FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
DECADENCE OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS
=Destruction of the Peasantry.=--The old Roman people consisted of
small proprietors who cultivated their own land. These honest and
robust peasants constituted at once the army and the assembly of the
people. Though still numerous in 221 and during the Second Punic War,
in 133 there were no more of them. Many without doubt had perished in
the foreign wars; but the special reason for their disappearance was
that it had become impossible for them to subsist.
The peasants lived by the culture of grain. When Rome received the
grain of Sicily and Africa, the grain of Italy fell to so low a price
that laborers could not raise enough to support their families and pay
the military tax. They were compelled to sell their land and this was
bought by a rich neighbor. Of many small fields he made a great
domain; he laid the land down to grazing, and to protect his herds or
to cultivate it he sent shepherds and slave laborers. On the soil of
Italy at that time there were only great proprietors and troops of
slaves. "Great domains," said Pliny the Elder, "are the ruin of
Italy."
It was, in fact, the great domains that drove the free peasants from
the country districts. The old proprietor who sold his land could no
longer remain a farmer; he had to yield the place to slaves, and he
himself wandered forth without work. "The majority of these heads of
families," says Varro in his treatise on agriculture, "have slipped
within our walls, leaving the scythe and the plough; they prefer
clapping their hands at the circus to working in their fields and
their vineyards." Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune of the plebs, exclaimed
in a moment of indignation, "The wild beasts of Italy have at least
their lairs, but the men who offer their blood for Italy have only the
light and the air that they breathe; they wander about without
shelter, without a dwelling, with their wives and their children.
Those generals do but mock them who exhort them to fight for their
tombs and their temples. Is there one of them who still possesses the
sacred altar of his house and the tomb of his ancestors? They are
called the masters of the world while they have not for themselves a
single foot of earth."
=The City Plebs.=--While the farms were being drained, the city of
Rome was being filled with a new population. They were the descendants
of the ruined peasants whom misery had driven to the city; besides
these, there were the freedmen and their children. They came from all
the corners of the world--Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Asiatics,
Africans, Spaniards, Gauls--torn from their homes, and sold as slaves;
later freed by their masters and made citizens, they massed themselves
in the city. It was an entirely new people that bore the name Roman.
One day Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage and of Numantia, haranguing
the people in the forum, was interrupted by the cries of the mob.
"Silence! false sons of Italy," he cried; "do as you like; those whom
I brought to Rome in chains will never frighten me even if they are no
longer slaves." The populace preserved quiet, but these "false sons of
Italy," the sons of the vanquished, had already taken the place of the
old Romans.
This new plebeian order could not make a livelihood for itself, and so
the state had to provide food for it. A beginning was made in 123 with
furnishing corn at half price to all citizens, and this grain was
imported from Sicily and Africa. Since the year 63[140] corn was
distributed gratuitously and oil was also provided. There were
registers and an administration expressly for these distributions, a
special service for furnishing provisions (the Annona). In 46 Caesar
found 320,000 citizens enrolled for these distributions.
=Electoral Corruption.=--This miserable and lazy populace filled the
forum on election days and made the laws and the magistrates. The
candidates sought to win its favors by giving shows and public feasts,
and by dispensing provisions. They even bought votes. This sale took
place on a large scale and in broad day; money was given to
distributers who divided it among the voters. Once the Senate
endeavored to stop this trade; but when Piso, the consul, proposed a
law to prohibit the sale of suffrages, the distributers excited a riot
and drove the consul from the forum. In the time of Cicero no
magistrate could be elected without enormous expenditures.
=Corruption of the Senate.=--Poverty corrupted the populace who formed
the assemblies; luxury tainted the men of the old families who
composed the Senate. The nobles regarded the state as their property
and so divided among themselves the functions of the state and
intrigued to exclude the rest of the citizens from them. When Cicero
was elected magistrate, he was for thirty years the first "new man" to
enter the succession of offices.
Accustomed to exercise power, some of the senators believed themselves
to be above the law. When Scipio was accused of embezzlement, he
refused even to exonerate himself and said at the tribune, "Romans, it
was on this day that I conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians.
Follow me to the Capitol to render thanks to the gods and to beseech
them always to provide generals like myself."
To support their pretensions at home, the majority of the nobles
required a large amount of money. Many used their power to get it for
themselves: some sent as governors plundered the subjects of Rome;
others compelled foreign or hostile kings to pay for the peace granted
them, or even for letting their army be beaten. It was in this way
that Jugurtha bribed a Roman general. Cited to Rome to answer for a
murder, he escaped trial by buying up a tribune who forbade him to
speak. It was related that in leaving Rome he had said, "O city for
sale, if thou only couldst find a purchaser!"
