THE EARLY REPUBLIC
The first epoch of the Roman republic is that extending from the
overthrow of the kings, about 509 B.C., to the passage of the Licinian
Laws in 367 B.C. The history of this century and a half at Rome is
primarily the history of internal strife and class antagonisms. During
these early days the progress made by the republic toward the
expansion of its territories or the extension of its foreign influence
was inappreciable.
Rome, during these days, was contending on a position of near equality
with the neighboring cities of Latium and Etruria. Twice during this
period the independence, perhaps the very existence, of the city was
seriously threatened.
The war against the Etruscans, which followed immediately upon the
expulsion of the last of the Tarquin kings, resulted so unfavorably to
Rome that not only was her territory considerably reduced in size but
even the subjugation of Rome itself might probably have been
accomplished but for the forbearance of her victorious opponents.
Later, in 390 B.C., the capture and sack of Rome by the Gauls nearly
proved the death-blow of the Roman republic. The internal dissensions
of this period were mainly responsible for the lack of military
success. Although it is true that the history of early Rome, unlike
the histories of the various early Grecian states, records few
instances where hatred or bitterness arising from political defeat
induced a citizen to turn traitor to his country, and although the
approach of a foreign foe was generally sufficient to bring about a
truce in Roman political hostilities and the union of all factions in
the city against the common national enemy, still it must be
remembered that the amount of energy possessed by a community is
limited. When the all-absorbing questions agitating a people are those
relative to internal political contests, the energies of the ablest
men of each generation are spent mainly in political contests instead
of being exerted for the common welfare of the community.
The influence which the internal dissensions at Rome must have
exerted on her military success is shown by a comparison of the
military history of the Roman republic prior to 367 B.C. with the
wonderful career of conquest which the Roman republic entered into
immediately after the passage of the Licinian Act. This act, although
producing a partial and temporary cessation of class contests at Rome,
nevertheless sufficiently healed the internal wounds of the state to
enable it to rapidly advance from a city-republic to a world power.
"The results of this great change were singularly happy and
glorious. Two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory
followed the reconciliation of the orders. Men who
remembered Rome engaged in waging petty wars almost within
sight of the Capitol lived to see her the mistress of Italy.
While the disabilities of the plebeians continued, she was
scarcely able to maintain her ground against the Volscians
and Hernicans. When those disabilities were removed, she
rapidly became more than a match for Carthage and Macedon."
(Macaulay.)
The republic created at Rome in the course of the sixth century before
Christ was distinctively an undemocratic republic. The benefits to the
plebeians resulting from the overthrow of the kingdom were of slight,
if any importance. The political power of the state remained almost
entirely in the hands of the patricians, and the right to hold office
was restricted to the members of this caste. At this time the members
of the patrician order were perhaps not very much inferior in numbers
to the plebeian order; but the discrepancy between the numbers of the
two orders so rapidly increased that by the beginning of the fourth
century before Christ the government of Rome had become practically
that of an oligarchy.
In the latter days of the republic, in the contest which resulted in
the overthrow of the republic, the basic reasons for the struggle were
of an economic rather than a political character. In the period now
under discussion the political element predominated in the class
contests, although various elements of disagreement were to be found
existing side by side.
"Three distinct movements agitated the community. The first
proceeded from the body of full citizens, and was confined
to it; its object was to limit and lessen the life-power of
the single president or king; in all such movements at Rome,
from the time of the Tarquins to that of the Gracchi, there
was no attempt to assert the rights of the individual at the
expense of the state, nor to limit the power of the state,
but only that of its magistrates. The second was the demand
for equality of political privileges, and was the cause of
bitter struggles between the full burgesses and those,
whether plebeians, freedmen, Latins, or Italians, who keenly
resented their political inequality. The third movement was
an equally prolific source of trouble in Roman history; it
arose from the embittered relations between landholders and
those who had either lost possession of their farms, or, as
was the case with many small farmers, held possession at the
mercy of the capitalist or landlord. These three movements
must be clearly grasped, as upon them hinges the internal
history of Rome. Although often intertwined and confused
with one another, they were, nevertheless, essentially and
fundamentally distinct. The natural outcome of the first was
the abolition of the monarchy--a result which we find
everywhere, alike in Greek and Italian states, and which
seems to have been a certain evolution of the form of
constitution peculiar to both peoples." (Mommsen.)
