The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire (64 page)

10
  
had no settled / Way of life
Virg Aen 8 315–18.

11
  
“intractable folk”
Ibid., 321.

12
  
The Capitol, “golden today”
Ibid., 348.

13
  
“Cattle were everywhere”
Ibid., 360–61.

14
  
an assemblage of wattle and daub
Modern archaeologists have found postholes and cuttings for several huts, and more than one may have survived. A duplicate was maintained on the Capitol.

15
  
the foundations of a village
See Stambaugh, pp. 11–12.

6. Free at Last

Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Cicero are the main sources, together with Cassius Dio. Plutarch’s life of Publicola describes the execution of Brutus’s sons.

  
1
  
quite possibly because of a sex scandal
Ogilvie, pp. 94–96, 218–20. He argues that it is possible that Lucretia committed suicide, anticipating an unfavorable verdict by a court of family members headed by her plenipotentiary husband. (This was how adultery was then dealt with.)

  
2
  
two officials called consuls
Their powers probably took some time to develop; I describe them at their complete extent. They were perhaps originally named as praetors. Some moderns have argued that there was an interim period after its birth when the Republic was governed by one official. But there is little evidence for this and the tradition of two consuls/praetors is strong.

  
3
  
took office in 509
This was the traditional date, and is probably (give or take a year or two) accurate. To what degree Brutus, one of the first pair of consuls, is a fully historical figure is moot.

  
4
  
invented the post of dictator
Consuls convened elections for their successors, but in their absence a dictator could be appointed to fulfill this task.

  
5
  
ad hoc collection of patricians
For the structure of the early Senate see Cornell, pp. 248–49.

  
6
auctoritas
“was more than advice”
Mommsen,
Römisches Staatsrecht
, vol. 3, chap. 2 (1887).

  
7
  
lower their rods
Cic Rep 2 31 54.

  
8
  
final court of appeal
A right of appeal existed under the kings and probably did not have to be conceded.

  
9
  
“though the People were free”
Cic Rep 2 31 (57).

10
  
The conspirators decided they should swear
The story of the unmasking of the traitors bears an uncanny resemblance to Cicero’s exposure of the Catilinarian conspiracy in the first century
B.C
.

11
  
“Come, Titus, come Tiberius”
Plut Popl 6 1.

12
  
“cruel and incredible”
Dio of Hal 5 8 1.

13
  
“performed an act”
Plut Popl 6 3–4.

14
  
swam back to the Roman shore
Polybius 6 55 ends the story differently. Horatius drowns.

15
  
A statue of Horatius was erected
Aul Gell 4 5.

16
  
its presence is attested
Pliny Nat Hist 16 236.

17
  
Porsenna settled down
For the siege, see Livy 2 12 1.

18
  
an Athenian king
Codrus, last of the semi-mythical kings of Athens, who was succeeded by the new post of archon.

19
  
“Porsenna, when the city gave itself up”
The great historian is Tacitus in Tac Hist 3 72.

20
  
“In a treaty granted by Porsenna”
Pliny Nat Hist 34 139.

21
  
named after them
, vicus Tuscus Dio of H 5 36 2–4. Of course, it could well be that the story was invented to explain the street name.

22
  
an old custom at public sales
Livy 2 14 1–4.

7. General Strike

Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are the main sources, and Plutarch’s
Life of Coriolanus
. The Coriolanus episode is almost certainly fictional; Cicero in
Brutus
41–43 observes: “Coriolanus is obviously a second Themistocles.” Themistocles was the savior of Athens during the Persian invasion; he was exiled and then plotted against his native country.

  
1
  
climbed a sparsely populated hill
Some ancient sources, e.g. Plut Cor 6 1, identify the hill as the Sacred Mount three miles from the city beside the river Anio. But the Aventine, a place closely associated with popular politics, seems a more likely candidate.

  
2
  
This was a mass protest
The consensus of contemporary opinion is that this secession was a historical event, caused indeed by a debt crisis.

  
3
  
“Once upon a time”
Livy 2 32 9 12.

  
4
  
a Temple of Mercury
See Ogilvie, pp. 22–33.

  
5
  
“The People, freed from the domination”
Cic Rep 2 33.

  
6
  
the story of a victim
Livy 2 23 (and for the quotation that follows). This incident may or may not have occurred. It resembles the kind of rhetorical exercise that would-be orators used for training. But it was certainly typical.

  
7
  
Appius Claudius
Appius was a first name, or praenomen, that was exclusive to the Claudians.

  
8
  
members of a gathering called the
plebs I follow Cornell, pp. 256–58.

  
9
  
a state within a state
A phrase from Mommsen 3 145, who himself followed Livy 2 44 9.

10
  
first tribunes to take office
Dionysius gives these perhaps fictitious details about the first two tribunes—Dio of H 6 70. Brutus may have really been Lucius Albinius, according to Asc, p. 117.

11
  
“lynch law disguised as divine justice”
Cornell, p. 260.

12
  
it was not for another two decades
In 471
B.C
.

