A History of the Roman World (67 page)

2
E
ARLY PLEBEIAN CONSULS
? The general problem of the Fasti and their reliability is discussed elsewhere (ch. xix), but we must face here the question of the apparently plebeian names in the early Fasti. At one time they were totally rejected even by many who believed that in other respects the lists might be more or less reliable: the ground of the rejection was the belief that no plebeian could have held the consulship at this time of patrician privilege, and that therefore their presence was due either to later interpolation arising from family pride (to have ancestors who ‘came over with the Normans’) or else that they were in fact names of patrician
gentes
who later died out and then reappeared as plebeians. In more recent years many have been prepared to grant them greater credibility, based partly on the assumption that the political distinction between patricians and plebeians had not reached its peak so early (see, e.g., A. Bernardi,
Rendicont. Istituto Lombardo
, lxxix (1945–6), 1 ff.; H. Last’s paper in
JRS
, 1945, 30 ff. was important as emphasizing the late closing of the patrician ranks). A
neat solution would be to suppose that these consuls were
conscripti
, neither patricians nor plebeians, if the theory of A. Momigliano could be accepted: see above, ch. ii, n. 34. The difficulty of disentangling the patrician or plebeian status of certain families at different periods of history is examined by I. Shatzman,
Cl. Qu.
, 1973, 65 ff., in regard to the Veturii in the context of the early Fasti.
    The Fasti give 12 plebeian consuls for 509–486, none in the years 485–470 (when the Fabii dominated the scene with consulships in seven consecutive years, and no Etruscan names appear), one in 469, none again until 461, and five in the 450s; then the Decemvirate interposed. The early years of the Republic were obviously very disturbed with the intervention of Porsenna and with pro- and anti-Etruscan groups no doubt in competition (not to mention the effect of external Latin threats on internal politics). Thus J. Heurgon (
Rise of
R., 164 f.) would explain the Fasti as representing a compromise which resulted from an alliance between plebeians and some of the Etruscans
vis-à-vis
the patricians, Whatever may be thought of this, once the new Republic began to settle down the patricians clearly strengthened their hold upon the supreme magistracy, at any rate until 461, whether or not plebeians had any legal claim to it.

3
P
ROVOCATIO
. According to Livy (ii, 8, 2) P. Valerius Publico la carried a law in 509 which established the right of appeal (
provocatio
) from the magistrates to the people (
iudicium populi
, i.e. the Comitia Centuriata acting as a court of law in capital cases). But since similar laws were said to have been passed later (Twelve Tables, 450; Valerian-Horatian laws, 449: Lex Valeria of 300) many scholars believe that the right was not established as early as 509. The procedure was that a victim of a magistrate’s
coercitio
appealed to the people which either confirmed or rejected the magistrate’s sentence. Some suggest that the magistrate at first did not pass judgement but referred the question of guilt direct to the popular assembly, while W. Kunkel (
Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung des röm. Kriminalverfahrens
(1962) has argued that only political offences against the state were referred to the
iudicia populi
and that ordinary crimes were handled by a praetor or a
triumvir capitalis
. A. H. M. Jones (
The Criminal Courts of the Roman Republic
(1972), ch. i) has defended the traditional viewpoint. For the various laws
de provocatione
see E. S. Staveley,
Historia
(1955), 412 ff.

4
I
MPERIUM
. On the nature of
imperium
see E. S. Staveley,
Historia
, 1956, 107 ff.

5
R
EX SACRORUM
. See A. Momigliano,
Quarto Contrib
, 395 ff.,
Quinto Contrib.
, 309 ff. The
reges sacrorum
, found in other Latin towns (Tusculum, Lavinium, Velitrae, and perhaps Alba), may have been established there at the time when they were losing their kings, as at Rome. The word
rex
was found on a
bucchero
vase found in the Regia in recent excavations. The
rex
was chosen by the Pontifex Maximus in the second century
BC
(Livy, xl, 42), yet he retained precedence in processions where the pontifex maximus took only fifth place, and pontifical decisions in 270 were still dated by the name of the
rex
(this also suggests that years in the regal period had been numbered as regnal years, as happened at Caere where the Pyrgi inscription refers to the third year of Thefarias; cf. Momigliano, op. cit.).

6
P
ATRICIAN NUMBERS K
. J. Beloch,
Röm. Gesch.
, 221, reckons the patricians as less than one-tenth of the free population of Rome
c.
500
BC
.

7
D
ICTATORSHIP
. On its origin and the various modern theories about this see E. S. Staveley,
Historia
, 1956, 101 ff.

8
G
REEK POTTERY
. See E. Gjerstad,
Early Rome
, (1966), 514 ff. Athenian trade with the Etruscan cities also declined, but not to the same extent as that with Rome.

9
U
SURY
. According to Tacitus (
Ann.
, vi, 16, 3) the decemvirs in 451
BC
fixed the minimum rate of interest at
unciarium fenus
, which if the interest was annual amounted to 8½ per cent, if monthly to 100 per cent. Livy, however, assigns the law to 357
BC
. A passage in
Cato (
de agri cultura, ad. init.
) may imply that he thought that loans at usury were forbidden in early Rome.

10
N
EXUM
. Details are obscure, partly because the system was abolished towards the end of the fourth century. It was very difficult for the bondsman (
nexus
) to escape from his condition, which was permanent until a third party could be found to buy back the bondsman from the creditor and so release him. See M. I. Finley,
Revue d’ Histoire du Droit
(1965), 159 ff. and Ogilvie,
Livy
, 296 ff. Cf. also A. Watson,
Rome of the XII Tables
(1976), ch. ix.