The overthrow of the monarchy was accomplished quickly and
effectively. Unlike the case in most countries, the monarchy once
overthrown, there was no attempt for nearly five centuries to
reëstablish it. The word "king" was regarded with such hatred that the
mere accusation made against any public leader that he was seeking to
make himself king was generally sufficient to utterly destroy his
influence, even when such charges were unfounded and unsupported by
evidence.
The men who established the new form of government created after the
expulsion of Tarquinius adopted the theory of political checks and
balances which we afterwards find exerting such a strong influence
upon the framers of our American Constitution. It was necessary that
at least a part of the powers formerly exercised by the king should be
intrusted to some official under the new régime. The greatest efforts,
however, were made to render it impossible for any Roman official to
use the governmental powers granted him in such a manner as to secure
for himself the kingly office. The mere provision that the highest
official in the government should be elected, rather than succeed to
the office by right of descent, was rightly judged to be by itself an
insufficient protection against the seizure of supreme power by some
Roman tyrant.
A stronger safeguard was found in the division of the highest power in
the state between two officials, who later came to be known as
consuls. (The officers afterwards known as consuls were for a
considerable period known as prætors; after the term consul came into
use the name prætor at a still later period was given to the possessor
of a new office created shortly after the passage of the Licinian
Act.) The kingly power, or that part of it not absolutely abolished or
given to the religious officials, was vested jointly in the two
consuls, each possessing the full right to exercise all the functions
of the office. Under this division of power each consul was considered
a most effective check upon any ambition for a crown which might be
possessed by the other.
Another safeguard, a safeguard which unfortunately has recently been
too much disregarded in the United States, consisted in the short term
of office prescribed by the new law, the consuls and other Roman
officials being elected for a term of one year only.
While, as has been said, the consuls retained in general all the
former powers of the king, still in some respects these powers were
curtailed:
1. By the Valerian Law of 509 B.C. each person condemned by the consul
to capital or corporal punishment was entitled to an appeal as a
matter of right. It had previously been optional with the king whether
to grant an appeal.
2. The consuls never possessed the various pecuniary rights of the
kings, such as that of having the fields cultivated by the citizens.
3. The quæstors, who had previously been appointed or not by the king
himself, as he saw fit, now became regular state officials.
4. The religious duties and powers of the king did not pass to the
consul. The highest religious officer of the state, the _pontifex
maximus_, was from this time on elected by the Pontifical College. The
various colleges of priests (all of whom had formerly been appointed
by the king) now filled up vacancies in their own numbers. Other
religious officers were appointed by the pontifex maximus. On account
of the close connection between the Roman religion and the Roman
government, the pontifex maximus became a strong political power in
the city. By the power of this officer and his associates to hold the
auspices and regulate the calendar, they were enabled to prevent or
permit the holding of the public assemblies, extend or decrease the
term of office of public officials, and exercise a greater or less
influence on almost every public question or proceeding.
5. The insignia and marks of dignity permitted to the consul were of a
less imposing character than those previously granted to the king.
While the king had been accompanied by twenty-four lictors, the consul
was permitted only twelve, and the axes were taken away. While the
king had worn the purple robe, the consul wore merely the ordinary
Roman toga with a purple border. The royal chariot of the king did not
descend to the consul, who was obliged to travel on foot within the
limits of the city.
6. There had been no provision in the Roman law for any redress for a
wrong done by the king, but the consul, upon the termination of his
year of office, stepped down at once into the mass of the citizens and
could at any time be punished for any malfeasance during his official
life.
