A child's history of Rome

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Table Of Contents

VOLUME L

CHAPTSR rAQM

BOOK L

Chapter I. Rome, Before Christ 282

FAB away over the sea, by the side of the Riyer Tiber in Italy, stands the brave old city of Rome. It is not a v^ry thriving place ; the great cities of the United States are far more stirring and noisy ; there are no railroads there, nor factories, nor clusters of masts like reeds in the river, nor smoke firom tall chimneys clouding the sky. The people who live there are not fond of work or trade. In numbers they are perhaps equal to the people of Boston ; but of these a great many are foreigners, many more are long-robed priests and monks who help the Pope to govern his Church, and many are beggars. The streets are narrow and dirty; on grand holidays they are filled with bright equipages and crowds of merry people who go to see the Pope and the other rare sights ; but oftener they are so still and desolate that it would sadden your heart to walk through them, and you would feel, when you gazed at the huge remains of old Rome, as if you were standing in a grave-yard looking at tombstones.

A long, long while ago— nearly three hundred years before our Saviour was bom — ^this old city of Home stood in the same place, by the side of the Tiber, which rolled its muddy waters past the houses, and sometimes overflowed its banks and drove the - people to the high ground — just as it does to this day. A very different city though, from the Eome we see at the present time.

It was walled round, and within the walls were inclosed seven hills. You might walk over some of these hills to-day without noticing them — ^the earth and ruins have been so washed down from their tops into the valleys between them. But at the time I speak of there were seven quite distinct and separate. Of these the most famous were the hill of the Capitol — on which stood a strong fort called the Capitol, frowning down over the river, a fine temple, and a statue of Jupiter so tall that it could be seen miles off— «nd the Aventine hill, about which there were many pleasant legends and stories.

The walls were too big for the dty. In places the rocky sides of the hills lay bare, and here and there the ground had not been cleared of trees. On the tops of the hills stood temples and the best houses; narrow and crooked streets crossed the valleys beneath. Most of the houses were small, one story high, built of wood or coarse brick, and shingled or thatched ; many of them, I dare say, no finer or more convenient than the log-cabins of the West. Under some of the houses were shops which had no doors or windows, but were open to the street and closed behind.

The principal street in Kome was Sacred Street : it ran through a square, or open oblong space between two of the hills, which was called the Forum. This was the market-place : it was here that public meetings were held. At one end of it a platform had been raised for speakers to stand on when they addressed the people : on either side were shops with stone columns between them, and among these shops stood on one side the Senate-house, on another two fine temples. In the middle of the square grew three trees — an olive, a fig, and a vine — and not far from these, two or three bronze statues had been set up.

It was a very famous place, the Forum ; and I have said this much about it in order that you may have some picture of it in your eye when you hear it mentioned in this history.

There were many temples at Borne, but as they long ago crumbled into dust, we know little or nothing about them* There was an aqueduct, called the Appian Aqueduct afler its builder, an old Boman named Apptos Claudius, about whom there were many £unous stories. This aqueduct brought water to the city from a source eight miles off. And there was a great drain, which, I think, was the most wonderful work of ancient Bome. People said it had been built by an old king of Bome, whose name was Sebvius Tullius, two hundred years ago and more: any how, it was very old, and so wide that a cart and horse could drive through it, and so strong that it does its duty stiU, and not a stone of it has mouldered away. I wonder how our drains will look two thousand years hence !

I do not know how many people lived at Eome at this time ; perhaps not many less than it eontains now. It was the chief city of the Boman Republic, which spread along the lovely western coast of Italy for many a mile, and covered perhaps about as much ground as South Carolina, with perhaps as many inhabitants as there are in Massachusetts.

Though Rome was a republic, it was a different republic from Virginia, or New York, or the United States. In these latter, as you know, all white men are born equal. In Rome it was not so. There were three classes of Romans : nobles, citizens, and people who had no vote. The last class — ^which was chiefly composed of the sons of freed slaves and foreign-bom residents — ^had no power and very few rights.

The other two <5lasses — the nobles and the citizens — ^were equal in name ; that is to say, they were all equally eligible to office. But the government was so contrived that the nobles had, in fact, the lion's share both of power and of offices.

These nobles were of two kinds. Some of them

B.C. 282.J OF ROME. 17

were men of old femilies who traced their descent back for a prodigious length of time, and had come by their nobility no one knew how. These Were the proudest and the most famous. They were called Patricians. Other nobles became so from their isLthers or ancestors having held high office under the republic : they were called simply nobles.

