The Two Great Republics: Rome and the United States Part 12

On the seventh of November Catiline attempted the a.s.sa.s.sination of Cicero by two of his adherents, C. Cornelius and L. Vargunteius.

Cicero was immediately informed of this attempt by his spies, and the attempt was blocked. The following day Cicero summoned a meeting of the Senate, and upon Catiline appearing in his place, Cicero burst out in the first of those famous orations against Catiline, so well known to all Latin students, which begins: "How long, O Catiline, will you thus abuse our patience? To what end will your unrestrained audacity display itself?"

It is always one of the most difficult of tasks to persuade the citizens of any republic that any political leader is actually planning the overthrow of the republican form of government. This blindness, not restricted to any one race or age, was so dense at this time in Rome that many people had refused to believe even in the existence of the conspiracy of Catiline, and had suspected Cicero of having invented the whole story with the object of making political capital for himself.

The fierce fire in the Senate of the oration by Cicero against Catiline, however, proved sufficient to force Catiline to action; and the night after Cicero's first oration against him Catiline fled to Tuscany to join the forces which had been collected there under his lieutenant Manlius. Catiline, keeping up his deceit and duplicity to the end, even while en route to the army of the conspirators wrote letters to Rome declaring that he was the victim of a conspiracy and that his present purpose was to go into voluntary banishment at Ma.r.s.eilles.

Upon reaching his army Catiline threw off the mask and prepared to take active steps for the overthrow and destruction of Rome. The conspiracy had now pa.s.sed the point where it was merely intended to overthrow the duly elected Roman officials, and to install Catiline and his friends in their places; the conspirators now sought nothing less atrocious than the sack of Rome and the murder of her wealthiest citizens. The contest had now become one directed against the rich cla.s.s of the n.o.bles by the poor and bankrupt members of the same order, a.s.sisted by all the unprincipled and desperate adventurers of Italy.

The plans of Catiline and his supporters were that the army in Tuscany should march upon Rome, while the friends of Catiline in the city should watch for a favorable opportunity to murder the consuls and set fire to the city.

To meet this two-sided danger Antonius was sent with an army against Catiline, while Cicero remained in Rome to secure the safety of the city. Cicero was the first to complete his part of the work. The untiring efforts of the consul at length resulted in securing legal proof against the leading conspirators who had remained at Rome, and these were immediately arrested and brought to trial. The people were at length convinced of the truth of the conspiracy, but even now it was only with the greatest difficulty that Cicero was able to have the death sentence decreed against the prisoners.

Catiline now attempted to retreat into Gaul, but was pursued by Antonius, and in the battle which ensued the army of Catiline was cut to pieces and Catiline himself killed.

Cicero had earned the grat.i.tude of Rome by preserving it from its threatened destruction at the hands of Catiline; but the rest of his record as consul was not of a very creditable character. Throughout his year of office Cicero was the consistent champion of the senatorial party, and the opponent of all measures to improve the economic conditions of the people. In particular, Cicero is to be censured for his opposition to the agrarian law proposed at this time.

Cicero was also largely responsible for the defeat of a bill to restore the right of citizenship to the children of the men who had been proscribed by Sulla.

CHAPTER XI

JULIUS CaeSAR

It now remains to relate the life history of the man by whom the republican form of government at Rome was fated to be finally overthrown. That the existence of this Roman republic was doomed, that democratic or oligarchical government must give way either to anarchy or despotism, had been certain ever since the refusal of the Roman citizens to support the attempted reforms of the Gracchi.

There is no greater obstacle to the complete success of popular government than the almost inexplicable tendency of the majority of men to crucify the true reformer and conscientious lover of humanity as a disturber of, and a menace to, society, and to heap honors upon the head of the selfish, unprincipled, egotistical, and vicious demagogue. The result is that the reforms which might save the country fail; and later the people, at last roused to a realization of the evils which surround them, grasp at the promises of the imposter and follow him with hysterical and insane enthusiasm until their false leader directs their footsteps to the precipice, over which they fall to their destruction. If France had adopted the moderate reforms of Necker and Turgot she might have been saved from the terrible retribution of the French Revolution; if Rome had not rejected the leadership of Tiberius Gracchus, and later accepted that of Julius Caesar, the Roman republic need not have fallen.

