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supplement appeared necessary, decemvirs were again nominated, in 450, who added two more tables.

Thus originated the first and only legal code of Rome, the law of the twelve tables.

b. Political significance of the Law of the XII. Tables.

The real political significance of the measure resided less in the contents of its legislation than in the formal obligation now laid upon the consuls to administer justice according to its forms of proce lure and its rules of law, and in the public exhibition of the code of laws, by which the administration of justice was subjected to the control of publicity, and the consul was compelled to dispense equal and common justice to all.

c. Prolongation of the rule of the Decemvirs.

During the rule of the decemvirs, neither consuls nor tribunes were elected. The patricians, apprehensive that when consuls were elected, the power of the tribunes should be also revived, prolonged the power of the decemvirs in order to wait for a favorable moment to revive the consulate without reviving the tribunes.

d. Fall of the Decemvirs.

A former tribune, Lucius Siccius Dentatus, a veteran of 120 battles, was found dead in front of the camp, murdered, as was whispered, at the instigation of the decemvirs. A revolution was fermenting in men's minds; and its outbreak was hastened by the unjust sentence pronounced by Appius in a trial about the freedom of the daughter of Virginius a sentence which induced the father himself to plunge his knife into the heart of his daughter, in the open forum, to rescue her from certain shame. On receiving intelligence of this event, all the plebeians abandoned their camps and leaders, (this happened in the midst of a war with the Sabines,) and proceeded once more to the Sacred Mount, where they again nominated their own tribunes. Still the decemvirs refused to resign their power, and the army appeared with its tribunes in the city, and encamped on the Aventine. Then, at length, when civil war was imminent, the decemvirs renounced their dishonored power. The decemvirs were impeached, the consulate was revived, and with it the power of the tribunes. No attempt to abolish this magistracy was ever from this time forward made in Rome, (450.)

V. The Equalization of the Patricians and Plebeians.
a. The Plebeian Aristocracy and the Tribunate.

The institution of the tribunes originated in social rather than political discontent, and the wealthy plebeians admitted to the senate were no less opposed to it than the patricians themselves; for they shared in the privileges against which the movement was mainly directed. But this league of the rich (patricians and wealthy plebeians) by no means bore within it any security for its permanence. Three things had now (449) become perfectly clear to them: 1. That the tribunate of the plebs could never be set aside.

2. That concessions to the plebs were inevitable in the issue; and, 3. That, if turned to due account, they would result in the abrogation of the exclusive rights of the patriciate.

The plebeian aristocracy knew also what would be the inevitable result of all this-their decisive preponderance in the state.

They seized, therefore, this powerful lever, (the power of the tribunes,) and began to employ it for the removal of the political disabilities of their order. The two fundamental principles of the patricians were:

1. The invalidity of marriage between patricians and plebeians.

2. The incapacity of plebeians to hold public offices.

Both were annulled about 444 B. C.: the admittance of the plebeians to the public offices continued to be refused in name, but was conceded to them in reality, although in a singular form.

b. The Military Tribunes with consular power.

Every year (from 444-367 B. c.) a law had to be passed declaring whether consuls should be elected for the succeeding year or not. If no consuls were to be elected, their place was filled by military tribunes with consular powers, and consular duration of office. But every one serving in the militia might attain the place of an officer: by granting the consular powers to the chief officers of the army, who might be plebeians, the supreme magistracy was opened up alike to patricians and plebeians. But now the exclusive possession of the supreme magistracy could no longer be defended, it seemed advisable to divest it of its financial importance, and by means of patrician censors (appraisors) and quæstors, (paymasters.) to keep at least the budget and the state chest under the exclusive control of the patriciate. They succeeded with the censorship, but the quæstorship was soon thrown open to the plebeians, (421 B. C.)

c. The Censorship, 435 B. C.

The adjustment of the budget and of the taxation rolls, which ordinarily took place every fourth year, and had hitherto been managed by the consuls, was in 435 intrusted to two appraisers, (censors,) nominated from among the patricians, for a period of 18 months. This new office gradually became the palladium of the patricians, on account of the right belonging to it of filling up vacancies in the senate and in the companies of the horse, (the knights.)

d. The Licinian Rogations - Plebeian Consuls.

During these political struggles, social questions had lain altogether dormant : although the public domain was ever extending in consequence of the successful wars, and although pauperism was ever spreading more widely among the farmers.

At length an honest attempt was made to relieve the poor, by the tribunes C. Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius.

They submitted the following proposals (known as the Licinian rogations) :

1. To abolish the military tribunes with consular power, and to lay it down as a rule that at least one of the consuls should be a plebeian.

