Streams of History: Ancient Rome (Yesterday's Classics) (9 page)

For a long time these two brothers were not understood by the people, but today they are looked upon as two of the great men of Rome because of their efforts to help the poor and to keep Rome from going to ruin. Cornelia, by bringing up her children to be such unselfish, patriotic men, was no longer known as the sister of Scipio, but as the "mother of the Gracchi."

While Rome was having these troubles at home, and spending much time and money in races and gladiatorial fights, she also had armies everywhere—in Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, northern Africa, Spain and Gaul—all of which were made into provinces of Rome.

She gave these countries peace and good government, and bound them closely to herself by those broad, solid roads about which we have already studied. It is surprising to us how rapidly they could carry news over these roads. We should think it very good traveling to go fifty or sixty miles a day on horseback or in a carriage, yet they traveled twice as far in one day. Think of going one hundred and thirty-five miles in one day on horseback! These roads were to Rome, what our railroads, telegraphs and telephones are to us,—they tied that great country together, and made it possible for it to be ruled from a common center at Rome.

But how shall Rome maintain her great government? The Gracchi, as we have seen, are now dead. The senate, on account of the selfishness, luxury and vice of its members, was becoming less fit each year to rule. The time had now come when it was no longer the noble body it was in early days, or in the perilous times of Hannibal, when nobody could bribe it, and when it was so great as to be called an assembly of kings. One man soon became master of it, and by so doing became master of all Rome. Let us see how this all came about.

A poor country boy, named Caius Marius, entered the army, and without any aid rose to the highest position. When he was a boy it was told of him that an eagle's nest, with seven young ones in it, fell from a tree into his lap. The wise men said it meant he would be consul seven times. He learned to fight under the teaching of a son of the Æmilius Paulus of whose triumph you already know. Marius struggled for a long time from one position to another in the lower ranks of the army till finally his opportunity came. The Roman senate declared war against Jugurtha, ruler of a little kingdom near Carthage, in northwestern Africa. Jugurtha was not easily conquered, and Marius, who was serving in a subordinate position in the army in Africa, concluded to leave the army and go to Rome, and see if he could not get to be consul and thus secure chief command.

Now the common soldiers all liked Marius because he was one of them, eating the same coarse fare and digging in the ditches with them; but the Roman general commanding in Africa laughed at Marius when he wanted to go to Rome to be elected consul, and told him he could go, for he had no idea Marius would be chosen. But Marius, on arriving at Rome, told the common people how he thought he could bring the war to a close in a short time. They believed him, elected him consul, and gave him command against Jugurtha. He found it harder to conquer Jugurtha than he expected, but he was finally successful.

As soon as this war was over another broke out, and Rome was in great danger, so Marius was made consul the second time. Well, this continued till Marius had been chosen consul five times, and it began to look as if he would be consul seven times, as the wise men had prophesied when the eagles fell into his lap.

A great danger to Rome now came from the north-east. A fierce and wild tribe of people, carrying their wives and children with them and wandering about hunting new homes, came through the passes of the Alps and tried to settle on the Roman lands in the Po valley. These people were large and strong, with fierce, blue eyes; and they frightened the Romans more than did the Gauls, who tried to capture Rome three hundred years before.

Marius fought these wild people (who were Teutons, or Germans) for quite a while, and at last defeated them in a terrific battle at Vercellæ, in northern Italy, in the year 101 B.C. For this deed Marius was called the Third Founder of Rome, was given a splendid triumph and was soon after elected consul for the sixth time.

Now, if Marius had known how to rule as well as he knew how to fight, and had tried to right some of the wrongs the Gracchi had tried to cure, he might still have saved the common people. But it was said of him, that he cared to be not a good man, but a great one. He hesitated so long whether to join the side of the common people or that of the nobles, that he lost the good will of many on both sides. At last he became the leader of the common people, while Sulla, a famous Roman general, became leader of the nobles. The two parties, already jealous of each other, began war between themselves. Marius was promised the seventh consulship, and besides, the two generals being intensely jealous, the war was a very bloody one. Sulla's party at first overcame Marius and took Rome. It was the first time Rome was ever
captured by her own people
. Marius escaped from Rome, but thousands of his followers were killed by Sulla. Marius had many strange and trying experiences in his flight from his enemies, being once captured and having a slave sent to kill him in his prison; but Marius looked so fiercely at him and cried out, "Fellow, darest thou slay Caius Marius?" that the slave dropped his sword and ran away. Soon after they liberated Marius from prison.

