The conduct of Hadrian caused much murmur- ing. It was recorded in the sacred books of the Eomans, that when Tarquin was about to build the capitol, he found that the most proper site was al- ready occupied by the statues of many gods. Through his knowledge of augury he inquired whether or not they would give up their places to Jupiter. All con- sented to do so except Mars, Juventas, and the god Terminus." This gave rise to three religious opin- '^ See Herodian, lAfe of Alexander.
°' See Eutropius. Daoia was not abandoned until the time of Aurelian.
"^ Saint Augustine, The City of God, Book IV, chs. xxiii and xxix.
CHAP. XT.] OF THE ROMANS. 307 ions: that the people of Mars would never surrender the place which they occupied; that the Eoman youth would never be overcome; and that the Eoman god Terminus would never retrace his steps. This last, however, took place under Hadrian.
3Qg GEANDEUR AND DECADENCE [baker.
ISIOTE BY THE TKANSLATOE.
I. The Koman empire, at the period of its maxi- mum expansion, under Trajan, extended considerably more than three thousand miles east and west, and, in its greatest breadth, something more than two thousand north and south. Its total area was about six millioa square miles, including the basins of the Mediterrar nean and Euxine seas. Reaching, as it did — even after the abandonment of the conquests of Trajan — from the western shores of Spain and the British Islands to the Eiiphrates, and from the 24th to the 66th parallel of north latitude, it embraced a very great diversity of climates — African, Asiatic, and European.
Over this ample and varied area — ^thus extend- ing from the torrid deserts of Africa and Arabia to the frosts of middle Europe and the northern shores of the Euxine — there was distributed a great variety of peoples, which, before being subjected to the Eo- man sway, had been divided into hundreds of dif- ferent states.
.The lines of communication which the Eomans NOTE.] OF THE ROMANS. 309 established throtigliout this immense empire were ut- terly Tiiiequalled in all antiquity, and are only sur- passed by our modern railway system. The analo- gous works of Persia, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Carthage were small affairs when compared with those of Kome.' FoUowiug the authority of different an- cient writers, of whom he distrusts that of Josephus only, Gibbon enumerates no less than three thousand five hundred and fifty-seven cities within the limits of Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia proper; and he adds: " AH these cities were connected with each other, and with the capital, by public highways, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire." The city of Home being the center upon which this great system of roads converged, hence arose the saying that " all roads lead to Eome." Thence they penetrated to the Khine, to the Euphrates, and beyond the Danube. The liue of communication from the Straits of Gib- raltar to the Euphrates was not less than three thou- sand miles; and that from the wall of Antoninus to Jerusalem — including two slight interruptions for communication by water — was about three thousand seven hundred and forty miles.
According to Gibbon's estimate, the total peace establishinent of the empire on land probably con- sisted of about three hundred and ninety-five thou- ' See my Note at the end of chapter xiii.
310 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [bakw.
sand men; on water, of about fifty-five thousand. Of the former, twenty thousand were stationed near the capital; two hundred thousand guarded the fron- tiers of the Khine and the Danube; one hundred thousand protected the frontier of the Euphrates; and seventy-five thousand were divided between Egypt, Africa, Spain, and Britain. The naval force was stationed at proper points on the Mediterranean and the Euxine, on the coasts of Gaul and Britain, and along the Khine and the Danube. Thus, in con- formity with the same general conception, both the army and the navy were distributed around the bor' ders of the empire, and along an irregular line of circumvallation which could scarcely fall short of ten thousand miles. Within the area enclosed by this vast girt there were but few troops; and for several centuries together men experienced — so far as danger from without was concerned — a profound sense of peace and security.
Gibbon places the total population of the empire at about one hundred and twenty millions; and, the whole military and naval establishment being taken, as above, at four hundred and fifty thousand, the re- sult is that there was only one soldier and sailor to two hundred and sixty-six of the population — a ratio of miKtary draft upon society which w'as but little more than one third as great as that of the seven principal states of onr present Europe.' This result " See my Note at the end of chapter iii.
NOTE.] OF THE ROMANS. 311 is very significant, as showing in a demonstrable manner the great work which the Komans accom- plished in imparting a pacific and industrial charac- ter to that immense military society over which their ascendency had been acquired by force, policy, and fraud.'
n. The extreme brevity of the allusions which Montesquieu makes in the foregoing chapter to the Gladiatorial Combats, to the defective sense of Hu- manity among the Romans, and to the difference be- tween their Education and that of modem times, will justify some further remarks upon each of these topics. In our effort to grasp the general spirit of Eoman history, these subjects are too important to be dismissed with a passing glance.
