No More Learning

These opinions—which were delivered no longer merely by members of the pontifical college, but by every one who found persons to consult him,
at home or in the open market-place, and with which were already associated rational and polemical illustrations and the standing controversies peculiar to jurisprudence—began to
be noted down and to be promulgated in collections about
the beginning of the seventh century. This was done first
by the younger Cato about 600) and by Marcus Brutus 160. (nearly contemporary); and these collections were, as
it
(1'
95. 82.
would appear, arranged in the order of matters. 1 A strictly systematic treatment of the law of the land soon followed. Its founder was the pontzfex maxz'mur Quintus Mucius Scae vola (consul in 659, ‘r 672, (iii, 481, pp. 84, 205), in whose family jurisprudence was, like the supreme priesthood, hereditary. His eighteen books on the [ur Cir/17:, which embraced the positive materials of jurisprudence—legisla tive enactments, judicial precedents, and authorities—partly from the older collections, partly from oral tradition in as
great completeness as possible, formed the starting-point and the model of the detailed systems of Roman law; in like manner his compendious treatise of “Definitions” (5pm) became the basis of juristic summaries and particu larly of the books of Rules. Although this development of law proceeded of course in the main independently of Hellenism, yet an acquaintance with the philosophico practical scheme-making of the Greeks beyond doubt gave a general impulse to the more systematic treatment of juris prudence, as in fact the Greek influence is in the case of the last-mentioned treatise apparent in the very title. We have already remarked that in several more external matters Roman jurisprudence was influenced by the Stoa
202 f).
Art exhibits still less pleasing results. In architecture,
sculpture, and painting there was, no doubt, more and more general diffusion of dilettante interest, but the exercise of native art retrograded rather than advanced. It became more and more customary for those sojourning in Grecian lands personally to inspect the works of art; for which in particular the winter-quarters of Sulla’s army in Asia Minor in 67 0-671 formed an epoch. Connoisseur ship developed itself also in Italy. They had commenced
Cam’: book probably bore the title D: s'urir dircipline (Gell. xiii. 20), that of Brutus the title De iur: civili (Cie. pro Clueni. 5r, I4! D: Oraf. ii. 55. 223) that they were essentially collections of opinions. shown by Cicero (D: Oral. 33, 14a).
256
LITERATURE AND ART B001: rv
84-88.
ii.
;
is ;
1
(p.
a
a
can. :111 LITERATURE AND ART
551
with articles in silver and bronze; about the commence ment of this epoch they began to esteem not merely Greek statues, but also Greek pictures. The first picture publicly exhibited in Rome was the Bacchus of Aristides, which Lucius Mummius withdrew from the sale of the Corinthian spoil, because king Attalus offered as much as 6000 denarii (,52 60) for The buildings became more splendid; and
in particular transmarine, especially Hymettian, marble (Cipollino) came into use for that purpose—the Italian marble quarries were not yet in operation. A magnificent colonnade still admired in the time of the empire, which Quintus Metellus (consul in 611) the conqueror of Mace 1“. donia constructed in the Campus Martius, enclosed the
first marble temple which the capital had seen; was
soon followed by similar structures built on the Capitol
by Scipio Nasica (consul in 616), and near to the Circus 188.
by Gnaeus Octavius (consul in 626). The first private 128.
house adorned with marble columns was that of the orator
Lucius Crassus 663) on the Palatine 184). But 91.
where they could plunder or purchase, instead of creating
for themselves, they did so; was wretched indication
of the poverty of Roman architecture, that already began
to employ the columns of the old Greek temples; the
Roman Capitol, for instance, was embellished by Sulla
with those of the temple of Zeus at Athens. The works,
that were produced in Rome, proceeded from the hands of
foreigners; the few Roman artists of this period, who are
particularly mentioned, are without exception Italian or
transmarine Greeks who had migrated thither. Such was
the case with the architect Hermodorus from the Cyprian
Salamis, who among other works restored the Roman docks
and built for Quintus Metellus (consul in 611) the temple 148.
of Jupiter Stator in the basilica constructed
by him, and
for Decimus Brutus (consul in 616) the temple of Mars in 188.
the Flaminian circus; with the sculptor Pasiteles (about '01. . iv :17
a it
(p.
it
(1'
it
it.
258
LITERATURE AND ART I00! Iv
665) from Magna Graecia, who furnished images of the gods in ivory for Roman temples; and with the painter and philosopher Metrodorus of Athens, who was summoned to paint the pictures for the triumph of Lucius Paullus
167. (587). It is significant that the coins of this epoch exhibit in comparison with those of the previous period a greater
variety of types, but a retrogression rather than an improve ment in the cutting of the dies.
Finally, music and dancing passed over in like manner from Hellas to Rome, solely in order to be there applied to the enhancement of decorative luxury. Such foreign arts were certainly not new in Rome; the state had from olden time allowed Etruscan flute-players and dancers to appear at its festivals, and the freedmen and the lowest class of the Roman people had previously followed this trade. But it was a novelty that Greek dances and musical performances should form the regular accompaniment of a genteel banquet. Another novelty was a dancing-school, such as Scipio Aemilianus full of indignation describes in one of his speeches, in which upwards of five hundred boys and girls—the dregs of the people and the children of magistrates and of dignitaries mixed up together-—re ceived instruction from a ballet-master in far from decorous castanet-dances, in corresponding songs, and in the use of the proscribed Greek stringed instruments. It was a novelty too—not so much that a consular and pontgfex
183. maximur like Publius Scaevola (consul in 621) should catch the balls in the circus as nimbly as he solved the most complicated questions of law at home—as that young Romans of rank should display their jockey-arts before all the people at the festal games of Sulla. The government occasionally attempted to check such practices; as for
115. instance in 639, when all musical instruments, with the exception of the simple flute indigenous in Latium, were prohibited by the censors. But Rome was no Sparta; the
CHAP- xm LITERATURE AND ART
259
lax government by such prohibitions rather drew attention to the evils than attempted to remedy them by a sharp and consistent application of the laws.
