A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 4

*The beginning of hostilities, 3254.* Hostilities broke out over the occupation of Naples by the Romans and its incorporation in the Roman alliance. This step was taken in the interests of the party in the city that sought Roman protection, and was accomplished in spite of Samnite opposition. The war was waged chiefly in Campania, in the valley of the upper Liris, and in Apulia. In 318, a Roman army attempting to penetrate from Campania into Samnium was cut off and compelled to surrender at the Caudine Pa.s.s. It is probable that as a result of this defeat the Romans gave up Fregellae (occupied in 328) and other territory on the Liris, and they may even have made a temporary truce. However, hostilities were soon resumed. Once again, in 314, the Samnites won a great victory, this time at Lautulae not far south of Circeii, and their party acquired control in Campania. But this temporary success was quickly counterbalanced by Roman victories in Campanian territory.

The war was prolonged by an Etruscan attack upon Roman territory that necessitated a division of the Roman forces. But in two campaigns (3097 B. C.), in the course of which a Roman army advanced through Umbria and invaded northern Etruria, the cities which had taken up arms against Rome were forced to make peace.

The war against the Samnites could be energetically prosecuted again. By the construction of the Via Appia the Romans secured a military highway from Rome to Capua which greatly facilitated the conduct of operations in Campania. It is probable, too, that the reorganization of the Roman army, which dates from this period, was beginning to bear fruit. From both Campania and Apulia the Romans took the offensive, and several severe defeats forced the Samnites to seek peace in 304. They retained their independence, but the disputed territory on their borders fell to Rome.

It was about the close of this war that the Aequi, Marsi, Marrucini, Frentani, Paeligni, some of the Umbrians, and other of the peoples of Central Italy became federate allies of Rome. Apulia likewise pa.s.sed under Roman control. New Latin colonies and new tribal districts marked the expansion of Roman territory.

*Wars with the Samnites, Gauls and Etruscans, 29880 B. C.* In 298 war broke out again between the Romans and Samnites, apparently because the Lucanians had deserted the Roman alliance for the Samnites. Soon the Samnites allied themselves with the Etruscans and Gauls, and succeeded in uniting the forces of the three peoples in Umbria. But this host was annihilated by the Romans in the battle of Sentinum (295). With this victory all danger for Rome was over. By systematically ravaging the enemy's country the Roman consuls in 290 B. C. forced the Samnites to sue for peace. They entered the Roman alliance, and a portion of their land was incorporated in the _ager publicus_ of Rome. A similar fate overtook the Sabines and Picentes, who had taken sides with the Samnites.

The war with the Etruscans and the Gauls still dragged on. But in 285, after suffering a severe blow at the hands of the Gallic Senones, the Romans took vigorous action and drove this people from the land between Ancona and the Rubicon-the _ager Gallicus_. In the same year the tribe of the Boii, with Etruscan allies, penetrated as far as the Vadimonian Lake, where the Romans inflicted upon them a crushing defeat. Another Roman victory in the next year brought the Boii to terms, and soon the Etruscan cities one by one submitted to Rome, until by 280 all were Roman allies.

V. THE ROMAN CONQUEST OF SOUTH ITALY: 281270 B. C.

*Italians and Greeks in South Italy.* The only parts of the peninsula that had not yet acknowledged the Roman overlordship were the lands of the Lucanians and Bruttians and the few Greek cities in the south that still maintained their independence. Of these latter the chief was Tarentum, a city of considerable commercial importance. From the middle of the fourth century these cities had been engaged in continual warfare with the Lucanians and Messapians, and in the course of their struggles Tarentum had come to a.s.sume the role of protector of the h.e.l.lenes in Italy. But even this city had only been able to make head against its foes through a.s.sistance obtained from Greece. In 338, King Archidamus of Sparta, and in 331 Alexander, king of Epirus and uncle of Alexander the Great, fell fighting in the service of the Italian Greeks. In 303, Cleonymus of Sparta, more fortunate than his predecessors, compelled the Lucanians to conclude a peace, which probably included the Romans, at that moment their allies. A little later (c. 300 B. C.) Agathocles, king of Syracuse, a.s.sisted the Tarentines against the same foe, and incorporated in his own kingdom the Bruttians and the Greek cities in the southwest. But with his death in 289, his kingdom, like that of Dionysius I, fell apart and the Greeks in the west were left again without a protector. Consequently, when the Lucanians renewed their attacks upon Thurii, that city, being unable to find succor in Greece and distrusting Tarentum, appealed to Rome (282).

