Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

THE EARLY CONSTITUTION.—The "Servian constitution" made all land-owners, whether patrician or plebeian, subject to taxation, and obliged to do military service. The cavalry—the Equites, or knights,—was made up, by adding to the six patrician companies already existing, double the number from both classes. The infantry were organized without reference to rank, but were graded according to their property. The whole people were divided thus into five classes, and, when assembled, formed the Comitia Centuriata,—as being made up of the companies called "centuries," or "hundreds." At first this body was only consulted by the king in regard to offensive wars. Gradually it drew away more and more power from the Comitia Curiata, which consisted solely of patricians. Those who had no land were now distinguished from the land-owning plebeians. For the purposes of conscription, the city was divided into four Tribes, or wards. Every four years a census was to be taken.

MAGISTRATES.—When the kingship was abolished, and under the system that followed, the two Consuls were to be patricians. They exercised regal power during their term of office. They appointed the senators and the two Quaestors, who came to have charge of the treasury, under consular supervision. The consuls were attended by twelve Lictors, who carried the fasces—bundles of rods fastened around an ax,—which symbolized the power of the magistrate to flog or to behead offenders. The Comitia Centuriata acquired the right to elect the consuls, to hear appeals in capital cases from their verdicts, and to accept or reject bills laid before it. This was a great gain for the plebeians. Yet the patricians were strong enough in this assembly to control its action. On occasions of extraordinary peril, a Dictator might be selected by one of the consuls, who was to have absolute authority for the time. The Senate commonly had an important part, however, in the selection of this officer. There was a Master of Horse to command the knights under him. He was appointed by the dictator.

RELIGION.—Worship in families was conducted by the head of the household, the paterfamilias, who offered the regular sacrifices. But, as regards the whole people, worship was under the direction of the pontiffs, with the chief pontiff, the Pontifex Maximus, at their head, and in the hands of the priests. These were all officers of the state, elected to their places, and entirely subordinate to the civil magistrates. The pontiffs were not so much priests as they were guardians and interpreters of divine law. They were masters of sacred lore. They looked out that the numberless and complex rules in respect to religious observances should be strictly complied with. At the same time they had enough knowledge of astronomy to enable them to fix the days suitable for the transaction of business, public or private. They had the control of the calendar. The Augurs consulted the will of the gods as disclosed in omens. The augur, his eyes raised to the sky, with his staff marked off the heavens into four quarters, and then watched for the passage of birds, from which he took the auspices. In early times, there was an implicit faith in these supposed indications of the will of the divinities; but this credulity passed away, and the auguries became a political instrument for helping forward the schemes of some person or party. Besides the college of pontiffs and the college of augurs, there was the college of Fetiales, who were the guardians of the public faith in relation to other peoples, and performed the rites attending the declaration of war or the conclusion of peace. The Soothsayers (haruspices) were of Etruscan origin. They ascertained the will of the gods by inspecting the entrails of the slaughtered victims. The Flamens were the priests having charge of the worship of particular divinities. The Vestals were virgin priestesses of Vesta, who ministered in her temple, and kept the sacred fire from being extinguished.

The chief gods worshiped by the Romans were Jupiter, god of the sky; his wife, Juno, the goddess of maternity; Minerva, the goddess of wisdom; Apollo, the god of augury and the arts; Diana, the goddess of the chase and archery; Mars, the god of war; Bellona, the goddess of war; Vesta, patron of the Roman state and of the national hearthstone; Ceres, the goddess of agriculture; Saturnus, the patron of husbandry; Hercules, the Greek god, early naturalized in Italy as the god of gain and of mercantile contracts; Mercury, the god of trade; Neptune god of the sea. Venus was an old Roman goddess, who presided over gardens, but gradually was identified with the Grecian Aphrodite. Lares and Penates were household divinities, guardians of the family.

The Romans assigned a spirit to almost every thing. Each individual had his own protecting genius. Janus was the god of beginnings, Terminus was the god of the boundary, Silvanus of the forest, Vertumnus of the circling year. The farmer, in each part of his labor,—in harrowing, plowing, sowing, etc.,—invoked a spirit. So marriage, birth, and every natural event had each a sacred life of its own. Not less than forty-three distinct divinities are spoken of by name as having to do with the actions of a child. Thus the number of divinities was countless. Gods were great or small, according to the department of nature or of life where they severally were present and active.

