XVII. those of foreign origin as also the Latins, formed as it were CHAP. the outer circle or shell of the Roman empire. The kernel consisted of the body of genuine Roman citizens. The double division of the state, the contrast between patricians and plebeians, was repeated on a larger scale, and was spread over the whole of Italy when it had ceased in Rome itself to be of any political importance. The Roman citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, now succeeded to the exclusive possession of political rights from which the Latins and the other allies were excluded. This exclusion was inevitable so long as the newly-formed empire retained the old constitution, which was adapted only for the government of a small territory or a single town. It was physically impossible to assemble on the Forum the population of the whole of Italy. A line had to be drawn for the purpose of separating the sovereign people of Rome from those who were members of the state only as allies. This line included the most southern part of Etruria, almost the whole of Latium, and parts of the land of the Volscians. It was, in truth, too large already, and placed the representation of the more distant parts in the hands of a few who had the means and the leisure to devote themselves to the political life of the capital. An equal division of civil rights and duties, even if it had been contemplated, would have been impossible, unless the town constitution of the republic had been changed into a representative constitution or into a monarchy. The solution of the difficulty by the representative system seemed to be very obvious; for, if from the senates of the separate towns deputies had been sent to the Roman senate, a representative body would have been formed. But the essence of republican institutions appeared to the ancients to consist in a direct participation of every member of the community in the exercise of sovereign power. lt was therefore impossible to do away with the public assemblies of the Roman people for the purposes of legislation, and the election of magistrates and for the highest judicial func tions, and it was equally impossible to swell the people of Rome by the aggregate of all the peoples of Italy. Nor was this by any means intended, if it had been possible. The city of Rome and the men who constituted the Roman tribes had acquired by force of arms the dominion over Italy, and they had no intention of sharing it with others. Rome remained not merely the head, but the sovereign head, of the confederation. The Roman senate alone conducted the foreign policy; the magistrates elected in the Roman Forum or in the Campus Martius administered the government, raised the revenue, superintended the census and the distribution of the military burdens. The Roman people claimed for itself the right of legislating for the whole state, a right to which all local rights and privileges were expected to bend. The conduct of the common affairs of the confederation was centred in Rome, and not liable to be influenced by the special interests, wishes, or opposition of the allies. It was determined by one interest alone, the interest of Rome, and to this interest the wishes and claims of the allies were subordinated without hesitation. Such a government would have been an unbearable tyranny if the Romans had been addicted to the modern vice of governing too much, or if they had cruelly or recklessly drained the resources of their allies for their own benefit. They did neither the one nor the other. They demanded no services but military aid in war, and they left the regulation of all internal affairs to local self-government. The systematic spoliation which the proconsuls and the farmers of the public revenue introduced at a later period was yet unknown. For a long time the Italians did not feel their inferiority to the Roman citizens to be an injustice and a hardship. For the present they were firmly attached to Rome, and this attachment is a proof that the Roman dominion was felt to be a benefit. The body of Roman citizens consisted of three classes. First, those who inhabited Rome itself or the country tribes and who constituted the governing people; secondly, XVII. those citizens who had emigrated into Roman (not Latin) CHAP. colonies (coloniæ civium Romanorum), who retained all their civil rights, but, on account of their absence from Rome, were unable to exercise them. Thirdly, those citizens who possessed only the private rights and not the public franchise (cives sine suffragio), and were in reality subjects waiting for the time to be admitted to all the privileges of Roman citizens.' The towns on which this lesser privilege was conferred, and of which the chief were Care, Anagnia, and other communities in the countries of the Hernicans, Volscians, and Campanians, were more limited in their self-government. The Roman law was introduced among them, and the jurisdiction passed into the hands of a prefect sent from Rome, whence they received the name' of prefectures. The people of these towns served in the Roman legions, and shared all the burdens of the Roman citizens, although they were not admitted to their political rights. Only their