3. REIGN OF TULLUS HOSTILIUS, B.C. 673-641.—Upon the death of Numa an interregnum again followed; but soon afterward Tullus Hostilius, a Roman, was elected king. His reign was as warlike as that of Numa had been peaceful. The most memorable event in it is the destruction of Alba Longa. A quarrel having arisen between the two cities, and their armies having been drawn up in array against each other, the princes determined to avert the battle by a combat of champions chosen from each army. There were in the Roman army three brothers, born at the same birth, named Horatii; and in the Alban army, in like manner, three brothers, born at the same birth, and called Curiatii. The two sets of brothers were chosen as champions, and it was agreed that the people to whom the conquerors belonged should rule the other. Two of the Horatii were slain, but the three Curiatii were wounded, and the surviving Horatius, who was unhurt, had recourse to stratagem. He was unable to contend with the Curiatii united, but was more than a match for each of them separately. Taking to flight, he was followed by his three opponents at unequal distances. Suddenly turning round, he slew, first one, then the second, and finally the third. The Romans were declared the conquerors, and the Albans their subjects. But a tragical event followed. As Horatius was entering Rome, bearing his threefold spoils, his sister met him, and recognized on his shoulders the cloak of one of the Curiatii, her betrothed lover. She burst into such passionate grief that the anger of her brother was kindled, and, stabbing her with his sword, he exclaimed, "So perish every Roman woman who bewails a foe." For this murder he was condemned by the two judges of blood to be hanged upon the fatal tree, but he appealed to the people, and they gave him his life.
Shortly afterward Tullus Hostilius made war against the Etruscans of Fidenæ and Veii. The Albans, under their dictator Mettius Fuffetius, followed him to the war as the subjects of Rome. In the battle against the Etruscans, the Alban dictator, faithless and insolent, withdrew to the hills, but when the Etruscans were defeated he descended to the plain, and congratulated the Roman king. Tullus pretended to be deceived. On the following day he summoned the two armies to receive their praises and rewards. The Albans came without arms, and were surrounded by the Roman troops. They then heard their sentence. Their dictator was to be torn in pieces by horses driven opposite ways; their city was to be razed to the ground; and they themselves, with their wives and children, transported to Rome. Tullus assigned to them the Cælian Hill for their habitation. Some of the noble families of Alba were enrolled among the Roman patricians, but the great mass of the Alban people were not admitted to the privileges of the ruling class. They were the origin of the Roman Plebs, who were thus quite distinct from the Patricians and their Clients. The Patricians still formed exclusively the Populus, or Roman people, properly so called. The Plebs were a subject-class without any share in the government.
After carrying on several other wars Tullus fell sick, and sought to win the favor of the gods, as Numa had done, by prayers and divination. But Jupiter was angry with him, and smote him and his whole house with fire from heaven. Thus perished Tullus, after a reign of thirty-two years.
4. REIGN OF ANCUS MARCIUS, B.C. 640-616.—Ancus Marcius, the successor of Tullus Hostilius, was a Sabine, being the son of Numa's daughter. He sought to tread in the footsteps of his grandfather by reviving the religious ceremonies which had fallen into neglect; but a war with the Latins called him from the pursuits of peace. He conquered several of the Latin cities, and removed many of the inhabitants to Rome, where he assigned them the Aventine for their habitation. Thus the number of the Plebeians was greatly enlarged. Ancus instituted the Fetiales, whose duty it was to demand satisfaction from a foreign state when any dispute arose, to determine the circumstances under which hostilities might be commenced, and to perform the proper religious rites on the declaration of war. He also founded a colony at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, built a fortress on the Janiculum as a protection against the Etruscans, and united it with the city by a bridge across the Tiber, called the Pons Sublicius, because it was made of wooden piles, and erected a prison to restrain offenders. He died after a reign of twenty-four years.
CHAPTER III.
THE LAST THREE KINGS OF ROME, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC DOWN TO THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. B.C. 616-498.
5. REIGN OF LUCIUS TARQUINIUS PRISCUS, or the ELDER TARQUIN, B.C. 616-578.—The fifth king of Rome was an Etruscan by birth, but a Greek by descent. His father Demaratus was a wealthy citizen of Corinth, who settled in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii, where he married an Etruscan wife. Their son married Tanaquil, who belonged to one of the noblest families in Tarquinii, and himself became a Lucumo or a noble in the state. But he aspired to still higher honors; and, urged on by his wife, who was an ambitious woman, he resolved to try his fortune at Rome. Accordingly, he set out for this city, accompanied by a large train of followers. When he had reached the Janiculum an eagle seized his cap, and, after carrying it away to a great height, placed it again upon his head. Tanaquil, who was skilled in the Etruscan science of augury, bade her husband hope for the highest honors. Her predictions were soon verified. He took the name of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, and gained the favor both of Ancus Marcius and the people. Ancus appointed the stranger guardian of his children; and, when he died, the senate and the people unanimously elected Tarquin to the vacant throne.
