those  nearer  to  the  probable  theatre  of  war  on 
the  Danube.  The  natural  route  lay  through  the 
territory  recently  annexed  beyond  the  Rhine,  and  a 
road  had  already  been  made  leading  from  Strassburg 
eastward  towards  the  frontiers  of  Rxtia.  This  road 
Trajan  continued  certainly  as  far  the  legionary  camps 
on  the  middle  Danube,  even  if  he  did  not,  as  a  late 
writer  asserts,  carry  it  to  the  shores  of  the  Black 
Sea.^  While  this  important  line  of  communication 
was  being  made,  Trajan  also  made  a  careful  inspec- 
tion of  the  troops  stationed  along  the  frontier.' 

In  the  spring  of  loi  Trajan  left  Rome  for  his  first 
Dacian  campaign.'  His  army  was  divided  into  two 
columns,  one  of  which,  led  by  the  emperor  in  person, 
followed  the  most  westerly  of  the  routes,*  leading  to 
the  highland  plateau  of  Dacia  and  to  the  capital 
Sarmizegethusa,  through  the  Irongate  pass/  The 
results  of  this  first  campaign  were  not  decisive,  but 
in  the  summer  of  102  Decebalus  was  defeated  and 
forced  to  sue  for  peace.  He  was  left  in  possession  of 
his  kingdom,  but  he  was  obliged  formally  to  acknow- 


*  Aurel,  Victor,  13,  3:  **iter  quo  facile  Qbusque  Pontico  mart  in 
Gailiam  permeatur.'*  C,  /.  Z.,  Hi.,  1699,  gives  the  famous  inscription 
recording  its  completion  in  loi  a,d.     Cf.  Ephem.,  Epig,^  ii..  334. 

»  C.  /.  Z.,  vi.,  1548  ;  Plin.,  Pan.,  12,  56. 

*  For  the  chronology  of  the  Dacian  wars  see  Mommsen,  Hermes, 
iii.,  130;  Dierauer,  Gesch.  Traians,  72  sqq. 

^  Dio,  Ixviii.,  6  sqq.  Trajan's  own  line  of  march  is  fixed  by  a  frag- 
ment of  his  commentaries  preserved  by  Priscian,  ed.  Keil,  ii.,  205. 

»  Dio,  Ixviii.,  8.'ra?$  TccTtatS;  Jordanes,  Ceiica,  12,  **per  Tapas,'* 
See  also  Petersen,  Traiaii s  DaHsche  Kriege,  Leipzig,  i899-i903. 


Ch.1]    The  Flavian  and  Antontne  Casars.    549 

ledge  himself  the  vassal  of  Rome;  he  was  required 
to  pull  down  his  fortresses,  to  surrender  his  arms  and 
military  stores,  and  to  evacuate  the  territory  he  had 
occupied  in  the  lowlands  of  the  Theiss ;  for  the  future 
he  was  to  have  "the  same  friends  and  foes  as  Rome," 
to  harbour  no  Roman  deserters,  and  to  enlist  no  re- 
cruits from  Roman  territory.  As  security  for  his  good 
faith,  a  Roman  garrison  was  left  in  Sarmizegethusa.' 
Trajan  returned  to  Rome  in  time  to  open  the  year 
103  as  consul,  but  two  years  later  he  was  compelled 
again  to  take  the  field.  Decebalus  was  openly 
violating  the  treaty.  He  was  reported  to  be  collect- 
ing arms,  rebuilding  forts,  and  soliciting  alliances,  it 
is  even  possible  that  he  had  ventured  on  actual  hos- 
tilities." Tlie  senate  declared  war,  and  Trajan  left 
Rome  late  in  104  or  early  in  105.  But  his  journey 
was  leisurely';  he  spent  some  time  in  Mcesia,  and  it 
was  apparently  not  until  the  spring  of  106  that  he 
crossed  the  Danube.  The  advance,  as  in  the  previous 
war,  was  made  in  two  columns/  and  was  slow  and 
difficult.*    At  some  point  not  far  from  Sarmizege- 

*  Dio,  Ixviii.,  9. 

'  According  to  Petersen's  plausible  interpretation  of  the  reliefs  on 
the  column,  Nos.  92-100  (ed.  Cichorius),  /.  c,  part  ii. ,  pp.  41  sqq,  CL 
Eng,  Hist  Review,  1904,  p.  134. 

'  This  journey  is  the  subject  of  a  series  of  reliefs,  Nos.  79-91. 
The  starting-point  was  certainly  Ancona,  whence  he  apparently  sailed 
up  the  Adriatic  to  some  port  in  Istria  and  thence  marched  overland 
to  the  Danube. 

*  This  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  reliefs,  Petersen,  ii.,  75. 

*  Dio,  Ixviii.,  14.  Trajan  this  time  crossed  the  Danube  by  the 
famous  stone  bridge  between  Cladova  and  Turn  Severin  constructed 
for  him  by  ApoUodorus  of  Damascus.  Procop,  de  ced. ,  p.  288 ;  Dio, 
Ixviii.,  13.     It  is  represented  on  the  reliefs,  Nos.  99-101. 


550        Outlines  of  Ratnan  History.       [Book  vi 

thusa  the  columns  joined ;  Decebalus's  capital  was 
taken  by  storm,  and  he  himself  with  many  of  his 
chiefs  committed  suicide/ 

This  time  there  could  be  no  question  of  the  con- 
tinued existence  on  any  terms  of  a  Dacian  kingdom. 
The  Dacian  people  were  treated  as  Rome  had  often 
treated  communities  actually  *' subdued  in  war/* 
Those  who  survived  were  sold  as  slaves,  or  driven 
to  seek  refuge  in  the  unexplored  wastes  to  the  north, 
or  sent  to  fight  the  battles  of  Rome  on  distant 
frontiers."  Dacia  was  annexed,  and  '^  reduced  into 
the  form  of  a  province,"  with  a  promptitude  and 
thoroughness  which  imply  that  Trajan  had  care- 
fully thought  out  his  policy.  The  new  territory  in- 
cluded primarily  the  district  which  both  economic- 
ally and  strategically  was  of  the  first  importance, 
the  upland  plateau  of  the  Siebenbiirgen/  This  be- 
came the  heart  and  centre  of  the  new  province. 
Here  at  Apulum  were  the  headquarters  of  the  army 
of  Dacia*  and  of  the  legate  of  the  province,  while 
Decebalus*s  capital,  Sarmizegethusa,  became  a 
Roman  colony  *  and  the  seat  of  the  provincial  coun- 
cil. Roads  were  made,  the  mines  worked,  and  a 
new  population  drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  empire 
was  settled  on  the  land.    But  the  province  also  in- 

^  Dio.  Izviii.,  14.  The  closing  scenes  of  the  war  are  graphically 
reproduced  on  the  reliefs,  iz8  sqq, 

*  A  Dacian  regiment  served  in  the  Parthian  campaigns  of  Trajan, 
C  /.  Z.,  iii.,  600.  Another  was  sent  to  Britain  before  146  A.  D., 
Diploma^  57. 

*  For  the  organisation  of  the  province  of  Dacia  see  Domaszewski, 
Arck&olog,  Epigr,  'Mittheilungen,  vol.  xiii.     Rhein.  Museum,  1893. 

^  Legio  13  gemina  was  stationed  at  Apulum. 
»  C.  /,  Z.,  iii.,  1443. 


Ch.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antonzne  Ccesars.    55 1 

eluded  the  strip  of  lowland  to  the  south,  through 
which  ran  the  roads  which  connctcted  the  plateau 
with  the  Danube  and  the  lUyrian  provinces.  To 
the  westward  of  this  strip  the  lowlands,  as  far  as  the 
Theiss,  were  to  be  watched  by  the  legate  of  Upper 
Moesia,  and  by  his  legions.  Eastward  beyond  the 
Aluta,  a  similar  duty  was  imposed  on  the  legate  and 
army  of  Lower  Moesia.  Dacia  became  in  fact  an  out- 
post resting  on  the  Danube,  and  the  legionary  camps 
along  its  bank,  as  a  base,  and  this  base  line  was 
strengthened  and  the  distribution  of  the  garrisons 
altered  to  suit  the  new  conditions.  The  camps  at 
Ratiaria  and  Oescus  were  abandoned  as  unnecessary 
now  that  the  territory  on  the  opposite  bank  was 
Roman/  But  to  watch  the  lazyges  a  new  camp 
(Acumincum)  was  formed  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Theiss  and  the  Danube,  and  a  second  at  Bregetio, 
to  command  the  routes  into  the  country  of  the 
Suevic  Quadi.  While  the  strip  of  Pannonia  lying 
along  the  Danube  northward  from  Acumincum  was 
constituted  a  separate  province  (Pannonia  Inferior)," 
eastward  beyond  the  Aluta,  the  line  of  the  Lower 
Danube  was  Ifeld  by  the  three  legionary  camps  of 
Novae,  Durostorum,  and  Troesmis.'  Finally  to  pro- 
tect the  Greek  towns  on  the  seaboard  of  Moesia  and 
Thrace  against  attacks  from  the  north-east,  a  wall 
was  built  across  the  Dobrudscha  from  the  Danube 
to  the  sea.* 

>  They  became  colonies :  Col.  Ulpia  Ratiaria,  Col.  Ulpia  Oescas. 

*  In  107  A.  D. 

*  Now  Sistova,  Silistria,  and  Iglitza  ;  the  legions  were  :  i.  Italica, 
y.  Macedonica,  xi.  Claudia. 

*  Jung,  d,  rem,  LandschafUn^  p.  346. 


552        Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  vi 

This  scientific  reorganisation  of  the  Danube  fron- 
tier gave  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  Danubian 
provinces  for  the  next  fifty  years,  and  is  sattem 
enough  in  itself  to  establish  Trajan's  claim  "rKSS! 
to  be  more  than  an  adventurous  soldier.  '*4-"«a.d. 
A  somewhat  different  judgment  must  be  passed  on 
Trajan's  campaigns  in  the  East,  with  their  dreams  of 
boundless  conquest,  their  transient  successes,  and 
tragic  issue/ 

Trajan's  activity  in  this  part  of  the  empire  was  at 
first  confined  to  developing  the  system  of  fronti^er 
defence,  begun  by  the  Flavian  emperors.  It  was 
probably  in  loo  A.  D.  that  Cappadocia,  with  Armenia 
Minor  and  Pontus,  was  separated  from  Galatia,  and 
constituted  as  an  independent  command'  under  a 
legate  of  consular  rank  who  had  charge  of  the  Upper 
Euphrates  frontier  from  Trapezus  as  far  as  the  north- 
ern limits  of  the  province  of  Syria.'  South  of  this 
point  the  situation  along  the  Syrian  frontier  was 
materially  improved  by  the  inclusion  in  the  province 
of  Syria  of  the  kingdom  of  Herod  Agrippa  II.,*  and 


*  The  chief  authorities  are  Dio.  Ixviii.  17  s^q, ;  John  Malalas 
{Script,  Byz,t  ed.  Bunn);  Mommsen,  JR.  G.,  v.,  397  Jf^.;  Dierauer, 
p.  152  s^^. 

•  T.  Pomponius  Bassus  (96-99  A.  D.)  seems  to  have  been  the  last 
legate  of  Galatia  who  also  governed  Cappadocia.  Liebenam,  </.  A'. 
Legaten,  p.  175. 

'  He  had  under  him  two  legions — the  legion  xy.  ApoUinaris 
moved  from  the  Danube  to  Satala  before  98  a.d.,  and  legion  xii. 
stationed  at  Melitene  since  70  A.D.  Cf.  Eng,  Hist,  Review^ 
1896,  p.  635  sqq, 

^  Herod  Agrippa  II.  died  in  99  or  100  A.D.  See  Prosopogr. ,  /kk^. 
i?.,  ii.,  p.  164. 


Ch.l]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    555 

by  the  annexation,  probably  on  the  extinction  of  the 
native  dynasty,  of  the  Nabataean  kingdom  (106  A.  D.), 
a  narrow  strip  of  territory  extending  southward  from 
Damascus  to  Petra,  between  Palestine  and  the  desert. 
The  new  province  was  rather  boastfully  styled 
Arabia  Petraea,  but  its  acquisition  was  the  one  per- 
manent and  valuable  addition  to  the  empire  made 
by  Trajan  in  the  East.* 

The  very  meagre  records  that  we  possess  do  not 
afford  any  very  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
reasons  which  prompted  Trajan  to  go  beyond  these 
practical  measures  for  strengthening  the  Eastern 
frontier  and  engage  in  a  war  of  aggression  beyond 
the  Euphrates.  It  is  true  that  a  Parthian  prince, 
made  king  of  Armenia  by  grace  of  Rome,  had  been 
deposed  by  the  Parthian  king,  Chosroes,  and  another 
Parthian  prince,  Parthamasiris,  had  been  installed  in 
his  stead  by  Parthian  authority."  This  was  no  doubt 
a  breach  of  the  agreement  made  in  63,  but  Chosroes 
was  ready  to  compromise,  and  allow  his  nominee  to 
be  reinvested  as  king  by  Trajan.  In  any  case,  the 
situation  so  far,  now  that  there  were  Roman  legions 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  scarcely  demanded 
the  personal  presence  of  Trajan  himself.  The  latter 
may  have  had  a  grudge  against  the  Parthian  king  for 
his  undue  sympathy  with  Decebalus,'  but  a  more 

^  Dio,  Ixviii.,  14.  It  was  annexed  by  A.  Cornelius  Palma,  legate 
of  Syria.  The  era  of  the  province  dates  from  March,  106.  Eckhel, 
vi.,  420.  For  its  military  and  commercial  importance,  see  Mommsen, 
R,  C7.,  v.,  476  sqq, 

•  Dio,  Ixviii.,  17.  Eutrop.,  viii.,  3  ;  Pronto,  Princ,  Hist,  (ed,  Mai), 
p.  227. 

»Plin., -£/.  <k/  TV..  74. 


554        Outlines  of  Roman  History.        [Book  vi 

probable  explanation  of  his  action  may  perhaps  be 
found  in  the  rather  obscure  hints  given  by  the  an- 
cient authorities  of  an  actual  invasion  of  the  province 
of  Syria  by  Parthamasiris,  resulting  in  disasters  of 
some  sort  to  the  Roman  arms,  and  even  in  a  tempo- 
rary Parthian  occupation  of  Samosata/  In  any  case, 
Trajan  clearly  contemplated  more  than  a  mere 
demonstration  when  he  left  Rome  for  the  East  in 
October  113.'  He  took  with  him  a  large  force  of 
seasoned  troops  from  the  West,  under  some  of  his 
most  experienced  officers,  as  well  as  an  imposing 
train  of  senators ;  and  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all 
proposals  for  negotiation. 

In  January,  114  he  entered  Antioch,  and  in  the 
spring  of  that  year  he  advanced  and  reoccupied 
Samosata.'  Thence  he  marched  along  the  frontier 
road,  constructed  by  the  Flavian  emperors,  past 
Melitene  to  Satala,  where  he  held  a  durbar,  at  which 
the  kings  and  chiefs  of  Colchis,  Iberia,  Albania, 
and  the  Black  Sea  coast  attended  and  did  homage/ 


1  Fronto,  /.  r.,  \^  malU praUis perculsi^  Dio,  Ixviii.,  z8,  speaks  of 
Trajan  as  '*  recovering ''  Samosata :  **  afiajti  napaXaPoiv,** 

'  The  fixed  point  in  the  chronology  is  the  earthquake  at  Antioch, 
which  took  place  after  the  Armenian  and  Mesopotamian  campaigns, 
and  before  the  Babylonian.  Its  date  ^ven  by  John  Malalas)was 
December  83,  115  a.d.  The  same  authority  states  that  Trajan  left 
Rome  in  October,  landed  at  Seleucia  in  December,  and  entered 
Antioch  in  January.  Mommsen,  R,  G.^  v.,  398,  takes  this  to  be 
January,  115,  and  compresses  the  Armenian  and  Mesopotamian 
campaigns  into  one  year.  I  have  followed  Dierauer  and  Schiller  in 
placing  the  entry  into  Antioch  in  January,  1 14« 

•Dio,  Ixviii.,  19. 

^Dio^  /.^.,  Eutrop.,  viii.,  3.  The  coins  with  the  legend  ^*  regna 
adsignata*'  refer  to  this  durbar.    Cohen,  Med,,  206, 807, 373.  Arrian*s 


Ch.  n    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    555 

From  Satalahe  crossed  into  Armenia,  and  at  Elegeia 
he  was  met  by  Parthamasiris/  The  dramatic  scene 
that  followed  gives  us  one  of  our  rare  glimpses  of 
Roman  frontier  life,  and  recalls  the  interview  between 
Corbulo  and  Tiridates,  or  some  of  the  reliefs  on  the 
Dacian  column.  Seated  on  a  lofty  tribunal  at  the 
entrance  to  the  Roman  camp,  Trajan  received  the 
Parthian  prince,  who  laid  his  crown  at  the  emperor's 
feet,  and  waited  in  silence  to  receive  it  back. 
Alarmed  by  the  shouts  of  the  soldiers,'  he  turned 
to  fly,  but  was  brought  back.  After  a  fruitless 
private  interview,  he  was  again  brought  before  the 
tribunal  to  hear  his  sentence.  He  was  deposed  and 
executed  ;  Armenia  was  for  the  future  to  belong  to 
Rome,  and  to  have  a  Roman  governor/ 

In  the  next  year  (115)  Trajan  accomplished,  with 
little  more  difficulty,  the  conquest  of  Northern  Meso- 
potamia. We  are  told  that  he  made  terms  at  Edessa 
with  Abgarus  of  Osroene,  that  he  received  the  sub- 
mission of  the  sheikhs  of  Anthemusia  and  of  the 
neighbouring  districts,  and  that  he  captured  Nisibis 
and  Singara  in  Western  Adiabene,*  Mesopotamia, 
like  Armenia,  became  a  Roman  province.* 

Periplus,  c.  II,  mentions  kings  in  this  region  who  had  received  their 
crowns  from  Trajah. 
^  Dio,  Ixviii.,  19,  20. 

*  They  saluted  Trajan  as  imperator  ( =  Imp,  VII.). 

'  Dio,  /.  ^.,  ^PoofiiatoDv  etvat  xai  ofixorra  ^Pao/naaor  Hetv: 
the  new  province  was  probably  placed  under  the  legate  of  Cappa- 
docia,  C  /.  Z.,x.,  8291. 

*  Dio,  Ixviii.,  21,  22. 

*  Cohen,  Afed.  Tra/,,  No.  2g.  *^ Armenia  ei  Mesopotamia  inpotes- 
taU  P,  JR'  redacta"    Before  the  end  of  115  Trajan  was  Imp.  XI.; 


556       Outlines  of  Raman  History.        [Book  v  1 

The  closing  stage  of  Trajan's  Eastern  campaigns 
was  significantly  preceded,  such  was  the  ancient 
belief,  by  the  destructive  earthquake  at  Antioch,  in 
December,  115;  from  which  Trajan  narrowly  es- 
caped, thanks,  it  was  said,  to  divine  interposition. 
It  was  a  plain  warning  from  the  gods,  but  it  was 
neglected/  The  campaign  of  116  opened  with  an 
advance  across  the  Tigris ;  Eastern  Adiabene  was 
invaded,  and  apparently  conquered,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  province  of  Assyria  was  ever 
really  created.'  Recrossing  the  Tigris,  Trajan  ad- 
vanced down  the  Euphrates,  unopposed,  to  Babylon, 
and  thence  to  Ctesiphon,  where  the  daughter  of 
Chosroes,  and  also  the  throne  of  the  Arsacid  kings, 
fell  into  his  hands.  Here  he  was  saluted  imperator 
for  the  thirteenth  and  last  time.  Coins  were  struck 
bearing  the  legend  Parthia  capta^  and  Trajan 
assumed  the  cognomen  Parthicus*  From  Ctesi- 
phon Trajan  journeyed  on  to  the  Persian  Gulf  in  a 
style  more  befitting  an  Oriental  sovereign  than  a 
Roman  imperator,  his  head  now  filled  with  dreams  of 
conquests  which  should  outdo  those  of  Alexander.* 


the  fact  of  four  salutations  during   the   Mesopotamian  campaign 
indicates  some  fighting. 
'Dio,  Izviii.,  24. 

•  The  only  authority  is  Eutropius,  viii.,  3. 

'Dio,  Ixviii.,  28.  In  a  diploma  of  Septembers,  116  (Brambach, 
1 5 12),  Trajan  is  Imp.  XIII. ;  for  the  coins  with  **  Parthia  capta"  see 
Cohen,  Med.  Traj\,  No.  184. 

*  The  voyage  is  described  in  an  extract  from  Arrian*s  PartkUa^ 
MttUer,  Frag,  Hist,  Gr,,  iii.,  590. 


Ch.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    557 

At  the  height  of  his  glory  the  offended  gods  struck. 
He  was  forced  to  hurry  back  to  crush  a  widespread 
rising,  which  threatened  him  with  the  loss  of  all  his 
recent  conquests/  A  legate  was  slain  and  a  legion 
cut  to  pieces,"  and  though  his  brilliant  Moorish 
officer,  Lusius  Quietus,  was  more  successful,  Trajan 
was  forced  to  pacify  the  Parthians  by  giving  them  a 
king.'  His  retreat  into  Northern  Mesopotamia  is 
described  as  "not  without  danger  or  bloodshed."* 
He  reached  Antioch  worn  and  ill,  only  to  hear  of  an 
outbreak  among  the  Jews/  For  a  moment  he 
thought  of  again  invading  Mesopotamia  to  punish 
the  insurgents,  but  increasing  illness  obliged  him 
instead  to  start  homeward,  and  at  Seleucia,  in  Cilicia, 
he  died  (August,  117  A.D.).  "All  in  vain,"  concludes 
the  ancient  historian,  "were  the  toils  and  the 
dangers."  * 

Hadrian^  was,  like  his  kinsman  and  fellow-country- 
man Trajan,  a  soldier  by  training.  He  had  served 
in  the  Dacian  wars,  and  was  at  the  time  Hadrian. 
of  Trajan's  death  legate  of  Syria.     But  he  "^"'^*  ^-  ^• 


*  Dio,  Ixviii.,  29.    ndvra  rd  kaXcoHova    .    .    .    diei6Tij, 
'  Fronto,  Princ,  Hist.^  /.  c, 

*  Parthamaspates,  a  son  of  Chosroes.  This  concession  is  repre- 
sented as  a  success  on  the  coins,  ^^  Rex  Parihis  datus^**  Cohen, 
Mid,  Trajatiy  No.  328. 

^  Fronta,  I  c,**"  haudquaquam  secura  nee  incruenta  regression'* 

•  Dio,  Ixviii.,  32;  Euseb.,  Hist  Eccl.,  iv.,  2;  Oros,  vii.,  12. 
There  were  risings  in  Mesopotamia,  Cyprus,  Egypt,  and  Cyrene.  Cf, 
Wilcken,  Hermes^  27. 

•  Dio,  Ixviii.,  33.  fidrrfv  k'jc6vri6av  xaijadrrfv  Ixtv8vvev6av^ 
^  See,  besides  Mommsen  and  Schiller,  Dttrr,  D,  Heisen  d^KMad-^ 

rian,     Gregorovius,  Hadrian  {Ei^.  Tr.),  Macmillan,  18984 


5S8  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  vi 

was  essentially  a  statesman  and  a  lover  of  peace, 
who  accurately  estimated  and  carefully  husbanded 
the  resources  of  the  State.  Trajan*s  campaigns  and 
their  ignominious  end  had  created  widespread  agita- 
tion and  unrest.  Hadrian  set  himself  to  the  task 
of  restoring  order,  of  perfecting  the  defence  of  the 
frontiers,  and  consolidating  the  empire.  Of  Trajan's 
acquisitions  in  the  East,  only  Arabia  Petraek  was  re- 
tained. Chosroes  regained  the  crown  of  Parthia, 
and  a  king  replaced  the  Roman  legate  in  Armenia. 
As  a  consequence  of  the  Jewish  outbreak,  a  Roman 
colony  was  founded  on  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  and 
after  a  last  desperate  insurrection  (134-135)  Judaea 
was  ruthlessly  cleared  of  its  population.  Of  the 
care  bestowed  by  Hadrian  on  the  frontier  defences, 
we  get  an  interesting  glimpse  in  the  writings  of  Ar- 
rian,  Hadrian's  legate  in  Cappadocia.' 

Dacia  was  retained,  and  its  internal  organisation 
improved  by  the  division  of  the  province.  The  up- 
land plateau  became  Dacia  Superior,  and  here  were 
stationed  both  the  legate  and  the  legion.  The  belt 
of  lowland  connecting  the  upland  with  the  Danube 
was  administered  as  Dacia  Inferior  by  a  procurator 
with  auxiliary  regiments  only.*  It  has  been  said 
that  Trajan  had  realised  the  importance  of  establish- 
ing more  direct  communication  between  the  legionary 
camps  on  the  Rhine  and  those  on  the  Danube.  It 
was  probably  to  protect  the  line  of  communication 
constructed  by  him  and  also  the  territories  beyond 


*  Eng»  Hist,  Review^  1896,  629  sqq, 
'  Pomaszewski,  Rhein.  Museum,  1893. 


