guished by a series of tyrannical usurpations, which made his name odious to all classes; for although he at first gratified his supporters by diminishing the privileges of the plebeians, or the IX. TARQUIN common people, he soon made the patricians themselves THE PROUD. feel the weight of his tyranny. The laws of Servius were swept away-the equality of civil rights abolished-and even the ordinances of religion suffered to fall into neglect. But although Tarquin was a tyrant, he exalted the Roman name by his successful wars, and alliances with the surrounding nations. In the midst of his successes, however, he was disturbed by the most fearful dreams and appalling prodigies. He dreamed that the sun changed its course, rising i the west; and that when the two rams were brought to him for sacrifice, one of them pushed him down with its horns. At one time a serpent crawled from the altar and seized the flesh which he had brought for sacrifice: a flock of vultures attacked an eagle's nest in his garden, threw out the unfledged eaglets upon the ground and drove the old birds away; and when he sent to Delphi to consult the oracle, the responses were dark and fearful. 28. The reverses threatened were brought upon him by the wickedness of Sextus, one of his sons. It is related that while the Romans were besieging Ardea,' a Rutulian city, Sextus, with his brothers Titus and Aruns, and their cousin Collatínus, happened to be disputing, over their wine, about the good qualities of their wives, when, to settle the dispute, they agreed to visit their homes by surprise, and, seeing with their own eyes how their wives were then employed, thus decide which was the worthiest lady. So they hastily rode, first to Rome, where they found the wives of the three Tarquins feasting and making merry. They then proceeded to Collátia," the residence of Collatínus, where, although it was then late at night, they found his wife Lucretia, with her maids around her, all busy working at the loom. On their return to the camp all agreed that Lucretia was the worthiest lady. 29. But a spirit of wicked passion had seized upon Sextus, and a few days later he went alone to Collátia, and being hospitably lodged in his kinsman's house, violated the honor of Lucretia. Thereupon. 1. Ardea, a city of Latium, and the capital of the Rutulians, was about twenty-four miles south from Rome, and three miles from the sea. Some ruins of the ancient city are still visible, and bear the name of Ardea. (Maps Nos. VIII. and X.) 2. Collatia, a town of Látium, was near the south bank of the river Anio, twelve or thirteen miles east from Rome. Its ruins may still be traced on a hill which has obtained the name of Castiliacie. (Maps Nos. VIII. and X.) she sent in haste for her father, and husband, and other relatives, and having told them of the wicked deed of Sextus, and made them swear that they would avenge it, she drew a knife from her bosom and stabbed herself to the heart. The vow was renewed over the dead body, and Lucius Junius Brutus, who had long concealed patriotic resolutions under the mask of pretended stupidity, and thus saved his life from the jealousy of Tarquin, exhibited the corpse to the people, whom he influenced, by his eloquence, to pronounce sentence of banishment against Tarquin and his family, and to declare that the dignity of king should be abolished forever. (510 B. C.) SECTION II. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, FROM THE ABOLITION OF ROYALTY, 510 B.O., TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WARS WITH CARTHAGE: ANALYSIS. 1. Royalty abolished. The laws of Servius reestablished. CoNSULS elected.2. Aristocratic character of the government. The struggle between the patricians and plebeians begins.-3. Extent of Roman territory.-4. Conspiracy in favor of the Tarquins. ETRUS'CAN WAR.-5. Conflicting accounts. Legend of the Etrus' can war. [Clusium.]-6. The story of Mutius Scævola.-7. Farther account of the Roman legend. The probable truth.-8. Humiliating condition of the plebeians after the Etrus can war.-9. Continued contentions. The office of DICTATOR.-10. Circumstances of the first PLEBEIAN INSURRECTION. [Volscians.]-11. Confusion. Withdrawal of the Plebeians. [Mons Sacer.]-12. The terms of reconciliation. Office and power of the TRIBUNES.-13. League with the Latins and Hernicians.-14. VOLSCIAN AND EQUIAN WARS. Contradictory statements. [Equians. Corioli.] Proposal of Coriolanus.-15. His trial-exile-and war against the Romans.-16. The story of Cincinatus.— 17. The public lands-and the fate of Spurius Cassius.-18. Continued demands of the people. Election and office of THE DECEM' VIRS.-19. The laws of the decem' virs.-20. The decem'. virs are continued in office-their additional laws-and tyranny.-21. The story of Virginia.— 22. Overthrow of the decem' virs, and death of Appius.-23. Plebeian innovations. The office of CENSORS.