The reign of Tarquin was distinguished by great exploits in war and by great works in peace. He defeated the Sabines, and took their town Collatia, which he placed under his nephew Egerius, who was thence called Collatinus. He also captured many of the Latin towns, and became the ruler of all Latium; but the important works which he executed in peace have rendered his name still more famous. The great cloacæ, or sewers, by which he drained the lower parts of the city, still remain, after so many ages, with not a stone displaced. He laid out the Circus Maximus, and instituted the great or Roman games performed in the circus. He also made some changes in the constitution of the state. He added to the Senate 100 new members, taken from the Luceres, the third tribe, and called patres minorum gentium, to distinguish them from the old Senators, who were now termed patres majorum gentium. To the three centuries of equites established by Romulus he wished to add three new centuries, and to call them after himself and two of his friends. But his plan was opposed by the augur Attus Navius, who said that the gods forbade it. The tale runs that the king, to test the augur, asked him to divine whether what he was thinking of could be done. After consulting the heavens, the augur replied that it could; whereupon the king said, "I was thinking that thou shouldst cut this whetstone with a razor." Navius, without a moment's hesitation, took a razor and cut it in twain. In consequence of this miracle, Tarquin gave up his design of establishing new centuries; but with each of the former centuries he associated another under the same name, so that henceforth there were the first and second Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres. The number of Vestal Virgins was also increased from four to six, the two new vestals being probably taken from the Luceres.
Tarquin had a favorite, Servius Tullius, said to have been the son of a female slave taken at the capture of the Latin town Corniculum. His infancy was marked by prodigies which foreshadowed his future greatness. On one occasion a flame played around his head, as he was asleep, without harming him. Tanaquil foresaw the greatness of the boy, and from this time he was brought up as the king's child. Tarquin afterward gave him his daughter in marriage, and left the government in his hands. But the sons of Ancus Marcius, fearing lest Tarquin should transmit the crown to his son-in-law, hired two countrymen to assassinate the king. These men, feigning to have a quarrel, came before the king to have their dispute decided, and while he was listening to the complaint of one, the other gave him a deadly wound with his axe. But the sons of Ancus did not reap the fruit of their crime; for Tanaquil, pretending that the king's wound was not mortal, told them that he would soon return, and that he had, meantime, appointed Servius to act in his stead. Servius forthwith proceeded to discharge the duties of king, greatly to the satisfaction of the people; and when the death of Tarquin could no longer be concealed, he was already in firm possession of the regal power. Tarquin had reigned thirty-eight years.
6. SERVIUS TULLIUS, B.C. 578-534.—Servius thus succeeded to the throne without being elected by the Senate and the Assembly of the Curiæ. The reign of this king is almost as barren of military exploits as that of Numa. His great deeds were those of peace; and he was regarded by posterity as the author of the later Roman constitution, just as Romulus was of the earlier. Three important acts are assigned to Servius by universal tradition. Of these the greatest was:
I. The reform of the Roman Constitution. In this reform his two main objects were to give the Plebeians political rights, and to assign to property that influence in the state which had previously belonged exclusively to birth. To carry his purpose into effect he made a twofold division of the Roman people, one territorial and the other according to property.
a. It must be recollected that the only existing political organization was that of the Patricians into 3 tribes, 30 curiæ, and 300 gentes; but Servius now divided the whole Roman territory into Thirty Tribes, and, as this division was simply local, these tribes contained Plebeians as well as Patricians. But, though the institution of the Thirty Tribes gave the Plebeians a political organization, it conferred upon them no political power, nor any right to take part in the elections, or in the management of public affairs. At a later time the tribes assembled in the forum for the transaction of business, and were hence called Comitia Tributa. The Patricians were then excluded from this assembly, which was summoned by the Tribunes of the Plebs, and was entirely Plebeian.
b. The means by which Servius gave the Plebeians a share in the government was by establishing a new Popular Assembly, in which Patricians and Plebeians alike voted. It was so arranged that the wealthiest persons, whether Patricians or Plebeians, possessed the chief power. In order to ascertain the property of each citizen, Servius instituted the Census, which was a register of Roman citizens and their property. All Roman citizens possessing property to the amount of 12,500 asses and upward[7] were divided into five great Classes. The First Class contained the richest citizens, the Second Class the next in point of wealth, and so on. The whole arrangement was of a military character. Each of the five Classes was divided into a certain number of Centuries or Companies, half of which consisted of Seniores from the age of 46 to 60, and half of Juniores from the age of 17 to 45. All the Classes had to provide their own arms and armor, but the expense of the equipment was in proportion to the wealth of each Class. The Five Classes formed the infantry. To these five Classes were added two centuries of smiths and carpenters, and two of trumpeters and horn-blowers. These four centuries voted with the Classes. Those persons whose property did not amount to 12,500 asses were not included in the Classes, and formed a single century.
