III. B.C. BOOK appears, completely to rule the republic through the comitia of tribes. How easy was it for them to propose 339-286 and to carry laws for grants of land, for the reduction of debt and the distribution of money! Was it to be expected that the people would control themselves, and how could there be wanting demagogues ready to avail themselves of so favourable a state of things? How was it that the republican liberties were not now already undermined by ambitious men, with the help of the tribunes of the people and the assembly of tribes? Yet the danger lay still far off. What might have been expected did not happen. The republican spirit was yet too strong; and the position of the republic with regard to foreign states required the co-operation of all parties. But more especially the Roman nobility governed as a compact body, and suffered no isolated opposition to show itself; they kept strict discipline among themselves, and, in spite of all democratic innovations, they were more than ever the real masters and rulers of the commonwealth. Rome was a complete aristocracy with democratic forms. The Roman republic was practically governed by the senate, and power which was composed of the representatives of the noble Position of the senate. houses. The popular assemblies, which had neither the right of initiative nor of free discussion, were only the machinery by which the nobility marked their measures with the legal stamp. It is in the nature of things that the population of a town cannot govern a large country. The small peasants and tradesmen of Rome had not the knowledge necessary for the regulation of public affairs, now that the state was so much extended. The professional politicians, who composed the senate, took the reins into their hands, and justified this usurpation by the wonderful wisdom, firmness, and circumspection with which they governed. They controlled the election of magistrates, and admitted no one easily of whom they were not perfectly sure. The magistrates so chosen they kept in strict obedience to their own will. Even the tribunes of the people bowed to the authority of the senate, and were from this time forward more and more the most important servants of the new government. Through them the senate had the sanction of the assemblies of the people at their disposal, and their right of intercession was a means always ready to overpower the resistance of any refractory magistrate. Thus unity of will was infused into the hete- \ rogeneous mass of authorities which seemed so admirably contrived to cause mutual hindrances and obstructions. The senate kept this position until the end of the republic. The time came at last, however, when it was compelled to abdicate its power. The empire became too large even for the senatorial government as it was organised in Rome. When the nobility could not resist the temptation to turn the power of government to their own advantage, monarchy stepped in, and transformed the freedom of the few, which had become a sham and a nuisance, into an equal slavery for all. CHAP. XI. B.C. BOOK III. 298-290 B.C. State of the moun and their relations with Rome. CHAPTER XII. THE THIRD SAMNITE WAR, 298-290 B.C. THE second Samnite war, which ended in 304 B.C., had put an end for the time to plans of conquests in Campania, and even to the predatory invasions of the mountain tribes. The Romans and their allies, the neighbours of the Samnites, especially those in Campania tain tribes, and Apulia, had not fought the war for the conquest of Samnium. The policy of Rome did not yet contemplate the subjection of the Samnites. In the treaty of peace the independence of the Samnites was acknowledged. Nevertheless an extension of the Roman power took place indirectly at the expense of the mountaineers. The whole district on the Liris and Volturnus, where the Volscian and Ausonian nations lived, was withdrawn from their influence, and had to submit to the arrangements which Rome found it in her interest to make. The country was secured against future attacks by numerous colonies. A great part of the land changed hands. Roman citizens and Latins settled on it in great numbers. The towns that remained independent, or at least in the enjoyment of their own local self-government, were drawn more closely to Rome, as Roman municipia and allies, and furnished henceforth a part of the Roman army. Simultaneously with this increase of the colonies and the subject population, the state grew at its centre, as the tribes were increased from twenty-seven (332 B.C.) to thirty-one (318 B.C.), and stretched now over almost every part of ancient Latium. These thirty-one districts, together with the colonies and the dependent municipalities and prefectures, formed now XII. the enlarged Roman state, a state which in size was already CHAP. the largest in Italy, and which in centralised organisation and readiness for action surpassed, far more than in mere dimensions, all other Italian states. 298-290 B.C. The allies of the This Roman state had, moreover, a number of allies on whom, in case of a war, it might reckon with tolerable Romans. certainty. The Sabellian tribes of central Italy, the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, and Vestinians were, as before, friendly to Rome, as were also the Apulians and Lucanians, from their hatred of their neighbours, the Samnites. These peoples, it is true, were not at all times to be relied on. Their political institutions were shifting and irregular. They formed confederations, which were unable to resist the strain of a great war, and were swayed by the individual interests and views of the different cantons among the mountains, or the several towns in the Apulian plain, or the leaders of opposite parties. The Lucanians, above all the rest, were divided among themselves and uncertain in their resolution and action. It could not, of course, be expected of these people that they should hold the interest of Rome dearer than their own; and if Rome committed errors by leaving them exposed to the common. enemy, or by treating them harshly, or calling upon them to make too great sacrifices, the natural consequence was, that they felt the protection of the Romans more burdensome than the enmity of the Samnites. Thus, in the course of the second Samnite war, there had arisen hostilities between Rome and her allies which the Roman annalists took advantage of, in order to be able to relate victories of the Romans over these nations.' tion of the Roman After the termination of the second Samnite war, in the Consolidayear 304 B.C., these alliances were renewed, first with the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, and Vestinians, and a state. few years later with the Picentians, the Lucanians, and the Apulians. Thus Samnium was completely hemmed in, on the one side by Rome herself, and on the other side by her 1 See p. 423. * Diodorus, xx. 101. Livy, x. 3, 10. Dionysius, xvi. 11. BOOK 298-290 B.C. allies. The Romans had full liberty to complete that organisation of the state which was commenced by changing the Latin allies into Roman citizens, by extending the Roman tribes over Latium, by the establishment of colonies, dependent municipalities, and prefectures. In this direction the Romans now proceeded further. Immediately after the close of the war with the Samnites, the Equians, the old obstinate enemies and tiresome neighbours, who had so often harassed and alarmed the Roman republic in its infancy, were subdued and quieted for ever. The town of Alba, in their country, near Lake Fucinus, was changed into a Roman colony, and a strong garrison of 6,000 men was placed there.' The town of Sora in the country of the Volscians, on the Liris, which had been temporarily in the possession of the Romans during the war, received a garrison of 4,000 Latin colonists. These colonies could not be founded without large confiscations of land and spoliation of the former owners. It is therefore clear why the Equians, in the year following, made a desperate attempt to destroy the colony of Alba. They remembered the time when by their attacks they were able to terrify even Rome, and probably they forgot the great changes which had taken place since. By this act they hastened their complete subjection. In spite of their obstinate resistance, their country was incorporated with Rome in the year following (300 B.c.), and two new Roman tribes were formed of it.3 1 Livy, x. 1. It is strange that Alba is stated to have been an Æquian town; it seems to have been situated in the country of the Marsians. We have here another indication to show how vague the notions of the Roman writers were on geographical facts.—See above, pp. 404, 417. The same remark applies to what is reported of Carseoli. Livy (x. 3) says that Carseoli was situated in the country of the Marsians, which, considering it was to the west of Alba, which he calls Equian, is rather strange. But soon after (x. 13) Livy contradicts his former statement, and, following no doubt another annalist, informs us, that Carseoli lay in the country of the Æquicoli, which is only another name for Æqui. 2 Tribus Aniensis and Terentina. 3 The resistance of the Equians on this occasion proves, if proof were wanted, that the establishment of new tribes was far from being necessarily a benefit for the old inhabitants and owners of the land, and that not they but Roman colonists were the constituents and voters of the new tribes.-See p. 260. |