[4]The Syrian monarchy of the Seleucidæ began in 312 B. C. with Seleucus I. (surnamed Nicator), one of Alexander’s generals, and under him was extended over much of Asia Minor, including the whole of Syria from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and the territory eastwards from the Euphrates to the banks of the Oxus and the Indus. Seleucus I. was an able and energetic monarch, and sedulously carried out the plans of Alexander the Great. He died in 280 B. C., having founded the city of Antioch in Syria as the capital of the kingdom. His successors, the dynasty known as the Seleucidæ (or “descendants of Seleucus”), ruled for about two centuries. The most notable of these monarchs were named Antiochus.The third of the name, Antiochus the Great (223 to 187 B. C.), was the monarch at whose court Hannibal, the great Carthaginian, took refuge. Antiochus invaded Greece in 192 B. C., and there the Romans defeated him both by land and sea, and compelled him to yield a large part of his dominions in Asia Minor. Much of the eastern territory had been lost before this time, as well as Phœnicia, Palestine, and Western Syria, conquered by Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt.Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B. C.) oppressed the Jews to introduce the worship of the Greek divinities. Against him the brave Maccabees rose in rebellion. The Syrian kingdom ended in 65 B. C., conquered by the Romans under Pompey.
[4]The Syrian monarchy of the Seleucidæ began in 312 B. C. with Seleucus I. (surnamed Nicator), one of Alexander’s generals, and under him was extended over much of Asia Minor, including the whole of Syria from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and the territory eastwards from the Euphrates to the banks of the Oxus and the Indus. Seleucus I. was an able and energetic monarch, and sedulously carried out the plans of Alexander the Great. He died in 280 B. C., having founded the city of Antioch in Syria as the capital of the kingdom. His successors, the dynasty known as the Seleucidæ (or “descendants of Seleucus”), ruled for about two centuries. The most notable of these monarchs were named Antiochus.
The third of the name, Antiochus the Great (223 to 187 B. C.), was the monarch at whose court Hannibal, the great Carthaginian, took refuge. Antiochus invaded Greece in 192 B. C., and there the Romans defeated him both by land and sea, and compelled him to yield a large part of his dominions in Asia Minor. Much of the eastern territory had been lost before this time, as well as Phœnicia, Palestine, and Western Syria, conquered by Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt.
Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B. C.) oppressed the Jews to introduce the worship of the Greek divinities. Against him the brave Maccabees rose in rebellion. The Syrian kingdom ended in 65 B. C., conquered by the Romans under Pompey.
LATER HISTORY OF MACEDONIAAND GREECE
The last period in the history of Greece presents us with long wars among different successors of Alexander for the sovereignty of the Greek states, and factions and intrigue rife in and between the different communities. From time to time great and patriotic men arise, making a struggle glorious but vain for the restoration of political freedom and the spirit of the olden time. We find “leagues” and confederations formed in order to resist the coming doom of political extinction.
THE FATAL LAMIANWAR
A great effort to free Greece from the Macedonian supremacy was headed by Athens in 323 B. C. The renowned Athenian orators Demosthenes and Hyperides were its political heroes, opposed by Phocion, a man of pure character, but who despaired of a successful rising against Antipater, ruler of Macedonia before and after Alexander the Great’s death. Athens was joined by most of the states in Central and Northern Greece; and the war derives its name from Lamia in Thessaly, where Antipater, after being defeated by the confederates, was besieged for some months. The war ended in 322 B. C., by Antipater’s complete victory at the battle of Crannon in Thessaly. Demosthenes ended his life by poison in the same year; Hyperides was killed by Antipater’s orders; Phocion died by the hemlock at Athens, in 317 B. C., on a charge of treason.
