umm iiliiiiiii-; Jill 1 lit it .< -7-, rU \0o ^ ij <; ci> . ^/ ., , ^ ^0- .0^ ^ ll^^NjcS:^ - => ^ ^ J, *r^ \} s* s ^ ^^ .v^ •-O0 A xO^^. r^0 ^, ■\^ ■^ ^ K ' \ * ANCIENT HISTORY FOR COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS. »- BY P^ V.' N- MYERS, Acting Professor of History and Political Economy in the University OF Cincinnati; Author of "Medieval and Modern History," and " A General History." Part II. A HISTORY OF ROME. BOSTON, U.S.A. : PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY. 1890. ^6 0^. \«^ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by P. V. N. MYERS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All Rights Reserved. Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. Presswork by Ginn & Co., Boston, U.S.A. PREFACE TO PART SECOND. Two years ago I gave to the school public a revised edition of that part of my Outlines of Ancient History^ first pub- lished in 1882, which covered the Eastern nations and Greece. At the request of my publishers, I have since revised the remain- ing portion of the book, that relating to Rome, and now give it out as a companion work to the earlier volume. From the preface of the original work, I repeat my grateful acknowledgment of indebtedness to the following writers and works : Arnold's, Mommsen's, Niebuhr's, Merivale's, Liddell's, Gibbon's, and Leighton's histories of Rome ; Long's Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic ; Smith's Rome and Carthage ; Froude's Ccesar ; Guhl and Koner's Life of the Greeks and Romans ; Hadley's Introduction to Roman Law ; and Dunlop's and Cruttwell's works on Roman Literature. References to other authorities that I have used in the revision of the work will be found in place, in foot-notes. For the correction, or the further elucidation, of several matters relating to Roman antiquities, I am especially indebted to Lanciani's admirable work, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, Mrs. Margaret Andrews Allen — widow of the late Professor William F. Allen, to whom it is my privilege to refer as my friend and associate in the preparation of Allen and Myers* Ancient History — has very kindly co-operated with me in the iii iv PREFACE. preparation of the book, to the extent of furnishing from her husband's Short History of the Ro7nan People all the maps and the larger part of the cuts. A few of the illustrations have been engraved from photographs expressly for the present work. Respecting the charts and cuts from Professor Allen's book, I quote from the preface the following explanation, made in his name : " Particular care was taken in the selection of maps and illustrations. The colored maps are reproductions of the charts accompanying Professor Freeman's Historical Geography of Europe. The cuts are from Prang's Illustrations of the His- tory of Art, Jaegar's Weltgeschichtey and other equally good authorities." P. V. N. M. College Hill, Ohio, July, 1890. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Preface « iii List of Illustrations _ . , vii List of Maps ..... ix Tables and Chronological Summaries. ix Part II. history op rome. CHAPTER I. The Roman Kingdom (Legendary date, 753-509 B.C.) I II. The Early Roman Repubhc : Conquest of Italy (509-264 B.C.) . . 21 III. The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) 42 IV. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) 52 V. The Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) 69 VI. The Last Century of the Roman Republic (133-31 B.C.) 77 VII. The Last Century of the Roman Republic — concluded (133-31 B.C.) 93 VIII. The Roman Empire (from 31 B.C. to a.d. 180) 119 IX. The Roman Empire — cojtchided : Paganism and Christianity; the Barbarian Invasions (A.D, 180-476) 144 X. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life among the Romans 1 7^ Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 223 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1. The Roman Forum Frontispiece 2. View of the Capitoline, with the Cloaca Maxima 7 3. Head of Janus 11 4. A Vestal Virgin 12 5. Suovetaurilia 15 6. Lictors 22 7. Etruscan Archer 31 8. Roman Soldier 31 9. Samnite Warrior , - 37 10. The Column of Duillius 47 1 1 . Hannibal 58 12. Marcellus (coin) 65 13. Publius Cornelius Scipio 67 14. Philip V. of Macedonia (coin) 69 15. Antiochus the Great (coin) 70 16. Perseus of Macedonia (coin) 71 1 7. Coin of the Italian Confederacy 86 18. Marius 88 19. Mithradates the Great (coin) 97 20. Mark Antony in 2 1 . Julius Caesar 112 22. Augustus (statue) 1 20 23. Tiberius 1 24 24. Coin of Vespasian 132 25. Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus , 133 26. Street in Pompeii , » . . . 1 34 viil LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 27. Trajan , , 136 28. Scene from Trajan's Column 137 29. Hadrian , , 138 30. Antoninus Pius (coin) 140 31. Commodus I44 32. Praetorians , I45 2,2). Caracalla 147 34. Triumph of Sapor over Valerian 149 35. Diocletian 151 36. Christ as the Good Shepherd (from the Catacombs) 153 y]. Sarcophagus of Cornelius Scipio Barbatus. 172 38. Ruins of Theatre 177 39. The Colosseum 1 78 40. The Via Appia 180 41. The Claudian Aqueduct 182 42. Arch of Constantine 187 43. Cicero 205 44. Seneca 209 45. Gladiators .....= 219 LIST OF COLORED MAPS. PAGE 1. Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power • 2 2. The Mediterranean Lands, at the Beginning of the Second Punic War 52 3. The Roman Dominions, at the End of the Mithradatic War 96 4. The Roman Empire, at the Death of Augustus 122 5. The Roman Empire under Trajan .... 134 6. The Roman Empire divided into Prcefectures. ... 154 LIST OF SKETCH-MAPS. 1. Rome under the Kings . . 8 2. The Ager Romanus (b.c. 450) ... 29 3. The Ager Romanus (b.c. 338) 36 4. Central Italy, at the Time of the Second Punic W^ar 57 5. Plan of the Battle of Cannae 62 6. Rome under the Empire 143 TABLES AND CHRONOLOCxICAL SUMMARIES. 1. Chronological Summary of Roman History to the End of the Republic 118 2. Table of Roman Emperors from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius 142 3. Table of Roman Emperors from Commodus to Romulus Augustus. . . 173 Part II. HISTORY OF ROME. CHAPTER I. THE ROMAN KINGDOM. (Legendary date, 753-509 B.C.) Divisions of Italy. — The peninsula of Italy divides itself into three parts, — Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between the Alps and the Apennines.^ In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts, — Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia. The first em- braced the southwestern and the last the northeastern part of Northern Italy. Gallia Cisalpina lay between these two districts, occupying the finest portion of the valley of the Po. It received its name, which means " Gaul on this (the Italian) side of the Alps," from the Gallic tribes that about the fifth century before our era found their way over the mountains and settled upon these rich lands. The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam- pania, facing the Western, or Tuscan Sea ; Umbria and Picenum, looking out over the Eastern, or Adriatic Sea j and Samnium and the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain districts of the Apennines. Southern Italy comprised the districts of Apulia, Lucania, Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria formed the " heel," and Brut- tium the " toe," of the peninsula. The coast region of Southern Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna Graecia, or ^ It should be noted that the Italy of early times did not embrace the north- ern part of the peninsula. I 2 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. " Great Greece," on account of the number and importance of the Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were estabhshed on these shores. The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, so intimately has its destiny been connected with that of the penin- sula. In ancient times it was the meeting-place and battle-ground of the Carthaginians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Mountains and Rivers. — Italy, like the other two peninsulas of Southern Europe, Greece and Spain, has a high mountain bar- rier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Cicero once said that the gods had raised this wall to protect the peninsula from the northern barbarians. If such was the purpose of the celestial mountain-builders, it was a strange oversight on their part that they should have left a great gap in the Eastern, or Julian Alps ; for here is a low pass, through which the barbarians, as we shall see, often poured like a devastating flood into Italy. Corresponding to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines run as a great central ridge through the entire length of the pen- insula. Italy has only one really great river, the Yo {Padus) , \^\i\Qh drains the large northern valley lying between the Alps and the Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope of the Apennines are short and of little volume. Among them the Rubi- con, the Metaurus, and the Aufidus are connected with great matters of history. Into the Rubicon it was that Caesar plunged whei>^j^,he. cast the die for the empire of the world; upon the Metaurus, Sasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, was defeated in the Second Punic War ; and on the banks of the Aufidus was fought the great battle of Cannae. Among the rivers draining the western slopes of the Apennines, the one possessing the greatest historic interest is the Tiber, on the banks of which Rome arose. North of this stream is the Arno i^Arnus) ^ vAixok). watered a part of the old Etruria; and south of it, the Liris, one of the chief rivers of Campania. EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY. 3 Early Inhabitants of Italy. — There were, in early times, three chief races in Italy, — the ItaHans, the Etruscans, and the Greeks.^ The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced two principal stocks, — the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian (Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, Lucanians, etc.), — the various tribes or nations of which occupied nearly all Central, and a considerable part of Southern, Italy. The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and maritime people of uncertain race, dwelt in Etruria, now Tuscany. They here formed a league of twelve cities, and before the rise of the Roman people were the leading race in the peninsula. Numerous works of art — such as tombs, fragments of walls, massive dikes to keep back the sea, and long tunnels piercing the sides of hills to drain the lakes lying in the craters of extinct volcanoes — show the advance in civilization they had made at a very remote date. Some five hundred years B.C. the Gauls came over the Alps, pressed the Etrurians out of Northern Italy, into which quarter they had extended their power, and settling in those regions, became the most formidable enemies of the infant republic of Rome. Of the establishment of the Greek cities in Southern Italy we have already learned in connection with Grecian history. The Latins. — Most important of all the Italian peoples were the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the Liris. These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred of the Greeks, and brought with them into Italy those same customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions that we have seen to have been the common possession of the various branches of the Aryan house- hold.^ Their life was, for the most part, that of shepherds and farmers. There are said to have been in Latium in early times thirty towns, which formed an alliance, known as the Latin League. The city which first assumed importance and leadership among the towns of this confederation was Alba Longa, the ^' Long White 1 Besides these principal races there were the lapygians in Calabria, and the Venetians and the Ligurians in the north of the peninsula. The Ligurians were of non-Aryan race, but the others were seemingly of Aryan relationship. 2 See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. lo. 4 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. City," SO called because its buildings stretched for a great distance along the summit of a whitish ridge. The Beginnings of Rome. — The place of pre-eminence among the Latin towns was soon lost by Alba Longa, and gained by another city. This was Rome, the stronghold of the Ramnes, or Romans, located upon a low hill on the south bank of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from the sea. The traditions of the Romans place the founding of their city in the year 753 B.C. The town was estabhshed, it would seem, as an outpost to guard the northern frontier of Latium against the Etruscans. Recent excavations have revealed the foundations of the old walls and two of the ancient gates. We thus learn that the city at first covered only the top of the Palatine Hill, one of a cluster of low eminences close to the Tiber, which, finally embraced within the limits of the growing city, became the famed "Seven Hills of Rome." From the shape of its enclosing walls, the origi- nal city was called Roma Quadrata, or " Square Rome." The Early Roman State : King, Senate, and Popular Assem- bly. — The early Roman state seems to have been formed by the union of three communities.^ These constituted three tribes, known as Ramnes (the Romans proper, who gave name to the mixed people), Titles, and Luceres. Each of these tribes was divided into ten wards, or districts {curicE) ; each ward was made up of gentes, or clans, and each clan was composed of a number of famiUes. The heads of these families were called patres, or "fathers," and all the members patricians; that is, "children of the fathers." At the head of the nation stood the King, who was the father of the state. He was at once ruler of the people, commander of 1 Compare the beginning of Rome with that of Athens, Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 200: "The synoikismos [union of several communities, as in the present case] did not necessarily involve an actual settlement together at one spot; but while each resided as formerly on his own land, there was thenceforth only one council-hall and court-house for the whole." — MoMMSEN. CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 5 the army, judge and high priest of the nation, with absolute power as to hfe, and death. Next to the king stood the Senate, or " council of the old men," composed of the ^' fathers," or heads of the families. This coun- cil had no power to enact laws : the duty of its members was simply to advise with the king, who was free to follow or to disre- gard their suggestions. The Popular Assembly {comitia curiata) comprised all the citi- zens of Rome ; that is, all the members of the patrician families old enough to bear arms. It was this body that enacted the laws of the state, determined upon peace or war, and also elected the king. Classes of Society. — The two important classes of the popu- lation of Rome under the kingdom and the early republic were the patricians and. the plebeians. The former were the members of the three original tribes that made up the Roman people, and at first alone possessed political rights. They were proud, exclu- sive, and tenacious of their inherited privileges. The latter were made up chiefly of the inhabitants of subjected cities, and of refu- gees from various quarters that had sought an asylum at Rome. They were free to acquire property, and enjoyed personal freedom, but at first had no political rights whatever. The greater number were petty land-owners, who held and cultivated the soil about the city. A large part of the early history of Rome is simply the narration of the struggles of this class to secure social and political equality with the patricians. Besides these two principal orders, there were two other classes, — clients and slaves. The former were attached to the families of patricians, who became their patrons, or protectors. The con- dition of the client was somewhat like that of the serf in the feudal system of the Middle Ages. A large clientage was considered the crown and glory of a patrician house. The slaves were, in the main, captives in war. Their number, small at first, gradually increased as the Romans extended their conquests, till they outnumbered all the other classes taken to- 6 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. gather, and more than once turned upon their masters in formi- dable revolts that threatened the very existence of the Roman state. The Legendary Kings. — For nearly two and a half centuries after the founding of Rome (from 753 to 509 B.C., according to tradition), the government was a monarchy. To span this period, the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns of seven kings, — Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the lawgiver ; Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius, conquerors both ; Tarquinius Priscus, the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the govern- ment and second founder of the state ; and Tarquinius Superbus, the haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led to the abolition by the people of the office of king. The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what happened to them blend hopelessly fact and fable. We cannot be quite sure even as to their names. Respecting Roman affairs, however, under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of Etruscan origin, some important things are related, the substantial truth of which we may rely upon with a fair degree of certainty ; and these matters we shall notice in the following paragraphs. Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. — The Tarquins extended their authority over the whole of Latium. The position of suprem- acy thus given Rome was naturally attended by the rapid growth in population and importance of the little Palatine city.^ The 1 Several causes have been assigned to account for the early and rapid growth of the power of Rome. Its situation upon the Tiber was, without doubt, favorable to its early development as a centre of trade and commerce; while its distance from the sea protected it from the depredations of the pirates, which in early times swarmed in the Mediterranean and desolated the coast cities. But most potent of all influences in shaping the fortunes and character of the inhabitants of the little Palatine town was the necessity which they found themselves under to form some sort of social and political connection with the neighboring communities that held possession of the hills immediately about them. The early circumstances of the national life would thus seem to have given a certain legal and political bias to that Roman geniu? which was destined to give laws to the world. GROWTH OF ROME. original walls soon became too strait for the increasing multitudes ; new ramparts were built — tradition says under the direction of the king Servius Tullius — which, with a great circuit of seven miles, swept around the entire cluster of the Seven Hills. A large tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capitoline hills was drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, the " Great Sewer," which was so admirably constructed that it has been preserved to the present day. It still discharges its waters through a great arch into the Tiber. The land thus reclaimed became the Forum, VIEW OF THE CAPITOLINE, WITH THE CLOACA MAXIMA. (A Reconstruction.) the assembling-place of the people. At one angle of this public square, as we should term it, was the Comitium, a large platform, where the assembhes of the patricians were held. Standing upon this platform, so placed that the speaker could command with his voice both the plebeians in the Forum and the patricians in the Comitium, was the rostrum,^ or desk, from which the Roman 1 So called because decorated with the beaks {j-ostra) of war-galleys taken from enemies, THE ROM AM KINGDOM. orators delivered their addresses. This assembUng-place in later times was enlarged and decorated with various monuments and surrounded with splendid buildings and porticoes. Here more was said, resolved upon, and done, than upon any other spot in the ancient world. The Senate-house occupied one side of the Forum ; and facing this on the opposite side were the Temple of Vesta and the palace of the king. Overlooking all from the summit of the Capitoline was the famous sanctuary called the Capitol, or the Capitoline Temple, where beneath the same roof were the shrines of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the three great national deities. Upon the level ground between the Aventine and the Palatine was located the Circus Maximus, the " Great Circle," where were celebrated the Roman games. The most noted of the streets of CONSTITUTION OF SERVIUS TULLIUS. 9 Rome was the Via Sacra, or " Sacred Way," which traversed the Forum and led up the CapitoUne Hill to the temple of Jupiter. This was the street along which passed the triumphal processions of the Roman conquerors. New Constitution of Servius Tullius. — The second king of the Etruscan house, Servius Tullius by name, effected a most impor- tant change in the constitution of the Roman state. He did here at Rome just what Solon at about this time did at Athens.^ He made property instead of birth the basis of the constitution. The entire population was divided into five classes, the first of which included all citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, who owned iwtnty jugera (about twelve acres) of land ; the fifth and lowest embraced all that could show title to even two jugera. The army was made up of the members of the five classes ; as it was thought right and proper that the public defence should be the care of those who, on account of their possessions, were most in- terested in the maintenance of order and in the protection of the frontiers of the state. The assembling-place of the military classes thus organized was on a large plain just outside the city walls, called the Campus Martins, or " Field of Mars." The meeting of these mihtary orders was called the comitia- centuriata^ or the " assembly of hundreds." ^ This body, which of course was made up of patri- cians and plebeians, gradually absorbed the powers of the earlier patrician assembly {co7nitia curiaia). The reforms of Servius Tullius were an important step towards the establishment of social and political equality between the two great orders of the state. The new constitution indeed, as Momm- sen says, assigned to the plebeians duties only, and not rights : but being called to discharge the duties of citizens, it was not long before they demanded the rights of citizens ; and as the bearers of arms, they were able to enforce their demands. 1 See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 203. 2 This assembly was not organized by Servius Tullius, but it grew out of the military organization he created. 10 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. The Expulsion of the Kings. — The legends make Tarquinius Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome. He is represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his house into exile. This event, according to tradition, occurred in the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens.^ So bitterly did the people hate the tyranny they had abolished that it is said they all, the nobles as well as the commons, bound themselves by most solemn oaths never again to tolerate a king, enacting that should any one so much as express a wish for the restoration of the monarchy, he should be considered a public enemy, and be put to death. We shall hereafter see how well this vow was kept for nearly five hundred years. The Roman Religion. Influence upon Political Affairs. — To the early Romans the gods were very real. Hence religion had a great influence upon the course of public events at Rome during the first centuries of her existence. Later, when the learned had lost faith in and fear of the gods, rehgion was used corruptly for political purposes. Thus it happens that the pohtical history of the Roman people ^ See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 205. The sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in ancient history correspond politically to the eighteenth and nineteenth in modern history. As the later period is characterized, in the pohtical sphere, by the substitution of democracy for monarchy, so was the earlier era marked by the decay of monarchical and the growth of popular forms of government. Speaking of the abolition of mon- archy at Rome, Mommsen says : " How necessarily this was the result of the natural development of things is strikingly demonstrated by the fact that the same change of constitution took place in an analogous manner through the whole circuit of the Italo-Grecian world. Not only in Rome, but like- wise among the other Latins as well as among the Sabellians, Etruscans, and ApuHans, — in fact, in all the Italian communities, just as in those of Greece, — we find the rulers for hfe of an earlier epoch superseded in after times by annual magistrates." THE CHIEF ROMAN DEITIES. 11 becomes closely interwoven with their religion. Therefore, in order to understand the transactions of the period upon which we are about to enter, we must first acquaint ourselves with at least the prominent features of the religious institutions and beliefs of the Romans. The Chief Roman Deities. — The basis of the Roman religious system was the same as that of the Grecian : the germs of its in- stitutions were brought from the same early Aryan home. At the head of the Pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential HEAD OF JANUS. (From a Roman Coin.) attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Miner\^a, was consecrated, as we have already noticed, a magnificent temple upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum and the city. Mars, the god of war, standing next in rank, was the favorite deity and the fabled father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves the " Children of Mars." They proved themselves worthy offspring of the war-god. Martial games 12 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. and festivals were celebrated in his honor during the first month of the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the name of March. Janus was a double-faced deity, " the god of the begin- ning and the end of everything." The month of January was sacred to him, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple were always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace. The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol of the goddess Vesta. Her worship was a fa- vorite one with the Ro- mans. The nation, too, as a single great family, had a common national hearth, in the Temple of Vesta, where the sa- cred fires were kept burning from genera- tion to generation by six virgins, daughters of the Roman state.^ The Lares and Penates were household gods. Their images were set in the entrance of the dwell- ing. The Lares were the spirits of ancestors, which were thought to linger about the home as its guardians. Oracles and Divination. — The Romans, like the Greeks, thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singu- 1 For an interesting account of the remains of the House of the Vestals, brought to light by recent excavations, see Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries. VESTAL VIRGIN, THE SACRED COLLEGES. 13 lar coincidences. There were no true oracles at Rome. The Romans, therefore, often had recourse to those in Magna Graecia, even sending for advice, in great emergencies, to the Delphian shrine. From Etruria was introduced the art of the harus|)ices, or soothsayers, which consisted in discovering the will of the gods by the appearance of victims slain for the sacrifices. The Sacred Colleges. — The four chief sacred colleges, or soci- eties, were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds K curious legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old woman came to Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for an ex- travagant price, nine volumes. As the king declined to pay the sum demanded, the wonian departed, destroyed three of the books, and then, returning, offered the remainder at the very same sum that she had wanted for the complete number. The king still refused to purchase, so the sibyl went away and destroyed three more of the volumes, and bringing back the remaining three, asked the same price as before. Tarquin was by this time so curious respecting the contents of the mysterious books that he purchased the remaining volumes. It was found upon examination that they were filled with prophecies respecting the future of the Roman people. The books, which were written in Greek, were placed in a stone chest, and kept in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple ; and special custodians were appointed to take charge of them and interpret them. The number of keepers, throughout the most important period of Roman history, was fifteen. The books were consulted only in times of extreme danger. The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to interpret the omens, or auspices, which were casual sights or ap- pearances, by which means it was beheved that Jupiter made known his will. Great skill was required in the "taking of the auspices," as it was called. No business of importance, public or private, was entered upon without first consulting the auspices, to ascertain whether they were favorable. The public assembly, for illustra- tion, must not convene, to elect officers or to enact laws, unless 14 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. the auspices had been taken and found propitious. Should a peal of thunder occur while the people were holding a meeting, that was considered an unfavorable omen, and the assembly must instantly disperse. It is easy to see how the power of the augurs might be used corruptly for political ends. At first all the members of the col- lege were patricians, and very frequently they would prevent the plebeians from holding an assembly by giving out that the auspices were not favorable ; and sometimes, when matters were not tak- ing such a course in the popular assembly as suited the nobles, and some measure obnoxious to their order was on the point of being carried, they would secure an announcement from the au- gurs that Jupiter was thundering, or manifesting his displeasure in some other way; and the people were obliged to break up their meeting on the instant. One of the privileges contended for by the plebeians was admission to this college, that they might assist in watching the omens, and thus this important matter not be left entirely in the hands of their enemies. The College of Pontiffs was so called probably because one of the duties of its members was to keep in repair the Bridge {pons) of Piles over the Tiber.-^ This was the most important of all the religious institutions of the Romans ; for to the pontiffs belonged the superintendence of all religious matters. In their keeping, too, was the calendar, and they could lengthen or shorten the year, which power they sometimes used to extend the office of a favorite or to cut short that of one who had incurred their dis- pleasure. The head of the college was called Pontifex Maximus, or the Chief Bridge-builder, which title was assumed by the Ro- man emperors, and after them by the Christian bishops of Rome ; and thus the name has come down to our times. The College of Heralds had the care of all public matters per- taining to foreign nations. If the Roman people had suffered any 1 See p. 20. It is possible that pons originally signified not " bridge," but "way" generally, 2Mdi pontifex therefore meant "constructor of ways." — MOMMSEN. SACRED GAMES. IS wrong from another state, it was the duty of the heralds to demand satisfaction. If this was denied, and war determined upon, then a herald proceeded to the frontier of the enemy's country and hurled over the boundary a spear dipped in blood. This was a declaration of war. The Romans were very careful in the observ- ance of this ceremony. Sacred Games. — The Romans had many rehgious games and festivals. Prominent among these were the so-called Circensian SUOVETAURILIA. (A lustratory sacrifice of a bull, a sheep, and a swine, which ended a festival know.i as the Ambarvalia, in which the fields were purified and blessed.) Games, or Games of the Circus, which were very similar to the sacred games of the Greeks.^ They consisted, in the main, of chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-racing, and various other athletic contests. These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had their ^ See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. i8i. 16 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. origin in the belief that the gods deHghted in the exhibition of feats of skill, strength, or endurance ; that their anger might be appeased by such spectacles ; or that they might be persuaded by the promise of games to lend aid to mortals in great emergen- cies. At the opening of the year it was customary for the Roman magistrate, in behalf of the people, to promise to the gods games and festivals, provided good crops, protection from pestilence, and victory were granted the Romans during the year. So, too, a general in great straits in the field might, in the name of the state, vow plays to the gods, and the people were sacredly bound to fulfil the promise. Plays given in fulfilment of vows thus made were called votive games.^ Towards the close of the republic these games lost much of their religious character, and at last became degraded into mere brutal shows given by ambitious leaders for the purpose of winning popularity. 1 The Saturnalia was a festival held in December in honor of Saturn, the god of sowing. It was an occasion on which all classes, including the slaves, who were allowed their freedom during the celebration, gave themselves up to riotous amusements; hence the significance we attach to the word satui'nalian. The well-known Roman Carnival of to-day is a survival of the ancient Satur- nalia. LEGENDARY TALES. 17 LEGENDARY TALES PERTAINING TO THE EARLY HIS- TORY OF ROME.i i^NEAS AND HIS TrOJAN COMPANIONS ARRIVE IN ItALY. After Troy had been taken by the Greeks, ^neas, led by the Fates, came in search of a new home to the Laurentian ^ shores. King Latinus, when he learned that the leader of the band was yEneas, the son of Anchises by Venus, made a league of friendship with the strangers, and gave his daughter Lavinia in marriage to the Trojan hero, ^neas built a town which he called Lavinium, after the name of his wife. The Trojans and the people of Latium were soon engaged in war with Turnus, king of the Rutulians, to whom Lavinia had been affianced before the coming of yEneas. In the battle that followed, the Rutulians were defeated, but King Latinus was killed ; and thenceforth ^neas was king, not only of the Trojans, but also of the people over whom Latinus had ruled. To both nations he gave the common name of Latins. ^neas was followed in the government by his son Ascanius, who, finding Lavinium too strait for its inhabitants, left that town, and built a new city on the Alban Mount, to which was given the name of Alba Longa. In this city ruled Ascanius and a long line of his descendants. At length, by force and violence, ruled Amulius. He had gained pos- session of the kingdom by dethroning his brother Numitor, putting to death his male offspring, and making his daughter, Rhea Sylvia, a vestal, in order that she should remain unmarried. But Rhea brought forth twins, of whom the god Mars was declared to be the father. The cruel king ordered the children to be thrown into the Tiber. Now it so happened that the river had overflowed its banks, and the cradle in which the children were borne was finally left on dry ground by the retiring flood. Attracted by the cries of the children, a she-wolf directed her course to them, and with the greatest tenderness fondled and nursed them. There, in the care of the wolf, a shepherd named Faustulus found them, and carried them home to his wife, to be reared with his own children. 1 From Livy's History of Rome, I. and II. In this connection read Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. As to the credibility of these legends, see further on, last chapter, paragraph headed " Lays and Ballads of the Legendary Age." 2 Italian. 18 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. When the boys had grown to be men, they put to death the usurper Amulius, and restored the throne to their grandfather Numitor. Numi- tor now reigned at Alba ; but Romulus and Remus — for so the brothers were named — : had a strong desire to build a city on the spot where they had been exposed and rescued. A shameful contest, however, arose between the brothers, as to which of the two should give name to the new city. It was determined that the matter should be decided by augury (see p. 13). Romulus chose the Palatine and Remus the Aventine Hill, from which to watch for the omens. To Remus first appeared six vultures ; afterwards twelve appeared to Romulus. Here- upon each was proclaimed king by his followers, — Remus, on the ground that the birds had shown themselves to him first ; Romulus, on the ground that the greater number had appeared to him. A quarrel ensuing, Remus was killed. Another account, however, says that Remus, when the walls of the new city had been raised to only a little height, leaped over them in derision ; whereupon Romulus in anger slew him, at the same time uttering these words : " So perish every one that shall hereafter leap over my wall." The city was at length built, and was called Rome, from the name of its founder. The Romans capture the Sabine Women for Wives. The new city, having been made by Romulus a sort of asylum or refuge for the discontented and the outlawed of all the surrounding states, soon became very populous, and more powerful than either Lavinium or Alba Longa. But there were few women among its in- habitants. Romulus therefore sent embassies to the neighboring cities to ask that his people might take wives from among them. But the adjoining nations were averse to entering into marriage alliances with the men of the new city. Thereupon the Roman youth determined to secure by violence what they could not obtain by other means. Rom- ulus appointed a great festival, and invited to the celebration all the surrounding peoples. The Sabines especially came in great numbers with their wives and daughters. In the midst of the games, the Roman youth, at a preconcerted signal, rushed among the spectators, and seized and carried off to their homes the daughters of their guests. This violation of the laws of hospitality led to a war on the part of the injured Sabines against the Romans. Peace, however, was made between the combatants by the young women themselves, who, as the wives of their captor§, h^cj become reconciled to their lot. The two LEGENDARY TALES. 19 nations were now combined into one, the Sabines removing to one of the Seven Hills. Each people, however, retained its own king; but upon the death of the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, Romulus ruled over both the Romans and the Sabines. During a thunder-storm Romulus was caught up to the skies, and Numa Pompilius ruled in his stead. The Combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii^ In process of time a war broke out between Rome and Alba Longa. It might be called a civil war, for the Romans and Albans were alike descendants of the Trojans. The two armies were ready to engage in battle when it was proposed that the controversy should be decided by a combat between three Alban brothers named the Curiatii, and three Roman brothers known as the Horatii. The nation whose champions gained the victory was to rule over the other. On the signal being given, the combat began. Two of the Romans soon fell lifeless, and the three Curiatii were wounded. The remaining Roman, who was unhurt, was now surrounded by the three Albans. To avoid their united attack, he turned and fled, thinking that they, being wounded, would almost certainly become separated in following him. This did actually happen ; and when Horatius, looking back as he fled, saw the Curiatii to be following him at different intervals, he turned himself about and fell upon his pursuers, one after theother, and despatched them. So in accordance with the terms of the treaty which the two cities had made, conditioned on the issue of the fight between the champions, Rome held dominion over Alba Longa. But the league between the Romans and the Albans was soon broken, and then the Romans, de- molishing the houses of Alba Longa, carried off all the inhabitants to Rome, and incorporated them with the Roman state. i The Exploit of Horatius Cocles. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, they besought Por- senna, king of Clusium, a powerful city of Etruria, to espouse their cause, and help them to regain the kingly power at Rome. Porsenna lent a favorable ear to their solicitations, and made war upon the Roman state. As his army drew near to Rome, all the people from 1 For the sequel of this story, see Livy, I, 26. 20 THE ROMAN KINGDOM. the surrounding country hastened within the city gates. The bravery of a single man, Horatius Codes, alone prevented the enemy from effecting an entrance into the city. This man was posted as a guard on the Sublician Bridge (that is, " bridge of piles"), which led across the Tiber from the citadel of the Janiculum. The Janiculum having been taken by the enemy, its defenders were retreating in great disorder across the bridge, and the victors following close after. Horatius Codes called after his fleeing companions to break down the bridge, while he held the pursuers at bay. Taking his stand at the farther entrance of the bridge, he, with the help of two comrades, held the enemy in check, while the structure was being destroyed. As the bridge fell with a crash into the stream, Codes leaped into the water, and amidst a shower of darts swam in safety to the Roman side. Through his brav- ery he had saved Rome. His grateful countrymen erected a statue to his honor in the Comitium, and voted him a plot of land as large as he could plow in a single day. The Fortitude of Mucius Sc^vola. Failing to take Rome by assault, Porsenna endeavored to reduce it by a regular siege. After the investment had been maintained for a considerable time, a Roman youth, Gains Mucius by name, resolved to deliver the city from the presence of the besiegers by going into the camp of the enemy and killing Porsenna. Through a mistake, how- ever, he slew the secretary of the king instead of the king himself. He was seized and brought into the presence of Porsenna, who threatened him with punishment by fire unless he made a full disclosure of the Roman plots. Mucius, to show the king how little he could be moved by threats, thrust his right hand into a flame that was near, and held it there unflinchingly until it was consumed. Porsenna was so impressed by the fortitude of the youth, that he dismissed him without punish- ment. From the loss of his right hand, Mucius received the surname of Scaevola ; that is, The Left-handed. The sequel of the story is that Porsenna, having learned from Mucius that three hundred Roman youth had entered into a vow to sacrifice themselves, if need be, in order to compass his death, made a treaty of peace with the Romans and withdrew his army from before their city. THE FIRST CONSULS. 