Manilius
Torquatus,
Valerius Corvus, and Scipio Æmilianus.
Valerius Corvus, and Scipio Æmilianus.
Napoleon - History of Julius Caesar - a
28.
--Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 16. )
[47] Titus Livius speaks only of a hundred and ninety-two centuries;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reckons a hundred and ninety-three. “In the
Roman plebs, the poorest citizens, those who reported to the census not
more than fifteen hundred _ases_, were called _proletarii_; those who
were not worth more than three hundred and seventy-five _ases_, and who
thus possessed hardly anything, were called _capite censi_. Now, the
fortune and patrimony of the citizen being for the State a sort of
guarantee, the pledge and foundation of his love for his country, the
men of the two last classes were only enrolled in case of extreme
danger. Yet the position of the _proletarii_ was a little more
honourable than that of the _capite censi_; in times of difficulty, when
there was want of young men, they were incorporated in the
hastily-formed militia, and equipped at the cost of the State; their
name contained no allusion to the mere poll-tax to which they were
subjected; less humiliating, it reminded one only of their destination
to give children to their country. The scantiness of their patrimony
preventing them from contributing to the aid of the State, they at least
contributed to the population of the city. ” (Aulus Gellius, XVI. 10. )
[48] “Tarquinius Priscus afterwards gave to the knights the organisation
which they have preserved to the present time. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 20. )
[49] “It is said that the number of citizens inscribed under this title
was 80,000. Fabius Pictor, the most ancient of our historians, adds that
this number only includes the citizens in condition to bear arms. ”
(Titus Livius, I. 44. )
[50] The different censuses of the people furnished by the ancient
historians have been explained in different manners. Did the numbers
given designate all the citizens, or only the heads of families, or
those who had attained the age of puberty? In my opinion, these numbers
in Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch, applied to all the
men in a condition to carry arms, that is, according to the organisation
of Servius Tullius, to those from seventeen to sixty years old. This
category formed, in fact, the true Roman citizens. Under seventeen, they
were too young to count in the State; above sixty, they were too old.
We know that the aged sexagenarians were called _depontani_, because
they were forbidden the bridges over which they must go to the place of
voting. (Festus, under the word _sexagenarius_, p. 834. --Cicero, _Pro S.
Roscio Amerino_, 35. )
80,000 men in condition to carry arms represent, according to the
statistics of the present time, fifty-five hundredths of the male part
of the population, say 145,000 men, and for the two sexes, supposing
them equal in number, 290,000 souls. In fact, in France, in a hundred
inhabitants, there are 35 who have not passed the age of seventeen, 55
aged from seventeen to sixty years, and 10 of more than sixty.
In support of the above calculation, Dionysius of Halicarnassus relates
that in the year 247 of Rome a subscription was made in honour of
Horatius Cocles: 300,000 persons, men and women, gave the value of what
each might expend in one day for his food. (V. 25. )
As to the number of slaves, we find in another passage of Dionysius of
Halicarnassus (IX. 25) that the women, children, slaves, merchants, and
artisans amounted to a number triple of that of the citizens.
If, then, the number of citizens in condition to carry arms was 80,000,
and the rest of the population equalled three times that number, we
should have for the total 4 x 80,000 = 320,000 souls. And, subtracting
from this number the 290,000 obtained above, there would remain 30,000
for the slaves and artisans.
Whatever proportion we admit between these two last classes, the result
will be that the slaves were at that period not numerous.
[51] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 9, 23.
[52] “Within the town, the buildings were not allowed to approach the
ramparts, which they now ordinarily touch, and outside a space extended
which it was forbidden to cultivate. To all this space, which it was not
permitted to inhabit or cultivate, the Romans gave the name of
_Pomœrium_. When, in consequence of the increase of the town, the
rampart was carried farther out, this consecrated zone on each side was
still preserved. ” (Titus Livius, I. 44. )
[53] “Founded on the testimony of the sacred books which are preserved
with great care in the temples. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 62. )
[54] “These precious pledges, which they regard as so many images of the
gods. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 45. )
[55] “Hence is explained the origin of the name given to the Capitol: in
digging the foundation of the temple, they found a human head; and the
augurs declared that Rome would become the head of all Italy. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 61. )
[56] “This recourse to the opinions of the priests and the observations
of religious worship made the people forget their habits of violence and
their taste for arms. Their minds, incessantly occupied with religious
ideas, acknowledged the intervention of Providence in human affairs, and
all hearts were penetrated with a piety so lively that good faith and
fidelity to an oath reigned in Rome more than fear of laws or
punishments. ” (Titus Livius, I. 21. )
[57] Titus Livius, I. 45.
[58] “Assemblies of people, levies of troops--indeed, the most important
operations--were abandoned, if the birds did not approve them. ” (Titus
Livius, I. 36. )
[59] “Numa established also the auspicious and inauspicious days, for
with the people an adjournment might sometimes be useful. ” (Titus
Livius, I. 19. )
[60] “We have a town, founded on the faith of auspices and auguries; not
a spot within these walls which is not full of gods and their
worshippers; our solemn sacrifices have their days fixed as well as the
place where they are to be made. ” (Titus Livius, V. 52, _Speech of
Camillus_, VI. &c. )
[61] Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 14.
[62] “All religious acts, public and private, were submitted to the
decision of the pontiff; thus the people knew to whom to address
themselves, and disorders were prevented which might have brought into
religion the neglect of the national rites or the introduction of
foreign ones. It was the same pontiff’s duty also to regulate what
concerned funerals, and the means of appeasing the Manes, and to
distinguish, among prodigies announced by thunder and other phenomena,
those which required an expiation. ” (Titus Livius, I. 20. )
[63] “The grand pontiff exercises the functions of interpreter and
diviner, or rather of hierophant. He not only presides at the public
sacrifices, but he also inspects those which are made in private, and
takes care that the ordinances of religious worship are not
transgressed. Lastly, it is he who teaches what each individual ought to
do to honour the gods and to appease them. ” (Plutarch, _Numa_, 12. )
[64] “Numa divided the year into twelve months, according to the moon’s
courses; he added January and February to the year. ” (Titus Livius, I.