7. An indirect restriction of the powers of the consuls arose from the
increased dignity and authority of the Senate. The change in this
respect, however, was practical rather than theoretical. According to
the strict form of the law the Senate still bore the same relation to
the consuls that they had previously borne to the king. The Senate was
still nothing more than an advisory body, and all vacancies among the
senators were filled by appointments made by the consuls. The
increased importance of the Senate arose out of the advantage which an
official holding office for life always possesses over a superior
officer holding office for only a brief term. In the present day it
frequently happens that a political appointee at the head of a
department or bureau, with the workings of which he is not familiar,
finds himself compelled to rely almost implicitly upon some
subordinate official whose working life has been spent in that office.
The short term of a consul and the life term of the members of the
Senate thus tended to secure to this body an ever increasing
influence. It was seldom that any serious conflict arose between the
consul and the Senate. The consuls were men who were already senators
or who expected to become such, while of the senators, many had held
the office of consul and many more hoped to hold it in the future.
This curtailment of the kingly power and the division of the powers
which remained between two consuls of equal rank, while it secured the
protection of the citizens from the danger of a new monarchy, strongly
hindered vigor and unity of action in the prosecution of any
enterprise. There were times, therefore, during the succeeding
centuries in the life of Rome, when to meet temporary emergencies a
stronger and undivided rule was necessary. To meet this need a new
official was created--the dictator--who might be nominated by one of
the consuls upon the authorization of the Senate and who, during the
term of his office, which could not exceed six months, possessed and
exercised almost absolute authority at Rome, and superseded all the
other officials in their duties.
The original intention was that such an official should be appointed
only in cases of military necessity, but later this office was
frequently created to aid the patricians in their contests with the
plebeians. Only the patricians were eligible for any of the newly
created offices. The Senate was composed exclusively of this order,
and it has already been explained, in Chapter II, how, through the
expedient of putting more Roman citizens in some centuries than in the
others, the patricians were able to control the vote of the majority
of the centuries in the comitia centuriata.
It is thus apparent that the mere overthrow of the kings at Rome had
accomplished little for the ordinary Roman citizen. In fact, the rule
of a single monarch is often more beneficial to the poorer classes of
a community than the rule of a favored class. The establishment of a
republic, however, had eliminated one political element, and cleared
the stage for the contest between the patricians and plebeians.
That the economic condition of the poorer classes in Rome changed for
the worse after the institution of the republic is certain. It was for
the interest of the early Roman kings to favor and protect the small
Roman farmers, both for military and economic reasons. While the
permanent interests of the patricians would have been promoted by the
encouragement of this class, their temporary selfish interests called
for the destruction of the Roman middle class, primarily the middle
agricultural class, and the division of all Roman inhabitants into a
small aristocracy on the one hand and a large proletariat on the
other.
The two forms of exactions which fell the heaviest upon the Roman
poorer classes were the barbarous laws against debtors and the
dishonest administration of the public leaders. The desperate
condition of the debtors at Rome at this time was a result of a number
of different causes, including the high rate of interest, the right of
the creditor to sell the debtor into slavery if the debt were not
paid, the policy of the patrician creditors to demand the last pound
of flesh in all their transactions, and the conditions which existed
in Rome at this time which compelled many small landowners, against
their wish and without any fault of their own, to become borrowers of
money.
One harsh feature of this condition was the fact that it was the
military service, which as Roman citizens they were compelled to
render to the state, that more often than any other cause compelled
the plebeians to borrow money and thus ultimately drove them to their
ruin. For example, a small Roman farmer, through absence from his
home on military service for the state, might lose his crop for the
year. To support himself and his family until the next harvest, and to
supply the means for the planting of the next year's crop, he would be
obliged to borrow money, which, under the exorbitant rates of
interest, soon reached an amount out of proportion to the original
loan. Perhaps a second campaign would deprive him of the means of
returning the loan, and his lands would be taken from him and he
himself sold into slavery. As a final blow, the unfortunate plebeian
saw the lands which had been won for the state by armies composed of
his fellow plebeians reserved entirely for the use of the favored
patrician order.
