ROME 



787 



Tullus Hostilius by his Senate House (Curia 

 Hi t ilia); and the administrator Ancus Marcius 

 by his state-prison, his bridge across the Tiber, 

 his fortification of the Janiculum, and his founding 

 of the seaport Ostia. In Tarquinius Priscus (616- 

 578 B.C.) we have an Etruscan and less shadowy 

 Romulus, admitting into the senate a hundred new 

 patres from conquered Latin states, and laying out 

 the Circus Maximus for the entertainment of the 

 people. Servius Tullius, on Tarquin's initiative, 

 distributed all freeholders (for military purposes 

 primarily) into tril>es, classes, and centuries. 

 Drawn up in order of battle, the centuries (bodies 

 of one hundred ) in front were composed of the 

 wealthier citizens as better able to equip them- 

 selves for attack ; behind them came the centuries 

 of the second and third classes, poorer and less 

 fully appointed the three forming the heavy- 

 artned infantry ; while centuries of the fourth 

 and fifth classes, poorer still and correspondingly 

 equipped, held the rear. The full strength of the 

 freeholders was divided into two equal parts the 

 seniores and the juniores, the latter engaged in 

 active duty, the former as reserves. Each corps 

 consisted of 85 centuries or 8500 men i.e. of two 

 legions, each about 4200 strong, auxiliary to which 

 were the sappers and trumpeters. Finally, the six 

 centuries or cavalry were supplemented, from the 

 wealthiest citizens, by twelve more. For the 

 army thus organised Servius drew levies from his 

 four regions, corresponding to his four tribes, the 

 Subnran, the Palatine, the Esquiline, and the 

 Colline. These tribes included freeholders outside 

 the gates, also entitled to meet and vote with the 

 centuries at their comitia (comitia centtiriata). 

 Under her seventh and last king Rome became 

 formidable throughout Central Italy, and owed to 

 him the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the 

 Cloaca Maxima the drainage system tapping the 

 hills around the Forum and carrying the waste 

 into the Tiber. But Tarqnin's rule was so master- 

 ful as to drive the people to revolt, the last provo- 

 cation lieing his son's outrage on the noble Lucretia. 

 When engaged at a siege near the coast he was 

 dethroned ; he and his race were exiled in per- 

 petuity, and regal government replaced by the 

 Republic. Three great efforts to reinstate him were 

 defeated, and he died at Cumse. 



The Republic. The regal check on them with- 

 drawn, the patricians made their power so felt by 

 the plebeians as to start a conflict between them 

 lasting two hundred years. The king was now 

 represented by two consuls, elected annually, and 

 from the patrician order. The plebeians, freeborn 

 citizens as they were, retained their votes by classes 

 at the comitia curiata and by centuries at the 

 centuriata, but many of them were attached as 

 clients to patricians who commanded their votes, 

 and all of them were excluded from the higher 

 offices of state. Unable to elect one of themselves 

 consul, the plebeians had not even the power to 

 carry the patrician candidate they favoured, being 

 in a minority in the comitia centuriata, and, again, 

 in a greater minority in the ultimate and decisive 

 assembly, the comitia curiata. The absolute 

 authority wielded by the consuls they felt to be 

 still more oppressive when, in state crises, it was 

 merged in a dictator; so their first attempt to 

 safeguard their liberties and lives was directed at 

 the consular power. The first advantage they 

 gained was the 'right of appeal,' by which no 

 magistrate ( the dictator excepted ) could subject a 

 Human citizen to capital punishment unless with 

 approval of the comitia centuriata. Power to 

 extort such rights the plebeians possessed in their 

 military capacity, refusing, as soldiers, to serve 

 unless their demands were conceded. The seces- 

 sion of their legionaries to the Mons Sacer, on the 



Anio three miles off, secured them annually elected 

 magistrates of their own, tribuni plcbis, with 

 power to protect them against the consuls. From 

 two the tribunes were increased to five, and by 

 449 B.C. to ten. In no sense a magistrate, the 

 tribune was a check on authority, and his power 

 developed gradually till the tribunate, formidable 

 at the close of the Republic, became still more so 

 under the empire. By the Publilian law (471 B.C.) 

 the assemblies convened by the tribune (concilia 

 plebis ) were made legal ; not yet their decisions 

 (plebiscita). At these the voting was by tribes, 

 not by curije or centuries, whence the object of 

 the tribunes was to add as many to the tribes as 

 possible. To become member of a tribe it was 

 necessary to be a freeholder, and so the tribunes, 

 to multiply freeholders, agitated to secure for the- 

 plebeians their share of the agri publici or state- 

 lands. Having partially succeeded in this, they 

 won another advantage from the ever-resisting 

 patricians the appointment for one year of a com- 

 mission of ten patricians ( decemviri ) to make public 

 a code of law binding on patrician equally with 

 plebeian. This code the famous Twelve Tables 

 substituted written and published law for that 

 unwritten code which, confined to the patrician 

 few, was always interpreted in their interests. An 

 attempt to reappoint, possibly to perpetuate, the 

 decemvirate caused another secession ; the consuls 

 were again created ; and from the growing vantage- 

 ! ground of their concilia, increased by accessions to 

 the plebeian order from without, the tribunes ex- 

 torted the recognition of the plebiscita as legally 

 binding on patricians. The concilia, now become 

 comitia tributa, could henceforth carry reforms 

 which, if sanctioned by the patres, had the validity 

 of state-law. Another concession gained was inter- 

 marriage between plebeian and patrician, and 

 thereafter the consulate still the patrician strong- 

 hold was attacked. The two consuls were re- 

 placed by six military tribunes drawn from either 

 order. Of these consular tribunes the plebeians 



generally had the majority until, obstacles and 

 elays notwithstanding, the Licinian and Sextiau 

 laws were passed (367) replacing the consular 

 tribunes by consuls, two in number, of whom one 

 at least should be a plebeian ; enlarging the priestly 

 college from two to ten functionaries, of whom 

 plebeians were to constitute half ; relieving the 

 poorer plebeians from debt ; and promoting their 

 | interests by advantageous reforms in the owner- 

 | ship and cultivation of land. Patrician mono- 

 l pohes shrunk rapidly. In 356 the dictatorship, 

 in 350 the censorship, in 337 the prsetorship, and 

 in 300 the colleges of pontiffs and augurs were 

 thrown open to plebeians. The patrum auctoritas, 

 or control by patricians of the decrees (plebiscita) 

 of the people in assembly, became a dead letter ; 

 and the two hundred years' conflict issued in the 

 recognised validity of all measures carried in the 

 comitia tributa a conflict memorable not only for 

 the ability displayed by either order, but for the 

 respect for law observed equally by both. 



For her first fifty years of republican life Rome 

 expanded little. Nearest her were the Latins, the 

 Volscians to the south-east, the ./Equians to the 

 east, and the Hernicans between tne two last. 

 Allying herself with the Latins and Hernicans, 

 she kept the Volscians and .iEquians in check till 

 her policy became triumphantly aggressive in the 

 sixty years between 449 and 390. Having razed 

 the south Etruscan stronghold, Veii, she pushed 

 northward to the Ciminian forest, whence she drew 

 down on her the Celtic conquerors of north Etruria, 

 who, defeating her on the Allia, took and sacked 

 the city, all but the Capitol. Recovering rapidly 

 from this disaster, she nveted her hold on south 

 Etruria, gradually subjugated her old enemies and 



