The History of Rome, Book IV

243

III. XI. The Censorship A Prop of the Nobility

244

We cannot strictly speak at all of a fixed number of senators. Though the censors before Sulla prepared on each occasion a list of 300 persons, there always fell to be added to this list those non- senators who filled a curule office between the time when the list was drawn up and the preparation of the next one; and after Sulla there were as many senators as there were surviving quaestorians But it may be probably assumed that Sulla meant to bring the senate up to 500 or 600 members; and this number results, if we assume that 20 new members, at an average age of 30, were admitted annually, and we estimate the average duration of the senatorial dignity at from 25 to 30 years. At a numerously attended sitting of the senate in Cicero's time 417 members were present.

245

II. III. The Senate. Its Composition

246

IV. VI. Political Projects of Marius

247

III. XI. Interference of the Community in War and Administration

248

IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla

249

II. III. Restrictions As to the Accumulation and the Reoccupation of Offices

250

IV. II. Attempts at Reform

251

To this the words of Lepidus in Sallust (Hist. i. 41, 11 Dietsch) refer: -populus Romanus excitus… iure agitandi-, to which Tacitus (Ann. iii. 27) alludes: -statim turbidis Lepidi rogationibus neque multo post tribunis reddita licentia quoquo vellent populum agitandi-. That the tribunes did not altogether lose the right of discussing matters with the people is shown by Cic. De Leg. iii. 4, 10 and more clearly by the -plebiscitum de Thermensibus-, which however in the opening formula also designates itself as issued -de senatus sententia-. That the consuls on the other hand could under the Sullan arrangements submit proposals to the people without a previous resolution of the senate, is shown not only by the silence of the authorities, but also by the course of the revolutions of 667 and 676, whose leaders for this very reason were not tribunes but consuls. Accordingly we find at this period consular laws upon secondary questions of administration, such as the corn law of 681, for which at other times we should have certainly found -plebiscita-.

252

II. III. Influence of the Elections

253

IV. II. Vote by Ballot

254

For this hypothesis there is no other proof, except that the Italian Celt-land was as decidedly not a province—in the sense in which the word signifies a definite district administered by a governor annually changed—in the earlier times, as it certainly was one in the time of Caesar (comp. Licin. p. 39; -data erat et Sullae provincia Gallia Cisalpina-).

The case is much the same with the advancement of the frontier; we know that formerly the Aesis, and in Caesar's time the Rubico, separated the Celtic land from Italy, but we do not know when the boundary was shifted. From the circumstance indeed, that Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus as propraetor undertook a regulation of the frontier in the district between the Aesis and Rubico (Orelli, Inscr. 570), it has been inferred that that must still have been provincial land at least in the year after Lucullus' praetorship 679, since the propraetor had nothing to do on Italian soil. But it was only within the -pomerium- that every prolonged -imperium- ceased of itself; in Italy, on the other hand, such a prolonged -imperium- was even under Sulla's arrangement—though not regularly existing—at any rate allowable, and the office held by Lucullus was in any case an extraordinary one. But we are able moreover to show when and how Lucullus held such an office in this quarter. He was already before the Sullan reorganization in 672 active as commanding officer in this very district (p, 87), and was probably, just like Pompeius, furnished by Sulla with propraetorian powers; in this character he must have regulated the boundary in question in 672 or 673 (comp. Appian, i. 95). No inference therefore may be drawn from this inscription as to the legal position of North Italy, and least of all for the time after Sulla's dictatorship. On the other hand a remarkable hint is contained in the statement, that Sulla advanced the Roman -pomerium- (Seneca, de brev. vitae, 14; Dio, xliii. 50); which distinction was by Roman state-law only accorded to one who had advanced the bounds not of the empire, but of the city—that is, the bounds of Italy (i. 128).

255

As two quaestors were sent to Sicily, and one to each of the other provinces, and as moreover the two urban quaestors, the two attached to the consuls in conducting war, and the four quaestors of the fleet continued to subsist, nineteen magistrates were annually required for this office. The department of the twentieth quaestor cannot be ascertained.

256

The Italian confederacy was much older (II. VII. Italy and The Italians); but it was a league of states, not, like the Sullan Italy, a state-domain marked off as an unit within the Roman empire.