At last Sulla left Rome to go to the wars, and the friends of Marius got control of the city and Marius came back—master of Rome again. He went about the streets with some soldiers, who killed every friend of Sulla's at whom Marius pointed his finger. He was now chosen consul the seventh time, but lived afterward only a few days. On Sulla's return to Rome he put to death more of Marius' friends than Marius had of Sulla's. You see at this time instead of Rome using her army to protect herself from outside barbarians, she is turned into two great camps led by selfish generals who care not for Rome but for themselves.

Sulla forced the senate to choose him dictator for as long as he wished. He was now in complete control of Rome. He used his power well after all the evil things he had done before. He changed the laws in many ways for the better, and, strange to say, he gave up the dictatorship after some time and restored the power of the senate. Sulla went to his home in the country, passed a very luxurious life there for a time, and died in 78 B.C., his body, by his own request, being burned.

Thus, you see, as Rome has gone out to conquer the world she has grown weaker and more brutal at home. The senate has lost all real power, and one man, as, for example, Marius or Sulla, has gained possession of the government and uses it for his greedy ends. The morals and manners of the people have greatly changed and in most cases have become vastly worse than they were in the days of Hannibal, two hundred years before Christ, and have vastly changed from the simple, sturdy morals and manners of early Rome.

The next great effort made to get control of Rome was quite successful. This effort was made by Julius Cæsar.

Julius Cæsar belonged to the noble, or patrician, class of people, but he was a nephew of Marius, and perhaps this is one reason why he joined the people's party. He was only a boy when Marius and Sulla were having their fierce struggles. At one time Sulla wished to kill Cæsar but was prevented from doing so by the friends of Cæsar. Sulla said of him, "In that young man there are many Mariuses," and fearing his power when he grew to manhood, he wished to kill him while he was young.

Cæsar, born in 100 B.C., grew up as other wealthy young Romans of that day: living a very luxurious life when young, but acquired "learning, taste, wit, eloquence and the sentiments and manners of an accomplished gentleman." He had many wonderful adventures when young which we shall study more in detail when we study his biography. He was the greatest orator of his time except Cicero, and the greatest general of all times except Hannibal. He was the greatest statesman of Rome. At the age of forty he wished to be chosen consul. He had for many years been a great friend to the common people, mixing with the lower classes and furnishing them with amusements and games which are said to have been the most magnificent ever yet seen in Rome. He was chosen consul at the age of forty, and till the day of his death, 44 B.C., when he was fifty-six years old, he was the most powerful man in Rome.

Two other great men,—Pompey and Crassus,— wished also to secure power and wealth through office, so they joined with Cæsar and the three divided the Roman world among them. Crassus was soon killed, after which Pompey was made general in the East, and Cæsar went as general to Gaul—that is, to the country we now know as France. There were many barbaric tribes in Gaul, and Cæsar spent several years in conquering them. While there, Cæsar wrote an account of the wars with the different tribes, and when you are old enough to read Latin you will read Cæsar's own account of how he conquered that country and made it a province of Rome.

Pompey, thinking Cæsar was becoming too great a man, tried to gain greater control than he over the senate at Rome. This turned these strong friends into bitter enemies. The fact was that the Roman senate was very weak and corrupt all this time, and was very easily controlled by any strong man; but Pompey, who was now master at Rome, was afraid to try to rule openly without pretending to ask the help of the senate. He was also very jealous of Cæsar's success in Gaul; so, when Cæsar heard that Pompey was seeking to get all power into his own hands, he left his army in Gaul and started hastily for Rome. He crossed the river Rubicon into Pompey's province, and immediately war began between the two great generals to decide which should be master of Rome and the whole Roman world. The story of the struggle between these two great men is a long one, and we shall hear something more about it in their biographies; but here I will tell you that Cæsar defeated Pompey in several battles and followed him to the East, where Pompey himself was killed. Cæsar was now master of Rome and after some time made himself master of the whole Roman world. He was given several great triumphs by the senate for his various victories.

Since the senate and people had shown so plainly that they were no longer fit to rule, Cæsar thought it best to carry on the government himself. He, however, retained the senate and kept up as well the pretense of consulting it. He took the title imperator, or commander. He was, as I have already said, the greatest general Rome ever had, and he could govern wisely as well as fight.

He did many great things for the Roman people. He tried to check slavery. He planted new colonies. He reformed the laws so as to help the common people and changed the calendar to something the way it is now in our almanacs. He gave his name to one month of the year—July, from Julius. He built many fine buildings in Rome and planned others. He extended roads throughout the country. He drained great marshes near Rome, and thus made new land for settlement. But while Cæsar was doing all of these things for his country he grew to have bitter enemies, who said he was striving to be king. On the 15th of March, 44 B.C., Cæsar went to the senate house to attend a meeting of the senate. Quite a crowd of senators gathered about him, as if to ask some favors, when suddenly daggers were drawn and Cæsar was stabbed to death.

It was a sad day for Rome, for the senate was corrupt and unable to rule, and at first there seemed to be no one who could fill Cæsar's place. Long and bloody wars followed between the different parties at Rome, and from all the leaders that came forward a young nephew of Cæsar, named Octavius, afterward called Augustus, conquered all his enemies and made himself master of the Roman world. The great republic which developed Rome into a mighty power is now dead. The senate, once so strong and patriotic, is now corrupt and selfish; the plain soldiers, once so brave and steadfast, have been turned into plunderers and seekers for spoil. By all this weakness, war and vice, as I have said, the government fell into the hands of a single man, and this was the very thing that great patriots like the Gracchi had given their lives to prevent.

Augustus was a good man and ruled wisely, giving such peace to the Roman world as it had not enjoyed for hundreds of years before; and this peace and order lasted during most of the first and second centuries after Christ. Men during this time had opportunity to think and study and write. Much literature that we now read was written then, as the poems of Virgil and Horace; the writings of Tacitus, the greatest of Roman historians; and those of Seneca, the greatest of Roman philosophers.

It seemed in this peaceful time as if Rome was returning to all the glory and strength of the old-time republic; and because of the quiet of the great empire, the good laws which Rome taught the one hundred and twenty millions of people living all around the Mediterranean Sea, and the many writers of the time, this has been called the "golden age of Rome," and sometimes the Augustan age.

But I have not yet told you of the greatest thing that occurred in the world just at the time that Rome became an empire; in fact it was the greatest thing that has ever occurred in the history of all the world.

In a village of a far-away eastern province of Rome, Judea, was born a child that was to change the history of the world more than Alexander or Cæsar or any other great person had changed it. This was the Christ-child. He grew up to manhood, taught peace, kindness and brotherly love to the people whom he daily mingled with, and was crucified; but his great life gradually came to rule the souls of men more completely than Rome had ruled their bodies. The Roman life, as I have already told you, went quietly on in the empire for almost two hundred years after the birth of Christ, during which time all that was best in the Roman language, literature and law spread around the Mediterranean Sea. No nation had ever before brought such quiet to the world, or bound it together under one single government as had the Romans; but after a while this peace was broken in many ways. Men began to quarrel about who should be emperor, and many emperors were murdered. The rich people grew richer and more vicious; the poor, poorer and more miserable. The races and games were visited more often; Rome became all but a nation of slaves, and taxes grew so heavy upon the people that they could not pay them. All this time, here and there were growing up small companies of people, at first plain people and poor, who had taken up the new doctrines of Christ because it gave them something to hope for after their worn-out lives of suffering and toil.