1. The Oladiatorial Spectacle was an institution which, like the Triumph, supplies a striking illustra- tion of the semi-savage character of the Roman civ- ilization. It appears that these spectacles were not publicly exhibited at Home before a. u. c. 490 — that is, about the year 262 b. o.; and that they originated in the ancient religious rite of sacrificing prisoners of war to the manes of the dead — a rite which is recog- nized for example by Homer, in the sacrifice of pris- oners which Achilles makes to the dead Patroclus. It was as a funeral rite, and at the period stated, that we first meet with the practice as a public spec- ' See Gibbon's Rome, ehs. i and ii; Adam's Rom. Ant. Vice. Also, see my Notes at the ends of chapters v and vi.
312 GKANDETJR AND DECADENCE [siKEE.
tacle at Eome. The combatants fought in pairs, and thus sacrificed each other on funeral occasions. JS^^oth- ing can better enable us to realize the intensely say- age element which had place in the Eoman life than the fact that the illustrious Scipio Africanus himself gave such a spectacle after the death of his father and uncle. All the victims on this occasion were volunteers.
The custom finally lost its religious and funeral character, and became a mere secular amusement. Candidates for office popularized themselves with the people by treating them to these bloody exhibitions; and even the guests at private reunions were en- tertained by the mutual slaughter of gladiators. The practice increased rapidly down to about the time of Trajan; and the number of gladiators who killed each other for the amusement of the Eoman people appears to have been very great. It is said that no less than ten thousand fought in the spec- tacles which were given by Trajan after the eon- quest of Dacia. These murderous contests took place in the presence of vast concourses of people, composed of both sexes and of every order, from the rabble to the elite of Eome; and all appear to have enjoyed the brutal entertainment with equal zest.
Considered in itself, the gladiatorial spectacle be- speaks a society purely savage. Considered in con- nection with the advanced social elements with which KOTK.] OF THE ROMANS. 313 it was mixed, it is evidence, like the Triumph,* of a semi-savage social state, at least as far as regards the great virtue of humcmity.
This truly barbarous custom, after having been interdicted but not extirpated by Constantino, was finally abolished, a. d. 404, by Honorius, or, a. d. 500, by Theodoric the Ostrogoth, a prince who, al- though an Arian, was, in the estimation of the Eo- mans, an indisputable barbarian. Whatever doubt may exist as to the exact time of its final extinction, it is certain that this horrid amusement had polluted the amphitheatres of the Roman world for more than six hundred years, and that it finally succumbed to the spirit of Christianity."
2. The practice of Infcmtidde may be selected as another striking illustration of the comparative want of Humanity, not only among the Eomans, but among the ancient nations generally. Gibbon remarks that "the exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of antiquity: it was sometimes pre- scribed, often permitted, almost always practiced with impunity, by the nations who never entertained the Roman ideas of paternal power"; and he adds that "the Roman empire was stained with the blood of infants, till such murders were included, by Valen- tinian and his colleagues, in the letter and spirit of * See my Note at the end of chapter vi.
' Adam's Rom. Ant., PhUa., 1872, p. 229; Uvy, Book XXVIII, eh. xxi; Iliad, Book XXI; Potter's Qrecian Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1808, vol. i, p. 268; Gibbon's Rome, ch. xxx; Chambers' Enc, art. Gladiator. 14 314 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [bakkb.
the Cornelian law." General, however, as the custom was, it seems that it was not quite universal; it is said that the Thehans forbade the practice under pen- alty of death.
The destruction of infants among the ancients ap- pears to have been mainly accomplished in two ways: they were either killed outright — ^usually it would seem by strangulation — or exposed to perish from the elements, from hunger, or from birds and beasts of prey. The Spartans had a special method of their own. All their newly-born children were taken be- fore judges whose office it was to determine which were fit to live and which not; and the latter were condemned to be thrown into a deep cave in the neighborhood of the Taygetus mountains.
If anything can more clearly indicate the undevel- oped feeling of humanity in ancient times than the fact that child murder was either enjoined, permit- ted, or practiced with legal impunity, by the most civilized nations, it is seen in the additional fact that the custom was approved by the most eminent think- ers and moralists of antiquity. Aristotle expressly recommends that the law should provide for the de- struction of all "imperfect or maimed" infants; and, if necessary as a check to population, he even recom- mends the killing of those who are not physically defective!
After having been practiced for ages by the Eo- mans, this cruel and revolting custom finally yielded NOTE.] OF THE ROMANS. 315 to that growing spirit of humanity which preceded and accompanied the introduction of Christianity into the empire."
