Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
Quintus Minucius and Gaius Horatius Pulvillus were the next consuls.
At the beginning of this year, when there was peace abroad, the same
tribunes and the same law occasioned disturbances at home; and matters
would have proceeded further--so highly were men's minds inflamed-had
not news been brought, as if for the very purpose, that by a night
attack of the AEquans the garrison at Corbio had been cut off. The
consuls convened the senate: they were ordered to raise a hasty levy
and to lead it to Algidum. Then, the struggle about the law being
abandoned, a new dispute arose regarding the levy. The consular
authority was on the point of being overpowered by tribunician
influence, when an additional cause of alarm arose: that the Sabine
army had made a descent upon Roman territory to commit depredations
and from thence was advancing toward the city. This fear influenced
the tribunes to allow the soldiers to be enrolled, not without a
stipulation, however, that since they themselves had been foiled for
five years, and as the present college was but inadequate protection
for the commons, ten tribunes of the people should henceforward be
elected. Necessity extorted this concession from the patricians: they
only exacted this proviso, that they should not hereafter see the same
men tribunes. The election for the tribunes was held immediately, lest
that measure also, like others, might remain unfulfilled after the
war. In the thirty-sixth year after the first tribunes, ten were
elected, two from each class; and provision was made that they should
be elected in this manner for the future. The levy being then held,
Minucius marched out against the Sabines, but found no enemy.
Horatius, when the AEquans, having put the garrison at Corbio to the
sword, had taken Ortona also, fought a battle at Algidum, in which he
slew a great number of the enemy and drove them not only from Algidum,
but from Corbio and Ortona. He also razed Corbio to the ground for
having betrayed the garrison.
Marcus Valerius and Spurius Verginius were next elected consuls.
Quiet prevailed at home and abroad. The people were distressed for
provisions on account of the excessive rains. A law was proposed to
make Mount Aventine public property. [39] The same tribunes of the
people were re-elected. In the following year, Titus Romilius and
Gaius Veturius being consuls, they strongly recommended the law in all
their harangues, declaring that they were ashamed that their number
had been increased to no purpose, it that matter should be neglected
during their two years in the same manner as it had been during the
whole preceding five. While they were most busily employed in these
matters, an alarming message came from Tusculum that the AEquans were
in Tusculan territory. The recent services of that state made them
ashamed of delaying relief. Both the consuls were sent with an army,
and found the enemy in their usual post in Algidum. There a battle was
fought: upward of seven thousand of the enemy were slain, the rest
were put to flight: immense booty was obtained. This the consuls sold
on account of the low state of the treasury. This proceeding, however,
brought them into odium with the army, and also afforded the tribunes
material for bringing a charge against the consuls before the commons.
Accordingly, as soon as they went out of office, in the consulship of
Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius, a day of trial was appointed for
Romilius by Gaius Calvius Cicero, tribune of the people; for Veturius,
by Lucius Alienus plebeian aedile. They were both condemned, to the
great mortification of the patricians: Romilius to pay ten thousand
asses, Veturius fifteen thousand. Nor did this misfortune of their
predecessors render the new consuls more timid. They said that on the
one hand they might be condemned, and that on the other the commons
and tribunes could not carry the law. Then, having abandoned the
law, which, by being repeatedly brought forward, had now lost
consideration, the tribunes, adopted a milder method of proceeding
with the patricians. Let them, said they, at length put an end to
disputes. If laws drawn up by plebeians displeased them, at least let
them allow legislators to be chosen in common, both from the commons
and from the patricians, who might propose measures advantageous to
both parties, and such as would tend to the establishment of liberty
on principles of equality. The patricians did not disdain to accept
the proposal. They claimed that no one should propose laws, except
he were a patrician. When they agreed with respect to the laws, and
differed only in regard to the proposer, ambassadors were sent to
Athens, Spurius Postumius Albus, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius
Camerinus, who were ordered to copy out the celebrated laws of Solon,
and to make themselves acquainted with the institutions, customs, and
laws of the other states of Greece.