13
  
the right to “intercede”
Valerio–Horatian Laws in 449.

14
  
No reports of their proceedings
Livy 3 55 13.

15
  
“so that nothing that was transacted”
Zon 7 15.

16
  
“Unless you stop disturbing the Republic”
Dio of H 7 25 4.

17
  
“Any such measure on our part”
Plut Cor 16 4.

18
  
The stalemate was broken
Volumnia’s meeting with Coriolanus can be found in Plut Cor 33–36.

19
  
“You were elected as Tribunes of the plebs”
Livy 3 9 11.

20
  
A leading statesman, three times a consul
This was Spurius Cassius, consul in 502, 493, and 486. Some modern scholars do not believe the story of his ambition and fall.

21
  
its text could still be seen
Cic Balb 53.

22
  
once his father had given evidence
Our sources may be confused. Spurius Cassius could have been condemned by a family court of his own relatives, with his father, the all-powerful paterfamilias, presiding.

23
  
a spirited resistance
It is said that in 454 a delegation of three was sent to Athens to study the laws of Solon (638–558). This is most unlikely to have taken place; Pericles was in power and would hardly have shown the visitors such old-fashioned and outmoded legislation. However, it
is
credible that consideration was given to the laws and constitutions of Greek cities in Italy. An alternative tradition has a Greek philosopher in exile advise the decemvirs.

24
  
ingenious speculations
For example, Ogilvie p. 452 says firmly that “the second college is fictitious from start to finish.” 103
“The Decemvirate, after a flourishing start”
Livy 3 33 2.

25
  
“ten Tarquins”
Ibid., 3 39 3.

26
  
As with the fall of the kings
Modern scholars look on the approximate “rhyme” with the rape of Lucretia with suspicion. Perhaps rightly so, but Cornell p. 275 argues that the story of Appius Claudius and Verginia may be very old and that its main elements could have a basis in fact.

27
  
“I have incontrovertible evidence”
Livy 3 48 1–3. This speech is drawn from Livy’s imaginative reconstruction.

28
  
encamped on the Aventine
Livy 3 52 2 says that they moved on to the Sacred Mount, probably an unnecessary elaboration of the story.

29
  
“I know well enough what is coming to us”
Ibid., 3 54 3–4.

30
  
“wisely favored popular measures”
Cic Rep 2 31 54.

31
  
haughty manner of a Claudian
It is odd that, for centuries, the Claudian
gens
produced generation after generation of impossible men. Some assert that this was all made up by hostile Roman historians. Maybe, but (for example) we have reliable evidence of bad behavior by Claudians in the late Republic (witness Cicero’s relations with Clodius Pulcher and Appius Claudius, as set out in his correspondence). Genetics are less likely to be responsible than the not entirely unwelcome obligation to live up to other people’s expectations.

32
  
killed himself
Dio of H 9 54 3–6. Another imaginative reconstruction, no doubt.

33
  
The consuls had three important laws passed
The ancient sources give differing accounts of the Valerio-Horatian legislation. The difficulty is that real constitutional changes did take place, but it is not at all clear exactly when. I follow mainstream modern opinion. Those wishing to delve more deeply into this dry earth may do so at CAH, pp. 227–35.

34
  
“still today the fountainhead”
Livy 3 34 6.

35
  
“A man might gather up fruit”
Table 7 10 (according to the traditional tabulation).

36
  
“Let them keep the road in order”
Table 7 1.

37
  
“Where a party is delivered up”
Table 3 10.

8. The Fall of Rome

Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are the main sources, with contributions by Cicero and Polybius.

  
1
  
fifteenth of July in the year 496
This is the date given by Livy 2 42 5.

  
2
  
the spring that rose just by the Temple of Vesta
The Pool of Juturna.

  
3
  
Castor and Pollux
Castor and Polydeuces, in their Greek incarnation. 112
“It made a fine sight”
Dio of H 6 13 5.

  
4
  
Livy’s “great astonishment”
Livy 6 12 2.

  
5
  
The Carthaginians shall do no injury
Polyb 3 22 11–13. This treaty is historical. The reliable Polybius reports what he surely saw for himself, that the treaty was preserved in bronze in the treasury of the aediles beside the Temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest. He confesses to having some trouble translating the archaic Latin, but the text as he gives it is plausible and rational.

  
6
  
boundaries of Latium at this epoch
Latium Vetus, Old Latium.

  
7
  
still there in Cicero’s time
Cic Balb 53.

  
8
  
Let there be peace between the Romans
Dio of H 6 95 2.

  
9
  
Etruscan ruling class of Capua
Livy 4 37 1–2.

  
10
  
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Livy 3 26–29.

11
  
“most opulent of all Etruria’s cities”
Ibid., 5 22.

12
  
its forces reached Rome
The First Veientine War, 483–74.

13
  
As you know, gentlemen
Livy 2 48 8. A Livian reconstruction.

14
  
replaced their kings with elected officials
Briquel, p. 44.