257

II. III. Complete Opening Up of Magistracies and Priesthoods

258

II. III. Combination of The Plebian Aristocracy and The Farmers against The Nobility

259

III. XIII. Religious Economy

260

IV. X. Punishments Inflicted on Particular Communities

261

e. g. IV. IV. Dissatisfaction in the Capital, IV. V. Warfare of Prosecutions

262

IV. II. Vote by Ballot

263

IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law

264

II. II. Intercession

265

IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law

266

IV. VII. Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation

267

II. VII. Subject Communities

268

IV. X. Cisapline Gaul Erected into A Province

269

IV. VII. Preparations for General Revolt against Rome

270

III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition

271

IV. IX. Government of Cinna

272

IV. VII. Decay of Military Discipline

273

IV. VII. Economic Crisis

274

IV. VII. Strabo

275

IV. VIII. Flaccus Arrives in Asia

276

IV. IX. Death of Cinna

277

IV. IX. Nola

278

IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates

279

Euripides, Medea, 807:– —Meideis me phaulein kasthenei nomizeto Meid eisuchaian, alla thateron tropou Bareian echthrois kai philoisin eumenei—.

280

IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates

281

IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates, IV. X. Re-establishment of Constitutional Order

282

Not -pthiriasis-, as another account states; for the simple reason that such a disease is entirely imaginary.

283

IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome, IV. V. The Romans Cross the Eastern Alps

284

IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered

285

IV. V. And Reach the Danube

286

-Exterae nationes in arbitratu dicione potestate amicitiave populi Romani- (lex repet. v. i), the official designation of the non-Italian subjects and clients as contrasted with the Italian "allies and kinsmen" (-socii nominisve Latini-).

287

III. XI. As to the Management of the Finances

288

III. XII. Mercantile Spirit

289

IV. III. Jury Courts, IV. III. Character of the Constitution of Gaius Gracchus

290

This tax-tenth, which the state levied from private landed property, is to be clearly distinguished from the proprietor's tenth, which it imposed on the domain-land. The former was let in Sicily, and was fixed once for all; the latter—especially that of the territory of Leontini—was let by the censors in Rome, and the proportion of produce payable and other conditions were regulated at their discretion (Cic. Verr. iii. 6, 13; v. 21, 53; de leg. agr. i. 2, 4; ii. 18, 48). Comp, my Staatsrecht, iii. 730.

291

The mode of proceeding was apparently as follows. The Roman government fixed in the first instance the kind and the amount of the tax. Thus in Asia, for instance, according to the arrangement of Sulla and Caesar the tenth sheaf was levied (Appian. B. C. v. 4); thus the Jews by Caesar's edict contributed every second year a fourth of the seed (Joseph, iv. 10, 6; comp. ii. 5); thus in Cilicia and Syria subsequently there was paid 5 per cent from estate (Appian. Syr. 50), and in Africa also an apparently similar tax was paid—in which case, we may add, the estate seems to have been valued according to certain presumptive indications, e. g. the size of the land occupied, the number of doorways, the number of head of children and slaves (-exactio capitum atque ostiorum-, Cicero, Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5, with reference to Cilicia; —phoros epi tei gei kai tois somasin—, Appian. Pun. 135, with reference to Africa). In accordance with this regulation the magistrates of each community under the superintendence of the Roman governor (Cic. ad Q. Fr. i. 1, 8; SC. de Asclep. 22, 23) settled who were liable to the tax, and what was to be paid by each tributary ( -imperata- —epikephalia—, Cic. ad Att. v. 16); if any one did not pay this in proper time, his tax-debt was sold just as in Rome, i. e. it was handed over to a contractor with an adjudication to collect it (-venditio tributorum-, Cic. Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5; —onas— -omnium venditas-, Cic. ad Att. v. 16). The produce of these taxes flowed into the coffers of the leading communities—the Jews, for instance, had to send their corn to Sidon—and from these coffers the fixed amount in money was then conveyed to Rome. These taxes also were consequently raised indirectly, and the intermediate agent either retained, according to circumstances, a part of the produce of the taxes for himself, or advanced it from his own substance; the distinction between this mode of raising and the other by means of the -publicani- lay merely in the circumstance, that in the former the public authorities of the contributors, in the latter Roman private contractors, constituted the intermediate agency.

292

IV. III. Jury Courts

293

III. VII. Administration of Spain

294

IV. X. Regulation of the Finances

295

For example, in Judaea the town of Joppa paid 26,075 -modii- of corn, the other Jews the tenth sheaf, to the native princes; to which fell to be added the temple-tribute and the Sidonian payment destined for the Romans. In Sicily too, in addition to the Roman tenth, a very considerable local taxation was raised from property.

