II. BOOK really did. There would then have been no necessity for the plebeians to struggle for a separate, clearly defined, legal position in the state. The constant disputes for equality between the two classes would have been avoided, and the republic would have possessed from the beginning the strength which was displayed after the passing of the Licinian laws. Results of the abolition of monarchy. Position of the The facts were altogether different. The revolution which overthrew the monarchy led to the exclusive power of the patricians.' The plebs was separated from the privileged class, and debarred from the advantages, rights, and honours which the patricians enjoyed. No bridge led across this gap. No service rendered to the state, no amount of wealth, opened to a plebeian the prospect of rising from the crowd and taking a part in the government. Marriages between patricians and plebeians were unlawful, as were those between freemen and slaves. The plebeian was excluded from the senate, and from all civil and religious offices of state, from the auspices, and even from the knowledge of the laws. He shared only the public burdens, especially those of the military service, which were becoming more and more oppressive from day to day." 3 Thus it is not surprising that, although the plebeians plebeians. had their lawful share in the comitia of centuries, yet it was a very insignificant part they played. Limited, probably to the four lowest classes, they could make no successful opposition to the well-organised dominion of the patricians. The consular elections during the first period of the republic clearly show that the patricians were allpowerful in the comitia of centuries. Thus the plebeians were urged by necessity to organise themselves as a separate political body, that they might as a whole oppose the 1 See Schwegler, Röm. Gesch., ii. 103. 2 Compare Sallust, Hist., fragm. 1, 10, ed. Kritz: 'Dein servili imperio patres plebem exercere, de vita atque tergo regio more consulere, agro pellere et ceteris expertibus soli in imperio agere.' See pp. 64, 67, and the Author's treatise in Symbola Philologorum BonRensium, p. 629. See Peter, Epochen der Röm. Republik, p. 9 ff. excessive power of the patricians. It is, therefore, not to be supposed that the right of appeal from the sentence of the consuls, which the Valerian law had established as a guarantee against the arbitrary exercise of authority, extended to the plebeians.' It was this denial of justice which forced the plebeian class to create for themselves in the Tribunes of the People legal protectors of their The tribune, by his intercession against the sentence of the patrician magistrates, made up to his fellowplebeians for the want of the right of appeal to the popular assembly, a right which, even if it had been possessed by the plebeians, would have been to them of little practical value, as long as they had so little influence in the comitia. own. 1 See pp. 128, 129, and the Author's article on the Tribunes of the People,' in the Rheinisches Museum, 1866, p. 162. CHAP. I. II. CHAPTER II. THE TRIBUNES OF THE PEOPLE. BOOK THE abolition of the monarchy had raised the patricians to power. In possession of the republican offices, political Overween- and religious, exclusively represented in the senate, preing power ponderating and dominant in the assembly of centuries, patricians. influential by their large landed possessions and by the of the Struggles of the plebeians. Accounts of the Roman historians. numbers of their clients, they were absolute lords and masters of the commonwealth, in which the plebeians had scarcely a share or a legal standing. If such a state of things had continued, the Roman state must have been reduced to a powerless oligarchy, which, in a short time, the enmity of hostile neighbours would have overthrown. From such a danger Rome was saved by the spirited opposition which the plebs as a class brought to bear against the tyranny of the patricians. Immediately after the overthrow of the monarchy, the struggles began between the patricians and the plebeians, which, if we compare them with the vehement party warfare and the excessive fluctuations in most of the Greek states, were carried on with a certain calmness, deliberation, and steadiness, corresponding to the firm, persevering, sober, practical character of the Romans. The Roman historians, who, deceived by the state of things in their own days, looked upon the patricians of the old time as a nobility by no means numerous, represent the insurrection against Tarquinius and the establishment of the republic as a victory of popular freedom, that is to say, plebeian freedom over tyranny. The people revelled, 1 Schwegler, Röm. Gesch., ii. 103: The constitution established after the fall of the monarchy was the government of the patrician houses.' it was said,' in the enjoyment of the newly acquired blessings, and by the amicable dealings of the patricians, who, from political reasons, made some valuable concessions, the plebeians, together with the patricians, became the irreconcilable enemies of the expelled tyrant, and with united efforts opposed all attempts of the Tarquins to regain their power. But the narrative goes on to tell that they had hardly escaped all danger from the banished king and his adherents when the patricians showed themselves in their true light, as unfeeling, hardhearted oppressors of the people. The plebeians suffered great distress and boundless misery. Through continual wars, which laid waste their fields and reduced their farms to ashes, they were deprived of their regular means of maintenance; they were impoverished by the severe war taxes, and plunged into debt. Their creditors were the patricians, who, with reckless severity, administered the harsh law, drove their debtors from their homes, loaded them with chains, kept them languishing in prison, and even tore their backs with ignominious stripes. At last despair drove the poor wretches to resistance. They refused the military service. While the Volscians were attacking Rome, and the senate was in vain devising means of defence, those plebeians who were imprisoned for debt escaped from the prisons and rejoiced in the trouble of their oppressors. Then the consul Servilius, who was friendly to the people, promised them temporary release from their debts, and protection against the harshness of their creditors, on condition that they should allow themselves to be enrolled in the legions. His proposal was accepted. The Volscians were driven back. The Sabines and Auruncans also, who made use of the same opportunity to attack Rome, were conquered in a short campaign. After a threefold victory the army returned to Rome. But forthwith the distress began anew. Again the plebeians filled the loathsome debtors' prisons, and were subjected to all sorts of outrage 1 Cicero, De Rep., i. 40. Tarquinio exacto mira quadam exultasse populum insolentia libertatis.'-Livy, ii. 1. CHAP. II. BOOK II. These ac counts are not trust credible. and indignity by the heartless patricians. New wars threatened. The plebeians refused to serve. It was only through the nomination of M. Valerius as dictator that the senate could levy new troops. Valerius succeeded, by the promise of protection from their creditors, in inducing the plebeians to enlist. Ten legions marched under the dictator and two consuls against the Volscians, Equians, and Sabines. Again a threefold victory was won, but, instead of the armies being disbanded, they were kept under military command and military law, lest the men should insist on the fulfilment of the promises of the dictator and on an abolition of debts. Then at length the patience of the plebeians was exhausted. One of the armies declined to obey, marched in military order to the right bank of the river Anio, in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, encamped there, and threatened to secede from Rome altogether. The danger was very great that the Roman state would fall to pieces and become a prey to its ever-jealous and ever-watchful neighbours. The senate now resolved to yield. It entered into negotiations with the insurgents. It convinced them of the necessity of a reconciliation, and agreed to the condition which they proposed. This was, that plebeian magistrates, called Tribunes of the Plebs, should be chosen, empowered to protect the plebeians from the unfair treatment of the patrician magistrates, and invested with personal inviolability under the sanction of religion. The foregoing narrative, which is abridged from ten long chapters of Livy,' and from sixty-eight much longer worthy or chapters of Dionysius 2 betrays at first sight the boundless caprice and the unskilfulness of the annalists.3 Apart from the surprising detail in the descriptions, and from the elaborate speeches, in which Dionysius endeavours to show his rhetorical talent, the repetitions and exaggerationsthe two most pardonable faults of the Roman annalists-are 1 Livy, ii. 23-32. 2 Dionysius, vi. 22, 90. Compare Sir G. C. Lewis's condensed narrative, Credibility of Early Roman History, ii. 62-72. 3 See Sir G. C. Lewis's Credibility, ii. 73–84. See Schwegler, Röm. Gesch., ii. 225, Anm. 3, and p 235. |