Part 86

In internal affairs the tendency during the following centuries was to more and more centralize rule on the part of the Romans. The Emperor Hadrian attempted to improve the condition of the Greeks by giving them rights equal to those of Roman citizens, by reforming the administration of justice, and by paying attention to roads and buildings. Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, took the important step of changing the capital from Rome to Byzantium, which he solemnly dedicated in 333 A. D. and called, after himself, Constantinople. The Emperor, having been the political head of the pagan religion, naturally assumed the same direction of the Christian faith, and, in the opposition of the orthodox Church to the Arianism of the first Christian Emperors the people found a vent for the national feeling which chafed against the despotism of an alien court. Theodosius the Great (378-395) first established Christianity as the religion of the state. His sons, Arcadius and Honorius divided the Roman dominions between themselves, and Constantinople became the capital only of the Eastern Empire. At this time a great danger threatened Greece from Alaric, king of the West Goths, who invaded Greece in 396 and occupied Athens. Though the city and country were pillaged by the Goths, Alaric strictly protected the honor of Greek women and religious edifices.

GREECE UNDER THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

On the division of the Roman Empire, Greece fell of course to the eastern or Byzantine half. In 1204 the Crusaders and Venetians captured Constantinople, and divided the Empire--an act which has been taken as the end of “the Byzantine Empire.” Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was elected Emperor of Roumania, and reigned at Constantinople. Many new states sprang out of the partition, and new empires were founded at Nicæa, Trebizond, and Thessalonica. The feudal system was established in Greece. Athens became a fief of Roumania, governed by dukes; a great part of the Peloponnesus was kept first by Franks and then by Neapolitans, as the Principality of Achæa. The Venetians obtained possession of most of the islands.

Of all the confused and crowded events of these times probably the most important, was the capture of Constantinople in 1261 by Michael Palæologus, Emperor of Nicæa, but no attempt to hold Greece could long endure in the face of the Ottoman Turks who soon began to threaten from the East. In 1453 the Sultan Mohammed II. took Constantinople. The Venetians finally surrendered all claim to most of their Greek possessions by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.

UNDER TURKISH RULE DOWN TO THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE

During the rule of the Turks the Greeks endured many hardships, including a curious tribute of children, who were educated by Mohammedans and trained for service in the corps of Janissaries. It was, however, to the interest of the Sultans for the sake of their revenues to encourage Greek commerce, and so there were wealthy classes with culture enough to make a fruitful soil for the teaching of the French Revolution. The spirit thus implanted led to the War of Greek Independence in 1821--memorable for the generous sympathy of Byron, for the long siege of Missolonghi, and for the accident which led to the defeat of the Turkish fleet at Navarino in 1827 by English, French, and Russian vessels.

From this period down to the present the history of Greece belongs to the modern kingdom.

ROME: MISTRESS OF THE WORLD

IMPORTANCE OF ROMAN HISTORY

The greatness of Roman history lies in the fact that it is, in a large sense, the history of the world from the time of Rome’s supremacy. Out of the Roman Empire arose the modern state system of Europe; and the Roman language, law and institutions are still, in changed forms, alive and active in the modern world. The influence of Christianity, and of Greek art and literature, have to a great extent been preserved and transmitted to us through Rome. Rome brought all the civilized peoples of the West, including Western Asia, under one dominion and one bondage; and the culture which was thus gathered up into one vast reservoir was given off in streams that, in due season, fertilized the mental soil of the rude and restless nations which succeeded the fallen empire.

GEOGRAPHICAL CENTER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The study of Roman history properly begins with the geography of Italy, because it was in Italy that the Roman people had their origin, and it was here that they began their great career. It was only when the Romans had conquered and organized Italy that they were able to conquer and govern the world.

