Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
except in obvious cases of typographical error.
Page 106: "Another leader, Cleon, a Silician". The transcriber has
replaced "Silician" with "Sicilian".
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TWO GREAT REPUBLICS [Illustration: RUINS OF THE ROMAN FORUM]
THE TWO GREAT REPUBLICS
ROME AND THE
UNITED STATES
_By_
JAMES HAMILTON LEWIS
[Illustration]
RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK
_Copyright, 1913_,
BY RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY
The Rand-McNally Press
_Chicago_
PREFACE
In this book I have proposed to compare conditions recorded in Roman
history with those existing in America that should warn, by reason of
the results at Rome. It is not the purpose of this volume to offer a
mere textbook or a scholastic essay on historical events. It is not
the purpose merely to record those events which led to the destruction
of the Roman republic, and with this end our work. The main purpose of
this book is to compare events as they transpired in the one republic
and in the other.
The political history of the Roman republic is throughout its whole
course a continuous contest between radicals and conservatives. The
striking resemblances between the basis of the political controversies
of Ancient Rome and the modern political and economic problems render
it almost impossible for any historian to approach the political
history of Rome entirely free from prejudice. The bias of the
historian, whether toward the liberal or the conservative side in
politics, is sure to affect to a greater or less degree the pictures
which he paints of the events and actors in Roman history. To indicate
to some extent these varying views, and to present to the reader some
of the ideas of prominent writers on Roman history, a number of
extracts from the works of other authors have been inserted, as
occasion demanded, in this work. In the majority of cases such an
insertion should be understood as an attempt to present all sides of
some controverted historical question rather than as indicating the
approval by the author of the views expressed therein.
In arranging the perspective of this book, its main object has been
kept constantly in mind. The importance of events has been weighed
from the standpoint of their effect upon the decay and collapse of the
free political institutions of Rome; with the result that many
subjects, to which considerable space would be devoted in a general
Roman history, have been passed over with a mere notice, while other
events, perhaps of less popular interest, have been treated at length.
I would be false to the first sense of justice did I not here
acknowledge the aid I have obtained from Professor Albert H. Putney,
dean of the Webster College of Law, Chicago, and a lawyer of the state
of Illinois at the city of Chicago (my home), who has been the
principal contributor from whom I have received assistance, and much
that can be found in this book in the nature of real historical data,
and of the philosophy of reasoning from this data, is due to him, and
I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness and to give full credit for
the value of this work.
JAMES HAMILTON LEWIS
_United States Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C.
September 1913._
CONTENTS
PAGE
_Preface_ 5
CHAP.
I. THE TWO REPUBLICS 9
II. ROMAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES 15
III. THE FIRST GREAT MELTING POT 28
IV. THE EARLY REPUBLIC 35
V. THE PERIOD OF FOREIGN CONQUEST 71
VI. THE TRIBES, THE COLONIES, AND THE
PROVINCES 89
VII. THE CRISIS--THE ATTEMPTED REFORMS
OF THE GRACCHI 100
VIII. MARIUS AND SULLA 168
IX. POMPEY 218
X. CICERO AND CATILINE 228
XI. JULIUS CÆSAR 238
XII. POST-MORTEM 271
XIII. THE COMPARISON 286
THE TWO GREAT REPUBLICS
ROME
AND
THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER I
THE TWO REPUBLICS
"How like, how unlike, as we view them together."--_Holmes._
It is now nearly two thousand years since the curtain fell upon the
last act in the history of the Roman republic. During these twenty
centuries many other republics have flourished and passed away, while,
in turn, new republics have arisen to take the place of the earlier
ones; but no other fallen republic in the whole course of history has
attained to the same degree of importance, has possessed the same
degree of interest, or has exerted the same influence on the history
of the world, as did that of Rome. The five centuries of republican
institutions on the banks of the Tiber still remain the richest
quarry to which the student or historian of republican governments is
able to resort for his material.
"History," says Lord Macaulay, "is philosophy teaching by examples."
