A General History for Colleges and High Schools

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And then Athens being the head of a great empire of subject cities, a
large number of Athenian citizens were necessarily employed as salaried
officials in the minor positions of the public service, and thus politics
became a profession. In any event, the meetings of the popular assembly
and the discussion of matters of state engrossed more or less of the time
and attention of every citizen.

Again, the great Athenian jury-courts, which were busied with cases from
all parts of the empire, gave constant employment to nearly one fourth of
the citizens, the fee that the juryman received enabling him to live
without other business. It is said that, in the early morning, when the
jurymen were passing through the streets to the different courts, Athens
appeared like a city wholly given up to the single business of law.
Furthermore, the great public works, such as temples and commemorative
monuments, which were in constant process of erection, afforded employment
for a vast number of artists and skilled workmen of every class.

In the Agora, again, at any time of the day, a numerous class might have
been found whose sole occupation, as in the case of Socrates, was to talk.
The writer of the "Acts of the Apostles" was so impressed with this
feature of life at Athens that he summarized the habits of the people by
saying, "All the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their
time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing."
(Chap. xvii. 21.)

SLAVERY.--There was a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic art, culture,
refinement--"these good things were planted, like exquisite exotic
flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery."

The proportion of slaves to the free population in many of the states was
astonishingly large. In Corinth and AEgina there were ten slaves to every
freeman. In Attica the proportion was four to one; that is to say, out of
a population of about 500,000, 400,000 were slaves. [Footnote: The
population of Attica in 317 B.C. is reckoned at about 527,000. That of
Athens in its best days was probably not far from 150,000.] Almost every
freeman was a slave owner. It was accounted a real hardship to have to get
along with less than half a dozen slaves.

This large class of slaves was formed in various ways. In the prehistoric
period, the fortunes of war had brought the entire population of whole
provinces into a servile condition, as in certain parts of the
Peloponnesus. During later times, the ordinary captives of war still
further augmented the ranks of these unfortunates. Their number was also
largely added to by the slave traffic carried on with the barbarian
peoples of Asia Minor. Criminals and debtors, too, were often condemned to
servitude; while foundlings were usually brought up as slaves.

The relation of master and slave was regarded by the Greek as being, not
only a legal, but a natural one. A free community, in his view, could not
exist without slavery. It formed the natural basis of both the family and
the state,--the relation of master and slave being regarded as "strictly
analogous to the relation of soul and body." Even Aristotle and other
Greek philosophers approved the maxim that "slaves are simply domestic
animals possessed of intelligence." They were regarded as just as
necessary in the economy of the family as cooking utensils.

In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly--judging their treatment
by the standard of humanity that prevailed in antiquity. Some held places
of honor in the family, and enjoyed the confidence and even the friendship
of their master. Yet at Sparta, where slavery assumed the form of serfdom,
the lot of the slave was peculiarly hard and unendurable.

If slavery was ever justified by its fruits, it was in Greece. The
brilliant civilization of the Greeks was its product, and could never have
existed without it. As one truthfully says, "Without the slaves the Attic
democracy would have been an impossibility, for they alone enabled the
poor, as well as the rich, to take a part in public affairs." Relieving
the citizen of all drudgery, the system created a class characterized by
elegant leisure, refinement, and culture.

We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the feudal
aristocracy of mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been well likened to a
great pyramid, whose top may be gilded with light, while the base lies in
dark shadows. The civilization of ancient Hellas was splendid and
attractive, but it rested with a crushing weight upon all the lower orders
of Greek society.

SECTION III. ROMAN HISTORY.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ROMAN KINGDOM.
(Legendary Date, 753-509 B.C.)

DIVISIONS OF ITALY.--The peninsula of Italy, like that of Greece, divides
itself into three parts--Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. The first
comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between the Alps and the
Apennines. In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts--
Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, which means "Gaul on this (the Italian) side of
the Alps," and Venetia.

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Campania, facing
the Western, or Tuscan 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 countries of Apulia, Lucania, Calabria, and
Bruttium. Calabria occupied the "heel," and Bruttium formed the "toe," of
the peninsula. This part of 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 in these regions.

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 interwoven with that of the peninsula. In ancient times it
was the meeting-place and battleground of the Carthaginians, Greeks, and
Romans.

EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY.--There were, in early times, three chief races
in Italy--the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks. The Italians, a
branch of the Aryan family, embraced many tribes (Latins, Umbrians,
Sabines, Samnites, etc.), that occupied nearly all Central Italy. The
Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and maritime people of uncertain race,
dwelt in Etruria, now Tuscany. Before the rise of the Romans they were the
leading race in the peninsula. Of the establishment of the Greek cities in
Southern Italy, we have already learned in connection with Grecian History
(p. 111).