21 CHAPTER II. THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC: CONQUEST OF ITALY. (509-264 B.C.) The First Consuls. — With the monarchy overthrown and the last king and his house banished from Rome, the people set to work to reorganize the government. In place of the king, there were elected (by the comitia centuriata, in which assembly the plebeians had a place) two patrician magistrates, called consuls,^ who were chosen for one year, and were invested with almost all the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by the monarch during the regal period. In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called lictors, each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods {fasces), the symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and to put to death. Within the limits of the city, however, the axe must be removed from the fasces, by which was indicated that no Roman citizen could be put to death by the consuls without the consent of the public assembly.^ Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first consuls under the new constitution. But it is said that the very name of Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was forced to resign the consulship, and that he and all his house were 1 That is, colleagues. Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing the commands of the other. In times of great public danger the con- suls were superseded by a special officer called a dictator, whose term of office was limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited as that of the kings had been. 2 Each consul also had an assistant who bore the name of qucestor. The duties of the quaestor were at first chiefly of a judicial character, but later they became in the main of a financial nature. 22 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. driven out of Rome.^ Another consul, Publius Valerius, was chosen in his stead. First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c). — Taking advan- -^?iBi LICTORS. tage of the disorders that followed the political revolution, the Latin towns which had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome rose in revolt, and the result was that almost all the con- 1 The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and the people were distrustful of his loyalty to the republic. THE COVENANT AND THE TRIBUNES. 23 quests that had been made under the kings were lost. For a long time the little republic had to struggle hard for bare existence.^ Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians, during this period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy class, — for the Roman soldier went to war at his own charge, equipping and feeding himself, — and payment was exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute property of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in some cases even put him to death.^ All this was intolerable. The plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new city for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the chosen spot, and began making preparations for erecting new homes (494 B.C.). The Covenant and the Tribunes. — The patricians saw clearly that such a division must prove ruinous to the state, and that the plebeians must be persuaded to give up their enterprise and come back to Rome. The consul Valerius was sent to treat with the 1 The Romans had to fight both the Latins and the Etruscans. A great victory gained by the Romans at Lake Regillus, 496 B.C., ended the war, and secured the future of Rome. 2 Livy draws the following picture to show the condition of the poor debtor. One day an old man, pale and emaciated, and clothed in rags, tottered into the Forum. To those that crowded about him to inquire the cause of his misery, he related this tale : While he had been away serving in the Sabine war, the crops on his little farm had been destroyed by the enemy, his house burnt, and his cattle driven off. To pay his taxes, he had been forced to run in debt; this debt, growing continually by usury, had consumed first his farm, a paternal inheritance, then the rest of his substance, and at length had laid hold of his own person. He had been thrown into prison and beaten with stripes. He then showed the bystanders the marks of scourging upon his body, and at the same time displayed the scars of the wounds he had received in battle. Thereupon a great tumult arose, and the people, filled with indignation, ran together from all sides into the Forum. II. 23. Compare the condition of the Roman debtors with that of the same class at Athens before the reforms of Solon. See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 203. 24 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. insurgents. The plebeians were at first obstinate, but at last were persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the embassy to return, being won to his mind, so it is said, by one of the wise senators, Menenius, who made use of the well-known fable of the Body and the Members. The following covenant was entered into, and bound by the most solemn oaths and vows before the gods : The debts of the poor plebeians were to be cancelled, and those held in slavery set free ; and two magistrates (the number was soon increased to ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should be to watch over the plebeians, and protect them against the injustice, harshness, and partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be chosen from the commons. The persons of these officers were made sacred. Any one interrupting a tribune in the discharge of his duties, or doing him any violence, was declared an outlaw, whom any one might kill. That the tribunes might be always easily found, they were not allowed to go more than one mile beyond the city walls. Their houses were to be open night as well as day, that any plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for protection and refuge. We cannot overestimate the importance of the change effected in the Roman constitution by the creation of this office of the trib- unate. Under the protection and leadership of the tribunes, who were themselves protected by oaths of inviolable sanctity, the ple- beians carried on a struggle for a share in the offices and dignities of the state which never ceased until the Roman government, as yet only republican in name, became in fact a real democracy, in which patrician and plebeian shared equally in all emoluments and privileges. Goriolanus. — The tradition of Coriolanus illustrates in what manner the tribunes cared for the rights of the common people and protected them from the oppression of the nobles. During a severe famine at Rome, Gelon, the king of Syracuse, sent large quantities of grain to the capital for distribution among the suffer- ing poor. A certain patrician, Coriolanus by name, made a proposal CORTOLANUS. 25 that none of the grain should be given to the plebeians save on con- dition that they gave up their tribunes. These officials straightway summoned him before the plebeian assembly/ on the charge of having broken the solemn covenant of the Sacred Mount, and so bitter was the feeling against him that he was obliged to flee from Rome. He now allied himself with the Volscians/ enemies of Rome, and even led their armies against his native city. An embassy from the Senate was sent to him, to sue for peace. But the spirit of Coriolanus was bitter and revengeful, and he would listen to none of their proposals- Nothing availed to move him until his mother, at the head of a train of Roman matrons, came to his tent, and with tears pleaded with him to spare the city. Her entreaties and the " soft prayers " of his own wife and children prevailed, and with the words, " Mother, thou hast saved Rome, but lost thy son," he led away the Volscian army. Cincinnatus made Dictator. — The enemies of Rome, taking advantage of the dissensions of the nobles and commons, pressed upon the frontiers of the republic on all sides. In 458 B.C., the ^quians, while one of the consuls was away fighting the Sabines, defeated the forces of the other, and shut them up in a narrow valley, whence escape seemed impossible. There was great terror in Rome when news of the situation of the army was brought to the city. The Senate immediately appointed Cincinnatus, a grand old patrician, dictator. The ambassadors that carried to him the mes- 1 The Assembly of Tribes {comitia tributa), an assembly which was estab- lished 471 B.C., by what is known as the Publilian Law. It v/as made up wholly of plebeians, and was presided over by the tribunes. Later, there came into existence another tribal assembly, which was composed of patricians and plebeians, and presided over by consuls or praetors. Some authorities are in- clined to regard these two assemblies as one and the same body; but others, among whom is Mommsen, with probably better reason, look upon them as two distinct organizations. ■^ For the location of the Volscians, the ^quians, and the other enemies of Rome during this period, see map, p. 29. 26 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC, sage from the Senate found him upon his Kttle farm near the Tiber, at work behind the plough. Accepting the office at once, he hastily gathered an army, marched to the relief of the consul, captured the entire army of the ^Equians, and sent them beneath the yoke.^ Cincinnatus then led his army back to Rome in triumph, laid down his office, and sought again the retirement of his farm. The Decemvirs and the Tables of Laws. — Written laws are always a great safeguard against oppression. Until what shall constitute a crime and what shall be its penalty are clearly written down, and well known and understood by all, judges may render unfair decisions, or inflict unjust punishment, and yet run lit- tle risk — unless they go altogether too far — of being called to an account; for no one but themselves knows what the law or the penalty really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against the tyranny of the ruling class, the demand for written laws is one of the first measures taken by the people for the protection of their persons and property. Thus we have seen the people of Athens, early in their struggle with the nobles, demanding and obtaining a code of written laws.^ The same thing now took place at Rome. The plebeians demanded that a code of laws be drawn up, in accordance with which the consuls, who exercised judicial powers, should render their decisions. The patricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes, but finally were forced to yield to the popular clamor. A commission was sent to the Greek cities of Southern Italy and to Athens to study the Grecian laws and customs. Upon the return of this embassy, a commission of ten magistrates, who were known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws (45 1 B.C.) . These officers, while engaged in this work, were also to administer the entire government, and so were invested with the supreme power of the state. The patricians gave up their 1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed a few feet from the earth by a third. Prisoners of war were forced to pass beneath this yoke as a symbol of submission. 2 See Eastern Nations and Greece, pp. 201, 203. THE DECEMVIRS. 21 consuls and the plebeians their tribunes. At the end of the first year, the task of the board was quite far from being finished, so a new decemvirate was elected to complete the work. Appius Claudius was the only member of the old board that was returned to the new. The code was soon finished, and the laws were written on twelve tablets of bronze, which were fastened to the rostrum, or orator's platform in the Forum, where they might be seen and read by all. These " Laws of the Twelve Tables " were to Roman jurisprudence what the good laws of Solon ^ were to the Athenian constitution. They formed the basis of all new legislation for many centuries, and constituted a part of the education of the Roman youth — every school-boy being required to learn them by heart. Especially influential were the Laws of the Twelve Tables in helping to establish social and civil equality between the patricians and plebeians. They tended to efface the social distinctions that had hitherto existed between the two orders, and helped to draw them together into a single people ; for up to this time the rela- tions of the plebeians to the patricians, notwithstanding the reforms of Servius TuUius, had been rather those of foreigners than of fellow-citizens.^ 1 See Eastern N'ations and Greece, p. 203. 2 For illustration, up to this time the plebeians had not been allowed to intermarry with the patricians. This was in strict accord with the general rule among the ancients, that the citizens of one city should have no social dealings with those of another. Only a few years, however, after the drawing up of the code, and owing in part at least to its influence, a law known, from the tribune (Gaius Canuleius) who secured its passage, as the Canuleian Law, gave the plebeians the right to intermarry with the patricians. There was now civil and social equality established between the two orders. The plebeians next engaged in a struggle for political rights and political equality (see p. 34). These long contests carried on by the plebeians for civil, social, and political rights, and their gradual admission to the privileges from which they had been excluded, may be well illustrated by the case of the freedmen among us, who, by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to our Constitution, were admitted first to the civil and then to the political rights and privileges of American citizens. 28 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs. — The first decem- virs used the great power lodged in their hands with justice and prudence ; but the second board, under the leadership of Appius Claudius, instituted a most infamous and tyrannical rule. No man's life was safe, be he patrician or plebeian. An ex-tribune, daring to denounce the course of the decemvirs, was caused by them to be assassinated. Another act, even more outrageous than this, filled to the brim the cup of their iniquities. Virginia was the beautiful daughter of a plebeian, and Appius Claudius, desiring to gain possession of her, made use of his authority as a judge to pronounce her a slave. The father of the maiden, preferring the death of his daughter to her dishonor, killed her with his own hand. Then, drawing the weapon from her breast, he hastened to the army, which was resisting a united invasion of the Sabines and ^quians, and, exhibiting the bloody knife, told the story of the outrage.^ The soldiers rose as a single man and hurried to the city. The excitement resulted in a great body of the Romans, soldiers and citizens, probably chiefly plebeians, seceding from the state, and marching away to the Sacred Hill. This procedure, which once before had proved so effectual in securing justice to the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The situation was so critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. The consulate and the tribunate were restored. Eight of the decemvirs were forced to go into exile; Appius Claudius and one other, having been imprisoned, committed suicide (450 B.C.). Consular, or Military Tribunes. — The overthrow of the decem- virate was followed by a bitter struggle between the nobles and the commons, which was an effort on the part of the latter to gain admission to the consulship ; for up to this time only a patrician could hold that office. The contention resulted in a compromise. It was agreed that, in place of the two consuls, the people might elect from either order magistrates that should be known as 1 Livy, III. 44-50. This tale is possibly mythical, but it at least gives a vivid, and doubtless truthful, picture of the times. THE AGER ROMAICS AND THE LATIN CONFEDERACY In the time of the early Republic, about B.C. 450. SCALE or MILES 10 20 Tlie Ager Romanua, The Latin Confederacy^ The original domain of the city of Rome. 1. The Pass of Algidus. 2. The Allan Mount. 3. Mount Soracte. 30 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. " military tribunes with consular powers." These officers, whose number varied, differed from consuls more in name than in func- tions or authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the office, but not the name^ (444 e.g.). The Censors. — No sooner had the plebeians secured the right of admission to the tribunate with consular powers, than the jeal- ous and exclusive patricians began scheming to rob them of the fruit of the victory they had gained. They effected this by taking from the consulate some of its most distinctive duties and powers, and conferring them upon two new patrician officers called censors. The functions of these magistrates were many and important. They took the census, and thus assigned to every man his position in the different classes of the citizens ; and they could, for immo- rality or any improper conduct, not only degrade a man from his rank, but deprive him of his vote. It was their duty to watch the public morals and in case of necessity to administer wholesome advice. Thus we are told of their reproving the Roman youths for wearing tunics with long sleeves — an Oriental and effeminate custom — and for neglecting to marry upon arriving at a proper age. From the name of these Roman officers comes our word censorious, meaning fault-finding. The first censors were elected probably in the year 444 b.c. : about one hundred years afterwards, in 351 B.C., the plebeians secured the right of holding this office also. ' Siege and Capture of Veil. — We must now turn our attention to the fortunes of Rome in war. Almost from the founding of the city, we find its warlike citizens carrying on a fierce contest with their powerful Etruscan neighbors on the north. Veii was one of the 1 The patricians were especially unwilling that the plebeians should receive the name, for the reason that an ex-consul enjoyed certain dignities and hon- ors, such as the right to wear a particular kind of dress and to set up in his house images of his ancestors. These honorary distinctions the higher order were jealous of retaining exclusively for themselves. Owing to the great influ- ence of the patricians in the elections, it was not until about 400 B.C. that a plebeian was chosen to the new office. SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VEIL 31 LTRUSCAN ARCHER. largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. Around this the war gathered. The Romans, Uke the Grecians at Troy, attacked its walls for ten years. The length of the siege, and the necessity of maintaining a force permanently in the field, led to the establishment of a paid standing army ; for hitherto the soldier had not only equipped himself, but had served without pay. Thus was laid the basis of that mili- tary power which was destined to effect the conquest of the world, and then, in the hands of ambitious and favorite generals, to over- throw the republic itself. The capture of Veii by the dictator Ca- millus (396 B.C.) was followed by that of many other Etruscan towns. Rome was enriched by their spoils, and became the centre of a large and lucrative trade. The frontiers of the republic were pushed out even beyond the utmost limits of the kingdom before its overthrow.^ All that was lost by the revolution had been now regained, and much besides had been won. At this moment there broke upon the city a storm from the north, which all but cut short the story we are narrating. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 B.C.) . — We have already mentioned 1 Trace the gradual growth of the Roman domain (^Ager Romanus) by a comparative study of the sketch-maps on pp. 29, 36, 57. Note, also, the increase in the number of Latin colonies between the dissolution of the Latin Confederacy (see p. 38) and the Second ROMAN SOLDIER. Punic War, as shown by the last two maps. 32 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. how, in very remote times, the tribes of Gaul crossed the Alps and estabhshed themselves in Northern Italy (see p. 3). While the Romans were conquering the towns of Etruria, these barbarian hordes were moving southward, and overrunning and devastating the countries of Central Italy. News was brought to Rome that they were advancing upon that city. A Roman army met them on the banks of the river Allia, eleven miles from the capital. The Romans were driven in great panic from the field. It would, be impossible to picture the con- sternation and despair that reigned at Rome when the fugitives brought to the city intelligence of the terrible disaster. It was never forgotten, and the day of the battle of the AlHa was ever after a black day in the Roman calendar. The sacred vessels of the temples were buried ; the eternal fires of Vesta were hur- riedly borne by their virgin keepers to a place of safety in Etruria ; and a large part of the population fled in dismay across the Tiber. No attempt was made to defend any portion of the city save the citadel. When the Gauls entered the city they found everything abandoned to them. The aged senators, so the Romans after- wards proudly related, thinking it unworthy of their office to seek safety in flight, resolved to meet death in a befitting way. Arrayed in their robes of office, each with his ivory-headed wand in his hand, they seated themselves in the Forum, in their chairs of state, and there sat, " silent and motionless as statues," while the barbarians were carrying on their work of sack and pillage about them. The rude Gauls, arrested by the venerable aspect of the white-haired senators, gazed in awe upon them, and offered them no violence. But finally one of the barbarians laid his hand upon the beard of the venerable Papirius, to stroke it under an impulse of childlike reverence. The aged senator, interpreting the movement as an insult, struck the Gaul with his sceptre. The spell was instantly broken. The enraged barbarians struck Papirius from his seat, and then falling upon the other senators massacred them all. THE SACKING OF ROME. 33 The little garrison within the Capitol, under the command of the hero Manlius, for seven months resisted all the eifforts of the Gauls to dislodge them. A tradition tells how, when the barbarians, under cover of the darkness of night, had climbed the steep rock, and had almost effected an entrance to the citadel, the defenders were awakened by the cackling of some geese, which the piety of the famishing soldiers had spared, because these birds were sacred to Juno. News was now brought the Gauls that the Venetians were over- running their possessions in Northern Italy. This led them to open negotiations with the Romans. For one thousand pounds of gold, according to the historian Livy, the Gauls agreed to retire from the city. As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed out in the Forum, the Romans complained that the weights were false, when Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into the scales, exclaiming, " Vce Victis / " " Woe to the vanquished." Just at this moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patri- cian general, appeared upon the scene with a Roman army that had been gathered from the fugitives ; and, as he scattered the barbarians with heavy blows, he exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed with steel, and not with gold." According to one account Brennus himself was taken prisoner ; but another tradition says that he escaped, carrying with him not only the ransom, but a vast booty besides. The Rebuilding of Rome. — When the fugitives returned to Rome after the withdrawal of the Gauls, they found the city a heap of ruins. Some of the poorer classes, shrinking from the labor of rebuilding their old homes, proposed to abandon the site and make Veil their new capital. But love for the old spot at last prevailed over all the persuasions of indolence, and the people, with admirable courage, set themselves to the task of rebuilding their homes. It was a repetition of the scene at Athens after the retreat of the Persians.^ The city was speedily restored, and was ^ See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 225. 34 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. soon enjoying her old position of supremacy among the sur- rounding states. There were some things, however, which even Roman resolution and energy could not restore. These were the ancient records and documents, through whose irreparable loss the early history of Rome is involved in great obscurity and uncertainty. Treason and Death of Manlius. — The ravages of the Gauls left the poor plebeians in a most pitiable condition. In order to rebuild their dwellings and restock their farms, they were obliged to borrow money of the rich patricians, and consequently soon began again to experience the insult and oppression that were ever incident to the condition of the debtor class at Rome. The patrician Manhus, the hero of the brave defence of the Capitol, now came forward as the champion of the plebeians. He sold the larger part of his estates, and devoted the proceeds to the reUef of the debtor class. It seems evident that in thus under- taking the cause of the commons he had personal aims and ambi- tions. The patricians determined to crush him. He was finally brought to trial before the popular assembly, on the charge of conspiring to restore the office of king. From the Forum, where the people were gathered, the Capitol, which Manlius had so bravely defended against the barbarians, was in full sight. Point- ing to the temples he had saved, he appealed to the gods and to the gratitude of the Roman people. The people responded to the appeal in a way altogether -natural. They refused to condemn him. But brought to trial a second time, and now in a grove whence the citadel could not be seen, he was sentenced to death, and was thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.^ This event occurred 384 B.C. Plebeians admitted to the Consulship. — For nearly half a cen- tury after the death of Manlius the most important events in the 1 The Tarpeian Rock was the name given to the cliff which the CapitoHne Hill formed on the side towards the Tiber (or towards the Palatine, according to some). It received its name from Tarpeia, daughter of one of the legen- dary keepers of the citadel. State criminals were frequently executed by being thrown from this rock. PLEBEIANS ADMITTED TO THE CONSULSHIP. 35 history of Rome centre about the struggle of the plebeians for admission to those offices of the government whence the jealousy of the patricians still excluded them. The Licinian Laws, so called from one of their proposers, the tribune C. Licinius, besides reliev- ing the poor of usurious interest, and effecting a more just division of the public lands, also provided that consuls should be chosen yearly, as at first (see p. 28), and that one of the consuls should be a plebeian. This last provision opened to any one of the ple- beian class the highest office in the state. The nobles, when they saw that it would be impossible to resist the popular demand, had recourse to the old device. They effected a compromise, whereby the judicial powers of the consuls were taken from them and con- ferred upon a new magistrate, who bore the name of prczior. Only patricians, of course, were to be eligible to this new office. They then permitted the Licinian Laws to pass (367 B.C.). During the latter half of the fourth century B.C. (between the years 356-300) the plebeians gained admittance to the dictator- ship, the censorship, the praetorship, and to the College of Augurs and the College of Pontiffs. They had been admitted to the College of Priests having charge of the Sibylline books, at the time of the passing of the Licinian Laws. With plebeians in all these positions, the rights of the lower order were fairly secured against oppressive and partisan decisions on the part of the magistrates, and against party fraud in the taking of the auspices and in the regulation of the calendar. There was now political equality between the nobility and the commonalty. Wars for the Mastery of Italy. The First Samnite War (343-341 b.c). — The union of the two orders in the state allowed the Romans now to employ their un- divided strength in subjugating the different states of the peninsula. The most formidable competitors of the Romans for supremacy in Italy were the Samnites, rough and warlike mountaineers who held the Apennines to the east of Latium. They were worthy rivals of THE AGER ROMANUS AFTER THE LATIN WAR, B. C. 338. SCALE OF MILES 10 20 The Ager Bomanus. The dates annexed to townt are those of their annexation. Latin Colonies. JTie dates are (hose of their foundation. REVOLT OF THE LATIN CITIES. 37 the " Children of Mars." The successive struggles between these martial races are known as the First, Second, and Third Samnite wars. They extended over a period of half a century, and in their course involved almost all the states of Italy. Of the first of this series of wars we know very little, although Livy wrote a long, but unfortunately very unrehable, narration of it. In the midst of the struggle, Rome was confronted by a dan- gerous revolt of her Latin allies, and, leaving the war unfinished, turned her forces upon the insur- gents. Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 B.C.).— The strife between the Romans and their Latin allies was simply the old contest within the walls of the capital between the patricians and the ple- beians transferred to a larger arena. As the no- bles had oppressed the commons, so now both these orders united in the oppression of the Latins — the plebeians in their bettered circumstances forgetting the lessons of adversity. The Latin al- lies demanded a share in the government, and that the lands acquired by conquest should be distributed among them as well as among Roman citizens. The Romans refused. All Latium rose in revolt against the injustice and tyranny of the oppressor. After about three years' hard fighting, the rebellion was sub- SAMNITE WARRIOR. (From a Vase.) 38 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. dued. The Latin League was now broken up. Four of the towns ^ retained their independence ; the others, however, were made a part of the Roman domain. The inhabitants of some of these latter cities were admitted to full Roman citizenship, but those of the remainder were reduced virtually to the condition of subjects.^ Rome, in a word, had converted the confederacy into an empire, just as Athens a hundred years earlier converted the Delian League into an imperial domain.^ Second and Third Samnite Wars (326-290 b.c). — In a few years after the close of the Latin contest, the Romans were at war again with their old rivals, the Samnites. Notwithstanding the latter were thoroughly defeated in this second contest, still it was not long before they were again in arms and engaged in their third struggle with Rome. This time they had formed a powerful co- alition which embraced the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Gauls, and other nations. Roman courage rose with the danger. The united armies of the league met with a most disastrous defeat (at Sentinum, 295 B.C.), and the power of the coalition was broken. One after an- other the states that had joined the alliance were chastised. The Gauls were routed, the Etruscans were crushed, and the Samnites were forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. A few years later, almost all of the Greek cities of Southern Italy, save Tarentum, also came under the growing power of the imperial city. War with Pyrrhns (282-272 b.c). — Tarentum was one of the most noted of the Hellenic cities of Magna Graecia. It was a 1 Tibur, Prseneste, Cora, and Laurentum. Compare maps on pp. 29 and 36. 2 They retained, however, the right of managing their own local affairs. " A town annexed to Rome on these terms, losing its sovereignty and becom- ing a part of the Roman state, but retaining self-government in local concerns, was called a municipium. This device, the rmaiicipality, for combining local self-government with imperial relations, is the most important contribution made by Rome to political science." — Allen's Short History of the Roman People, p. 82. ^ See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 230. IVAJ? WITH PYKRHUS. 39 seaport on the Calabrian coast, and had grown opulent through the extended trade of its merchants. The capture of some Roman vessels, and an insult offered to an envoy of the republic by the Tarentines, led to a declaration of war against them by the Roman Senate. The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, cousin of Alexander the Great, who had an ambition to build up such an empire in the West as his famous kinsman had established in the East, responded to their entreaties, and crossed over into Italy with a small army of Greek merce- naries and twenty war elephants. He organized and drilled the effeminate Tarentines, and soon felt prepared to face the Romans. The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 B.C.). It is said that when Pyrrhus, who had underestimated his foe, observed the skill which the Romans evinced in forming their lines of battle, he exclaimed, in admiration, " In war, at least, these men are not barbarians." The battle was won for Pyrrhus by his war ele- phants, the sight of which, being new to the Romans, caused them to flee from the field in dismay. But pyrrhus had lost thousands of his bravest troops. Victories gained by such losses in a country where he could not recruit his army, he saw clearly, meant final defeat. As he looked over the battle-field he is said to have turned to his companions and remarked, " Another such victory and I must return to Epirus alone." He noticed also, and not without appreciating its significance, that the wounds of the Roman soldiers killed in the action were all in front. " Had I such soldiers," said he, "I should soon be master of the world." ^ The prudence of the victorious Pyrrhus led him to send to the Romans proposals of peace. The embassy was headed by his chief minister, Cineas, of whom Pyrrhus himself often said, "The eloquence of Cineas wins me more victories than my sword." 1 Beneath the spoils which he hung as an offering in the Temple of Jupiter at Tarentum he placed this inscription : — " Those that had never been vanquished yet, Great Father of Olympus, Those have I vanquished in the fight, and they have vanquished me," 40 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC. When the Senate hesitated, its resolution was fixed by the elo- quence of the aged Appius Claudius: "Rome," exclaimed he, " shall never treat with a victorious foe." The ambassadors were obliged to return to Pyrrhus unsuccessful in their mission. It was at this time that Cineas, in answer to some inquiries of his master respecting the Romans, drew the celebrated parallels that likened their Senate to an assembly of kings, and war against such a people to an attack upon another Hydra. Pyrrhus, according to the Roman story-tellers, who most lav- ishly embellished this chapter of their history, was not more successful in attempts at bribery than in the arts of negotiation. Attempting by large offers of gold to win Fabricius, who had been intrusted by the Senate with an important embassy, the sturdy old Roman replied, " Poverty, with an honest name, is more to be desired than wealth." Another story relates how, when the physician of Pyrrhus went to Fabricius and offered to poison his enemy, Fabricius instantly put the perfidious man in chains, and sent him back to his master for punishment. The sequel of this story is that Pyrrhus con- ceived such an exalted opinion of the Roman sense of honor that he permitted the prisoners in his hands to go to the capital to attend a festival, with no other security for their return than their simple promise, and that not a single man broke his word. After a second victory, as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed over into Sicily, to aid the Grecians there in their struggle with the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere successful; but finally fortune turned against him, and he was glad to escape from the island. Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once more en- gaged the Romans, but at the battle of Beneventum suffered a disastrous and final defeat at the hands of the consul Curius Den- tatus (274 B.C.). Leaving a sufficient force to garrison Tarentum, the baffled and disappointed king set sail for Epirus. He had scarcely embarked before Tarentum surrendered to the Romans (272 B.C.). This ended the struggle for the mastery of Italy. Rome was now mistress of all the peninsula south of the Arnus IVAA' WITH PVRRHUS. 41 and the Rubicon. It was now her care to consohdate these possessions, and to fasten her hold upon them by means of a perfect network of colonies ^ and mihtary roads. 1 " Colonies were not all of the same character. They must be distinguished into two classes, — the colonies of Roman citizens and the Latin colonies. The colonies of Roman citizens consisted usually of three hundred men of approved military experience, who went forth with their families to occupy conquered cities of no great magnitude, but which were important as military positions, being usually on the sea-coast. These three hundred families formed a sort of patrician caste, while the old inhabitants sank into the condition formerly occupied by the plebeians at Rome. The heads of these families retained all their rights as Roman citizens, and might repair to Rome to vote in the popu- lar assemblies." — Liddell's History of Rome. The Latin colonies numbered about twenty at the time of the Second Punic War. A few of these were colonies that had been founded by the old Latin Confederacy; but the most were towns that had been established by Rome subsequent to the dissolution of the league (see p. 38). The term Latin was applied to these later colonies of purely Roman origin, for the reason that they enjoyed the same rights as the Latin towns that had retained their indepen- dence. Thus the inhabitants of a Latin colony possessed some of the most valuable of the private rights of Roman citizens, but they had no political rights at the capital. 42 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. CHAPTER III. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. (264-241 B.C.) Carthage and the Carthaginian Empire. — Foremost among the cities founded by the Phoenicians upon the different shores of the Mediterranean was Carthage, upon the northern coast of Africa. The city is thought to have had it's beginnings in a small trading-post, established late in the ninth century B.C., about one hundred years before the legendary date of the founding of Rome. The favorable location of the colony, upon one of the best harbors of the African coast, gave the city a vast and lucrative commerce. At the period which we have now reached it had grown into an imperial city, covering, with its gardens and suburbs, a district twenty-three miles in circuit. It could not have contained less than 1,000,000 inhabitants. A commercial enterprise like that of the mother city, Tyre, and exactions from subject cities and states — for three hundred Libyan cities acknowledged the suze- rainty of Carthage aCnd paid tribute into its treasury — had ren- dered it enormously wealthy. In the third century before our era it was probably the richest city in the world. By the time Rome had extended her authority over Italy, Car- thage held sway, through peaceful colonization or by force of arms, over all the northern coast of Africa from the Greater Syrtis to the Pillars of Hercules, and possessed the larger part of Sicily, as well as Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Isles, Southern Spain, and scores of little islands scattered here and there in the neigh- boring seas. With all its shores dotted with her colonies and fortresses, and swept in every direction by the Carthaginian war- galleys, the Western Mediterranean had become a " Phoenician GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION. 43 lake," in which, as the Carthaginians boasted, no one dared wash his hands without their permission. Carthaginian Government and Religion. — The government of Carthage, hke that of Rome, was repubUcan in form. Corre- sponding to the Roman consuls, two magistrates, called " suffetes," stood at the head of the state. The Senate was composed of the heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers were very like those of the Roman Senate. So well-balanced was the constitu- tion, and so prudent was its administration, that six hundred years of Carthaginian history exhibited not a single revolution. The religion of the Carthaginians was the old Canaanitish wor- ship of Baal, or the Sun. To Moloch, — another name for the fire-god, — " who rejoiced in human victims and in parents' tears," they offered human sacrifices. Rome and Carthage compared. — These two great republics, which for more than five centuries had been slowly extending their limits and maturing their powers upon the opposite shores of the Mediterranean, were now about to begin one of the most memorable struggles of all antiquity — a duel that was to last, with every vicissitude of fortune, for over one hundred years. As was the case in the contest between Athens and Sparta, so now the two rival cities, with their allies and dependencies, were very nearly matched in strength and resources. The Romans, it is true, were almost destitute of a navy ; while the Carthaginians had the largest and most splendidly equipped fleet that ever patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. But although the Carthaginians were superior to the Romans in naval warfare, they were greatly their inferiors in land encounters. The Carthaginian territory, moreover, was widely scattered, embracing extended coasts and isolated islands ; while the Roman possessions were compact, and confined to a single and easily defended peninsula. Again, the Carthaginian armies were formed chiefly of mercenaries, while those of Rome were recruited very largely from the ranks of the Roman people. And then the subject states of Carthage were mostly of another race, language, and religion from their Phoeni- 44 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. cian conquerors, and were ready, upon the first disaster to the ruHng city, to drop away from their allegiance ; while the Latin aUies and Italian dependencies of Rome were close kindred to her in race and religion, and so, through natural impulse, for the most part remained loyal to her during even the darkest periods of her struggle with her rival. The Beginning of the War. — Lying between Italy and the coast of Africa is the large island of Sicily. It is in easy sight of the former, and its southernmost point is only ninety miles from' the latter. At the commencement of the First Punic ^ War, the Carthaginians held possession of all the island save a strip of the eastern coast, which was under the sway of the Greek city of Syra- cuse. The Greeks and Carthaginians had carried on an almost uninterrupted struggle through two centuries for the control of the island. The Romans had not yet set foot upon it. But it was destined to become the scene of the most terrible encounters be- tween the armaments of the two rivals. Pyrrhus had foreseen it all. As he withdrew from the island, he remarked, " What a fine battle-field we are leaving for the Romans and the Carthaginians." In the year 264 B.C., on a flimsy pretext of giving protection to some friends,^ the Romans crossed over to the island. That act 1 From Poeni, Latin for Phoenicians, and hence applied by the Romans to the Carthaginians, as they were Phoenician colonists. 