Julius Caesar was born in the year 100 B.C. His family were of old patrician stock, and in addition were possessed of considerable wealth, but the share that was inherited by young Julius was very quickly squandered. From the outset of his career Caesar exhibited talents of a widely diversified character, showing literary ability as well as strength and skill in athletic exercises and in military life.

With all these Caesar combined a dissipated character, and extreme selfish ambition. Caesar, by the accidental course of events, became allied with the popular party at Rome; but throughout his whole life it was with him merely a case of using the popular favor as a means to promote his personal ends; never a case of sacrificing himself, his ambition, or his pleasure for the people's welfare. It was by marriage that Caesar had become connected with the popular party, his aunt Julia having become the wife of Marius, while he himself had married the daughter of Cinna, the colleague of Marius in his last consulship. On account of these marriage relations Caesar barely escaped being included in the proscriptions of Sulla. He finally succeeded in making his peace with Sulla, and received his first military experience under Thermus, whom Sulla had left to besiege Mitylene. In this campaign young Caesar distinguished himself by winning a civic crown for saving the life of a citizen. After the death of Sulla Caesar made his first attempt to attract attention in the political field by impeaching Dolabella for extortion in his administration in Macedonia. Although Dolabella was acquitted, Caesar acquired some reputation from this affair.

This trial persuaded Caesar that he should take up the field of oratory, and he accordingly set out to study rhetoric at Rhodes under Molo, the great teacher in this subject at that time. On his way, Caesar underwent the second great peril of his life by being captured by Cilician pirates. After being ransomed he abandoned the idea of studying rhetoric, and instead fitted up an expedition with which he captured his former captors, whom he crucified at Pergamus. In 74 B.C.

Caesar was elected one of the pontifices at Rome, and immediately returned to the city, where he spent several years in ease and pleasure, not neglecting, however, to use every effort to win the favor of the populace.

Caesar was elected quaestor in 68 B.C., and it was during his year in this office that he made his first bold play to secure the popular support. His aunt Julia, the widow of Marius, dying, Caesar delivered a panegyric over her in which he spoke far less about his aunt than about her husband Marius, still the great idol of the popular party, and in defiance of a still unrepealed statute of Sulla he caused the bust of Marius to be carried among the family images.

In 65 B.C. Caesar was elected aedile. He was obliged to plunge himself heavily into debt to obtain this office; and after his election he did not hesitate to go still deeper into debt for the purpose of providing magnificent shows for the people at the public games. In virtue of the power of his office Caesar placed the statue of Marius, surrounded by the trophies of his Cimbrian and Jugurthine victories, among the new ornaments of the capitol. At the close of his term as aedile Caesar sought to be sent to Egypt for the purpose of forming Egypt into a Roman province, in accordance with the will of the Egyptian king, Ptolemy Alexander. This important mission, however, was denied to Caesar, to whom was a.s.signed the duty of presiding in the tribunal which conducted the investigation in cases of suspected murder.

The following year, the year of the consulship of Cicero and the conspiracy of Catiline, Caesar pa.s.sed temporarily under a cloud on account of his suspected connection with the conspiracy. The suspicion that Caesar had at least been privy to the plans of the conspirators was strengthened by his efforts to prevent the death sentence being pa.s.sed against their leaders.

The Roman historian Sall.u.s.t, in his history of Catiline, has reported Caesar's speech in the Senate on this occasion, which serves to ill.u.s.trate the craftiness of the man. A portion of this speech is here inserted:

"In all debates, Conscript Fathers, when the matter under deliberation is in its nature doubtful, it is the duty of every senator to bring to the question a mind free from animosity and friendship, from anger and compa.s.sion. When those emotions prevail, the understanding is clouded, and truth is scarcely perceived. To be pa.s.sionate and just at the same time is not in the power of man. Reason, when unbiased, and left to act with freedom, answers all our purposes; when pa.s.sion gains the ascendant, reason is fatigued, and judgment lends no a.s.sistance.

