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amining every new resolution which the king suggested and the burgesses adopted, and having the right of vetoing these resolutions, should they appear to violate existing rights. The senate's consent had also to be obtained before war could be declared. And thus the senate's duty was to guard against any innovation or violation of the constitution, whether coming from king or burgessassembly. In consequence of this power of the senate, or at least in close connection with it, arose the very ancient custom of the king's convoking the senate, and submitting to it the proposals he intended to bring before the citizens. By thus ascertaining the opinions of the individual members, the king avoided the possibility of any subsequent opposition from that body. On most questions, involving no breach of the constitution, the senate's part was doubtless merely that of compliance with the king's wishes. The senate could not meet unless convoked by the king, and no one might declare his opinion unasked; nor was the consultation of the senate on ordinary matters of state business legally incumbent on the king; but this consultation soon became usual, and from this usage the subsequent extensive powers of the senate were in great measure developed. To sum up, the oldest constitution of Rome was in some measure constitutional monarchy inverted. In the Roman constitution the community of the people exercised very much the same functions as belong to the king in England. The right of pardon, which in England is the prerogative of the crown, was in Rome the prerogative of the community; while all government was vested in the president of the state, whose royal power was at once absolute and limited by the laws. Further, in the relations of the state to the individual, we find that the family was not sacrificed to the community, but that, though power of imprisonment or death was vested in the state, no burgess could have his son or his field taken from him, or even taxation imposed on him. In no other community could a citizen live so absolutely secure from encroachment, either on the part of his fellows or of the state itself. This constitution was neither manufactured nor borrowed; it grew and developed with the growth and development of the Roman people, and as long as there existed a Roman community, in spite of changes of form, it was always held that the magistrate had absolute command, that the council of elders was the highest authority in the state, and that every exceptional resolution required the sanction of the sovereign, or, in other words, of the community of the people.

We have already stated that the earliest amalgamation in the history of Rome was that which blended together the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres. This was followed by the union of cantons located on the other hills in the same neighborhood, but no new tribe was added to the original three, the new burgesses being distributed among the existing tribes and curies. Henceforth each of the three tribes contained two divisions or ranks, and these ranks were denoted by the names "first" (priores) and "second" (posteriores). But no increase was made in the number of the senate, the primitive number of three hundred remaining unchanged down to the seventh zentury of the city's history. So also the magistrates or king's deputies remained the same. This amalgamation increased the bulk, but did not change the character of the Roman state. But another process of incorporation, the first steps of which may be traced to this period, and which proceeded very gradually, did profoundly affect the community. We refer to the development of the plebs—a problem most intricate and elusive. On a previous page the position of "clients" was described as twofold-that of those dependent on and protected by the master of the household, and that of those dependent on and protected by the state, i. e., by the king. Every fresh amalgamation doubtless brought in an accession of clients, but the principal increase must have been due to the attraction that Rome, as a commercial center, possessed for foreigners, who became metics, or resident aliens, and to the influence of war, which while it transferred the citizens of conquered towns to Rome, at the same time thinned the ranks of the Roman citizens, who alone had the doubtful privilege of bearing the brunt of such wars. In truth this latter fact was the chief cause in promoting the amalgamation of the clients and the citizens. With the increase of the whole body of clients, and especially of that portion consisting of foreigners, attached as clients to the Roman state, but often retaining the citizenship of other communities, the old restrictions, which were more easily observed in the case of household clients, must have broken down. Many, in fact, must have enjoyed practical freedom, though, of course, not the full rights of Roman citizens. The immemorial principle of Roman law that, when once a master or owner had renounced his ownership, he could never resume it over the freedman or the freedman's descendants; the liberal concessions, made by Roman law especially to foreigners, as regarded marriage and the acquisition of property; the increasing number of manumitted