296

IV. VI. The New Military Organization

297

IV. II. Vote by Ballot

298

III. VII. Liguria

299

IV. V. Province of Narbo

300

IV. V. In Illyria

301

IV. I. Province of Macedonia

302

III. XI. Italian Subjects, III. XII. Roman Wealth

303

IV. V. Taurisci

304

III. IV. Pressure of the War

305

IV. VII. Outbreak of the Mithradatic War

306

IV. IX. Preparations on Either Side

307

III. XII. The Management of Land and of Capital

308

IV. V. Conflicts with the Ligurians. With this may be connected the remark of the Roman agriculturist, Saserna, who lived after Cato and before Varro (ap. Colum. i. 1, 5), that the culture of the vine and olive was constantly moving farther to the north.—The decree of the senate as to the translation of the treatise of Mago (IV. II. The Italian Farmers) belongs also to this class of measures.

309

IV. II. Slavery and Its Consequences

310

IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies.

311

IV. I. Destruction of Carthage, IV. I. Destruction of Corinth

312

IV. V. The Advance of the Romans Checked by the Policy of the Restoration

313

IV. IV. The Provinces

314

IV. VII. Economic Crisis

315

IV. VII. The Sulpician Laws

316

IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla

317

IV. IX. Government of Cinna

318

IV. VIII. Orders Issued from Ephesus for A General Massacre

319

IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies.

320

IV. VI. Roman Intervention

321

III. XII. Roman Wealth

322

IV. V. Taurisci

323

III. VI. Pressure of the War

324

II. VIII. Silver Standard of Value

325

III. VI. Pressure of the War

326

III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome

327

IV. X. Proscription-Lists

328

III. III. Autonomy, III. VII. the State of Culture in Spain, III. XII. Coins and Moneys

329

III. XII. Coins and Moneys

330

III. XIII. Increase of Amusements

331

In the house, which Sulla inhabited when a young man, he paid for the ground-floor a rent of 3000 sesterces, and the tenant of the upper story a rent of 2000 sesterces (Plutarch, Sull. 1); which, capitalized at two-thirds of the usual interest on capital, yields nearly the above amount. This was a cheap dwelling. That a rent of 6000 sesterces (60 pounds) in the capital is called a high one in the case of the year 629 (Vell. ii. 10) must have been due to special circumstances.

332

III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome

333

IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus

334

"If we could, citizens"—he said in his speech—"we should indeed all keep clear of this burden. But, as nature has so arranged it that we cannot either live comfortably with wives or live at all without them, it is proper to have regard rather to the permanent weal than to our own brief comfort."

335

IV. XI. Money-Dealing and Commerce

336

IV. X. The Roman Municipal System

337

IV. I. The Subjects

338

IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered

339

IV. I. The New Organization of Spain

340

IV. VII. Second Year of the War

341

The statement that no "Greek games" were exhibited in Rome before 608 (Tac. Ann. xiv. 21) is not accurate: Greek artists (—technitai—) and athletes appeared as early as 568 (Liv. xxxix. 22), and Greek flute-players, tragedians, and pugilists in 587 (Pol. xxx, 13).

342

III. XIII. Irreligious Spirit

343

A delightful specimen may be found in Cicero de Officiis, iii. 12, 13.

344

IV. VI. Collision between the Senate and Equites in the Administration of the Provinces; IV. IX. Siege of Praeneste

345

In Varro's satire, "The Aborigines," he sarcastically set forth how the primitive men had not been content with the God who alone is recognized by thought, but had longed after puppets and effigies.

346

III. XI. Interference of The Community in War and Administration

347

IV. VI. Political Projects of Marius

348

IV. X. Co-optation Restored in the Priestly Colleges

349

IV. VI. The Equestrian Party

350

III. XIV. Cato's Encyclopedia

351

Cicero says that he treated his learned slave Dionysius more respectfully than Scipio treated Panaetius, and in the same sense it is said in Lucilius:—

–Paenula, si quaeris, canteriu', servu', segestre Utilior mihi, quam sapiens-.

352

IV. XII. Panaetius

353

Thus in the -Paulus-, an original piece, the following line occurred, probably in the description of the pass of Pythium (III. X. Perseus Is Driven Back to Pydna):—

–Qua vix caprigeno generi gradilis gressio est-.

And in another piece the hearers are expected to understand the following description—

–Quadrupes tardigrada agrestis humilis aspera, Capite brevi, cervice anguina, aspectu truci, Eviscerata inanima cum animali sono-.

To which they naturally reply—

–Ita saeptuosa dictione abs te datur, Quod conjectura sapiens aegre contuit; Non intellegimus, nisi si aperte dixeris-.

Then follows the confession that the tortoise is referred to. Such enigmas, moreover, were not wanting even among the Attic tragedians, who on that account were often and sharply taken to task by the Middle Comedy.