=Corruption of the Army.=--The Roman army was composed of small
proprietors who, when a war was finished, returned to the cultivation
of their fields. In becoming soldiers they remained citizens and
fought only for their country. Marius began to admit to the legions
poor citizens who enrolled themselves for the purpose of making
capital from their campaigns. Soon the whole army was full of
adventurers who went to war, not to perform their service, but to
enrich themselves from the vanquished. One was no longer a soldier
from a sense of duty, but as a profession.
The soldiers enrolled themselves for twenty years; their time
completed, they reengaged themselves at higher pay and became
veterans. These people knew neither the Senate nor the laws; their
obedience was only to their general. To attach them to himself, the
general distributed to them the money taken from the vanquished.
During the war against Mithradates Sulla lodged his men with the rich
inhabitants of Asia; they lived as they chose, they and their friends,
receiving each sixteen drachmas a day. These first generals, Marius
and Sulla, were still Roman magistrates. But soon rich individuals
like Pompey and Crassus drew the soldiers to their pay. In 78 at the
death of Sulla there were four armies, levied entirely and commanded
by simple citizens. From that time there was no further question of
the legions of Rome, there were left only the legions of Pompey or
Caesar.
THE REVOLUTION
=Necessity of the Revolution.=--The Roman people was no longer
anything but an indigent and lazy multitude, the army only an
aggregation of adventurers. Neither the assembly nor the legions
obeyed the Senate, for the corrupt nobles had lost all moral
authority, so that there was left but one real power--the army; there
were no men of influence beside the generals, and the generals had no
longer any desire to obey. The government by the Senate, now no longer
practicable, gave place to the government of the general.
=The Civil Wars.=--The revolution was inevitable, but it did not come
at one stroke; it required more than a hundred years to accomplish it.
The Senate resisted, but too weak itself to govern, it was strong
enough to prevent domination by another power. The generals fought
among themselves to see who should remain master. For a century the
Romans and their subjects lived in the midst of riot and civil war.
=The Gracchi.=--The first civil discord that blazed up in Rome was the
contest of the Gracchi against the Senate. The two brothers, Tiberius
and Gaius Gracchus, were of one of the noblest families of Rome, but
both endeavored to take the government from the nobles who formed the
Senate by making themselves tribunes of the plebs. There was at that
time, either in Rome or in Italy, a crowd of citizens without means
who desired a revolution; even among the rich the majority were of the
class of the knights, who complained that they had no part in the
government. Tiberius Gracchus had himself named tribune of the plebs
and sought to gain control of the government. He proposed to the
people an agrarian law. All the lands of the public domain occupied by
individuals were to be resumed by the state (with the exception of 500
acres for each one); these lands taken by the state were to be
distributed in small lots to poor citizens. The law was voted. It
caused general confusion regarding property, for almost all of the
lands of the empire constituted a part of the public domain, but they
had been occupied for a long time and the possessors were accustomed
to regard themselves as proprietors. Further, as the Romans had no
registry of the lands, it was often very difficult to ascertain
whether a domain were private or public property. To direct these
operations, Tiberius had three commissioners named on whom the people
conferred absolute authority; they were Tiberius, his brother, and his
father-in-law, and it was uncertain whether Tiberius had acted in the
interest of the people, or simply to have a pretext for having power
placed in his hands. For a year he was master of Rome; but when he
wished to be elected tribune of the plebs for the succeeding year, his
enemies protested, as this was contrary to custom. A riot followed.
Tiberius and his friends seized the Capitol; the partisans of the
Senate and their slaves, armed with clubs and fragments of benches,
pursued them and despatched them (133).
Ten years later Gaius, the younger of the Gracchi, elected tribune of
the plebs (123), had the agrarian law voted anew, and established
distributions[141] of corn to the poor citizens. Then, to destroy the
power of the nobles, he secured a decree that the judges should be
taken from among the knights. For two years Gaius dominated the
government, but while he was absent from the city conducting a colony
of Roman citizens to Carthage the people abandoned him. On his return
he could not be reelected. The consul armed the partisans of the
Senate and marched against Gaius and his friends who had fled to the
Aventine Hill. Gaius had himself killed by a slave; his followers were
massacred or executed in prison; their houses were razed and their
property confiscated.
=Marius and Sulla.=--The contests of the Gracchi and the Senate had
been no more than riots in the streets of Rome, terminating in a
combat between bands hastily armed. The strife that followed was a
succession of real wars between regular armies, wars in Italy, wars in
all the provinces. From this time the party chiefs were no other than
the generals.
