History of Rome
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            ROME-On the river Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth, where its banks are fringed with low hills, there lay a Latin town somewhat apart from the other towns of League, on a hill called the Palatine.  This was Rome (Roma, which is thought to mean the Stream Town).  There are a great many stories about the founding of Rome, and about the different kings, which you will be told in the next chapter.  But we know nothing certain until after the Kings had been driven out, that is, two hundred and fifty years after Rome is supposed to have been founded; and even then a great deal of the history is very doubtful.  These Romans spoke the same language as the Latins, but according to tradition they were a mixture of Latins, Sabines and Etruscans.  This is not unlikely, for Rome lay near the borders both of the Etruscans and Sabines; and you will read in the legends how a number of Sabines, under their king, joined the Romans, and how, many years afterwards, an Etruscan became king of Rome.  Also many Roman customs, as you have been told, came from Etruria.  At any rate, whether they were pure Latins or not, the Romans, it seems, from a very early time were quite distinct from the League of the Latin cities; and during the time of the kings they fought and conquered Alba Longa, and took its place as the head of the League. 

            CLAND AND FAMILIES-NAMES-The Romans were divided into clans (gentes).  Each gens had a name, such as the gens Fabia, the gens Julia, and was supposed to be descended from a common ancestor.  Usually the gens was divided into a number of families (familioe), which also had a special name derived from some peculiarity of its founder; and as Romans also were called by personal, which were like our Christian names, such as Titus, Marcus, Quintus, we shall find that Romans usually had three names altogether.  Thus Marcus Tullius Cicero belonged to the Cicero family of the gens Tullia, and his own name was Marcus; his brother was called Quintus Tullius Cicero.  This, you see, is very different from the custom of the Greeks, who never had more than one name, as Pericles, Aristides.

            THE ROMAN RELIGON-The old Romans were very religious; but their religion was very simple, much simpler than that of the Greeks, for they were not clever enough to invent such beautiful stories and legends about their gods as the Greeks did.  The poems of Ovid and Virgil and other Latin poets are indeed full of stories about the Roman gods; but these were all borrowed from the Greeks, for when the Romans learnt about the religion of the Greeks they found that some of their gods were like the Greek ones, and so then they tried t make out that the two religions were exactly the same and took all the Greek stories.  The head of the Roman religion was the king; but many of the gods had a special priest, called a Flamen; there were also other priests called Pontificies with the Pontifex Maximus at their head.  We do not know what Pontifex I derived from; some people think it means bridge maker, from pons, a bridge, and facio, and that bridge making was a religious ceremony with the Romans. Then there were Augurs (from avis, a bird), whose duty it was to discover the will of heaven before anything important was undertaken, by the flight of birds or from the body of the victim; and the Vestal Virgins, virgins of the noblest birth who were not allowed to marry, and tended the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, of Goddess of the Hearth, which was never allowed to go out.

            THE ROMAN HOME-Like the Latins, the Romans were chiefly farmers, living on their little farms round the alatine.  True Roman in the old days considered it unworthy to have anything to do with trade.  In each family the farther, at the head of it, had absolute power over all its members, even his grown up sons.  He could even put them to death if he chose.  For these stern old Romans had great belief in the power of law and the duty of obedience; and this was perhaps why they became such a great nation afterwards.  In Greece we read of children despising and ill-treating their parents; but the Greeks never learnt how to rule other nations.  Each family had its own worship, and the father was the priest, the mother the priestess; a fire was kept ever burning for Vesta, like the public fire tended by the Vestal Virgins; and little images of household gods were worshipped, called Lares and Penates.  The houses were of only one storey; they consisted of a large hall, called the “atrium,” with the sleeping rooms round it.  In peace of Roman was a close fitting tunic, and over that a large, white, woollen shawl called a “toga,” which was thrown round the body in graceful folds, as you see in the picture.

             SLAVERY AND THE LAW OF DEBT-The Romans employed slaves to do menial work; but they were few in number in these early days, though obedience was sternly enforced, they were not cruelly treated, but were regarded as members of the household.  Slaves were either the children of slave parents, or prisoners of war, or sometimes debtors who could not pay their debts.  For the Roman law about debt was very harsh; if a man could not pay a debt, his creditor could throw him into prison and sell his goods, or even make him a slave.  This law of debt sometimes caused great trouble in Roman history.

            THE ARMY-Every Roman citizen between the ages of seventeen and forty-six was obliged to fight in the army: he was called a young man (juvenis); when he was past forty-six he became an old man (senex).  Each soldier had to provide his own arms, helmet, breastplate, shield, and greaves on the legs, sword and spear.  Those who could afford a horse served as cavalry (equites); and you will find afterwards that rich men at Rome were called equites even though they were not soldiers at all.  The army was called the Legio, and is said to have originally numbered 3000 infantry and 300 cavalry.  Then, when the army increased in numbers, each division of about 3000 soldiers was called a Legio (Legion).  Afterwards the legion became still more numerous, and at last numbered about 6000.

            THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME- (I) THE KING-You must now hear how the Romans were governed.  At the head of the States was the King: he led the army in war, and administrated law and justice at home; he did not rule by right of birth but was elected.  His toga had a scarlet border; he sat on an ivory chair, called a curule (sella curulis), and was attended by twenty-four lectors.  The lectors were like our policemen; they kept order and arrested criminals.  When in attendance on the king, they carried a bundle of rods, called the fasces, with an axe in the middle, as a sign that the king could punish citizens by scourging or putting them to death.

             (2) THE SENATE-To give him advice the king used to summon an assembly of the heads of families (patres), called the Senate (senatus, from senex, an old man): it consisted of 300 members.  The senators could speak and advise the king, but could not prevent him doing what he wished; they also chose the new king.

            (3) THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PEIOPLE (Comitia Curiata). - When the king wished to pass the law, or declare war or make peace, after consulting the Senate, he called together a meeting (comitia) of the whole people in the market place (forum).  No man was allowed to make a speech; they might only vote yes or no.  The voting was done divisions, called curiae, each curia one vote.  So the assembly was called the Comitia Curiata.  It also formally accepted the king chosen by the Senate; and if anyone was condemned to death by the king he had the right to be tried by the people; this was called the provocatio ad populum (appeal to the people).  Thus though the king really managed everything, he had to regard the feelings of the subjects; and each Roman citizen felt that he was a free man, not a mere slave.

           THE PLEBEIANS-The Roman citizens who fought in the army and voted in Comitia Curiata were not the only inhabitants of Rome.  There was also, apparently from the earliest days of the city, an inferior population, known as the Plebs (the mass) or Plebeians.  The full citizens themselves Patricians (from Pater), which seems to mean belonging to the families of senators (patres).  The Patricians did not consider the Plebeians as citizens; they had no rights, and no vote in the assembly, and did not fight in the army.  But the Plebeians were not left utterly unprotected.  Each Plebeian was under the protection of some powerful Patrician, who was called his patron (patronus), and he was called the Patrician’s client (cliens).  A client had to perform certain duties for his patron, and if the client were wronged the patron could speak for him in the court of law and obtain him redress.  Who the Plebeians were is a disputed question.  Some seem to have been the remains of conquered peoples; some no doubt were settlers who came to Rome for trade; others, freed slaves.

            THE PLEBEIANS MADE CITIZENS-As time passed on the Plebeians increased in numbers, and the great body of them seem to have been under the protection of the King, instead of being clients of Patrician houses.  At last a king rose, said to have been Servius Tullius in the legends, which thought that they ought to fight in the army.  So he divided the whole people, Patricians and Plebeians alike, into classes, according to their wealth, and made them all fight.  First came the richest men of all, who, as before, were the cavalry (equites).  After them came the first class, those who could afford the full armour of the heavy armed foot soldier, as has been described; then four other classes of those who could not afford so much armour; down to the poorest, who had only darts, and slings, and cudgels.

            THE COMITIA CENTURIATA-Next (whether at the same of afterwards we do not know), the Plebeians were allowed to vote in the assembly; for if the fought in the wars, it was only fair that they should be allowed to say whether there was to be war or not.  A new assembly was now made of all the citizens in their classes: it was called the Comitia Centuriata, because the cavalry and the five classes of foot soldiers were also divided into smaller divisions called centuries (which properly means a hundred men, from centum), and each century had one vote.  There were eighteen centuries of the cavalry, and eighty-two in the first class, but only ninety-three in the other four classes.  So the rich people could always outvote the poor.  Still the Plebeians now had a vote, and that was something to begin with.  The Comitia Centuriata was now the assembly of the Romans instead of the Comitia Curiata, in which only the Patricians voted; but there were certain religious and other duties which could only be performed by the Comitia Curiata, and so it was kept up as a mere form.

            THE CITY OF ROME-Rome had now grown to be a much larger and stronger State than when it was the little settlement on the Palatine Hill.  Little by little it spread over the other hills, and at last became the famous “City of the Seven Hills”; these were the Palatine in the centre, and round it the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Coelian, Aventine.  Opposite the Palatine Hill on the other side of the Tiber was a fortress on a hill called the Janiculum to protect the city against the Etruscans; it was joined to the city by a wooden bridge called the Pons Sublicius (Bridge of Piles).  Under the Capitoline and Palatine hills lay the market place (Forum), where the Comitia assembled, with the Senate House (Curia) close by, called the Curia Hostilia, because it was said to have been built by Tullus Hostilius.  A fig tree grew in Forum, which the Romans regarded with special reverence, because under it, according to the story, the she wolf sucked Romulus and Remus.  On the Capitoline Hill were the Capitol, a great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the Arx or citadel; at one end was the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes Tarpeia), a sheer cliff 80 feet high, from which criminals were dashed to death.  A road called the Sacred Way (Via Sacra) passed through the Forum and then wound it way up the slopes of the hill into the Capitol.  It was by this road that the solemn procession of a victorious general went with the long train of soldiers, spoil and prisoners-the famous Roman Triumph.  On the right of the road, at the foot of the hill, was a dungeon, the Tullianum; hither the prisoners were led and put to death, while the conqueror went on to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to offer his thanks for the victory.  In a hollow between the Palatine and Aventine was the great circus (Circus Maximus), a racecourse 700 yards long, 135 broad, with sales along either side for spectators.  Here the great Roman games (Ludi Romani) were held-chariot races, foot races, and other contests.  There was also a great underground drain of arched brickwork, the Cloaca Maxima, to drain off the water from the low, swampy ground between the hills and the Tiber.  So wonderfully was this work built that parts of it still remain unharmed by time, big enough for a wagon to drive down.  When the city had at last spread over all the seven hills a rampart fortified it five miles in circuit.  This rampart is said to have been built by the King Servius Tullius and was called the Agger Servi Tulli (Wall of Servius Tullius).  It was the only wall that Rome had till long after the end of the Republic, when the Emperor Aurelian built more extensive fortifications. Close under the walls on the north, in the bend of the Tiber, was a level plain sacred to the god Mars, the Campus Martius.  Here the legions used to be drilled and reviewed, and the young Romans trained their limbs in racing, wrestling, and all war like sports.  The Comitia also used often to meet here instead of in the Forum.

            ARRIVAL OF AENEAS AND THE TROJAN EXILES IN ITALY-FOUNDATION OF LAVINIUM-When the city of Troy was taken by the Greeks under King Agamemnon after the ten years siege, Aeneas, one of the bravest Trojan warriors, son of Anchises, a prince of the royal house, and of the goddess Venus, escaped with a small band of followers.  Favoured by the special protection of Heaven, after many adventures, he landed in Italy at the mouth of the river Tiber, in the country of the Latins.  The Latins, with their King Latinus, received strangers kindly; and Latinus agreed that Aeneas should marry his daughter Lavinia.  But Lavinia was already betrothed to Turnus, prince of the neighbouring tribe of the Rutuli.  So a war broke out in which the Rutuli, who were now joined by the Latins, were defeated, and Turnus was killed by Aeneas.  Then Aeneas married Lavinia, and in her honour called the new city which he founded Lavinium.  Soon the old King Latinus died and Aeneas became king over the united people of the Latins and Trojans; but not long afterwards he was killed in battle and taken up to heaven.

           ALBA LONGA FOUNDED BY ASCANIUS- His son Ascanius, who left Lavinium, and founded Alba Longa on the Alban Mount, succeeded Aeneas.  Ascanius was a great warrior; he fought victoriously against the Etruscans and other surrounding nations.  So Alba Longa became the chief town of all Latium; and after Ascanius a long line of his descendants reigned they’re as kings of Latium. 

            AMULIUS AND NUMITOR-BIRTH OF ROMULUS AND REMUS-One of these kings left two sons, Numitor and Amulius.  Amulius was the younger but he was fiercer and stronger than Numitor, and he drove him from the throne and made his daughter, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin.  But Rhena Silvia was secretly espioused by the war-god Mars, and she gave birth to twins.  Then the cruel Amulius ordered her to be buried alive and the infants to be thrown into the Tiber.  But it chanced that at that time the Tiber had overflowed its banks; so, when the water went down, the cradle with the infants in it was left on dry ground near the hill afterwards called the Palatine.  And when the helpless infants began to cry, a she-wolf down to drink heard them and came and gave them suck.  Then a shepherd of King Amulius by name Faustulus, who lived on the Palatine, found and took them home, and gave them to his wife to bring up, and called them Romulus and Remus.  Romulus and Remus when they grew up became distinguished for strength and courage above all the shepherds of the king.  One day by chance Numitor discovered that they were his grandsons; so at the head of a band of shepherds they attacked Alba Longa and killed Amulius.Thus Numitor was restored to his throne, and reined again over the Latins at Alba Longa.

            FOUNDATION OF ROME BY ROMULUS-DEATH OF REMUS-Then Romulus and Remus determined to found a new city on the spot where they had been saved by the she-wolf.  But they could not agree which should have the honour of founding this city; so they resolved to obtain a sign from the gods by means of birds.  Romulus therefore posted himself on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aventine.  And first of all Remus saw six vultures, and sent a messenger to tell Romulus; but at the moment the messenger came Romulus saw twelve vultures; so each claimed the chief honour, Remus because he saw a sign first, Romulus because his sign was the greater.  Romolus then began to build the wall for his city on the Palatine Hill; but Remus in scorn leapt over the wall as it was just beginning to rise.  Then Romulus in anger slew Remus, and exclaimed, “So perish whosoever else shall cross these walls”.  So Romulus founded his city on the Palatine Hill, and called it after his own name Rome.  Then, to make his city larger, he made a fortress on another hill afterwards called the Capitoline; this he proclaimed an asylum or place of refuge, and many outlaws and fugitives from the surrounding states flocked to it.

             RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMAN-WAR WITH THE SABINES-The next thing was to obtain wives for the new citizens. But they were little better than a band of robbers, and the neighbouring towns would not let them marry their daughters.  Then Romulus saw that he must use craft.  He proclaimed a great festival, and invited the Sabines of Cures and other towns.  In the midst of the games at a signal from Romoulus, a number of armed men suddenly rushed in and seized all the Sabine maidens. Thus the Romans obtained wives for themselves.  But the Sabine maidens were not left unavenged.  For the Sabines made war on Rome; but Romulus defeated them; he slew the king, who led them, with his own hand, and dedicated his arms to Jupiter calling them Spolia Opima (the Splendid Spoils); and only twice afterwards did a Roman general kill the enemy’s general and win the Spolia Opima.  Another Sabine army under Titus Tatius, King of Cures, marched against rome.  The commander of the Roman citadel, on the Capitoline Hill, had a daughter called Tarpeia; and the Sabines asked her to let them into the fortress.  Tarpeia consented if they would give her the bright things on their left arms, for she coveted their golden armlets.  But when she had opened the gate, they threw on her the shields, which they also carried on their left arms, and slew her.  Thus the Sabines gained the Capitoline Hill.  Then there was much fighting between the Sabines on the Capitoline and the Romans on the Palatine.  But at last the Sabine women with dishevelled hair ran in between their husbands and their fathers, and prayed them to make peace.

            UNION OF THE SABINES AND ROMANS-REIGN OF ROMULUS-So peace was made; the two nations became one under the two kings, Romulus and Titus Tatius, and were called by the two names of Romans and Quirites or men of Cures.  But in memeory of the wicked act of Tarpeia, the cliff at the end of the Capitoline Hill was called the Tarpeian Rock, and criminals were hurled to death from it.  Not long after Titus Tatius died, and Romulus reigned alone over the united peoples.  He saw a brave and warlike king, and made Rome powerful by conquering the nations round.  He arranged the government of the City, and instituted the Senate and Assembly of the People of which you have heard.  After a reign of forty years he was taken up to heaven while reviewing his army, and worshipped ever after as a god under the name of Quirinus.

            NUMA POMPILIUS, THE SECOND KING-After Romulus a Sabine named Numa Pompilius was elected king.  He was a very holy man, and taught the Romans the arts of peace and the worship of the gods.  He first made the priests of whom you have been told, the Pontifices, Flamens, and Augurs.  He also marked out the year by the course of the sun, dividing it into twelve months of twenty-eight days each by the course of the moon; and since the twelve months were not long enough, he taught the priests how to put in extra months.  In all that he did he was instructed by heaven; for every night he used to meet a holy nymph named Egeria in a grove near the city, and she used to tell him what to do.  Numa made peace with all the nations round, for no one dared to attack the Holy King.  And he built a temple to the two faced god Janus, the doors of which were to be open in time of war and shut in time of peace.  So they were shut all the days of Numa, but after his days only twice in all Roman history.

             TULLUS HOSTILIUS THE THIRD KING-CONQUEST OF ALBA LONGA-THE HORATII AND CURIATII-The next king was a Roman, Tullus Hostilius.  He was a great warrior like Romulus.  In his reign there was a war between Rome and its mother city, Alba Longa.  When the armies met, the Alban general proposed to settle the quarrel by combat chosen champions, and Tullus assented.  Now there were in the Alban army three brothers called Curiatii, and in the Roman army three brothers called Horatii of the same age, and their mothers were sisters.  So the Curiatii and Horatii were chosen as champions to fight, and settle whether Alba should govern Rome or Rome Alba.  In the battle two Horatii were killed, but all the Curiatii were wounded.  Then the remaining Horatius began to fly and the Albans shouted for joy, but the Romans were dismayed.  But the Curiatii, owing to their wounds, could not all pursue with equal speed; so Horatius round suddenly slew the nearest Curiatius before the other could help him; in the same way he slew the second, and lastly the third.  So Horatius returned to Rome in triumph with the spoils.  But his sister was betrothed to one of the Curiatii; and when she came out to meet him and saw her lover’s coat, the work of her own hands, all covered with blood, she wept and bewailed his fate.  There upon Horatius drew his sword and stabbed her to the heart, exclaiming.  “So perish every Roman woman who mourns over an enemy”.  For this deed Horatius was condemned to death; but he appealed to the people, who gave him his life.

            DESTRUCTION OF ALBA LONGA-END OF TULLUS HOSTILIUS-At first the Albans and their general Mettus submitted to the Romans as they had agreed, but afterwards they tried to revolt.  Then Tullus had Mettus torn to pieces by wild horses; and Alba Longa was destroyed except the temples, and all the Albans were brought to Rome, made Roman citizens, and settled on the Coelian Hill.  Thus Rome became the chief of Latium.  But Tullus grew more and more fierce and warlike and neglected the gods, so that at last they sent a pestilence on him and on the city. Then Tullus grew frightened, and he found the books of Numa, and tried to sacrifice according to them.  But Jupiter would not accept these sacrifices, and smote both him and his house with his thunderbolt.  So Tullus died after reigning thirty-two years. 

            ANCUS MARCIUS, THE FOURTH KING-then the Senate and people elected a grandson of the pious Numa, called Ancus Marcius.  He restored the worship of the gods, and tried to bring back the peaceful times of his grandfather.  But the Latins, despising this peaceful king, attacked and plundered the Roman land.  Then Ancus Marcius declared war on them in due form defeated them; and he carried off the citizens of the towns which he took and settle them on the Aventine Hill.  He also fortified the hill Janiculum, on the other bank of the Tiber, and joined it to Rome by a bridge called the Pons Subicius; and he built the port of Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber.

            LUCIUS TARQUINIUS COMES TO ROME-In the reign of Ancus Marcius there came to Rome from the Etruscan town Tarquinii a stranger named Lucumo.  He was the son of Demaratus, an exile from Corinth in Greece; but the Etruscans despised him as a foreigner, so he came to Rome by the advice of his wife Tanaquil, who was a wise woman and could read the future.  He called himself Lucius Tarquinius, after his birthplace.  He soon made himself liked at Rome by his wealth and courteous manners, and rose to earth honour that King Ancus made him guardian of his sons.

            LUCIUS TARQUINIUS, THE FIFTH KING-But still Tarquinius was not contended; and, when Ancus Marcius died, he persuaded the Assembly of the people top elect himself as king, for the sons of Ancus were not yet grown up.  So Tarquinius the foreigner became King of Rome.  He had great wars against the Latins, and Sabines, and Etruscans, and took many towns from them.  He was a very energetic king, and made many changes at Rome, bringing in Etruscan customs.  He also began great buildings, especially the Cloaca Maxima and the Temple to Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, and made the Circus Maximus.

            TARQUINIUS AND THE AUGUR ATTUS NAVIUS-One day when King Tarquinius was intending to make some change in the States, the augur Attus Navius said that it could not be done unless the gods were favourable.  Tarquinius in a rage said, mocking, “Tell me by your augury whether what I am thinking of at the present moment can be done”.  Attus replied that it could; and Tarquinius replied, “I was thinking that you should cut through this whetstone with a razor”.  And lo! Attus took the razor and cut through the whetstone.  Then Tarquinius obeyed the directions of the augur; and ever afterwards the Romans always consulted augury before doing anything important.    

           DEATH OF TARQUINIUS-Now the cause of the death of Tarquinius was as follows.  In the early part of his reign there was a boy born in his palace called Servius Tullius, whose mother was a slave.  He was seen asleep one day, with a flame playing round his head.  The servants wished to extinguish it with water, but Queen Tanaquil forbade them, and told her husband that the boy was destined to a high fate.  So Tarquinius brought him up as his own son, and so noble did he grow that he gave him his daughter in marriage.  But the two sons of Ancus Marcius were still alive, and were much offended that Tarquinius, after first depriving them of their rights, should now make a slave his son-in0law instead of one of them.  So they hired two shepherds, who came to the king pretending to have a quarrel; and while he was listening to one the other raised an axe and struck Tarquinius on the head.  The guards seized the murderers, and the old king was laid on his bed, where he soon after died.

            SERVIUS TULLIUS, THE SIXTH KING-But the sons of Ancus, though they killed Tarquinius, were baulked of their object.  For Queen Tanaquil ordered the palace to be closed, and said to the people, “The king is only wounded, and will soon recover; meanwhile Servius Tullius will carry on the government”.  Then the sons of Ancus, thinking that they had failed fled from the city; but Tanaquil, when he saw that the power of Servius Tullius was firmly established, at last announced that the king was really dead.  So Servius Tullius became king.  He fought against the Etruscans of Veil and conquered them; but he made a treaty with the Latins by which Rome was acknowledged as the head of Latium, and the Romans and Latins instituted a common yearly festival to Diana on Mount Aventine.  He also built a wall round the city called the Agger Servii Tullii, and allowed the Plebeians to serve in the army and vote in the Assembly.

            MURDER OF SERVIUS-Servius reigned forty-four years, and his end was, like that of Tarquinius, one of violence.  When the sons of Tarquinius, Aruns and Lucius grew up, Servius married them to his two daughters.  Now Aruns was good, and Lucius was wicked; but Lucius wife was good, and Aruns wife, who was called Tullia, was wicked.  Then Lucius, encouraged by the wicked Tullia, murdered his own wife and his brother Aruns.  So Lucius and Tullia were free to marry one another and carry out their wicked designs together.  Now many of the Patricians were angry with Servius because he had given power to the Plebeians, so Lucius persuaded them to help him to make himself king.  When everything was ready he surrounded himself with a body of armed men, and called the Senate together in the name of King Tarquibius.  King Servius heard what was happening, and came down to the senate house.  A violent quarrel arose.  Tarquinius seized his old father-in-law and threw him down the senate house steps, and then sent some of his adherents after him, who murdered him as he was making the best of his way back to his palace.  Meanwhile the wicked Tullia drove in her chariot to the senate house to salute her husband as king; and as she was driving back she came to the street where her murdered father was lying; but she ordered her charioteer to drive on over the body, so that she was sprinkled with her father’s blood.  Henceforward the Romans called the street the Vicus Seeleratus, or “Street of Crime”.

            TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, THE SEVENTH AND LAST KING-Thus Lucius Tarquinius obtained the throne by crime, not by the will of the people; and as you would expect, he governed very harshly, oppressing the people grievously, and never consulting the Senate, but acting just as he thought fit or his wife Tullia advised him.  So the Romans called him Superbus (the Proud).  But Tarquinius was a mighty soldier, and made Rome more powerful than ever by conquering many of the Latin cities round her; he also was very fond of building, as tyrants often are, and he forced the people to labour at the temples and other great works, which he built.  Thus by his wars and buildings he kept the people occupied, and prevented them from rising against him, and so reigned many years.

            TARQUINIUS AND THE SIBYLINE BOOKS-King Tarquinius was very impious, and held religion in great scorn; and when one day an old woman, a prophetess or Sibyl, came and said that she had nine books containing prophecies to sell, he sent her away contemptuously.  The next day she came again with only six, for she had burnt three, and offered them at the same price as the nine, but Tarquinius laughed at her all the more.  Then she burnt three more, and offered the remaining three still for the same price.  Then the king was astonished, and, thinking there must be something valuable in them, bought the books.  And the Romans kept these Sibylline books, and always consulted them in time of trouble.  After a time the gods troubled Tarquinius for his wickedness with dreams and omens.  So he sent his two sons and his nephew Junius, whom men called Brutus, because they thought him stupid, to consult the great Greek oracle at Delphi. And one question the young man asked the oracle was, which of them should succeed Tarquinius and the oracle replied, “He who first kisses his mother”.  Thereupon the two sons of Tarquinius determined to draw lots to decide which should first kiss their mother; but Brutus, as he was coming away from the oracle, pretended to stumble and fell on his face, for he perceived that the oracle meant the earth, the mother of all men.  How the oracle came true you will be told in the next chapter.         

            THE EXPULSION OF THE KINGS, B.C. 510-We do not known whether the story of Tarquinius Superbus is true; but it is certain that at last a king arose who tried to set himself above the laws and would not consult the Senate, and his name may have been Tarquinius Superbus.  At length the Romans rose against him and drove him out; and solemnly declared that there should never again be a King at Rome.

            THE CONSULTS-Henceforward there were to be two rulers instead of one, so that each would prevent the other from becoming too powerful; they were elected from the Patricians only by the Assembly of the People, and ruled for one year.  They were first called praetors (generals), and afterwards consuls, which is thought to mean conleagues (cum sedeo, “to sit together”).  The consuls had the same powers and duties as the old kings; twelve lectors with fasces and axes attended them each; they sat on ivory curule chairs, and wore a scarlet-bordered toga.  But soon after the expulsion of the kings, to show that the people were now sovereigns, it was ordered that when the consuls entered the Assembly of the People, the lectors should lower the fasces as a mark of respect.         

            THE SENATE UNDER THE REPUBLIC-THE DICTATOR-The Senate now really governed Rome, for, though the consuls had the same powers as the old kings, they could not have the same authority, as they only ruled for one year.  So, instead of advising the consuls as it had advised the kings, the Senate ordered them to do what it thought right.  Sometimes, as might have been expected, it was found inconvenient to have two heads to the State, especially when Rome was in great danger. On such occasions the Senate ordered the consuls to name a man to be a single ruler, who was called Dictator.  A Dictator could not rule for more than six months, and was always appointed to do some particular thing; he had supreme power over everyone, including the consults, and there was no appeal from his sentence.  So you see that the Dictator was more powerful than the kings themselves for the short time that he ruled.

             THE STORY OF THE EXPULSION OF THE KINGS-The story which the Roman historians tell of the expulsion of the kings is as follows; For many years the Romans bore the tyranny of Tarquinius Superbus, but at last his overthrow was brought about by the wickedness of his son Sextus.  Tarquinius, in one of his many wars with the Latins, was besieging the town of Ardea.  Sextus and the other princes were in their father’s camp, and also their cousin Tarquinius Collatinus.  Said that his wife was the most virtuous; so, to settle the question, they resolved to visit their wives suddenly and find out what they were doing.  They first went to Rome, where thy found the princes wives enjoying themselves with feasting and merriment.  Thence they rode to Collatinus home at Collatia, where they found Lucretia sitting among her maids spinning.  So they decided that Lucretia was the most virtuous.  But Sextus was seized with a wicked passion for Lucretia, and he returned and brutally outraged her.  And in the morning Lucretia sent for her husband Collatinus and her father, and when they had come and Brutus with them, she told them what had happened, and stabbed herself before their eyes.  Then Brutus persuaded the people to drive out the tyrant Tarquinius and his wicked family; and when the army at Ardea heard of it, they revolted from Tarquinius and returned to Rome.  So the people of Rome drove out their king; and instead of a king they elected two consuls, who ruled for one year only.  And the first elected were Brutus and Collatinus.  Thus the oracle was filoed, and Brutus succeeded Tarquinius.

            ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE THE TARQUINS (I)-CONSPIRACY OF BRUTUS SONS-there were some among the nobles who conspired to restore the Tarquinius, and among them were the sons of Brutus.  But the conspiracy was revealed to the Seante by a lsave, and the conspirators were all punished by death.  And Brutus did not try to save his sons, but ordered them to be put to death like the others before his eyes.  Then the Romans drove out of Rome everyone of the name of Tarquinius.  So even Collatinus was obliged to give up his consulship and leave the city, and Publius Valerius Poplicola (populus colo “to love the people”) was chosen cousul in his place.

            (2) VEII AND TARQUINII-But Tarquinius had tretired to his native town Tarquinni in Etruria, and he persuaded the people of Tarquinni and Veii to help him to regain his throne.  Then a fierce battle was fought between the Etruscans and Romans, in which Aruns, son of Tarquinius, and Brutus slew one another; and when the day ws ended the battle was still doubtful.  But in the middle of the night the voice of Silvanus, the god of the forest, was heard saying that the Etruscans were vanquished because they had lost one man more than the Romans.  Whereupon the Etruscans returned to Etruria.

           (3) LARS PORSENNA-STORIES OF HORATIUS AND MUCIUS SCAEVOLA-Then Tarquinius appealed for help to Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium, the greatest town in all Etruria.  Porsenna raised a great army, which the Romans could not resist, and marched, and marched against Rome.  And he came upon the Romans so suddenly that he seized the Janiculum, before the Pons Sublicius could be cut down.  But in this moment of peril three brave Romans-Horatius Cocles, Spurius Lartius, and Titus Herminius-held the whole Etruscan army at bay till the bridge was destroyed.  Then Lars Porsenna besieged Rome with his army, and ravaged the country all round.  The Romans were now in great straits; and one day noble Roman called Mucius determined to kill Lars Porsenna.  So he crossed the Tiber and entered the Etruscan camp by stealth, but he had never seen Lars Porsenna, and by mistake killed his secretary.  Then the soldiers seized him and brought him before the king, but he spoke out boldly and said that he had come to kill the king.  And when Porsenna began to threaten him, to show that he was not afraid of torture he put his right hand into the fire on the altar close by, and held it there till it was consumed.  Then Porsenna was so astonished at his fortitude that he pardoned him.  And Mucius told him that three hundred young men of the noblest blood of Rome were banded together to kill him.  Porsenna was so struck by the determination of the Romans that he made peace, without restoring the Tarquins.  And the Romans, in gratitude to Mucius, gave him a piece of land; and he was called Mucius Scaevola, or the left-handed, as his right hand had been consumed in the fire.

            (4) THE LATINS TRY TO RESTORE TARQUINIUS-THE BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS- Then Tarquinius turned to the Latins, for Mamilius, the prince of Tusculum, the most powerful town of Latium, had married his daughter.  So Mamilius persuaded the thirty cities of the Latin League to fight against Rome and force her to restore the Tarquins.  Then the Romans thought that while the danger lasted it would be better to have one man at the head of the State instead of two, so they made a dictator, named Aulus Postumius, who marched out with his army and met the Latins by a little lake called Lake Regillus, north of the town of Tusculum.  There a terrible battle was fought, and the Romans were hard pressed by the Latins; but suddenly two horsemen on white steeds were seen fighting in the thick of the fray, and the Latins could not withstand them, but fled from the field defeated.  The two strange horsemen rode back to Rome, bringing tidings of the victory, and the people wondered whom they were; but they washed their steeds by the well of Vesta, and then rode to her temple and vanished from sight.  So the people knew that they were Castor and Pollux, the great Twin Gods.  And they built a temple to them by the well, and instituted a festival in their honour on the ideas of Quintilis (July 15^th), the day on which the battle was fought.  And ever afterwards there was to be seen on a rock by Lake Regillus the print of a horse’s hoof greater than that of a mortal horse.  After the battle of Lake Regillus the Latins made no further attempt to restore the Tarquins, and a few years afterwards the old king died at Cummae, in Campania.  Thus was the Republic established at Rome.  

THE EARLY REPUBLIC-STRIFE AT HOME AND

                                                                             FOES ABROAD-THE DECEMVIRATE 

            RESULT OF THE EXPULSION OF THE KINGSDECLINE OF THE POWER OF ROME-No doubt the Romans were very glad when they had got rid of their tyrannical king, but they soon found that there were fresh troubles in store for them.  Tarquinius, as you have been told, had made Rome very powerful abroad; now she lost all her power.  She was no longer the head of Latium, but, as the legends tell us, had to fight for her existence, first against the Etruscans, and then against her old allies the Latins.  Even if the story of horatius keeping the bridge be true, it was all she could do to beat off the Etruscans; but it is much more likely that the story was an invention, and that the Etruscans for a time actually conquered Rome; for a Roman writer tells us if an old treaty by which the Etruscans for bade the Romans to have arms or any iron implement except such as were necessary for agriculture.   Whatever actually happened, Rome certainly lost all the towns won by the kings; her territory was limited to a few miles round the city; she had great difficulty in maintaining herself against her enemies on every side; and it was not till after many years that she began again her career of conquest.

            QUARRELS OF THE PATRICIANS AND PIEBEIANS-There were another great evil caused by the expulsion of the kings.  The kings before Tarquinius Superbus used to protect the Plebeians and prevent the Patricians ill using them; but now the Patricians had all the power in their hands, for the Senate and consuls were Patricians, so that the Plebeians found themselves worse off than ever.  Very soon a terrible struggle broke out, which lasted many years and did great harm to Rome; for both Patricians and Plebeians were so blinded by hatred of one another that they did not see they were making Romans weak against her enemies.

            GRIEVANCE OF THE RICH PLEBIANS-There was three things about which the Patricians and Plebeians quarrelled.  First all of many of the Plebeians had grown rich by trade, as rich as the Patricians; they wanted to be made equal to the Patricians, to marry with them, and become consuls and senators.  This was the grievance of the rich Plebeians.

            GRIEVANCES OF THE POORER PLEBEIANS-THE PUBLIC LAND AND THE LAW OF DEBT-The poorer Plebeians had two other grievances, and it was these that caused most of the trouble, for the poor Plebeians were far more numerous than the rich ones.  They formed the bulk of the Roman army, so if they were discontented Rome could not beat her enemies.  These grievances were about the Law of Debt and the Public Land (Ager Publicus).  You have been told about the cruel Law of Debt; many a Plebeian, after fighting for his city all the summer and receiving no pay, found himself on his return home arrested for debt, and the only reward he gained by his valour was slavery.  The Patricians were still unfair about the Public land.  This was land conquered from an enemy.  In the time of the kings part of it used to be distributed in small lots to the poorer citizens, and the rest was let out for tillage to the rich citizens, who had to pay a small rent.  But now much of this land had been lost; the Patricians, having all the government in their own hands, kept to themselves what was left and paid no rent for it.  So the Plebeians were robbed of their land to which they had a right, and had to pay more for taxes, for as the Patricians paid no rent, there was less money in the Treasury.  To pay the taxes they had often to borrow money, and so got into debt and were sold as slaves.  Is it surprising that there was great discontent among the Plebeians?

             THE SECESSION TO THE SACRED MOUNT, B.C. 494-At last the Plebeians, driven to despair, refused to go out and fight.  Twice to despair refused to go out and fight.  Twice they were persuaded to go by a promise that the law of debt should be abolished, and the Senate broke twice the promise.  The second time the Plebeians marched off in a body to a hill four miles east of Rome, called the Sacred Mount (Mons Sacer), to found there a new city for them.  The Senate were in great alarm, for there would not be enough soldiers left to defend Rome; so they sent a rich Plebeian named Menenius Agrippa, a very eloquent man, to persuade them to return.  This shows that the rich Plebeians did not always take the side of their poorest brethren.  Menenius, according to the story, told the Plebeians a fable.  “Once upon a time,” said he, “the members of the body all began to grumble, because they had all the work to do, while the belly lay idle and enjoyed the results of their labour; so they agreed among themselves to starve the belly into submission, but the more they starved it the weaker they themselves became.”  Thus Menenius persuaded the Plebeians that they would not be able to get on without the Patricians; and they agreed to return to Rome, if something was done to protect them against injustice and imprisonment for debt.

            THE TRIBUNES OF THE PLEBS-So the Plebeians returned to Rome; and a law was passed by which new protectors were given them instead of their old protectors the kings.  These new protectors were called tribunes of the Plebs (Tribuni Plebis).  Originally there were two, but afterwards they were increased to five, and later to ten.  They were of course Plebeians, and were elected for one year by an Assembly of the Plebeians.  The office of the tribunes was a very strange one.  They could do nothing themselves, but had the right of stopping the act of any magistrate, even of a consul, by “vetoing,” that is, forbidding it.  Thus if a man was being led off to prison for debt a tribune could order him to be released.  The tribunes were never to leave the city for twenty-four hours, and their doors were to be open day and night, so that anyone who was oppressed could take refuge there.  Finally, that the Patricians might not harm them, it was decreed that their persons should be held nacred.  The tribunes soon began to use their power to veto even public acts of government in times of discord, and also to bring forward motions in the Assembly of the Plebeians.

            THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR WITH THE AEQUI AND VOLSCI-during this time, after the war against Lars Porsenna and the battle of Lake Regillus, the great enemies of Rome were the warlike mountain tribes of the Aequi and Volsci.  The Aequi dwelt on the slopes of the Apennies east of Rome, the Volsci in the hill country of South Latium.  They were very terrible enemies, and at first seemed likely to overwhelm the Romans.  But fortunately the Latins were as much afraid of them as the Romans; and so, in B.C. 493 the Roman consul Spurius Cassius persuaded the Latins to renew the old alliance with rome, which had been broken by the battle of Lake Regillus.  This alliance is the first really historical fact in roman history; for the treaty, with the name of Spurius Cassius as its author, was inscribed on a pillar of brasses, which existed in the forum in the days of Cicero.  The Hernici, who lived between the Aequi and Volsci, joined the Roman alliance soon after.

            THE AGRARIAN LAW OF SPURIUS CASSIUS-Not content with saving Rome from her enemies, Spurious Cassius also tried to heal the troubles at home.  The appointment of tribunes had indeed alleviated the laws of debt, but it had not stopped the grievance about the public land.  This Spurius Cassius tried to heal.  He was re-elected consul twice, and in his third consulship (a.c. 486) proposed a law that some of the land, which the Patricians were holding unfairly, should be taken from them and distributed in small lots among the Plebeians.  Any law for doing this was called an Agrarian Law (Lex Agraria, from ager, “land”).  There were many agrarian laws in Roman history.  The Patricians fiercely opposed this law.  They could not stop it being passed by the Assembly of the people, but they managed to prevent it being carried into effect.  And when Spurius Cassius year of office was over, they accused him of trying to make himself a king; and the name of king had such terrors for the people that they forgot the gratitude, which they owed him, and allowed him to be condemned.  So Spurius Cassius was beheaded and his house razed to the ground.  Such was his reward for trying to put an end to the troubles at Rome.

            WAR WITH ETRURIA-Meanwhile year after year the Romans, Latins, and Hernici went on fighting against the Aequi and Volsci.  Year after year the Aequi, like the old Scotch Highlanders, poured down from their mountain strongholds, burning crops and carrying off cattle; while in the south of Latium the Volsci attacked the Latin frontier towns, and the Romans and Latins attacked the Volscian towns.  Two years after the death of Spurius Cassius a war also broke out with the southern states of Etruria, which lasted ten years, and then was ended by a truce.  Nothing is known for certain about what happened in those wars; the Romans and Latins seem to have been very hard pressed, and at times to have been hardly able to hold their own.  There are, however, three famous stories about them, which though mere legends, give some notion of what they were like.

            STORIES OF THE WARS-(I) CORIOLANUS AND THE VOLSCI-there was at Rome a brave soldier called Caius Marcius, a Patrician.  He had fought at the battle of Lake Regillus and saved the life of a fellow soldier, for which he had been rewarded with an oaken wreath, the civic crown.  When the war broke out against the Volsci, Marcius by his bravery took the town of Corioli.  So the Romans called him Caius Marcius Coriolanus.  Now Coriolanus was a very proud Patrician, and was very angry when the Plebeians were allowed to have tribunes.  And when a great famine arose, and corn was sent to the Senate by Greeks in Sicily, Coriolanus said, “If the people want corn let them give up their tribunes, and obey us as their fathers did” but when the people heard of it they made a great tumult, and the Senate gave up Coriolanus to be judged by them.  Then Coriolanus fled from Rome to the country of the Volsci, and led a great Volscian army against Rome, that he might take vengeance on the Plebeians.  The Romans could not resist this invasion; and many a Latin town did Coriolanus take, till at last he encamped within five miles of Rome.  Then the Romans tried to make peace, but the conditions, which Coriolanus demanded, were too hard.  At last his mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia came out with a train of noble ladies to try to soften his heart.  And when Coriolanus saw his mother and wife, at last he relented, and said, “O mother, thou hast won a great victory for Rome, but hast ruined thy son”; and he led away the army of the Volscians and never attacked Rome again.  And he did in his old age a solitary exile among the Volscians; though some say that the Volscians in their anger put him to death.

            (2) CINCINNATUS AND THE AEQUI-In the year B.C. 458 the Aequi surrounded the Roman army on a mountain called Algidus, part of the Alban Mount.  So great was the danger that the Romans determined to make dictator a great soldier, Lucius Quinctius, called Cincinnatus because of his curled hair.  Cincinnatus did not care to live at Rome; he preferred to till his own farm on the other side of the Tiber.  And when the senators came to tell him that he had been named dictator, they found him working in the fields without his toga.  So he sent his wife to fetch his toga, and, when he had put it on, he received the senators and accepted the post.  When Cincinnatus reached Rome, he stopped all business and ordered that all men capable of bearing arms should assemble in the Campus Martius by sunset, with five days provisions and twelve sharp stakes.  Thus equipped the army started from Rome, and reached Mount Algidus by midnight.  And Cincinnatus posted his men, without being seen round the Aequi, and ordered them to plant their stakes and dig a ditch.  The they raised the war-cry, which the Aequi and their own comrades heard; and when the Aequi saw that they were caught, they fought fiercely for a long time, but at last they were compelled to surrender.  And Cincinnatus made the whole Aequian army with its general, go under “the yoke”.  This was a common sign of defeat among these old Italians.  Fixing two spears in the ground, and fastening one across formed a yoke; and the conquered soldiers were made to pass under it one by one, without their arms and armour.  Then, having accomplished in six days that for which he was appointed, he resigned the dictatorship and returned to his farm.

            (3) THE FABII AND THE ETRUSCANS-One of the greatest houses at Rome was the Patrician gens of the Fabii.  So great was it that at this time nearly every year one of the consuls was a Fabius.  One year the Plebeians would not fight properly; for they were angry because the land had not been distributed according to the law of Spurius Cassius.  Thereupon the consul Kaeso Fabius tried to have the law carried out; this made the other Patricians very angry.  Then the Fabii resolved to leave the quarrelsome city altogether.  They asked the Senate to be allowed to go and fight alone against the Etruscans and prevent them from ravaging the Roman lands.  The Senate consented; and Kaeso Fabius, at the head of the whole gens, three hundred and six in number, marched out of Rome and encamped by the little stream of the Cremera in Etruria.  There for a long time they beat back the attacks of the whole Etruscan army, which tried in vain to dislodge them.  Then they began to plunder the Etruscan territory; but after a time the Etruscans caught them in an ambush, and the three hundred and six Fabii were all killed fighting valiantly.  And ever afterwards, in memory of this day, the gate by which the Fabii left Rome was called “the unlucky way”.  But one little boy had been left behind at Rome, for he was too young to fight; and from him sprang the Fabian house which in after time did many glorious deeds in the service of Rome. 

            CONTINUED STRUGGLES BETWEEN THE PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS-the stories of Spurius Cassius, Coriolanus, and of the Fabii show that even after the appointment of the tribunes the troubles continued at Rome.  There was first of all the trouble about the land.  But besides that the Plebeians found that their tribunes could not always protect them.  For at this time the Laws were unwritten, and the Patricians kept the knowledge of them to themselves, and so were often able to thwart the tribunes.  In the year B.C. 462, therefore, a tribune proposed that the laws should be drawn up in writing and published in the Forum, so that every one might know them.  This the Patricians refused, and so the struggle went on; the tribunes obstructing the work of government, and the Patricians replying with violence and illegal acts.  At last it was agreed that ten men (decemviri) should be appointed to draw up the code of laws and govern instead of the consuls, and that the Plebeians should give up their tribunes.

            THE DECEMVIRATE AND THE LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES, B.C. 451-449-So the Decemvirs was appointed.  They were all of them Patricians, but they did their work in a very just spirit.  At the end of the year they had drawn up ten tables of laws, but their task was not ended; so a fresh body of Decemvirs was elected for the next year, under the presidency of a Patrician of the great Claudian gens, Appius Claudius.  The work was completed by the addition of two more laws, and it was expected that the Decemvirs would resign.  This they refused to do, and continued in office, carrying on the supreme government, and appearing in the Forum proceeded by a hundred lectors bearing the fasces with the axes.  They continued in this course even after their year of office had expired, and at last were only driven out by force.  How this came about is very doubtful; the story as told by the Roman historians runs thus:

            THE STORY OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS AND VIRGINIA-When Appius Claudius and the other Decemvirs refused to resign they made themselves so strong that no one dared to oppose them.  But the people hated them, and the armies in the field warring against the Sabines and Aequi allowed them to be defeated, and the Fecemvirs in revenge murdered a brave soldier, Siccius Dentatus, for complaining against their tyranny.  Meanwhile, Appius Claudius, who was governing at Rome, chanced to see a beautiful maiden named Virginia, and wished to get her into his power, so he made one of his freedmen swear that she was his slave.  The case was tried before Appius himself; and Virginius, her father, who had been summoned from the camp, seeing that he could not save his daughter in any other way, stabbed her before the judgement seat of Appius in the presence of all the people.  A furious outbreak followed, the Decemvirs were forced to resign, and Appius Claudius died by his own hand in prison.  Such is the story of Appius Claudius and Virginia, but the Roman historian Livy tells us that Appius Claudius was elected the second time by the support of the Plebeians, and that he got several Plebeians elected also.  So some people think that he set himself up as the champion of the Plebeians against the Patricians, and was driven out by the Patricians.  At any rate, after the overthrow of the Decemvirs the Plebeians again marched off to the Sacred Mount, and would not return until their tribunes had been restored.  The laws, which the decemvirs had drawn up, were written on twelve brazen tablets (tabuloe), and set up in the Forum.  They were called the Twelve Tables, and were the foundation of all Roman law.  Thus the Plebeians were in a safer position than ever; for the laws were now published, so that the Patrician magistrates could not do illegal acts; and at the same time they had their tribunes to protect them.          

           THE CANULEIAN LAW, B.C. 445-The Poorer Plebeians had freed themselves from the unjust oppression of the Patricians.  But now the struggles of the rich Plebeians began; they wanted two things, the right of being regarded as the equals of the Patricians and marrying with them, and the right of being elected to all the high offices of State.  Their first object they attained at once; C. Canuleius, a tribune, proposed a law, which the Patricians could not prevent being passed, that Patricians and Plebeians should be allowed to intermarry, and that the children of such a marriage should take the rank of the father.  For before, if a Patrician married a Plebeian wife, the marriage was not a legal one, and the children could not take their father’s rank, but became Plebeians.

            THE INSTITUTION OF CONSULAR TRIBUNES-Their second object the Plebeians could gain so easily.  C. Canuleius proposal also those Plebeians might be elected consuls.  This the Patricians would not allow, but they were obliged to make some concession.  So they adopted a very trange device.  They allowed a law to be passed that, instead of consuls, a number of magistrates might be elected from Patricians and Plebeians alike, with powers exactly like the consuls, who were called “military tribunes with consular power” (tribuni militares consulari potestate).  These must be carefully distinguished from the tribunes of the Plebs.  They were usually six in number.  This law remained in force for eighty years, but it could only said that consular tribunes that it was the Senate which had to decide.  So there was usually each year a furious wrangle on the question, and sometimes consuls, sometimes consular tribunes, were elected; and, strange to say, such was the position held by the Patricians owing to their long continued power, that, though the law was passed B.C. 445, no Plebeian was elected military tribune till B.C. 400.

            THE INSTITUTION OF CENSORS, B.C. 443-One of the duties of the consuls was to hold the census or register of the people, that is, make a list of them with all their property, arrange in their classes, and fill up the vacancies in the Sentae.  This was done every five years.  The Patricians did not like such an important task especially the filling up of the Senate, to be performed by consular tribunes who might be Plebeians.  So they made two new magistrates called censors (censores, which means registrars).  The censors had the power of degrading from his proper class or from the Senate anyone who had been guilty of a disgraceful act, By putting a mark against his name, called the censor’s mark (nota censorial), so they had a general superintendence over the public morals; and this is how in English the word “censure” has come to mean “find fault with”.  The censors were men of great dignity, usually of consular rank, that is to say, they had held the office of consul.  Though elected for five years they always resigned after a year and a half, for that was the time it took them to complete their work, and for the next three and a half years there were no censors.

            SOURIUS MAELIUS, B.C. 439-four years after the institution of the censors there was again great distress among the Plebeians owing to a famine; such was their misery, that it said numbers in despair threw themselves into the Tiber.  So Spurius Maelius, a rich Plebeian, bought corn in Etruria and gave it to the starving people free.  Thereupon the Patricians said that he was conspiring to make himself king, as they had said of Spurius Cassius.  So the aged Cincinnatus was appointed dictator, and next day took his seat on his tribunal in the Forum, and sent Servillus Ahala, his “master of the horse” (as the dictator’s second in command was called), to bring Spurius Maelius before him.  Spurius Maelius was in the Forum at the time with a large crowd of Plebeians, who had come together in surprise at the appointment of a dictator: when summoned by Servillus he implored their aid.  But Servilius stabbed him on the spot, and cincinnatus said that Spurius Maelius was rightly slain for refusing to come before the dictator.  But the people were so angry that Servilius was obliged to leave Rome.

            WAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS-The Romans was now getting the better of the Aequi and Volsci, and feared them no longer.  They even felt strong enough to attack their old enemies the Etruscans, especially the neighbouring towns of Fidenae and Veii (B.C. 445).  In a great battle the Roman general Cornelius Cossus killed the King of Fidenae with his own hand, who thus won the spolia opima Fidenae was taken and kept by the Romans.  After many years fighting peace was made B.C. 425.  The great Etruscan nation was now growing weak.  They had been beaten at sea by the Greeks of Syracuse (B.C. 474); then the Samnites drove them out of Campania (B.C. 424), and now the Gauls too were beginning to attack them in the North.  So when the Romans began the war again and attacked Veii (B.C. 406) the other Etruscans left it to its fate.

             SIEGE OF VEII, B.C. 406-396-Veii was a town in a very strong position, and its walls were asgreat in extent as those of Rome.  So the Romans found it very difficult to take.  It was no use levying an army in the beginning of the summer to invade the Veientine land and then disbanding it in the autumn.  The Veientines, secure in their fastness, laughed at them.  So the Romans made two great camps on either side of the city and kept an army in them all the year round; but as the soldiers could not serve all the year for nothing, for then their families would starve, the State determined to give them pay.  And this was how the Roman soldiers first came to receive pay.  But still the war went on for a long time with doubtful success.  For the Veientines were still very strong and more than once destroyed the Roman camps; and in the south the Aequi and Volsci were still unsubdued, and took advantage of the Veientine war to renew their attacks.  As last, after a war of ten years, the Romans, under a great soldier called Camillus, took Veil and utterly destroyed it.

            THS STORY OF THE CAPTURE OF VEII-The Roman historian tells the following story about the capture of Veii.  There was great alarm at rome in the eighth year of the siege of Veii, for the water of the Alban Lake, closed by Alba Longa, overflowed.  So the Romans sent to the great oracle at Delphi in Greece to ask what this marvel portended.  But, meanwhile, at Veii a Roman soldier heard an old man on the city wall say that, until the water of the Alban Lake had gone down Veii would never be taken.  Knowing that the Etruscans were skilled in prophecy, the soldier persuaded him to come down and then seized him.  The old man was carried to Rome and forced to repeat the prophecy, and when the messengers came back from Delphi they brought the same answer.  Then the Romans let the water out of the lake by digging a great tunnel, the remains of which can be seen to this day.  They also sent the great soldier Camillus to command the army besieging Veii.  Camillus saw that the walls of the city were too strong to be taken by storm, so he dug a tunnel under the town right into the citadel.  Then, when all was ready, all the people to Rome came to Veii to share in the plunder, and Camillus led his storming into the tunnel.  Now it happened that just at this moment the high priest of Veii was sacrificing to Juno, and Camillus heard him say to the King that the victory would belong to whose ever should offer the sacrifice.  Then Camillus burst out of the tunnel and slew the priest and offered the sacrifice himself.  Thus, after a ten years siege, Veii was taken.         

            CONQUEST OF SOUTH ETRURIA-After the capture of Veii the romans continued the war against the Etruscans, and Camillus who had now been elected consular tribune, attacked the town of Falerii some miles north of Veii.  It is said, that during this siege, a schoolmaster at Falerii, who taught the sons of the leading citizens, while taking them for a walk, one day led them all into the Roman camp, thinking that he would thus get a great reward for betraying them.  But Camillus, scorning to take such a mean advantage, made the boy’s flog their schoolmaster, with his hands tied behind him, back into the city again.  This cat of generosity so pleased the people of Falerii that they surrendered their city to Camillus.  Camillus took many other cities, so that Rome had now conquered all South Etruria up to the great Ciminian Forest, which no Roman army had yet crossed, and which formed a barrier keeping North Etruria from helping the South.

            THE PLEBS WISH TOSEETLE AT VEII-EXILE OF CAMILIUS-After the fall of Veii there were disputes at Rome between the Patricians and P,lebeians about the Veientine land, for the Plebeians considered that they were unfairly treated.  It is said that the Plebeians wished to settle at Veii, which was now standing empty, but the Patricians would not let them.  The Plebeians also were angry with Camillus because he made them give up a tenth of the spoils, saying that he had it to Apollo; it is also said that he became very proud and overbearing on account of his victory, and that he was accused of keeping some of the spoils to himself. The end was, that Camillus was forced to go into exile and retired to the Latin town of Ardea.  

            INVASION OF THE GAULS, B.C. 390-It seemed now as if Romans was going to triumph over all her enemies, but just at this moment a heavy blow struck her-a blow that would have utterly crushed most States.  It will be remembered that while Rome was besieging Veii the Gauls were attacking Etruria in the north; there is an Etruscan tradition that the same day that Room took Veii, their southern stronghold, the Gauls took Melpum, their northern one, the site of which is unknown.  The Gauls did not settle I their conquests, but went on conquering and plundering further south till they came to Clussium; there three Roman ambassadors, who had been sent to order the Gauls to retire, joined in the battle, and one of the Romans killed a Gaulish chief; so the Gauls, to punish this breach of the law of nations, marched on Rome.

            BATTLE OF THE ALLIA-when the Romans heard that the Gauls were approaching they got together the largest army they could of themselves and their allies, including both the regular legions and also the inferior troops, who generally stayed at home to defend the city.  The Gauls were advancing by the south bank of the Tiber, and the Romans posted themselves behind the Allis, a little stream which flows into the Tiber about twelve miles above Rome.  Now this was the first time that Romans had ever seen barbarians, for all their wars had hitherto been against nations fighting in the same way as themselves, and they were utterly appalled by the terrific charge of the Gauls, who hurled themselves on them with wild yells, and slashed right and left with their huge broadswords just as the Highlanders used to attack the English.  So the inferior troops who were assailed first and by the bravest warriors of the Gauls, were broken at once, and in their flight threw the good troops into disorder.  Ina moment the whole army was in headlong route, and the Gauls were among them slaughtering the like sheep.  Some of the fugitives fled to Rome, other plunged into the Tiber, but very few succeeded in getting across.  Those who escaped fled to Veii.  The Gauls were too much astonished at their victory to pursue immediately.

            CAPTURE OF ROME, AND DEFENCE OF THE CAPITOL-When the remains fo the army reached Rome it was evident that its numbers were too few to defend the whole circuit of the walls.  It was therefore determined to abandon the city and hold on the Capitol.  Those, therefore, who wished to fight retired to the Capitol; the rest of the population took refuge in Veii, which was now standing empty, and other neighbouring towns.  But some of the Patrician senators, too old to join in the defence of the Capitol, but unwilling to survive the disgrace of Rome, arrayed themselves in their official robes and took their seats at the entrance of their houses.  On the third day after the battle the Gauls entered Rome, and when they came into the city they saw the old senators seated before their houses, and at first they thought that they were gods as they gazed on them in wonder, and one of the Gauls began to stroke the long white beard of a senator named Marcus Papirius; but Papirius, in anger, struck him on the head with his ivory sceptre.  Thereupon the Gaul slew Papirius, and then they fell upon the others and killed them.  The the Gauls set to work to plunder and destroy the city, and ay last they attacked the Capitol; but it was too strong, and they were repulsed.  So they determined to blockade it, till the garrison should be obliged to surrender from famine, Meanwhile they sent an army plundering and destroying through Latium and the surrounding country.       

            MARCUS MANLIUS SAVES THE CAPITOL-After some months the Gauls made a second art on the Capitol. The Romans outside had sent a messenger to the defenders, who succeeded in climbing the rock and getting in.  But a Gaul saw him and marked his path; and in the night a body of Gauls mad their way up the same path in single file.  But, just as they were at the top, the sacred geese in the temple of Juno heard them, and made such a cackling that a brave soldier named Marcus Manlius was awakened and rushed to the spot just in time to cut down the leading Gaul.  Then the rest of the garrison was aroused, and the Capitol saved.

            THE GAULS ARE BRIBED TO DEPART- At last, after the blockade had continued eight months, the garrison could hold out no longer, so they agreed to pay the Gaula a large sum of money to go away; and; and the Gauls, who had heard tidings of dangers at home and were themselves suffering from famine and disease, agreed to go away for a thousand pounds weight of gold.  But when they were weighing the money the Romans complained that the weights were false; then Brennus, the Gaulish king, threw his sword in also, exclaiming, “Vae Victis” (Woe to the Conquered”). At this very moment Camillus arrived with an army, which he had been collecting, and fell upon the Gauls and utterly destroyed them.  This was the end of the siege, according to the Roman account.  But there is no doubt that the Gauls really took the ransom and retired with it, and the victory of Camillus was invented afterwards to wipe out the disgrace of Rome being obliged to buy her safety with money.

            REBUILDING OF ROME-When the Gauls had departed the Romans returned tor ebuild the city, and Camillus came back from exile.  But the Plebeians again wished to settle at Veii, where many of them had built themselves houses, and there was much disputing about it; but when the Senate was deliberating in the senate house a centurion chanced to be halting his men in the Forum, and the Senate heard him say, “Standard bearer, plant your standard here; this will be the best place to stop”; and they hailed the words as an omen sent from heaven, and decided to stop at Rome.  So the building began, and to help the poor people the Senate gave the roofing material and allowed them to cut wood and quarry stone on the public lands; there was no plan, but everyone built there he liked, so the new streets were very narrow and crooked. 

            RESULT OF THE INVASION OF THE GAULS-END OF THE WARS WITH THE AEQUAI AND VOLSCI-such was the end of the invasion of the Gauls, the most terrible danger that had hitherto threatened Rome.  Most States would have succumbed altogether; Rome merely bent before the whirlwind, and when it had passed, rose again with undiminished strength.  In fact, the invasion made her stronger than before.  We have seen how the Etruscans were weakened by the attacks of the Gauls.  The Aequi and Volsci also suffered severely.  After this time they grew weaker and weaker; from time to time joined Rome’s enemies, but gradually they disappeared.

            THE FATE OF MARCUS MANLIUS, B.C. 383-You would have thought that the Romans would have done a great honour to the brave Marcus Manlius, the saviour of the Capitol.  But on the contrary, they soon after put him to death.  This is how it happened.  The Plebeians had suffered severely from the invasion of the Gauls; their lands had been ravaged and their homes destroyed.  And though the Senate gave them some aid in the work of rebuilding it proved insufficient, and numbers of them fell victim to the cruel law of debt.  The tribunes could not help them; but at last Marcus Manlius saw a brave centurion, who had fought under him, dragged off to prison for debt.  He paid the debt himself on the spot, and was so shocked by the sight that he sold the best part of his property, and vowed that he would never allow a fellow citizen to be sold into slavery for debt.  So the Plebeians looked upon Manlius as their protector, and used to assemble in crowds at his house on the Capitol; and Manlius used to harangue them on their wrongs.  Then the Patricians said that Manlius was trying to make himself king.  The Plebeians themselves began to believe it, and two tribunes accused him before the assembly of the people; and when he pointed to the Capitol, which he had saved they adjourned the trial, and next day the assembly of the people was summoned in a place from which the Capitol was not visible.  Manlius was condemned to death, and hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.  Marcus Manlius, Spurius Maelius, and Spurius Cassius were all protectors of the Plebeians, and all three were put to death because the jealous Patricians said that they were trying to make themselves kings.  It shows what a dread the Romans had of the name King.

            FURTHER WARS AGAINST THE GAULS-For some years after the burning of Rome the Gauls remained quiet; then they renewed their raids; and the annalists relate many glorious victories over them in their desire to wipe out the disgrace of the Allia.  The great Camillus himself is said to have celebrated a triumph over them at the age of eighty.  There are stories, too, of Gaulish champions, giants like Goliath, who challenged the Romans to single combat.  On one occasion the challenge was accepted by Titus Manlius, a member of the same gens as Marcus Manlius; he slew the Gaul, and as a trophy took from his neck a golden collar or torques, whence he was called T. Manlius Torquatus.  He afterwards became a famous Roman general.  On another occasion the Roman champion was a Marcus Valerius, and just before the combat a crow appeared and perched on his helmet, and when the combat began it kept flying at the face of the Gaul, so that Valerius was easily able to kill him.  So the soldiers called him Marcus Valerius Corvus; he, too, because a great general.  It was after this last combat that the son of the great Camillus finally defeated the Gauls; they were never again a source of danger to Rome by themselves, but they more than once gave trouble as allies of her enemies.

            THE LICINIAN LAWS-STRUGGLE BETWEEN PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS-The long struggle between the Patricians and Plebeians was now approaching its end.  The rich Plebeians, who had several times gained the military tribune ship, were now determined to force the Patricians to throw the consulship open to them.  So they took up the cause of their poorer brethren, still suffering from the distress, which Manlius had tried to relieve, and both together made a combined attack on the privileges of the Patricians.  In the year B.C. 376 two tribunes of the Plebs, C. Licinius and L. Sextius, proposed a law decreeing-(1) that relief should be given to debtors; (2) that henceforth no man should hold more than 500 jugera (about 300 acres) of the public land, and that anyone who had more should give it up to be distributed among the poor; and (3) that in future there were to be consuls again instead of consular tribunes, and that one of the two consuls must be a Plebeian. 

            CAMILLUS ENDS THE STRUGGLE, B.C. 367-The Patricians resisted these laws by every means in their power.  For ten years the struggle went on; Licinius and Sextius, it is said, were so determined, that when the Senate would not pass the law they stopped all elections of magistrates by their veto.  At last, B.C. 367, Camillus, who had been appointed dictator advised the Senate to give in.  The law was passed, and Camillus, in commemoration of the event, consecrated a temple to Concord.  Two years afterwards he died of a plague; so the last act of the great warrior was to heal the discord of the State.  The Patricians, however, did not yield altogether.  When they gave up the consulship they tried to keep the judicial power to themselves, by making a new magistrate, called proetor, to act as judge.  But in thirty years the Plebeians won the praetorship also.  Soon after the passing of the Licinian laws they had obtained the dictatorship and censorship; and in B.C. 300 the priesthoods, with a few exceptions, were thrown open to them, and the union of the orders was complete.

            RESULT OF THE LICINIAN LAWS-Few laws has ever made such a great and lasting change in a State as these laws did at Rome.  First of all the poorer Plebeians were relieved from the debt that was crushing them, and were secured from the future prospect of debt by the plots of land distributed to them; so that from discontented citizens, ever expecting to be dragged off to prison, they became sturdy yeomen farmers, who proved the backbone of Rome in her long wars.  Secondly, the admission of the Plebeians to the consulship, and afterwards to the other offices mentioned above, strengthened the Senate by bringing all the rich families on to its side.  Henceforward, instead of the old nobility of the Patricians, there was gradually formed a new nobility made up of the Patricians and the powerful Plebeians.  The difference between Patrician and Plebeian became only a difference of name; the real difference was between the nobles or party of the Senate, and the people or Popular Party.  But the Popular Party was nearly always contended to leave the government to the Senate, and the nobles of the Senate showed themselves worthy of the trust by governing firmly and wisely.

            ROME READY FOR HER CAREER OF CONQUEST-Now that the bitter party strife was ended, and her old enemies were no longer dangerous, Rome was strong enough to begin her career of conquest, which you will read about in the following chapters.  Fist she conquered Italy, by subduing (1) her old allies, the Latins, and (2) the Samnites and other Italians; then she had to defend herself against two foreign assailants, (1) Pyrrhus and his Greeks, and (2) Carthage.  Triumphant over these foes easily conquered the other nations around the Mediterranean and established her great empire.  How after she became all powerful abroad, party struggles at home began again, fiercer than ever, and how they were again ended, will be told later on.   

            DISCONTENT OF THE LATINS-It will be remembered that about a hundred years before this time, when the Aequi and Volsci hard pressed Rome, Spurius Cassius, who renewed the old alliance with the Latin League, saved her.  While the Aequi and Volsci were strong and dangerous this alliance remained firm, but as Rome gradually grew more and more powerful and the Aequi and Volsci grew weaker, it became less friendly.  Rome was now stronger than the Latins, so she gradually began to manage the affairs of the League, as she liked without giving them any voice, and was especially unfair in the division of the spoils of their common victories, keeping the larger share to herself.  So after the invasion of the Gauls there were wars between Rome and the various Latin cities, such as Tibur, Praeneste, and Tusculum; and the Latins even aided their old enemies the Volsci in their last despairing struggle against Rome.  Little was known about these wars; most of the towns seem to have been reduced without much terrible.  The end of them was that in the year B.C. 358 the old alliance between Rome and Latins were renewed; but it was no longer an equal alliance; the Latins were fast becoming the subjects or Rome.

           THE CAMPAQNIANS ASK THE ROMANS FOR HELP AGAINST THE SAMNITES-It was lucky for Rome that she thus reduced the Latins, for soon afterwards she found herself at war with a new foe, the fierce Samnite mountaineers of the South of Italy, and the struggle which ensued proved to be the struggle for the headship of Italy.  The cause of the war was as follows: -You was told how, in the year B.C. 423, these Samnites conquered the Etruscans in Campania and settled in the country.  The sunny and soft climate of the Campaign plains wrought a great change in the invaders they lost their old rude valour, and many of them married with the Greeks and Etruscans.  So a new Campanian race grew up, which forgot its kinship with the Samnites of the mountains, regarding them only as savage marauders, for they continually suffered from their raids.  At last a regular was broke out between the two peoples.  The effeminate Campanians were not able to keep off the attacks of the Samnites, so in the year 343 B.C. they appealed to the Romans for assistance, and the Romans consented to help them.

            FIRST SAMNITE WAR, B.C. 343-I-The army, which the Romans sent into Campania, drove the Samnites out, but the accounts are very confusing. One story is that the Roman consul, Valerie Corvus, of whom you have already heard, was surrounded by the Samnites in a valley in Samnium; but an officer named Decius Mus scaled a very difficult height with some soldiers, and so, by distracting the attention of the enemy, enabled the army to escape; after that the consul conquered the Samnites in a great battle at Mount Gaurus in Campania.  Next year the Romans themselves could do nothing owing to a mutiny in the army, and the Campanians were obliged to rely on the help of the Latins alone.  The Latins succeeded in beating back the Samnites, and were so much elated at this proof of their strength that their old discontent returned, and they determined no longer to submit to the arrogance of Rome.  The Romans, seeing the storm that was brewing made peace and alliance with the Samnites, who were only too glad to end the war, because they were also fighting with the Greek city of Tarentum in the South.

            THE DEMANDS OF THE LATINS-Before having recourse to arms the Latins sent two ambassadors to Rome to state their demands.  These were, that the Romans and Latins should become one nation under the name of Romans, with Rome for the capital, and that one half of the Senate and one consul should be Latin.  At this insulting demand the consul Manlius Torquatus, the slayer of the Gallic champion, was seized with fury; he declared that if the Romans granted it, he would slay the very first Latin he saw in the senate house, and appealed to Jupiter Capitolinus, in whose temple the Senate was then sitting, to avenge the insult.  Annius, one of the Latin ambassadors, furious at the words of Manlius, mocked at the name of the god; but the next moment, and he was hurrying down the steps of the temple, a peal of thunder was heard, his foot slipped, and he struck his head against the bottom step, so that he died.  Thus Jupiter avenged himself; and Manlius hailed Annius’s fate as an omen of the downfall of the Latin nation.

            THE LATIN WAR, B.C. 340-So the war broke out.  The Samnites were now on the side of Rome, The Campanians on the side of the Latins, who were also aided by Rome’s old enemies the Volscians.  The two Roman consuls, Manlius Torquatus and Decius Mus, whose exploit had won him the consulship, at once took the field, and by a roundabout march through the mountains joined the Samnites in Campania without passing through Latium.  The hostile armies were soon encamped opposite each other near Mount Vesuvius.

            STORY OF MANLIUS TORQUATUS AND HIS SON-Now the Romans and Latins spoke the same language, and fought with the same arms, and most of them were known to one another personally, so that the war was like a civil war; so the Roman commanders, wishing to prevent a