CHAPTER XIV. CIVILISATION AT THE END OF THE PERIOD OF CONQUEST
ORGANISATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
Now that we have seen Rome first become mistress of Italy, and then, after a life and death struggle, rise superior to Carthage; now that we shall have to follow her in her conquest of all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, so that this sea became what in modern phrase may be called a Roman lake, we naturally inquire, what was the form of government, what the treatment of the subject foreigners, what the condition of the people?
About the time of the Punic Wars the framework of the Roman constitution was complete. The only trace remaining of ancient severance was the regulation by which, of the two consuls and the two censors, one must be a patrician, one a plebeian. In a few years even this partition of offices fell into disuse, and no political distinction remained, save that persons of patrician pedigree were excluded from the tribunate of the plebs.[64]
In correspondence with the advance of plebeian and the decay of patrician families, a silent revolution had been wrought in most parts of the constitution. The assembly of the curies had become a mere form. They continued to meet even to Cicero’s time; but their business had dwindled away to the regulation of the religious observances proper to the patrician gentes. A few lictors, who were present as the attendants of the presiding magistrates, alone appeared to represent the descendants of the Valerii, the Claudii, and the Postumii.[65]
With regard to the executive government, the chief officers of state employed in the administration of Roman affairs remained as they had been settled after the Licinian laws. In Cicero’s time it is well known that every Roman who aspired to the highest offices was obliged to ascend through a regular scale of honours. An age was fixed before which each was unattainable. The first office so held was the quæstorship, and the earliest age at which this could then be gained appears to have been about twenty-seven. Several years were then to elapse before a Roman could hold the first curule office, that is, the ædileship. But between this and each of the highest honours, the prætorship and the consulship, only two complete years were interposed. To be chosen ædile a man must be at least thirty-seven, to be prætor at least forty, to be consul at least forty-three. But no settled regulations had yet been made. Many cases occur, both before and after the Second Punic War, in which men were elected to the consulship at a very early age, and before they had held any other curule office.
There can be little doubt that the ædileship was the least acceptable to an active and ambitious man. The chief duties of the ædiles related to the care of the public buildings (whence their name), the celebration of the games and festivals, the order of the streets, and other matters belonging to the department of police. But the quæstors were charged with business of a more important character. They were attached to the consuls and prætors as treasurers and paymasters. The tax-gatherers (publicani) paid into their hands all moneys received on account of the state, and out of these funds they disbursed all sums required for the use of the army, the fleet, or the civil administration. They were originally two in number, one for each consul; but very soon they were doubled, and at the conquest of Italy they were increased to eight. Two always remained at home to conduct the business of the treasury, the rest accompanied the consuls, and prætors, and proconsuls to the most important provinces.