HEROIC EFFORTS OFDEMETRIUS
The distinguished Demetrius Poliorcetes (besieger of cities) was king of Macedonia from 294 to 287 B. C. His life was passed in fighting with varied success and he was driven from the throne at last by a combination of enemies, including the famous Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Demetrius was a man of wonderful abilities and resources, deriving his surname from the enormous machines which he constructed for the siege of Rhodes, one of his warlike enterprises. He freed Athens for a time from Macedonian domination before he became ruler of Macedon.
A famous personage was Pyrrhus, the warlike king of Epirus, the territory in the northwest of Greece, inhabited by descendants of the old Pelasgians and Illyrians. The first king of the whole country was Alexander, the brother of Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great. He ruled from 336 to 326 B. C.
THE WARRIOR PYRRHUS,KING OF EPIRUS
Pyrrhus (295 to 272 B. C.) is renowned as the greatest warrior of his age. He had been driven by his subjects from Epirus, but, assisted with a fleet and army by Ptolemy I. of Egypt, returned thither and began his actual reign in 295 B. C. His first efforts were turned against Macedonia; but, after much fighting, he lost his hold there, in 286 B. C. It was in 280 B. C. that he began his great enterprise by crossing over into Italy, to aid the Tarentines against the Romans. In his first campaign he defeated the Romans in the battle of Heraclea in Lucania. His skill was aided by a force of armored elephants, and by the Macedonian formation of the phalanx, both novelties to the Romans. In the second campaign (279 B. C.) Pyrrhus gained a second dearly bought victory over the Romans at Asculum, in Apulia, yet with no decisive result; in 278 B. C. he crossed into Sicily, to help the Greeks there against the Carthaginians.
REPULSES AND DEATHOF PYRRHUS
At first he was very successful and defeated the Carthaginians, taking the town of Eryx; but he failed in other operations, and returned to Italy in 276 B. C., again to assist the Tarentines against the Romans. In 275 B. C. his career in Italy was closed by a great defeat, inflicted by the Romans at the battle of Beneventum, and Pyrrhus returned to Epirus with the remnant of his army. In 273 B. C. he invaded Macedonia with such success as to become king, and his restless spirit then drove him to war in Peloponnesus. He was repulsed in an attack on Sparta, and, after entering the city of Argos to assist one of its factions, was knocked from his horse by a heavy tile hurled from a house-top by a woman’s hand, and killed by the enemy’s soldiers. Thus died Pyrrhus, in the forty-sixth year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign,—a man of the highest military skill, capable of great enterprises, but without the steady resolution and the practical wisdom to bring them to a successful issue.
GALLIC INVASIONOF GREECE
The Gauls invaded Greece in 280 B. C. After penetrating through Macedonia and Thessaly they were defeated under their leader Brennus (namesake of the captor of Rome a century earlier), near Delphi in Phocis. Some of the Gauls in this irruption made their way into Asia Minor, and ultimately gave their name to the province Galatia, adopting the Greek customs and religion, but keeping their own language.
THE CELEBRATED ACHAEANLEAGUE
The Achæan League was founded, in its new form, in 280 B. C., consisting of the towns in[383]Achæa, and afterwards including Sicyon, Corinth, Athens, and many other Greek cities, so that it became the chief political power in Greece. In 245 B. C. Aratus (sometimes called the “last of the Greeks”) became head of the league, and much extended its influence by skillful diplomacy. Philopœmen, another distinguished man of this period, general of the league in 208 B. C., and again in 201 and 192 B. C., was successful in battle against the Spartans when they assailed the League, and in 188 B. C. took Sparta, leveled the fortifications, and replaced the institutions of Lycurgus by the Achæan laws.
Greece from this time forward was greatly distracted; Greek power, Greek energy, Greek genius, might now be found indeed anywhere rather than in Greece. The Achæan League from time to time made spasmodic efforts, but Rome constantly interfered in Greek affairs. Domestic faction helped Roman intrigues, and the battle of Pydna (in Macedonia), gained by the Romans in 168 B. C. over Perseus, the last king of Macedon, formally ended the dominion established by Phillip II., nearly two centuries before. Macedonia was made a Roman province in 147 B. C.