in conclusion, we glance back at the picture as wh ale which the literature and art of Italy unfold to our view from the death of Ennius to the beginning of the Ciceronian age, we find in these respects as compared with the preceding epoch most decided decline of productive ness. The higher kinds of literature—such as tragedy, history—have died out or have been arrested in their development. The subordinate kinds—the trans lation and imitation of the intrigue-piece, the farce, the poetical and prose brochure—alone are successful; this last field of literature swept by the full hurricane of revolu tion we meet with the two men of greatest literary talent in
this epoch, Gaius Gracchus and Gaius Lucilius, who stand out amidst number of more or less mediocre writers just as in similar epoch of French literature Courier and Béranger stand out amidst multitude of pretentious nullities. In the plastic and delineative arts likewise the production, always weak, now utterly null. On the other hand the receptive enjoyment of art and literature flourished; as the Epigoni of this period in the political
field gathered in and used up the inheritance that fell to their fathers, we find them this field also as diligent frequenters of plays, as patrons of literature, as connoisseurs and still more as collectors in art. The most honourable aspect of this activity was its learned research, which put forth native intellectual energy, more especially in juris prudence and in linguistic and antiquarian investigation. The foundation of these sciences which properly falls within
the present epoch, and the first small beginnings of an imitation of the Alexandrian hothouse poetry, already herald the approaching epoch of Roman Alexandrinism. All the productions of the present epoch are smoother, more free
epos,
aa
a
is
in a
in
a
If,
a
260 LITERATURE AND ART BOOK W
from faults, more systematic than the creations of the sixth
The literati and the friends of literature of this period not altogether unjustly looked down on their pre decessors as bungling novices : but while they ridiculed or censured the defective labours of these novices, the very men who were the most gifted among them may have confessed to themselves that the season of the nation’s youth was past, and may have ever and anon perhaps felt in the still depths of the heart a secret longing to stray once more in the delightful paths of youthful error.
century.
BOOK FIFTH
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MILITARY MONARCHY
Wie er sich sieht so um und um,
Kehrt es ihm fast den Kopf herum,
Wie er wollt’ Worte zu allem finden?
Wie er möcht’ so viel Schwall verbinden? Wie er möcht’ immer muthig bleiben
So fort und wciter fort zu schreiben?
GOETHE.
CHAPTER I
unxcus minus AND qum'rus szn'romvs
WHEN Sulla died in the year 676, the oligarchy which he 78. ] The had restored ruled with absolute sway over the Roman Oppmmm‘ state; but, as it had been established by force, it still
needed force to maintain its ground against its numerous
secret and open foes. It was opposed not by any single
with objects clearly expressed and under leaders distinctly acknowledged, but by a mass of multifarious elements, ranging themselves doubtless under the general
name of the popular party, but in reality opposing the
Sullan organization of the commonwealth on very various grounds and with very different designs. There were the
men of positive law, who neither mingled in nor understood Iurists. politics, but who detested the arbitrary procedure of Sulla
in dealing with the lives and property of the burgesses.
Even during Sulla’s lifetime, when all other opposition was silent, the strict jurists resisted the regent; the Cornelian laws, for example, which deprived various Italian com munities of the Roman franchise, were treated in judicial decisions as null and void; and in like manner the courts held that, where a burgess had been made a prisoner of war and sold into slavery during the revolution, his franchise
was not forfeited. There was, further, the remnant of the Aristocrat!
party
old liberal minority in the senate, which 'in former times had laboured to effect a compromise with the reform party
'0
364
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK V
and the Italians, and was now in a similar spirit inclined
to modify the rigidly oligarchic constitution of Sulla by Democrats. concessions to the Populares. There were, moreover, the
Trans padanes.
89.
Freedmen.
Capitalists.
Roletarl nns of the spiral.
Populares strictly so called, the honestly credulous narrow minded radicals, who staked property and life for the current watchwords of the party-programme, only to dis cover with painful surprise after the victory that they had been fighting not for a reality, but for a phrase. Their special aim was to re-establish the tribunician power, which Sulla had not abolished but had divested of its most essential prerogatives, and which exercised over the multi tude a charm all the more mysterious, because the institution had no obvious practical use and was in fact an empty phantom-—the mere name of tribune of the people, more than a thousand years later, revolutionized Rome.
There were, above all, the numerous and important classes whom the Sullan restoration had left unsatisfied, or whose political or private interests it had directly injured. Among those who for such reasons belonged to the opposi- tion ranked the dense and prosperous population of the region between the Po and the Alps, which naturally re garded the bestowal of Latin rights in 66 5 (iii. 5I7, 527) as merely an instalment of the full Roman franchise, and so afforded a ready soil for agitation. To this category be longed also the freedmen, influential in numbers and wealth, and specially dangerous through their aggregation in the capital, who could not brook their having been reduced by the restoration to their earlier, practically useless, suffrage. In the same position stood, moreover, the great capitalists, who maintained a cautious silence, but still as before preserved their tenacity of resentment and their equal tenacity of power. The populace of the capital, which recognized true freedom in free bread-corn, was likewise discontented. Still deeper exasperation prevailed among the burgess-bodies affected by the Sullan confiscations—
CHAP- ! QUINTUS SERTORIUS 265
whether they, like those of Pompeii, lived on their property The dis curtailed by the Sullan colonists, within the same ring-wall possessed. with the latter, and at perpetual variance with them; or,
like the Arretines and Volaterrans, retained actual posses
sion of their territory, but had the Damocles’ sword of confiscation suspended over them by the Roman people; or, as was the case in Etruria especially, were reduced to be beggars in their former abodes, or robbers in the woods. Finally, the agitation extended to the whole family con nections and freedmen of those democratic chiefs who had lost their lives in consequence of the restoration, or who were wandering along the Mauretanian coasts, or sojourning at the court and in the army of Mithradates, in all the misery of emigrant exile; for, according to the strict family associations that governed the political feeling of this age, it was accounted a point of honour1 that those who were left behind should endeavour to procure for exiled relatives the privilege of returning to their native land, and, in the case of the dead, at least a removal of the stigma attaching to their memory and to their children, and a restitution to
the latter of their paternal estate. ‘ More especially the immediate children of the proscribed, whom the regent had reduced in point of law to political Pariahs 102), had thereby virtually received from the law itself summons to rise in rebellion against the existing order of things.
The proscribed and their adherents.
To all these sections of the opposition there was added Men d the whole body of men of ruined fortunes. All the rabble ruined
fortunfl high and ‘ow, whose means and substance had been spent
refined or in vulgar debauchery; the aristocratic lords, who had no tarther mark of quality than their debts; the Sullan troopers whom the regent’s fiat could transform into landholders but not into husbandmen, and who, after
It a significant trait, that a distinguished teacher of literature, the freedman Staberius Eros, allowed the children of the proscribed to attend his course gratuitously
1 is
in
a (p.
Men of ambition.
