The following is an excerpt (pages 209-225) from Ancient and Medieval History (1946) by Francis S. Betten, S.J. Although some information may be outdated, the Catholic historical perspective it provides remains pertinent.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 XXII
A CENTURY OF CIVIL STRIFE
TIBERIUS GRACCHUS AND GAIUS GRACCHUS
266. The reforms needed were principally these:
(1) A system of elected representatives, such as exists in all our modern states, in order to enable all the citizens that lived at a distance from Rome to exert their influence in the central government. Such a system the ancient world never devised (§ 109).
(2) Some measure to prevent the wholesale bribery at the elections, as far as it could be prevented by human means. One step was indeed taken in this direction, the introduction of the ballot. This made impossible open attempts at forcing votes, but could not interfere with the bribery by donations, games, etc.
(3) The government needed to be taken from the senatorial class and put into responsible hands. This was not to come for a. hundred years more, and then not in a manner liked by everybody.
(4) The position of the yeomen needed to be rendered more secure, and the poor in the cities to be restored to the land. This became the aim of Tiberius Gracchus, and to a great extent that of his brother Gaius Gracchus.
There had been one would-be reformer at Rome, Porcius Cato (§ 246). He saw the evil that was going on. By word and deed, especially when he had the powerful office of censor, he strove to remedy matters. But he did not see the root of the evil. He expelled a number of senators for private vices. He preached the hardiness of the ancestors. He inveighed against Greek learning. But all that did not reduce the unlawful power of senatorial or knights; nor did it preserve one yeoman from losing his little farm. Just in this regard Cato himself gave a bad example. He bought out as many yeomen as he could, and worked his wide estates by slave labor.
267. TIBERIUS GRACCHUS was a grandson of the older Scipio Africanus, and a close friend of the younger Scipio Africanus. He had been the first to jump upon the walls of Carthage in that city’s death struggle. Though a noble, his heart beat for the poor people. His keen mind discerned the cause of their miserable condition. He made his own the view of those who advocated a better distribution of the public lands.
He took up the old law of Licinius (§ 209) which prohibited the holding of more than 300 acres of such lands, and gave this law a shape which made it both milder and more effective.
(1) Those who held more than the lawful 300 acres were obliged to give up the surplus, but could retain the 300 acres as their full property. They might also retain in full ownership 160 acres more for each of their eldest two sons.
(2) The land thus reclaimed was to be given in small holdings to poor applicants, who, however, were to pay a small rent on it, and were not allowed to sell it (to prevent its falling again into the hands of the rich landowners).
(3) A permanent board of three was to superintend the reclaiming and redistributing of the public land.
268. The Passage of the Law. — In 133 Tiberius Gracchus proposed the law in the Tribal Assembly in his capacity as Tribune of the Plebs. The wealthy, above all the senatorial party, who were going to lose much unlawful property by this law, cried out that it was robbery. They won another tribune, Octavius, to veto the voting on it. Thereupon Tiberius Gracchus put the question to the vote of the tribes, whether he or Octavius should be deposed as tribune. The decision was unanimously against Octavius, and Tiberius Gracchus had him dragged from his seat. The great law was then passed.
Tiberius no doubt was convinced of the correctness of these acts. But by law a tribune could not be deposed. He might have waited until the next election and procured the choice of tribunes of his own stamp. He committed another blunder. To secure his work he ran for tribune again the next year, though the law required an interval of ten years. These acts gave to his enemies pretexts for a campaign of slander, which on the day of the election ended in a riot. The more violent of the senators themselves with a band of followers broke into the Assembly, struck down the unsuspecting or undecided mob, and killed Tiberius Gracchus. Some three hundred of his adherents also were killed, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber. Whatever faults Tiberius Gracchus had committed, these brutal outrages were infinitely worse, and the party that resorted to them thereby showed its own bad conscience. But the great law remained in force. The commission continued to do its work zealously. In 125 B.C. the citizen list of Rome showed an increase of 80,000 farmers.