GREECE BECOMES AROMAN PROVINCE
The Achæan League had gradually languished and in 150 B. C. war with Rome began, as a last effort on behalf of Greece. It ended in the defeat of the forces of the League by the Roman general Mummius, and the capture of Corinth (146 B. C.), which was plundered, and burned to the ground; the Achæan League was formally dissolved, and Greece was made into the Roman province Achaia, in 146 B. C. The city of Athens was allowed to retain a kind of freedom, and became, along with Alexandria, a university town of the civilized world, in which students of art, philosophy and literature found the best models, the best instruction, and the highest inspirations.
THE GREEKS UNDER FOREIGN RULEUNTIL 1832
Under the Romans Greece was at first treated fairly well, and much of the old municipal life was left. Hellenic culture fascinated the conquerors. Greek teachers poured into Rome, and Athens became the university for wealthy Roman youths. Little by little, however, the government became more oppressive. In the Mithradatic War the Greeks rose in a revolt which led to a devastating march of Sulla across the country and to the storming of Athens and the massacre of its inhabitants. Greece was then exposed to the exactions of the Roman officials on the one hand, and to the ravages of pirates on the other. In 267 B. C. the Goths swept across the land, destroyed many towns, and captured Athens, from which they were dislodged by the forces of the historian Dexippus.
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 THEBYZANTINE 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 THEWAR 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.
From the Painting by LUDWIG THIERSCHALARIC, KING OF THE WEST GOTHS, IN ATHENSThough Alaric was a fierce warrior and ruthless in his attacks in both Greece and Rome, he held the women and the religious temples of the places overrun with the strictest sanctity. This was in strong contrast with the social and political corruption of the time in both Greece and Rome and did much justify this powerful conqueror of a decadent state.
From the Painting by LUDWIG THIERSCH
ALARIC, KING OF THE WEST GOTHS, IN ATHENS
Though Alaric was a fierce warrior and ruthless in his attacks in both Greece and Rome, he held the women and the religious temples of the places overrun with the strictest sanctity. This was in strong contrast with the social and political corruption of the time in both Greece and Rome and did much justify this powerful conqueror of a decadent state.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 wasfought 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.
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.
I. MYTHICAL PERIOD.—The history of Rome extends through a space of more than twelve hundred years, which may be divided intosixperiods. 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 ofRegal 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 KINGNUMA
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 THELATER 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[387]PatriciansandPlebeians. 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 BETWEENPATRICIANS 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 PLEBEIANSTO 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.
TRIBUNIPLEBIS
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 AGRARIANLAWS
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 PUBLILIANLAW
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 OFROMAN 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—theLaws 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 PLEBEIANSTO 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 WITHCONSULAR 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[388]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 BETWEENPATRICIANS 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 UNDERTHE 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 THELICINIAN 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 ESTABLISHMENTOF 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 THESEWARS
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 greatNation. 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 SAMNITESIN 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 GREEKKING PYRRHUS
The “Samnite wars” were succeeded by a short but brisk war, designated in Roman history “the war with Pyrrhus and the Greeks in Italy.” Pyrrhus was an able and enterprising Greek prince whom the Greek towns of Southern Italy—fearful of being overwhelmed by what they called the “conquering barbarians of the Tiber”—had invited over from his native country to help them as champion of a Greek city.
Pyrrhus came over with a force of twenty-five thousand troops and twenty elephants. In the first battle (Pandosia, 280 B. C.) the Romans fought stoutly, until what they conceived to be gigantic gray oxen (the elephants) came thundering down upon them; so that the victory remained with Pyrrhus. In the next contest also (Asculum, 279 B. C.) Pyrrhus was successful; but the Romans made him pay so dearly for his triumph that he is said to have exclaimed, “Another such victory and I am undone!” Not having succeeded in his main object, Pyrrhus quitted Italy and went to Sicily; but soon after he returned, renewed the contest with the Romans, and was[389]utterly overthrown at Beneventum, in 275 B.C.
