ROMAN EMPIRE

The traditional date for the foundation of Rome is 753 B.C. The chief facts narrated of the regal period 750-510 B.C. are these: Romulus (753-715) made the sacred trench, the Pomoertum, round the Palatine Hill, built the wall within it, and established an ‘asylum’ for outlaws on the Capitoline Hill, where he allowed the Sabines to settle and amalgamate with the Romans. Romulus is said to have divided the citizens into three tribes, subdivided {nto ten curiae or wards, and to have organized the Senate. His succe or, the the traditional founder of all the religious observances of Rome, except the cult of Vesta, which goes back to the remotest Lat. antiquity. Numa organized the worship of Quirinus, Mars, and Jupiter. troying Alba Longa, allowed its inhabitants to settle on the Celian Hill and become the first members of the plebeian order so important in Roman history. was Numa, established the inhabitants of defeated Lat. cities on the Aventine Hill, made a fort on the Janiculan Hill, the first bridge over the Tiber (the Pons Sublicius), and the port of Rome, Ostia. Priscus (616-578) probably represents a foreign dynasty thrust on the Romans after subjugation by their Etruscan neighbors; to his reign is due the first great engineering work of Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the marsh where the Forum lay. To him are also attributed the Great Circus and Ludi, and the addition of the patres minorum gentium to the Senate, His slave, Servius Tullius (578-535), who succeeded, surrounded the Seven Hills with a wall, accompanied in certain parts by entrenchments, divided the people into six cla es (subdivided into centuriae) acc or to their wealth, the city into Tour regiones, added country tribes to the city tribes, and organized taxation, military service, and voting. The beginnings of plebian uprising are to be traced to this reign. Lucius Tarquinius Superb us (534-510), the last king, built the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, so called, legend said, because a newly decapitated man’s head was found there—a symbol that Rome was to be head of the world. He extended the power of Rome in Latium, but was @ cruel tyrant. After the rape of} Lucrece by his son Sextus the house of Tarquin was expelled. The Roman people at the commencement of this period were arranged in gentes or clans, composed of families (familiae) all supposed to be related and bearing the same name. The paterfamilias, with his formidable patria potestas, was the unit of Roman life; the of the families of the original gentes formed the original patricians, their descendants, the great Patrician Order; gentes formed later consisted of the Plebs (originally ‘the many’), who po e ed no political rights until they won them under the early republic. The gentes were gathered in wards (curiae, with a meeting-house, curia, and a priestly official, the curio or flamen curvalis), the wards into twenty-one (afterwards thirty-five) tribes. There were originally the three tribes of A popular a embly, the | comiva curtata, a embled in the comitium, the Lower House; by it, and by the Servian institution, the comitia centu riata of the Campus Mar it i us, the populus expre ed its will. The Upper House, the Senatus (originally composed of senes, old men, the heads of the famuliae), was said to have received its final complement of 300 sena to res—all patriwas also known as the Conscript Fathers. The senate solemnly conferred the sole executive power of the state on the king and afterwards on the consuls. The kingship, elective, conferred the powers of punishment and death, symbolized by the fasces or rods and axes borne before the Roman ruler by twelve lictors. The king (or the ¢tnter-rez) appointed his succe or. The revolution of 509 was in many ways conservative: the two consuls exercised the regal power in secular matters, the inter-rez was still appointed, and the chief religious official who performed the regal priestly functions, was called rex sacrorum. The power of the consuls was limited by their veto on each other’s actions when in Rome (dom i), by the moral weight of the senate which made the government virtually aristocratic, and the fact of only holding office for one year. times of crisis the consular power was suspended and a Dictator appointed for six months; unlike the consuls, the breik pine had axes in his fasces in Rome Patricians and Plebeians.—For over two centuries the history of Rome is chiefly the struggle of the patrician and plebeian orders. The year of the expulsion of the kings was that of the 2 ex de Provocatione, 509, forcing the magistrates to consult the comitia putting a citizen to death. Poverty and the custom by which the debtor became the slave (nerus or addict us) of his creditor led in 494 to the sece ion of the plebeians to the Mons Sacer, where they threatened to establish an independent city. They are said to have been persuaded to return by Agrippa’s parable of the quarrel between the belly and the members. By the Lex Sacrata, however, they obtained some alleviation of their misery and the right to appoint annually tribuni pleb is, originally two, finally ten, in number, with power to protect members of their order against any one but a dictator, and the presidency of the plebeian a emblies, who pa ed pleb is cit a at first only binding on themselves. Their persons were sacrosanct, and any one opposing them dis infer is deditus. By the Lez Publilia of 471 the method of electing the tribunes