FAVORABLE SITUATION OF THE ITALIAN PENINSULA

The position of the Italian peninsula was favorable to the growth of the Roman power. It was situated almost in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, on the shores of which had flourished the great nations of antiquity--Egypt, Phœnicia, Carthage and Greece. By conquering Italy, Rome thus obtained a commanding position among the nations of the ancient world. As the peninsula projects southward into the Mediterranean it bends toward the east, so that its southern coasts afforded an easy access to the civilized peoples of Greece. The eastern shores of the peninsula, washed by the Adriatic Sea, with few bays and harbors, were not favorable to the early progress of the people; while the western coasts, bordering upon the Tyrrhenian Sea, with their numerous indentations afforded greater opportunities for commerce and a civilized life.

THE MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS OF ITALY

There are two important mountain chains which belong to Italy, the Alps and the Apennines. The Alps form a semicircular boundary on the north and afford a formidable barrier against the neighboring countries of Europe. Starting from the sea at its western extremity, this chain stretches toward the north for about one hundred and fifty miles, when it rises in the lofty peak of Mt. Blanc, fifteen thousand feet in height; and then continues its course in an easterly direction for about three hundred and thirty miles, approaching the head of the Adriatic Sea, and disappearing along its coast. It is crossed by several passes, through which foreign peoples have sometimes found their way into the peninsula.

The Apennines, beginning at the western extremity of the Alps, extend through the whole length of the peninsula, forming the backbone of Italy.

IMPORTANT DIVISIONS OF THE PENINSULA

Central Italy comprised the northern part of the peninsula proper, that is, the territory between the line just drawn from the Macra to the Rubicon, and another line drawn from the Silarus on the west to the Frento on the east. This territory contained six countries, namely, three on the western coast,--Etruria, Latium (_la´shi-um_), and Campania; and three on the eastern coast and along the Apennines,--Umbria, Picenum, and what we call the Sabellian country, which included many mountain tribes, chief among which were the Sabines and the Samnites.

Southern Italy comprised the rest of the peninsula and contained four countries, namely, two on the western coast, Lucania and Brutium, extending into the toe of Italy; and two on the eastern coast, Apulia and Calabria (or Iapygia), extending into the heel of Italy.

EARLY INHABITANTS OF SICILY

Sicily was inhabited in the west by a race of unknown origin called the Sikanians: the Sikels, who gave their name to the island, were closely connected in race with the Latins. Sicily was fought for by the Carthaginians, and, Greek cities having been founded in Sicily, in the end the island became almost wholly Greek in speech and usages.

THE GAULS OF NORTHERN ITALY

If the Greeks in the extreme south were the most civilized people of Italy, the Gauls or Celts, in the extreme north, were the most barbarous. Crossing the Alps from western Europe, they had pushed back the Etruscans and occupied the plains of the Po; hence this region received the name which it long held, Cisalpine Gaul. From this land the Gauls made frequent incursions toward the south, and were for a long time a terror to the other peoples of Italy.

HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

I. MYTHICAL PERIOD.--The history of Rome extends through a space of more than twelve hundred years, which may be divided into _six_ periods. The first period includes the time from the building of the city, B. C. 752, to the expulsion of Tarquin, B. C. 509. It may be called the period of the kings, or of _Regal Power_.

The Roman historians have left a particular account of this period, beginning with the very founders of the city, Romulus and Remus, whose descent is traced from Æneas the hero of Virgil. To review them briefly here will be all that is necessary.

Æneas, fleeing from Troy after the fall of that city, came, in the course of his wanderings and after many adventures, to the shores of Italy. Settling here, he married the daughter of the king Latinus, and after a fierce war with Turnus, his rival for the hand of Lavinia, he established himself in Latium. The capital of that country, Alba Longa, was founded by his son, Ascanius, and for three centuries the descendants of Æneas ruled the country.