19. --Plutarch, _Numa_, 18. )
[65] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 73.
[66] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 64.
[67] Salian is derived from _salire_ (to leap, to dance). (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, II. 70. )--It was their duty, on certain occasions, to
execute sacred dances, and to chant hymns in honour of the god of war.
[68] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72. --“The name of _feciales_ is
derived from the circumstance that they presided over the public faith
between peoples; for it was by their intervention that war when
undertaken assumed the character of a just war, and, that once
terminated, peace was guaranteed by a treaty. Before war was undertaken,
some of the _feciales_ were sent to make whatever demands had to be
made. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, V. § 86. )--“If allies complained that
the Romans had done them wrong, and demanded reparation for it, it was
the business of the _feciales_ to examine if there were any violation of
treaty. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72. )--Those _fecial_ priests
had been instituted by Numa, the mildest and most just of kings, to be
guardians of peace, and the judges and arbiters of the legitimate
motives for undertaking war. (Plutarch, _Camillus_, 20. )
[69] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 14. --Pliny, _Natural History_, XXI.
8.
[70] Numa raised a temple to Romulus, whom he deified under the name of
_Quirinus_. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 63)
[71] “Temple of Vesta, emblem of chastity; temple to Public Faith;
raised by Numa. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 65 and 75. )
[72] “The god Terminus; the festival in honour of Pales, the goddess of
shepherds; Saturn, the god of agriculture; the god of fallow-grounds,
pasture,” &c. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 74. )
[73] “After having done these things in peace and war, Servius Tullius
erected two temples to Fortune, who appeared to have been favourable to
him all his life, one in the oxen-market, the other on the banks of the
Tiber, and he gave her the surname of _Virilis_, which she has preserved
to the present day among the Romans. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV.
27. )
[74] “The Temple of Janus had been closed twice since the reign of Numa:
the first time by the consul Titus Manlius, at the end of the first
Punic war; the second, when the gods granted to our age to see, after
the battle of Actium, Cæsar Augustus Imperator give peace to the
universe. ” (Titus Livius, I. 19. )--And Plutarch says, in his _Life of
Numa_, XX. , “Nevertheless, this temple was closed after the victory of
Cæsar Augustus over Antony, and it had previously been closed under the
consulate of Marcus Atilius and of Titus Manlius, for a short time, it
is true; it was almost immediately opened again, for a new war broke
out. But, during the reign of Numa, it was not seen open a single day. ”
[75] We employ intentionally the word _republic_, because all the
ancient authors give this name to the State, under the kings as well as
under the emperors. It is only by translating faithfully these
denominations that we can form an exact idea of ancient societies.
[76] “We acknowledge how many good and useful institutions the Republic
owed to each of our kings. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 21. )
[77] “Among the Romans, the children possess nothing of their own during
their father’s life. He can dispose not only of all the goods, but even
of the lives of his children. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 79;
II. 25. )
[78] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. , 25, 26. --“From the beginning,”
says Mommsen, “the Roman family presented, in the moral order which
reigned among its members, and their mutual subordination, the
conditions of a superior civilisation. ” (_Roman History_, 2nd edit. , I. ,
p. 54. )
[79] “Morals were so pure that, during two hundred and thirty years, no
husband was known to repudiate his wife, nor any woman to separate from
her husband. ” (Plutarch, _Parallel of Theseus and Romulus_. )
[80] Cicero admires the profound wisdom of the first kings in admitting
the conquered enemies to the number of the citizens. “Their example,” he
says, “has become an authority, and our ancestors have never ceased
granting the rights of citizens to conquered enemies. ” (_Oration for
Balbus_, xxxi. )
[81] ROMAN COLONIES (COLONIÆ CIVIUM CUM JURE SUFFRAGII ET
HONORUM). --First period: 1-244 (under the kings).
_Cænina_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Antemnæ_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Cameria_ (Sabine). Destroyed in 252. Unknown.
_Medullia_ (Sabine). _Sant’-Angelo_. --See Gell. , _Topogr. of Rome_, 100.
_Crustumeria_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Fidenæ_ (Sabine). Ruins near _Giubileo_ and _Serpentina_. Re-colonised in
326. Destroyed, according to an hypothesis of M. Madvig.
_Collatia. _
_Ostia_ (the mouth of the Tiber). Ruins between _Torre Bovacciano_
and _Ostia_.
LATIN COLONIES (COLONIÆ LATINÆ). --First period: 1-244 (under the kings).
We cannot mention with certainty any Latin colony founded at this epoch,
from ancient authorities. The colonies of _Signia_ and _Circeii_ were
both re-colonized in the following period, and we shall place them
there.
[82] “Tarquin embellished also the great circus between the Aventine and
Palatine hills; he was the first who caused the _covered seats_ to be
made round this circus. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 68. )
[83] Titus Livius, I. 44. --“Immediately the centurions, whose centuries
had taken flight, and the _antesignani_ who had lost their standard,
were condemned to death: some had their heads cut off; others were
beaten to death. As to the rest of the troops, the consul caused them to
be decimated; in every ten soldiers, he upon whom the lot fell was
conducted to the place of execution, and suffered for the others. It is
the usual punishment among the Romans for those who have quitted their
ranks or abandoned their standards. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX.
1. )
[84] “Romulus placed upon their hair a crown of laurels. ” (Plutarch,
_Romulus_, XX. )
[85] “The Senate and the people decreed to King Tarquin the honours of
the triumph. ” (_Combat of the Romans and Etruscans_, Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, III. 60. )--“An ovation differs from a triumph, first,
because he who receives the honours of it enters on foot at the head of
the army, and not mounted in a car; secondly, that he has neither the
crown of gold, nor the toga embroidered with gold and of different
colours, but he carries only a white _trabea_ bordered with purple, the
ordinary costume of the generals and consuls. Besides having only a
crown of laurel, he does not carry a sceptre. This is what the little
triumph has less than the great; in all other respects there is no
difference. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 47. )
[86] Romulus kills Acron, routs the enemies, and returns to _offer to
Jupiter Feretrius the opima spolia taken from that prince_.
“After Romulus, Cornelius Cossus was the first who consecrated to the
same gods similar spoils, having slain with his own hand, in a combat
where he commanded the cavalry, the general of the Fidenates.
