the privilege of conferring certificates and degrees having been
allowed only to very few private institutions.
Society.—After 1870 both the aristocracy and the middle classes were divided into hostile factions, each of which maintained a press of its own and rallied round representative individuals. So far as the middle classes were concerned, the common interest of commercial operations soon concentrated political differences. The aristocracy, however, kept rigidly aloof from all speculations for a time, and maintained its traditional attitude of contemptuous superiority, to which the middle class answered with its profound hatred. This state of things lasted about ten years, until the time of the great building speculations, in which a number of noble families were tempted, and in which they soon found themselves hopelessly involved, and brought into close contact with the middle class. The two classes thus became necessary to each other, and the result was a notable and salutary diminution of prejudice, soon leading to alliances by marriage, which would formerly have seemed impossible, but which the redistribution of wealth rendered mutually advantageous. The appearance at social gatherings of an official element, almost exclusively taken from the middle class, also tended to reduce inequalities of caste. Yet it must be admitted that the parties composing Roman society were drawn together mechanically, rather than fused into anything really homogeneous. It is worth mentioning that the Jewish element, which is very strong in business, in journalism, and in the administrations, had made no attempt to enter Roman society. Rome and Genoa are practically the only Italian cities in which Israelites are rigidly excluded from social intimacy, and are only met on official occasions. (M. Cr.)
Ancient History
I. The Beginnings of Rome and the Monarchy.
Both the city and the state of Rome are represented in tradition
as having been gradually formed by the fusion of separate communities.
The original settlement of Romulus is said to have
been limited to the Palatine Mount. With this were united
before the end of his reign the Capitoline and the Quirinal;
Tullus Hostilius added the Caelian, Ancus Martius the Aventine;
and finally Servius Tullius included the Esquiline and Viminal,
and enclosed the whole seven hills with a stone wall. The
growth of the state closely followed that of the city. To the
original Romans on the Palatine were added successively the
Sabine followers of King Tatius, Albans transplanted by Tullus,
Latins by Ancus, and lastly the Etruscan comrades of Caeles
Vibenna. This tradition is supported by other and more
positive evidence. The race of the Luperci on February 15
was in fact a purification of the boundaries of the “ancient
Palatine town,”[1] the “square Rome” of Ennius;[2] and the
course taken is that described by Tacitus as the “pomoerium”
of the city founded by Romulus.[3] On the Esquiline, Varro
mentions an “ancient city” and an “earthen rampart,”[4] and
the festival of the Septimontium is evidence of a union between
this settlement and that on the Palatine.[5] The fusion of these
“Mounts” with a settlement on the Quirinal “Hill” is also
attested by trustworthy evidence;[6] and in particular the line
taken by the procession of the Argei represents the enlarged
boundaries of these united communities.[7] Lastly, the Servian
agger still remains as a witness to the final enclosure of the
various settlements within a single ring-wall. The united community
thus formed was largely of Latin descent. Indications
of this are not, wanting even in the traditions themselves:
King Faunus, who rules the Aborigines on the Palatine, is Latin;
“Latini” is the name ascribed to the united Aborigines and
Trojans; the immediate progenitors of Rome are the Latin
Lavinium and the Latin Alba. Much evidence in the language,
the religion, the institutions and, the civilization of early Rome
points to the same conclusion. The speech of the Romans is
from the first Latin,[8] though showing many traces of contact
with the neighbouring dialects of the Sabines and Volscians and
also of Etruscans; the oldest gods of Rome—Saturn, Jupiter,
Juno, Diana—are all Latin; “rex,” “praetor,”, “dictator,”
“curia,” are Latin titles and institutions.[9] The primitive
settlements, with their earthen ramparts and wooden palisades
planted upon them out of reach both of human foes and of the
malaria of the swampy low grounds, are only typical of the
mode of settlement which the conditions of life dictated throughout
the Latian plain.[10] But tradition insists on the admixture
of at least two non-Latin elements, a Sabine and an Etruscan.
The question as regards the latter will be more fully discussed
hereafter; it is enough to say here that while the evidence of
nomenclature (Schulze, Geschichte der Lat. Eigennamen, Leipzig,
1904, p. 579, with the modifications suggested in the Classical
Review, December 1907) shows that many Etruscan gentes
were settled within the bounds of the early city, there is no
satisfactory evidence that there was any large Etruscan strain
The Sabines
in Rome.
in the Roman blood.[11] With the Sabines it is otherwise.