Ch.ii    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    559 

the  Rhine,  annexed  by  the  Flavian  emperors,  that 
the  great  boundary  barrier  was  constructed,  the  re- 
mains of  which  can  be  traced  from  Kelheim  on  the 
Danube  to  Rheinbrohl  on  the  Rhine/  It  consists 
of  two  portions,  one  of  which  ran  westward  from 
Kelheim  to  Lorch  and  formed  the  northern  frontier 
of  the  province  of  Rxtia ;  the  other,  bending  sharp- 
ly northward  from  Lorch  to  the  Main  and  enclosing 
the  Taunus  range, ''  separated  "  the  districts  annexed 
by  Vespasian  and  Domitian  from  the  barbarians  be- 
yond. In  the  construction  of  this  great  barrier,  a 
large  share  may  safely  be  attributed  to  Hadrian, 
who,  as  his  biographer  tells  us — ''in  many  places 
separated  off  the  barbarians  by  wooden  palisades."* 
A  somewhat  similar  barrier  erected  by  Hadrian  was 
the  well-known  "  wall "  in  Northern  Britain  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Tyne  to  the  Solway.' 

In  Africa  he  created  for  the  third  legion  (III. 
Augusta)  a  new  and  permanent  home  at  Lambcesis, 
the  extant  remains  of  which  supply  us  with  the 
richest  materials  for  constructing  a  picture  of  the 
composition  and  life  of  a  Roman  legion  in  a  frontier 


'  The ''//m^j"  has  been  systematically  studied,  its  course  traced, 
and  the  forts  excavated  during  the  last  twelve  years.  The  results 
are  recorded  in  the  official  JJmes  Blatt  (Trier,  1 892-1904),  and  in 
the  more  sumptuous  Obergermanisch  RoeHsche  Limes  (Heidelberg), 
of  which  twenty-five  pdrts  have  appeared. 

*  ViL  Hadr.,  12. 

*  73.,  II,  it  is  still  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  the  existing  stone- 
wall is  the  **  murus  "  of  Hadrian  or  a  later  substitute.  The  more 
northerly  barrier  from  Clyde  to  Forth  was  certainly  constructed  by 
Antoninus  Pius. 


560         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [Book  Vi 

province.*  Behind  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
frontier  camps  and  stations  stretched  a  line  of 
Roman  colonies  and  towns,  most  of  which  owed,  if 
not  their  existence,  yet  at  least  their  charters  of  in- 
corporation, to  Hadrian  or  Trajan,  and  which  served 
at  once  as  supports  and  as  recruiting  grounds  for  the 
frontier  forces. 

Hadrian's  skilful  policy,  following  on  the  impres- 
sion produced  by  Trajan's  feats  of  arms, 
Aureiiut  secured  a  comparatively  long  period  of 
quiet,  broken  only  by  little  frontier  wars. 
But  it  was  the  evil  fortune  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
War  with  to  be  Called  upon  to  face  and  repel  a 
manni.  *  barbarian  attack,  which,  in  its  audacity 
and  strength,  was  the  most  formidable  that  any 
Roman  emperor  had  yet  encountered.  For  the 
first  time  the  barbarian  tribes  beyond  the  Danube, 
pushed  forward  possibly  by  pressure  from  behind^ 
united  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  force  the  Roman 
lines,  and  win  homes  in  southern  lands.*  The  most 
prominent  were  the  Marcomanni,  and  with  them 
were  joined  Quadi,  lazyges.  Vandals,  and  others. 
Encouraged  by  the  fact  that  a  portion  of  the  army 
of  the  Danube  had  been  withdrawn  for  a  Parthian 
war,  they  broke  into  Pannonia,  and  for  the  first  time 
for  more  than  two  hundred  years  the  sacred  soil  of 
Italy  was  trodden  by  barbarian  invaders.  Aquileia 
was  besieged  (167  A.D.),   and  Opitergium   burnt.* 


'  Cagnat,  V  Armie  cTAfrique^  p.  501,  chaps,  i.  and  vii.,  p.  283. 

*  Mommsen,  R*  G,y  v.,  20g ;  Schiller,  i.,  643. 

•Dio,  Ixxi.,  3,  2;  Vit.  Marc.^  14 ;  C  /.  £.,  v.,  p.  186. 


CK.  1]    The  Flavian  and  Antanine  C<esars.    561 

Raetia  and  Noricum  were  invaded  at  the  same  time, 
while,  to  complete  the  panic,  the  troops  hastily  re- 
called from  the  East  brought  back  with  them  a 
devastating  plague.  The  war  lasted,  with  only 
slight  intermissions,  until  Marcus's  death  at  Vindo- 
bona(i8o  A.D.).  The  integrity  of  the  frontiers  was 
preserved,  but  the  effects  of  the  war,  in  exhausting 
the  resources  of  the  empire,  were  plainly  visible  in 
the  next  century.  From  this  war,  too,  dates  the 
policy,  which  had  in  the  end  such  disastrous  results, 
of  transplanting  barbarians  to  the  Roman  side 
of  the  frontier.  Whole  tribes  were  granted  lands 
in  the  frontier  provinces,  in  one  case  even  in 
Italy,  at  Ravenna,  and  were  enrolled  as  soldiers 
of  Rome.* 

The  Marcomannic  war  was  not  the  only  warning 
of  impending  trouble.  The  pretenders  to  the 
imperial  purple,  the  so-called  "tyrants  "  of 
the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  found  a  Avidiut 
prototype  in  Avidius  Cassius,  who,  after 
successfully  concluding  the  Parthian  war  (166-167 
A.D.),  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  win  for  him- 
self the  title  and  powers  of  emperor.* 

On  the  whole,   however,  despite  the  increasing 
pressure  upon  the  frontiers,  and  the  increased  strain 
on  the  finances  which  the  defence  of  the 
frontiers  involved,   the    period   from  60    character  pf 

\  '^  ^        the  period. 

A.D.  to   193  A.D.  deserves  much  of  the 

praise  which  has  been  lavished  upon  it.    The  em- 


>  Schiller,  Gersch.  d.  Kaiser%nU,  i ,  649 ;  Dio,  Ixzi.,  l6. 

*  Vit,  Avid,  Cass,^  Schiller,  /.  c* 
36 


562  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  vi 

perors  were,  with  few  exceptions,  able  and  vigorous 
rulers;  the  machinery  of  government  was  brought 
to  a  pitch  of  perfection  never  reached  before  or  after- 
wards; civilisation,  Latin  or  Greek,  had  reached 
every  province  in  the  empire,  and  at  no  time  had 
literary  activity  and  interest  been  so  widely  diffused. 
tynptQoiser  ^et  symptoms  of  weakness  are  not  difficult 
decune.  ^q  discover,  especially  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  period.  In  contrast  with  the  rapid 
extension  of  the  municipal  system  stands  the 
fact  that  towards  the  close  of  this  period,  at  any 

The  muni.  ^^^^  ^^  ^^  older  provinces,  municipal 
cipaiitiet.      jj£g  ^^^  losing  some  of  its  vigour  and 

attractiveness/  Municipal  office  was  becoming 
a  burden  rather  than  an  honour,  and  exemption 
from  it,  rather  than  admission  to  it,  was  the  favour 
bestowed  by  the  emperor  on  privileged  individuals 
and  classes.*  The  offices  themselves  had  ceased  by 
the  close  of  the  second  century  to  be  filled  by  popu- 
lar election;  they  circulated  along  with  various 
other  public  duties  among  the  members  of  the  local 
senates  {decurionesY    In  Pliny's  letters  we  already 

*  Kuhn,  Verf,  </.  rdm.  ReicJus^  vol.  i. 

*  Under  Augiistas  veterans  were  declared  to  be  eligible  for  the 
decttrionate ;  at  the  end  of  the  second  century  it  is  their  privil^e  to 
be  exempt  from  it.  So,  again,  the  Augustan  legislation  gave  parents 
of  three  or  more  children  a  prior  claim  to  office  ;  in  the  law  of  this 
period  such  parents  claimed  exemption  from  office. 

*  The  laws  of  Salpensa  and  Malaga  (Domitian)  provide  for  the  elec- 
tion of  the  magistrates  in  the  old  way.  The  speeches  of  Dio  Chry- 
sostom  and  Pliny's  letters  (Trajan)  speak  of  popular  assemblies  in  the 
Greek  towns.  But  Ulpian  clearly  regards  the  offices  (honores)  as  cir- 
culating among  the  decuriones^  and  popular  election,  if  it  survived  at 
all,  can  have  had  little  more  reality  than  at  Rome. 


Ch.1]         Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.       563 

hear  of  persons  compelled  to  become  decurianes^ 
and  the  imperial  law,  as  stated  by  Ulpian,  enters 
with  great  minuteness  into  the  grounds  which  justify 
exemption  from  these  civic  obligations.  It  is  clear, 
too,  that  the  "decurionate"  was  fast  becoming  not 
only  a  burden  rather  than  an  honour,  but  a  hereditary 
burden  not  easily  to  be  evaded.*  Of  the  increasing 
subjection  of  the  municipalities  to  imperial  supervi- 
sion, and  of  their  increasing  dependence  on  imperial 
bounty,  something  has  already  been  said. 

This  tendency  to  lean  on  Caesar,  fostered  as  it  was 
by  the  vigour  of  the  emperors  and   the  complete 
organisation  of  the  imperial  TOvernment 
IS  Visible  also  m  the  literary  life  of  the         andthe 

government. 

time.  The  old  alliance,  which  even  under 
Augustus  had  existed  between  the  republican  nobil- 
ity and  literature-;-an  alliance  which  told  hardly 
against  the  memory  of  the  early  Caesars — had  come 
to  an  end  with  the  virtual  disappearance  of  that 
nobility.  The  traces  of  the  traditional  feud  with 
Caesarism  which  lingered  under  the  Flavian  em- 
perors* disappeared  before  the  reign  of  Hadrian. 
Even  philosophy  ceased  to  be  irreconcilable ;  it  kept 
aloof  from  political  speculation,  and  devoted  itself 
to  teaching  men  how  to  live.*  T'he  foremost  writers 
and   teachers  of  the  time  were  not  only  favoured 


'  Plin.,  Epp,^  II a.    Comp.  the  rescript  of  Antoniniis;  Dig,^  i., 

I.  38. 

*  Ulpian  (Dig^s  i)  implies  that  the  son  of  a  decorion  was  liable  in 
tnm  to  enter  the  curia, 

*  E,g,^  under  Domitian.     Suet.,  Dom.^  la 

*  Zeller,  Phil,  d,  Griecken,  iii.,  651, 


564         Outlines  of  Roman  History.       [pook  VI 

with  the  patronage  and  friendship  of  Caesar,  but  for 
the  most  part  they  were  paid  servants  of  the  govern- 
menty  holding  chairs  endowed  by  the  emperor,  and 
with  special  privileges  accorded  to  them  by  his 
edicts/  Many  of  them  were  enrolled  by  his  favour 
in  the  ranks  of  the  new  imperial  nobility,  and  hon- 
oured with  the  consulship.*  A  somewhat  similar 
change  is  noticeable  in  the  great  department  of 
Roman  law.  Even  during  the  first  half  of,  this 
period  the  foremost  jurists  were,  as  in  republican 
days,  men  of  good  birth  and  position,  with  whom  the 
study  and  exposition  of  the  law  was  a  pursuit  rather 
than  a  profession.'  But  the  lawyers  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  second,  like  those  of  the  third  century, 
were  men  of  humbler  origin,  trained  in  Caesar's  ser- 
vice, who  rose  to  sit  on  his  council,  or  to  fill  the  post 
of  praetorian  prefect  in  virtue  of  their  professional 
skill. 

Alike  in  the  literature  and  in  the  society  of  this 

period,  two  other  characteristics  deserve  notice  as 

being  of  historical  importance.    The  affec- 

tation    of    what    was   archaic,  at  which 

Quintilian  sneered  in    the  field  of  literature,  was 


>  ViU  Hadr.,  16:  '' Jumoravit  ei  divites  fecitr  Vit.  Ant.  FiU 
XI :  **/^r  omnes  protnncias  et  honores  ei  solaria  detuKt**  The  fouo- 
dation  of  chairs  of  rhetoric  dates  from  Vespasian  ;  Suet.,  Vesp,^  18. 
Quintilian  was  professor  of  Latin  rhetoric,  and  received  the  **  omO' 
nunia  consularia,^*  Among  the  exemptions  and  privileges  granted  to 
rhetoricians  and  sophists  were  immunity  from  costly  offices  and  the 
right  of  free  travelling. 

*  Instances  are  Fronto,  Polemo,  Aristocles  of  Pei^amas.  Herodes 
Atticus  was  consul  and. also  ''  corrector  "  of  the  free  towns  of  Asia. 

*  ^.  ^.,  Julius  Celstts  and  Salvius  Julianus. 


Ch.  1]     The  Flavian  and  A  ntonine  Casars.    565 

widespread.'  The  artificial  republicanism  of  the 
younger  Pliny  and  Tacitus,  and  of  their  fellows  who 
drank  to  the  memory  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  while 
drawing  Caesar*s  pay,  was  closely  akin  to  the  literary 
purism  which  preferred  Cato  and  Ennius  to  Cicero 
and  Virgil.*  In  imitation  of  Cato,  Hadrian  wore  a 
beard,  and  he  is  said  to  have  quoted  Cato  in  justifica- 
tion of  his  foreign  policy.'  The  fashion  reappears 
in  the  field  of  art,  though  here,  as  was  inevitable,  it 
was  to  Greek  and  not  to  Roman  models  that  men 
returned/  In  the  same  spirit  we  find  some  of  the 
Italian  towns  laying  official  stress  on  their  ancient . 
traditions.  Capena  revived  its  ancient  title  of  urbs 
fcederata^  and  Bovillae  its  ancient  tie  with  the  extinct 
Alba  Longa.*  Nor  was  this  return  to  the  past  fol- 
lowed by  any  renewed  creative  energy,  as  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  It  was  a  confession  of  weakness 
and  little  more. 

The  policy  of  Augustus  had  aimed  at  the  ascend- 
ency not  only  of  the  Latin  race  but  of  Latin  civili- 
sation ;  and  Greek  culture,  though  liberally  co«rao- 
treated  and  allowed  its  own  way  in  the  p«"**n*»«n« 
provinces  properly  belonging  to  it,  held  only  a 
subordinate  place.  Under  the  Flavian  emperors, 
partly  perhaps  in  reaction  against  Nero's  phil- Hellen- 
ism,* Latinism  was  still  dominant,  and  even  under 


1  Friedl&nder  Sittengesch,,  iii,  3. 
»  Vit.  ffadr,,  16. 
»  ViL  Hadr.,  5. 

*  Friedl&nder,  /.  c, 

*  C,  I.  Z. ,  14,  s.  vv. 

*  The  '*  freedom  "  granted  to  Acliaia  by  Nero  was  taken  away  by 
Vespasian  ;  Suet.,  Ffsp.^  8  ;  Pans.,  vii.,  17. 


566  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      [Book  vi 

■  »'■'"■' 

Trajan  the  two  foremost  names  in  literature  are 
Italian.  But  this  state  of  things  could  not  long 
continue,  as  the  barriers  which  separated  Italy  and 
the'  ruling  race  and  the  rest  of  the  empire  were 
broken  down.  The  idea  of  a  cosmopolitan  civilisa- 
tion common  to  the  whole  empire  replaced  the 
narrower  theory.  The  Greek  scholars  in  the  time  of 
Cicero  were  pensioners  in  the  houses  of  Roman 
nobles;  under  Hadrian  they  were  senators  and 
consuls.  Even  professors  of  Eastern  mysticism, 
from  Eastern  Asia  Minor  or  Syria,  were  admitted 
to  the  imperial  presence,  and  had  their  train  of 
followers.* 

This  cosmopolitanism  accurately  reflected  the 
political  change  which  had  passed  over  the  empire 
and  the  imperial  unity  under  the  rule  of  Caesar, 
which  the  emperors  of  this  period  strove  to  bring 
about.  But  its  result  was  a  civilisation,  widely 
diffused  indeed,  and  which  was  outwardly  brilliant 
and  attractive,  but  which  had  no  unity  and  no 
progressive  energy.  It  flourished  while  protected  by 
the  vigorous  government  of  the  Antonine  emperors; 
but  in  the  troubled  times  of  the  next  century  it  offered 
only  a  feeble  resistance  to  barbarism,  whether  from 
the  North  or  the  East. 

Of  the  two  forces  which  for  a  time  supplied  the 
splendid  administrative  machinery,  elaborated  by 
the  Caesars  of  this  period  with  motive  power,  neither 
owed  much  to  the  composite  civilisation  of  which 

'  Philostratus,  Vit,  Sophist, ,  passim,  Vespasian  is  represented  as 
discussing  the  form  of  government,  not  as  Augustus  did,  with  Romans 
of  rank,  but  with  Apollonius  of  Tyana  and  Euphrates.  See  generally 
Schiller,  i.,  67a  sqq, ;  Friedl&nder,  SiUengesch,,  iii.,  271  sgq. 


Ch.l]    The  Flavian  and  Antonine  Casars.    567 

Hadrian's  villa  at  Tibur  was  a  typical  product.  The 
free  use  of  barbarians  for  imperial  defence  prolonged 
the  existence  of  the  empire.     Christianity 

The  Chris- 

infused  new  life  in  to  its  various  populations.  tian  com. 
The  latter  force  was  indeed  as  yet  far  from 
being  accepted  as  an  ally  by  the  imperial  government, 
and  the  Christian  communities  lay  under  the  ban  of 
the  law,  though  the  law  was  only  occasionally  and 
fitfully  enforced.  .  But  their  ilumbers  were  rapidly 
increasing.  In  Asia  Minor,  in  Bithynia,  Galatia, 
and  Cappadocia,  they  formed  a  large  and  import- 
ant element  in  the  population,  while  the  Christian 
community  in  Rome  was  numerous  and  influential.* 
The  period  which  witnessed  the  silent  and 
steady  diffusion  of  the  Christian  communities  over 
the  empire  witnessed  also  the  catastrophe 
which  severed  the  Jews  and  Judaism 
from  their  own  country.  The  capture  of  Jeru- 
salem by  Titus  was  scarcely  more  of  a  blow  than  the 
transformation  of  the  holy  city  by  Hadrian  into  the 
Roman  colony  of  i£lia  Capitolina,  the  erection  of 
heathen  altars  where  the  temple  of  Jehovah  had 
stood,  and  the  exclusion  of  the  Jews  themselves 
from  the  city.* 


>  Schiller,    Gfsch,  d,  Kaisftuit,  i.,   679  sqq ;  W.   M.   Ramiay, 

Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia  {OjIotA,  i^qS'l)*  •xidi  The  Church 
in  the  Roman  Empire  (Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1893). 

*  Dio,  bdx.,  xa  ;  Schiller,  k  c,^  612  ;  Mommsen,  JP.  (?.,  t.,  544. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  THIRD  CENTURY,  1 93-284,  A.D. 

The  storms  of  which  the  irruption  of  the  Mar- 
comanni  and  the  revolt  of  Avidius  Cassius  had  been 
unwelcome  signs  fell  with  full  force  upon  the  empire 
during  the  third  century.  At  the  outset,  it  is  true, 
the  strong  haiid  of  the  African  soldier  Septimius 
Severus  kept  the  barbarian  at  bay,  and  maintained 
order  within  the  frontiers.  But  between  the  death 
of  Severus  in  211  A.D.,  and  the  accession  of  Diocle* 
tian  in  284  A.D.,  no  fewer  than  twenty-three  emperors 
sat  in  the  seat  of  Augustus,and  of  these  all  but  three 
died  violent  deaths  at  the  hands  of  a  mutinous 
soldiery,  or  by  the  orders  of  a  successful  rival.  Of 
the  remaining  three,  Decius  fell  in  battle  against  the 
Goths,  Valerian  died  a  prisoner  in  the  far  East,  and 
Claudius  was  among  the  victims  of  the  chronic  pesti- 
lence which  added  to  the  miseries  of  the  time.  The 
The  "  tyrants,"  as  the  unsuccessful  pretenders 

tyranto.         ^q  fj^Q  imperial  purple  were  styled,  reap- 
pear with  almost  unfailing  regularity  in  each  reign.* 


>  PoUio,  Tyranni  THgenia  (Scriptores Hist  Aug, ^  Teubner,  1865); 
Schiller,  i.,  705  sqq, 

568 


Ch.  2]     The  Empire  in  the  Third  Century.     569 

The  claims  of  Septimius  Severus  himself  were  dis- 
puted by  Clodius  Albinus  in  the  West,  and  by 
Pescennius  Niger  in  the  East,  and  at  the  bloody 
battle  of  Lugdunum  and  the  sack  of  Byzantium 
rival  Roman  forces,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
accession  of  Vespasian,  exhausted  each  other  in 
civil  war.*  In  237-238  A.D.,  six  emperors  perished 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months.  It  was,  however, 
during  the  reign  of  Gallienus  (260-268  A.D.) 
that   the  evil   reached   its  height.     The       oaifienus 

^  i6o-a68  A.D. 

central  authority  was  paralysed  ;  the  barba- 
rians were  pouring  in  from  the  north ;  the  Parthians 
were  threatening  to  overrun  the  Eastern  provinces ; 
and  the  legions  on  the  frontiers  were  left  to  repel  the 
enemies  of  Rome  as  best  they  could.  A  hundred 
ties  bound  them  closely  to  the  districts  in  which 
they  were  stationed :  their  permanent  camps  had 
grown  into  the  likeness  of  towns ;  they  had  families 
and  farms  ;  the  unarmed  provincials  looked  to  them 
as  their  natural  protectors,  and  were  attached  to  them 
by  bonds  of  intermarriage  and  by  long  intercourse. 
Now  that  they  found  themselves  left  to  repel  by 
their  own  efforts  the  invaders  from  without,  they 
reasonably  enough  claimed  the  right  to  ignore  the 
central  authority,  which  was  powerless  to  aid  them, 
and  to  choose  for  themselves  imperatores  whom 
they  knew  and  trusted.  The  first  of  these  provincial 
empires  was  that  established  by  Postumus  Tyranu 
in  Gaul  (259-272  A.D.),and  long  maintained  *"  ^•"*-, 
by  his  successors  Victorinus  and  Tetricus.*    Their 

>  Gibbon,  i.,  chap,  v.;  Schiller,  Gtsch,  d.  JCatseruit,  i.,  66a 
*  Gibbon,  i.,  chap,  x.;  Mommsen,  v.,  149 ;  Schiller,  i..  Say. 


5  JO  Outlines  of  Raman  History.      [Book  vi 

authority  was  acknowledged,  not  only  in  Gaul  and 
by  the  troops  on  the  Rhine,  but  by  the  legions  of 
Britain  and  Spain ;  and  under  Postumus,  at  any  rate, 
the  existence  of  the  Gallic  empire  was  justified  by 
the  repulse  of  the  barbarians,  and  by  the  restoration 
of  peace  and  security  to  the  provinces  of  Gaul.  On 
the  Danube,  in  Greece,  and  in  Asia  Minor  none  of 
the  "  pretenders  "  enjoyed  more  than  a  passing  suc- 
cess.    It  was  otherwise  in  thenar  East  where  the 

Syrian  Odsenathus,  prince  of  Palmyra,' 
and  z«nQbia  though  officially  Only  the  governor  of  the 

East  {dux  Orientis)  under  Gallienus,  drove 
the  Persians  out  of  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  recovered 
Mesopotamia,  and  ruled  Syria,  Arabia,  Armenia, 
Cappadocia,  and  Cilicia  with  all  the  independence  of 
a  sovereign.  Odaenathus  was  murdered  in  266  A.D. 
His  young  son  Vaballathus  succeeded  him  in  his 
titles,  but  the  real  power  was  vested  in  his  widow 
Zenobia,  under  whom  not  only  the  greater  part  of 
Asia  Minor  but  even  the  province  of  Egypt  was 
forcibly  added  to  the  dominions  governed  in  the 
name  of  Gallienus  by  the  Palmyrene  prince. 

Gallienus  was  murdered  at  Milan  in  268 
orSaSS^y"  ^'^'^  ^^^  ^^^  remaining  sixteen  years  of 
•73  aIdT*       ^^^^  period  were  marked  by  the  restoration 

of  unity  to  the  distracted  empire.  Palmyra 
was  destroyed,  and  Zenobia  led  a  prisoner  to  Rome 
by  Aurelian  in  273.  a.d.  ;  in  the  next  year  the  Gallic 
empire  came  to  an  end  by  the  surrender  of  Tetricus, 

and  the  successors  of  Aurelian — Tacitus,   Probus, 

■ 

>  Gibbon,  i.,  chap,  x.;  Mommsen,  R,  G.,  v.,  433 ;  Schiller,  L, 
857 ;  yif.  AtireHani,  26 ;  Pollio  Tyr,  Trig.,  15. 


Ch.  2]      The  Empire  in  the  Third  Century.     571 

and  Carus  (275-282  A.D,) — were  at  least  rulers  over 
the  whole  extent  of  the  empire. 

While  rival  generals  were  contending  for  the 
imperial  purple,  the  very  existence  of  Barbaric 
the  empire  which  they  aspired  to  rule  iovmIom. 
was  imperilled  by  foreign  invasion.  As  early  as  236 
A.D.  a  new  enemy,  the  Alemanni,  had  crossed  the 
Rhine,  but  had  been  driven  back  by  the  valour  of 
Maximinus  (238  A.D.),  and  in  the  same  year  the 
Goths  first  appeared  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube. 
It  was,  however,  during  the  period  of  internal  dis- 
sension and  civil  war  from  the  reign  of  Philip  (244- 
249  A.D.)  to  the  accession  of  Claudius  (268  A.D.)  that 
the  barbarians  saw  and  used  their  opportunity. 
From  across  the  Rhine,  bands  of  Alemanni  and 
Franks  swept  over  Gaul  and  Spain,  and  even  de- 
scended upon  the  coasts  of  Africa,  until  their  raids 
were  checked  by  the  Gallic  emperor  Pos- 
tumus  (253-259  A.D.).  Far  more  destruct- 
ive were  the  raids  of  the  Goths.*  Towards  the  close 
of  the  reign  of  Philip  (247  A.D.)  they  crossed  the 
Danube,  and  overran  Moesia,  Thrace,  and  Macedonia* 
In  251  A.D.  they  defeated  and  slew  the  emperor 
Decius ;  and,  though  his  successor  Gallus  purchased 
a  temporary  peace  by  lavish  gifts,  the  province  of 
Dacia  was  finally  lost  to  Rome."  The  Gothic 
raids  by  sea  which  began  under  Valerian  (253-260 
A.D.)  were  even  more  ruinous.    Their  fleets  issuing 


*  Gibbon,  i.,  chap.  x.  ;  Mommsen,  R.  C7.,  v.,  ai6. 