Rome gave ear to the call, relieved and garrisoned Thurii. But this action brought Roman ships of war into the Gulf of Tarentum contrary to an agreement between the two cities (perhaps that of 303). Enraged, the Tarentines attacked the Roman fleet, sank some Roman triremes, and then occupied Thurii. The ensuing Roman demands for reparation were rejected, their amba.s.sadors insulted, and war began (281).

*The war with Pyrrhus and Tarentum.* The Tarentines were able to unite against Rome the Messapians, Lucanians, Samnites and Bruttians, but Roman successes in the first campaign forced them to call in the aid of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Pyrrhus was probably the most skilful Greek general of the time, and he brought with him into Italy an army organized and equipped according to the Macedonian system of Alexander the Great, which had become the standard in the Greek world. His force comprised 20,000 heavy-armed infantry forming the phalanx, and 3,000 Thessalian cavalry.

Besides, he had a number of war elephants; animals which had figured on Greek battlefields since Ipsus (301). The first engagement was fought near Heraclea (280) and after a severe struggle the Romans were driven from the field. The superior generalship of Pyrrhus, and the consternation caused by his war elephants, won the day, but his losses were very heavy, and he himself was wounded. As fighters the Romans had shown themselves the equal of the foe, and their tactical organization, perfected in the Samnite Wars, had proved its value in its first encounter with that developed by the military experts of Greece. As a result of his victory at Heraclea, Pyrrhus was able to advance as far north as Latium, but withdrew again without accomplishing anything of importance. The next year, he won another hard-fought battle near Ausculum in Apulia. Thereupon the Romans began negotiations which Pyrrhus welcomed, sending the orator Cineas to Rome to represent him. But, before an agreement was reached, the Carthaginians, who feared the intervention of Pyrrhus in Sicily, offered the Romans a.s.sistance. Their proffer was accepted; the negotiations with Pyrrhus ended; and Rome and Carthage bound themselves not to make a separate agreement with the common foe, while the Carthaginian fleet was to cooperate with the Romans.

*Pyrrhus in Sicily, 2785 B. C.* Nevertheless, Pyrrhus determined to answer an appeal from the Sicilian Greeks and to leave Italy for Sicily.

After the death of Agathocles, tyrant and king of Syracuse (317289), who had played the role of another Dionysius I, the Greeks in Sicily had fallen upon evil days. The Carthaginians had renewed their attacks upon them, and a new foe had appeared in the Mamertini, Campanian mercenary soldiers who had seized Messana and made it their headquarters for raiding the territory of the Greek cities. Caught between these two enemies, the Greeks appealed to Pyrrhus who came to their aid, possibly with the hope of uniting Sicily under his own control. His success was immediate. The Carthaginians were forced to give up all their possessions except Lilybaeum, and Pyrrhus stood ready to carry the war into Africa. But, at this juncture, the exactions that he laid upon his Sicilian allies and their fear that his victory would make him their permanent master caused them to desert his cause and make peace with their foes. Deprived of their a.s.sistance, and seeing that his allies in Italy were hard pressed by the Romans, he abandoned his Sicilian venture.

*The end of the war.* Pyrrhus returned to Italy, with the loss of his fleet in a naval battle with the Carthaginians, reorganized his forces, and advanced into Lucania or Samnium to meet the Romans. While manuvering for an attack, one of his divisions sustained a severe repulse at Beneventum (275), whereupon he abandoned the offensive and retired to Tarentum. Leaving a garrison in that city he withdrew the rest of his forces to Greece, with the intention of attacking Antigonus Gonatas in Macedonia. His initial successes in this enterprise led him to withdraw his garrison from Tarentum and abandon the Western Greeks to their fate.

