The following is an excerpt (pages 200-208) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent. Use the link at the bottom of post to read the previous/following pages. Use the Search box above to find specific topics or browse using the Resources tab above.

CHAPTER XXI

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS ABOUT 140 B.C.

The almost uninterrupted wars, the influx of enormous wealth to Rome, partly as booty, partly as tribute, greatly. changed the relation of rich and poor, of mighty and helpless, in the Roman world, above all in the capital itself. The old distinction between patricians and plebeians had almost disappeared from view. The new conditions gave rise to new classes, chiefly the rich and the poor. A new struggle began, a fight against crying economic evils, combined with a fierce contest for political power.

IN ROME THE RULING CLASSES

255. The Roman Capitalists. — Rome had become the greatest business center of the world. The Roman soldier had put his sword and his torch into the service of the money men and had wiped out or crippled one commercial rival after another. Only a few cities in the Orient retained their position as business capitals. The rich business men of Rome were organized in companies, as is the case in our own days. They profited by every war. They advanced to the government the money necessary to equip fleets and armies, and received it back at high interest after the victories. Nor did they hesitate to defraud the government whenever they had a chance. Their agents were on the spot, when, after a victory, the prisoners of war or the inhabitants of a captured city were sold into slavery. They bought these unfortunates at very low prices and sold them at huge profits in the slave markets. (Between 209 and 168 about a million prisoners were thus enslaved.) The conquest of the Orient inaugurated a brisk commerce in delicious foodstuffs, fineries of all kinds, and the productions of Oriental art. The greatest article was perhaps grain, which could be much more cheaply carried from Egypt and other countries than produced in Italy.

The farming of taxes was another source of enormous gains for the capitalists. The state employed no tax collectors. Instead of bothering with the direct gathering of the taxes, the government sold to the great business corporations the right of collecting the revenues of provinces and districts. Naturally the sum paid down by them was much smaller than the amount of the taxes because the “tax farmer” had to bear the expenses of the collection and the risk of perhaps not getting all he could claim. As a rule these tax farmers (the “publicans” of the Gospel) made gigantic profits. They knew how to squeeze out much more than they were permitted. The governor of the province either was in the game and received his share in the profits, or had committed similar outrages and could not afford making enemies.

256. The Knights. — There had developed in Rome two political parties, the “ nobles” and the common people (§ 223). Now the great business men formed a third party, the knights. As we saw in § 200, the very richest citizens were enrolled as knights in the ancient military division of Rome. In the course of time the military duties of these knights dwindled down to a mere semblance of what they had been, and consisted chiefly in showy processions on certain great occasions. The horsemen actually used in the army were recruited from other sources. Nevertheless the several thousands of the richest Roman Croesuses continued to be enrolled in the old lists, and they felt very proud of this honor. Thus the Roman knights were in reality the chief representatives of the business world.

Though these business men could not hold offices or sit in the Senate, they wielded a powerful influence in politics. The government, which had only a very rudimentary financial system, depended on them, and they knew how to keep senators, consuls, and other magistrates pliable and subservient. They could let the magistrates or senators participate in their gains, or come to their rescue with a loan, e.g., for an election campaign. At times, however, they were at war with the senatorial party. Their only viewpoint on every political question or enterprise was not whether it was justifiable, or useful to the state, but whether there was money in it for themselves.

257. The life of the rich had assumed the characteristics of Oriental luxury. Their houses had come to imitate the Greek type. The rooms, including one or two sumptuous dining rooms, were grouped around a central hall. The pavement of the court, and many of the floors of the rooms, were ornamented with artistic mosaic. The walls were hung with costly brilliantly colored tapestries, the ceiling richly gilded. Sideboards held beautiful vases and gold and silver plate, and in various recesses stood glorious statues. The rich Roman had every sort of refinement that could be bought with money. Slowly he made some progress in mental accomplishment also. He had sense enough to notice the intellectual superiority of the Greek. It gradually became fashionable to know something of the Greek literary masterpieces. In fact, one had to be able to speak Greek to be up-to-date. Meanwhile the Roman acquired also the Greek and Oriental vices in addition to his own. The contact with the East did not make the Roman morally better, but on the contrary helped greatly to lower the standard of public and private morality.

