Rome. The authority of the Consuls themselves was hedged about with what were thought sufficient safeguards. Elected by the Centuries, as has been stated, they were then to be invested with their commission by the Curies and solemnly inaugurated by the Augurs in the Capitol,10 where, probably, they took the oath which was further required from them, that they would be faithful to the laws." After these various ceremonies, they could rule, or judge, or lead, as if they reigned; 12 and the similitude they bore the king of old was the more remarkable, in that the dignity, if not the authority, of their office was attached to each of the two separately, for alternate months in the city or alternate days in the field.13 One part only of the royalty was abstracted from the consulate, by the creation of the sacrificial king to preside at some of the public ceremonies of religion; 14 and the priestly power of the Consuls was confined to the auspices, in which they were entitled, however, to participate as Patricians rather than as magistrates. Politically, they were more powerful, nor only by themselves, but in connection with the Senate and 14 9 Liv., I. 60, II. 1, 2; Dion. bernacula reipublicæ," etc. Ibid., Hal., IV. 85. Pro Muren., 35. 10 Dion. Hal., II. 6. 11 An oath afterwards exacted of all the Roman magistrates:- "Magistratum autem plus quinque dies, nisi qui jurasset in leges, non licebat gerere." Liv., XXXI. 50. 12 Qui nunc regnant." Cic., De Legg., III. 2. "Summum imperium, summam auctoritatem, gu 13 Dion. Hal., IX. 43. Liv., II. 1, XXII. 41. Sometimes it was otherwise. Liv., III. 70. 14 Rex sacrificulus. He was elected in the Comitia Calata, under the presidency of the High Pontiff, to whom he was subordinate. Aul. Gell., XV. 27. Liv., II. 1. the two principal assemblies, the Curies and the Centuries,15 over all which, in the early times, their nominal supremacy extended, yet by which, likewise, they were themselves, as the agents or leaders of the Patrician order, both elected and controlled.16 It was the pleasant fiction in after days, that the Consuls appointed to these high powers were so named that they might remember the duty bounden on them above all others, to consult the good of their country.17 Through the new magistracy and the older assemblies, even through that of the Centuries, the liberty of Rome was still the possession of the Patricians.18 Nor was it merely on these political supports that their authority and their capacity were raised preëminent above their countrymen, but by their personal privileges, which gave them an exclusive hold upon the auspices and the social ties of the state they called a Commonwealth.19 Even the richer Plebeians who rose to knighthood and then to the Senate, as happened in the same year of the revolution,20 will 15 Over whose elections, especially, the Consul, as the presiding officer, could exercise great control. See Liv., III. 21. 16 See Cic., Pro Sext., 65. 17"That their chief title," writes Sir Walter Raleigh, 66 might remember them of their place, which was to be always mindful of their citizens' welfare." Hist. World, Book IV. ch. 7. "Dicti sunt ab eo quod plurimum reipublicæ consulerent." Digest. Lib. I. Tit. 2, sect. 2. "Ollis salus populi supre ma lex esto." Cic., De Legg., III. 3. 18 So Vico: "La Libertà de' Signori da' lor Tiranni, non già la Libertà del Popolo da' Signori." Scienza Nuova, Lib. I. 19" Penes principes tota respublica." Cic., De Rep., II. 37. 20 The name of the newly chosen Senators was Conscripti. Hence Patres [et] Conscripti; finally changed to Patres Conscripti. Liv., II. 1. Festus, s. V. Qui Patres. Dion. Hal., V. 13. not be worth following to their new places, so readily do most of them appear to have joined hands with the Patricians; it being, in fact, nearly certain that none were elevated but such as showed their willingness to renounce their associations with the Plebeians.21 A great deal is told us in the report, that many of the lower estate went over to the exiled king;22 for there would have been no refugees, had the Patricians used their power with any decent moderation. Yet though the Plebeians were still nearly helpless, some of the cords around them were severed; the laws of Servius were renewed; the tribunals and the festivals of olden time were restored; and some possessions in lands and stores, that appear to have belonged to the Tarquins, were soon after distributed amongst the poor.23 Weeds, as they were esteemed, the Plebeians were destined to be the better growth of Rome. With the exception of the Plebeians, whose desertion, as we have reason to suppose, to Tarquin was the only expedient they had of safety, there were no other movements in his behalf than amongst the Patricians themselves. It is of course doubtful how far any explanation can be made of the motives to discontentment, easy, indeed, to conjecture, if we remember that they who had been in the highest favor with the king would naturally be most suspiciously regarded, and perhaps most insolently treated, after 21 The order of the Knights was thus the Seminarium Senatus. Liv., XVII. 61. 22 Dion. Hal., V. 26. 23 Dion. Hal., V. 2. Plin., Nat. Hist., XVIII. 4. his flight. A conspiracy was formed, in which the sons of Brutus and the nephews of his colleague, Collatinus, engaged, to restore the exiled monarch; but the unfaithful Patricians were detected and brought to punishment. Brutus, though not obliged to sit in judgment upon his sons, chose to give his countrymen and their posterity an example of the patriotism he would have them imitate; and yet the father's heart was touched in the midst of what was considered the Consul's heroism. He was faithful, indeed, to the highest duty of which he was aware; and his name remained a watchword, as long as a Roman survived, to that unshrinking devotion to the Commonwealth which worked both the noblest and the fearfullest deeds in the history of Rome.25 The milder nature of Collatinus revolted at what he esteemed to be but barbarous obedience to the laws, and sought to save his nephews, even after Brutus had sacrificed his sons; but the people pronounced their doom, and Collatinus himself was forced to resign his consulship and go into exile. The warning against a wavering service to the Commonwealth was contained in the story of his humiliation. 24 Eminente patrio animo inter publicæ pœnæ ministerium." Liv., II. 5. Three lines from Leandro Moratin describe the other aspect of the Scene: "Mudo terror al vulgo circunstante Ocupa. Bruto se levanta y dice: 25 Μηκέτι τὰ τῶν τυράννων, ἀλλὰ Tà Tηs Tóλews poveiv, "No longer to mind the interests of tyrants, but those of the state." Dion. Hal., V. 13. 26 Plut., Publ., 3, 7. Publius Valerius, another spectator of Lucretia's death, was chosen in the room of the deposed Consul; and Brutus dying not long after, in battle against the Etruscans, Valerius became the principal personage in the Commonwealth. He was of so just a character, apparently, that many of the Patricians mistrusted his intentions towards them, or rather towards the abuses of which they were guilty; and although he made some formal concession to their authority, perhaps, as the story goes, by ordering his lictors to lower their fasces in presence of the Curies, in token of his dependence upon the order to which he belonged, nevertheless, when the Patricians, or the better disposed, showed that they were ready to follow him, he brought his famous laws before the Centuries. Two evils appear to have been most urgently in need of a remedy, or rather two in one, which was the long as the Pa insecurity of the Commonwealth, so tricians were maltreating the Plebeians, and the members of both classes were leaning towards a reconciliation with the dethroned king. Accordingly, Valerius proposed two laws, -one granting the right of appeal "from a magistrate," as the phrase was, "to the people,”-the other forbidding the election of any magistrate unless by general consent, with more especial penalties against attempts to restore the fallen 27 Only apparently; for the common story ran, that his building a great house of stone upon the Velian hill above the Forum was the cause of their suspicion. But the same story made him out so poor that he left nothing to pay for his funeral. Val. Max., IV. 4. 1. Liv., III. 16. |