The year was peaceful as regards foreign wars; the following one, when
Publius Curiatius and Sextus Quinctilius were consuls, was still more
quiet, owing to the tribunes observing uninterrupted silence, which
was occasioned in the first place by their waiting for the return of
the ambassadors who had gone to Athens, and for the account of the
foreign laws; in the next place, two grievous calamities arose at the
same time, famine and pestilence, destructive to man, and equally
so to cattle. The lands were left desolate; the city exhausted by
a constant succession of deaths. Many illustrious families were in
mourning. The Flamen Quirinalis, [40]Servius Cornelius, died; also the
augur, Gaius Horatius Pulvillus; in his place the augurs elected Gaius
Veturius, and that with all the more eagerness, because he had been
condemned by the commons. The consul Quinctilius died, and four
tribunes of the people. The year was rendered a melancholy one by
these manifold disasters; as far as foreign foes were concerned there
was perfect quiet. Then Gaius Menenius and Publius Sestius Capitolinus
were elected consuls. Nor in that year was there any foreign war: but
disturbances arose at home. The ambassadors had now returned with the
Athenian laws; the tribunes therefore insisted the more urgently that
a beginning should at length be made of compiling the laws. It was
resolved that decemvirs should be elected to rule without appeal, and
that there should be no other magistrate during that year. There
was, for a considerable time, a dispute whether plebeians should
be admitted among them: at length the point was conceded to the
patricians, provided that the Icilian law regarding the Aventine and
the other devoting laws were not repealed.
In the three hundred and second year after the foundation of Rome, the
form of government was a second time changed, the supreme power being
transferred from consuls to decemvirs as it had passed before from
kings to consuls. The change was less remarkable, because not of long
duration; for the joyous commencement of that government afterward ran
riot through excess. On that account the sooner did the arrangement
fall to the ground, and the practice was revived, that the name and
authority of consuls should be committed to two persons. The decemvirs
appointed were, Appius Claudius, Titus Genucius, Publius Sestius,
Lucius Veturius, Gaius Julius, Aulus Manlius, Publius Sulpicius,
Publius Curiatius, Titus Romilius, Spurius Postumius. On Claudius
and Genucius, because they had been consuls elect for that year, the
honour was conferred in compensation for the honour of the consulate;
and on Sestius, one of the consuls of the former year, because he
had proposed the plan itself to the senate against the will of his
colleague. Next to these were considered the three ambassadors who had
gone to Athens, so that the honour might serve at once as a recompense
for so distant an embassy, while at the same time they considered that
persons acquainted with the foreign laws would be of use in drawing up
the new code of justice. The others made up the number. They say that
also persons advanced in years were appointed by the last suffrages,
in order that they might oppose with less warmth the opinions of
others. The direction of the entire government rested with Appius
through the favour of the commons, and he had assumed a demeanour
so different that, from being a severe and harsh persecutor of the
people, he became suddenly a courter of the commons, and strove to
catch every breath of popular favour. They administered justice to the
people individually every tenth day. On that day the twelve fasces
attended the administrator of justice; one officer attended each of
his nine colleagues, and in the midst of the singular unanimity that
existed among themselves--a harmony that sometimes proves prejudicial
to private persons--the strictest equity was shown to others. In proof
of their moderation it will be enough to instance a single case as an
example. Though they had been appointed to govern without appeal,
yet, upon a dead body being found buried in the house of Publius
Sestius,[41] a man of patrician rank, and produced in the assembly,
Gaius Julius, a decemvir, appointed a day of trial for Sestius, in a
matter at once clear and heinous, and appeared before the people
as prosecutor of the man whose lawful judge he was if accused: and
relinquished his right,[42] so that he might add what had been taken
from the power of the office to the liberty of the people.
While highest and lowest alike obtained from them this prompt
administration of justice, undefiled, as if from an oracle, at the
same time their attention was devoted to the framing of laws; and, the
ten tables being proposed amid the intense expectation of all, they
summoned the people to an assembly: and ordered them to go and read
the laws that were exhibited, [43] and Heaven grant it might prove
favourable, advantageous, and of happy result to the commonwealth,
themselves, and their children. That they had equalized the rights of
all, both the highest and the lowest, as far as could be devised by
the abilities of ten men: that the understanding and counsels of a
greater number had greater weight; let them turn over in their minds
each particular among themselves, discuss it in conversation, and
bring forward for public discussion whatever might be superfluous or
defective under each particular: that the Roman people should have
such laws only as the general consent might appear not so much to have
ratified when proposed as to have itself proposed. When they seemed
sufficiently corrected in accordance with public opinion regarding
each section of the laws as it was published, the laws of the ten
tables were passed at the assembly voting by centuries, which, even at
the present time, amid the immense heap of laws crowded one upon
the other, still remain the source of all public and private
jurisprudence. A rumour then spread that two tables were needed, on
the addition of which a digest, as it were, of the whole Roman law
could be completed. The desire for this gave rise, as the day of
election approached, to a request that decemvirs be appointed again.