2. To open up to the plebeians admission to one of the three great colleges of priests.

3. To allow no citizens to maintain upon the public pastures more than a hundred oxen and five hundred sheep, or to occupy more than 300 acres of the public lands by squatter-right.

4. To oblige land-owners to employ in the labors of the field a number of free laborers proportioned to that of their rural slaves.

5. To procure alleviation for debtors by deduction of the interest which had been paid, from the capital.

Abolition of privileges, social reform, civic equality-these were the three great ideas of which it was the design of this movement to secure the recognition. After a struggle of eleven years they became finally law, (367.)

With the election of the first plebeian consul, (366,) the patriciate ceased, both in fact and in law, to be numbered among the political institutions of Rome.

e. The Prætorship.

Under the pretext that the patricians were exclusively cognizant of law, the administration of justice was detached from the consulate when the latter had to be thrown open to the plebeians, and for that purpose there was nominated a third consul, or, as he was commonly called, a prætor. In like manner, the judicial police duties were assigned to two patrician ædiles, (ædiles curules.)

f. Final equalization between the two orders.

The plebeians were admitted to the dictatorship in 356 B. C., to the censorship in 351 B. C., and to the prætorship in 337 B. C.

The struggle between the patricians and plebeians was thus substantially at an end. The patriciate, however, by no means disappeared because it had become an empty name. The less its significance and power the more purely and exclusively the patrician spirit developed itself.

g. The Senate.

We have seen how, during these struggles between patricians and plebeians, the authority of the supreme magistrate had been continually divided, and thereby weakened, so that the consuls were nothing but the presidents and executives of the senate, which, from a body solely meant to tender advice, had become the central government of the state.

Every matter of permanent and general importance, and particularly the whole system of finance, depended absolutely on it. Called to power through the free choice of the nation; confirmed every five years by the stern moral judgment of the worthiest men; holding office for life; embracing in its body all that the people possessed of political intelligence and practical statesmanship-the Roman senate was the noblest embodiment of the nation; and in consistency and political sagacity, in unanimity and patriotism, the foremost political corporation of all times an assembly of kings, which well knew how to combine despotic energy with republican self-devotedness. Never was a state represented in its external relations more firmly and worthily than Rome in its best times by its senate.

B. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN TERRITORY.
I. Consolidation of Latium.

a. The league of the three nations: Romans, Latins, and Hernici. The great achievement of the regal period was the establisament of the sovereignty of Rome over Latium.

The danger from Etruria, which had reached its highest development about 500 B. C., induced the Latin nation to adhere to the continued recognition of the Roman supremacy, after the expulsion of the kings. The permanently united nation was enabled, not only to maintain, but also to extend on all sides its power. The conquests of the earlier republican period were at the expense of Rome's eastern and southern neighbors. Three nations were conquered during that time: I. The Sabines, dwelling between the Tiber and the Anio.

II. The Æqui, dwelling next to the Sabines, on the Upper Anio.
III. The Volscians, dwelling on the Tyrrhene sea.

The Sabines were soon conquered, but the struggle with the Æqui and Volsci lasted more than a century.

b. Spurius Cassius the father of the league.

Spurius Cassius enabled the Romans to triumph over their enemies by his renewal, consolidation, and extension of the ancient league between Rome and Latium. He is known as the author of three works to which Rome owed all her future greatness:

1. He renewed the league with the Latins in 493.

2. He concluded the league with the Hernici in 486.

3. He procured, at the price of his own life, the enactment of the first agrarian law. (See page 181, col. 2. d.)

By his two treaties he had, so far as was possible, repaired the losses occasioned to the Roman power by the expulsion of Tarquinius, and had reorganized that confederacy to which, under her last kings, Rome had been indebted for her greatness. The wound was healed at the very critical moment, before the storm of the great Volscian invasions burst upon Latium, and, thanks to the league, the Volscians were not only driven back, but even conquered, (383.)

c. Attempts to dissolve the league.

But the more decided the successes that the league of the Romans, Latins, and Hernici achieved against the Volsci and other surrounding nations, the more that league became liable to disunion. The main cause of this was the very subjugation of the common foe: forbearance ceased on one side, devotedness ceased on the other, from the time that they thought that they had no longer need of each other. The open breach between the Latins and Hernici on the one hand, and the Romans on the other, was especially occasioned by the capture of Rome by the Celts in 390, and the momentary weakness which supervened. The struggle was long and severe, but terminated, however, with the renewal of the treaties between Rome and the Latin and Hernician confederacies, in 358 B. C. They submitted once more, and probably on harder terms, to the Roman supremacy.

