ROME (HISTORY OF). 



Aristonieu?. With this acquisition, foreign wars 

 ceased for a time; but Rome was agitated with 

 interim! commotions, which finally broke out into 

 bloody civil wars. The unlimited power of the 

 senate had created a hateful family aristocracy, 

 which the tribunes of the people resisted, and 

 which produced contests between the aristocratic 

 and democratic parties more fatal than the former 

 disputes between the patricians and plebeians. 

 The content began with Tiberius Gracchus who, 

 for the reb'ef of the lower orders of the people, 

 demanded a just IT distribution of the public 

 lands. He was killed in an insurrection of the 

 people ; but the agrarian law remained in full 

 force, and the disturbances still continued. Al- 

 though the return of Scipio ^Emilianus gave new 

 strength to the aristocracy, yet the general insur- 

 rection of slaves in Sicily (620 623) was favour- 

 able to the democratic party. The tribunes of 

 the people obtained a voice and a seat in the sen- 

 ate : they also endeavoured to make their re-elec- 

 tion legal. The disturbances were quieted for a 

 time by removing the chiefs of the popular party, 

 under honourable pretences. During these events, 

 the foundation of the Roman power in Transal- 

 pine Gaul was laid by Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, 

 in 626, and as early as 632 the southern part was 

 i made a Roman province. In 631, Caius Gracchus 

 was chosen tribune of the people; he renewed 

 the agrarian laws with severer provisions, and 

 gave rise to more dangerous excitements than his 

 brother Tiberius. He endeavoured to make the 

 equestrian order a counterpoise to the power of 

 the senate, and attempted to strengthen his party 

 by the admission of the whole population of Italy 

 to the rights of Roman citizens; but the senate 

 succeeded in depriving him of the favour of the 

 people, and in effecting his ruin. In 633, he was 

 killed in a riot, and the aristocracy took advan- 

 tage of their victory to abolish the agrarian laws. 

 On the other hand, difficulties arose with the Ita- 

 lian allies, who demanded the privileges of citi- 

 zenship, and the breaking out of the war was 

 prevented merely by accident. These factions 

 had an injurious effect upon morals, which neither 

 the strictness of the censorship, nor the sumptu- 

 ary laws, nor the laws against celibacy (which 

 were already become necessary), could control. 

 Rapacity was the prevailing vice of the great, and 

 licentiousness that of the multitude. The enor- 

 mous wealth of the public treasury produced pub- 

 lic luxury, which was soon followed by private 

 luxury, that found ample means for its gratifica- 

 tion in the extortions of the governors, and in the 

 presents of foreign princes. The influence of 

 bribery was particularly apparent in the war 

 against Jugurtha (636 648), which was even 

 protracted by it. The end of this bloody war 

 opened to a plebeian, Caius Marius, the way to 

 the highest dignities of the state, by which the 

 aristocracy received a severe blow. He succeeded 

 in overturning the constitution, while the war 

 with the Cimbri, during a new servile war in Si- 

 cily, rendered him indispensable to the state. He 

 was consul four years successively. At length, 

 in 654, the storm burst over him, and, after a 

 long struggle, he retired to Asia. (See Marius.') 

 From 656 to 663, quiet prevailed, and the pro- 

 vinces enjoyed a short rest. The power of the 

 equestrian order became a new source of abuses. 

 It held the senate in dependence, and could easily 

 oppose all reforms in the provinces, since it had 



not only the control of the judiciary, but farmed 

 the revenues of the state. The contest which 

 arose between the knights and the senate con- 

 cerning the judicial power, was ruinous to the 

 state. The knights were deprived of a part of 

 their judicial power by Lucius Drusus, the tri- 

 bune; but the manner in which this was effected 

 kindled the dangerous social war. He proposed 

 to admit the allies to the rights of citizenship, 

 but his proposition excited so much dissatisfaction 

 that he was murdered. The people of Italy, 

 from the Liris to the Adriatic, now took up arms 

 with the design of throwing off the Roman yoke. 

 The danger was great. The fasces were com- 

 mitted to Lucius Julius Caesar and Publius Ruti- 

 lius Lupus, and under these consuls were formed 

 the greatest generals of the time Cn. Pompeius, 

 C. Marius, Caepio, C. Perpenna, Valerius Meseala, 

 Cornelius Sylla, T. Didius, P. Lentulus, P. Licinius, 

 and M. Marcellus. But there were also men of dis- 

 tinguished talents on the other side ; and, after the 

 war had been carried on from 653 to 656, with 

 various success and the greatest fury, it was ter- 

 minated only by conceding the claims of the al- 

 lies ; and Rome thus ceased to be regarded as the 

 exclusive head of the state. The devastations of 

 Mithridates, and the disputes between Sylla and 

 Marius, made this concession necessary. The 

 quarrel between these two distinguished Romans 

 commenced at the beginning of the first Pontic 

 war. (See Marius, and Sylla.) The senate hav- 

 ing given the chief command to Sylla, Marius 

 united himself (656) with the tribune Sulpicius, 

 for the purpose of displacing him from this office. 

 But Sylla, at the head of his army, drove Marius 

 from Rome, restored the dignity of the senate, 

 and hastened to his province, after he had, in 

 order to gain the people, raised his adversary, 

 Cinna, to the consulship. The consequence was, 

 that, during this war (656 659), a new anarchy 

 prevailed in Rome, which became still more terri- 

 ble after the death of Marius. In 671, the ban- 

 ished Sylla returned to Rome: a terrible civil war 

 was the result, which was ended, in 673, by Sylla' s 

 elevation to the dictatorship. Sylla endeavoured 

 to overthrow the democratic party. The attempt 

 of JEmilius Lepidus to oppose him was without 

 success. The war which broke out - in Spain, 

 under Sertorius, a leader of the democratic party, 

 was more serious, and was concluded, in 682, by 

 his assassination. At the same time, the fright- 

 ful war of the gladiators and slaves broke out in 

 Italy, and a new and more dangerous war began 

 with Mithridates in Asia. The pirates were so 

 powerful at this time, that they rendered the seas 

 unsafe with their fleets, and threatened Rome 

 with a famine. Pompey saved the state, how- 

 ever, by conquering first the pirates, and after- 

 wards Mithridates. Asia Minor, Syria and Crete 

 were made Roman provinces; Armenia, Cappa- 

 docia, the Bosphorus and Judea became wholly 

 dependent upon Rome, and the Thracian power 

 was broken. No foreign enemy could any longer 

 be dangerous to Rome ; but new commotions 

 were constantly agitating her. Some attempts to 

 overturn the constitution of Sylla were indeed 

 frustrated; but, even in 679, Opimius carried a 

 law providing that the tribunes should not be ex- 

 cluded from higher offices, and that the judicial 

 tribunals should be restored to the knights; and 

 Pompey and Crassus, during their consulship in 

 684, nearly annihilated it by completely restoring 