•  For  the  loss  of  Dacia  see  C.  /.  A.,  iii.,  p.  i6o;  Jung,  D,  roman, 
Landschaften^  399.     It  was  Aurelian  who  finally  abandoned  Dacia, 

Vit,  Aur,^  39. 


572  Outlines  of  Roman  History.      iBook  VI 

^^  • 

from  the  ports  of  the  Black  Sea  ravaged  the  sea- 
board of  Asia  Minor,  and  returned  laden  with  the 
spoils  of  the  maritime  towns.  In  the  reign  of 
Gallienus  (250-268  A.D.)  a  fleet  of  five  hundred  sail 
appeared  off  the  coasts  of  Greece  itself;  Athens, 
Corinth,  Argos,  and  Sparta  were  sacked^and  Epirus 
laid  waste.  On  the  death  of  Gallienus  (268  A.D.) 
the  Goths  once  more  marched  southward,  but,  in  the 
new  emperor,  Claudius,  they  were  confronted  at  last 
by  an  able  and  resolute  opponent.  They  were  de- 
cisively defeated  and  driven  back  across  the  Danube 
(269  A.D.).  Claudius  died  of  the  plague  in  the  next 
year,  but  by  his  successor  Aurelian  Roman  authority 
was  established  in  Moesia  and  Pannonia,  and  the 
Danube  frontier  was  put  once  more  in  a  state  of  effi- 
cient defence.  Five  years  later  (276  A.D.)  Probus 
repulsed  a  raid  of  the  Franks  and  Alemanni,  and 
restored  peace  on  the  Rhine.  The  rule  of  Rome, 
however,  now  stopped  short,  as  in  the  reign  of  Tibe- 
rius, at  the  line  of  the  two  great  rivers ;  all  that  had 
been  acquired  beyond  since  the  time  of  Vespasian 
was  abandoned,  and  on  the  further  banks  of  the 
Rhine  and  Danube  stood,  in  the  place  of  friendly  or 
subject  tribes,  a  threatening  array  of  hostile  peoples^ 

At  the  close  of  the  second  century  the 
TheSasM-  g^owing  wcakness  of  Parthia  seemed  to 
PiSthia.  promise  an  immunity  from  danger  on  the 
Eastern  frontier.  But  with  the  revolu- 
tion which  placed  the  Sassanidae  upon  the  throne 
the  whole  situation  was  changed.'     The  new  dynasty 

*  Gibbon,  i.,  chap.  viii.  ;  Mommsen,  R,  G,,y.,  411 ;  see  art,  Persia 
in  Encychpadia  Britannica, 


Ch.  2]      The  Empire  in  the  Third  Century.     573 

was  in  blood  and  religion  Persian  ;  it  claimed  descent 
from  Cyrus  and  Darius,  and  aspired  to  recover  from 
Western  hands  the  dominions  which  had  once 
been  theirs.  In  230  A.D.  Artaxares  (Ardashir)  had 
formally  demanded  from  Severus  Alexander  the  res- 
titution of  the  provinces  of  Asia,  had  invaded  Meso- 
potamia, then  a  Roman  province,  and  even  advanced 
into  Syria.  Twenty  years  later  his  successor  Sapor 
again  crossed  the  Euphrates ;  in  260  A.D.,  ten  years 
after  Decius's  defeat  by  the  Goths,  the  Emperor 
Valerian  was  conquered  and  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Persians,  who  poured  triumphantly  into  Syria  and 
captured  Antioch.  But  here  for  the  time  their  suc- 
cesses ended.  Three  years  later  Odaenathus  of  Palmyra 
drove  them  back,  and  held  the  East  securely  in  the 
name  of  Rome.  On  the  fall  of  Zenobia  (273  A.D.) 
they  gained  possession  for  a  time  of  Armenia  and 
Mesopotamia,  but  were  driven  out  by  the  Emperor 
Carus  (282  A.D.),  and  the  frontier  line  as  fixed  by 
Septimius  Severus  was  restored. 

Although  any  serious  loss  of  territory  had  been 
avoided,  the  storms  of  the  third  century 

«      1        1  1       •  1     r        1     rr  i  %      SUteofthe 

had  told  with  fatal  effect  upon  the  general  empire  at 
condition  of  the  empire.     The  "  Roman        the  third 

century. 

peace  **  had  vanished  ;  not  only  the  fron- 
tier territories,  but  the  central  districts  of  Greece, 
Asia  Minor,  and  even  Italy  itself  had  suffered  from 
the  ravages  of*  war,  and  the  fortification  of  Rome  by 
Aurelian  was  a  significant  testimony  to  the  altered 
condition  of  affairs.*     War,  plague,  and  famine  had 

*  Zosimus,  i.,  49 ;    Vit,  AureL^  21  sq,  ;  Jordan,  Tcpog,  d.  Stadi 
Rom,^  i.,  340, 


5  74  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 

thinned  the  population  and  crippled  the  resources  of 
the  provinces.  On  all  sides  land  was  running  waste, 
cities  and  towns  were  decaying,  and  commerce  was 
paralysed.  Only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  were 
sufficient  funds  squeezed  from  the  exhausted  tax- 
payers to  meet  the  increasing  cost  of  the  defence  of 
the  frontiers.  The  old  established  culture  and  civili- 
sation of  the  Mediterranean  world  rapidly  declined, 
and  the  mixture  of  barbaric  rudeness  with  Oriental 
pomp  and  luxury  which  marked  the  court,  even  of 
the  better  emperors,  such  as  Aurelian,^  was  typical 
of  the  general  deterioration. 

>  Schiller,  i.,  867 ;  Anr.  Victor,  £/.  50;  Diet  AnHq.,  s.  ▼•  Prine^. 


BOOK  VII. 

THE    BARBARIC    INVASIONS 

284-476  A.D. 


THE  BARBARIC  INVASIONS— 284-476  A.D. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM    THE    ACCESSION    OF    DIOCLETIAN    TO    THE 
DEATH  OF  THEODOSIUS — 284-395  A.D. 

The  work  begun  by  Aurelian  and  Probus,  that  of 
fortifying  the  empire  alike  against  internal  ^^^  reform« 
sedition  and  foreign  invasion,  was  com-  JnPconJtan^ 
pleted  by  Diocletian  and  Constantine  the  **"*• 

Great,  whose  system  of  government,  novel  as  it 
appears  at  first  sight,  was  in  reality  the  natural  and 
inevitable  outcome  of  the  history  of  the  previous 
century.'  Its  object  was  twofold,  to  gjive  increased 
stability  to  the  imperial  authority  itself,  and  to 
organise  an  efficient  administrative  machinery 
throughout  the  empire.  In  the  second  year  of 
his  reign  Diocletian  associated  Maximian  Augugti 
with  himself  as  colleague,  and  six  years  "*  caswres. 
later  (292    A.D.)    the    hands    of   the    two   Augusti 

'  See  Gibbon,  vol.  iii.,  chap,  xvii.;  Maxquardt,  Staaisvtrw,^  i.,  pp. 
81.  336,  337,  ii.,  ai7  sq.s  Madvig,  Verf,  d,  Rdm,  Reichs,  i.,  585  ; 
B6cking«  NoHtia  Digniiatum,  Bonn,  1853 ;  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  her 
Invaders,  i.,  202  sq,;  Preuss,  Diocletian^  Leipzig,  1869 ;  Seeck,  Un^ 
tergang  d,  Antiken  fVelt^  vol.  i. 

37  577 


578  Outlines  of  Roman  History.    [Book  vii 

were  further  strengthened  by  the  proclamation  of 
Constantius  and  Galerius  as  Casares.  Precedents 
for  such  an  arrangement  might  have  been  quoted 
from  the  earlier  history  of  the  empire ;  *  and  the 
considerations  in  favour  of  it  at  the  time  were  strong. 
It  divided  the  overwhelming  burdens  and  responsi- 
bilities of  government,  without  sacrificing  the  unity 
of  the  empire ;  for,  although  to  each  of  the  Augusti 
and  Cassars  a  separate  sphere  was  assigned,  the 
Caesars  were  subordinate  to  the  higher  authority  of 
the  Augusti,  and  over  all  his  three  colleagues  Dio- 
cletian claimed  to  exercise  a  paramount  control.  It 
at  least  reduced  the  too  familiar  risk  of  a  disputed 
succession  by  establishing  in  the  two  Caesars  the 
natural  successors  to  the  higher  position  of  Augusti, 
and  finally  it  satisfied  the  jealous  pride  of  the  rival 
armies  of  the  empire  by  giving  them  what  they  had 
so  constantly  claimed,  imperatores  of  their  own.  The 
distribution  of  power  between  Diocletian  and  his 
colleagues  followed  those  lines  of  division  which  the 
feuds  of  the  previous  century  had  only  too  clearly 
marked  out.  The  armies  of  the  Rhine,  the  Danube, 
and  of  Syria  fell  to  the  lot  respectively  of  Constantius, 
Galerius,  and  Diocletian,  the  central  districts  of 
Italy,  and  Africa  to  Maximian.'    A  second  point  in 

'  Mommsen,  StaaUrecht^  ii.,  1065  sq,  Venis  was  associated  with 
Marcus  Aurelitts  as  Augustus  ;  Severus  gave  the  title  to  his  two  sons. 
The  bestowal  of  the  title  **  Csesar  "  on  the  destined  successor  is  at  least 
as  early  as  Hadrian.     Mommsen,  op,  ciU^  I044f  ^^^  above,  p.  469. 

•The  division  was  as  follows: — (i)  Diocletian — Thrace,  Egypt, 
Syria,  Asia  Minor  ;  (2)  Maximian — Italy  and  Africa  ;  (3)  Galerius— 
Illyricum  and  the  Danube;  (4)  Constantius— Britain,  Gaul,  Spain, 
See  Gibbon,  ii.,  68  ;  Aurelius  Victor,  c.  39. 


Ch.1]       From  Diocletian  to  Theodosius.        $79 

the  new  system  was  the  complete  and 
final  emancipation  of  the  imperial  author-  charcterof 
ity  from  all  constitutional  limitation  and  ^'"ij'SlSriJyl 
control.  The  last  lingering  traces  of  its 
republican  origin  disappeared.  The  emperors  from 
Diocletian  onwards  were  autocrats  in  theory  as  well 
as  in  practice.  The  divided  powers,  the  parallel 
jurisdictions,  the  defined  prerogatives  of  the  Augus- 
tan system  all  vanished.  There  was  but  one  legal 
authority  throughout  the  empire,  that  of  the  emperor 
himself ;  and  that  authority  was  absolute.  This 
avowed  despotism  Diocletian,  following  in  the  steps 
of  Aurelian,  hedged  round  with  all  the  pomp  and 
majesty  of  Oriental  monarchy.  The  final  adoption 
of  the  title  dominuSj  so  often  rejected  by  the  earlier 
emperors,  the  diadem  on  the  head,  the  robes  of  silk 
and  gold,  the  replacement  of  the  republican  saluta- 
tion of  a  fellow -citizen  by  the  adoring  prostration 
even  of  the  highest  in  rank  before  their  lord  and 
master,  were  all  significant  marks  of  the  new  rigime^ 
In  the  hands  of  this  absolute  ruler  was  placed  the 
entire  control  of  an  elaborate  administra- 
tive  machinery.     Most   of  the  old  local      _poHcyoT 

^  Diocletian 

and  national  distinctions,  privileges,  and 
liberties  #which  had  once  flourished  within  the 
empire  had  already  disappeared  under  the  levelling 
influence  of  imperial  rule,  and  the  levelling  process 
was  now  completed.  Roman  citizenship  had,  since 
the  edit  of  Caracalla,  ceased  to  be  the  _      ^   . 

■TV      1      •         /•       11       Degradation 

privilege  of  a  minority.    Diocletian  finally    ofitaiv  and 
reduced  Italy  and  Rome  to  the  level  of  the 

'  Anrel,  Victor,  39  ;  Eutrop.,  ix.,  36. 


580  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     [Book  VD 

provinces :    the  provincial   land-tax  and   provincial 

government  were  introduced  into  the  former/  while 

Rome  ceased  to  be  even  in  name  the  seat  of  imperial 

authority.*    Throughout   the  whole  area 

The  new  ad-       •    ,  .  .,  i-       ,      . 

minietrative  of  the  empire  a  uniform  system  of  admm- 
istration  was  established,  the  control  of 
which  was  centred  in  the  imperial  palace,  and  in  the 
confidential  ministers  who  stood  nearest  the  emperor's 
person.*  Between  the  civil  and  military  depart- 
ments the  separation  was  complete.  At  the  head  of 
the  former,  at  least  under  the  completed  organisation 
of  Constantine,  were  the  four  prefects;*  next  below 
them  the  vicarii,  who  had  charge  of  the  dioceses; 
below  these  again  the  governors  of  the  separate 
provinces  {prcesides,  correctores,  consulares)^  under 
each  of  whom  was  a  host  of  minor  officials.  Parallel 
with  his  civil  hierarchy  of  prefects,  vicars,  prasides, 
and  smaller  officiates  was  the  series  of  military  officers, 
from   the  magistri  militum^   the  dtues^  and  comites 

*  Maxquaxdt,  Staatverw.^  i.,  80-83,  where  a  list  is  given  of  the 
seventeen  so-caXitd.  provincia  into  which  Italy,  together  with  Sicily, 
Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  was  divided.  Each  had  its  own  governor,  and 
the  governors  were  subject  to  the  two  zncarii  ftnc,  urbis,  vie,  Italia  J  ^ 
and  they  in  turn  to  the  prefect  of  Italy,  whose  prefecture,  however, 
included  also  Africa  and  Western  lUyricum. 

*  The  seats  of  government  for  Diocletian  and  his  th];ee  colleagues 
were  Milan,  Treves,  Sirmium,  Nicomedia. 

'  For  these  last,  see  Gibbon,  ii.,  chap.  3cvii.,p.  335  ;  cf,  also  Notitia 
Dignitatum  and  B()cking*s  notes. 

*  Prafecti  prcBtorio,  The  four  prefectures  were  Oriens,  Illyricum, 
Italia,  Gallia,  to  which  must  be  added  the  prefectures  of  Rome  and 
Constantinople. 

*  There  were  12  dioceses  and  116  provinces  ;  cf,  in  addition  to  the 
authorities  mentioned  above,  Bethmann-HoUw^,  CivH-Prozess,  iii., 
Walter,  Gfsch,  d,  rdm,  Rechts,^  i.,  pp.  428  sq,  (Bonn,  X845). 


Ch.1]       From  Dioclelian  to  Theodosius.         581 

downwards.  But  the  leading  features  of  both  are 
the  same.  In  both  there  is  the  utmost  possible 
subordination  and  division  of  property.  The  subdi- 
vision of  provinces,  begun  by  the  emperors  of  the 
second  century,  was  systematically  carried  out  by 
Diocletian,  and  either  by  Diocletian  or  by  Constan- 
tine  the  legion  was  reduced  to  one  fifth  of  its  former 
strength.*  Each  official,  civil  or  military,  was  placed 
directly  under  the  orders  of  a  superior,  and  thus  a 
continuous  chain  of  authority  connected  the  emperor 
with  the  meanest  officer  in  his  service.  Finally,  the 
various  grades  in  these  two  imperial  services  were 
carefully  marked  by  the  appropriation  to  each  of 
distinctive  titles,  the  highest  being  that  of  illustris^ 
which  was  confined  to  the  prefects,  to  the  military 
magistri  ^xid  comites,  and  to  the  chief  ministers." 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  on  the  whole  these 
reforms  prolonged  the  existence  of  the  empire,  by 
creating  a  machinery  which  enabled  the 

.«•  rr  •         1  11  SffectB  of 

Stronger  emperors  to  utilise  effectively  all  these 

its  available  resources,  and  which  to  some 
extent  even  made  good  the  deficiencies  of  weaker 
rulers.  But  in  many  points  they  failed  to  attain  their 
object.  Diocletian's  division  of  the  imperial  authority 
among  colleagues,  subject  to  the  general  control  of  the 
senior  Augustus,  was  effectually  discredited  by  the 
twenty  years  of  almost  constant  conflict  which  fol- 

'  For  this  and  other  charges  in  the  military  organisation,  see 
Madvig,  ii.,  572  ;  Marquardt,  ii.,  584  sqg. 

*  The  grades  were  as  follows :  illustres,  specHHles,  elarissimi,  per- 
fecHssimi,  egregii.  For  the  other  insignia,  see  Madvig,  ii.,  590,  and 
the  Notitia  Dignitatum,  See  also  generally  Schiller,  ii.,  pp.  23-1 15. 
For  the  comites,  see  the  article  in  Pauly-Wissowa  Real  EncycUp&die^ 
J.  ». 


582  Outlines  of  Roman  History.    [Book  vii 

lowed  his  own  abdication  (305-323  A.D.).  Constan- 
tine's  partition  of  the  empire  among  his  three  sons  was 
not  more  successful  in  ensuring  tranquillity , and  in  the 
final  division  of  the  East  and  West  between  Valens 
and  Valentinian  (364  A.D.)  the  essential  principle  of 
Diocletian's  scheme^  the  maintenance  of  a  single 
central  authority,  was  abandoned.  The  "  tyrants," 
the  curse  of  the  third  century,  were  far  from  unknown 
in  the  fourth,  and  their  comparative  paucity  was 
due  rather  to  the  hold  which  the  house  of  Constan- 
tine  obtained  upon  the  allegiance  of  their  subjects, 
than  to  the  system  of  Diocletian.  This  system, 
moreover,  while  it  failed  altogether  to  remove  some 
of  the  existing  evils,  aggravated  others.  The  already 
overburdened  financial  resources  of  the  empire  were 
strained  still  further  by  the  increased  expenditure 
which  the  substitution  of  four  imperial  courts  for  one 
necessitated,  and  by  the  multiplication  in  every 
direction  of  paid  officials.  The  gigantic  bureaucracy 
of  the  fourth  century  proved,  in  spite  of  its  undoubted 
services,  an  intolerable  weight  upon  the  energies  of 
the  empire.* 

Diocletian  and  Maximian  formally  abdicated  their 

high  office  in  305  A.D.     Eighteen  years  later,  Con- 

stantine,  the  sole   survivor   of   six   rival 

the  Great,     emperors,  united  the  whole  empire  under 

3^3*353  A.D. 

his  own  rule.     His  reign  of  fourteen  years 
was  marked  by  two  events  of  first-rate  importance — 

*  The  passion  for  moulding  everything  after  a  uniform  official  pat- 
tern extended  beyond  the  departments  of  civil  and  military  adminis* 
tration  to  the  professions  and  to  society.  Walter,  op,  cil,,  i.,456; 
Marquardty  ii.,  330  s^^. 


Ch.f]       From  Diocletian  to  Theodosius.         583 

the  recognition  of  Christianity  as  the  reli- 
gion of  the  empire,'  and  the  building  of  the  *of*chrSi° 
new  capital  at  Byzantium.  The  alliance 
which  Constantine  inaugurated  between  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  imperial  government,  while  it  enlisted 
on  the  side  of  the  state  one  of  the  most  powerful  of 
the  new  forces  with  which  it  had  to  reckon,  imposed 
a  check,  which  was  in  time  to  become  a  powerful  one, 
on  the  imperial  authority.  The  establish-  consun- 
ment  of  the  new  "  City  of  Constantine  "  as  tinopie. 
a  second  Rome,  with  a  second  senate,  a  prefect  of  the 
city,  regioneSy  and  even  largesses,  did  more  than  pro- 
claim once  again  the  deposition  of  Rome  from  her  old 
imperial  position.  It  paved  the  way  for  the  final 
separation  of  East  and  West  by  providing  the  former 
for  the  first  time  with  a  suitable  seat  of  government 
on  the  Bosporus.  The  death  of  Constantine  in  337 
A.D.  was  followed,  as  the  abdication  of  Diocletian  had 
been,  by  the  outbreak  of  quarrels  among  rival  Caesars. 
Of  the  three  sons  of  Constantine,  who  in  337  A.D. 
divided  the  empire  between  them,  Constantine,  the 
eldest,  fell  in  civil  war  against  his  brother  Constans ; 
Constans  himself  was,  ten  years  afterwards,  defeated 
and  slain  by  Magnentius ;  and  the  latter  in  his  turn  was 
in  353  A.D.  vanquished  by  Constan tine's 

Conttan- 

only  surviving  son  Constantius.     Thus  for        JfeVii* 
the  second  time  the  whole   empire  was 
united  under  the  rule  of  a  member  of  the  house  of 
Constantine.*   But  in  355  A.D.  Constantius  reluctantly 


*  Gibbon,  ii.,  chaps,  xt.,  xvi.;  Ranke,  Weltgesch,^  iii.,  525;  Schiller, 
ii.,  p.  304  and  pp.  x-i8,  where  the  authorities  are  given. 

*  Bury,  HuU  of  Later  Raman  Empire^  i.,  50. 


584  Outlines  of  Roman  History.    iBookVU 

granted  the  title  of  Caesar  to  his  cousin  Julian,  and 
placed  him  in  charge  of  Gaul,  where  the  momentary 
elevation  of  a  tyrant,  Silvanus,  and  still  more  the 
inroads  of  Franks  and  Alemanni,  had  excited  alarm. 
Julian's  successes,  however,during  the  next  five  years, 
were  such  as  to  arouse  the  jealous  fears  of  Constan- 
tius.  In  order  to  weaken  his  suspected  rival,  the 
legions  under  Julian  in  Gaul  were  suddenly  ordered 
to  march  eastward  against  the  Persians  (360  A.D.). 
Julian  They  refused,  and  when   the  order  was 

361-363  A.D.  repeated,  replied  by  proclaiming  Julian 
himself  emperor  and  Augustus.*  Julian,  with  prob- 
ably sincere  reluctance,  accepted  the  position,  but 
the  death  of  Constantius  in  361  A.D.  saved  the  em- 
pire from  the  threatened  civil  war.  The  chief  ' 
importance  of  the  career  of  Julian,  both  as  Caesar 
in  Gaul  from  355-361  A.D.,  and  during  his  brief 
tenure  of  sole  power  (361-363  A.D.),  lies,  so  far  as  the 
general  history  of  the  empire  is  concerned,  in  his 
able  defence  of  the  Rhine  frontier,  and  in  his  Persian 
campaign ;  for  his  attempted  restoration  of  pagan, 
and  in  especial  of  Hellenic  worships,  had  no  more 
permanent  effect  than  the  war  which  he  courageously 
waged  against  the  multitudinous  abuses  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  luxurious  court  of  Constantius.*  But 
his  vigorous  administration  in  Gaul  undoubtedly 
checked  the  barbarian  advance  across  the  Rhine,  and 
postponed  the  loss  of  the  Western  provinces,  while, 

^  Schiller,  ii.,  321.  The  chief  ancient  authority  is  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  who  accompanied  Julian  in  his  Eastern  campaign. 

'  In  especial  against  the  overweening  influence  of  the  eunuchs,  an 
influence  at  once  greater  and  more  pernicious  than  even  that  of  the 
imperial  freedmen  in  the  days  of  Claudius  ;  Schiller,  /.  c. 


Ch.  1]        From  Diocletian  to  Theodosius.         585 



on  the  contrary,  his  campaign  in  Persia,  brilliantly 
successful  ^t  first,  resulted  in  his  own  death,  and  in 
the  immediate  surrender  by  his  successor,  Jovian,  of 
the  territories  beyond  the  Tigris,  won  by  Diocletian 
seventy  years  before.  Julian  died  on  June  26,  363 
A.D.,  his  successor  Jovian  on  February  17,  jovian 

364  A.D. ;  and  on  the  26th  of  February  3"^a^  ^•^• 
Valentinian  was  acknowledged  as  emperor  tinYi!n*i!' 
by  the  army  at  Nicaea.  In  obedience  to  3^*-3wa.d. 
the  expressed  wish  of  the  soldiers  that  he  should 
associate  a  colleague  with  himself,  he  conferred  the 
title  of  Augustus  upon  his  brother  Valens, 
and  the  long-impending  division  of  the  theemoire, 
empire  was  at  last  effected ;  Valentinian  be- 
came emperor  of  the  West, Valens  of  the  East.  From 
364  A.D.  till  his  death  in  375  A.D.,  the  vigour  and 
ability  of  Valentinian  kept  his  own  frontier  of  the 
Rhine  tolerably  intact,  and  prevented  any  serious 
disasters  on  the  Danube.  But  his  death,  which 
deprived  the  weaker  Valens  of  a  trusted  vaien* 
counsellor  and  ally,  was  followed  by  a  364-378  a.d. 
crisis  on  the  Danube,  more  serious  than  any  which 
had  occurred  there  since  the  defeat  of  Decius. 
In  376  A.D.  the  Goths,  hard  pressed  by  Revolt  of 
their  new  foes  from  the  eastward,  the  theootht. 
Huns,  sought  and  obtained  the  protection  of  the 
Roman  empire.*  They  were  transported  across 
the  Danube,  and  settled  in  Moesia,  but,  indignant 
at  the  treatment  they  received,  they  rose  in 
arms  against  their  protectors.  In  378  A.D.  at 
Hadrianople,  Valens  was  defeated  and  killed  ;  the 

*  Schiller,  ii.,  376  sqq,  ;  Gibbon,  iii.,  ch.  26  ;  Hodgkin,  i.,  102  sqq.  ; 
Amm.  Marcellinus,  books  xxvii-xxxi. 


