Early European History Part 35

We must not imagine, however, that all the changes in Roman life worked for evil. If the Romans were becoming more luxurious, they were likewise gaining in culture. The conquests which brought Rome in touch, first with Magna Graecia and Sicily, then with Greece itself and the h.e.l.lenic East, prepared the way for the entrance of h.e.l.lenism. Roman soldiers and traders carried back to Italy an acquaintance with Greek customs and ideas.

Thousands of cultivated Greeks, some as slaves, others as freemen, settled in the capital as actors, physicians, artists, and writers. There they introduced the Greek language, as well as the religion, literature, and art of their native land. Roman n.o.bles of the better type began to take an interest in other things than simply farming, commerce, or war. They imitated Greek fashions in dress and manners, collected Greek books, and filled their homes with the productions of Greek artists. Henceforth every aspect of Roman society felt the quickening influence of the older, richer culture of the h.e.l.lenic world. It was a Roman poet who wrote, "Captive Greece captured her conqueror rude." [17]

60. THE GRACCHI

TIBERIUS AND GAIUS GRACCHUS

In 133 B.C., a year otherwise made memorable by the final subjugation of Spain and the acquisition of Asia, efforts began Rome to remedy some of the disorders which were now seen to be sapping the strength of Roman society. The first persons to undertake the work of reform were the two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The Gracchi belonged to the highest n.o.bility of Rome. Their father had filled a consulship and a censorship and had celebrated triumphs. Cornelia, their mother, was a daughter of Scipio Africa.n.u.s, the conqueror of Hannibal. A fine type of the Roman matron, she called her boys her "jewels," more precious than gold, and brought them up to love their country better than their own lives.

Tiberius, the elder brother, was only thirty years of age when he became a tribune and began his career in Roman politics.

AGRARIAN LAW OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS

Tiberius signalized his election to the tribunate by bringing forward his celebrated agrarian law. He proposed that the public lands of Rome, then largely occupied by wealthy men who alone had the money necessary to work them with cattle and slaves, should be reclaimed by the state, divided into small tracts, and given to the poorer citizens. By getting the people back again on the soil, Tiberius hoped to revive the declining agriculture of Italy.

DEFECTS OF THE AGRARIAN LAW

This agrarian law, though well intentioned, did not go to the root of the real difficulty--foreign compet.i.tion. No legislation could have helped the farming cla.s.s, except import duties to keep out the cheap grain from abroad. But the idle mob at Rome, controlling the a.s.semblies, would never have voted in favor of taxing their food, thus making it more expensive.

At the same time the proposal to take away part of the public domains from its possessors roused a hornet's nest about the reformer's ears. Rich people had occupied the public land for so long that they had come to look upon it as really their own. They would be very sure to oppose such a measure. Poor people, of course, welcomed a scheme which promised to give them farms for nothing. Tiberius even wished to use the public funds to stock the farms of his new peasantry. This would have been a mischievous act of state philanthropy.

FAILURE AND DEATH OF TIBERIUS, 133 B.C.

In spite of these defects in his measure, Tiberius urged its pa.s.sage with fiery eloquence. But the great landowners in the Senate got another tribune, devoted to their interests, to place his veto [18] on the proposed legislation. The impatient Tiberius at once took a revolutionary step. Though a magistrate could not legally be removed from office, Tiberius had the offending tribune deposed and dragged from his seat. The law was then pa.s.sed without further opposition. This action of Tiberius placed him clearly in the wrong. The aristocrats threatened to punish him as soon as his term of office was over. To avoid impeachment Tiberius sought reelection to the tribunate for the following year. This, again, was contrary to custom, since no one might hold office for two successive terms. On the day appointed for the election, while voting was in progress, a crowd of angry senators burst into the Forum and killed Tiberius, together with three hundred of his followers. Both sides had now begun to display an utter disregard for law. Force and bloodshed, henceforth, were to help decide political disputes.

GAIUS GRACCHUS BECOMES TRIBUNE, 123 B.C.

Tiberius Gracchus, in his efforts to secure economic reform, had unwittingly provoked a conflict between the Senate and the a.s.semblies. Ten years after his death, his brother, Gaius Gracchus, came to the front.

Gaius quickly made himself a popular leader with the set purpose of remodeling the government of Rome. He found in the tribunate an office from which to work against the Senate. After the death of Tiberius a law had been pa.s.sed permitting a man to hold the position of tribune year after year. Gaius intended to be a sort of perpetual tribune, and to rule the Roman a.s.semblies very much as Pericles had ruled the people at Athens.

[19] One of his first measures was a law permitting the sale of grain from the public storehouses to Roman citizens at about half the market price.

