As social classes belong to all society,[228] they cannot be explained by the peculiar conditions of any one community. The only scientific approach to this subject is through comparative study; the inferences of the ancient historians relative to primitive Rome are not to be displaced by purely subjective theories, but are to be tested by comparison with conditions in other communities of equal or less cultural advancement.
Distinctions of rank depend ultimately upon physical, mental, and moral inequalities,[229] which differentiate the population of a community into leaders and followers.[230] The exhibition of physical strength and skill on the part of young men and of knowledge and wisdom on the part of the elders are often “the foundation of leadership and of that useful subordination in mutual aid which depends on voluntary deference.”[231] In an age in which men were largely under the control of religion the possession of an oracle or skill in divination or prophecy might contribute as much to the elevation of an individual above his fellows.[232] Leadership, once obtained, could display and strengthen itself in various ways. In primitive society the strong, brave, intelligent man was especially qualified to take command in war. Success brought the chief not only renown but a large share of the booty and in later time acquired land. The same result might be obtained by other means than by war;[233] but in any case wealth and influence inherited through several generations made nobility.[234] Primarily grounded on ability, wealth, and renown, this preëminence was often heightened by a claim to divine lineage or other close connection with the gods.[235]
There was evidently a stage of development—before the association of the nobles into a class—in which chieftains alone held preëminence. This condition is common in primitive society, as among the American Indians.[236] Also among the Germans, who had advanced somewhat beyond this stage, each chief or lord appears to have been noble “less with reference to other noblemen than with reference to the other free tribesmen comprised in the same group with himself.”[237] From Brehon law we infer that the Irish lords were individually heads of their several groups of kinsmen or of vassals;[238] and in Wales the nobles were a hierarchy of chieftains.[239] As soon as leadership became hereditary there arose noble families, in which the younger members were often sub-chieftains;[240] and finally through intermarriage among these families, as well as through the discovery of common interests, the nobles associated themselves into a class.
Among the ancient Germans,[241] the Greeks of the Homeric age,[242] and in some early Italian states[243] certain families had become noble, and others were on the way to nobility. For ancient Ireland the entire process can be followed. A common freeman enters the service of some chief, from whom he receives permission to use large portions of the tribe land.[244] By pasturing cattle, he grows wealthy, becomes a bo-aire (cow-nobleman) and secures a band of dependents. Supported by these followers, he preys upon his neighbors and, if successful, becomes in time a powerful noble.[245] After “a certain number of generations” he can no longer be distinguished from the blooded nobility.[246] Here is an instance of a common freeman’s becoming noble through service to a chief. In like manner among the Saxons who had conquered England the ceorl who “thrived so that he had fully five hides of land,” or the merchant who had “fared twice over the wide sea by his own means,” became a thane; “and if the thane thrived, so that he became an eorl, then was he henceforth worthy of eorl-right.”[247] “The thanes were the immediate companions of the king—his comitatus—and from their first appearance in English history they took rank above the earlier nobility of Saxon eorls, who were descended from ancient tribal chiefs. Thus the thanes as a nobility of newly rich corresponded to the cow-noblemen of an earlier time.”[248] In the way just described many rose from the lower ranks to nobility. In fact, eminent authorities assert that the inferior nobles, especially of the middle age, were more often of servile than of free origin, as the common freemen were inclined to think it degrading to be seen among the comites of a chief.[249]