5  86  Outlines  of  Rofnan  History.     [Book  vii 

victorious  Goths  spread  with  fire  and  sword  over  lUy- 
ricum,  and  advanced  eastward  to  the  very  walls  of 

Constantinople.  Once  more,  however,  the 
doiiius  L.       danger  passed  away.     The  skill  and  tact 

of  Theodosius,  who  had  been  proclaimed 
emperor  of  the  East  by  Gratian,  conciliated  the 
Goths  ;  they  were  granted  an  allowance,  and  in  large 
numbers  entered  the  service  of  the  Roman  emperor. 
The  remaining  years  oi  Theodosius's  reign  (382-395 
A.D.)  were  mainly  engrossed  by  the  duty  which  now 
devolved  upon  the  emperor  of  the  East,  of  uphold- 
ing the  increasingly  feeble  authority  of  his  colleague 
in  the  West  against  the  attacks  of  pretenders. 
Maximus,  the  murderer  of  Gratian  (383  A.D.),  was  at 
first  recognised  by  Theodosius  as  Caesar,  and  left  in 
undisturbed  command  of  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain ; 
but,  when  in  386  a.d.  he  proceeded  to  oust  Valen- 
tinian  II.  from  Italy  and  Africa,  Theodosius  marched 
westward,  crushed  him,  and  installed  Valentinian  as 
emperor  of  the  West.  In  the  very  next  year,  how- 
ever, the  murder  of  Valentinian  (392  a.d.)  by  Arbo- 
gast,  a  Frank,  was  followed  by  the  appearance  of  a 
Division  of  fj'^sh  tyrant,  in  the  person  of  Eugenius,  a 
between*'*  domestic  officer  and  nominee  of  Arbogast 
Honoriui.*"**  himself.  Once  more  Theodosius  marched 
395,  A.D.  westward,  and  near  Aquileia  decisively 
defeated  his  opponents.  But  his  victory  was  quickly 
followed  by  his  own  illness  and  death  (395  A.D.),  and 
the  fortunes  of  East  and  West  passed  into  the  care 
of  his  two  sons,  Arcadius  and  Honorius.^ 

'  See  besides  Gibbon,  Hodgkin,  and  Schiller,  Richter,  Das  Wai 
Romische  Reich,    Berlin,  1865. 


CHAPTER   II. 

FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  THEODOSIUS  TO  THE  EXTINC- 
TION  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE — 395-476  A.D. 

During  more  than  a  century  after  the  accession 
of  Diocletian,  the  Roman  empire  had  succeeded  in 
holding  at  bay  the  swarming  hordes  of  barbarians. 
But,  though  no  province  had  yet  been  lost,  as  Dacia 
had  been  lost  in  the  century  before,  and  though  the 
frontier  lines  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  were 
still  guarded  by  Roman  forts  and  troops,  there  were 
signs  in  plenty  that  a  catastrophe  was  at  hand. 

From  all  the  writers  who  deal  with  the  fourth  cen- 
tury comes  the  same  tale  of  declining 

^  ^       Dittren  of 

Strength  and  energy.  From  Lactantius  to  3?F£ 
Zosimus  we  have  one  long  series  of  laments  fourth  cen- 
over  the  depression  and  misery  of  the 
provinces.*  To  meet  the  increased  expenditure  neces- 
sary to  maintain  the  legions,  to  pay  the  hosts  of 
officials,  and  to  keep  up  the  lu^curious  splendour  of 
the  imperial  courts,  not  only  were  the  taxes  raised 
in  amount,  but  the  most  oppressive  and  inquisitorial 
methods  were  adopted  in  order  to  secure  for  the 
imperial  treasury  every  penny  that  could  be  wrung 
from  the  wretched  taxpayer.     The  results  are  seen 

*  Dill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Western  Empire. 

587 


588  Outlines  0/  Roman  History.     [Book  vii 

in  such  pictures  as  that  which  the  panegyrist 
Eumenius'  draws  of  the  state  of  Gaul  (306-312 
A.D.)  under  Constantine,  in  the  accounts  of  the  same 
province  under  Julian  fifty  years  later,  in  those  given 
by  Zosimus  early  in  the  fifth  century,  and  in  the 
stringent  regulations  of  the  Theodosian  code,  deal- 
ing with  the  assessment  and  collection  of  the  taxes. 
Among  the  graver  symptoms  of  economic  ruin  were 
the  decrease  of  population,  which  seriously  dimin- 
ished not  only  the  number  of  taxpayers,  but  the 
supply  of  soldiers  for  the  legions ;  *  the  spread  of 
infanticide ;  the  increase  of  waste  land  whose  owners 
and  cultivators  had  fled  to  escape  the  tax  collector ; 
the  declining  prosperity  of  the  towns ;  and  the  con- 
stantly recurring  riots  and  insurrections,  both  among 
starving  peasants,  as  in  Gaul,'  and  in  populous  cities 
like  Antioch.*  The  distress  was  aggravated  by  the 
civil  wars,  by  the  rapacity  of  tyrants,  such  as  Max- 
entius  and  Maximus,  but  above  all  by  the  raids  of 
the  barbarians,  who  seized  every  opportunity  afforded 
by  the  dissensions  or  incapacity  of  the  emperors  to 
cross  the  frontiers  and  harry  the  lands  of  the  pro- 
vincials. Constantine,  Julian,  and  Valentinian  I. 
had   each    to  ,  give    a   temporary   breathing    space 


>  Eumenius,  Paneg, ,  Vet. ,  vii.  For  Julian's  admi  nistration  in  Gaul, 
see  Ammianus,  xv.-xvii.  ;  Julian's  own  oration  to  the  Athenian  senate 
and  people,  Juliana  Opera  (ed.  Hertlein,  Leipzig,  1S75),  PP-  346 
j^.  y  Zosimus,  ii.,  38.  Cf,  Gibbon,  ii.,  333,  412  ;  Jung,  D.  ronian, 
Landschaften,  264,  265  ;  Hodgkin,  i.,  600  sq, 

'  Gibbon,  ii.,  323. 

■For  the  Bagaudae,  see  Gibbon,  ii.,  69,  and  Jung,  op,  cit,^  264 
where  the  authorities  are  given. 

*  In  387  A.D. ;  Hodgkin,  1.,  178. 


Ch.  2]  Death  of  Theodosius.  589 

to  Gaul  by  repelling  the  Franks  and  Alemanni. 
Britain  was  harassed  by  Picts  and  Scots  from  the 
north  (367-370  A.D.),  while  the  Saxon  pirates  swept 
the  northern  seas  and  the  coasts  both  of  Britain  and 
Gaul.  On  the  Danube  the  Quadi,  Sarmatae,  and 
above  all  the  Goths,  poured  at  intervals  into  the 
provinces  of  Pannonia  and  Moesia,  and  penetrated  to 
Macedonia  and  Thrace.  In  the  East,  in  addition  to 
the  constant  border  feud  with  Persia,  we  hear  of 
ravages  by  the  Isaurian  mountaineers,  and  by  a  new 
enemy,  the  Saracens.* 

Even  more  ominous  of  coming  danger  was  the 
extent  to  which  the  European  half  of  the  empire 
was  becoming  barbarised.  The  policy 
which  had  been  inaugurated  by  Augustus  within  the 
himself,  of  settling  barbarians  within  the  *°*^  "' 
frontiers,  had  been  taken  up  on  a  larger  scale  and  in 
a  more  systematic  way  by  the  Illyrian  emperors  of 
the  third  century,  and  was  continued  by  their  succes- 
sors in  the  fourth.  In  Gaul,  in  the  provinces  south  of 
the  Danube,  even  in  Macedonia  and  Italy,  large  bar- 
barian settlements  had  been  made,  Theodosius  in 
particular  distinguishing  himself  by  his  liberality  in 
this  respect.  Nor  did  the  barbarians  admitted  dur- 
ing the  fourth  century  merely  swell  the  class  of  half- 
servile  colonu  On  the  contrary,  they  not  only  con- 
stituted to  an  increasing  extent  the  strength  of  the 
imperial  forces,  but  won  their  way  in  ever-growing 
numbers  to  posts  of  dignity  and  importance  in  the 
imperial  service."  Under  Constantius  the  palace  was 
crowded  with  Franks.'     Julian   led   Gothic  troops 

'  Amm.  Marcel.,  xiv.,  4. 

•  Seeck,  Untergangd,  Antiken  Weli^  i.,  pp.  179  jf^.,  368  sqq, 

'Amm.,  XY.,  5. 


590  Outlines  of  Roman  History.    [Book  vii 

against  Persia,  and  the  army  with  which  Theodosius 
defeated  the  tyrant  Maximus  (388  A.D.)  contained 
large  numbers  of  Huns  and  Alans,  as  well  as  of 
Goths.  The  names  of  Arbogast,  Stilicho,  and  Ru- 
finus  are  sufficient  proof  of  the  place  held  by  bar- 
barians near  the  emperor's  person  and  in  the  control 
of  the  provinces  and  legions  of  Rome ;  and  the  rela- 
tions of  Arbogast  to  his  nominee  for  the  purple, 
Eugenius,  were  an  anticipation  of  those  which  ex- 
isted between  Ricimer  and  the  emperors  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  fifth  century. 

It  was  by  barbarians  already  settled  within  the 
empire  that  the  first  of  the  series  of  attacks  which 
finally  separated   the  Western  provinces 
SvM*on8.      from   the  empire  and  set  up  a  barbaric 
ruler  in  Italy  were  made,*  and  it  was  in 
men  of  barbarian  birth  that  Rome  found  her  ablest 
and   most  successful  defenders,  and  the  emperors 
both  of  East  and  West  their  most  capable  and  pow- 
erful   ministers.      The    Visigoths    whom 

AUric  and  ^ 

the  visi-       Alarfc  led    into   Italy  had   been   settled 

south  of  the  Danube  as  the  allies  of  the 

empire  since    the   accession   of    Theodosius.     The 

'  Accounts  of  the  leading  ancient  authorities  for  the  period  395- 
476  will  be  found  prefixed  to  the  several  chapters  in  Hodgkin's  Italy 
and  Her  Invader s^  vols,  i.,  ii.  (Oxford,  1 880),  especially  vol.  i.,  pp. 
234,  277.  Among  standard  modern  authorities  are  Gibbon,  vol.  iv.  ; 
Tillemont,  Histaire  des  Empereurs^  vol.  v.  ;  Milman,  Latin  ChriS" 
tianity^  vol.  i.  ;  Thierry,  Trois  Ministres  des  fits  de  ThA>dose  (Paris, 
1865),  and  Histaire  d^  Aitila;  Raiike,  IVeltgeschichte,  vol.  iv., — 
compare  especially  his  criticisms  (iv.  [2]  249  sq.)  on  Eusebius  Zosi- 
mus,  Procopius,  Jordanes,  and  Gregory  of  Tours  ;  Bury's  Hist,  of 
Later  Roman  Empire.  For  barbarian  migrations  see  Wietersheim, 
Gesch,  d.  Volkerwanderung,  and  Seeck,  Gesch,  d,  Untergang  d.  An-- 
Hken  ;fV// (Berlin,  1899-1902). 


Ch.2i  Death  of  TTieodosius.  591 

greater  part  of  them  were  Christians  at  least  in 
name,  and  Alaric  himself  had  stood  high  in  the 
favour  of  Theodosius.  The  causes  which  set  them 
in  motion  are  tolerably  clear.  Like  the  Germans  of 
the  days  of  Caesar,  they  wanted  land  for  their  own, 
and  to  this  land-hunger  was  evidently  added  in 
Alaric's  own  case  the  ambition  of  raising  himself  to 
the  heights  which  had  been  reached  before  him  by 
the  Vandal  Stilicho  at  Ravenna  and  the  Goth  Ru- 
finus  at  Constantinople.  The  jealousy  which  existed 
between  the  rulers  of  the  Western  and  Eastern  em- 
pires furthered  his  plans.  In  the  name  of  Arcadius, 
the  emperor  of  the  East,  or  at  least  with  the  conni- 
vance of  Arcadius's  minister  Rufinus,  he  occupied 
lUyricum,  and  from  thence  ravaged  Greece,  which 
according  to  the  existing  division  of  provinces  be- 
longed to  the  Western  empire.  Thence  in  396  a.d. 
he  retreated  befpre  Stilicho  to  lUyricum,  with  the 
command  of  which  he  was  now  formally  invested  by 
Arcadius,  and  which  gave  him  the  best  possible 
starting-point  for  an  attack  on  Italy.*  In 
400  A.D.   he  led  his  people,  with   their  itaiy. 

wives  and  families,  their  waggons  and 
treasure,  to  seek  lands  for  themselves  south  of  the 
Alps.  But  in  this  first  invasfon  he  penetrated  no 
farther  than  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  and  after  the 
desperate  battle  of  PoUentia  (402  a.d.*)  he  slowly 
withdrew  from  Italy,  his  retreat  being  hastened  by 
the  promises  of  gold  freely  made  to  him  by  the  im- 


>  Hodgkin,  pp.  cit.,  i.,  275. 

*  According  to  others,  403  ;  Hodgkin,  L,  3za 


592  Outlines  of  Roman  History.    CBook  vii 

perial  government.  Not  until  the  autumn  of  408 
A.D.  did  Alaric  again  cross  the  Alps.  Stilicho  was 
dead  ;  the  barbarian  troops  in  Honorius's  service  had 
been  provoked  into  joining  Alaric  by  the  insane  anti- 
Teutonic  policy  of  Honorius  and  his  ministers,  and 
Alaric  marched  unopposed  to  Rome;  this  time, 
however,  the  payment  of  a  heavy  ransom  saved  the 
city.  Several  months  of  negotiation  followed  be- 
tween Alaric  and  the  court  of  Ravenna,  but  though 
Alaric's  demands  were  moderate,  Honorius  would 
grant  neither  lands  for  his  people,  nor  the  honourable 
post  in  the  imperial  service  which  he  asked  for  him- 
self. Once  more  Alaric  sat  down  before  Rome,  and 
this  time  the  panic-stricken  citizens  discovered  a 
fresh  mode  of  escape.  Attalus,  a  Greek,  the  pre- 
fect of  the  city,  was  declared  Augustus,  and  Alaric 
accepted  the  post  of  commander-in-chief.  But  the 
incapacity  of  Attalus  was  too  much  for  the  patience 
of  his  barbarian  minister  and  patron,  who  after  a  few 
months'  reign  formally  deposed  him,  and  renewed  his 
offers  to  Honorius.  Again,  however,  they  were 
declined,  and  Alaric  marched  to  the  siege  and  sack 
of  Rome  (410  A.D.).*     But  his  death  followed  hard 

on  his  capture  of  Rome,  and  two  years 
«)th8  in         later  (412  A.D.)  his  successor  Ataulf  led  the 

Visigoths  to  find  in  Gaul  the  lands  which 
Alaric  had  sought  in  Italy.  It  is  characteristic  of 
the  anarchical  condition  of  the  West  that  Ataulf 
and  his  Goths  should  have  fought  for  Honorius  in 

.  '  For  the  treatment  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  see  Hodgkin,  i.,  370,  with 
Gibbon,  iv.,  loi,  and  Ranke,  Weltgesch,^  iv.,  246.  Allowance  must 
be  made  for  the  exaggeration  of  ecclesiastical  writers. 


Ch.  21  Death  of  Theodosius.  593 

Gaul  against  the  tyrants/  and  in  Spain  against  the 
Vandals,  Suevi,  and  Alani ;  and  it  was  with  the  con- 
sent of  Honorius  that  in  419  A.D.  Wallia,  who  had 
followed  Ataulf  as  king  of  the  Visigoths,  finally  settled 
with  his  people  in  southwestern  Gaul,  and  founded 
the  Visigothic  monarchy.* 

It  was  about  the  same  period  that  the  accomplished 
fact  of  the  division  of  Spain  between  the  vandais 
three  barbarian  tribes  of  Vandals,  Suevi,  ^'^Aiani'ln 
and  Alani  was  in  a  similar  manner  recog-  Spain, 

nised  and  approved  by  the  paramount  authority  of 
the  emperor  of  the  West.'  These  peoples  had 
crossed  the  Rhine  at  the  time  when  Alaric  was 
making  his  first  attempt  on  Italy.  A  portion  of  the 
host  led  by  Radagaisus*  actually  invaded  Italy,  but 
were  cut  to  pieces  by  Stilicho  near  Florence  (405 
A.D.) ;  the  rest  pressed  on  through  Gaul,  crossed  the 
Pyrenees,  and  entered  the  as  yet  untouched  province 
of  Spain. 

Honorious  died  in  423  A.D.     His  authority  had 
survived  the  dangers  to  which  it  had  been 

**  Death  of 

exposed  alike  from  the  rivalry  of  tyrants      Honorius, 
and  barbaric  invasion,  and  with  the  single 
exception  of  Britain,*  no  province  had  yet  formally 
broken  loose  from  the  empire.     But  over  a  great 


^  For  these  **  tyrants"  see  an  article  by  Prof.  Freeman  in  the  first 
number  of  the  English  Historical  Review  Qan.,  1886),  pp.  53-86. 

*  The  capital  of  the  new  state  was  Tolosa  (Toulouse). 

*  Jung,  Die  romanischen  Landschaften^  73  sq»  ' 

*  For  the  connection  between  this  movement  and  those  of  Alaric 
and  of  the  Vandals,  see  Hodgkin,  i.,  282,  304  :  Gibbon,  iv.,  46. 

'  The  Roman  troops  were  withdrawn  from  Britain  by  Constantino 

in  409  A.D.;  Jung,  305. 
38 


594  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     CBook  vii 

part  of  the  West  this  authority  was  now  little  more 
than  nominal ;  throughout  the  major  part  of  Gaul 
and  in  Spain  the  barbarians  had  settled,  and  bar- 
barian states  were  growing  up  which,  though  they 
still  recognised  the  paramount  supremacy  of  the 
emperor,  were  in  all  essentials  independent  of  his 
control.  The  question  for  the  future  was  whether 
this  relationship  between  the  declining  imperial 
authority  and  the  vigorous  young  states  which  had 
planted  the  seeds  of  a  fresh  life  in  the  provinces 
would  be  maintained. 

The  long  reign  of  Valentinian  111.(423-455  A.D.)  is 
vaien-  marked  by  two  events  of  first-rate  impor- 

SS^SaJd,  tance:  the  conquest  of  Africa  by  the 
Vandal  Vandals,*  and  the  invasion  of  Gaul  and 
congueatof  j^^^jy  ^y  ^^tila.  The  Vandal  settlement 
499  A.D.  jj^  Africa  was  closely  akin  in  its  origin  and 
results  to  those  of  the  Visigoths  and  of  the  Vandals 
themselves  in  Gaul  and  Spain.  Here  as  there  the 
occasion  was  given  by  the  jealous  quarrels  of  power- 
ful imperial  ministers.  The  feud  between  Boniface, 
count  of  Africa,  and  Aetius,  the  "  master-general "  or 
"  count  of  Italy,"  opened  the  way  to  Africa  for  the 
Vandal  King  Gaiseric  (Genseric),  as  that  between 
Stilicho  and  Rufinus  had  before  set  Alaric  in  motion 
westward,  and  as  the  quarrel  between  the  tyrant 
Constantine  and  the  ministers  of  Honorius  had 
opened  the  way  for  the  Vandals,  Sueves,  and  Alans 
into  Spain.     In  this  case,  too,  as  in  the  others,  the 

'  Hodgkin,  ii.,  233-290  ;  Gibbon,  iv.,  176-1SS,  256 ;  Jung,  183. 
The  leading  ancient  authority  is  Procopius.  See  Ranke,  iv.,  (2)  285 ; 
Papencordt,  Gesch.  d.  Vandal,  Herrschaft  in  Africa. 


Ch.  2]  Death  of  Theodosius.  595 

hunger  for  more  land  and  treasure  was  the  impelling 
motive  with  the  barbarian  invader,  and  in  Africa,  as 
in  Gaul  and  Spain,  the  invaders'  acquisitions  were 
confirmed  by  the  imperial  authority  which  they  still 
professed  to  recognise.  It  was  in  429  A.D.  that 
Gaiseric,  king  of  the  Vandals,  crossed  with  his 
warriors,  their  families  and  goods,  to  the  province 
of  Africa,  a  province  hitherto  almost  as  untouched 
as  Spain  by  the  ravages  of  war.  Thanks  to  the 
quarrels  of  Boniface  and  Aetius  their  task  was  an 
easy  one.  The  defenceless  province  was  easily  and 
quickly  overrun.  In  435  A.D.*  a  formal  treaty  se- 
cured them  in  the  possession  of  a  large  portion  of 
the  rich  lands  which  were  the  granary  of  Rome,  in 
exchange  for  a  payment  probably  of  corn  and  oil. 
Carthage  was  taken  in  439  A.D.,  and  by  440  A,D.  the 
Vandal  kingdom  was  firmly  established. 

Eleven  years  later  (45 1  A.  D.)  Attila  invaded  Gaul, 
but  this  Hunnish  movement  was  in  a  variety  of  ways 
different  from  those  of  the  Visigoths  and  ^^,^^  ^^ 
Vandals.  Nearly  a  century  had  passed  ^^^jj* 
since  the  Huns  first  appeared  in  Europe, 
and  drove  the  Goths  to  seek  shelter  within  the 
Roman  lines.  Attila  was  now  the  ruler  of  a  great 
empire  in  central  and  northern  Europe,*  for  in  addi- 
tion to  his  own  Huns,  the  German  tribes  along  the 
Rhine  and  Danube  and  far  away  to  the  north  owned 
him  as  king.     He  confronted  the  Roman  power  as 


*  Prosper,  659  ;  Ranke,  iv.  (i),  282. 

*  The  principal  ancient  authorities  are  Priscus  (MQller,  Fragm, 
Hist.  Gr,,  iv.,  69) ;  Jordanes  (ed.  Mommsen,  1882) ;  Sidonius  Apol- 
linaris  (ed.  Barret,  Paris,  1878). 


59^  Outlines  of  Raman  History.     CBook  vii 

an  equal ;  and,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  Gothic  and 
Vandal  chieftains,  he  treated  with  the  emperors  of 
East  and  West  as  an  independent  sovereign.  His 
advance  on  Gaul  and  Italy  threatened,  not  the  estab- 
lishment of  yet  one  more  barbaric  chieftain  on  Rom- 
an soil,  but  the  subjugation  of  the  civilised  and  Christ- 
ian West  to  the  rule  of  a  heathen  and  semi-barbarous 
conqueror.  But  Rome  now  reaped  the  advantages 
of  the  policy  which  Honorius  had  perhaps  involun- 
tarily followed.  The  Visigoths  in  Gaul,  Christian 
and  already  half  Romanised,  rallied  to  the  aid  of  the 
empire  against  a  common  foe.  Attila,  defeated  at 
Chdlons'  by  Aetius,  withdrew  into  Pannonia  (451 

A.D.).  In  the  next  year  he  overran  Lom- 
ch&ioM.        bardy,  but  penetrated  no  farther  south, 

and  in  453  A,D.  he  died.  With  the  mur- 
der of  Valentine  III.  (453  A.D.)  the  western  branch 
of  the  house  of  Theodosius  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
next  twenty  years  witnessed  the  accession  and  de- 
position of  nine  emperors.     The  three  months'  rule 

of  Maximus  is  memorable  only  for  the  in- 

Sftck  of  , 

Rome  by  the  vasion  of  Italy  and  the  sack  of  Rome  by 
the  Vandals  under  Gaiseric.     From  456- 

472  A.D.  the  actual  ruler  of  Italy  was  Ricimer,  the 
Sueve.     Of  the  four  emperors  whom  he 

•upremein  placed  on  the  throne,  Majorian  (457-461) 
alone  played   any  imperial  part  outside 

Italy.'     Ricimer  died  in  472  A.D.,  and  two  years  later 

'For  the  decisive  battle  of  Chtlons  see  Gibbon,  iv.,  234  sq, ; 
Hodgkin,  ii.,  138,  note  A,  161,  where  the  topography  is  discussed. 

'  Majorian  was  the  last  Roman  emperor  who  appeared  in  person  in 
Spain  and  Gavil. 


Ch.  2]     Extinction  of  the  Western  Empire.     597 

a  Pannonian,  Orestes,  aspired  to  take  the  place  which 
Ricimer  had  occupied.     Julius  Nepos  was  deposed, 
and   Orestes  filled  the  vacancy   by  proclaiming  as 
Augustus  his   own   son   Romulus.      But   Orestes's 
tenure  of  power  was  brief.     The  barbarian 
mercenaries  in  Italy  determined  to  secure    pJSSonUn* 
for  themselves  a  position  there,  such  as 
that  which  their  kinsfolk  had  won  in  Gaul  and  Spain 
and  Africa.     On  their  demand  for  a  third  of  the 
lands  of  Italy  being  refused  by  Orestes/  they  instant- 
ly rose  in  revolt,  and  on  the  defeat  and   death  of 
Orestes  they  proclaimed  their  leader,  Odoacer,  the 
Rugian,*  their  king.     Romulus  Augustu- 
lus  laid  down  his  imperial  dignity,  and  the  AugustSus! 
court   at    Constantinople    was    informed 
that  there  was  no  longer  an  emperor  of  the  West.' 

