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ANCIENT See also:HISTORY
I. The Beginnings of See also:Rome and the See also:Monarchy.
Both the See also:city and the See also:state of Rome are represented in tradition as having been gradually formed by the See also:fusion of See also:separate communities. The See also:original See also:settlement of See also:Romulus is said to have been limited to the See also:Palatine See also:Mount. With this were See also:united before the end of his reign the Capitoline and the Quirinal; Tullus Hostilius added the Caelian, Ancus See also:Martius the Aventine; and finally Servius Tullius included the Esquiline and Viminal, and enclosed the whole seven hills with a See also: The speech of the Romans is from the first Latin,' though showing many traces of contact
1 Varro, L.L. vi. 34. 2 Fest. 258; Varro ap. See also:Solinus i. 17.
Tac. See also:Ann. xii. 24. For a full discussion of the exact limits of the Palatine city see See also: Sled: Rom, i. cap. 2; See also: a See See also:Mommsen, R.G. (7th ed.), i. 51. 7 See also:Vance L.L. v. 45, vii. 44; Jordan ii. 237. e See LATIN LANGUAGE.with the neighbouring dialects of the Sabines and VoIscians and also of Etruscans; the See also:oldest gods of Rome—Saturn, See also:Jupiter, See also:Juno, Diana—are all Latin; " rex," " See also:praetor," " See also:dictator," " See also:curia," are Latin titles and institutions' The See also:primitive settlements, with their earthen ramparts and wooden palisades planted upon them out of reach both of human foes and of the See also:malaria of the swampy See also:low grounds, are only typical of the mode of settlement which the conditions of See also:life dictated through-out the Latian See also:plain.10 But tradition insists on the admixture of at least two non-Latin elements, a Sabine and an Etruscan. The question as regards the latter will be more fully discussed hereafter; it is enough to say here that while the evidence of nomenclature (Schulze, Geschichte der Lad. Eigennamen, See also:Leipzig, 1.904, p. 579, with the modifications suggested in the Classical See also:Review, See also:December 1907) shows that many Etruscan genies were settled within the See also:bounds of the early city, there is no satisfactory evidence that there was any large Etruscan See also:strain in the See also:Roman See also:blood.11 With the Sabines it is otherwise. The That union of the Palatine and Quirinal settlements Sebinea which constituted so decisive a See also:stage in the growth in Rome. of Rome is represented as having been in ' reality a union of the original Latins with a See also:band of Sabine invaders who had seized and held not only the Quirinal Hill, but the See also:northern and nearest See also:peak of the Capitoline Mount. The tradition was evidently deeply rooted. The name of the See also:god See also:Quirinus, from which that of the Quirinal Hill itself presumably sprang, was popularly connected with the Sabine town of See also:Cures." The ancient worships connected with it were said to be Sabine.'$' One of the three old tribes, the Tities, was believed to represent the Sabine See also:element;14 the second and the See also:fourth See also:kings are both of Sabine descent. By the See also:great See also:majority of See also:modern writers the substance of the tradition, the fusion of a See also:body of Sabine invaders with the original Latins, is accepted ,as See also:historical; and even Mommsen allowed its possibility, though he threw back the See also:time of its occurrence to an earlier See also:period than that of the union of the two settlements 15 We cannot here enter into the question at length, but some fairly certain points may be mentioned. The See also:probability of Sabine raids and a Sabine settlement, possibly on the Quirinal Hill, in very early times may be admitted. The incursions of the highland Apennine tribes into the lowlands fill a large See also:place in early See also:Italian history. The Latins were said to have originally descended from the See also:mountain glens near Reate.16. The invasions of See also:Campania and of Magna Graecia by Sabine (more correctly Safine) tribes are See also:matter of history (see See also:SAMNITES), and the Sabines themselves are represented as a restless highland See also:people, ever seeking, new homes in richer lands.17 In very early days they appear on the See also:borders of See also:Latium, in See also:close proximity to Rome, and . Sabine forays are See also:familiar and frequent occurrences in the old legends. But beyond these See also:general considerations See also:recent inquiry enables us to advance to some few definite conclusions. (1) It may now be regarded as established beyond question that the patrician class at Rome sprang from a race other than that of the plebeians. 9 The See also:title " rex " occurs on See also:inscriptions at See also:Lanuvium, Tusculuin; See also:Bovillae; Henzen, Bullettino dell'Inst. (1868), p. 159; See also:Orelli, 2279; Corp. I. See also:Lat. vi. 2125. For " dictator " and " praetor," see See also:Livy i. 23, viii. 3; cf. See also:Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverwaltung, i.. 475: for " curia," Serv. on Aen. i. 17; Marquardt i. 467. "B. Modestov, Introduction a l'histoire romaine (translated from the See also:Russian by M. Delines), See also:Paris, 1907, supersedes' other authorities such, as Helbig, See also:Die Italiker in d. Poebene;, Pohlmann,Anfange Roms, 4o; See also:Abeken, Mittel-Italien, 61 seq. 1' The existence of a Tuscan See also:quarter (Tuscus vices) in early Rome may point to nothing more than the presence in Rome of Etruscan artisans and craftsmen. But see See also:ETRURIA, § Language. 