five years longer, Antony agreeing to assist Octavius with 120 ships
against Pompey, and Octavius contributing a large land force to help
Antony against the Parthians. After Pompey had been overcome, Lepidus
claimed Sicily, but Octavius seduced his soldiers from him, and obliged
him to throw himself upon his rival's mercy. He was permitted to retire
into private life, but was allowed to enjoy his property and dignities.
He lived in the ease that he loved until 13 B.C., first at Circeii, not
far from Tarracina, and afterwards at Rome, where he was deprived of
honors and rank. Lepidus had not been a strong member of the
triumvirate for a long time, but after this he was not allowed to
interfere even nominally in affairs of government. Antony and Octavius
were now to wrestle for the supremacy, and the victor was to be
autocrat.
For three years after his marriage with Octavia, Antony seems to have
been able to conquer the fascinations of the Egyptian queen, but then,
when he was preparing to advance into Parthia, he allowed himself to
fall again into her power, and the chances that he could hold his own
against Octavius were lessened (B.C. 37). He advanced into Syria, but
called Cleopatra to him there, and delayed his march to remain with
her, overwhelming her with honors. When at last he did open the
campaign, he encountered disaster, and, hardly escaping the fate of
Crassus, retreated to Alexandria, where he gave himself up entirely to
his enchantress. He laid aside the dress and manners of a Roman, and
appeared as an Eastern monarch, vainly promising Cleopatra that he
would conquer Octavius and make Alexandria the capital of the world.
The rumors of the mad acts of Antony were carried to Rome, where
Octavius was growing in popularity, and it was inevitable that a
contrast should be made between the two men. Octavius easily made the
people believe that they had every thing to fear from Antony. The
nobles who sided with Antony urged him to dismiss Cleopatra, and enter
upon a contest with his rival untrammelled; but, on the contrary, in
his infatuation he divorced Octavia.
War was declared against Cleopatra, for Antony was ignored, and
Octavius as consul was directed to push it. Mæcenas was placed in
command at Rome, Agrippa took the fleet, and the consul himself the
land forces. The decisive struggle took place off the west coast of
Greece, north of the islands of Samos and Leucas, near the promontory
of Actium, which gained its celebrity from this battle (September 2,
B.C. 31). The ships of Agrippa were small, and those of Antony large,
but difficult of management, and Cleopatra soon became alarmed for her
safety, She attempted to flee, and Antony sailed after her, leaving
those who were fighting for them. Agrippa obtained a decisive victory,
and Octavius likewise overcame the forces on land.
Agrippa was sent back to Rome, and for a year Octavius busied himself
in Greece and Asia Minor, adding to his popularity by his mildness in
the treatment of the conquered. He had intended to pass the winter at
Samos, but troubles among the veterans called him to Italy, where he
calmed the rising storm, and returned again to his contest, after an
absence of only twenty-seven days.
Both Cleopatra and Antony sent messengers to solicit the favor of
Octavius, but he was cold and did not satisfy them, and calmly pushed
his plans. An effort was made by Cleopatra to flee to some distant
Arabian resort, but it failed: Antony made a show of resistance, but
found that his forces were not to be trusted, and both then put an end
to their lives, leaving Octavius master of Egypt, as he was of the rest
of the world. He did not hasten back to Rome, where he knew that
Mæcenas and Agrippa were faithfully attending to his interests, but
occupied himself another year away from the capital in regulating the
affairs of his new province.
[Illustration: ANCIENT STATUS OF AUGUSTUS. (THE RIGHT ARM IS A
RESTORATION.)]
In the summer of the year 29, however, Octavius left Samos, where he
had spent the winter in rest, and entered Rome amid the acclamations of
the populace, celebrating triumphs for the conquest of Dalmatia, of
Actium, and of Egypt, and distributing the gold he had won with such
prodigality that interest on loans was reduced two thirds and the price
of lands doubled. Each soldier received a thousand sesterces (about
$40), each citizen four hundred, and a certain sum was given to the
children, the whole amounting to some forty million dollars.
Octavius marked the end of the old era by himself closing the gates of
the temple of Janus for the third time in the history of Rome, and by
declaring that he had burned all the papers of Antony. Several months
later, by suppressing all the laws of the triumvirate he emphasized
still more the fact which he wished the people to understand, that he
had broken with the past.
The Roman Republic was ended. The Empire was not established in name,
but the government was in reality absolute. The chief ruler united in
himself all the great offices of the state, but concealed his strength
and power, professing himself the minister of the senate, to which,
however, he dictated the decrees that he ostentatiously obeyed.
XVIII.
SOME MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.