No more pernicious and unfair system could have been evolved than that
which governed the management of the Roman public lands in the very
first years of the republic. The earlier policy, under the kings, had
been to divide the public land of the state into small allotments and
to distribute it among those citizens of the state who most needed it.
With the republic this policy ceased, and the public lands were
nominally retained in the public ownership, but in reality were let
out on leases to the patricians and a few favored men among the
plebeians.
In theory the state retained the right to take back the land at any
time and to receive a rent from the lessee; but in practice both these
rights were disregarded. The lands held in this manner by the
patricians were soon considered by them as much their own property as
those to which they held the legal title, and were devised and pledged
by their owners in substantially the same manner as any other land.
The collection of the rent was soon abandoned; and not only this, but
the land being in theory state land, the lessee (who was supposed to,
but did not, pay rent) was not liable to pay taxes on this land.
The final working out of this matter may be summed up by saying that
the poorer class of the plebeians furnished most of the soldiers for
the campaign, stood most of the expense, suffered nearly all the
losses both of life and property, were excluded from any share in the
land captured in the war, and as a culmination saw their taxes yearly
increased on account of the fact that the patricians, who monopolized
the public land, succeeded in dodging the payment of rent and in
evading the payment of taxes.
It was these conditions which brought about the remarkable spectacle
of what may be well designated the first recorded strike in history--a
strike in the Roman army. In 495 B.C. the Roman citizens were summoned
to take the field for another military campaign. They refused to obey.
One of the consuls, Publius Servilius, however, induced them to make
the campaign by suspending some of the laws bearing most heavily upon
the poor and by releasing all persons in prison for debt. But hardly
had the army returned from a victorious campaign than the other
consul, Appius Claudius, as a reward for their victory began to
enforce the debtor laws with extraordinary severity.
Once more, in the following year, the plebeians were induced to take
the field, mainly on account of the popularity of the dictator
appointed for the management of this campaign, Marius Valerius, and
his promise that upon the termination of the campaign permanent
reforms would be made in the law. Again the Roman army was victorious,
and again the patricians broke faith with the plebeians and refused
to carry out their promised reforms.
The next scene in this conflict is one almost without parallel, either
in ancient or modern history. The plebeians, disgusted by the
selfishness and perfidy of the patricians, determined to abandon Rome
to the patrician order and to found a new city for themselves upon the
"Sacred Mount," a hill situated between the Tiber and the Anio. The
patricians, thunderstruck by this unexpected movement, and being far
more in need of the plebeians than the plebeians were of them,
immediately made sufficient concessions to the plebeians to induce
them to return to Rome.
Some of the concessions made at this time related to temporary
provisions for relief of debtors; but the great innovation was that
which established the office of tribune. The character of the office
of tribune is absolutely unique in the political history of the world.
The tribunes, elected by the people in the comitia tributa, were
plebeian officers who were at first without any constructive part in
the carrying on of the Roman government and whose sole duty at the
outset was to protect the members of the plebeian order from the
oppression of the patrician officials. This protection was exercised
mainly through the use of the veto power given to the tribunes. Under
this power the tribunes had the right at any time to put a stop to any
act either by any of the public assemblies, by the Senate, or by any
of the magistrates. It was a power which, if exercised to its fullest
extent, could put a stop to the very carrying on of the government.
It speaks much for the moderation of the Roman tribunes that through
all the centuries of the Roman republic little serious inconvenience
was experienced from the use of this power. With few and unimportant
exceptions, it was exercised only in cases where the welfare of the
plebeians as a class, or of some particular plebeian, demanded it.
The creation of the office of tribune was merely one more example of
that system of checks and balances which played so prominent a part in
the framing of the government after the expulsion of the king--a
system of checks and balances so strikingly resembling that in our
Federal Constitution. The tribunes were introduced as a protection
for the plebeians and an additional restraint upon the magistrates.