The subjugation of Southern Italy—of all that part called Great Greece—soon followed, and at the close of the year B. C. 266 Rome reigned supreme over the length and breadth of the peninsula of Italy, from the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gaul to the Sicilian Straits, and from the Tyrrhenian, or Tuscan, Sea to the Adriatic.
NATURE OF THE ROMAN STATE UNDER THE REPUBLIC.
The real governing power in Rome was the Roman people,—populus Romanus,—that is to say, the body of free inhabitants of the thirty-three tribes or parishes north and south of the Tiber, which constituted the Roman territory proper, together with a considerable number of persons in other parts of Italy who, either from being colonists of Roman descent or from having had Roman citizenship conferred on them, had the privilege of going to Rome and voting at the Comitia, or Assembly. The possessors of the suffrage thus formed a comparatively small body of men, such as might be assembled with ease in any public square or park, and these by their votes decided on the affairs of the commonwealth, controlling thus the destinies of the whole population of Italy, estimated at this time at above five million.
In addition to thepopulus Romanusthere were two other classes,—the Italians and the Latins. The Italians, orsocii, were the inhabitants of the allied and dependent Italian states that had submitted to Rome. These communities were almost all permitted to retain their own laws, judges, municipal arrangements, etc.; but they did not possess the Roman franchise, and hence had no share in the political affairs of the republic. The Latins were those who belonged to cities having the “Latin franchise,” as it was called, from its having first been given to the cities of Latium when conquered. This did not give full Roman citizenship, but made it easier to obtain it.
SUMMARY OF ROMANGOVERNMENT
Rome wisely left self-government to all the dependent and allied states, while she secured her sovereignty by three rights which she reserved to herself: (1) She alone made peace or declared war; (2) She alone might receive embassies; (3) She alone might coin money. Altogether it was an admirable system, vastly superior to the loosely related Grecian states. It was a system that made possible for the first time in the world’s history a great, as well as a free, nation.
It is a striking fact that there was not yet even a dawning Roman literature; in art, science, philosophy, Rome had done—absolutely nothing. But, in fact, it was in the art of governing mankind that Roman genius was to appear; and it was this that showed itself in these early years,—it was their valor, their probity, their patriotism, their political tact, and not speculation or literary culture, that distinguished them.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE GREATROMAN ROADS
The famous Roman roads are to be found not only throughout Italy, where they were constructed in various directions from the capital, but in every land once conquered by Rome and stamped by her, as she stamped all her conquests, with ineffaceable marks of her possession and her power. These great roads were first made with the military purpose of providing a way that should be solid at all seasons of the year, for the march of legions and their heavy baggage through districts subdued by Roman arms. They were wonderful pieces of determined practical engineering, and in order to carry them straight to the points aimed at, marshes and hollows were filled up, or spanned with viaducts; mountains were tunneled, streams were bridged; no labor, time, or money was spared.
THE APPIAN WAY AND OTHERFAMOUS ROADS
The first and greatest of the Italian roads was the famous Appian Way (Via Appia, calledRegina Viarum, “Queen of Roads”), which was begun by Appius Claudius, Censor in 312 B. C. The struggle with the Samnites was at its height when this great causeway, built with large, square stones on a raised platform, was made direct from the gates of Rome to Capua, in Campania. TheVia Appiawas afterwards extended, through Samnium and Apulia, to Brundusium (on the lower Adriatic), the port of embarkment for Greece. Parts of the original stonework are existing at this day. Other great roads of Italy were theVia Aurelia—the great coast-road northward, by Genua (Genoa), into Transalpine Gaul; theVia Flaminia, through Umbria to Ariminum; and theVia Æmilia, from Ariminum, through Cisalpine Gaul to Placentia.
