A History of Rome to 565 A. D Part 5

*The military tribunes with consular power.* During the period 436 to 362, on fifty-one occasions the consular college of two was displaced by a board of military tribunes with consular power (_tribuni militum consulari potestate_). The number of these military tribunes varied: there were never less than three, more often four or six, while two boards had eight and nine tribunes respectively. As their name indicates, these were essentially military officers, and this lends support to the tradition that they were elected because the military situation frequently demanded the presence in the state of more than two magistrates who could exercise the _imperium_.

*The praetorship.* However, by 362 this method of meeting the increased burdens of the magistracy was definitely abandoned. For the future two consuls were annually elected, and, in addition, a magistrate called the praetor, to whom was a.s.signed the administration of the civil jurisdiction within the city. The praetor was regarded as a minor colleague of the consuls and held the _imperium_. Consequently, if need arose, he could take command in the field or exercise the other consular functions.

*The curule aediles.* In the same year there was established the curule aedileship. The two curule aediles were at first elected from the patricians only, and, although their duties seem to have been the same as those of the plebeian aediles, their office was considered more honorable than that of the latter.

*Promagistrates.* The Roman magistrates were elected for one year only, and after 342 reelection to the same office could only be sought after an interval of ten years. This system entailed some inconveniences, especially in the conduct of military operations, for in the case of campaigns that lasted longer than one year the consul in command had to give place to his successor as soon as his own term of office had expired.

Thus the state was unable to utilize for a longer period the services of men who had displayed special military capacity. The difficulty was eventually overcome by the prolongation, at the discretion of the Senate, of the command of a consul in the field for an indefinite period after the lapse of his consulship. The person whose term of office was thus extended was no longer a consul, but acted "in the place of a consul" (_pro consule_). This was the origin of the promagistracy. It first appeared in the campaign at Naples in 325, and, although for a time employed but rarely, its use eventually became very widespread.

*Characteristics of the magistracy.* Thus the Roman magistracy attained the form that it preserved until the end of the Republic. It consisted of a number of committees, each of which, with the exception of the quaestorship, had a separate sphere of action. But among these committees there was a regularly established order of rank, running, from lowest to highest, as follows: quaestors, aediles, censors, praetors, consuls. With the exception of the censorship that was regularly filled by ex-consuls, the magistracies were usually held in the above order. Magistrates of higher rank enjoyed greater authority than all those who ranked below them, and as a rule could forbid or annul the actions of the latter. A magistrate could also veto the action of his colleague in office. In this way the consuls were able to control the activities of all other regular magistrates. However, the extraordinary office of the dictatorship outranked the consulship and consequently the dictator could suspend the action of the consuls themselves. The unity that was thus given to the administration by this conception of _maior potestas_ was increased by the presence of the Senate, a council whose influence over the magistracy grew in proportion as the consulate lost in power and independence through the creation of new offices.

III. THE PLEBEIAN STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL EQUALITY

*The causes of the struggle.* Of greater moment in the early history of the republic than the development of the magistracy was the persistent effort made by the plebeians to secure for themselves admission to all the offices and privileges that at the beginning of the republic were monopolized by the patricians. Their demands were vigorously opposed by the latter, whose position was sustained by tradition, by their control of the organs of government, by individual and cla.s.s prestige, and by the support of their numerous clients. But among the plebeians there was an ever increasing number whose fortunes ranked with those of the patricians and who refused to be excluded from the government. These furnished the leaders among the plebs. However, a factor of greater importance than the presence of this element in determining the final outcome of the struggle was the demand made upon the military resources of the state by the numerous foreign wars. The plebeian soldiers shared equally with the patricians in the dangers of the field, and equality of political rights could not long be withheld from them. As their services were essential to the state, the patrician senators were farsighted enough to make concessions to their demands whenever a refusal would have led to civil warfare. A great cause of discontent on the part of the plebs was the indebtedness of the poorer landholders, caused in great part by their enforced absence from their lands upon military service and the burden of the _tributum_ or property tax levied for military purposes. Their condition was rendered the more intolerable because of the operation of the harsh debtor laws, which permitted the creditor to seize the person of the debtor and to sell him into slavery.

