Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero

by W. Warde Fowler

EPILOGUE

These sketches of social life at the close of the Republican period have been written without any intention of proving a point, or any pre-conceived idea of the extent of demoralisation, social, moral, or political, which the Roman people had then reached. But a perusal of Mr. Balfour's suggestive lecture on "Decadence" has put me upon making a very succinct diagnosis of the condition of the patient whose life and habits I have been describing. The Romans, and the Italians, with whom they were now socially and politically amalgamated, were not in the last two centuries B.C. an old or worn-out people. It is at any rate certain that for a century after the war with Hannibal Rome and her allies, under the guidance of the Roman senate, achieved an amount of work in the way of war and organisation such as has hardly been performed by any people before or since; and even in the period dealt with in this book, in spite of much cause for misgiving at home, the work done by Roman and Italian armies both in East and West shows beyond doubt that under healthy discipline the native vigour of the population could assert itself. We must not forget, however severely we may condemn the way in which the work was done, that it is to these armies, in all human probability, that we owe not only the preservation of Graeco-Italian culture and civilisation, but the opportunity for further progress. The establishment of definite frontiers by Pompeius and Caesar, and afterwards by Augustus and Tiberius, brought peace to the region of the Mediterranean, and with it made possible the development of Roman law and the growth of a new and life-giving religion.

But peoples, like individuals, if offered opportunities of doing themselves physical or moral damage, are only too ready to accept them. Time after time in these chapters we have had to look back to the age following the war with Hannibal in order to see what those opportunities were; and in each case we have found the acceptance rapid and eager. We have seen wealth coming in suddenly, and misused; slave-labour available in an abnormal degree, and utilised with results in the main unfortunate; the population of the city increasing far too quickly, yet the difficulties arising from this increase either ignored or misapprehended. We have noticed the decay of wholesome family life, of the useful influence of the Roman matron, of the old forms of the State religion; the misconception of the true end of education, the result partly of Greek culture, partly of political life; and to these may perhaps be added an increasing liability to diseases, and especially to malaria, arising from economic blunders in Italy and insanitary conditions of life in the city. All these opportunities of damage to the fibre of the people had been freely accepted, and with the result that in the age of Cicero we cannot mistake the signs and symptoms of degeneracy.

But it would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that this degeneracy had as yet gone too far to be arrested. It was assuredly not that degeneracy of senility which Mr. Balfour is inclined to postulate as an explanation of decadence. So far as I can judge, the Romans were at that stage when, in spite of unhealthy conditions of life and obstinate persistence in dangerous habits, it was not too late to reform and recover. To me the main interest of the history of the early Empire lies in seeking the answer to the question how far that recovery was made. If these chapters should have helped any student to prepare the ground for the solution of this problem their object will have been fully achieved.

[Illustration: Stanfords Geog. Estab. London]

INDEX

Accius
Aedicula
Aediles, the
Aemilia, Via. See Via Aemilia
Aemilius, Pons. See Pons Aemilius
Aeneas
Aerarium, the
Aesopus, the actor
Afranius
Africa, province of
Agrippa
Alexandria
Alexis (Atticus's slave)
Amafinius
Ambitu, lex de
Anio, the river
Anna Perenna, festival of
Annona
Antioch
Antiochus (the physician)
Antium, Cicero's villa at
Antony
Apodyterium
Apollinares, Ludi. See Ludi Apollinares
Apollonia
Appia, Via. See Via Appia
Appius Claudius Caecus
Aqua Appia
Aqua Tepula
Aqueducts
Ara maxima
Ara Pacis
Argentarii
Argiletum, the
Arpinum, Cicero's villa at
Ars amatoria (Ovid's)
Arval brothers, the
Arx, the
Asia, province of
Astura, Cicero's villa at
Atellanae, fabulae. See Fabulae Atellanae
Atrium
sutorium,
Vestae
Atticus
house of,
wealth of,
as money-lender,
the sister of,
the slave of,
Cicero's letters to, passim,
Augury
Augustus
alleged proposal of, to remove the capital,
attitude of towards plebs urbana,
water-supply under,
the grandfather of,
as a social reformer,
marriage laws of,
furthers public comfort,
restoration of temples by,
attempts at religious revival,
Aventine hill

Baiae
Balbus, Cornelius, the younger
Bankruptcy laws
Basilicae, the
Baths, public
Bath-rooms
Bauli
Bithynia, province of
Blanditia
Bona Dea, festival of
Boscoreale
Brutus (Cicero's)
Brutus, Decimus
Bulla
Byzantium

Caecilius
Caelian hill
Caelius Autipater
Caelius (M.) Rufus
Caesar, Julius
alleged proposal of, to remove the capital
extends one of the Basilicae,
reduces
corn gratuities;
regulations of, for the government of the city;
debts of;
character of;
as historian;
joined by Caelius;
restores credit in Italy;
and Cleopatra;
clemency of;
sale of prisoners by;
dismisses surrendered armies;
foundation at Corinth by;
entertained by Cicero;
habits of;
as aedile;
summons Publilius to Rome;
as Pontifex Maximus;
speech of, in Sallust;
consents to be deified;
and passim
Calceus
Caldarium
Calvus
Camillus
Campagua, the
Campania
Campus Martius
Caninius
Capena, Porta. See Porta Capena
Capital at Rome
Capitol, the
Capitoline hill
Capua
Carceres, the
Carinae, the
Carmentalis, Porta. See Porta Carmentalis
Castella
Castor, temple of
Catiline
Cato major
Cato minor
Catullus
Catulus the elder
Cena
Censor, the
Censoria locatio
Ceres
Ceriales, Ludi. See Ludi Ceriales
Cethegus
Chariot-racing
Chrysippus
Cicero, birthplace of;
house of;
borrows money;
as a man of business;
and the publicani;
relation of, to the governing aristocracy;
letters of;
as a philosopher;
and Clodia;
views on education;
influence of philosophers upon;
and the slave question;
and the use of slaves for seditious purposes;
villas of;
undertakes the Ludi Romani;
religious views of;
and passim
Cicero, Marcus
Cicero, Quintus
Cilician pirates
Circus Flaminius
Circus Maximus
Cleopatra
Clients
Clivus Capitolinus
Clivus sacer
Cloaca maxima
Clodia
Clodius
Cluvius
Coemptio
Coenaculum
Coinage
Collegia
Colline gate, Sulla's victory at the,
Colosseum, the
Columella
Comedy
Comissatio
Comitium, the
Commercii, ius
Compluvium
Concordia, temple of
Conducticii
Confarreatio
Coniugalia praecepta (Plutarch's)
Connubii, ius
Constantine, arch of
Consul, the
Consus, altar of
Contubernium
Convivium
Copa ("Virgil's")
Corfinium
Cornelia
Cornelius
Crassus
Cumae, Cicero's villa at
Curia, the
Curio

Debtors
Declamatio
Deductio
Democritus
Deorum, De Natura (Cicero's)
Diana, temple of
Die natali, De (Censorinus's)
Diffarreatio
Diomedes, villa of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysus, worship of
Di Penates. See Penates
Diphilus, the actor
Divorce
Dolia
Domus
Dos
Drama, the
Dyrrhachium, importation of corn
into; battle of