senate, and to the tools of the senate who deceived them. There are
many men, frank and kindly souls, who heartily love the Beautiful, and
are delighted at seeing distinguished men play their part, and look
upon them as the ornaments of their age; others think of nothing but
themselves: driven on by envy and jealousy, and grieved at hearing
any name praised be it ever so slightly, even when it does not harm
them in the least, they are glad if they can discover any weaknesses
in great men. All this tribe now raised an outcry against Gracchus,
laughing at him as a _doctrinaire_, a man of crotchets and theories.
He had now for so long a time enjoyed great consideration, and he
stood forth in too full a blaze of light not to become an eyesore
to many people; just as the Athenian citizen gave his vote against
Aristides, because he was called the Just. Thus it came to pass, that
when he again offered himself as a candidate for the tribuneship, he
was rejected; nor is there any reason to believe that his colleagues
had been guilty of foul play. Among the independent educated middle
classes only, Gracchus seems to have had many partisans; but these
had not much political weight, and his friends of high rank were
hot-headed people. In the year 631, his enemy L. Opimius, the destroyer
of Fregellæ, whom, the year before, he had kept out of the consulship,
was chosen consul. For when he was in the heyday of his popularity, he
once asked the people to promise him a favour; this they granted, and
while it was thought that he would demand great things, he begged the
consulship for C. Fannius. The latter was a _homo novus_, at least for
the consulship, and it would have been hard for him to get it without
the help of Gracchus: he, however, soon left him, and went over to his
foes. Opimius also was a plebeian; but, like Popillius Lænas, he sided
with the aristocracy against Gracchus. The oligarchical party was
bent upon getting up a quarrel. Gracchus, now that he was no longer
_sacrosanctus_, did not feel sure of his life, and was therefore always
surrounded by many of his friends. The measures of the senate became
more and more hostile: the colonies granted to him were to be broken up
by a decree of that body, and there was a deliberation on the subject;
one of the tribunes moreover, who had been nominated by the oligarchs,
spoke to the people then assembled before the Capitol, against
Gracchus, and when the latter came forward to defend himself, he was
charged in a tumultuous manner with having interrupted the tribune.
The consul, who just then was offering a sacrifice on the Capitol,
sent one of his lictors, as if to fetch something for the sacrifice,
but in reality for another purpose; and the man while forcing his way
across the friends of Gracchus, cried out, “Ye evil-minded fellows!
make room for the good citizens!” One of them was rash enough to strike
him; a tumult arose, and the lictor was murdered. His dead body was
displayed in the forum, and a scene was got up, as if he had been
a martyr to the good cause. For the first time,[78] the senate now
passed the decree, _viderent Consules, ne quid detrimenti res publica
caperet_. Opimius was invested with dictatorial power; for the custom
of making dictators had fallen into disuse, as it could no longer be
managed in the old forms, the curies having ceased to exist. Gracchus
now took leave of his wife and children; after which, he and Fulvius
went to the Aventine, the ancient refuge for persecuted innocence.
He had had no foreboding of the misfortune which had come upon him:
his whole party was all in confusion, and he could not make up his
mind to let things go on to extremity. His friend and colleague, the
consular M. Fulvius Flaccus, who was more resolute, armed some of the
common people, and slaves; in short, any one whom he could get. The mob
itself--from henceforth we meet with nothing better--for which Gracchus
had no sympathies, left him to his fate, taking him for a knave or
a fool, and being quite content, so long as they kept the benefits
which he had gained for them. Thus it cost the consuls no trouble to
attack the Aventine, though they had only a small force, the city
being either paralyzed or indifferent. The knights, whom Gracchus had
nearly remodelled as an order, were likewise idle lookers on, owing to
that fear which is inherent in rich men whose wealth is not in landed
property, but merely in money. This class shows itself lukewarm in
every commotion, and lets itself be trampled on in every possible way,
as we see, for instance, in the history of Florence.
Gracchus sent to the senate to effect a compromise; but unconditional
surrender was demanded. The Aventine being feebly defended, the _clivus
Publicius_, by which one ascended from the Circus, was taken by storm;
and now Fulvius sent his son, a fine, handsome youth, to the senate,
to ask for a truce. He was sent back the first time; and when he came
again, Opimius had him arrested, thrown into a dungeon, and afterwards
put to death. When the Aventine was taken, Fulvius, who had hidden
himself, was found and slain; Gracchus leaped from the temple of Diana
down the sharp steep of the Aventine, and sprained his ankle; not
being able to find a horse, he, leaning on his friends, could hardly
reach the _Pons sublicius_. The two friends, Pomponius and Lætorius,
who were knights, and formed an honourable exception to the majority
of the higher classes, fought like Horatius Cocles on the bridge, to
keep the pursuers at bay, and allowed themselves to be cut down. In the
meanwhile, Gracchus fled across the Tiber into a sacred grove (_lucus
Furiarum_), which, however, did not shelter him. Opimius had promised
for his head its weight in gold. According to the most likely account,
a faithful slave did him the friendly service of killing him. An
Anagnian, Septimuleius, got the head, and filled it with molten lead.