269. GAIUS GRACCHUS, the younger brother of Tiberius, took up the same work ten years later. In 123 B.C. Tiberius, he declared, had thus addressed him in a dream, “Why do you hesitate? You cannot escape your doom and mine, to live and die for the people.” Gaius’ plans were greater than those of his brother. He strove also for political reforms. We cannot, unfortunately, say that all the measures he proposed were calculated to promote the real welfare of the state or the poor.
Having been elected, in 123, Tribune of the Plebs, he had the so- called Corn Law passed, which ordered that the state was to sell grain to indigent citizens at half the market price. This law, which gained him the good will of the populace, at least for the time being, was a most vicious element in the legislation. It tended to rear a crowd of idlers, and to draw into the city characters who wished to shirk honest work. Its effect was bound to prove opposite to that of the law passed by Tiberius. Had Gaius lived long enough, he might have been able to undo much of the evil influence of this law.
His brother’s land law worked too slowly for him. So he proposed to establish colonies of Roman citizens both in Italy and in the provinces. Six thousand colonists went to Carthage to rebuild that city. Other such foundations were projected. Had this policy continued, it would have been the greatest blessing both for Italy and for the provinces.
To weaken the power of the Senate he put all the courts of justice into the hands of the knights. This certainly was not for the benefit of the provinces, because the tax farmers, the worst offenders, were now to be tried by their own comrades for the crime of extortion. For the time being, however, the money power went over to the side of Gaius Gracchus.
270. Gaius Gracchus’ Second Tribunate. — He was elected again, for the following year (immediate reelection had been made lawful). A number of laws passed in his favor placed extensive power in his hands and imposed on him a great variety of duties. It was surprising how many important affairs he could attend to personally without losing sight of his further projects. He was now at the height of his influence. The laws he planned were excellent. They brought on his ruin through the selfishness and shortsightedness of his friends.
His next step was an attempt to give full citizenship to the Latins, and the Latin rights to the allies of Italy. (See § 217.) This met with strong opposition from his allies, the city mob, who did not want to see the privileges of the citizen rights cheapened. His plans for still more colonies estranged from him the knights, who did not like to see such commercial rivals as Carthage and Corinth reestablished. The Senate induced another tribune, Drusus, to propose twelve Italian colonies at a time, though it was impossible to find so much public land in Italy. This turned the thoughtless mob completely away from Gaius, When he stood for a third election, he was defeated. He was now a private man, no longer protected by the sanctity of the tribuneship.
271. Murder of Gaius Gracchus. — A law canceling the colony of Carthage was to be proposed in the Assembly. A large number of farmers from the surrounding country flocked to Rome. Having received warning that they might be attacked, many came armed. The Senate, which had long been preparing for the use of force, interpreted this as an attack upon the state. The consul, a personal enemy of Gaius Gracchus, was given dictatorial power, and marched with a regular force to put down what was called a rising. Gracchus himself was slain. Three thousand of his adherents were afterward strangled in prison.
272. End of the Reforms. — The Senate was in power again. In quick succession most of the reforms of the brothers were undone. The little farms were freed from rent, declared to be salable, and soon absorbed by the neighboring latifundia. All the laws ordering the foundation of colonies became a dead letter. The further distribution of public land was forbidden, which amounted to a gigantic donation of state property to the rich. But the Senate did not have the courage to abolish the disastrous com law of Gaius. The knights, too, retained the right of forming the courts of justice.
MARIUS AND SULLA (108-78 B.C.)
Prominent men appear more and more as the prime movers in the shaping of Roman history. The various classes as such had shown themselves unfit for leadership. A mob by its very nature needs some personage that it can look to for guidance in political action. The Senate as a party had become utterly selfish and unprincipled. So the time of one-man power was approaching. The leaders of the contending parties will grapple with each other for supremacy. The first contestants are Marius and Sulla — Marius a lowborn plebeian, Sulla the scion of an ancient patrician family.
273. MARIUS was the son of a day laborer. He advanced in the army from the lowest ranks by reason of his eminent ability and probity. By marriage he acquired some property. This enabled him to run for and obtain the praetorship which he administered in a fair and unselfish manner. He rose to the highest pitch of glory through two important wars.
