IX. the most convenient way of keeping the populace in good CHAP. humour, and opposing those reformers who advocated the restoration of a free peasantry by means of assignments of land on a large scale. At the close of the Hannibalian war there was the best opportunity, and at the same time the most urgent necessity, for a radical agrarian reform. Great tracts of land in Italy were deserted, while thousands of people were impoverished and without employment. It was possible and even easy to remedy both evils at once, and to spread over Italy a free and vigorous population, such as had existed at the beginning of the war. If this was now neglected, a future revolution and the fall of the republic became inevitable. enrich ment of the That it was neglected was the fault of the nobility. A Lawless few colonies, it is true, were founded, and a certain number of veterans received grants of land. But these measures Roman were not carried out in the spirit of the Flaminian distri- nobility. bution of lands in Picenum.' The estates of the nobility grew larger, and slaves took the place of a free peasantry. The Licinian law, restricting the right of inclosure and of using the common pasture-a law which had always been infringed more or less-now became gradually obsolete. By degrees these various causes brought about that state of things which two generations later converted the Gracchi into demagogues, and which, after the failure of reform, led to the establishment of the monarchy. The course which the development of the Roman state thus took, can be ascribed neither to particular men nor to a particular class. It was the necessary consequence of the fundamental form of the political and social institutions of Rome. The growth of the republic involved the emancipation of the ruling class from all public control. derance of the senate. The periodical admission of all citizens to the public Preponoffices, which constitutes the real essence of republican freedom and equality, was naturally checked by the supremacy of one city over great districts; while the inequality in the division of wealth, which impoverished and 1 See above, p. 126. BOOK cowed the mass of the sovereign people, raised the ruling classes above the authority of the laws. At the time of the Hannibalian war this process was completed, and the theory of the constitution no longer agreed with the practice. The senate had ceased to be merely a deliberative body, and the people had only a nominal control of the legislative and executive power. The senate reigned exactly as a sovereign reigns in a state which has only a sham constitution. The officers of the state were its submissive servants, and the people were used as a tool to give the stamp of legality to the edicts of the senate. The ruling nobility was fully developed. The government was in the hands of a small number of noble families, to which it was all but impossible to gain admission. During the whole course of the Hannibalian war we find no instance of a new man' having been chosen for any high republican office. The names of the Cornelii, Valerii, Fabii, Sempronii, Servilii, Atilii, Emilii, Claudii, Fulvii, Sulpicii, Livii, Cæcilii, Licinii fill the consular fasti of the period. Even the most brilliant personal merit no longer sufficed to admit a man who was not a member of the nobility to the higher offices of state. The knight L. Marcius, who after the fall of Cn. and Publius Scipio, had saved the remainder of the Roman army in Spain, and had afterwards been employed by the younger Scipio in the most important operations of the war, was shut out, in spite of his merits, from all high office, because he was not of noble descent,' and this was at a time when military ability was more important than any other. Even Lælius, Scipio's staunch friend and confidant, obtained admittance to the high offices of state with great difficulty, after he had failed in his first candidature for the consulship, in spite of the intercession of his powerful friends (192 B.C.). This jealousy of the nobility with regard to interlopers was by no means due only to ambition and to a desire to serve the 1 Livy, xxviii. 42: ‘Dux tumultuarius ille L. Marcius militari suffragio ad tempus lectus, ceterum si nobilitas ac justi honores adornarent claris imperatoribus qualibet arte belli par.' state. The extension of the Roman republic had rendered the honorary public offices sources of profit to their holders to an extent which the old patricians had never anticipated when they consented to share them with their plebeian rivals. There can be no doubt that it was even then chiefly the prospect of pecuniary profit that increased the obstinacy of the conflict for the possession of office. But in the olden time religious conservatism, and the fear of the profanation of the auspices by the plebeians, had also exercised a considerable influence. Now there was no longer any pretext for religious scruples, and the families that were once in office excluded all outsiders chiefly because they did not feel inclined to share the booty with them. CHAP. IX. One of the most effectual means of excluding new Modes of candidates was the burden laid on the ædiles, who were now courting popularity. required to furnish in part the cost of the public games. At first the state had borne the expenses, and these had remained within reasonable limits. But when the passion for public amusements increased, whilst at the same time the conduct of the wars and the