Some five hundred years B.C., the Gauls, a Celtic race, came over the
Alps, and settling in Northern Italy, became formidable enemies of the
infant republic of Rome.

THE LATINS.--Most important of all the Italian peoples were the Latins,
who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the Liris. These people, like
all the Italians, were near kindred of the Greeks, and brought with them
into Italy those same customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions which we
have seen to have been the common possession of the various branches of
the Aryan household (see p. 5). There are said to have been in all Latium
thirty towns, and these formed an alliance known as the Latin League. The
city which first assumed importance and leadership among the towns of this
confederation was Alba Longa, the "Long White City," so called because its
buildings stretched for a great distance along the summit of a whitish
ridge.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME.--The place of preeminence among the Latin towns
was soon lost by Alba Longa, and gained by another city. This was Rome,
the stronghold of the Ramnes, or Romans, located upon a low hill on the
south bank of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from the sea.

The traditions of the Romans place the founding of their city in the year
753 B.C. The town was established, it would seem, as an outpost to guard
the northern frontier of Latium against the Etruscans.

Recent excavations have revealed the foundations of the old walls and two
of the ancient gates. We thus learn that the city at first covered only
the top of the Palatine Hill, one of a cluster of low eminences close to
the Tiber, which, finally embraced within the limits of the growing city,
became the famed "Seven Hills of Rome." From the shape of its enclosing
walls, the original city was called _Roma Quadrata_, "Square Rome."

THE EARLY ROMAN STATE: KING, SENATE, AND POPULAR ASSEMBLY.--The early
Roman state seems to have been formed by the union of three communities.
These constituted three tribes, known as Ramnes (the Romans proper, who
gave name to the mixed people), Tities, and Luceres. Each of these tribes
was divided into ten wards, or districts (_curiae_); each ward was
made up of _gentes_, or clans, and each clan was composed of a number
of families. The heads of these families were called _patres_, or
"fathers," and all the members patricians, that is, "children of the
fathers."

At the head of the nation stood the King, who was the father of the state.
He was at once ruler of the people, commander of the army, judge and high
priest of the nation, with absolute power as to life and death.

Next to the king stood the Senate, or "council of the old men," composed
of the "fathers," or heads of the families. This council had no power to
enact laws: the duty of its members was simply to advise with the king,
who was free to follow or to disregard their suggestions.

The Popular Assembly (_comitia curiata_) comprised all the citizens
of Rome, that is, all the members of the patrician families, old enough to
bear arms. It was this body that enacted the laws of the state, determined
upon peace or war, and also elected the king.

CLASSES OF SOCIETY.--The two important classes of the population of Rome
under the kingdom and the early republic, were the patricians and the
plebeians. The former were the members of the three original tribes that
made up the Roman people, and at first alone possessed political rights.
They were proud, exclusive, and tenacious of their inherited privileges.
The latter were made up chiefly of the inhabitants of subjected cities,
and of refugees from various quarters that had sought an asylum at Rome.
They were free to acquire property, and enjoyed personal freedom, but at
first had no political rights whatever. The greater number were petty
land-owners, who held and cultivated the soil about the city. A large part
of the early history of Rome is simply the narration of the struggles of
this class to secure social and political equality with the patricians.

Besides these two principal orders, there were two other classes--clients
and slaves. The former were attached to the families of patricians, who
became their patrons, or protectors. The condition of the client was
somewhat like that of the serf in the feudal system of the Middle Ages. A
large clientage was considered the crown and glory of a patrician house.

The slaves were, in the main, captives in war. Their number, small at
first, gradually increased as the Romans extended their conquests, till
they outnumbered all the other classes taken together, and more than once
turned upon their masters in formidable revolts that threatened the very
existence of the Roman state.

THE LEGENDARY KINGS.--For nearly two and a half centuries after the
founding of Rome (from 753 to 509 B.C., according to tradition), the
government was a monarchy. To span this period, the legends of the Romans
tell of the reigns of seven kings--Romulus, the founder of Rome; Numa, the
lawgiver; Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius, conquerors both; Tarquinius
Priscus, the great builder; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the
government and second founder of the state; and Tarquinius Superbus, the
haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led to the abolition by the people of
the office of king.

The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what happened to
them, blend hopelessly fact and fable. We cannot be quite sure even as to
the names. Respecting Roman affairs, however, under the last three rulers
(the Tarquins), who were of Etruscan origin, some important things are
related, the substantial truth of which we may rely upon with a fair
degree of certainty; and these matters we shall notice in the following
paragraphs.