266 MARCUS LEPIDUS AND 1100! ! v
squandering the first inheritance of the proscribed, were longing to succeed to a second—all these waited only the unfolding of the banner which invited them to fight against the existing order of things, whatever else might be inscribed on it. Froma like necessity all the aspiring men of talent, in search of popularity, attached themselves to the opposi tion ; not only those to whom the strictly closed circle of the Optimates denied admission or at least opportunities for rapid promotion, and who therefore attempted to force their way into the phalanx and to break through the laws of oligarchic exclusiveness and seniority by means of popular favour, but also the more dangerous men, whose ambition aimed at something higher than helping to determine the destinies of the world within the sphere of collegiate intrigues. On the advocates’ platform in par ticular—the only field of legal opposition left open by Sulla—even in the regent’s lifetime such aspirants waged lively war against the restoration with the weapons of formal jurisprudence and combative oratory: for instance, the adroit speaker Marcus Tullius Cicero (born 3rd Janu
Power of the opposi tion.
Such was the sort of opposition with which the oligarchic
106. ary 648), son of a landholder of Arpinum, speedily made himself a name by the mingled caution and boldness of his opposition to the dictator. Such efforts were not of much importance, if the opponent desired nothing farther than by their means to procure for himself a curule chair, and then to sit in it in contentment for the rest of his life. No doubt, if this chair should not satisfy a popular man and Gaius Gracchus should find a successor, a struggle for life or death was inevitable; but for the present at least no name could be mentioned, the bearer of which had pro posed to himself any such lofty aim.
instituted by Sulla had to contend, when it had, earlier than Sulla himself probably expected, been thrown by his death on its own resources. The task wal
government
can. )
a'
QUINTUS SERTORIUS 267
in itself far from easy, and it was rendered more difficult by the other social and political evils of this age—especially by the extraordinary double difficulty of keeping the military chiefs in the provinces in subjection to the supreme civil magistracy, and of. dealing with the masses'of the Italian and extra-Italian populace accumulating in the capital, and
of the slaves living there to a great extent in d: fado freedom, without having troops at disposal. The senate was placed, as it were, in a fortress exposed and threatened on all sides, and serious conflicts could not fail to ensue. But the means of resistance organized by Sulla were con siderable and lasting; and, although the majority of the nation was manifestly disinclined to the government which Sulla had installed, and even animated by hostile feelings towards that government might very well maintain itself for long time in its stronghold against the distracted and confused mass of an opposition which was not agreed either as to end or means, and, having no head, was broken up
into hundred fragments. Only was necessary that should be determined to maintain its position, and should bring at least spark of that energy, which had built the fortress, to its defence; for in the case of garrison which will not defend itself, the greatest master of fortification constructs his walls and moats in vain.
The more everything ultimately depended on the
Want of leaders.
was not till this epoch that they became all-powerful, for was only now (first in 690) that their influence was H.
attested rather than checked legal measures ofrepression.
of the leading men on both sides, was the
more unfortunate that both, strictly speaking, lacked leaders. The politics of this period were thoroughly under Coterie the sway of the coterie-system in its worst form. This, system. indeed, was nothing new; close unions of families and
clubs were inseparable from an aristocratic organization of
the state, and had for centuries prevailed in Rome. But
personality
by
it it
it
a
it a
a a
it
it,
268 MARCUS LEI’IDUS AND BOOK 7
All persons of quality, those of popular leanings no less than the oligarchy proper, met in Hetaeriae ; the mass of the burgesses likewise, so far as they took any regular part in political events at all, formed according to their voting districts close unions with an almost military organization, which found their natural captains and agents in the presidents of the districts, “tribe-distributors”
(dz'vzkorer With these political clubs everything was bought
tn'buum).
and sold; the vote of the elector especially, but also the
votes of the senator and the judge, the fists too which pro duced the street riot, and the ringleaders who directed it— the associations of the upper and of the lower ranks were distinguished merely in the matter of tariff. The Hetaeria decided the elections, the Hetaeria decreed the impeach ments, the Hetaeria conducted the defence ; it secured the distinguished advocate, and in case of need it contracted for an acquittal with one of the speculators who pursued on a great scale lucrative dealings in judges’ votes. The
Hetaeria commanded by its compact bands the streets of the capital, and with the capital but too often the state. All these things were done in accordance with a certain rule, and, so to speak, publicly; the system of Hetaeriae was better organized and managed than any branch of state administration ; although there was, as is usual among civilized swindlers, a tacit understanding that there should be no direct mention of the nefarious proceedings, nobody made a secret of them, and advocates of repute were not ashamed to give open and intelligible hints of their relation to the Hetaeriae of their clients. If an individual was to be found here or there who kept aloof from such doings and yet did not forgo public life, he was assuredly, like Marcus Cato, a political Don Quixote. Parties and party— strife were superseded by the clubs and their rivalry;
was superseded by intrigue. A more than character, Publius Cethegus, formerly one of the
government equivocal
‘\;—'-\\
cruiP. l QUINTUS SERTORIUS 269
most zealous Marians, afterwards as a deserter received into favour by Sulla (p. 78), acted a most influential part in the political doings of this period-—unrivalled as a cunning tale-bearer and mediator between the sections of the senate, and as having a statesman’s acquaintance with the secrets of all cabals: at times the appointment to the most im portant posts of command was decided by a word from his mistress Praecia. Such a plight was only possible where none of the men taking part in politics rose above medio crity: any man of more than ordinary talent would have swept away this system of factions like cobwebs ; but there was in reality the saddest lack of men of political or military capacity.
Of the older generation the civil wars had left not a single man of repute except the old shrewd and eloquent Lucius Philippus (consul in 663), who, formerly of popular 91. leanings (iii. 38o), thereafter leader of the capitalist party against the senate (iii. 484), and closely associated with
the Marians (p. 70), and lastly passing over to the victorious oligarchy in sufficient time to earn thanks and commendation 78), had managed to escape between
the parties. Among the men of the following generation
the most notable chiefs of the pure aristocracy were Quintus Metellus Pius (consul 674), Sulla’s comrade in dangers
and victories; Quintus Lutatius Catulus, consul in the
year of Sulla’s death, 676, the son of the victor of Ver
cellae and two younger officers, the brothers Lucius and Marcus Lucullus, of whom the former had fought with distinction under Sulla in Asia, the latter in Italy; not to ‘mention Optimates like Quintus Hortensius (640-704), 114-50
who had importance only as pleader, or men like Decimus Junius Brutus (consul in 677), Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus 77
Livianus (consul in 67 and other such nullities, whose 77. best quality was euphonious aristocratic name. But even those four men rose little above the average calibre of the
Phflippul.
Metellus Catulus,
Luculll. 80.