The Eomans had no legislative assemblies composed of persons chosen by the people to represent them ; nothing like the L^islatures of the States, or the United States Congress.

The people met together once a year at the city of Rome to choose magistrates. There were two assemblies of the people : one in which they voted by tribes, according to the place where they lived — as we would say, by districts or counties ; the other in which they voted hj classes according to their wealth.

In the ASSEMBLY BY TRIBES each tribe had one vote. The Roman people were at this time divided into thirty-three tribes, of which the dty of Rome contained four; the other twenty-nine being made up of the people who lived in the country. This was, as you see, a clumsy way of finding out the will of the people ; still it was fair and democratic.

In the ASSEMBLY BY CLASSES all the people in the republic were rated according to their wealth : men worth so much being in one class, those worth so much less being in another, and so on down to those who were worth nothing, who were in a class by themselves. Each class had one vote ; and this assembly was so contrived — ^the rich forming many Vol. I.— B classes, but the poor few — ^that the former could generally cany every thing thdr own way. The idea was that the opinion of a rich man ought to weigh as much as that of a thousand poor men ; an idea which has, I think, prevailed in other places besides Bome.

The assembly by tribes chose the inferior magistrates — ^the assembly by classes the superior ones.

Both assemblies could make laws for the republic, with the consent of the Senate. The assembly by tribes could make laws without the consent of the Senate, if it insbted upon it ; but this it rarely did.

The Senate was the great Council of the Roman nation. Once upon a time it had been composed of the old nobles only. But as they died out their places were given to men whom the people had elected to office. Thus a man could be a Senator without being a noble. But it generally happened — and for very plain reasons — ^that most of the Senators were nobles either of the old or new kind. They held office for life.

The Senate did the work which in the United States is divided be^een the Cabinet at Washington and Congress. It could make laws on all subjects, with the consent of the assembly by classes, and sometimes without. It had charge of all the money affidrs of the republic ; levied the taxes and spent them; made war and peace; directed the movements of the armies, and chose which general was to lead them ; took care of the religion of the State, and generally managed the public business.

To help the Senate, the people elected every year

B.C. 282.J OF KOME. 19

in the assembly by classes two Consuls, two Censors, and a Praetor.

The Consuls were the chief magistrates of Eome.

They saw that the laws were obeyed, and led the

armies. Without the city their power was supreme ;

'within the walls they were under the control of the

Senate.

The Censors were something like the United States Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of the Interior rolled into one. They collected the taxes and paid out the public money ; managed the public lands and works ; couilted the fighting men (the Romans did not think women and children worth counting), and settled every man's rank — whether a noble, a citizen, or a person without a vote. Thi§ last duty gave the Censor a great deal of power, and made him a very important personage ; •and the Romans said, wh^n he walked through the streets in his bright scarlet robe with his axemen before him, that he looked like a king.

The PiLETOB was what we should call a Judge or Chief Justice.

In seasons of great peril or difficulty the Senate often decided that a superior magistrate to all these should be appointed. He was called a Dictator. One of the Consuls appointed him with great ceremony at the dead of night. He was master of all Rome, and had the same power as a general or mil-^ itary governor has in modem times when martial law has been proclaimed. But his term of office was only six months.

The assembly by tribes chose several inferior magistrates. Of these the most important were the Tribunes of the People and the -ZEdiles.

'The special business of the Tribunes of the Peopu: was to protect the people fix)m the nobles. There were ten of them altogether, and their power was very great indeed — ^much greater than that of the President of the United States, or the Governors of the States. They sat at the door of the Senate-house ; and when a bill was passed which they did not like they said, "We veto it," and it could not be passed afterward, no matter how great the majority in its favor. They could propose the laws they wanted to the assembly by tribesj and see that they were executed. They had nothing to do with money affairs, and were inferior to the Consuls ; but they could compel the Consuls to do their duty; they could forbid their doing any act which did not suit the people ; they could rescue any man from justice.* To add to all, their persons were sacred, and any man who killed a Tribune became an outlaw, and his property was forfeit.

The JEdiles, of whom there were four, were a sort of Common Council, and managed the affairs of the city of Rome.

The most curious thing about these old Roman magistrates is, that they were- not paid by the state or the people. From the Dictator to the .^^iles, all served the public for honor only. It was a grand idea, no doubt ; but I am afraid it kept out of office all poor men, and allowed the rich alone— who are not always the best or the wisest men in a country by any means — ^to rise to posts of honor and power. I fancy we shall see, as this history goes on, that the no-pay plan was the dearest in the end.