At the head of the Classes were the Equites or cavalry. These consisted of eighteen centuries, six being the old patrician Equites, as founded by Romulus and augmented by Tarquinius Priscus, and the other twelve being chosen from the chief plebeian families.[8]
The Centuries formed the new National Assembly. They mustered as an army in the Campus Martius, or the Field of Mars, on the banks of the Tiber, outside the city. They voted by Centuries, and were hence called the Comitia Centuriata. Each Century counted as one vote, but did not consist of the same number of men. On the contrary, in order to give the preponderance to wealth, the first or richest class contained a far greater number of Centuries than any of the other classes (as will be seen from the table below), although they must at the same time have included a much smaller number of men. The Equites and First Class alone amounted to 100 Centuries, or more than half of the total number; so that, if they agreed to vote the same way, they possessed at once an absolute majority. An advantage was also given to age; for the Seniores, though possessing an equal number of votes, must of course have been very inferior in number to the Juniores.
Servius made the Comitia Centuriata the sovereign assembly of the nation; and he accordingly transferred to it from the Comitia Curiata the right of electing kings and the higher magistrates, of enacting and repealing laws, and of deciding in cases of appeal from the sentence of a judge. But he did not dare to abolish the old Patrician assembly, and was even obliged to enact that no vote of the Comitia Centuriata should be valid till it had received the sanction of the Comitia Curiata.
Thus, in consequence of the legislation, we shall find that Rome subsequently possessed three sovereign assemblies: 1. The Comitia Centuriata, consisting of both Patricians and Plebeians, and voting according to Centuries; 2. The Comitia Curiata, consisting exclusively of Patricians, and voting according to Curiæ; 3. The Comitia Tributa, exclusively of Plebeians, and voting according to Tribes.
II. The second great work of Servius was the extension of the Pomœrium, or hallowed boundary of the city, and the completion of the city by incorporating with it the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline Hills.[9] He surrounded the whole with a stone wall, called after him the wall of Servius Tullius; and from the Porta Collina to the Esquiline Gate, where the hills sloped gently to the plain, he constructed a gigantic mound nearly a mile in length, and a moat 100 feet in breadth and 30 in depth, from which the earth of the mound was dug. Rome thus acquired a circumference of five miles, and this continued to be the legal extent of the city till the time of the emperors, although suburbs were added to it.
III. An important alliance with the Latins, by which Rome and the cities of Latium became the members of one great league, was one of the great events which distinguished the reign of Servius.
Servius gave his two daughters in marriage to the two sons of Tarquinius Priscus. Lucius, the elder, was married to a quiet and gentle wife; Aruns, the younger, to an aspiring and ambitious woman. The character of the two brothers was the very opposite of the wives who had fallen to their lot; for Lucius was proud and haughty, but Aruns unambitious and quiet. The wife of Aruns, enraged at the long life of her father, and fearing that at his death her husband would tamely resign the sovereignty to his elder brother, resolved to murder both her father and husband. Her fiendish spirit put into the heart of Lucius thoughts of crime which he had never entertained before. Lucius made way with his wife, and the younger Tullia with her husband; and the survivors, without even the show of mourning, were straightway joined in unhallowed wedlock. Tullia now incessantly urged her husband to murder her father, and thus obtain the kingdom which he so ardently coveted. Tarquin formed a conspiracy with the Patricians, who were enraged at the reforms of Servius; and when the plot was ripe he entered the forum arrayed in the kingly robes, seated himself in the royal chair, in the senate-house, and ordered the senators to be summoned to him as their king. At the first news of the commotion Servius hastened to the senate-house, and, standing at the doorway, bade Tarquin to come down from the throne; but Tarquin sprang forward, seized the old man, and flung him down the stone steps. Covered with blood, the king hastened home; but, before he reached it, he was overtaken by the servants of Tarquin, and murdered. Tullia drove to the senate-house and greeted her husband as king; but her transports of joy struck even him with horror. He bade her go home; and, as she was returning, her charioteer pulled up and pointed out the corpse of her father lying in his blood across the road. She commanded him to drive on; the blood of her father spirted over the carriage and on her dress; and from that day forward the place bore the name of the Wicked Street. The body lay unburied; for Tarquin said, scoffingly, "Romulus too went without burial;" and this impious mockery is said to have given rise to his surname of Superbus, or the Proud. Servius had reigned forty-four years.