Thereupon the Romans soon reduced the Samnites and Lucanians, while Tarentum and the other Greek cities, one after another, were forced to submit and enter the Roman alliance. By 270 B. C., all South Italy had in this way been added to the Roman dominions.

By 265 B. C. after a few more brief struggles with revolting or still unsubdued communities in central and northern Italy, the Romans had completed the subjugation of the entire Italian peninsula.

VI. THE ROMAN CONFEDERACY

*Roman foreign policy.* By wars and alliances Rome had united Italy. But it is not to be supposed that this was a goal consistently pursued through many generations by Roman statesmen. Probably it was not until the end was nearly within sight that the Romans realized whither their policy was leading them. Indeed, it is certain that many of Rome's wars were waged in defence of Rome's territory or that of the Roman allies. This seems particularly true of the period prior to the Gallic inroad of 387.

According to the ancient Roman formula employed in declaring war, that uttered by the Fetiales, war was looked upon as the last means to obtain reparation for wrongs that were suffered at the hands of the enemy. Yet, although the Roman att.i.tude in such matters was doubtless at one time sincere, we may well question how long this sincerity continued, and whether the injuries complained of were not sometimes the result of Roman provocation. Such attempts to place the moral responsibility for a war upon the enemy are common to all ages and are not always convincing.

However, if we may not convict the Romans of aggressive imperialism prior to 265, at any rate the methods which they pursued in their relations with the other peoples of Italy made their domination inevitable in view of the Roman national character and their political and military organization.

These methods early became established maxims of Roman foreign policy. The Romans, whenever possible, waged even their defensive wars offensively, and rarely made peace save with a beaten foe. As a rule, the enemy was forced to conclude a treaty with Rome which placed his forces at the disposal of the Roman state. This treaty was regarded as perpetually binding, and any attempt to break off the relationship it established was regarded as a _casus belli_. Possibly, the Romans looked upon this as the only policy which would guarantee peace on their borders, but it inevitably led to further wars, for it resulted in the continuous extension of the frontiers defended by Rome and so continually brought Rome into contact and conflict with new peoples. Nor were the voluntary allies of Rome allowed to leave the Roman alliance: such action was treated as equivalent to a declaration of war and regularly punished with severity. This practice gradually transformed Rome's independent into dependent allies. From the middle of the fourth century, it seems that Rome deliberately sought to prevent the development of a strong state in the southern part of Italy, and to this end gladly took under her protection weaker communities that felt themselves threatened by stronger neighbors, although such action inevitably led to war with the latter.

Furthermore, a conquered state frequently lost a considerable part of its territory. Portions of this land were set aside for the foundation of fortress colonies to protect the Roman conquests and overawe the conquered. The rest was incorporated in the _ager Roma.n.u.s_ to the profit of both the rich proprietors and the landless citizens. Usually, the Roman soldiers shared directly in the distribution of the movable spoils of war; sometimes a huge booty, as after the subjugation of the Sabines and Picentes in 290. A long series of successful and profitable wars, for Rome was ultimately victorious in every struggle after 387, had engendered in the Roman people a self-confidence and a martial spirit which soon led them to conquests beyond the confines of Italy. During this period of expansion within Italy, Roman policy had been guided by the Senate, a body of unrecorded statesmen of wide outlook and great determination, who not only made Rome mistress of the peninsula but succeeded in laying enduring foundations for the Roman power.