“We must not separate the example of M. Marcellus from the two
preceding. He had the courage and intrepidity to attack on the banks of
the Pô, at the head of a handful of horsemen, the king of the Gauls,
though protected by a numerous army; he struck off his head, and
_carried off his armour_, of which he made an offering to Jupiter
Feretrius. (Year of Rome 531. )
“The same kind of bravery and combat signalised T.
Manilius Torquatus,
Valerius Corvus, and Scipio Æmilianus. These warriors, challenged by the
chieftains of the enemies, made them bite the dust; but, as they had
fought under the auspices of a superior chief, they did not offer their
spoils to Jupiter. ” (Year of Rome 392, 404, 602. ) (Valerius Maximus,
III. 2, §§ 3, 4, 5, 6. )
[87] “Tarquin divided the seats (of the great circus) among the thirty
curiæ, assigning to each the place which belonged to him. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, III. 68. )--“It was then (after the war against the
Latins) that the site was chosen which is now called the great circus.
They marked out in it the particular places for the senators and for the
knights. ” (Titus Livius, I. 35. )
[88] “The hundred senators were divided into ten decaries, and each
chose one of its members to exercise this authority. The power was
collective: one alone carried the insignia of it, and walked preceded by
the lictors. The duration of this power was for five days, and each
exercised it in turn . . . The plebs was not long before it began to
murmur. Its servitude had only been aggravated; instead of one master,
it had a hundred. It appeared disposed to suffer only one king, and to
choose him itself. ” (Titus Livius, I. 17. )
[89] “For the rest, this liberty consisted at first rather in the annual
election of the consuls than in the weakening of the royal power. The
first consuls assumed all its prerogatives and all its insignia; only it
was feared that, if both possessed the fasciæ, this solemnity might
inspire too much terror, and Brutus owed to the deference of his
colleague the circumstance of possessing them first. ” (Titus Livius, II.
1. )
[90] “The death of Melius was justified,” said Quinctius, “to appease
the people, although he might be innocent of the crime of aspiring to
the kingly power. ” (Titus Livius, IV. 15. )
[91] “From these inflexible hearts came a sentence of death, which was
odious to the judges themselves. ” (Titus Livius, VI. 20. )
[92] _Discourse on Titus Livius_, I. 5.
[93] Proofs of the disagreement of the two consuls: “Cassius brought
secretly as many Latins and Hernici as he possibly could to have their
suffrages; there arrived in Rome such a great number, that in a short
time the town was full of strangers. Virginius, who was informed of it,
caused a herald to proclaim in all the public places that all those who
had no domicile in Rome should withdraw immediately; but Cassius gave
orders contrary to those of his colleague, forbidding any one who had
the right of Roman freedom to quit the town until the law was confirmed
and received. ” (Year of Rome 268. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII.
72. )--“Quinctius, more indulgent than his colleague, willed the
concession to the people of all their just and reasonable demands;
Appius, on the contrary, was willing to die rather than to yield. ” (Year
of Rome 283. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 48. )
[94] “The two consuls were of the most opposite tempers, and were always
in discord (_dissimiles discordesque_). ” (Titus Livius, XXII.
41. )--“While they lost their time in quarrels rather than in
deliberations. ” (Titus Livius, XXII. 45. )
[95] Titus Livius, XXI. 52. --Dio Cassius, _Fragments_, CCLXXI. edit.
Gros.
[96] Titus Livius, XXI. 52.
[97] “In the Roman army the two consuls enjoyed an equal power; but the
deference of Agrippa in concentrating the authority in the hands of his
colleague, established the unity so necessary for the success of great
enterprises. ” (Titus Livius, III. 70. )--“The two consuls commanded often
both in the day of battle. ” (Titus Livius, _Battle of Mount Vesuvius_,
VIII. 9; _Battle of Sentinum_, X. 27. )--“A fatal innovation; from that
time each had in view his personal interest, and not the general
interest, preferring to see the Republic experience a check than his
colleague covered with glory, and evils without number afflicted the
fatherland. ” (Dio Cassius, _Fragments_, LI. edit. Gros. )
[98] “They called tribunes of the people those who, from tribunes of the
soldiers, which they were first, were charged with the defence of the
people during its retreat at Crustumerium. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_,
V. 81, edition of O. Müller. )
[99] “The discontented obtained from the patricians the confirmation of
their magistrates; afterwards they demanded of the Senate the permission
to elect annually two plebeians (_ediles_) to second the tribunes in all
things in which they might have need of aid, to judge the causes which
these might entrust into their hands, to have care of the sacred and
public edifices, and to ensure the supplying of the market with
provisions. ” (Year of Rome 260. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 90. )
[100] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 89.
[101] The tribunes oppose the enrolment of troops. (Year of Rome 269. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 81. )--“Licinius and Sextius
re-elected tribunes of the people, allowed no curule magistrate to be
elected; and, as the people continued to re-appoint the two tribunes,
who always threw out the elections of the military tribunes, the town
remained five years deprived of magistrates. ” (Year of Rome 378. ) (Titus
Livius, VI. 35. )--“Each time the consuls convoked the people to confer
the consulship on the candidates, the tribunes, in virtue of their
powers, prevented the holding of the assemblies. So also, when these
assembled the people to make the election, the consuls opposed it,
pretending that the right of convoking the people and collecting the
suffrages belonged to them alone. ” (Year of Rome 271. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, VIII. 90. )--“Sometimes the tribunes prevented the
patricians from assembling for the election of the interrex, sometimes
they forbade the interrex himself making the senatus consultus for the
consular comitia. ” (Year of Rome 333. ) (Titus Livius, IV. 43. )
[102] Titus Livius, III. 30.
[103] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 31.
