CHAPTER XV

THE PASSING OF THE REPUBLIC: 44–27 B. C.

I. THE RISE OF OCTAVIAN

*The political situation after Caesar’s death.* Caesar had made no arrangements for a successor, and his death produced the greatest consternation in Rome. The conspirators had made no plans to seize the reins of power, and instead of finding their act greeted with an outburst of popular approval, they were left face to face with the fact that although Caesar was dead the Caesarian party lived on in his veterans and the city populace, led by the consul Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar’s master of the horse. The Senate met on 17 March, and it was evident that a majority of its members supported the assassins, but they were afraid of the legion which Lepidus had under his orders and the Caesarian veterans in the city. Antony, who had obtained possession of Caesar’s papers and money, took the lead of the Caesarian party and came to terms with their opponents. It was agreed that the conspirators should go unpunished, but that the acts of Caesar should be ratified, even those which had not yet been carried into effect, that his will should be approved, and that he should receive a public funeral.

The reading of Caesar’s will revealed that he had left his gardens on the right bank of the Tiber as a public park, had bequeathed a donation of three hundred sesterces (about fifteen dollars) to each Roman citizen and had adopted his grand-nephew Caius Octavius as his son and heir to three-fourths of his fortune. By a speech delivered to the people on the day of Caesar’s funeral Antony skilfully enflamed popular sentiment against Caesar’s murderers. The mob seized the dictator’s corpse, burned it in the forum and buried the ashes there. The chief conspirators did not dare to remain in the city; Decimus Brutus went to his province of Cisalpine Gaul, Marcus Brutus and Cassius lingered in the neighborhood of Rome. Antony was master of the situation in the capital and overawed opposition by his bodyguard of 6000 veterans. He held in check Lepidus and other Caesarians who called for vengeance upon the conspirators. Lepidus was won over by his election to the position of Pontifex Maximus to succeed Caesar and was induced to leave the city for his province of Hither Spain to check the progress of Sextus Pompey, who had reappeared in Farther Spain and defeated the Caesarian governor. It was hoped that Sextus would be satisfied with permission to return to Rome and compensation for his father’s property. Caesar’s arrangements for the provincial governorships had assigned Macedonia to Antony and Syria to Dolabella, who became Antony’s colleague in the consulate at Caesar’s death. This assignment Antony altered by a law which granted him Cisalpine Gaul and the Transalpine district outside the Narbonese province for a term of six years in violation of a law of Caesar’s, which limited proconsular commands to two years. Dolabella was to have Syria for a like period and Decimus Brutus was given Macedonia in exchange for Cisalpine Gaul. The consuls were to occupy their provinces at once. To Brutus and Cassius were assigned for the next year the provinces of Crete and Cyrene; while for the present they were given a special commission to collect grain in Sicily and Asia. The two left Italy for the East with the intention of seizing the provinces there before the arrival of Dolabella. They hoped to raise a force which would enable them to check Antony’s career, for it was evident that Antony regarded himself as Caesar’s political heir and was planning to follow the latter’s path to absolute power.

*Caius Octavius.* But he found an unexpected rival in the person of Caesar’s adopted son, Caius Octavius, a youth of eighteen years, who at the time of Caesar’s death was at Apollonia in Illyricum with the army that was being assembled for the Parthian War. Against the advice of his parents he returned to Rome and claimed his inheritance. His presence was unwelcome to Antony, who had expended Caesar’s money, and refused to refund it. Thereupon Octavius raised funds by selling his own properties and borrowing, and began to pay off the legacies of Caesar. By this means he soon acquired popularity with the Caesarians. The formalities of his adoption were not completed until the following year, but from this time on he took the name of Caesar.(13)

Antony underestimated the capacities of this rather sickly youth and continued to refuse him recognition, but was soon made aware of his mistake. He himself was anxious to occupy his province of Cisalpine Gaul, and since Decimus Brutus refused to evacuate it, Antony determined to drive him out and obtained permission to recall for that purpose the four legions from Macedonia. Before their arrival Octavian raised a force among Caesar’s veterans in Campania, and on the march from Brundisium to Rome two of the four Macedonian legions deserted to him. The Caesarians were now divided into two parties, and Octavian began to coöperate with the republicans in the Senate. The latter were thus encouraged to oppose Antony with whom reconciliation was impossible. Cicero, who had not been among the conspirators but who had subsequently approved Caesar’s murder, was about to leave Italy to join Brutus when he heard of the changed situation in Rome and returned to assume the leadership of the republican party. Antony left Rome for the Cisalpine province early in December, 44 B. C., and Cicero induced the Senate to enter into a coalition with Octavian against him. In his _Philippic Orations_ he gave full vent to his bitter hatred of Antony and so aroused the latter’s undying enmity.