administration of the provinces brought immense wealth to the noble houses, the younger members of the nobility used this wealth to win popularity for themselves, by increasing the splendour and prolonging the duration of the games at their own expense, and thus acquiring a claim to the consulship and proconsulship, and the means of enriching themselves.' There is no economy more pernicious or more costly than that of paying the public servants badly or not at all. The consequence is that they indemnify themselves, and that they cease to consider fraud, theft, and robbery as serious crimes. Thus the political life of Rome moved continually in a narrowing and destructive circle, and approached more 1 Polybius (x. 5) says of Scipio Africanus: vñáрxwv EVEрYETIKds Kal μεγαλόδωρος καὶ προσφιλής κατὰ τὴν ἀπάντησιν συνελογίσατο τὴν τοῦ Theous πρòs abтòv etvolav. Livy (xxv. 2) says of his ædileship: Ædilicia largitio hæc fuit: ludi Romani pro temporis illius copiis magnifice facti, et diem unum instaurati et congii olei in vicos singulos dati.'-Compare Weissenborn's note. BOOK Growing preponderance of the nobility. and more to the fatal catastrophe. Corruption led to office and to wealth, and this wealth again made corruption possible. The calculating avarice of the great, and the venality of the impoverished mass, were both engaged in bringing about the ruin of the state, at first timidly and on a small scale, but with constantly increasing boldness and recklessness. Even in the Hannibalian war we find traces of that cynical spirit which a dominant party does not exhibit until it has lost both the fear of rivalry and the fear of disgrace. It was even then not customary to measure by the same standard the crimes of the nobility and those of the common people. Whilst the soldiers who fled at Cannæ were punished with the greatest severity and condemned to serve in Sicily without pay, the young nobles, who had certainly not behaved with exceptional gallantry, had risen step by step to the highest offices of the republic. Cn. Cornelius Lentulus had been military tribune in the battle, and had escaped through the fleetness of his horse: he became quæstor in the year 212, then curule ædile, and at last even consul in 201. P. Sempronius Tuditanus, who had also been military tribune at Cannæ, became curule ædile in 214, prætor in 211, censor in 209, proconsul in 205, and consul in 204. Q. Fabius Maximus, the son of the celebrated Cunctator, was in a similar position; he became successively curule ædile, prætor, and consul. Even L. Cæcilius Metellus, who was said to have formed the plan of leaving Italy after the battle of Cannæ, and was therefore the object of violent attacks from those who, like Scipio and Tuditanus, claimed for themselves the credit of greater bravery, became, after his return, quæstor and tribune of the people. But, above all others, P. Cornelius Scipio himself, the conqueror of Zama, was, in spite of his flight at Cannæ, loaded with honours and distinctions. It would surely have been natural if the really ill-treated soldiers of Cannæ had, in the prayer for justice which they addressed to Marcellus, made use of the words put into their mouth by Livy: We have heard that our comrades in misfortune in that defeat, who were then our legionary tribunes, are now candidates for honours, and gain them. Will you then pardon yourselves and your sons, Conscript Fathers, and only vent your rage against men of lower station? Is it no disgrace for the consul and the other members of the nobility to take to flight when no other hope is left? and have you sent us alone into battle for certain death?' If this contemptuous and overbearing spirit of the nobility had been general at that time, the Roman people would certainly not have borne the struggle with Carthage as bravely and as successfully as they did. But these instances of political degeneracy were as yet isolated. In the year 212, for instance, the nobility did not dare to protect the incapable prætor Cn. Fulvius Flaccus, who had lost the second battle of Herdonea, from an accusation and from condemnation, after the fugitive troops had been punished by being sent to serve in Sicily. In spite of the intercession of his brother Quintus, who had already been three times consul, and who was at that moment besieging Capua as proconsul, a capital charge was brought against him, and he escaped the sentence only by going, as a voluntary exile, to Tarquinii. CHAP. IX. growth of In spite therefore of some marks of decay already Rapid visible in the political and social life of Rome, the period of Roman the Hannibalian war was still the zenith of the republican power. constitution and the heroic age of the Roman people. From this time conquest followed upon conquest with surprising rapidity. Within two generations Rome had attained an undisputed sovereignty over all countries 1 Livy, xxvi. 2. In a similar manner, the tribune of the people C. Sempronius Blæsus expresses himself in the impeachment of Cn. Fulvius Flaccus, who had been disgracefully beaten by Hannibal, and whose men were treated just like the fugitive legions of Cannæ. Cn. Fulvio fugam ex prælio ipsius temeritate commisso impunitam esse, et eum in ganea lustrisque, ubi iuventam egerit, senectutem acturum; milites qui nihil aliud peccaverint, quam quod imperatoris similes fuerint, relegatos prope in exilium ignominiosam pati militiam adeo imparim libertatem Rome diti ac pauper, honorato atque inhonorato esse.' 2 Livy, xxvi. 2-4. |