GROWTH OF ROME UNDER THE TARQUINS.--The Tarquins extended their authority
over the whole of Latium. The position of supremacy thus given Rome was
naturally attended by the rapid growth in population and importance of the
little Palatine city. The original walls soon became too strait for the
increasing multitudes; new ramparts were built--tradition says under the
direction of the king Servius Tullius--which, with a great circuit of
seven miles, swept around the entire cluster of the Seven Hills. A large
tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capitoline hills was
drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, the "Great Sewer," which was so
admirably constructed that it has been preserved to the present day. It
still discharges its waters through a great arch into the Tiber. The land
thus reclaimed became the Forum, the assembling-place of the people. Upon
the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum, was built the
famous sanctuary called the Capitol, or the Capitoline temple, where
beneath the same roof were the shrines of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the
three great national deities. Upon the level ground between the Aventine
and the Palatine was laid out the Circus Maximus, the "Great Circus,"
where were celebrated the Roman games.

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE CAPITOLINE, WITH THE CLOACA MAXIMA. (A
Reconstruction.)]

NEW CONSTITUTION OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.--The second king of the Etruscan
house, Servius Tullius by name, effected a most important change in the
constitution of the Roman state. He did here at Rome just what Solon at
about this time did at Athens (see p. 120). He made property instead of
birth the basis of the constitution. The entire population was divided
into five classes, the first of which included all citizens, whether
patricians or plebeians, who owned twenty _jugera_ (about twelve acres) of
land; the fifth and lowest embraced all that could show title to even two
jugera. The army was made up of the members of the five classes; as it was
thought right and proper that the public defence should be the care of
those who, on account of their possessions, were most interested in the
maintenance of order and in the protection of the boundaries of the state.

The assembling-place of the military classes thus organized was on a large
plain just outside the city walls, called the Campus Martius, or "Field of
Mars." The meeting of these military orders was called the _comitia
centuriata_, or the "assembly of hundreds." [Footnote: This assembly
was not organized by Servius Tullius, but it grew out of the military
organization he created.] This body, which of course was made up of
patricians and plebeians, gradually absorbed the powers of the earlier
patrician assembly (_comitia curiata_).

THE EXPULSION OF THE KINGS.--The legends make Tarquinius Superbus, or
Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome. He is represented as a monstrous
tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused both patricians and plebeians to unite
and drive him and all his house into exile. This event, according to
tradition, occurred in the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the
expulsion of the tyrants from Athens (see p. 122).

So bitterly did the people hate the tyranny they had abolished that it is
said they all, the nobles as well as the commons, bound themselves by most
solemn oaths never again to tolerate a king. We shall hereafter see how
well this vow was kept for nearly five hundred years.

THE ROMAN RELIGION.

THE CHIEF ROMAN DEITIES.--The basis of the Roman religious system was the
same as that of the Grecian: the germs of its institutions were brought
from the same early Aryan home. At the head of the Pantheon stood Jupiter,
identical in all essential attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the
special protector of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and
Minerva, was consecrated, as we have already noticed, a magnificent temple
upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum and the
city. Mars, the god of war, standing next in rank, was the favorite deity
and the fabled father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling
themselves the "children of Mars." They proved themselves worthy offspring
of the war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his honor
during the first month of the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in
his honor, the name of March. Janus was a double-faced deity, "the god of
the beginning and the end of everything." The month of January was sacred
to him, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple were
always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace.

The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol of the
goddess Vesta. Her worship was a favorite one with the Romans. The nation,
too, as a single great family, had a common national hearth in the Temple
of Vesta, where the sacred fires were kept burning from generation to
generation by six virgins, daughters of the Roman state. The Lares and
Penates were household gods. Their images were set in the entrance of the
dwelling. The Lares were the spirits of ancestors, which were thought to
linger about the home as its guardians.

ORACLES AND DIVINATION.--The Romans, like the Greeks, thought that the
will of the gods was communicated to men by means of oracles, and by
strange sights, unusual events, or singular coincidences. There were no
true oracles at Rome. The Romans, therefore, often had recourse to those
in Magna Graecia, even sending for advice, in great emergencies, to the
Delphian shrine. From Etruria was introduced the art of the haruspices, or
soothsayers, which consisted in discovering the divine mind by the
appearance of victims slain for the sacrifices.

THE SACRED COLLEGES.--The four chief sacred colleges, or societies, were
the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of Augurs, the College of
Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds.

[Illustration: VESTAL VIRGIN.]

A curious legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old woman came to
Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for an extravagant price,
nine volumes. As the king declined to pay the sum demanded, the woman
departed, destroyed three of the books, and then, returning, offered the
remainder at the very same sum that she had wanted for the complete
number. The king still refused to purchase; so the sibyl went away and
destroyed three more of the volumes, and bringing back the remaining
three, asked the same price as before. Tarquin was by this time so curious
respecting the contents of the mysterious books that he purchased the
remaining volumes. It was found upon examination that they were filled
with prophecies respecting the future of the Roman people. The books were
placed in a stone chest, which was kept in a vault beneath the Capitoline
temple; and special custodians were appointed to take charge of them and
interpret them. The number of keepers, throughout the most important
period of Roman history, was fifteen. The books were consulted only in
times of extreme danger.