The  installation  of  a  barbarian  chief  as  ruler  in 
Italy  was  the  natural  climax  of  the  changes 
which  had  been  taking  place  in  the  West 
throughout  the  fifth  century.  In  Spain,  Gaul,  and 
Africa  barbarian  chieftains  were  already  established 
as  kings.  In  Italy,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  the 
real  power  had  been  wielded  by  a  barbarian  officer. 
Odoacer,  when  he  decided  to  dispense  with  the  nom- 
inal authority  of  an  emperor  of  the  West,  placed 
Italy  on  the  same  level  of  independence  with  the 
neighbouring  provinces.     But  the  old  ties  with  Rome 


'  Hodgkin,  i.,  531. 

'  The  nationality  of  Odoacer  is  a  disputed  point.  Hodgkin,  i., 
528;  Ranke,  iv.  (i),  372. 

^  Gibbon,  iv.,  298.  The  authority  for  the  embassy  of  Zeno  is 
Malchus  (Mflller,  Fragm,  Hist.  Gr,,  iv.«  119). 


598  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 

were  not  severed.  The  new  ruler  of  Italy  formally 
recognised  the  supremacy  of  the  one  Roman  emper- 
or at  Constantinople,  and  was  invested  in  return  with 
the  rank  of  "  patrician  *'  which  had  been  held  before 
him  by  Aetius  and  Ricimer.  In  Italy  too,  as  in 
Spain  and  Gaul,  the  laws,  the  administrative  system, 
and  the  language  remained  Roman.'  But  the  eman- 
cipation of  Italy  and  the  western  provinces  from 
direct  imperial  control,  which  is  signalised  by  Odoa- 
cer's  accession,  has  rightly  been  regarded  as  marking 
the  opening  of  a  new  epoch.  It  made  possible  in 
the  West  the  development  of  a  Romano-German 
civilisation ;  it  facilitated  the  growth  of  new  and  dis- 
tinct states  and  nationalities ;  finally  it  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  the  influence  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  power  of  the  bishops  of 
Rome. 


^  Gibbon,  iv.,  302  ;  Jung,  66  sq.;  Biyoe,    Hofy  Roman  Empire^ 
24-33. 


INDEX. 


Abgarus  of  Osro^ne,  terms 
made  with,  555 

Aborigines,  the,  traditions  of, 
3,  15;  identified  with  the 
Pelasgi,  7 

Acamania,  treatment  of,  by 
Rome,  153 

Achaeans,  the,  join  Rome 
against  Philip,  143;  re- 
warded, 145;  treatment 
of,  by  Rome,  152,  153; 
Rome  at  war  with,  153; 
allied  with  Mithridates, 
298 

Achaia,  held  by  Brutus  and 
Cassius,  364;  under  the 
Caesars,  508 

Actium,  battle  of,  341,  39a, 
et  seq. 

Acumincum,  camp  at,  551 

Mdiles  curules  instituted ,  64 

iEdui,  the,  allied  with  Rome, 
265;  attacked  by  Ariovis- 
tus,  275;  appeal  to  Rome, 
27  J ;  revolt  of,  286,  287 

iSmilianus,  P.  Cornelius 
Scipio,  see  Scipio 

iSneas,  traditions  of,  4,  8, 17 

iEqui,  the,  hostile  to  Rome, 
48,  69  et  seq.'t  their  de- 
cline, 72 ;  their  conquest  by 
Rome,  75;  their  territory 
annexed,  86 

i^semia  colonised  by  Rome, 
96 

iEtius,  Count  of  Italy,  594; 
defeats  Attila  at  CMlons, 
596 


^tolia,  Roman  Intrigues  in, 

153 
iStolians,  the,  join  Antiochus 

III.    against    Rome,   146, 

147 
Afranius,  L.,  serves  in  Spain, 

334;  submits  to  Caesar,  336 

Africa  (province  of  ) ,  under 
M.  MtaiViMs  Lepidus,  368; 
enfranchisement  of,  531 ; 
conquest  of,  by  the  Van- 
dals. 595 

Agrarian  disputes  between 
the  two  orders,  57 

Agrarian  reforms,  of  the 
Gracchi,  210  et  seq.;  of 
Caesar,  348 

Agrigentum  captured  by 
Rome,  117 

Agrippa,  M.  Vipsanius,  serves 
under  Octavius  in  Sicily, 
368,  376  et  seq,;  his  rule 
m  Gaul,  380;  aedileship  of, 
383 ;  in  war  of  Actium,  300 
et  seq.;  commands  in  tne 
East,  4^9;  and  the  succes- 
sion to  Augustus,  468 

Agrippina,  wife  of  Tiberius, 
47a 

Agrippina,  wife  of  Claudius, 
aids  Nero's  accession,  484; 
murder  of,  485 

Ahenobarbus,  Cn.  Domitius, 
commands  in  Transalpine 
Gaul,  265,1*.  5,  266 

Ahenobarbus,  Cn.  Domitius, 
serves  under  the  second  tri- 
umvirate, 366 

Alani,  the,  settle  in   Spain, 

593 


599 


6o  D  .  Outlines  of  Roman  History . 


Alaric,    occupies    Illyrictim, 

591;  invades    Italy,    591; 

marches  on  Rome,  59a 
Alba,  traditions  of,  4, 9, 19 
Alba  Fucentia  colonised   by 

Rome,  87 
Albanians,  the,  conquered  by 

Tigranes,    311;  conquered 

by  Pompey,  320 
Albmus,  A. ,  defeated  in  Nmni- 

dia,  215 
Albinus,     Clodius,     disputes 

accession  of  Severus,  569 
Alemanni,    the,    invade    the 

Empire,  571^  seq. ,  5  89 
Alesia,  batue  of,  387 
Alexandria  taken  by  Octa- 

vius,  J96 
Alexandbrine  war,   the,    342, 

343 
Alimentus,  L.  Cincius,  value 

of,  as  historian,  1 1 1 
AUia,  the,  battle  of,  74 
Allies   of   Rome,    the,   their 
status  and  rights,  99  et  seq,, 
173 ;  in  war,  10 1  ^^  seq, 
AUobroges,  the,  at  war  with 

Rome,  265 
Allotments  granted  to  veter- 
ans. 234,  367,  452.  53i 
Alpine  tribes,  the,  subdued, 

450, 451 
Amisus,  siege  of,  308;  freed, 

309 
Am3natas,   rules   in   Galatia, 

385 ;  in  war  of  Actium,  391 

Aimgnia,   Pyrrhtis  advances 

to,  94 
Ancus,  traditions  of,  30 
Andriseus  attempts  to  restore 

the  Macedonian  kingdom, 

Aniensis,  tribe  of,  formed,  86 
Anio  Novus  built,  482 
Antigonus.of  Judaea, deposed, 
385;    restored  by    Herod, 

385 
Antioch,   Mark    Antony  at, 

385;    earthquake  at,  554, 


556;  capttired  by  the  Per- 
sians    ^  7  ^ 

Antiochus  III.  (The  Great) 
of  Syria,  conquers  Coele- 
Syria,  141,  143;  invades 
Asia  Minor  and  Thrace, 
146;  defeated  at  Thermo- 
pyke,  147.  and  Magnesia, 
147,  148;  terms  of  peace 
imposed  on,  by  Rome,  148 

Antiochus  IV.  of  Com- 
magene  deposed,  545 

Antiochus  V.  (Eupator),  ac- 
cession of,  156 

Antipater,  L.  Caelius,  as  a  his- 
torian, 47 

Antiiun  colonised  by  Rome, 
76,  82 

Antonius,  C,  defeat  of,  291 

Antonius,  L.,  in  the  Perusine 
war,  367 

Antonitis,  M.,  serves  under 
Caesar  in  Greece,  338,  340; 
as  consul,  358,  359;  be- 
sieges Brutus  at  Mutina, 
360;  in  the  second  trium- 
virate, 362;  in  the  East, 
366,  368,  369,  371,  384  et 
seq.;  at  war  with  Parthia, 
385  ^  seq.;  invades  Arme- 
nia, 387;  meets  Cleopatra, 
369;  makes  treaty  with 
Octavius  at  Brundusium, 
369,  370;  renews  the  tri- 
umvirate with  Octavius, 
376  ei  seq.;  at  war  with 
Octavius,  389  et  seq.;  de- 
feated at  Actium,  392  et 
seq. ;  rejoins  Cleopatra, 
39 J ;  death  of,  396 

Apollonia,  allied  with  Rome, 
125;  attack  on,  by  Philip 
of  Macedon  diverted,  129; 
submits  to  Caesar,  337 

Appuleian  laws,  the,  217 

Apulia,  aUied  with  Rome,  84, 
87,  89;  campaign  of  Pyr- 
rhus  in,  95;  entered  by 
Hannibal,     128;  state    of, 


Index. 


60 1 


after  the  Punic  wars,  138, 

139 
Aqua  Claudia  built,  482 

Aquae  Sextiae,  foundation 
of,  364,  266;  battle  of,  a  16, 
270 

Aquileia,  colony  of,  formed, 
138,  262,  268;  conquest  of, 
290;  besieged  by  barba- 
rians, 560 

Aquillius,  M.,  in  Asia  Minor, 
292,  n.  1 1  in  the  first  Mith- 
ridatic  war,  297 

Aquincum,  legionary  camp 
at,  544 

Aquitania,  subdued  by  P. 
Crassus,  280;  province  of, 
formed,  414 

Arabia  under  Odaenathus,  570 

Arabia-Petraea  conquered  by 
Trajan,  553 

Arausio,  battle  of,  269 

Arcadius,  Emperor  of  the 
East,  586,  J91 

Archaism, fashion  of  ,in  Rome, 

564 
Archelaus,  general  in  the  first 

Mithridatic  war,  297 
Archelaus,  King  of  dappado- 

cia,  385,  394 
Argos  sacked  by  the  Goths, 

572 
Anarathes    made    King    of 

Cappadocia,  2^6 

Aricia  \inited  with  the  Ro- 
man State,  81 

Ariminum  colonised  by 
Rome,  96, 100,  n.  i 

Ariobarzanes,  of  Cappadocia, 
deposed  by  Mithridates, 
296;  restored  by  Sulla, 
302;  rewarded  by  Pom- 
pey,  323 

Anovistus,  in  Gatil,  275,  276; 
defeated  by  Caesar,  277 

Aristion  in  first  Mithridatic 
war,  299 

Aristobulus  of  Judaea  de- 
throned, 320 


Aristodemus  of  Ctunae  allied 

to  Tarquin,  39 
Aristonicus,    rising   of,    292, 

294 
Armenia,    invaded    by    An- 

^^o>iy»  387;  position  of,  on 

the  Roman  frontier,  458; 

Roman   reverses   in,    485; 

invaded  by  Vologaeses  of 
.  Parthia,     501 ;    conquered 

by  Trajan,   555;   king  re- 

S laces  legate,  558;  \mder 
idaenathus,  570 

Armenia,  Greater,  under  Ti- 
granes,  305,  310;  invaded 
by  LucuUus,  312,  J13;  by 
Pompey,  319;  ruled  by  Ar- 
taxes  II.,  395 

Armenia,  Lesser,  conquered 
by  Mithridates,  295;  in- 
vaded by  Lucullus,  310; 
ruled  by  Polemo,  394 ;  an- 
nexed by  Nero,  545 

Arminius,  defends  Germany 
against  Rome,  498 

Armorican  tribe,  the,  rising 
of,  283,  284 

Army,  the  Roman,  early 
state  of,  36;  reformed  by 
Servius,  37  ^t  seq.\  changes 
in,  after  the  conquest  of 
Italy,  105;  payment  of, 
105,  106;  reformed  by  Au- 
gustus, 462  ei  seq, ;  made  a 
standing  army,  463  et  seq. ; 
auxiliaries  of,  465  et  seq.; 
reformed  by  Diocletian 
and  Constantine,  577 

Amiensis,  tribe  of,  created, 

Arpmimi  taken  by  Rome,  86 
Arretium  besieged  by  the  Se- 

nones,  91 
Arsa,  C.  Terentillus,  law  of, 

Artavasdes,  of  Armenia,  al- 
lied with  Antony,  386;  de- 
posed, 387,  388 

Artaxares,  see  Sassanidae 


6o2  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Artaxata,  Luculltis  advances 

on.  314 
Artaxes  II.  rules  in  Greater 

Armenia,  395 
Arvemi,  the,  at  war  with 
Rome,  264;  invite  the  aid 
of  Ariovistus,  275;  rising 
of,  285 
Ascanitis,  traditions  of ,  4,  9 
AsGulum,  battle  of,  95 
Asia, first  Roman  province  of, 
202,  293;  conquered  by 
Mithridates,  297,  208;  re- 
conquest  of,  by  Sulfa,  299 
«i  seq.;  settlement  of,  by 
Sulla,  302,  303;  by  Lucul- 
lus,  309,  J 10;  held  by  Bru- 
tus and  Cassius,  364; 
invaded  by  Parthians, 
371;  state  of,  under  the 
Caesars,  509;  tmder  Odae- 
nathus,  570 
Assembly,  the,  described,  27, 
28;  powers  of,  158-160; 
ascendency  of  the  Senate 
over,  159;  composition  of, 
165.  166;  procedure  of, 
164-166;  reasserts  its  in- 
dependence, 201  et  seq.\  its 
powers  hampered  by  Sulla, 
235;    under    the    Caesars, 

425.489 
Ataulf   leads   the    Visigoths 

into  Gaul,  502 

Athens,  rewaraed  by  Rome, 

153;  taken  by  Sulla,  299; 

^tony  and  Cleopatra  at, 

389;  sacked  by  the  Goths, 

572 

Attains  III.,  of  Pergamum, 
bequeaths  his  kingdom  to 
Rome,  292 

Attains  made  Emperor  of 
the  West,  592 

Attila  leads  the  Huns  into 
Gaul  and  Italy,  595;  de- 
feated at  Chilons,  596 

Auctoritas  Pairum^  described, 
2  5 ;  limitations  of,  65 


Augural    College,    the,    con- 
fined to  nobiuty,  236 
AuguskUes,    the,    instituted, 

454 
Augustodumun     (  Autun  ), 

school  at,  509 
At^fustulus     Romulus,     last 

Emperor  of  the  West,  597 
Augustus,  or  C.  Octavius  {q. 
v.),  receives  the  principate, 
405  ei  seq. ;  reforms  of,  pro- 
vincial, 414  e<  seq.t  finan- 
cial, 4ig  ei  seq.,  domestic, 
423  et  seq.,  religious,  434  ei 
seq.,  social,  438  ei  seq. ;  new 
btiildings     and     improve- 
ments of,   449;  maintains 
the  supremacy  of  the  Ro- 
man State  over  its  allies, 
422 ;  frontier  policy  of,  45^ 
eiseq.\  military  reforms  of , 
462   et  seq. ;  death  of,  469 ; 
contrasted  with  Tiberius, 
474-476 
Aurelian.  Emperor,  570 
Aurelius,  M.,    Emperor,    na- 
tionality  of,    518;  at  war 
with  the  Marcomanni,  560 
Ausones,  the,  revolt  of,  85 
Auxiliaries,  the,  of  the  Ro- 
noian  army,  465  et  seq. ;  mu- 
tiny of,  on  the  Rhine,  536; 
reorganised,  538 
Auximum,  colony  of,  206 
Avaricum        captured       by 
Caesar,  286 

B 

Baiae,  harbour  constructed  at, 

378 
Barbarians,   on  the   Roman 

frontiers,  535;  allowed  to 
settle  in  Italy,  561,  589; 
enrolled  in  the'  legions,  561 , 
589,  590.  See  Marco- 
manni, Quadi,  lazyges, 
Vandals,  Goths,  Alemahni 
Bath,  Ron^an  occupation  of, 

50s 


Index. 


603 


Bedriacum,  battle  of,  516 

Belgae,  the,  at  war  with 
Rome,  277,  278 

Belgica,  province  of,  formed, 
414 

Beneventum,  battle  of,  95: 
colonised  by  Rome,  96 

Bestia,  L.  Calpumius,  con- 
demned for  bribery,  215 

Bibracte,  Caesar  at,  274; 
council  of  insurgents  at, 
286 

Bibulus,  M.,  commands  Pom- 
pey's  fleet,  337      ^ 

Bithjmia,  allied  to  Rome, 
148;  made  a  Roman  pro- 
vince, 306;  conquered  by 
Mithridates,  298;  again  in- 
vaded, 306;  forms  a  Ro- 
man province  with  western 
Pontus,  322 ;  imder  Augus- 
tus, 419 

Boadicea,  rising  of,  507 

Boeotians,  the,  allied  with 
Mithridates,  299 

Boii,  the,  defeated  by  Rome, 
91,  92;  invade  Etruria, 
123;  migration  of,  272  e% 
seq.;  remain  among  the 
iEdui,  27s,  n.  2 

Bononia,  colony  of,  261 ;  con- 
ference  of,  J  62 

Brigantes,  the,  hostile  to 
Rome,  505 

Britain,  Caesar  in,  281,  282; 
invaded  by  Gaius  Caesar, 
479;  south  of,  annexed  by 
Claudius,  482 ;  Claudiah 
invasion  of,  502  et  seq.; 
territory  of  the  Brigantes 
annexed,  545;  loss  of, 
by  Rome,  595 

Britannicus  supplanted  by 
Nero,  484 

Brundusium,  colony  of, 
formed,     138;    treaty     of, 

369.370 
Bruttii,     the,     defeated    by 
Rome,     92;  jdin     Pyrrhus 


against  Rome,  94;  their 
status  as  Roman  allies, 
100;  state  of,  after  the 
Punic  wars,  138 

Brutus,  D.,  m  Cisalpine  Gaul, 
359,  n.  4;  besieged  in  Mu- 
tina,  360;  death  of,  362 

Brutus,  M.,  344;  in  war  of 
Mutina,  362;  at  war  with 
the  second  triumvirate, 
364,  365 ;  death  of,  366 

Burrus,  Afranius,  minister  of 
Nero,  485, 496,  n.  4 

Buxentum,  colony  of,  206, 
n.  6 

Byzantiiun,  sack  of,  by  Sev- 
erus,  569  ;  rebuilt  by 
Constantine,  583 


Cadurci,  the,  rising  of,  285, 
289 

Caepio,  Q.  Servilius,  defeated 
by  the  Germans  at  Arau- 
sio,  269;  at  Tolosa,  269, 
n.  2 

Caere  (Cervetri)  becomes  part 
of  Roman  State  ,75 

Caerleon  on  Usk  (Isca  Silu- 
rum),  founded,  506 

Caesar,  authority  of,  487,  488; 
growth  of  the  power  of, 
488,  489;  relationship  of, 
to  the  assembly,  489,  to 
the  consulship,  490,  to  the 
senate,  49 1 ,  to  the  nobility, 
492;  royal  position  of, 
493.  494;  worship  of,  422, 
437,  494.  517;  honours 
paid  to  family  of,  494; 
friends  of,  495,  496;  f reed- 
men  of,  496  et  seq.;  office 
and  title  of,  legalised,  518, 

519.529 
Caesar,  C.  Julius,  rise  of,  245 ; 

espouses  the  popular  cause, 
245,  246;  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  Catiline's  con- 
spiracy,   247;  in   the   first 


6o4  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Caesar,  continued 

triumvirate,  .252  et  seq.; 
commands  in  Farther 
Gaul,  254,  272  et  seq.\  in- 
vades Italy,  258;  enters 
Germany,  281-;  and  Brit- 
ain, 28T ;  in  Spain,  334  et 
seq.\  lands  in  Greece,  337; 
blockades  Pompey  at  Dyr- 
rhachium,  338;  and  defeats 
him  at  Pharsalus,  339  et 
seq.;  at  Alexandria,  ^42; 
in  Cilicia,  343;  defeats 
Phamaces  in  Fontus,  343; 
in  Africa,  344;  defeats 
Pompeian  army  at  Thap- 
sus,  344;  his  second 
campaign  in  Spain,  344; 
returns  to  Rome,  344; 
murder  of,  ^45;  his  dicta- 
torship reviewed,  346  et 
seq. ;  foreign  policy  of,  355 ; 
deified,  364,  437 

Caesar,  L.  Julius,  commands 
in  the  Social  war,  222 ;  law 
of,  223 

Caesar,  C.  and  L.,  and  the  suc- 
cession to  Augustus,  467, 
468 

Caesarion,  proclaimed  heir  of 
Caesar,  388 

Caius  Caesar,  Emperor,  de- 
scent of,  397 ;  accession  of, 
477;  reign  of,  478,  479 

Calendar,  the,  reformed  by 
Caesar,  349 

Cales  colonised  by  Rome,  82 

Caligula,  cognomen  of  Caius 
Caesar,  477,  n.  6 

Calpumia,  wife  of  Caesar,  359 

Calvinus,  C.  Sextius,  sent 
against  the  Saluvii,  264 

Calvinus,  Domitius,  at  Phar- 
salus, 340;  defeated  by 
Phamaces,  343;  rules  in 
Spain,  380 

Camillus  Furius,  M.,  relieves 
Rome,  74 ;  defeats  the  Vol- 
sci,  75,  76 


Campania,  the,  annexed  by 
Rome,    82;  recovered    by 
Rome  from  Haimibal,  130 
Cannae,  battle  of,  129 
Capena  allied  with  Rome,  72 
Capitoline  Temple,  the,  built, 

^  32.  35 

Cappadocia,  allied  with 
Rome,  156;  conquered  by 
Mithridates,  208;  regained, 
302;  invaded  by  Tieranes, 
311;  ruled  by  Archelaus, 
3851  394;  annexation  of, 
501 ;  under  Vespasian,  545 ; 
tmder  Odaenathus,  570 

Capri,  Tiberius  in,  474,  475 

Capua,  capttired  by  the  Sam- 
nites,  73,  79;  struggle  for, 
between  Haimibal  and 
Rome,  130;  battle  at,  in  83 
B.  c, 229 

Caracalla,  Emperor,  pedigree 
of,  520;  edict  of,  531 

Caractacus,  rising  of,  506 

Carbo,  Cn.,  colleague  of  Cin- 
na,  229;  flees  to  Africa, 
230;  defeated  by  Pompey, 
230,  n.  2 

Carbo,  Cn.  Papirius,  de- 
feated at  Noreia,  267 

Caria,  ceded  to  Rhodes,  148; 
given  up,  155;  becomes  a 
Roman  province,  292 

Camutes,  the,  rising  of,  284 
etseq. 

Carrhae,  battle  at,  326 

Carrinas,  C,  imder  Octavius, 

Carseoli  colonised  by  Rome  ,8  7 
Carthage,  in  league  with 
Rome,  78;  checks  Pyrrhus 
in  Sicily,  95;  allied  with 
Rome  against  Pyrrhus, 
116;  invades  Spain,  125, 
126;  at  war  with  Masi- 
nissa.  1^6;  siege  of,  137; 
colonised  by  Caesar,  348; 
taken  by  the  Vandals,  595. 
See  Punic  wars 


Index. 


605 


Cams,  Emperor,  571;  de- 
feats the  Persians  in  the 
East,  573 

Cassius,   Avi4ius,   revolt   of, 

561 

Cassius,  L.,  in  the  first  Mith- 
ridatic  war,  297 

Cassius  Longinus,  C.,344;  in 
war  of  Mutina,  362 ;  at  war 
with  the  second  triumvir- 
ate,   365,    366;  death    of, 

365 

Cassius  Longinus,  L.,  de- 
feated by  the  Tigurini,  269 

Cassius  iJonginus,  Q.,  mis- 
rule of,  in  Spain,  344 

Cassius  Viscellinus,  Spurius, 
treaty  of,  with  the  allies, 

77 
Cassivellaiuius  conquered  by 

Caesar,  28^ 

Castrum  Novtim  colonised 
by  Rome,  91,  96 

Catilina,  L.  Sergius,  conspir- 
acy of,  235,  250,  251 

Cato,  M.  Porcius,  m  Spain, 
135  *»  urges  third  Punic 
war,  136, 137;  opposes  Hel- 
lenic fashions,  197, 198 

Cato  (the  Younger),  death  of, 
at  Utica,  344 

Catulus,  C.  Lutatius,  defeats 
the  Carthaginian  fleet  off 
the  .^Sgates  Islands,  120; 
concludes  a  treaty  with 
Hamilcar,  121 

Catulus,  Q.  Lutatius,  opposes 
Manilian  law,  244;  com- 
mands against  the  Cimbri, 
271 

Caudine  Forks,  the,  battle  of, 

84 
CensoreSt    the,    appointment 

of,  168 
Census,  the,  of  Augustus,  421 
Centuripae,  a  "treaty  state," 

177 
Chaeronea,  battle  of,  299 
Chalcis  destroyed,  153 


Chdlons,  battle  of ,  596 

Chersonese,  the,  ceded  to  Per- 
gamum,  148 

Chester  (Deva)  under  the 
Romans,  506,  507,  545 

Chosroes  regains  crown  of 
Parthia,  558 

Christianity,  tmder  the  Fla- 
vians and  Antonines,  567 ; 
recognition  of,  by  Constan- 
tine,  583 

Cicero,  M.  TuUius,  and  the  re- 
publican institutions,  243; 
character  of,  247,  248;  tm- 
der the  first  triumvirate, 
253  et  seq.\  banished,  255; 
recalled.  255;  retires  from 
public  life,  256;  submits 
to  Caesar,  343 ;  attempts  to 
restore  the  Republic,  357; 
death  of,  363 

Cicero,  Q.,  serves  in  Gaul  un- 
der Caesar,  2  83 ,  2  84 

Cilicia,  under  Roman  author- 
ity, 252;  invaded  by  Ti- 
granes,  311;  made  a 
Roman  province,  322;  in- 
vaded by  Parthians,  372; 
under  Augustus,  415;  un- 
der Odaenathus,  570 

Cilician  pirates,  the,  raids  of, 
304;  Pompey  despatched 
against,  244,  317  et  seq.; 
aid  Mithridates,  305 

Cimbri,  the,  invade  Italy, 
216,  267 

Cineas,  envoy  of  Pyrrhus  to 
Rome,  94 

Cinna,  L.  Cornelius,  conflict 
of,  with  the  Senate,  227, 
228;  supreme  in  Rome, 
228.  229 

Circeii,  colonised,  72;  Rome 
at  war  with,  77 

Cispadanes,  the,  enfran- 
chised, 262 

City  wards  of  Rome,  the,  443 

Civil  war,  the  first,  226  ^  seq. ; 
second,  333  et  seq. 


