Streams of History: Ancient Rome (Yesterday's Classics) (3 page)

"Only a few years ago," he continued, "the plebeians were treated so badly that they marched out of Rome in a body, to the Sacred Mount not far from Rome, where they thought they would make a city for themselves and let Rome fight her own battles; but the patricians promised, if they would come back, that the plebeians might have officers, called tribunes, to protect them from wrong. These tribunes left the doors of their houses open day and night, so that any who sought refuge might find it in their homes; and the patrician senate agreed, also, that the tribunes might stand at the door of the senate and forbid the passage of any law which would oppress the poor people. We are still struggling for our rights, my boy, and I hope by the time you are a man things will be so that you may be a priest, but now only the patricians can be selected; and now you know also why you have never visited the senate."

The father told Marius all this, but he did not tell him what would happen if the mountaineers should come down upon them and destroy their crops, and attack the valley farmers and then Rome. But Marius was soon to know. Only the next week, not long after harvest, messengers were sent by the Roman consuls out among the Roman farmers to summon to Rome all men who were able to fight. One of the consuls then led them to battle against the people who lived in the surrounding mountains, but not till the army, which had gathered at Rome, went to the temple of Mars and offered sacrifices and asked the help of the god whom they thought went always before them in battle. Marius' father offered wheat to Mars for the protection of the cattle, fields and flocks, and a measure of barley to Vesta for the safe-keeping of his wife and children, and departed for the war. He was gone several months, and in spite of the fact that Marius and the rest of the family worked faithfully on the little farm, offered sacrifices each day on the hearth-stone to Vesta and Mars, to protect their father, their home and their crops, when the father returned his farm had been overrun and plundered by the rude shepherds and mountaineers who swept down from the upland hollows, buildings were destroyed, fields laid waste, and the little herd of sheep and goats driven away. But the father, who had fought so bravely in the war, struggled yet more bravely to support his family and save his little farm. In order that the family might have food and clothing when winter came, he was compelled to borrow money from a wealthy patrician; for as I told you, he received no pay for serving in the army, and since his crops and stock had been stolen, he must borrow money or see suffering and disease come to his wife and children. This threw him in debt, and his little farm did not grow enough for him ever to repay it.

Do you begin to see how impossible it was, with wars and robbers and little farms, for the early Roman plebeians to keep free from debt? Well, as time went on, what do you suppose happened to Marius' father? By so much service in the army, and by frequent destruction of his crops, all his struggles, and the help of his noble little son, were not sufficient to enable him to pay the patrician from whom he had borrowed the money. His farm was at first taken from him, and finally the father himself thrown into prison. In those olden times each patrician house had its own prison in which to punish the poor people who could not pay their debts. Another hardship for the plebeian arose from his ignorance of the law. What would you think if parents or teachers never told you plainly and clearly what was the proper thing to do, and yet punished you if you did not do it? You would of course think that very wrong. Well, you will sympathize with the plebeians of early Rome then, for this is the way the patricians treated them. The patricians had teachers and had been taught the laws when they were children, but they had never allowed the plebeians to know what the laws were, because by keeping the plebeians ignorant, the patricians could punish them for anything they wished, or take their property from them and say it was the law. But the plebs kept struggling to work out some way to know the law; for, they said, "How can we obey the law unless we know what it is?"

After a struggle of ten years, ten men were appointed to write down the laws of Rome. Before this the laws had been told by father to son. Do you suppose when the laws were written they were written on paper and printed in newspapers? Not at all; for there was then in Rome neither writing-paper, nor newspapers, nor scarcely any books. These laws were placed in the Forum, where every man and boy went very often to trade and attend to other things, and thus could learn them. They were written on twelve bronze tablets, and were called "The Twelve Tablets of the Law." It was a very great help to the plebeians to get these laws all plainly written out. Some of these laws were very similar to those we have today, but one like this we should think very strange: a man had control over his wife and sons and daughters (until they were married), and could sell them if he chose.

The struggle between the patricians and the plebeians lasted about four hundred years from the founding of Rome, until step by step the plebs were victorious, and stood equal in every way with the patricians. They could be senators, consuls, or priests, and finally little plebeian girls could become Vestal virgins as well as patrician. So, while I do not think Marius ever got to be a priest, he probably lived to see his son one.

Often while this struggle was going on within Rome herself, there were other wars, as I have been telling you, with the Æquians, Volscians, Etruscans, Samnites, and other mountain tribes, living north, east and south, but Rome was conqueror over all; for in the long struggle among themselves they had learned obedience, self-control and courage, and by learning to rule themselves had learned to rule others.

As we go on with our work I will tell you about these different wars,—first, about the Dictator, Cincinnatus, and then how bravely the Romans defended the citadel when the fair-haired Gauls came from the North against them, and how the Samnites fought and were overcome, and how, after holding out for some time, the Greek cities along the southern coast were taken, and their Grecian leader Pyrrhus, with his elephants, driven away. But I must now tell you a little about how Rome governed this great "Boot Country," which she had gained through these wars. I have briefly told you how, when she conquered a people, say the Samnites, she would take part of the land and send some of the citizens of Rome to live upon it, and form a little state among the people, which became like Rome. The wild uncultivated people living around these "little Romes," so to speak, were greatly influenced by the citizens from Rome, and gradually adopted their language, customs and institutions, until all Italy gradually became like Rome. Rome made it easy to govern these conquered people in another way. She built great roads. Let us see how these were made: First it was decided where the road should run—over the plains, through the hollows and over the hills. Then the breadth, which was enough for four horses abreast, was laid out by cutting wide trenches. In digging the trenches, earth was thrown out until solid ground was reached, so that the foundation would be firm; then there was placed in the trench a layer of small stones; next, on top of this, broken stones cemented with lime; then, as a third layer, a mixture of lime, clay and beaten fragments of brick and pottery; and finally, as a fourth and last layer, a mixture of pounded gravel and lime, or a pavement of hard flat stones.

These roads were built in all directions to different parts of Italy, from Rome, until they looked like a great spider web, with Rome as a spider in the center, catching everything and drawing it into its power. When Rome conquered a new country, the roads were always extended into it. You see, by means of these highways Rome could send soldiers quickly where they were needed, for the roads were never out of order; and notwithstanding she had no newspapers, and of course no railroads, it is astonishing how quickly messages or troops could be sent from one end of the country to the other.

Thus you have seen how the town of Rome, starting as a little village of mud huts on the Tiber, gradually spread over the Seven Hills and along the river banks and out over the plain, growing richer and stronger all the time, and by her struggles at home between plebeians and patricians, learned lessons of courage, patience and perseverance. After this, Rome, having learned these lessons, was able to go out and conquer all the hill and mountain peoples and teach them to obey her. When Rome had done all this, she was strong enough to conquer the greatest enemy she ever had. This was Carthage; and we shall soon see how she did it, and as a result became master of the whole Mediterranean Sea.

W
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have now seen the little city of Rome, beginning as a few mud huts on a single hill, increase in size and power till it came to rule the whole peninsula of Italy. As Rome's power grew southward she met another great city, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean,—a city so strong and so rich that the wealthy traders in Rome, the Roman senate, and even the plain farmers in the country regions throughout Italy, grew jealous of it and spent much of the time for more than a hundred years (264 B.C.-146 B.C.) in conquering and destroying it. I must now tell you how this city was founded, how it grew rich, and how it fought against Rome for its very life.

You remember that earlier we studied about King Hiram's country, the country of the Phœnicians? Many times we saw those brave sailors push out from their rocky and mountainous shore and start out on their ships. All the time since we first saw them, down to the time when they began to fight with Rome—fully five hundred years—the Phœnicians have been colonizing and planting trading-posts wherever they have gone. A long time ago, about a hundred years before Rome was founded, they established a little trading-post on the northern coast of Africa, far away from their own home country; and this little town grew rapidly till it came to be as large a city as Rome itself. It is now, 264 years before Christ was born, the largest Phœnician city in the world. Since Tyre was destroyed, as you remember, by Alexander the Great, 332 years before Christ, this new city has become the most important Phœnician city, and you would be really right in calling it New Tyre. So now let us take a look at New Tyre, or Carthage, as it was called, and see why it grew to be so large.