II. The Wars between Rome and Veii.

a. The war of 483 till 474.

Twelve miles to the north of Rome was situated the wealthy and powerful city of Veii, the old antagonist of Rome. A furious war raged between the two rivals from 483-474 B. C. The Romans suffered in its course severe defeats. Tradition especially preserved the memory of the catastrophe of the Fabii, who had undertaken the defence of the frontier against Etruria, and who were slain to the last man capable of bearing arms, at the rivulet of the Cremera, (477.) But by the armistice for 400 months, which terminated the war, Rome recovered its ground, and the two nations were restored in the main to the state in which they had stood during the regal period. b. The war with Veii about Fidene.

When the armistice expired, in 445, the war began afresh, but it took the form of border frays, which led to no material result. At length the revolt of Fidenæ, (10 miles from Rome, on the left bank of the Tiber,) which expelled the Roman garrison, murdered the Roman envoys, and submitted to Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii, gave rise to a more considerable war, which ended favorably for the Romans. Fidence was retaken, and a new armistice for 200 months was concluded in 425 B. C.

c. The fall of Veii.

When this armistice expired, toward the end of 408, the Romans resolved to undertake a war of conquest in Etruria; and on this occasion the war was carried on not merely to vanquish Veii, but to crush it.

The history of this war and of the siege of Veii rests on little reliable evidence. Legend and poetry have taken possession of these events as their own, and with reason; for the struggle in this case was waged with unprecedented exertions for an unprecedented prize.

It was the first occasion in which a Roman army remained in the field summer and winter, year after year, till its object was attained.

It was the first occasion on which the community paid the levy from the resources of the state.

It was the first occasion on which the Romans attempted to subdue a nation of alien stock, and carried their arms beyond the ancient boundaries of the Latin land. Veii succumbed, in 396 в c., to the persevering and heroic energy of Marcus Furius Camillus, who first opened up to his countrymen the brilliant but perilous career of foreign conquest.

Veii was destroyed, and the soil was doomed to perpetual desolation.

The statement that the two bulwarks of the Etruscan nation, Melpum and Veii, yielded on the same day, (the former to the Celts, the latter to the Romans,) may be merely a melancholy legend, but it at any rate involves a deep historical truth. The double assault on the north and on the south, and the fall of the two frontier strongholds, were the beginning of the end of the great Etruscan nation. III. The Burning of Rome.

a. The Celts and the Etruscans.

A new nation had been for some time knocking at the gates of the Alps, and

finally had entered the Italian peninsula. It was the Celtic nation, and their first pressure fell on the Etruscans, from whom they wrested place after place, till, after the fall of Melpum, (396 B. C.,) the whole left bank of the Po was in their hands.

For a moment, however, it seemed as if the two nations (Celts and Romans) by whom Etruria saw her very existence put in jeopardy, were about to destroy each other. This turn of things the Romans brought upon themselves by their own arrogance.

The Celtic swarms very rapidly overflowed northern Italy and besieged Clusium, and so humbled were the Etruscans that they invoked help from their bitter enemies, the Romans.

b. The Cells and the Romans.

The Romans declined to send assistance, but despatched envoys. These envoys sought to impose upon the Celts by haughty language, and, when this failed, they thought they might with impunity violate the law of nations in dealing with barbarians: in the rank of the Clusines they took part in a skirmish, and in the course of it one of them stabbed a Gallic officer. Redress being refused, the Gauls broke up the siege of Clusium and turned against Rome. It was not till the Gauls had crossed the Tiber and were at the rivulet of the Allia, less than 12 miles from the gates, that a Roman military force sought to hinder their passage, on July 18th, 390. The Romans were defeated.

c. The Catastrophe.

Not only was the overthrow complete, but the disorderly flight of the Romans carried the greater portion of the defeated army to the right bank of the Tiber. The capital was thus left to the mercy of the invaders; the small force that was left behind was not sufficient to garrison the walls, and three days after the battle the victors marched through the open gates into Rome. They murdered all they met with, and at length set the city on fire on all sides, before the eyes of the Roman garrison in the Capitol. The Celts remained for 7 months beneath the rock, and the garrison already found its provisions beginning to fail, when the Celts received information as to the Veneti having invaded their recently acquired territory on the Po, and were thus induced to accept the ransom money that was offered to secure their retreat. When the Gauls had again withdrawn, the city arose out of its ruins, and Rome again stood in her old commanding position. IV. The Consolidation of Central Italy.

a. Latins and Samnites.