*The war at Mutina, December 44–April 43 B. C.* In Cisalpine Gaul Decimus Brutus, relying upon the support of the Senate, refused to yield to Antony and was blockaded in Mutina. The Senate made preparations for his relief. Antony was ordered to leave the province, and Hirtius and Pansa, who became consuls in January, 43, took the field against him. The aid of Octavian was indispensable and the Senate conferred upon him the propraetorian _imperium_ with consular rank in the Senate. The combined armies defeated Antony in two battles in the vicinity of Mutina, forcing him to give up the siege and flee towards Transalpine Gaul. But Pansa died of wounds received in the first engagement and Hirtius fell in the course of the second. Ignoring Octavian, the Senate entrusted Brutus with the command and the task of pursuing Antony. The power of the Senate seemed reëstablished, for Marcus Brutus and Cassius had succeeded in their design of getting control of the eastern provinces, Dolabella having perished in the conflict, and were at the head of a considerable military and naval force. The Senate accordingly conferred upon them supreme military authority (_maius imperium_), and gave to Sextus Pompey, then at Massalia, a naval command. At last Cicero could induce the senators to declare Antony a public enemy. He no longer felt the support of Octavian a necessity and expressed the attitude of the republicans towards him in the saying “the young man is to be praised, to be honored, to be set aside.”(14) But it was soon evident that the experienced orator had entirely misjudged this young man who, so far from being the tool of the Senate, had used that body for his own ends. Octavian refused to aid Decimus Brutus, and demanded from the Senate his own appointment as consul, a triumph, and rewards for his troops. His demands were rejected, whereupon he marched upon Rome with his army, and occupied the city. On 19 August, he had himself elected consul with Quintus Pedius as his colleague. The latter carried a bill which established a special court for the trial of Caesar’s murderers, who were condemned and banished. The same penalty was pronounced upon Sextus Pompey. The Senate’s decree against Antony was revoked.

*The Triumvirate, 43 B. C.* On his way to Transalpine Gaul Antony had met with Lepidus, whom the Senate had summoned from Spain to the assistance of Decimus Brutus. But Lepidus was a Caesarian and, alarmed by the success of Marcus Brutus and Cassius, allowed his troops to go over to Antony. Decimus Brutus had taken up the pursuit of Antony and joined forces with Plancus, governor of Narbonese Gaul. However, upon news of the events in Rome, Plancus abandoned Brutus and joined Antony. Brutus was deserted by his troops and killed while a fugitive in Gaul.

II. THE TRIUMVIRATE OF 43 B. C.

Octavian had taken care to have the defense of Italy against Antony and Lepidus entrusted to himself, and hastened northwards to meet the advance of their forces. But both sides were ready to come to terms and unite their forces for the purpose of crushing their common enemies, Brutus and Cassius. Accordingly, at a conference of the three leaders on an island in the river Renus near Bononia, a reconciliation between Antony and Octavian was effected and plans laid for their coöperation in the immediate future. The three decided to have themselves appointed triumvirs for the settlement of the commonwealth (_triumviri reipublicae __constituendae_) for a term of five years. They were to have consular _imperium_ with the right to appoint to the magistracies and their acts were to be valid without the approval of the Senate. Furthermore, they divided among themselves the western provinces; Antony received those previously assigned to him, Lepidus took the Spains and Narbonese Gaul; while to Octavian fell Sardinia, Sicily and Africa. Octavian was to resign his consulship, but in the next year to be joint commander with Antony in a campaign against the republican armies in the East while Lepidus protected their interests in Rome. The triumvirate was legalized by a tribunician law (the _lex Titia_) of 27 November, 43, and its members formally entered upon office on the first of January following. Unlike the secret coalition of Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, the present one constituted a commission clothed with almost supreme public powers.