III. EPOCH OF THE PUNIC WARS, 264-146 B. C.—The third period in Roman history extends from the final triumph of the Plebeians to the capture of Carthage, B. C. 146. Rome had hitherto been distracted with intestine feuds and dissensions, and had extended her dominion over but a small extent of territory. The admission of Plebeians to all the high offices of trust and distinction promoted the consolidation and strength of the republic, and the career of conquest was soon begun.
We now see Rome engage in the greatest conflict of her history,—that with the powerful maritime state, Carthage,—a struggle which, when it was fully developed, became for Rome a fight for national existence, in which her enemy was at the height of her power and resources, with Spain and Africa at her back, and with the first general of the age to command her armies.
RACES OPPOSED IN THEPUNIC WARS
The interest of the Punic wars (as they are called from the wordPunicus, the Latin equivalent of Phœnician, and, in a limited sense, Carthaginian) is great and enduring. These wars were fought out to determine which of the two races, the Indo-Germanic, or Aryan, or the Semitic, should have the dominion of the[390]world. On the one side—the Aryan—was the genius for war, government, and legislation; on the other—the Semitic—the spirit of industry, navigation and commerce. The skill and valor, the determination and resource, displayed on both sides, have caused these wars of Rome and Carthage to remain most vividly impressed upon the memories of men.
CHARACTER OF THE CARTHAGINIANSTATE AND PEOPLE
Carthage had become, by the political and commercial energy of her citizens, the leading Phœnician state, ruling over Utica, Hippo, Leptis, and other cities of Phœnician origin in northern Africa. The Carthaginians paid also great attention to agriculture, and the whole of their territory was cultivated like a garden, supplying the population with abundance of food. This fact, taken with the wealth derived from her commerce, explains how it was that a city with no large extent of territory was enabled to hold out so long against the utmost efforts of Rome, and at one period to bring her, as it seemed, to the verge of ruin.
The political constitution of Carthage was that of an oligarchical republic, and her aristocracy is famed for the number of able men that came from its ranks. On the other hand, she was weakened by being dependent on mercenary troops in her wars, subject to revolts at home among the native populations whom she oppressed, and hampered by the factious spirit prevalent among her leading men.
She had a great commercial genius, but no gift for assimilating conquered peoples, or for establishing an empire on a solid and enduring basis, and therefore, in the end, she succumbed to Rome, whose aim it was to bring the nations under one wide, enduring sway. The struggle of Carthage against Rome became, in fact, the contest of a man of the greatest abilities—Hannibal—against a nation of the utmost energy and determination, and the nation, in the long run, won the day.
FIRST PUNIC WAR,264-241 B. C.
The Carthaginians held Corsica, Sardinia, and various colonies in Spain and possessions in Sicily. It was in Sicily that the cause of quarrel between Rome and Carthage was found, and Rome picked the quarrel by interference in a local matter at Messana. Hiero, king of Syracuse, as we have seen, had come over to the Romans, who, after defeating the Carthaginian army and taking Agrigentum (262 B. C.), determined to make themselves masters of Sicily. For this a fleet was needed, and with Roman energy they soon built one. Twice their squadrons were destroyed, but in 260 B. C. the consul Duilius gained a great naval victory at Mylæ, on the northeast coast of Sicily, and, from this time, Rome became more and more nearly a match for Carthage on her element, the sea. The Romans invaded Africa without success (255 B. C.), but were generally victorious in Sicily.
In 247 B. C. the great Hamilcar Barca (father of Hannibal and Hasdrubal) was appointed to the Carthaginian command in Sicily, and maintained himself there with great patience and skill against all the Roman efforts. But, in 241 B. C., the Roman commander Lutatius Catulus utterly defeated the Carthaginian fleet off the Ægates Islands, on the west coast of Sicily, and the Carthaginians then gave in. All Sicily, except the territory of Rome’s faithful alley, Hiero of Syracuse, thus became (241 B. C.) the first Roman province.