*Rome and Italy.* But although Italy was united under the Roman hegemony it by no means formed a single state. Rather it was an agglomerate of many states and many peoples, speaking different tongues and having different political inst.i.tutions. The largest single element, however, was formed by the Roman citizens. These were to be found not only in the city of Rome and its immediate neighborhood, but also settled in the rural tribal districts (35 in number after 241) organized on conquered territory throughout the peninsula. In addition, groups of 300 citizens had been settled in various harbor towns as a sort of resident garrison to protect Roman interests. In all, down to 183 B. C., 22 of these maritime colonies were established, whose members in view of their special duties were excused from active service with the Roman legions. All these were full Roman citizens, but there were others who, while enjoying the private rights of Roman citizenship, lacked the right to vote or to hold office (_cives sine suffragio_). Such were the inhabitants of most of the old Latin communities and some others which had been absorbed in the Roman state. Such communities were called _municipia_ (munic.i.p.alities). Some of these were permitted to retain their own magistrates and city organization: others lacked this privilege of local autonomy. Of the former cla.s.s, Gabii, conquered during the monarchy, is said to have been the prototype. This munic.i.p.al system had the advantage of providing for local administration and at the same time reconciling the conquered city to the loss of its freedom. It was a distinctly Roman inst.i.tution, and shows the wisdom of the early Roman statesmen who thus marked out the way for the complete absorption of the vanquished into the Roman citizen body, which was thus strengthened to meet its continually increasing military burdens. By 265, the Roman territory in Italy had an area of about 10,000 square miles. It extended along the west coast from the neighborhood of Caere southwards to the southern border of Campania, and from the lat.i.tude of Rome it stretched northeastwards through the territory of the Sabini to the Adriatic coast, where the lands of the Picentes and the Senones had been incorporated in the _ager Roma.n.u.s_.

*The Latin colonies.* Of the non-Romans in Italy the people most closely bound to Rome by ties of blood and common interests were the Latin allies.

Outside the few old Latin cities, that had not been absorbed by Rome in 338, these were the inhabitants of the Latin colonies, of which thirty-five were founded on Italian soil. Prior to the destruction of the Latin League seven of these colonies had been established, whose settlers had been drawn half from the Latin cities and half from Rome. After 338, these colonies remained in alliance with Rome, and those subsequently founded received the same status. But for these the colonists were all supplied by Rome. These colonists had to surrender their Roman citizenship and become Latins, but if any one of them left a son of military age in his place he had the right to return to Rome. Each colony had its own administration, usually modelled upon that of Rome, and enjoyed the rights of _commercium_ and _connubium_ both with Rome and with the other Latin colonies. These settlements were towns of considerable size, having 2,500, 4,000 or 6,000 colonists, each of whom received a grant of 30 or 50 _iugera_ (20 or 34 acres) of land. Founded at strategic points on conquered territory, they formed one of the strongest supports of the Roman authority: at the same time colonization of this character served to relieve over-population and satisfy land-hunger in Rome and Latium. In all their internal affairs the Latin cities were sovereign communities, possessing, in addition to their own laws and magistrates, the rights of coinage and census. Their inhabitants const.i.tuted the _nomen Latinum_, and, unlike the Roman _cives sine suffragio_, did not serve in the Roman legions but formed separate detachments of horse and foot.

*The Italian allies.* The rest of the peoples of Italy, Italian, Greek, Illyrian and Etruscan, formed the federate allies of Rome-the _socii Italici_. These const.i.tuted some 150 separate communities, city or tribal, each bound to Rome by a special treaty (_foedus_), whereby its specific relations to Rome were determined. In all these treaties, however, there was one common feature, namely, the obligation to lend military aid to Rome and to surrender to Rome the control over their diplomatic relations with other states. Their troops were not incorporated in the legions, but were organized as separate infantry and cavalry units (_cohortes_ and _alae_), raised, equipped and officered by the communities themselves.

However, they were under the orders of the Roman generals, and if several allied detachments were combined in one corps the whole was under a Roman officer. The allied troops, moreover, received their subsistence from Rome and shared equally with the Romans in the spoils of war. In the case of the seaboard towns, especially the Greek cities, this military obligation took the form of supplying ships and their crews, whence these towns were called naval allies (_socii navales_). All the federate allies had _commercium_, and the majority _connubium_ also, with Rome. Apart from the foregoing obligations towards Rome, each of the allied communities was autonomous, having its own language, laws and political inst.i.tutions.

