public dominion that the Roman devoted his energies of body and mind, to the neglect of private excellence and domestic peace. He served his party more zealously than he served his country, and sacrificed to its triumph more noble thoughts and more generous deeds than any state could have ever been imagined, even under heathenism, to prohibit as perilous to its general prosperity. It is easy to discern that the condition of a people, thus doubly harassed by public duties, must have been embittered by much suffering and many imperfections amongst its individual members; and it will hence be comparatively simple to comprehend the principles and the circumstances which are now to be described.

3

The personal relations existing amongst the freeborn Romans and between the Patricians and their clients have long since been defined; but in the two centuries between the Patrician revolution and the completion of Plebeian liberty by the Ogulnian laws, other classes have appeared, and so increased, that we can go no farther without some knowledge of their distinctions and their numbers.

The freedmen and their families constituted an intermediate class between the free and the slaves by birth. Set at liberty, sometimes by the generosity or the justice of his master, and sometimes by the public authorities, the freedman was then invested with rights which varied according to the time and the

3 "For Romans in Rome's quarrel Spared neither land nor gold,

Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life"; nor in their own quarrels, either,

might have been added by Mr. Macaulay.

4 See Book I. ch. 4.

degree of selfishness, even in those who have longest. suffered from the selfishness of others, but, much more practically, by means of the particular principles at this time prevalent in public life at Rome. The man who sought to do his duty was not instructed to make himself better, or to increase the happiness of those who were dependent upon his labor or his affection; he saw but one way to distinction, and that he pursued, with the name of his country on his lips, over the corpses of the battlefield, or through the passions of the Forum. The hope he lived for, according to the laws of his gods and his ancestors, was glory; nor was it often allowed him to see that the good or the glory of any other individual was necessary to be consulted with his own. All the self-forgetfulness to which he could attain was when the claims of his country or of his party reached his ear; the loudest appeal of his fellow-men, as such, upon his justice or his love was never raised above a whisper, nor ever heard but as a menace. In respect to his party, he was bound to make every effort that could increase its authority, which was never to be surrendered or divided amongst its adversaries, nay, which, as sometimes happened, was to be refused its own partisans, especially if of a lower order. Any natural benevolence of the public man gave way to these uniform aims, comprised, as partly stated, in political power, that is, in civil authority and in military dominion, the same whether individually, factiously, or, as would be said, patriotically, desired. Perhaps the course of the popular

party will now appear to have been more naturally directed towards political ends through narrow channels.

It is a much more agreeable office to record the testimonies at this time presenting themselves in favor of the popular party, concerning its appreciation of the personal immunities which belonged to all classes of citizens. The same year in which the Ogulnian law completed the political equality of the Plebeians with the Patricians, Marcus Valerius, perhaps the same Valerius Corvus whom we have met before,18 and, if so, now in his fifth consulship, brought up the laws concerning appeal, which bore his family name, to be reënacted. The language of the historian implies the motive of their confirmation 19 to have arisen from the power which the few possessed to the peril of the common liberty; 20 and it suits precisely with the character of Valerius Corvus that he should assure the lower classes of protection under the same laws which had protected those who were now amongst the superior citizens.

It may have been from a similar policy with the party of which Valerius was a great ornament,21 that two more Tribes were very soon afterwards enrolled

18 But, perhaps, a certain Marcus haud aliam fuisse reor, quam quod Valerius Maximus. plus paucorum opes, quam libertas plebis poterant." Liv., X. 9.

19 The second that had taken place, according to Liv., IX. 9, III. 55. But the same privilege of appeal was also introduced into the Twelve Tables. See Ch. III.

20 Causam renovandæ sæpius

21 He was again Consul in the next year (Liv., X. 11), after which he appears no more in active service, though he lived to enjoy a glorious old age.

from some of the lately conquered Italians; 22 though it must be confessed that the newly registered citizens, who could and did come up to Rome from month to month, or from week to week, were, generally speaking, of the same class and the same opinions as the popular, or even, in many cases, as the Patrician party.

The very year in which the new Tribes were admitted, the wars that had for an instant lulled broke out again in Etruria 23 with their former fury, soon spreading into Samnium,24 then into Umbria,25 and even rousing the Sabines 26 from the peace they had long preserved. It is fortunately unnecessary, in this place, to describe the victories or to eulogize the heroes of these various contests; but there are one or two scenes to be transferred from the midst of violence and restless efforts, because they indicate the higher character that was of natural growth under the liberty of Rome.

Three years after the renewal of the wars,27 Lucius Volumnius, a Plebeian of great distinction and of high alliance, was elected Consul with Appius Claudius, the former Censor; both having held the same office together ten years before. The contrast between the colleagues is the contrast between the two great shades of Roman ambition, - the one being a claim to authority, and the other a desire of The war was now at its height, both in

renown.

Etruria and in Samnium; and while the campaign in the former country fell to the charge of Appius, Volumnius was intrusted with that against the Samnites. He began his operations with great brilliancy; 29 but Appius lost ground in Etruria, and brought his army into a miserable plight of uncertainty and ill-will, foreboding the worst results, when Volumnius suddenly appeared with a large force before the camp of his colleague, by whom, he said, he had been hastily summoned. Of this there could be no doubt; but Appius, as if to escape the imputation of alarm or mismanagement, denied that he had sent for Volumnius, and so slighted him, indeed, in return for his friendliness or his activity, that Volumnius would have straightway returned to Samnium, had not the soldiers besought him to remain until a nearly impending engagement should be fought and won. Most men, most Romans at least, would have left their colleagues, if like Appius, to their fate; but Volumnius stayed to lead the charge in the battle, which soon became a victory; and then marched back to his province, returning, at the proper season, to hold the elections at Rome for the ensuing year.

The story of his moderation and his bravery had prepared his welcome and confirmed his fame. Before calling the Centuries, in form, he addressed the people upon the magnitude of the wars in which they were involved, and the necessity of choosing

28 Liv., X. 18.