354

Perhaps the only exception is in the -Andria- (iv. 5) the answer to the question how matters go:—

"-Sic Ut quimus," aiunt, "quando ut volumus non licet-"

in allusion to the line of Caecilius, which is, indeed, also imitated from a Greek proverb:—

–Vivas ut possis, quando non quis ut velis-.

The comedy is the oldest of Terence's, and was exhibited by the theatrical authorities on the recommendation of Caecilius. The gentle expression of gratitude is characteristic.

355

A counterpart to the hind chased by dogs and with tears calling on a young man for help, which Terence ridicules (Phorm. prol. 4), may be recognized in the far from ingenious Plautine allegory of the goat and the ape (Merc, ii. 1). Such excrescences are ultimately traceable to the rhetoric of Euripides (e. g. Eurip. Hec. 90).

356

Micio in the -Adelphi- (i. i) praises his good fortune in life, more particularly because he has never had a wife, "which those (the Greeks) reckon a piece of good fortune."

357

In the prologue of the -Heauton Timorumenos- he puts the objection into the mouth of his censors:—

–Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum Amicum ingenio fretum, haud natura sua-.

And in the later prologue (594) to the -Adelphi- he says—

–Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Eum adiutare, adsidueque una scribere; Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existimant Eam laudem hic ducit maximam, quum illis placet Qui vobis universis et populo placent; Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia-.

As early as the time of Cicero it was the general supposition that Laelius and Scipio Aemilianus were here meant: the scenes were designated which were alleged to proceed from them; stories were told of the journeys of the poor poet with his genteel patrons to their estates near Rome; and it was reckoned unpardonable that they should have done nothing at all for the improvement of his financial circumstances. But the power which creates legend is, as is well known, nowhere more potent than in the history of literature. It is clear, and even judicious Roman critics acknowledged, that these lines could not possibly apply to Scipio who was then twenty-five years of age, and to his friend Laelius who was not much older. Others with at least more judgment thought of the poets of quality Quintus Labeo (consul in 571) and Marcus Popillius (consul in 581), and of the learned patron of art and mathematician, Lucius Sulpicius Gallus (consul in 588); but this too is evidently mere conjecture. That Terence was in close relations with the Scipionic house cannot, however, be doubted: it is a significant fact, that the first exhibition of the -Adelphi- and the second of the -Hecyra- took place at the funeral games of Lucius Paullus, which were provided by his sons Scipio and Fabius.

358

IV. XI. Token-Money

359

III. XIV. National Comedy

360

External circumstances also, it may be presumed, co-operated in bringing about this change. After all the Italian communities had obtained the Roman franchise in consequence of the Social war, it was no longer allowable to transfer the scene of a comedy to any such community, and the poet had either to keep to general ground or to choose places that had fallen into ruin or were situated abroad. Certainly this circumstance, which was taken into account even in the production of the older comedies, exercised an unfavourable effect on the national comedy.

361

I. XV. Masks

362

With these names there has been associated from ancient times a series of errors. The utter mistake of Greek reporters, that these farces were played at Rome in the Oscan language, is now with justice universally rejected; but it is, on a closer consideration, little short of impossible to bring these pieces, which are laid in the midst of Latin town and country life, into relation with the national Oscan character at all. The appellation of "Atellan play" is to be explained in another way. The Latin farce with its fixed characters and standing jests needed a permanent scenery: the fool- world everywhere seeks for itself a local habitation. Of course under the Roman stage-police none of the Roman communities, or of the Latin communities allied with Rome, could be taken for this purpose, although it was allowable to transfer the -togatae- to these. But Atella, which, although destroyed de jure along with Capua in 543 (III. VI. Capua Capitulates, III. VI. In Italy), continued practically to subsist as a village inhabited by Roman farmers, was adapted in every respect for the purpose. This conjecture is changed into certainty by our observing that several of these farces are laid in other communities within the domain of the Latin tongue, which existed no longer at all, or no longer at any rate in the eye of the law-such as the -Campani- of Pomponius and perhaps also his -Adelphi- and his -Quinquatria- in Capua, and the -Milites Pometinenses- of Novius in Suessa Pometia—while no existing community was subjected to similar maltreatment. The real home of these pieces was therefore Latium, their poetical stage was the Latinized Oscan land; with the Oscan nation they have no connection. The statement that a piece of Naevius (d. after 550) was for want of proper actors performed by "Atellan players" and was therefore called -personata- (Festus, s. v.), proves nothing against this view: the appellation "Atellan players" comes to stand here proleptically, and we might even conjecture from this passage that they were formerly termed "masked players" (-personati-).