[104] “The most remarkable event of this year (the year of Rome 282), in
which military successes were so nearly balanced, and in which discord
broke out in the camp and in the town with so much fury, was the
establishment of the comitia by _tribes_, an innovation which gave to
the plebeians the honour of the victory, but little real advantage. In
fact, the exclusion of the patricians deprived the comitia of all their
pomp, without augmenting the power of the people or diminishing that of
the Senate. ” (Titus Livius, II. 60. )
[105] Assembly of the people both of the town and country; the suffrages
were given in it, not by centuries, but by tribes:--“The day of the
third market, from an early hour in the morning, the public place was
occupied by so great a crowd of country people as had never been seen
before. The tribunes assembled the people by tribes, and, dividing the
Forum by ropes stretched across, formed as many distinct spaces as there
were tribes. Then, for the first time, the Roman people gave its
suffrages by tribes, in spite of the opposition of the patricians, who
tried to prevent it, and demanded that they should assemble by
centuries, according to the ancient custom. ” (Year of Rome 263. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VII. 59. )--“From that period (the year 283,
consulate of Appius) to our days, the comitia by tribes have elected the
tribunes and ediles, without auspices or observation of other auguries.
Thus ended the troubles which agitated Rome. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IX. 49. )--“The Roman people, more irritated than ever,
demanded that for each tribe a third urn should be added for the town of
Rome, in order to put the suffrages in it. ” (Year of Rome 308. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 52. )
[106] “Duas civitates ex una factas: suos cuique parti magistratus, suas
leges esse. ” (Titus Livius, II. 44. )--“In fact, we are, as you see
yourselves, divided into two towns, one of which is governed by poverty
and necessity, and the other by abundance of all things and by pride and
insolence. ” (Year of Rome 260). (_Speech of Titus Larcius to the envoys
of the Volsci_, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 36,)
[107] The clients began to vote in the comitia by tribes after the law
Valeria Horatia; we see, by the account of Titus Livius (V. 30, 32),
that in the time of Camillus the clients and the patricians had already
entered the comitia by tribes.
[108] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 1.
[109] Titus Livius, III. 9.
[110] Lectorius, the most aged of the tribunes of the people, spoke of
laws which had not been long made. “By the first, which concerned the
translation of judgments, the Senate granted to the people the power of
judging any one of the patricians. ” (Year of Rome 283. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IX. 46. )
[111] “The laws voted by the people in the comitia by tribes were to be
obligatory on all Romans, and have the same force as those which were
made in the comitia by centuries. The pain of death and confiscation was
even pronounced against any one who should be convicted of having in
anything abrogated or violated this regulation. This new ordinance cut
short the old quarrels between the plebeians and the patricians, who
refused to obey the laws made by the people, under the pretext that what
was decided in the assemblies by tribes was not obligatory on all the
town, but only on the plebeians; and that, on the contrary, what was
decided in the comitia by centuries became law as well for themselves as
for the other citizens. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, XI. 45. )--“One point always contested between the two
orders was to know if the patricians were subjected to the _plebiscita_.
The first care of the consuls was to propose to the comitia assembled by
centuries a law to the effect that the decrees of the people assembled
by tribes should be laws of the State. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Titus
Livius, III. 55. )--“The patricians pretended that they alone had the
power of giving laws. ” (Titus Livius, III. 31. )
[112] “The comitia by curiæ for everything which concerns military
affairs; the comitia by centuries for the election of your consuls and
of your military tribunes, &c. ” (Titus Livius, V. 52. )
[113] Aulus Gellius, XV. 27. --Festus, under the words _Scitum populi_.
[114] Titus Livius, IV. 3.
[115] “The indignation of the people was extreme, on account of the
refusal to take the auspices, as if it had been an object for the
reprobation of the immortal gods. ”--“The tribune demanded for what
reason a plebeian could not be consul, and was told in reply that the
plebeians had not the auspices, and that the decemvirs had interdicted
marriage between the two orders only to hinder the auspices from being
troubled by men of equivocal birth. ” (Titus Livius, IV. 6. )--“Now in
what hands are the auspices according to the custom of our ancestors? In
the hands of the patricians, I think; for the auspices are never taken
for the nomination of a plebeian magistrate. ”--“Is it not then the same
thing as to annihilate the auspices in this city, to take them, in
electing plebeian consuls, from the patricians, who alone can observe
them? ” (Year of Rome 386. ) (Titus Livius, VI. 41. )
To the consul, the prætor, and the censor was reserved the right of
taking the great auspices; to the less elevated magistracies that of
taking the lesser ones. The great auspices appear, in fact, to have been
those of which the exercise was of most importance to the rights of the
aristocracy. The ancients have not left us a precise definition of the
two classes of auspices; but it appears to result from what Cicero says
of them (_De Legibus_, II. 12), that by the great auspices were
understood those for which the intervention of the augurs was
indispensable; the little auspices, on the contrary, were those which
were taken without them. (See Aulus Gellius, XIII. 15. )
As to the auspices taken in the comitia where the consular tribunes were
elected, passages of Titus Livius (V. 14, 52; VI. 11) prove that they
were the same as for the election of the consuls, and consequently that
they were the great auspices; for we know from Cicero (_De Divinatione_,
I. 17; II. 35--compare Titus Livius, IV. 7) that it was the duty of the
magistrate who held the comitia to bring there an augur, of whom he
demanded what the presages announced. The privileges of the nobility
were maintained by causing the comitia for the election of the consular
tribunes to be held by an interrex chosen by the aristocracy.
[116] Titus Livius, VI. 5.
[117] Titus Livius, VII. 17.
[118] In 333, the number was increased to four. Two, overseers for the
guard of the treasury and the disposition of the public money, were
appointed by the consuls; the two others, charged with the
administration of the military chest, were appointed by the tribes.
[119] “_The master of the knights_ was so called because he exercised
the supreme power over the knights and the _accensi_, as the dictator
exercised it over the whole Roman people; whence the name of _master of
the people_, which was also given to him. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_,
V. 82, edit. Müller. )
[120] “The duumvirs charged with the sacred rites were replaced by the
decemvirs, half plebeians, half patricians. ” (Titus Livius, VI. 37. )
[121] Titus Livius, VII. 5.
[122] “Appius convokes an assembly, accuses Valerius and Horatius of the
crime of perduellio, calculating entirely on the tribunian power with
which he was invested. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
XI. 39. )
[123] “In the interim, there was at Rome a conspiracy of several slaves,
who formed together the design of seizing the forts and setting fire to
the different quarters of the town. ” (Year of Rome 253. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, V. 51.