7. Reign of LUCIUS TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, or, THE PROUD, B.C. 534-510.—Tarquin commenced his reign without any of the forms of election. One of his first acts was to abolish all the privileges which had been conferred upon the Plebeians by Servius. He also compelled the poor to work at miserable wages upon his magnificent buildings, and the hardships which they suffered were so great that many put an end to their lives. But he did not confine his oppressions to the poor. All the senators and patricians whom he mistrusted, or whose wealth he coveted, were put to death or driven into exile. He surrounded himself with a body-guard, by whose means he was enabled to carry out his designs. But, although a tyrant at home, he raised the state to great influence and power among the surrounding nations, partly by his alliances and partly by his conquests. He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius, of Tusculum, the most powerful of the Latins, by whose means he acquired great influence in Latium. Any Latin chiefs like Turnus Herdonius, who attempted to resist him, were treated as traitors, and punished with death. At the solemn meeting of the Latins at the Alban Mount, Tarquin sacrificed the bull on behalf of all the allies, and distributed the flesh to the people of the league.
Strengthened by this Latin alliance, Tarquin turned his arms against the Volscians. He took the wealthy town of Suessa Pometia, with the spoils of which he commenced the erection of a magnificent temple on the Capitoline Hill, which his father had vowed. This temple was dedicated to the three gods of the Latin and Etruscan religions, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. A human head (caput), fresh, bleeding and undecayed, is said to have been found by the workmen as they were digging the foundations, and being accepted as a sign that the place was destined to become the head of the world, the name of CAPITOLIUM was given to the temple, and thence to the hill. In a stone vault beneath were deposited the Sibylline books, containing obscure and prophetic sayings. One day a Sibyl, a prophetess from Cumæ, appeared before the king and offered to sell him nine books. Upon his refusing to buy them she went away and burned three, and then demanded the same sum for the remaining six as she had asked for the nine. But the king laughed, whereupon she again burnt three and then demanded the same sum as before for the remaining three. Wondering at this strange conduct, the king purchased the books. They were placed under the care of two patricians, and were consulted when the state was in danger.
Tarquin next attacked Gabii, one of the Latin cities, which refused to enter into the league. Unable to take the city by force, he had recourse to stratagem. His son, Sextus, pretending to be ill, treated by his father, and covered with the bloody marks of stripes, fled to Gabii. The infatuated inhabitants intrusted him with the command of their troops; and when he had obtained the unlimited confidence of the citizens, he sent a messenger to his father to inquire how he should deliver the city into his hands. The king, who was walking in his garden when the messenger arrived, made no reply, but kept striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his stick. Sextus took the hint. He put to death or banished, on false charges, all the leading men of the place, and then had no difficulty in compelling it to submit to his father.
In the midst of his prosperity Tarquin was troubled by a strange portent. A serpent crawled out from the altar in the royal palace, and seized on the entrails of the victim. The king, in fear, sent his two sons, Titus and Aruns, to consult the oracle at Delphi. They were accompanied by their cousin L. Junius Brutus. One of the sisters of Tarquin had been married to M. Brutus, a man of great wealth, who died, leaving two sons under age.[10] Of these the elder was killed by Tarquin, who coveted their possessions; the younger escaped his brother's fate only by feigning idiotcy. On arriving at Delphi, Brutus propitiated the priestess with the gift of a golden stick inclosed in a hollow staff. After executing the king's commission, Titus and Aruns asked the priestess who was to reign at Rome after their father. The priestess replied, whichsoever should first kiss his mother. The princes agreed to keep the matter secret from Sextus, who was at Rome, and to cast lots between themselves. Brutus, who better understood the meaning of the oracle, fell, as if by chance, when they quitted the temple, and kissed the earth, the mother of them all.