While at first the power and duties of the tribunes were entirely of a
negative nature, they gradually acquired an authority of a positive
character. The tribunes generally presided over the comitia tributa
and took the lead in securing the passage of laws by that body. In
addition they acquired judicial powers, and in cases where a plebeian
had been wronged they could summon any citizen, even the consuls,
before them, and might impose even the death penalty. The persons of
the tribunes were declared inviolable, and any one who attacked them
was thought to be accursed. The number of the tribunes was at first
two, but was later increased to five and still later to ten.
The second great victory won by the plebeians was in the passage of
the Publilian Law in 471 B.C. This law was proposed by the tribune
Valerius Publilius, and was brought about by the murder of the tribune
Gnæus Genucius. The main object of this law was the protection of the
plebeian assembly and the plebeian officers, but its exact details are
unknown. It is believed by some that the comitia tributa really came
into existence with this law, and that previously the plebeians had
voted by curies. The law limited to plebeian freeholders the right to
vote in a plebeian assembly, and excluded nearly all the freedmen and
clients who were under the influence of the patricians as well as the
patricians themselves. It is possible also that the increase in the
number of the tribunes from two to five was made by this law. In 462
B.C. an unsuccessful attempt was made to abolish the office of
tribune; in 457 B.C. came the increase from five tribunes to ten.
From 451 to 450 B.C. the regular system of government at Rome was
interrupted by the election and rule of the _decemvirs_. The episode
of these decemvirs has an important place in Roman history; but (as is
the case with all events in Roman history in the fifth century before
Christ) our knowledge of these men, of their work, and of their
overthrow is very uncertain. The election of these officials was
primarily brought about by the recognized necessity for a reform and
codification of the Roman laws. If the duties of these men had been
limited to the preparation of such code, its character and position
would not have been unsimilar to that of numerous other bodies of men
appointed for a similar purpose in many countries and in all ages. But
the peculiarity about the work of the decemvirs lies in the fact that
upon their appointment all the ordinary Roman offices were
discontinued and the entire judicial and executive administration of
the state passed into the hands of the decemvirs.
During their first year of office the decemvirs drew up ten tables of
laws, so called because the laws were engraved upon tables of copper
and stood up in the Forum on the rostra in front of the Senate house.
According to the legends (for the Roman historical records of this
century are little more than such), it had originally been intended to
intrust the decemvirs with power only for a single year, but their
work being incomplete at the expiration of the first year, they were
chosen for a second year. It is uncertain whether the decemvirs for
the second year were exactly the same men as those for the first year.
According to some reports some of the decemvirs of the second year
were plebeians, while none of those originally elected belonged to
that order.
During their second year of office the decemvirs prepared two more
tables of laws, and these, with the ten tables prepared during the
preceding year, constituted the famous "Law of the Twelve Tables," the
first Roman code of which we have any knowledge. Only fragmentary
extracts from these tables have come down to us, but these fragments
furnish us with such an insight into early Roman laws, institutions,
and customs that they are here inserted:
THE TWELVE TABLES
TABLE I
THE SUMMONS BEFORE THE MAGISTRATE
1. If the plaintiff summon a man to appear before the
magistrate and he refuse to go, the plaintiff shall first
call witnesses and arrest him.
2. If the defendant attempt evasion or flight, the plaintiff
shall take him by force.
3. If the defendant be prevented by illness or old age, let
him who summons him before the magistrate furnish a beast of
burden, but he need not send a covered carriage for him
unless he choose.
4. For a wealthy defendant only a wealthy man may go bail;
any one who chooses may go bail for a poor citizen of the
lowest class.
5. In case the contestants come to an agreement, the
magistrate shall announce the fact.
6. In case they come to no agreement, they shall before noon
enter the case in the comitium or forum.
7. To the party present in the afternoon the magistrate
shall award the suit.
9. Sunset shall terminate the proceedings.
10. ... sureties and sub-sureties....
TABLE II
JUDICIAL PROCEDURE
2. A serious illness or a legal appointment with an alien
... should one of these occur to the judge, arbiter, or
either party to the suit, the appointed trial must be
postponed.
