A history of Rome

Front matter

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Preface To The Second Revised

EDITION

The present volume comprises the chapters on Rome and the Romano-German period of the second revised edition of my Ancient History, with only slight changes in the system of cross references to render the book independent of the oriental and Greek chapters.

College Hill, Cincinnati

PART I. ROME First Period — Rome as a Kingdom CHAPTER PAGE

I. Italy and its Early Inhabitants i

II. Rome as a Kingdom 6

I. The Beginnings of Rome ...... .... 6

II. Society and Government 8

III. Religion 12

IV. Rome under the Kings. (Legendary Date 753-509 b. c.) . 17 Legends of Early Rome 21

Second Period — Rome as a Republic. (509-31 b.c.)

III. The Early Republic; Plebeians Secure Equality

with the Patricians. (509-367 b.c.) 24

IV. The Conquest and Unification of Italy. (367-264 b.c.) 37

V. Expansion of Rome beyond the Peninsula .... 46

I. The First Punic War. (264-241 B.C.) 46

II. Rome and Carthage between the First and the Second

Punic War. (241-2 iS B.C.) 52

III. The Second Punic War. (218-201 B.C.) 56

IV. Events between the Second and the Third Punic War.

V. The Third Punic War. (149-146 b.c.) 67

VI. The Last Century of the Republic: the Period of

Third Period — Rome as an Empire. (31 B.c-476 a.d.)

/ The Principate. (31 B.C. -2 8 4 a.d.)

VII. The Establishment of the Empire and the Principate of Augustus Cesar. (31 b. c-14 a.d.) . . . 106

VIII. From Tiberius to the Accession of Diocletian (14-

V vi CONTENTS

II The Absolute Monarchy

CHAPTER pAGE

IX. The Reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the

Great 139

I. The Reign of Diocletian. (284-305 a. d.) , ... 139

II. Reign of Constantine the Great. (306-337 a. d.) . . . 144

X. The Break-up of the Empire in the West. (376-

XI. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life

among the Romans 167

I. Architecture and Engineering . . . .' 167

II. Literature and Law 1 74

III. Social Life 182

Part II. The Romano-german Or Transition Age

XII. The Barbarian Kingdoms T91

XIII. The Church and its Institutions 196

I. The Conversion of the Barbarians 196

II. The Rise of Monasticism .199

III. The Rise of the Papacy 202

XIV. The Fusion of Latin and Teuton . 207

XV. The Roman Empire in the East 212

XVI. The Rise of Islam . . - . . . . 215

XVII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 233

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(After photographs, and from cuts taken from Baumeister's Denkmaeler des klassische7t Altertians, Oscar Jaeger's Weltgcsdiichte, Schreiber's Atlas of Classical A7ttiquities, and other reliable sources.)