Halicarnassus, IV. 16. )
[47] Titus Livius speaks only of a hundred and ninety-two centuries;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reckons a hundred and ninety-three. “In the
Roman plebs, the poorest citizens, those who reported to the census not
more than fifteen hundred _ases_, were called _proletarii_; those who
were not worth more than three hundred and seventy-five _ases_, and who
thus possessed hardly anything, were called _capite censi_. Now, the
fortune and patrimony of the citizen being for the State a sort of
guarantee, the pledge and foundation of his love for his country, the
men of the two last classes were only enrolled in case of extreme
danger. Yet the position of the _proletarii_ was a little more
honourable than that of the _capite censi_; in times of difficulty, when
there was want of young men, they were incorporated in the
hastily-formed militia, and equipped at the cost of the State; their
name contained no allusion to the mere poll-tax to which they were
subjected; less humiliating, it reminded one only of their destination
to give children to their country. The scantiness of their patrimony
preventing them from contributing to the aid of the State, they at least
contributed to the population of the city. ” (Aulus Gellius, XVI. 10. )
[48] “Tarquinius Priscus afterwards gave to the knights the organisation
which they have preserved to the present time. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 20. )
[49] “It is said that the number of citizens inscribed under this title
was 80,000. Fabius Pictor, the most ancient of our historians, adds that
this number only includes the citizens in condition to bear arms. ”
(Titus Livius, I. 44. )
[50] The different censuses of the people furnished by the ancient
historians have been explained in different manners. Did the numbers
given designate all the citizens, or only the heads of families, or
those who had attained the age of puberty? In my opinion, these numbers
in Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch, applied to all the
men in a condition to carry arms, that is, according to the organisation
of Servius Tullius, to those from seventeen to sixty years old. This
category formed, in fact, the true Roman citizens. Under seventeen, they
were too young to count in the State; above sixty, they were too old.
We know that the aged sexagenarians were called _depontani_, because
they were forbidden the bridges over which they must go to the place of
voting. (Festus, under the word _sexagenarius_, p. 834. --Cicero, _Pro S.
Roscio Amerino_, 35. )
80,000 men in condition to carry arms represent, according to the
statistics of the present time, fifty-five hundredths of the male part
of the population, say 145,000 men, and for the two sexes, supposing
them equal in number, 290,000 souls. In fact, in France, in a hundred
inhabitants, there are 35 who have not passed the age of seventeen, 55
aged from seventeen to sixty years, and 10 of more than sixty.
In support of the above calculation, Dionysius of Halicarnassus relates
that in the year 247 of Rome a subscription was made in honour of
Horatius Cocles: 300,000 persons, men and women, gave the value of what
each might expend in one day for his food. (V. 25. )
As to the number of slaves, we find in another passage of Dionysius of
Halicarnassus (IX. 25) that the women, children, slaves, merchants, and
artisans amounted to a number triple of that of the citizens.
If, then, the number of citizens in condition to carry arms was 80,000,
and the rest of the population equalled three times that number, we
should have for the total 4 x 80,000 = 320,000 souls. And, subtracting
from this number the 290,000 obtained above, there would remain 30,000
for the slaves and artisans.
Whatever proportion we admit between these two last classes, the result
will be that the slaves were at that period not numerous.
[51] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 9, 23.
[52] “Within the town, the buildings were not allowed to approach the
ramparts, which they now ordinarily touch, and outside a space extended
which it was forbidden to cultivate. To all this space, which it was not
permitted to inhabit or cultivate, the Romans gave the name of
_Pomœrium_. When, in consequence of the increase of the town, the
rampart was carried farther out, this consecrated zone on each side was
still preserved. ” (Titus Livius, I. 44. )
[53] “Founded on the testimony of the sacred books which are preserved
with great care in the temples. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 62. )
[54] “These precious pledges, which they regard as so many images of the
gods. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 45. )
[55] “Hence is explained the origin of the name given to the Capitol: in
digging the foundation of the temple, they found a human head; and the
augurs declared that Rome would become the head of all Italy. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 61. )
[56] “This recourse to the opinions of the priests and the observations
of religious worship made the people forget their habits of violence and
their taste for arms. Their minds, incessantly occupied with religious
ideas, acknowledged the intervention of Providence in human affairs, and
all hearts were penetrated with a piety so lively that good faith and
fidelity to an oath reigned in Rome more than fear of laws or
punishments. ” (Titus Livius, I. 21. )
[57] Titus Livius, I. 45.
[58] “Assemblies of people, levies of troops--indeed, the most important
operations--were abandoned, if the birds did not approve them. ” (Titus
Livius, I. 36. )
[59] “Numa established also the auspicious and inauspicious days, for
with the people an adjournment might sometimes be useful. ” (Titus
Livius, I. 19. )
[60] “We have a town, founded on the faith of auspices and auguries; not
a spot within these walls which is not full of gods and their
worshippers; our solemn sacrifices have their days fixed as well as the
place where they are to be made. ” (Titus Livius, V. 52, _Speech of
Camillus_, VI. &c. )
[61] Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 14.
[62] “All religious acts, public and private, were submitted to the
decision of the pontiff; thus the people knew to whom to address
themselves, and disorders were prevented which might have brought into
religion the neglect of the national rites or the introduction of
foreign ones. It was the same pontiff’s duty also to regulate what
concerned funerals, and the means of appeasing the Manes, and to
distinguish, among prodigies announced by thunder and other phenomena,
those which required an expiation. ” (Titus Livius, I. 20. )
[63] “The grand pontiff exercises the functions of interpreter and
diviner, or rather of hierophant. He not only presides at the public
sacrifices, but he also inspects those which are made in private, and
takes care that the ordinances of religious worship are not
transgressed. Lastly, it is he who teaches what each individual ought to
do to honour the gods and to appease them. ” (Plutarch, _Numa_, 12. )
[64] “Numa divided the year into twelve months, according to the moon’s
courses; he added January and February to the year. ” (Titus Livius, I.
19. --Plutarch, _Numa_, 18. )
[65] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 73.
[66] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 64.
[67] Salian is derived from _salire_ (to leap, to dance). (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, II. 70. )--It was their duty, on certain occasions, to
execute sacred dances, and to chant hymns in honour of the god of war.
[68] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72. --“The name of _feciales_ is
derived from the circumstance that they presided over the public faith
between peoples; for it was by their intervention that war when
undertaken assumed the character of a just war, and, that once
terminated, peace was guaranteed by a treaty. Before war was undertaken,
some of the _feciales_ were sent to make whatever demands had to be
made. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, V. § 86. )--“If allies complained that
the Romans had done them wrong, and demanded reparation for it, it was
the business of the _feciales_ to examine if there were any violation of
treaty. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72. )--Those _fecial_ priests
had been instituted by Numa, the mildest and most just of kings, to be
guardians of peace, and the judges and arbiters of the legitimate
motives for undertaking war. (Plutarch, _Camillus_, 20. )
[69] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 14. --Pliny, _Natural History_, XXI.
8.
[70] Numa raised a temple to Romulus, whom he deified under the name of
_Quirinus_. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 63)
[71] “Temple of Vesta, emblem of chastity; temple to Public Faith;
raised by Numa. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 65 and 75. )
[72] “The god Terminus; the festival in honour of Pales, the goddess of
shepherds; Saturn, the god of agriculture; the god of fallow-grounds,
pasture,” &c. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 74. )
[73] “After having done these things in peace and war, Servius Tullius
erected two temples to Fortune, who appeared to have been favourable to
him all his life, one in the oxen-market, the other on the banks of the
Tiber, and he gave her the surname of _Virilis_, which she has preserved
to the present day among the Romans. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV.
27. )
[74] “The Temple of Janus had been closed twice since the reign of Numa:
the first time by the consul Titus Manlius, at the end of the first
Punic war; the second, when the gods granted to our age to see, after
the battle of Actium, Cæsar Augustus Imperator give peace to the
universe. ” (Titus Livius, I. 19. )--And Plutarch says, in his _Life of
Numa_, XX. , “Nevertheless, this temple was closed after the victory of
Cæsar Augustus over Antony, and it had previously been closed under the
consulate of Marcus Atilius and of Titus Manlius, for a short time, it
is true; it was almost immediately opened again, for a new war broke
out. But, during the reign of Numa, it was not seen open a single day. ”
[75] We employ intentionally the word _republic_, because all the
ancient authors give this name to the State, under the kings as well as
under the emperors. It is only by translating faithfully these
denominations that we can form an exact idea of ancient societies.
[76] “We acknowledge how many good and useful institutions the Republic
owed to each of our kings. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 21. )
[77] “Among the Romans, the children possess nothing of their own during
their father’s life. He can dispose not only of all the goods, but even
of the lives of his children. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 79;
II. 25. )
[78] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. , 25, 26. --“From the beginning,”
says Mommsen, “the Roman family presented, in the moral order which
reigned among its members, and their mutual subordination, the
conditions of a superior civilisation. ” (_Roman History_, 2nd edit. , I. ,
p. 54. )
[79] “Morals were so pure that, during two hundred and thirty years, no
husband was known to repudiate his wife, nor any woman to separate from
her husband. ” (Plutarch, _Parallel of Theseus and Romulus_. )
[80] Cicero admires the profound wisdom of the first kings in admitting
the conquered enemies to the number of the citizens. “Their example,” he
says, “has become an authority, and our ancestors have never ceased
granting the rights of citizens to conquered enemies. ” (_Oration for
Balbus_, xxxi. )
[81] ROMAN COLONIES (COLONIÆ CIVIUM CUM JURE SUFFRAGII ET
HONORUM). --First period: 1-244 (under the kings).
_Cænina_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Antemnæ_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Cameria_ (Sabine). Destroyed in 252. Unknown.
_Medullia_ (Sabine). _Sant’-Angelo_. --See Gell. , _Topogr. of Rome_, 100.
_Crustumeria_ (Sabine). Unknown.
_Fidenæ_ (Sabine). Ruins near _Giubileo_ and _Serpentina_. Re-colonised in
326. Destroyed, according to an hypothesis of M. Madvig.
_Collatia. _
_Ostia_ (the mouth of the Tiber). Ruins between _Torre Bovacciano_
and _Ostia_.
LATIN COLONIES (COLONIÆ LATINÆ). --First period: 1-244 (under the kings).
We cannot mention with certainty any Latin colony founded at this epoch,
from ancient authorities. The colonies of _Signia_ and _Circeii_ were
both re-colonized in the following period, and we shall place them
there.
[82] “Tarquin embellished also the great circus between the Aventine and
Palatine hills; he was the first who caused the _covered seats_ to be
made round this circus. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 68. )
[83] Titus Livius, I. 44. --“Immediately the centurions, whose centuries
had taken flight, and the _antesignani_ who had lost their standard,
were condemned to death: some had their heads cut off; others were
beaten to death. As to the rest of the troops, the consul caused them to
be decimated; in every ten soldiers, he upon whom the lot fell was
conducted to the place of execution, and suffered for the others. It is
the usual punishment among the Romans for those who have quitted their
ranks or abandoned their standards. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX.
1. )
[84] “Romulus placed upon their hair a crown of laurels. ” (Plutarch,
_Romulus_, XX. )
[85] “The Senate and the people decreed to King Tarquin the honours of
the triumph. ” (_Combat of the Romans and Etruscans_, Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, III. 60. )--“An ovation differs from a triumph, first,
because he who receives the honours of it enters on foot at the head of
the army, and not mounted in a car; secondly, that he has neither the
crown of gold, nor the toga embroidered with gold and of different
colours, but he carries only a white _trabea_ bordered with purple, the
ordinary costume of the generals and consuls. Besides having only a
crown of laurel, he does not carry a sceptre. This is what the little
triumph has less than the great; in all other respects there is no
difference. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 47. )
[86] Romulus kills Acron, routs the enemies, and returns to _offer to
Jupiter Feretrius the opima spolia taken from that prince_.
“After Romulus, Cornelius Cossus was the first who consecrated to the
same gods similar spoils, having slain with his own hand, in a combat
where he commanded the cavalry, the general of the Fidenates.