3. If the witnesses of either party fail to appear, that
party shall go and serve a verbal notice at his door on
three days.
TABLE III
EXECUTION FOLLOWING CONFESSION OR JUDGMENT
1. A debtor, either by confession or judgment, shall have
thirty days' grace.
2. At the expiration of this period the plaintiff shall
serve a formal summons upon the defendant, and bring him
before the magistrate.
3. If the debt be not paid, or if no one become surety, the
plaintiff shall lead him away, and bind him with shackles
and fetters of not less than fifteen pounds' weight, and
heavier at his discretion.
4. If the debtor wish, he may live at his own expense; if
not, he in whose custody he may be shall furnish him a pound
of meal a day, more at his discretion.
6. On the third market day the creditors, if there are
several, shall divide the property. If one take more or
less, no guilt shall attach to him.
TABLE IV
PATERNAL RIGHTS
3. If a father shall thrice sell his son, the son shall be
free from the paternal authority.
TABLE V
INHERITANCE AND TUTELAGE
3. What has been appointed in regard to the property or
tutelage shall be binding in law.
4. If a man die intestate, having no natural heirs, his
property shall pass to the nearest agnate.
5. If there be no agnate, the gentiles shall succeed.
7. ... if one be hopelessly insane, his agnates and gentiles
shall have authority over him and his property ... in case
there be none to take charge....
8. ... from that estate ... into that estate.
TABLE VI
OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION
1. Whenever a party shall negotiate a nexum or transfer by
mancipatio, according to the formal statement so let the law
be.
5. Whoever in presence of the magistrates shall join issue
by manuum consertio....
7. A beam built into a house or vine trellis shall not be
removed.
9. When the vines have been pruned, until the grapes are
removed....
TABLE VII
LAW CONCERNING REAL PROPERTY
5. If parties get into dispute about boundaries....
7. They shall pave the way. If they do not pave the way with
stones a man may drive where he pleases.
8. If water from rain gutters cause damage....
TABLE VIII
ON TORTS
1. Whoever shall chant a magic spell....
2. If a man maim another, and does not compromise with him,
there shall be retaliation in kind.
3. If with the fist or club a man break a bone of a freeman,
the penalty shall be three hundred asses; if of a slave, one
hundred and fifty asses.
4. If he does any injury to another, twenty-five asses; if
he sing a satirical song let him be beaten.
5. ... if he shall have inflicted a loss ... he shall make
it good.
6. Whoever shall blight the crops of another by incantation
... nor shalt thou win over to thyself another's grain....
12. If a thief be caught stealing by night and he be slain,
the homicide shall be lawful.
13. If in the daytime the thief defend himself with a
weapon, one may kill him.
15. ... with a leather girdle about his naked body, and a
platter in his hand....
16. If a man contend at law about a theft not detected in
the act....
21. If a patron cheat his client, he shall become infamous.
22. He who has been summoned as a witness or acts as
libripens, and shall refuse to give his testimony, shall be
accounted infamous, and shall be incapable of acting
subsequently as witness.
24. If a weapon slip from a man's hand without his intention
of hurling it....
TABLE IX
(No fragments of this table are extant.)
TABLE X
SACRED LAW
1. They shall not inter or burn a dead man within the city.
2. ... more than this a man shall not do ... ; a man shall
not smooth the wood for the funeral pyre with an ax.
4. Women shall not lacerate their faces, nor indulge in
immoderate wailing for the dead.
5. They shall not collect the bones of a dead man for a
second interment.
7. Whoever wins a crown, either in person or by his slaves
or animals, or has received it for valor....
8. ... he shall not add gold ... ; but gold used in joining
the teeth.... This may be burned or buried with the dead
without incurring any penalty.
TABLE XI
(No fragments of this table are extant.)
TABLE XII
SUPPLEMENTARY LAWS
2. If a slave has committed theft, or has done damage....
3. If either party shall have won a suit concerning property
by foul means, at the discretion of the opponent ... the
magistrate shall fix the damage at twice the profits arising
from the interim possession.