*Proscriptions.* The formation of the coalition was followed by the proscription of the enemies of the triumvirs, partly for the sake of vengeance but largely to secure money for their troops from the confiscation of the properties of the proscribed. Among the chief victims was Cicero, whose death Antony demanded. He died with courage for the sake of the republican ideal to which he was devoted, but it must be recognized that this devotion was to the cause of a corrupt aristocracy, whose crimes he refused to share, although he forced himself to condone and justify them. The exactions of the triumvirs did not end with the confiscation of the goods of the proscribed; special taxes were laid upon the propertied classes in Italy and eighteen of the most flourishing Italian municipalities were marked out as sites for colonies of veterans.

*Divus Julius.* In 42 B. C. Octavian dedicated a temple to Julius Caesar in the forum where his body had been burned. Later by a special law Caesar was elevated among the gods of the Roman state with the name of Divus Julius. Meanwhile Octavian had found difficulty in occupying his allotted provinces. Africa was eventually conquered by one of his lieutenants, but Sextus Pompey, who controlled the sea, had occupied Sardinia and Sicily. His forces were augmented by many of the proscribed and by adventurers of all sorts, and Octavian could not dislodge him before setting out against Brutus and Cassius.

*Philippi, 42 B. C.* These republican generals had raised an army of 80,000 troops, in addition to allied contingents, and taken up a position in Thrace to await the attack of the triumvirs. In the summer of 42 B. C. the latter transported their troops across the Adriatic in spite of the fleet of their enemies, and the two armies faced each other near Philippi on the borders of Macedonia and Thrace. An indecisive battle was fought in which Antony defeated Cassius, who committed suicide in despair, but Brutus routed the troops commanded by Octavian. Shortly afterwards Brutus was forced by his soldiers to risk another battle. This time he was completely defeated, and took his own life.

*The division of the Empire.* The triumvirs now redistributed the provinces among themselves, Cisalpine Gaul was incorporated in Italy, whose political boundaries at length coincided with its geographical frontier. The whole of Transalpine Gaul was given to Antony, Octavian received the two Spains, while Lepidus was forced to content himself with Africa. He was suspected by his colleagues of having intrigued with Sextus Pompey, and they were now in a position to weaken him at the risk of his open hostility. From the time of the meeting near Bononia Antony had been the chief personage in the coalition and his prestige was enhanced by his success at Philippi. It was now agreed that he should settle conditions in the eastern provinces and raise funds there, while Octavian should return to Italy and carry out the promised assignment of lands to their troops. This decision was of momentous consequence for the future. In the summer of 41 B. C. Antony received a visit from Cleopatra at Tarsus in Cilicia. Her personal charms and keen intelligence, which had enthralled the great Julius, exercised an even greater fascination over Antony, whose cardinal weaknesses were indolence and sensual indulgence. He followed Cleopatra to Egypt, where he remained until 40 B. C.

*Octavian in Italy, 42–40 B. C.* In Italy Octavian was confronted with the task of providing lands for some 170,000 veterans. The eighteen municipalities previously selected for this purpose proved insufficient, and a general confiscation of small holdings took place, whereby many persons were rendered homeless and destitute. Few, like the poet Virgil, found compensation through the influence of a powerful patron. A heavy blow was dealt to the prosperity of Italy. The task of Octavian was greatly hampered by opposition from the friends of Antony, led by the latter’s wife Fulvia and his brother Lucius Antonius. Hostilities broke out in which Lucius was besieged in Perusia and starved into submission (40 B. C.). Fulvia went to join Antony, while others of their faction fled to Sextus Pompey who still held Sicily. Of great importance to Octavian was his acquisition of Gaul which came into his hands through the death of Antony’s legate, Calenus. An indication of the approaching break between Octavian and Antony was the former’s divorce of his wife Clodia, and his marriage with Scribonia, a relative of Sextus Pompey, whom he hoped to win over to his side.

