too mean repute, to be often sought, or often worth the seeking; and as there were scarcely any wages in money to be got from toils in another man's shop or upon another's farm, the houseless were, literally and entirely, the destitute. It happened, shortly after the exertions of Potelius, that a famine occurred, to destroy many and to impoverish more amongst the people. A Patrician, Lucius Minucius, was appointed Prefect of the markets, in order, as was promised, to hasten the supplies of grain and food. If he did his best to fulfil the charge he had received, he nevertheless failed to relieve the wants becoming every day more fatal. While prices were still beyond all precedent, and yet not high enough to command the grain of which there was actually no public provision in the city, a wealthy Plebeian Knight, named Spurius Mælius, threw open the abundant stores he had managed to collect through some peculiar facilities he seems to have possessed. If the common reports concerning Mælius be trusted, it appears that his bounties, however extraordinary, were very far from being disinterested. He was charged, as we shall immediately learn, with criminal or treasonable designs, which it is by no means necessary to believe; but that he was seeking for some higher position than he had, rather, however, by elevating his order than by raising himself alone, is testified by every point preserved of his brief career. Mælius was one of those who hungered after authority as keenly as the needy whom he supplied were hungering after food. On their part, they re59 VOL. I. paid him with the grateful, though it might also have been the riotous, support which the liberality of a rich man is apt to obtain among any people equally miserable. He showed, apparently at once, that he was aspiring to be Consular Tribune, or, it may be, Consul, for the ensuing year; but the elections were too close at hand to allow the instant ripening of his plans. On the contrary, instead of being elected to any honors, he was charged by the Prefect Minucius, before the Senate, with having conspired, together with his dependants, to become king; and when the Senators expressed their surprise at his having been allowed to pursue a course so suspected, one of the Consuls, the same Quinctius Capitolinus who had long before commended himself by his good-will towards the Plebeians, appears to have replied, that a Dictator had better be nominated to relieve the wants of the people and oppose the designs of Mælius, if it were necessary, by measures from which there could be no appeal. The story of Mælius would be more intelligible, undoubtedly, if Quinctius had consented, as he was solicited, to accept the dictatorship; for the proceedings against the Plebeian would then have been managed with some respect to justice. But instead of Quinctius, the appointment was given to Cincinnatus, as one whose long tried hatred to the lower estate most suited the present purpose of the violent Patricians to bring Mælius to speedy punishment. With all his passion, the old man hesitated" 44 Liv., to undertake the death of a fellow-citizen against whom there was no other proof than the accusation of Minucius, most uncertainly sustained by some appearances of ambition. But the doubts of Cincinnatus were such as he would scarcely have admitted into his mind, a few years earlier, and they were now soon overborne. He named Servilius Ahala to the mastership of the Knights, and ordered the Capitol and the fortresses of the city to be occupied by the Patricians and their retainers under arms.45 As soon as the Dictator could proceed, on the following morning, to the Forum, his master, Servilius Ahala, called Mælius forth to answer to the charge of treason. None present could have believed, however much surprised some may have been, that the Plebeian was guilty of any other crime than having sought to profit by the necessities of the poor in accomplishing the designs in which he was probably but the imitator of Canuleius or others like him. But on the one side stood the Patricians, that is, assuredly, the violent amongst them, determined, now that they had a Dictator of the same mind, to make an example of the ambitious Plebeian; while on the other were collected a multitude, in part too indifferent and in part too bewildered to give their aid to the man by whom none of their number, at least, had been directly or indirectly wronged. On being seized by one of the master's attendants, Mælius cried out to be defended; but Servilius Ahala, hot-blooded and 45 The occupation, which was most probably ordered by the Dictator, is told by Zonaras, VII. 20. impatient, dashed, with a band of armed companions, into the very centre of the crowd, and slew his victim in their sight, as in that of the Dictator. Cincinnatus gave praise to Ahala for having saved the Commonwealth, and, addressing the people, ordered them to be grateful that they had not lost their liberties, as he said, "for a few pounds of meal.” 46 The house of the murdered man was demolished, and his property confiscated to the public treasury, except his stores of corn, which were given out, at a nominal price, to the multitude. Minucius, the Prefect, in whose name the grain was distributed, gained so much popularity as to be regarded like an eleventh Tribune, according to the historian;47 but Servilius Ahala, brought to trial, three years afterwards, by one of the Tribunes,48 a namesake of the murdered Mælius, was forced to go into exile. If it had been proved that men like Mælius could not succeed in uniting their cause with that of the necessitous, the separation between the poor and the ambitious Plebeians would have seemed doomed to go unrepaired. The characteristics of the preceding are those also of the following events, through which we read, though still uncertainly, of vigor followed by inertness, and inertness turned again to vigor, amongst the factions of the Commonwealth. The inactivity 46 Liv., IV. 15. 47 This can be all that is meant by the tradition to which Livy refers, IV. 16. Minucius received other marks of favor, and finally became a Plebeian. Ibid. 48 Spurius Mælius, Tribune in A. C. 436. Liv., IV. 21. The exile is mentioned in Val. Max., V. 3. 2. of the Plebeians, more striking than any degree of energy on their part, would appear continued for years after the murder of Mælius. Of the multiplied efforts and hopes which had filled their early days and their fathers' lives, but one apparently remained. Instead of renewing the contest, as an estate, with that which still continued to be superior, the Plebeians seem to have been absorbed, if not contented, in maintaining the ground they had gained; and that, too, without attempting the fortifications, so to speak, which its defence required. The old historian is constantly repeating the same story of demands on the part of the Plebeians that Consular Tribunes should be elected for the year, in place of Consuls; but even when their point was so far gained, the conclusion of the narrative never fails to record the election of Patricians alone.49 In this manner, the lower estate was not only prevented from bolder aspirations, but was even humiliated by continual disappointment in relation to the privileges it had previously obtained. This was the effect of its own dissensions. The great defect in the Roman institutions was perceived, as far back as in the time of their formation, to be the exaggerated authority with which every principal magistrate was endowed. It resulted, 49 As, for instance, in the sixth year (A. C. 433) after the assassination of Mælius: -"Tribuni plebis, assiduis concionibus prohibendo consularia comitia, quum res prope ad interregnum perducta esset, evicere tandem, ut tribuni militum consulari potestate crearentur: victoriæ præmium, quod petebatur, ut plebeius crearetur, nullum fuit: omnes patricii creati sunt." Liv., IV. 25. |