definite, only becomes the more impossible. This was indeed perceived by Dionysius of Halicarnassus; but, instead of admitting the conclusion, he makes arbitrary amendments in the data.* We cannot make out a true and consistent history by eliminating the improbabilities of these legends, or by selecting from the interpretations of the ancients that which may seem to us the most reasonable. But, by a careful comparison of language, antiquities, institutions, traditions, and other real elements of fact, illustrated by light reflected on them by the legends, we can arrive at certain broad conclusions. The chief of these have been indicated as we have proceeded. They may be summed up in the steady growth of the city, till it became the head of Latium, on the one hand, and derived wealth and commercial importance from its connection with Etruria on the other. A constitution, based on a patriarchal aristocracy, with an elective monarchy at its head, was modified by the introduction of new elements, chiefly from the conquered Latin states, till the necessity arose for a new military organization and a new distribution of political power among all classes of the citizens.

But, as we have already seen in the states of Greece, the first confusion incident to the admission of the commons to a share of power, gave an opportunity for the establishment of despotism; and the excesses of this despotism led to its speedy overthrow. But here was the great difference between the fall of the Greek tyrants and the Roman kings. The former were mere usurpers; the latter were the natural leaders of the people, who had indeed abused their power for a time, but whose loss left an injurious void in the constitution. The immediate effect of their expulsion on the common people cannot be better described than in the words of Mr. Newman :-"The great cause of the prosperity of the city, was that the kings had headed the movement party for enfranchising and elevating the lower classes. . . Upon the destruction of royalty, the lower population discovered that they had lost their patron, and were exposed to hundreds of tyrants. All the early history of the Roman republic is a long struggle of the commonalty to regain for itself a powerful protector: and, after a time, the success of the plebeians was complete. But Rome continued to conquer; hence, outside of the plebeians fresh and fresh masses of subjects lay, who had no organs of protection, until the Roman

*

See the complete summary of these chronological absurdities-which are manifest especially in the ages of the leading persons of the story-in Professor Malden's History of Rome, pp. 56, 57.

constitution was violently subverted, and emperors arose. From these, at length, the population of the provinces gradually obtained the gift of Roman citizenship, which ought to have been long before granted by free Rome, in order to preserve her own freedom. It was conquest that ruined the later republic; and conquest, apparently, also that ruined royal Rome. When the victories of Ancus and Tarquin enlarged the state so rapidly, not to have enfranchised the new subjects would have weakened it from within; yet by enfranchising them, Tarquin and Servius produced a discontent in the old citizens, which exploded into violence, and wrecked the constitution under Tarquin the Proud. If Brutus and Collatinus, instead of abolishing the royalty, had restored it with all the formalities of interregal election, but with such limitations as experience suggested, we now see that it would have been far better for the plebeians of Rome. The wicked deed of Sextus Tarquinius did not need royal power; it might have been perpetrated by any man who wore a sword. But it was attributed to the inherent haughtiness of royal blood, and the question of raising some one else to the throne was never even moved at all. In consequence, the plebeians were suddenly left without legal representatives. No man of their body was capable of holding office, because he was essentially inadmissible to patrician religion. It was soon manifested that, while excluded from executive government, possession of legislative power was a mockery: unfortunate war forced them to incur debt, and the penalties of debt were rigorously enforced. Art and skill migrated from Rome when her arms could no longer defend the industrious, and rudeness so great came over the city of the Tarquins, that sheep and oxen became the current coin of a community which, but a little before, had made a treaty of commerce with Carthage. Under an exclusive patrician caste, Rome sank more rapidly than she had risen; until tyrannical powers, vested in tumultuous tribunes, became an alleviation of the intolerable evils caused by the loss of the elective king. For the destruction of the monarchy did not come in the ripeness of time, when monarchy had finished its work, and the lower people had gained the power of self-defence. It was the explosion of rage against an institution because of personal iniquity; and it became the prelude to a century and a half of suffering to the plebeians.'

Newman's Regal Rome, pp. 169-171.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE PATRICIAN REPUBLIC-FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE TARQUINS TO THE INVASION OF THE GAULS.

B.C. 509 TO B.C. 390.