274. The war with Jugurtha, a Numidian king, who had dislodged several rulers that were under Roman protection, and had killed thousands of Italians in his realm, revealed the abyss of corruptibility existing in the senatorial order. For a number of years in succession the insolent African bought ambassadors and consuls with his gold. In 105 B.C. Marius was elected consul and was sent as commander-in-chief to Africa. By skill and good fortune, and by a daring exploit of his Lieutenant Sulla, Marius was enabled to make good his promise that he would bring Jugurtha to Rome in chains. Jugurtha was dragged through the streets in the conqueror’s triumph, and died in a loathsome prison.
275. The War with the Cimbri and Teutones. — While the war in Africa was going on a storm had broken upon the northern frontier. The Cimbri and Teutones, German tribes with some Celtic clans, had been in motion since 113. They seem to have come from the coasts of the Baltic. For several years they marched about the northern boundaries of Italy, where they defeated four large Roman armies. Italy and Rome were in a terror. The conqueror of Jugurtha was immediately reelected and sent as general against the new enemy. Marius went about his task very cautiously. He first accustomed his intimidated soldiers to the sight of the huge barbarians. When the right moment came, he defeated and annihilated the Teutones in southern Gaul at Aquae Sextiae (Aix). In the following year he dealt a similar blow to the Cimbri, who had crossed the Alps into Italy, at Vercellae. Marius was hailed as the deliverer of the country. A second time this lowborn son of the people rode in a magnificent triumph through the streets of Rome.
276. Marius was no statesman. After these wars he was the mightiest man in Rome. The popular party felt elated and would have done anything for him. He could have taken up the reforms of the Gracchus brothers. But he evidently was at sea in the world of internal politics. While party strife ran high — several political murders and acts of street violence occurred — Marius kept aloof. Some leaders of the popular party came forward with proposals so radical that even many of their own men turned away from them. A riot followed, and Marius himself helped to quell it. This was the end of his influence. His party did not trust him any more, and now the aristocrats had no reason to fear him.
277. THE RISE OF SULLA began with the Social War. There had grown up among the aristocrats themselves a small liberal party, which meant to do justice to the people. The tribune Drusus, son of the Drusus who had opposed Gaius Gracchus, proposed to extend citizenship to the Italians. These had put their hope on him. When he was assassinated, they lost patience. They established a state of their own with consuls, senate, praetors, and other officials. Rome made Sulla general in the war that ensued, the war of the socii (allies). The two parties were nearly evenly matched. In spite of the successes won by Sulla’s generalship, the Senate found it advisable to grant citizenship to all Italians as far north as the Po River.
278. The First Civil War of Sulla. — The Senate wanted to enroll the new citizens in such a way that they would have no political influence in the Assembly of the Tribes, a step which the people opposed furiously. In fact, a law was proposed to provide for another enrollment. To prevent it, Sulla provoked a riot, in which only the intervention of Marius saved his life. The law was passed. But while these troubles were going on, the Senate had appointed Sulla commander-in-chief for a war against Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus in Asia Minor. The people replied by appointing Marius to the same command.
Sulla went to his army and led it against Rome — the first instance of a regular army being used to reduce the capital. He scattered the adherents of Marius, who himself escaped, and had a number of democratic leaders executed. He then set out for the East. When the democrats rallied again, the aristocrats surrounded them and cut down ten thousand men. Then Marius and his friend Cinna returned at the head of hordes of escaped slaves and other ruffians, who for four days carried on a fearful slaughter of the members of the senatorial party. These two, then, declared themselves consuls without the formality of election. Marius died very soon, and Cinna remained the master of Rome for four years.
279. Sulla’s War with Mithridates. — Since the Roman war with Syria (§ 250), that country was in a state of decay. Out of its ruins grew several independent states, the most powerful of which was that of Pontus under Mithridates. Mithridates now posed as champion of Asia against Rome. He suddenly seized the province of Asia, where he was hailed as deliverer from the tax hyenas. Eighty thousand Italians were massacred. In a vigorous campaign of several years, not without difficulty, Sulla restored Roman dominion throughout Asia Minor and returned to Rome.