The most practical value of the study of history arises from the aid
which it can give us in understanding the present and in forecasting
the future. Bolingbroke, on the "Uses of History," commands its study
as a protection against the unexpected. The main purpose of any
American, who to-day studies the history of the greatest republic of
the ancient world, should be to discover whether or not the story of
the rise and fall of that government teaches any lessons which might
be of value to the American of to-day; whether the evils which were
the causes of the overthrow of the Roman republic find any counterpart
in the problems which agitate our own country.
One of the greatest of American orators, in urging Americans to draw
their historical lessons from the history of their own country, says
that "when we go back into ancient history, we are bewildered by the
differences of manners and institutions"; but sometimes it is with
the earliest of nations that the most striking comparisons may be
made, and from their history that the greatest lessons may be learned.
The truth is that the progress of mankind, during that small fragment
of the period of its existence upon this earth which we are permitted
to see by the light of history, has been very uneven in the extent of
its advances along the different lines of human progress. In the
fields of scientific discovery and of material results human
achievements, especially during the past century, have reached almost
into the realm of the marvelous; but in many other fields--those
relating to human reason, to knowledge of the human mind, to the
relation between man and man, and to the science of government--human
progress has been so slight that man's efforts in these directions
must still receive the verdict of failure.
The reason for this great discrepancy is perhaps not difficult to
discover. It is easy for the mass of mankind to accept and receive the
benefits which come to them from the struggles and mental efforts of
the few intellectual giants whom the human race from time to time
produces; but all this takes place with very little change in the
minds or emotions of the mass of humanity.
As, for example, the pages of Homer are studied, it is hard to say
whether the strongest impression left upon the mind of the reader is
that of the vast difference between the external life of that period
and of the twentieth century, or that of the striking similarity
between the qualities and emotions of the characters in these epics
and of the men and women of to-day.
In the field of the material world any comparison between the existing
conditions in the United States to-day and the conditions in any
ancient country could hardly be of any particular value; except,
perhaps, to indicate the great distance which has been traveled. In
the field of government and politics, however, the most valuable
comparison which it is possible to make with existing conditions in
the United States is not with the present conditions in any modern
country, nor is it with conditions of an earlier age in any
Anglo-Saxon or even Teutonic country. The greatest resemblance to the
existing conditions in the United States, both as to the character of
her politics and the nature of the problems which confront her, is to
be found in the great Roman republic of two thousand years ago.
In studying the decline and fall of the Roman republic it will appear
that this result was most directly brought about by the three
following causes:
1. Long before the time when Rome had attained to the height of her
power, great inequalities of wealth had arisen between the different
strata of the Roman citizens; the prosperity which came to Rome as a
result of her conquests was not distributed among her whole citizen
body. Indeed, while the wealth of the community as a whole was rapidly
increasing, the wealth of the great mass of the citizens was rapidly
decreasing, not only relatively but even absolutely. The acute stage
of the contest between the rich and the poor arose immediately after
the conclusion of the long contest between patricians and plebeians,
and at the time when, theoretically, all political distinctions and
privileges between citizens had disappeared. Yet, in fact, the
suffrage was then limited to the free citizen--the smallest class of
the humble or toiling numbers.
2. The influence of a large and constantly increasing class of
demagogues, possessed of knowledge of human nature and endowed with
skill in the management of men, yet entirely lacking in principle,
patriotism, or any sense of public obligation. These wrought upon a
mob of unqualified and reckless voters, who had nothing to lose and
were more anxious for immediate personal benefit than for the gradual
but permanent amelioration of the hardships of the class to which they
belonged.
3. The absence of any system of representative organization in the
Roman government.
The first two of these evils are to be found in the American republic
of to-day as well as in the Roman republic of the past; the last of
the three was a disadvantage suffered by Rome but outgrown by the
modern republics. This last evil will be treated by itself in the
succeeding chapter, while the two former will be shown in the
remainder of the volume as the political history of Rome is outlined.