Upwards of three thousand men were denounced as partisans of Gracchus,
and nearly all of them were put to death by Opimius; a few only may
have made their escape. This war of extermination was waged against all
who were in any way distinguished: it was a downright butchery, like
that of the year 1799 at Naples. For two years the bloodshed lasted,
and these murderers called themselves _boni homines, boni cives_. There
were many renegades, and there is no doubt but that C. Carbo was very
early one of them. He became consul, and then defended Opimius against
the charges brought against him by the tribune Q. Decius. Carbo,
after he had saved Opimius, became the darling of the oligarchs; but
now there arose against him P. Licinius Crassus, a near kinsman of
his, perhaps a brother of the wife of C. Gracchus, and the very one
of whom Cicero so often speaks, especially in the masterly dialogue
_de Oratore_, and in his “Brutus.” Crassus was a man of uncommon mind
and powers; but like all the orators of that age (with the exception
of C. Gracchus), wanting in cultivation. He too began on the side of
the people, and then he went over to the senate, and became one of
the foremost champions of the oligarchy; yet he is a very respectable
oligarch, and quite free from the reproach which clings to so many
others. He now spoke against Carbo, and attacked him in such a manner,
that he took away his own life by means of poison (a solution of
vitriol, _atramentum sutorium_).[79] This was a satisfaction to men’s
feelings, and it gave a hope of the possibility that things would still
change for the better. But for all that, they remained as they were:
the knights were intimidated; the courts of justice were no better,
nor were any fruits whatever of their independence yet to be seen. The
utter worthlessness of those who were in power is strikingly shown in
the war of Jugurtha, which Sallust, with his fine tact, has therefore
made the subject of his historical work. But we must first speak of the
conquests of the empire.
FOREIGN CONQUESTS DOWN TO THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA.
In Spain, few events of any importance happened between the time of
Tib. Gracchus and the war with Jugurtha. The Balearic isles were
subdued by one of the four sons of Metellus Macedonicus, all of whom
were consuls. The Metelli were plebeians, but one of the most powerful
families which formed the aristocracy; and they were truly great
characters: Metellus Numidicus also, notwithstanding the reproaches
which have been brought against him, is one of the most spotless
of men. Another son of Metellus conquered the Dalmatians, who from
henceforth remained subject to the Romans; so that one might now go by
land to Greece round the Adriatic.
Soon after the death of Tib. Gracchus, the Romans made their first
expedition into Transalpine Gaul. They were masters of nearly the whole
of Spain, and of Italy almost as far as the Alps (Aosta did not yet
belong to them); but in Gaul itself, between the Alps and the Pyrenees,
they had not yet even tried to gain a firm footing: all that they did,
was to secure for the Massilians, their old allies, in the beginning
of the seventh century, a strip of country along the coast against the
Ligurians. The first occasion for their establishing themselves there,
was a war of the Salluvians or Salyans against the Ligurians: the
Salluvians, who dwelt from Aix to Marseilles, were conquered by them.
This tribe had been supported by the Allobroges, one of the greatest
peoples of Gaul, who had their abodes in Dauphiné and Savoy, as far as
Lyons; and when these had likewise been defeated, the Romans turned
their arms against the Arvernians, a race governed by rich and powerful
kings, which as far back as the second Punic War, held the supremacy
in Gaul. These last were utterly routed on the banks of the Rhone
near Vienne, in the days of C. Gracchus. Bituitus, of whose wealth
various accounts have been preserved, was at that time their king: he
tried to make his peace with the Romans, and the generals, Q. Fabius
Maximus (who was afterwards surnamed Allobrogicus), and Cn. Domitius,
sent him to Rome to beg the mercy of the senate. Without having come
_in deditionem_, he went thither, trusting to the good faith of those
who were in power; but they arrested him, and kept him a prisoner to
the day of his death at Alba on the lake Fucinus, where Syphax and
Perseus had died. The Roman province now reached as far as Dauphiné.