The decemvirs were forcibly overthrown before the close of their
second year in office. The stories as to the cause are not only
conflicting but diametrically so. According to one historical theory,
the rebellion against the decemvirs began among the plebeians on
account of the oppression which they suffered from the hands of these
men; while, on the other hand, it is believed by many historians that
the decemvirs were overthrown by the patricians because they were
giving too many concessions to the plebeians. Whatever the cause, the
power of the decemvirs was taken from them and all the former Roman
officials and assemblies were reëstablished, with the old powers and
jurisdictions. The "Law of the Twelve Tables," which the decemvirs had
drawn up, however, remained for centuries as the great basis of Roman
law.
Five years after the deposition of the decemvirs the tribune Canuleius
secured the passage by the comitia tributa of the Canuleian Law, which
marked another milestone passed by the plebeians in their march toward
equality before the law.
Two great concessions were given by this act, one in the field of
private and the other in the field of public law. The law which had
existed from the earliest days in Rome, and which had been
incorporated in the "Law of the Twelve Tables," prohibiting
intermarriage between plebeians and patricians, was abolished. It was
also provided that any year the people, instead of electing consuls,
might elect military tribunes, who should possess all the powers,
although not all the dignities, of the consuls. Either patricians or
plebeians could be elected to the office of military tribunes.
The election of military tribunes was authorized by law many years
before any such officials were elected in Rome; but the fear that the
consular power might sometime fall into the hands of a plebeian
induced the patricians in 443 B.C. to secure the passage of a law for
the creation of new officials who should possess some of the powers
previously held by the consul and who must be chosen from the
patrician order.
These new officials, called censors, were to be two in number and were
to be elected every five years. At first these officials held office
until the time arrived for the election of their successors, but later
their term of office was limited to one year and a half, there thus
being three and one half years out of every five-year period when this
office was in abeyance.
The most important duty given to the censors at the outset seems to
have been the authority of filling vacancies in the Senate as it
became necessary to keep the number up to the required three hundred.
Up to this time this power of appointing senators had been exercised
by the consul. As time went on, however, the powers of this office
rapidly increased until at length it became the highest post of honor
at Rome, the men elected censors being almost invariably former
consuls or military tribunes.
The arbitrary power of inquisition over all the public affairs of Rome
and the private conduct of the Roman citizens was so astonishingly
great that we wonder how it could have existed without constant and
gross abuses. In the later days of the republic the censors had the
right to make a so-called "censorial note" of all Roman citizens, who,
without having gone to the point of violating the criminal law, or at
least without having been convicted of a crime, had been guilty of
dishonorable or immoral conduct. All persons thus named suffered
severe civic penalties. If the person were a senator he lost his seat
in the Senate; if a knight, he lost the peculiar privileges belonging
to this rank. In every case the person lost his membership in the
association of his tribe and was subject to increased taxation.
The exclusive right to serve as censors was one of the last exclusive
privileges retained by the patricians, the plebeians not being made
eligible to this office until 339 B.C.
Although Rome was in an almost constant state of warfare during the
fifth century before Christ, the conflicts were neither on a large
scale nor decisive in their results. The chief enemies of Rome were
the neighboring Latin and Etruscan cities, with one or another of whom
Rome was almost constantly engaged in hostilities. At the beginning
of the fourth century before Christ Rome was attacked by a new and
more terrible enemy from the north, who very nearly changed the whole
course of the world's history by wiping the city of Rome out of
existence before its career of greatness had begun.
This enemy was the Gauls, who captured and burned Rome in the year 390
B.C., but who failed to take the citadel of the city and finally
withdrew, either being driven away or bribed to depart. Not only are
the details of the capture of Rome by the Gauls very uncertain, but by
destroying all the old Roman records and many of the Roman monuments
in their sack of Rome, the Gauls are responsible for much of the
uncertainty which exists as to the truth of the details of the history
of Rome prior to their invasion. In fact, it is generally considered
that the authentic history of Rome begins only after 390 B.C., the
history of the Roman kingdom being little more than mythology; while
what we know of the Roman republic prior to 390 B.C. consists of an
inseparable mixture of true history and legendary tales.