6o6 


Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Civilis,  revolt  of,  537,  538 

Clan  regiments  on  the  Rhine, 
revolt  of,  536 

Claudius,  Emperor,  descent 
of,  37S»  397;  character  of, 
479;  accession  of.  481;  as 
a  ruler,  481  ^t  seq.\  public 
works  of,  482,483 

Claudius,  Appius,  mission  of, 

310. 311 

Claudius  Caecus,  Appius,  con- 
structs the  Via  Appia,  85 

Claudius  Gothicus  defeats  the 
Goths,  572 

Claudius,  P., defeated  off  Dre- 
.pana,  119 

Cleonymus,  the  Spartan,  de- 
feated by  Rome,  87 

Cleopatra,  and  Caesar,  343; 
and  Mark  Antony,  369, 
384;  receives  grants  of  Ro- 
man territory,  385;  claims 
the  Western  Empire,  388; 
Rome  at  war  with,  389  e% 
seq.;  worsted  by  Octavius, 
395;  death  of,  397 

Clodius,  P.,  as  tribune,  242, 
25s;  laws  of,  254 

Clusium,  siege  of,  73 

Colchester  (Camulodunum) , 
captured,  504;  a  Roman 
colony,  506;  taken  by  the 
Iceni,  507 

Colchis  invaded  by  Pompey, 
320 

College  of  Augurs  opened  to 
the  plebs,  64 

College  of  priests  opened  to 
the  flebs,  63,  64 

Collegia,  5e^  Guilds 

Colonies,  the  Roman,  in  Italy, 
102;  government  of,  103 
et  seq. 

Comitia  centuriata,  constitu- 
tion of  the,  53,  165;  ren- 
dered independent  of  pa- 
trician control,  65,  66;  and 
Caesar's  dictatorship,  353 

Commagene,  annexation  of, 


501;  added  to  province  of 
S3rria,  501,  w.  2 

Commodus,  Emperor,  518 

Common  lands,,  disputes  con- 
cerning, 58 

ConcUiutn  plebis,  described, 
57  et  seq.y  165,  166;  legal- 
ised, 60,  61 ;  freed  from  pa- 
trician control,  64,  65 

Concordia,  settlement  of, 
fomied,  451,  n.  I 

ConsUiarius  Augusti,  of&ce 
of,  528,  529 

Consuium  frincipis  estab- 
lished, 528 

Constans,  Emperor,  583 

Constantine  I.,  Emperor, 
reign  of.  582.583 

Constantine    11.,     Emperor, 

583 
Constantinople  founded,  583 

Constantius  I.,  made  Caesar, 

under  Diocletian,  578 

Constantius     II.,     Emperor, 

581 
Constitution,  the  Roman,  in 

early  times,  22  ^  seq.\  re- 
publican form  of,  158  et 
seq. ;  settlement  of,  by  Cae- 
sar, 349  et  seq.\  by  Augus- 
tus, 401  et  seq.,  425  et  seq.; 
the  latter  revised,  406  et 
seq.\  end  of,  579 

Consulates,  appointment  of, 
522,  524,525 

Consulate,  the,  established, 
50;  position  of,  51,  54; 
patrician  monopoly  of,  at- 
tacked, 61,  62;  reserved 
for  the  nobility,  172,11.2; 
becomes  secondary  to  the 
proconsulate,  185;  enact- 
ments of  Sulla  concerning, 
235;  and  the  principate, 
411,  426  et  seq.;  tmder  the 
Caesars,  490 

Corcyra    allied  with   Rome, 

125 
Cordova  in  Roman  times,  509 


Index. 


607 


Cordus,  Cremutius,  writings 
of,  478 

Corinth,  taken  by  the  Achae- 
ans,  i4j;  bumed,  153; 
colonised  by  Csesar,  348; 
sacked  by  the  Goths,  572 

Com,  the  supply  of,  in  Rome, 
446 

Comificius,  L.,  serves  under 
Octavius  in  Sicily,  379 

Corsica,  ceded  by  Carthage  to 
Rome,  123;  government 
of,  by  Rome,  123 

Cosa,  colonised  by  Rome,  96 

Cosmopolitanism,  fashion  of, 
in  Rome,  565 

Cotta,  L.  Aurelius,  law  re- 
form of,  242,  n.  2 

Cotta,  M.  Aurelius,  in  third 
Mithridatic  war,  306 

Cotys,  king  of  Thrace,  joins 
Perseus  against  Rome,  150 

Councils,  provincial,  de- 
scribed, 423 

Courts,  the  "perpetual,"  con- 
trolled by  the  equestrian 
order,  219;  by  the  Senate, 
236;  by  a  mixed  body,  242 
n.  2 

Crassus,  M.,  serves  under  Oc- 
tavius, 399 

Crassus,  M.  Licinius,  serves 
under  Sulla,  229;  defeats 
Spartacus,  241 ;  joins  Pom- 
pey,  241;  allied  with  Cae- 
sar, 246;  joins  the  first 
triumvirate,  252  el  seq.; 
commands  in  Syria,  256; 
in  Mesopotamia,  324;  de- 
feated by  the  Parthians, 
325;  death  of,  326 

Crassus,  P.,  orator,  207 

Crassus,  P.,  serves  in  Gaul 
under  Caesar,  278;  subdues 
Aquitania,  280;  serves 
against  the  Parthians,  326 

Crassus,  P.  Canidius,  in  the 
Caucasus,  385 

Cremona,    Roman    colony 


founded  at,  124;  colony  of, 
261;  taken  and  sacked  by 
Antonius  Primus,  516 
Cretan  pirates,  the    ravages 

of,  15s 
Criminal     law       of   .  Rome 

founded  by  Sulla,  239 

Cumas,  battle  of,  376.  See 
also  Capua 

Cunctator,  Q.  Fabius,  in  the 
second  Ptmic  war,  129 

Cunobeline  of  Britain,  504 

Curiae,  the,  described,  24; 
procedure  of,  27,  28;  un- 
der the  Republic,  51,  53 

Curio,  C.  Scribonius,  as  trib- 
une, 242;  in  Macedonia, 
291;  in  Sicily,  334;  in  Af- 
rica, 334 

Cynoscephalae,  battle  of,  143 

C)rprus  ceded  to  Ptolemy  Eu- 
ergetesll.,  156 

C3rrenaica  made  a  Roman 
province,  J27 

Cyrene  cedea  to  Ptolemy  Eu- 
ergetesll.,  156 

Cyzicus,  siege  of,  306 

D      • 

Dacia,  annexation  of,  531, 
535.  543»  550;  war  with, 
543 »  547,  ^<  seq.;  loss  of,  by 
Rome,  571 

Danube,  the,  Roman  rule 
reaches  to,  290,  291 ;  boun- 
dary of  the  Augustan  em- 
pire, 460;  of  the  empire  of 
the  later  Caesars,  500,  572; 
as  frontier  under  Vespa- 
sian, 535 

Dardanus,  treaty  made  at, 
302 

Decemvirate,  the,  appointed, 

58,  59 
Decius,    Emperor,    slain    by 

the  Goths,  568 
Decius  Mus,  P.,  defeated  at 

Sentintun,  90 


6o8  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Deiotarus  of  Galatia  allied 
with  Rome,  323 

Delos,  ceded  to  Athens,  153; 
made  a  free  port,  155; 
slave  market  of,  189 

Dentatus,  M.  Curius,  in  the 
third  Samnite  war,  90 ;  de- 
feats Pyrrhus  at  Beneven- 
timi,  95 

Dertona,  colony  of,  261 

Dictatorship,  the,  in  the  early 
republic,  54,  65 

Dictatorship  of  Caesar,  re- 
viewed, 346  e%  seq.\  con- 
trasted with  the  rule  of  the 
later  emperors,  353.  354 

Diocletian,  Emperor,  new  ad- 
ministrative system  of,  577 
ei  seq. 

Dionysius  of  HaHcamassus 
as  a  historian,  46 

Divitiacus  the  iEduan,  276 

Dolabella,  L.  Cornelius,  de- 
feats the  Kelts,  91 

Domitian,  Emperor,  claim  of. 
518;  annexes  territory  be- 
yond the  Rhine,  539 ;  fron- 
tier policy  of,  536 

Drepana,  Roman  fleet  de- 
feated off,  119 

Drusus,  M.  Livius,  221;  fail- 
ure of  his  plans  for  reform, 
221 

Drusus,  Nero  Claudius,  375, 
381;  commands  in  Ger- 
many, 460,  461;  and  the 
succession  to  Augustus, 
468 

Duilius,  C,  defeats  Cartha- 
ginian fleet  at  Mylae,  118 

Durostorum,  legionary  camp 

at,  SSI 
Dyrrhachium,      Caesar      re- 
pulsed at,  337,  338 


E 


Eburones,  the,  rising  of,  283, 
284 


Ecnomus,  defeat  of  Cartha- 
ginian fleet  off,  by  Rome, 
118 

Egypt,  seeks  alliance  with 
Rome,  114;  Roman  inter- 
vention in,  is6;  as  a  vassal 
of  Rome,  ^27 ;  made  a  Ro- 
man provmce,  397;  under 

Augustus,  41  s 

Elbe,  the  boundary  of  he 
Augustan  empire,  461 

Empire,  the  Roman,  under 
tne  dictatorship,  355  et 
seq.\  after  Pompey  and 
Caesar,  326;  at  the  death 
of  Nero,  486  et  sear,  under 
the  Caesars  in  the  West,  S02 
et  seq.\  in  the  East,  509; 
tmder  the  Flavians  and 
Antonines,  56s;  at  the  end 
of  third  century,  $yj;  di- 
vided among  Augusti  and 

Caesares,  S77»578 

Empires,  provincial,  first  es- 
tablished, s6g 

Emporiae  threatened  by  Han- 
nibal, 126 

Ennius,  Q.,  Hellenism  of, 
194,  n.  2,  197 

Ephesus,  in  the  first  Mithri- 
datic  war,  300 ;  freedom  of, 

303.»*-4 

Epidamnus  allied  with 
Rome,  12  s 

Epirus  laid  waste  by  the 
Goths,  S72 

Eporedia,  colony  of,  262 

Equestrian  oroier,  foimded, 
212,  n.  $;  exactions  of, 
219,  242;  imder  Sulla,  233, 
n.  I,  236;  imder  Augustus, 
439  ^  seq. ;  imder  Hadrian, 
52a,  527 

Ercte,  Carthaginian  strong- 
hold in  first  runic  war,  120 

Eryx,  taken  by  Pyrrhus,  95; 
recaptured  for  Carthage, 
120 

Etruria,   state  of,  after  the 


Index. 


609 


Ptinic  wars,  139;  in  the  So- 
cial war,  222;  in  first  Civil 
war,  229,  234;  joins  Cati- 
line, 251;  Southern,  con- 
quest and  settlement  of, 
by  Rome,  75 

Etruscans,  the,  in  the  tradi- 
tions, 12,  19;  hostile  to 
Rome,  18,  48,  69;  origin  of, 
32;  conjquer  Rome,  32 
e%  seq.\  influence  of,  on 
Rome,  90  et  seq.\  decline 
of,  the  power  of,  72,  73 

Eugenius,  tyrant  in  Italy,  586 


Fabius,  C,  serves  under  Cae- 
sar in  Spain,  334, 335 
Fabius,  M.,  defeated  by  Mith- 

ridates,  316 
Fabius    Maximus,   Q.,   wins 

battle  of  Sentinum,  89 
Fabius,  Q.,  opposes  Scipio*s 

invasion  of  Africa,  132 
Fabius,    Q.,     commands    in 

Transalpine  Gaul,  265 
Falerii,  under  Roman  sway, 

72 ;  allied  with  Rome,  80 
Faventia,  settlement  of,  261 
Ficana,  destruction  of,  3 1 
Fidentia,  settlement  of,  261 
Fimbria,     C.     Flavins,    sent 

against  Sulla,  229;  in  first 

Mithridatic  war,  301,  302 
Firmum  colonised  by  Rome, 

96 
Flaccus,   L.     Valerius,     sent 

against  Sulla,  229;  in  first 

Mithridatic  war,  301 
Flaccus,     M.     Fulvius,    sent 

against    the    Saluvii,    264, 

265 
Flamininus,     T.     Quinctius, 

commands  in  Greece,  144; 

withdraws  his  troops,  144 
Flaminius,    C,   defeated    by 

Hannibal,    128;     agrarian 

law  of,  160 

39 


Fleet,  the  first  Roman, 
formed,  117 

Floralia  instituted,  188,  n.  i 

Florentia,  settlement  of,  261 

Fonteius.  M.,  in  Farther 
Gaul,  271 

Foray  defined,  261 

Formiae  included  in  Roman 
State,  82 

Franchise,  extension  of  the, 
tmder  the  later  Caesars, 
530 ;  by  Claudius,  482 

Franks,  the,  invade  the  Em- 
pire, 57 1.589 

Freedmen,  position  of,  under 

the  Caesars,  496  e/  seq. 

Fregellae,  colonised  by  Rome, 
83;  captured  ana  recap- 
tured in  the  second  Sam- 
nite  war,  85 

Frentani,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  84 

Frisii,  the,  subject  to  Rome, 

498 
Frontiers,    the    delimitation 
and  defences  of,  under  Au- 

fustus  in  the  West  and 
outh,  455;  in  the  East, 
456  e<  seq.\  in  the  North, 
459;  under  the  Caesars, 
498  e%  seq. ;  under  the  later 
Emperors,  535  ^  seq,;  re- 
volt on  Danubian,  542 

Fucine  Lake,  the,  draining  of, 
482 

Fulvia,  wife  of  Mark  Antony, 

367,369.370 
Fimdi    included    in    Roman 

State,  82 


Gabinius,  A.,  supports  Pom- 

pey,244,3i7 
Gades,  a  treaty  state,  177 

Gaiseric    leads   the    Vandals 

into  Africa,  595 
Gains,  ^e^Caius 
Galatae,  the,  allied  to  Rome, 

148;    harass     Pergamtmi , 


6io  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


i 


Galatfls,  continued 

155;  in  the  first  Mithxi- 
datic  war,  300;  rewarded 
byPompey,  323 

Galatia,  ruled  by  Amyntas, 
|85»     394;      province    of, 
brmed,  414;  under  Augus- 
tus, 415 

Galba,  Ser.  Sulpicius,  513,  n. 
i;  descent  of,  514;  pro- 
claimed Emperor,  486 

Galerius  made  Caesar  under 
Diocletian,  578 

Gallienus,  Emperor,  reign  of, 

^  569, 570 

Gallus,  Emperor,  buys  off 
the  Goths,  571 

Gallus,  C.  Cornelius,  marches 
on  Alexandria,  396 

Gaul,  under  Octavius,  368, 
370;  \inder  Augustus,  415; 
imder  the  Caesars,  509 ;  un- 
successful  revolt  of,    513, 

514 
Gaul,  Belgic,  province  of,  460 
Gaul,  Cisalpine,  in  first  Civil 
war,  329;  state  of,  before 
Caesar,   260;  made  a  pro- 
vince, 262 
Gaul,    Cispadane,   colonised, 

137 
Gaul,     Transalpine,      under 

Rome,  263  ei  seq.;  Caesar 
in,  254,  255,  272  et  seq.;  un- 
der Roman  sway,  289 

Gaul,  Transpadane,  enfran- 
chisement of,  ^56 

Gauls,  the,  hostile  to  Rome, 
48;  sack  of  Rome  by,  63,  74 

Gazaca,  siege  of,  386 

Genabima  (Cenabum)  cap- 
t\ired  by  Caesar,  286 

Gentes,  see  Patricians 

Genthius  of  lUyria  joins  Per- 
seus against  Rome,  150 

Gergovia,  Caesar  advances  on, 
286 

Germanicus  Caesar,  as  rival 
of     Tiberius,     474;    com- 


mands beyond  the  Rhine, 

498 

Germans,  the,  Rome  in  con- 
flict with,  267  et  seq.;  in- 
vade Italy,  216,  267  e^  seq. 

Germany,  Caesar  in,  281 ;  Ro- 
man invasion  of,  460,  461; 
invaded  by  Gaius  Caesar, 
479;  Roman  advances  on, 
under  the  Caesars,  498 

Glabrio,  M.,  defeats  Anti- 
ochus  III.  at  Thermopylae, 

147 
Glabrio,  M.  Acilius,  in  Mith- 

ridatic  war,  244 
Gladiators,  rising  of,  240 
Glaucia,  C.  Servilius,  elected 

a  praetor,  217;  fall  of ,  2 1 7 
Goths,  the,  invade  the  Em- 
pire, 572;  piracies  of,  571; 
settle  in  Moesia,  585;  re- 
volt against  Valens,  585; 
invasion  of,  589,  590 
Governor  of  a  province,  the, 
powers  of,  179,  180;  term 
of  office,  181,  n.  1;  his  re- 

rnsibility  to  the  qtuBstio 
repetundis,  181,  219; 
extortions  of,  182,  239,  328 

Gracchus.  Gaius,  attacks  the 
senatorial  government  in 
support  of  agrarian  reform, 
211^  sea. 

Gracchus,  Tiberius,  family  of, 
206;  proposes  agrarian  re- 
form, 209;  opens  conflict 
with  the  Senate,  210 

Gracchus,  T.  Sempronius, 
commands  in  Sicily,  127; 
in  Spain,  135 

Gratian,  Emperor  in  the 
West,  586 

Greece,  early  connection  of 
Rome  with,  36;  alliance  of 
Rome  with,  125;  freedom 
of,  proclaimed,  144;  Mith- 
ridatic  conquest  of,  299; 
regained  by  Sulla,  299 ;  in- 
vaded by  the  Goths,  572; 


Index. 


6ii 


under  Roman  rule,  152  e^ 
secL 

Greek  culture,  its  influence 
on  Roman  society,  193  e% 
seq. 

Greeks,  the  Italian,  in  con- 
flict with  Etruria,  72;  in- 
voke the  aid  of  Rome 
against  the  Sabellians,  92; 
join  Pyrrhus  against  the 
Romans,  94 

Guilds,  the,  of  Rome,   444, 

445 


H 


Hadria,  colonised  by  Rome, 

Hadrian,  Emperor,  descent 
of,  J 1 8,  519;  organises  the 
civil  service,  497,  526,  527; 
frontier  policy  of,  558,  559 

Hamilcar .  Barca,  Carthagin- 
ian leader  in  first  Punic 
war,  120;  treats  for  peace 
with  Rome,  lai;  his  gen- 
eralship, 121 

Hannibal,  in  Spain,  126;  his 
march  into  Italy,  127',  de- 
feats Roman  army  at  Can- 
nae, 129 ;  marches  on  Rome, 
130;  retires  to  Bruttium, 
131;  recalled  to  Africa, 
132;  defeated  at  Zama, 
132;  his  expulsion  from 
Carthage,  136;  joins  Anti- 
ochus  III.  in  Greece,  147; 
his  death,  136 

Hasdrubal,  in  Spain,  126; 
marches  into  Italy,  131; 
defeated  and  slain  at  R. 
Metaurus,  131 

Hellenism,  influence  of,  on 
Roman  society,  193  ef  seq. ; 
and  literature,  193  e<  seq. 

Helvetii,  the,  join  the  Ger- 
mans against  Rome,  268; 
migration  of,  into  Gaul, 
270    ^    seq.;  defeated    by 


Caesar,  274,  275 

Heraclea,  its  status  as  an  ally 
of  Rome,  100 

Hemicans,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  yi  et  seq.\  in  con- 
flict with  Rome,  77;  re- 
newal of  the  treaty  with 
Rome,  77,  79 ;  their  terri- 
tory annexed,  86 

Herod  the  Great,  rules  in  Ju- 
daea, 394 

Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse,  at- 
tacks the  Mamertines  of 
Messana,  116;  allies  him- 
self to  Rome  in  the  first 
Piinic  war,  117;  rules  in 
Eastern  Sicily  under 
Rome,  123 

Hirtius,  A.,  m  war  of  Mutina, 
361 

Honorius,  Emperor  of  the 
West,  586,  592  etseq. 

Horatitis  Flaccus,  Q.,  escapes 
from  Philippi,  366;  at 
Brundusium,  377,  n.  i 

Hortensian  law,  tne,  158,  168 

Hortensius,  Q.,  opposes  Ma- 
nilian  law,  244,  245 

Htms,  the,  invade  Italy,  585 

H3rrcanus,  accession  of,  in 
Judaea,  320 


lapydes,  the,  subdued  by  Oc- 

tavius,  384 
Iberians,  the,  conquered  by 

Tigranes,    312;  conquered 

by  Pompey,  320 
Iceni,    the,    subjugation    of, 

507 
Ilerda    occupied    by    Pom- 

pejr's  forces,  334 

Illyrian  pirates,  the,  ptm- 
ished,  124 

lUyricum  or  Illyria,  Caesar  in, 
254,  255,  272;  made  a  Ro- 
man province,  290,  ».  5; 
invaded  by  Octavius,  383, 


6 1 2  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


lUyricimi  or  lUyria — coni. 

384;  conquests     in,     449; 

occupied  by  Alaric,  J9 1 
Imperator,  title  of,  defined, 

350 
Imperium,  the,  defined,  167 

Inalpini,  the,  subdued,  450 
Industria,  settlement  of,  261 
Insubres,  the,  invade  Etru- 
ria,  124;  defeated  at  Tela- 
mon,  124 
Interamna       colonised      by 

Rome,  85 
Interrex,  appointment  of,  2  5 
Isauria  made  a  Roman  pro- 
vince, ^22 
Isle  of  Wight  captured,  505 
Isthmian     Games,     Romans 

admitted  to  the,  125 
Istria,  conquest  of,  290;  ad- 
ded  to   Roman   territory, 
450 
Italian  allies,  the,  their  rela- 
tionship to  Rome,   100  et 
se^.;  claim    amalgamation 
with  Rome,  220;  revolt  of, 
222;  concessions  to,  2  2  3 
Italy,  invaded  by  Hannibal, 
127;  ruled   as  a   province 
under  Diocletian,  579;  in- 
vaded by  the  Huns,  595 


Janiculum,  fortification  of 
the,  31 

Jerusalem,  taken  by  Pom- 
pey,  320;  by  C.  Sosius, 
385;  by  Titus,  567;  Ro- 
man colony  at,  558 

Jews,  dispersion  of  the,  567 

Jovian,  Emperor,  585 

Judaea, invaded  by  Parthians, 
372;  ruled  by  Herod  the 
Great,  394;  annexed  by 
Claudius,  482 ;  province  of, 

546 
Jugurtlia,  Rome  at  war  with, 
215,  216 


Julian,  made  Caesar  in  Gaul, 
584;  Emperor,  584;  his 
campaign  m  Persia,  585 

Junius,  L.,  wrecked  at  Fachy- 
nus,  120 

Juridici,  appointment  of,  522 

Justice,  administration  of, 
under  the  Caesars,  527 


K 


Kelts,  the,  hostile  to  Rome, 
71,  n.  2,  88-90;  in  conflict 
with  the  Etruscans,  72; 
sack  of  Rome  by,  74;  de- 
feated at  Sentinum,  90; 
under  Roman  sway,  260 
etseq.;  of  N.  Italy  finally 
subdued,  137.  See  also 
Senones,  Boii,  Insubres 

King,  office  of,  24  et  seq.; 
method  of  appointing,  25; 
prerogatives  of,  26 

Kings  of  Rome,  30  et  seq.; 
abolition  of,  39  ^^  seq. 

Kingship,    the,   and    Caesar, 

350 
Knights,  see  Equestrian  order 


Labicum  captured  by  Rome, 
72 

Labienus,  Q.,in  Parthia,  371 ; 
heads  Parthian  invasion  of 
Syria,  371 

Labienus,  T.,  serves  in  Gaul 
tmder  Caesar,  274,  279,  286; 
defeats  of  Treveri,  283,  284 

Lacedaemonians,  the,  allied 
with  Mithridates,  298 

Laevinus,  M.  Valerius,  de- 
feated at  the  R.  Liris,  94 

Lake  Regillus,  battle  of,  40, 
70 

Lamboesis,  military  station 
foimdedat,  559 

Language,  the  Latin,  19 ;  Sa- 
bine element  in,  2 1 ,  n.  a 


Index. 


