THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT.
So far as true history can guess, the Romans really did have kings and
drove them out, but there are signs that, though Porsena was a real
king, the war was not so honorable to the Romans as they said, for he
took the city and made them give up all their weapons to him, leaving
them nothing but their tools for husbandry. But they liked to forget
their misfortunes.
The older Roman families were called patricians, or fathers, and thought
all rights to govern belonged to them. Settlers who came in later were
called plebeians, or the people, and at first had no rights at all, for
all the land belonged to the patricians, and the only way for the
plebeians to get anything done for them was to become hangers-on--or, as
they called it, clients--of some patrician who took care of their
interests. There was a council of patricians called the Senate, chosen
among themselves, and also containing by right all who had been chief
magistrates. The whole assembly of the patricians was called the
Comitia. They, as has been said before, fought on horseback, while the
plebeians fought on foot; but out of the rich plebeians a body was
formed called the knights, who also used horses, and wore gold rings
like the patricians.
[Illustration: HEAD OF JUPITER.]
But the plebeians were always trying not to be left out of everything.
By and by, they said under Servius Tullius, the city was divided into
six quarters, and all the families living in them into six tribes, each
of which had a tribune to watch over it, bring up the number of its men,
and lead them to battle. Another division of the citizens, both
patrician and plebeian, was made every five years. They were all counted
and numbered and divided off into centuries according to their wealth.
Then these centuries, or hundreds, had votes, by the persons they chose,
when it was a question of peace or war. Their meeting was called the
Comitia; but as there were more patrician centuries than plebeian ones,
the patricians still had much more power. Besides, the Senate and all
the magistrates were in those days always patricians. These magistrates
were chosen every year. There were two consuls, who were like kings for
the time, only that they wore no crowns; they had purple robes, and sat
in chairs ornamented with ivory, and they were always attended by
lictors, who carried bundles of rods tied round an axe--the first for
scourging, the second for beheading. There were under them two prætors,
or judges, who tried offences; two quæstors, who attended to the public
buildings; and two censors, who had to look after the numbering and
registering of the people in their tribes and centuries. The consuls in
general commanded the army, but sometimes, when there was a great need,
one single leader was chosen and was called dictator. Sometimes a
dictator was chosen merely to fulfil an omen, by driving a nail into the
head of the great statue of Jupiter in the Capitol. Besides these, all
the priests had to be patricians; the chief of all was called Pontifex
Maximus. Some say this was because he was the _fax_ (maker) of
_pontes_ (bridges), as he blessed them and decided by omens where
they should be; but others think the word was Pompifex, and that he was
the maker of pomps or ceremonies. There were many priests as well as
augurs, who had to draw omens from the flight of birds or the appearance
of sacrifices, and who kept the account of the calendar of lucky and
unlucky days, and of festivals.
[Illustration: FEMALE COSTUMES.]
The Romans were a grave religious people in those days, and did not
count their lives or their affections dear in comparison with their
duties to their altars and their hearths, though their notions of duty
do not always agree with ours. Their dress in the city was a white
woollen garment edged with purple--it must have been more like in shape
to a Scottish plaid than anything else--and was wrapped round so as to
leave one arm free: sometimes a fold was drawn over the head. No one
might wear it but a free-born Roman, and he never went out on public
business without it, even when more convenient fashions had been copied
from Greece. Those who were asking votes for a public office wore it
white (_candidus_), and therefore were called candidates. The consuls
had it on great days entirely purple and embroidered, and all senators
and ex-magistrates had broader borders of purple. The ladies wore a long
graceful wrapping-gown; the boys a short tunic, and round their necks
was hung a hollow golden ball called a _bulla_, or bubble. When a boy
was seventeen, there was a great family sacrifice to the Lares and the
forefathers, his bulla was taken off, the toga was put on, and he was
enrolled by his own prænomen, Caius or Lucius, or whatever it might be,
for there was only a choice of fifteen. After this he was liable to be
called out to fight. A certain number of men were chosen from each tribe
by the tribune. It was divided into centuries, each led by a centurion;
and the whole body together was called a legion, from _lego_, to
choose. In later times the proper number for a legion was 6000 men. Each
legion had a standard, a bar across the top of the spear, with the
letters on it S P Q R--_Senatus, Populus Que Romanus_--meaning the Roman
Senate and People, a purple flag below and a figure above, such as an
eagle, or the wolf and twins, or some emblem dear to the Romans. The
legions were on foot, but the troops of patricians and knights on
horseback were attached to them and had to protect them.
[Illustration: FEMALE COSTUMES.]
The Romans had in those days very small riches, they held in general
small farms in the country, which they worked themselves with the help
of their sons and slaves. The plebeians were often the richest. They too
held farms leased to them by the state, and had often small shops in
Rome. The whole territory was so small that it was easy to come into
Rome to worship, attend the Senate, or vote, and many had no houses in
the city. Each man was married with a ring and sacrifice, and the lady
was then carried over the threshold, on which a sheepskin was spread,
and made mistress of the house by being bidden to be Caia to Caius. The
Roman matrons were good and noble women in those days, and the highest
praise of them was held to be _Domum mansit, lanam fecit_--she stayed
at home and spun wool. Each man was absolute master in his own house,
and had full power over his grown-up sons, even for life or death, and
they almost always submitted entirely. For what made the Romans so great
was that they were not only brave, but they were perfectly obedient, and
obeyed as perfectly as they could their fathers, their officers, their
magistrates, and, as they thought, their gods.
[Illustration]