78.
a
(p. in
7),
a
;
:70
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
Optimates of this age. Catulus was like his father a man of refined culture and an honest aristocrat, but of moderate talents and, in particular, no soldier. Metellus was not merely estimable in his personal character, but an able and experienced oflicer ; and it was not so much on account of his close relations as a kinsman and colleague with the regent as because of his recognized ability that he was sent
19. in 67 5, after resigning the consulship, to Spain, where the
Lusitanians and the Roman emigrants under
Sertorius were bestirring themselves afresh. The two Luculli were also capable officers—particularly the elder, who combined very respectable military talents with thorough literary culture and leanings to authorship, and appeared honourable also as a man. But, as statesmen, even these better aristocrats were not much less remiss and shortsighted than the average senators of the time. In presence of an outward foe the more eminent among them, doubtless,
proved themselves useful and brave; but no one of them evinced the desire or the skill to solve the problems of politics proper, and to guide the vessel of the state through the stormy sea of intrigues and factions as a true pilot. Their political wisdom was limited to a sincere belief in the oligarchy as the sole means of salvation, and to a cordial hatred and courageous execration of demagogism as well as of every individual authority which sought to emancipate itself. Their petty ambition was contented with little. The stories told of Metellus in Spain—that he not only allowed himself to be delighted with the far from harmonious lyre of the Spanish occasional poets, but even I wherever he went had himself received like a god with libations of wine and odours of incense, and at table had
his head crowned by descending Victories amidst theatrical thunder with the golden laurel of the conqueror—are no better attested than most historical anecdotes; but even such gossip reflects the degenerate ambition of the genera
Quintus
can. I QUINTUS SERTORIUS z7t
tions of Epigoni. Even the better men were content when they had gained not power and influence, but the consul ship and a triumph and a place of honour in the senate; and at the very time when with right ambition they would have just begun to be truly useful to their country and their party, they retired from the political stage to be lost in princely luxury. Men like Metellus and Lucius Lucullus were, even as generals, not more attentive to the enlarge
ment of the Roman dominion by fresh conquests of kings and peoples than to the enlargement of the endless game, poultry, and dessert lists of Roman gastronomy by new delicacies from Africa and Asia Minor, and they wasted the best part of their lives in more or less ingenious idle ness. The traditional aptitude and the individual self denial, on which all oligarchic government is based, were lost in the decayed and artificially restored Roman aristo cracy of this age; in its judgment universally the spirit of clique was accounted as patriotism, vanity as ambition, and narrow-mindedness as consistency. Had the Sullan con
stitution passed into the guardianship of men such as have sat in the Roman College of Cardinals or the Venetian Council of Ten, we cannot tell whether the opposition would have been able to shake it so soon; with such de fend rs every attack involved, at all events, a serious peril.
f the men, who were neither unconditional adherents Pompeius. nor open opponents of the Sullan constitution, no one
attracted more the eyes of the multitude than the young
Gnaeus Pompeius, who was at the time of Sulla’s death twenty-eight years of age,. (born 29th September 648). 106. The fact was a misfortune for the admired as well as for
the admirers; but it was natural. Sound in body and mind, a capable athlete, who even when a superior oflicer vied with his soldiers in leaping, running, and lifting, a
and skilled rider and fencer, a bold leader of volunteer bands, the youth had become imperator and
vigorous
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND 800! v triumphator at an age which excluded him from every
272
magistracy and from the senate, and had
acquired the
firstplace nextutowwg§pll‘awgln'flblic opinion; nay, had ob tained from the indulgent regent himself—half in recogni
tion, half in irony—the surname of the Great. Unhappily, his mental endowml'e“nt'smbymrresponded with these unprecedented successes. flelainwejthgavbmor an incapable man, but a man thoroughly ordinary, created by nature to be a good sergeant, called by circumstances to be a general and a statesman. An intelligent, brave and experienced, thoroughly excellent soldier, he was still, even in his military capacity, without traceaufmany higher gifts. It was characteristic of him as a general, as we as in other respects, to set to work with a caution bordering on timidity, and, if possible, to give the decisive
blow only when he had established. an
over his opponent. His culture was the average culture of the time; although entirely a soldier, he did not neglect, when he went to Rhodes, dutifully to admire, and to make presents to, the rhetoricians there. His integrity was that of a rich man who manages with discretion his considerable property inherited and acquired. He did not disdain to make money in the usual senatorial way, but hemgw cold and too rich to incur special risks, or draw down on himself conspicuous disgrace, on that account. The vice l0 much in vogue among his contemporaries, rather than any virtue of his own, procured for him the reputation comparatively, no doubt, well warranted—of integrity and disinterestedness. His honest countenance” became almost proverbial, and even after'hisnd'e'atlithemwgsfitggngd vas worthy and moral man he was in fact good neigh
bour, who did not join in the revolting schemes by which the grandees of that age extended the bounds of their domains through forced sales or measures still worse at the expense of their humbler neighbours, and in domestic
a
v‘‘ 5
a
can. I QUINTUS SERTORIUS :73
life he displayed attachment to his wife and children: it
redounds moreover to his credit that he was ’tliigfiiirsgfito
magmas www.
depart from the bgrbarous custom of ppuittiiig’to ‘death the
of the enemy,vafter they had been exhibited in triumph. But this did not prevent him
beloved wife at the command pf
because she belonged to an outlawed'family, nornfr'oin ordering with great composure
that men wligwhad stoodby him and helped him in times of‘di-fh“cfvu-it'ywshggld be. executed before his eyes at the nod
qf tlié'salns ‘Bests! (o 9s)= hcwasxwt 231. 161, thaqgb be was reproached with being so, but—what perhaps was
worser-hslwasicjiléafiljngoéd as ‘in evil, unimpassioned.
In the tumult of battle he facedwthmfieefirlgmymtlemalleisly; in civillife he was a shy man, whose cheek flushed on the
slightest occasion; he spoke in public not without embar
rassment, and generally was angular, stifl‘, and awkward
in intercourse. Wgt' b all his haughtxpbstinacy he
indeed persons ordinarily are, who make a display of their iiidéperidé’r'ic’él-'a pliant tool in the hands” of men who knew how tomanag'c him‘f'é'éfiééiany of his freedmen . and clientsfby‘whpgi hehad. no fear. . of being controlled. For nothing was he less Qualified than for a statesman. Uncer tain as rb'h'is'aiiiié,“ unskilfulmirihevchoice of his means, alike invlittle and greatmatters shortsighted and helpless, he was ‘$011: to ‘conceal his irresolution and indecision under; a solemnmsilence, ‘and, when he thought to play a subtle g'ahiefsimply to deceive himself with the belief that he was deceiving others. By his military position and his territorial connections he acquired almost without any action of his own am considerable party personally
tojiyl withsvzfiishgthsu :éitestthinss might have been
iccomplished J'wgbw\v1vtwliompeiuswwas in every respect incap able of leading and keeping together a party, and, if it still kept together, it did so—in like manner without his action
' VOL IV :18
hishlord and master Sulla,
devoted
274
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
—through the sheer force of circumstances. In this, as in other things, he reminds us of Marius; but Marius, with his nature of boorish roughness and sensuous passion, was still less intolerable than this most tiresome and most starched of all artificial great men. His political position was utterly perverse. He was a Sullan officenand under
obligation to stand up for the restoredconstitiitipmiiiyet again in opposition to Sulla personally as well asgtvo the
whole senatorial government. The genrfofwthg ,Bgmpgji,
which had only been named for spume sixtywygavrsu in the
consular lists, had by no means acquired full standingjn
the ‘53%;?