FIGURE PAGE

i. An Etruscan Chariot 3

2. Wall Painting of an Etruscan Banquet 4

3. Head of Janus 14

4. Divining by Means of the Appearance of the Entrails of a Sacri-

ficial Victim 15

5. The Cloaca Maxima 18

6. Roman Soldier 19

7. Lictors with Fasces 25

. 8. The Appian Way 41

9. Grotto of Posilipo 44

ro. Prow of a Roman Warship 48

n. The Triumphal Column of Duilius 49

12. Augur's Birds 51

13. Hannibal 55

14. Publius Cornelius Scipio (Africanus) 60

15. Coin of the Italian Confederacy 80

16. Mithradates the. Great 84

18. Roman Trading Vessel 89

19. Pompey the Great 91

20. Julius Caesar . . 1 98

21. Octavian (Octavius) as a Youth 101

22. Cicero 102

23. Augustus 107

24. Maecenas in

25. Vespasian 120

26. "Judaea Capta" 121

27. Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus . 121

28. A Street in Pompeii 122

29. House of the Vetti at Pompeii 123

31. Bridge over the Danube, Built by Trajan 125

32. Trajan's Column 126

33. The Hadrian Wall 128

vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

34. Hadrian 129

35. Siege of a City 130

36. Roman Aqueduct and Bridge near Nimes, France 133

3J. Commodus Represented as the Roman Hercules 134

38. Caracalla 135

39. Triumph of Sapor over Valerian 137

40. Christ as the Good Shepherd 143

41. The Labarum 144

42. Arch of Constantine at Rome, as it Appears To-day 145

43. Germans Crossing the Rhine .- 158

44. The Pantheon, at Rome 167

45. The Roman Forum in 1885 168

46. The Circus Maximus 169

47. The Colosseum 170

48. A Roman Milestone 171

49. The Claudian Aqueduct ........ 172

50. The Medicinal Spring of Umeri 173

51. Mausoleum of Hadrian, at Rome 174

52. Seneca 179

53. Gladiators 185

54. Semicircular Dining-couch 186

55. Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna 192

56. Ruins of the Celebrated Monastery of Iona 199

57. A Monk Copyist 201

58. Trial by Combat 210

59. The Kaaba at Mecca 216

LIST OF MAPS

Colored Maps

(After Kiepert, Schrader, Droysen, Spruner-Sieglin, and Freeman. . The Freeman

charts have been so modified by omissions and additions that most of them as they here appear are virtually new maps.)

PAGE

Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power 2

The Mediterranean Lands at the beginning of the Second Punic War,

The Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithradatic War, 64 B.C. . . 90

The Roman Empire at the Death of Augustus, 14 a. d no

The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent (under Trajan, 98-117 a.d.) . 126

The Roman Empire Divided into Prefectures 142

Map showing Barbarian Inroads on the Fall of the Roman Empire

(movements shown down to 477 a.d.) 150

Europe in the Reign of Theodoric, about 500 a.d 190

Greatest Extent of the Saracen Dominions, about 750 a.d 218

Europe in the Time of Charles the Great, 814 a.d 222

Sketch Maps

The Mountain System of Italy . 2

The Seven Hills of Rome 7

The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the Time of the

Early Republic, about 450 B.c 28

The Route of Hannibal 56

The Roman Empire under Justinian 213

A HISTORY OF ROME

PART I FIRST PERIOD — ROME AS A KINGDOM

Chapter I Italy And Its Early Inhabitants

1. Divisions of the Italian Peninsula. The Italian peninsula is generally conceived as consisting of three sections — Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of the river Po (Padus), lying between the Alps and the Apennines. In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts, namely, Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia. Liguria embraced the southwestern and Venetia the northeastern part of Northern Italy. Gallia Cisalpina lay between these two districts, occupying the finest portion of the valley of the Po. It received its name, which means " Gaul on this [the Italian] side of the Alps," from the Gallic tribes that about the fifth century before our era found their way over the mountains and settled upon these rich lands.

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Campania, facing the Western or Tyrrhenian Sea ; Umbria and Picenum, looking out over the Eastern or Adriatic Sea ; and Samnium and the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain districts of the Apennines.

Southern Italy comprised the ancient districts of Apulia, Lucania, Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria 1 formed the "heel," and Bruttium

1 During the Middle Ages this name was transferred to the toe of the peninsula, and this forms the Calabria of to-day.

I

ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS

[§2 the " toe," of the bootlike peninsula. The coast region of Southern Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna Graecia, or " Great Greece," on account of the number and importance of the Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were established on these shores.

The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, so intimately has its history been connected with that of the peninsula.

S^lg - -l^S the Mountain system of italy

1[0 Longitude 1|2 East from Vi Greenwich ^§gB,Eggy iuM

2. Mountains, Rivers, and Harbors. Italy, like the other two peninsulas of Southern Europe, — Greece and Spain, — has a high mountain barrier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Corresponding to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines run as a great central ridge through the peninsula. Eastward of the ancient Latium they spread out into broad uplands, which in early times nourished a race of hardy mountaineers, who incessantly harried the territories of the more civilized lowlanders of Latium and Campania. Thus the physical conformation of this part of the peninsula shaped large

§3]

EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY sections of Roman history, just as in the case of Scotland the physical contrast between the north and the south was reflected . for centuries in the antagonisms of Highlanders and Lowlanders.