2 During the war with Pyrrhus, some Campanians, who had been serving as mercenaries in the army of the king of Syracuse, while returning to Italy, conceived the project of seizing the town of Messana, on the Sicilian Straits. They killed the citizens, intrenched themselves in the place, and commenced to annoy the surrounding country with their marauding bands. Hiero, king of Syracuse, besieged the ruffians in their stronghold. The Mamertines, or " Sons of Mars," — for thus they termed themselves, — appealed to the Romans for aid, basing their claims to assistance upon the alleged fact of common descent from the war-god. Now the Romans had just punished a similar band of Campanian robbers who had seized Rhegium, on the Italian side of the chan- nel. To turn about now and lend aid to the Sicilian band would be the great- est inconsistency. But in case they did not give the assistance asked, it was certain that the Mamertines would look to the Carthaginians for succor; and so Messana would come into the hands of their rivals. THE ROMANS BUILD A FLEET. 45 committed them to a career of foreign conquest destined to con- tinue till their arms had made the circuit of the Mediterranean. The Syracusans and Carthaginians, old enemies and rivals though they had been, joined their forces against the insolent new-comers. The allies were completely defeated in the first battle, and the Roman army obtained a sure foothold upon the island. In the following year both consuls were placed at the head of formidable armies for the conquest of Sicily. A large portion of the island was quickly overrun, and many of the cities threw off their allegiance to Syracuse and Carthage, and became alUes of Rome. Hiero, king of Syracuse, seeing that he was upon the losing side, deserted the cause of the Carthaginians, and formed an alliance with the Romans, and ever after remained their firm friend. The Romans build their First Fleet. — Their experience dur- ing the past campaigns had shown the Romans that if they were to cope successfully with the Carthaginians they must be able to meet them upon the sea as well as upon the land. Not only did the Carthaginian ships annoy the Sicilian coast towns which were already in the hands of the Romans, but they even made descents upon the shores of Italy, ravaged the fields and villages, and sailed away with their booty before pursuit was possible. To guard their shores and ward off these attacks, the Romans had no fleet. Their Greek and Etruscan aUies were, indeed, maritime peoples, and pos- sessed considerable fleets, which were at the disposal of the Romans. But these vessels were merely triremes, galleys with three banks of oars ; while the Carthaginian ships were quinqueremes, or vessels with five rows of oars. The former were worthless to cope with the latter, such an advantage did these have in their greater weight and height. So the Romans determined to build a fleet of quin- queremes. Now it so happened that, a little while before, a Carthaginian galley had been wrecked upon the shore of Southern Italy. This served as a pattern. It is said that within the almost incredibly 46 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. short space of sixty days a growing forest was converted into a fleet of one hundred and twenty war-galleys. While the ships were building, the Roman soldiers were being trained in the duties of sailors by practising in rowing, while sitting in lines on tiers of benches built on the land. With the shore ringing with the sounds of the hurried work upon the galleys, and crowded with the groups of *' make-believe rowers," the scene must have been a somewhat animated as well as ludicrous one. Yet it all meant very serious business. The Romans gain their First Naval Victory (260 b.c). — The consul C. Duillius was intrusted with the command of the fleet. He met the Carthaginian squadron near the city and prom- ontory of Mylae, on the northern coast of Sicily. A single pre- caution gave the victory to the Romans. Distrusting their ability to match the skill of their enemies in manoeuvring their ships, they had provided each with a drawbridge, over thirty feet in length, and wide enough for two persons to pass over it abreast. It was raised and lowered by means of pulleys attached to the mast. The Carthaginian galleys bore down swiftly upon the Roman ships, thinking to pierce and sink with their brazen beaks the clumsy- looking structures. The bridges alone saved the Roman fleet from destruction. As soon as a Carthaginian ship came near enough to a Roman vessel, the gangway was allowed to fall upon the approaching galley ; and the long spike with which the end was armed, piercing the deck, instantly pinned the vessels together. The Roman soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were soon engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in which species of encounter the former were sure of an easy victory. Fifty of the Carthaginian galleys were captured ; the remainder — there were one hundred and thirty ships in the fleet — wisely refusing to rush into the terrible and fatal embrace in which they had seen their companions locked, turned their prows in flight. The Romans had gained their first naval victory. The joy at Rome was unbounded. It inspired, in the more sanguine, splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The Medi- THE WAR CARRIED INTO AFRICA. 47 terranean should speedily become a Roman lake, in which no vessel might float without the consent of Rome. Duillius was honored with a magnificent triumph, and the Senate ordained that, in passing through the city to his home at night, he should always be escorted with torches and music. In the Forum was raised a splendid memorial column, "adorned with the brazen beaks of the vessels which his wise ignorance and his clumsy skill had en- abled him to capture." The Romans carry the War into Africa. — The results of the naval en- gagement at Mylse encouraged the Romans to push the war with re- doubled energy. They resolved to carry it into Africa. An immense Cartha- ginian fleet that disputed the passage of the Roman squadron was almost annihilated,^ and the Romans disem- barked near Carthage. Atilius Regu- lus, one of the consuls who led the army of invasion, sent word to Rome that he had "sealed up the gates of Carthage with terror." Finally, how- ever, Regulus suffered a crushing defeat and was made prisoner.^ A fleet which was sent to bear away the remnants of the shattered army was wrecked in a terrific storm ofl" the coast of Sicily, and the shores of the island were strewn with the wreckage of between two and three hundred ships and with the bodies of 100,000 men. Undismayed at the terrible disaster that had overtaken the 1 Near the Sicilian promontory of Ecnomus, 256 B.C. 2 The Carthaginians were at this time commanded by an able Spartan gen- eral, Xanthippus, who, with a small but disciplined band of Greek mercenaries, had entered their service. THE COLUMN OF DUILLIUS. (A Restoration.) 48 THE FIRST TUNIC WAR. transport fleet, the Romans set to work to build another, and made a second descent upon the African coast. The expedition, however, accomplished nothing of importance ; and the fleet on its return voyage was almost destroyed, just off the coast of Italy, by a tremendous storm. The visions of naval supremacy awakened among the Romans by the splendid victories of Mylae and Ecnomus were thus suddenly dispelled by these two successive and appalling disasters that had overtaken their armaments. The Battle of Panormus (251 b.c). — For a few years the Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of the sea. Sicily became the battle-ground where the war was con- tinued, although with but little spirit on either side, until the arrival in the island of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal (251 B.C.). He brought with him one hundred and forty elephants trained in war. Of all the instruments of death which the Roman soldiers were accustomed to face, none in the history of the legionaries inspired them with such uncontrollable terror as these "wild beasts," as they termed them. The furious rage with which these monsters, themselves almost invulnerable to the darts of the enemy, swept down the opposing ranks with their trunks, and tossed and trampled to pieces the bodies of their victims, was indeed well calculated to inspire a most exaggerated dread. Beneath the walls of Panormus, the consul Metellus drew Hasdrubal into an engagement. He checked the terrific charge of the war elephants by' discharges of arrows dipped in flaming pitch, which caused the frightened animals to rush back upon and crush through the disordered ranks of the Carthaginians. The result was a complete victory for the Romans. After the battle the Romans induced the drivers of the elephants, which were roaming over the field in a sort of panic, to capture and quiet the creatures. Once in captivity, they were floated across the Sicilian Straits on huge rafts, and to the number of twenty graced the triumphal procession of Metellus. After having been led through the Forum and along the Via Sacra, they were conducted to the Circus, and there slain in the presence of the assembled multitudes. REGULUS. 49 Regulus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — The result of the battle of Panormus dispirited the Carthaginians. They sent an embassy to Rome, to negotiate for peace, or, if that could not be reached, to effect an exchange of prisoners. Among the com- missioners was Regulus, who since his capture, five years before, had been held a prisoner in Africa. Before setting out from Carthage he had promised to return if the embassy were unsuc- cessful. For the sake of his own release, the Carthaginians sup- posed he would counsel peace, or at least urge an exchange of prisoners. But it is related, that upon arrival at Rome, he coun- selled war instead of peace, at the same time revealing to the Senate the enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to the exchange of prisoners, he said, " Let those who have surrendered when they ought to have died, die in the land which has witnessed their disgrace." The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro- posals of the embassy ; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and en- treaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and set out for Carthage to bear such fate as he well knew the Carthagin- ians, in their disappointment and anger, would be sure to visit upon him. The tradition goes on to tell how, upon his arrival at Carthage, he was confined in a cask driven full of spikes, and then left to die of starvation and pain. This part of the tale has been dis- credited, and the finest touches of the other portions are supposed to have been added by the story-tellers. Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. — After the failure of the Carthaginian embassy, the war went on for several years by land and sea with many vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily, one of the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat.^ Almost a hundred vessels of his fleet were lost. The disaster caused the greatest alarm at Rome. Superstition increased the fears of the people. It was reported that just before the battle, 1 In a sea-fight at Drepana, 249 B.C. 50 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR. when the auspices were being taken, and the sacred chickens would not eat, Claudius had given orders to have them thrown into the sea, irreverently remarking, " At any rate, they shall drink." Imagination was free to depict what further evils the offended gods might inflict upon the Roman state. The gloomiest forebodings might have found justification in subsequent events. The other consul just now met with a great disaster. He was proceeding along the southern coast of Sicily with a squadron of eight hundred merchantmen and over one hundred war-galleys, the former loaded with grain for the Roman army on the island. A severe storm arising, the squadron was beaten to pieces upon the rocks. Not a single ship escaped. The coast for miles was strewn with broken planks, and with bodies, and heaped with vast windrows of grain cast up by the waves. Close of the First Punic War. — The war had now lasted for fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been destroyed, three of which had been sunk or broken to pieces by storms. Of the fourteen hundred vessels which had been lost, seven hundred were war-galleys, — all large and costly quinqueremes, that is, vessels with five banks of oars. Only one hundred of these had fallen into the hands of the enemy ; the remainder were a sacrifice to the malign and hostile power of the waves. Such successive blows from an invisible hand were enough to blanch the faces even of the sturdy Romans. Neptune manifestly denied to the " Children of Mars " the realm of the sea. It was impossible for the six years following the last disaster to infuse any spirit into the struggle. In 247 B.C., Hamilcar Barcas, the father of the great Hannibal, assumed the command of the Carthaginian forces, and for several years conducted the war with great abihty on the island of Sicily, even making Rome tremble for the safety of her Italian possessions. Once more the Romans determined to commit their cause to '"he element that had been so unfriendly to them. A fleet of two hundred vessels was built and equipped, but entirely by private CLOSE OF THE WAR. SI subscription ; for the Senate feared that public sentiment would not sustain them in levying a tax for fitting up another costly armament as an offering to the insatiable Neptune. This people's squadron, as we may call it, was intrusted to the command of the consul Catulus. He met the Carthaginian fleet under the com- mand of the admiral Hanno, near the ^gatian Islands, and inflicted upon it a crushing defeat (241 B.C.). The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give up all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, and pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about $4,000,000), one-third of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten yearly pay- ments. Thus ended (241 B.C.), after a continuance of twenty- four years, the first great struggle between Carthage and Rome. 52 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. (218-201 B.C.) Rome between the First and the Second Punic War. The First Roman Province. — For the twenty- three years that followed the close of the first struggle between Rome and Car- thage, the two rivals strained every power and taxed every resource in preparation for a renewal of the contest. The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it, save the lands belonging to Syracuse, as a province of the republic. This was the first territory beyond the limits of Italy that Rome had conquered, and the Sicilian the first of Roman provinces. But as the imperial city extended her conquests, her provincial possessions increased in number and size until they formed at last a perfect cordon about the Mediterranean. Each province was governed by a magistrate sent out from the capital, and paid an annual tribute, or tax, to Rome. Rome acquires Sardinia and Corsica. — The first acquisition by the Romans of lands beyond the peninsula seems to have created in them an insatiable ambition for foreign conquests. They soon found a pretext for seizing the island of Sardinia, the most ancient, and, after Sicily, the most prized of the pos- sessions of the Carthaginians. An insurrection breaking out upon the island, the Carthaginians were moving to suppress it, when the Romans insolently commanded them not only to desist from their military preparations (pretending that they believed them a threat against Rome), but to surrender Sardinia, and, moreover, to pay a fine of 1200 talents (^1,500,000). Car- thage, exhausted as she was, could do nothing but comply. THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS at the beginning Of the SECOND PUNIC WAR. Boman Possessions and Allies I I Free Greek States I 1 Carthaginian do I I Syrian Possessions I 1 Macedonian do ' ' Egyptian do 1 1 2S 30 3S 40 T 50 THE CORSAIRS ARE PUNISHED. 53 The meanness and perfidy of the Romans in this matter made more bitter and implacable, if that were possible, the Cartha- ginian hatred of the Roman race. Sardinia, in connection with Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a Roman province. With her hands upon these islands, the authority of Rome in the Western, or Tuscan Sea was supreme. The lUyrian Corsairs are punished. — In a more legitimate way the Romans extended their influence over the seas that wash the eastern shores of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic and Ionian waters had been infested with Illyrian pirates, who issued from the roadsteads of the northeastern coasts of the former sea. These buccaneers not only scoured the seas for merchantmen, but troubled the Hellenic towns along the shores of Greece, and were even so bold as to make descents upon the Italian coasts. The Roman fleet chased these corsairs from the Adriatic, and captured several of their strongholds. Rome now assumed a sort of protectorate over the Greek cities of the Adriatic coasts. This was her first step towards final supremacy in Macedonia and Greece. War with the Gauls. — In the north, during this same period, Roman authority was extended from the Apennines and the Ru- bicon to the foot of the Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the Romans, who were pushing northward their great military road, called the Flaminian Way, and also settling with discharged sol- diers and needy citizens the tracts of frontier land wrested some time before from the Gauls, the Boii, a tribe of that race, stirred up" all the GaUic peoples already in Italy, besides their kinsmen who were yet beyond the mountains, for an assault upon Rome. In- telligence of this movement among the northern tribes threw all Italy into a fever of excitement. At Rome the terror was great ; for not yet had died out of memory what the city had once suf- fered at the hands of the ancestors of these same barbarians that were now again gathering their hordes for sack and pillage. An ancient prediction, found in the Sibylline books, declared that a portion of Roman territory must needs be occupied by Gauls. 54 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. Hoping sufficiently to fulfil the prophecy and satisfy fate, the Roman Senate caused two Gauls to be buried alive in one of the public squares of the capital. Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced into Etruria, ravaging the country as they moved southward. After gathering a large amount of booty, they were carrying this back to a place of safety, when they were surrounded by the Roman armies at Telamon, and almost annihilated (225 B.C.). The Romans, taking advantage of this victory, pushed on into the plains of the Po, captured the city which is now known as Milan, and extended their authority to the foot-hills of the Alps. To guard the new territory, two mili- tary colonies, Placentia and Cremona, were established upon the opposite banks of the Po. Carthage between the First and the Second Punic War. The Truceless War. — Scarcely had peace been concluded with Rome at the end of the First Punic War, before Carthage was plunged into a still deadher struggle, which for a time threatened her very existence. The mercenary troops, upon their return from Sicily, revolted, on account of not receiving their pay. Their appeal to the native tribes of Africa was answered by a general uprising throughout the dependencies of Carthage. The extent of the revolt shows how hateful and hated was the rule of the great capital over her subject states. The war was unspeakably bitter and cruel. It is known in his- tory as ''The Truceless War." At one time Carthage was the only city remaining in the hands of the government. But the genius of the great Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barcas, at last tri- umphed, and the authority of Carthage was everywhere restored. The Carthaginians in Spain. — After the disastrous termination of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians determined to repair their losses by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barcas was sent over into that country, and for nine years he devoted his com- manding genius to organizing the different Iberian tribes into a HANNTBAVS VOW. 55 compact state, and to developing the rich gold and silver mines of the southern part of the peninsula. He fell in battle 228 b.c. Hamilcar Barcas was the greatest general that up to this time the Carthaginian race had produced. As a rule, genius is not trans- mitted ; but in the Barcine family the rule was broken, and the rare genius of Hamilcar reappeared in his sons, whom he himself, it is said, was fond of calling the " lion's brood." Hannibal, the oldest, was only nineteen at the time of his father's death, and being thus too young to assume command, Hasdrubal,^ the son- in-law of Hamilcar, was chosen to succeed him. He carried out the unfinished plans of Hamilcar, extended and consolidated the Carthaginian power in Spain, and upon the eastern coast founded New Carthage as the centre and capital of the newly acquired ter- ritory. The native tribes were conciliated rather than conquered. The Barcine family knew how to rule as well as how to fight. Hannibal's Vow. — Upon the death of Hasdrubal, which oc- curred 221 B.C., Hannibal, now twenty-six years of age, was by the unanimous voice of the army called to be their leader. When a child of nine years he had been led by his father to the altar ; and there, with his hands upon the sacrifice, the little boy had sworn eternal hatred to the Roman race. He was driven on to his gigantic undertakings and to his hard fate, not only by the restless fires of his warlike genius, but, as he himself declared, by the sacred obligations of a vow that could not be broken. Hannibal attacks Saguntum. — In two years Hannibal extended the Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Saguntum, a Greek city upon the east coast of Spain, alone remained unsubdued. The Romans, who were jealously watching affairs in the peninsula, had entered into an alliance with this city, and taken it, with other Greek cities in that quarter of the Mediterranean, under their pro- tection. Hannibal, although he well knew that an attack upon this place would precipitate hostilities with Rome, laid siege to it 1 Not to be confounded with Hannibal's own brother, Hasdrubal. See p. 65. 56 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. in the spring of 219 b.c. He was eager for the renewal of the old contest. The Roman Senate sent messengers to him forbidding his making war upon a city which was a friend and ally of the Roman people ; but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances, continued the siege, and after an investment of eight months gained possession of the town. The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand of the Senate that they should give up Hannibal to them, and by so doing repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians hesitated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering up his toga, said : " 1 carry here peace and war ; choose, men of Carthage, which ye will have." " Give us whichever ye will," was the reply. "War, then," said Fabius, dropping his toga. The " die was now cast ; and the arena was cleared for the foremost, perhaps the mightiest, mihtary genius of any race and of any time."^ The Second Punic War. Hannibal begins his March. — The Carthaginian empire was now stirred with preparations for the impending struggle. Han- nibal was the life and soul of every movement. He planned and executed. The Carthaginian Senate acquiesced in and tardily confirmed his acts. His bold plan was to cross the Pyrenees and the Alps and descend upon Rome from the north. He secured the provinces in Spain and Africa by placing garrisons of Iberians in Africa and of Libyans in the peninsula. Ambassadors were sent among the Gallic tribes on both sides of the Alps, to invite them to be ready to join the army that would soon set out from Spain. With these preparations completed, Hannibal left New Carthage early in the spring of 218 B.C., with an army numbering about 100,000 men, and including thirty-seven war-elephants. A hostile country lay between him and the Pyrenees. Through the warlike tribes that resisted his march he forced his way to the foot of the 1 Smith's Carthage and Rome, p. 114. 58 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, mountains that guard the northern frontier of Spain. More than 20,000 of his soldiers were lost in this part of his march. Passage of the Pyrenees and the Rhone. — Leaving a strong force to garrison the newly conquered lands, and discharging 10,000 more of his men who had begun to murmur because of their hardships, he pushed on with the remainder across the Pyrenees, and led them down into the valley of the Rhone. The Gauls attempted to dispute the passage" of the river, but they were routed, and the army was ferried across the stream in native boats and on rudely constructed rafts. Passage of the Alps. — Hannibal now followed up the course of the Rhone, and then one of its eastern tributaries, the Isere, until he reached the foot-hills of the Alps, probably under the pass of the Little St. Ber- nard. Nature and man joined to op- pose the passage. The season was already far advanced, — it was Octo- ber, — and snow was falling upon the higher portions of the trail. Day after day the army toiled painfully up the dangerous path. In places the narrow way had to be cut wider for the monstrous bodies of the' elephants. Often avalanches of stone were hurled upon the trains by the hostile bands that held posses- sion of the heights above. hX. last the summit was gained, and the shivering army looked down into the warm haze of the Italian plains. The sight alone was enough to rouse the drooping spirits of the soldiers; but Hannibal stirred them to enthusiasm by addressing them with these words : "You are standing upon the Acropolis of Italy; yonder lies Rome." The army began its descent, and at length, after toils and losses equalled only by those of the ascent, its thin battalions issued from the defiles of the mountains upon the plains of the Po. Of the 50,000 men and HANNIBAL. ATTLES OF THE TICINUS, TREBIA, ETC. 59 more with which Hannibal had begun the passage, barely half that number had survived the march, and these "looked more like phantoms than men." Battles of the Ticinus, the Trebia, and of Lake Trasime- nus. — The Romans had not the remotest idea of Hannibal's plans. With war determined upon, the Senate had sent one of the consuls, L. Sempronius Longus, with an army into Africa by the way of Sicily ; while the other, Publius Cornelius Scipio, they had directed to lead another army into Spain. While the Senate were watching the movements of these expe- ditions, they were startled with the intelligence that Hannibal, instead of being in Spain, had crossed the Pyrenees and w^s among the Gauls upon the Rhone. Sempronius was hastily recalled from his attempt upon Africa, to the defence of Italy. Scipio, on his way to Spain, had touched at Massilia, and there learned of the movements of Hannibal. He turned back, hur- ried into Northern Italy, and took command of the levies there. The cavalry of the two armies met upon the banks of the Ticinus, a tributary of the Po. The Romans were driven from the field by the fierce onset of the Numidian horsemen. Scipio now awaited the arrival of the other consular army, which was hurrying up through Italy by forced marches. In the battle of the Trebia (218 B.C.) the united armies of the two consuls were almost annihilated. The refugees that escaped from the field sought shelter behind the walls of Placentia. The Gauls, who had been waiting to see to which side fortune would incline, now flocked to the standard of Hannibal, and hailed him as their deliverer. The spring following the victory at the Trebia, Hannibal led his army, now recruited by many Gauls, across the Apennines, and moved southward. At Lake Trasimenus he entrapped the Romans under Flaminius in a mountain defile, where, bewildered by a fog that filled the valley, the greater part of the army was slaughtered, and the consul himself was slain. Hannibal's Policy. — The way to Rome was now open. Be- 60 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. lieving that Hannibal would march directly upon the capital, the Senate caused the bridges that spanned the Tiber to be destroyed, and appointed Fabius Maximus dictator. But Hannibal did not deem it wise to throw his troops against the walls of Rome. Crossing the Apennines, he touched the Adriatic at Picenum, whence he sent messages to Carthage of his wonderful achieve- ments. Here he rested his army after a march that has few parallels in the annals of war. In one respect only had events disappointed Hannibal's ex- pectations. He had thought that all the states of Italy were, like the Gauls, ready to revolt from Rome at the first opportunity that might offer itself. But not a single city had thus far proved unfaithful to Rome. The aid which Hannibal expected from the Italians, and which he invited by the kindest treatment of those who fell into his hands as prisoners, he was destined never to receive. Fabius "the Delayer." — The dictator Fabius, at the head of four new legions, started in pursuit of Hannibal, who was again on the move. The fate of Rome was in the hands of Fabius. Should he risk a battle and lose it, the destiny of the capital would be sealed. He determined to adopt a more prudent policy — to follow and annoy the Carthaginian army, but to refuse all proffers of battle. Thus time might be gained for raising a new army and perfecting measures for the public defence. In every possible way Hannibal endeavored to draw his enemy into an engagement. He ravaged the fields far and wide and fired the homesteads of the Italians, in order to force Fabius to fight in their defence. The soldiers of the dictator began to murmur. They called him Cunctator, or " the Delayer." They even accused him of treach- ery to the cause of Rome. But nothing moved him from the steady pursuit of the policy which he clearly saw was the only prudent one to follow. Hannibal marched through Samnium, desolating the country as he went, and then descended upon the rich plains of Campania. Fabius followed him closely, and from the mountains, which he would not allow his soldiers to leave, they THE POLICY OF FAB I US VINDICATED. 61 were obliged to watch, with such cahnness as they might com- mand, the devastations of the enemy going on beneath their very eyes. They besought Fabius to lead them down upon the plain, where they might at least strike a blow in defence of their homes. Fabius was unmoved by their clamor. He planned, however, to entrap Hannibal. Knowing that the enemy could not support themselves in Campania through the approaching winter, but must recross the mountains into ApuHa, he placed a strong guard in the pass by which they must retreat, and then quietly awaited their movements. Hannibal, we are told, resorted to stratagem to draw away the defenders of the mountain path. To the horns of two thousand oxen he caused burning torches to be fastened, and then these animals were driven one night up among the hills that overhung the pass. These creatures, frantic with pain and fright, rushed along the ranges that bordered the pass, and led the watchers there to beUeve that the Carthaginians were forcing their way over the hills in a grand rush. Straightway the guardians of the pass left their position to intercept the flying enemy. While they were pursuing the cattle, Hannibal marched quietly with all his booty through the unguarded defile, and escaped into Samnium. The Policy of Fabius vindicated. — The escape of the Car- thaginian army caused the smothered discontent with Fabius and his policy to break out into open opposition, both among the citi- zens at the capital and the soldiers in the camp. Minucius, com- mander of the cavalry, disobeyed the orders of the dictator to refrain from any engagement with the enemy, and was so fortunate as to gain a slight success. This brought matters to a crisis. By a vote of the public assembly Minucius was made co-dictator with Fabius. He now sought an engagement with the Carthaginians. An opportunity soon presented itself. But fortune was against him ; and had it not been for the timely assistance of Fabius, his forces would have been cut to pieces. Minucius at once acknowl- edged the rashness of his policy, and took again his old position as a subordinate ; while Fabius, by universal acclamation, was declared the " Savior of Rome." 62 mE SECOND PUNIC WAR. The Battle of Cannae (216 b.c). — The time gained by Fabius had enabled the Romans to raise and discipHne an army that might hope to combat successfully the Carthaginian forces. Early in the summer of the year 216 B.C., these new levies, number- ing 80,000 men, under the command of the two consuls,^ con- fronted the army of Hannibal, amounting to not more than half that number, at Cannae, in Apulia. It was the largest army the PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF CAKN^ AFTER STRACHEN-DAVIDSON. GREATER ROMAN CAMP LESSER ROMAN CAMP -^S'&. ny "^ Romans had ever gathered on any battle-field. But it had been collected only to meet the most overwhelming defeat that ever befell the forces of the republic. Through the skilful manoeu- vres of Hannibal, the Romans were completely surrounded, and 1 The dictatorship of Fabius Maximus had expired. The patrician consul was named Lucius yEmilius Paulus; the plebeian, Gaius Terentius Varro. They were divided in counsel, and it was the rashness of Varro that precipi- tated the battle. The yearly change of their chief magistrates was a source of weakness and loss to the Romans in time of war. The popular vote frequently failed to secure experienced generals. Demagogues often controlled the elec- tion, as at Athens in the times of Cleon and Alcibiades. See Eastern Nations and Greece, pp. 245-248. events; AETER the battle OE CANNJi. 63 huddled together in a helpless mass upon the field, and then for eight hours were cut down by the Numidian cavalry. From fifty to seventy thousand were slain ; a few thousand were taken pris- oners ; only the merest handful escaped, including one of the consuls. The slaughter was so great that, according to Livy, when Mago, a brother of Hannibal, carried the news of the victory to Carthage, he, in confirmation of the intelligence, poured down in the porch of the Senate-house nearly a peck of gold rings taken from the fingers of Roman knights. Events after the Battle of Cannse. — The awful news flew to Rome. Consternation and despair seized the people. The city would have been emptied of its population had not the Senate ordered the gates to be closed. Never did that body display greater calmness, wisdom, prudence, and resolution. By word and act they bade the people never to despair of the republic. Little by little the panic was allayed. Measures were concerted- for the defence of the capital, as it was expected that Hannibal would immediately march upon Rome. Swift horsemen were sent out along the Appian Way to gather information of the con- queror's movements, and to learn, as Livy expresses it, '' if the immortal gods, out of pity to the empire, had left any remnant of the Roman name." The leader of the Numidian cavalry, Maharbal, urged Hanni- bal to follow up his victory closely. " Let me advance with the cavalry," said he, "and in five days thou shalt dine in the capi- tal." But Hannibal refused to adopt the counsel of his impetuous general. Maharbal turned away, and with mingled reproach and impatience exclaimed, "Alas ! thou knowest how to gain a vic- tory, but not how to use one." The great commander, while he knew he was invincible in the open field, did not think it pnident to fight the Romans behind their walls. Hannibal now sent an embassy to Rome to offer terms of peace. The Senate, true to the Appian policy never to treat with a vic- torious enemy (see p. 40), would not even permit the ambassa- dors to enter the gates. Not less disappointed was Hannibal in 64 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. the temper of the Roman allies. For the most part they adhered to the cause of Rome with unshaken loyalty through all these trying times. Some tribes in the south of Italy, however, among which were the Lucanians, the Apulians, and the Bruttians, went over to the Carthaginians. Hannibal marched into Campania and quartered his army for the winter in the luxurious city of Capua,^ which had opened its gates to him. Here he rested and sent urgent messages to Carthage for reinforcements, while Rome ex- hausted every resource in raising and equipping new levies, to take the place of the legions lost at Cannae. For several years there was an ominous lull in the war, while both parties were gathering strength for a renewal of the struggle. The Fall of Syracuse and of Capua. — In the year 216 B.C., Hiero, king of Syracuse, who loved to call himself the friend and ally of the Roman people, died, and the government fell into the hands of a party unfriendly to the republic. An alliance was formed with Carthage, and a large part of Sicily was carried over to the side of the enemies of Rome. The distinguished Roman general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, called " the Sword of Rome," was intrusted with the task of reconquering the island. After reducing many towns, he at last laid siege to Syracuse. This noted capital was then one of the largest and richest cities of the Grecian world. Its walls were strong, and enclosed an area eighteen miles in circuit. For three years it held out against the Roman forces. It is said that Archimedes, the great mathema- tician, rendered valuable aid to the besieged with curious and powerful engines contrived by his genius. But the city fell at last, 1 Hannibal's soldiers, according to Livy, were fatally enervated both in their bodies and their minds by the influences of this Sybarite capital. The winter was spent by them in a round of feasting, drinking, bathing, and indulgences of all kinds, so that almost every trace of former vigor and discipline was lost. It is the opinion of persons versed in the art of war, adds the historian, that Hannibal, in taking up his winter quarters in Capua, committed a greater error than when he neglected to march upon Rome after the battle of Cannae. XXHI. 18. THE FALL OF SYRACUSE, 65 MARCELLUS, "The Sword of Rome." and was given over to sack and pillage. Rome was adorned with the rare works of Grecian art — paintings and sculptures — which for centuries had been accumulating in this the oldest and most renowned of the col- onies of ancient Hellas. Syra- cuse never recovered from the blow inflicted upon her at this time by the relentless Romans. Capua must next be punished for opening her gates and ex- tending her hospitalities to the enemies of Rome. A line of cir- cumvallation was drawn about the devoted city, and two Roman armies held it in close siege. Hannibal, ever faithful to his allies and friends, hastened to the rehef of the Capuans. Unable to break the enemy's lines, he marched directly upon Rome, as if to make an attack upon that city, hoping thus to draw off the legions about Capua to the defence of the capital. The *' dread Hannibal " himself rode alongside the walls of the hated city, and, tradition says, even hurled a defiant spear over the defences. The Romans certainly were trembling with fear ; yet Livy tells how they manifested their confidence in their affairs by selling at public auction the land upon which Hannibal was encamped. He in turn, in the same manner, disposed of the shops fronting the Forum. The story is that there were eager purchasers in both cases. Faihng to draw the legions from Capua as he had hoped, Han- nibal now retired from before Rome, and, retreating into the southern part of Italy, abandoned Capua to its fate. It soon fell and paid the penalty that Rome never failed to inflict upon an unfaithful ally. The chief men in the city were put to death, and a large part of the inhabitants sold as slaves (211 b.c). Capua had aspired to the first place among the cities of Italy : scarcely more than the name of the ambitious capital now remained. Hasdrubal in Spain. — During all the years Hannibal was waging war in Italy, his brother Hasdrubal was carrying on a 66 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. desperate struggle with the Romans in Spain. His plan was to gather and lead an army into Italy to the aid of his brother. This the Romans made every effort to prevent. Hence, even while Hannibal was threatening Rome itself, we find the Senate sending its best legions and generals across the sea into Spain. But Has- drubal possessed much of the martial genius of his brother, and proved more than a match for the Scipios who commanded the Roman levies. Yet the fortunes of war were more fickle here than in Italy. At one time the Carthaginians were almost driven out of the peninsula ; and then the whole was regained by the genius of Hasdrubal, and the two Scipios^ were slain. Another army, under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio, was sent to regain it and keep Hasdrubal engaged. The war was renewed, but without decided results on either side, and Hasdrubal deter- mined to leave its conduct to others, and go to the relief of his brother, who was sadly in need of aid ; for the calamities of war were constantly thinning his ranks. Like Pyrrhus, he had been brought to realize that even constant victories won by the loss of soldiers that could not be replaced meant final defeat. Battle of the Metaurus (207 b.c). — Hasdrubal followed the same route that had been taken by his brother Hannibal, and in the year 207 B.C. descended from the Alps upon the plains of Northern Italy, Thence he advanced southward, while Hannibal moved northward from Bruttium to meet him. Rome made a last effort to ward off the double danger. One hundred and forty thousand men were put into the field. One of the consuls, Gains Claudius Nero, was to obstruct Hannibal's march ; while the other, Marcus Livius, was to oppose Hasdrubal in the north. The great effort of the Roman generals was to prevent the junction of the armies of the two brothers. Hasdrubal pressed on southward and crossed the Metaurus. From here he sent a message to Han- nibal, appointing a meeting-place only two days' march from 1 Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, brothers. Publius Cornelius Scipio was the son of the aforementioned Publius Scipio. IVA/^ IN AFRICA. 67 Rome. The messenger fell into the hands of the consul Nero. In a moment Nero's plan was formed. With seven thousand picked soldiers he hastened northward, to join the other consul and, with their united forces, to crush Hasdrubal before his brother should know of the movement. In a few days Nero reached the camp of his colleague Livius, in front of which lay the Carthaginian army. As the soldiers of Nero entered the camp of his associate in the night, Hasdrubal knew nothing of their arrival until the next morning, when he observed that the trumpet sounded twice from the enemy's camp. Fearing to risk a battle, he attempt- ed to fall back across the Metaurus. Mis- led by his guides, he was forced to turn and give battle to the pursuing Romans. His army was entire- ly destroyed, and he himself was slain (207 B.c). Nero now hurried back to face Hanni- bal, bearing with him the head of Hasdrubal. This bloody tro- phy he caused to be hurled into the Carthaginian camp. Upon recognizing the features of his brother, Hannibal exclaimed sadly, *' Carthage, I see thy fate." War in Africa: Battle of Zama (202 b.c). — The defeat and death of Hasdrubal gave a different aspect to the war. Hannibal now drew back into the rocky peninsula of Bruttium, the southern- most point of Italy. There he faced the Romans like a lion at bay. No one dared attack him. It was resolved to carry the war into Africa, in hopes that the Carthaginians would be forced to call their great commander out of Italy to the defence of Carthage. Publius Cornelius Scipio, who after the departure of PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO (Africanus). 