Sources. Concerning the first half of this important period of the republic, down to the time of Cicero, we are sadly in want of precise information. Not one of the contemporary writers has been preserved to us, nor indeed any one of the later historians who have compiled a history of the whole period. Appian, de Bellis Civilibus; Plutarch, in his Lives of the Gracchi; and the spirited Compendium of Vel. Paterculus, are, for this portion, our principal authorities; and even the imperfect summaries of the lost books of Livy, so masterly supplied by Freinshemius here become of importance. For the times which follow, the Jugurtha and Cataline of Sallust, are two excellent historical cabinet pieces, and become the more valuable for the insight they at the same time give us of the internal condition of Rome. His great work, however, The Histories, is, with the exception of a few precious fragments, unfortunately lost. For the times of Cæsar and Cicero, we have the Commentaries of the first, and the Orations and Letters of the latter; both fertile sources of information. What is left us of Dio Cassius's History, begins with the year 69 before Christ. Of Plutarch's Lives, besides those of the Gracchi, the following are connected with this period: C. Marius, Sylla, Lucullus, Crassus, Sertorius, Cato of Utica, Cicero, Brutus, and Antonius. Upon the sources for these lives, see my treatises cited above, p. 321.
Among the moderns, the greater part of this period is particularly treated of by:—
De Brosses, Histoire de la République Romaine dans le cours du VIIe Siècle par Salluste, à Dijou, 1777, 3 vols. 4to.
In German by J. C. Schleuter, 1790, etc. with remarks, 4 vols. The editor of this capital work had an idea of translating Sallust, and supplying what is lost. It contains, besides a translation of Jugurtha and Cataline, the period between both, of which Sallust treats in his Histories: that is, from Sylla's abdication, B. C. 79—67; and is equally important for its own merits and for the period to which it belongs.
Vertot, Histoire des révolutions arrivées dans le gouvernement de la République Romaine. Paris, 1796, 6 vols. 12mo. Although this justly esteemed work includes the foregoing period, it is particularly valuable for the present.
Mably, Observations sur les Romains. Genève, 1751, 2 vols. 8vo. A survey of the internal history; ingenious, but as superficial as the Observations sur les Grecs by the same author.
Civil wars.
Power of the senate creates an aristocracy,
which is opposed by the tribunes of the people.
1. The foregoing period is composed of the history of foreign wars alone; in this, on the contrary, Rome appears in a continual state of internal commotion. And if foreign hostilities interrupt this state of things for a short time, it is only that it may be renewed with more violence, till at last it ends in a furious civil war. As the almost boundless power of the senate had laid the foundation of an exceedingly hateful family aristocracy, against which the tribunes of the people arrayed themselves, in the character of powerful demagogues, there arose a new struggle between the aristocratic and democratic parties, which almost immediately grew into two powerful factions. This contest, from its extent and its consequences, soon became much more important than the ancient one between the patricians and the plebeians.
This family aristocracy gradually arose from the power of the magistrates, who now not only enjoyed a very high political importance, but, by the government of the provinces, acquired immense wealth. The present aristocracy, then, consisted of the ruling families (nobiles) concentrated in the senate. The struggle with the opposite party, the people (plebs), became so much the more violent in consequence of the great abuses which had crept into the administration, particularly in the division of the lands of the republic; the ruling families securing to themselves the fruits of all the victories and conquests, while the power of the democracy, by the vast accumulation of people (without the means of livelihood, although voting in the comitia), especially of enfranchised slaves, who, though strangers, mostly without power or property, formed, nevertheless, the greater part of what was then called the Roman people.
G. Al. Ruperti, Stemmata gentium Romanarum. Goett. 1795, 8vo. Almost indispensable for obtaining a clear insight into the history of the Roman families, and of course into that of the state.