*Treaty of Brundisium, 40 B. C.* While Octavian had been involved in the Perusian war, the Parthians had overrun the province of Syria, and in conjunction with them Quintus Labienus, a follower of Brutus and Cassius, penetrated Asia Minor as far as the Aegean coast. Antony thereupon returned to Italy to gather troops to reëstablish Roman authority in the East. Both he and Octavian were prepared for war and hostilities began around Brundisium, which refused Antony admittance. However, a reconciliation was effected, and an agreement entered into which was known as the treaty of Brundisium. It was provided that Octavian should have Spain, Gaul, Sardinia, Sicily and Dalmatia, while Antony should hold the Roman possessions east of the Ionian sea; Lepidus retained Africa, and Italy was to be held in common. To cement the alliance Antony, whose wife Fulvia had died, married Octavia, sister of Octavian.

*The treaty of Misenum, 39 B. C.* In the following year Antony and Octavian were forced to come to terms with Sextus Pompey. He still defiantly held Sicily and in addition wrested Sardinia from Octavian. His command of these islands and of the seas about Italy enabled him to cut off the grain supply of Rome, where a famine broke out. This brought about a meeting of the three at Misenum in which it was agreed that Sextus should govern Sardinia, Sicily and Achaia for five years, should be consul and augur, and receive a monetary compensation for his father’s property in Rome. In return he engaged to secure peace at sea and convoy the grain supply for the city. However, the terms of the treaty were never fully carried out and in the next year Octavian and Sextus were again at war. The former regained possession of Sardinia but failed in an attack upon Sicily.

*Treaty of Tarentum, 37 B. C.* Meanwhile Antony had returned to the East where in the years 39–37 B. C. his lieutenants won back the Asiatic provinces from Labienus and the Parthians and drove the latter beyond the Euphrates. He now resolved to carry out the plan of Julius Caesar for the conquest of the Parthian kingdom. This necessitated his return to Italy to secure reinforcements. But, his landing was opposed by Octavian who was angry because Antony had not supported him against Sextus Pompey, whom Antony evidently regarded as a useful check upon his colleague’s power. However, Octavia managed to reconcile her brother and her husband, and the two reached a new agreement at Tarentum. Here it was arranged that Antony should supply Octavian with one hundred ships for operations against Pompey, that Lepidus should coöperate in the attack upon Sicily, and that both he and Octavian should furnish Antony with soldiers for the Parthian war. As the power of the triumvirs had legally lapsed on 31 December, 38 B. C., they decided to have themselves reappointed for another five years, which would terminate at the close of 33 B. C. This appointment like the first was carried into effect by a special law.

*The defeat of Sextus Pompey, 36 B. C.* Octavian now energetically pressed his attack upon Sicily, while Lepidus coöperated by besieging Lilybaeum. At length, in September, 36 B. C., Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Octavian’s ablest general, destroyed the bulk of Pompey’s fleet in a battle off Naulochus. Pompey fled to Asia, where two years later he was captured by Antony’s forces and executed. After the flight of Sextus, Lepidus challenged Octavian’s claim to Sicily, but his troops deserted him for Octavian and he was forced to throw himself upon the latter’s mercy. Stripped of his power and retaining only his office of chief pontiff, he lived under guard in an Italian municipality until his death in 12 B. C. His provinces were taken by Octavian. The defeat of Sextus Pompey and the deposition of Lepidus gave Octavian sole power over the western half of the empire, and inevitably tended to sharpen the rivalry and antagonism which had long existed between himself and Antony. In the same year Octavian was granted the tribunician sacrosanctity and the right to sit on the tribune’s bench in the Senate.