68 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR. Hasdrubal from Spain had quickly brought the peninsula under the power of Rome, led the army of invasion. He had not been long in Africa before the Carthaginian Senate sent for Hannibal to conduct the war. At Zama, not far from Carthage, the hostile armies came face to face. Fortune had deserted Hannibal; he was fighting against fate. He here met his first and final defeat. His army, in which were many of the veterans that had served through all the Italian campaigns, was almost annihilated (202 B.C.) . The Close of the War. — Carthage was now completely ex- hausted, and sued for peace. Even Hannibal himself could no longer counsel war. The terms of the treaty were much severer than those imposed upon the city at the end of the First Punic War. She was required to give up all claims to Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean; to surrender her war elephants, and all her ships of war save ten galleys ; to pay an indemnity of five thousand talents ^ at once, and two hundred and fifty talents annually for fifty years ; and not, under any circumstances, to make war upon an ally of Rome. Five hundred of the costly Phoenician war-galleys were towed out of the harbor of Carthage and burned in the sight of the citizens (201 B.C.). - Such was the end of the Second Punic, or Hannibalic War, as called by the Romans, the most desperate struggle ever main- tained by rival powers for empire. Scipio was accorded a splendid triumph at Rome, and given the surname Africanus in honor of his achievements. 1 About ^6,250,000. THE BATTLE OF CYNOSCEPHAL^. 69 CHAPTER V. THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. (149-146 B.C.) Events between the Second and the Third Punic War. The terms imposed upon Carthage at the end of the Second Punic War left Rome mistress of the Western Mediterranean. During the fifty eventful years that elapsed between the close of that struggle and the breaking out of the last Punic war, her authority became supreme also in the Eastern seas. In another place/ while narrating the fortunes of the most important states into which the great empire of Alexander was broken at his death, we followed them until one after another they fell beneath the arms of Rome, and were successively absorbed into her growing kingdom. We shall therefore speak of them here only in the briefest manner, simply indicating the connection of their several histories with the series of events which mark the advance of Rome to universal empire. The Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 b.c). — During the Hanni- balic War, Phihp V. (III.) of Macedonia had aided the Cartha- ginians, or at least had entered into an alliance with them. He was now troubling the Greek cities which were under the protection of Rome. For these things the Roman Senate determined to punish him. An army under Flamininus was sent into Greece, and on the plains of Cynoscephalae, in Thessaly, the Ro- man legion demonstrated its superiority over the unwieldy Macedonian phalanx^ by subjecting Philip to a most PHILIP v., of Macedonia. 1 See Eastern Nations and Greece, pp. 273-281. '■^ Ibid., p. 259, note. 70 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR, disastrous defeat (197 b.c). The king was forced to give up all his conquests, and the Greek cities that had been in subjection to Macedonia were declared free. Flamininus read the edict of emancipation to the Greeks assembled at Corinth for the celebra- tion of the Isthmian games. The decree was received with the greatest enthusiasm and rejoicing, and Flamininus was called by the grateful Greeks the Restorer of Greek liberties. Unfortu- nately the Greeks had lost all capacity for freedom and self- government, and the anarchy into which their affairs soon fell afforded the Romans an excuse for extending their rule over Greece. The Battle of Magnesia (190 b.c). — Antiochus the Great of Syria had at this time not only overrun all Asia Minor, but had ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT. crossed the Hellespont into Europe, and was intent upon the conquest of Thrace and Greece. Rome, that could not entertain the idea of a rival empire upon the southern shores of the Medi- terranean, could much less tolerate the establishment in the East of such a colossal kingdom as the ambition of Antiochus proposed to itself. Just as soon as intelligence was carried to Italy that the Syrian king was leading his army into Greece, the legions of the republic were set in motion. Some reverses caused Antiochus to retreat in haste across the Hellespont into Asia, whither he was followed by the Romans, led by Scipio, a brother of Africanus. At Magnesia, Antiochus was overthrown, and a large part of Asia Minor fell into the hands of the Romans. Not yet prepared to maintain provinces so distant from the Tiber, the Senate conferred THE BATTLE OF PYDNA. 71 the new territory, with the exception of Lycia and Caria, which were given to the Rhodians, upon 'their friend and ally Eumenes, king of Pergamus.^ This " Kingdom of Asia," as it was called, was really nothing more than a dependency of Rome, and its nominal ruler only a puppet-king in the hands of the Roman Senate. Scipio enjoyed a magnificent triumph at Rome, and, in accord- ance with a custom that had now become popular with successful generals, erected a memorial of his deeds in his name by assum- ing the title of Asiaticus. The Battle of Pydna (i68 b.c). — In a few years Macedonia, under the leadership of Perseus, son of Philip v., was again in arms and offering defiance to Rome ; but in the year i68 b.c. the Roman consul ^milius Paulus crushed the Macedonian power forever upon the memorable field of Pydna. This was one of the decisive battles fought by the Ro- mans in their struggle for the dominion of the world. The last great power in the East was here broken. The Roman Senate was henceforth recog- nized by the whole civilized world as the source and fountain of supreme pohtical wisdom and power. We shall have yet to record many campaigns of the Roman legions ; but these were efforts to suppress revolt among dependent or semi-vassal states, or were struggles with barbarian tribes that skirted the Roman dominions. The Destruction of Corinth (146 b.c). — Barely twenty years had passed after the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy before the cities and states that formed the Achaean League ^ were goaded to revolt by the injustice of their Roman protectors. In the year 146 B.C. the consul Mummius signalized the suppression of the rebellion by the complete destruction of the brilliant city of PERSEUS, of Macedonia. 1 See Eastern Nations and Greece, p. 276, note. ^ Ibid,, p. 280, 72 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. Corinth, the eye of Hellas," as the ancient poets were fond of calling it. This fair capital, the most beautiful and renowned of all the cities of Greece after the fall of Athens, was sacked and razed to the ground. Much of the booty was sold on the spot at pub- lic auction. Numerous works of art, — rare paintings and sculp- tures, — with which the city was crowded, were carried off to Italy. " Never before or after," says Long, " was such a display of the wonders of Grecian art carried in triumphal procession through the streets of Rome." The Fate of Hannibal and of Scipio. — Among the many events that crowded the brief period we are reviewing, we must not fail to notice the fate of the two great actors in the Hannibalic War. Soon after the battle of Zama, and the treaty between Carthage and Rome, Hannibal was chosen to the chief magistracy of the former city. In this position he introduced much-needed reform into every department of the government, and secured to the capi- tal a period of prosperity and rapid growth. But his measures stirred up not only enmity at home, but jealousy at Rome. The Roman Senate, fearing Hannibal as a statesman as much as they dreaded him as a general, demanded of the Carthaginians his surrender. While they were deliberating whether to give up their great commander, Hannibal fled across the sea to Ephesus, in Asia Minor. Here he was received by Antiochus with such marks of honor as became his deeds and genius. Upon the defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, the Romans de- manded that Hannibal should be given up to them. Again the exile fled from his implacable foes, and at last found a refuge with the prince of Bithynia, in a remote district of Asia Minor. Yet even there Roman hatred pursued him. It seemed as though there was no spot in all the world where the arm of Rome did not reach. His new friend could not shield him ; and, deter- mined not to fall into the hands of his foes, Hannibal took his own life by means of poison, and died faithful to his vow of eter- nal hatred to the Roman race (about 183 B.C.). Almost equally bitter was the cup which the ungrateful Romans ''CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED^ 73 forced to the lips of the conqueror of Hannibal. After the battle of Zama, Scipio Africanus gave himself to politics, but soon raised about himself a perfect storm of unmerited abuse and persecution. Leaving Rome, he went into a sort of voluntary exile at his coun- try-seat near Liternum, in Campania. He died about the same time that witnessed the death of Hannibal. Upon his tomb was placed this inscription, which he himself had dictated : " Ungrate- ful country, thou shalt not possess even my ashes." The Third Punic War. " Carthage must be destroyed." — The same year that Rome destroyed Corinth (146 B.C.), she also blotted her great rival Car- thage from the face of the earth. It will be recalled that one of the conditions imposed upon the last-named city at the close of the Second Punic War was that she should, under no circumstances, engage in war with an ally of Rome. Taking advantage of the helpless condition of Carthage, Masinissa, king of Numidia and an ally of Rome, began to make depredations upon her territories. She appealed to Rome for protection. The envoys sent to Africa by the Senate to settle the dispute, unfairly adjudged every case in favor of the robber Masinissa. In this way Carthage was deprived of her lands and towns. Chief of one of the embassies sent out was Marcus Cato, the Censor. When he saw the prosperity of Carthage, — her immense trade, which crowded her harbor with ships, and the country for miles back of the city a beautiful landscape of gardens and villas, — he was amazed at the growing power and wealth of the city, and returned home convinced that the safety of Rome demanded the destruction of her rival. Never afterwards did he address the Romans, no matter upon what subject, but he always ended with the words, " Carthage must be destroyed " {delenda est Carthago). Roman Perfidy. — A pretext for the accomplishment of the hateful work was not long wanting. In 150 k.c. the Carthagin- ians, when Masinissa made another attack upon their territory. 74 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. instead of calling upon Rome, from which source the past had convinced them they could hope for neither aid nor justice, gathered an army, and resolved to defend themselves. Their forces, however, were defeated by the Numidians, and sent beneath the yoke. In entering upon this war Carthage had broken the conditions of the last treaty. The Carthaginian Senate, in great anxiety, now sent an embassy to Italy to offer any reparation the Romans might demand. They were told that if they would give three hundred hostages, members of the noblest Carthaginian families, the independence of their city should be respected. They eagerly complied with this demand. But no sooner were these in the hands of the Romans than the consular armies, numbering 80,000 men, secured against attack by the hostages so perfidiously drawn from the Carthaginians, crossed from Sicily into Africa, and disembarked at Utica, only ten miles from Carthage. The Carthaginians were now commanded to give up all their arms ; still hoping to win their enemy to clemency, they complied with this demand also. Then the consuls made known the final decree of the Roman Senate, — " That Carthage must be destroyed, but that the inhabitants might build a new city, provided it were located ten miles from the coast." When this resolution of the Senate was announced to the Car- thaginians, and they realized the baseness and perfidy of their enemy, a cry of indignation and despair burst from the be- trayed city. The Carthaginians prepare to defend their City. — It was re- solved to resist to the bitter end the execution of the cruel decree. The gates of the city were closed. Men, women, and children set to work and labored day and night manufacturing arms. The entire city was converted into one great workshop. The utensils of the home and the sacred vessels of the temples, statues, and vases were melted down for weapons. Material was torn from the buildings of the city for the construction of military engines. The women cut off their hair and braided it into strings for the THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE. 75 catapults. By such labor, and through such means, the city was soon put in a state to withstand a siege. When the Romans advanced to take possession of the place, they were astonished to find the people they had just treacher- ously disarmed, with weapons in their hands, manning the walls of their capital, and ready to bid them defiance. The Destruction of Carthage (146 b.c). — It is impossible for us here to give the circumstances of the siege of Carthage. For four years the city held out against the Roman army. At length the consul Scipio ^milianus succeeded in taking it by storm. When resistance ceased, only 50,000 men, women, and children, out of a population of 700,000, remained to be made prisoners. The city was fired, and for seventeen days the space within the walls was a sea of flames. Every trace of building which the fire could not destroy was levelled, a plough was driven over the site, and a dreadful curse invoked upon any one who should dare attempt to rebuild the city. Such was the hard fate of Carthage. It is said that Scipio, as he gazed upon the smouldering ruins, seemed to read in them the fate of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the lines of Homer : — " The day shall come in which our sacred Troy, And Priam, and the people over whom Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all," The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman province, with tJtica as the leading city ; and Roman civilization was spread rapidly, by means of traders and settlers, throughout the regions that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea. War in Spain. Siege of Numantia. — It is fitting that the same chapter which narrates the destruction of Corinth in Greece, and the blotting- out of Carthage in Africa, should tell the story of the destruction of Numantia in Spain. 76 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR. The expulsion of the Carthaginians from the Spanish peninsula really gave Rome the control of only a small part of that country. The warlike native tribes — the Celtiberians and Lusitanians — of the North and the West were ready stubbornly to dispute with the new-comers the possession of the soil. The treachery of the Roman generals inflamed the natives to a desperate revolt under Viriathus, a Lusitanian chief, who has been compared in his char- acter and deeds to Wallace of Scotland. Finally Scipio ^milianus, the conqueror of Carthage, was given the chief command. He began by reforming the army, which had become shamefully disso- lute. The crowds of merchants were driven out of the camp ; the wagons in which the effeminate soldiers were accustomed to ride were sold, and once more the Roman legions marched, instead of riding, to battle. With the army in proper discipline for service, Scipio rein- vested Numantia, which had already withstood nine years of siege. The brave defenders numbered barely 8000 men, while the lines of circumvallation that hedged them in were kept by 60,000 sol- diers. Famine at last gave the place into the hands of Scipio, after almost all the inhabitants had met death, either in defence of the walls, or by deliberate suicide. The miserable remnant which the ravages of battle, famine, pestilence, and despair had left alive were sold into slavery, and the city was levelled to the ground (133 B.C.). The capture of Numantia was considered quite as great an achievement as the taking of Carthage. Scipio celebrated another triumph at Rome, and to his surname Africanus added that of Numantinus. Spain became a favorite resort of Roman mer- chants, and many colonies were established in different parts of the country. As a result of this great influx of Itahans, the laws, manners, customs, language, and religion of the conquerors were introduced everywhere, and the peninsula became rapidly Roman- ized. THE SERVILE WAR IN SICILY. 77 CHAPTER VI. THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. (133-31 B.C.) We have now traced the growth of the power of repubhcan Rome, as through two centuries and more of conquest she has extended her authority, first throughout Italy, and then over almost all the countries that border upon the Mediterranean. It must be our less pleasant task now to follow the declining for- tunes of the republic through the last century of its existence. We shall here learn that wars waged for spoils and dominion are in the end more ruinous, if possible, to the conqueror than to the conquered. The Servile War in Sicily (134-132 b.c). — With the open- ing of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in Sicily between masters and slaves — or what is known as " The First Servile War." The condition of affairs in that island was the legitimate result of the Roman system of slavery. The captives taken in war were usually sold into servitude. The great number of prisoners furnished by the numerous conquests of the Romans caused slaves to become a drug in the slave-markets of the Roman world. They were so cheap that masters found it more profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of unmercifully hard labor, and then to buy others, than to preserve their lives for a longer period by more humane treatment. In case of sickness, they were left to die without attention, as the expense of nursing ex- ceeded the cost of new purchases. Some Sicilian estates were worked by as many as 20,000 slaves. That each owner might know his own, the poor creatures were branded like cattle. What makes all this the more revolting is the fact that many of these slaves were in every way the peers of their owners, and often were 78 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. their superiors. The fortunes of war alone had made one servant and the other master. A considerable portion of the estates in Sicily were simply grazing farms, their proprietors finding the raising of wool for the clothing of the Roman legions more profitable than the cul- tivation of grain. The slaves that tended the flocks on these farms received from their masters neither pay, food, nor clothing. They were expected to supply their needs from the herds they tended, and by robbing travellers on the highways and plundering the dwellings of the peasants. They were well armed, and were always accompanied by fierce dogs. The magistrates dared not punish them for their misdeeds, through fear of their masters, who were all-powerful at Rome. The wretched condition of these slaves and the cruelty of their masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection spread throughout the island, until 200,000 slaves were in arms, and in possession of many of the strongholds of the country. They de- feated four Roman armies sent against them, and for three years defied the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 132 B.C., the revolt was crushed, and peace was restored to the distracted island.-^ The Public Lands. — In Italy itself affairs were in a scarcely less wretched condition than in Sicily. When the different states of the peninsula were subjugated, large portions of the conquered territory had become public land imager publicus) ; for upon the subjugation of a state Rome never left to the conquered people more than two-thirds of their lands, and often not so much as this. The land appropriated was disposed of at public sale, leased at low rentals, allotted to discharged soldiers, or allowed to lie unused.^ 1 In the year 102 B.C. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the island, which it required three years to quell. This last revolt is known as "The Second Servile War." 2 These land matters may be made plain by a reference to the public lands of the United States. The troubles in Ireland between the land-owners and THE PUBLIC LANDS. 79 Now, it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part of the public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. They alone had the capital necessary to stock and work them to advan- tage ; hence the possessions of the small proprietors were gradu- ally absorbed by the large landholders. These great proprietors, also, disregarding a law which forbade any person to hold more than five hundred jugera of land, held many times that amount. Almost all the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first cen- tury B.C., are said to have been held by not more than 2000 persons ; for the large proprietors, besides the lands they had secured by purchase from the government, or had wrested from the smaller farmers, claimed enormous tracts to which they had only a squatter's title. So long had they been left in undisturbed possession of these government lands that they had come to look upon them as absolutely their own. In many cases, feeling secure through great lapse of time, — the lands having been handed down through many generations, — the owners had expended large sums in their improvement, and now resisted as very unjust every effort to dispossess them of their hereditary estates. Money-lenders, too, had, in many instances, made loans upon these lands, and they naturally sided with the owners in their opposition to all efforts to disturb the titles. These wealthy ^' possessors " employed slave rather than free labor, as they found it more profitable ; and so the poorer Romans, left without employment, crowded into the cities, espe- cially congregating at Rome, where they lived in vicious indo- lence. The proprietors also found it for their interest to raise stock rather than to cultivate the soil. All Italy became a great sheep- pasture. Thus, largely through the workings of the pubHc land system, the Roman people had become divided into two great classes, which are variously designated as the Rich and the Poor, the Pos- their tenants will also serve to illustrate the agrarian disturbances in ancient Rome. 80 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. sessors and the Non-Possessors, the Optimates (the " Best ") and the Populares (the "People"). We hear nothing more of patri- cians and plebeians. As one expresses it, " Rome had become a commonwealth of millionnaires and beggars." For many years before and after the period at which we have now arrived, a bitter struggle was carried on between these two classes ; just such a contest as we have seen waged between the nobihty and the commonalty in the earlier history of Rome. The most instructive portion of the story of the Roman republic is found in the records of this later struggle. The misery of the great masses naturally led to constant agitation at the capital. Popular leaders introduced bill after bill into the Senate, and brought measure after measure before the assemblies of the people, all aiming at the redistribution of the public lands and the correction of existing abuses. - The Reforms of the Gracchi. — The most noted champions of the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. These reformers are reckoned among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. They eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius, " You are called '■ lords of the earth ' without possessing a single clod to call your own." The people made him tribune ; and in that position he secured the passage of a law for the redistribution of the public lands, which gave some relief. It took away from Possessors without sons all the land they held over five hundred jugera ; Possessors with one son might hold seven hundred and fifty jugera, and those with two sons one thousand. At the end of his term of office, Tiberius stood a second time for the tribunate. The nobles combined to defeat him. Fore- seeing that he would not be re-elected, Tiberius resolved to use force upon the day of voting. His partisans were overpowered, and he and three hundred of his followers were killed in the Forum, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber (133 B.C.). This was the first time that the Roman Forum had witnessed such a scene of violence and crime. THE REFORMS OF THE GRACCHI. 81 Gaius Gracchus, the younger brother of Tiberius, now assumed the position made vacant by the death of Tiberius. It is related that Gaius had a dream in which the spirit of his brother seemed to address him thus: "Gaius, why do you hnger? There is no escape : one hfe for both of us, and one death in defence of the people, is our fate." The dream came true. Gaius was chosen tribune in 123 B.C. He secured the passage of grain-laws which provided that grain should be sold to the poor from public grana- ries at half its value or less. This was a very unwise and perni- cious measure. It was not long before grain was distributed free to all apphcants ; and a considerable portion of the population of the capital were living in vicious indolence and feeding at the pubHc crib. Gaius proposed other measures in the interest of the people, which were bitterly opposed by the Optimates ; and the two orders at last came into collision. Gaius sought death by a friendly sword (121 B.C.), and 3000 of his adherents were massacred. The consul offered for the head of Gaius its weight in gold. " This is the first instance in Roman history of head-money being offered and paid, but it was not the last " (Long). The people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs to their cause, and their memory w^is preserved by statues in the public square. To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, bearing the simple inscription, " The Mother of the Gracchi." The War with Jugurtha (111-106 b.c). — After the death of the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless oppressions and to denounce the scandalous extravagances of the aristocratic party. Many of the laws of the Gracchi respecting the public lands were annulled. Italy fell again into the hands of a few over-rich land-owners. The provinces were plundered by the Roman governors, who squandered their ill-gotten wealth at the capital. The votes of senators and the decisions of judges, the offices at Rome and the places in the provinces — everything pertaining to the government had its price, and was bought and sold like merchandise. Affairs in Africa at this time illustrate how 82 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. Roman virtue and integrity had declined since Fabricius indig- nantly refused the gold of Pyrrhus. Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having put to death the rightful rulers of different provinces of the same, who had been confirmed in their possessions by the Romans at the close of the Punic wars. Commissioners sent from Rome to look into the matter were bribed by Jugurtha. Finally, the Numidian robber, in carrying out some of his high-handed meas- ures, put to death some Italian merchants. War was immediately declared by the Roman Senate, and the consul Bestia was sent into Africa with an army, to punish the insolent usurper. Bestia sold himself to Jugurtha, and, instead of chastising him, confirmed him in his stolen possessions. We should naturally suppose that the Senate would have administered some wholesome correction to the mercenary consul upon his return. But the wily general, anticipating this, had taken with him the president of that body, and had divided with him the spoils. The indignation of the people, who had good reason to suspect the real state of affairs, was great. They demanded that Jugurtha, with the promise of immunity to himself, should be invited to Rome, and encouraged to disclose the whole transaction, in order that those who had betrayed the state for money might be pun- ished. Jugurtha came ; but the gold of the consul and president bribed one of the tribunes to prohibit the king from giving his testimony. Now it so happened that there was in Rome at this time a rival claimant of the Numidian throne, who at this very moment was urging his claims before the Senate. Jugurtha caused this rival to be assassinated. As he himself was under a safe-conduct, the Senate could do nothing to punish the audacious deed and to resent the insult to the state, save by ordering the king to depart from the city at once. As he passed the gates, it is said that he looked scornfully back upon the capital, and exclaimed, " O venal city ! thou wouldst sell thyself if thou couldst find a purchaser ! " Upon the renewal of the war another Roman army was sent into INVASION OF THE CIMBRI AND TEU TONES. 83 Africa, but was defeated and forced beneath the yoke. In the year io6 B.C. the war was brought to a close by Gaius Marius, a man who had risen to the consulship from the lowest ranks of the people. Under him fought a young nobleman named Sulla, of whom we shall hear much hereafter. Marius celebrated a grand triumph at Rome. Jugurtha, after having graced the triumphal procession, in which he walked with his hands bound with chains, was thrown into the Mamertine dungeon beneath the Capitoline hill, where he died of starvation. Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones. — The war was not yet ended in Africa before terrible tidings came to Rome from the north. Two mighty nations of " horrible barbarians," 300,000 strong in fighting-men, coming whence no one could tell, had invaded and were now desolating the Roman provinces of Gaul, and might any moment cross the Alps and pour down into Italy. The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes, the Teutones and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German migration which was destined to change the face and history of Europe. These intruders were seeking new homes, and were driven on, it would almost seem, by a blind and instinctive im- pulse. They carried with them, in rude wagons, all their property, their wives, and their children. The Celtic tribes of Gaul were no match for the new-comers, and fled before them as they ad- vanced. Several Roman armies beyond the Alps were cut to pieces. In one battle more than 100,000 Romans are said to have been slaughtered. The terror at Rome was only equalled by that occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls two centuries before. The Gauls were terrible enough ; but now the conquerors of the Gauls were coming. Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as the only man who could save the state in this crisis. He was re-elected to the consulship, and intrusted with the command of the armies. Accompanied by Sulla as one of his most skil- ful lieutenants, Marius hastened into Northern Italy. The bar- 84 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. barians had divided into two bands. The Cimbri were to cross the Eastern Alps, and join in the valley of the Po the Teutones, who were to force the defiles of the Western, or Maritime Alps. Marius determined to prevent the union of the barbarians, and to crush each band separately. Anticipating the march of the Teutones, he hurried over the Alps into Gaul, and sat down in a fortified camp to watch their movements. Unable to storm the Roman position, the bar- barians resolved to leave their enemy in the rear and push on into Italy. For six days and nights the endless train of men and wagons rolled past the camp of Marius. The barbarians jeered at the Roman soldiers, and asked them if they had any messages they wished to send to their wives ; if so, they would bear them, as they would be in Rome shortly. Marius allowed them to pass by, and then, breaking camp, followed closely after. Falling upon them at a favorable moment, he almost annihi- lated the entire host.^ Two hundred thousand barbarians are said to have been slain. Marius heaped together and burned the spoils of the battle-field. While engaged in this work, the news was brought to him of his re-election as consul for the fifth time. This was illegal ; but the people felt that Marius must be kept in the field. Marius now recrossed the Alps, and, after visiting Rome, hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the north- eastern corner of Italy. He was not a day too soon. Already the barbarians had defeated the Roman army under the pa- trician Catulus, and were ravaging the rich plains of the Po. The Cimbri, unconscious of the fate of the Teutones, now sent an embassy to Marius, to demand that they and their kinsmen should be given lands in Italy. Marius sent back in reply, "The Teutones have got all the land they need on the other side of the Alps." The devoted Cimbri were soon to have all they needed on this side. 1 In the battle of Aquae Sextiae, fought 102 B.C. THE SOCIAL, OR MA RSI C WAR. 85 A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellae (loi B.C.). The barbarians were drawn up in an enormous hollow square, the men forming the outer ranks being fastened together with ropes, to prevent the lines being broken. This proved their ruin. More than 100,000 were killed, and 60,000 taken prisoners to be sold as slaves in the Roman markets. Marius was hailed as the " Savior of his Country." The fate of these two nations that were wandering over the face of the earth in search of homes is one of the most pathetic tales in all history. The almost innumerable host of wanderers, men, women, and children, now " rested beneath the sod, or toiled under the yoke of slavery : the forlorn hope of the German migration had performed its duty ; the homeless people of the Cimbri and their comrades were no more " (Mommsen). Their kinsmen yet behind the Danube and the Rhine were destined to exact a terrible revenge for their slaughter. The Social, or Marsic War (91-89 b.c). — Scarcely was the danger of the barbarian invasion past, before Rome was threatened by another and greater evil arising within her own borders. At this time all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in three classes, — Roman citizens , Latins, and Italian allies. The Roman citizens included the inhabitants of the capital and of the various Roman colonies planted in different parts of the peninsula,^ besides the people of a number of towns called miinicipia ; the Latins were the inhabitants of the Latin colonies ; ^ the Italian allies (socii) included the various subjugated races of Italy .^' The Social, or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of the prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Mar- sians) was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Itahan allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship, from which they were wholly excluded. As the authority of Rome had been grad- ually extended over the various cities and states of Italy, only 1 See p. 41, note. 2 They enjoyed local self-government, but were bound by treaty to furnish contingents to the Roman army in times of war. 86 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. a few favored individuals and communities had been admitted to a share in the rights and immunities of the citizens of the capital. Indeed, the world had not yet come to regard the conquered as having any rights whatever. But these Italians were the same in race, language, and rehsfion as their conquerors ; and it was COIN OF THE ITALIAN , . f ^_ i , , ,, i i-r^ CONFEDERACY. their valor and blood that nad helped Rome (The Italian Bull gonngthe to sccure the domiuion of the Mediterra- Roman Wolf.) ^^^^ ^^^j^^ Yet iuvidlous and hateful dis- tinctions separated them from the citizens of the capital. A Roman ^soldier could not be scourged ; but an alien might be whipped to death, and often was, without comment being excited or redress being possible. Naturally the Italians complained bitterly of having to fight for the maintenance of an empire in the management of which they had no voice, and under the laws of which they found no protection. The socii now demanded the Roman franchise and the immu- nities and privileges of citizens. The demand was stubbornly resisted by both the aristocratical and the popular party at Rome. Some, however, recognized the justice of these claims of the Italians. Drusus championed their cause, but was murdered by an infuriated mob. The Italians now flew to arms. They deter- mined upon the establishment of a rival state. A town called Corfinium, among the Apennines, was chosen as the capital of the new republic, and its name changed to Italica. The govern- ment of the new state was modelled after that at Rome. Two consuls were placed at the head of the republic, and a senate of five hundred members was formed. Thus, in a single day, almost all Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to Rome. The Etrurians, the Umbrians, the Campanians, the Latins, and some of the Greek cities were the only states that remained faithful. The greatness of the danger aroused all the old Roman courage and patriotism. Aristocrats and democrats hushed their quarrels ; Sulla and Marius forgot rising animosities, and fought bravely side THE CIVIL WAR OF MARIUS AND SULLA. 87 by side for the endangered life of tlie republic. An army of 100,000 men was raised to face a force equal in number and disci- pline that had been gathered by the new confederacy. The war lasted three years. Finally Rome prudently extended the right of the franchise to the Latins, Etruscans, and Umbrians, who had so far remained true to her, but now began to show signs of wavering in their loyalty. Shortly afterwards she offered the same to all Italians who should lay down their arms within sixty days. This tardy concession to the just demands of the Italians virtually ended the war. It had been extremely disastrous to the republic. Hun- dreds of thousands of lives had been lost, many towns had been depopulated, and vast tracts of the country made desolate by those ravages that never fail to characterize civil contentions. In after years, under the empire, the rights of Roman citizen- ship, which the Italians had now so hardly won, were extended to all the free inhabitants of the various provinces beyond the con- fines of Italy (see p. 147). The Civil War of Marius and Sulla. — The Social War was not yet ended when a formidable enemy appeared in the East. Mith- radates the Great, king of Pontus, taking advantage of the distracted condition of the republic, had encroached upon the Roman prov- inces in Asia Minor, and had caused a general massacre of the Italian traders and residents in that country. The number of victims of this wholesale slaughter has been variously estimated at from 80,000 to 150,000. The Roman Senate instantly declared war. But the Marsic struggle had drained the treasury. The money needed for equipping an army could be raised only by the sale of the vacant public ground about the Capitol building. A contest straightway arose between Marius and Sulla for the command of the forces. The former was now an old man of seventy years, while the latter was but forty-nine. Marius could not endure the thought of being pushed aside by his former lieutenant. The veteran general joined with the young men in the games and exercises of the gymnasium, to show that his frame was still animated by the strength and agility of youth. The LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. Senate, however, conferred the command upon Sulla. Marius was furious at the success of his rival, and by fraud and intimida- tion succeeded in getting the command taken away from Sulla and given to himself. Two tribunes were sent to demand of Sulla, who was still in Italy, the transfer of the command of the legions to Marius ; but the messengers were killed by the soldiers, who were devotedly attached to their commander. Sulla now saw that the sword must settle the dispute. He marched at the head of his legions upon Rome, entered the gates, and " for the first time in the annals of the city a Roman army encamped within the walls." The party of Marius was defeated, and he and ten of his companions were proscribed. Marius escaped and fled to Africa ; Sulla embarked with the legions to meet Mithradates in the East (88 B.C.). The Wanderings of Marius. — Leaving Sulla to carry on the Mithradatic AVar, we must first follow the fortunes of the exiled Marius. The ship in which he fled from Italy was driven ashore at Circeii. Here Marius and the companions of his flight wandered about, sustained by the hope inspired by the good omen of the seven eaglets. As the story runs, Marius, when a boy, had captured an eagle's nest with seven young, and the augurs had said that this signified that he should be seven times consul. He had already held the office six times, and he firmly believed that the prophecy would be fulfilled as to the seventh. The pursuers of Marius at last found him hiding in a marsh, buried to his neck in mud and water. He was dragged before the authorities of the town of Minturnse. The magistrates, in obedience to the commands that had been sent everywhere, determined to put him to death. A Cimbrian slave was sent to despatch him. The cell where Marius lay was dark, and the eyes ARIUS. RETURN OF ATARI US TO ITALY. 