and the two ediles who took charge of the pleb is cit a was settled. bly, received by the Leges ValeriaeHoratiae of 499 equal legislative rights with the comiiita centu riata, the decisions of which were the regular leges. The decemvirt legibus scribundis drew up, in 451-450, the Twelve Tables of the Roman law, thus abolishing a great having been previously a mystery only to known by patricians. The Lex Canuleia, 445, legalized, for the first time, marriage between patricians and plebeians; it was wrung from the patricians by a plebeian sece ion to the Janiculan Hill. When in 445 the plebs secured the appointment of tribunt cians commenced to make the chief offices le important, some of the most important consular functions being transferred to censores. The questorship was opened to plebeians in 421, which meant that they could be senators; and in 367, after a period of bitter social discontent, the military tribunes were abolished and, by the Licinian Rogations, one consul must be a plebeian; the consul’s judicial functions were given to a patrician praetor, but this office was shortly afterwards opened to were appointed. In 339 a plebeian dictator pa ed the JLeges Publiliae, by which one censor must be a plebeian, and pleb is cit a were made binding on all. After the 4th sece ion the Lex Hortensta 287, gave plebisciéa the full authority of leg is. The Lex Ogulnia 300, removed the last disability, admitting plebeians to the colleges of pas and augures. Expansion of Rome.—By this time Roman power had extended considerably beyond the Seven Hills; indeed, foreign warfare was one of the causes of the rise of the plebs. The Etruscans, whose rule. final decline in this century, Etruria being planted with Roman colonies. The great Gallic invasion and sack of Rome, 390, followed, and marvelous legends were handed down of the succe ful defense of the Capitol. The three 290, in which occurred the disaster of the Caudine Forks, 321, left Rome supreme in Camp an i a, Etruria, Apulia, and Lucania. Magna Grecia, led by Pyrrhus, was subjugated (some of its cities voluntarily entered the Roman alliance) by 272 and planted by Roman colonies, With the destruction of Volsinii in 265 the whole peninsula was united under Roman rule, and Rome began almost immediately to acquire an empire overseas. The three Punic Wars (264-241, 218201, 149-146), in which a foreign foe was again at the walls of Rome, resulted in the formation of the Roman provinces of Sicily, 261; Corsica, 227; Hither and Further Spain, 197; and Africa, 146. The three Maced on i an wars ended in Macedonia being formed into a province, 147, and the di olution of the Achzan League, every Gr. city being made directly dependent on Rome. The province of Asia was formed in 133. The Gauls between the Alps and Appennines and the Ligurians between that district and Spain were subjugated, and the provinces of Gallia Cisalpina, 181, and Gallia Narbonensis, 121, established (see GAUL). During these wars, despite the theoretical supremacy of the populus, the senate, the only permanent body of experienced administrators, had become supreme in the state, and a new close order, the nobilitas, had taken the place lost by the patricians; this ‘senatorial order’ was a prominent factor in Roman society until the pa ing of the republic. The equites, who exercised the busine of tax-farmers (public an i), though forbidden the senatorial order, constituted an extremely wealthy middle cla , and as provincial administrators members of the senatorial order ama ed fortunes from the spoils of war and extortion. Italy, however, which had been devastated by Hannibal, lost its yeomanry in foreign conquest, and was reduced to a great state of wretchedne by the slump in the market through the immense quantities of foreign corn brought to the Tiber; ploughing was no longer profitable, and wealthy cultivators began the course elsewhere attended with such suffering to the peasantry—the turning of arable land into large sheep farms. The result was the effort of the | Gracchi to obtain agrarian reform, their defiance of the senate, and murder (131 and 121 respectively). The conduct of the senate in this affair, its misrule of the provinces and weakne and corruption in the Jurgurthine war, 111-106, destroyed the prestige it had hitherto po e ed. The plebeian Marius, who had at last captured Jugurtha, prepared the people’s minds for the superse ion of the senate by an autocratic ruler. After the revolt of Bome’s Ital. allies (sociz) and the Social War (90-88), which resulted in all Italy S. of the Po receiving the Roman] franchise, internal politics became of chief importance. Marius’ and Sulla’s rivalry for the command against Mithridates VI., who overran and sought to acquire the Roman province of Asia, led to Sulla’s march with his army on Rome in 87. He then went eastwards and won brilliant victories against Mithridates, while Marius returned, ma acred his opponents, and became consul, 86, but soon died. Sulla returned, fought his way to Rome, ‘proscribed’ the Marians, and as dictator, 81-79, pa ed many antidemocratic measures. After his death, in 78, Pompeius came to the front. Pompeius made a great name in the East, helped to subdue Spartacus, and put down the pirates of the Mediterranean; in his absencs3 the Catilinian conspiracy had been disclosed, and the warring parties all welcomed the succe ful general, who celebrated a unique triumph, 60. ‘Czesar returned from Spain, covered with honor, in 60, and the First