local administration was left in their hands. They were, therefore, almost in the same position as the so-called confederate states (civitates fœderatæ) in the more distant parts of Italy; but by their greater proximity to Rome, by being included in the Roman census, by being draughted into the Roman legions, and by the use of the Roman law, they were far more intimately connected with Rome. Accordingly, although they were called Roman citizens, their position was less free and satisfactory, and it is no matter of surprise that a few towns in the country of the Hernicans, who had the option of being admitted into this category of Roman citizens, preferred to remain confederate towns.2 allies. The Roman republic consisted therefore of citizens and Roman allies. The citizens were subdivided into-1st, citizens with the full franchise; 2ndly, citizens in the Roman colonies; 3rdly, citizens without political rights. The allies were, 1st, Latins, in some old Latin towns such as Præneste and Marquardt, Röm. Alterth., iii. 1, 12, 2 Livy, ix. 43. III. BOOK Tibur, and in the Latin colonies; and, 2ndly, Sabellian and Greek towns enjoying municipal self-government, but subject to furnish troops to the Roman army, or ships to the Roman fleet, and deprived of all political intercourse with other nations. The several towns of Etruria were nominally sovereign, but their political dependence on Rome was such that we may look upon them as de facto members of the great Roman confederation. Population of the Roman federal Of the population of the federal territory we have no means of speaking with accuracy. Enumerations deserving of credit existed only of Rome itself; of the several Italian territory. populations and of the Greek towns we know nothing but what we can gather from occasional statements of the strength of their armies and the numbers reported to have been slain in battle. It is evident that such statements cannot be trusted. They are in general exaggerated, and the exaggeration increases with the more recent historians. Even with regard to the battles of Pyrrhus we have no trustworthy accounts of numbers, although contemporary writers could consult the reports of King Pyrrhus himself. Hieronymus, who wrote at the same time, gives the number of Romans killed in the battle of Asculum as 6,000, that of the Epirotes as 3,505; whereas later Roman writers state that Pyrrhus lost 20,000 men, and the Romans only 5,000. If such uncertainty prevails in the accounts of the war of Pyrrhus, what can we expect of the statements with regard to the Samnite wars? If we add up the numbers of slain Samnites reported by Livy, we are startled by the result; for no war of modern times, even among the most powerful nations, ever resulted in such wholesale slaughter. The exaggeration is obvious. We cannot believe that the mountains of central Italy, where the Sabines and their kindred races, the Marsians, Vestinians, Pelignians, and further south where the Samnites lived, were able to support a dense population. These mountains were then and are now to a great extent unproductive. The breeding of cattle was the chief resource of the inhabitants. Agri culture was not practised on a large scale, and therefore there were no means for the subsistence of large numbers. The climate and geography of their country explain to some extent the restlessness of the Sabellians, their wanderings, and their expeditions for plunder or conquest. The legend of the sacred spring' has reference to this state of things. No doubt it often happened that numerous bands left the country to escape the misery of hunger and to obtain by plunder the means of living which the sterile soil refused them at home. This poverty of the country leads us to reject as idle tales what is related of the gold and silver ornaments of the Samnites. The nations of central Italy were poor, not because they were virtuous and abstemious, as the moralising writers of a later period delighted to relate, for the purpose of contrasting the luxury and the vices of their contemporaries: they were poor because in their country the sources of national wealth were wanting, and because, instead of cultivating a peaceable and profitable intercourse with their neighbours, they lived in continual hostility with them and among themselves. Under such circumstances the population cannot have been dense. СНАР. XVII. of the The districts along the coast, especially of Campania Strength and many parts of Larger Greece, were, when compared Greek with the mountainous interior, exceedingly fertile, and colonies. consequently well peopled. They were covered with several large and a great number of small cities. Among them Capua was pre-eminent by its wealth and population. Of the extraordinary prosperity of the Greek colonies wonderful stories were related. Croton and Sybaris are said to have led armies into the field consisting of hundreds of thousands of men. Even so late as at the beginning of the war with Rome, the single city of Tarentum could dispose of a force of 20,000 foot and 2,000 horse.3 Diodorus, xx. 104. According to Strabo (vi. 3, 4), the Tarentines had a force of 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse. |