12. Varro, L.L. v. 51. 13 Ibid. v. 74; See also:Schwegler i. 248 seq. 14 Ibid. v. 55; Livy i. i3. 19 Mommsen, R.G. i. 43. Schwegler (R.G. i..478) accepted the tradition of a Sabine settlement on the Quirinal, and considered thnt in the united state the Sabine element predominated. Volquardsen (Rhein. See also:Mus. xxxiii. 559) believed in a See also:complete Sabine See also:conquest; and so did Zoller (Latium u. Rom, Leipzig, 1878), who, however, placed it after the See also:expulsion of the Tarquins. 14 See also:Cato ap. Dionys. ii. 48, 49. 17 Ibid. ii. 48, 49. For' the institution of the" ver sacrum" see Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. i. 240; Nissen, Templum iv, This was See also:long ago recognized by Schwegler (see his R6mische Geschichte, passim) on the sufficient ground of the great religious cleavage between the two orders. Such See also:jealousy of mutual contact in religious matters as is apparent all through the history of the city very rarely, if ever, springs from any other source than a real difference of race. This point was See also:developed by See also:Professor W. Ridgeway in his Who were the Romans? (See also:London, 1908), where he points out (a) that the deities tended by the three greater or patrician flamens, • namely, Djalis, See also:Martialis, Quirinalis, were all closely connected with the Sabines; (b) further, that the patrician See also:form of See also:marriage, the highly religious ceremony called Confarreatio, differed entirely from the other forms, Usus and Coemptio, which there is See also:reason to attribute to a plebeian origin; (c) that the arms, especially the See also:round See also:shield. carried by the first class in the originally military constitution of Servius Tullius (see below), are characteristic of the warriors of Central See also:Europe in the Early See also:Iron and See also:Bronze See also:Age, whereas those of the remaining classes can be shown to have been in general use during the immediately preceding period in the Mediterranean lands. For other archaeological evidence separating the See also:patricians from the plebeians, and connecting the patricians closely with the Sabines the reader must be referred to Ridgeway's See also:essay. It is, however, well to make See also:special mention here of the tradition, which is given by Livy (ii. 16. 4), and is undated but not the less probable for being a non-annalistic tradition, preserved in the gees itself, of the prompt welcome given to the Sabine Appius See also:Claudius, the founder of the haughtiest of all the Roman See also:noble families,'by the patricians of Rome and his immediate See also:admission to all their See also:political privileges; Ridgeway points out that this implies, at that early time, a substantial identity of race. On the linguistic See also:side of the question it is well to mention for clearness' See also:sake that this Saline or patrician class marked its ascendancy all over Central and See also:Southern See also:Italy, from the 6th See also:century B.C. onwards, by its preference for forming ethnic names with the suffix -no- which it frequently imposed also upon the communities whom it brought under its See also:influence. See also:Sabini (earlier Safini), Romani, Latini, Sidicini, See also:Aricini, See also:Marrucini, and the like are all names formed in this way (see further SABINI). 2. It may also now be regarded as certain that what we may See also:call the See also:Lower or Earlier Stratum (or Strata) of See also:population in Rome, themselves spoke a language which was as truly Indo-See also:European as the language of their Saline conquerors. In the See also:article See also:Volsci will be found evidence for the conclusion that the language of what has been' there entitled the Co-Folk was not less certainly Indo-European, and in some respects probably a less modified form of Indo-European, than that of the Safines. A number of the names formed with the -co- suffix and with the -ati- suffix (which is frequent in the same districts) contain unmistakably Indo-European words such as Graviscae, Marica, dea Marica, Volsci, Casinates, See also:Soracte, Interamnites, Auxumates. The fusion of this earlier population with the patricians is far easier to imagine when it is recognized that the two parties spoke kindred though by no means identical See also:languages. It is the essentially Indo-European See also:character of the early inhabitants of the Latin plain which has led many scholars to doubt that there was any racial distinction at all between patricians and plebeians; but the increase of knowledge of the dialects spoken in the different regions of Italy has now enabled us to. See also:judge this question with very much See also:fuller evidence. 