In the eighth century B. C., Amulius usurped the throne but failed to kill his grand-nephews Romulus and Remus, who, by the fortuitous aid of the gods, were rescued from death. Growing to manhood, they destroyed the usurper and restored their grandfather, Numitor. Romulus then founded the city of Rome in 753 B. C., populated it by means of inviting all the discontented to come unto him, and gave them wives from the Sabine tribes, which incident has passed into history as the Rape of the Sabines. To this same incident in Roman mythology belongs the legend connected with the Tarpeian Rock. Romulus finally was taken to the gods by his father, Mars, and is henceforward worshiped by the Romans as the god Quirinus.

THE GOOD KING NUMA

The reign of the second king, Numa, is remembered, on account of his influence on the affairs of religion. He instituted many of the religious ceremonies and several classes of priests, and was regarded as the founder of the religious institutions of Rome.

During the reign of the third king, Tullus Hostilius, a war was carried on with Alba Longa. The issue of this war was decided, so the story goes, by a combat between the three Horatii, champions of the Romans, and the three Curiatii, champions of Alba--resulting in the triumph of the Romans and the submission of Alba to the Roman power.

The fourth king, Ancus Marcius, was a Sabine, the grandson of Numa. He too was a man of peace, but was drawn into a war with several of the Latin cities. Having subdued them, he transferred their inhabitants to the Aventine hill.

LEGENDS OF THE LATER KINGS

The three later kings of Rome are represented as having been Etruscans. The first of these was Tarquinius Priscus, who migrated to Rome from the Etruscan city of Tarquinii. He strengthened his position as king by adopting the royal insignia of the Etruscans--a crown of gold, a scepter, an ivory chair, a purple toga, etc. He carried on war with the Latins and Sabines, drained the city, laid out the forum, and dedicated a temple to Jupiter on the Capitoline hill.

The next of the later kings was Servius Tullius, the son of a slave woman of the king’s household. He united Rome and the Latin cities in a league; reorganized the government, and erected a new wall inclosing the seven hills.

Tarquin the Proud, the last king, was engaged in the siege of an enemy’s city only sixteen miles from Rome, when his son committed the outrage upon the person of Lucretia, which led to the banishment of the family and the overthrow of the regal government.

II. PERIOD OF THE REPUBLIC, 510-264 B. C.--The second period extends from the expulsion of the kings to the beginning of the Punic wars. During this period the Plebeians were admitted to the offices of state, about 300 B. C. At the beginning of this period the government was a thorough aristocracy, but at the close of it has become a full democracy. It included about two hundred and fifty years, and may be designated the period of the Plebeian and Patrician contests, and the conquest of Italy.

When, at the close of the sixth century (509 B. C.), Rome ceased to be under kingly rule, it became a republic. Instead of a king, two magistrates called Consuls were elected every year. In other respects the constitution remained as before. The first consuls were Brutus and Collatinus.

As the city increased by immigration, and the admission of allies or incorporation of subjects, two principal classes of the citizens developed--the _Patricians_ and _Plebeians_. The Patricians were probably those descended from the original citizens of the united Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan town, and the Plebeians the descendants of those afterwards admitted.

The internal history of Rome for several hundred years consists mainly of the account of struggles between these two orders. The Patricians alone were at first admissible to the great governing body, the Senate, and they kept in their hands all the high offices of state, the higher degrees of the priesthood, and the ownership of the public lands. The two orders were not allowed to intermarry, and the Plebeians, though they were free and personally independent (excepting compulsory service in war) had no political rights.

CAUSES OF STRUGGLES BETWEEN PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS

The struggles between the Patricians and Plebeians began about 500 B. C. The Plebeians fought the battles of Rome, and, in doing so, had to neglect the tillage of the soil by which they lived. Hence came poverty, made worse still by a severe law of debt, and by a high rate of interest extorted by the Patricians, who advanced money. The taxation of the state was paid solely by the Plebeians, as the Patricians had ceased to pay their rent to the treasury for the public lands which they held. At the same time, the Plebeians (which body included many men of birth and wealth) were entirely excluded from public offices. Such a state of things could only end in an outbreak, which occurred in 493 B. C.