We have now traced the career of the people of Rome from the time when
they were the plain and rustic subjects of a king, through their long
history as a conquering republic, down to the period when they lost the
control of government and fell into the hands of a ruler more
autocratic than their earlier tyrants. The heroic age of the republic
had now long since passed away, and with it had gone even the
admiration of those personal qualities which had lain at the foundation
of the national greatness.
History at its best is to such an extent made up of stories of the
doings of rulers and fighting-men, who happen by their mere strength
and physical force to have made themselves prominent, that it is often
read without conveying any actual familiarity with the people it is
ostensibly engaged with. The soldiers and magistrates of whom we have
ourselves been reading were but few, and we may well ask what the
millions of other citizens were doing all these ages. How did they
live? What were their joys and griefs? We have, it is true, not failed
to get an occasional glimpse of the intimate life of the people who
were governed, as we have seen a Virginia passing through the forum to
her school, and a Lucretia spinning among her maidens, and we have
learned that in the earliest times the workers were honored so much
that they were formed into guilds, and had a very high position among
the centuries (see pages 31 and 50), but these were only suggestions
that make us all the more desirous to know particulars.
Rome had not become a really magnificent city, even after seven hundred
years of existence. We know that it was a mere collection of huts in
the time of Romulus, and that after the burning of the principal
edifices by the Gauls, it was rebuilt in a hurried and careless manner,
the houses being low and mean, the streets narrow and crooked, so that
when the population had increased to hundreds of thousands the crowds
found it difficult to make their way along the thoroughfares, and
vehicles with wheels were not able to get about at all, except in two
of the streets. The streets were paved, it is true, and there were
roads and aqueducts so well built and firm that they claim our
admiration even in their ruins.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE-PHILOSOPHER.]
The Roman house at first was extremely simple, being of but one room
called the _atrium_, or darkened chamber, because its walls were
stained by the smoke that rose from the fire upon the hearth and with
difficulty found its way through a hole in the roof. The aperture also
admitted light and rain, the water that dripped from the roof being
caught in a cistern that was formed in the middle of the room. The
atrium was entered by way of a vestibule open to the sky, in which the
gentleman of the house put on his toga as he went out. [Footnote: When
Cincinnatus went out to work in the field, he left his toga at home,
wearing his tunic only, and was "naked" (_nudus_), as the Romans
said. The custom illustrates MATT, xxiv., 18. (See p. 86.)] Double
doors admitted the visitor to the entrance-hall or _ostium_. There
was a threshold, upon which it was unlucky to place the left foot; a
knocker afforded means of announcing one's approach, and a porter, who
had a small room at the side, opened the door, showing the caller the
words _Cave canem_ (beware of the dog), or _Salve_ (welcome), or
perchance the dog himself reached out toward the visitor as far as
his chain would allow. Sometimes, too, there would be noticed in the
mosaic of the pavement the representation of the faithful domestic
animal which has so long been the companion as well as the protector of
his human friend. Perhaps myrtle or laurel might be seen on a door,
indicating that a marriage was in process of celebration, or a chaplet
announcing the happy birth of an heir. Cypress, probably set in pots in
the vestibule, indicated a death, as a crape festoon does upon our own
door-handles, while torches, lamps, wreaths, garlands, branches of
trees, showed that there was joy from some cause in the house.
[Illustration: DINING TABLE AND COUCHES.]
In the "black room" the bed stood; there the meals were cooked and
eaten, there the goodman received his friends, and there the goodwife
sat in the midst of her maidens spinning. The original house grew
larger in the course of time: wings were built on the sides, and the
Romans called them wings as well as we (_ala_, a wing). Beyond the
black room a recess was built in which the family records and archives
were preserved, but with it for a long period the Roman house stopped
its growth.
Before the empire came, however, there had been great progress in
making the dwelling convenient as well as luxurious. Another hall had
been built out from the room of archives, leading to an open court,
surrounded by columns, known as the _peristylum_ (_peri_ about,
_stulos_, a pillar), which was sometimes of great magnificence.
Bedchambers were made separate from the atrium, but they were small,
and would not seem very convenient to modern eyes.
The dining-room, called the _triclinium_ (Greek, _kline_, a bed) from
its three couches, was a very important apartment. In it were three
lounges surrounding a table, on each of which three guests might
be accommodated. The couches were elevated above the table, and each
man lay almost flat on his breast, resting on his left elbow, and
having his right hand free to use, thus putting the head of one near
the breast of the man behind him, and making natural the expression
that he lay in the bosom of the other. [Footnote: In the earliest times
the Romans sat at table on benches. The habit of reclining was
introduced from Greece, but Roman women sat at table long after the men
had fallen into the new way.] As the guests were thus arranged by
threes, it was natural that the rule should have been made that a party
at dinner should not be less in number than the Graces nor more than
the Muses, though it has remained a useful one ever since.