The first to use his army to secure obedience in Rome was Marius. He
was born in Arpinum, a little town in the mountains, and was not of
noble descent. He had attained reputation as an officer in the army,
and had been elected tribune of the plebs, then praetor, with the help
of the nobles. He turned against them and was elected consul and
commissioned with the war against Jugurtha, king of Numidia, who had
already fought several Roman armies. It was then that Marius enrolled
poor citizens for whom military service became a profession. With his
army Marius conquered Jugurtha and the barbarians, the Cimbri and
Teutones, who had invaded the empire. He then returned to Rome where
he had himself elected consul for the sixth time and now exercised
absolute power. Two parties now took form in Rome who called
themselves the party of the people (the party of Marius), and the
party of the nobles (that of the Senate).
The partisans of Marius committed so many acts of violence that they
ended by making him unpopular. Sulla, a noble, of the great family of
the Cornelii, profited by this circumstance to dispute the power of
Marius; Sulla was also a general. When the Italians rose against Rome
to secure the right of citizenship and levied great armies which
marched almost to the gates of the city, it was Sulla who saved Rome
by fighting the Italians.
He became consul and was charged with the war against Mithradates,
king of Pontus, who had invaded Asia Minor and massacred all the
Romans (88). Marius in jealousy excited a riot in the city; Sulla
departed, joined his army which awaited him in south Italy, then
returned to Rome. Roman religion prohibited soldiers entering the city
under arms; the consul even before passing the gates had to lay aside
his mantle of war and assume the toga. Sulla was the first general who
dared to violate this restriction. Marius took flight.
But when Sulla had left for Asia, Marius came with an army of
adventurers and entered Rome by force (87). Then commenced the
proscriptions.
The principal partisans of Sulla were outlawed, and command was given
to kill them anywhere they were met and to confiscate their goods.
Marius died some months later; but his principal partisan, Cinna,
continued to govern Rome and to put to death whomever he pleased.
During this time Sulla had conquered Mithradates and had assured the
loyalty of his soldiers by giving them the free pillage of Asia. He
returned with his army (83) to Italy. His enemies opposed him with
five armies, but these were defeated or they deserted. Sulla entered
Rome, massacred his prisoners and overthrew the partisans of Marius.
After some days of slaughter he set himself to proceed regularly: he
posted three lists of those whom he wished killed. "I have posted now
all those whom I can recall; I have forgotten many, but their names
will be posted as the names occur to me." Every proscribed man--that
is to say, every man whose name was on the list, was marked for death;
the murderer who brought his head was rewarded. The property of the
proscribed was confiscated. Proscription was not the result of any
trial but of the caprice of the general, and that too without any
warning. Sulla thus massacred not only his enemies but the rich whose
property he coveted. It is related that a citizen who was unaccustomed
to politics glanced in passing at the list of proscriptions and saw
his own name inscribed at the top of the list. "Alas!" he cried, "my
Alban house has been the death of me!" Sulla is said to have
proscribed 1800[142] knights.
After having removed his enemies, he endeavored to organize a
government in which all power should be in the hands of the Senate. He
had himself named Dictator, an old title once given to generals in
moments of danger and which conferred absolute power. Sulla used the
office to make laws which changed the entire constitution. From that
time all the judges were to be taken from the Senate, no law could be
discussed before it had been accepted by the Senate, the right of
proposing laws was taken from the tribunes of the plebs.
After these reforms Sulla abdicated his functions and retired to
private life (79). He knew he had nothing to fear, for he had
established 100,000 of his soldiers in Italy.
=Pompey and Caesar.=--The Senate had recovered its power because Sulla
saw fit to give it this, but it had not the strength to retain it if a
general wished again to seize it. The government of the Senate
endured, however, in appearance for more than thirty years; this was
because there were several generals and each prevented a rival from
gaining all power.
At the death of Sulla four armies took the field: two obeyed the
generals who were partisans of the Senate, Crassus and Pompey; two
followed generals who were adversaries of the Senate, Lepidus in
Italy, and Sertorius in Spain. It is very remarkable that no one of
these armies was regular, no one of the generals was a magistrate and
therefore had the right to command troops; down to this time the
generals had been consuls, but now they were individuals--private
persons; their soldiers came to them not to serve the interests of the
state, but to profit at the expense of the inhabitants.
The armies of the enemies of the Senate were destroyed, and Crassus
and Pompey, left alone, joined issues to control affairs. They had
themselves elected consuls and Pompey received the conduct of two
wars. He went to Asia with a devoted army and was for several years
the master of Rome; but as he was more the possessor of offices than
of power, he changed nothing in the government. It was during this
time that Caesar, a young noble, made himself popular. Pompey,
Crassus, and Caesar united to divide the power between themselves.