Carthage was on the southern coast of the Mediterranean, about halfway between Phœnicia and Spain. For hundreds of years it had been a good stopping place for the ships in their long travels eastward and westward. It was also in the valley of the river Bagradas, the richest grain district of northern Africa. In size it was, at the time Rome declared war against it, larger than St. Louis, and it was a very beautiful city. Its center was a great rock, the Byrsa, which served the Carthaginians as a good place of defense, as the Acropolis did the Athenians. Here were built the chief temples and storehouses, which held enough food for the fifty thousand soldiers who lived there and defended the city when it was attacked. The Byrsa was two hundred feet high. Wherever its sides were sloping and easily climbed, there were thick walls built. North of the Acropolis was the new city, or Megara, as it was called.

The houses and temples of Carthage were peculiar. The people did not like straight lines, so they built their houses or rooms round or circular. They built mostly of stone, made of pieces of rock cemented together with fine sand and lime. The streets were beautiful and had fine shady walks. These were adorned with statues obtained from the Greek cities of Sicily during war, for Carthage fought the Greeks in Sicily very much, and carried home much of the rich art they found there. The Carthaginians themselves did not make beautiful statues and pictures, as the Greeks did. As Carthage stood upon an isthmus, or narrow projection into the sea, it could be easily defended. The city was separated from the mainland by three thick walls running side by side. These were forty-five feet high and thirty-three feet thick. Why did they build them so thick? Well, they were cut up into rooms, and within them soldiers lived. Some also served as stables for the horses and elephants. In fact, within them could be kept at one time three hundred elephants of war, four thousand horses, and twenty-four thousand soldiers, with their armor and all the materials of war. On the walls towers four stories high were built at intervals, from which the Carthaginians could watch any enemy that might come against them. As I have said, these three walls ran on the mainland part way around the city, but one of them extended entirely around, a distance of twenty-four miles, running right along on the water front. Thus the enemy could not land an army in the city from their ships. What a strongly fortified city this must have been! Its massive walls make us think of Old Tyre.

Now let us imagine the harbor of Carthage. It was round, and looked as a great circus would if it were all scooped out in the center and filled with water. In this harbor gathered hundreds of ships from all directions, and of all sizes. There were triremes much like those the Greeks used; there were also larger ships, with five rows of oars, and therefore called quinqueremes. It is said that these vessels could be rowed as fast as our modern war-vessels can travel. How like a swarming beehive the scene must have been around the harbor as the ships went out and in laden with products from all parts of the world. Here were vessels from the eastern Mediterranean. They were laden with linen from Egypt, gold and pearls from the East, frankincense from Arabia, oil and wine from India, copper from Cyprus, and pottery and fine wines from Greece. Here also was a trireme coming in from the North. It had honey and wax from Corsica, and iron from the island of Elba, north of Corsica.

But the quinqueremes had traveled to distant seas—much farther than the ships of any other nation had dared to go. Some came from the Baltic Sea, where they got amber; others from England, where tin was obtained. On the way back they touched at Spain, where they obtained much silver from her rich mines. Other quinqueremes passed Spain at the Pillars of Hercules, the narrow gateway from the Mediterranean out into the Atlantic, and then crept down the coast of Africa, as far as the Niger River. Here they obtained slaves, ivory, lion and panther skins, salt from the salt lakes and salt mines of the desert, fruits, gold and precious stones from the African coast. Carthage took these products, manufactured them into goods, loaded her ships with them, and set out again to trade with peoples in all parts of the world. Now, when we see these riches flowing in from every quarter of the world, we do not wonder that Carthage grew rich, became the mistress of the sea, and, in the third century before Christ, was the wealthiest city perhaps in the world.