-24. Rome, as viewed by the surrounding people. Circumstances that led to the WAR WITH VEN. [Situation of Veii.]-25. Destruction of Veii, and extension of Roman territory. 26. GALLIC INVASION. Circumstances of the introduction of the Gauls into Italy. [Cisalpine Gaul.-27 The Roman ambassadors. Conduct of Brennus.-28. The Romans defeated by the Gauls. General abandonment of Rome. [The Allia. Roman Forum.]-29. Entrance of the Gauls into the city. Massacre of the Senators. Rome plundered and burned.-30 Vain attempts to storm the citadel. The Roman legend of the expulsion of the Gauls. The more probable account. [The Venetians.]-31. The rebuilding of Rome.-32. Renewal of the PLE BEIAN AND PATRICIAN CONTESTS. Philanthropy and subsequent history of Manlius.-33. Continued oppression of the plebeians.-34. Great reforms made by Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextus. The office of PRÆTOR.-35. Progress of the Roman power. The Samnite confederacy [The Samnites.]-36. FIRST SAMNITE WAR. [Cap' ua.] League with the Samnites. Latin war.-37 SECOND SAMNITE WAR.--Defeat of the Romans, and renewed albance. [Caudine Forks]-38. The senate declares the treaty void. Magnanimity of Pontius.-39. The THIRD SAMNITE WAR. Fate of Pontius. [Um'bria.]—40. War with tHE TARENTINES AND PYR' RHUS.-41. First encounter of Pyr' rhus with the Romans.-42. Pyr' rhus attempts negotiation. His second battle.-43. Story of the generosity of Fabricius, and magnanimity of Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus passes over to Sicily-returns, and renews the war-is defeated-and abandons Italy Roman supremacy over all Italy. [Rubicon. Arnus. Tuscan Sea.]-44. Alliance with Egypt Sicilian affairs. Widening circle of Roman history. 1. As narrated at the close of the previous section, royalty was abolished at Rome, after an existence of two hundred and forty years. The whole Roman people took an oath that whoever should express a wish to rule as king should be declared an outlaw. The laws of Servius were reëstablished, and, according to the code which he had proposed, the royal power was intrusted to two consuls,a annually elected. The first chosen were Butus and Collatínus. I. CONSULS. 2. From the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the downfall of monarchy, is dated the commencement of what is called the Roman Republic. Yet the government was at this time entirely aristocratical; for all political power was in the hands of the nobility, from whom the consuls were chosen, and there was no third party to hold the balance of power between them and the people. Hence arose a struggle between these two divisions of the body politic; and it was not until the balance was properly adjusted by the increased privileges of the plebeians, and a more equal distribution of power, that the commonwealth attained that strength and influence which preeminently exalted Rome above the surrounding nations. 3. The territory possessed by Rome under the last of the kings is known, from a treaty made with Carthage in the first year of the Republic, to have extended at least seventy miles along the coast south of the Tiber. Yet all this sea-coast was destined to be lost to Rome by civil dissensions and bad government, before her power was to be firmly established there. a. The consuls had at first nearly the same power as the kings; and all other magistrates were subject to them, except the tribunes of the people. They summoned the meetings of the senate and of the assemblies of the people-they had the chief direction of the foreign affairs of the government-they levied soldiers, appointed most of the military officers, and, in time of war, had supreme command of the armies. In dangerous conjunctures they were armed with absolute power by a decree of the senate that "they should take care that the republic receives no harm." Their badges of office were the toga præterta, or mantle bordered with purple, and an ivory sceptre; and when they appeared in public they were accompanied by twelve officers called lictors, each of whom carried a bundle of rods, (fas' ces,) with an axe (securis) placed in the middle of them ;-the former denoting the power of scourging, or of ordinary punishment.-and the latter, the power of life and death. 4. The efforts of Tarquin to recover the throne gave rise to a conspiracy among some of the younger patricians who had shared in the tyrant's extortions. Among the conspirators were the sons of Brutus; and the duty of pronouncing their fate devolved upon the consul their father, who, laying aside parental affection, and acting the part of the magistrate only, condemned them to death. The II. ETRUS' CAN cause of the Tarquins was also espoused by the Etrus'. WAR. cans, to whom they had fled for protection, and thus a war was kindled between the two people. 