It has now been sufficiently established that even in the tribal condition people were differentiated into social ranks. We have traced the beginning of nobility to leadership and have found, in both ancient and mediaeval society, new noble families forming by the side of the old. Social distinctions were well developed long before the founding of cities. When a community, whether a tribe or a city, is far enough advanced to begin the conquest of neighbors, “it has already differentiated into royal, noble, free, and servile families.”[250] This was true of Sparta. In her “the conquerors nevertheless, notwithstanding great differences among themselves, remain sharply separated in social function from the conquered.... The conquerors became a religious, military, and political class, and the conquered an industrial class.”[251] Even in the case of Sparta, however, which is perhaps our best example of the exclusiveness of a ruling city, there is evidence of mingling between the conquering Spartans and the conquered Laconians before the former became exclusive.[252] In like manner there was much mixing of the invading “Aryans” with the natives of India—the more intelligent of the natives rising to the higher classes and the less gifted of the invaders sinking to the lower—before the crystallization of the castes.[253] We find the same mingling of conquerors and conquered in varying degrees in ancient Ireland,[254] in England under the Normans,[255] and throughout the Roman empire in the period of Germanic settlements.[256] It becomes doubtful, therefore, whether a nobility was ever formed purely by the superposition of one community upon another. The effect of conquest was rather to accentuate existing class distinctions, and by a partial substitution of strangers in place of native nobles to stir up antagonism between the classes. Even where the differences between the social ranks seem to be racial, it would be hazardous to resort to the race theory in explanation; for such a condition could be produced in the course of generations by different modes of life, education, nurture, and marriage regulations of the nobles and commons respectively.[257]
The study pursued thus far will enable us to understand how there came to be social classes at Rome before the beginning of conquest. But for a long time after the Romans began to annex territory we may seek in vain for a distinction between conquerors and conquered, like that which we find in Laconia. We are forbidden to identify the plebs with the conquered and the patricians with the conquerors by many considerations mentioned above—for instance, by tradition,[258] by the derivation of several patrician gentes from various foreign states,[259] by the fewness of the patricians,[260] and by the fact that the latter show no differentiations of rank, such as we find among the conquering Spartans; they were not a folk but a nobility pure and simple. We are to regard Rome’s early annexations of territory and of populations not as subjugations, but as incorporations on terms of equality. The people incorporated were of the same great folk, the Latins, or of a closely related folk, the Sabines. Accordingly they were not reduced to subjection, but were admitted to citizenship, to the tribes and the curiae, and their nobles were granted the patriciate.[261] Only communities of alien speech, like the Etruscan, or distant Italian communities like the Campanian, were ordinarily given the inferior civitas sine suffragio; and this restricted citizenship does not appear in history before the middle of the fourth century B.C.
The analogies offered in this chapter, by proving that the conditions they illustrate are possible for early Rome, tend to confirm the authority of the sources. By similar comparative study it would be practicable to illustrate in detail and to corroborate the statements of ancient writers as to the organization of the plebs, as well as of the patricians, in tribes and curiae, the participation of the clients and plebeians in war and politics, and the deterioration of the free commons through the strengthening of the nobility—all of which are rejected by eminent modern historians, who merely imagine them incompatible with primitive conditions or with a rational theory of constitutional development. The inquiry has been pursued far enough, however, to indicate that from a comparative-sociological point of view the conception of early Rome handed down to us by the ancients is sound and consistent, and that the method of subjective reconstruction of history introduced by Niebuhr and still extensively employed by scholars is unscientific.