There was another reason why poor men had very little chance of rising at Rome. One of the Roman customs was, that the ^^Bdiles should give shows to the people. I think I have heard of some modem -^kiiles.who once tried to set a similar fa^- ion in a country a long way from Rome ; but I believe they did not propose to pay for the fire-works and processions out of their own pocket. The Roman .Sldiles did ; and hence, of course, it was not easy for a man to be chosen -^Edile (the people being monstrously fond of show) unless he were rich.

This alone, perhaps, would not have mattered much ; but it very soon became a settled custom at Rome that men should rise, step by step, from -ZEdile to Praetor, from Praetor to Consul, from Consul to Censor, and so on : it was very rare indeed that a man was elected to any of the superior offices unless he had been -^Edile first. In this way poor men were pretty effectually shut out.

The Romans had no standing army. Every man old enough, and not too old to carry ^ttms, was obliged to serve either twenty campaigns on foot or ten with a horse ; and after that he was expected to go home and become a peaceable cilizen again.

I dare say this long account of the Roman government and institutions is tedious ; but you can not enjoy the history of Rome without imderstanding these things.

You know that, as the time I am speaking of was nearly three hundred years before Christ, the Ro-

maos were not ChristiaDS. They were a very religious people, though, in their way.

The chief of their gods at this time seems to have been Mars, the god of war — a very proper deity for a fighting people like the Bomans. In honor of this Mars sacred shields were carried in procession from time to time ; and the story ran that one of these shields had fallen from heaven long, long ago. But as Rome grew, and the Bomans mixed more with their neighbors the Etruscans, and the Greeks, who were both very religious races, they adopted the

OF ROME.

Etruscan gods and the Greek gods, and worshipped them alL It would take me too long to tell you of all these gods and goddesses. Some of the most fitmous were Ceres, the goddess of farming; Vulcan,

A child's history [B.a 282.

the god of smith- work ; Diana, the goddess of hunting; Apollo, the god of eloquence; Neptune, the god of the sea ; Pan, the god of the country ; Priapus, the god of gardens; Silenus, a drunken god, whom you see in the cut seated on a wine-sack; Flora, the goddess of flowers ; Cybele, the goddess

OF ROSfE.

of the earth. There was a goddess of love, called Venus; a goddess of wisdom, Minerva; a god of roguery, Mercury; gods of home, the Lares and Penates ; and a great many others. The head or chief god was Jupiter, who ruled heaven and earth, and lived (very unhappily they said), with his wife Juno, on the top of some mountain in the clouds : a brother of Jupiter, whose name was Pluto, reigned over the infernal regions.

Besides these gods in a regular way of business, the Romans always felt themselves at liberty to make their great men gods after death; just as,

A CHiu>'8 rasTor.Y in much later times, the Christian popes and bishops made saints of the best and greatest of the martyrs and priests.

The Roman worship was very different from ours. They had no Sunday ; and though they had priests without end, they were not in the habit of preaching sermons. Every Roman prayed to the god he liked best, and in his own way; but the general fashion was to wind up all prayers with a small present to the god. I suppose the priests took care that these presents went straight to the mountain in the clouds where the gods lived.

The most common sort of present was a sacrifice

OF HOME.

JUKO AND MZBCUBT.

— either a bullock, ox, lamb, kid, or some other animal, which was slaughtered, at an altar raised for the purpose, with many fine ceremonies. Nothing of importance was done without a sacrifice.

Besides the priests the Romans had a large body of fortune-tellers, who were called Augurs. These augurs fancied or pretended they could find out the future by looking up at the sky and seeing which way the lightning flashed, and by watching the inside of dead animals, and the like. As they were lodged in a fine building at the public expense, and were very much respected, and had a great deal of power, I am not surprised that there were always a good many augurs, and that they did their best to prove that the people would be very badly off without them. But I am a little astonished that the Romans, who were so verj sensible a people on many points, were customers of theirs for so many years.

There were two kinds of riches at Rome — ^land and slaves. Rome contained no rich manu&cturers or rich merchants. It was thought beneath a Roman to engage in trade : a Senator who did so was degraded. Nearly all the trade and industry of Rome was carried on by slaves, or freed-slaves. The only peaceful work wiiich the Romans thought honorable was husbandry — tilling the ground, rearing cattle, growing vines.

Many persons who lived in the city owned farms which they wrought with slaves. Many who did not own land or slaves, made a living by begging from rich men. We should think very meanly of a man who, being able to work, preferred to beg ; but the Romans thought differently, and these beggars

FEMALXS WOBfiUIPPUCG.

