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. [Æquians. 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 VEIL. [Situation of Veii.]-25. Destruction of Veil, 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 PLEBEIAN 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 PRETOR.-35. Progress of the Roman power. The Samnite confederacy [The Samnites.]-36. FIRST SAMNITE WAR. [Cap'ua.] League with the Samnites. Latis war.-37 SECOND SAMNITE WAR.-Defeat of the Romans, and renewed alliance. [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, Pyr' rhus 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 reestablished, 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 prætexta, or mantle bordered with purple, and an ivory sceptre; and when they appeared in public they were accompanied by twelve officers called fictors, each of whom carried a bundle of rods, (fas' ces,) with an axe (secúris) 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'. cans, to whom they had fled for protection, and thus a war 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, from other evidence, that the Romans, about this time, surrendered their city, and became tributary to the Etrus' cans; and it is probable 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 Etruria, situated on the western bank of the river Clanis, a tributary of the Tiber, about eighty-five miles north-west from Rome. (Map No, VIII.) throne excited alarm, and the Etrus' can war continued, that the gov ernment under the first consuls was administered with justice and moderation. When these dangers were over, the patricians 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. DICTATOR. 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 to the creation of a dictator, who, during six months, had ni office of supreme power, not only over patricians, plebeians, and 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 famine had first compelled him to sell his all, and then to borrow; and when he could not pay, his creditors had obtained judgment against him and his two sons, and had put them in chains. (495 B. C.) 11. Confusion and uproar spread through the city. All who had been pledged for debt were clamorous for relief; the people spurned the summons to enlist in the legions; compulsion was impossible, and the Senate knew not how to act. At length the promises of the consuls appeased the tumult; but finally the plebeians, after having been repeatedly deceived, deserted their officers in the very midst of war, and marched in a body to Mons Sacer,' or the Sacred Mount, within three miles of Rome, where they were joined by a vast multitude of their discontented brethren. (493 B. C.) 12. After much negotiation, a reconciliation was finally effected on the terms that all contracts of insolvent debtors should be cancelled; that those who had incurred slavery for debt should recover their freedom; that the Valerian law should be enforced, and that two annual magistrates, (afterwards increased to five,) called tribunes,a a whose persons were to be inviolable, should be chosen by the people to watch over their rights, and prevent any abuses of authority. It will be seen that the power of the tribunes, so humble in its origin, eventually acquired a preponderating influence in the State, and laid the foundation of monarchical supremacy.b V. TRIBUNES OF THE PEOPLE. 13. During the same year that the office of the tribunes was created, a perpetual league was made with the Latins, (493 B. C.) and seven years later with the Hernicians, who inhabited the northeastern parts of Látium, both on terms of perfect equality in the contracting parties, and not, as before, on the basis of Roman supe 1. The Mons Sacer, or "Sacred Mountain," is a low range of sandstone hills extending along the right bank of the Anio, near its confluence with the Tiber, about three miles from Rome. (Maps Nos. VIII. and X.) a. The tribunes of the people wore no external marks of distinction; but an officer called arator attended them, to clear the way and summon people. Their chief power at first consisted in preventing, or arresting, by the word veto, "I forbid," any measure which they thought detrimental to the interests of the people. b. After the plebeians had withdrawn to the "Sacred Mount," the Senate despatched an embassy of ten men, headed by Menenius Agrippa, to treat with the insurgents. Agrippa is said, on this occasion, to have related to the people the since well-known fable of the Belly and the Members. The latter, provoked at seeing all the fruits of their toil and care applied to the use of the belly, refused to perform any more labor; in consequence of which the whole body was in danger of perishing. The people understood the moral of the fable, and were ready to enter upon a negotiation. |