3. There arises, however, the important question or questions as to the origin, or at least the ethnic connexions of this earlier stratum. The task of the historic inquirer will not be completely performed until at least some further progress has been made in connecting this earlier population of the western See also:coast of Italy, on the one See also:hand, with one or more of the early races (see See also:SICULI. See also:VENETI, See also:LIGURIA, See also:PELASGIANS) whom tradition declares to have once inhabited the See also:soil of Latium; and on the other, with the people or peoples whom archaeological See also:research reveals to us as having See also:left behind them different strata of remains, all earlier than the Iron or Roman Age, both in Latium and in other parts of Italy. Professor Ridgeway has taken a See also:short way with these problems which may prove to be the true one, he classes together as Ligurian all pre-Saline inhabitants of Italy See also:save such elements as, like the Etruscans, can be shown to have invaded it over See also:sea (see ETRURIA, § Language). This is one of the most promising See also:fields of investigation now open to scholars, but in view of the confused and mutilated shape in which , the traditions current in ancient times have come down to us, it demands an exceedingly careful See also:scrutiny of the archaeological and the linguistic evidence, and exceedingly cautious See also:judgment in combining them. The point of outstanding importance is to determine whether the earlier Indo-European population is to be regarded as having been in Italy from the beginning of human habitation. Archaeologists generally like W. Helbig (Die Italiker der Poebene) and more recently B. Modestov (Introduction a l'histoire romaine, Paris, 1907) have been inclined to regard the Ligurians as the most primitive population of Italy, but to distinguish them sharply from the people who built the See also:Lake Settlement and See also:Pile Dwellings, which appear (with important See also:variations of type):—(1) in the western See also:half of the. valley of the Po; (2) in the eastern half of the same; (3) in Picenurn; (4) in Latium; and (5) as far See also:south as See also:Tarentum. One of the most important points in the See also:identification is the question of the method of See also:burial employed at different epochs by the different communities. (See the See also:works already cited, with that of 0. Montelius, La Civilisation primitive en Ilalie.) The populus See also:Romanus was, we are told', divided into three tribes, Ramnes, Tities and Luceres,' and into See also:thirty curiae. The three names; as Schulze has shown The (Lat. Eigennamen, p. 58o), are neither more nor less people.
than the names of three Etruscan gentes (whether
or not derived from Saline or Latin originals), and the tradition is a striking result of the Etruscan domination in the 6th century
B.c.,2 which we shall shortly consider.
Of far greater importance is the See also:division into curiae. In See also:Cicero's time there were still curies, curial festivals and curiate assemblies, and modern authors are unquestionably right in regarding the curia as the See also:keystone of the primitive political See also:system. It was a primitive association held together by par_ ticipation in See also:common sacra, and possessing common festivals, common priests and a common See also:chapel, See also: Mus. xxxiii. 538. 2 They are traditionally connected only with the See also:senate of 300 patres, with the primitive See also:legion of 3000, with the vestal virgins, and with the See also:augurs (Varro, L.L. v. 8i, 89, 91; Livy X. 6; Festus 344; Mommsen •i. 41, 74, 75; Genz, Patricisch. Rom, 90). ' It is possible that the curiae were originally connected with separate localities; cf. such names as Foriensis, Veliensis (Test. 174; Gilbert i. 213). ' See also:Niebuhr's supposition of ten gentes in each curia has nothing in its favour but the confused statement of See also:Dionysius as to the purely military & teats (Dionys. ii. 7; cf. See also: Tradition ascribes to him a position and See also:powers closely resembling those of the heroic kings of See also:Greece. He rules for life, and he is the See also:sole ruler, unfettered by written statutes. He is the supreme judge, settling all disputes and punishing wrongdoers even with death. All other officials are appointed by him. He imposes taxes, distributes lands and erects buildings. Senate and See also:assembly meet only when he convenes them, and meet for little else than to receive communications from him. In See also:war he is See also:absolute See also:leader,3 and finally he is also the religious head of the community. It is his business to consult the gods on its behalf, to offer the solemn sacrifices and to announce the days of the public festivals. Hard by his See also:house was the common hearth of the state, where the vestal virgins cherished the sacred See also:fire. By the side of the king stood the senate, or council of elders. In the descriptions left us of the primitive senate, as in those The of the rex, we can discover traces of a transition from senate. an earlier state of things when Rome was only an assemblage of clans or See also:village communities, allied indeed, but each still ruled by its own chiefs and headmen, to one in which these See also:groups have been fused into a single state under a common ruler. On the one hand the senate appears as a representative council of chiefs, with inalienable prerogatives of its own, and claiming to be the ultimate depositary of the supreme authority and of the sacra connected with it. The senators are the patres; they are taken from the leading genies; they hold their seats for life; to them the auspicia revert on the, death of a king; they appoint the interrex from their own body, are consulted in the choice of the new king,° and their See also:sanction is necessary to ratify the vote of the assembled freemen. On the other hand, they are no longer 'supreme. failed to bring out the nature of the See also:compromise on which the kingship rests. ' Cic. De Legg. iii. 3; Livy iv. 7. Y " Patres auctores facts," Livy i. 22; ," patres fuere auctores," ibid. i. 32. In 336 B.C. (Livy viii. 12) the Publilian See also:law directed