Soon afterward Tarquin laid siege to Ardea, a city of the Rutulians. The place could not be taken by force, and the Roman army lay encamped beneath the walls. Here, as the king's sons, and their cousin Tarquinius Collatinus, were feasting together, a dispute arose about the virtue of their wives. As nothing was doing in the field, they mounted their horses to visit their homes by surprise. They first went to Rome, where they surprised the king's daughters at a splendid banquet. They then hastened to Collatia, and there, though it was late in the night, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, spinning amid her handmaids. The beauty and virtue of Lucretia excited the evil passions of Sextus. A few days after he returned to Collatia, where he was hospitably received by Lucretia as her husband's kinsman. In the dead of night he entered her chamber with a drawn sword, threatening that, if she did not yield to his desires, he would kill her and lay by her side a slave with his throat cut, and would declare that he had killed them both taken in adultery. Fear of such a shame forced Lucretia to consent; but, as soon as Sextus had departed, she sent for her husband and father. Collatinus came, accompanied by L. Brutus, her father, Lucretius, brought with him P. Valerius. They found her in an agony of sorrow. She told them what had happened, enjoined them to avenge her dishonor, and then stabbed herself to the heart. They all swore to avenge her. Brutus threw off his assumed stupidity, and placed himself at their head. They carried the corpse into the market-place of Collatia. There the people took up arms, and renounced the Tarquins. A number of young men attended the funeral procession to Rome. Brutus summoned the people, and related the deed of shame. All classes were inflamed with the same indignation. A decree was passed deposing the king, and banishing him and his family from the city. Brutus now set out for the army at Ardea. Tarquinius meantime had hastened to Rome, but found the gates closed against him. Brutus was received with joy at Ardea; and the army renounced their allegiance to the tyrant. Tarquin, with his two sons, Titus and Aruns, took refuge at Cæré, in Etruria. Sextus fled to Gabii, where he was shortly after murdered by the friends of those whom he had put to death.
Tarquin had reigned 22 years when he was driven out of Rome. In memory of this event an annual festival was celebrated on the 24th of February, called the Regifugium or Fugalia.
THE REPUBLIC.—Thus ended monarchy at Rome. Tarquin the Proud had made the name of king so hateful that the people resolved to intrust the kingly power to two men, who were only to hold office for a year. In later times they were called Consuls, but at their first institution they were named Prætors. They were elected by the Comitia Curiata, and possessed the same honors as the king had had. The first consuls were L. Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus (B.C. 509). But the people so hated the very name and race of Tarquin, that Collatinus was obliged to resign his office and retire from Rome. P. Valerius was elected consul in his place.
Meantime embassadors came to Rome from Tarquin, asking that his private property should be given up to him. The demand seemed just to the Senate and the People; but, while the embassadors were making preparation for carrying away the property, they formed a conspiracy among the young Roman nobles for the restoration of the royal family. The plot was discovered by means of a slave, and among the conspirators were found the two sons of Brutus himself. But the consul would not pardon his guilty children, and ordered the lictors[11] to put them to death with the other traitors. The agreement to surrender the property was made void by this attempt at treason. The royal goods were given up to the people to plunder.
As the plot had failed, Tarquin now endeavored to recover the throne by arms. The people of Tarquinii and Veii espoused the cause of their Etruscan kinsmen, and marched against Rome. The two Consuls advanced to meet them. When Aruns, the king's son, saw Brutus at the head of the Roman cavalry, he spurred his horse to the charge. Brutus did not shrink from the combat; and both fell from their horses mortally wounded by each other's spears. A desperate battle between the two armies now followed. Both parties claimed the victory, till a voice was heard in the dead of night, proclaiming that the Romans had conquered, as the Etruscans had lost one man more. Alarmed at this, the Etruscans fled; and Valerius, the surviving Consul, returned to Rome, carrying with him the dead body of Brutus. The matrons mourned for Brutus a whole year, because he had revenged the death of Lucretia.
This was the first war for the restoration of Tarquin.
Valerius was now left without a colleague; and as he began to build a house on the top of the hill Velia, which looked down upon the forum, the people feared that he was aiming at kingly power. Thereupon Valerius not only pulled down the house, but, calling an assembly of the people, he ordered the lictors to lower the fasces before them, as an acknowledgment that their power was superior to his. He likewise brought forward a law enacting that every citizen who was condemned by a magistrate should have a right of appeal to the people. Valerius became, in consequence, so popular that he received the surname of Publicola, or "The People's Friend."
Valerius then summoned an assembly for the election of a successor to Brutus, and Sp. Lucretius was chosen. Lucretius, however, lived only a few days, and M. Horatius was elected consul in his place. It was Horatius who had the honor of consecrating the temple on the Capitol, which Tarquin had left unfinished when he was driven from the throne.
The second year of the republic (B.C. 508) witnessed the second attempt of Tarquin to recover the crown. He now applied for help to Lars Porsena, the powerful ruler of the Etruscan town of Clusium, who marched against Rome at the head of a vast army. The Romans could not meet him in the field; and Porsena seized without opposition the Janiculum, a hill immediately opposite the city, and separated from it only by the Tiber. Rome was now in the greatest danger, and the Etruscans would have entered the city by the Sublician bridge had not Horatius Cocles, with two comrades, kept the whole Etruscan army at bay while the Romans broke down the bridge behind him. When it was giving way he sent back his two companions, and withstood alone the attacks of the foe till the cracks of the falling timbers and the shouts of his countrymen told him that the bridge had fallen. Then praying, "O Father Tiber, take me into thy charge and bear me up!" he plunged into the stream and swam across in safety, amid the arrows of the enemy. The state raised a statue in his honor, and allowed him as much land as he could plow round in one day. Few legends are more celebrated in Roman history than this gallant deed of Horatius, and Roman writers loved to tell
In the brave days of old."