"In the case now before us, let it be our wisdom, Conscript Fathers, not to suffer the crimes of Lentulus and his accomplices to hurry you beyond the bounds of moderation.

Indignation may operate on your minds, but a due sense of your own dignity, I trust, will preponderate. My opinion is this; if you know of any pains and penalties adequate to the guilt of the conspirators, p.r.o.nounce your judgment; I have no objection. If you think death a sufficient punishment, I concur with Sila.n.u.s; but if the guilt of the prisoners exceeds all forms of vindictive justice, we should rest contented with the laws known to the const.i.tution.

"The senators who have gone before me have exhausted the colors of rhetoric, and in a pathetic style have painted forth the miseries of their country. They have displayed the horrors of war, and the wretched condition of the vanquished; the young of both s.e.xes suffering violation; children torn from the mother's arms; virtuous matrons exposed to the brutal pa.s.sions of the conqueror; the houses of citizens, and the temples of the G.o.ds, pillaged without distinction; the city made a theater of blood and horror; in a word, desolation and ma.s.sacre in every quarter.

"But why, immortal G.o.ds! why all that waste of eloquence?

Was it to inflame our pa.s.sions? to kindle indignation? to excite a detestation of rebellion? If the guilt of these men is not of itself sufficient to fire us with resentment, is it in power of words to do it? I answer, No; resentment is implanted in our hearts by the hand of nature; every man is sensible of injury and oppression; many are apt to feel too intensely. But we know, Conscript Fathers, that resentment does not operate alike in all the ranks of life: he who dwells in obscurity may commit an act of violence, but the consequence is confined to a small circle. The fame of the offender, like his fortune, makes no noise in the world. It is otherwise with those who figure in exalted stations; the eyes of mankind are upon them; and the wrong they do is considered an abuse of power. Moderation is the virtue of superior rank. In that preeminence, no apology is allowed for the injustice that proceeds from partiality, from anger, aversion, or animosity. The injury committed in the lower cla.s.ses of life is called the impulse of sudden pa.s.sion; in the higher stations, it takes the name of pride and cruelty....

"With regard to capital punishment, it is a truth well known that to the man who lives in distress and anguish of heart, death is not an evil; it is a release from pain and misery; it puts an end to the calamities of life; and after the dissolution of the body, all is peace; neither care nor joy can then intrude....

"It may be said, who will object to a decree against the enemies of their country? The answer is obvious; time may engender discontent; a future day may condemn the proceeding; unforeseen events and even chance, that with wild caprice perplexes human affairs, may give us reason to repent. The punishment of traitors, however severe, cannot be more than their flagitious deeds deserve; but it behooves us, Conscript Fathers, to weigh well the consequences before we proceed to judgment. Acts of state, that sprung from policy, and were perhaps expedient on the spur of the occasion, have grown into precedents often found to be of evil tendency. The administration may fall into the hands of ignorance and incapacity; and in that case, the measure, which at first was just and proper, becomes by misapplication to other men and other times the rule of bad policy and injustice.

"It must be admitted that, in times like the present, when Marcus Tullius Cicero conducts the administration, scenes of that tragic nature are not to be apprehended. But in a large populous city, when the minds of men are ever in agitation, a variety of jarring opinions must prevail. At a future day and under another consul, who may have an army at his back, falsehood may appear in the garb of truth, and gain universal credit. In such a juncture, should the consul, encouraged by our example, and armed with the power by the decree of the Senate, think proper to unsheath the sword, who shall stop him in his career? who will be able to appease his vengeance?...

"But you will say, What is the scope of this long argument?