The commons by this time, besides that they detested the name
of consuls no less than that of kings, did not even require the
tribunician aid, as the decemvirs in turn allowed an appeal.
But when the assembly for the election of decemvirs was proclaimed for
the third market-day, the flame of ambition burst out so
powerfully that even the first men of the state began to canvass
individuals--fearing, I suppose, that the possession of such high
authority might become accessible to persons not sufficiently worthy
if the post were left unoccupied by themselves--humbly soliciting,
from those very commons with whom they had often contended, an honour
which had been opposed by them with all their might. The fact of their
dignity being now laid aside in a contest, at their time of life, and
after they had filled such high official positions, stimulated the
exertions of Appius Claudius. You would not have known whether to
reckon him among the decemvirs or the candidates; he resembled at
times more closely one canvassing for office than one invested with
it; he aspersed the nobles, extolled all the most unimportant and
insignificant candidates; surrounded by the Duellii and Icilii who had
been tribunes, he himself bustled about the forum, through their means
he recommended himself to the commons; until even his colleagues, who
till then had been devoted to him heart and soul, turned their eyes on
him, wondering what he was about. It was evident to them that there
was no sincerity in it; that such affability amid such pride would
surely prove not disinterested. That this excessive lowering of
himself, and condescending to familiarity with private citizens, was
characteristic not so much of one eager to retire from office, as of
one seeking the means of continuing that office. Not daring openly to
oppose his wishes, they set about mitigating his ardour by humouring
it. They by common consent conferred on him, as being the youngest,
the office of presiding at the elections. This was an artifice, to
prevent his appointing himself; which no one ever did, except the
tribunes of the people, and that with the very worst precedent. He,
however, declaring that, with the favour of fortune, he would preside
at the elections, seized upon what should have been an obstacle as a
lucky opportunity: and having succeeded by a coalition in keeping out
of office the two Quinctii, Capitolinus and Cincinnatus, and his
own uncle Gaius Claudius, a man most steadfast in the cause of the
nobility, and other citizens of equal eminence, he secured
the appointment as decemvirs of men by no means their equals
distinction--himself in the first instance, a proceeding which
honourable men disapproved of greatly, as no one believed that he
would have ventured to do it. With him were elected Marcus Cornelius
Maluginensis, Marcus Sergius, Lucius Minucius, Quintus Fabius
Vibulanus, Quintus Poetilius, Titus Antonius Merenda, Caeso Duilius,
Spurius Oppius Cornicen, Manius Rabuleius.
This was the end of Appius's playing a part at variance with his
disposition. Henceforward he began to live according to his natural
character, and to mould to his own temper his new colleagues before
they entered upon office. They daily held meetings in private: then,
instructed in their unruly designs, which they concocted apart from
others, now no longer dissembling their arrogance, difficult of
access, captious to all who conversed with them, they protracted the
matter until the ides of May. The ides of May was at that time the
usual period for beginning office. Accordingly, at the attainment
of their magistracy, they rendered the first day of their office
remarkable by threats that inspired great terror. For, while the
preceding decemvirs had observed the rule, that only one should have
the fasces, and that this emblem of royalty should pass to all in
rotation, to each in his turn, lo! On a sudden they all came forth,
each with twelve fasces. One hundred and twenty lictors filled the
forum, and carried before them the axes tied up with the fasces,[44]
giving the explanation that it was of no consequence that the axe
should be taken away, since they had been appointed without appeal.
There appeared to be ten kings, and terrors were multiplied not only
among the humblest individuals, but even among the principal men
of the patricians, who thought that an excuse for the beginning of
bloodshed was being sought for: so that, if any one should have
uttered a word that hinted at liberty, either in the senate or in
a meeting of the people, the rods and axes would also instantly be
brought forward, for the purpose of intimidating the rest. For,
besides that there was no protection in the people, as the right of
appeal had been abolished, they had also by mutual consent prohibited
interference with each other: whereas the preceding decemvirs had
allowed the decisions pronounced by themselves to be amended by appeal
to any one of their colleagues, and had referred to the people some
points which seemed naturally to come within their own jurisdiction.