However, a strong bond of sympathy existed between the local aristocracies of many of the Italian towns and the senatorial order at Rome. As we have seen, the foreign relations of Rome were directed by the Senate, which represented the views of the wealthier landed proprietors, and it was only natural that the senators should have sought to ally themselves with the corresponding social cla.s.s in other states. This cla.s.s represented the more conservative, and, from the Roman point of view, more dependable element, while the support of Rome a.s.sured to the local aristocracies the control within their own communities. Consequently there developed a community of interest between the Senate and the propertied cla.s.ses among the Roman allies.

Thus Rome was at the head of a military and diplomatic alliance of many separate states, whose sole point of contact was that each was in alliance with Rome. As yet there was no such thing as an Italian nation. Still it was from the time that this unity was effected that the name _Italia_ began to be applied to the whole of the peninsula and the term _Italici_ was employed, at first by foreigners, but later by themselves, to designate its inhabitants.(1)

CHAPTER VI

THE CONSt.i.tUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ROME TO 287 B. C.

I. THE EARLY REPUBLIC

While the Romans were engaged in acquiring political supremacy in Italy, the Roman state itself underwent a profound transformation as the result of severe internal struggles between the patrician and the plebeian elements.

*The const.i.tution of the early republic: the magistrates.* Upon the overthrow of the monarchy, the Romans set up a republican form of government, where the chief executive office was filled by popular election. At the head of the state were two annually elected magistrates, or presidents, called at first praetors but later consuls. They possessed the _auspicium_ or the right to consult the G.o.ds on behalf of the state, and the _imperium_, which gave them the right of military command, as well as administrative and judicial authority. Both enjoyed these powers in equal measure and, by his veto, the one could suspend the other's action.

Thus from the beginning of the Republic annuality and collegiality were the characteristics of the Roman magistracy. Nevertheless, the Romans recognized the advantage of an occasional concentration of all power in the state in the hands of a single magistrate and so, in times of emergency, the consuls, acting upon the advice of the senate, nominated a dictator, who superseded the consuls themselves for a maximum period of six months. The dictator, or _magister populi_, as he was called in early times, appointed as his a.s.sistant a master of the horse (_magister equitum_).

*The Senate.* At the side of the magistrates stood the Senate, a body of three hundred members, who acted in an advisory capacity to the officials, and possessed the power of sanctioning or vetoing laws pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly of the People. The senators were nominated by the consuls from the patrician order and held office for life.

*The comitia curiata.* During the early years of the Republic, the popular a.s.sembly, which had the power of electing the consuls and pa.s.sing or rejecting such measures as the latter brought before it, was probably the old _comitia curiata_. But, as we shall see, it was soon superseded in most of its functions by a new primary a.s.sembly.

*The priesthoods.* In Rome a special branch of the administration was that of public religion, which dealt with the official relations of the community towards its divine protectors. This sphere was under the direction of a college of priests, at whose head stood the _pontifex maximus_. Special priestly brotherhoods or guilds cared for the performance of particular religious ceremonies, while the use of divination in its political aspect was under the supervision of the college of augurs. With the exception of the _pontifex maximus_, who was elected by the people from an early date, the priesthoods were filled by nomination or cooptation. The Roman priesthood did not form a separate caste in the community but, since these priestly offices were held by the same men who, in another capacity, acted as magistrates and senators, the Roman official religion was subordinated to the interests of the state and tended more and more to a.s.sume a purely formal character.

*The lines of const.i.tutional development.* Both the consulate and the priestly offices, like the senate, were open only to patricians, who thus enjoyed a complete monopoly of the administration. They had been responsible for the overthrow of the monarchy, and, consequently, at the beginning of the Republic they formed the controlling element in the Roman state.

From conditions such as these the const.i.tutional development in Rome to 287 B. C. proceeded along two distinct lines. In the first place there was a gradual change in the magistracy by the creation of new offices with functions adapted to the needs of a progressive, expanding, community; and, secondly, there was a long struggle between the patricians and the plebeians, resulting from the desire of the latter to place themselves in a position of political, legal, and social equality with the former.