Shall the conspirators be discharged, and suffered to strengthen Catiline's army? Far from it; my advice is this; let their estate and effects be confiscated; detain their persons in separate prisons, and for that purpose choose the strongest of the munic.i.p.al towns; declare, by a positive law, that no motion in their favor shall be brought forward in the Senate, and that no appeal shall be made to the people. Add to your decree, that whoever shall presume to espouse the cause of the guilty shall be deemed an enemy to the Commonwealth."

The year following the conspiracy of Catiline Caesar secured the office of praetor. By this time Caesar had secured such a hold upon the popular mind as to excite both the fear and hatred of the senatorial party.

This fear and hatred were manifested during Caesar's year of office as praetor by the Senate pa.s.sing a decree depriving Caesar and one of the tribunes (Caecilius Metellus Cepos) of their offices. Fear of popular violence, however, soon induced the Senate to repeal this decree.

In December, 62 B.C., there occurred at Rome one of the best remembered of historical scandals; but one whose exact nature we are unable to determine on account of lack of knowledge of the character of the mysteries which were violated.

The historian Merivale thus describes this scandal:

"P. Clodius, the corrupt accuser of Catiline, a turbulent intriguer like so many members of his house, had ingratiated himself with the people by his popular manners. This beardless youth, already alike notorious for his debts and gallantries, had introduced himself into Caesar's house in female attire during the celebration of the rites of the Bona Dea, which should have been studiously guarded from male intrusion. A servant maid discovered him and uttered a cry of alarm; the mysteries were hastily veiled, and the intruder expelled; but the a.s.sembled matrons rushing hastily home revealed each to her husband the scandal and the sin.

The n.o.bles affected grave alarm; the pontiffs were summoned and consulted, and the people duly informed of the insult offered to the deity. As chief of the sacred college, Caesar could not refrain from lending himself to the general clamour; but his position was delicate. On the one hand, the presumed delinquent was an instrument of his own policy, while on the other his own honour and that of his wife Pompeia were compromised by the offence. He disappointed everybody. He divorced his wife, not because she was guilty, but because 'the wife of Caesar,' as he said, 'should be above suspicion.' But he refused to countenance the measures which the consuls took, by direction of the senate, for the conviction of the reputed culprit; and it may be suspected that the money with which Clodius bribed his judges was a loan negotiated with Cra.s.sus by Caesar himself. Cicero for his part had been lukewarm in an affair, the barefaced hypocrisy of which he was perhaps too honourable to countenance; but, urged by his wife Terentia, a violent woman who meddled much in his affairs, and was jealous at the moment of a sister of the culprit, he clearly disproved his allegation of absence from the city, and thus embroiled himself, to no purpose, with an able and unscrupulous enemy.

The senate believed their cause gained; the proofs indeed were decisive, and they had a.s.signed at their own request a military guard to the judges to protect them from the antic.i.p.ated violence of a Clodian mob; but to their consternation, on opening the urns, the votes for an acquittal were found to be thirty-one opposed to twenty-five. 'You only demanded a guard,' then exclaimed Catulus with bitter irony, 'to secure the money you were to receive.' Cicero attributed to Cra.s.sus the scandal of this perversion of justice; the n.o.bles sneered at the corruption of the knights, and the gulf which separated the two orders yawned more widely than ever."

In 60 B.C. Caesar was given the command of the province of Farther Spain; and it was here that his great military abilities were for the first time displayed to the world. It had only been by the means of a large loan (about one million dollars) received from Cra.s.sus that Caesar was enabled to pay off his most pressing creditors, and to make preparations for his journey to Spain; into such a financial state had Caesar been reduced by his personal extravagances, his political campaign expenses, and his lavish expenditures to win the popular favor.