III. THE VICTORY OF OCTAVIAN OVER ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

*The Parthian war, 36 B. C.* After the Treaty of Tarentum Antony proceeded to Syria to begin preparations for his campaign against the Parthians which he began in 36 B. C. Avoiding the Mesopotamian desert, he marched to the north through Armenia into Media Atropatene in the hope of surprising the enemy. However, having met with a repulse in his siege of the fortress Phraata (or Praaspa), he was forced to retreat. He was vigorously pursued by the Parthians, but by skilful generalship managed to conduct the bulk of his army back to Armenia. Still he lost over 20,000 of his troops, and his reputation suffered severely from the complete failure of the undertaking. And so he prepared once more to take the offensive. As he attributed the failure of the late expedition to the disloyalty of the king of Armenia, Antony marched against him, treacherously took him prisoner and occupied his kingdom (34 B. C.). Thereupon he entered into an alliance with the king of Media Atropatene, a vassal of Parthia, and formed ambitious projects for the conquest of the eastern provinces of the empires of Alexander the great and the Seleucids. But these plans could only be executed with the help of the military resources of Italy and the western provinces that were now completely in the hands of Octavian. In view of the jealousy existing between the two triumvirs it was not likely that Octavian would willingly provide Antony with the means to increase his power, and so the latter was prepared to resort to force to make good his claim upon Italy.

*Antony and Cleopatra.* Another factor in the quarrel was Antony’s connection with Cleopatra. While in Antioch in 36 B. C. he openly married Cleopatra, and in the next year refused his legal wife, Octavia, permission to join him. This was equivalent to publicly renouncing his friendship with Octavian. Although it cannot be said that Antony had become a mere tool of Cleopatra, he was completely won over to her plans for the future of Egypt; namely, that since Egypt must sooner or later be incorporated in the Roman empire, this should be brought about by her union with the ruler of the Romans. Consequently, since her marriage with Antony she actively supported his ambition to be the successor of Julius Caesar. Their aims were clearly revealed by a pageant staged in Alexandria in 34 B. C., in which Antony and Cleopatra appeared as the god Dionysus and the goddess Isis, seated on golden thrones. In an address to the assembled public Antony proclaimed Cleopatra “queen of queens,” and ruler of Egypt, Cyprus, Crete and Coele-Syria; joint ruler with her was Ptolemy Caesarion, the son she had borne to Caesar. The two young sons of Antony and Cleopatra were proclaimed “kings of kings”; the elder as king of Armenia, Media and the Parthians, the younger as king of Syria, Phoenicia and Cilicia. To their daughter, Cleopatra, was assigned Cyrene. These arrangements aroused great mistrust and hostility towards Antony among the Romans, who resented the partition of Rome’s eastern provinces in the interest of oriental potentates. Relying upon this sentiment, Octavian in 33 B. C. refused Antony’s demands for troops and joint authority in Italy. Antony at once postponed the resumption of the Parthian war and prepared to march against his rival.

*The outbreak of hostilities, 32 B. C.* The final break came early in 32 B. C. The triumvirate legally terminated with the close of 33 B. C. and two consuls of Antony’s faction came into office for the following year. To win support in Rome, Antony wrote to the Senate offering to surrender his powers as triumvir and restore the old constitution. His friends introduced a proposal that Octavian should surrender his _imperium_ at once, but this was vetoed by a tribune. Octavian then took charge of affairs in Rome, and the consuls, not daring to oppose him, fled to Antony, accompanied by many senators of his party. Thereupon Octavian caused the Assembly to abrogate the former’s _imperium_ and also his appointment to the consulship for 31 B. C. To justify his actions and convince the Italians of the danger which threatened them from the alliance of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian seized and published Antony’s will which had been deposited in the temple of Vesta. The will confirmed the disposition which he had made of the eastern provinces in the interest of the house of Cleopatra. Octavian was now able to bring about a declaration of war against the Egyptian queen and to exact an oath of loyalty to himself from the senators in Rome and from the municipalities of Italy and the western provinces. It was this oath of allegiance which was the main basis of his authority for the next few years. In reply to these measures, Antony formally divorced Octavia and refused to recognize the validity of the laws which deprived him of his powers.