the aristocracy; even the father of thislfgmpgius
had‘occupied a very invidious equivocal positioaatowards
the senate (iii. 546, p. 61), and he himself had onceggegn ihwtqhgnranks of the Cinnans 85)-—recollect' us which
were suppressed perhaps, but not forgotten. “The promi nent position which Pompeius acquired for himself under Sulla set him at inward variance with the aristocracy, quite as much as brought him into outward connection with itmeak-headed as he was, Pompeius was seized with giddiness on the height of glory which he had climbed with such dangerous rapidity and ease. Just as he would himself ridicule his dry prosaic nature by the parallel with the most poetical of all heroic figures, he began to compare himself with Alexander the Great, and to account himself man of unique standing, whom did not beseem to be merely one of the five hundred senators of Rome: In reality, no one was more fitted to take his place as member of an aristocratic government than Pompeius. His dignified outward appearance, his solemn formality, his personal bravery, his decorous private life, his want of all initiative might have gained for him, had he been born two hundred years earlier, an honourable place the side of Quintus Maximus and Publius Decius: this mediocrity, so characteristic of the genuine Optimate and the genuine
by
a
a
it
if
it
(p.
can). I QUINTUS SERTORIUS 275
Roman, contributed not a little to the elective aflinity which subsisted at all times between Pompeius and the mass of the burgesses and the senate. Even in his own age he would have had a clearly defined and respectable
position, had he contented himself with being the general of the senate, for which he was from the outset destined. With
this he was not content, and so he fell into the fatal plight of wishing to be something else than he could be. He was constantly aspiring to a special position in the state, and, when it offered itself, he could not make up his mind to occupy it; he was deeply indignant when persons and laws did not bend unconditionally before him, and yet he everywhere bore himself with no mere affectation of modesty as one of many peers, and trembled at the mere thought of undertaking anything unconstitutional. Thus constantly at fundamental variance with, and yet at the same time the obedient servant of, the oligarchy, constantly tormented by an ambition which was frightened at its own aims, his much-agitated life passed joylessly away in a per petual inward contradiction.
Marcus Crassus cannot, any more than Pompeius, be Crassus reckoned among the unconditional adherents of the oli
garchy. He is a personage highly characteristic of this epoch.
Like Pompeius, whose senior he was by a few years, he belonged to the circle of the high Roman aristocracy, had obtained the usual education befitting his rank, and had
like Pompeius fought with distinction under Sulla in the Italian war. Far inferior to many of his peers in mental gifts, literary culture, and military talent, he outstripped them by his boundless activity, and by the perseverance with which he strove to possess everything and to become all-important. Above all, he threw himself into specula tion. Purchases of estates during the revolution formed the foundation of his wealth ; but he disdained no branch of gain; he carried on the business of building in the
his colleagues
account.
He was far from nice in the matter of making On occasion of the Sullan proscriptions a forgery
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND I00! V
on a great scale and with prudence; he entered
376
Rome, in person or by his agents; he advanced money to
capital
into partnership
undertakings; he acted as banker both in and out of
with his freedmen in the most varied
in the senate, and undertook—as it might happen—to execute works or to bribe the tribunals on their
profit.
in the lists had been proved against him, for which reason
Sulla made no more use of him thenceforward in the affairs
he did not refuse to accept an inheritance, because the testamentary document which contained his name was notoriously forged; he made no objection, when his bailifl‘s by force or by fraud dislodged the petty holders
of state:
his own. He avoided open collisions, however, with criminal justice, and lived himself like a genuine moneyed man in homely and simple style. In this way Crassus rose in the course of a few years from
a man of ordinary senatorial fortune to be the master of wealth which not long before his death, after defraying
from lands which adjoined
enormous
extraordinary expenses, sesterces (£r,7oo,ooo).
still amounted to He had become the
170,000,000
richest of Romans and thereby, at the same time, a great
If, according to his expression, no one might call himself rich who could not maintain an army from his revenues, one who could do this was hardly any
longer a mere citizen. In reality the views of Crassus aimed at a higher object than the possession of the best
political power.
in Rome. He grudged no pains to
filled money-chest
extend his connections.
every burgess of the capital.
his assistance in court. Nature, indeed, had not done
much for him as an orator: his speaking was dry, his delivery monotonous, he had difficulty of hearing; but his tenacity of purpose, which no wearisomeness deterred and
He knew how to salute by name He refused to no suppliant
can. t QUINTUS SERTORIUS 277
no enjoyment distracted, overcame such obstacles. He never appeared unprepared, he never extemporized, and so he became a pleader at all times in request and at all times ready; to whom it was no derogation that a cause was rarely too bad for him, and that he knew how to influence the judges not merely by his oratory, but also by his connections and, on occasion, by his gold. Half the senate was in debt to him; his habit of advancing to “friends” money without interest revocable at pleasure rendered a number of influential men dependent on him, and the more so that, like a genuine man of business, he made no distinction among the parties, maintained connec tions on all hands, and readily lent to every one who was able to pay or otherwise useful. The most daring party leaders, who made their attacks recklessly in all directions, were careful not to quarrel with Crassus; he was compared to the bull of the herd, whom it was advisable for none to provoke. That such a man, so disposed and so situated, could not strive after humble aims is clear; and, in a very different way from Pompeius, Crassus knew exactly like a banker the objects and the means of political speculation. From the origin of Rome capital was a political power
there; the age was of such a sort, that everything seemed accessible to gold as to iron. If in the time of revolution a capitalist aristocracy might have thought of overthrowing the oligarchy of the gem’er, a man like Crassus might raise
his eyes higher than to the farm‘ and embroidered mantle of the triumphators. For the moment he was a Sullan and adherent of the senate; but he was too much of a financier to devote himself to a definite political party, or to pursue aught else than his personal advantage. Why should Crassus, the wealthiest and most intriguing man in Rome, and no penurious miser but a speculator on the greatest scale, not speculate also on the crown? Alone,
he could not attain this object; but he had
perhaps,
Leaders
of the democrats.
already carried out various great transactions in partner ship; it was not impossible that for this also a suitable partner might present himself. It is a trait characteristic of the time, that a mediocre orator and oflicer, a politician who took his activity for energy and his covetousness for ambition, one who at bottom had nothing but a colossal fortune and the mercantile talent of forming connections— that such a man, relying on the omnipotence of coteries and intrigues, could deem himself on a level with the first generals and statesmen of his day, and could contend with them for the highest prize which allures political ambition.
In the opposition proper, both among the liberal con servatives and among the Populares, the storms of revolu tion had made fearful havoc. Among the former, the only
278
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
124-78. surviving man of note was Gaius Cotta (630-0. 681), the 91. friend and ally of Drusus, and as such banished in 663 (iii. 503), and then by Sulla’s victory brought back to his native land 112) he was shrewd man and a capable advocate, but not called, either by the weight of his party
62.
or by that of his personal standing, to act more than a respectable secondary part. In the democratic party, among the rising youth, Gaius Julius Caesar, who was
102. twenty-four years of age (born I2 July 52 ? 1), drew
100. It usual to set down the year 54 as that of Caesar's birth, because according to Suetonius (Cacr. 88), Plutarch (Cuer. 69), and Anpian (5. 6‘. 44. ii. 149) he was at his death March 710) in his 56th year with which also the statement that he was 18 years old at the time of the Sullan
82. prescription (672; Vell. ii. 4r) nearly accords. But this view utterly 65. inconsistent with the facts that Caesar filled the aedileship in 689, the 59. praetorship in 692, and the consulship in 695, and that these ofiices could,
according to the lager annular, be held at the very earliest in the 37th-38th, 4oth-4rst, and 43rd-44th years of a man's life respectively. We cannot conceive why Caesar should have filled all the curule ofl‘ices two years before the legal time, and still less why there should be no mention any where of his having done so. These facts rather suggest the conjecture
100. that, as his birthday fell undoubtedly on July 12, he was born not in 654,
102. 82.
but in 652 so that in 672 he was in his 2oth-zrst year, and he died not in his 56th year, but at the age of 57 years months. In favour of this latter view we may moreover adduce the circumstance, which has been
8
;
is
(I 5
1 is
6
a
6 ;
(p. ;
cHAr. ! QUINTUS SERTORIUS 279
towards him the eyes of friend and foe. His relationship with Marius and Cinna (his father’s sister had been the wife of Marius, he himself had married Cinna’s daughter); the courageous refusal of the youth who had scarce out grown the age of boyhood to send a divorce to his young wife Cornelia at the bidding of the dictator, as Pompeius had in the like case done; his bold persistence in the
conferred upon him by Marius, but revoked by Sulla; his wanderings during the proscription with which he was threatened, and which was with difficulty averted by the intercession of his relatives; his bravery in the conflicts before Mytilene and in Cilicia, a bravery which no one had expected from the tenderly reared and almost effeminately foppish boy; even the warnings of Sulla regarding the “boy in the petticoat ” in whom more than a
strangely brought forward in opposition to that Caesar "pane M"
was appointed by Marius and Cinna as Flamen of Jupiter (Vell. ii. 43);
for Marius died in January 668, when Caesar was, according to the usual 86. view, 13 years months old, and therefore not "almost," as Velleius
says, but actually still a boy, and most probably for this very reason not
at all capable of holding such a priesthood. If, again, he was born in
July 652, he was at the death of Marius in his sixteenth year and with 102. this the expression in Velleius agrees, as well as the general rule that
civil positions were not assumed before the expiry of the age of boyhood. Further, with this latter view alone accords the fact that the d:narii struck by Caesar about the outbreak of the civil war are marked with the number LIL, probably the year of his life; for when began, Caesar's
age was according to this view somewhat over 52 years. Nor so
rash as appears to us who are accustomed to regular and official lists of births, to charge our authorities with an error in this respect. Those four statements may very well be all traceable to common source nor can
they at all lay claim to any very high credibility, seeing that for the ealier period before the commencement of the Mid diuma the statements
as to the natal years of even the best known and most prominent Romans,
e. g. as to that of Pompeius, vary in the most surprising manner. (Comp. SIaaIsrec/zt, I. ‘ p. 570. )
In the Life of Caesar by Napoleon III.
this view, first, that the [ex annalir would point for Caesar’s birth-year
not to 652, but to 651; secondly and especially, that other cases are 102. known where was not attended to. But the first assertion rests on a mistake; for, as the example of Cicero shows, the lax annalir required
only that at the entering on oflice the 43rd year should be begun, not that
should be completed. None of the alleged exceptions to the rule, more over, are pertinent. When Tacitus (Ann. xi. 22) says that formerly in conferring magistracies no regard we: had to age, and that the wnaulate
priesthood
(B.
2, ch. objected to
I‘
it
it
1) it is
it
a
it,
;
it
is it
;
6
280 MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
Marius lay concealed—all these were precisely so many recommendations in the eyes of the democratic party. But Caesar could only be the object of hopes for the future; and the men who from their age and their public position would have been called now to seize the reins of
the party and the state, were all dead or in exile.
Thus the leadership of the democracy, in the absence
of a man with a true vocation for was to be had by any one who might please to give himself forth as the champion of oppressed popular freedom and in this way came to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Sullan, who from motives more than ambiguous deserted to the camp of the demo cracy. Once zealous Optimate, and large purchaser at the auctions of the proscribed estates, he had, as
of Sicily, so scandalously plundered the province
and dictatorship were entrusted to quite young men, he has in view, of course, as all commentators acknowledge, the earlier period before the issuing of the legrr annular-the consulship of M. Valerius Corvus at twenty-three, and similar cases. The assertion that Lucullus received the supreme magistraey before the legal age erroneous; only stated
(Cicero, And. pr. that on the ground of an exceptional clause not more particularly known to us, in reward for some sort of act performed by him, he had a dispensation from the legal two years’ interval between the aedileship and praetorship-in reality he was aedile in 675, probably praetor in 677, consul in 680. That the case of Pompeius was a totally
the same thing should have been done with Caesar on his candidature for the minor magistracies, when he was of little more importance than other political beginners; and would be‘ possible, more surprising still, that, while there mention of that—in itself readily understood—excep tion, there should be no notice of this more than strange deviation, how ever naturally such notices would have suggested themselves, especially with reference to Octavianus consul at 21 (comp. , e. g. , Appian, iii. 88). When from these irrelevant examples the inference drawn, "that the lawwas little observed in Rome, where distinguished men were concerned,"
anything more erroneous than this sentence was never uttered regarding Rome and the Romans. The greatness of the Roman commonwealth. and not less that of its grmt generals and statesmen, depends above all things on the fact that the law held good in their case also.
governor
different one obvious: but even as to Pompeius,
occasions expressly stated (Cicero, de Imp. Porn). 21, 62
that the senate released him from the laws as to age.
have been done with Pompeius, who had solicited the consulship as a. cornmander-in-chief crowned with victory and a triumphator, at the head of an army and after his coalition with Crassus also of a powerful party, we can readily conceive. But would be in the highest degree surprising,
on several Appian, iii. 88) That this should
is
it
it
if
if
is
is i. a
; it is
it is
it
I)
is
it,
a
a
;
CHAP. I QUINTUS SERTORIUS 28!
that he was threatened with impeachment, and, to evade threw himself into opposition. It was gain of doubtful
value. No doubt the opposition thus acquired well known name, man of quality, vehement orator in the Forum; but Lepidus was an insignificant and indiscreet personage, who did not deserve to stand‘ at the head either
in council or in the field. Nevertheless the opposition welcomed him, and the new leader of the democrats succeeded not only in deterring his accusers from prose cuting the attack on him which they had begun, but also
in carrying his election to the consulship for 676 in which, 78. we may add, he was helped not only by the treasures exacted in Sicily, but also by the foolish endeavour of Pompeius to show Sulla and the pure Sullans on this occasion what he could do. Now that the opposition had,
on the death of Sulla, found head once more in Lepidus, and now that this their leader had become the supreme magistrate of the state, the speedy outbreak of new revolution in the capital might with certainty be foreseen.
But even before the democrats moved in the capital,
the democratic emigrants had again bestirred themselves in emigrants in Spain.
Spain. The soul of this movement was Quintus Sertorius. Sertorius. This excellent man, native of Nursia in the Sabine land,
was from the first of tender and even soft organization
as his almost enthusiastic love for his mother, Raia, shows
—and at the same time of the most chivalrous bravery, as was proved by the honourable scars which he brought home from the Cimbrian, Spanish, and Italian wars. Although wholly untrained as an orator, he excited the admiration of learned advocates the natural flow and the striking self-possession of his address. His remarkable
military and statesmanly talent had found opportunity of shining by contrast, more particularly in the revolutionary war which the democrats so wretchedly and stupidly mis managed; he was confessedly the only democratic oflicer
by
aa
a
a
a
;
a
a
it,
a
Renewed outbreak
enrrectlon
282
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK V
who knew how to prepare and to conduct war, and the only democratic statesman who opposed the insensate and
of his party with statesmanlike energy. soldiers called him the new Hannibal, and not merely because he had, like that hero, lost an eye in war. He in reality reminds us of the great Phoenician by cunning and courageous strategy, by his rare talent of organizing war by means of war, by his adroitness
furious doings His Spanish
his equally
nations to his interest and making them serviceable to his ends, by his prudence in success and misfortune, by the quickness of his ingenuity in turning
to good account his victories and averting the consequences of his defeats. It may be doubted whether any Roman statesman of the earlier period, or of the present, can be
in attracting foreign
in point of versatile talent to Sertorius. After
compared
Sulla’s generals had compelled him to quit Spain (p. 93), he had led a restless life of adventure along the Spanish and African coasts, sometimes in league, sometimes at war, with the Cilician pirates who haunted these seas, and with the chieftains of the roving tribes of Libya. The victorious
Roman restoration had pursued
he was besieging Tingis (Tangiers),
ciaecus from Roman Africa had come to the help of the prince of the town; but Pacciaecus was totally defeated, and Tingis was taken by Sertorius. On the report of such achievements by the. Roman refugee spreading abroad, the
their pretended sub mission to the Roman supremacy, practically maintained
Lusitanians, who, notwithstanding
their independence, and annually fought with the governors
sent envoys to Sertorius in Africa, to invite him to join them, and to commit to him the com
mand of their militia.
Sertorius, who twenty years before had served under
Titus Didius in Spain and knew the resources of the land,
of Further Spain,
of the with the invitation, and, leaving behind Spnishln- resolved to comply
him even thither: when
a corps under Pac
CHAP- t QUINTUS SERTORIUS 283
a small detachment on the Mauretanian coast, embarked for Spain (about 674). The straits separating Spain and Africa 80. were occupied by a Roman squadron commanded by Cotta ;
to steal through it was impossible; so Sertorius fought
his way through and succeeded in reaching the Lusitanians. There were not more than twenty Lusitanian communities that placed themselves under his orders; and even of
“ Romans ” he mustered only 2600 men, a considerable part of whom were deserters from the army of Pacciaecus
or Africans armed after the Roman style. Sertorius saw that everything depended on his associating with the loose
a strong nucleus of troops possessing Roman organization and discipline: for this end he reinforced the
band which he had brought with him by levying
infantry and 700 cavalry, and with this one legion and the swarms of Spanish volunteers advanced against the Romans.
The command in Further Spain was held by Lucius Fufidius,
who through his absolute devotion to Sulla—well tried
amidst the proscriptions—had risen from a subaltern to be propraetor; he was totally defeated on the Baetis; 2ooo Romans covered the field of battle. Messengers in all
haste summoned the governor of the adjoining province of
the Ebro, Marcus Domitius Calvinus, to check the farther advance of the Sertorians ; and there soon appeared (67 5) 79, also the experienced general Quintus Metellus, sent by Metellus Sulla to relieve the incapable Fufidius in southern Spain.
But they did not succeed in mastering the revolt. In the
Ebro province not only was the army of Calvinus destroyed
and he himself slain by the lieutenant of Sertorius, the quaestor Lucius Hirtuleius, but Lucius Manlius, the governor
of Transalpine Gaul, who had crossed the Pyrenees with
three legions to the help of his colleague, was totally defeated by the same brave leader. With difliculty Manlius escaped with a few men to Ilerda (Lerida) and thence to
his province, losing on the march his whole baggage through
guerilla-bands
4000
tions of Sertorius.
234
MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
a sudden attack of the Aquitanian tribes. In Further Spain Metellus penetrated into the Lusitanian territory ; but Sertorius succeeded during the siege of Longobriga (not far from the mouth of the Tagus)v. in alluring a division under Aquinus into an ambush, and thereby compelling Metellus
himself to raise the siege and to evacuate the Lusitanian territory. Sertorius followed him, defeated on the Anas
the corps of Thorius, and inflicted vast damage by guerilla warfare on the army of the commander-in-chief himself. Metellus, a methodical and somewhat clumsy tactician, was in despair as to this opponent, who obstinately declined a decisive battle, but cut off his supplies and com munications and constantly hovered round him on all sides.
