THE FIRST GREAT MELTING POT
The variety of things which are able to serve as a basis for human
vanity are almost unlimited. This holds true as well in the case of
national vanity as in the case of the vanity of the individual. The
most backward and least attractive of human races generally consider
themselves superior to the rest of mankind, and too often on account
of the peculiarities which, in the minds of others, are the most
convincing proofs of their inferiority. Even among the more advanced
races of mankind great pride is often manifested in attributes which,
properly viewed, are rather a disgrace, or at least a detriment to the
race.
Few things in the world are held in greater respect, by the great
masses of men, than a long line of ancestry of unmixed blood. It seems
to be generally felt that the purity of any race, that is, its freedom
from interbreeding with outsiders, is a matter of credit. The lesson
of history, however, shows that purity of blood in any nation is an
evidence of, or perhaps rather cause of, degeneracy and decay, and
that the great nations of history have been the cosmopolitan races,
the races of mixed descent and hybrid ancestry. If it be thought that
the Jewish people are an exception to this, let it be recalled that
the Jews are a mixed people, originally of many conflicting tribes,
and later continually mixed with other races.
In the pages of ancient history Rome stands out as the first great
cosmopolitan race, or at least the first mixed race, in the creation
of which we are able to watch the melting pot in full operation.
Three thousand years ago the Italian peninsula presented a veritable
medley of races. In the south and along the eastern coast were found
the cities and colonies founded by the two streams of immigration from
the neighboring peninsula across the Adriatic--the Pelasgian and the
Greek. In the center of Italy were to be found the various branches of
the Oscan, Umbrian, and Sabellian races. Farther to the north was the
country of the Latins. Etruscans and Gauls dwelt between Latium and
the Alps. It was only at a much later time that Cisalpine Gaul began
to be considered a part of Italy.
In its earliest days Rome, while possessing many features in common
with the other Italian cities, presented at the same time many
differences.
"The unfavorable character of the site renders it hard to
understand how the city could so early attain its prominent
position in Latium. The soil is unfavorable to the growth of
fig or vine, and in addition to the want of good
water-springs, swamps are caused by the frequent inundations
of the Tiber. Moreover, it was confined in all land
directions by powerful cities. But all these disadvantages
were more than compensated by the unfettered command it had
of both banks of the Tiber down to the mouth of the river.
The fact that the clan of the Romilii was settled on the
right bank from time immemorial, and that there lay the
grove of the creative goddess Dea Dia, and the primitive
seat of the Arval festival and Arval brotherhood, proves
that the original territory of Rome comprehended Janiculum
and Ostia, which afterwards fell into the hands of the
Etruscans. Not only did this position on both banks of the
Tiber place in Rome's hands all the traffic of Latium, but,
as the Tiber was the natural barrier against northern
invaders, Rome became the maritime frontier fortress of
Latium. Again, the situation acted in two ways: Firstly, it
brought Rome into commercial relations with the outer world,
cemented her alliance with Cære, and taught her the
importance of building bridges. Secondly, it caused the
Roman canton to become united in the city itself far earlier
than was the case with other Latin communities. And thus,
though Latium was a strictly agricultural country, Rome was
a center of commerce; and this commercial position stamped
its peculiar mark on the Roman character, distinguishing
them from the rest of the Latins and Italians, as the
citizen is distinguished from the rustic. Not, indeed, that
the Roman neglected his farm, or ceased to regard it as his
home; but the unwholesome air of the Campagna tended to make
him withdraw to the more healthful city hills; and from
early times by the side of the Roman farmer arose a
non-agricultural population, composed partly of foreigners
and partly of natives, which tended to develop urban life."
(Mommsen's _History of Rome_.)
It was, therefore, as a cosmopolitan, commercial city that the Romans
first came into prominence. The early population was composed of mixed
Etruscan and Latin stock, to which representatives of every Italian
tribe and of the Greeks were soon added. By the beginning of the truly
historical times the Romans had become merged into one race,
representing the combined product of the races of Italy. It was this
fact, very largely, which contributed to her success over the purer
(ethnologically) races which surrounded her.
There were two great divisions of the melting-pot process at Rome; the
first, that existing during the days of the kingdom and of the early
republic; the second, that of the later republic and the empire.
During the first period the process of intermixture, as has been said,
was between the different races of Italy; within the second period
Rome became the center of the civilized world, and her population
included representatives of all the known races of mankind.
In no other despotism in the history of the world is there to be found
so little racial or class distinction as in the Roman empire. Such
distinctions were never able to exist at Rome during any portion of
her history. The permanent privileged classes were those possessed of
wealth, or of military power, and the descendants of both the
conquerors and the conquered of one epoch would be found in the next
indiscriminately divided among the exploiters and the exploited of the
times.
The patricians, the descendants of the early settlers of Rome, were
unable to maintain their special caste privileges, and were compelled
to admit the plebeians to equal political rights and privileges. Class
distinction remained in as marked a degree as ever at Rome, but the
distinction was now between rich and poor, and the rich plebeian took
equal rank with the rich patrician. Nor were the united Roman orders
strong enough to preserve a monopoly of political privileges for
Romans when the territory of Rome was extended over the Italian
peninsula. It was found necessary to extend the franchise first to the
residents of Latium and later to those of the other portions of Italy.
More remarkable still were the conditions which we find after the
establishment of the empire and the extension of Roman territory
around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. There were no royal house,
no hereditary nobility, and few special privileges left for the
inhabitants of Rome. The distinctions between rich and poor were never
more galling; _but_ high birth conferred no great advantage, and the
lowest born could rise to the highest posts of honor. The ponderous
weight of the empire ground out racial and caste distinctions and
welded together all the heterogeneous mass. The provinces became
Romanized, and the population of Rome became a mixture of all the
races of the provinces. Of how little importance Rome was to the
later empire is shown by the removal of the seat of the empire by
Constantine to Constantinople, and the continued existence of an
empire calling itself Roman for more than a thousand years after Rome
had ceased to constitute a part of such empire.