that this sanction should be given beforehand, " ante initum suffragium," and thus reduced it to a meaningless form (Livy i. II). . • It is wrongly identified by Schwegler with the " lex curiata de imperio," which in Cicero's See also:day followed and did not precede See also:election. According to Cicero (De See also:Rep. ii. 13, 21), the proceedings included, in addition to the " creation " by the See also:comitia curiata and the sanction of the patres, the introduction by the king himself of a lex curiata confer-ring the imperium and auspicia; but this theory, though generally accepted, is probably an inference from the practice of a later time, when the creatio had been transferred to the comitia centuriata. l For the references, see Schwegler 646 seq. lIf the See also:analogy of the rex sacrorum is to be trusted, the " king " could only be chosen from the ranks of the patricii. Cic. See also:Pro Domo, 14; See also:Gaius i 122.chooses to consult them. The popular assembly of united Rome in its earliest days was that in which the freemen met and voted by their curiae (comitia curiata8). The place of assembly was' in the Comitium at the See also:north-See also:east end of the See also:Forum ,eassembly. .at the See also:summons and under the See also:presidency of the' king ' or, failing him, of the interrex. By the rex or' the interrex the question was put, and the voting took place curiatim, the curiae being called up in turn. The vote of each curia was decided by the majority of individual votes, and a majority of the votes of the curiae determined the final result. But the occasions on which the assembly could exercise its pbwer must have been few. Their right to elect magistrates was apparently limited to the acceptance or rejection of the king proposed by the interrex. Of the passing of See also:laws, in the later' sense of the See also:term, there is no trace in the kingly period. Dionysius's statement' that they voted on questions of war and See also:peace is improbable in itself and unsupported by' tradition. They are indeed represented, in one instance, as deciding a See also:capital See also:case, but it is by the See also:express permission of the king and not of right .° Assemblies of the people were also, and probably more frequently, convened for other purposes. Not only did they meet to hear from the king the announcement of the high' days and holidays for each See also:month, and to witness such solemn religious See also:rites' as the inauguration of a See also:priest, but their presence (and sometimes their vote) was further required to authorize and attest certain acts; which in a later age assumed a more private character. The disposal of See also:property by will° and the solemn renunciation of See also:family or See also:gentile sacra 10 could only take placein'the presence of the assembled freemen, while for See also:adoption" (adrogatio) not only their presence but their formal consent was necessary. A history of this early Roman state is out' of the question. The names, See also:dates and achievements of the' first' four kings are all too unsubstantial to form the basis of a sober Rome narrative;12 a few points only can be considered as under the fairly well established. If we except the long event- See also:Mass. less reign ascribed to King Numa, tradition represents the first kings as incessantly at war with their immediate neighbours. The details of these See also:wars are no doubt mythical; but the implied condition of continual struggle, and the narrow range within which the struggle is confined, may be accepted as true. The picture See also:drawn is that of a small community, with a few square See also:miles of territory, at deadly See also:feud with its nearest neighbours, within a See also:radius' of some See also:r2 m. round Rome. Nor, in spite of the repeated 'victories with which tradition credits Romulus, 'Ancus and Tullus, does there seem to have been any real See also:extension of Roman territory except towards the' sea. See also:Fidenae remains Etruscan;' the Sabine$ continue 'masters up 'to the Anio; See also:Praeneste, See also:Gabii and See also:Tusculum are still untbuched; and on this side it is doubtful if Roman territory, in spite of the possible destruction of Alba, extended to a greater' distance than the See also:sixth milestone from Rome." But along the course 8 Cic. De Rep. ii. 13; Dionys. ii. 14, &c. 8 Varro, L.L. v. 155. For the position of the Comitium, sef~ Smith, Dict. Geog., s.v. " Roma," and Jordan, Topog. d. Stadt Rom. (Petersen). 7 Dionys. i.e. 8 Livvyyi. 2b; Dionys. iii. 22. 9 Gains ii. Iox. 10 See also:Gell.xv.:27. u Gell. v. 19, " Comitia praebentur,.quae curiata appellantus." Cf. Cic. Pro Domo, 13, 14; and see ROMAN Law. 19 By far the most complete See also:criticism of the traditional accounts of the first four kings will be found in Scltwegler's Rom. Geschichte, vol. i. ; compare also Ihne's Early Rome and See also:Sir G. C. See also:Lewis's Credibility'of Early Roman History. More recently, E. Pais (See also:Scoria d'Italia) has subjected the early legends to learned and often suggestive criticism, but without attaining very solid results. 13 The fossa Cluilia, 5 ni. from Rome (Livy ii. 39), is regarded by Schwegler (i. 585) and by Mommsen (i. 45)' as marking the Roman frontier towards Latium. Cf. See also:Ovid. Fast. ii. • 681; See also:Strabo 230, " tlfra f 1, See also:tray roil V&IA1rrov Kal 700 EKTOU XWOU . . . TOADS 4fjffTOl . . . 