613 


\ 


ome, 


Lanuvium,  75;  Rome  at  war 
with,  77 ;  united  with  Ro- 
man State,  81 

Laodic^  deposed  in  Pontus, 

294 
Laodicea,    freedom   of,    303, 

n.  4 
Larissa,  Pompey  at,  33^ 
Lars  Porsena  invades 

40 
Latin    League,    the,    estab- 
lished, 70 ;  end  of,  81 
Latin  League  war,  the,  80 
Latins,  the,  traditions  of,  4, 
II,    15;  their    origin,    18; 
their  affinities  with  the  Ro- 
nlan     people,     19;     allied 
with  Rome,  70,  77,  79;  at 
war  with  Rome,  80;  united 
to  Rome,  81,  82;  their  re- 
lationship to  Rome,  100 
Latobriges,  the,  migration  of, 

272  etseq. 
Lotus  clavus  defined,  430 
Lavinium,  traditions  of,  9,  19 
Law,     Roman    criminal, 

founded  by  Sulla,  239 
Legatiy  office  of ,  41 5  et  seq. 
Leges;  Calpumiae,  181,  223; 
1.  Campana,  254  ;  1. 
Canuleia,  61;  1.  Claudia, 
191;  1.  Cornelia  de  majes- 
tate,  238,  n.  3;  1.  Cornelia 
de  prov.  ord.,  238,  n.  3;  1. 
Didia,  189;  1.  Domitia, 
237  ;1.  Faunia,  189;  1.  Gab- 
inia,  243 ;  1.  Hortensia,  65 ; 
I.Julia,  223;  I.Julia  agra- 
ria,  254,  n.  i;  1.  Julia 
municipalis,  452;  leges  Li- 
ciniae  Sextiae,  61,  63,  189, 
209,  210;  1.  Manilia,  244, 
J 1 6,  318;  1.  Ogulnia,  64; 
1.  Oppia,  188;  1.  Orchia, 
188;  1.  Plautia  Papiria, 
214,  223,  n.  I ;  1.  provinciae, 
174,  175  lex  sacrata,  55; 
1.  Valeria  de  provocatione, 
54;  1.  Vatinia,  254 


Lemnos,  battle  of,  307 
Lepidus,  M.  ^milius,  239 
Lepidus,  M.  iEmihus,  as  rival 
to  M.   Antony,   358;  joins 
Antony,  361 :  in  the  second 
triumvirate,  362 ;  in  Africa, 
368,  370;  in  Sicily,  378,379; 
deposed  by  Octavius.  379 
Licinius  Stolo,  C,  rogations 

of,  passed,  63 
Ligurians,  the,  held  in  check 
bv  Rome,  138;  Rome  aids 
Massilia  against,  263,  266. 
See  Saluvii 
Lilybaeum,    Roman,   expedi- 
tion to,  up 
Limes  of  Hadrian,  559 
Limes  Transrenanus,  539 
Lincoln,   Roman  occupation 

of,  507 
Lipara,  Octavius  at,  378 
Liris,  the,  battle  at,  94 
Lissus,  M.  Antony  lands  at, 

338 
Literature    of    Rome,    influ- 
enced by  Greek  thought, 
'93»    194 1  under  the   Fla- 
vians and  Antonines,  563 
Livia,  wife  of  Octavius,  375; 
aids  the  succession  of  Ti- 
berius, 468 
Livy,    as    an    historian,    45; 
sources  of  his  information, 
III,  112 
Luca,  conference  of,  256 
Lucanians,   the,    allied   with 
Rome,  84 ;  attacked  by  the 
Samnites,  87;  defeated  by 
Rome,    90;  join    Pyrrhus 
against    Rome,    92;  after 
the  Punic  wars,  138,  13^; 
in  the  Social  war,  222;  m 
first  Civil  war,  230,  234 
Luceres,  the  tribe  of,  20,  n.  i ; 

22 
Luceria  capttired  by  Rome, 

84 
Lucterius  heads  the  rising  of 
the  Cadurci.  285 


6 1 4  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Lucullus,  L.,  in  Macedonia, 
291;  in  first  Mithridatic 
war,  302;  in  third  Mithri- 
datic war,  307  ^  seq.\  in- 
vades Pontus,  307-309 ; 
invades  Armenia,  312;  re- 
called to  Rome,  316 

Ludi  Apollinares  instituted, 
188,  w.  I 

Lugdtmensis  Gallia,  province 
of,  formed,  414 

Lugdunum  (Lyons),  school 
£^t,  509;  battle  of,  569 

Luna,  colony  of,  formed,  138 

Luperci,  race  of  the,  16 

Lusitanid.  province  of, 
formed,  414;  under  Au- 
gustus, 421 

Lycaonia  ceded  to  Perga- 
mum,  148 

Lycia.  ceded  to  Rhodes,  148; 
given  up,  155;  conquered 
by  Mithridates,  298;  re- 
gained, 301 

Lydia,  ceded  to  Pergamum, 
148;  becomes  a  Roman 
province,  292 


M 


Macedonia,  fnade  a  Roman 
province,  151;  taxation  of, 
by  Rome,  178;  under  the 
Caesars,  508;  held  by 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  365 

Macedonian  frontier,  the, 
wars  on,  291 

Macedonian  wars:  first,  141; 
second,  142;  third,  149 

Machares  submits  to  Lucul- 
lus, 309 

Maecenas,  C.  Cilnius,  joins 
Octavius,  377;  in  Rome, 
383;  and  the  succession  to 
Augustus,  467 

Magetobriga,  tne  iEdui  de- 
feated at,  275 

Magistracy,  the,  and  the  Sen- 
ate,   160   et  seq.\  and   the 


Assembly,  165;  powers  of, 
167  ^  seq, ;  constitution  of, 
169,  170 ;  crippled  by  Sulla, 
235;  and  Caesar's  dicta- 
torship, 354,  355;  under 
the  Caesars,  426,  427  ^  seq. ; 
under  the  later  Csesars, 
521,522 

Magnentius,  Emperor,  583 

Magnesia,  battle  of,  147, 148 

Magnopolis  foimded,  323 

Mago  lands  in  Liguria,  132^ 

Mainz,, camp  at,  548 

Maiorian,  jEmperor  in  the 
West,  596 

Mallius,  M.,  defeated  by  the 
Germans  at  Arausio,  269 

Mamilius,  O.,  defeated  at  L. 
Regillus,  40 

Manilius,  C.,  supports  Pom- 
pey,  242 ;  law  of,  244 

Marcellus,  M.,  and  the  suc- 
cession to  Augustus,  468 

Marcomanni,  the,  invade 
Italy,  560,  561 

Marius,  C,  elected  to  com- 
mand in  Numidia,  215, 
216;  defeats  the  Cimbri 
and  Teutones  at  Aquae 
Sextiae    and  the   Raudine 

glain,  216,  270;  allied  with 
rlaucia  and  Satuminus, 
217;  militar)r  reforms  of, 
218;  serves  in  the  Social 
war,  222;  contests  the 
command  against  Mithri- 
dates, 226;  flees  from 
Rome,  226 

Marius,  C,  the  Younger,  de- 
feated at  Praeneste  by 
Sulla,  229 

Marrucini,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  87 

Marsi,  the,  allied  with  Rome, 
84,  87;  in  the  Social  war, 
223 

Masinissa,  receives  P.  Scipio 
in  Africa,  132;  rewarded 
by     Rome,     133;  leagued 


Index. 


615 


with  Rome  against  Car- 
thage, 136 

Massacre  of  Romans  in  Greek 
cities,  298 

Massilia,  threatened  by  Han- 
nibal, 126;  allied  with 
Rome,  263 ;  Caesar  at,  334, 

337 

Mattiaci,  the,  furnish  sol- 
diers, 540 

Mauretania,  allied  with 
Rome,  327;  annexed  by 
Claudius,  482,  502 

Maximian,  Augustus  with 
Diocletian,  577,  582 

Maximinus,  Emperor,  de- 
feats the  Alemanni,  571 

Maximus,  tyrant  in  Gaul,  586 

Media,  conquered  by  Ti- 
granes,  312;  invaded  by 
Antony,  386;  allied  with 
Antony,  389 

Mediolanium,  growth  of,  262 

Menapii,  the,  invaded  by 
Germans,  280;  rising  of, 
284 

Menas  betrays  Sardinia  to 
Octavius,  375,  376 

Mesopotamia,  Tigranes  in, 
311;  invasion  of,  by  Cras- 
sus,  324,  325;  conquered 
by  Trajan,  555     ^  ^ 

Messana,  conflict  of  Romans 
and  Carthaginians  at,  116 

Metaurus,  R.,  battle  of,  131 

Metellus,  Caecilius,  com- 
mands in  Nxmiidia,  215, 
216;  refuses  obedience  to 
the  Appuleian  laws,  217 

Metellus  Pius,  Q.  Caecilius, 
serves  under  Sulla,  229 

Mezentius,  of  Caere,  in  the 
traditions,  34 

Military  system,  .the  Roman, 
reformed  by  G.  Gracchus, 
211;  by  Marius,  218;  by 
Augustus,  462  et  seq.  See 
also  Army 

Misenum,  treaty  of,  370 


Mithridates  Euergetes  allied 
with  Rome,  294 

Mithridates  Eupator  (the 
Great),  rise  of,  156,  294  et 
seq. ;  at  war  with  Rome,  in 
Asia,  297,  298;  in  Greece, 
299 ;  instigates  massacre  of 
Romans,  298;  defeated  by 
Fimbria,  301 ;  makes  treaty 
with  Rome,  300  et  seq.; 
wages  a  third  war  with 
Rome,  305  et  seq.;  aids 
Tigranes  against  Rome, 
314,  315;  regains  Pontus, 
316;  defeated  by  Pompey, 
319;  his  exile,  319;  death, 
321 

Mithridates  of  Pergamus  re- 
heves  Caesar  at  Alexandria, 

343 
Mithridatic  wars,   the,    first, 

297    et   seq.;  second,    305; 

third,  306 

Mcesia,  petty  wars  in,  291; 
subdivision  of,  544;  un- 
der Augustus,  415 

Mogontiacxim,  headquarters 
of  Roman  troops,  499 

Mons  Sacer,  treaty  of  the 
orders  at,  55 

Mimimius,  L.,  presides  over 
a  commission  in  Greece, 
153 

Munda,  battle  of,  344 

Mimicipal  law  in  the  pro- 
vinces under  the  Emperors, 

533. 534 

Municipal  offices,  the,  wan- 
ing popularity  of ,  562 

Municipal  system  of  Augus- 
tus, 453  ;  of  the  later 
Caesars,  532 

Murena.  L.,  carries  on  second 
Mithridatic  war,  305 

Mutina,  Roman  colony 
founded  at,  124,  261;  war 
of,  361 

Mylae,  battle  of,  118;  cap- 
tured by  M.  Agrippa,  379 


6 1 6  Gutlines  of  Roman  History. 


Mysia,  ceded  to  Pergamum, 
148;  becomes  a  Roman 
province,  292 


N 


Nabataean  kingdom,  annexa- 
tion of,  553 

Narbo  founded,  267 

Narcissus,  minister  of  Claud- 
ius, 483 

Naulochus,  battle  off,  ^79 

Navy,  the  Roman,  fotinda- 
tion  of ,  1 1 7 

Neapolis  as  an  ally  of  Rome, 
100 

Negotiatores  6itfiXi&&j  190 

Neoptolemus  in  the  first  Mi- 
thridatic  war,  297 

Nepete,  allied  with  Rome,  7 1 ; 
colonised  by  Rome,  75; 
botmdary  of  Roman  terri- 
tory, 88 

Nepos,  Julius,  Emperor  of 
the  West,  597 

Nequinum  colonised,  89 

Nero,  Emperor,  descent  of, 
397,  484;  accession  ot, 
484;  aspects  of  his  reign, 
484  e%  seq. ;  death  of,  486 

Nero,  C.  Claudius,  defeats 
Hasdrubal  at  R.  Metau- 
rus,  131 

Nerva,  Emperor,  descent  of, 

518,  519 
Nervii,  the,  subjugation  of, 

278;  rising  of,  283,  284 
New  Carthage,  Hannibal  at, 

127 
Nicomedes  of  Bith)niia,in  the 

first  Mithridatic  war,   296 

et  seq. ;  restored,  302 
Nicopolis  founded,  319,  n.  2, 

323 
Niger,    C.    Pescennius,    dis- 
putes accession  of  Severus, 

569 
Nisibis,   capture  of,  by  Lu- 

cullus,  315;  by  Trajan,  555 


Nobles,  the,  position  of,  159, 
170  et  seq.;  tmder  the  dae- 
sars.  492 

Nola  captured  by  Rome,  85 

Nomenttun  united  with  the 
Roman  State,  81 

Norba,  massacre  at,  234 

Norbanus,  C,  defeated  by 
Marius  at  Capua,  229-;  fiees 
to  Rhodes,  230 

Noreia,  battle  at,  267 

Noricum,  under  Augustus, 
415;  annexed  by  Augus- 
tus, 451,  459;  invaded  by 
barbarians,  561 

Novae,    legionary    camp    at, 

551 
Noviodunimi     capt\ired    by 

Caesar,  286 
Niuna  Pompilius,  traditions 

of,  10,  30 
Numantia,  capture  of,  135 
Ntmiidia,  affairs  in,  215;  al- 
lied with  Rome,  327 

,0 

Ocriculum  allied  with  Rome, 

Octavia,  wife  of  M.  Antony, 
370.377;  divorced,  389 

Octavia,  wife  of  Nero,  mur- 
dered, 485 

Octavius,  C,  rival  to  M.  An- 
tony, 359  et  seq.\  in  second 
triumvirate,  362  et  seq.\ 
governs  in  Italy,  366;  in 
the  Perusine  war,  367,  368; 
makes  treaty  with  Antony, 
at  Brundusium,  369,  370; 
rules  in  the  West,  370,  374; 
marries  Livia,  375;  at  war 
with  Sextus  Pompeius,  375 
et  seq.\  renews  tne  trium- 
virate with  Antony,  377; 
deposes  Lepidus,  379;  su- 
preme in  the  West,  381 ; 
reforms  of,  382;  at  war 
with  the  Pannonians,  383, 


Index. 


617 


384;  at  war  with  Antony, 
389  et  seq.\  his  victory  at 
Actiuni,392  et  5eg. ; receives 
the  submission  of  the  East, 
394  et  seq.\  triumph  of, 
398,  399;  restores  the  Re- 
public, 399;  character  of, 
400,  401 ;  assumes  the  cog- 
nomen of  Augustus  {q.  V.) 

Odaenathus  of  Palmyra 
usurps  the  power  in  the 
East,  570 

Odoacer  rules  in  Italy,  597, 

598 
Oescus,  camp  at,  551 

Opitergium  burnt  by  barba- 
rians, 560 

Oppius,  Q.,  ill  the  first  Mith- 
ndatic  war,  297 

Orchomenos,  battle  of,  300 

Orders,  the  two,  conflict  of, 
^2  et  seq. 

Orders  of  Augustus,437  9t  seq. 

Orestes,  the  Pannonian,  re- 
gency of,  597 

Oricum  submits  to  Caesar, 
337 

Orodes  of  Parthia  allied  with 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  371 

Osca  allied  with  Cssar,  336 

Ostia,  foundation  of,  31; 
ravaged  by  pirates,  317; 
harbour  of,  built,  482 

Otho,  Emperor,  accession  of, 
515;  descent  of,  517 


Pachynus,  Roman  fleet 
wrecked  at,  120 

Pacorus,  of  Parthia,  invades 
Syria  and  JudaBa,37i  et  seq. 

Paeligni,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  84,  87;  in  the  So- 
cial war,  222 

Paestum  colonised  by  Rome, 
96 

Paiaeopolis  provokes  war 
with  Rome,  83 

Palestine,  Pompey  in,  390 


Pallas,  minister  of  Claudius, 
482,  495 

Palmyra^  under  Odaenathus, 
570;  destroyed,  570 

Pamphylia,  conquered  by 
Mithridates,  298;  made  a 
Roman  province,  322,  414; 
tmder  Augustus,  415 

Pannonia,  under  Augustus, 
415;  subjugation  of,  451, 
460;  mutiny  in.  474;  sub- 
division of,  551 

Pannonia,  Inferior,  pro- 
vince of,  551 

Pannonian  war,  the,  383,  384 

Panormus,  taken  by  Pyrrhus, 
95;  captured     by     Rome, 

"9 
Pansa,  C.  Vibius,  in  war  of 

Mutina,  361 

Panticapceum,  siege  of,  321 

Paphlagonia  allied  to  Rome, 
148 

Paris,  Caesar  at,  284 

Parma,  colony  of,  261 

Parthamasiris,  King  of  Ar- 
menia, 553;  invades  Sy- 
ria, 554;  deposed  by  Tra- 
jan and  executed,  555 

Parthia,  rise  of,  156;  inva- 
sion of,  by  Crassus,  325; 
Nero  at  war  with,  501; 
Trajan  at  war  with,  553 

Parthians,  the,  in  Annenia, 

Patrae,  Antony  at,  390 

Patres,  or  elders,  the,  see 
Senate 

Patricians,  the  order  of,  de- 
scribed, $1  et  seq.;  offices 
confined  to,  159,  n.  i,  236 

Patricians  and  Plebeians, 
conflict  between,  $2  et  seq. ; 
its  termination,  66 

Paulinus,  C.  Suetonius,  legate 
in  Britain,  507 

Paulus,  L.  iEmilius,  defeated 
at  Cannae,  129;  defeats 
Perseus  at  Pydna,  151 


6 1 8  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Pedtim  united  with  the  Ro- 
man State « 8 1 

Pelasgi,  the  traditions  of,  4-7 

Pelusitim,  death  of  Pompey 
at,  342;  taken  by  Octa- 
vius,  396 

Pergamum, allied  with  Rome, 
141-143,  147.  149;  harsh 
treatment  of,  by  Rome, 
155;  made  a  Roman  pro- 
vmce,  156,  292 

Perseus  of  Macedon,  pro- 
vokes war  with  Rome,  150; 
defeated  at  Pydna,  151; 
death  of,  151 

Persians,  the,  driven  from  the 
Eastern  Empire  by  Odaena- 

thus,  570-573 

Perusia,  siege  of,  367;  re- 
building of,  452 

Perusine  war,  the,  367,  368 

Petra,  Pompey  at,  3^8  . 

Petreius,  M.,  serves  m  Spain, 
334;  submits  to  Caesar,  337 

Phamaces,  submits  to  Pom- 
pey, 321;  recovers  Pontus, 
34 J ;  defeated  by  Caesar  at 
Zela,  344 

Pharsalus,  battle  of,  339  et 
seq. 

Philip  of  Macedon,  allied 
with  Hannibal  against 
Rome,  129;  withdraws 
from  the  alliance,  129;  op- 

gosition  of  Rome  to,  141 ; 
is  designs  on  Egypt,  141; 
defeated  at  Cynoscephalae, 
143 ;  his  attitude  to  Rome, 

i49»  150 

Philippi,  battles  at,  341,  365, 
366 

Philo,  Q.  Publilius,  law  of, 
65;  the  first  proconsul,  107 

Phraates  III.,  of  Parthia,  as 
rival  of  Rome  ,324 

Phraates  IV.,  reign  of,  385, 
395;  makes  peace  with  Au- 
gustus, 457 

Phrygia,  ceded  to  Pergamum, 


148;  becomes  a  Roman 
province »  292,  n.  2;  con- 
quered by  Mithridates, 
298;  regained,  302 

Picentes,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  89;  colonised,  91; 
enfranchised  by  Rome,  06 

Pictor,  Q.  Fabius,  as  an  his- 
torian, 6,  46 

Picts  and  Scots,  raids  of  the, 

589 
Piso,  C,  conspiracy  of,  486 

Piso,  L.  Calpurnius,  as  an 
historian,  47 

Placentia,  Roman  colony 
founded  at,  124,  261 

Plancus,  L.  Munatius,  in  war 
of  Mutina,  361 ;  flees  from 
Asia,  372 

Plautius  Silvanus,  A.,  Brit- 
ish expedition  of,  504 

Plebeians,  the  order  of,  de- 
scribed, 52  et  seq.\  first 
secession  of,  55;  second, 
59 ;  offices  confined  to,  1 59, 
n.  I 

Plebs  urbana,  see  Populace. 

Pola,  settlement  ot,  formed, 

45ii»-i 
Polemo  rules  in  Pontus  and 

Lesser  Armenia,  394 
Police  of  Rome  organised  by 

Augustus,  447,  448 
Politorium,    destruction    of, 

Poilentia,  settlement  of,  261; 
battle  of,  59 1 

PoUio,  C.  Asinius,  in  war  of 
Mutina,  361 

Polybius,  carried  captive  to 
Rome,  1J3;  sources  of  his 
information,  112 

Polybius,  minister  of  Clau- 
dius, 483,  496 

Pompeii,  earthquake  at,  485 

Pompeiopolis  founded,  323 

Pompeius,  Cn.  (Pompey  the 
Great),  serves  tmder  Sulla, 
229;  commands  in  Spain, 


Index. 


619 


240;  triumph  of,  241 ;  com- 
mands in  the  East,  244, 
245;  returns  in  trivimph, 
2J2;  heads  the  first  trium- 
virate, 253  et  seq. ;  supports 
Cicero,  25$;  commands 
in  Spain,  256;  elected  sole 
consul,  257;  abandons 
Italy,  258;  his  command 
in  the  East,  318  et  seq.; 
his  triumph,  321;  gathers 
forces  agamst  Caesar,  333, 
338;  marches  from  Petra, 
338;  defeated  at  Pharsalus, 
340  et  seq.;  flight  and 
death  of,  342,  343 

Pompeius  Sextus,  as  rival 
to  Antony,  358;  at  war 
with  the  second  tritmi- 
virate,  364  et  seq.;  makes 
treaty  of  Misenum  with 
Octavius,  370;  defeats  Oc- 
tavius  at  sea,  376;  de- 
feated off  Naulochus,  379; 
death  of,  380 

Pomptina,  tribe  of,  formed, 
76 

Pons  sublicius,  the,  bmlding 
of,  3 1 

Pontia  colonised  by  Rome,  85 

Pontifical  college,  the,  con- 
fined to  nobility,  236 

Pontus,  allied  with  Rome, 
156;  invaded  by  L.  Lucul- 
lus,  307  et  seq.;  ruled  by 
Polemo,  394;  annexation 
of,  500;  Western,  forms 
a  Roman  province  with 
Bithynia,  322 

Poplicola,  P.  Valerius,  law  of, 

Poppaea,  wife  of  Nero,  485 
Populace  of  Rome,  the,  com- 
position of,  191 ;  as  a  polit- 
ical force,  191 ;  in  the  time 
of  Augustus,  224  &/  seq. 
Postumus,  tyrant  in  Gaul, 
569;  defeats  the  barba- 
rians, 570 


Prafecti,  office  of,  416 
Prcefectiis  annonce,  office  of, 

446 
Prcefectus  prcBtorio,  office  of, 

523,;  made  judicial,  528 
Prcefectus  urbis,  office  of,  447 ; 

increasing  powers  of,  522, 

n.  I 
Proefectus  vigilum,  office  of, 

449 
Praeneste,  31;  Rome  at  war 

with,     77;  Cinna    receives 

aid  from,  228,  n.  i,  battle 

at,    229  ;    destroyed,    230, 

n.  I,  234 

PrtBtor  urbanus,  office  of,  cre- 
ated, 64 

Praetors,  the,  number  of,  in- 
creased, 169,  236;  in  west- 
em  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and 
Corsica,  123;  and  the  prin- 
cipate,  412,  425  etseq. 

Prasutagus,  king  of  the  Iceni, 

507 
Prefects,  the  duties  of,  104 

Principate,  the,  founded,  40$ 
et  seq.;  nature  of,  409  et 
seq. ;  growth  of  the  power 
of,  412,  413;  becomes  a 
permanent  office,  488,  517, 
518 

Privemum,  colonised  by 
Rome,  82 

Probus,  Emperor,  570;  de- 
feats the  Franks,  57a 

Proconsulate,  the,  establish- 
ed, 106,  183;  provincal 
rule  of,  184;  preferred  to 
the  consulate,  185;  and 
the  principate  ,412,425  et 
seq. 

Procurators,  office  of,  416, 
417 ;  increased  by  Hadrian, 
526-528 

Proscriptions,  the,  of  Marius, 
28;  of  Sulla,  2233;  of  the 
second    triumvirate,    362, 

363 
Provmce,  a  Roman,  defined. 


620  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Province — continued 

174.  n.  I.  175;  organisa- 
tion of,  174  et  seq.;  self- 
government  allowed  in, 
177;  position  of  the  gov- 
ernor of,  179  et  seq. 

Provinces,  the  Roman,  state 
of,  under  the  Republic,  327 
et  seq. ;  under  the  Flavians 
and  Antonines,  533,  534; 
distress  in  the,  under  the 
last  Emperors,  587  et  seq. 

Provincial  system,  the  Ro- 
man, 173  et  seq.;  defects 
of,  181,  327  et  seq.\  re- 
formed by  Augustus,  414 
et  seq. 

Prusias  of  Bithynia,  joins 
Perseus  against  Rome,  1 50 ; 
favoured  by  Rome,  155 

Ptolemies,  the,  allied  to 
Rome,  293 

Ptolemy  Euergetes  II.,  ob- 
tains Cyrene  and  Cyprus, 
156 

Ptolemy  Philometer,  restora- 
tion of,  156 

Ptolemy  Xll.  and  Caesar,  343 

Publicani,  defined,  ipo;  ap- 
pointed judges  m  the 
law  courts ;  see  also  Eques- 
trian order 

Public  lands,  the,  occupied 
by  the  rich,  207,  208;  pro- 
posals for  allotment  of, 
208;  by  the  Gracchi,  200 
et  seq.;  reoccupation  of, 
213,  214;  granted  to  vet- 
erans, 234,  451,  531 

Public  provinces,  the,  under 
Augustus,  418^/  seq. 