For a considerable time the terror seemed equally distributed among
all ranks; gradually it began to be directed entirely against the
commons. While they spared the patricians, arbitrary and cruel
measures were taken against the lower classes. As being persons with
whom interest usurped the force of justice, they all took account of
persons rather than of causes. They concerted their decisions at home,
and pronounced them in the forum. If any one appealed to a colleague,
he departed from the one to whom he had appealed in such a manner that
he regretted that he had not abided by the sentence of the former. An
irresponsible rumour had also gone abroad that they had conspired in
their tyranny not only for the present time, but that a clandestine
league had been concluded among them on oath, that they would not hold
the comitia, but by perpetuating the decemvirate would retain supreme
power now that it had once come into their possession.
The plebeians then began narrowly to watch the countenances of the
patricians, and to strive to catch a glimpse of liberty from that
quarter, by apprehending slavery from which they had brought the
republic into its present condition. The leading members of the senate
detested the decemvirs, detested the commons; they neither approved of
what was going on, and they considered that what befell the latter was
not undeserved. They were unwilling to assist men who, by rushing too
eagerly toward liberty, had fallen into slavery: they even heaped
injuries on them, that, from disgust at the present state of things,
two consuls and the former constitution might at length be regretted.
By this time the greater part of the year had passed, and two tables
of laws had been added to the ten tables of the former year; and if
these laws also had been passed in the assembly of the centuries,
there would now have remained no reason why the republic should
require that form of government. They were anxiously waiting to see
how long it would be before the assembly would be proclaimed for the
election of consuls. The only thing that troubled the commons was
by what means they should re-establish the tribunician power, that
bulwark of their liberty, now so long discontinued, no mention in the
meantime being made of the elections. Further, the decemvirs, who
had at first exhibited themselves to the people surrounded by men
of tribunician rank, because that was deemed popular, now guarded
themselves by bands of young patricians: crowds of these beset the
tribunals. They harried the commons, and plundered their effects: when
fortune was on the side of the more powerful individual in regard to
whatever was coveted. And now they spared not even their persons: some
were beaten with rods, others had to submit to the axe; and, that such
cruelty might not go unrewarded, a grant of his effects followed the
punishment of the owner. Corrupted by such bribes, the young nobles
not only made no opposition to oppression, but openly avowed a
preference for their own selfish gratification rather than for the
liberty of all.
The ides of May came round. Without any magistrates being elected
in place of those retiring, private persons [45]came forward as
decemvirs, without any abatement either in their determination to
enforce their authority, or any alteration in the insignia displayed
as outward signs of office. That indeed seemed undoubted regal
tyranny. Liberty was now deplored as lost forever: no champion of it
stood forth, or seemed likely to do so. And not only were the Romans
themselves sunk in despondency, but they began to be looked down upon
by the neighbouring states, who felt indignant that sovereign power
should be in the hands of a state where liberty did not exist. The
Sabines with a numerous body of men made an incursion into Roman
territory; and having committed extensive devastations, after they had
driven off with impunity booty of men and cattle, they recalled their
troops, which had been dispersed in different directions, to
Eretum, where they pitched their camp, grounding their hopes on the
dissensions at Rome, which they expected would prove an obstruction to
the levy. Not only the couriers, but also the flight of the country
people through the city inspired them with alarm. The decemvirs, left
in a dilemma between the hatred of the patricians and people, took
counsel what was to be done. Fortune, moreover, brought an additional
cause of alarm. The AEquans on the opposite side pitched their camp at
Algidum, and by raids from there ravaged Tusculan territory. News of
this was brought by ambassadors from Tusculum imploring assistance.
The panic thereby occasioned urged the decemvirs to consult the
senate, now that two wars at once threatened the city. They ordered
the patricians to be summoned into the senate-house, well aware what a
storm of resentment was ready to break upon them; they felt that all
would heap upon them the blame for the devastation of their territory,
and for the dangers that threatened; and that that would give them an
opportunity of endeavouring to abolish their office, if they did not
unite in resisting, and by enforcing their authority with severity on
a few who showed an intractable spirit repress the attempts of others.