“We must not separate the example of M. Marcellus from the two
preceding. He had the courage and intrepidity to attack on the banks of
the Pô, at the head of a handful of horsemen, the king of the Gauls,
though protected by a numerous army; he struck off his head, and
_carried off his armour_, of which he made an offering to Jupiter
Feretrius. (Year of Rome 531. )
“The same kind of bravery and combat signalised T.
Manilius Torquatus,
Valerius Corvus, and Scipio Æmilianus. These warriors, challenged by the
chieftains of the enemies, made them bite the dust; but, as they had
fought under the auspices of a superior chief, they did not offer their
spoils to Jupiter. ” (Year of Rome 392, 404, 602. ) (Valerius Maximus,
III. 2, §§ 3, 4, 5, 6. )
[87] “Tarquin divided the seats (of the great circus) among the thirty
curiæ, assigning to each the place which belonged to him. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, III. 68. )--“It was then (after the war against the
Latins) that the site was chosen which is now called the great circus.
They marked out in it the particular places for the senators and for the
knights. ” (Titus Livius, I. 35. )
[88] “The hundred senators were divided into ten decaries, and each
chose one of its members to exercise this authority. The power was
collective: one alone carried the insignia of it, and walked preceded by
the lictors. The duration of this power was for five days, and each
exercised it in turn . . . The plebs was not long before it began to
murmur. Its servitude had only been aggravated; instead of one master,
it had a hundred. It appeared disposed to suffer only one king, and to
choose him itself. ” (Titus Livius, I. 17. )
[89] “For the rest, this liberty consisted at first rather in the annual
election of the consuls than in the weakening of the royal power. The
first consuls assumed all its prerogatives and all its insignia; only it
was feared that, if both possessed the fasciæ, this solemnity might
inspire too much terror, and Brutus owed to the deference of his
colleague the circumstance of possessing them first. ” (Titus Livius, II.
1. )
[90] “The death of Melius was justified,” said Quinctius, “to appease
the people, although he might be innocent of the crime of aspiring to
the kingly power. ” (Titus Livius, IV. 15. )
[91] “From these inflexible hearts came a sentence of death, which was
odious to the judges themselves. ” (Titus Livius, VI. 20. )
[92] _Discourse on Titus Livius_, I. 5.
[93] Proofs of the disagreement of the two consuls: “Cassius brought
secretly as many Latins and Hernici as he possibly could to have their
suffrages; there arrived in Rome such a great number, that in a short
time the town was full of strangers. Virginius, who was informed of it,
caused a herald to proclaim in all the public places that all those who
had no domicile in Rome should withdraw immediately; but Cassius gave
orders contrary to those of his colleague, forbidding any one who had
the right of Roman freedom to quit the town until the law was confirmed
and received. ” (Year of Rome 268. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII.
72. )--“Quinctius, more indulgent than his colleague, willed the
concession to the people of all their just and reasonable demands;
Appius, on the contrary, was willing to die rather than to yield. ” (Year
of Rome 283. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 48. )
[94] “The two consuls were of the most opposite tempers, and were always
in discord (_dissimiles discordesque_). ” (Titus Livius, XXII.
41. )--“While they lost their time in quarrels rather than in
deliberations. ” (Titus Livius, XXII. 45. )
[95] Titus Livius, XXI. 52. --Dio Cassius, _Fragments_, CCLXXI. edit.
Gros.
[96] Titus Livius, XXI. 52.
[97] “In the Roman army the two consuls enjoyed an equal power; but the
deference of Agrippa in concentrating the authority in the hands of his
colleague, established the unity so necessary for the success of great
enterprises. ” (Titus Livius, III. 70. )--“The two consuls commanded often
both in the day of battle. ” (Titus Livius, _Battle of Mount Vesuvius_,
VIII. 9; _Battle of Sentinum_, X. 27. )--“A fatal innovation; from that
time each had in view his personal interest, and not the general
interest, preferring to see the Republic experience a check than his
colleague covered with glory, and evils without number afflicted the
fatherland. ” (Dio Cassius, _Fragments_, LI. edit. Gros. )
[98] “They called tribunes of the people those who, from tribunes of the
soldiers, which they were first, were charged with the defence of the
people during its retreat at Crustumerium. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_,
V. 81, edition of O. Müller. )
[99] “The discontented obtained from the patricians the confirmation of
their magistrates; afterwards they demanded of the Senate the permission
to elect annually two plebeians (_ediles_) to second the tribunes in all
things in which they might have need of aid, to judge the causes which
these might entrust into their hands, to have care of the sacred and
public edifices, and to ensure the supplying of the market with
provisions. ” (Year of Rome 260. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 90. )
[100] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 89.
[101] The tribunes oppose the enrolment of troops. (Year of Rome 269. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 81. )--“Licinius and Sextius
re-elected tribunes of the people, allowed no curule magistrate to be
elected; and, as the people continued to re-appoint the two tribunes,
who always threw out the elections of the military tribunes, the town
remained five years deprived of magistrates. ” (Year of Rome 378. ) (Titus
Livius, VI. 35. )--“Each time the consuls convoked the people to confer
the consulship on the candidates, the tribunes, in virtue of their
powers, prevented the holding of the assemblies. So also, when these
assembled the people to make the election, the consuls opposed it,
pretending that the right of convoking the people and collecting the
suffrages belonged to them alone. ” (Year of Rome 271. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, VIII. 90. )--“Sometimes the tribunes prevented the
patricians from assembling for the election of the interrex, sometimes
they forbade the interrex himself making the senatus consultus for the
consular comitia. ” (Year of Rome 333. ) (Titus Livius, IV. 43. )
[102] Titus Livius, III. 30.
[103] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 31.