280. Sulla’s Second Civil War. — Cinna, who tried to keep Sulla out of Italy, was killed by his own soldiers. Though Sulla promised to recognize the enrollment of the Italian citizens, a large force, chiefly Samnites, marched against him. He defeated them at the very gates of Rome, and slew the greater part of them. Then he began his bloody revenge. In killing, Sulla was more systematic than Marius. Three thousand Samnite prisoners were butchered in cold blood. Every morning the people would find posted up in the market place lists of men doomed to death, with prices on their heads. Thus the rabble was invited to assist in the work of butchery and plunder. Private enemies of Sulla’s friends and their henchmen were included, though politically harmless. The property of these proscribed persons was sold at auction, and bid for only by Sulla’s men, who thus had a chance to enrich themselves enormously. Nearly five thousand wealthy Romans perished. In the Italian cities the slaughter was even worse; 12,000 were put to death in the little town of Praeneste.
281. Sulla’s “ Reforms.” — Sulla saw no other remedy for the ills of Rome but the omnipotence of the Senate, and he knew of no other means to bring it about than the brute force of the soldier. He was blind to the complete incapacity of that body to rule. He made all offices dependent on the Senate. The tribunes in particular lost practically all the power they possessed. After a three years’ absolutism he retired into private life, congratulating himself that he had saved the state from destruction. He wanted to be known as “Sulla the Fortunate.” Probably the only really good measure which survived this period of violence and bloodshed was the enfranchisement of the Italians. Sulla had fought in arms against this act of justice, though when in power he allowed it to stand.
POMPEY AND CAESAR
Just as the period of Marius and Sulla had been a time of internal troubles and foreign wars, so this period of Pompey and Caesar will have two phases. First, for Rome and Italy it will mean the question who shall become supreme master. Second, there will be a gigantic extension and strengthening of the Roman dominions.
POMPEY
282. Pompey and Crassus had been prominent as officers of Sulla. Crassus was a good soldier but a better business man. He had accumulated a colossal fortune by the purchase of property of the proscribed (§ 280). Pompey, too, possessed military ability, but was more cautious, exceptionally vain, and without any broad views in politics. His connection with the now powerful senatorial party assisted him to rise to unusual importance.
283. Pompey’s War with Sertorius. — Sertorius, a noble- hearted, refined, and broad-minded champion of the popular party, a character born to rule, had escaped to Spain during Sulla’s persecution and had not been disturbed so far. He gave to the Spanish provinces an admirable government, and introduced there the best elements of Roman civilization. The population was enthusiastically devoted to him. Upon Sulla’s death, Pompey succeeded in being appointed general against Sertorius. For several years he made little headway. Then Sertorius was assassinated by a rival who soon succumbed to the attacks of Pompey. Meanwhile there had been a formidable uprising of the slaves in Italy, which involved the whole peninsula. This revolt was crushed in the blood of thousands by Crassus. The two victorious generals now united, forced the Senate to grant them a triumph, and had themselves elected consuls. To gain the good will of the popular party they undid the chief work of their master Sulla by restoring the tribunes and some other officers to their former power (§ 281).
284. Pompey’s War against the Pirates. — Since the Second Punic War the Romans had neglected their navy, and one of the common measures taken after a victory was the suppression of the navy of the conquered state. In consequence, piracy bad grown at a terrific pace. The pirates formed regular organizations. They had taken possession of maritime cities and made them their headquarters. They concluded treaties with republics and kings. The destruction of cities in the Roman wars drove not only the rabble, but prominent men as well into their ranks. They now paralyzed the trade of the whole Mediterranean. They appeared before the Tiber and carried off the ships that brought grain to the capital.
Again Pompey was called upon. He received ample means and power for three years to put down these plunderers. He acted with great circumspection and energy. Within forty days he had cleaned out the western part of the Mediterranean, and within forty-nine the eastern part. Instead of killing his twenty thousand prisoners, he settled them in various colonies, chiefly in Asia, to give them a new chance in life.