This measure, of course, won over the city mob, but it must be regarded as very unwise. It saddled the treasury with a heavy burden, and later the government had to furnish the grain for nothing. Indiscriminate charity of this sort increased, rather than lessened, the number of paupers.

MEASURES OF GAIUS TO RELIEVE THE POOR

Having won popular support, Gaius was able to secure the additional legislation which he deemed necessary to carry out his brother's work. He reenacted the land laws for the benefit of the peasantry and furnished work for the unemployed by building roads throughout Italy. He also began to establish colonies of poor citizens, both in Italy and in the provinces. This was a wise policy. Had it been allowed to continue, such state-a.s.sisted emigration, by providing the landless poor of Italy with farms abroad, would have relieved the economic distress of the peninsula.

AN EFFORT TO EXTEND ROMAN CITIZENSHIP

Gaius now came forward with another measure which marked him as an able and prudent statesman. He proposed to bestow the right of voting in the Roman a.s.semblies upon the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. [20] He thought, also, that the Italian allies should be allowed to intermarry with Romans and hold property under the protection of the Roman law. No doubt Gaius believed that the time might come when all the Italian peoples would be citizens of Rome. This time did come, thirty years later, but only after a terrible war that nearly ruined Rome.

FAILURE AND DEATH OF GAIUS, 121 B.C.

The effort by Gaius to extend Roman citizenship cost the reformer all his hard-won popularity. It aroused the jealousy of the selfish city mob, which believed that the entrance of so many new citizens would mean the loss of its privileges. There would not be so many free shows and so much cheap grain. So the people rejected the measure and, turning from their former favorite, failed to reelect him to the tribunate. When Gaius was no longer protected by the sanct.i.ty of the tribune's office, [21] he fell an easy victim to senatorial hatred. Another b.l.o.o.d.y tumult broke out, in which Gaius and three thousand of his followers perished. The consul who quelled the disturbance erected at the head of the Forum a temple to Harmony (_Concordia_).

THE GRACCHI BEGIN THE REVOLUTION

The pathetic career of the Gracchi had much significance in Roman history.

They were the unconscious sponsors of a revolutionary movement which did not end until the republic had come under the rule of one man. They failed because they put their trust in the support of the Roman mob. Future agitators were to appear with the legionaries at their heels.

61. MARIUS AND SULLA

MARIUS AND THE JUGURTHINE WAR, 112-106 B.C.

Although Rome now ruled throughout the Mediterranean, she was constantly engaged in border wars in one corner or another of her wide dominions.

These wars brought to the front new military leaders, of whom the first was Gaius Marius. He was a peasant's son, a coa.r.s.e, rude soldier, but an honest, courageous, and able man. Marius rose to prominence in the so- called Jugurthine War, which the Romans were waging against Jugurtha, king of Numidia. That wily African had discovered that it was easier to bribe the Roman commanders than to fight them; and the contest dragged on in disgraceful fashion year after year. Marius at last persuaded the people to elect him consul and intrust him with the conduct of the war. By generalship and good fortune he speedily concluded the struggle and brought Jugurtha in chains to Rome.

MARIUS AND THE WAR WITH THE GERMANS, 102-101 B.C.

A few years later Marius had another opportunity to win distinction. He became the defender of Rome and Italy against a dangerous invasion of Germanic barbarians, who were ravaging Transalpine Gaul and the Po Valley.

The decisive victories which Marius gained over them removed a grave danger which threatened the Roman world. The time had not yet come for ancient civilization to be submerged under a wave of barbarism.

SULLA AND THE SOCIAL WAR, 90-88 B.C.

The second military leader whom this troubled period brought forth was Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He was a man of n.o.ble birth, and with his social gifts, his appreciation of art and letters, his knowledge of men and the world, presented a sharp contrast to Marius. Sulla's great abilities quickly brought him into public notice; he rose rapidly from one office to another; and in the Social War showed his skill as a commander. This struggle was the consequence of Rome's refusal to grant the rights of citizenship to her Italian allies. The strength of the rebellion lay among the Samnites and other peoples of central and southern Italy. The war came to an end only when Rome promised the franchise to all Italians who returned to their allegiance. Before many years had pa.s.sed, the inhabitants of nearly all the Italian towns south of the Rubicon River received Roman citizenship. It was this same wise policy of making conquered peoples equal with herself that afterwards led Rome to grant citizenship to the inhabitants of the provinces. [22]

SULLA AND THE MITHRADATIC WAR, 88-84 B.C.