THE POORER CLASSES

258. The farming class decreased because of the many wars.
This began chiefly with the Second Punic War. Hannibal’s marches up and down the peninsula, attended by the usages common in warfare, i.e., destruction of cities and towns and hamlets, with the devastation of farm lands, the enslavement of captives, and the destruction of human lives, and the brutal retaliation afterwards taken by the victorious Romans struck a terrible blow to the agricultural population. Similarly the replenishing of the Roman armies which were fighting in foreign lands drew more and more men from the peaceful Italian homesteads, many of whom were never to return. Those in power at Rome failed to set themselves the task of restoring the farming class. On the contrary they contributed to its decay with cruel selfishness by the establishment of “large estates.”

259. The establishment of “large estates,” latifundia, was another cause of the decrease of the farming class. The ordinary peasant, who worked only a moderate farm, was undersold by the grain merchants, who got their supply from overseas, and by the great landowner, who worked his farm by gangs of slaves. The nobles (§ 223), who were not allowed to engage in commerce, because they either held or aspired to offices, took to enlarging their estates. When a small farm became practically vacant by the death of its possessor in war, when the returning warrior had conceived a dislike for peaceful but toilsome land labor, there was the rich noble who improved the condition by buying up the holdings. Often violence, secret and open, such as poisoning the cattle, trampling down the growing crop, and the like, would make the reluctant yeoman willing to sell. Moreover, the Licinian law (§ 207), prohibiting any individual from holding more than 300 acres of public land, had become a dead letter. The men in power grabbed as much of it as was desirable to round out their domains. To engross all the public land available they had stopped the founding of colonies.

Thus the latifundia were more and more dislodging the free small farmer. Territories which once had supported several hundred happy families of yeomen were now owned by one noble, and tilled by bondmen. This meant an incalculable loss for the commonwealth. The citizens of a state, generally speaking, ought to be producers or workers who are able at least to support themselves in frugal comfort. The growth of the latifundia did its share to destroy this class. It was one of those movements that tend to make the rich disproportionately rich, and the poor stark beggars.

260. Increase of the City Mob. — Where did the dislodged peasants go? Many of them had the money and the pluck to emigrate from Italy. A steady stream of sturdy peasants settled in the provinces of the west, where there were better prospects for enterprising industrious men. Here they helped to spread true Roman civilization and to enlarge the extent of the Latin tongue, besides gaining for themselves moderate or even large fortunes.

The bulk of the ex-farmers drifted into the cities, chiefly the capital, where it was hard to find work. Rome had no extensive industries, manufactured articles being preferably imported at low cost from the Orient. The industries which existed were largely served by slaves. The bakers, weavers, fullers, etc., catered only to the poor people, because the rich had all such work attended to by their domestic slaves. So the number of beggars was great in Rome. They could, however, still turn their voting privilege to account. Some sold it for cash, others for the enjoyment of public amusements. Others attached themselves as “clients” to some rich “patron,” who expected them to vote and agitate for him, and who in return supported them — sometimes generously, sometimes miserly. They all helped to swell the city mob, which was slowly but steadily increasing, and which, though as a rule easily swayed by the moneyed classes, was destined to play its part in Roman politics.

261. The public games had mostly grown out of religious festivals. They consisted of grand religious or other pageants, theatrical shows, and general merrymaking. The expenses of all of them were practically borne by the curule aediles (§ 220), who had officially to care for them. The aediles commonly intended to run for the praetorship at the next election (§ 223). So in order to win the votes of the people high and low, they squandered large sums on these entertainments. They would introduce wild beasts into the circus to fight with other beasts or with men. Hardly anything was liked better than the gladiatorial shows. These had been taken over from the Etruscans and quickly found favor with the Romans. Men called gladiators (from gladius, sword) fought each other to the death for the amusement of the spectators. At first the gladiators were captives taken in war. Soon these horrible games became commercialized. Companies would buy able-bodied slaves, drill them in gladiatorial schools, and hire them out for money to magistrates and private men who wished to make a Roman holiday. It is evident that this brutal amusement, for which the people clamored most eagerly, tended to debase morality and to engender a criminal contempt for human life.