Italy has only one really great river, the Po, which drains the large northern plain, already mentioned, lying between the Alps and the Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope of the Apennines are short and of little volume. Among the rivers draining the western slopes of the Apennines, the one possessing the greatest historic interest is the Tiber, on the banks of which Rome arose. North of this stream is the Arno (Amus), which watered a part of the old Etruria, and south of it, the Liris, one of the chief rivers of Campania.

The finest Italian harbors, of which that of Naples is the most celebrated, are on the western coast. The eastern coast is precipitous, with few good havens. Italy thus faces the west. What makes it important for us to notice this circumstance is the fact that Greece faces the east, and that thus these two peninsulas, as the historian

Mommsen expresses it, turn their backs to each other. This brought it about that Rome and the cities of Greece had almost no dealings with one another for many centuries.

3. Early Inhabitants of Italy: the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Italians. There were in early historic times three chief races in Italy — the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Italians. They had all, save the Greeks, found their way into the peninsula in prehistoric times.

1 This interesting memorial of Etruscan art was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of New York City at a cost of #48,000. It was found in an ancient Etruscan cemetery (1901). Almost every part of the chariot, including the wheels, was sheathed in figured bronze. The relic probably dates from the seventh century B.C.

Fig. 1. An Etruscan Chariot 1 (From a photograph)

4 ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS [§ 3

The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and seafaring people of uncertain race and origin, dwelt in Etruria, now called Tuscany after them. 1 They seem to have come into Italy from the east by way of the sea. Before the rise of the Roman people they were the leading race in the peninsula. Certain elements in their culture lead us to believe that they had learned much from the cities of Magna Grsecia. The Etruscans in their turn became the teachers of the early Romans and imparted to them certain elements of civilization, including military usages, hints in the art of building, and various religious ideas and rites.

Fig. 2. Wall Painting of an Etruscan Banquet

From an Etruscan tomb of the fifth century b. c. This cut illustrates, among other things, the state of art among the Etruscans at that early date. Banqueting scenes are favorite representations on Etruscan tombs, sarcophagi, and funeral urns. The participators "were represented in the height of social enjoyment to symbolize the bliss on which their spirits had entered" (Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria)

With the Greek cities in Southern Italy and in Sicily we have already formed an acquaintance. Through the medium of these cultured communities the Romans were taught the use of letters and given valuable suggestions in matters of law and constitutional government.

The Italians, peoples of Indo-European speech, embraced many tribes or communities (Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.) that occupied nearly all Central and a considerable part of Southern Italy. They were kin to the Greeks and brought with them into the peninsula, where they probably mixed with an aboriginal population,

1 In early times they had settlements in Northern Italy and in Campania.

§3] EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY 5

those customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions that formed the common possession of the Indo-European peoples. Their life was for the most part that of shepherds and farmers.

The most important of the Italian peoples were the Latins, who dwelt in Latium ; and the most important of the Latins were the Romans. Concerning the beginnings of early Rome, its society, government, and religion, and the fortunes of the city under its later kings, we shall give a brief account in the next chapter.

Selections from the Sources. Munro's Source Book of Roman History, pp. 2-4. The teacher will find this admirable collection of extracts from the sources an invaluable aid in imparting a sense of life and reality to the story of ancient Rome.

References (Modern). Mommsen, vol. i, chaps, i, ii. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9, 43-49.. Tozer, Classical Geogi'aphy, chaps, ix, x. Merivale, vol. iv, pp. 414-416 (for some interesting observations on the evidence afforded by ancient geographical names of the wooded character of the districts about Rome in early times). How and Leigh, History of Rome, chaps, i, ii. Shuckburgh, History of Rome, chaps, ii, iii. Allcroft and Masom, Tutorial History of Rome, pp. 1-18. Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i, introduction (the author probably exaggerates the debt which the early civilization of Rome owed to the preceding culture of Etruria). Leland, Etrtt scan- Roman Remains.

