Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed]

story to touch the feelings and secure the patriotism of the Plebeians. Once upon a time, he says, the members and organs of the body refused to labor longer in providing the great stomach in their centre with food; but after sticking awhile to their res'olution, they found they were not only starving the stomach, but famishing themselves. The fable succeeds; it sets the Patricians in a new light, and stirs the associations which bind the seceders, in spite of all their injuries, to Rome. Menenius marks the impression he has made; and when he or another of the commissioners promises relief to every debtor or bondman who shall return with honest heart, a cry, loud and prolonged, for peace, goes through the crowd.44

The terms of reconciliation were undoubtedly prepared amongst the seceders, before the coming of the Patrician embassy. Abolition of existing debts, and the institution of some Plebeian magistracy as a guard upon the consulship, were the chief demands; and their presentation proved that the fable of Menenius bore a double application, entitling the members, if they kept the stomach full, to make sure that the stomach should, in turn, impart some nourishment to them. The commissioners, however, had come with, no other offers than amnesty and discharge from debts or claims; for neither they nor the Senate had imagined there would be any further conditions proposed. Some of them, therefore, hurried back to Rome to inform the Senate of the wariness and fortitude which

44 Dion. Hal., VI. 86, 87. Near with the harangues of the histotwenty sections preceding are filled rian.

the seceders were showing, and of the necessity of granting them their present demands before they had time to be increased. The Senate assented, and as soon as their decision was reported to the envoys waiting by the hill, proclamation was made, first, that debts of all kinds were null and void, and next, that the Plebeians might have their own Tribunes when they pleased. The echo of the clamor that rose from the exulting multitude seems ringing yet across the plain, and yet to be returned in distant shouting from the people by the city, who caught the sound of the acclamations on the hill.

46

The seceders chose their first two Tribunes on the spot, and apparently at the moment of their institution. Sicinius and Junius Brutus, as the leaders of the secession, are most naturally supposed to have been rewarded by the votes, or rather by the acclamations, of their companions; becoming, as Tribunes, the leaders, also, of the return. But before leaving the hill, the joyful Plebeians built an altar, on which they offered sacrifice" to Jupiter the Terrifier, by reason, says Dionysius, of the terror through which the god had inspired them to secede.48 In their time, as in all succeeding time, the hill has borne the name of the Sacred,—in their language, Mons Sacer; a sacred landmark in the history of Roman liberty.

47" And, their wrongs redressed, at once

gave way,

45 Dion. Hal., VI. 88. Dionysius also relates the sending of an embassy from the seceders to have the terms more solemnly confirmed. 46 After Dionysius, VI. 87. Livy Poured out in thanks to Heaven.” (II. 33) mentions two other names, Licinius and Albinus.

Helmet and shield, and sword and spear, thrown down,

And every hand uplifted, every heart

Rogers's Italy.

48 Dion. Hal., VI. 90.

Again in the city was offered sacrifice, in which the seceders from the Anio and the Aventine united with many perhaps of the Patricians and most of the Plebeians, except the rich, who had remained in Rome. At the same time, a new election of Tribunes was held by the Centuries, and three more were added to the two who had been irregularly appointed on the hill; all the five being then confirmed by the Curies. It is related that the number of the new magistrates was fixed at five, in order that there might be a Tribune for each of the first five classes of the Centuries.50 Another office for the Plebeians, the ædileship, was established after their return. For a little while, at least, the Patricians were willing to be generous and the Plebeians glad to be moderate. The poor and the debtors had sufficient cause for rejoicing in what they had gained, without desiring more; and they whom the loss of debts and debtors' services, as well as the protection which the Plebeians had acquired for the future, most angered, consoled themselves with the dignity restored to them by the presence of their inferiors, and looked forward to the pride they would soon recover, when the Plebeians were once more humbled.

49 It is by no means certain that the Centuries had the election of the Tribunes; but it is improbable, to say the least, that they should have been chosen by the Curies. The Curies, apparently, confirmed the choice of the Centuries. See Dion. Hal., VI. 90. The Tribes had nothing to do with the election until

The only men in Rome to

some years afterwards. See Liv., II. 56, and the next chapter of this history.

50 Commentary of Asconius upon Cic., Pro C. Cornel., Frag., I. Cf. Liv., III. 30. See the corollary, as it were, which has been drawn from this fact, note 58.

« НазадПродовжити »