Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

the army was always gathered under his command. But, if there be any trustworthiness in the olden legends, the royal authority, though thus extensive in appearance, and perhaps in claim, was not only subordinate to the Patrician right of appeal," but was actually dependent, in great degree, upon the advice or the consent of the Patricians, by whom it was considered as much in their own control as of

their own election.42 Romulus was represented as the leader of the heroes who were fond of war; Numa, as the chief of the nation which inclined to peace: but the power of both was a gift they had received, rather than any right they had, of themselves, obtained. The king, in short, was the superior Patrician; unlike the rest, perhaps, in no respect more strikingly than in being supported from lands cultivated at the common cost, without his toil or care.43

The only subjects, therefore, of the earlier reigns were those the Patricians may have had themselves. It is of a piece with Plutarch's good-natured simplicity, that he should have supposed the appellation1

himself judged the greatest crimes (Twν ádiкnμáτwv тà péyiσтa), and committed the rest (τὰ ἐλάττονα) to the Senators. II. 14. See the whole section concerning the king's authority.

41 See note 77 and text.

42 See the statements in Dion. Hal., II. 14, which are, to say the least, as trustworthy as any recent arguments against them.

43" Sine regum opera et labore, ut eos nulla privati negotii cura a

44

populorum rebus abduceret." Cic., De Rep., V. 2. "Au surplus, tous ces rois n'étaient guère que des magistrats ou des Sénateurs. Dans ces petits états de l'antiquité les rois étaient si près du peuple qu'on leur prenait très-aisément mesure." Creuzé de Lesser., De la Liberté, p. 62, 2me. édit.

44 In Latin, Patres (Fathers) as well as Patricii. Plutarch mentions other possible derivations; the most natural of which, undoubtedly, is

46

they bore to have been given them on account of the paternal manner in which their authority was designed to be employed; but it is much more reasonable to derive the name from the resemblance of their power over all other classes to the absolute dominion of a Roman father over his child.45 The first to come under it were the Clients, who may have been the inferior orders of the various races, united, as we have seen, within the rising state; or were else more gradually collected from amongst the people overcome in war. However or whenever the demarcation between them and the Patricians was made, it appears from the very origin as the separation of a laboring and a subject from a ruling and a warrior class. One of the old historians recounts how Romulus chose to keep his own people fiery soldiers and bold husbandmen; and how he ordered, as if to insure their prosperity, that the arts and the trades of his city should be given over to clients and slaves, who would thus themselves be kept too busy to think of sedition.47 Every client, with his family, was obliged to take or allowed to choose a Patrician for his patron, to whom he and his were bound in certain services, in return for which the patron afforded his favor and his pro

that they were of such good birth as to know who their fathers were! Rom., 13. So Liv., X. 8. Sallust, the best authority, though he would have Patres signify Senators, which is nowise reasonable, says, "Vel ætate vel curæ similitudine appellabantur." Cat., 6.

45 See Chapter IV. following. 46 The clients were sometimes connected with the asylum of the Capitoline. See Niebuhr, Vol. I. p. 165, Amer. edit.

47 Dion. Hal., II. 9, 28.

tection. It is not easy to define the duties, either of the patron or the client, except in this general way; but there is no occasion to doubt that the connection between them, in its pristine estate, as much secured the welfare of the inferior as it enhanced the dignity of the superior. The client was protected against his unkind patron by laws, which, as must be observed, were made or accepted by the patrons themselves, that is, the Patricians.48

49

It was a vain attempt to improve upon a more ancient legend, that would have made Romulus a tyrant, and ascribed his death to the vengeance of the abused Patricians. He may have been unjust or indifferent to any others; but of them he was himself one, - he their chosen chief, and they his trusted followers." Later generations believed him to have been translated to the skies, not because he was of divine parentage, but to reward him for his glory in having founded Rome. On earth, he was mourned until his temple. was built by his successor, and he could be adored.50

A year passed before the successor was chosen by the Curies; for the Patricians were loath, it was said,

48 There must have been an earlier law than that in the Twelve Tables. See the En., VI. 609, with Servius's commentary. "These virtues," says Mr. Mill, in speaking of giving and receiving protection, "belong emphatically to a rude and imperfect state of the social union." Pol. Econ., Vol. II. p. 321, Amer. edit.

father more than like a tyrant." Appian., De Regibus, Exc. II. ed. Didot.

Appian, a native of Alexandria, resided at Rome under the Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, and wrote, or rather compiled, a history of Rome and of the nations connected with the Roman.

49 "Apέas TE Tатρikās μâdλov † 41. τυραννικῶς, "And he ruled like a

50 Ennius ap. Cic., De Rep., I. Plut., Num., 7.

51

to resign the authority which one after another of the First Ten, a chosen number amongst them,51 was elected Interrex to exercise. The general desire 52 to have another king at length prevailed, and according to some agreement, of which the account is more than commonly confused, the Ramnes chose a Sabine, and probably from the second Tribe, which then, together with the first and the third, confirmed, by the unanimous vote of the Curies,53 the choice that fell on Numa Pompilius, of Cures. He was a man of quiet mind, and hesitated to accept the charge of governing a martial and impetuous people; but, persuaded by omens and entreaties, he came to Rome, and was there solemnly invested with the royalty by the Curies. His devout spirit, offended, it appears, by the careless or the criminal habits of his people, conceived the hope of their reformation, to which he believed himself called before he consented to be their king.55

54

We need not deny the existence of Numa in order to be on our guard against attributing to him the preaching of new doctrines or the institution of new

51 So Liv., I. 17. Cf. Dion. Hal., II. 57. Plut., Num., 2.

52"In variis voluntatibus, regnari tamen omnes volebant, libertatis dulcedine nondum experta." Liv., I. 17. 53 These details of the election are rather conjectural; but Livy says, "Ad unum omnes decernunt" (I. 18); and it is certain that the Curies elected the kings. Cic., De Rep., II. 13, 17, 18, 20, 21.

54"Ipse de suo imperio curiatam legem tulit." Cic., De Rep., II. 13. That is, he received from the same assembly which had elected him the Imperium, the military and the judicial commission, so to speak, of king. It was the form of all the elections to the throne.

55" Ut populum ferum molliret." De Vir. Ill., Cap. III. Plut., Num., 6. Liv., I. 18.

He found them in pos

services amongst the Romans. session of the faith and the ceremonies of their forefathers; but the wild adventure and the strange association in which they lived had confused their notions and interrupted their practices of piety. Without attempting the analysis of a religion composed of the contributions which Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans brought together into Rome, it is easy to conjecture that the worship of more numerous and more heterogeneous deities than any other single people, at least in Italy, revered was introduced upon the seven hills, before any reformer came to organize them in a consistent system. It is equally natural to surmise, that, amongst these various objects of devotion, there were some which were sought with horrid rites and through repulsive symbols, which it would be the desire of every clearer spirit to have removed. Numa is said to have forbidden both the homage of idols and the sacrifice of human beings; 56 prohibitions that, whether truly or falsely ascribed to him, do not the less illustrate the ignorance and the cruelty with which the gods were, at some time or other, implored at Rome.

This purification of religious rites was but half the reformation imputed to the wisdom of the second king. He undertook the reconciliation of the dif ferent divinities acknowledged amongst his people; and to this end was said to have prescribed the various orders of the early priesthood. The Pontiffs,

56 Plut., Num., 8. Cic., De Rep., II. 14.

« НазадПродовжити »