Topics for Class Reports. 1. Geographical conditions tending to make the history of Italy different from that of Greece : Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9. 2. Explain the historian Freeman's statement that " the course of all history has been determined by the geological fact that certain hills by the Tiber were lower and nearer together than the other hills of Latium." 3. "While the Grecian peninsula is turned towards the east, the Italian is turned towards the west" (Mommsen); show the influence of this geographical fact on the history of each land.

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Chapter II

I. THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME

4. Latium and the Latin League. At the opening of the historic period, Latium, the " flat country," as the name probably signifies, lying south of the lower course of the Tiber, was dotted with strongly fortified hill-towns or petty city-states, like those of early Greece. In some cases at least a great part of the families forming one of these little hill-states lived in hamlets scattered over the territory of the city, in order that they might be near the fields they ploughed or the common pastures upon which they herded their flocks. The walled town on the hill served as a common refuge for the villagers in times of danger. It was also here that they held their markets and religious festivals. According to tradition there were in all Latium in prehistoric times thirty of these hill-towns. These had formed an alliance among themselves known as the Latin League.

5. Early Rome. Among these hill-towns was one named Rome, situated on a cluster of low hills on the left bank of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from the sea. At the dawn of history the leadership in the Latin League was held by this city. 1 Rome, which was

1 In earlier times the leadership was held by Alba Longa, a city on the isolated Alban Mount.

§6]

INFLUENCE OF COMMERCE destined to play such a great role in history, had been formed by the union in prehistoric times of three or more settlements, the dwellings of which were upon the slopes or at the foot of the hills just mentioned. Pressed probably by common enemies, they had come to unite on equal terms to form a single city-state, and had learned to call themselves by the same name — Romans. The early union of these little communities was a matter of great moment in the history of Rome. Contributing to make her first in numbers and strength among all the Latin city-states, it helped to lay the basis of her greatness and foreshadowed her marvelous political fortunes.

6. Influence of Commerce upon the Growth of Early Rome. Besides the early happy union of the several hill-villages, other circumstances without doubt contributed to the early and rapid growth of Rome. Among these a prominent place

must be given to the advantages in the way of trade and commerce afforded by its fortunate situation upon the Tiber. Its distance from the sea protected it against the depredations of the pirates who in early times swarmed in the Mediterranean and swept away the cattle and the crops from the fields of the coast settlements, while its location on the chief stream of Central Italy naturally made it the center of the lucrative trade of a wide reach of inland territory bordering upon the Tiber and its tributaries. Furthermore, this position upon a navigable river and not too far away from the sea gave it control of an important sea-borne traffic.

The Seven Hills of Rome

" The course of all history [has] been determined by

the geological fact that certain hills by the Tiber were

lower and nearer together than the other hills of

Latium." — Freeman

II. SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT

7. The Roman Family ; the Worship of Ancestors. At the

base of Roman society and forming its smallest unit was the family. This was a very different group from that which among us bears the same name. The typical Roman family consisted of the father (paterfamilias) and mother, the sons together with their wives and sons, and the unmarried daughters. When a daughter married she became a member of the family to which her husband belonged.

The most important feature or element of this family group was the unrestrained authority (j>otestas) of the father. In early times his power over every member of the family was in law absolute, though custom required that in cases involving severe punishment he should seek the advice of a council of near relatives. He could for misconduct sell a son of mature years into slavery or even put him to death (see sect. •$•$).

The father was the high priest of the family, for the family had a common worship. This was the cult of domestic divinities and the spirits of ancestors. These latter were believed to linger near the old hearth. If provided with frequent offerings of meat and drink, they would, it was thought, watch over the living members of the family and aid and prosper them in their daily work and in all their undertakings. If they were neglected, however, these spirits became restless and suffered pain, and in their anger would bring trouble in some form upon their undutiful kinsmen.