Upon Caesar's return from Rome the young general found Pompey still further alienated from the senatorial party. A comparison of the character of these two Roman leaders, now for a while about to become close a.s.sociates and later (mainly through the limitless ambition and unprincipled conduct of Caesar) rivals in a bitter contest for supremacy, is perhaps proper at this time. The briefest comparison which can be made perhaps consists in saying that Pompey represented the best type of an aristocrat--Caesar the worst type of the hypocritical popular demagogue. Neither man consistently stood for those things which he was supposed to represent at the outset of his career; neither man, it is probable, ever really believed in them. The training and antecedents of Pompey were of the extreme oligarchical character; his natural leanings were toward humanity and justice.

Caesar, shouting his championship of the people from the housetops, was in practice regardless of everything but his own selfish ambitions.

The populace which he flattered, deceived, and betrayed were to him merely the tools by which his success was to be won and occupied about the same position in his philosophy of life as the dice with which he won large sums of money in gambling.

Pompey was imbued with a strong sense of the sanct.i.ty of the law; Caesar never regarded any law which stood between him and his goal.

Pompey dismissed his victorious troops before he approached Rome on his return from his Eastern campaigns; Caesar did not hesitate to lead his legions across the Rubicon. Neither possessed any great degree of constructive political ability. Pompey's life was one devoted to an attempt to preserve, Caesar's was devoted to an attempt to destroy.

Caesar's ability was far greater than that of Pompey in every field of human activity.

Caesar's Spanish campaign had been so short in duration that he was enabled to return to Rome in time to run for the consulship in 60 B.C.

In order to begin his canva.s.s without delay, Caesar asked leave to enter the city before receiving his triumph. This permission being refused, mainly through the influence of Cato and Cicero, Caesar gave up his claim to a triumph and, entering Rome immediately, began his political campaign. Being again hard up for money, Caesar made an agreement with a very wealthy candidate for consul, named L. Lucceius, by the terms of which Lucceius was to provide the campaign funds for both candidates, while Caesar was to furnish the reputation and popularity. This combination resulted better for Caesar than for Lucceius; Caesar received his share of the benefit from the campaign fund, but the benefit of his popularity did not seem to extend to his running mate. The election resulted in the choice of Caesar and M.

Calpurnius Bibulus, the candidate of the Cato-Cicero faction.

At this time Caesar persuaded Pompey and Cra.s.sus to form the first triumvirate with him. This triumvirate was nothing more nor less than a Roman political machine, by means of which these three men expected to be able to make themselves the political bosses of the city. To cement this political union, Pompey married Julia, the daughter of Caesar.

The most important event of Caesar's consulship was the pa.s.sage of an agrarian act providing for the division of public lands in Campania among the old soldiers of Pompey. The members of the triumvirate proved themselves to be strong enough to force this measure through in spite of the opposition of the consul Bibulus, of Cato, and of others.

The measure was not pa.s.sed, however, without considerable violence and disregard of the technical rules of the Roman law.

The Senate, acting under the authority of the Semp.r.o.nian Law, had a.s.signed the woods and roads as the provinces to which the consuls of the year were to be a.s.signed after the expiration of their terms of office. Caesar, however, who throughout his career never bothered himself very much as to what the law was, secured the pa.s.sage by the comitia tributa of a law introduced by the tribune Vatinius, which gave to Caesar the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyric.u.m and three legions for five years. Later the Senate (to prevent another appeal by Caesar to the people) added Transalpine Gaul and another legion to his command. The time of his command was also later extended.

It was the success of Caesar's Gallic campaigns (58-51 B.C.) which rendered possible his overthrow of the republic, and the importance of this war is therefore very great, but it is unnecessary to deal with the military details of these campaigns.

During the years of Caesar's absence from Rome the first triumvirate had fallen to pieces. In the year 55 B.C. Pompey and Cra.s.sus, without opposition, had been elected to the consulship for a second term. At the conclusion of this consulship Cra.s.sus was sent with an army against the Parthians, by whom he was defeated and killed in 53 B.C.

In the meantime Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, had died at Rome in 54 B.C. Cra.s.sus and Julia had been the two persons who had kept Caesar and Pompey together, and from this time these two leaders rapidly drifted apart.