Crassus received the command of the army sent to Asia against the
Parthians and was killed (53). Pompey remained at Rome. Caesar went to
Gaul where he stayed eight years subjecting the country and making an
army for himself.
Pompey and Caesar were now the only persons on the stage. Each wished
to be master. Pompey had the advantage of being at Rome and of
dominating the Senate; Caesar had on his side his army, disciplined by
eight years of expeditions. Pompey secured a decree of the Senate that
Caesar should abandon his army and return to Rome. Caesar decided then
to cross the boundary of his province (the river Rubicon), and to
march on Rome. Pompey had no army in Italy to defend himself, and so
with the majority of the senators took flight to the other side of the
Adriatic. He had several armies in Spain, in Greece, and in Africa.
Caesar defeated them, one after another--that of Spain first (49), then
that of Greece at Pharsalus (48), at last, that of Africa (46).
Pompey, vanquished at Pharsalus, fled to Egypt where the king had him
assassinated.
On his return to Rome Caesar was appointed dictator for ten years and
exercised absolute power. The Senate paid him divine honors, and it is
possible that Caesar desired the title of king. He was assassinated by
certain of his favorites who aimed to reestablish the sovereignty of
the Senate (44).
=End of the Republic.=--The people of Rome, who loved Caesar, compelled
Brutus and Cassius, the chiefs of the assassins, to flee. They
withdrew to the East where they raised a large army. The West remained
in the hand of Antony, who with the support of the army of Caesar,
governed Rome despotically.
Caesar in his will had adopted a young man of eighteen years, his
sister's son,[143] Octavian, who according to Roman usage assumed the
name of his adoptive father and called himself from that time Julius
Caesar Octavianus. Octavian rallied to his side the soldiers of Caesar
and was charged by the Senate with the war against Antony. But after
conquering him he preferred to unite with him for a division of power;
they associated Lepidus with them, and all three returned to Rome
where they secured absolute power for five years under the title of
triumvirs for organizing public affairs. They began by proscribing
their adversaries and their personal enemies. Antony secured the death
of Cicero (43). Then they left for the East to destroy the army of the
conspirators. After they had divided the empire among themselves it
was impossible to preserve harmony and war was undertaken in Italy. It
was the soldiers who compelled them to make terms of peace. A new
partition was made; Antony took the East and Octavian the West (39).
For some years peace was preserved; Antony resigned himself to the
life of an oriental sovereign in company with Cleopatra, queen of
Egypt; Octavian found it necessary to fight a campaign against the
sons of Pompey. The two leaders came at last to an open breach, and
then flamed up the last of the civil wars. This was a war between the
East and West. It was decided by the naval battle of Actium; Antony,
abandoned by the fleet of Cleopatra, fled to Egypt and took his own
life. Octavian, left alone, was absolute master of the empire. The
government of the Senate was at an end.
=Need of Peace.=--Everybody had suffered by these wars. The
inhabitants of the provinces were plundered, harassed, and massacred
by the soldiers; each of the hostile generals forced them to take
sides with him, and the victor punished them for supporting the
vanquished. To reward the old soldiers the generals promised them
lands, and then expelled all the inhabitants of a city to make room
for the veterans.
Rich Romans risked their property and their life; when their party was
overthrown, they found themselves at the mercy of the victor. Sulla
had set the example for organized massacres (81). Forty years later
(in 43) Octavian and Antony again drew up lists of proscription.
The populace suffered. The grain on which they lived came no longer to
Rome with the former regularity, being intercepted either by pirates
or by the fleet of an enemy.
After a century of this regime all the Romans and provincials, rich
and poor, had but one desire--peace.
=The Power of the Individual.=--It was then that the heir of Caesar,
his nephew[144] Octavian, one of the triumvirs, after having conquered
his two colleagues presented himself to the people now wearied with
civil discord. "He drew to himself all the powers of the people, of
the Senate, and of the magistrates;" for twelve years he was emperor
without having the title. No one dreamed of resisting him; he had
closed the temple of Janus and given peace to the world, and this was
what everybody wished. The government of the republic by the Senate
represented only pillage and civil war. A master was needed strong
enough to stop the wars and revolutions. Thus the Roman empire was
founded.
FOOTNOTES:
[140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B.C. made these distributions legal.--ED.
[141] At a very low price.--ED.
[142] 1600, according to Mommsen, "History of Rome," Bk. IV, ch. x.--ED.
[143] Grandson.--ED.
[144] Grand-nephew.--ED.