*Actium, 31 B. C.* In the fall of 33 B. C. Antony and Cleopatra began assembling their forces in Greece with the intention of invading Italy. By the next year they had brought together an army of about 100,000 men, supported by a fleet of 500 ships of war. However, no favorable occasion for attempting a landing in Italy presented itself and both the fleet and the army went into winter quarters in the gulf of Ambracia (32–1 B. C.). In the spring of 31 B. C. Octavian with 80,000 men and 400 warships crossed over to Epirus and took up a position facing his opponents who had taken their station in the bay of Actium at the entrance to the gulf of Ambracia. His most capable general was Agrippa. Owing to discord which had arisen between Cleopatra and his Roman officers, Antony remained inactive while detachments of Octavian’s forces won over important points in Greece. Antony began to suffer from a shortage of supplies and some of his influential followers deserted to the opposite camp. At length he risked a naval battle, in the course of which Cleopatra and the Egyptian squadron set sail for Egypt and Antony followed her. His fleet was defeated and his army, which attempted to retreat to Macedonia, was forced to surrender. There is little doubt that Cleopatra had for some time been contemplating treachery to Antony, and her desertion was probably based on the calculation that if Octavian should prove victorious she would be able to claim credit for her services, while if Antony should be the victor, she was confident of obtaining pardon for her conduct. Probably she did not anticipate that Antony would join her in flight. At any rate, when Antony abandoned his still undefeated fleet and army he sealed both his fate and hers. The victor advanced slowly eastwards and in the summer of 30 B. C. began his invasion of Egypt. Antony’s attempts at defense were unavailing; his troops went over to Octavian who occupied Alexandria. In despair he committed suicide. For a time Cleopatra, who had frustrated Antony’s last attempt at resistance, hoped to win over Octavian as she had won Caesar and Antony, so that she might save at least Egypt for her dynasty. But finding her efforts unavailing, she poisoned herself rather than grace Octavian’s triumph. The kingdom of Egypt was added to the Roman empire, not as a province but as part of an estate to be directly administered by the ruler of the Roman world who took his place as the heir of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. The treasures of Egypt reimbursed Octavian for the expenses of his late campaigns. After reëstablishing the old provinces and client kingdoms in the East, Octavian returned to Rome in 29 B. C., where he celebrated a three-day triumph over the non-Roman peoples of Europe, Asia and Africa, whom he or his generals had subjugated during his triumvirate.

At the age of thirty-three Octavian had made good his claim to the political inheritance of Julius Caesar. His victory over Antony closed the century of civil strife which had begun with the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus. War and the proscriptions had exacted a heavy toll from Romans and Italians; Greece, Macedonia and Asia had been brought to the verge of ruin; the whole empire longed for peace. Everywhere was Octavian hailed as the savior of the world and, as the founder of a new golden age, men were ready to worship him as a god.

IV. SOCIETY AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC

*The upper classes.* The characteristics of Roman society in the last century of the republic are the same which we have previously seen developing as a result of Rome’s imperial expansion. The upper classes of society comprise the senatorial nobility and the equestrians; the former finding their goal in public office, the latter in banking and financial ventures, and both alike callously exploiting the subjects of Rome in their own interests. Of this one example will suffice. Marcus Brutus, the conspirator, who enjoyed a high repute for his honorable character, loaned money to the cities of Cyprus at the exorbitant rate of 48% and influenced the senate to declare the contract valid. He did not hesitate to secure for his agents military authority with which to enforce payment, and was much disappointed when Cicero, as governor of Cilicia and Cyprus, refused to give his representative such power or to allow him to collect more than 12% interest on his debt.

As corruption characterized the public, so did extravagance and luxury the private life of the governing classes. The palaces of the wealthy in Rome were supplemented by villas in the Sabine hills, in the watering places of the Campanian coast, and other attractive points. The word villa, which originally designated a farm house, now meant a country seat equipped with all the modern conveniences of city life.

The solidarity of the family life which had been the foundation of Roman morality was fast disappearing. In general, wives no longer came under the authority (_manus_) of their husbands upon marriage, and so retained control of their properties acquired by inheritance or dowry through a guardian from their own families. Consequently women played an increasingly independent and important part in the society of the day. In Rome at least the age was one of a low tone in morals, and divorces were of common occurrence. At the same time social intercourse was characterized by a high degree of urbanity—the good manners which mark the society of cultured men.