The Allobroges in that country, though they acknowledged the _majestas
populi Romani_, did not become subjects; but Provence and Lower
Languedoc, were real provinces, although there was not always a prætor
there. The time when the Roman provincial institutions were introduced,
cannot be exactly made out, owing to the loss of the books of Livy.
Aquæ Sextiæ was the first Roman colony beyond the Alps.
In 638 the Cimbri make their first appearance. After the reduction
of Dalmatia, the Romans had attacked Carniola, which is said to have
roused the anger of the Scordiscans. It is, however, more likely
that the immigration of the Sarmatians from the east stirred up the
Scordiscans, who now fell upon Macedon and Greece. This was one of the
greatest calamities of the unfortunate sixth and seventh centuries
of the city, which were some of the most awful for the world itself;
just as the sixteenth and seventeenth of our era in modern history:
it destroyed most of the beautiful works of ancient art. In Italy,
that havoc went on until the times of Augustus, which were the first
beginning of a kind of material prosperity. The consul C. Porcius Cato
was routed in Thrace by the Scordiscans, and Macedon, Thessaly, and
part of Greece, were overrun by the barbarians.
THE WAR AGAINST JUGURTHA. Q. CÆCILIUS METELLUS NUMIDICUS. C. MARIUS.
Sallust’s description of the war against Jugurtha, is one of the best
specimens which we have in either language of the ancient literature,
and I would even rate it above that of Catiline’s conspiracy. They are
monographies, almost the only ones which the Romans had, except perhaps
the history of the war with Hannibal by Cœlius Antipater, of which,
however, we know nothing: the memoirs of Fannius were something quite
different. Sallust takes indeed the utmost care to avoid anything that
has an annalistic look; he leaves out every mention of dates, to give
his work the greatest possible finish. It is a book which, the more one
reads it, the more worthy of admiration it seems: it is a real study
for every one who wants to know what excellent historical writing is.
To him I refer you.
When Masinissa died, he had put his kingdom in order, and made Scipio
executor of his will. He left his dominions to his three sons, Gulussa,
Micipsa, and Mastanabal, whom we are by no means to look upon as
having been somewhat like the chieftains of the tribes which now
dwell in those countries; for Livy says of Mastanabal, that he had
been _litteris Græcis apprime eruditus_. He knew Greek so well, that
he wrote it; a fact which shows us how wrongly we deem the Numidians
and all such races to have been mere barbarians. Even among the rude
Thracians, there can be no doubt that at that time Greek learning was
not unknown; we meet with it afterwards even among the Parthians. The
civilization of the Greeks had spread very widely, more especially
since the fall of the nation. The Numidians, as well as the Libyans,
had an alphabet of their own, as one sees from remains which are found
in several towns in those parts. Colonel Humbert has discovered over
the gate of a city an _inscriptio bilinguis_, Punic and Libyan; in
Cyrene, there are inscriptions in three languages, Punic, Greek, and
one which is unknown; in the desert of Sahara, among the Tuariks,
the travellers Clapperton and Denham have met with an alphabet which
is quite distinct from the Arabic. I am convinced that it belongs to
the Libyan language, which is spoken in the Canary isles, throughout
the whole of the desert and the oases, as far as the Nile and the
Barabras in Upper Egypt. Denham[80] is too shallow, to see his way
through it; we shall be able to read the Libyan inscriptions when we
fully know the alphabet, of which Denham gives one letter. The whole
of this matter will one day be cleared up. The Numidian kings likewise
had the Carthaginian library given them as a present by the Romans.
Gulussa died early, as also did Mastanabal, who left behind him only a
son by a concubine, Jugurtha. The Numidian empire, which reached from
the borders of Morocco to the Syrtes as far as Leptis and Tripolis,
was now in the hands of Micipsa alone. He had two sons, Adherbal and
Hiempsal. Jugurtha, who had excellent abilities, at first won the
heart of the old king; but when the latter discovered in him talents
superior to those of his own sons, he became jealous of him, and sent
him to Spain, where Scipio was gathering troops together from all
parts for the siege of Numantia: there he hoped that he would perish.