It was particularly this worship of ancestors that made the Roman family so exclusive, and that caused it to close its doors against all strangers ; for the spirits of its dead members could be served only by their own kith and kin. By a certain religious ceremony, however, a stranger could be adopted into a family, and thus could acquire the same rights as its members by birth or by marriage to participate in its worship and festivals.

When the father died the sons became free, and each in his own household now came to exercise the full authority that the father had held.

§8] THE FAMILY IN ROMAN HISTORY 9

8. The Place of the Family in Roman History. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of the family upon the history and destiny of Rome. It was the cradle of at least some of those splendid virtues of the early Romans that contributed so much to the strength and greatness of Rome, and that helped to give her the dominion of the world. It was in the atmosphere of the family that were nourished in the Roman youth the virtues of obedience, of deference to authority, and of submission to law and custom. When the youth became a citizen, obedience to magistrates and respect for law were with him an instinct and indeed almost a religion. And, on the other hand, the exercise of the parental authority in the family taught the Roman how to command as well as how to obey — how to exercise authority with wisdom, moderation, and justice.

9. Dependents of the Family : Clients and Slaves. "Besides those members constituting the family proper there were attached to it usually a number of dependents. These were the clients and slaves. The client was a person standing in a semiservile relation to the head of the family, who was called his patron. The class of clients was probably made up largely of homeless refugees or strangers from other cities, or of freed slaves dwelling in their former master's house. They were free to engage in business at Rome and to accumulate property, though whatever they gathered was legally the property of the patron.

The duty of the patron was, in general, to look after the interests of his client, especially to represent him before the legal tribunals. The duty of the client, on the other hand, was faithfulness to his patron, and the making of contributions of money to aid him in meeting unusual expenses.

The slaves constituted merely a part of the family property. There were only a few slaves in the early Roman family, and these were held for service chiefly within the home and not in the fields. They relieved the mother and daughters of the coarser work of the household. It was not until later times, when luxury crept into Rome, that the number of domestic slaves became excessively great (sect. 200).

10. The Clan, the Curia, the Tribe, and the City. Above the family stood the clan or gens. This was probably in the earliest times simply the expanded family, the members of which had outgrown the remembrance of their exact relationship. Yet they all believed themselves to have had a common ancestor and called themselves by his name, as the Fabii, the Claudii, the Julii, and so on. The gens, like the family, had a common altar.

The next largest group or division of the community was the curia, which, like the Greek phratry, was a " brotherhood," the members of which were united by the ties of religion and blood. This was the most important political division of the people in early Rome. Levies for the army were made by curiae, and voting in the primitive assembly of the people, as we shall explain presently, was done by these same bodies. There were thirty curiae in primitive Rome.

Above the curiae was the tribe, the largest subdivision of the community. In early Rome there were three tribes, each comprising ten curiae.

These several groups made up the community of early Rome. This city, like the cities of ancient Greece, was a city-state — that is, an independent sovereign body like a modern nation. As such it possessed a constitution and government, concerning which we will next give a short account.

11. The King and the Senate. At the head of the early Roman state stood a king, the father of his people, holding essentially the same relation to thern that the father of a family held to his household. He was at once ruler of the nation, commander of the army, and judge and high priest of his people. He was preceded by servants called lictors, each bearing a bundle of rods (the fasces) with an ax bound therein, the symbol of his power to punish by flogging and by putting to death.

Next to the king stood the Senate, a body composed of the " fathers," or heads of the ancient clans of the community. Two important functions of the Senate were to give counsel to the king, and to cast the decisive vote on all measures passed by the assembly of citizens.

§ 12] THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY . 1 1

12. The Popular Assembly. The popular assembly (comitia cu-

riatd) comprised all the freemen of Rome. The manner of taking a vote in this assembly should be noted, for the usage here was followed in all the later popular assemblies of the republican period. The voting was not by individuals but by curiae ; that is, each curia had one vote, and the measure before the body was carried or lost according as a majority of the curiae voted for or against it.