Spacious saloons or parlors were added to the houses, some of which
were surrounded with galleries and highly adorned. In these the dining-
tables were spread on occasions of more ceremony than usual. After the
capture of Syracuse, and the increase of familiarity with foreign art,
picture-rooms were built in private dwellings; and after the second
Punic war, book-rooms became in some sort a necessity. Before the
republic came to an end, it was so fashionable to have a book-room that
ignorant persons who might not be able to read even the titles of their
own books endeavored to give themselves the appearance of erudition by
building book-rooms in their houses and furnishing them with elegance.
The books were in cases arranged around the walls in convenient manner,
and busts and statues of the Muses, of Minerva, and of men of note were
used then as they are now for ornaments. [Footnote: The books were
rolls of the rind (_liber_) of the Egyptian papyrus, which early
became an article of commerce, or of parchment, written on but one side
and stained of a saffron color on the other. Slaves were employed to
make copies of books that were much in demand, and booksellers bought
and sold them.] House-philosophers were often employed to open to the
uninstructed the stores of wisdom contained in the libraries.
As wealth and luxury increased, the Romans added the bath-room to their
other apartments. In the early ages they had bathed for comfort and
cleanliness once a week, but the warm bath was apparently unknown to
them. In time this became very common, and in the days of Cicero there
were hot and cold baths, both public and private, which were well
patronized. Some were heated by fires in flues, directly under the
floors, which produced a vapor bath. The bath was, however, considered
a luxury, and at a later date it was held a capital offence to indulge
in one on a religious holiday, and the public baths were closed when
any misfortune happened to the republic.
Comfort and convenience united to take the cooking out of the atrium
(which then became a reception-room) into a separate apartment known as
the _culina_, or kitchen, in which was a raised platform on which
coals might be burned and the processes of broiling, boiling, and
roasting might be carried on in a primitive manner, much like the
arrangement still to be seen at Rome. On the tops of the houses, after
a while, terraces were planned for the purpose of basking in the sun,
and sometimes they were furnished with shrubs, fruit-trees, and even
fishponds. Often there were upwards of fifty rooms in a house on a
single floor; but in the course of time land became so valuable that
other stories were added, and many lived in flats. A flat was sometimes
called an _insula_, which meant, properly, a house not joined to
another, and afterwards was applied to hired lodgings. _Domus_, a
house, meant a dwelling occupied by one family, whether it were an
_insula_ or not.
The floors of these rooms were sometimes, but not often, laid with
boards, and generally were formed of stone, tiles, bricks, or some sort
of cement. In the richer dwellings they were often inlaid with mosaics
of elegant patterns. The walls were often faced with marble, but they
were usually adorned with paintings; the ceilings were left uncovered,
the beams supporting the floor or the roof above being visible, though
it was frequently arched over. The means of lighting, either by day or
night, were defective. The atrium was, as we have seen, lighted from
above, and the same was true of other apartments--those at the side
being illuminated from the larger ones in the middle of the house.
There were windows, however, in the upper stories, though they were not
protected by glass, but covered with shutters or lattice-work, and, at
a later period, were glazed with sheets of mica. Smoking lamps, hanging
from the ceiling or supported by candelabra, or candles, gave a gloomy
light by night in the houses, and torches without.
The sun was chiefly depended upon for heat, for there were no proper
stoves, though braziers were used to burn coals upon, the smoke
escaping through the aperture in the ceiling, and, in rare cases, hot-
air furnaces were constructed below, the heat being conveyed to the
upper rooms through pipes. There has been a dispute regarding chimneys,
but it seems almost certain that the Romans had none in their
dwellings, and, indeed, there was little need of them for purposes of
artificial warmth in so moderate a climate as theirs.
Such were some of the chief traits of the city houses of the Romans.
Besides these, there were villas in the country, some of which were
simply farm-houses, and others places of rest and luxury supported by
the residents of cities. The farm villa was placed, if possible, in a
spot secluded from visitors, protected from the severest winds, and
from the malaria of marshes, in a well-watered place near the foot of a
well-wooded mountain. It had accommodations for the kitchen, the wine-
press, the farm-superintendent, the slaves, the animals, the crops, and
the other products of the farm. There were baths, and cellars for the
wine and for the confinement of the slaves who might have to be
chained.