Evidence that discontent was rife at Rome may be found in the tradition of three unsuccessful attempts to set up a tyranny, that is, to seize power by unconst.i.tutional means, made by Spurius Ca.s.sius (478), Spurius Maelius (431), and Marcus Manlius (376), patricians who figure in later tradition as popular champions.

*The tribunes of the plebs (466 B. C.), and the a.s.sembly of the tribes.*

The first success won by the plebeians was in securing protection against unjust or oppressive acts on the part of the patrician magistrates. In 466, they forced the patricians to acquiesce in the appointment of four tribunes of the plebs, officers who had the right to extend protection to all who sought their aid, even against the magistrate in the exercise of his functions.(2) The tribunes received power to make effective use of this right from an oath taken by the plebeians that they would treat as accursed and put to death without trial any person who disregarded the tribune's veto or violated the sanct.i.ty of his person. The character of the tribunate and the basis of its power reveal it as the result of a revolutionary movement and as existing in defiance of the patricians. The tribunes were elected in an a.s.sembly in which the voting units were tribes, and the number of the tribunes (four) suggests that this a.s.sembly was at first composed of the citizens of the four city regions or tribes, and that it was the city plebs who were responsible for the establishment of the tribunate. In this a.s.sembly we have the origin of the _comitia tributa_ or a.s.sembly of the Tribes.

The origin of these tribes is uncertain, but by the middle of the fifth century the Roman state was divided into twenty or twenty-one districts, each of which with the citizens resident therein const.i.tuted a _tribus_.

Four of these were located in the city: the remainder were rural. In the preceding chapter we have seen how the number of the tribes was increased with the incorporation of conquered territory within the Roman state and its occupation by Roman colonists. The tribes were artificial divisions of the community, and served as a basis for the raising of the levy and the _tributum_.

*Plebeian aediles.* a.s.sociated with the tribunes as officers of the plebs were two aediles (_aediles plebi_). It has been conjectured that they were originally the curators of the temple of Ceres (established 492?), which was in a special sense a plebeian shrine. As we have seen they later became magistrates of the whole people.

*The codification of the law.* About the middle of the fifth century the plebeians secured the codification and publication of the law. Hitherto the law, which consisted essentially of customs and precedents, and was largely sacral in character, had been known only to the magistrates and to the priests, that is to members of the patrician order. At this time, two commissions of ten men each, working in successive years (4442?) drew up these customs into a code, which, with subsequent additions, formed what was later called the Law of the XII Tables. This code was in no sense a const.i.tution, but embodied provisions of both civil and criminal law, with rules for legal procedure and police regulations. Notable is the provision which guaranteed the right of appeal to the a.s.sembly of the Centuries in capital cases.

*Development of the tribunate and the comitia tributa.* The years which saw the publication of the code mark an important stage in the struggle of the orders. Serious trouble arose between the patricians and the plebs under the second college of law-givers, and the difference was only settled by a treaty which restored the tribunate, that had been suspended when the decemvirs were first elected. Henceforth the number of tribunes was ten instead of four and their position and powers received legal recognition from the patricians. From this time on, too, the _comitia tributa_, now embracing all the tribes, the rural as well as the urban, was a regular inst.i.tution of the state. The a.s.sembly of the Tribes was originally, and perhaps always remained in theory, restricted to the plebeians. And it is improbable that the patricians ever sought to partic.i.p.ate in it. At any rate, there is no adequate reason for believing in the existence of two a.s.semblies of this sort, the one composed of both patricians and plebeians and the other of plebeians only.

The a.s.sembly of the Tribes not only elected the plebeian tribunes and aediles, but soon chose the quaestors also. Furthermore, the patrician magistrates, finding this a.s.sembly in many ways more convenient for the transaction of public business than the a.s.sembly of the Centuries which met in the Campus Martius outside the _pomerium_ and required more time to register its opinion because of the greater number of voting units, began to convene it to approve measures, which, if previously sanctioned by a decree of the Senate, became law. The tribunes likewise presented resolutions to the a.s.sembly of the Tribes, and these, too, if sanctioned by the Senate, were binding on the whole community. Such laws were called plebiscites (_plebi scita_) in contrast with the _leges_ pa.s.sed by an a.s.sembly presided over by a magistrate with _imperium_. It became the ambition of the tribunes to obtain for their plebiscites the force of law without regard to the Senate's approval.