But Jugurtha was befriended by fortune; and he gained great favour
with Scipio, under whose protection he desired to be placed, lest
Micipsa should murder him. Many Romans of rank even encouraged him to
revolt, and provided him with money, as he had no prospect of coming
to the throne lawfully; for after Micipsa’s death, the whole of the
kingdom was to be kept together. He now got letters of recommendation
to Micipsa, who, taking fright, adopted him, and in his will divided
the sovereignty among the three princes, who were to reign together
as colleagues. The proud and fierce Hiempsal, who looked upon his
cousin as an intruder, would insult him without any provocation: it
was then agreed upon to share the inheritance, and in the meanwhile
Jugurtha had him murdered. Jugurtha, who was no common man, being
shrewd and versatile, but without any notion of truth and honesty, like
an Albanian chief, now took up arms and attacked Adherbal also. The
latter betook himself to the Romans, and owing to their predilection
for him obtained a favourable decision: a commission was sent from Rome
to divide the country between himself and Jugurtha. The commissioners,
however, were so well plied with gold, that, when the division was
made, Jugurtha got the most powerful and warlike part of the country.
But he longed for the whole, and thus a war was soon brought on again.
Adherbal imploringly besought the help of Rome against this criminal
and restless man, and in the senate, at first, his cause was found to
be a just one; but the ruling oligarchs, headed by Opimius, and bought
over with bribes, declared for Jugurtha, and hindered every decision.
In the meantime, Adherbal was beset in Cirta, and driven to the last
distress: his representations to the Roman senate were all baffled
by the influence of L. Opimius, as the envoys of Jugurtha, who were
at Rome with a large sum of money, purchased the votes of every one.
But when Cirta had been brought to extremity, some of the friends of
Adherbal stole out of the town, and carried to the senate most dismal
letters: a new commission was now sent, which was likewise bribed,
and returned without having raised the siege. Jugurtha, however, was
impelled by Nemesis not to keep his promise to Adherbal, when he
yielded himself up and stipulated for his life only; nor to the Roman
and Italian _negotiatores_, who alone had upheld that prince, and who
now also surrendered. He had them slaughtered to sate his vengeance.
This was too bad, and even those who had hitherto spoken most loudly
for him, had no longer a word to say. A Roman embassy arrived at Utica,
to call Jugurtha to account; but he gave evasive answers and completely
took them in.
This embassy was headed by M. Æmilius Scaurus, a man who has a great
name in history, but of whom one is at a loss what to think. Horace
says,
_Regulum et Scauros_
_Gratus insigni referam Camena,_
_Fabriciumque._
As for Horace, it is remarkable that no one could be more ignorant
of the history of his own people than he was; thus, for instance, he
confounds the two Scipios, and he had so little read Ennius whom he
laughs at, as to believe that he had sung of Scipio, the destroyer of
Carthage.[81] When he names Scaurus, he says _Scauri_, not knowing that
Scaurus the son was a most worthless fellow, the Verres of Sardinia,
whom Cicero defended merely out of regard for his family. It is owing
to this un-Roman spirit, that he is utterly unable to appreciate
the great minds of the earlier literature; he is a man of elegant,
superficial learning, and, even in his knowledge of the Greek writers,
not to be compared with Virgil. Hence then so many strange things in
his Odes, where he misunderstood the Greek. The stock-in-trade which
he had for his odes, was taken from a few Greek lyrics. When he says
that Homer was wont to slumber, he merely shows his ignorance; he
writes to Lollius that he had again read Homer, which may perhaps have
been for the first time since he left school. Still he is a noble
genius, much more versatile and prolific than Virgil, who, indeed,
was far more industrious and painstaking. Horace was lazy, ever bent
on refined enjoyments. The contrast between the two poets is very
striking; it would be an excellent subject, if worked out.--What speaks
well for Scaurus, is the great respect in which he was held by Cicero,
who mentions, as one of the finest remembrances of his earlier days,
that as a youth of seventeen he was introduced by his father into
the presence of the great statesmen of the age, among whom Scaurus
then shone as a venerable old man: the youth met with a distinguished
reception from them, as they recognised in him the future great man;
and he, on his side, had come to them with that longing which is felt
by all generous minds, to attach himself to those who are more matured,
and to purify himself after their example. Thus he idealized these
men, and the impression which he had received, lasted his whole life
through; even, when an old man himself, he looked up to the men of
his youth, and in this spirit he also remembers Scaurus. Sallust is
reproached with malignity; but surely he is not sinning against truth,
when, filled with indignation, he is branding a guilty man for ever.
Scaurus, as Sallust describes him, was on the verge of that time of
life, when the vigour and energy needed for waging war are already
weakened, but are still equal to ruling the state; yet when he actually
became old, he got out of the perplexing position in which he had been
entangled, and he stood forth as one who had belonged to an age of
gigantic minds, and having to keep up a high character, he then seems
to have lived outwardly blameless and upright. Thus Cicero knew him.