What military honors were gained in the struggle belonged to Sulla. His reward was the consulship and an appointment as general in still another conflict which distracted Rome had to face. While that city had been busy with civil enemies and barbarian foes, a powerful state, known as Pontus, had been growing up in Asia Minor. Its king, Mithradates, overran the Roman provinces in the Orient and threatened to annex them to his own kingdom. But Sulla, with greatly inferior forces, compelled Mithradates to abandon his conquests, surrender his fleet, and pay a large indemnity. If Marius had the honor of repelling the barbarian invasion of the West, Sulla had the honor of preserving Rome's possessions in the East.

RIVALRY OF MARIUS AND SULLA

Marius and Sulla were rivals not only in war but also in politics. Sulla naturally espoused the aristocratic cause and stood as the champion of the Senate. Marius just as naturally became the head of the democratic party.

The rivalry between the two leaders finally led to civil war. During Sulla's absence in the East the democrats got the upper hand at Rome and revenged themselves by murdering their political foes among the aristocrats. The reign of terror ended only with the sudden death of Marius, just after he had been elected to his seventh consulship. A few years later Sulla returned to Italy with his army and defeated the democrats in a great battle outside the Colline Gate of Rome. Sulla signalized his victory by ordering the a.s.sa.s.sination of every prominent man in the democratic party.

SULLA AS "PERPETUAL DICTATOR"

Sulla regarded this legalized butchery as a necessary step in his self- appointed task of putting the Roman government once more to rights. He now received the t.i.tle of "Perpetual Dictator," with complete authority to govern the state until the new order of things should be established. Rome thus came under the rule of one man for the first time since the expulsion of the kings.

SULLA'S DEATH, 78 B.C.

The various measures by which Sulla intrenched the Senate in power did not long survive his death and hence had no lasting influence on Roman politics. After a rule of three years Sulla voluntarily gave up the dictatorship and retired to his villa on the bay of Naples. He died a few months later. The Senate honored him with a public funeral, the most splendid that Rome had ever seen. His monument bore an inscription which the dictator himself is said to have composed: "No friend ever did him a kindness and no enemy, a wrong, without being fully repaid." [23] That was one epitaph which told the truth.

62. POMPEY AND CAESAR

RISE OF POMPEY

The struggle between Marius and Sulla, decided as it was by the sword, marks a stage in the decline of the Roman Republic. The careers of these two men showed how easily the state could be ruled by a successful commander who had his soldiers behind him. After Sulla's death his friend Pompey became the leading figure in Roman politics. Pompey's first service was in Spain, where the adherents of Marius sought to humble the Senate and the aristocratic party by encouraging the Spaniards to rise against Roman rule. Having crushed this rebellion, Pompey returned to Italy in time to take part in putting down a formidable insurrection of slaves, outlaws, and ruined peasants. He was next intrusted with the war against the pirates, who swarmed in the Mediterranean, preyed on commerce, and plundered wealthy cities near the coast. Brilliant success in clearing the seas of these marauders led to his being sent to the East to end the war with Mithradates, who was once more in arms against Rome. Pompey drove the Pontic monarch from his kingdom and then annexed Syria to the Roman dominions. When Pompey returned to Rome in 62 B.C., he brought with him a reputation as the most successful general of his time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GNAEUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (Spada Palace, Rome)]

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO

We have seen how steadily since the days of the Gracchi the Roman state had been moving toward the rule of one man. Marius, Sulla, and Pompey each represent a step in the direction of monarchy. Yet there were still able and patriotic leaders at Rome who believed in the old order of things and tried their best to uphold the fast-perishing republic. No republican statesman was more devoted to the const.i.tution than Cicero. A native of Arpinum, the same Italian town which had already given birth to Marius, Cicero came to Rome a youth without wealth or family influence. He made his way into Roman society by his social and conversational powers and by his capacity for friendship. His mind had been carefully trained under the influence of h.e.l.lenic culture; he had traveled and studied in Greece; and throughout life he loved to steal away from the tumult of the Forum and the law courts and enjoy the companionship of his books. Though the proud n.o.bles were inclined to look down on him as a "new man," Cicero's splendid eloquence soon gave him prominence in politics. He ranks in fame as the second orator of antiquity, inferior only to Demosthenes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (Vatican Museum, Rome)]

IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES, 70 B.C.

Cicero rose to prominence through his prosecution of Verres, a thieving governor of Sicily. Verres had powerful friends among the n.o.bles at Rome and counted on his influence and wealth to escape punishment. He openly boasted that he had plunder enough to live in luxury, even though he had to surrender two-thirds of it as fees to his lawyers and bribes to the jury. But Verres had not reckoned with the brilliant young advocate who took up the cause of the oppressed provincials. Cicero hurried to Sicily and there collected such an overwhelming ma.s.s of evidence that the bare statement of the facts was enough to condemn the criminal. Verres went into exile. Cicero became the head of the Roman bar. Seven years later he was elected consul.