FIRST WITHDRAWAL OF PLEBEIANS TO MONS SACER

The oppression of the debtors (who were imprisoned and flogged on failure to pay) caused a withdrawal of the Plebeians in a body to Mons Sacer (Holy Hill), outside the Roman territory, three miles from Rome. Their purpose was to erect a new town, and dwell apart, with equal rights. The Patricians, left helpless against foreign enemies, as usual in such cases, made concessions when forced to terms. It was agreed that two officials should be appointed (to offset the two consuls, who were Patrician magistrates) for the defense of the commoners against the cruel exercise of the law of debtor and creditor.

TRIBUNI PLEBIS

These new magistrates were called Tribuni Plebis (Tribunes of the Commons), and the title became very famous. They acted as champions of the subordinate class against all oppression, and pleaded in the law-courts on their behalf. The person of a Tribune was sacred and inviolable, and, in the exercise of his yearly office, he could forbid the execution of the order of any official, or of any decree of the senate; he could pardon offenses, and called to account all enemies of the commons under his charge.

FIRST OF THE AGRARIAN LAWS

In 486 B. C. Spurius Cassius (afterward tried for treason and put to death by the Patricians) carried the first of the famous Agrarian Laws, for limiting the amount of public land held by the Patricians, compelling them to pay tithe or rent for the land they held, and dividing surplus lands among the Plebeians. The law was not enforced, through the violence and injustice of the Patricians. The Plebeians exercised some check from time to time, by the refusal to serve as soldiers.

THE FAMOUS PUBLILIAN LAW

In 471 B. C. the Plebeians succeeded in carrying the famous Publilian Law (proposed by the tribune Publilius Volero), that the tribunes should in future be chosen only at the (popular) Comitia Tributa, instead of in the (patrician) Comitia Centuriata. The Comitia Tributa also received the right of deliberating and deciding upon all matters that were open to discussion and settlement in the Comitia Centuriata. The struggle continued, and the commons found it a great disadvantage that there was no written law to control the chief Patrician magistrates (the consuls) in their dealings with the Plebeians.

FIRST GREAT CODE OF ROMAN LAW

After violent opposition, and the increase of the number of tribunes to ten, the Plebeians carried a law (about 452 B. C.) that ten commissioners (Decemviri) should draw up a code to bind all classes of Romans alike. The ultimate result was the compilation (and engraving on thick sheets of brass) of the first and only code of law in the Roman republic--the _Laws of the Twelve Tables_. These laws made the Comitia Tributa into a really national legislature, embodying Patricians and Plebeians alike. The Plebeians, however, were still kept out of a share in the lands which they conquered in war, and a time of trouble came in the usurpation and violence of the Decemviri.

SECOND WITHDRAWAL OF PLEBEIANS TO MONS SACER

In 448 B. C. the Plebs, for the second time, seceded to the Mons Sacer, and the Decemviri were obliged to give way. Tribunes were re-appointed, and the new consuls were Valerius and Horatius. By them, in the Comitia Centuriata the great Valerian and Horatian Laws were passed, the first great charter of Roman freedom, and the power of the Plebeians was much increased. The Comitia Tributa was now on a level with the Comitia Centuriata, so that a Plebis-citum, or decree of the people’s assembly, had henceforth the same force as one passed by the Comitia Centuriata, and became law for the whole nation. The struggle between the two orders, Patricians and Plebeians, continued. In 445 B. C. the Lex Canuleia, proposed by the tribune Canuleius, was passed, sanctioning intermarriage between Patricians and Plebeians.

MILITARY TRIBUNES WITH CONSULAR POWER

The Patricians, foreseeing that the time would come when the Plebeians must be admitted to the high offices of the state, divided the powers of the consulship, and, in 444 B. C., caused the appointment of Military Tribunes with consular power, officers who might be elected from either order, as commanders of the army, while the civil powers of the consuls were kept by the Patricians in their own hands. In 443 B. C. the office of the Censors was established, with the proviso that they should be appointed only from the Patricians, and only by their assembly, the Comitia Curiata. In this the Patricians undoubtedly gained an accession of power.