The same person may at different times be quite a different being;
he may be an excellent citizen, and then again a bad one: I am not
speaking here of real virtue before God, but only of political virtue.
This was the case, for instance, in England with Shaftesbury and
others in the seventeenth century. I knew one of the most eminent men
of our own day, who (with the consent indeed of his government) very
indelicately availed himself of an advantage, whereas at other times he
showed himself to be a true hero. The leading features in the character
of Scaurus, are very great pride, very determined party spirit, and
first-rate talent. That his behaviour during the war with Jugurtha is
not an invention of Sallust’s, may be seen from the history itself.
In the commission at Utica, Scaurus was blameless; just as in former
times. After Adherbal’s downfall, the consul L. Calpurnius Bestia
wished to enrich himself by an African war, or at all events to be
able to sell a peace; he therefore joined with some lovers of justice
in moving that Jugurtha should be brought to punishment, and he also
managed to be sent out to Africa with that commission. The war began in
good earnest; but negotiations were soon set on foot, Jugurtha having
convinced Bestia and Scaurus that this was more for their advantage. He
remained indeed in possession of his kingdom; but to save appearances,
he surrendered himself _in fidem populi Romani_; so that the senate
only had to ratify the peace, the _fœdus_ being changed into a
_clientela_. He delivered up the deserters, thirty elephants, and much
cattle; and he bound himself to pay several instalments of money. Yet
the whole thing was but a vile farce. Instead of the deserters being
sent to Rome, where they were to be put to death, they were allowed to
run away; and the elephants were returned to Jugurtha for money. This
treaty, however, raised such an outcry at Rome, that a bold tribune
of the name of C. Memmius got the people to have the matter inquired
into; and L. Cassius, who at that time was honoured as the justest of
men, was commissioned personally to investigate the case in Africa
itself. Cassius, beyond all doubt, was a man of very high rank,--a
patrician,[82] but not identified with any party: being himself pure in
a corrupt time, he condemned without any respect of persons. Cassius’
word of honour was of such weight, that Jugurtha on the strength of it
deemed himself quite safe in going to Rome, and publicly making his
appearance there. Here we find Jugurtha--and this is a marked feature
in the whole of his deportment--wavering between his own boldness and
the feeling that he was not able to withstand the power of Rome. He
was on the point of giving up his accomplices; but a tribune of the
people had been bribed to forbid his speaking, just as he was getting
up in the assembly of the people. Thus the authority of the tribunes
had become powerful for evil, but powerless for good. During his stay
in Rome, Jugurtha caused another descendant of Masinissa, Massiva, a
young Numidian, who likewise happened to be there at the very time, and
to whom the consul Sp. Albinus had held out a hope of the succession,
to be murdered: after this he fled from the city, leaving his sureties
behind. The consul Albinus and the senate now declared the negotiations
for peace to have been null and void; yet the guilty still remained
unpunished. The war was renewed in Africa, but in a lukewarm manner.
The consul Sp. Albinus, who had the chief command, wished for war; but
his arrangements were bad. As he had to return to Rome for the consular
elections, he intrusted the command to his brother Aulus, who behaved
in such a bungling way that he was surrounded by the enemy. Jugurtha
now plied the army with his money, and not only mere foreigners,
but even Roman tribunes were bribed; so that when the time came for
attacking Albinus, he was utterly overpowered, and his camp was taken.
He was forced to make a disgraceful treaty, which, however, was
disowned at Rome.
Things could now no longer be hushed up. Metellus got the command with
ample forces to carry on the war. Three _quæsitores_ were now to be
appointed, and thus Scaurus was in danger of being involved in the
enquiry: but, according to Sallust’s account, he played his cards so
well, that, instead of being impeached, he himself became one of the
_quæsitores_, and proceeded against the accused only so far as seemed
consistent with his own safety. A great number were condemned, and the
slow vengeance for the murder of C. Gracchus now reached L. Opimius. It
is inconceivable how Cicero is mistaken with regard to the latter: no
man’s judgment indeed ought to be implicitly followed. Those who fell
at that time, were certainly all of them guilty. Unfortunately, we have
no exact knowledge of these _quæstiones_; but thus much is certain,
that the _optimates_, who wanted to pass themselves off as being the
best, received by the exposure of the infamy of some among them, a blow
from which they never recovered. The _equites_, as judges, now took a
decided part against the senators: it would have been most interesting
for us, if we could have had further details about it. Here begins the
split which afterwards led to the civil war between the factions of
Marius and Sylla. Calpurnius Bestia was likewise condemned; of the fate
of others we know very little.