6p&ov rt]S rGrs 'P47/LaLwv yin." of the See also:Tiber below the city there was a decided ,advance. The fortification of the janiculum, the See also:building of the pons sub-fides, the See also:foundation of See also:Ostia and the acquisition of the See also:salt-works near the sea may all be safely ascribed to this early period; Closely connected, too, with the See also:control of the Tiber from Rome to the sea was the subjugation of the See also:petty Latin communities lying south of the See also:river; and the tradition of the conquest and destruction of Politorium, Tellenae and Ficana is confirmed by the See also:absence in historical, times. of any Latin communities in this See also:district. With the reign of the fifth king Tarquinius See also:Priscus a marked See also:change takes place. The traditional accounts of the last three The kings not only See also:wear a more historical See also:air than those of T, the first four, but they describe something like a trans- formation of the Roman city and state. Under the See also:rule of these latter kings the separate settlements are for the first time enclosed with a rampart of See also:colossal See also:size: and extent.' The low grounds are drained, and a forum and See also:circus elaborately laid out; on the Capitoline Mount a See also:temple ,is erected, the massive See also:foundations of which were an See also:object of wonder even to See also:Pliny .2 To the same period are assigned the redivision of the city See also:area into four new districts and the introduction of a new military system. The kings increase in See also:power and surround themselves with new splendour. Abroad,. too, Rome suddenly appears as a powerful state ruling far and wide over southern Etruria and Latium. These startling. changes are, moreover, ascribed to kings of See also:alien descent, who one and all ascend the See also:throne in the See also:teeth of established constitutional forms. Finally, with the expulsion of the last of them—the younger Tarquin-comes a sudden shrinkage of power. At the commencement of the See also:Republic Rome is once more a comparatively, small state, with hostile and See also:independent; neighbours at her very doors. It is impossible to doubt the conviction that the true explanation of this phenomenon is to be found in the supposition that Rome during this period passed, under the rule of powerful Etruscan lords? In the 7th and 6th centuries B.c., and probably earlier still, the Etruscans appear as ruling widely outside the limits of Etruria proper. They were supreme in the valley of the Po until their power there was broken by the irruption of See also:Celtic tribes from beyond the See also:Alps, and while still masters of the plains of See also:Lombardy they established themselves in the See also:rich lowlands of Campania, where they held their ground until the See also:capture of See also:Capua by the Sunnite highlanders in 423 B.C. It is on the See also:face of it improbable that a power which had extended its sway from the Alps to the Tiber, and from the Liris to See also:Surrentum, should have left untouched the intervening stretch of See also:country between the Tiber and the Liris. And there is abundant evidence., of Etruscan rule in Latium.' According, to Dionysius there was a time when the Latins were known to the Greeks. as Tyrrhenians, and Rome as a. Tyrrhenian city .5 When See also:Aeneas landed in Italy the Latins were at feud with Turnus (Turrhenos? Dionys. i.64) of See also:Ardea,whose close ally was the ruthless Mezentius; See also:prince of See also:Caere, to whom the Latins had been forced to pay a See also:tribute of See also:wine.' Cato declared the Volsci to have been once subject to Etruscan rule,' and Etruscan remains found at Velitrae,8 as well as the second • name of the Volscian Anxur, Tarracina (the city of Tarchon), confirm his statement. Nearer still to Rome is Tusculum, with its significant name, at Praeneste we have a great number of Etruscan inscriptions and bronzes, and at Alba we hear of a prince TapXErws,9 lawless and cruel like Mezentius, who consults the " See also:oracle of Tethys in Tyrrhenia." Thus we find the Etruscan power encircling Rome on all sides, and in Rome itself a tradition of the rule of princes of Etruscan ' Livy i. 36. ' 2 Ibid. i. 38, 55; Plin. N.H. See also:xxxvi. 15. $ This was the view of O. Muller, and more recently of Deecke, Gardthausen and See also:Zeller. 4W. Schulze, Gesch. d. Lat. Eigenttanten, passim (esp. pp. 579 ff.) ; Zeller, Latium u. Rom, 166, 189; Gardthausen, Mastarna (Leipzig, 1882). 6 Dionys. i. 29. Livy i. 2; Dionys. i. 64, 65; Plut. Q.R. i8. 7 Cato ap. Serv. Aen. xi. 567. ' Helbig; Ann. d. Inst. (1865). 'Piet. ' Rom. 2. •napasoµw-raros eat &i.ut aros; cf. Rutulian -Tarquitius, Virg. Aen. x. 550.origin. The Tarquiniicome from south" Etruria; their name can hardly be anything else than the Latin See also:equivalent of the Etruscan Tarchon, and is therefore possibly a title (_" See also:lord " or " prince ") rather than a proper name." Even Servius Tullius was identified by Tuscan chroniclers with an Etruscan " Mastarna.''" Again, what we are told of Etruscan conquests doea not represent them as moving, like the Sabellian tribes, in large bodies and. settling down en masse in the conquered districts. We hear rather of military raids led by ambitious chiefs who carve, out principalities for themselves with their own See also:good swords, and with their followers rule oppressively over alien and subject peoples.'