89 of the old soldier "seemed to flash fire." As the slave advanced, Marius shouted, "Man, do you dare kill Gaius Marius?" The frightened slave dropped his sword, and fled from the chamber, half dead with fear. A better feeling now took possession of the men of Minturnae, and they resolved that the blood of the " Savior of Italy " should not be upon their hands. They put him aboard a vessel, which bore him and his friends to an island just off the coast of Africa. When he attempted to set foot upon the mainland near Carthage, Sextus, the Roman governor of the province, sent a messenger to forbid him to land. The legend says that the old general, almost choking with indignation, only answered, " Go, tell your master that you have seen Marius a fugitive sitting amidst the ruins of Carthage." The Return of Marius to Italy. — The exile at length found a temporary refuge on the island of Cercina, off the coast of Tunis. Here news was brought to him that his party, under the lead of Cinna, was in successful revolt against the Optimates, and that he was needed. He immediately set sail for Italy, and, landing in Etruria, joined Cinna. Together they hoped to crush and exter- minate the opposing faction. Rome was cut off from her food- supplies and starved into submission. Marius now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. Tiie consul Octavius was assassinated, and his head set up^ in front of the Rostrum. Never before had such a thing been seen at Rome — a consul's head exposed to the public gaze. The senators, equestrians, and leaders of the Optimate party fled from the capi- tal. For five days and nights a merciless slaughter was kept up. The life of every man in the capital was in the hands of the revengeful Marius. If he refused to return the greeting of any citizen, that sealed his fate : he was instantly despatched by the soldiers who awaited the dictator's nod. The bodies of the vic- tims lay unburied in the streets. Sulla's house was torn down, and he himself declared a public enemy. During the tumult the slaves had armed themselves, and, imitating the example set 90 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. before them, were rioting in murder and pillage. Marius, finding it impossible to restrain their maddened fury, turned his soldiers loose upon them, and they were massacred to a man. As a fitting sequel to all this violence, Marius and Cinna were, in an entirely illegal way, declared consuls. The prophecy of the eadets was fulfilled : Marius was consul for the seventh time. But rumors were now spread that Sulla, having overthrown Mithra- dates, was about to set out on his return with his victorious legions. He would surely exact speedy and terrible vengeance. Marius, now old and enfeebled by the hardships of many campaigns, seemed to shrink from facing again his hated rival. He plunged into dissipation to drown his remorse and gloomy forebodings, and died in his seventy-first year {Zd B.C.), after having held his seventh consulship only thirteen days. Sulla and the First Mithradatic War (88-84 b.c). — When Sulla left Italy with his legions for the East he knew very well that his enemies would have their own way in Italy during his absence ; but he also knew that, if successful in his campaign against Mith- radates, he could easily regain Italy, and wrest the government from the hands of the Marian party. We can here take space to give simply the results of Sulla's campaigns in the East. After driving the army of Mithradates out of Greece, Sulla crossed the Hellespont, and forced the king to sue for peace. He gave up his conquered territory, surren- dered his war-ships, and- paid a large indemnity to cover the expenses of the war (84 B.C.). With the Mithradatic War ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate, saying that he was now coming to take vengeance upon the Marian party, — his own and the republic's foes. The terror and consternation produced at Rome by this letter were increased by the accidental burning of the Capitol. The SibylHne books, which held the secrets of the fate of Rome, were consumed. This accident awakened the most gloomy appre- hensions. Such an event, it was believed, could only foreshadow the most direful calamities to the state. THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SULLA. - , 91 The Proscriptions of Sulla. — The returning army from the East landed in Italy. With his veteran legions at his back, Sulla marched into Rome with all the powers of a dictator. The leaders of the Marian party were proscribed, rewards were offered for their heads, and their property was confiscated. Sulla was implored to make out a list of those he designed to put to death, that those he intended to spare might be relieved of the terrible suspense in which all were now held. He made out a list of eighty, which was attached to the Rostrum. The people murmured at the length of the roll. In a few days it was extended to over three hundred, and grew rapidly, until it included the names of thou- sands of the best citizens of Italy. Hundreds were murdered, not for any offence, but because some favorites of Sulla coveted their estates. A wealthy noble coming into the Forum and reading his own name in the list of the proscribed, exclaimed, ''Alas! my villa has proved my ruin." The infamous Catiline, by having the name of a brother placed upon the fatal roll, secured his property. Julius Caesar, at this time a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed on account of his relationship to Marius ; but, upon the interces- sion of friends, Sulla spared him ; as he did so, however, he said warningly, and, as the event proved, prophetically, " There is in that boy many a Marius." Senators, knights, and wealthy land-owners fell by hundreds and by thousands ; but the poor Italians who had sided with the Marian party were simply slaughtered by tens 'of thousands. Nor did the provinces escape. In Sicily, Spain, and Africa the enemies of the dictator were hunted and exterminated like noxious animals. It is estimated that the civil war of Marius and Sulla cost the republic over 150,000 lives. When Sulla had sated his revenge, he celebrated a splendid triumph at Rome ; the Senate enacted a law declaring all that he had done legal and right, caused to be erected in the Forum a gilded equestrian statue of the dictator, which bore the legend, " To Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Commander Beloved by Fortune," and made him dictator for life. Sulla used his position and influ- 92 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. ence in recasting the constitution in the interest of the aristocratic party. After enjoying the unhmited power of an Asiatic despot for three years, he suddenly resigned the dictatorship, and retired to his villa at Puteoli, where he gave himself up to the grossest dissipations. He died the year following his abdication (78 B.C.). The soldiers who had fought under the old general crowded to his funeral from all parts of Italy. The body was burned upon a huge funeral pyre raised in the Campus Martins. The monu- ment erected to his memory bore this inscription, which he him- self had composed : '' None of my friends ever did me a kindness, and none of my enemies ever did me a wrong, without being fully requited." POMPEY THE GREAT IN SPAIN. 93 CHAPTER VII. THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC {conchided). (133-31 B.C.) Pompey the Great in Spain. — The fires of the Civil War, though quenched in Italy, were still smouldering in Spain. Serto- rius, an adherent of Marius, had there stirred up the martial tribes of Lusitania, and incited a general revolt against the power of the aristocratic government at Rome. Gnaeus Pompey, a rising young leader of the oligarchy, upon whom the title of " Great " had already been conferred as a reward for crushing the Marian party in Sicily and Africa, was sent into Spain to perform a similar ser- vice there. For several years the war was carried on with varying fortunes. At times the power of S-ome in the peninsula seemed on the verge of utter extinction. Finally the brave Sertorius was assassinated (72 B.C.), and then the whole of Spain was quickly regained. Pompey boasted of having forced the gates of more than eight hundred cities in Spain and Southern Gaul. Throughout all the conquered regions he established military colonies, and reorganized the local governments, putting in power those who would be not only friends and allies of the Roman state, but also his own per- sonal adherents. How he used these men as instruments of his ambition, we shall learn a little later. Spartacus: War of the Gladiators (73-71 b.c), — While Pom- pey was subduing the Marian faction in Spain, a new danger broke out in the midst of Italy. Ciladiatorial combats had become at this time the favorite sport of the amphitheatre. At Capua was a sort of training-school, from which skilled fighters were hired out for public or private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian slave, known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his compan- 94 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. ions to revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius, and made that their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators from other schools, and by slaves and discontented men from every quarter. Some slight successes enabled them to arm them- selves with the weapons of their enemies. Their number at length increased to 150,000 men. For three years they defied the power of Rome, and even gained control of the larger part of Southern Italy. Four Roman armies sent against them were cut to pieces. But Spartacus, who was a man of real abihty and discernment, foresaw that a protracted contest with Rome must inevitably issue in the triumph of the government. He therefore counselled his followers to fight their way over the Alps, and then to disperse to their various homes in Gaul, Spain, and Thrace. But elated with the successes already achieved, they imagined that they could capture Rome, and have all Italy for a spoil. Their camp was already filled with plunder, which the insurgents sold to specula- tors. They took in exchange for these spoils only brass and iron, which their forges quickly converted into weapons. At length M. Crassus succeeded in crowding the insurgents down into Rhegium, where Hannibal had stood so long at bay. Spartacus now resolved to pass over into Sicily, and stir up the embers of the old Servile War upon that island. He bargained with the pirates that infested the neighboring seas to convey his forces across the straits ; but as soon as they had received the stipulated price they treacherously sailed away, and left Spartacus and his followers to their fate. Crassus threw up a wall across the isthmus, to prevent the escape of the insurgents ; but Spar- tacus broke through the Roman line by night, and hastened northward with his army. Following in hot pursuit, Crassus over- took the fugitives at the Silarus, and there subjected them to a decisive defeat. Spartacus himself was slain; but 5000 of the insurgents escaped, and fled towards the Alps. This flying band was met and annihilated by Pompey, who was returning from Spain. THE ABUSES OF VERRES. 95 The slaves that had taken part in the revolt were hunted through the mountains and forests, and exterminated like dangerous beasts. The Appian Way was lined with six thousand crosses, bearing aloft as many bodies, — a terrible warning of the fate awaiting slaves that should dare to strike for freedom. The Abuses of Verres. — Terrible as was the state of society in Italy, still worse was the condition of affairs outside the peninsula. At first the rule of the Roman governors in the provinces, though severe, was honest and prudent. But during the period of profli- gacy and corruption upon which we have now entered, the admin- istration of these foreign possessions was shamefully dishonest and incredibly cruel and rapacious. The prosecution of Verres, the propraetor of Sicily, exposed the scandalous rule of the oligarchy, into whose hands the government had fallen. For three years Verres plundered and ravaged that island with impunity. He sold all the offices and all his decisions as judge. He demanded of the farmers the greater part of their crops, which he sold, to swell his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus ruined, and the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and when on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, statues, paintings, and other things that struck his fancy, whether in tem- ples or private dwellings. Verres could not be called to account while in ofiice ; and it was doubtful whether, after the end of his term, he could be con- victed, so corrupt and venal had become the members of the Senate, before whom all such offenders must be tried. Indeed, Verres himself openly boasted that he intended two thirds of his gains for his judges and lawyers, while the remaining one third would satisfy himself. At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was im- peached. The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the brilliant orator, who was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome. The storm of indignation raised by the developments of the trial 96 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. caused Verres to flee into exile to Massilia, whither he took with him much of his ill-gotten wealth. War with the Mediterranean Pirates {dd b.c). — The Roman republic was now threatened by a new danger from the sea. The Mediterranean was swarming with pirates. Roman conquests in Africa, Spain, and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused thousands of adventurous spirits from those maritime countries to flee to their ships, and seek a livelihood by preying upon the com- merce of the seas. The cruelty and extortions of the Roman governors had also driven large numbers to the same course of life. These corsairs had banded themselves into a sort of govern- ment, and held possession of numerous strongholds — four hun- dred, it is said — in Cilicia, Crete, and other countries. With a thousand swift ships they scoured the waters of the Mediterra- nean, so that no merchantman could spread her sails in safety. They formed a floating empire, which Michelet calls a '' a wander- ing Carthage, which no one knew where to seize, and which floated from Spain to Asia." These buccaneers, the Vikings of the South, made descents upon the coast everywhere, plundered villas and temples, at- tacked and captured cities, and sold the inhabitants as slaves in the various slave markets of the Roman world. They carried off merchants and magistrates from the Appian Way itself, and held them for ransom. At last the grain ships of Sicily and Africa were intercepted, and . Rome was threatened with the alternative of starvation or the paying of an enormous ransom. The Romans now bestirred themselves. Pompey was invested with dictatorial power for three years over the Mediterranean and all its coasts for fifty miles inland. An armament of 500 ships and 100,000 men was intrusted to his command. The great general acted with his characteristic energy. Within forty days he had swept the pirates from the Western Mediterranean, and in forty- nine more hunted them from all the waters east of Italy, captured their strongholds in Cihcia, and settled the 20,000 prisoners that fell into his hands in various colonies in Asia Minor and Greece. THE THIRD MITHRADATIC WAR. 97 Pompey's vigorous and successful conduct of this campaign against the pirates gained him great honor and reputation. Pompey and the Third ^ Mithradatic War (74-64 b.c). — In the very year that Pompey suppressed the pirates, he was called upon to undertake a more difficult task. Mithradates the Great, led on by his ambition, and encouraged by the discontent created throughout the Eastern provinces by Roman rapacity and misrule, was again in arms against Rome. He had stirred almost all Asia Minor to revolt. The management of the war was at first in- trusted to the consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus, but he soon lost the confidence both of the people at home and of the soldiers in the army ; so the command was taken from him and conferred upon Pompey, whose success in the war of the pirates had aroused unbounded enthusiasm for him. In a great battle in Lesser Armenia, Pompey almost annihilated the army of Mithradates. The king fled from the field and, after seeking in vain for a refuge in Asia Minor, sought an asylum beyond the Caucasus Mountains, whose bleak barriers interposed their friendly shield between him and his pursuers. Desisting from the pursuit, Pompey turned south and conquered Sy- ria, Phoenicia, and Ccele-Syria, which coun- tries he erected into a Roman province. Still pushing southward, the conqueror entered Palestine, and after a short siege captured Jerusalem (63 e.g.). It was at this time that Pompey insisted, in spite of the protestations of the high priest, upon entering the Holy of Holies of the Hebrew temple. Pushing aside the curtain to the jealously guarded apartment, he was astonished to find nothing but a dark and vacant chamber, without even a statue of the god to whom the shrine was dedicated — nothing but a little chest (the Ark of the Covenant) containing some sacred relics. MITHRADATES VI. (The Great.) 1 The so-called Second Mithradatic War (83-82 B.C.) was a short conflict be- tween the Romans and Mithradates that arose just after the close of the First. 98 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. While Pompey was thus engaged, Mithradates was straining every energy to raise an army among the Scythian tribes with which to carry out a most daring project. He proposed to cross Europe and fall upon Italy from the north. A revolt on the part of his son Pharnaces ruined all his plans and hopes; and the disappointed monarch, to avoid falHng into the hands of the Romans, took his own life {(i^ B.C.). His death removed one of the most formidable enemies that Rome had ever encountered. Hamilcar, Hannibal, and Mithradates were the three great names that the Romans always pronounced with respect and dread. Pompey's Triumph. — After regulating the affairs of the different states and provinces in the East, Pompey set out on his return to Rome, where he enjoyed such a triumph as never before had been seen since Rome had become a city. The spoils of all the East were borne in the procession; 322 princes walked as captives before the triumphal chariot of the conqueror ; legends upon the banners proclaimed that he had conquered 21 kings, captured 1000 strongholds, 900 towns, and 800 ships, and subjugated more than 1 2,000,000 people ; and that he had put into the treasury more than ^25,000,000, besides doubling the regular revenues of the state. He boasted that three times he had triumphed, and each time for the conquest of a continent — first for Africa, then for Europe, and now for Asia, which completed the conquest of the world. The Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 b.c). — While the legions were absent from Italy with Pompey in the East, a most daring conspiracy against the government was formed at Rome. Catiline, a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of profligate young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate like himself, and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the chief men of the state, and to plunder and burn the capital. The offices of the new government were to be divided among the conspira- tors. They depended upon receiving aid from Africa and Spain, and proposed to invite to their standard the gladiators in the various schools of Italy, as well as slaves and criminals. The CMSAK, CRASSUS, AND POMPEY. 99 proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed, and all debts were to be cancelled. Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula, that they " should take care that the republic received no harm." The gladiators were secured ; the city walls were manned ; and at every point the capital and state were armed against the '' invisible foe." Then in the Senate-chamber, with Catiline himself present, Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known as '' The First Oration against Catiline." The senators shrank from the conspirator, and left the seats about him empty. After a feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his guilt, and the cries of " traitor " and " parricide " from the senators, Catiline fled from the chamber, and hurried out of the city to the camp of his followers in Etruria. In a desperate battle fought near Pistoria (62 B.C.), he was slain with many of his followers. His head was borne as a trophy to Rome. Cicero was hailed as the "Savior of his Country." Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. — Although the conspiracy of Catiline had failed, it was very easy to foresee that the downfall of the Roman republic was near at hand. Indeed, from this time on, only the name remains. The basis of the institutions of the republic — the old Roman virtue, integrity, patriotism, and faith in the gods — was gone, having been swept away by the tide of luxury, selfishness, and immorality produced by the long series of foreign conquests and robberies in which the Roman people had been engaged. The days of liberty at Rome were over. From this time forward the government was really in the hands of ambitious and popular leaders, or of corrupt combinations and " rings." Events gather about a few great names, and the annals of the republic become biographical rather than historical. There were now in the state three men — Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey — who were destined to shape affairs. Gains Julius Caesar was born in the year 100 B.C. Although descended from an old 100 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. patrician family, still his sympathies, and an early marriage to the daughter of Cinna, one of the adherents of Marius, led him early to identify himself with the Marian, or democratic party. In every way Caesar courted public favor. He lavished enormous sums upon public games and tables. His debts are said to have amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces (^1,250,000). His popularity was unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already made known to himself, as well as to others, his genius as a commander. Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial, or aristo- cratic party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being one of the richest men in the Roman world. His property was estimated at 7100 talents (about $8,875,000).^ With Gnaeus Pompey and his achievements we are already familiar. His influence throughout the Roman world was great ; for, in settling and reorganizing the many countries he subdued, he had always taken care to reconstruct them in his own interest, as well as in that of the republic. The offices, as we have seen, were filled with his friends and adherents (see p. 93). This patronage had secured for him incalculable authority in the provinces. His veteran legionaries, too, were naturally devoted to the general who had led them so often to victory. 1 " The greatest part of this fortune, if we may declare the truth, to his extreme disgrace, was gleaned from war and from fires; for he made a traffic of the public calamities. When Sulla had taken Rome, and sold the estates of those whom he had put to death, which he both reputed and called the spoils of his enemies, he was desirous of involving all persons of consequence in his crime, and he found in Crassus a man who refused no kind of gift or purchase. Crassus observed also how liable the city was to fires, and how frequently houses fell down; which misfortunes were owing to the weight of the buildings, and their standing so close together. In consequence of this, he provided himself with slaves who were carpenters and masons, and went on collecting them till he had upwards of five hundred. Then he made it his business to buy houses that were on fire, and others that joined upon them; and he commonly had them at a low price by reason of the fire, and the distress the owners were in about the event. [Then the slaves would set to work and extinguish the fire, and Crassus at a small cost would repair the damage.] Hence in time he became master of a great part of Rome." — Plutarch. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 101 The First Triumvirate (60 b.c). — What is known as the First Triumvirate rested on the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and the achievements of Pompey. It was a coaUtion or private arrangement entered into by these three men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control of public affairs. Each pledged himself to work for the interests of the others. Ccxsar was the manager of the " ring." He skilfully drew away Pompey from the aristocratical party, and effected a reconciliation between him and Crassus, for they had been at enmity. It was agreed that Crassus and Pompey should aid Caesar in securing the consulship. In return for this favor, Caesar was to secure for Pompey a confirmation of his acts in the East, and allotments of land for his veterans, concessions which thus far had been jealously withheld by the senatorial party. Everything fell out as the triumvirs had planned : Caesar got the consulship, and Pompey received the lands for his soldiers. The two ablest senatorial leaders, Cato and Cicero, whose incor- ruptible integrity threatened the plans of the triumvirs, were got out of the way. Cato was given an appointment which sent him into honorable exile to the island of Cyprus ; while Cicero, on the charge of having denied Roman citizens the right of trial in the matter of the Catiline conspirators, was banished from the capital, his mansion on the Palatine was razed to the ground, and the remainder of his property confiscated. Caesar's Conquests in Gaul and Britain (58-51 b.c). — At the end of his consulship, Caesar had assigned him the administra- tion of the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. Already he was revolving in his mind plans for seizing supreme power. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and Germanic tribes were in resdess movement. He saw there a grand field for military exploits, which should gain for him such glory and prestige as, in other fields, had been won, and were now enjoyed, by Pompey. With this achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he might hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs towards which his ambition was urging him. 102 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. In the spring of 58 b.c. alarming intelligence from beyond the Alps caused Csesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admi- rable " Commentaries " Caesar himself has left us a faithful and graphic account of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges that filled the years between 58 and 51 b.c. Caesar's first campaign after arriving in Gaul was directed against the Helvetians. These people, finding themselves too much crowded in their narrow territory, hemmed in as they were be- tween the Alps and the Jura ranges, had resolved to seek broader fields in the Roman provinces across the Rhone. Disregarding the commands of Caesar, the entire nation, numbering with their allies 368,000 souls, left their old homes, and began their west- ward march. In a great battle Caesar completely defeated the barbarians, and forced them back into their old home between the mountains, now quite large enough for the survivors, as barely a third of those that set out returned. Caesar next defeated the Suevi, a German tribe that, under the great chieftain Ariovistus, had crossed the Rhine, and were seek- ing settlements in Gaul. These people he forced back over the Rhine into their native forests. The two years following this cam- paign were consumed in subjugating the different tribes in North- ern and Western Gaul, and in composing the affairs of the country. In the war with the Veneti was fought the first historic naval battle upon the waters of the Atlantic. The year 55 B.C. marked two great achievements. Early in the spring of this year Caesar constructed a bridge across the Rhine, and led his legions against the Germans in their native woods and swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed, by means of hastily constructed ships, the channel that separates the main- land from Britain, and after maintaining a foothold upon that island for two weeks withdrew his legions into Gaul for the winter. The following season he made another invasion of Britain ; but, after some encounters with the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the FESULl^S OF THE GALLIC WARS. 103 mainland, without having estabhshed any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one hundred years passed away before the natives of Britain were again molested by the Romans (see p. 12 8). In the year 52 B.C., while Caesar was absent in Italy, a general revolt occurred among the GaUic tribes. It was a last desperate struggle for the recovery of their lost independence. Vercingeto- rix, chief of the Arverni, was the leader of the insurrection. For a time it seemed as though the Romans would be driven from the country. But Caesar's despatch and genius saved the province to the republic. Vercingetorix and 80,000 of his warriors were shut up in Alesia, and were finally stai-ved into submission. All Gaul was now quickly reconquered and pacified. In his campaigns in Gaul, Caesar had subjugated 300 tribes, captured 800 cities, and slain 1,000,000 barbarians — one third of the entire population of the country. Another third he had taken prisoners. Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by these victo- ries. " Let the Alps sink," exclaimed Cicero : " the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barbarians ; they are now no longer needed." Results of the Gallic Wars. — One result of the Gallic wars of Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country was opened to Roman traders and settlers, who carried with them the language, customs, and arts of Italy. Honors were conferred upon many of the Gallic chieftains, privileges were bestowed upon cities, and the franchise even granted to prominent and influential natives. As another result of the conquest of the country, Mommsen gives prominence to the checking of migratory movements of the Ger- man tribes, which gave " the necessary interval for Italian civiHza- tion to become established in Gaul, on the Danube, in Africa, and in Spain." Crassus in the East. — In the year 56 b.c, while Caesar was in the midst of his Gallic wars, he found time to meet Pompey, Cras- sus, and two hundred senators and magistrates who co-operated with the triumvirs, at Lucca, in Etruria, where, in a sort of conven- tion, arrangements were made for another term of five years. (A 104. LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. nomination by this league or "ring" of politicians and generals was equivalent to an election.) It was agreed that Caesar's command in Gaul should be extended five years, and that Crassus and Pompey should be made consuls. All these measures were carried into effect, the elections at Rome being secured by intimidation, and by the votes of soldiers of the Galhc legions, to whom Caesar had granted furloughs for this purpose. The government of the two Spains was given to Pompey, while that of Syria was assigned to Crassus. The latter hurried to the East, hoping to rival there the brilliant conquests of Caesar in the West. At this time the great Parthian empire occupied the immense reach of territory stretching from the valley of the Euphrates to that of the Indus. Notwithstanding that the Parthians were at peace with the Roman people, Crassus led his army across the Euphrates, and invaded their territory, intent upon a war of conquest and booty. In the midst of the Mesopotamian desert he was treacherously deserted by his guides '; and his army, suddenly attacked by the Parthian cavalry, was almost annihilated. Crassus himself was slain, and his head, so it is said, was filled by his captors with molten gold, that he might be sated with the metal which he had so coveted during hfe. In the death of Crassus, Caesar lost his stanchest friend, one who had never failed him, and whose wealth had been freely used for his advancement. When Caesar, before his consulship, had received a command in Spain, and the immense sums he owed at Rome were embarrassing him and preventing his departure, Cras- sus had come forward and generously paid more than a million dollars of his friend's debts. Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey. — After the death of Crassus the world belonged to Caesar and Pompey. That the in- satiable ambition of these two rivals should sooner or later bring them into collision was inevitable. Their alliance in the triumvi- rate was simply one of selfish convenience, not of friendship. While Caesar was carrying on his brilliant campaigns in Gaul, Pom- pey was at Rome watching jealously the growing reputation of his RIVALRY BETWEEN CMSAR AND POMPEY. 105 great rival. He strove, by a princely liberality, to win the affec- tions of the common people. On the Field of Mars he erected an immense theatre with seats for 40,000 spectators. He gave mag- nificent games and set public tables ; and when the interest of the people in the sports of the Circus flagged, he entertained them with gladiatorial combats. In a similar manner Caesar strength- ened himself with the people for the struggle which he plainly fore- saw. He sought in every way to ingratiate himself with the Gauls : he increased the pay of his soldiers, conferred the privileges of Roman citizenship upon the inhabitants of different cities, and sent to Rome enormous sums of gold to be expended in the erec- tion of temples, theatres, and other public structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that should rival in magnificence those given by Pompey. The terrible condition of affairs at the capital favored the ambi- tion of Pompey. So selfish and corrupt were the members of the Senate, so dead to all virtue and to every sentiment of patriotism were the people, that even such patriots as Cato and Cicero saw no hope for the maintenance of the republic. The former favored the appointment of Pompey as sole consul for one year, which was about the same thing as making him dictator. '' It is better," said Cato, *' to choose a master than to wait for the tyrant whom anar- chy will impose upon us." The " tyrant " in his and everybody's mind was Caesar. Pompey now broke with Caesar, and attached himself again to the old aristocratical party, which he had deserted for the alliance and promises of the triumvirate. The death at this time of his wife Julia, the daughter of Caesar, severed the bonds of relation- ship at the same moment that those of ostensible friendship were broken. Caesar crosses the Rubicon (49 b.c). — Caesar now demanded the consulship. He knew that his life would not be safe in Rome from the jealousy and hatred of his enemies without the security from impeachment and trial which that office would give. The Senate, under the manipulation of these same enemies, issued a 106 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. decree that he should resign his office, and disband his Galhc legions by a stated day. The crisis had now come. Caesar ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. Without wait- ing for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans that he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little stream that marked the boundary of his province. This was a declaration of war. As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, "The die is cast ! " The Civil War between Caesar and Pompey (49-48 b.c). — The bold movement of Caesar produced great consternation at Rome. Realizing the danger of delay, Caesar, without waiting for the Galhc legions to join him, marched southward. One city after another threw open its gates to him ; legion after legion went over to his standard. Pompey and a great part of the senators hastened from Rome to Brundisium, and thence with about 25,000 men fled across the Adriatic into Greece. Within sixty days Caesar made himself undisputed master of all Italy. Pompey and Caesar now controlled the Roman world. It was large, but not large enough for both these ambitious men. As to which was likely to become sole master it were difficult for one watching events at that time to foresee. Caesar held Italy, Illyri- cum, and Gaul, with the resources of his own genius and the idolatrous attachment of his soldiers ; Pompey controlled Spain, Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the provinces of Asia, with the prestige of his great name and the enormous resources of the East. Caesar's first care was to pacify Italy. His moderation and prudence won all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the terrible scenes of the days of Marius and Sulla re-enacted. Caesar, however, soon gave assurance that life and property should be held sacred. He needed money ; but to avoid laying a tax upon the people, he asked for the treasure kept beneath the Capitol. Legend declared that this gold was the actual ransom-money which Brennus had demanded of the Romans and which Camillus had saved by his timely appearance Tsee p. 33). It was esteemed THE BATTLE OF PHARSALUS. 107 sacred, and was never to be used save in case of another Gallic invasion. When Csesar attempted to get possession of the treasure, the tribune Metellus prevented him ; but Caesar impatiently brushed him aside, saying, " The fear of a Gallic invasion is over : I have subdued the Gauls." With order restored in Italy, Caesar's next movement was to gain control of the wheat-fields of Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. A single legion brought over Sardinia without resistance to the side of Caesar. Cato, the Heutenant of Pompey, fled from before Curio out of Sicily. In Africa, however, the lieutenant of Caesar sustained a severe defeat, and the Pompeians held their ground there until the close of the war. Caesar, meanwhile, had subjugated Spain. In forty days the entire peninsula was brought under his authority. Massiha had ventured to close her gates against the conqueror ; but a brief siege forced the city to capitulate. Caesar was now free to turn his forces against Pompey in the East. The Battle of Pharsalus (48 e.g.). — From Brundisium Caesar embarked his legions for Epirus. The passage was an enterprise attended with great danger ; for Bibulus, Pompey's admiral, swept the sea with his fleets. It was not without having sustained severe losses that Caesar effected a landing upon the shores of Greece. His legions mustered barely 20,000 men. Pompey's forces were at least double this number. Caesar's attempt to capture the camp of his rival at Dyrrachium having failed, he slowly retired into Thessaly, and drew up his army upon the plains of Pharsalus. Here he was followed by Pompey. The adherents of the latter were so confident of an easy victory that they were already dis- puting about the offices at Rome, and were renting the most eligible houses fronting the public squares of the capital. The battle was at length joined. It proved Pompey's Waterloo. His army was cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field, and escaped to Egypt. Just as he was landing, he was stabbed by one of his former lieutenants, now an officer at the Egyptian court. The reigning Ptolemy had ordered Pompey's assassination 108 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. in hopes of pleasing Caesar. " If we receive him," said he, "we shall make Caesar our enemy and Pompey our master." The head of the great general was severed from his body ; and when Caesar, who was pressing after Pompey in hot pursuit, landed in Egypt, the bloody trophy was brought to him. He turned from the sight with generous tears. It was no longer the head of his rival, but of his old associate and son-in-law. He ordered his assassins to be executed, and directed that fitting obsequies should be performed over his body. Close of the Civil War. — Caesar was detained at Alexandria nine months in settling a dispute respecting the throne of Egypt. After a severe contest he overthrew the reigning Ptolemy, and secured the kingdom to the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger brother. Intelligence was now brought from Asia Minor that Pharnaces, son of Mithradates the Great, was inciting a revolt among the peoples of that region. Caesar met the Pontic king at Zela, defeated him, and in five days put an end to the war. His laconic message to the Senate, announcing his victory, is famous. It ran thus : "F€:SAR. Bust in the Museum of the Louvre.) THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 113 a real dictator. '• The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, " but the tyranny still lives." This was a bitter commentary upon the words of Brutus, who, as he drew his dagger from the body of Caesar, turned to Cicero, and exclaimed, "Rejoice, O Father of your Country, for Rome is free." Rome could not be free, the re- public could not be re-established, because the old love for virtue and liberty had died out from among the people — had been overwhelmed by the rising tide of vice, corruption, sensuality, and irreligion that had set in upon the capital. To what length Antony would have gone in his career of usurpa- tion it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by Gains Octavius, the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and successor. Upon the Senate declaring in favor of Octavius, civil war immediately broke out between him and Antony and Lepidus. After several indecisive battles between the forces of the rival competitors, Octavius proposed to Antony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The three met on a small island in the Rhenus, a little stream in northern Etruria, and there formed a league known as the Second Triumvirate (43 B.C.). The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided the world among themselves : Octavius was to have the govern- ment of the West ; Antony, that of the East ; while to Lepidus fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had marked the coming to power of Sulla (see p. 91), was then re- solved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to the assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill will of either of the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up his friend Cicero, — who had incurred the hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes, — and allowed his name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed. The friends of the orator ursred him to flee the countrv. " Let me die," said he, " in my fatherland, which I have so often saved ! " His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, towards the coast, when his pursuers came up and despatched him 114 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. in the litter in which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome, and set up in front of the rostrum, " from which he had so often addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for liberty." It is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold bodkin through the tongue, in revenge for the bitter philippics it had uttered against her husband. The right hand of the victim — the hand that had penned the eloquent orations — was nailed to the rostrum. Cicero was but one victim, among many hundreds. All the dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were re-enacted. Three hun- dred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. The estates of the wealthy were confiscated, and conferred by the tri- umvirs upon their friends and favorites. Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi (42 b.c). — The friends of the old republic, and the enemies of the triumvirs, were meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius were the ani- mating spirits. The Asiatic provinces were plundered to raise money for the soldiers of the liberators. Octavius and Antony, as soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece, to disperse the forces of the republicans there. The liberators, advancing to meet them, passed over the Hellespont into Thrace. Tradition tells how one night a spectre appeared to Brutus and seemed to say, " I am thy evil genius ; we will meet again at Phi- lippi." At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies did meet (42 b.c). In two successive engagements the new levies of the liberators were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the cause of the republic forever lost, committed suicide. It was, indeed, the last effort of the republic. The history of the events that lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment of the empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for the possession of the prize of supreme power. After various redistributions of provinces, Lepidus was at length expelled from the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 115 of Caesar and Pompey, was in the hands of two masters — Antony in the East, and Octavius in the West. Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle of PhiHppi, Antony went into Asia for the purpose of settUng the affairs of the prov- inces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. She obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms to appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus in a gilded barge, with oars of silver and sails of purple silk. Beneath awnings wrought of the richest manufactures of the East, the beautiful queen, attired to personate Venus, reclined amidst lovely attendants dressed to represent cupids and nereids. Antony was completely fascinated, as had been the great Caesar before him, by the dazzhng beauty of the " Serpent of the Nile." Enslaved by her enchantments, and charmed by her brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot all else — ambition and honor and country. The days and nights were spent in one round of banquets, games, and revelries. It is said that the queen, at the close of a banquet, in order to win a wager that she could consume 10,000,000 sesterces at one meal, dissolved, in a cup of vinegar, a pearl of fabulous worth, and then carelessly swallowed the costly draught. In ingenious ways she amused the Roman voluptuary, arraying herself now as Venus and then as Isis, while he perso- nated Bacchus and Osiris. Upon their fishing excursions she employed divers to fasten enormous fishes to the hook of her lover. Once, indeed, Antony did rouse himself and break away from his enslavement, to lead the Roman legions against the Parthians. With an army of 100,000 men he crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris, and with reckless daring plunged amidst the defiles and snowy passes of the mountains beyond. But the storms of approaching winter, and the incessant attacks of the Parthian cavalry, at length forced him to make a hurried and disastrous 116 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. retreat. The loss, the suffering, and the disgrace attending this ill-fated expedition rivalled the calamities and dishonor of the memorable defeat of Crassus. Antony hastened back to Egypt, and sought to forget his shame and disappointment amidst the revels of the Egyptian court. The Battle of Actium (31 e.g.). — Affairs could not long con- tinue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexan- dria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Csesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as heir of the empire. All Rome was stirred. It was evident that a conflict was at hand in which the question for decision would be whether the West should rule the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy, and the supporter of the sovereignty of the Eternal City. Both parties made the most gigantic preparations. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the Grecian coast. While the issue of the battle that there took place was yet undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. The Egyptian ships, to the number of fifty, followed her example. Antony, as soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else, and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel, and became her partner in the disgraceful flight. The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The conqueror was now sole master of the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 b.c.) are usually dated the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire. Some, however, make the estab- lishment of the empire date from the year 2 7 B.C., as it was not until then that Octavius was formally invested with imperial powers. Deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. — Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army, and informed by a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed suicide. This was exactly what Cleopatra anticipated he would DEATHS OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 117 do, and hoped thus to rid herself of a now burdensome lover. When, however, the dying Antony, in accordance with his wish, was borne to her, the old love returned, and he expired in her arms. Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms ; but, failing in this, and becoming convinced that he proposed to take her to Rome that she might there grace his triumph, she took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. Tradition says that she effected her purpose by applying a poison- ous asp to her arm. But it is really unknown in what way she killed herself. It is only certain that, when the chamber of the mausoleum in which she had shut herself up was one day entered by the officers of Octavius, she was found lying dead among her attendants, with no mark of injury upon her body. 118 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. B.C. Republic established and first consuls elected 509 . First secession of plebeians . , ". 494 Cincinnatus made dictator 458 Election of first decemvirs 45 1 First censors elected 444 Capture of Veii . ' 396 Sack of Rome by Gauls under Brennus 390 Samnite wars 343-290 War with Pyrrhus 282-272 First Punic War 264-241 Second Punic War 218-201 Third Punic War 149-146 Destruction of Numantia 133 First Servile War .^ 134-132 Jugurthine War in-104 Marius defeats.the Teutones and Cijnbri 102-101 Civil Wars between Marius and Sulla 88-82 Pompey defeats Mediterranean pirates 66 Conspiracy of Catiline 64-62 First triumvirate formed 60 Conquests of Caesar in Gaul and Britain 58-51 Battle of Pharsalus; Pompey flees to Egypt and is murdered ... 48 Battle of Thapsus; Caesar becomes dictator of Roman world ... 46 Murder of Caesar 44 Battle of Philippi; deaths of Brutus and Cassius 42 Republic ends with battle of Actium between Octavius and Antony . 31 REIGN OF AUGUSTUS C^SAR. 119 CHAPTER VIII. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.) Reign of Augustus Caesar (31 b.c. to a.d. 14). — The hundred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the Roman republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one wise enough and strong enough to remould its crumbling fragments in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of per- petuity and strength. "The estabHshment of the Roman empire," says Merivale, " was, after all, the greatest political work that any human being ever wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon, are not to be compared with it for a moment." The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in fact, but a repubhc in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, who fell because he gave the lovers of the republic reason to think that he coveted the title of king, Octavius carefully veiled his really absolute sovereignty under the forms of the old repub- lican state. The Senate still existed ; but so completely subjected were its members to the influence of the conqueror that the only function it really exercised was the conferring of honors and titles and abject flatteries upon its master. All the republican officials remained ; but Octavius absorbed and exercised their chief powers and functions. He had the powers of consul, tribune, censor, and Pontifex Maximus. All the republican magistrates — the consuls, the tribunes, the praetors — were elected as usual; but they were simply the nominees and creatures of the emperor. They were 120 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. the effigies and figure-heads to delude the people into beheving that the republic still existed. Never did a people seem more content with the shadow after the loss of the substance. The Sen- ate, acting under the inspiration of Octavius, withheld from him the title of king, which ever since the ex- pulsion of the Tarquins, five centuries before this time, had been intolerable to the peo- ple ; but they conferred upon him the titles of Imperator and Augustus, the latter hav- ing been hitherto sacred to the gods. The sixth month of the Roman year was called Au- gustus (whence our August) in his honor, an act in imi- tation of that by which the preceding month had been given the name of Julius in honor of Julius Caesar. The domains over which Augustus held sway were im- perial in magnitude. They stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the north were hemmed by , . . ^ \ AUGUSTUS. the forests of Germany and the bleak steppes of Scythia, and were bordered on the south by REIGN OF AUGUSTUS CMSAR. 121 the sands of the African desert and the dreary wastes of Arabia, which seemed the boundaries set by nature to dominion in those directions. Within these limits were crowded more than 100,000,- 000 people, embracing every conceivable condition and variety in race and culture, from the rough barbarians of Gaul to the refined voluptuary of the East. Octavius was the first to moderate the ambition of the Romans, and to counsel them not to attempt to conquer any more of the world, but rather to devote their energies to the work of consoli- dating the domains already acquired. He saw the dangers that would attend any further extension of the boundaries of the state. The reign of Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 3 1 b.c. to a.d. 14. It embraced the most splendid period of the annals of Rome. Under the patronage of the emperor, and that of his favorite minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the "golden age" of Latin literature. During this reign Virgil com- posed his immortal epic of the ^ngid, and Horace his famous odes ; while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his Meta- morphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the republic sought solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they were encouraged by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that * would otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against his government. Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. He adorned the capital with many splendid structures. Said he proudly, " I found Rome a city of brick ; I left it a city of mar- ble." The population of the city at this time was probably about 1,000,000. Two other cities of the empire, Antioch and Alexan- dria, are thought to have had each about this same number of citizens. These cities, too, were made magnificent with architec- tural and art embellishments. Although the government of Augustus was disturbed by some troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, did the world enjoy so long a period of general rest from the preparation and turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the 122 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. gates of the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open m time of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before during the entire history of the city had they been closed, so con- stantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. It was in the midst of this happy reign, when profound peace prevailed throughout the civilized world, that Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome ; yet it was filled with profound significance, not only for the Roman empire, but for the world. The latter years of the life of Augustus were clouded both by domestic bereavement and national disaster. His beloved nephew Marcellus, and his two grandsons, Gains and Lucius, whom he purposed making his heirs, were all removed by death ; and then, far away in the German forest, his general Varus, who had at- tempted to rule the freedom-loving Teutons as he had governed the abject Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, was surprised by the barbarians, led by their brave chief Hermann, — called Arminius by the Romans, — and his army destroyed almost to a man (a.d. 9). Twenty thousand of the legionaries lay dead and unburied in the tangled woods and morasses of Germany. The disaster caused great consternation at Rome ; for it was feared that the German tribes would now cross the , Rhine, effect an alliance with the Gauls, and then that these united hordes would pour over the Alps into Italy. Augustus, wearied and worn already with advancing age, the cares of empire, and domestic affliction, was inconsolable. He paced his palace in agony, and kept exclaiming, " O Varus ! Varus ! give me back my legions ! give me back my legions ! " But Tiberius, whom Augustus, after the death of Gains and of Lucius, had appointed his heir and suc- cessor, so carefully guarded the Rhine that the Germans did not at- tempt the passage, and Italy was saved from the threatened invasion. The victory of Arminius over the Roman legions was an event of the greatest significance in the history of European civilization. Germany was almost overrun by the Roman army. The Teutonic tribes were on the point of being completely subjugated and REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 123 Romanized, as had been the Celts of Gaul before them. Had this occurred, the entire history of Europe would have been changed ; for the Germanic element is the one that has given shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred years. Among these barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had Rome succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, as Creasy says, might never have received the name of England, and the great English nation might never have had an existence.^ In the year a.d. 14, Augustus died, having reached the seventy- sixth year of his age. His last words to the friends gathered about his bedside were, " If I have acted well my part in life's drama, greet my departure with your applause." It was believed that the soul of Augustus ascended visibly amidst the flames of his funeral pyre. By decree of the Senate divine worship was accorded to him, and temples were erected in his honor. One of the most important of the acts of Augustus, in its in- fluence upon following events, was the formation of the Praeto- rian Guard, which was designed for a sort of body-guard to the emperor. In the succeeding reign this body of soldiers, about 10,000 in number, was given a permanent camp alongside the city walls. It soon became a formidable power in the state, and made and unmade emperors at will. Reign of Tiberius (a.d. 14-37). — Tiberius succeeded to an unhmited sovereignty. The Senate conferred upon him all the titles that had been worn by Augustus. One of the first acts of Tiberius gave the last blow to the ancient republican institutions. He took away from the popular assembly the privilege of electing the consuls and praetors, and bestowed the same upon the Senate, which, however, must elect from candidates presented by the emperor. As the Senate was the creation of the emperor, who as ^ " We stand here at a turning-point in national destinies. History, too, has its flow and its ebb; here, after the tide of Roman sway over the world has attained its height, the ebb sets in. Northward of Italy the Roman rule had for a few years reached as far as the Elbe; after the battle of Varus its bounds were the Rhine and the Danube." — Mommsen. 124 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. censor made up the list of its members, he was now of course the source and fountain of all patronage. During the first years of his reign, Tiberius used his practically unrestrained authority with moderation and justice, being seemingly desirous of promoting the best interests of all classes in his vast empire. TIBERIUS. (From a Bust in the Capitoline Museum.) The beginning of his reign was marked by revolts among the legions, the most serious discontent manifesting itself among those guarding the Rhine, who wished to raise to the throne their favor- ite general Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius. But Germanicus sternly refused to take part in such an act of treachery, reproved his soldiers, and then drew their attention from such thoughts of REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 125 disloyalty by leading them across the Rhine to recover the lost standards of Varus. He was so far successful in this bold enter- prise as to retake the lost eagles and capture the wife of Arminius. But at this moment, when Germanicus seemed on the point of laying the Roman yoke upon the tribes of Germany, Tiberius, moved, it is conjectured, by jealousy,^ recalled him from the Rhen- ish frontier, and sent him into the Eastern provinces, where he soon after died, having been poisoned, as was charged, by an agent of the jealous emperor. Despotic power is a dangerous possession, likely to prove terribly harmful to him who wields it, as well as to those over whom it is exercised. Very few natures can withstand the seduc- tive temptations, the corrupting influences, of unrestrained and irresponsible authority.^ Hence the long series of excesses and crimes which we shall now find making up a large part of the annals of the Roman emperors. Whatever may have been the intentions with which Tiberius began his reign he soon yielded to the promptings of a naturally cruel, suspicious, and jealous nature, and entered upon a course of the most high-handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively an old law, known as the Law of Majestas, which made it a capital offence for any one to speak a careless word, or even to entertain 1 Other motives doubtless concurred. " They [Augustus and Tiberius] rec- ognized the plans pursued by them for twenty years for the changing of the boundary to the north as incapable of execution, and the subjugation and mas- tery of the region between the Rhine and the Elbe appeared to them to tran- scend the resources of the empire." — Mommsen. 2 " Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero [were] men whose names burnt themselves forever into the memory of the race. All these men, in different ways, illustrated the terrible efficacy of absolute world-dominion to poison the character and even to unhinge the intellect of him who wielded it. Standing as it were on the Mount of Temptation, and seeing all the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them stretched at an immeasurable distance below their feet, they were seized with a dizziness of soul, and, professing themselves to be gods, did deeds at the instigation of their wild hearts and whirling brains such as men still shudder to think of." — Hodgkin. 126 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. an unfriendly thought, respecting the emperor. " It was danger- ous to speak, and equally dangerous to keep silent," says Leighton, " for silence even might be construed into discontent." Rewards were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons called " delators," who acted as spies upon society. Often false charges were made, to gratify personal enmity ; and many, espe- cially of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that their property might be confiscated. Tiberius appointed, as his chief minister and as commander of the praetorians, one Sejanus, a man of the lowest and most corrupt life. This officer actually persuaded Tiberius to retire to the little island of Capreae, in the Bay of Naples, and leave to him the management of affairs at Rome. The emperor built several villas in different parts of the beautiful islet, and, having gathered a band of congenial companions, passed in this pleasant retreat the later years of his reign. Both Tacitus the historian and Suetonius the biographer tell many stories of the scandalous profligacy of the emperor's life on the island ; but these tales, it should be added, are discredited by some. Meanwhile, Sejanus was ruling at Rome very much according to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold as to plan the assassination of the emperor himself. His designs, hov/ever, became known to Tiberius ; and the infamous and dis- loyal minister was arrested and put to death. After the execution of his minister, Tiberius ruled more des- potically than before. Multitudes sought refuge from his tyranny in suicide. Death at last relieved the world of the monster. His end was probably hastened by his attendants, who are believed to have smothered him in his bed, as he lay dying. It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote province of the Roman empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani- mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed the length and breadth of the empire, preaching everywhere the '^glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mythol- ogies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek culture, REIGN OF CALIGULA. 127 the unification of the whole civilized world under a single govern- ment, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness of the oppressed and servile classes, — all these things had pre- pared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than three centuries the Pagan empire had become Christian not only in name, but also very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome is one of the most important events in all history. A new ele- ment is here introduced into civilization, an element which we shall find giving color and character to very much of the story of the eighteen centuries that we have yet to study. Reign of Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Gains Caesar, better known as Caligula, son of Germanicus, was only twenty-five years of age when the death of Tiberius called him to the throne. His sur- name Caligula was given him by the German legions, because, when a Httle boy, he was kept by his father in the camp, and to please the men, dressed like a little soldier with mihtary buskins {caligcB) . His career was very similar to that of Tiberius. After a few months spent in arduous application to the affairs of the empire, during which time his many acts of kindness and piety won for him the affections of all classes, the mind of the young emperor became unsettled. His rest was feverish ; and often he paced the halls of his palace the night through with wild and incoherent rav- ings. He soon gave himself up to the most detestable dissipations. The cruel sports of the amphitheatre possessed for him a strange fascination. When animals failed, he ordered spectators to be seized indiscriminately and thrown to the beasts. He even entered the lists himself, and fought as a gladiator upon the arena. Stories without number are told illustrating his insanities and extravagances. He is said to have caused persons to be tortured at his banquets, that their cries and groans might add to the enjoy- ment of the meal. He lamented that no great calamity marked his reign, such as that which had occurred in the reign of Tiberius, when 50,000 persons lost their lives in the fall of the great theatre at Fidense. In a sanguinary mood, he wished that " the people of Rome had but one neck." He built a bridge from his 128 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. palace on the Palatine to the temple on the Capitoline hill, that he might be " next neighbor " to Jupiter. In order to rival the Hellespontine bridges of Xerxes, he constructed a bridge over the bay at Baiae. The structure broke beneath the triumphal proces- sion on the day of dedication ; and Caligula, delighted with the spectacle of the struggling victims, forbade any one to attempt to save the drowning. It is said that he emulated the example of Cleopatra by dissolv- ing costly gems and drinking them at a draught. A single dinner cost ^400,000. As an insult to his nobles he gave out that he pro- posed to make his favorite horse, Incitatus, consul, and frequently invited the steed from his ivory stable to eat gilded grain at the im- perial board. He personated in turn all the gods and goddesses, arraying himself at one time as Hercules or Bacchus, and again as Juno or Venus. He declared himself divine, set up his statues for worship, and even removed the heads of Jupiter's statues and put his own in their place. During his reign he set out on an expedition against Britain ; but on reaching the sea he set his soldiers to work collecting shells along the beach, which " spoils of the ocean " he then sent back to Rome as the trophies of his enterprise, A campaign against the Germans ended at the Rhenish frontier with not cap- tives enough in his hands for a triumph ; accordingly, he hired, so the story runs, a great number of Gauls to personate German prisoners, and thus supplied the embarrassing deficiency. After four years the insane career of Cahgula was brought to a close by some of the officers of the praetorian guard whom he had wantonly insulted. Reign of Claudius (a.d. 41-54). — The reign of Claudius, Caligula's successor, was signalized by the conquest of Britain. Nearly a century had now passed since the invasion of the island by Julius Caesar, who, as has been seen (see p. 102), simply made a reconnoissance of the island and then withdrew. Claudius conquered all the southern portion of the island, and founded many colonies, which in time became important centres of Roman REIGN OF CLAUDIUS. 129 trade and culture. The leader of the Britons was Caractacus. He was taken captive and carried to Rome. Gazing in astonish- ment upon the magnificence of the imperial city, he exclaimed, "How can people possessed of such splendor at home envy Caractacus his humble cottage in Britain?" Claudius distinguished his reign by the execution of many important works. At the mouth of the Tiber he constructed a magnificent harbor, called the Portus Romanus. The Claudian Aqueduct, which he completed, was a stupendous work, bringing water to the city from a distance of forty-five miles. The delight of the people in gladiatorial shows had at this time become almost an insane frenzy. Claudius determined to give an entertainment that should render insignificant all similar efforts. Upon a large lake, whose sloping bank afforded seats for the vast multitude of spectators, he exhibited a naval battle, in which two opposing fleets, bearing 19,000 gladiators, fought as though in real battle, till the water was filled with thousands of bodies, and covered with fragments of the broken ships. Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife he married the "wicked Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son Nero. Reign of Nero (a.d. 54-68). — Nero was fortunate in having for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca ; but never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years Nero, under the influence of Seneca and Burrhus, the latter the commander of the praetorians, ruled with moderation and equity. But his own mother, Agrippina, intrigued against him in favor of a younger son ; and Nero, after failing in an attempt to drown her while she was crossing the bay at Baiae, secured her death by the hand of an assassin. He now broke away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity. The dagger and poison were in constant demand. The use of the latter had become a " fine art " 130 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. in the hands of a regular profession. Both were employed almost unceasingly to remove persons that had incurred his hatred, or who possessed wealth that he coveted. Like Caligula, he degraded the imperial purple by contending in the gladiatorial combats of the arena and in the games of the circus. It was in the tenth year of his reign that the so-called Great Fire laid more than half of Rome in ashes. Temples, monu- ments, and buildings of every description were swept away by the flames, that surged like a sea through the valleys and about the base of the hills occupied by the city. The people, in the dismay of the moment, were ready to catch up any rumor respect- ing the origin of the fire. It was reported that Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted, and that from the roof of his palace he had enjoyed the spectacle, and amused himself by singing a poem which he himself had written, entitled the "Sack of Troy." Nero did everything in his power to discredit the rumor. He went in person amidst the sufferers, and distributed money with his own hand. To further turn attention from himself, he accused the Christians of having conspired to destroy the city, in order to help out their prophecies. The doctrine which was taught by some of the new sect respecting the second coming of Christ, and the destruction of the world by fire, lent color to the charge. The persecution that followed was one of the most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. Many victims were covered with pitch and burned at night, to serve as torches in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this Neronian persecu- tion. As to Rome, the conflagration was a blessing in disguise. Requisitions of money and material were made upon all the Roman world for the rebuilding of the burnt districts. The city rose from its ashes as quickly as Athens from her ruins at the close of the Persian wars. The new buildings were made fire- proof; and the narrow, crooked streets reappeared as broad and beautiful avenues. Water was distributed from the aqueducts REIGN OF NERO. 131 through all the houses and grounds. A considerable portion of the burnt region was appropriated by Nero for the buildings and grounds of an immense palace, called the " Golden House." It covered so much space that the people " maliciously hinted " that Nero had fired the old city in order to make room for it. The emperor secured money for his enormous expenditures by new extortions, murders, and confiscations. No one of wealth knew but that his turn might come next. A conspiracy was formed among the nobles to relieve the state of the monster. The plot was discovered, and again " the city was filled with funerals." Lucan the poet, and Seneca, the old preceptor of Nero, both fell victims to the tyrant's rage. Nero now made a tour through the East, and there plunged deeper and deeper into every shame, sensuality, and crime. The tyranny and the disgrace were no longer endurable. Almost at the same moment the legions in several of the provinces revolted. The Senate decreed that the emperor was a public enemy, and condemned him to a disgraceful death by scourging, to avoid which he instructed a slave how to give him a fatal thrust. His last words were, " What a loss my death will be to art ! " Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian line. The family of the Great Caesar was now extinct ; but the name remained, and was adopted by all the succeeding emperors. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — These three names are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all short and uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the legions in different quarters supported the claims of their favor- ite leaders. One after another the three aspirants named were killed in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last, Vitellius, was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Vespasian, the old and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine, which were at this time engaged in war with the Jews. Reign of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). — The accession of Flavins Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three 132 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. reigns, known as the Flavian Age (a.d. 69-96). Vespasian's reign was signalized both by important military achievements abroad and by stupendous pubhc works undertaken at Rome. After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history, Jerusalem was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The Temple was destroyed, and more than a million of Jews that were crowded in the city are believed to have perished. Great multitudes suffered death by COIN OF VESPASIAN. crucifixion. The miserable remnants of the nation were scattered everywhere over the world. Josephus, the great historian, accom- panied the conqueror to Rome. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the Temple of its sacred utensils, and bore them away as trophies. Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be seen at the present day the sculptured represen- tation of the golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials of the war. In the opposite corner of the em.pire a dangerous revolt of the Gauls was suppressed, and in the island of Britain the Roman commander Agricola subdued or crowded back the native tribes until he had extended the frontiers of the empire into what is now Scotland. Then, as a protection against the incursions of the Caledonians, the ancestors of the Scottish Highlanders, he con- structed a line of fortresses from the Frith of Forth to the Frith of Clyde. Vespasian rebuilt the Capitoline temple, which had been burned during the struggle between his soldiers and the adherents of Vitellius ; he constructed a new forum which bore his own name ; and also began the erection of the celebrated Flavian amphi- theatre, which was completed by his successor. After a most REIGN OF TITUS. 133 prosperous reign of ten years, Vespasian died a.d. 79, the first emperor after Augustus that did not meet with a violent death. At the last moment he requested his attendants to raise him upon his feet that he might "die standing," as befitted a Roman emperor. TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS. (Showing the Seven-branched Candlestick and Other Trophies fronn the Temple at Jerusalem.) Reign of Titus (a.d. 79-81). — In a short reign of two years Titus won the title, the " Delight of Mankind." He was un- wearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors. Hav- ing let a day slip by without some act of kindness performed, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, " I have lost a day." Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheatre begim by his father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which accom- modated more than 80,000 spectators, is better known as the Colosseum — a name given it either because of its gigantic pro- portions, or on account of a colossal statue of Nero which hap- pened to stand near it. 134 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The reign of Titus, though so short, was signaHzed by two great disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the destruction, by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny the Elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the moun- tain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life.^ STREET IN POMPEII. (A Reconstruction.) Domitian — Last of the Twelve Caesars (a.d. 81-96). — Domi- tian, the brother of Titus, was the last of the hne of emperors 1 In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the ruins were discovered by some persons engaged in digging a well, and since then extensive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large part of Pompeii, and revealed to us the streets, homes, theatres, baths, shops, temples, and various monuments of the ancient city — all of which presents to us a very vivid picture of Roman life during the imperial period, eighteen hundred years ago. 25 THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER TRAJAN A.D.II7. / THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS. 135 known as " the Twelve Caesars." The title, however, was assumed by, and is applied to, all the succeeding emperors : the sole rea- son that the first twelve princes are grouped together is because the Roman biographer Suetonius completed the lives of that number only. Domitian's reign was an exact contrast to that of his brother Titus. It was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, confis- cations, and murders. Under this emperor took place what is known in church history as " the second persecution of the Chris- tians." This class, as well as the Jews, were the special objects of Domitian's hatred, because they refused to worship the statues of himself which he had set up (see p. 141). The last of the Twelve Caesars perished in his own palace, and by the hands of members of his own household. The Senate ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monu- ments, and to be blotted from the records of the Roman state. The Five Good Emperors: Reign of Nerva (a.d. 96-98). — The five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two An- tonines — that succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate, which during this period assumed something of its former weight and influence in the affairs of the empire. The wise and benefi- cent administration of the government by these rulers secured for them the enviable distinction of being called " the five good emperors." Nerva died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the sceptre passed into the stronger hands of the able com- mander Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in the government. Reign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117). — Trajan was a native of Spain, and a soldier by profession and talent. His ambition to achieve mihtary renown led him to undertake distant and important con- quests. It was the policy of Augustus — a policy adopted by most of his successors — to make the Danube in Europe and the Euphrates in Asia the limits of the Roman empire in those respec- tive quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his dominions beyond both these rivers, scorning to permit Nature, 136 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. by these barriers, to mark out the confines of Roman sovereignty. He crossed the Danube by means of a bridge, the foundations of which may still be seen, and subjugated the bold and warlike Dacian tribes lying behind that stream — tribes that had often threatened the peace of the empire. After celebrating his victories in a magnificent tri- umph at Rome, Trajan turned to the East, led his legions across the Euphrates, re- duced Armenia, and wrested from the Parthians most of the territory which anciently formed the heart of the As- syrian monarchy. To Tra- jan belongs the distinction of extending the boundaries of the empire to the most distant points to which Ro- man ambition and prowess were ever able to push them. But Trajan was something besides a soldier. He had a taste for Hterature : Juve- nal, Plutarch, and the younger Pliny wrote under his pat- ronage ; and, moreover, as is true of almost all great conquerors, he had a perfect passion for building. Among the great works with which he embellished the capital was the Trajan Forum. Here he erected the celebrated marble shaft known as Trajan's column. It is T47 feet high, and is wound from base to summit with a spiral band of sculptures, containing more than 25,000 human TRAJAN. REIGN OF TRAJAN. 137 figures. The column is nearly as perfect to-day as when reared eighteen centuries ago. It was intended to commemorate the Dacian conquests of Trajan ; and its pictured sides are the best, and almost the only, record we now possess of those wars. Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Pliny the Younger to the emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus, in Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny was governor. BESIEGING A DACIAN CITY. (From Trajan's Column ) Pliny speaks of the new creed as a '' contagious superstition, that had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new doctrines. Notwithstanding this, however, because the Christians steadily refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many to be put to death for their " inflexible obstinacy." Trajan died a.d. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the Roman people. Reign of Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138). — Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He possessed great ability, and displayed admirable moderation and prudence in the 138 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. administration of the government. He gave up the territory con- quered by Trajan in the East, and made the Euphrates once more the boundary of the empire in that quarter. He also broke down the bridge that Trajan had built over the Danube, and made that stream the real frontier hne, notwithstanding the Roman garrisons were still maintained in Dacia. Hadrian saw plainly that Rome could not safely extend any more widely the frontiers of the empire. Indeed, so active and threatening were the enemies of the empire in the East, and so dar- ing and numerous had now become its barbarian assailants of the North, that there was reason for the greatest anxiety lest they should break through even the old and strong lines of the Danube and the Euphrates, and pour their devastating hordes over the provinces. More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of the empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman possessions there against the Picts and Scots by erecting a contin- uous wall across the island. Next he journeyed through Gaul and Spain, and then visited in different tours all the remaining countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. He as- cended the Nile, and, traveller-like, carved his name upon the vocal Memnon. The cities which he visited he decorated with temples, theatres, and other monu- ments. Some places, however, including Antioch, which received their emperor ungraciously, he neglected to make the recipients of his royal liberality. The atmosphere of Athens, with its HADRIAN. REIGN OF HADRIAN. 1 39 schools and scholars, was especially congenial to his inquiring spirit j and upon that city he lavished large sums in art adorn- ments until it almost seemed as though the Periclean Age had returned to the Attic capital. In the year 131, the Jews in Palestine, who had in a measure recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of the statue of Jupiter in the Holy Temple. More than half a milHon of Jews perished in the useless struggle, and the survivors were driven into exile — the last dispersion of the race. The latter years of his reign Hadrian passed at Rome. It was here that this princely builder erected his most splendid structures. Among these was the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian, an immense structure surmounted by a gilded dome, erected on the banks of the Tiber, and designed as a tomb for himself (see p. 189). ^ With all his virtues, Hadrian was foolishly vain of his accom- plishments, impatient of contradiction, and often most unrea- sonable and imperious. It is related that he put to death the architect Apollodorus for venturing to criticise the royal taste in some architectural matter. Favorinus, the rhetorician, was evidently more judicious ; for when asked " why he suffered the emperor to silence him in an argument on a point of gram- mar, he replied, * It is ill disputing with the master of thirty legions.' " The Antonines (a.d. 138-180). — Aurelius Antoninus, surnamed Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the Roman empire an administration singularly pure and parental. Of him it has been said that " he was the first, and, saving his colleague and successor AureHus, the only one of the emperors who devoted himself to the task of government with a single view to the happiness of his people." Throughout his long reign of twenty-three years, the empire was in a state of profound peace. The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking events, which fact, as many have not failed to observe, illustrates 140 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. admirably the oft-repeated maxim, " Happy is that people whose annals are brief." Antoninus, early in his reign, united with himself in the govern- ment his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death of the former (a.d. i6i) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and work. His studious habits won for him the title of " Philosopher." He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful writer. His Meditations breathe the tenderest sentiments of devo- tion and benevolence, and make the nearest approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of Pagan antiquity. He estab- lished an institution or home for orphan girls ; and, finding the poorer classes throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and greatly in arrears in paying them, he caused all the tax-claims to be heaped in the Forum and burned. The tastes and sympathies of Aure- Uus would have led him to choose a life passed in retirement and study at the capital ; but hostile movements of the Parthians, and especially invasions of the barbarians along the Rhenish and Danubian frontiers, called him ANTONINUS PIUS. ' ,r, o •■ ..u D . ^/, ^ from his books, and forced him to (From a Com in the Berlin Museum.) ' spend most of the latter years of his reign in the camp. The Parthians, who had violated their treaty with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the emperor, and Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority. This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic, the superstitious people were led to believe that it was the new sect of Christians that had called down upon the nation the anger of the gods. Aurelius permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted THE ANTONINES. 