11
F
OOD SHORTAGES AND DISEASE
. Corn shortages are recorded for the years 508, 496, 492, 486, 477, 476, 456, 453, 440, 433 and 411. Despite some possible inaccuracies the main record is likely to be true, since Cato tells us (frg. 77P) that corn shortages were registered in the
annales
, i.e. the Tabula Pontificum. In the 490s the cult of the corn goddess Ceres, whose centres were at Cumae and Sicily, was established at Rome, while trade with western Sicily, which was under Punic control, will have been helped by Rome’s treaty with Carthage. The account of a Roman embassy sent to Sicily in 491–0 (Dion. Halic, vii, 1–2) may well be reliable, since it probably derives from a Greek source independent of the Roman tradition. See Ogilvie,
Livy
, 256 f., 291, 321.
    Epidemics are recorded in 490, 466, 463, 453, in six years in the 430s, and in 428, 412, 411, 399, 392, and 390 (malaria, anthrax?); for references and discussion see Ogilvie,
Livy
, 394 f.

12
M
AELIUS, SERVILIUS AND MINUCIUS
. The story of Maelius is quite probably historical since it antedates the troubles arising from the corn supply in the time of Gaius Gracchus: it was recorded by Cincius
c.
200
BC
. Servilius acted either as a private citizen or (according to a later tradition) as a Magister Equitum: see A. W. Lintott,
Historia
, 1970, 12 ff. Minucius was
praefectus
(?
urbi
) in 440 and 439 according to the
Libri Lintei
(these were early lists of magistrates, written on linen and kept in the temple of Juno Moneta: see R. M. Ogilvie,
JRS
(1958), 40 ff.). He was later honoured with a column and statue for a subsequent distribution of corn: the column is depicted on
denarii
of
c.
134
BC
(Crawford,
RRC
(1974), 242–43), but was not set up before the fourth century (Momigliano,
Quarto Contrib.
, 329 ff.). A later Minucius (M. Minucius Rufus, consul in 110) built a porticus Minucius which was used for corn distributions in the Roman Empire. Thus both Maelius and Minucius may be accepted as historical figures, though the connection between them is not beyond doubt. See Ogilvie,
Livy
, 550 f.

13
SP.
CASSIUS
. For an analysis of his story see Ogilvie,
Livy
, 337 ff. A. W. Lintott,
Historia
, 1970, 18 ff. argues that in the original story Cassius was put to death by his father by virtue of the latter’s
patria potestas
, and that his formal trial and conviction for treason (
perduellio
) was a later form.

14
T
HE FIRST SECESSION
. The historicity of this movement is defended by Ogilvie,
Livy
, 309 ff.

15
L
EX PUBLILIA
. In view of the importance of what was enacted in 471, Publilius Volero may well be a historical character, although some have seen in him only a doublet of Publilius Philo, dictator in 339. Livy ii, 56, 2 says that the right to elect plebeian magistrates was given to the Comitia Tributa; this should probably be the Concilium Plebis. Perhaps the concessions attributed to Publilius were the result of a secession.

16
C
OMITIA TRIBUTA POPULI
. The existence of this Comitia, as distinct from the purely plebeian Concilium Plebis Tributum, was first shown by Mommsen. For the evidence see A. H. J. Greenidge,
Roman Public Life
(1901), 443 ff; E. S. Staveley,
Athenaeum
, 1955, 3 ff. Some scholars, however, maintain that there was only one tribal assembly, from which the patricians were excluded: they are therefore forced to postulate that the patricians were admitted at some unrecorded date, perhaps in 287.

17 T
HE TRIBUNES
. See G. Niccolini,
Il tribunato della plebe
(1932). According to Varro (
de ling. Lat.
, v, 91) they derived from the military tribunes, but E. Meyer (
Kleine Schriften
, i, 333 ff.) argued that they had been administrative officers of the tribes.

18
T
HE DECEMVIRS
. The problems involved are discussed by Ogilvie,
Livy
, 451 ff. Cicero (
de rep.
, ii, 61 ff.) and Dionysius state that the decemvirs remained in office for three years. Cicero tells nothing of the fierce struggle that led up to their establishment. On Appius and the plebeians see De Sanctis,
SR
, ii, 47 ff.

19
T
HE TWELVE TABLES
. Their authenticity has withstood the attacks of modern scholars, e.g. of E. Pais (
Ricerche sulla storia e sul diritto pubblico di Roma
, i (1915)) who assigned them to the end of the fourth century, and of E. Lambert (
Revue hist., de droit franc. et étranger
, 1902) who placed them at the beginning of the second. The original tables, set up in the Roman Forum, have of course perished, but the code has been partially reassembled from quotations in ancient writers. These fragments are collected in Riccobono,
Fontes
, 23 ff., and elsewhere; for a translation see Lewis-Reinhold,
Rn. Civ.
, i, 102 ff.; for discussion, H. F. Jolowicz,
A Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law
, edn 2, (1972), chs vii–xii, F. Wiencker, ‘Die XII Tafeln in ihrem Jahrhundert’,
Entretiens Hardt
, xiii (1966), 293 ff. See also A. Watson,
Rome of the XII Tables
(1976), which deals with the law of persons and property.

20
T
HE VALERIO-HORATIAN LAWS
. According to Livy (iii, 55) these laws (a) restored the right of appeal, (b) gave
plebiscita
the force of law, (c) reaffirmed the sacrosanctity of the tribunes: