Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/292

KOME. 266 ROME. gesses with their families to more peaceful com- imiiiitics; the street fights; the assassinations of plebeian magistrates; the annihilation by the Etruscans of the Fabian gens, who had left Rome to escape the vengeance of their order for hav- ing passed over to the side of the plebeians; and the atrocious judicial murder of Spurius Cassius, an eminent patrician, who had also incurred the <leadly hatred of his order, by proposing an agra- rian law that would have checked the pernicious ])rns])erity of the capitalists and overgrown land- holders. Finally, B.C. 462, a measure was brought forward by the tribune C. Terentilius Harsa, to a])point a commission of ten men to draw up a code of laws for the purpose of protecting the plebeians against the arbitrary decisions of the patrician magistrates. The ten years that fol- lowed were literally a period of organized an- archy in Rome. At length the nobles gave way, and the result was the drawing vip of the fa- mous code known as the Twelve Tables — at first 7'en, to which two were afterward added — the appointment of the decemviri (q.v. ), and the abo- lition of all the ordinary magistrates, both pa- trician and plebeian. The government by decem- virs, however, lasted only two years ; according to tradition, the occasion of its overthrow was the attempt of the principal decemvir. Appius Claudius (q.v. ) , to seize the daughter of Virginius, a Roman eentiuion : but the real cause was doubtless political, and the result was the res- toration of the predecemviral state of things — the patrician consulate and the plebeian tribunal. (2) ExTEHNAL History. The external history of Rome, from the establishment of the Republic to the abolition of the decemvirate,'is purely military. Long before the close of the regal period the Ro- ' mans had acquired the leadership of Latium, and in all the early wars of the Republic they were assisted by their allies and kinsmen, some- times also by other nations — as, for example, the Hernicans, between whom and the Romans and Latins a league was formed by Spurius Cassius in the beginning of the fifth century B.C. The most important of these wars were those with the southern Etruscans, especially the Veientines, in which, however, the Romans were unsuccessful, and even suffered terrible disasters, of which the legend concerning the destruction of the Fabian gens on the Creniera (B.C. 477) may be taken as a distorted representation; the con- temporaneous wars with the Volscians, in which C'oriolanus is the most distinguished figure; and those with the ^liiqui, to which belongs the legend of Cincinnatus (q.v.). From the Abolition op the Decemvibate to THE Defeat of the Samnites, and the Subju- gation OF All Italy (b.c. 449-265) — (1) Inter- nal History. The leading political features of this period are the equalization of the two orders, and th^ growth of the new aristocracy of capital- ists. After the abolition of the deeemvirate, it would seem that the whole of the plebeian aris- tocracy, senators and capitalists, combined with the 'masses' of their order to make a series of grand attacks on the privileges of the old Roman noblesse. The struggle lasted for 100 years, and ended by the removal of all the social and politi- cal disabilities under which the plebeians had labored. First in B.C. 445, only four years after the fall of the decemvirs, was carried the lex Cnnuleia, by which it was enacted that marriage between a patrician and a plebeian should be le- gally- valid. At the same tiuie a compromise was effected with respect to the consulsliip. Instead of two patrician consuls, it was agreed that the supremo power should be intrusted to new officers termed 'military tribunes with consular power,' wlio might be chosen equally from the patricians or plebeians. Ten years later (B.C. 435) the patricians tried to render the new oHiee of less consequence by the transference of several of the functions hitherto exercised by consuls to two special patrician officers named censors (q.v.). In B.C. 421 the qutestor.ship (see Qu.ESTOR) was thrown open to the plebeians ; in 368 the master- ship of the horse; in 356, the dictatorship (see Dictator) ; in 351, the censorship; in 337, the proctorship (see Pr.etor) ; and in 300, the pon- tifical and augurial colleges. The only effect of these political changes was to increase the power of the rich plebeians ; and consequently, the social distress continued to show itself as before. Efforts were repeatedly made by individuals to remedy the evil, but with- out success. Such were the attempts of the trib- unes Spurius Jlifcilius and Spurius Metilius (B.C. 417) to revive the agrarian law of Spurius Cassius ; and of the patrician Marcus Manlius, who, though he had saved the Capitol during the Gallic siege, was hurled from the Tarpeian Rock ( B.C. 384 ) , on a trumped-up charge of aspiring to the monarchy; but at length (B.C. 307), after a struggle of eleven years, the Licinian rogations (see Agrarian Law and Licinian Rogations) were carried, by means of which it was hoped that an end had been put to the disastrous dis- sensions of the orders. Thus, at least, we inter- pret the act of the dictator Camillus, who erected a temple to the goddess Concordia, at the foot of the Capitol. That these laws operated beneficially on the plebeian farmers or middle class of the Roman State is unquestionable; but events proved that they were inadequate to remedy the evil, and after a time they ceased to be strictly enforced. On the other hand, there can be as little doubt that, owing partly to these changes, and still more to the splendid and fai'-reaching conquests achieved in Italy during this period of internal strife by the Roman arms, the position of the plebeian farmer was decidedly raised, Xot only was the treasury filled liy the revenue drawn di- rectly or indirectly from the subjugated lands, but the numerous colonies w'hich Rome now began to send forth to secure her new acquisitions con- sisted entirely of the poorer plebeians, who always received a portion of the land in the dis- trict where they were settled. The long struggle between the two orders was thus virtually at an end ; but the date usually assigned to the termi- nation of the strife is B.C. 286, when the lex IJor- tensia was passed which confirmed the Publilian laws of 339, and definitely gave to the plcbiseita passed the comitia of the tribes the full power of laws binding on the whole nation. Gradually, however, the importance of the popular assem- blies declined, and that of the senate rose. This was owing mainly to the ever-increasing mag- nitude of the Roman' State, and to the consequent necessity of a powerful governing body. The senate, which originally possessed no adminis' trative power at all. now commenced to extend its functions, so that every matter of general importance — war, peace, alliances, the founding of colonies, the assignation of lands, building, the