262. The slave population, as hinted in § 255, had assumed enormous proportions. The student must not think of them as necessarily different in color and race from their masters. Some of them certainly were, but we should remember that both war and bold piracy brought the entire population of rich and highly cultured cities to the slave market. Many slaves from the East or the Hellenic lands were much more educated and had been leading a more refined life than their Italian masters. The rich man bought himself secretaries, stewards, teachers for his children, clever cooks, and skilled craftsmen. These were commonly treated with some decency. But the greater part, especially those coming from barbarous and semibarbarous nations, and, as a rule, put to labor on the farms, were branded like cattle and forced to work in chains under the lash of overseers and to sleep in miserable quarters. The law did not prevent the owner from inflicting any kind of punishment, however revolting, even death, upon a slave. It is no wonder that the pent-up indignation and hatred conceived by the slaves against their masters at times vented itself in uprisings which worked enormous destruction on large territories and in some cases could be suppressed only by regular wars.

POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN ROME ABOUT 140 B.C.

263. Political changes in Rome were brought about in consequence of these new conditions, although the letter of the constitution remained unaltered. The Senate was no longer guided in its deliberations by those lofty principles of honesty and love of country which had once distinguished it. A great part of the senators thought merely of how to retain their power and increase their estates. The Assembly of the Tribes suffered under many disadvantages. Only those could vote in it who appeared personally in Rome. The collective votes of the four city tribes were practically controlled by the city mob, i.e., by those who controlled the mob. The rural tribes near the city had lost many of their yeomen, whose property had been bought up by the nobles and knights. These now controlled the votes. The yeomen of the other tribes up and down Italy could rarely come to Rome, and their tribes were represented by the rich landowners. Besides, the time of the meeting could be so chosen that the yeomen were prevented, for instance, by the labors of the harvest season, from attending in large numbers. Thus the rich had means to carry their favorite measures even in this bulwark of the lower classes. (H. T. F., “Plebiscite.”)

264. The subject Italians had petitioned for full citizenship after the Second Punic War, in which they had so heroically stood by the dominant city. But on this occasion as well as later the Senate haughtily refused to consider any such step. Instead, the distinction between citizens and non-citizens was drawn more sharply. The Latin colonies (§ 217) were treated almost like the allies. All had to put up with an incredible insolence. Once a Roman magistrate who stopped at an allied city had the city consul scourged because the common bath had not been quickly enough vacated for the use of his peevish wife. This was perhaps one of the worst cases. All the subject Italians felt keenly the contempt in which they were held. They became more and more ready to use force in order to obtain the admission to citizenship.

265. The Provinces. — The whole Roman government was originally that of a rural city, and as long as Rome was not much more than a rural city it worked admirably, though even for Italy it proved insufficient in the long run. When immense territories outside the peninsula had been acquired, the Roman statesmen were perfectly bewildered by the new task of giving them a good government. A good deal of sound political wisdom, combined with genuine Roman haughtiness and a nervous fear of rebellion, created the system of provinces.

The Romans rarely interfered with the local customs of cities or districts, least of all with the religion. They allowed extensive home rule. The tax or tribute which they imposed was generally smaller than what had been paid under the former rulers. Some cities had greater privileges than others. All, however, were under the governor (propraetor or proconsul), who possessed full dictatorial power. He was supreme judge. There was no appeal from his decisions. All his expenses were paid from the public treasury, and he drew no real salary. This resulted in the temptation, rarely resisted, to enrich himself by illegal means. Commonly he was hand-in glove with the tax-fanners (§ 255). Nor could he be sued for extortion during the time of his office, and after that only in Rome, which was far away. His judges, too, would be men who had already committed similar outrages or were expecting to become governors themselves or had a son or brother or friend who was waiting for a province to plunder.

The Roman possessions were an EMPIRE in the fullest sense of the word. There was one ruling community with absolutely unlimited power over large territories, a community which by way of fact looked upon every inhabitant of the provinces merely as a source of revenue. This was expressed in so many words by the saying: “The provinces are the farms of the Roman people.” The Roman people defrayed all its state expenses from the revenues that came from these “farms.” The provinces were in particular the farms of the rich. They were passed around among the members of the senatorial clique. And year after year they furnished an abundant harvest to the tax-farming knights.