5. The accounts of the events and results of this war are exceedingly conflicting. The ancient Roman legend relates that when Porsenna, king of Clusium,' the most powerful of the Etrus' can princes, led an overwhelming force against Rome, the Romans were at first repulsed, and fled across a wooden bridge over the Tiber; and that the army was saved by the valor of Horatius Cócles, who alone defended the pass against thousands of the enemy, until the bridge was broken down in the rear, when he plunged into the stream, and, amid a shower of darts, safely regained the opposite shore. 6. It is farther related, that when Porsenna had reduced Rome to extremities by famine, a young man, Mutius Scæv' ola, undertook, with the approbation of the Senate, to assassinate the invading king. Making his way into the Etrus' can camp, he slew one of the king's attendants, whom he mistook for Porsenna. Being disarmed, and threatened with torture, he scornfully thrust his right hand into the flame, where he held it until it was consumed, to show that the rack had no terrors for him. The king, admiring such heroism, gave him his life and liberty, when Scæv' ola warned him, as a token of gratitude, to make peace, for that three hundred young patricians, as brave as himself, had conspired to destroy him, and that he, Scæv' ola, had only been chosen by lot to make the first attempt. 7. The Roman legend asserts that Porsenna, alarmed for his life, offered terms of peace, which were agreed upon. And yet it is known, fron other evidence, that the Romans, about this time, surrendered their city, and became tributary to the Etrus' cans; and it is prob able that when, soon after, Porsenna was defeated in a war with the Latins, the Romans embraced the opportunity to regain their independence. 8. It was only while the attempts of the Tarquins to regain the 1. Clusium, now Chiusi, was a town of Etrúria, situated on the western bank of the river Clanis, a tributary of the Tiber, about eighty-five miles north-west from Rome. (Map No. VIIL.) gov. throne excited alarm, and the Etrus' can war continued, that the ernment under the first consuls was administered with justice and moderation. When these dangers were over, the patrician again began to exert their tyranny over the plebeians, and as nearly all the wealth of the State had been engrossed by the former, the latter were reduced to a condition differing little from the most abject slavery. A decree against a plebeian debtor made not only him, but his children also, slaves to the creditor, who might imprison, Scourge, or otherwise maltreat them. 9. The contentions between the patricians and plebeians were at length carried to such an extent, that in time of war the latter refused to enlist; and as the consuls, for some cause now unknown could not be confided in, the plebeians were induced to consent tc the creation of a dictator, who, during six months, had III. OFFICE OF supreme power, not only over patricians, plebeians, and DICTATOR. consuls, but also over the laws themselves. Under a former law of Valerius the people had the right of appeal from a sentence of the consul to a general assembly of the citizens; but from the decision of the dictator there was no appeal, and as he was appointed by the Senate, this office gave additional power to the patrician order.a 10. During a number of years dictators continued to be appointed in times of great public danger; but they gave only a temporary calm to the popular dissensions. It was during a war with the Volscians' and Sabines that the long-accumulating resentment of the plebeians against the patricians first broke forth in open IV. PLEBEIAN insurrection. An old man, haggard and in rags, pale INSURRECTION and famishing, escaping from his creditor's prison, and bearing the marks of cruel treatment, implored the aid of the people. A crowd gathered around him. He showed them the scars that he had received in war, and he was recognized as a brave captain who had fought for his country in eight and twenty battles. His house and farm-yard having been plundered bythe enemy in the Etrus' can war, 1. The Volscians were the most southern of the tribes that inhabited Látium. Their territory, extending along the coast southward from Antium about fifty miles, swarmed with cities filled with a hardy and warlike race. (Maps Nos. VIII. and X.) a. The office of dictator had existed at Alba and other Latin towns long before this time. The authority of all the other magistrates, except that of the tribunes, (see p. 138,; ceased as soon as the dictator was appointed. He had the power of life and death, except perhaps in the case of knights and senators, and from his decision there was no appea!; but for any abuse of his power he might be called to account after his resignation or the expiration of his term of office. At first the dictator was taken from the patrician ranks only; but about the year 356 B. C. it was opened by C. Marcius to the plebeians also. See Niebuhr's Rome, i. 270 |