CIIAMP.ERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



and burned Rome in the fourth century r..c. de- 

 prived the subsequent chroniclers of authentic 

 information in regard to the past, and forced them 

 to rely upon treacherous reminiscences, on oral 

 tradition, on ballads, and on all the multifarious 

 fabrications of a patriotic fincy, tlut \\ould natu- 

 rally seek compensation for political disaster in 

 the splendour with which it would invest its 

 primeval history. The utmost reach, therefore, to 

 which our knowledge can attain, is to form some 

 general idea mainly by inference from the institu- 

 tions that we find existing in later times of the 

 course that social and political progress followed 

 in the Roman commonwealth. 



i the very beginning of the city and prob- 

 ably long before the inhabitants were divided 



two orders (exclusive of ' slaves ') viz. house- 

 holders and their dependents, better known per- 

 haps as ' patricians ' (from pater, a father) and 

 * clients '(/>. 'listeners,' from clutrc, 'to listen'). 

 The former alone possessed political, i.e. burgess 

 rights. It was they who exclusively constituted 

 the populus (' the people ') ; while the clients had 

 no political existence whatever. That the clients 

 formed a body essentially different from the plfbs 

 is not true, and seems based merely on the 

 mythical account of what followed the destruction 

 of Alba Longa by Tullus Hostilius. The name 

 plebs (i.e. ' the multitude,' from the same root as 

 plto, I fill, plentis, full ; with which is perhaps con- 

 nected the other Latin word vulgus, English folk) 

 is doubtless, as its signification indicates, of later 

 origin than clicntes ; but both are applicable to 

 the same persons, who were called ' listeners.' 

 in reference to their being dependents on the 

 different burgess-households, and the ' multitude,' 

 in reference to their want of political rights. The' 

 constitution of the state was simple. All the 

 burgesses were politically on a footing of equality. 

 From their own ranks was chosen the king or 

 'leader' (r<*.r), who was therefore nothing more 

 than an ordinary burgess a husbandman, a 

 trader, a warrior, set over his fellows. But it 

 must at the same time be observed, that his 

 authority was great, for the Roman state was 

 based on the Roman household, and something 

 of the absoluteness of the patria potestas appears 

 in the uncircumscribed nature of the regal powers. 

 The rex held his office for life ; he consulted the 

 national gods ; he appointed the priests and 

 priestesses ; he called out the populus for war, 

 and led the army in person ; his command 

 (impfrium) was not to be gainsayed, on which 

 account on all official occasions he was preceded 

 by messengers, or summoners (lictores, from liffo, 

 ' to bind 0, bearing the ' fasces ' (axes -and rods 

 ' bound ' up together), the symbols of power and 

 punishment ; he had the keys of the public chest, 

 and he was supreme judge in all civil and criminal 

 suits. The Roman religion or cultus was from 

 the first thoroughly subordinate to the authority 

 of the state ; and all that we can infer from the 

 myth of Numa is, that Rome perhaps owed its 

 colleges of augurs and pontiff to the wisdom of 

 some enlightened sovereign who felt himself at 

 times embarrassed in his decisions on matters of 

 religious and public law, and recognised how 

 valuable might be the aid afforded him by a body 

 of sacred experts. We may rest certain that 

 originally the sole power was the regal, and that 

 the subordinate magistracies found at a later 



100 



time arose from a delegation of regal authority, 

 rendered necessary by the ceaseless increase of 

 state-business. On the other hand, we may believe 

 that the s(italns, or Council of the Elders, from 

 its very nature, was as old an institution as the 

 monarchy itself. Among the very first things the 

 'citizen-king' would do, would be to choose out 

 of the ranks of his fellow-burgesses a number of 

 experienced men to assist him with their counsel ; 

 but it is to be observed that this body possessed 

 no coercive or constraining powers. They gave 

 their advice when the rex chose to ask it ; that 

 \v.is all. Yet, as the tenure of their office was 

 for life, they necessarily possessed great moral 

 authority ; and it was only when the king, the 

 senate, and the community were at one in regard 

 to any important matter a war, for example 

 that it was held to be righteous, and likely to be 

 favoured by the gods. The burgesses, or house- 

 holders, were divided into curies i.e. ' wardships,' 

 connected probably with cura and curare, ' to care 

 for,' rather than with quiris, and the Sabine cures, 

 as Varro thinks. Ten households formed a gens 

 (a 'clan ' or ' family ') ; 10 clans, or 100 households, 

 formed a curia, or wardship ; and 10 wardships, or 

 loo clans, or 1000 households, formed \hzpopulns, 

 cirilas, or community. But as Rome was a syn- 

 oikismos of three cantons, the actual number of 

 wards was 30, of clans 300, and of households 3000. 

 Every household had to furnish one foot-soldier, 

 and every clan a horseman and a senator. Each 

 ward was under the ' care ' of a special warden 

 (the curio), had a priest of its own (the flainen 

 curialis), and celebrated its own festivals. None 

 but burgesses could bear arms in defence of the 

 state (hence their designation, popuhis, 'the 

 warrior body,' connected with populari, ' to lay 

 waste,' and popa, ' the priest, or priest's assistant, 

 who felled the victim at the altar the sacred 

 butcher '). The original Roman army, or legio 

 (i.e. 'the gathering'), was composed of three 

 ' hundreds ' (centuria:) of horsemen (ccleres i.e. 

 ' the swift,' or flexuntes, ' the wheelers '), under 

 their divisional leaders (tribuni celerum); and 

 three 'thousands' of footmen (milites), also under 

 divisional leaders (tribuni militum) ; to whom 

 were added a number of light-armed skirmishers 

 (velites}, especially ' archers ' (arquites). The n.v, 

 as we have said, was usually the general, but as 

 the cavalry force had a colonel of its own (magister 

 equituni), it is probable that he placed himself at 

 the head of the infantry. 



The 'foreign policy' of Rome seems to have 

 been aggressive from the first, and this character 

 it retained as long as the aggrandisement of the 

 state was possible. We have, it is true, no certain 

 knowledge of the primitive struggles in which the 

 enterprising and ambitious Roman burghers were 

 engaged, but it appears from the legend that at a 

 very early period the neighbouring Latin com- 

 munities of Antemnae, Crustumerium, Ficulnea, 

 Medullia, Casnina, Corniculum, Camcria, Collatia, 

 were subjugated. The crisis of the Latin War, 

 however, was undoubtedly the contest with Alba 

 Longa, in which that 'sacred metropolis' of 

 Latium was destroyed, and its leadership passed 

 to the conqueror. How deadly the struggle be- 

 tween the two was, may be inferred from the 

 tragic details in which the legend abounds. As 

 a rule, on the subjugation of a canton, the con- 

 quered inhabitants were allowed to remain in 