I. Roman Society: Niebuhr, B. G., Römische Geschichte, i. 321 ff.; English, 158 ff.; Schwegler, A., Römische Geschichte, I. bk. xiv; Wigger, J., Verteidigung der nieburschen Ansicht über den Ursprung der röm. Plebs; Peter, C., Geschichte Roms, i. 31-3; Verfassungsgeschichte der röm. Republik; Studien zur röm. Geschichte mit besonderer Beziehung auf Th. Mommsen; Ihne, W., History of Rome, i. 109 ff.; Early Rome, ch. ix; Asylum of Romulus, in Classical Museum, iii (1846). 190-3; Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der röm. Verfassungsgeschichte (also translated into English by Heywood); Lange, L., Röm. Alt. i. 414 ff., and see indices s. Patres, Plebs, etc.; Mommsen, Th., History of Rome, bk. 1. chs. v, vi; Röm. Forschungen, i. 131-284; Röm. Staatsrecht, iii. 127 ff., and see indices s. Patres, Plebs, etc.; Abriss d. röm. Staatsrechts, 3 ff.; Herzog, E., Geschichte und System der röm. Staatsverfassung, i. 32 ff.; Meyer, E., Geschichte des Altertums, ii. 515-7, 521 f.; v. 141-3; Plebs, in Handiwörterb. d. Staatswiss. vi. 98-106; Niese, B., Grundriss der röm. Geschichte, 36 f.; Ampère, J. J., Histoire Romaine à Rome, i. 440 ff.; ii. 15 ff.; Zöller, M., Latium und Rom, 163; Ridgeway, W., Early Age of Greece, i. 254 ff.; Oberziner, G., Origine della plebe Romana; Conway, R. S., I due strati di populazione Indo-Europea del Lazio e dell’Italia antica, in Rivista di storia antica, vii (1903). 422-4; Hüllmann, K. D., Ursprünge der röm. Verfassung durch Vergleichungen erläutert; Mispoulet, J. B., Institutions politiques des Romains, i. 14 ff.; Greenidge, A. H. J., Roman Public Life, 4 ff.; Abbott, F. F., Roman Political Institutions, 6 ff.; Naudet, M., De la noblesse et des récompenses d’honneur chez les Romains; Hoffmann, Patricische und plebeiische Curien; Pelham, H., Roman Curiae, in (English) Journal of Philology, ix (1880). 266-79; Soltau, W., Altröm. Volksversamml. 58 ff., 625 ff.; Bernhöft, F., Staat und Recht der röm. Königsz. 145 f.; Genz, H., Das patricische Rom; Clason, D. O., Kritische Erörterungen über den röm. Staat; Fustel de Coulanges, Ancient City, bk. iv; Pellegrino, D., Andeutungen über den ursprünglichen Religionsunterschied der röm. Patricier und Plebeier; Hennebert, A., Histoire de la lutte entre les patriciens et les plébeiens à Rome; Bloch, L., Die ständischen und sozialen Kämpfe in der röm. Republik; Wallinder, De statu plebeiorum romanorum ante primam in montem sacrum secessionem quaestiones; Neumann, K. J., Grundherrschaft der röm. Republik, Bauernbefreiung und Entstehung der servianischen Verfassung; Holzapfel, L., Die drei ältesten römischen Tribus, in Beiträge zur alten Geschichte, i (1902). 228-55; Heydenreich, E., Livius und die röm. Plebs, in Samml. gemeinverständlicher wissenschaftlicher Vorträge, xvii (1882). 581-628; Christensen, H., Die ursprüngliche Bedeutung der Patres, in Hermes, ix (1875). 196-216; Staaf, E., De origine gentium patriciarum commentatio academica; Terpstra, D., Quaestiones literariae de populo, etc., ch. i; Köhm, J., Altlateinische Forschungen, ch. i; Bröcker, L. O., Untersuchungen über die Glaubwürdigkeit der altröm. Verfassungsgeschichte, 3 ff.; Botsford, G. W., Social Composition of the Primitive Roman Populus, in Political Science Quarterly, xxi (1906). 498-526 (the present chapter is in the main a reproduction of this article); Some Problems connected with the Roman Gens, ibid, xxii (1907). 663-92.
II. Comparative View: Achelis, Th., Moderne Völkerkunde, deren Entwickelung und Aufgaben, (Stuttgart, 1896) 406 ff.; Ammon, O., Die Gesellschaftsordnung und ihre natürlichen Grundlagen, (Jena, 1895) Teil i; D’Arbois de Jubainville, La civilisation des Celtes et celle de l’épopée Homerique, (Paris, 1899) ch. ii; Arnd, K., Die materiellen Grundlagen und sittlichen Forderungen der europäischen Kultur, (Stuttgart, 1835) 444 f.; Barth, P., Die Philosophie der Geschichte als Sociologie, i. (Leipzig, 1897) 382; Bastion, A., Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. (Leipzig, 1860) 323-38; Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde, ii. (Berlin, 1888) 138-54; Rechtsverhältnisse bei verschiedenen Völkern der