141 against them, during which the celebrated Christian fathers and bishops, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, suffered death. It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under the Pagan emperors sprung from poHtical rather than rehgious mo- tives, and that this is why we find the names of the best emperors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was beheved that the welfare of the state was bound up with the care- ful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they required that men of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods, and burn incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily refused to do. Their neglect of the service of the temple, it was beheved, angered the gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the main reason of their persecution by the Pagan emperors. But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North. The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts, and pouring impetuously over the frontiers. To the panic of the plague was added this new terror. Aurelius placed himself at the head of his legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many years, amidst the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to beat back the assailants of the empire. Once his army was completely surrounded, and his soldiers were dying of thirst, when a violent thunder-storm not only relieved their sufferings, but also struck such terror into the bar- barians as to scatter them in flight. The Romans thought that Jupiter Tonans had interfered in their behalf; but the Christians that made up the twelfth legion maintained that God had sent the rain in answer to their prayers. The Christians received the title of the ** Thundering Legion " ; while upon the Column of Aurelius at Rome — where it may still be seen — was carved the scene in which Olympian Jove the Thunderer is represented " raining and lightening out of heaven." 142 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The efforts of the devoted AureHus checked the inroads of the barbarians ; but he could not subdue them, so weakened was the empire by the ravages of the pestilence, and so exhausted was the treasury from the heavy and constant drains upon it. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numerous cam- paigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna) , in the nineteenth year of his reign (a.d. i8o). The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a god, and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of the Antonines. As Merivale, in dwelhng upon their virtues, very jusdy remarks, " the blameless career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse for Csesarism in all after-ages." ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS. (From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.) Augustus reigns . 31 B.C. to a.d. 14 Tiberius a.d. 14-37 Caligula 37-41 Claudius 41-54 Nero 54-68 Galba 68-69 Otho 69 Vitellius 69 Vespasian 69-79 Titus a.d. 79-81 Domitian 81-96 Nerva . ^ 96-98 Trajan 98-117 Hadrian "7-138 Antoninus Pius . \. . . . 1 38-1 61 Marcus Aurelius . . . . 161-180 Verus associated with Au- relius 161-169 The first eleven, in connection with Julius Caesar, are called the Twelve Caesars. The last five (excluding Verus) are known as the Five Good Emperors. 143 UNDZR THE EMPIRE SCALE OF YARDS m 500 I, Colosseum. I.S. Pantheon. 2. Arch of Constantine. 16. Theatre of Pompey. 3- Arch of Titus. 17- Portico of Pompey. 4- Via Sacra. 18. Circus Flaminius. 5- Via Nova. 19. Theatre of Marcellus. 6. Vicus Tuscus. 20. Forum Holitorium. 7- Vicus Jugarius. 21. Forum Boarium, 8. Arch of Septimius Severus. 22. Mausoleum of Augustus. 9- Clivus Capitolinus. 23- Mausoleum of Hadrian. lO. Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. 24. Baths of Constantine. II. Arch. 25- Baths of Diocletian. 12. Column of Trajan. 26. Baths of Titus. 13- Column of Antonine. 27. Baths of Caracalla. 14. Baths of Agrippa. 28. Amphitheatrum Castrense 144 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER IX. THE ROMAN EMPIRE (a.d. 180-476) : PAGANISM AND CHRIS- TIANITY; THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. (a.d. 180-476.) Reign of Commodus (a.d. 180-192). — Under the wise and able administration of " the five good emperors " — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines — the Roman empire reached "its culmination in power and prosperity; and now, under the enfeebling influences of vice and corruption within, and the heavy blows of the barbarians without, it begins to decline rapidly to its fall. Commodus, son of Mar- cus Aurelius, and the last of the Antonines, was a most unworthy successor of his illustrious father. For three years, however, surrounded by the able generals arid wise counsel- lors that the prudent ad- ministration of the preced- ing emperors had drawn to the head of affairs, Commodus ruled with fairness and lenity, when an unsuccessful conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to kindle all the slumbering passions of a Nero. He secured the favor of the rabble with the shows of the amphitheatre, and purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes and flat- COMMODUS (as Hercules). ''THE BARRACK EMPERORSr 145 teries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne, while perpetrating all manner of cruelties, and staining the impe- rial purple with the most detestable debaucheries and crimes. Commodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats, and attired in a lion's skin, and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological monsters, and armed with great sponges for rocks. The Senate, so obsequiously servile had that body become, conferred upon him the title of the Roman Her- cules, and also voted him the additional surnames of Pius and Felix, and even proposed to change the name of Rome and call it Colonia Commodiana. The empire was finally re- lieved of the insane tyrant by some members of the royal household, who anticipated his designs against themselves by putting him to death. " The Barrack Emperors." — For nearly a century after the death of Commodus (from a.d. 192 to 284), the emperors were elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period have been called " the Barrack Emperors." The character of the period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors who mounted the throne during this time, all except four came to their deaths by violence. " Civil war, pestilence, bankruptcy, were all brooding over the empire. The soldiers had forgotten how to fight, the rulers how to govern." On every side the barbarians were breaking into the empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. PR/CTORIANS. 146 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The Public Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). — The beginning of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on the part of the praetorians. Upon the death of Commodus, Per- tinax, a distinguished senator, was placed on the throne ; but his efforts to enforce discipline among the praetorians aroused their anger, and he was slain by them after a short reign of only three months. These soldiers then gave out notice that they would sell the empire to the highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for sale at the praetorian camp, and struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who gave ^1000 to each of the 12,000 soldiers at this time composing the guard. So the price of the empire was about ^12,000,000. But these turbulent and insolent soldiers at the capital of the empire were not to have things entirely their own way. As soon as the news of the disgraceful' transaction reached the legions on the frontiers, they rose as a single man in indignant revolt. Each of the three armies that held the Euphrates, the Rhine, and the Danube, proclaimed its favorite commander emperor. The leader of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great energy and force of character. He knew that there were other competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was soon at Rome. The praetorians were no match for the trained legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend their emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a reign of sixty-five days. Reign of Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-2 n). — One of the first acts of Severus was to organize a new body-guard of 50,000 legionaries, to take the place of the unworthy praetorians, whom, as a punishment for the insult they had offered to the Roman state, he disbanded, and banished from the capital, and forbade to approach within a hundred miles of its walls. He next crushed his two rival competitors, and was then undisputed master of the empire. He put to death forty senators for having favored his late rivals, and completely destroyed the power of that body. REIGN OF CARACALLA. 147 Committing to the prefect of the new praetorian guard the man- agement of affairs at the capital, Severus passed the greater part of his long and prosperous reign upon the frontiers. At one time he was chastising the Parthians beyond the Euphrates, and at another, pushing back the Caledonian tribes from the Hadrian wall in the opposite corner of his dominions. Finally, in Britain, in his camp at York, death overtook him. Reign of Caracalla (a.d. 211-217). — Severus conferred the empire upon his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla mur- dered his brother, and then ordered Papinian, the celebrated jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of the fratricide. When that great lawyer refused, saying that " it was easier to com- mit such a crime than to justify it," he put him to death. Thou- sands fell vic- tims to his senseless rage. Driven by re- morse and fear, he fled from the capital, and wandered about the most distant provinces. A t Alexandria, o n account of some uncomplimentary remarks by the citizens upon his appearance, he ordered a general massacre. Finally, after a reign of six years, the monster was slain in a remote corner of Syria. Caracalla's sole pohtical act of real importance was the be- stowal of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the empire ; and this he did, not to give them a just privilege, but that he might collect from them certain special taxes which only Roman citizens 148 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. had to pay. Before the reign of Caracalla it was only particular classes of subjects, or the inhabitants of some particular city or province, that, as a mark of special favor, had, from time to time, been admitted to the rights of citizenship (see pp. 85-87). By this wholesale act of Caracalla, the entire population of the empire was made Roman, at least in name and nominal privilege, " The city had become the world, or, viewed from the other side, the world had become the city " (Merivale). Reign of Elagabalus (a.d. 218-222). — Upon the death of Caracalla, the purple was assumed by Macrinus, the officer who had instigated the murder of the emperor. He remained in the East, where the severity of his discipUne caused the soldiers who had raised him to power to revolt. The garrison at Emesa set up as emperor Elagabalus, a beautiful boy who in that place officiated as high priest in the temple of the Syrian sun-god, and whom the soldiers were led to believe was the son of the murdered Caracalla. The legions that adhered to Macrinus were quickly crushed, and he himself was slain. So un-Roman had the Romans become that this Oriental priest, thus thrust forward by the Syrian legions, was at once recognized at Rome by both Senate and people as their emperor. He carried to Italy all his Eastern notions and manners, and there entered upon a short reign of four years, characterized by all those extravagances and cruel follies that are so apt to mark the rule of an Asiatic despot. His palace was the scene of the most profligate dissipation. He even' created a senate of women whose duty it was to attend to matters of dress, calls, amuse- ments, and etiquette. The praetorians, at length tiring of their priest-emperor, put him to death, threw his body into the Tiber, and set up in his place Alexander Severus, a kinsman of the murdered prince. Reign of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222-235). — Severus restored the virtues of the Age of the Antonines. His administration was pure and energetic ; but he strove in vain to resist the corrupt and downward tendencies of the times. He was assassinated. THE THIRTY TYRANTS. 149 after a reign of fourteen years, by his seditious soldiers, who were angered by his efforts to reduce them to discipUne. They invested with the imperial purple an obscure officer named Maximin, a Thracian peasant, whose sole recommendation for this dignity was his gigantic stature and his great strength of limbs. Rome had now sunk to the lowest possible degradation. We may pass rap- idly over the next fifty years of the empire. The Thirty Tyrants (a.d. 251-268). — Maximin was followed swiftly by Gordian, Philip, and Decius, and then came what is TRIUMPH OF SAPOR OVER VALERIAN. called the " Age of the Thirty Tyrants." The imperial sceptre being held by weak emperors, there sprung up, in every part of the empire, competitors for the throne — several rivals frequently appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed upon all the frontiers, and thrust themselves into all the provinces. The empire seemed on the point of falling to pieces.^ But a 1 It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (a.d. 253-260), in a battle with the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king. A large rock tablet (see cut above), still to be seen near the Persian town of Shiraz, is believed to com- memorate the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor. 150 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. fortunate succession of five good emperors — Claudius, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus (a.d. 268-284) restored for a time the ancient boundaries and again forced together into some sort of union the fragments of the shattered state. The Fall of Palmyra (a.d. 273). — The most noted of the usurpers of authority in the provinces during the period of anarchy of which we have spoken was Odenatus, Prince of Palmyra, a city occupying an oasis in the midst of the Syrian Desert, midway between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. In gratitude for the aid he had rendered the Romans against the Parthians, the Senate had bestowed upon him titles and honors. When the empire began to show signs of weakness and approaching disso- lution, Odenatus conceived the ambitious project of erecting upon its ruins in the East a great Palmyrian kingdom. Upon his death, his wife, Zenobia, succeeded to his authority and to his ambitions. This famous princess claimed descent from Cleopatra, and it is certain that in the charms of personal beauty she was the rival of the Egyptian queen. Boldly assuming the title of " Queen of the East," she bade defiance to the emperors of Rome. Aurelian marched against her, and, defeating her armies in the open field, drove them within the walls of Palmyra. After a long siege the city was taken, and, in punishment for a second uprising, given to the flames. The adviser of the queen, the celebrated rhetorician Longinus, was put to death ; but Zenobia was spared, and carried a captive to Rome. Aft^r having been led in golden chains in the triumphal procession of Aurelian, the queen was given a beautiful villa in the vicinity of Tibur, where, surrounded by her children, she passed the remainder of her checkered life.^ The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains of Roman or Grecian civilization in the East. For a long time the site even of the city was lost to the civilized world. The Bedouins, however, knew the spot, and told strange stories of a ruined city with splendid temples and long colonnades far away 1 Read Ware's Zenobia and Aurelian. REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN. 151 in the Syrian Desert. Their accounts awakened an interest in the wonderful city, and towards the close of the seventeenth century some explorers reached the spot. The sketches they brought back of the ruins of the long-lost city produced almost as much astonishment as did the discoveries afterwards of Botta and Layard at Nineveh. Hadrian, the Antonines, and other Roman emperors aided the ambitious Palmyrians in the architectural adornment of their capital. The principal features of the ruins are the remains of the great Temple of the Sun, and of the colonnade, which was almost a mile in length. Many of the marble columns that flanked this magnificent avenue are still erect, stretching in a long line over the desert. Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305). — The reign of Diocletian marks an important era in Roman history. Up to this time the imperial government had been more or less carefully concealed under the forms and names of the old republic. The government now became an unveiled and absolute monarchy. Diocletian's r e f o r m s , though radical, were salutary, and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of the dying state as to give it a new lease of life for another term of nearly two hundred years. He determined to divide the nu- merous and increasing cares of the distracted empire, so that it might be ruled from two centres — one in the East and the other in the West. In pursuance of this plan^ he chose as a colleague a companion soldier, Maximian, upon whom he conferred the title of Augustus. After a few years, finding the cares of the co-sovereignty still too heavy, each sovereign associated with himself an assistant, who took the title of Caesar, and was considered the son and heir of the DIOCLETIAN. 152 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. emperor. There were thus two August! and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy, became the capital and residence of Maximian ; while Nic- omedia, in Asia Minor, became the seat of the court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge of the countries near their respective capi- tals, while the younger and more active Caesars were assigned the government of the more distant and turbulent provinces. The vigorous administration of the government in every quarter of the empire was thus secured. The authority of each of the rulers was supreme within the territory allotted him ; but all acknowledged Diocletian as " the father and head of the state." The most serious drawback to the system of government thus instituted was the heavy expense incident to the maintenance of four courts with their trains of officers and dependents. The taxes became unendurable, husbandry ceased, and large masses of the population were reduced almost to starvation. While the changes made in the government have rendered the name of Diocletian noted in the political history of the Roman state, the cruel persecutions which he ordered against the Chris- tians have made his name in an equal degree prominent in ecclesi- astical annals ; for it was during this reign that the tenth — the last and severest — of the persecutions of the Church took place. By an imperial decree the churches of the Christians were ordered to be torn down, and they themselves were outlawed. For ten years the fugitives were hunted in forest and cave. The victims were burned, were cast to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre, were put to death by every torture and in every mode that inge- nious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake the constancy of their faith. They courted the death that secured them, as they firmly believed, immediate entrance upon an existence of unending happiness. The exhibition of devotion and constancy shown by the martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith. It was during this and the various other persecutions that vexed the Church in the second and third centuries that the Christians sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast subterranean galleries and chambers under the city of Rome. Here the Christians lived REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN. 153 CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD. (From the Catacombs.) and buried their dead, and on the walls of the chambers sketched rude symbols of their hope and faith. It was in the darkness of these subterranean abodes that Christian art had its beginnings. After a prosperous reign of twenty years, becoming weary of the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated the throne, and forced or induced his colleague Max- imian also to lay down his au- thority on the same day. Gale- rius and Constantius were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made Augusti ; and two new associates were appointed as Caesars. Diocletian, having en- joyed the extreme satisfaction of seeing the imperial authority quietly and successfully transmitted by his system, without the dic- tation of the insolent praetorians or the interference of the turbulent legionaries, now retired to his country-seat at Salona, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural pursuits. It is related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to en- deavor, with him, to regain the power they had laid aside, he replied : " Were you but to come to Salona and see the vegeta- bles which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire." Reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) ; the Empire becomes Christian. — Galerius and Constantius had reigned to- gether only one year, when the latter died at York, in Britain ; and his soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine em- peror. Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. For eighteen years Constantine fought to gain supremacy. At the end of that time every rival was crushed, and he was the sole ruler of the Roman world. 154 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Constantine was the first Christian emperor. He was con- verted to the new rehgion — such is the story - — by seeing in the heavens, during one of his campaigns against his rivals, a luminous cross with this inscription : " In this sign you will conquer." ^ He made the cross the royal standard ; and the Roman legions now for the first time marched beneath the emblem of Christi- anity.^ By a decree issued from Milan, a.d. 313, Christianity was made in effect the state religion ; but all other forms of worship were tolerated. With the view of harmonizing the different sects that had sprung up among the Christians, and to settle the controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians respecting the nature of Christ, — the former denied his equality with God the Father, — Constantine called the first CEcumenical, or General Council of the Church, at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, a.d. 325. Arianism was denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted, which is known as the Nicene Creed. After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, as the new capital of the empire. One reason which led the ^em- peror to choose this site in preference to Rome was the ungra- cious conduct towards him of the inhabitants of the latter city, because he had abandoned the worship of the old national deities. But there were pohtical reasons for such a change. Through the Eastern conquests of Rome, the centre of the population, wealth, and culture of the empire had shifted eastward. The West — Gaul, Britain, Spain — was rude and barbarous ; the East — Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor — was the abode of ancient civilizations from which Rome was proud to trace her origin. Constantine was not the first to entertain the idea of seeking in the East a ^ In Latin, In hoc signo vinces. 2 The new standard was called the Labarum (from the Celtic lavar, mean- ing command). It consisted of a banner inscribed with the Greek letters XP, the first being a symbol of the Cross, and both forming a monogram of the word Christ. The letters are the initials of the Greek Christos. 2S THE ROMAN EMPIRE divided into PREFECTURES. L IS REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 155 new centre for the Roman world. The Italians were inflamed against the first Caesar by the report that he intended to restore Ilium, the cradle of the Roman race, and make that the capital of the empire. Constantine organized at Byzantium a new Senate, while that at Rome sank to the obscure position of the council of a provincial municipahty. Multitudes eagerly thronged to the new capital, and almost in a night the little colony grew into an imperial city. In honor of the emperor its name was changed to Constantinople, the " City of Constantine." Hereafter the eyes of the world were directed towards the Bosphorus instead of the Tiber. To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine laid out the empire into four great divisions, called prefectures (see map), which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and these again into one hundred and sixteen provinces. The character of Constantine has been greatly eulogized by Christian writers, while Pagan historians very naturally painted it in dark colors. It is probable that he embraced Christianity, not entirely from conviction, but partly from political motives. As the historian Hodgkin puts it, " He was half convinced of the truth of Christianity, and wholly convinced of the poHcy of em- bracing it." If his course was dictated by considerations of policy, events justified his forecast ; for it was the enthusiasm of his Christian legions, wrought to an intense fervor by the sight of the new emblem, that gave to Constantine his victory over his last rival on the field of Adrianople. In any event, Constantine's religion was a strange mixture of the old and the new faith : on his medals the Christian cross is held by the pagan deity Victory. In his domestic relations he was tyrannical and cruel. He put to death his son Crispus for no better reason, it is believed, than that he was jealous of his rising fame ; his wife he ordered to be smothered in the bath ; he killed his sister, and drove his mother to death with grief and despair. He died in the thirty-first year of his reign, leaving his kingdom to his three sons, Constans, Constantius, and Constantine. 156 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Reign of Julian the Apostate (a.d. 361-363). — The parcel- hng out of the empire by Constantine among his sons led to strife and wars, which, at the end of sixteen years, left Constan- tius master of the whole. He reigned as sole emperor for about eight years, engaged in ceaseless warfare with German tribes in the West and with the Persians^ in the East. Constantius was followed by his cousin Julian, who was killed while in pursuit of the troops of Sapor, king of the Persians (a.d. 363). Julian is called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity and labored to restore the Pagan faith. In his persecution of the Christians, however, he could not resort to the old means — *' the sword, the fire, the lions " ; for, under the softening influ- ences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman world had already learned a gentleness and humanity that rendered impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecu- tions. Julian's weapons were sophistry and ridicule, in the use of which he was a master. To degrade the Christians, and place them at a disadvantage in controversy, he excluded them from the schools of logic and rhetoric. Furthermore, to cast discredit upon the predictions of the Scriptures, Julian determined to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, which the Christians contended could not be restored because of the prophecies against it. He actually began excavations, but his workmen were driven in great panic from the spot by terrific explosions and bursts of flame. The Christians regarded the occurrence as miraculous ; and Julian himself, it is certain, was so dismayed by it that he desisted from the undertaking.^ 1 The great Parthian empire, which had been such a formidable antagonist of Rome, was, after an existence of five centuries, overthrown by a revolt of the Persians (a.d, 226), and the New Persian or Sassanian monarchy estab- lished. This empire lasted till the country was overrun by the Saracens in the seventh century A.D. 2 The explosions which so terrified the workmen of Julian are supposed to have been caused by accumulations of gases — similar to those that so fre- quently occasion accidents in mines — in the subterranean chambers of the Temple foundations. MOVEMENTS OF THE BARBARIANS. 157 It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live. Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old Grecian and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a transitional form of religious belief which the world had now outgrown : great Pan was dead. The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363-364), and the Christian worship was re-established. Valentinian and Valens. — Upon the death of Jovian, Valen- tinian, the commander of the imperial guard, was elected emperor by a council of the generals of the army and the ministers of the court. He appointed his brother Valens as his associate in office, and assigned to him the Eastern provinces, while reserving for himself the Western. He set up his own court at Milan, while his brother established his residence at Constantinople. The Movements of the Barbarians. — The reigns of Valen- tinian and Valens were signalized by threatening movements of the barbarian tribes, that now, almost at the same moment, began to press with redoubled energy against all the barriers of the em- pire. The Alemanni (Germans) crossed the Rhine — sometimes swarming over the river on the winter's ice — and, before pursuit could be made, escaped with their booty into the depths of the German forests. The Saxons, pirates of the northern seas, who issued from the mouth of the Elbe, ravaged the coasts of Gaul and Britain, even pushing their light skiffs far up the rivers and creeks of those countries, and carrying spoils from the inland cities. In Britain, the Picts broke through the Hadrian Wall, and wrested almost the entire island from the hands of the Romans. In Africa, the Moorish and other tribes, issuing from the ravines of the Atlas Mountains and swarming from the deserts of the south, threatened to obliterate the last trace of Roman civilization occupying the narrow belt of fertile territory skirting the sea. The barbarian tide of invasion seemed thus on the point of 158 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. overwhelming the empire in the West ; but for twelve years Val- entinian defended with signal ability and energy not only his own territories, but aided with arms and counsel his weaker brother Valens in the defence of his. Upon the death of Valentinian, his son Gratian succeeded to his authority (a.d. 375). The Goths cross the Danube. — The year following the death of Valentinian, an event of the greatest importance occurred in the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the Lower Danube, who had often in hostile bands crossed that river to war against the Roman emperors, now appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said that a terrible race, whom they were powerless to withstand, had invaded their terri- tories, and spared neither their homes nor their lives. They begged permission of the Romans to cross the river and settle in Thrace, and promised, should this request be granted, ever to remain the grateful and firm allies of the Roman state. Valens consented to grant their petition on condition that they should surrender their arms, give up their children as hostages, and all be baptized in the Christian faith.^ Their terror and de- spair led them to assent to these conditions. So the entire nation, numbering 1,000,000 souls, — counting men, women, and chil- dren, — were allowed to cross the river. Several days and nights were consumed in the transport of the vast multitudes. The writers of the times liken the passage to that of the Hellespont by the hosts of Xerxes. The enemy that had so terrified the Goths were the Huns, a monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen, that two centuries and more before the Christian era were roving the deserts north of the Great Wall of China.^ Migrating from that region, they moved slowly to the West, across the great plains of Central Asia, and, ^ It is somewhat doubtful whether this last condition was really a part of the agreement. 2 A great rampart extending for about fifteen hundred miles along the northern frontier of China. It was built by the Chinese towards the end of the third century B.C. as a barrier against the forays of the Huns. THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE. 159 after wandering several centuries, appeared in Europe. They belonged to a different race (the Turanian) from all the other European tribes with which we have been so far concerned. Their features were hideous, their noses being flattened, and their cheeks gashed, to render their appearance more frightful as well as to prevent the growth of a beard. Even the barbarous Goths called them "barbarians." Scarcely had the fugitive Visigoths been received within the limits of the empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by the same terrible Huns, crowded to the banks of the Danube, and pleaded that they might be allowed, as their countrymen had been, to place the river between themselves and their dreaded enemies. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so many barbarians within his dominions, refused their request ; whereupon they, dreading the fierce and implacable foe behind more than the wrath of the Roman emperor in front, crossed the river with arms in their hands. It now came to light that the cupidity of the Roman officials had prevented the carrying out of the stipulations of the agreement between the emperor and the Visigoths respecting the relinquish- ment of their arms. The barbarians had bribed those intrusted with the duty of transporting them across the river, and purchased the privilege of retaining their weapons. The persons, too, detailed to provide the multitude with food till they could be assigned lands, traded on the hunger of their wards, and doled out the vilest provisions at the most extortionate prices. (We seem here to be listening to a recital of the unscrupulous conduct of Indian agents of our own frontiers.) As was natural, the injured nation rose in indignant revolt. Joining their kinsmen that were just now forcing the passage of the Danube, they commenced, under the lead of the great Friti- gern, to overrun and ravage the Danubian provinces. Valens despatched swift messengers to Gratian in the West, asking for assistance against the foe he had so unfortunately admitted within 160 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. the limits of the empire. Meanwhile, he rallied all his forces, and, without awaiting the arrival of the Western legions, risked a battle with the barbarians near Adrianople. The Roman army was almost annihilated. Valens himself, being wounded, sought ,, refuge in the cabin of a peasant ; but the building was fired by the savages, and the emperor was burned alive (a.d. 378). The Goths now rapidly overran Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly, ravaging the country to the very walls of Constantinople. Theodosius the Great (a.d. 379-395). — Gratian was hurrying to the help of his colleague Valens, when news of his defeat and death at the hands of the barbarians was brought to him, and he at once appointed as his associate Theodosius, known afterwards as the Great, and intrusted him with the government of the Eastern provinces. Theodosius, by wise and vigorous measures, quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Vast multitudes of the Visigoths were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while the Ostrogoths were scattered in various colonies in different regions of Asia Minor. The Goths became allies of the Emperor of the East, and more than 40,000 of these warlike barbarians, who were destined to be the subverters of the empire, were enlisted in the imperial legions. While Theodosius was thus composing the East, the West, through the jealous rivalries of different competitors for the con- trol of the government, had fallen into great disorder. Theodosius twice interposed to right affairs, and then took the government into his own hands. For four months he ruled as sole monarch of the empire. Final Division of the Empire (a.d. 395). — The Roman world was now united for the last time under a single master. Just before his death, Theodosius divided the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigning the former, who was only eighteen years of age, the government of the East, and giving the latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of the West. This was the final partition of the Roman empire — the issue of that growing tendency, which we have observed in its immoderately THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 161 extended dominions, to break apart. The separate histories of the East and the West now begin. The Eastern Empire. — The story of the fortunes of the Em- pire in the East need not detain us long at this point of our history. This monarchy lasted over a thousand years — from the accession to power of Arcadius, a.d. 395, to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus be seen that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period. Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in the West, the sovereigns of the East were engaged almost incessantly in sup- pressing uprisings of their Gothic allies or mercenaries, or in repelling invasions of the Huns and the Vandals. Frequently dur- ing this period, in order to save their own territories, the Eastern emperors, by dishonorable inducements, persuaded the barbarians to direct their ravaging expeditions against the provinces of the West. ' Last Days of the Empire in the West. First Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Only a few years had elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius, before the bar- barians were trooping in vast hordes through all the regions of the West. First, from Thrace and Moesia came the Visigoths, led by the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass of Thermopylae, and devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece ; but, being driven from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal gen- eral ^ of Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps, and spread terror throughout all Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously, and, attacking them at a favorable moment, inflicted a terrible and double defeat upon them at Pollentia and Verona (a.d. 402-403). The captured camp was found filled with the spoils of Thebes, Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the remnants of his shattered ^ Hodgkin makes the following suggestive comparison : " Stilicho [and others like him] were the prototypes of the German and English officers who in our own day have reorganized the armies or commanded the fleets of the Sultan, and led the expeditions of the Khedive." 162 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. army, Alaric forced his way with difficulty through the defiles of the Alps, and escaped. Last Triumph at Rome (a.d. 404). — A terrible danger had been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutones were recalled, and the name of StiUcho was pronounced with that of Marius. A mag- nificent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory and the deliver- ance. The youthful Honorius and his faithful general Stilicho rode side by side in the imperial chariot. It was the last triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred times — such is asserted to be the number — the Imperial City had witnessed the triumphal pro- cession of her victorious generals, celebrating conquests in all quarters of the world. Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheatre. — The same year that marks the last military triumph at Rome also signalizes the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheatre. It is to Christianity that the credit of the suppression of the inhuman exhibitions of the amphitheatre is entirely, or almost entirely, due. The Pagan philosophers usually regarded them with indifference, often with favor. Thus Pliny commends a friend for giving a glad- iatorial entertainment at the funeral of his wife. And when the Pagan moralists did condemn the spectacles, it was rather for other reasons than that they regarded them as inhuman and absolutely contrary to the rules of ethics. They were defended on the ground that they fostered a martial spirit among the people and inured the soldier to the sights of the battle-field. Hence gladiatorial games were actually exhibited to the legions before they set out on their campaigns. Indeed, all classes appear to have viewed the matter in much the same light, and with exactly the same absence of moral disapprobation, that we ourselves regard the slaughter of animals for food. But the Christian fathers denounced the combats as absolutely immoral, and labored in every possible way to create a public opinion against them. The members of their own body who attended the spectacles were excommunicated. At length, in THE INVASION OF ITALY. 163 A.D. 325, the first imperial edict against them was issued by Constantine. This decree appears to have been very little re- garded ; nevertheless, from this time forward the exhibitions were under something of a ban, until their final abohtion was brought about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk, named Telemachus, descending into the arena, rushed between the combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles thrown by the people, who were angered by this interruption of their sports. But the people soon repented of their act ; and Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the scene. Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched the heart of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an imperial edict "which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphi- theatre." Invasion of Italy by Various German Tribes. — While Italy was celebrating her triumph over the Goths, another and more formidable invasion was preparing in the north. The tribes be- yond the Rhine — the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, and other peoples — driven onward by some unknown cause, poured in impetuous streams from the forests and morasses of Germany, and bursting the barriers of the Alps, overspread the devoted plains of Italy. The alarm caused by them among the Italians was even greater than that inspired by the Gothic invasion ; for Alaric was a Christian, while Radagaisus, the leader of the new hordes, was a superstitious savage, who paid worship to gods that required the bloody sacrifice of captive enemies. By such efforts as Rome put forth in the younger and more vigorous days of the republic, when Hannibal was at her gates, an army was now equipped and placed under the command of Stilicho. Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced as far as Florence, and were now besieging that place. Stilicho here surrounded the vast host — variously estimated from 200,000 to 400,000 men — and starved them into a surrender. Their chief, Radagaisus, was put 164 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. to death, and great numbers of the barbarians that the sword and famine had spared were sold as slaves (a.d. 406) . The Ransom of Home (a.d. 409). — Shortly after the victory of Stilicho over the German barbarians, he came under the suspi- cion of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. Thus fell the great general whose sword and counsel had twice saved Rome from the barbarians, and who might again have averted similar dangers that were now at hand. Listening to the rash counsels of his unworthy advisers, Honorius provoked to revolt the 30,000 Gothic mercenaries in the Roman legions by a mas- sacre of their wives and children, who were held as hostages in the different cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the Alps joined with their kinsmen to avenge the perfidious act. Alaric again crossed the mountains, and pillaging the cities in his way, led his hosts to the very gates of Rome. Not since the time of the dread Hannibal (see page 65) — more than six hundred years before — had Rome been insulted by the presence of a foreign foe beneath her walls. The barbarians by their vast number were enabled to completely surround the city, and thus cut it off from its supplies of food. Famine soon forced the Romans to sue for terms of surrender. The ambassadors of the Senate, when they came before Alaric, began, in lofty and unbecoming language, to warn him not to render the Romans desperate by hard or dishonorable terms : their fury when driven to despair, they represented, was terrible, and their number enormous. " The thicker the grass, the easier to mow it," was Alaric's derisive reply. The barbarian chieftain at length named the ransom that he would accept and spare the city : " All the gold and silver in the city, whether it were the property of individuals or of the state ; all the rich and precious movables ; and all the slaves that could prove their title to the name of barbarian." The amazed commissioners, in deprecating tones, asked, " If such, O king, are your demands, what do you intend to leave us?" "Your lives," responded the conqueror. The ransom was afterwards considerably modified and reduced. THE SACKING OF ROME. 165 It was fixed at *' 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 of silver, 4000 silken robes, 3000 pieces of scarlet cloth, and 3000 pounds of pepper." The last-named article was much used in Roman cook- ery, and was very expensive, being imported from India. Meri- . vale, in contrasting the condition of Rome at this time with her ancient wealth and grandeur, estimates that the gilding of the roof of the Capitoline temple far exceeded the entire ransom, and that it was four hundred times less than that (five milliards of francs) demanded of France by the Prussians in 187 1. Small as it com- paratively was, the Romans were able to raise it only by the most extraordinary measures. The images of the gods were first stripped of their ornaments of gold and precious stones, and finally the statues themselves were melted down. Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410). — Upon retiring from Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. Here he was joined by great numbers of fugitive slaves, and by fresh accessions of barbarians from beyond the xA.lps. The Gallic king now de- manded for his followers lands of Honorius, who, with his court, was safe behind the marshes of Ravenna ; but the emperor treated all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. Rome paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the devoted city, deter- mined upon its sack and plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital by night, " and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet." Precisely eight hun- dred years had passed since its sack by the Gauls. During that time the Imperial City had carried its victorious standards over three continents, and had gathered within the temples of its gods and the palaces of its nobles the plunder of the world. Now it was given over for a spoil to the fierce tribes from beyond the Danube. Alaric commanded his soldiers to respect the lives of the peo- ple, and to leave untouched the treasures of the Christian temples ; but the wealth of the citizens he encouraged them to make their own. For six days and nights the rough barbarians trooped through the streets of the city on their mission of pillage. Their 166 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. wagons were heaped with the costly furniture, the rich plate, and the silken garments stripped from the palaces of the wealthy patricians and the temples of the gods. Amidst the license of the sack, the barbarian instincts of the robbers broke loose from all restraint, and the city was everywhere wet with blood, while the nights were lighted with burning buildings. Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The overwhelming disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a profound impression upon both Pagans and Christians throughout the Ro- man world. The former asserted that these unutterable calamities had fallen upon the Roman state because of the abandonment by the people of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, under whose protection and favor Rome had become the mistress of the world. The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of the Eternal City the fulfilment of the prophecies against the Babylon of the Apocalypse. The latter interpretation of the appalling calamity gained credit amidst the panic and despair of the times. The temples of the once popular deities were deserted by their worshippers, who had lost faith in gods that could neither save themselves nor protect their shrines from spoliation. " Hence- forth," says Merivale, "the power of paganism was entirely broken, and the indications which occasionally meet us of its continued existence are rare and trifling. Christianity stepped into its de- serted inheritance. The Christians occupied the temples, trans- forming them into churches." The Death of Alaric. — After withdrawing his warriors from Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved slowly on, they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains with the rich spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other districts of Southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the rough bar- barians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled cellars, and drank from jewelled cups the famed Falernian wine. Alaric led his soldiers to the extreme southern point of Italy, intending to cross the Straits of Messina into Sicily, and, after subduing that island, to carry his conquests into the provinces of SEIZURE OF THE WESTERN PROVINCES. 167 Africa. His designs were frustrated by his death, which occurred A.D. 412. With rehgious care his followers secured the body of their hero against molestation by his enemies. The little river Busentinus, in Northern Bruttium, was turned from its course with great labor, and in the bed of the stream was constructed a tomb, in which was placed the body of the king, with his jewels and tro- phies. The river was then restored to its old channel, and, that the exact spot might never be known, the prisoners who had been forced to do the work were all put to death. The Barbarians seize the Western Provinces. — We must now turn our eyes from Rome and Italy to observe the movement of events in the provinces. In his efforts to defend Italy, Stilicho had withdrawn the last legion from Britain, and had drained the camps and fortresses of Gaul. The Hadrian Wall was left unmanned ; the passages of the Rhine were left unguarded ; and the agitated multitudes of barbarians beyond these defences were free to pour their innumerable hosts into all the fair provinces of the empire. Hordes of Suevi, Alani, Vandals, and Burgundians overspread all the plains and valleys of Gaul. The Vandals pushed on into the South of Spain, and there occupied a large tract of country, which, in its present name of Andalusia, preserves the memory of its barbarian settlers. From these regions they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, overran the Roman provinces of Northern Africa, captured Carthage (a.d. 439), and made that city the seat of the dread empire of the Vandals. The Goths, with Italy pillaged, recrossed the Alps, and establishing their camps in the south of Gaul and the north of Spain, set up in those regions what is known as the Kingdom of the Visigoths. In Britain, upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions, the Picts breaking over the wall of Hadrian, descended upon and pillaged the cities of the South. The half- Romanized and effeminate pro- vincials — no match for their hardy kinsmen who had never bowed their necks to the yoke of Rome — were driven to despair by the ravages of their relentless enemies, and, in their helplessness, in- vited to their aid the Angles and Saxons from the shores of the 168 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. North Sea. These people came in their rude boats, drove back the invaders, and, being pleased with the soil and climate of the island, took possession of the country for themselves, and became the ancestors of the English people. Invasion of the Huns: Battle of Chalons (a.d. 451). — The barbarians that were thus overrunning and parcelling out the inher- itance of the dying empire were now, in turn, pressed upon and terrified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than were they in the sight of the peoples among whom they had thrust themselves. These were the non-Aryan Huns, of whom we have already caught a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths across the Danube. At this time their leader was Attila, whom the affrighted inhabitants of Europe called the "Scourge of God." It was declared that the grass never grew again where once the hoof of Attila's horse had trod. Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern emperor, and exacted tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west- ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted, 700,000 warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, purposing first to ravage that province, and then to traverse Italy with fire and sword, in order to destroy the last vestige of the Roman power. The Romans and their Gothic conquerors laid aside their ani- mosities, and made common cause against a common enemy. The Visigoths were ralHed by their king, Theodoric ; the Itahans, the Franks, the Burgundians, flocked to the standard of the Roman general Aetius. Attila drew up his mighty hosts upon the plain of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited the onset of the Romans and their allies. The conflict was long and terrible. Theodoric was slain ; but at last fortune turned against the bar- barians. The loss of the Huns is variously estimated at from 100,000 to 300,000 warriors. Attila succeeded in escaping from the field, and retreated with his shattered hosts across the Rhine (A.D. 451). This great victory is placed among the significant events of jiistory; for it decided that the Christian Germanic races, and DEATH OF ATT/LA. 169 not the pagan Scythic Huns, should inherit the dominions of the expiring Roman Empire, and control the destinies of Europe. The Death of Attila. — The year after his defeat at Chalons, Attila again crossed the Alps, and burned or plundered all the important cities of Northern Italy. The Veneti fled for safety to the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (a.d. 452). Upon the islets where they built their rude dwellings, there grew up in time the city of Venice, the " eldest daughter of the Roman Empire," the " Carthage of the Middle Ages." The conqueror threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop of the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila, and pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila the fact that death had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had given the Imperial City to be sacked, and warned him not to call down upon himself the like judgment of heaven. To these ad- monitions of the Christian bishop was added the persuasion of a golden bribe from the Emperor Valentinian ; and Attila was induced to spare Southern Italy, and to lead his warriors back beyond the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube, he died suddenly in his camp, and like Alaric was buried secretly, — and " no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." His fol- lowers gradually withdrew from Europe into the wilds of their native Scythia, or were absorbed by the peoples they had con- quered.^ 1 There is much uncertainty respecting the part which the warriors of Attila may have taken in the formation of the later Hungarian state in Europe. That appears to have owed its origin to another invading band of the same people, that entered Europe several centuries later. " It is at least certain," says Creasy, " that the Magyars of Arpad, who are the immediate ancestors of the bulk of the modern Hungarians, and who conquered the country which bears the name of Hungary in a.d, 889, were of the same stock of mankind as the Huns of Attila, if they did not belong to the same subdivision of that stock. Nor is there any improbal)ility in the tradition that after Attila's death many of his warriors remained in Hungary, and that their descendants afterwards joined the Huns of Arpad in their career of conquest. It is certain that Attila made Hungary the seat of his empire." — Decisive Batiies, p. 157. 170 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455). — Rome had been saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new de- struction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. The kings of the Vandal Empire in Northern Africa had acquired as perfect a supremacy in the Western Mediterranean as Carthage ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal cor- sairs swept the seas and harassed the coasts of Sicily and Italy, and even plundered the maritime towns of the Eastern provinces. In the year 455 a Vandal fleet, led by the dread Geiseric (Gen- seric), sailed up the Tiber. These barbarians had been exhorted by the Roman empress Eudoxia to come and avenge the murder of her husband Valen- tinian and her forced alliance with a senator named Maximus, who, being invested with the purple, had forced the widowed queen to accept the hand stained, as many believed, with the blood of her own husband. Panic seized the people ; for the name Vandal was pronounced with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had once before saved his flock from the fury of an Attila, went forth to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Geiseric granted to the pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but said that the plunder of the capital belonged to his warriors. For fourteen days and nights the city was given over to the ruthless barbarians. The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid with their number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been the wagons of the Goths before them, with the rich and weighty spoils of the capital. Palaces were stripped of their ornaments and furniture, and the walls of the temples denuded of their statues and of the trophies of a hundred Roman victories. From the Capitoline sanctuary were borne off the golden candlestick and other sacred articles that Titus had stolen from the Temple at Jerusalem. The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Car- FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 171 thage/ bearing, besides the plunder of the city, more than 30,000 of the inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barba- rian conquerors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (see p. 75), The cruel fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged city that the Vandals left behind them. Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 476). — Only the shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. All the prov- inces — Illyricum, Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa — were in the hands of the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Angles and Saxons, and various other intruding tribes. Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil of the insatiable barbarians. The story of the twenty years following the sack of the capital by Geiseric affords only a repetition of the events we have been narrating. During these years several pup- pet emperors were set up by the different leaders of the invading tribes. A final seditious movement placed upon the shadow- throne a child of six years, son of Orestes, the leading spirit of the new revolution. By what has been called a freak of fortune, this boy-sovereign bore the name of Romulus iVugustus, thus uniting in the name of the last Roman Emperor of the West the names of the founder of Rome and of the establisher of the empire. Not so much on ac- count of his youth as from contempt excited by the imperial farce he was forced to play, this emperor became known as Augustulus — "the httle Augustus." He reigned only one year, when Odo- vaker (Odoacer), the leader of the Heruli — a small but formid- able German tribe, all of whom claimed royal descent — having demanded one-third of the lands of Italy, to divide among his fol- lowers for services rendered the empire, and having been refused, 1 The fleet was overtaken by a storm and suffered some damage, but the most precious of the relics it bore escaped harm. " The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, and lodged in Con- stantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale. 172 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. put Orestes to death, and dethroned the child-emperor. His Hfe was spared, and his friends were permitted to take him into retirement in the villa of LucuUus, in Campania. The Roman Senate now sent an embassy to Constantinople, with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial office, to represent to the Emperor Zeno that the West was willing to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that the German chief, with the title of " Patrician," might rule Italy as his viceroy. This was granted ; and Italy now became in effect a province of the Empire in the East (a.d. 476). The Roman Empire in the West had come to an end, after an existence from the founding of Rome of 1229 years. i.liiii* iBiiiiilliliillil unrrrmiTTrn SARCOPHAGUS OF CORNELIUS SCIPIO BARBATUS, (Consul 298 B.C.) kOMAN EMPERORS. 173 ROMAN EMPERORS FROM COMMODUS TO ROMULUS AUGUSTUS. (a.d. 180-476.) A.D. Commodus 180-192 Pertinax 193 Didius Julianus 193 Septimius Severus .... 193-21 1 ^ Caracalla 211-217 i Geta 21 1-2 1 2 Macrinus 217-218 Elagabalus 218-222 Alexander Severus .... 222-235 Maximin 235-238 Gordian III 238-244 Philip 244-249 Decius 249-251 Period of the Thirty Tyrants 251-268 Claudius 268-270 Aurelian 270-275 Tacitus 275-276 Probus 276-282 Carus 282-283 ( Carinus 283-284 \ Numerian 283-284 A.D. ( Diocletian 284-305 1 Maximian 286-305 ^ Constantius 1 305-306 ^ Galerius 305-3" Constantine the Great . . . 306-337 Reigns as sole ruler . . . 323-337 Constantine II 337-34^ Constans 1 337-350 Constantius II 337-36i Reigns as sole ruler . . . 350-361 Julian the Apostate . . . 361-363 Jovian 363-364 j Valentinian 1 364-375 ( Valens (in the East) . . 364-378 Gratian 375-383 Maximus 383-388 Valentinian II 375-392 Eugenius 392-394 Theodosius the Great . . . 379-395 Reigns as sole emperor . 394-395 FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (A.I). 395-) EMPERORS IN THE EAST. (From A.D. 395 to Fall of Rome.) A.D. Arcadius 395-408 Theodosius II 40S-450 Marcian 450-457 Leo 1 457-474 Zeno 474-491 EMPERORS IN THE WEST. A.D. Honorius 395-423 Valentinian III 425-455 Maximus 455 Avitus 455-456 Count Ricimer creates and deposes emperors . . , 456-472 Romulus Augustus .... 475-476 174 ARCHITECTURE, CHAPTER X. ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE ROMANS. Architecture. Introductory. — We purpose in the present section to say something further respecting the great architectural works of the ancient Romans, any extended description of which before this time would have broken the continuity of our narrative. An examination of these as they stood before time and violence laid defacing hands upon them, or as they appear now after the decay and spohation of many centuries, will tend to render more real, and to impress more deeply upon our minds, the story we have been following (see Frontispiece) . Greek Origin of Roman Architecture : the Arch. — The architecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. They not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed, but they gave their structures a distinct character by the prominent use of the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders seldom employed, though they were acquainted with its properties. By means of it the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the largest buildings, carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest val- leys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have resisted all the assaults of time and flood to the present day. Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in general so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time and space to enter into a particular description of them.^ Mention, 1 The most celebrated of Roman temples was the Capitoline, which crowned the Capitoline Hill at Rome. At the close of the Punic Wars the roof of the central portion of the building was covered with gilded tiles at an almost fabulous expense, — $20,000,000 according to some authorities. The brazen THEATRES AND AMPHITHEATRES. 175 however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as this was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best repre- sentative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon ^ at Rome, which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderful preservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. The immense stone dome which vaults the building is one of the boldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders of the world. The temple is fronted by a splendid portico, forming a thick grove of columns, through which entrance is given to the shrine. The doors were of bronze, and still remain in place. It was built about 25 B.C. by the consul M. Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, and was consecrated to Jupiter the Avenger. The edifice is now a Christian sanctuary, being known as The Church of All the Saints. Circuses, Theatres, and Amphitheatres. — The circuses of the Romans were what we should call race-courses. There were several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus, which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and after- wards enlarged as the population of the capital increased, until finally, at the time of Constantine, which emperor made the last extension, it was capable of holding probably two or three hun- dred thousand spectators.- It was oblong in shape, being about 1800 feet long and 600 feet wide. From the course, or track, the seats rose in tiers the same as in a theatre. From the uppermost row of seats rose high buildings with several stories of balconies like the boxes overhanging the modern stage. The sloping sides of the valley were taken advantage of in the formation of the seats. The only remaining trace of this stupendous structure is the terraced appearance of the low encircling hills. It doors of the temple were also adorned with solid plates of gold. The interior decorations were of marble and silver. The walls were crowded with the trophies of war. We have already learned of the fate of the treasures of the sanctuary at the hands of the barbarian Goths and Vandals (see pp. 165, 170). 1 From two Greek words, /book. He seems to have been on the whole successful in avoiding disagreeable extremes. {Nov. 20, 1889.) A. H. Fetterolf, Pres. Girard Col- lege, Philadelphia, Pa. : Dr. Myers has succeeded in making not only a very instructive but also a very en- tertaining book. I keep it on my desk, and whenever I have a few mo- ments unoccupied I take it up, and I never turn to a page that does not have some things that interest me. The important events of the world's history are given in a nut-shell. I hope to have it placed on our list of text-books. ( Oc<. 9, 1889.) Miss Alice Gladden, Teacher of History, High School, Columbus, 0. : I do not know of any general history so interesting and so well adapted to the needs of a high school class as this new work of Mr. Myers. {Nov. 22, 1889.) H. S. Kritz, Prin. Prep. Dept. Wabash Coll., Craiofordsville, Ind. : The author has successfully accom- plished a difiicult task — that of making a mere outline of history interesting. The selection and group- ing of the matter have been done with great judgment and taste, and a degree of unity and completeness has been secured rarely found in such works. The maps and illustrations add much to the convenience and utility of the book. The beautiful paper, clear type and substantial binding will all be appreciated. {Oct. 15, 1889.) A. J. Steele, Prin. Le Moyne Nor- mal Institute, Memphis, Teiin. : Myers' is a most excellent book and is securing results in the study that we have never before obtained. {Nov. 15, 1889.) 118 HISTORY. Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. From the Battle of Adrianople to the death of Charlemagne (a.d. S78-814:) . By Ephraim Emerton, Professor of History in Harvard Uni- versity. 12mo. Cloth, xviii + 268 pages. Mailing Price, $1.25 ; for introduction, f 1.12. npHIS work aims to give, in simple narrative form, an account of tlie settlement of the Germanic peoples on E,oman soil, the gradual rise of the Frankish supremacy, the growth of the Chris- tian Church and its expression in the monastic life and in the Roman Papacy, and finally the culmination of all in the Empire of Charlemagne, The text is supplemented with maps, lists of works for reference, accounts of the contemporaneous material on which the narrative is based, and suggestions to teachers upon topics and methods of special study. Contents : Chapter I. The Romans to a.d. 375. H, The Two Races. in. The Breaking of the Frontier by the Visigoths. IV. Vandals and Burgundians. V. Invasion of the Huns. VI. The Germans in Italy. VII. The Franks to 638. VIII. Germanic Ideas of Law. IX. Rise of the Christian Church. X. Franks and Mohammedans. Dagobert to Charles Martel. XI. The Monks of the West. XII. The Franks from Charles Martel to Charlemagne. XIII. Charlemagne King of the Franks. XIV. Foundation of the Mediaeval Empire. XV. The Beginnings of the Feudal System. George P. Fisher, Prof, of Eccle- siastical History , Yale College: It is an admirable guide to both teachers and pupils in the tangled period of which it treats. The work is the fruit of diligent investigation; it is concise, but, at the same time, lucid and interesting. Anson D. Morse, Prof, of History Historia do Brazil. and Political Economy, Amherst College : It is excellent, and I shall recommend it to my classes. P. V. N. Myers, President Belmont College, Ohio : I have read the book with great interest. It is a work of rare historical insight. ... The book is indispensable to any student of the history of the Mediaeval Ages. Resume da Historia do Brazil, para uso das escolas primarias Brazileiras. Pela Professora Maria G. L. de Andrade. 12mo. Cloth, x + 231 pages. Illustrated. Mailing Price, 85 cents; for Introduction, 75 cents. T^HIS is a history of Brazil from the earliest times to the year 1848, written in the Portuguese language. It is believed to be the best work of its kind extant, and will be found also an excel- lent reading-book for students of Portuguese. HISTORY. 119 The Leading Facts of English History. By D. H. Montgomery. New edition. Rewritten and enlarged, with Maps and Tables. 12mo. Cloth. 448 pages. Mailing Price, $1.25. Introduction Price, $1.12; Allowance for old book. 35 cents. npHE former edition has been rewritten, as it had become evi- dent that a work on the same plan, but more comprehensive, and better suited to prevailing courses and methods of class-work, would be still more heartily welcomed. Important events are treated with greater fulness, and the rela- tion of English History to that of Europe and the world is carefully shown. References for further study are added. The text is in short paragraphs, each with a topical heading in bold type for the student's use. The headings may be made to serve the purpose of questions. By simply passing them over, the reader has a clear, continuous narrative. The treatment of each reign is closed with a brief summary of its principal points. Likewise, at the end of each period there is a section showing the condition of the country, and its progi*ess in Government, Religion, Military Affairs, Learning and Art, General Industry, Manners and Customs. These summaries will be found of the greatest value for reference, review, and fuller study ; but when the book is used for a brief course, or for general reading, they may be omitted. No pains have been spared to make the execution of the work equal to its plan. Vivid touches here and there betray the author's mastery of details. Thorough investigation has been made of all points where there was reason to doubt traditional statements. The proof-sheets have been carefully read by two experienced high- school teachers, and also by two college professors of history. The text is illustrated wnth fourteen maps, and supplemented with full genealogical and chronological tables. It is believed that this book will be acknowledged superior — 1. In interest. 2. In accuracy. 3. In judicious selection of matter. 4. In conciseness combined with adequacy. 5. In philosophical insight free from speculation or theorizing. 6. In completeness. 7. In availability as a practical class-room book. 120 HISTORY. Send for tlie special circular, from -wliich. are taken the following Representative Opinions : — Hon. E. J. Phelps, United States Minister to Great Britain: In my opinion, the author has done ex- tremely well a much-needed work, in presenting in so terse, clear, and available form the principal points in that greatest of all histories, the common property and most useful study of the English-speaking race. Professor Goldwin Smith: The book, besides being very attractive in appearance, seems to be very suit- able for the purpose in view, viz., to present school pupils with a clear and intelligent idea of the main facts of English history in connection with the social and industrial development of the nation. E. B. Andrews, Prof, of History, Brown University : I do not remem- ber to have seen any book before which sets forth the leading facts of English History so succinctly, and at the same time so interestingly and clearly. A. L. Perry, Prof, of Political Economy, Williams College : I have never seen anything at all equal to it for the niche it was intended to fill. J. B. Clark, Prof, of History, Smith College: 1 especially like its intro- duction of matter relating to the life of the people, in a way that seems to make the narrative less dry, rather than more so, as so often happens. Jas. F. Colby, Prof, of Law and Political Science, Dartmouth Col- lege : Its title is a true description of its contents. Its author shows sense of proportion, and wisely gives prom- inence to economic facts and the development of constitutional prin- ciples. (Ocf. 27,1887.) P. V. N. Myers, Pres. of Belmont College : The book was an admirable one as first issued, but the careful revision and the addition of maps and tables have added greatly to its value. In my judgment it is by far the best English History for school-room use now before the public. W. F. Allen, Prof, of History, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, Madison: As I have said in relation to the earlier edition, the author has succeeded in an unusual degree in telling the story of English History in an interesting and suggestive manner, keeping clear of the prevailing fault of loading his pages with unessential names and dates. (Nov. 22, 1887.) F. B. Palmer, Principal of State Normal School, Fredonia, N.Y.: I have not examined anything that seems to me equal to it for a class in English History. John Fiske, Prof, of History, Washington University: It seems to me excellent. Francis A. Cooke, Teacher of History, Penn Charter School, Phil- adelphia, Pa. : My verdict on Mont- gomery's History is unqualified approval. I have not seen a text- book upon English History so well adapted to school use. C. B. Gilbert, Prin. of High School, St. Paul, Minn. : In many respects I consider it the best text-book on English History for high schools that I have seen. Its arrangement is ex- cellent, its style clear and very at- tractive. {Nov. 22, 1887.) Frank E. Plummer, Prin. of High School, Des Moines, la. : I examined it very carefully, and pronounce it the best English History for high- school use of any with which I am familiar. (Nov. 29, 1887.) HISTORY. 121 The Leading Facts of French History. By D. H. Montgomery, Author of The Leading Facts of English His- tory, English History Reader, etc. 12mo. Cloth, vi + 321 pages, with fourteen black and colored maps, and full tables. Mailing Price, $1.25; for Introduction, $1.12. T^HE object of this volume is to present, within the moderate compass of two hmidred and ninety-two pages, the most im- portant events of the history of France, selected, arranged, and treated according to the soundest principles of historical study, and set forth in a clear and attractive narrative. The respective influences of the Celtic race, and of the Roman and the German conquest and occupation of Gaul are clearly shown. Charlemagne's work and the subsequent growth of feudal insti- tutions are next considered. The breaking up of the feudal system, with the gradual consoli- dation of the provinces into one kingdom, and the development of the sentiment of nationality, are traced and illustrated. The growth of the absolutism of the crown, the interesting and important relations of France to America, and the causes of the French Revolution, are fully presented. The career of Napoleon and its effects on France and Europe are carefully examined. Finally, a sketch is given of the stages of the historical progress of France in connection with the state of the Republic to-day. G. W. Knight, Prof, of History, Ohio State University : I do not know another book which, in any- thing like the same space, conveys for youthful students so good a no- tion of French events. A. H. Fetterolf, Pres. of Girard College : I like it very much. It is an excellent book and I trust soon to have it used in Girard College. Edward G. Bourne, Prof, of His- tory, Adelbert College: I have no hesitation in pronouncing it the best French history of its scope that I bave seen. It is clear and accurate, and shows unusual skill in the selec- tion of matter as well as judgment in emphasizing the political signifi- cance of events. The Nation, Heio York : It is a marked advance on any available work of its scope. The author has shown competent judgment in the choice of his facts and his style is clear and interesting. The propor- tions are well observed, and the po- litical significance of events is given due prominence in his treatment. So far as wa have noticed, unuFual accuracy has been achieved. 122 HISTORY. English History Reader. By D. H. Montgomery. 12mo. Cloth, xxxiv + 254 pages, with a colored map. Mailing Price, 85 cents ; for introduction, 75 cents. rpHIS is the first edition of Montgomery's Leading Facts of Eng^ lish History. The book has clearly demonstrated its value for reading purposes, and the price has been reduced to make it gen- erally available for this use. W. P. Atkinson, Prof, of English ous, and the references seem to me and History, Massachusetts Institute very well selected. I cordially rec- of Technologij, Boston : It is that ommend it to all students and teach- uncommon kind of book, a readable ers of English history, short sketch. It is fresh and vigor- (^Jan. 3, 1886.) Pilgrims and Puritans. By Miss N. Moore. Square 16mo. Cloth, viii + 197 pages. Illustrated. Mailing Price, 70 cents ; for introduction, 60 cents. npmS is a book of easy reading, containing sketches of the early days of Massachusetts, — Massachusetts Indians, the Pilgrims of Plymouth, English Boston, William Blackstone, John Winthrop, Extracts from Wood''s New England's Prospect, with notes and appendix. It is intended for children who have not yet begun or are just beginning the study of United States History, and to supplement or prepare the way for the ordinary text-book. It has already been used by children under ten years of age. It is provided with maps and illustrations. The Reader's Guide to English History. By William Francis Allen, A.M., Professor in the University of Wisconsin. Long 8vo. Paper. 50 pages. Mailing Price, 30 cents ; Introduction, 25 cents. The Supplement can be had separately; Mailing Price, 10 cents. nPHE arrangement is that of four parallel columns upon two opposite pages : the first column giving the English sovereigns ; the second, histories, biographies, and essays; the third, novels, poems, and dramas illustrating that period of English history: the fourth, the same class of works, illustrating contemporary history. HISTORY. 123 Washington and His Country. By Washington Irving and John Fiske. 654 pages, including 13 maps. r2mo. Cloth: Mailing price, .^1.10; for introduction, $1.00. Boards: 85 and 75 cents. QUESTIONS have been prepared to facilitate the use of the work as a text-book of United States history. Paper. 88 pages. Introduction price, 15 cents. nnHIS consists of Irving's Life of Washington, judiciously abridged by John Fiske, and supplemented with an Introduction and a Continuation by Mr. Fiske that make the work in effect a His- tory of the United States. It is anticipated that this History will be cordially welcomed and will exert a great influence upon present methods and courses of study. It will be found to com- bine many peculiar excellences. 1 . History is taught through biography. This secures the great- est interest, unity, and clearness, and, at the same time, the greatest moral value. 2. The history is presented in a readable outline. The salient points are fully and vividly set forth, and cannot fail to impress the memory and the imagination. 3. The pupil has before him in this book the thought and lan- guage of an acknowledged master of English. 4. The abridging and the supplementing have been done by one exceptionally competent. The Introduction and the Continuation are masterly sketches, unequalled by anything hitherto published. Thus, while acquiring a knowledge of facts and events, the pupil is gaining a love for history and literature, moulding his diction by a classic author, and ennobling his character by contemplating one of the grandest types of humanity. There will be less of mechani- cal study and more of the real, less committing to memory of trivial facts, and a firmer grasp of the important ones. W. E. Buck, Supt. of Schools, Manchester, N.U. : I cannot think of another book so desirable for col- lateral reading by pupils studying history in the common schools. E. H. Russell, Prin. of Normal School, Worcester, Mass. : I have ordered a supply for class use. It seems to me the most noteworthy ^ook that has appeared in this field for years. I recommend it right and left without reserve. Thomas M. Balliet, Supt. of Schools, Sprinr/Jield, Mass. : It can be used as a text-book on U. S. History; and as a book for supple- mentary reading on the subject, I don't know of anything else equal to it. {Jan. 20, 1888.) HISTORY. Ccesar's Army. A study of the military art of the Romans in the last days of the Re- public. By Harry Pratt Judson, Professor of History, University of Minnesota. With illustrations and colored maps. 12mo. Cloth, x + 108 pages. Mailing price, $1.10 ; to teachers and for introduction, $1.00. rpmS little book is an attempt to reconstruct Csesar's Army so as to give a clear idea of its composition and evolutions. It is hoped that students of Caesar's writings and students of military science alike may find interest in such a study. The Commentaries of Caesar are the story of his wars. They are military history. It is true that they were intended largely for civilian readers at Rome. Still, they imply throughout a certahi amount of military knowledge that all Roman citizens were sup- posed to have. The modern student can hardly be said to read understandingly, unless the text conveys to his mind the same idea that it conveyed to the intelligent Roman reader to whom Caesar addressed it. C. r. P. Bancroft, Prin. of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. : It makes the intelligent reading of Caesar pos- sible, and is itself worthy of inde- pendent study. (Sept. 5, 1888.) Ray Greene Huling, Prin. of High School, New Bedford, Mass. : It is, I believe, the best as well as the latest presentation of the mili- tary art in Caesar's time. I cannot conceive of a teacher of classes in this author who will not obtain the book as soon as he knows how ser- viceable it is. (June 6, 1888.) Topics in Ancient History. Arranged for use in Mt. Holyoke Seminary and College. By Clara W. Wood, Professor of History. Square 12mo. Paper. 45 pages. Mailing price, 20 cents ; for introduction, 15 cents. rpHE object of this little work is to suggest and help topical study. The alternate pages of the book are devoted to a series of illustrative quotations, aiming to show that the best literature is full of the condensed philosophy of history. Halsey's Genealogical and Ciironological Oliart of the Rulers of England, Scot/and, France, Germany, and Spain. By C. S. Halsey, Principal of Schenectady (N.Y.) Classical School. Revised edition, brought down to 1884. Printed on tough rope paper. 33 X 50 inches. Introduction and Mailing price, 25 cents. LATIN TEXT-BOOKS. INTROP. PRICE Allen & Greenough : Latin Grammar (Rev. Ed.) 31-20 Caesar (Rev. Ed., 7 books, with vocab., illustrated) . . 1.25 Cicero (Rev. 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