These extraordinary successes obtained by Sertorius in the two Spanish provinces were the more significant, that they were not achieved merely by arms and were not of a mere military nature. The emigrants as such were not formidable; nor were isolated successes of the Lusitanians under this or that foreign leader of much moment. But with the most decided political and patriotic tact Sertorius acted, whenever he could do so, not as condottiere of the Lusitanians in revolt against Rome, but as Roman general and governor of Spain, in which capacity he had in fact been sent thither . by the former rulers. He began 1 to form the heads of the
(Guadiana)
into a senate, which was to increase to members and to conduct affairs and to nominate magistrates in Roman form. He regarded his army as a Roman one, and filled the officers’ posts, without exception, with Romans. When facing the Spaniards, he was the governor, who by virtue of his office levied troops and other support from them; but he was a governor who, instead of exercising the usual despotic sway, endeavoured to attach the pro
emigration
300
1 At least the outline of these organlmtions must be assigned to the 80, 79, 78. years 674, 67 5, 676, although the execution of them doubtless belonged,
in great part, only to the subsequent years.
‘I’
CRAP. I QUINTUS SERTORIUS 285
vincials to Rome and to himself personally. His chivalrous character rendered it easy for him to enter into Spanish habits, and excited in the Spanish nobility the most ardent enthusiasm for the wonderful foreigner who had a spirit so kindred with their own. According to the warlike custom of personal following which subsisted in Spain as among the Celts and the Germans, thousands of the noblest Spaniards swore to stand faithfully by their Roman general unto death; and in them Sertorius found more trustworthy comrades than in his countrymen and party-associates. He did not disdain to turn to account the superstition of the ruder Spanish tribes, and to have his plans of war brought to him as commands of Diana by the white fawn of the goddess. Throughout he exercised a just and gentle rule.
His troops, at least so far as his eye and his arm reached, had to maintain the strictest discipline. Gentle as he generally was in punishing, he showed himself inexorable when any outrage was perpetrated by his soldiers on friendly soil. Nor was he inattentive to the permanent alleviation of the condition of the provincials; he reduced the tribute, and directed the soldiers to construct winter barracks for themselves, so that the oppressive burden of quartering the
‘ troops was done away and thus a source of unspeakable mischief and annoyance was stopped. For the children of Spaniards of quality an academy was erected at Osca (Huesca), in which they received the higher instruction usual in Rome, learning to speak Latin and Greek, and to wear the toga—a remarkable‘ measure, which was by no means designed merely to take from the allies in as gentle a form as possible the hostages that in Spain were inevitable, but was above all an emanation from, and an advance on, the great project of Gaius Gracchus and the democratic party for gradually Romanizing the provinces. It was the first attempt to accomplish their Romanization not by
extirpating
the old inhabitants and filling their places with
286 MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
Italian emigrants, but by Romanizing the provincials them selves. The Optimates in Rome sneered at the wretched emigrant, the runaway from the Italian army, the last of the robber-band of Carbo ; the sorry taunt recoiled upon its authors. The masses that had been brought into the field against Sertorius were reckoned, including the Spanish general levy, at 120,000 infantry, 2000 archers and slingers, and 6000 cavalry. Against this enormous superiority of force Sertorius had not only held his ground in a series of successful conflicts and victories, but had also reduced the greater part of Spain under his power. In the Further province Metellus found himself confined to the districts immediately occupied by his troops; here all the tribes, who could, had taken the side of Sertorius. In the Hither province, after the victories of Hirtuleius, there no longer existed a Roman army. Emissaries of Sertorius roamed
the whole territory of Gaul; there, too, the tribes began to stir, and bands gathering together began to make the Alpine passes insecure. Lastly the sea too belonged quite as much to the insurgents as to the legitimate govern ment, since the allies of the former—the pirates—were almost as powerful in the Spanish waters as the Roman ‘ships of war. At the promontory of Diana (now Denia, between Valencia and Alicante) Sertorius established for the corsairs a fixed station, where they partly lay in wait for such Roman ships as were conveying supplies to the Roman maritime towns and the army, partly carried away or delivered goods for the insurgents, and partly formed their medium of intercourse with Italy and Asia Minor. The constant readiness of these men moving to and fro to carry everywhere sparks from the scene of conflagration tended
in a high degree to excite apprehension, especially at a time when so much combustible matter was everywhere accumulated in the Roman empire.
Amidst this state of matters the sudden death of Sulla
through
CHAP- l QUINTUS SERTORIUS 287
took place (676). So long as the man lived, at whose Death [1: voice a trained and trustworthy army of veterans was ready
any moment to rise, the oligarchy might tolerate the conse almost (as it seemed) definite abandonment of the Spanish quences' provinces to the emigrants, and the election of the leader
of the opposition at home to be supreme magistrate, at all events as transient misfortunes; and in their shortsighted way, yet not wholly without reason, might cherish con fidenoe either that the opposition would not venture to proceed to open conflict, or that, if it did venture, he who
had twice saved the oligarchy would set it up a third time. Now the state of things was changed. The democratic Hotspurs in the capital, long impatient of the endless delay and inflamed by the brilliant news from Spain, urged that a blow should be struck; and Lepidus, with whom the decision for the moment lay, entered into the proposal with all the zeal of a renegade and with his own character istic frivolity. For a moment it seemed as if the torch which kindled the funeral pile of the regent would also kindle civil war; but the influence of Pompeius and the
temper of the Sullan veterans induced the opposition to let the obsequies of the regent pass over in peace.
Yet all the more openly were arrangements thenceforth
made to introduce a fresh revolution. Daily the Forum 32,31; resounded with accusations against the “mock Romulus”
and his executioners. Even before the great potentate
had closed his eyes, the overthrow of the Sullan constitu
tion, the re-establishment of the distributions of grain, the reinstating of the tribunes of the people in their former position, the recall of those who were banished contrary to
law, the restoration of the confiscated lands, were openly
indicated by Lepidus and his adherents as the objects at which they aimed. Now communications were entered into with the proscribed; Marcus Perpenna, governor of Sicily in the days of Cinna 92), arrived in the capital.
Insurrec
(p.
288 MARCUS LEPIDUS AND BOOK v
The sons of those whom Sulla had declared guilty of treason*on whom the laws of the restoration bore with intolerable severity—and generally the more noted men of Marian views were invited to give their accession. Not a few, such as the young Lucius Cinna, joined the move ment; others, however, followed the example of Gaius Caesar, who had returned home from Asia on receiving the accounts of the death of Sulla and of the plans of Lepidus, but after becoming more accurately acquainted with the character of the leader and of the movement prudently withdrew. Carousing and recruiting went on in behalf of Lepidus in the taverns and brothels of the capital. At length a conspiracy against the new order of things was concocted among the Etruscan malcontents.