*The plebs.* Of the life of the plebs who thronged the high tenement houses and narrow streets of Rome we know very little. But until the Assembly was overawed or superseded by armed forces the city populace could not be ignored by the upper classes. Their votes must be courted by magnificent displays at the public games, by entertainments and largesses of all kinds, and care must be taken to provide them with food to prevent their becoming a menace to the public peace. This latter problem was solved as we have seen after the time of Caius Gracchus by providing them with a monthly allowance of corn, at first at a greatly reduced price, but after 57 B. C. gratuitously. Julius Caesar found about 320,000 persons sharing in this distribution, and reduced the number to 150,000 male citizens. The city mob thus became to a certain degree state pensioners, and placed a heavy burden on the treasury. There can be no doubt that the ranks of the urban proletariat were swelled by peasants who had lost their holdings in the course of the civil wars and the settlements of discharged soldiers on Italian soil, but the chief increase came from the manumission of slaves, who as _liberti_ or freedmen became Roman citizens. Sulla’s 10,000 Cornelii were of this number. The influx of these heterogeneous elements radically changed the character of the city populace which could no longer claim to be mainly of Roman and Italian stock but embraced representatives of all races of the Mediterranean world. The population was further augmented by the great numbers of slaves attached to the houses of the wealthy or engaged in various industrial occupations for their masters or others who hired their services.

In the rural districts of Italy the plantation system had been widely extended and agriculture and grazing were in the main carried on by slave labor. Yet the free farmers had by no means entirely disappeared and free labor was employed even on the _latifundia_ themselves. The discharged veterans who were provided with lands attest the presence of considerable numbers of free landholders.

*Religion.* In religion this period witnessed a striking decline of interest and faith in the public religion of the Roman state. This was in part due to the influence of Greek mythology which changed the current conceptions of the Roman divinities and to Greek philosophy with its varying doctrines as to the nature and powers of the gods. The latter especially affected the upper classes of society upon whom fell the duty of maintaining the public cults. From the time of the Gracchi the public priesthoods declined in importance; and in many cases they were used solely as a tool for political purposes. The increase in the numbers of the priestly colleges and the substitution of election for coöptation brought in many members unversed in the ancient traditions, and the holders of the priesthoods in general showed great ignorance of their duties, especially with regard to the ordering of the state calendar. Some religious associations like the Arval Brotherhood ceased to exist and knowledge of the character of some of the minor deities was completely lost. The patrician priesthoods, which involved serious duties and restricted the freedom of their incumbents were avoided as much as possible. At the same time the private religious rites, hereditary within family groups, fell into decay. While the attitude of educated circles towards the state cults was thus one of indifference or skepticism, it is hard to speak of that of the common people. Superstitious they were beyond a doubt, but in the performance of the state cults they had never actively participated. The more emotional cults of the oriental type made a greater appeal to them if we may judge from the difficulty which the Senate experienced in banishing the priests of Isis from the city.

*Stoicism and Epicureanism.* The philosophic systems which made the most converts among the educated Romans were Stoicism and Epicureanism. The former, as we have seen, had been introduced to Rome by Panaetius, whose teaching was continued by Posidonius. It appealed to the Romans as offering a practical rule of life for men engaged in public affairs. On the other hand, the doctrine of Epicurus that men should withdraw from the annoyances of political life and seek happiness in the pursuit of pleasure, that is, intellectual pleasure, was interpreted by the Roman as sanctioning sensual indulgence and became the creed of those who gave themselves up to a life of ease and indolence.

*Literature.* The last century of the republic saw the completion of the amalgamation of Greek and Roman culture which had begun in the previous epoch. The resulting Graeco-Roman culture was a bi-lingual civilization based upon Greek intellectual and Roman political achievement which it was the mission of the empire to spread to the barbaric peoples of the western provinces. The age was marked by many-sided, keen, intellectual activity which brought Rome’s intellectual development to its height. Yet this Graeco-Roman culture was almost exclusively a possession of the higher classes.

*The drama.* In the field of dramatic literature the writing of tragedy practically ceased and comedy took the popular forms of caricature (_fabula Atellana_) and the mime, or realistic imitation of the life of the lower classes. Both forms were derived from Greek prototypes but dealt with subjects of everyday life and won great popularity in the theatrical exhibitions given at the public games.