The Samnite nation had been for centuries in possession of the hill country which rises between the Apulian and Campanian plains. The fall of the Etruscan power, and the decline of the Greek colonies (about 450 B. c.) made room for them toward the west and south; and now one Samnite horde after another marched down to the southern coasts of Italy. Campania was first occupied, Lucania soon afterward. The Greeks of Lower Italy tried to resist the pressure of the barbarians. But their union no longer availed. One Greek city after another was occupied or annihilated by the Samnites. Tarentum alone remained thoroughly

independent and powerful. When we compare the achievements of the two great nations of Italy, the Latins and the Samnites, before 343 B. c., the career of conquest on the part of the latter appears far wider and more splendid than that of the former.

Duration. About two years, (343-341 B. C.)
Theatre of war. Campania.

Parties. A. The Romano-Latin league with the people of Capua. B. The
Samnites, with the Volscians and other tribes.

Commander. Marcus Valerius Corvus, the Roman commander.
Battles. Mount Gaurus and Suessula, both gained by the Romans.
Result. Capua was left in the hands of the Romans, Teanum in the hands

of the Samnites, and the upper Liris in those of the Volscians.
Causes of peace. Two. 1. A mutiny among the Roman army stationed at
Capua. 2. The breaking out of the great Latin war.

Between the First and Second Samnite War.

II. The Great Latin War.

But the character of their conquests was essentially different. From the fixed urban centre which Latium possessed in Rome, the dominion of the Latin stock spread slowly on all sides, and lay within limits comparatively narrow. But it planted its foot firmly at every step, partly by the founding of fortresses, partly by the Romanizing of the territory which it conquered. It was otherwise with Samnium. There was in its case no single leading community, and therefore no policy of conquest. Every Samnite horde which had sought and found new settlements, pursued a path of its own. They filled a large space, while yet they showed no disposition to make it thoroughly their own, Instead of Samnitizing the Hellens, they became Hellenized. They could not resist the dangerous charm of Hellenic culture, but adopted Greek manners, and also Greek vices. The old mountain home of the Samnites alone remained unaffected by these innovations, which powerfully contributed to relax still more the bond of national unity, which Duration. Nearly three years, (340-338 B. C.) from the first was loose. Through the influence of Greek habits a deep schism took place in the Samnite stock. The civilized Samnites of the plain were accusTheatre of war. Campania and Latium. tomed to tremble, like the Greeks themselves, before the ruder tribes of the Parties. A. Romans, in alliance with the Samnites. B. Latins, in alliance with the Campanians. mountains, who were continually penetrating into Campania and disturbing the degenerate earlier settlers. Object of the war. Rome was a compact state, having the strength of all Latium at its disposal; its subjects might murmur, but they obeyed.

The Samnite stock was dispersed and divided, and while the confederacy in Samnium proper had preserved unimpaired the manners and valor of their ancestors, they were on that very account completely at variance with the other Samnite tribes.

It was this variance between the Samnites of the plain and the Samnites of the mountains that led the Romans over the Liris, and became the immediate cause of the Samnite war.

b. The Wars between Rome and Samnium.

Number of wars. Three wars, of which the second was the most remarkable. Between the first and second Samnite war, falls the Latin war. Duration. More than half a century, 53 years, (343-290 B. C.) Theatre of war. Central Italy.

Parties. A. The Latins, under the leadership of Rome. B. The Italian tribes of central Italy, especially the Samnites.

Question at issue. Shall Italy become united and civilized, or is it doomed to remain a loose collection of shepherd tribes?

Result. Centralization of central Italy under Roman supremacy.

I. First Samnite War.

Cause. The surrender of the city of Capua (on Samnian soil) by its own inhabitants to the Romans, that they might be protected by them against their own kinsmen.

Cause. The refusal of the Romans to admit the Latins to the full rights of Roman citizens.

To make an end to Rome's supremacy over Latium.
Result of the war. The dissolution of the Latin league. It was trans-
formed from an independent political confederation into a mere association for
the purpose of a religious festival.
Great commander. Titus Manlius TORQUATUS, the Roman general.
Battle. The decisive battle was fought in 340, near TRIFANUM, on the Liris.
Complete victory of the Romans.
Peace. Instead of the one treaty between Rome on the one hand, and the
Latin confederacy on the other, perpetual alliances were entered into between
Rome and the several confederate towns.

III. Second, or Great Samnite War.

Cause. The Romans demanded satisfaction from Palæopolis and Neapolis, the present town of Naples, for depredations committed by them in Campania. This was refused by the advice of the Samnites, who actually threw a strong garrison into Palæopolis, to defend it against the Romans. Hereupon the Romans declared war, nominally against the inhabitants of Palæopolis, in reality against the Samnites.