[104] “The most remarkable event of this year (the year of Rome 282), in
which military successes were so nearly balanced, and in which discord
broke out in the camp and in the town with so much fury, was the
establishment of the comitia by _tribes_, an innovation which gave to
the plebeians the honour of the victory, but little real advantage. In
fact, the exclusion of the patricians deprived the comitia of all their
pomp, without augmenting the power of the people or diminishing that of
the Senate. ” (Titus Livius, II. 60. )
[105] Assembly of the people both of the town and country; the suffrages
were given in it, not by centuries, but by tribes:--“The day of the
third market, from an early hour in the morning, the public place was
occupied by so great a crowd of country people as had never been seen
before. The tribunes assembled the people by tribes, and, dividing the
Forum by ropes stretched across, formed as many distinct spaces as there
were tribes. Then, for the first time, the Roman people gave its
suffrages by tribes, in spite of the opposition of the patricians, who
tried to prevent it, and demanded that they should assemble by
centuries, according to the ancient custom. ” (Year of Rome 263. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VII. 59. )--“From that period (the year 283,
consulate of Appius) to our days, the comitia by tribes have elected the
tribunes and ediles, without auspices or observation of other auguries.
Thus ended the troubles which agitated Rome. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IX. 49. )--“The Roman people, more irritated than ever,
demanded that for each tribe a third urn should be added for the town of
Rome, in order to put the suffrages in it. ” (Year of Rome 308. )
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 52. )
[106] “Duas civitates ex una factas: suos cuique parti magistratus, suas
leges esse. ” (Titus Livius, II. 44. )--“In fact, we are, as you see
yourselves, divided into two towns, one of which is governed by poverty
and necessity, and the other by abundance of all things and by pride and
insolence. ” (Year of Rome 260). (_Speech of Titus Larcius to the envoys
of the Volsci_, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 36,)
[107] The clients began to vote in the comitia by tribes after the law
Valeria Horatia; we see, by the account of Titus Livius (V. 30, 32),
that in the time of Camillus the clients and the patricians had already
entered the comitia by tribes.
[108] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 1.
[109] Titus Livius, III. 9.
[110] Lectorius, the most aged of the tribunes of the people, spoke of
laws which had not been long made. “By the first, which concerned the
translation of judgments, the Senate granted to the people the power of
judging any one of the patricians. ” (Year of Rome 283. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IX. 46. )
[111] “The laws voted by the people in the comitia by tribes were to be
obligatory on all Romans, and have the same force as those which were
made in the comitia by centuries. The pain of death and confiscation was
even pronounced against any one who should be convicted of having in
anything abrogated or violated this regulation. This new ordinance cut
short the old quarrels between the plebeians and the patricians, who
refused to obey the laws made by the people, under the pretext that what
was decided in the assemblies by tribes was not obligatory on all the
town, but only on the plebeians; and that, on the contrary, what was
decided in the comitia by centuries became law as well for themselves as
for the other citizens. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, XI. 45. )--“One point always contested between the two
orders was to know if the patricians were subjected to the _plebiscita_.
The first care of the consuls was to propose to the comitia assembled by
centuries a law to the effect that the decrees of the people assembled
by tribes should be laws of the State. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Titus
Livius, III. 55. )--“The patricians pretended that they alone had the
power of giving laws. ” (Titus Livius, III. 31. )
[112] “The comitia by curiæ for everything which concerns military
affairs; the comitia by centuries for the election of your consuls and
of your military tribunes, &c. ” (Titus Livius, V. 52. )
[113] Aulus Gellius, XV. 27. --Festus, under the words _Scitum populi_.
[114] Titus Livius, IV. 3.
[115] “The indignation of the people was extreme, on account of the
refusal to take the auspices, as if it had been an object for the
reprobation of the immortal gods. ”--“The tribune demanded for what
reason a plebeian could not be consul, and was told in reply that the
plebeians had not the auspices, and that the decemvirs had interdicted
marriage between the two orders only to hinder the auspices from being
troubled by men of equivocal birth. ” (Titus Livius, IV. 6. )--“Now in
what hands are the auspices according to the custom of our ancestors? In
the hands of the patricians, I think; for the auspices are never taken
for the nomination of a plebeian magistrate. ”--“Is it not then the same
thing as to annihilate the auspices in this city, to take them, in
electing plebeian consuls, from the patricians, who alone can observe
them? ” (Year of Rome 386. ) (Titus Livius, VI. 41. )
To the consul, the prætor, and the censor was reserved the right of
taking the great auspices; to the less elevated magistracies that of
taking the lesser ones. The great auspices appear, in fact, to have been
those of which the exercise was of most importance to the rights of the
aristocracy. The ancients have not left us a precise definition of the
two classes of auspices; but it appears to result from what Cicero says
of them (_De Legibus_, II. 12), that by the great auspices were
understood those for which the intervention of the augurs was
indispensable; the little auspices, on the contrary, were those which
were taken without them. (See Aulus Gellius, XIII. 15. )
As to the auspices taken in the comitia where the consular tribunes were
elected, passages of Titus Livius (V. 14, 52; VI. 11) prove that they
were the same as for the election of the consuls, and consequently that
they were the great auspices; for we know from Cicero (_De Divinatione_,
I. 17; II. 35--compare Titus Livius, IV. 7) that it was the duty of the
magistrate who held the comitia to bring there an augur, of whom he
demanded what the presages announced. The privileges of the nobility
were maintained by causing the comitia for the election of the consular
tribunes to be held by an interrex chosen by the aristocracy.
[116] Titus Livius, VI. 5.
[117] Titus Livius, VII. 17.
[118] In 333, the number was increased to four. Two, overseers for the
guard of the treasury and the disposition of the public money, were
appointed by the consuls; the two others, charged with the
administration of the military chest, were appointed by the tribes.
[119] “_The master of the knights_ was so called because he exercised
the supreme power over the knights and the _accensi_, as the dictator
exercised it over the whole Roman people; whence the name of _master of
the people_, which was also given to him. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_,
V. 82, edit. Müller. )
[120] “The duumvirs charged with the sacred rites were replaced by the
decemvirs, half plebeians, half patricians. ” (Titus Livius, VI. 37. )
[121] Titus Livius, VII. 5.
[122] “Appius convokes an assembly, accuses Valerius and Horatius of the
crime of perduellio, calculating entirely on the tribunian power with
which he was invested. ” (Year of Rome 305. ) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
XI. 39. )
[123] “In the interim, there was at Rome a conspiracy of several slaves,
who formed together the design of seizing the forts and setting fire to
the different quarters of the town. ” (Year of Rome 253. ) (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, V. 51.