II. THE a.s.sEMBLY OF THE CENTURIES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAGISTRACY

*The a.s.sembly of the Centuries.* At a time which cannot be determined with precision, but most probably early in the fifth century, the a.s.sembly of the Curiae was superseded for elective and legislative purposes by a new a.s.sembly, called the a.s.sembly of the Centuries (_comitia centuriata_), of which the organization was modelled upon the contemporary military organization of the state. The land-holding citizens were divided into five cla.s.ses, according to the size of their properties, and to each cla.s.s was allotted a number of voting groups, divided equally between the men under 46 years of age (_juniores_) and those who were 46 and over (_seniores_). The number of voting groups, called centuries, in each cla.s.s was possibly in proportion to the total a.s.sessment of that cla.s.s. Thus the first cla.s.s had eighty centuries, the second, third, and fourth cla.s.ses had twenty each, while the fifth cla.s.s had thirty. Outside of the cla.s.ses, at first six but later eighteen centuries were allotted to those eligible to serve as cavalry (_equites_) whose property qualification was at least that of the first cla.s.s; four centuries were given to musicians and mechanics who performed special military service; and one century was a.s.signed to the landless citizens (_proletarii_). Of the total of 193 centuries, the first cla.s.s had eighty and the equestrians eighteen: together ninety-eight, or a majority of the voting units. As they had the privilege of voting before the other cla.s.ses, they could, if unanimous, control the a.s.sembly. The term century, it must be noted, which in its original military sense had been applied to a detachment of 100 men, in political usage was applied to a voting group of indefinite numbers. The organization of this a.s.sembly probably was not completed until near the end of the fourth century, when the basis for enrollment in the five census cla.s.ses was changed from landed estate to the total property a.s.sessment reckoned in terms of the copper _as_.

The old a.s.sembly of the Curiae was not abolished, but lost all its political functions except the right to pa.s.s a law conferring the _imperium_ upon the magistrates elected by the a.s.sembly of the Centuries.

In addition to electing these magistrates the Centuriate a.s.sembly had the sole right of declaring war, voted upon measures presented to it by the consuls, and acted as a supreme court of appeal for citizens upon whom a magistrate had p.r.o.nounced the death penalty. However, the measures which the a.s.sembly approved had for a long time to receive subsequent ratification by the patrician senators (the _patrum auctoritas_) before they became laws binding on the community. Finally, the importance of this sanction was nullified by the requirement of the Publilian (339?) and Maenian Laws that it be given before the voting took place.

*The magistracy: quaestors and aediles.* It has been indicated already that the expansion of the Roman magistracy was effected through the creation of new offices, to which were a.s.signed duties that had previously been performed by the consular pair or new functions required by the rise of new conditions in the Roman state.

The first change came in connection with the quaestorship. About the middle of the fifth century, the officials called quaestors, who had previously been appointed by the consuls to act as their a.s.sistants, were raised to the status of magistrates and elected by popular vote. Their number was originally two, but in 421 it was increased to four, two of whom acted as officers of the public treasury (_quaestores aerarii_), while two were a.s.signed to a.s.sist the consuls when the latter took the field.

At approximately the same time that the quaestorship became an elective office, the two curators of the temple of Ceres, called aediles, likewise attained the position of public officials. They henceforth acted as police magistrates, market commissioners, and superintendents of public works. As we shall have occasion to note in another connection, these aediles were elected from among the plebeians.

*The censors: 443, 435?* The next new office to be created was that of censor. The censorship was a commission called into being at five-year intervals and exercised by two men for a period of eighteen months. The original duty of the censors was to take the census of the citizens and their property as a basis for registering the voters in the five cla.s.ses, for compiling the roster of those eligible for military service, and for levying the property tax (_tributum_). Probably the reason for the establishment of this office is to be sought in the heavy demands that such duties made upon the services of the consuls and the inability of the latter to complete the census within any one consular year. The censors further had charge of the letting of public contracts, and, by the end of the fourth century had acquired the right to compile the list of the senators. As this latter duty involved an enquiry into the habits of life of the senators, there arose that aspect of the censors' power which alone has survived in the modern conception of a censorship.