112 procuring corn,' 110 reveal the private as well as the public distresses that were experienced, and the efforts made in their alleviation. Yet, whatever were the necessities of individuals, those of the Commonwealth were always the first to be supplied. After the full brunt of the invasion had been borne, the Senate determined that the tax upon houses and lands should be doubled; and at nearly the same time, a consular proclamation was issued, with the Senate's consent, that all the corn of the year, whether ripe or unripe, should be conveyed from the fields before a certain day,112 to prevent it from going to feed the enemy, though the proprietors might be impoverished by its early gathering. On one occasion, commissioners were appointed to proceed through the various cities and towns of Italy, in order to bring out all the recruits that could be had, both under and over age. At another time, when seamen were needed, and the treasury was too much exhausted to provide for their support, an act of the Senate directed the Consuls to call upon all the richer citizens to find the sailors and their wages; 114 and the fleet was soon at sea. A few years later, the demands upon private fortunes for the like purpose were renewed; but in the interval so much had been suffered, that there was no longer the same readiness to furnish the men or the supplies required; and if the charge was made a general one, as it almost appears, 113 110 Polyb., IX. 44. 111 Liv., XXIII. 31. 113 Ibid., XXV. 5. 112 Ibid., XXIII. 32. the murmurs of the people that they had only the bare and untilled ground to give were nothing strange. Yet all men knew, as well as Senators or Consuls, that, without a fleet, there could be no defence against Carthage or Macedonia, no protection of Sardinia and Sicily; and when, at the suggestion of Valerius Lævinus, one of the Consuls, the Senators brought in their coin and plate to set an example, instead of resorting to further edicts or requisitions, there were few or none who did not imitate them and make their offerings likewise.115 These were the resources of Rome; and they were fully sufficient to parry and return the blows of any invader, were he ten times Hannibal. Nor were such measures as relieved the Commonwealth of its pecuniary or its military wants the only ones that contributed to its success. Among the most memorable incidents of the present period was the dictatorship of Marcus Fabius Buteo, elected in the year of Cannæ to that office, as the oldest of those who had been Censors, in order to fill the vacancies occasioned in the Senate by the recent disasters. A proposal to admit some of the eminent men among the Latin people to the empty places had been made; 116 but the surviving Senators united in opposing it, and probably in obtaining the nomination of Fabius Buteo. Appointed without any Master of the Knights, and at the same time that an 115 Liv., XXVI. 35, 36. The account in Val. Max., V. 6. 8, is full of animation. VOL. II. 18 116 Liv., XXIII. 22. other Dictator, formerly mentioned, Junius Pera, was in the field, Fabius came into the Forum to fulfil his duty. First addressing the people, in order to remove any doubts they might have had about his views in a matter of such importance as was intrusted to him, he ordered the list of the present Senate to be recited aloud, and then proceeded to elect, in the place of the deceased members, one hundred and seventy-seven from those who had held any high offices or signalized themselves by any especial merit since the last formal election by the Censors. This being done with great approbation on all sides, says the historian, Fabius resigned the office which had been given him for the usual term of six months; and descending from the rostra as a private citizen, he would have slipped away amongst the crowd, had they not watched him and attended him home with every mark of honor and of gratitude. There is no scene more characteristic of all the history in which we are engaged than that of this election, in which the laws of Rome were as humbly observed, on the one hand, as, on the other, the claims of her subjects, like those of the Latins to be Senators, were proudly rejected. Another name of distinguished associations is that of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who, after serving as Master of the Knights with Junius Pera, was elected Consul. In that capacity he received under his command, besides a goodly number of allied 117 Liv.., XXIII. 23. troops, a force of some eight thousand slaves, who had offered themselves as volunteers; 118 and on joining his army, his first care was necessarily to unite its various ranks, as though their length of service and their condition of life had been the same.119 In this noble purpose he so completely succeeded, that he was able to carry on his operations in Campania with great success; and at the end of the year, the command of the slaves, formed into two legions by themselves, was continued to him as Proconsul.120 He soon marched to Beneventum, and on the approach of the Carthaginian general, Hanno, Gracchus sallied forth with some soldiers of higher standing, besides the slaves, to whom he, with the previously obtained consent of the Senate,121 promised their freedom, if they did their duty in the impending action. The forces of Hanno were so superior, that the issue of the engagement was for some time doubtful; but when the Proconsul ordered it to be proclaimed, that not a man should be set free, unless the enemy were routed, the slaves, "changed into other beings," 122 drove all before them. Some who had behaved less valiantly withdrew apart by themselves, when the victory was won by their worthier comrades; but Gracchus called them all before him, and announced that every man who heard him was set at liberty, while those who had failed to do their whole duty were condemned in penance to eat 118 Volones." Festus. Liv., XXIV. 11. Cf. Val. Max., VII. 6. 1. 119 Liv., XXIII. 35. 120 Ibid., XXIV. 11. and drink standing, instead of sitting, so long as they continued in the army. Full of gratitude, the brave for their distinction, and the timid for their pardon, the army, no longer one of slaves, marched back to Beneventum to receive a welcome from the people there, and to rejoice 123 that they were free, as their fathers had been in more or less distant days. The spirit which sustained the war with Hannibal, manifest in so many ways, was likewise proved by the manner in which the elections were conducted from year to year. At the close of his third consulship, following the disastrous year of Cannæ, Fabius Maximus returned from the army to the city, where the Centuries were gathered in the Campus Martius, to make choice of his successors under his presidency, according to the usual forms, except that, as the assembly was held without the walls, the Consul could pass into it with lictors and fasces, the signs of his absolute authority. As soon as he had opened the election, the Century called the Prærogative, because it was appointed by lot to ballot before the others, who then generally followed its example by declaring for the same candidates, gave its votes for two citizens, both respectable, but neither of them eminent for services or for capacities. The presiding Consul instantly interfered, bidding the people remember the 123So pleasant was the sight of them," says Livy (XXIV. 16), in speaking of their rejoicings at Beneventum," that Gracchus, after he returned to Rome, ordered it to be painted in the temple of Liberty." The owners of the slaves refused to be paid for them until the close of the war. Liv., XXIV. 18. |