*The lex Canuleia.* The social stigma which rested upon the plebeians because they could not effect a legal marriage with the patricians, a disability that had been maintained by the law of the XII Tables, was removed by the Canuleian Law in 437.

*The plebs and the magistracy.* The plebeians did not rest content with having spokesmen and defenders in the tribunes: they also demanded admission to the consulate and the Senate. In 421 plebeians were admitted to the quaestorship, and by that time the plebeian aediles could be looked upon as magistrates, but the patricians tenaciously maintained their monopoly of the _imperium_ until, in 396, a plebeian was elected a military tribune with consular power.(3)

Perhaps the appearance of plebeian military tribunes at this time may be explained on the ground that the vicissitudes of the war with Veii forced the patricians to accept as magistrates the ablest available men in the state even if of plebeian origin.

With the military tribunate the plebeians had held an office that conferred the right to the _imperium_. Consequently, when the consulship was definitely reestablished in 362, they could not logically be excluded from it. In 362 the first plebeian consul was elected, but it was not until 340 that the practice became established that one consul must, and the other might, be a plebeian.

After their admission to the consulship the plebeians were eligible to all the other magistracies. They gained the dictatorship in 356, the censorship in 351, and the praetorship in 337. Eventually, the curule aedileship also was opened to them, and was held by patricians and plebeians in alternate years.

*The plebs and the Senate.* Since the custom was early established that ex-consuls, and later ex-praetors, should be enrolled in the Senate, with the opening of these offices to the plebs the latter began to have an ever-increasing representation in that body. As distinguished from the _patres_ or patrician senators, the plebeians were called _conscripti_, "the enrolled," and this distinction was preserved in the official formula _patres conscripti_ used in addressing the Senate. In this fusion of the leading plebeians with the patricians in the Senate we have the origin of a new aristocracy in the Roman state: the so-called senatorial aristocracy or _n.o.bilitas_. This consisted of a large group of influential patrician and plebeian families which, for some time at least, was continuously quickened and revivified by the accession of prominent plebeians who entered the Senate by way of the magistracies. Thus the Senate, by opening its ranks to the leaders of the plebs, contrived to emerge from the struggle with its prestige and influence increased rather than impaired.

*Appius Claudius, censor, 310 B. C.* An episode which ill.u.s.trates the growing democratic tendencies of the time is the censorship of Appius Claudius, in 310, whose office is memorable for the construction of the Via Appia and the Aqua Appia, Rome's first aqueduct. In his revision of the Senate, Appius ventured to include among the senators persons who were the sons of freedmen, and he permitted the landless population of the city to enroll themselves in whatever tribal district they pleased. This latter step was taken to increase the power of the city plebs, who had previously been confined to the four city tribes, but who might now spread their votes over the rural districts, of which there were now twenty-seven.

However, the work of Appius was soon undone. The consuls refused to recognize the senatorial list prepared by him and his colleague, and the following censors again restricted the city plebs to the urban tribes.

*The plebs and the priesthood.* The last stronghold of patrician privilege was the priesthood which was opened to the plebeians by the Ogulnian Law of 300 B. C. The number of pontiffs and augurs was increased and the new positions were filled by plebeians. The patricians could no longer make use of religious law and practice to hamper the political activity of the plebs.

*The Hortensian **Law**, 287 B. C.* The end of the struggle between the orders came with the secession of 287 B. C. Apparently this crisis was produced by the demands of the farming population who had become heavily burdened with debt as a result of the economic strain put upon them by the long Samnite wars. Refusal to meet their demands led to a schism, and the plebeian soldiers under arms seceded to the Janiculum. A dictator, Quintus Hortensius, appointed for the purpose, settled the differences and pa.s.sed a _lex Hortensia_, which provided that for the future all measures pa.s.sed in the _comitia tributa_, even without the previous approval of the Senate, should become binding on the whole state. Thus the a.s.sembly of the Tribes as a legislative body acquired greater independence than the a.s.sembly of the Centuries.

*The two a.s.semblies of the people.* Henceforth, the a.s.sembly of the Tribes tended to become more and more the legislative a.s.sembly _par excellence_, while the a.s.sembly of the Centuries remained the chief elective a.s.sembly.