slaves; the influx alike of traders, and still more of Latins vanquished in war; the corresponding decrease of true Roman patricians, the constant vexation of the relations between client and patron-these and other causes must have all sufficed to threaten a revolution of the direst consequences to the Roman state. The new name of plebes, or multitude (from pleo, plenus), by which the clients were now called, was ominous, signifying, as it did, that the majority no longer felt so much their special dependence as their want of political rights.1 The danger was averted by the reform associated with the name of Servius Tullius, although the new constitution assigned the plebeians primarily only duties, not rights. Military service was now changed from a burden upon birth to a burden on property. All freeholders, from seventeen to sixty years of age, whether burgesses, metics, or manumitted slaves, provided only they held land, were bound to serve; and they were distributed, according to the size of their property, into five classes. The first class, who were obliged to appear in complete armor, consisted of the possessors of an entire hide of land, and were called classici. The remaining four classes consisted of the respective possessors of three-quarters, half, a quarter, or an eighth of a nominal farm, i. e., of a farm whose size served as the standard by which such divisions were regulated (probably such a farm contained at least twenty jugera 2). The cavalry was dealt with in the same way: its existing six divisions, which retained their old names, were tripled; only the richest landholders, whether burgesses or non-burgesses, served as horsemen. All those who held land and were incapable of service, either from sex or age, were bound to provide horses and fodder for special troopers. To facilitate the levying of the infantry, the city was divided into four parts. Each of these four divisions contributed a fourth part, not merely of the force as a whole, but of each of its military subdivisions, and this arrangement tended to merge all distinctions of clan and place, and also to blend, by its leveling spirit, burgesses and metics into one people. The army was divided into two levies: the first comprised the juniors, who served in the field from their seventeenth to their forty-sixth year; the second, the seniors, who guarded the walls at home. The whole force of infantry consisted of four legions, each of 4200 men, or 42

1 There are various other theories as to the origin of the plebeian class. For a discussion of the question see Soltau, "Entstehung der alts römischen Volksversammlungen," Berlin, 1881.

2 A jugera was approximately three-fifths of an acre.

centuries, 3000 of whom were heavy armed, and 1200 light armed; two of these legions were juniors and two seniors. Added to these were 1800 cavalry, thus bringing the whole force to about 20,000 men. The century, or body of one hundred, formed the unit of this military scheme, and by the arrangement above indicated there would be 18 centuries of cavalry and 168 of infantry. To these, other centuries of supernumeraries must be added, who marched with the army unarmed and took the place of those who fell ill or died in battle. The whole number of centuries amounted to 193 or 194; nor was it increased as the population rose. Out of this military organization arose the census or register of landed property, including the slaves, cattle, etc., that each man possessed, and this was strictly revised every fourth year. This reform, though instituted on purely military lines and for military purposes, had important political results. In the first place, every soldier, whether a full citizen or not, would be certain to have it in his power to become a centurion and, further, a military tribune. In the second, those rights which the burgesses had formerly possessed, not as an assembly of citizens in curies, but as a levy of armed burgesses, would now be shared by the whole army of centuries. These rights conferred the power on the military centuries of authorizing soldiers to make wills before battle, and of granting permission to the king to make an aggressive war. In the third place, although the rights of the old burgess-assembly were in no way restricted, there thus arose three classes: the full burgesses or citizens, the clients possessing freeholds, called later "burgesses without the right of voting," who shared in the public burdens, i. e., military service, tribute, and task-work, and were, therefore, called municipals, and those metics who were not included in the tribes, and who paid protection-money, and were non-freeholders. Analogy from Greek states inclines to the view that this reform was modeled on Greek lines, and produced by Greek influence. The adoption of the armor and arrangements of the Greek hoplite system in the legion, the supply of cavalry horses by widows and orphans, point in this direction; moreover, about this time the Greek states in lower Italy adopted a modification of the pure clan constitution, and gave the preponderance of power to the landholders.

Chapter IV

ROME AND THE OTHER ITALIAN POWERS DURING THE REGAL PERIOD. 753-509 B.C.

T

HE steps by which Rome rose to the proud position of head state in Latium, the union of the Latin communities under her headship, the extension alike of Latin territory and of the city of Rome, and her early relations with the Etruscans and Greeks, cannot now be described, save in faint outline. We may, however, briefly summarize the results, the details of which have either been buried in oblivion or falsified by mythical legend. Firstly, those Latin communities situated on the Upper Tiber, and between the Tiber and the Anio-Antemnae, Crustumerium, Ficulnea, Medullia, Caenina, Corniculum, Cameria, Collatia, which on the east side sorely hampered Rome-were very early subjugated; the only one which retained its independence was Nomentum, probably by alliance with Rome. Constant war was waged between the Romans and the Etruscan people of Veii for the possession of Fidenae, on the left (Latin) bank of the Tiber, about five miles from Rome, but apparently without the Romans becoming permanent masters of this important outpost.

Secondly, Alba was conquered and destroyed; to her position as the recognized political head and sacred metropolis of Latium, Rome succeeded. Rome thus became president of the Latin league of thirty cantons, and the seat of the religious ceremonial observed at the Latin festival. An alliance was concluded on equal terms between Rome on the one hand and the Latin confederacy on the other, establishing lasting peace throughout Latium, and a perpetual league for offense and defense. Equality of rights was established between the members of this federation, alike as to commerce and intermarriage. No member of the league could exist as a slave within the league's territory, and, though every member only exercised political rights as member of the community to which he belonged, he had the private right of living anywhere he liked within the Latin territory; and, further, although

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