? And so at Rome the See also:story of the Tarquins implies not a See also:wave of Etruscan See also:immigration so much as a rule of Etruscan princes over conquered Latins. The achievements ascribed to. the Tarquins are not less characteristic. Their despotic rule and splendour contrast with the primitive simplicity of the native kings: Only Etruscan builders, under the direction of wealthy and powerful Etruscan lords, could have built the great See also:cloaca, the Servian wall, or the Capitoline temple,—monuments which challenged comparison with those of the emperors themselves. Nor do the traces of See also:Greek. influence upon Rome during this period" conflict with the theory of an "Etruscan supremacy; on the contrary, it is at least possible that it was thanks to the extended rule and wide connexions of her Etruscan rulers that Rome was first brought into See also:direct contact with the Greeks, who had long traded with the Etruscan ports and influenced Etruscan culture," The Etruscan princes are represented, not only as having raised Rome for the time to acommandingpositianinLatium and lavished upon the city itself the resources: of Etruscan civilization, Ttre but,also as the authors of important See also:internal changes. servmenr They are representedas favouring new men at the expense ,.reforms• of the old patrician families, and as reorganizing the Roman See also:army on a new footing, , a policy natural enough in military princes of alien See also:birth, and rendered possible by the additions •which conquest had made to the original community. From among the leading families of the. conquered Latin states a See also:hundred new members were admitted to the senate, and these genies thenceforth rankedaspatrician, and became known as genies" minores."6 The changes, in the army begun, it is said, by the See also:elder Tarquin and completed, by Servius Tullius were more important. The basis of the primitive military system had been three tribes, each of which furnished too) men to the legion and too tq the See also:cavalry.16 Tarquinius Priscus, we are told, contemplated the. creation of three fresh tribes and three additional centuries of horsemen with new names," though in face of the opposition offered by the old families he contented himself. with simply doubling the strength without altering the names of the old divisions." But the change attributed tp • Servius Tullius went far beyond this. His famous. See also:distribution of all freeholders (assidui) into tribes, classes and centuries," though subsequently adopted" with modifications as the basis of the to Muller-Deecke, i. 69, 7o; 'Zoller, Latium u. Rom, 168; cf. Strabo, p..219; Serv. on Aen. x. 179, 198. The existence of an independent " gens Tarquinia ". of Roman extraction (Schwegler, i. 678) is unproven and unlikely. See now Schulze, Lat. Eigennamen, pp. 95 and 402 'n. 6. u see speech of Claudius, Tab. Lugd. App. to Nipperdey's edition of the See also:Annals of Tacitus, ' Tusce Mastarna ei nomen Brat." For the See also:painting in the See also:Francois See also:tomb at Vulci, see Gardthausen, Mastarna, 29 seq.; Annali dell. Instil., (Rome, 1859). 12 Cf. the traditions of Mezentius, of Caeles Vibenna,See also:Porsena, &c. 1' SthweFler R.G. i. 679 seq. 14Ibid. 1. 791, 792. He accepts as genuine, and as representing the extent of Roman rule and connexions under the Tarquins, the first treaty between Rome and See also:Carthage mentioned by Polybiva (iii. 22); see, for a discussion of the question, Vollmer, Rhein. Muss xxxii. 614 seq.; Mommsen, Rom: Chronologie, 20 See also:Dyer, fount. of Philol. ix. 238. 16 Livy i. 35; Dionys. iii. 67; Cie. De Rep. ii. 20. 16 Varro, L.L. V. 89. 17 Livy i. 36 ; Dionys. iii. 71. 'B The six centuries of hcrsemen were thenceforward known as " primi secundique Ramnes " (Fest. 344; cf. Schwegler, i.685 seq.). It is possible that the reforms of Tarquinius Priscus were limited to the cavalry. 19 Cie. De Rep. ii: 22 ; Livy i. 42; Dionys, iv. 1,6. political system, was at- first exclusively military in its nature and See also:objects.' It amounted, in fact, to the formation of a new and enlarged army on a new footing. In this force, excepting in the case of the centuries of the horsemen, no regard was paid either to the old See also:dan divisions or to the semi-religious, semi-political curiae. In its ranks were included all freeholders within the Roman territory, whether members or not of any of the old divisions, and the organization of this new army of assidui was not less independent of the old system with its clannish and religious traditions and forms. The unit was the centuria or See also:company of See also:roc men; the centuriae were grouped in " classes " and drawn up in the See also:order of the See also:phalanx? The centuries in front were composed of the wealthier citizens, whose means enabled them to See also:bear the cost of the complete equipments necessary for those who were to bear the brunt of the onset. These centuries formed the first class. Behind them stood the centuries of the second and third classes, less completely armed, but making up together with those of the first class the heavy-armed See also:infantry.3 In the See also:rear were the centuries of the fourth and fifth classes, recruited from the poorer freeholders, and serving only as See also:light-armed troops. The entire available body of freeholders was divided into two equal portions, a reserve See also:corps of seniores and a corps of juniores for active service. Each of these corps consisted- of 85 centuries ,or 8500 men, i.e. of two legions of about 4200 men each, the normal strength of a consular legion under the early Republic.', ^ It is noticeable also that the heavy-armed centuries of the three first classes in each of these