The Etruscans now proceeded to lay siege to the city, which soon began to suffer from famine. Thereupon a young Roman, named C. Mucius, resolved to deliver his country by murdering the invading king. He accordingly went over to the Etruscan camp; but, ignorant of the person of Porsena, killed the royal secretary instead. Seized and threatened with torture, he thrust his right hand into the fire on the altar, and there let it burn, to show how little he heeded pain. Astonished at his courage, the king bade him depart in peace; and Mucius, out of gratitude, advised him to make peace with Rome, since three hundred noble youths, he said, had sworn to take the life of the king, and he was the first upon whom the lot had fallen. Mucius was henceforward called Scævola, or the Left-handed, because his right hand had been burnt off. Porsena, alarmed for his life, which he could not secure against so many desperate men, forthwith offered peace to the Romans on condition of their restoring to the Veientines the land which they had taken from them. These terms were accepted, and Porsena withdrew his troops from the Janiculum after receiving ten youths and ten maidens as hostages from the Romans. Clœlia, one of the maidens, escaped from the Etruscan camp, and swam across the Tiber to Rome. She was sent back by the Romans to Porsena, who was so amazed at her courage that he not only set her at liberty, but allowed her to take with her those of the hostages whom she pleased.
Thus ended the second attempt to restore the Tarquins by force.[12]
After Porsena quitted Rome, Tarquin took refuge with his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius, of Tusculum. The thirty Latin cities now espoused the cause of the exiled king, and declared war against Rome. The contest was decided by the battle of the Lake Regillus, which was long celebrated in Roman story, and the account of which resembles one of the battles in the Iliad. The Romans were commanded by the Dictator,[13] A. Postumius, and by T. Æbutius, the Master of the Horse; at the head of the Latins were Tarquin and Octavius Mamilius. The struggle was fierce and bloody, but the Latins at length fled. Almost all the chiefs on either side fell in the conflict, or were grievously wounded. Titus, the son of Tarquin, was killed; and the aged king was wounded, but escaped with his life. It was related in the old tradition that the Romans gained this battle by the assistance of the gods Castor and Pollux, who were seen charging the Latins at the head of the Roman cavalry, and who afterward carried to Rome the tidings of the victory. A temple was built in the forum on the spot where they appeared, and their festival was celebrated yearly.
This was the third and last attempt to restore the Tarquins. The Latins were completely humbled by this victory. Tarquinius Superbus had no other state to which he could apply for assistance. He had already survived all his family; and he now fled to Cumæ, where he died a wretched and childless old man (B.C. 496).
CHAPTER IV.
FROM THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS TO THE DECEMVIRATE. B.C. 498-451.
The history of Rome for the next 150 years consists internally of the struggles between the Patricians and Plebeians, and externally of the wars with the Etruscans, Volscians, Æquians, and other tribes in the immediate neighborhood of Rome.
The internal history of Rome during this period is one of great interest. The Patricians and Plebeians formed two distinct orders in the state. After the banishment of the kings the Patricians retained exclusive possession of political power. The Plebeians, it is true, could vote in the Comitia Centuriata, but, as they were mostly poor, they were outvoted by the Patricians and their clients. The Consuls and other magistrates were taken entirely from the Patricians, who also possessed the exclusive knowledge and administration of the law. In one word, the Patricians were a ruling and the Plebeians a subject class. But this was not all. The Patricians formed not only a separate class, but a separate caste, not marrying with the Plebeians, and worshiping the gods with different religious rites. If a Patrician man married a Plebeian wife, or a Patrician woman a Plebeian husband, the state refused to recognize the marriage, and the offspring was treated as illegitimate.
The Plebeians had to complain not only of political, but also of private wrongs. The law of debtor and creditor was very severe at Rome. If the borrower did not pay the money by the time agreed upon, his person was seized by the creditor, and he was obliged to work as a slave.[14] Nay, in certain cases he might even be put to death by the creditor; and if there were more than one, his body might be cut in pieces and divided among them. The whole weight of this oppressive law fell upon the Plebeians; and what rendered the case still harder was, that they were frequently compelled, through no fault of their own, to become borrowers. They were small landholders, living by cultivating the soil with their own hands; but as they had to serve in the army without pay, they had no means of engaging laborers in their absence. Hence, on their return home, they were left without the means of subsistence or of purchasing seed for the next crop, and borrowing was their only resource.