CONQUEST OF SARDINIA, CORSICA,AND CISALPINE GAUL
The Romans, with gross ill-faith and injustice, took advantage of a revolt against Carthage by her mercenary troops to deprive her of Sardinia and Corsica (238 B. C.), and Sardinia was made into a province. Their next exploit was the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, which was completed 222 B. C., and the Roman hold upon the new territory was confirmed by the establishment of military colonies at Placentia and Cremona.
THE CARTHAGINIANS UNDERHAMILCAR IN SPAIN
Carthage had resolved upon revenge for past defeats and injuries from Rome, and intrusted her cause to the great Hamilcar Barca. He sought to create for his country a new empire in Spain, which might be used as a base of operations against the foe for whom he had a deadly hate. From 237 to 229 B. C. (when he fell in battle) he was engaged in reducing a large part of Spain to submission.
In 221 B. C. his son, the illustrious Hannibal, took the Spanish command, and he soon brought on a new conflict with Rome by his capture of her ally, the city of Saguntum, on the northeast coast of Spain.
HANNIBAL AND THE SECOND PUNICWAR, 218-202 B. C.
The hero of the Second Punic War is Hannibal, one of the purest and noblest characters in history. In 218 B. C. the Carthaginian general crossed the Alps, after a five months’ march from Spain, and descended with a storm of war upon the Romans. With a force of twenty thousand foot and six thousand horse he encountered the consular armies, and defeated them at the rivers Ticinus and Trebia (218 B. C.), in Cisalpine Gaul, the Trasimene Lake in Etruria (217 B. C.), and most decisively, and with immense slaughter, at Cannæ, in Apulia, in 216 B. C. For fifteen years (218 to 202 B. C.) Hannibal maintained his ground in Italy, defeating the Romans again and again, opposed by the cautious Fabius Maximus and the daring Marcellus (the conqueror of Syracuse), but unable to capture Rome, or to subdue Roman steadfastness and courage.
CAUSES OF HANNIBAL’SDEFEAT
The chief causes of the ultimate failure of Hannibal, besides the doggedness of Rome’s resistance, were the faithfulness of many of Rome’s allies, especially the Latins, in Italy, the success of Roman armies, under Publius Scipio, in Spain (temporarily subdued 205 B. C.), and the want of due support by Carthage to her great leader. The crisis came in 207 B. C., when Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal, crossed the Alps into Italy with a powerful army which, joined with Hannibal’s in Southern Italy, would probably have effected the conquest of Rome, now[391]almost exhausted. This was not to be. Hasdrubal was defeated, and slain by the Romans at the decisive battle of the Metaurus (a river in Umbria), one of the great critical contests of history. The junction of the forces thus prevented, Rome was saved, and, in order to be rid of Hannibal, the war was carried now into the enemy’s country.
DEFEAT OF HANNIBAL BY SCIPIOAFRICANUS AT ZAMA
Publius Scipio, so successful in Spain, crossed from Sicily to Africa in 204 B. C., and did so well for Rome that Hannibal was recalled. The Second Punic War ended with the defeat of Hannibal by Scipio at Zama (five days’ journey from Carthage), in 202 B. C. The conqueror gained the surname of Africanus. Hannibal lost his army, but not his fame. Rome was certain now to rule the world. The terms of peace with Carthage made her for the time a mere dependency of Rome. All her foreign possessions were given up; her fleet was reduced to ten ships; she was to make no war without Rome’s permission; and an enormous war indemnity was exacted.
SUBJUGATION OF MACEDONBY ROME
In 213 B. C. Rome attacked Philip V., king of Macedon, because he had made a treaty with Carthage, and, after making an alliance with the Ætolians, the Romans gained some successes over Philip in the First Macedonian War, ending in 205. The Second Macedonian War (200-197 B. C.) put an end to Macedon’s supremacy in Greece, by the victory of the ex-consul Flamininus at Cynoscephalæ, in Thessaly, 197 B. C.