legions represented a See also:total of 3000 men, a number which agrees exactly with the number of heavy-armed troops in the legion as described by See also:Polybius. Attached to the legions, but not included in them, were the companies of sappers and trumpeters. Lastly, to the six centuries of horsemen, which still retained the old tribal names, twelve more were added as a distinct body, and recruited from the 'wealthiest class of citizens.6 The four " tribes " also instituted by Servius were probably intended to serve as the bases for the See also:levy of freeholders for the new army.6 As their names show, they corresponded with the natural See also:local divisions 3f the city territory? The last of these Etruscan lords to rule in Rome was Tarquin the Proud. He is described as a splendid and despotic monarch. See also:Pal of His sway extended over Latium as far south as Circeii. the moo- See also:Aristodemus, See also:tyrant of See also:Cumae, was his ally, and archy kinsmen of his own were princes at See also:Collatia, at Gabii; and at Tusculum. The Volscian highlanders were chastised, and See also:Signia with its massive walls was built to hold them in check. In Rome itself the Capitoline temple and the great cloaca See also:bore witness to his power. But his rule pressed heavily upon the Romans, and at the last, on the See also:news of the foul wrong done by his son Sextus to a noble Roman matron, See also:Lucretia, the indignant people See also:rose in revolt. Tarquin, who was away besieging Ardea,- was deposed; See also:sentence of See also:exile was passed upon . him. and upon all his race; and :the 'This is recognized by Mommsen, Gene and Soltau, as against Niebuhr, Schwegler and Ihne. Even in the later comitia centuriata the traces of the originally military character of the organization are unmistakable. 2 The century ceased to represent companies of one hundred when the whole organization ceased to be military and became exclusively political. 3 The property qualification for service in the first class is given at See also:ioo,000 asses (Livy), for the second at 70,000, third 50,000, fourth 25,000, fifth ix,000. It was probably originally a certain number of cows, afterwards translated into terms of See also:money; cf. W. Ridgeway, The Origin of Coinage and Metallic Currency (See also:Cambridge, 1892), p. 391. The same See also:scholar, in his Who were the Romans? p. 17, has pointed out the ethnical meaning of the varieties of See also:armature in the early army. ' Polyb. vi. 20; Mommsen, Rom. Trib. 132 seq. Livy i. 43. Dionys. (iv. 18) and Cie. (De Rep. ii. 22) ascribe the whole eighteen to Servius. But the six older centuries remained distinct, as the "See also:sex suffragia " of the comitia centuriata; Cic. De Rep. ii. 22. 6 Dionys. iv. 14, di r&s kale ypa4 &i 7W9 o rparueray. Livy i. 43. The four were Palatina, Suburana, Exquilina, Collina.people swore that never again should a king rule in Rome. Freed from the tyrant, they See also:chose for themselves two yearly magistrates who should exercise the supreme authority, and thus the Republic of Rome was founded. Three times the banished Tarquin strove desperately to recover the throne he had lost. First of all the men of See also:Veil and. See also:Tarquinii marched to his aid, but were defeated in a pitched See also:battle on the Roman frontier. A See also:year later Lars Porsena, prince of See also:Clusium, at the head of all the powers of Etruria, appeared before the See also:gates of Rome, and closely besieged the city, until, moved by the valour of his foe, he granted See also:honourable terms of peace and withdrew .s Once again, by Lake See also:Regillus, the Romans fought victoriously for their See also:liberty against Tarquin's son-in-law Mamilius, prince of Tusculum, and chief of the Latin name. Mamilius was slain; Tarquin in despair found a See also:refuge at Cumae, and there soon afterwards died. So, in brief,' ran the story of the See also:flight of the kings,. as it was told by the chroniclers whose story Livy reports, though with explicit and repeated notes of reserve. Its details are most of them fabulous; it is crowded with inconsistencies and improbabilities; : there are no trustworthy dates; the names even of the chief actors are probably fictitious, and the hand of the improver, Greek or Roman, is traceable throughout.9 But there is no See also:room for doubting the See also:main facts of the emancipation of Rome from the rule of alien princes and the final abolition of the kingly office. (H. F. P.; R. S. C.) II'. The Republic. PsaoD A: 509-265 B.c'°—(a) The Struggle between the Orders. -It is characteristic of Rome that the change from monarchy to republic" should have been made with the-least pos- 24 9 sible disturbance of existing forms. The title of. king A.u.'c. was retained, though only as that of a priestly officer (rex sacrorum) to whom some of the religious functions of the former kings were transferred. The two annually elected consuls, or praetores,12 were regarded as See also:joint heirs of the full kingly authority, and as holding the imperium, and the correlative right of taking the auspices, by direct transmission from the founder of the city. They were, it is true, elected or designated by a new assembly, by the army of landholders voting by their classes and centuries (comitia centuriata), and to this body was given also the right of passing laws; nevertheless it was still by a vote of the thirty curiae (lex curiata) that the supreme authority was , formally conferred, on the magistrates chosen by the centuries of See