"Then the great Consuls venerable rise:
The public Father, who the private quelled,
As on the dread tribunal, sternly sad :

He, whom his thankless country could not lose,

Camillus, only vengeful to her foes;

Fabricius, scorner of all-conquering gold;

And Cincinnatus, awful from the plough."-THOMSON.

BEGINNING OF THE REPUBLIC-INSTITUTION OF THE CONSULATE-BRUTUS AND COLLATINUS CONSULS-RETIREMENT OF COLLATINUS-CONSPIRACY FOR THE TARQUINS-BRUTUS AND HIS SONS-DEATH OF BRUTUS-VALERIUS POPLICOLA-RIGHT OF APPEAL-TREATY WITH CARTHAGE-DEDICATION OF THE CAPITOL-LEGEND OF LARS PORSENNA-BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS SABINE WAR-IMMIGRATION OF THE CLAUDII-END OF THE MYTHICAL PERIOD OF ROMAN HISTORY REAL STATE OF ROME-CONQUEST BY PORSENNA-REPULSE OF THE ETRUSCANS-INDEPENDENCE OF LATIUM-INSTITUTION OF THE DICTATORSHIP THE SENATE-RISE OF A NEW NOBILITY-THE CONSTITUTION ARISTOCRATIC-POSITION OF THE PLEBEIANS-DISTRESS OF THE SMALL LANDHOLDERS -CONSULSHIP OF CLAUDIUS AND SERVILIUS-M. VALERIUS DICTATOR-SECESSION TO THE SACRED MOUNT-TRIBUNES OF THE PLEBS AND PLEBEIAN EDILES-COLONY SENT TO VELITRE-CONTINUED DISSENSIONS-LEGEND OF CORIOLANUS-SPURIUS CASSIUSTREATIES WITH THE LATINS AND HERNICANS-WARS WITH THE VOLSCIANS AND EQUIANS AGRARIAN LAW OF SPURIUS CASSIUS HIS DEATH-WARS WITH THE

ETRUSCANS-LEGEND OF THE FABII AT THE CREMERA-IMPEACHMENT OF CONSULS MURDER OF THE TRIBUNE GENUCIUS PUBLILIAN LAW-IMPEACHMENT OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS-ROGATION OF TERENTILIUS-LONG CONFLICT OF THE ORDERS-EQUIAN

AND

VOLSCIAN WARS-STORY OF CINCINNATUS-THE DECEMVIRS LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES-STORY OF VIRGINIA-SECOND SECESSION OF THE PLEBS-FALL OF THE DECEMVIRS-VALERIAN AND HORATIAN LAWS-MILITARY TRIBUNES IN PLACE OF CONSULS-INSTITUTION OF THE CENSORSHIP FAMINE AT ROME-DEATH OF MÆLIUSWAR WITH THE ETRUSCANS, EQUIANS, AND VOLSCIANS VICTORY AT MOUNT ALGIDUS -RISE OF THE SAMNITES-FALL OF FIDENE-LAST WAR WITH VEII-DRAINING OF THE ALBAN LAKE-LEGEND OF CAMILLUS AND THE FALL OF VEII-AGRARIAN LAWBANISHMENT OF CAMILLUS-THE GAULS IN ETRURIA-DECLINE OF THE ETRUSCANS.

ROME was delivered from the tyrant and his house. The Patricians lifted their heads once more: the lower orders rejoiced in the cessation of their forced burthens. The common sense of freedom disposed both orders to co-operate in the restoration of order; and a common basis was furnished in the revival of the Comitia Centuriata. The forms of the constitution were scrupulously observed. Though the royal family had been expelled, and the name of king abolished, the first step taken was to fill up the place thus left vacant at the head of the state by the intervention of an Interrex, as of old: Spurius Lucretius was appointed to this function, either in virtue of his office as warden of the city,