Another circumstance still farther aggravated the hardships of the Plebeians. The state possessed a large quantity of land called Ager Publicus, or the "Public Land." This land originally belonged to the kings, being set apart for their support; and it was constantly increased by conquest, as it was the practice on the subjugation of a people to deprive them of a certain portion of their land. This public land was let by the state subject to a rent; but as the Patricians possessed the political power, they divided the public land among themselves, and paid for it only a nominal rent. Thus the Plebeians, by whose blood and unpaid toil much of this land had been won, were excluded from all participation in it.
It was not to be expected that the Plebeians would submit to such grievous injustice. The contest was twofold. It was a struggle of a subject against a ruling class, and of rich against poor. The Plebeians strove to obtain an equal share not only in the political power, but also in the public land.
The cruelty of the Patrician creditors was the most pressing evil, and led to the first reform. In B.C. 494 the Plebeians, after a campaign against the Volscians, instead of returning to Rome, retired to the Sacred Mount, a hill about two miles from the city, near the junction of the Arno and the Tiber. Here they determined to settle and found a new town, leaving Rome to the Patricians and their clients. This event is known as the Secession to the Sacred Mount. The Patricians, alarmed, sent several of their number to persuade the Plebeians to return. Among the deputies was the aged Menenius Agrippa, who had great influence with the Plebeians. He related to them the celebrated fable of the Belly and the Members.
"Once upon a time," he said, "the Members refused to work any longer for the Belly, which led a lazy life, and grew fat upon their toils. But receiving no longer any nourishment from the Belly, they soon began to pine away, and found that it was to the Belly they owed their life and strength."
The fable was understood, and the Plebeians agreed to treat with the Patricians. It was decided that existing debts should be canceled, and that all debtors in bondage should be restored to freedom. It was necessary, however, to provide security for the future, and the Plebeians therefore insisted that two of their own number should be elected annually, to whom the Plebeians might appeal for assistance against the decisions of the Patrician magistrates. These officers were called Tribunes of the Plebs. Their persons were declared sacred and inviolate; they were never to quit the city during their year of office; and their houses were to remain open day and night, that all who were in need of help might apply to them. Their number was soon afterward increased to five, and at a later time to ten. They gradually gained more and more power, and obtained the right of putting a veto[15] upon any public business.[16] At the Sacred Mount the Plebeians also obtained the privilege of having two Ædiles of their order appointed. These officers had at a later time the care of the public buildings and roads, and the superintendence of the police of the city.
Emboldened by this success, the Plebeians now demanded a share in the public land. And in this they found an unexpected supporter among the Patricians themselves. Sp. Cassius, one of the most distinguished men in the state, who had formed the league between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans, brought forward in his third consulship a law, by which a portion of the public land was to be divided among the Plebeians (B.C. 486). This was the first Agrarian Law mentioned in Roman history. It must be recollected that all the Agrarian laws dealt only with the public land, and never touched the property of private persons. Notwithstanding the violent opposition of the Patricians, the law was passed; but it was never carried into execution, and the Patricians soon revenged themselves upon its author. In the following year he was accused of aiming at the kingly power, and condemned to death. He was scourged and beheaded, and his house razed to the ground.
We now turn to the external history of Rome. Under the kings Rome had risen to a superiority over her neighbors, and had extended her dominion over the southern part of Etruria and the greater part of Latium. The early history of the republic presents a very different spectacle. For the next 100 years she is engaged in a difficult and often dubious struggle with the Etruscans on the one hand, and the Volscians and Æquians on the other. It would be unprofitable to relate the details of these petty campaigns; but there are three celebrated legends connected with them which must not be passed over.
1. CORIOLANUS AND THE VOLSCIANS, B.C. 488.—C. Marcius, surnamed Coriolanus, from his valor at the capture of the Latin town of Corioli, was a brave but haughty Patrician youth. He was hated by the Plebeians, who refused him the consulship. This inflamed him with anger; and accordingly, when the city was suffering from famine, and a present of corn came from Sicily, Coriolanus advised the Senate not to distribute it among the Plebeians unless they gave up their Tribunes. Such insolence enraged the Plebeians, who would have torn him to pieces on the spot had not the tribunes summoned him before the Comitia of the Tribes. Coriolanus himself breathed nothing but defiance; and his kinsmen and friends interceded for him in vain. He was condemned to exile. He now turned his steps to Antium, the capital of the Volscians, and offered to lead them against Rome. Attius Tullius, king of the Volscians, persuaded his countrymen to appoint Coriolanus their general. Nothing could check his victorious progress; town after town fell before him; and he advanced within five miles of the city, ravaging the lands of the Plebeians, but sparing those of the Patricians. The city was filled with despair. The ten first men in the Senate were sent in hopes of moving his compassion. But they were received with the utmost sternness, and told that the city must submit to his absolute will. Next day the pontiffs, augurs, flamens, and all the priests, came in their robes of office, and in vain prayed him to spare the city. All seemed lost; but Rome was saved by her women. Next morning the noblest matrons, headed by Veturia, the aged mother of Corolanus, and by his wife Volumnia, holding her little children by the hand, came to his tent. Their lamentations turned him from his purpose. "Mother," he said, bursting into tears, "thou hast saved Rome, but lost thy son!" He then led the Volscians home, but they put him to death because he had spared Rome. Others relate that he lived among the Volscians to a great age, and was often heard to say that "none but an old man can feel how wretched it is to live in a foreign land."