FURTHER STRUGGLES BETWEEN PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS

The power of the Plebeians grew by degrees through the exertion of the prerogatives of the Tribunes, and about 400 B. C. the office of the Military Tribunes became open to the Plebeians, and four out of the six were chosen from that order. After the capture of Rome by the Gauls (390 B. C.), fresh troubles for the Plebeians arose. Their lands near Rome had been laid waste, cattle killed, and implements of agriculture destroyed. Heavy taxes were imposed to make up for the loss of public treasure carried off by the Gauls, and soon the old trouble of debt arose, and consequent oppression by the Patrician creditors.

EQUALITY AND FREEDOM ACHIEVED UNDER THE TRIBUNES LICINIUS AND SEXTIUS

The distress of the Commons increased until a great remedy was found by two patriotic tribunes of the Plebs, Caius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius, the authors of the great Roman charter of equality and freedom. These able, determined men, after a tremendous struggle, fought with constitutional arms alone,--in which the Romans showed that respect for law and authority which, in their best days, so honorably distinguished them,--carried their point. The victory was won through the use of the power of the tribunes to stop the whole machinery of government. Year after year, for ten successive years, Licinius and Sextius were chosen tribunes, and, while the Patricians gained over the eight other tribunes, and prevented the popular bills being put to the vote in the Comitia Tributa, the two tribunes prevented the election of the Consular Tribunes (save in 371 B. C., for a war with the Latins), and other high officials, and would have no troops levied at all.

TERMS OF THE LICINIAN LAWS

At last, in 366 B. C., the famous Licinian Laws were carried, to-wit: (1) That the interest already paid by debtors should be deducted from the capital of the debt, and the remainder paid off in three equal annual instalments; (2) That no one should hold above five hundred jugera (about two hundred and eighty acres) of the public land, the surplus to be divided among the poorer Plebeians; (3) That the military tribunate with consular power should be abolished, and the consulship restored; but one Consul, at least, henceforward, should be a Plebeian. Sextius was himself elected, in 366 B. C., as the first Plebeian consul. All the other offices, dictatorship, censorship, prætorship, etc., were soon thrown open to the Commons,--so that at last, after the long struggle, perfect political equality was established.

FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRACY

For a century and a half since the expulsion of the kings, Rome had been a republic, but an aristocratic republic; it was now truly a government of the people. From this time begins the golden age of Roman politics. Civil concord, to which a temple was dedicated, brought with it a period of civic virtue and heroic greatness.

THE CONQUEST OF ITALY

During this period, so harassed by internal contests, Rome was also engaged in frequent wars. These wars were with (1) their immediate relatives the Latins; with (2) their more distant relatives, the various other Italian nationalities; with (3) the Greek settlements in Southern Italy aided by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; with (4) the Gauls in Northern Italy.

MEANING OF THESE WARS

These Roman wars meant a great deal to the future of this remarkable nation. Before Rome could play its grand part in the history of the world’s civilization it was necessary, first of all, that it should become a great _Nation_. A great nation needs an extensive stage on which to play its part. Now the wars by which the Romans put down the various small and obstructive nationalities of Italy were the clearing of the stage, preliminary to the oncoming of that imperial figure, the “Mistress of the World.”

WARS WITH THE SAMNITES IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The series of wars against Etruscans, Latins, Samnites, and Gauls, sometimes singly and sometimes in combination, is usually known in Roman history by the general designation of the “Latin wars” and the “Samnite wars.” These wars filled the greater part of the half-century between 343 and 290 B. C.; and the Samnites were the leaders in this onset of the nations on Rome, the issue of which was to determine whether Rome or Samnium should govern Italy. The Romans were completely successful; and extricating themselves by their valor from this confused conflict of nations, the Romans found themselves masters of Central Italy (290 B. C.),--Samnites, Latins, etc., all their subjects.

WAR WITH THE GREEK KING PYRRHUS