285. Pompey’s Activity in the East. — Mithridates had never considered the peace he concluded with Sulla as more than a truce. He was again seriously threatening Rome’s power, and his alliances made him a most dangerous enemy. As Pompey was already in the East, the people extended his command indefinitely, so that he might set things right. His good luck more than his ability enabled him not only to regain all that was lost but to conquer vast territories, part of which he made into provinces, while the kings of other parts became Rome’s vassals. Among the latter was the little kingdom of the Jews.
286. The Jews had come under the power of Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great, but their country had been conquered by the Seleucid kings of Syria. The Syrian kings tried by means of a fierce persecution to make them give up their religion and adore the Greek and Oriental gods. This drove them into a rebellion, in which they performed the most heroic deeds under their leaders, the Maccabees, and asserted their independence, partly with Roman assistance. While Pompey was in the East, a quarrel between two royal claimants of the throne caused one party to invoke the aid of Rome. Pompey came to Jerusalem, took the city by storm, and subjected the land to Rome, giving the crown to one of the pretenders. A little later the foreigner Herod replaced the Maccabees.
287. Pompey after the Wars. — When Pompey returned to Rome, he celebrated a magnificent triumph. Three hundred and twenty-four princely persons walked captive behind his chariot, and banners proclaimed that he had conquered twenty-one kings and twelve millions of people and doubled the revenue of the state. But when the triumph was over and his army dismissed, the jealous Senate took no further notice of him. It even delayed to sanction his arrangements in Asia, which were so highly honorable to the Roman name. For two years Pompey fretted in vain.
CAESAR AND POMPEY IN HARMONY
288. Julius Caesar was of an old patrician family. Under Sulla he barely escaped proscription (§ 277), because he had married a daughter of Cinna and refused to put her away. During Pompey’s absence he had served as quaestor and praetor. It pleased the people exceedingly that he dared to speak in praise of Marius and Cinna, and put up again the trophies of Marius on the Capitol, which had been removed during the rule of Sulla. The people looked upon him as their champion. It was evidently his intention to rise into power by support of the lower classes. For some time, however, he was forced to abstain from pursuing his aims in public.
289. Conspiracy of Catiline. — Catiline, one of the most wicked men in that wicked age, belonged to the numerous class of nobles and knights who by their riotous living had squandered their fortunes and were deep in debt. To fill their pockets again they planned an insurrection under Catiline’s leadership. They wanted to seize the supreme power and to begin a wholesale robbery of all the rich. This conspiracy was, almost in the last moment, detected and crushed by Cicero, the great Roman orator, who was consul in that year (63 B.C.). It was not a democratic movement, though some of the democratic leaders, including Caesar, were strongly suspected of being in the ring. At the same time, too, Pompey returned from the East and was the only great man in the city. Caesar was glad to obtain the governorship of a province in Spain, and thus to withdraw out of sight. This gave him a welcome chance, too, to retrieve his dilapidated fortune (in the usual way) and also to gain considerable military experience.
290. The “First Triumvirate.” — When Caesar returned from Spain, he found Pompey still chafing under the haughty neglect of the Senate. Here was his chance. In 60 B.C. he formed an alliance with Pompey and Crassus. The three were to possess the supreme power in the state, either by holding offices or by means of bribes or force. Caesar furnished the brains, Pompey the renown, and Crassus the money. This agreement, which was entirely private, is called the First Triumvirate (from tres, three, and vir, man). The next year Caesar became consul. Within a short time Pompey saw his arrangements in the East sanctioned. Laws were passed in the spirit of Tiberius Gracchus, though with wise modifications. The remnants of Sulla’s enactments were done away with.
291. Caesar in Gaul, 58-51 B.C. — At the end of his consulship Caesar had conferred on him the governorship of Illyricum, Cisalpine Gaul, and that part of Transalpine Gaul (§ 239) which had been formed into a province some fifty years before. This latter was the southeastern corner of Gaul. Caesar wished to get these provinces, because they would give him a chance to gain military renown, and to build up an army devoted to him personally.