For legislative purposes the a.s.sembly of the Tribes could be convened by a magistrate with _imperium_ or by a tribune; for the election of the plebeian tribunes and aediles it had to be summoned by a tribune; while to elect the quaestors and curule aediles it must be called together by a magistrate. For all purposes the a.s.sembly of the Centuries had to be convened and presided over by a magistrate. It elected the consuls, praetors, censors and, eventually, twenty-four military tribunes for the annual levy. It must be kept in mind that these were both primary a.s.semblies, that each comprised the whole body of Roman citizens, but that they differed essentially in the organization of the voting groups. As we have seen the wealthier cla.s.ses dominated the a.s.sembly of the Centuries, but in the a.s.sembly of the Tribes, which was the more democratic body, a simple majority determined the vote of each tribe.

*The increased importance of the tribunate.* The importance of the tribunes was greatly enhanced by the Hortensian Law, as well as by various privileges which they had already acquired by 287 or gained shortly after that date. The more important of these powers were the right to sit in the Senate, to address, and even to convene that body, and the right to prosecute any magistrate before the _comitia tributa_. The first of these powers was a development of the tribunician veto, whereby this was given to a proposal under discussion in the Senate rather than upon a magistrate's attempt to execute it after it had taken the form of a law or a senatorial decree. To permit the tribunes to interpose their veto at this stage they had to be allowed to hear the debates in the Senate. At first they did so from their bench which they set at the door of the meeting-place, but finally they were permitted to enter the council hall itself. The power of prosecution made the tribunes the guardians of the interests of the state against any misconduct on the part of a magistrate.

From this time on the tribunes have practically the status of magistrates of the Roman people.

The struggle of the orders left its mark on the Roman const.i.tution in providing Rome with a double set of organs of government. The tribunate, plebeian aedileship, and _comitia tributa_ arose as purely plebeian inst.i.tutions, but they came to be incorporated in the governmental organization of the state along with the magistracies and the a.s.semblies that had always been inst.i.tutions of the whole Roman people.

IV. THE ROMAN MILITARY SYSTEM

Upon the history of no people has the character of its military inst.i.tutions exercised a more profound effect than upon that of Rome. The Roman military system rested upon the universal obligation of the male citizens to render military service, but the degree to which this obligation was enforced varied greatly at different periods. For the mobilization of the man power of the state was dependent upon the type of equipment, methods of fighting, and organization of tactical units in vogue at various times, as well as upon the ability of the state to equip its troops and the strength of the martial spirit of the people.

*The army of the primitive state.* In all probability the earliest Roman army was one of the Homeric type, where the n.o.bles who went to the battlefield on horseback or in chariots were the decisive factor and the common folk counted for little.

*The phalanx organization.* However, at an early date, under Etruscan influences according to tradition, the Romans adopted the phalanx organization, making their tactical unit the long deep line of infantry armed with lance and shield. Those who were able to provide themselves with the armor necessary for taking their place in the phalanx formed the _cla.s.sis_ or "levy." The rest were said to be _infra cla.s.sem_, and were only called upon to act as light troops. But military necessities compelled the state to incorporate with the heavy-armed infantry increasingly large contingents of the less wealthy citizens, who could not provide themselves with the full equipment of those in the _cla.s.sis_, but who could form the rear ranks of the phalanx. As a result of this step the citizens were ultimately divided into five orders or cla.s.ses on the basis of their property, and probably in raising the levy the required number of soldiers of each cla.s.s was drafted in equal proportions from the several tribes. The first three cla.s.ses const.i.tuted the phalanx, while the fourth and fifth continued to serve as light troops (_rorarii_). Those who lacked the property qualification of the lowest cla.s.s were only called into service in cases of great emergency. For such a system the taking of an accurate census was essential, and it is more than likely that the office of censor was inst.i.tuted for this purpose. As we have seen, it was from this organization of the people for military purposes that there developed the a.s.sembly of the Centuries.

The introduction of pay for the troops in the field at the time of the siege of Veii both lessened the economic burden which service entailed upon the poorer soldiers and enabled the Romans to undertake campaigns of longer duration, even such as involved winter operations.

