MENENIUS AGRIPPA'S FABLE.
B.C. 494.
A great deal of the history of Rome consists of struggles between the
patricians and plebeians. In those early days the plebeians were often
poor, and when they wanted to improve their lands they had to borrow
money from the patricians, who not only had larger lands, but, as they
were the officers in war, got a larger share of the spoil. The Roman law
was hard on a man in debt. His lands might be seized, he might be thrown
into prison or sold into slavery with his wife and children, or, if the
creditors liked, be cut to pieces so that each might take his share.
One of these debtors, a man who was famous for bravery as a centurion,
broke out of his prison and ran into the Forum, all in rags and with
chains still hanging to his hands and feet, showing them to his
fellow-citizens, and asking if this was just usage of a man who had done
no crime. They were very angry, and the more because one of the consuls,
Appius Claudius, was known to be very harsh, proud and cruel, as indeed
were all his family. The Volscians, a tribe often at war with them,
broke into their land at the same time, and the Romans were called to
arms, but the plebeians refused to march until their wrongs were
redressed. On this the other consul, Servilius, promised that a law
should be made against keeping citizens in prison for debt or making
slaves of their children; and thereupon the army assembled, marched
against the enemy, and defeated them, giving up all the spoil to his
troops. But the senate, when the danger was over, would not keep its
promises, and even appointed a Dictator to put the plebeians down.
Thereupon they assembled outside the walls in a strong force, and were
going to attack the patricians, when the wise old Menenius Agrippa was
sent out to try to pacify them. He told them a fable, namely, that once
upon a time all the limbs of a man's body became disgusted with the
service they had to render to the belly. The feet and legs carried it
about, the hands worked for it and carried food to it, the mouth ate
for it, and so on. They thought it hard thus all to toil for it, and
agreed to do nothing for it--neither to carry it about, clothe it, nor
feed it. But soon all found themselves growing weak and starved, and
were obliged to own that all would perish together unless they went on
waiting on this seemingly useless belly. So Agrippa told them that all
ranks and states depended on one another, and unless all worked together
all must be confusion and go to decay. The fable seems to have convinced
both rich and poor; the debtors were set free and the debts forgiven.
And though the laws about debts do not seem to have been changed,
another law was made which gave the plebeians tribunes in peace as well
as war. These tribunes were always to be plebeians, chosen by their own
fellows. No one was allowed to hurt them during their year of office, on
pain of being declared accursed and losing his property; and they had
the power of stopping any decision of the senate by saying solemnly,
_Veto_, I forbid. They were called tribunes of the people, while the
officers in war were called military tribunes; and as it was on the Mons
Sacer, or Sacred Mount, that this was settled, these laws were called
the _Leges Sacrariæ_. An altar to the Thundering Jupiter was built to
consecrate them: and, in gratitude for his management, Menenius Agrippa
was highly honored all his life, and at his death had a public funeral.
But the struggles of the plebeians against the patricians were not by
any means over. The Roman land--Agri (acre), it was called--had at first
been divided in equal shares--at least so it was said--but as belonging
to the state all the time, and only held by the occupier. As time went
on, some persons of course gathered more into their own hands, and
others of spendthrift or unfortunate families became destitute. Then
there was an outcry that, as the lands belonged to the whole state, it
ought to take them all back and divide them again more equally: but the
patricians naturally regarded themselves as the owners, and would not
hear of this scheme, which we shall hear of again and again by the name
of the Agrarian Law. One of the patricians, who had thrice been consul,
by name Spurius Cassius, did all he could to bring it about, but though
the law was passed he could not succeed in getting it carried out. The
patricians hated him, and a report got abroad that he was only gaining
favor with the people in order to get himself made king. This made even
the plebeians turn against him as a traitor; he was condemned by the
whole assembly of the people, and beheaded, after being scourged by the
lictors. The people soon mourned for their friend, and felt that they
had been deceived in giving him up to their enemies. The senate would
not execute his law, and the plebeians would not enlist in the next war,
though the senate threatened to cut down the fruit trees and destroy the
crops of every man who refused to join the army. When they were
absolutely driven into the ranks, they even refused to draw their swords
in face of the enemy, and would not gain a victory lest their consul
should have the honor of it.
[Illustration: SENATORIAL PALACE.]
This consul's name was Kæso Fabius. He belonged to a very clever, wary
family, whose name it was said was originally _Foveus_ (ditch), because
they had first devised a plan of snaring wolves in pits or ditches. They
were thought such excellent defenders of the claims of the patricians
that for seven years following one or other of the Fabii was chosen
consul. But by-and-by they began either to see that the plebeians had
rights, or that they should do best by siding with them, for they went
over to them; and when Kæso next was consul he did all he could to get
the laws of Cassius carried out, but the senate were furious with
him, and he found it was not safe to stay in Rome when his consulate was
over. So he resolved at any rate to do good to his country. The
Etruscans often came over the border and ravaged the country; but there
was a watch-tower on the banks of the little river Cremera, which flows
into the Tiber, and Fabius offered, with all the men of his name--306 in
number, and 4000 clients--to keep guard there against the enemy. For
some time they prospered there, and gained much spoil from the
Etruscans; but at last the whole Etruscan army came against them,
showing only a small number at first to tempt them out to fight, then
falling on them with the whole force and killing the whole of them, so
that of the whole name there remained only one boy of fourteen who had
been left behind at Rome. And what was worse, the consul, Titus
Menenius, was so near the army that he could have saved the Fabii, but
for the hatred the patricians bore them as deserters from their cause.
[Illustration: VIEW OF A ROMAN HARBOR.]
However, the tribune Publilius gained for the plebeians that there
should be five tribunes instead of two, and made a change in the manner
of electing them which prevented the patricians from interfering. Also
it was decreed that to interrupt a tribune in a public speech deserved
death. But whenever an Appius Claudius was consul he took his revenge,
and was cruelly severe, especially in the camp, where the consul as
general had much more power than in Rome. Again the angry plebeians
would not fight, but threw down their arms in sight of the enemy.
Claudius scourged and beheaded; they endured grimly and silently,
knowing that when he returned to Rome and his consulate was over their
tribunes would call him to account. And so they did, and before all the
tribes of Rome summoned him to answer for his savage treatment of free
Roman citizens. He made a violent answer, but he saw how it would go
with him, and put himself to death to avoid the sentence. So were the
Romans proving again and again the truth of Agrippa's parable, that
nothing can go well with body or members unless each will be ready to
serve the other.
[Illustration]