CHAPTER II. ROME UNDER THE PATRICIANS (509-304 B.C.).

RIVALRY OF CLASSES.—The abolishing of royalty left Rome as "a house divided against itself." The power granted to the Comitia Centuriata did not suffice to produce contentment. The patricians still decided every thing, and used their strength in an oppressive way. Besides the standing contest between the patricians and plebeians, there was great suffering on the side of the poorer class of plebeians. Many were obliged to incur debts; and their creditors enforced the rigorous law against them, loading them with chains, and driving their families from their homes. A great and constant grievance was the taking by the patricians of the public lands which had been obtained by conquest, for a moderate rent, which might not be paid at all. If they granted a share in this privilege to some rich plebeian houses, this afforded no help to the mass of the people, who were more and more deprived of the opportunity to till the smaller holdings in consequence of the employment of slaves. Yet the plebeians had to bear the burden of military service. At length they rose in a body, probably in returning from some victory, and encamped on a hill, the Sacred Mount, three miles from Rome, where they threatened to stay, and found another town. This bold movement led to an agreement. It was stipulated that they should elect magistrates from their own class, to be called Tribunes of the People, who should have the right to interpose an absolute veto upon any legal or administrative measure. This right each consul already had in relation to his colleague. To secure the commons in this new right, the tribunes were declared to be inviolable. Whoever used violence against them was to be an outlaw. The power of the tribunes at first was merely protective. But their power grew until it became controlling. One point where their authority was apt to be exerted was in the conscription, or military enrollment. This, if it were undertaken in an unfair way, they could stop altogether, and thus compel a change.

THE PLEBEIAN ASSEMBLY.—Not far from this time, there was instituted a new assembly, the Comitia of Tribes, or Comitia Tributa. There was a new division of the people into tribes or wards,—first twenty, then twenty-one, and, later, thirty-five. In this comitia, the plebeians were at the outset, if not always, the exclusive voters. The patricians had their assembly, the Comitia Curiata. The Comitia of the Tribes, which was then controlled by the plebeians, chose the tribunes. By degrees, both the other assemblies lost their importance. The plebeian body more and more extended its prerogatives. Besides the tribunes, the Aediles, two in number, who were assistants of the tribunes, and superintended the business of the markets, were chosen by the Comitia Tributa.

THE LAW OF CASSIUS.—The anxiety of the plebeians to be rid of the restrictions upon the holding and enjoyment of land, led to the proposal of a law for their relief by the consul Spurius Cassius (486 B.C.). Of the terms of the law, we have no precise knowledge. We only know, that, when he retired from office, he was condemned and put to death by the ruling class.

WAR WITH THE AEQUIANS AND THE VOLSCIANS.—About this time Rome concluded a league with the Latins, and soon after with another people, the Hernicans, who lived farther eastward, between the, Aequians and Volscians. It was a defensive alliance, in which Rome had the leading place. Then follow the wars with the Aequians and Volscians, where the traditional accounts are mingled with many fictitious occurrences. There are two stories of special note,—the story of Coriolanus, and the story of Cincinnatus. It is related that a brave patrician, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, at a time when grain was scarce, and was procured with difficulty from Etruria and Sicily for the relief of the famishing, proposed that it should be withheld from the plebeians unless they would give up the tribunate. The anger of this class, and the contempt which he showed for it, caused him to be banished. Thereupon he went to the Volscians, and led an army against Rome,—an army too strong to be resisted. One deputation after another went out of the city to placate him, but in vain. At length Veturia, his mother, and Volumnia, his wife, at the head of a company of matrons, went to his camp, and entreated him. Their prayer he could not deny, but exclaimed, "O my mother! Rome thou hast saved, but thou hast lost thy son." He died among the Volscians (491 B.C.). The tale, certainly in most of its parts, is fictitious. For example, he is said to have been called Coriolanus, from having previously conquered Corioli; but such designations were not given among the Romans until centuries later. The story of Cincinnatus in essential particulars is probably true. At a time when the Romans were hard pressed by the Æquians, the messengers of the Senate waited on Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, formerly a senator and a consul of renown in peace and war, and asked him to become dictator. They found him plowing in his field. He accepted the post, by his prudence and vigor delivered the state, and on the sixteenth day laid down his office, and went back to his farm. The time required by the hero for his task was doubtless much longer than the legend allows.