It should be further noted that this assembly was not a representative body, like a modern legislature, but a primary assembly, that is, a meeting like a New England town meeting. All of the later assemblies at Rome were like this primitive assembly. The Romans never learned, or at least never employed, the principle of representation, without which device government by the people in the great states of the present day would be impossible. How important the bearing of this was upon the political fortunes of Rome we shall learn later.

13. The Rights of Roman Citizenship. The rights of the Roman citizen were divided into private rights and public rights. The chief private rights were two, namely, the right of trade {jus commercii) and the right of marriage (Jus conttubii). The right of trade or commerce was the right to acquire, to hold, and to bequeath property (both personal and landed) according to the forms of the Roman law. This in the ancient city was an important right and privilege. 1 The right of marriage was the " right of contracting a full and religious marriage." Such a marriage could take place in early Rome only between patricians, or persons of noble birth.

The three chief public or political rights of the Roman citizen were the right of voting in the public assemblies {jus sujf?'agii), the right to hold office {jus honorurn), and the right of appeal from the decision of a magistrate to the people {jus provocationis).

These rights taken together constituted the most highly valued rights and prerogatives of the Roman citizen. What we should particularly notice is that the Romans adopted the practice of bestowing these rights in installments, so to speak. For instance, the inhabitants of one vanquished city would be given a part of

1 In some modern states aliens are not allowed to acquire landed property ; in Roman terms there is withheld from them a part of the jus commercii.

the private rights of citizenship, those of another perhaps all of this class of rights, while upon the inhabitants of a third place would be bestowed all the rights, both private and public. This usage created many different classes of citizens in the Roman state ; and this, as will appear later, was one of the most important matters connected with the internal history of Rome.

14. Patricians and Plebeians. In early Rome there were two classes or orders known as patricians and plebeians} The patricians formed the hereditary nobility of the state. They alone possessed all the rights of citizenship as enumerated in the preceding section. Some of the private rights, as we shall see directly, they shared with the plebeians, but the chief political rights they jealously guarded as the sacred patrimony of their own order.

The plebeians (from plebs, " the multitude ") were the humbler members of the community. Some of this class-were shopkeepers, artisans, and manual laborers living in Rome ; but the larger number were small landowners living outside the city in scattered hamlets, and tilling with their own hands their little farms of a few acres in extent.

From what has already been said of them, it will be seen that these plebeians possessed at least one of the most important rights of Roman citizenship, namely, the private right of engaging in trade. But from most of the other rights and privileges of the full citizen they were wholly shut out. They could not contract a legal marriage with one of the patrician order. They could not hold office or appeal from the decision of a magistrate. A large part of the early history of Rome as a republic is made up of the struggles of these plebeians to better their economic condition and to secure for themselves social and political equality with the patricians.

III. RELIGION

15. The Place of Religion in Roman History. In Rome, as in the ancient cities of Greece, religion, aside from the domestic and local cults, was an affair of the state. The magistrates of the city

1 There have been many theories as to the origin of this division in the population of primitive Rome, but nothing certain is known about it. It is possible that the patricians were the offspring of the invading Indo-Europeans (sect. 3), and the plebeians the descendants of the subjected non-Aryan people. See Frank, Roman Imperialism, p. 12.

§16] LEGAL CHARACTER OF THE RELIGION 13

possessed a sort of sacerdotal or priestly character ; and since almost every official act was connected in some way with the rites of the temple or the sacrifices of the altar, it happens that the political history of the Romans is closely interwoven with their religion.

16. The Practical and Legal Character of the Religion. The Roman thought of the gods as watchful of the conduct of their worshipers, and as interested in their affairs. Hence the Roman was in his way very religious, and exceedingly scrupulous in rendering to the divinities the worship due them. He did not, however, serve his gods for naught ; he expected from them a full equivalent for the sacrificial victims that he offered them, for the incense that he burned upon their altars, for the gifts he hung up in their temples, and for the costly games and spectacles he provided for their entertainment in the circus and the amphitheater.