Triumvirate was formed, between Pompeius, Cesar, and Cra us (see Cesar, Garus JuLius). Pompeius never showed much gift for politics, and his star at once paled before that of Cesar, who became consul, 59, and inaugurated agrarian and other reforms. From 58-51 Ozsar carried out his Gallic campaigns, and invaded Britain, leaving Pompeius a free hand in Rome, where in 52 he was sole consul for six months, to restore order; but as Pompeius grew ever more _ jealous, Cesar had cause to fear that he would be impeached on his return home. As|ed he could not be impeached before laying down his imperium (military command), he transgre ed the laws of Rome by cro ing the Rubicon, Jan. 49 without doing so. Pompeius and the consuls fled to Greece, and Cesar triumphantly entered Rome. After five more years of warfare (Pompeius being finally defeated near harsalus in 48), Ca ar was a a inated, _ As dictator for nearly the whole period of his rule, Ceesar restored order at home, subdued Pontus, Egypt, Africa,’ and Spain, and received the title of ‘am per at or,’ or autocrat, a rank le in kind in Rome than that of king. The suggestion of coronation led to his murder by the republicans in 44. The triumvirate of Cesar’s heir, Oct avian us, Marcus Antonius, and Lepidus, was victorious over the republicans at Philippi, 42, and the subsequent quarrel of Oct avian us and Antonius ended _ in the former’s victory at Actium, 31. The triumvirate had, however, done its work in the proscription of all prominent Principate and Empire (27 B.C.- already accustomed the Roman populace to his rule, receiving from 36. onwards the sacrosanctity of the tribunate, and he carefully restored republican forms, reversing the acts of the triumvirate. He was granted proconsul are wmpervum throughout his rule, and as an honorary distinction the titles August us and princeps senatus. He reformed the provincial, army, and home administrations. Unfortunately his corn doles and other devices for contenting the city plebs ended in the demoralization complained of by Juvenal, the sole demand for ‘bread and public displays’ (ganem et cir censes). He added provinces to the empire and created a new imperial feeling. His succe ors made his purely republican titles symbols of more than royal power, and the rulers of his house, Claudius (41-54), and Nero (54-68), left names which have become almost synonymous with luxury and vice, no doubt exaggerated by the Christians, whom they persecuted; and by the republicans, who continued to cherish anti-monarchical feeling. They fully maintained Rome’s power abroad, but tyranny at home led to Nero’s a a ination in 68. Claudius was the first Roman ruler to be proclaimed by the preetorians. - After the deposition oi the Julian line the soldiery took the chief part in the election of emperors. Among the more famous emperors wh. succeeded may be mentioned Trajan (98-117), who extend the frontier to the Tigris; Hadrian, 117-38), who withdrew to the Euphrates, but held his restricted territory with a firm hand; Ant on in us Pius (139-61), who, like Hadrian, made a wall in Britain; and the Stoic Marcus Aurelius (161-80), who allowed Ger. tribes to settle in the empire. The ‘decline’ then started—Alenanni, Franks, and Goths taking up their abode within the frontiers in the middle of the 8rd cent. They were driven back for a while by the 305), whose reign is known as the ‘Era of the Martyrs.’ Diocietian reorganized the empire in 285, dividing the command between himself, another August us, and two Caesares, with respective head, quarters at Nicomedia, Milan, Trevesand Sirmium, not Rome, Const an tine the Great, who made Christianity the state religion, made Byzantium the capital of the whole empire, 330. ‘The system of division into Western and Eastern Empire (see Byzant ins Emprre) originated in 334, and was fixed in 364. Julian] the Apostate, 360-3, restored pagansim, but Christianity was replaced after his death. Val ent in i an, 364-75, and Valens, 364-78, had to face bar bar jan inroads on every frontier, and were distracted by the quarrels of A than as i ans and Arians. Theodosius, 378-95, who temporarily united the empire, suppre ed the latter. R. was sacked, 410, by Alaric the Visigoth during the rule of Honor i us, 395-423, when Britain was lost to the empire, 407, and Goths and Franks settled in Gaul, Vandals in Spain. Under Val ent in i an ITI. (423-55) the Vandals conquered Africa; in 451 the Huns under Attila were defeated at Chalons—one of the decisive battles of the world; but in 455, after Val ent in i an’s murder, Rome was sacked by the Vandal Genseric. The Visigoths then took po e ion of what remained of western empire, and after for a while appointing the emperors, deposed Romulus ‘August ulus’ in 476, and established Odoacer as King of Italy, nominally va al of the Byzantine emperor. For the later history of Rome, see under ITaty. Law.—In their system of civil law the Romans have supplied the civilized world with a model for its codes (the term civil law in England means Roman law), a legal terminology, and an inexhaustible mine of principles which are the direct source of much of the law of modern Europe. A notion of a law of nations (Gus gentium) entered the minds of Roman jurists. The history of Roman law fascinates, because one can watch its gradual development for a you sand years from the times of patriarchal Rome to the Emperor Just in i an, who reduced and arranged the unwieldy ma of legislation, decisions, and commentaries.