The Transalpine Gauls, a Celtic nation (§ 192 d), inhabited the land from the Rhine to the Pyrenees. They were brave, patriotic, liberty-loving, and not without civilization. They were divided into a number of independent tribes. Caesar would have been no match for them, had they acted in harmony against him. But their feuds enabled him to play one tribe against another. In the seventh year of warfare they combined for the first and last time for a united effort. When this failed, all Gaul was a Roman land. Caesar had carried the Roman eagles as far as the Atlantic, he had even crossed the Rhine and the Channel, and had added a vast territory to the dominions of Rome. Italian colonists and a brisk intercourse with Roman lands helped to Romanize Gaul more and more.
While busy conquering the Gauls, Caesar also drove a German invader, Ariovistus, King of the Suevi, back across the Rhine, and thus prevented the return of a danger similar to that of the Cimbri and Teutones (§ 275).
WAR BETWEEN CAESAR AND POMPEY
291. Breaking Up of the Triumvirate. — As Caesar received the governorship over several provinces, so Pompey, besides other privileges, was given the provinces of Spain and Africa. He remained in Rome, however, and administered his provinces by deputies. Crassus preferred the rich province of Syria, where he soon perished in a war with the fierce Parthians (H. T. F., “Persias”). His death tended to loosen the bonds between the other two confederates. Pompey drew nearer to the senatorial party, and, through fear of Caesar, was adopted by it as champion. The question was now which of the two would become the sole ruler of Rome.
Caesar, still governor of his several provinces, wanted to stand for consul. The law required that he disband his army and present himself personally at Rome as a private citizen. He knew that this meant his death by assassination. Pompey meanwhile, besides being governor of Africa and Spain, had been made consul and thus was allowed to have an army in Italy. Caesar offered to lay down his command, if Pompey would do the same. This was refused, and he was even ordered to disband his forces before a certain day or be declared an enemy to the state. This unjustifiable command was a declaration of civil war.
293. Civil War between Caesar and Pompey. — Caesar stood with his army in Cisalpine Gaul, when the fatal decree was reported to him. The narrow river Rubicon separated his province from Italy. In 49 B.C. he crossed the Rubicon, marched past Rome to southern Italy, but arrived too late to prevent Pompey’s flight across the Adriatic to Dyrrhachium. With Pompey all the senatorial party had fled. Caesar came to Rome, broke open the treasury, in which he found an enormous amount of money, and set out for Spain, where he defeated the legates (deputies) of Pompey. His own legates meanwhile took possession of Sicily and Sardinia. In Rome he had himself elected consul and dictator, and followed Pompey to the other side of the Adriatic.
294. The Battle of Pharsalus, 48 B.C. — Here Caesar found himself in a bad position. His army was only half of the forces Pompey had gathered, and it was very ill provisioned. Pompey’s army, however, consisted largely of undrilled men, and was officered by young aristocrats, who looked upon the war as a parade. Pompey risked the battle at Pharsalus in Thessaly, and was completely defeated by Caesar’s superior generalship. Pompey himself fled to the coast even before the battle was completely finished. His army was annihilated. The kings, kinglets, and cities of the East that had supported him at once made their peace with the new master of the world. Pompey, almost alone, fled to Egypt, where he was treacherously killed as soon as he set foot on the land.
295. Further Campaigns. — Caesar himself went to Egypt, where he wasted some months under the influence of the wily queen, Cleopatra, to whom he assigned the throne in a dispute with her brother. On his way back to Italy he went to Asia Minor, where the aggressions of Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, made armed interference necessary. His victory was so speedy that he announced it to his friends in Rome by the words, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” In two more decisive campaigns he crushed the remnants of Pompey’s party that had escaped to Africa and Spain. To show to the populace the greatness of his achievements, he celebrated five gorgeous triumphs. Since his victorious return from the East, in 47 B.C., he was the sole ruler of the empire. Rome had ceased to be a republic. It was a monarchy.