After the departure of the Gauls the question arose whether Rome
should be rebuilt on its old site or whether all the Romans should
migrate in a body to Veii. It was only after a long discussion that it
was finally decided to remain at Rome.
The rebuilding of Rome was immediately followed by another period of
conflict between the patricians and plebeians. Two causes of
discontent brought about the renewal of this contest. The first was
the financial condition of the poorer classes, who had been rendered
more desperate through the losses occasioned by the Gallic invasion;
and second, the desire of the richer plebeians to share in the
political honors reserved exclusively for the patricians.
In this contest the leaders of the plebeians were the tribunes Gaius
Licinius and Lucius Sextius, who were, year after year, reëlected to
this office by the people.
The so-called Licinian Laws, first introduced by these tribunes in 376
B.C., were adopted only after the most bitter political contest which
up to this time had ever been fought in Rome. Time and again, the
tribunes resorted to their veto power to put a stop to the carrying
on of every function of the Roman government. These laws were finally
passed in 367 B.C., their three great provisions being as follows:
1. That of all debts on which interest had been paid, the sum of the
interest paid should be deducted from the principal, and the remainder
paid off in three successive years.
2. That no citizen should hold more than five hundred _jugera_ (nearly
320 acres) of the public land, or should feed on the public pastures
more than one hundred head of larger cattle and five hundred of
smaller, under penalty of a heavy fine.
3. That henceforth consuls, not consular tribunes, should always be
elected, and that one of the two consuls must be a plebeian.
Although the Licinian Laws are generally held to have equalized the
different orders at Rome, to have terminated forever the bitter
jealousy between patricians and plebeians, to have put a stop for a
time to class controversies of all kinds, and to have rendered
possible the great career of foreign conquest upon which Rome soon
entered, the fact remains that the benefit of these laws was
experienced far more by the small class of wealthy plebeians than by
the great mass of this order.
Henceforth, with very few exceptions, one consul was always a
plebeian, Lucius Sextius being the first plebeian consul and Gaius
Licinius the third; but the chance of being elected consul was in
reality limited to a small class of plebeians and conferred little
practical benefit upon the ordinary member of the order.
The laws for the relief of the poorer classes were not so fully
enforced. In particular, the wealthy citizens holding large allotments
of the public land found methods by which to evade the carrying out of
the provisions of this new law, and we are surprised to find Licinius
himself as one of the offenders in this respect.
It was in the period following the passage of the Licinian Laws that
the greatest inequalities in wealth began to appear at Rome, and the
numbers of free small landowners to decrease.
The history of the Licinian Laws and of the following period show
conclusively how mere political equality is never sufficient to secure
the welfare of the mass of the community, and that the power held by
a class possessed of great wealth, but without special political
privileges, is greater than that of a recognized nobility, and far
more apt to be abused, on account of the absence of any feeling of
class honor.
Two slight efforts were made by the patricians to counteract the
political provisions of the Licinian Laws. For the first eleven years
after the passage of the Licinian Laws one consul was a plebeian and
one a patrician. In the thirteen years beginning with 355 B.C., two
patricians were elected consuls in eight of the years; after this,
violations of the law ceased, and one consul belonged to each order
down to the year 172 B.C., when both consulships were open to the
plebeians. The wealthy class of both orders had been so mingled by
this time that thereafter consuls were elected indiscriminately from
either order, although this election was almost invariably restricted
to the members of the great families.
Immediately after the passage of the Licinian Laws the patricians
secured the creation of a new office. The man holding this office was
called _prætor_, and was given the judicial powers formerly belonging
to the consuls. At a later period the number of prætors was increased
to two, one of whom, known as the _prætor urbanus_, had jurisdiction
over controversies between Roman citizens, and the other, the _prætor
peregrinus_, who had jurisdiction over controversies between
foreigners residing at Rome and between Romans and foreigners.