also:land-holders, and both the choice of magistrates and the passing of laws still required the. sanction of the patrician senators (patrum asuctoritas).13 , Nor,. lastly, were the legal prerogatives of the senate altered; although it is probable that before long plebeians were admitted to seats, if not to votes, and though its importance was gradually increased by the substitution of an See also:annual magistracy for the lifelong rule of a single king. But the 3 Livy ii..9-14. Pliny (N.H. 34, 14) and Tacitus (Ann. iii. 72) imply the existence of a tradition, possibly that of "Tuscan See also:annalists," according to which Porsena actually made himself See also:master of Rome. The whole story is fully criticized by Schwegler (ii. 181 seq.) and Zoller (Latium u: Rom, p. 18o). a See the exhaustive criticism in Schwegler (ii. pp. 66-203). 10. The traditional See also:account of early republican history, given in annalistic form by Livy, has been subjected to severe criticism in recent times, notably by Pais in his Storia di Roma, vols. i. and ii. It is true that the dearth of contemporary documents, especially for the period before the See also:sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 B.C.), must have led to the filling of gaps by episodes drawn mainly from popular traditions, and it is therefore impossible to See also:guarantee the accuracy of the narrative in details. Nevertheless, the general truth of the story of Rome's early wars and constitutional growth cannot be seriously impugned. " Schwegler (ii. 92) suggests that the dictatorship formed an intermediate step between the monarchy and the consulate; cf. Ihne, Rom. Forsch. 42. 12 That the consuls were originally styled praetores is stated by Varro, ap. Non. p. 23, and Liv. iii. 55; cf. Cic. Legg. viii. 3, 8. When additional praetors were created, the two originally appointed were called praetores maximi and hence grpar,See also:ryot '.Orator! or simply thraro, in Greek. 13 The view of the patrum auctoritas here adopted is that taken by T. Mommsen (Forsch. i.). abolition of the monarchy brought with it a change of the utmost importance in the actual working of the constitution. Though the distinction between patricians and plebeians was at least as old as the state itself, it is not until the See also:establishment of the Republic that it plays any See also:part in the history of Rome. No sooner, however, was the overshadowing authority of the king removed than a struggle commenced between the two orders which lasted for more than two centuries. It was in no sense a struggle between a conquering and a conquered class, or between an exclusive See also:citizen body and an unenfranchised mass outside its See also:pale. Patricians and plebeians were equally citizens of Rome, sprung of the same race and speaking the same See also:tongue (but see above)." The former were the members of those ancient gentes which had possibly been once the " chiefly " families in the small communities which preceded the united state, and which claimed by hereditary right a privileged position in the community. Only patricians could sit in the council of: patres, and hence probably the name given to their order.* To their representatives the supreme authority reverted on the death of the king; the due trans-See also:mission of the auspicia and the public See also:worship ofthe. state gods were their special care; and to them alone were known the traditional usages and forms which regulated the life of the people from day to day. To the . See also:plebs (the multitude, f)itOos) belonged, all who were not members of some patrician gees,: whether independent freemen or attached as " clients " to one of the great houses. The plebeian was a citizen, with See also:civil rights and a vote in the assembly of the curies, but he was excluded by ancient See also:custom from all See also:share in' the higher honours of the state, and intermarriage with a patrician was not recognized as a properly legal union* (see PATRICIANS). The revolution which expelled the Tarquins gave the patricians, who had mainly assisted in bringing it about, an overwhelming ascendancy in the state. The plebs had indeed gained something. Not only is it probable that the strictness of the old tie of clientship had somewhat relaxed, and that the number of the cli.entes was smaller and their dependence on patrician patrons less complete, but the ranks of the plebs had, under the later kings, been swelled by the admission of conquered Latins, and the freeholders among these had with others been enrolled in the Servian tribes, classes and centuries. The establishment of the Republic invested this military levy of landholders with political rights as an assembly, for by their votes the consuls were chosen and laws passed, and it was the plebeian landholders who formed the main strength of the plebs in the struggle that followed. But these gains were greater in See also:appearance than in reality. The plebeian land-holders commanded only a minority of votes in the comitia centuriata. In their choice of magistrates they were limited to the patrician candidates nominated by patrician presiding magistrates, and their choice required See also:confirmation not only by the older and smaller assembly of the curiae, in which the patricians and their clients predominated, but also by the patrician patres. They could only vote on laws proposed by patrician consuls, and here again the subsequent sanction of the patres was necessary. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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