2. THE FABIA GENS AND THE VEIENTINES, B.C. 477.—The Fabii were one of the most powerful of the Patrician houses. For seven successive years one of the Consuls was always a Fabius. The Fabii had been among the leading opponents of the Agrarian Law; and Kæso Fabius had taken an active part in obtaining the condemnation of Sp. Cassius. But shortly afterward we find this same Kæso the advocate of the popular rights, and proposing that the Agrarian Law of Cassius should be carried into effect. He was supported in his new views by his powerful house, though the reasons for their change of opinion we do not know. But the Fabii made no impression upon the great body of the Patricians, and only earned for themselves the hearty hatred of their order. Finding that they could no longer live in peace at Rome, they determined to leave the city, and found a separate settlement, where they might still be useful to their native land. One of the most formidable enemies of the republic was the Etruscan city of Veii, situated about twelve miles from Rome. Accordingly, the Fabian house, consisting of 306 males of full age, accompanied by their wives and children, clients and dependents, marched out of Rome by the right-hand arch of the Carmental Gate, and proceeded straight to the Cremera, a river which flows into the Tiber below Veii. On the Cremera they established a fortified camp, and, sallying thence, they laid waste the Veientine territory. For two years they sustained the whole weight of the Veientine war; and all the attempts of the Veientines to dislodge them proved in vain. But at length they were enticed into an ambuscade, and were all slain. The settlement was destroyed, and no one of the house survived except a boy who had been left behind at Rome, and who became the ancestor of the Fabii, afterward so celebrated in Roman history. The Fabii were sacrificed to the hatred of the Patricians; for the consul T. Menenius was encamped a short way off at the time, and he did nothing to save them.
3. CINCINNATUS AND THE ÆQUIANS, B.C. 458.—The Æquians in their numerous attacks upon the Roman territory generally occupied Mount Algidus, which formed a part of the group of the Alban Hills in Latium. It was accordingly upon this mount that the battles between the Romans and Æquians most frequently took place. In the year 458 B.C. the Roman consul L. Minucius was defeated on the Algidus, and surrounded in his camp. Five horsemen, who made their escape before the Romans were completely encompassed, brought the tidings to Rome. The Senate forthwith appointed L. Cincinnatus dictator.
L. Cincinnatus was one of the heroes of old Roman story. When the deputies of the Senate came to him to announce his elevation to the dictatorship they found him driving a plow, and clad only in his tunic or shirt. They bade him clothe himself, that he might hear the commands of the Senate. He put on his toga, which his wife Racilia brought him. The deputies then told him of the peril of the Roman army, and that he had been made Dictator. The next morning, before daybreak, he appeared in the forum, and ordered all the men of military age to meet him in the evening in the Field of Mars, with food for five days, and each with twelve stakes. His orders were obeyed; and with such speed did he march, that by midnight he reached Mount Algidus. Placing his men around the Æquian camp, he told them to raise the war-cry, and at the same time to begin digging a trench and raising a mound, on the top of which the stakes were to be driven in. The other Roman army, which was shut in, hearing the war-cry, burst forth from their camp, and fought with the Æquians all night. The Dictator's troops thus worked without interruption, and completed the intrenchment by the morning. The Æquians found themselves hemmed in between the two armies, and were forced to surrender. The Dictator made them pass under the yoke, which was formed by two spears fixed upright in the ground, while a third was fastened across them. Cincinnatus entered Rome in triumph only twenty-four hours after he had quitted it, having thus saved a whole Roman army from destruction.
In reading the wars of the early Republic, it is important to recollect the League formed by Spurius Cassius, the author of the Agrarian Law between the Romans, Latins, and Hernicans. This League, to which allusion has been already made, was of the most intimate kind, and the armies of the three states fought by each other's sides. It was by means of this League that the Æquians and Volscians were kept in check, for they were two of the most warlike nations in Italy, and would have been more than a match for the unsupported arms of Rome.