OP ROME.

SOMAN FLOWmd.

or hangers-on — ^they were called politely Clients — were very numerous indeed; and rich men took pride in having a crowd of them at their doors of a morning, and at their heels when they went out.

The Romans were, at this time, what we should call an ignorant people ; that is to say, they had no books, and hardly any writing beyond the rolls of the Censors, a few notes of laws, and the like. Most of them despised learning, and thought — ^as our ancestors the old Britons and their neighbors did a thousand years afterward — ^that it was disgracefiil for a man who could use a sword to be a scholar.

A few persons at Borne were lawyers, and explained the laws — some of which were engraven on tablets of brass — ^to the people at large. Nearly all the Senators were good speakers, and many of them were probably very eloquent, as unlettered men often are. There were no doctors at Bome ; but rich men kept a slave, who knew something about physic, to tend them when they were ill.

Though they had no books of prose or poetry, there floated among the Romans of this day quite a

30 A child's HI9TOBY [b.c. 282.

number of old ballads, or legends, or stories About the gods and the early history of Rome ; and the rich and noble Romans were very fond of hearing these ballads sung to 4,hem after dinner, just as the old barons and chief men of much later ages used to have the bands and minstrels sing to them, and celebrate the fame of their ancestors in wild, rude songs.

Listening to these oongs was the favorite amusement of the Roman nobles. The people preferred horse-racing and chariot-racing ; and every year at the shows — especially the September shows, which were the finest — ^all the people came up to Rome, and thronged the circus outside the walls, and took as much pleasure in seeing the horses tear round the course as if their lives had depended on the result. They used to bet heavily, and as each horse wore ribbons of a certain color, those who backed him adorned their dress with ribbons of the like hue ; and when the horses were set off, the air would be filled with shouts—" Hurra for the Blue !" « The Red forever!" YeUowaheadl" "Bravo Green I" and so on.

You must not suppose, however, that at this time the Romans were a frivolous peopl%fond of nothing but sport. They were b;*ave, they were manly, they were patient, they were persevmng ; no danger ever frightened them, liothing ever broke their courage. They loved their country well ; and every man of them was ready to die for Rome. / Such was the condition of Rome and the Roman people two thousand one hundred and thirty-eight years ago, when this history begins.

What the Bomans were, what they did, how th^ lived before this time, I can not tell you, for I do not know.

As they despised learning, they had no histories, and no complete record of their laws.

The first Itoman historian lived about sixty years after the time at which this history b^ns.

Happily, during those sixty years, the Greeks, who were a lettered people, came to hear of the Bomans, and wrote about them. So I b^in my history with the first Greek accounts of Borne.

Still, though the Bomans had no histories, they had, as I mentioned before, a great many pleasant legends, and ballads, and stories about their ancestors, which the minstrels used to sing at noblemen's dinners, and old men used to tell to their cluldren of a summer's evening under a spreading beech-tree, or beside the blazing hearth on a winter night. Many of these old legends and stories — which were not written— ^were handed down from minstrel to minstrel, and from old man to old man, till they reached the old, old historians who began to write the history of Bome more than two thousand years ago.

These old, old historians put them in their histories, and no doubt believed them. I dare say they added a little here and there ; trimmed the stories so as to make them read smoothly, and added ballad to ballad, and story to story, till they made out of the whole a history of Bome for four himdred and sev«aty-two years before this Child's History b^ms. I should like very much to carry my history back all this time ; but as I am quite certain that a great part of these stories were invented long afterward, and as the rest are wholly without proo^ I can not honestly do so.

I dare say some of the stories are founded on fiict. I have no doubt, for instance, that when a Boman saw the great drain I have mentioned, and would ask, " Who built it ?" and people would answer, " Old King Servius TuUius, who was so good to the people, and about whom there is this fine old ballad*' — ^I have no doubt, I say, but there would be some truth in the ballad. In the same way, when a Boman boy would ask his father the meaning of the word Consul, and how Rome came to be ruled by Consuls, I think it quite likely there would be some stray relic of the truth in the story which the fiither would tell him. And I should not be surprised if many of the men who are mentioned in the ballads and stories, the later ones especially, did really live, and perform some of the deeds ascribed to them.

On this account, and also because these old stories are very beautiful and famous, I can not leave them out altogether. I will tell you them in the first Book of this Child's History. They may give you a fiuthful picture of the Bomans in these old, old times; but you must remember that they are no more history than the Scarlet Letter or the song of Hiawatha.

I] OF BOMB. 83