*The manipular legion.* How long the phalanx organization was maintained we do not know: at any rate it did not survive the Samnite wars. In its place appeared the legionary formation, in which the largest unit was the legion of about four thousand infantry, divided into maniples of one hundred and twenty (or sixty) men, each capable of manuvering independently. This arrangement admitted of increased flexibility of movement in broken country, and of the adoption of the _pilum_, or javelin, as a missile weapon. Both the _pilum_ and the _scutum_, or oblong shield, were of Samnite origin. While reorganizing their infantry, the Romans strengthened the _equites_ and developed them as a real cavalry force.

Apparently property qualifications no longer counted for much in the army organization, as the men were a.s.signed to their places in the ranks on the basis of age and experience, and the state furnished the necessary weapons to those who did not provide their own. By the third century, all able-bodied men holding property valued at 4000 a.s.ses were regularly called upon for military service. The others were liable to naval service, but only in cases of great need were they enrolled in the legions.

Ordinarily, the service required amounted to sixteen campaigns in the infantry and ten in the cavalry. The field army was raised from those between seventeen and forty-six years of age: those forty-six and over were liable only for garrison duty in the city. The regular annual levy consisted of four legions, besides 1800 cavalry. This number could be increased at need, and the Roman forces in the field were supplemented by at least an equal number in the contingents from the Italian allies.

The Roman army was thus a national levy: a militia. It was commanded by the consuls, the annually elected presidents of the state. Yet it avoided the characteristic weaknesses of militia troops, for the frequency of the Roman wars and the length of the period of liability for service a.s.sured the presence of a large quota of veterans in each levy and maintained a high standard of military efficiency. Furthermore, the consuls, if not always good generals, were generally experienced soldiers, for a record of ten campaigns was required of the candidate for public office. Likewise their subordinates, the military tribunes, were veterans, having seen some five and others ten years' service. But the factor that contributed above all else to the success of the Roman armies was their iron discipline. The consular _imperium_ gave its holder absolute power over the lives of the soldiers in the field, and death was the penalty for neglect of duty, disobedience, or cowardice. The most striking proof of the discipline of the Roman armies is that after every march they were required to construct a fortified camp, laid out according to fixed rules and protected by a ditch, a wall of earth, and a palisade for which they carried the stakes.

No matter how strenuous their labors had been, they never neglected this task, in striking contrast to the Greek citizen armies which could not be induced to construct works of this kind. The fortified camp rendered the Romans safe from surprise attacks, allowed them to choose their own time for joining battle, and gave them a secure refuge after a defeat. It played a very large part in the operations of the Roman armies, especially such as were conducted in hostile territory.

CHAPTER VII

EARLY RELIGION AND SOCIETY

I. EARLY ROMAN RELIGION

*Animism.* The Roman religion of the historic republic was a composite of beliefs and ceremonies of various origins. The basic stratum of this system was the Roman element: religious ideas that the Romans probably held in common with the other Latin and Italian peoples. Although traces of a belief in magic; and of the worship of natural objects and animals, survived from earlier stages of religious development, it was "animism"

that formed the basis of what we may call the characteristic Roman religious ideas. Animism is the belief that natural objects are the abode of spirits more powerful than man, and that all natural forces and processes are the expression of the activity of similar spirits. When such powers or _numina_ were conceived as personalities with definite names they became 'G.o.ds,' _dei_. And because the primitive Roman G.o.ds were the spirits of an earlier age, for a long time the Romans worshipped them without images or temples. But each divinity was regarded as residing in a certain locality and only there could his worship be conducted. The true Roman G.o.ds lacked human attributes: their power was admitted but they inspired no personal devotion. Consequently, Roman theology consisted in the knowledge of these deities and their powers and of the ceremonial acts necessary to influence them.

*The importance of ritual.* The Romans, while recognizing their dependence upon divine powers, considered that their relation to them was of the nature of a contract. If man observed all proper ritual in his worship, the G.o.d was bound to act propitiously: if the G.o.d granted man's desire he must be rewarded with an offering. If man failed in his duty, the G.o.d punished him: if the G.o.d refused to hearken, man was not bound to continue his worship. Thus Roman religion consisted essentially in the performance of ritual, wherein the correctness of the performance was the chief factor.