When the voice of the crier was heard in the forum summoning the
senators into the senate-house to the presence of the decemvirs, this
proceeding, as altogether new, because they had long since given up
the custom of consulting the senate, attracted the attention of the
people, who, full of surprise, wanted to know what had happened, and
why, after so long an interval they were reviving a custom that had
fallen into abeyance: stating that they ought to thank the enemy and
the war, that any of the customs of a free state were complied with.
They looked around for a senator through all parts of the forum, and
seldom recognised one anywhere: they then directed their attention to
the senate-house, and to the solitude around the decemvirs, who both
themselves judged that their power was universally detested, while the
commons were of opinion that the senators refused to assemble because
the decemvirs, now reduced to the rank of private citizens, had no
authority to convene them: that a nucleus was now formed of those who
would help them to recover their liberty, if the commons would but
side with the senate, and if, as the patricians, when summoned,
refused to attend the senate, so also the commons would refuse to
enlist. Thus the commons grumbled. There was hardly one of the
patricians in the forum, and but very few in the city. In disgust at
the state of affairs, they had retired into the country, and busied
themselves only with their private affairs, giving up all thought of
state concerns, considering that they themselves were out of reach
of ill-treatment in proportion as they removed themselves from the
meeting and converse of their imperious masters. When those who had
been summoned did not assemble, state messengers were despatched to
their houses, both to levy the penalties,[46] and to make inquiries
whether they purposely refused to attend. They brought back word
that the senate was in the country. This was more pleasing to the
decemvirs, than if they brought word that they were present and
refused obedience to their commands. They commanded them all to be
summoned, and proclaimed a meeting of the senate for the following
day, which assembled in much greater numbers than they themselves had
expected. By this proceeding the commons considered that their liberty
was betrayed by the patricians, because the senate had obeyed those
persons, as if they had a right to compel them, who had already gone
out of office, and were mere private individuals, were it not for the
violence displayed by them.
However, they showed more obedience in coming into the senate than
obsequiousness in the opinions expressed by them, as we have learned.
It is recorded that, after Appius Claudius laid the subject of debate
before the meeting, and before their opinions were asked in order,
Lucius Valerius Potitus excited a commotion, by demanding permission
to express his sentiments concerning the state, and--when the
decemvirs prevented him with threats [47]--by declaring that he would
present himself before the people. It is also recorded that Marcus
Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with no less boldness, calling
them "ten Tarquins," and reminding them that under the leadership of
the Valerii and Horatii the kings had been expelled. Nor was it the
mere name that men were then disgusted with, as being that by which it
was proper that Jupiter should be styled, as also Romulus, the founder
of the city, and the succeeding kings, and a name too which had been
retained also for the ceremonies of religion,[48] as a solemn one;
that it was the tyranny and arrogance of a king they then detested:
and if these were not to be tolerated in that same king or the son of
a king, who would tolerate it in so many private citizens? Let them
beware lest, by preventing persons from expressing their sentiments
freely in the senate, they obliged them to raise their voice outside
the senate-house. Nor could he see how it was less allowable for him,
a private citizen, to summon the people to an assembly, than for them
to convene the senate. They might try, whenever they pleased, how much
more determined a sense of wrong would be found to be, when it was a
question of vindicating one's own liberty, than ambition, when the
object was to preserve an unjust dominion. That they proposed the
question concerning the war with the Sabines, as if the Roman people
had any more important war on hand than that against those who, having
been elected for the purpose of framing laws, had left no law in the
state; who had abolished elections, annual magistrates, the regular
change of rulers, which was the only means of equalizing liberty;
who, though private citizens, still possessed the fasces and regal
dominion. That after the expulsion of the kings, patrician magistrates
had been appointed, and subsequently, after the secession of the
people, plebeian magistrates. What party was it, he asked, to which
they belonged? To the popular party? What had they ever done with the
concurrence of the people? To the party of the nobles? Who for now
nearly an entire year had not held a meeting of the senate, and then
held one in such a manner that they prevented the expression of
sentiments regarding the commonwealth? Let them not place too much
hope in the fears of others; the grievances which they were now
suffering appeared to men more oppressive than any they might
apprehend.