Publilia,  tribe  of,  formed,  76 

Punic  war,  the  first,  116  et 
seq.;  general  aspects  of, 
121  et  seq.;  second,  126; 
third,  136 

Puteoli,   colony  of,   formed, 

138 
Pynda,  battle  of,  151 


Pjrrrhus,  King  of  Epirus,  his 
character  and  aims,  93; 
aids  the  Tarentines  against 
Rome,  94 ;  defeats  Laevinus 
at  the  Liris,  94;  in  Sicily, 
95 ;  attempts  to  treat  with 
Rome,  95;  in  Apulia,  95; 
engages  the  Carthaginians 
in  Sicily,  95;  defeated  at 
Beneventum,  95;  quits 
Italy,  96 


Q 


Quadi,  the  invasions  of,  560, 

589 

QtuBstio  de  repetundis,  estab- 
lished, 181 ;  changes  in  its 
constitution,  211,  212,  235 

Quaestors,  the,  position  of, 
180;  ntimber  of,  increased 
by  Sulla,  236 

Quaestorship,  the,  becomes  a 
plebeian  office,  62 


R 


Rabirius,  C,  prosecution  of, 
250 

Raetia,  imder  Augustus,  415; 
annexed  by  Augustus,  451, 
460;  invaded  by  barba- 
rians, 561 

Ramnes,  the,  tribe  of,  22 

Ratiaria,  camp  at,  551 

Raudine  plain,  battle  on  the, 
216,  271 

Rauraci,  the,  migration  of, 
2y2  et  seq. 

Ravenna,  barbarian  settle- 
ments at,  561 

Reforms,  of  Caesar,  348,  349; 
of  Augustus,  412  et  seq. 

Regulus,  M.  Atilius,  Roman 
gendl'al  in  first  Punic  war, 
118;  defeated  by  Xan- 
thippus  near  Carthage,  119 

Reign  of  terror  in  Rome,  un- 
der Sulla,  233  et  seq.;  un- 


Index. 


621 


der  the  second  triumvirate, 
362.  363 

Reims,  Caesar  at,  284 

Religion,  reformed  by  Au- 
gustus, 434 

Remi,  the,  allied  with  Rome, 
278 

Remus,  traditions  of,  4,  9,  12 

Republic,  Roman,  beginning 
of  the,  32,  40,  49  et  seq.; 
traditions  concerning,  45 
et  seq.\  a  patrician  body, 
53;  decayof,  227,230,  237, 
2^9,  241,  242;  and  Caesar's 
dictatorship,  351  et  seq.\ 
restored  by  Octavius,  401, 
402 

Rex  sacrorum,  office  of,  51; 
confined  to  patricians,  159, 
n.  I 

Rhegium,  allied  to  Rome,  96 

Rhine,  the,  made  the  bound- 
ary of  Gaul,  281;  crossed 
by  Caesar,  281,  284,  n.  3; 
a  boundary  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  460,  461,  498,  572; 
meeting  of  auxiliary  forces 
on,  536;  annexation  be- 
yond, 538 

Rhodes,  allied  with  Rome, 
141-143,  147,  148;  harsh 
treatment  of,  by  Rome, 
155;  attacked  by  Mithri- 
dates,  298 

Ricimer,  the  Sueve,  rules  in 
Italy,  596 

Roads,  construction  of,  in 
Cisalpine  Gaul,  261;  re- 
pairing and  extension  of, 

451 
Roman    people,    the,    their 

affinities  with  the  Latins, 
18;  non-Latin  elements  in, 
ig  et  seq.;  divisions  of,  20 
et  seq.\  wealthy  condition 
of,  iS$etseq. 
Rome,  early  traditions  con- 
cerning, 3  et  seq.;  their 
origin,  5  et  $eq.\  historical 


value,  10  et  seq.;  site  of,  14, 
16;  composed  of  several 
separate  communities,  15 
et  seq.;  probable  date  of 
foundation,  17;  kings  of, 
30  et  seq.;  fortification 
of,  31,  32;  redi vision  into 
four  districts,  32 ;  Etruscan 
conquest  of,  32  et  seq.; 
brought  into  contact  with 
Greece,  ^5,  36,  140,  157: 
sack  of,  by  the  Gauls,  63, 
74;  under  the  republic,  45 
et  seq.;  becomes  supreme 
in  Italy,  68  et  seq.,  g6  et  seq. ; 
as  a  Mediterranean  power, 
1 1 5  ^^  seq. ;  in  the  East,  1 40 
et  seq.,  2gi  et  seq.;  revolu- 
tion in,  201  et  seq.;  under 
Sulla,  232  et  seq.;  under 
the  first  triumvirate,  2$2  et 
seq.;  under  Caesar,  333  et 
seq.;  under  the  second  tri- 
umvirate, 354  e/  seq.;  un- 
der Augustus,  420  et  seq.; 
under  the  Emperors,  471 
et  seq. ;  degradation  of.  un- 
der Diocletian,  579;  sacked 
by  the  Vandals,  596 
Romulus,' traditions  of,  4,  9, 

12,  16, 18 
Rubicon,  the,  crossed  by  Cae- 
sar, 258 
Rufinus,  the  Goth,  591 
Rullianus,  Q.  Fabius,  88 
Rullus,  P.  Servilius,  agrarian 
law   of,    247;  defeated  by 
Cicero,  250 
Rutilius  Rufus,  P.,  condem- 
nation of,  219 


Sabatina,   tribe  of,   created, 

75 
Sabellians,  see  Sabines 

Sabines,  the,  in  the  tradi- 
tions, II,  12;  hostile  to 
Rome,  18,  69;  invasion  of 


622  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Sabines — continued 

Rome  by,  20  et  seq,\  their 
territory  annexed  by 
Rome,  91 ;  enfranchised  by 
Rome,  96;  in  the  Social 
war,  332 

Sacrovir,  Julius,  rising  of,  508 

Saccular  Games,  the  celebra- 
tion of,  413 

Saguntum  taken  by  Hanni- 
bal, 136 

Saluvii,  the,  Rome  at  war 
with,  364,  365 

Samnites,  the,  conquest  of, 
73,  73;  invade  the  Cam- 
pania, 79;  form  a  league 
with  Rome,  79;  defeated 
by  Rome,  02 ;  join  Pyrrhus 
agaii^st  Rome,  94;  final 
conquest  of,  and  alliance 
with  Rome,  90;  in  the  So- 
cial war,  333,  333;  in  the 
first  Civil  war,  330,  334 

Samnite  war,  the  first,  79,  80 ; 
second,  83  et  seq. ;  third,  87 

Samnium,  invasion  of,  by 
Rome,  86;  finally  con- 
quered by  Rome,  96 

Samos  ceded  to  Athens,  153 

Sapor,  see  Sassanids 

Saracens,  589 

Sardinia,  Carthaginian  intru- 
sion in,  1 1 5 ;  ceded  to  Rome, 
133;  occupied  for  Caesar, 
334;  under  the  Caesars,  508 

Sarmizegethusa,  garrison  at, 
549;  Roman  colony,  550     • 

Sassanidae,  the  kings  of  Per- 
sia, invade  Syria,  573;  in- 
vade Armenia,  573 

Satricum  colonised,  76 

Sattiminus,  L.  Appuleius, 
elected  a  tribune,  317;  his 
agrarian  and  corn  laws, 
317;  fall  of,  318 

Saxon  pirates,  the,  raids  of, 

589 
Scaevola,  P,  Mucins^  lawyer, 

307 


Scapula,  P.  Ostorius,  com- 
mands in  Britain,  505 

Scaurus,  M.  Aurelius,  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Germans, 
360 

Scipio,  L.  Cornelius,  com- 
mands in  Asia  Minor,  147 

Scipio  iSmilianus,  P.  Come- 
hus,  commands  in  Africa  in 
thinl  Punic  war,  137 

Scipio  Africanus,  P.,  expels 
tiie  Carthaginians  from 
Spain,  131;  invades  Africa 
131;  defeats  Hannibal  at 
Zama,  132;  in  Asia  Minor, 

147 
Scipio    Africanus,     P.,    the 

Younger,    in    Spain,    135 
Scipio   Nasica  opposes  third 

Punic  war,  136 
Sejanus,  Minister  of  Tiberius, 

475 
Seleucidae,  the  ,  Ki  n  g  s  of 

Syria,  393,330 

Sena  colonised  by  Rome,  91, 

I03 

Senate,  the,  described,  33,  36, 
37;  ascendency  of,  159  e^ 
seq.^  173;  powers  of,  161 
et  seq.,  170;  composition  of, 
163,  163,  167;  procedure 
of,  164,  167;  authority  of, 
challenged,  201  et  seq.\  in- 
herent weaikness  of,  203, 
303;  supremacy  of,  at- 
tacked by  the  Gracchi,  311 
et  seq.\  its  power  restored 
by  Sulla,  335;  purged, 
343;  under  Caesar's  dicta- 
torship, 351  et  seq.;  en- 
larged by  Caesar,  353;  re- 
formed by  Augustus,  ^2g  et 
seq.]  functions  of,  433  et 
seq.;  under  the  Caesars, 
490,  491;  under  the  later 
Caesars,  533,534 

Senatorial  order,  the,  de- 
scribed, 431.  432,  439;  wil- 
der the  later  Ceesars,  5  33,534 


Index. 


623 


Seneca  under  Nero,  485 
Senones,    the,    defeated    by 

Rome,   91;  rising   of,    284 

et  seq, 
Sentinum,  battle  of,  89 
Sentius,  C,  defeat  of,  201 
Sequani,  the,  invite  tne  aid 

of  Ariovistus  against  ^dui, 

275 
Sertorius,  Q.,  in  Spain,  230, 

n.  2,  240;  allied  with  Mith- 

ridates,  305 

Servian  wall,  the,  built,  16, 

17 
Setia  colonised,  76 

Seven  Hills,  15;  names  of 
the,  17,  n.  2 

Severus,  L.  Septimius,  Em- 
peror, descent  of,  520; 
reign  of,  568 

Sextius,  L.,  law  of,  63 

Sicily,  Pyrrhus  in,  95 ;  Cartha- 
ginian invasion  of,  115; 
resisted  by  Rome,  115  et 
seq.;  evacuated  by  the 
Carthaginian  forces,  121; 
and  ceded  to  Rome,  123; 
government  of,  under 
Home,  123;  Carthaginian 
forces  in,  129;  Rome  again 
supreme,  130,  iji;  P. 
Scipio  in,  132;  under  Ro- 
man rule,  133, 134 ;  taxation 
of ,  1 7  8 ;  occupied  for  Caesar, 
334;  Sextus  Pompeius  in, 
364,  375.  376;  invaded  by 
Octavius,  378,  379;  under 
Augustus,  419 

Signia  built,  ^9 

Sikels,  tradition  of,  3, 18 

Silanus,  M.  Junius,  defeated 
by  the  Germans,  268 

Silenus  as  an  historian,  1 1 1 

Silures,  the,  hostile  to  Rome, 

505 
Silvanus,    tyrant     in     Gaul, 

584 
Singara     captured    by    Tra- 
jan, 555 


Sinope,  Mithridates  at,  294; 

freed,  309,  n.  2 
Sipontum,    colony    of,    206, 

n.  6 
Siscia  captured  by  Octavius, 

384 

Slaves,  general  tise  of,  in 
Rome,  189, 196 

Social  war,  the  names  and 
plans  of  the  rebel  tribes, 
222,  223 ;  outbreak  of,  222 ; 
progress  of,  223 

Society,  Roman,  early  state 
of,  188,  189;  later  wealthy 
state  of,  186  et  seq.f  189, 
190;  influence  of  Hellen- 
ism upon,  ig2  et  seq.;  dan- 
gers of  this  influence,  195, 
196 

Sora  taken  in  second  Samnite 
war,  85 

Sosius,  C  in  Syria,  385 

Spain,  invaded  by  Cartha- 
ginians under  Hamilcar 
Barca,  125,  126;  under 
Roman  rule,  1^4  et  seq.; 
taxation  of,  by  Rome,  178; 
Csesar's  first  campaign  in, 
334  et  seq.;  second,  334 J 
under  the  Caesars,  509 ;  en- 
franchisement of,  530 

Spain,  Hither,  as  a  Roman 
province,  176;  tmder  Au- 
gustus, 415 

Sparta  sacked  by  the  Goths, 

572 
Spartacus    heads    rising    of 

gladiators,  235,  241 
Spoletium,  Hannibal  at,  128 
Statianus,    Oppius,    in    the 

Parthian  war,  386 
Stellatina,  tribe  of,  created 

75 
Stilicho,  the  vandal,  591 

Strabo,    Cn.    Pompeius,    en- 
franchises Gaul,  262,  n.  3 
Strassburg,  camp  at,  548 
Suebo-Sarmatian  war,  543 
Suessa  colonised  by  Rome,  85 


624  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Suevi,  the,  attempt  to  invade 
Gaul,  377;  settle  in  Spain, 

593 
Sugambri,  the,  crushed,  281 

Sulla,  L.  Cornelius,  serves  in 
the  Social  war,  223; 
marches  on  Rome,  226; 
commands  against  Mithri- 
dates,  226;  returns  to 
Rome,  229;  crushes  the 
Marian  party,  239;  as  dic- 
tator, 232  etseq.;  constitu- 
tional legislation  of,  235  et 
seq.;  in  Macedonia,  291; 
in  the  first  Mithridatic  war, 
2^6,  299;  makes  peace 
with  Mithridates,  300  et 
seq. ;  settles  in  Asia  Minor, 

302»  303 
Sulla,  P.,  serves  under  Caesar 

at  Pharsalus,  340 

Sulpicius  Rufus,  P.,  laws  of 
225;  carried,  226;  flees 
from  Rome,  226  ;  end  of, 
226,  n.  2 

Sutriimi  allied  with  Rome, 
71 ;  colonised  by  Rome,  75 ; 
a  boundary  of  Roman  ter- 
ritory, 88 

Syracuse,  115;  revolts  against 
Rome,  129;  recaptured, 
130 

Syria,  Roman  intervention 
in,  156;  under  Tigranes, 
305,  311;  annexed  by 
Pompey, 320,  324;  held  by 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  364; 
invaded  by  Parthians, 
371;  tinder  Augustus,  415; 
under  Odaenathus,  570 


Tables,  the  Twelve,  issued,  58 
Tacfarinas,  rising  of,  502,  508 
Tacitus,  C.  Cornelius,  his  es- 
timate of  Tiberius,  475 
Tacitus,  M.  Claudius,  Em- 
peror, 507 


Tarentum,  at  war  with  Rome, 
93;  surrendered  to  Rome, 
and  dismantled,  96; 
nearly  taken  by  Carthage, 
116;  besieged  by  Hanni- 
bal, 130;  meeting  of  An- 
tony and  Octavius  at,  377 

TopxeruXy  in   the  traditions, 

34 
Tarquins,   the   improvement 
of  Rome  by,  31,36;  Etrus- 
can origin  of,  33,  34;  their 
expulsion  from  Rome,  39, 
40 ;  and  attempted  restora- 
tion, 40,  69 
Tarracina   colonised,    76,    82 
Tarsus,  Caesar  at,  343 
Taunus,  land  of  the,  540 
Tauromenium,   Octavius  at, 

378 
Taurus,    Statilius,    rules    in 

Africa,  380 
Taxation,  of  the  Roman  pro- 
vinces, 178,   179,   186  ;   of 
Asia,     regulated     by    the 
Gracchi,  211,  212;  revised 
by  Augustus,  421,  422 
Teanum,  Sulla  at,  229 
Telamon,  battle  of,  124 
Tellenae,  destruction  of,  3 1 
Temple,  of  Julius  Caesar,  436; 
of  Mars,  436;  of  Apollo,  436 
Temples  restored  by  Augus- 
tus, 435 
Tencteri,   the,   invade  Gaul, 

280 

Terentina,  tribe  of,  formed, 
86 

Tergeste,  settlement  of, 
formed,  451,  n.  i 

Tetricus,  tyrant  in  Gaul,  569 

Teutones,  see  Germans 

Thalna,  M.  Juventius,  disre- 
gards the  Senate,  160 

Thapsus,  battle  of,  344 

Thebes  destroyed,  153 

Theodosius  I.,  Emperor  in 
the  East,  586 

Thermopylae,  battle  at,  147 


Index. 


62:; 


Thrace,  petty  wars  in,  290, 
291,  301;  annexed  by 
Claudius,  482,  500 

Tiberius,  Emperor,  com- 
mands ixi  Germany,  461; 
as  the  successor  to  Augus- 
tus, 468,  469;  descent  of, 
471;  character  of,  470  et 
seq.;  as  described  by  Tac- 
itus, 475.  476;  governs 
under  difficulties,  474,  475; 
as  a  ruler,  476 

Tibur,  Rome  at  war  .with,  77 ; 
Cinna  receives  aid  from, 
228,  n.  I 

Tigellinus,  Sophonius,  fa- 
vourite of  Nero,  485 

Tigranes,  in  third  Mithridatic 
war,  305-308;  conquests 
oiy  310,  311;  at  war  with 
Rome,  313;  routed  by  Lu- 
cullus,  314,  315;  submits 
toPompey,  319 

Tigranocerta,  foundation  of, 
305,  n.  5,  312,  n.  3;  siege 
of,  313;  destroyed,  314 

Tigunni,  the,  join  the  Ger- 
mans against  Rome,  268; 
defeated  by  Caesar,  274 

Tiridates,  of  Parthia,  in  Syria,  - 
395 ;    made  Kinjg  of  Arme- 
nia, 501 

Tities,  the  tribe  of,  20,  22 

Titus,  Emperor,  claim  of, 
518;  captures     Jerusalem, 

567 
Tolosa,    founded,    266;  cap- 
tured   by    the    Tolosates, 
269 ;  the  Visigothic  capital, 

593.  w- 2 
Traditions  of  early  Rome,  3 

et  seq.;  origin  of,  5  et  seq.; 

historical  value   of,    10   et 

seq.;  Greek  share  in,.  7,  9, 

13,41, 114 

Trajan,     Emperor,     descent 

of,  518,  519;  campaigns  of, 

546  et  seq.,  558;  death  of, 

557 
40 


Transpadanes,  the,  enfran- 
chised, 262 

Trasimene  Lake,  the  battle 
of,  128 

*  *  Treaty     States  "     defined , 

173.  177 
Treveri,  the,  rising  of,   283, 

284 

Triarius,  C,  in  Pontus,  316 

Tribes,  the    three,    22;  four, 

instituted  by  Servius,  39; 

four  new,  created,  75;  two 

new    created,     76;  twelve 

new,  formed,  102 

Tribunate,  the,  institution  of, 

55;  office  of,  56;  rendered 

permanent,  61;  its  powers 

nampered   by   Sulla,    235; 

restored  by  Pompey,  241 

Tribute,  exaction  of,  in  the 

Roman     provinces,      178, 

179,  186,  211;  not  exacted 

by     Rome     from     Italian 

states,  10 1 

Trifanum,  battle  of,  80,  n.  i 

Triumvirate,    the    first,    325 

et  seq. ;  the  second,  formed, 

362,     373;  renewed,     376, 

377    .,     . 
Troesmis,  legionary  camp  at, 

551 

Tromentina,  tribe  of,  cre- 
ated, 75 

Tulingi,  the,  migration  of, 
272  etseq. 

Tullius,  Servius,  wall  of,  15, 
17 ;  reforms  of,  37^^  seq. 

Tullus,    Hostilius,   traditions 

of,  15.30 
Tumus  of  Ardea,  in  the  tra- 
ditions, 34 
Tusculum,  an  Etruscan  city, 

34;  Rome  at  war  with,  77 ; 

unites    with    the    Roman 

State,  81,  n.  2 
Tyndaris     captured    by    M. 

Agrippa,  379 
Tyrants,  the,  defined,  568;  in 

Gaul,  569,  570 


626  Outlines  of  Roman  History. 


Tjrre  holds  out  against  Par- 

thians,  372 
Tyrrhenians,  see  Etruscans. 

U 

Ubii,  the,  invite  Csssar  to  en- 
ter Germany,  281 

Umbrians,  the,  conquered  by 
the  Etruscans,  33;  hostile 
to  Rome,  88,  89;  in  the 
Social  war,  222;  in  first 
Civil  war,  229 

Usipetes,  the,  invade  Gaul, 
280 

Utica,  death  of  Cato  at,  344 


Vadimonian  Lake,  battle  at 

the,  88 
Valens,  Emperor  of  the  East, 

58s 
Valentia,  settlement  of,  261 

Valentinian   I.,   Emperor  of 

the  West,  585 
Valentinian  II.,  Emperor  of 

the  West,  586 
Valentinian  III.,  Emperor  of 

the  West,  594 
Valerian,     Emperor,     taken 

prisoner  by  the  Persians, 

568 
Valerian  law,  the,  168 
Vandals,   the,   invade  Italy, 

560;  in  Spain,   593;  settle 

in    Africa,     595;    sack   of 

Rome  by,  596 
Varro,  C.  Terentius,  defeated 

at  Cannae  by  Hannibal,  129 
Varro,  M.  Terentius,  serves  in 

Spain,     334;     submits    to 

Caesar,  337 
Varus,     P.     Quintilius,     de- 
feated   in   Germany,    460, 

497 
Veii,  Rome  at  war  with,  63, 

69;  annexed  by  Rome,  71, 

75 ;  rebuilding  of ,  452 

Vehtrae  taken  by  Rome,  82 


Vellaunodunum  captured  by 
Caesar,  286 

Veneti,  the,  rising  of,  279; 
crushed  by  Caesar,  280 

Ventidius  Bassus,  P.,  372; 
commands  in  the  ^ast, 
372,  373;  triumph  of,  374 

Venusia,  Roman  colony  of, 
formed,  91 

Vercingetorix,  heads  rising  of 
the  Avemi,  285  e<  seq,\  de- 
feat and  death  of,  288 

Verginius  Rtifus  refuses  the 
purple,  518 

Verulam  under  the  Romans, 
506,  507 

Vesontio,  Caesar  at,  276 

Vespasian,  Emperor,  in  Brit- 
ian,  505;  accession  of, 
516;  descent  of,  518; 
adopts  Caesar  as  the  Im- 
perial title,  519,  520;  fron- 
tier policy  of,  535 

Vestini,  the,  allied  with 
Rome,  84,  87 

Vesuvius,  Mt.,  battle  at,  80, 
n.  I 

Vetera,  headquarters  of  Ro- 
man troops,  499 

Via  iEmilia,  construction  of, 
261 

Via  Appia,  construction  of, 

Via  Domitia,  construction  of, 

266 
Via  Flaminia    completed  to 

Arimintmi,  124 
Via  Valeria,  extension  of,  482 
Vici^  see  City- wards 
Victorinus,   tyrant  in   Gaul, 

569 
Vienne    under  the  Romans, 

509 
Vindex,  C.  Julius,  509;  leads 

unsuccesSul    GauUsh    re- 
volt, 513 
Viriathus,    heads    revolt    in 
Spain,    135;  defies    Rome 
in  Spain,  203,  204 


Index. 


627 


Visigoths,  the,  occupy  II- 
lyrictim,  591;  invade  Italy, 
591;  settle  in  Gaul,  589; 
oppose  Attila's  invasion  of 
Italy,  595.  596 

Vitellius,  Emperor,  accession 
of,    515,  ».   3;  descent  of, 

517 
Vocontii,    the,    subdued    by 

Flaccus,  264 
Vologaeses  I.,  of  Parthia,  at 

war  with  Rome,  501 
Volscians,     the,     hostile     to 

Rome,  18,  39,  48,  55,  68  ei 

seq.;    their     decline,     72; 

their  conquest  by  Rome, 

75 
Vulso,  L.  Manlius,  leads  Ro- 
man army  into  Africa  in 
first   Punic   war,    118;  re- 
called to  Rome,  118 

W 

Wallia  founds  the  Visigothic 
monarchy,  593 


Walls  of  Hadrian,  the,  559 
War  of   Succession,   the,   in 

Italy,  513 
Water  supply  of  Rome,  the, 

446,  447;  procurator  of, 

appointed,  482 
Wealth,  accumulation  of,  by 

Roman  people,  iS$  et  seq., 

292 
Wiesbaden,   hot   springs   at, 

540 
Wroxeter    (Viriconium) 

founded, 506 


X 


Xanthippus  defeats   Roman 
army  near  Carthage,  119 


Zama,  battle  of,  133 
Zela,  battle  at,  344 
Zenobia,    of  Palmyra,    rules 
in  the  East,  570 


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and  the  light  they  shed  on  disputable  problems  of  the  time 
they  treat  of .  .  .  .  Klaczko  is  never  dull :  he  has  the 
gift  of  telling  a  story  well,  and  creating  the  atmosphere  of 
the  people  of  whom  he  writes." — The  Nation, 

The  Art  of  the  Italian  Renaissance. 

A  Handbook  for  the  Use  of  Students,  Trav- 
ellers, and  Readers.  By  Professor  WGlfflin, 
of  the  University  of  Munich.  8°.  With  over 
100  illustrations    ....      Net^  $2.25 

**  One  of  the  best  of  the  various  books  recently  given  to  the 
public  on  the  Art  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  The  author  has 
been  able  with  a  severe  self-control  and  a  clear  perception  of 
the  limitations  of  his  design  to  deal  from  the  purely  aesthetic 
standpoint  with  some  of  the  chief  works  of  the  Renaissance. 
The  narrative  is  an  admirable  example  of  clearness  of  treat- 
ment. The  author  writes  tersely  and  always  with  a  definite 
meaning,  and  his  strokes  are  clear  and  telling.*' — The 
Speaker, 

Q.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONSt  New  York  and  London 


To  avoid  fine,  this  book  should  be  returaed  on 
or  before  the  date  last  stamped  bebw 


BOH — 9-40 


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N0V30  i983 


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