Erde, (Berlin, 1872) 8 ff.; Bluntschli, J. K., Theory of the State, (2d ed. from the 6th German: Oxford 1892) bk. II. chs. vi-xiii; Bordeau, L., Le problème de la vie: Essai de sociologie générale, (Paris, 1901) 95; Brunner, H., Grundzüge der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, i (Leipzig, 1901); Bücher, C., Industrial Evolution, ch. ix; Buchholz, E., Homerische Realien, II. bk. i (Leipzig, 1881); Caspari, O., Die Urgeschichte der Menschheit, I. bk. ii. ch. 3 (Leipzig, 1877); Cherbuliez, A. E., Simples notions de l’ordre social à l’usage de tout le monde, (Paris, 1881) ch. vi; Combes de Lestrade, Éléments de sociologie, (Paris, 1896) bk. vi; Cooley, C. H., Human Nature and the Social Order, (New York, 1902) ch. ix (analysis of leadership); Craig, J., Elements of Political Science, i. (Edinburgh, 1814) 183-95; Duchesne, L., La conception du droit et les idées nouvelles, (Paris, 1902) 36; Demolins, E., Comment la route crée le type social, i (Paris); Farrand, L. F., Basis of American History, (New York, 1904) see index s. Social organization; Featherman, A., Social History of the Races of Mankind, ii. (London, 1888) see indices s. Classes; Thoughts and Reflections on Modern Society, (London, 1894) 291-6; Frazer, J. G., Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship (New York, 1905); Freeman, E. A., History of the Norman Conquest of England, iv (New York, 1873); Frohschammer, J., Ueber die Organisation und Cultur der Menschlichen Gesellschaft, (Munich, 1885) 84 f.; Funck-Brentano, Th., Civilisation et ses lois, morale sociale, (Paris, 1876) chs. v-viii; Fustel de Coulanges, Ancient City, bk. iv; De l’inégalité du wergeld dans les lois Franques, in Revue historique, ii. (1876) 460-89; Giddings, F. H., Principles of Sociology, (New York, 1896) bk. III. chs. iii, iv; Ginnell, L., Brehon Laws, a Legal Handbook, (London, 1894) chs. iv, v; Grave, J., L’individu et la société, (3d ed. Paris, 1897) ch. ii; Gumplowicz, L., Rassenkampf (Innsbruck, 1883); Harris, G., Civilization considered as a Science, (new ed. New York, 1873) ch. vii; Hellwald, Fr. von, Culturgeschichte in ihrer natürlichen Entwickelung bis zur Gegenwart, 2 vols. (Augsburg, 1876); Hirt, H., Indogermanen, 2 vols. (1905, 1907); Hittell, J. S., History of the Mental Growth of Mankind in Ancient Times, (New York, 1893) i. 228 f.; ii. 37, 72; Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, (2d ed. Oxford, 1892, 1896) ii, iii; Jenks, E., History of Politics (London, 1900); Kaufmann, G., Die Germanen der Urzeit (Leipzig, 1880); Krauss, F. S., Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven (Vienna, 1885); Lepelletier de la Sarthe, Du système social, ses applications pratiques à l’individu, à la famille, à la société, (Paris, 1855) i. 329 ff.; Letourneau, Ch., Sociology based on Ethnography, (new ed. London, 1893) chs. vi-viii; Maine, H. S., Lectures on the Early History of Institutions, (London, 1875) ch. v; Mismer, Ch., Principes sociologiques, (2d ed. Paris, 1898) 63 ff.; Müller-Deecke, Die Etrusker, 2. vols. (Stuttgart, 1877); Rhys, J. and Brynmor-Jones, The Welsh People (New York, 1900); Ridgeway, W., Early Age of Greece, i (Cambridge, 1901); Ross, E. A., Social Control (New York, 1901); Rossbach, J. J., Geschichte der Gesellschaft, 3 vols. (1868); Schrader, O., Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, (Strassburg, 1901) 802-19; Schröder, R., Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (4th ed. Leipzig, 1902); Schurtz, H., Urgeschichte der Kultur, (Leipzig, 1900) ch. ii; Seebohm, F., Tribal System in Wales (New York, 1895); Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law (New York, 1902); Seeck, O., Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt, I. (2d ed. Berlin, 1897) bk. II. chs. i, iv; Seymour, Life in the Homeric Age, (New York, 1907) 106 f; Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, i (New York, 1906) 494-520; Spencer, H., Principles of Sociology, II. (New York, 1883) chs. iv-viii; Tarde, G., Laws of Imitation, trans. from the French, (New York, 1903) 233 ff.; Traill, H. D., Social England, i (New York, 1901); Tribhovandas, Hindu Castes, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, v (1899-1901). 74-91; Vinogradoff, P., Growth of the Manor (New York, 1905); Waitz, Th., Anthropologie der Naturvölker, ii. (Leipzig, 1860) 126-67; iii. (1862) 119-28; v. (1870) 112 ff.