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the broken wall was that, likewise, of some old principles, for some time tottering. The season of distress that came with the Gaulish invasion was not the most favorable to the luxuriance of the Patricianism sunned by so many summers and braced by so many winters of existence. No memories of greatness could mend the shattered image, or restore the flame to the desecrated hearth-stone; nor could any pride of blood bring plenty and order back into the midst of ruin and almost utter desolation. The work to be done required the strength to labor for one's self, or the means to pay the labor of other men; and the poor Patrician was of nearly as little consequence as the poor Plebeian. It is true that the change in individual circumstances, however sudden, might not have been wide enough to create any general revolution amongst the classes or estates at large; the more so, as the Patricians were the rich men of the city and the landholders of the country in greater numbers than the Plebeians. But it will soon be plainer that the authority in the Commonwealth is passing from the hands of the noble to those of the wealthy citizens.

At the same time that the rich were growing more powerful, the poor were becoming more miserable. All the old burdens of taxes and debts were replaced and augmented; and, as in former times, the energies of men and the cares of women were absorbed almost to the lees in the wastes which war kept open and arid. One year, the tenth from the invasion, the Tribunes appear earnest in demanding a new

Census,18 in order both to ascertain the extent of the obligations in which the needy were involved, and to obtain some relief or equity in the apportionment of taxes, which had now long since depended upon the pleasure of the Censors. Within two years more, the Tribunes are seen to resist an enlistment, and urge, as the condition of submitting to it, that none who go to war shall be taxed or sued until the campaign is ended.1 From the same causes the same consequences followed; the anger of the poor would be as little tempered by reason as by benevolence; and the flame on into faction and wrong.

that of the rich

both sides burst

Allusion has been made to the probability that the two Patricians whose names give to our chapter its title were personally or politically opposed. When Manlius Capitolinus was in the full exercise of the consulship, two years, as has been said, before the irruption of the Gauls, he was seized, together with his colleague, by an epidemic then prevailing throughout the city. On their recovery, the Consuls were required by the Senate to abdicate, as if on account of their illness, in any event, a pretext, — and Camillus was appointed the first Interrex to succeed them, until his term should expire or new magistrates be appointed.20 On comparing this account with that already given concerning the exile of Camillus in the following year, it does not seem to be an irregular inference, that, of the two parties

18 Liv., VI. 27. 19 Ibid., VI. 31.

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20 Ibid., V. 31.

existing, as of yore, amongst the Patricians, the moderate and the extreme, Camillus belonged to one, and Manlius to the other. As for the adherents of either, or the other factions in the Commonwealth, it is nearly impossible to define them, except in the most general terms. Most of the richer or more eminent Plebeians, having now obtained admission to the Senate through the quæstorship, would side with their new associates according to their own tempers; and many as yet without the circle of the privileged assembly would follow their example. The majority of the Plebeians were unquestionably poor, and probably formed the largest, if not the bravest or the wisest, party of the citizens.

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It is recorded, six years or thereabouts after the capture of Rome, that Manlius Capitolinus became, in the historian's phrase, a "popular man," 21 that is to say, a supporter of the Plebeians, and, as appears from the subsequent narrative, of the poor Plebeians. We might as well look into the ocean to see what may be hid beneath its waves, as to try the depths of this man's heart, and be sure that we are right in our estimation of his designs. His contemporaries or his posterity accused him of vanity and treason, such as seem beneath the hero, even the heathen hero, that he had been in his more successful days; and we may perhaps discover, or think we discover, that he was unjustly charged. In the relation preserved, he is represented as having sought the co

21 Popularis factus." Liv., VI. 11.

operation of the Tribunes, and having introduced some propositions of dividing lands and relieving debts amongst the poor.22 A Dictator was then appointed in the person of Cornelius Cossus, an extreme Patrician, with the ostensible charge of repelling the united forces of several hostile nations; but no one doubted, least of all Manlius, that the power of the Dictator was to be mainly employed, as it had often been under similar circumstances, at home. The moderate Patricians do not appear on either side. Manlius, however, went on from words to deeds; one day, saving a Centurion from imprisonment by paying the debts for which the man had been arrested, and then, delighted by the gratitude of the people, continuing his kind offices by parting with the bulk of his patrimony in order to relieve the miserable.

The motives of Manlius, even in respect to these acts of benevolence, were represented as vilely selfish, and even treacherous to the public interests. He was thought to be a more dangerous enemy than the combined armies in the field; and Cornelius Cossus was summoned to return against him. On being ordered to appear before the Dictator, Manlius obeyed, not only without evasion, but with some eagerness to show that he was supported, as his enemies would say, and able to brave the highest authority of the Commonwealth; but his readiness to come forward with equal propriety, be interpreted as the con

may,

22 Appian., De Reb. Ital., IX.

sciousness of innocence, though not, it is probable, of any charity towards his adversaries. His followers, of whom a goodly number attended him, to the great dissatisfaction of his opponents, do not seem to have had any instruction from him, or any intent of their own, to defend him by force; and when, on being charged with holding meetings by night, and engaging in various disorderly practices, he failed to satisfy the Dictator, he was committed to prison, without any other resistance than an appeal to the deities of the Capitol, that they would protect their soldier and defender.2

23

The greater part of the Plebeians, as the story ran, assumed the signs of mourning and even of seditious indignation. Two thousand of their number were promised lands in one of the newly conquered towns; but the boon was too small to satisfy them, whether they were traitors or friends to their fallen benefacCossus retired from the dictatorship, probably on account of its term having expired; and the clamor of the people increasing on the disappearance of him and his twenty-four lictors, the Senate were obliged to release their prisoner, lest the crowds increasing round the prison night and day should effect his liberation by their own means.

Even if Manlius had been truly generous in his intentions, before the outrage he must have considered himself as having suffered in his confinement, he would nevertheless come forth from prison with

23 Liv., VI. 16.

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