Varro thus describes life at a rural household: "Manius summons his
people to rise with the sun, and in person conducts them to the scene
of their daily work. The youths make their own bed, which labor renders
soft to them, and supply themselves with water-pot and lamp. Their
drink is the clear fresh spring; their fare, bread, with onions as a
relish. Every thing prospers in house and field. The house is no work
of art, but an architect might learn symmetry from it. Care is taken of
the field that it shall not be left disorderly, and waste or go to ruin
through slovenliness or neglect; and, in return, grateful Ceres wards
off damage from the produce, that the high-piled sheaves may gladden
the heart of the husbandman. Here hospitality still holds good; every
one who has but imbibed mother's milk is welcome. The bread-pantry, the
wine-vat, and the store of sausages on the rafter,--lock and key are at
the service of the traveller, and piles of food are set before him;
contented, the sated guest sits, looking neither before him nor behind,
dozing by the hearth in the kitchen. The warmest double-wool sheepskin
is spread as a couch for him. Here people still, as good burgesses,
obey the righteous law which neither out of envy injures the innocent,
nor out of favor pardons the guilty. Here they speak no evil against
their neighbors. Here they trespass not with their feet on the sacred
hearth, but honor the gods with devotion and with sacrifices; throw to
the familiar spirit his little bit of flesh into his appointed little
dish, and when the master of the household dies accompany the bier with
the same prayer with which those of his father and of his grandfather
were borne forth."
The pleasure villa had many of the appointments of the town house, but
was outwardly more attractive, of course. It stood in the midst of
grassy slopes, was approached through avenues of trees leading to the
portico, before which was a terrace and ornaments made of box-trees cut
into fantastic forms representing animals. The dining-room stood out
from the other buildings, and was light and airy. Perhaps a grand
bedchamber was likewise built out from the others, so that it might
have the warmth of the sun upon it through the entire day. Connected
with the establishment were walks ornamented with flowerbeds, closely
clipped hedges, and trees tortured into all sorts of unnatural shapes.
There were shaded avenues for gentle exercise afoot or in litters;
there were fountains, and perhaps a hippodrome formed like a circus,
with paths divided by hedges and surrounded by large trees in which the
luxurious owner and his guests might run or exercise themselves in the
saddle. [Footnote: Roman extravagance ran riot in the appointments of
the villa. One is mentioned that sold for some $200,000, chiefly
because it comprised a desirable fish-pond. A late writer says of the
site of Pompey's villa on a slope of the Alban hills: "It has never
ceased in all the intervening ages to be a sort of park, and very fine
ruins, from out of whose massive arches grow a whole avenue of live
oaks, attest to the magnificence which must once have characterized the
place. The still beautiful grounds stretch along the shore of the lake
as far as the gate of the town of Albano.... The house in Rome I
occupy, stands in the old villa of Mæcenas, an immense tract of land
comprising space enough to contain a good-sized city.... Where did the
Plebs live? and what air did they and their children breathe? Who cared
or knew, so long as Pompey or Cæsar fared sumptuously? What marvel that
there were revolutions!"]
In such houses the Roman family lived, composed as families must be, of
parents and children, to which were usually added servants, for after
the earlier times of simplicity had passed away it became so
fashionable to keep slaves to perform all the different domestic
labors, that one could hardly claim to be respectable unless he had at
least ten in his household. The first question asked regarding a
stranger was: "How many slaves does he keep?" and upon its answer
depended the social position the person would have in the inquirer's
estimation. The son did not pass from his father's control while that
parent lived, but the daughter might do so by marriage. The power of
the father over his children and grandchildren, as well as over his
slaves was very great, and the family spirit was exceedingly strong.
When a man and a woman had agreed to marry, and the parents and friends
had given their consent, there was sometimes a formal meeting at the
maiden's house, at which the marriage-agreement was written out on
tablets and signed by the engaged persons. It seems, too, that in some
cases the man placed a ring on the hand of his betrothed. It was no
slight affair to choose the wedding-day, for no day that was marked
_ater_ on the calendar would be considered fit for the purpose of
the rites that were to accompany the ceremony. The calends (the first
day of the month), the nones (the fifth or seventh), and the ides (the
thirteenth or fifteenth), would not do, nor would any day in May or
February, nor many of the festivals.
In early times, the bride dressed herself in a long white robe, adorned
with ribbons, and a purple fringe, and bound herself with a girdle on
her wedding day. She put on a bright yellow veil and shoes of the same
color, and submitted to the solemn religious rites that were to make
her a wife. The pair walked around the altar hand in hand, received the
congratulations of their friends, and the bride, taken with apparent
force from the arms of her mother, as the Sabine women were taken in
the days of Romulus, was conducted to her new home carrying a distaff
and a spindle, emblems of the industry that was thought necessary in
the household work that she was to perform or direct. Strong men lifted
her over the threshold, lest her foot should trip upon it, and her
husband saluted her with fire and water, symbolic of welcome, after
which he presented her the keys. A feast was then given to the entire
train of friends and relatives, arid probably the song was sung of
which _Talasia_ was the refrain. [Footnote: See page 22.]
Sometimes the husband gave another entertainment the next day, and
there were other religious rites after which the new wife took her
proud position as mater-familias, sharing the honors of her husband,
and presiding over the household.