The increased importance of the tribunate. The importance of the tribunes was greatly enhanced by the Hortensian Law, as well as by various privileges which they had already acquired by 287 or gained shortly after that date. The more important of these powers were the right to sit in the Senate, to address, and even to [pg 58]convene that body, and the right to prosecute any magistrate before the comitia tributa. The first of these powers was a development of the tribunician veto, whereby this was given to a proposal under discussion in the Senate rather than upon a magistrate’s attempt to execute it after it had taken the form of a law or a senatorial decree. To permit the tribunes to interpose their veto at this stage they had to be allowed to hear the debates in the Senate. At first they did so from their bench which they set at the door of the meeting-place, but finally they were permitted to enter the council hall itself. The power of prosecution made the tribunes the guardians of the interests of the state against any misconduct on the part of a magistrate. From this time on the tribunes have practically the status of magistrates of the Roman people.
The struggle of the orders left its mark on the Roman constitution in providing Rome with a double set of organs of government. The tribunate, plebeian aedileship, and comitia tributa arose as purely plebeian institutions, but they came to be incorporated in the governmental organization of the state along with the magistracies and the assemblies that had always been institutions of the whole Roman people.
IV. The Roman Military System
Upon the history of no people has the character of its military institutions exercised a more profound effect than upon that of Rome. The Roman military system rested upon the universal obligation of the male citizens to render military service, but the degree to which this obligation was enforced varied greatly at different periods. For the mobilization of the man power of the state was dependent upon the type of equipment, methods of fighting, and organization of tactical units in vogue at various times, as well as upon the ability of the state to equip its troops and the strength of the martial spirit of the people.
The army of the primitive state. In all probability the earliest Roman army was one of the Homeric type, where the nobles who went to the battlefield on horseback or in chariots were the decisive factor and the common folk counted for little.
The phalanx organization. However, at an early date, under Etruscan influences according to tradition, the Romans adopted the [pg 59]phalanx organization, making their tactical unit the long deep line of infantry armed with lance and shield. Those who were able to provide themselves with the armor necessary for taking their place in the phalanx formed the classis or “levy.” The rest were said to be infra classem, and were only called upon to act as light troops. But military necessities compelled the state to incorporate with the heavy-armed infantry increasingly large contingents of the less wealthy citizens, who could not provide themselves with the full equipment of those in the classis, but who could form the rear ranks of the phalanx. As a result of this step the citizens were ultimately divided into five orders or classes on the basis of their property, and probably in raising the levy the required number of soldiers of each class was drafted in equal proportions from the several tribes. The first three classes constituted the phalanx, while the fourth and fifth continued to serve as light troops (rorarii). Those who lacked the property qualification of the lowest class were only called into service in cases of great emergency. For such a system the taking of an accurate census was essential, and it is more than likely that the office of censor was instituted for this purpose. As we have seen, it was from this organization of the people for military purposes that there developed the Assembly of the Centuries.
The introduction of pay for the troops in the field at the time of the siege of Veii both lessened the economic burden which service entailed upon the poorer soldiers and enabled the Romans to undertake campaigns of longer duration, even such as involved winter operations.
The manipular legion. How long the phalanx organization was maintained we do not know: at any rate it did not survive the Samnite wars. In its place appeared the legionary formation, in which the largest unit was the legion of about four thousand infantry, divided into maniples of one hundred and twenty (or sixty) men, each capable of manœuvering independently. This arrangement admitted of increased flexibility of movement in broken country, and of the adoption of the pilum, or javelin, as a missile weapon. Both the pilum and the scutum, or oblong shield, were of Samnite origin. While reorganizing their infantry, the Romans strengthened the equites and developed them as a real cavalry force.
Apparently property qualifications no longer counted for much in the army organization, as the men were assigned to their places in [pg 60]the ranks on the basis of age and experience, and the state furnished the necessary weapons to those who did not provide their own. By the third century, all able-bodied men holding property valued at 4000 asses were regularly called upon for military service. The others were liable to naval service, but only in cases of great need were they enrolled in the legions. Ordinarily, the service required amounted to sixteen campaigns in the infantry and ten in the cavalry. The field army was raised from those between seventeen and forty-six years of age: those forty-six and over were liable only for garrison duty in the city. The regular annual levy consisted of four legions, besides 1800 cavalry. This number could be increased at need, and the Roman forces in the field were supplemented by at least an equal number in the contingents from the Italian allies.