or by the vote of the decimated Senate. He convened the people in the assembly of the Centuries, for the election of new chief magistrates. The change now made was of a very simple character. By putting two elective magistrates in the place of one, and leaving each in full possession of the powers of the former kings, independently of the other, a constant mutual check was provided against tyrannical usurpation. Their dignity was still marked by the chair of state* and the other insignia of royalty, except the diadem. Even the fasces and axes were retained, as the emblem of military power; but they were borne by the twelve lictors only before one of the two magistrates, each for a month in turn. There was, however, no corresponding alternation in the exercise of their power, and no division of their functions, except such as convenience might suggest; as when one remained to administer justice in the city while the other was engaged abroad in war. It does not seem even to have been an essential condition of the office, that it should be held only for a year; and, though this restriction was established by custom from the very first, the consulship did not expire of itself at the lapse of that period. It was only vacated by the magistrate's formally laying down his office; nor does it appear that an attempt to prolong its tenure, however unconstitutional, would have been positively illegal. The repeated elections of the same man in the first years of the republic (as in the case of P. Valerius Poplicola, who held office for four of the seven years before his death, three of them in succession) show a tendency to a longer tenure; but the accident of the deaths of two chief magistrates and the abdication of one, in the very first year of the republic, may have helped to establish the precedent of an annual election. In conformity with the military character of the Roman state, these two chief magistrates were at first named Prætorst (that is, generals): from their judicial functions they were called Judices: and from their equal authority they received that famous name of CONSULS (that is, colleagues), which did not prevail over the title of Prætor till

* The sella curulis, a term not derived (as is often said) from currus, a chariot, but probably of the same root as curia. It was inlaid with ivory and, in later times, overlaid with gold. Its form, often shown on coins, was a square stool, with curved cross legs. It pertained to all the higher magistracies, which were hence called curule. The royal chariot and purple robe were disused: the consuls walked on foot (except in a triumph) like other citizens, and wore a robe with only a purple hem (the toga prætexta).

+ Literally leaders, those who go before, from præ and co. The judicial officers, who afterwards bore the name of prætors, were first appointed in B.C. 366.

The true etymology of this word is from con (together), and the root which

the restoration of the office, after its interruption by the decemvirs, in the 305th year of the city (B.C. 449). The celebrity, however, of this latter title has caused it to be used from the beginning of the history of the republic.

The consular office, then, as Mommsen observes, "manifestly sprang out of the endeavour to retain the regal power in legally undiminished fulness." But, after all that has been said of the elective character of the Roman royalty, we cannot but trace a sort of reverence for the patriarchal sanctity of the office, the "divinity doth hedge a king," which was not fully transferred to the consuls, as it has never been to Protector, Stadtholder, President, or even to imperial adventurers. This was especially manifested in relation to the religious functions of the king, and his power of nominating the priests. For the sacrifices that he had been accustomed to offer, as the patriarchal head of the state, special provision was now made; and the conservative spirit of the Roman religion was shown in retaining for this religious officer the otherwise proscribed name of King. But, lest he should be tempted to aim at extending the meaning of the title, he paid the price of the great honours belonging to his office by incapacity for all civil functions. Even in his religious duties, he was subject to the supreme authority of the chief pontiff. The "Sacrificial King" was at once the first in rank and the least in power of all the Roman magistrates. In every other use, the title of King was ever abhorred by the Roman people with an almost fanatic hatred; and the first act of the new consuls, after they had purified the city, was to bind all the people by the oath, already sworn by Brutus over the body of Lucretia, that they would suffer no man ever again to be King in Rome.

It was natural that the first consular election should fall upon Brutus, the hero of the revolution, and L. Tarquinius Collatinus, whose great wrong had been its immediate occasion. The choice of the latter was likely to conciliate the moderate partisans of the exiled family. But the public indignation proved too strong to endure the very name of a Tarquin, and Brutus himself made a appears in sed-eo (sit), sel-la and sol-ium (a seat), con-sil-ium (counsel), ex-sul (an exile, whose abode is out of the state), præ-sul (a president).

* Rex Sacrorum, king of the sacrifices. Just so, at Athens, the second archon, who presided over the public worship of the state, was called the King Archon (&pxwv Baoiλeús). Other royal prerogatives were abolished, as the enacting of forced labour to till the domain, the delegation of the military power to the Præfectus Urbi and the Tribunus Celerum, and of the judicial to the Quastores Parricidii. The latter now became permanent magistrates.