*Poetry: Catullus, 87–c. 54 B. C.* The best exponent of the poetry of the age is Catullus, a native of Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, who as a young man was drawn into the vortex of fashionable society at the capital. This new poetry appealed to a highly educated class, conversant alike with the literature of the Greek classic and Hellenistic periods as well as with modern production, and able to appreciate the most elaborate and diversified meters. The works of Catullus show the wide range of form and subject which appealed to contemporary taste. Translations and copies of Greek originals find their place alongside epigrams and lyric poems of personal experience. It is his poetry of passion, of love and hate, which places him among the foremost lyric poets of all time.

*Lucretius, 98–53 B. C.* An exception among the poets of his time was Lucretius, who combined the spirit of a poet with that of a religious teacher. He felt a mission to free the minds of men from fear of the power of the gods and of death. To this end he wrote a didactic epic poem, _On the Nature of Things_, in which he explained the atomic theory of Democritus which was the foundation of the philosophical teachings of Epicurus. The essence of this doctrine was that the world and all living creatures were produced by the fortuitous concourse of atoms falling through space and that death was simply the dissolution of the body into its component atomic elements. Consequently, there was no future existence to be dreaded. True poetic value is given to the work by the author’s great imaginative powers and his keen observation of nature and human life. Lucretius made the Latin hexameter a fitting medium for the expression of sustained and lofty thought.

*Oratory.* It was through the study and practice of oratory that Roman prose attained its perfection between the time of the Gracchi and Julius Caesar. Political and legal orations were weapons in the party strife of the day and were frequently polished and edited as political pamphlets. Along with political documents of this type appeared orations that were not written to be delivered in the forum or senate chamber but were addressed solely to a reading public. Among the great forensic orators of the age were the two Gracchi, of whom the younger, Caius, had the reputation of being the most effective speaker that Rome ever knew. Others of note were Marcus Antonius, grandfather of the triumvir, Lucius Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. But it was Cicero who brought to its perfection the Roman oration in its literary form.

*Cicero, 106–43 B. C.* Cicero was beyond question the intellectual leader of his day. He was above all things an orator and until past the age of fifty his literary productivity was almost entirely in that field. In his latter years he undertook the great task of making Hellenistic philosophy accessible to the Roman world through the medium of Latin prose. In addition to his speeches and oratorical and philosophic treatises Cicero left to posterity a great collection of letters which were collected and published after his death by his freedman secretary. His correspondence with his friends is a mine of information for the student of society and politics in the last century of the republic.

*Caesar, 100–44 B. C.* Julius Caesar made his genius felt in the world of letters as well as of politics. Though an orator of high rank, he is better known as the author of his lucid commentaries on the Gallic war and on the Civil war, which present the view that he desired the Roman public to take of his conflict with the senate.

*Sallust, 86–36 B. C.* Foremost among historical writers of the period was Caius Sallustius Crispus, “the first scientific Roman historian.” Subsequent generations ranked him as the greatest Roman historian. His chief work, a history of the period 78–67 B. C., is almost entirely lost, but two shorter studies on the Jugurthine war and Cataline’s conspiracy have been preserved. In contrast to Cicero, he is the protagonist of Caesarianism.

*Varro, 116–27 B. C.* Of great interest to later ages were the works of the antiquarian and philologist, Marcus Terentius Varro, the most learned Roman of his time. His great work on Roman religious and political antiquities has been lost, but a part of his study _On the Latin Language_ is still extant, as well as his three books _On Rural Conditions_. The latter give a good picture of agricultural conditions in Italy towards the end of the republic.

*Jurisprudence.* To legal literature considerable contributions were made both in the domain of applied law and of legal theory. We have already noticed the appeal which the Stoic philosophy made to the best that was in Roman character and many of the leading Roman jurists accepted its principles. It was natural then that Roman legal philosophy should begin under the influence of the Stoic doctrine of a universal divine law ruling the world, this law being an emanation of right reason, i. e. the divine power governing the universe. The most influential legal writers of the period were Quintus Mucius Scaevola who compiled a systematic treatment of the civil law in eighteen books, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the contemporary of Cicero. Sulpicius was a most productive author, whose works included _Commentaries_ on the XII Tables, and on the Praetor’s Edict, as well as studies on special aspects of Roman law.