ROMAN ARMS ARE CARRIEDINTO ASIA
Antiochus the Great, of Syria, who had irritated Rome by meddling in the affairs of Greece, which he invaded in 192 B. C., was beaten by the Roman armies in Greece and Asia Minor, and in 188 B. C. made peace on terms that left Roman influence supreme in Asia Minor as far as Syria.
THE FINAL FATE OFHANNIBAL
The great Carthaginian, even after Zama, had not despaired of himself or of his country. He set vigorously to work at internal reforms in Carthage with a view to renewing the contest with Rome; but, being thwarted by jealous and unpatriotic rivals, who also intrigued for his surrender to the Romans, he fled to the court of Antiochus the Great, of Syria, in 194 B. C. In rejecting her greatest man, Carthage had lost her last chance of regaining any real power. Hannibal was driven from his shelter with Antiochus by the Roman demand for his surrender, and took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia, for some years; but Roman dread of his abilities pursued him, and hopeless of escape, he poisoned himself about 183 B. C., leaving Rome free at last to pursue her victorious career.
ROMAN CONQUEST OF THEGREEK STATES
A Third Macedonian War, begun in 171 B. C., was waged by the Romans against King Perseus, son of Philip V., and ended with a great Roman victory at Pydna, in 168 B. C., and the extinction of Macedon as a kingdom. After a revolt, called the Fourth Macedonian War, and a war against the forces of the Achæan League, Corinth was taken by Mummius, and Macedonia and Greece became Roman provinces (147 and 146 B. C.)
THIRD PUNIC WAR AND DESTRUCTIONOF CARTHAGE
There was a powerful party in Rome (headed by the stern censor Porcius Cato) who relentlessly insisted on the destruction of Carthage. Her warlike neighbor, Masinissa, king of Numidia, was encouraged by the Romans in harassing attacks, and in 149 B. C. Rome found a pretext for war. Her forces could not be resisted, and Carthage offered a complete submission, seeking the preservation of her commerce and her capital by a surrender of arms, war-ships, and her internal independence.
When Rome insisted on the destruction of the city of Carthage itself, and the removal of the inhabitants to inland abodes, the Carthaginians took counsel of despair, and resolved to stand a siege within their strong fortifications. Scipio Africanus Minor conducted the three years’ siege of the great commercial city and her citadel, and Roman determination, as usual, carried its point. After fearful house-to-house fighting the remnant of seven hundred thousand people surrendered; the place was set on fire, and burned for seventeen days; the ruins were leveled with the ground, and Carthage the proud city, alike with Carthage the commercial state, ceased to exist, in 146 B. C., the year of the final conquest of Greece. Part of the territory was given to Masinissa of Numidia, Rome’s ally; part became the Roman province of Africa.
GRANDEUR OF ROME AFTER HER FOREIGN CONQUESTS
At the beginning of the period of conquest (266-133 B. C.), the Roman dominion was confined to the peninsula of Italy; at its close it extended over the whole of southern Europe from the shores of the Atlantic to the straits of Constantinople, over the chief Mediterranean islands, and over a portion of North Africa, while farther east, in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, its influence was paramount. At the beginning Rome was merely one of the “Great Powers” of the world as it then was,—that is, she ranked with Carthage, Macedonia, and the kingdom of the Seleucidæ; at its close she was clearly the sole Great Power left.
THE ORIGIN OF PROVINCIALGOVERNMENT
The addition of the conquered countries resulted in a new feature of Roman rule called Provincial government. Retaining their native habits, religion, laws, etc., the inhabitants of every province were governed by a military president, sent from Rome, with a staff of officials. The provincials were required to pay taxes in money and kind; and these taxes were farmed out by the censors to Roman citizens, who, under the name of Publicans, settled in the various districts of the provinces. Thus, like a network proceeding from a center, the political system of the Romans pervaded the mass of millions of human beings inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean; and a vast population of various races and languages were all bound together by the cohesive power of Roman rule.
SPLENDORS OF A FESTAL DAY IN ANCIENT ROME