That union of the Palatine and Quirinal settlements
which constituted so decisive a stage in the growth
of Rome is represented as having been in reality a union
of the original Latins with a band of Sabine invaders who had
seized and held not only the Quirinal Hill, but the northern
and nearest peak of the Capitoline Mount. The tradition was
evidently deeply rooted. The name of the god Quirinus, from
which that of the Quirinal Hill itself presumably sprang, was
popularly connected with the Sabine town of Cures.[12] The
ancient worships connected with it were said to be
Sabine.[13]
One of the three old tribes, the Tities, was believed to represent
the Sabine element;[14] the second and the fourth kings are both
of Sabine descent. By the great majority of modern writers
the substance of the tradition, the fusion of a body of Sabine
invaders with the original Latins, is accepted as historical; and
even Mommsen allowed its possibility, though he threw back
the time of its occurrence to an earlier period than that of the
union of the two settlements.[15] We cannot here enter into the
question at length, but some fairly certain points may be
mentioned. The probability of Sabine raids and a Sabine
settlement, possibly on the Quirinal Hill, in very early times
may be admitted. The incursions of the highland Apennine
tribes into the lowlands fill a large place in early Italian history.
The Latins were said to have originally descended from the
mountain glens near Reate.[16] The invasions of Campania and
of Magna Graecia by Sabine (more correctly Safine) tribes are
matter of history (see Samnites), and the Sabines themselves
are represented as a restless highland people, ever seeking, new
homes in richer lands.[17] In very early days they appear on the
borders of Latium, in close proximity to Rome, and Sabine
forays are familiar and frequent occurrences in the old legends.
But beyond these general considerations recent inquiry enables
us to advance to some few definite conclusions. (1) It may now
be regarded as established beyond question that the patrician
class at Rome sprang from a race other than that of the plebeians.
- ↑ Varro, L.L. vi. 34.
- ↑ Fest. 258; Varro ap. Solinus i. 17.
- ↑ Tac. Ann. xii. 24. For a full discussion of the exact limits of the Palatine city see Smith, Dict. Geog., s.v. “Roma”; Jordan, Topog. d. Stadt Rom, i, cap. 2; Gilbert, Topog. u. Gesch. d. Stadt Rom, i. caps. 1, 2; and “Topography” below.
- ↑ L.L. v. 48; cf. ibid. 50.
- ↑ Festus 348; Jordan i. 199; Gilbert i. 161. The seven “montes” are the Palatine with the Velia and Germalus, the Subura, and the three points of the Esquiline (Fagutal, Oppius and Cispius).
- ↑ See Mommsen, R.G. (7th ed.), i. 51.
- ↑ Varro, L.L. v. 45, vii. 44; Jordan ii. 237.
- ↑ See Latin Language.
- ↑ The title “rex” occurs on inscriptions at Lanuvium, Tusculum, Bovillae; Henzen, Bullettino dell' Inst. (1868), p. 159; Orelli, 2279; Corp. I. Lat. vi. 2125. For “dictator” and “praetor,” see Livy i. 23, , viii. 3; cf. Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung, i. 475; for “curia,” Serv. on Aen. i. 17; Marquardt i. 467.
- ↑ B. Modestov, Introduction à l'histoire romaine (translated from the Russian by M. Delines), Paris, 1907, supersedes other authorities such as Helbig, Die Italiker in d. Poebene; Pohlmann, Anfänge Roms, 40; Abeken, Mittel-Italien, 61 seq.
- ↑ The existence of a Tuscan quarter (Tuscus vicus) in early Rome may point to nothing more than the presence in Rome of Etruscan artisans and craftsmen. But see Etruria, § Language.
- ↑ Varro, L.L. v. 51.
- ↑ Ibid. v. 74; Schwegler i. 248 seq.
- ↑ Ibid. v. 55; Livy i. 13.
- ↑ Mommsen, R.G. i. 43., Schwegler (R.G. i. 478) accepted the tradition of a Sabine settlement on the Quirinal, and considered that in the united state the Sabine element predominated. Volquardsen (Rhein. Mus. xxxiii. 559) believed in a complete Sabine conquest; and so did Zöller (Latium u. Rom, Leipzig, 1878), who, however, placed it after the expulsion of the Tarquins.
- ↑ Cato ap. Dionys. ii. 48, 49.
- ↑ Ibid. ii. 48, 49. For the institution of the “ver sacrum” see Schwegler, Röm. Gesch. i. 240; Nissen, Templum iv.