The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to interpret the
omens, or auspices, which were casual sights or appearances, by which
means it was believed that Jupiter made known his will. Great skill was
required in the "taking of the auspices," as it was called. No business of
importance, public or private, was entered upon without first consulting
the auspices, to ascertain whether they were favorable. The public
assembly, for illustration, must not convene, to elect officers or to
enact laws, unless the auspices had been taken and found propitious.
Should a peal of thunder occur while the people were holding a meeting,
that was considered an unfavorable omen, and the assembly must instantly
disperse.

The College of Pontiffs was so called because one of the duties of its
members was to keep in repair the bridges (_pontes_) over which the
religious processions were accustomed to pass. This was the most important
of all the religious institutions of the Romans; for to the pontiffs
belonged the superintendence of all religious matters. In their keeping,
too, was the calendar, and they could lengthen or shorten the year, which
power they sometimes used to extend the office of a favorite or to cut
short that of one who had incurred their displeasure. The head of the
college was called Pontifex Maximus, or the Chief Bridge-builder, which
title was assumed by the Roman emperors, and after them by the Christian
bishops of Rome; and thus the name has come down to our own times. The
College of Heralds had the care of all public matters pertaining to
foreign nations. If the Roman people had suffered any wrong from another
state, it was the duty of the heralds to demand satisfaction. If this was
denied, and war determined upon, then a herald proceeded to the frontier
of the enemy's country and hurled over the boundary a spear dipped in
blood. This was a declaration of war. The Romans were very careful in the
observance of this ceremony.

SACRED GAMES.--The Romans had many religious games and festivals.
Prominent among these were the so-called Circensian Games, or Games of the
Circus, which were very similar to the sacred games of the Greeks (see p.
106). They consisted, in the main, of chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-
racing, and various other athletic contests.

These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had their origin
in the belief that the gods delighted in the exhibition of feats of skill,
strength, or endurance; that their anger might be appeased by such
spectacles; or that they might be persuaded by the promise of games to
lend aid to mortals in great emergencies. At the opening of the year it
was customary for the Roman magistrate, in behalf of the people, to
promise to the gods games and festivals, provided good crops, protection
from pestilence, and victory were granted the Romans during the year. So,
too, a general in great straits in the field might, in the name of the
state, vow plays to the gods, and the people were sacredly bound by his
act to fulfil the promise. Plays given in fulfilment of vows thus made
were called votive games.

Towards the close of the republic these games lost much of their religious
character, and at last became degraded into mere brutal shows given by
ambitious leaders for the purpose of winning popularity.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC: CONQUEST OF ITALY,
(509-264 B.C.)

THE FIRST CONSULS.--With the monarchy overthrown and the last king and his
house banished from Rome, the people set to work to reorganize the
government. In place of the king, there were elected (by the _comitia
centuriata_, in which assembly the plebeians had a place) two patrician
magistrates, called consuls, [Footnote: That is, _colleagues_. Each
consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing the commands of
the other. In times of great public danger the consuls were superseded by
a special officer called a _dictator_, whose term of office was limited to
six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited as that of
the kings had been.] who were chosen for one year, and were invested with
all the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by the
monarch during the regal period.

In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called lictors,
each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods (_fasces_), the
symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and to put to death. Within
the limits of the city, however, the axe must be removed from the
_fasces_, by which was indicated that no Roman citizen could be put
to death by the consuls without the consent of the public assembly.

Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first consuls
under the new constitution. But it is said that the very name of
Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was forced to resign
the consulship, and that he and all his house were driven out of Rome.
[Footnote: The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and
the people were distrustful of his loyalty to the republic.] Another
consul, Publius Valerius, was chosen in his stead.

SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS.

FIRST SECESSION OF THE PLEBEIANS (494 B.C.).--Taking advantage of the
disorders that followed the political revolution, the Latin towns which
had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome rose in revolt, and
the result was that almost all the conquests that had been made under the
kings were lost. For a long time the little republic had to struggle hard
for bare existence.

[Illustration: LICTORS.]

Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians, during this
period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy class,--for the
Roman soldier went to war at his own charge, equipping and feeding
himself,--and payment was exacted with heartless severity. A debtor became
the absolute property of his creditor, who might sell him as a slave to
pay the debt, and in some cases even put him to death. All this was
intolerable. The plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new
city for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the
Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the chosen spot, and
began making preparations for erecting new homes (494 B.C.).

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