Duration. About 22 years, (326-304 B. c.)
Theatre of war. Central Italy.

Parties. A. The Romans allied with the Latins, Campanians, and Apulians; the inhabitants of the Italian plains. B. The Samnites, allied with the mountain tribes of central Italy, and the Etruscans, and even the Gauls; the inhabitants of the Italian mountain districts.

Commanders. A. Roman: Marcus PAPIRIUS CURSOR, Quintus FABIUS MAXIMUS. B. Samnite: Caius PONTIUS TELESINUS.

Battles. A. Gained by the Romans: VADIMONIAN LAKE, (310,) TIFERNUM, (305.) B. Gained by the Samnites: CAUDINE PASS, (321.)

Result. The fall of the chief stronghold of Samnium, (Bovianum, in 305,) terminated the twenty-two years' war. The Samnites sued for peace. The victory of Rome was complete, and she turned it to full account.

Consequences of the Roman victory. Their first endeavor was to complete the subjugation of central Italy by military roads and fortresses, and by that means to separate the northern and southern Italians into two masses, cut off, in a military point of view, from direct contact with each other.

The region which separated Samnium from Etruria was penetrated by two military roads, both of which were secured by new fortresses. The northern road, which afterward became the Flaminian, covered the line of the Tiber. The southern, afterward the Valerian, ran along the Fucine lake. The Appian road, secured Apulia and Campania.

These roads served to connect together a series of road-fortresses, (Latin colonies.) By their means Samnium would be in a few years entirely surrounded, isolated from the rest of Italy, and completely in the grasp of Rome.

IV. Condition of Italy between the Second and Third Samnite War. The high-spirited Samnite nation perceived that such a peace was more ruinous than the most destructive war, and it acted accordingly. The Celts in northern Italy were just beginning to bestir themselves again.

Several Etruscan communities were still in arms against the Romans. All central Italy was still in ferment, and partly in open insurrection. The fortresses were still only in course of construction.

The way between Etruria and Samnium was not yet completely closed. Perhaps it was not yet too late to save freedom. But if so, there must be no delay.

The difficulty of attack increased, the power of the assailant diminished with every year by which the peace was prolonged.

Five years had scarce elapsed since the contest ended, and all the wounds must still have been bleeding which the twenty-two years' war had inflicted on the rural communes of Samnium, when, in 298, the Samnite confederacy renewed the struggle.

V. Third Samnite War.

Cause. The Samnites invade Lucania, which was in alliance with Rome. They refuse to evacuate it.

Duration. About nine years, (299-290 B. C.)

Theatre of war. Lucania, central Italy, Etruria.

Parties. A general league of the Italian nations against Rome.

Great commanders. Roman: Quintus FABIUS Maximus, Publius DECIUS Mus. Samnite: Caius PONTIUS Telesinus.

Battle. Great overthrow of the allied Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls, at Sentinum, in Umbria. Self-devotion of Decius Mus.

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nations.

Parties. A. Rome. B. Tarentum, aided by King Pyrrhus and the south Italian A. Roman: Fabricius and Manius Curius. B. Tarentine:

Commanders. Pyrrhus, Cineas, Milo. Battles. A. Gained by ROME: Beneventum, (275.) B. Gained by PYRRHUS: Heraclea, (280,) Asculum, (279.)

Sicilian campaign. From 278-276, (during two and a half years,) Pyrrhus was absent in Sicily, where, as son-in-law to the deceased Agathocles, he was invited to take the command of a Siculo-Greek army. In this capacity he drove the Carthaginians to the extreme west of the island. Unable to take their last stronghold, Lilybæum, he lost the confidence of his allies, and returned to Italy, where his mercenaries were defeated by Manius Curius Dentatus, at Bene

ventum.

Results. 1st. Rome absolute mistress of Italy. 2d. The superiority of the Roman militia over the Greek phalanx completely proved.

VI. United Italy, (B. c. 270.)

In 270 the whole of Italy was united under the supremacy of Rome. With this union of the Italian nations was connected the rise of a new name common to them all-1st. That of the men of the toga," (togati,) which was their oldest designation in Roman state law. 2d. Or that of the "Italians," which was the appellation for them originally in use among the Greeks, and thence came to be universally current.

The various nations inhabiting the peninsula were first led to feel their unity through their common resistance to the Celts; and it is probable that the repelling of the Celtic invasions played an important part as a reason for centralizing the military resources of Italy in the hand of the Romans. When the Romans took the lead in the great national struggle, and compelled the other Italian

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