3. Probably no contrast between ancient and mod- em societies is more marked or more significant than that which is seen in connection with Education. Neither among the Komans, nor Greeks, nor any other ancient nation, is there evidence to show that society had anywhere come up to the idea of a truly popular education. In the most advanced states, learn- ing was the privilege of the few, illiterate ignorance the heritage of the many. The narrowness of base upon which the Eoman and Greek repubKcs rested — in common with the ancient societies generally — is in no respect more plainly seen than in the restriction of culture to a small class. In the rise of the modem system of popular education civilization has taken a new departure; and the polity of modem nations — seeking through elementary culture to render every individual in the state a center of mental and moral force — ^has added very greatly to the breadth and strength of the social foundation.
In the increasing tendency among modem nations to educate at public expense, and to make education universal, we observe that a f andamental unity of end pervades the whole system of popular culture in Eu- * Gibbon's Some, toI. ly, pp. 344, 345; Potter's Grecian Aniiguiiies, vol. ii, pp. 326-328, Edinburgh, 1808; Adam's Horn. Ant., Phila., 1872, p. 35; Aristotle's Politics, Book VII, ch. 16.
316 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [baker.
rope and America — that end being to strengthen and enrich the state by the development of the faculties of all the individuals of which it is composed; and we are everywhere looking at a fact of the highest value and strongest hold upon our modern societies, which either had no place whatever, or at most, but little more than a rudimentary one, in the policies of the ancient states/ ' For a good statement of the growth and condition of the public school establishments of the principal European states, see Barnard's NatioTwl Education in Europe, Hartford, 1854; for a like statement in reference to our own country, see the Report made by the same accom- plished educator to the Congress of the United States, Washington, 1868; for an excellent comparative view of the recent state of national cul- ture on both continents, see Hoyt's Report on Educatwn, in the sixth volume of Reports of Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, Washington, 1870; and for the most advanced ideas upon education in ancient times, see Aristotle's Politics, Book III, ch. 13; Book V, ch. 9; Book VII, eh. 14; and Book VIII, ch. 1.
MONTESQMEU.] OF THE ROMANS. 317 CHAPTER XVI.
STATE OF THE EMPIEE EEOM ANTONINUS TO PEOBTJS.
At the time whicli we have now reached, the Stoical School was extending itself and acquii'ing credit in the empire. As the earth causes plants to grow in places which the heavens have never looked upon, so it seemed that human nature had made an effort to produce, from its own resources, this admi- rable system of philosophy.
The Romans owed their best emperors to this school.' ^Nothing can ever obliterate the memory of the first Antoninus, except the fame of Marcus Au- relius, whom he adopted. "We experience a secret pleasure when we speak of this emperor. We can- not read his Hf e without being touched with a spe- cies of tenderness. Such is the effect which it pro- duces that we have a better opinion of ourselves for the reason that we have a better opinion of man- kind.'
' For an idea of the central principle of the stoical philosophy, see my Note at the end of this chapter. — Translatok.
' For some more extended notice of the two Autonines, see idem. — Teanslatok.
318 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [MONTESQuniu.
The wisdom of Nerva, the glory of Trajan, the courage of Hadrian, and the virtue of the two Anto- nines, commanded the respect of the soldiers. But, when new monsters succeeded them, the abuses of a military government appeared in all their excesses; and the soldiers who had sold the empire assassi- nated the emperors in order to obtain a new price for it.
It is said that there is a prince now living who has labored fifteen years to abolish the civil govern- ment of his states, in order to establish a mihtary government instead. I would make no odious reflec- tions upon his designs. I will only say that, in ac- cordance with the nature of things, two hundred guards may place the life of a sovereign in safety — but not eighty thousand; besides which, it is more dangerous to oppress an armed people than one which is not.
Commodus succeeded his father, Marcus Aurelius. He was a monster, who followed not only all his own passions, but all those of his ministers and courtiers. Those who delivered the world of his presence put Pertinax in his place — a venerable old man, whom the Prtetorian guards massacred at once.
These guards put up the empire at auction; and Julianus Didius bid it off by means of his promises — a proceeding at which all men were revolted; for, although the empire had often been purchased, it CHAP. xTi.] OF THE ROMANS. 319 had never before been sold as merchandise. Percen- nius Niger, Severus, and Albinus were saluted as emperors; and Julianus, not having been able to pay the immense sums which he had promised, was aban- doned by the soldiers.
Severus overthrew Niger and Albinus. He pos- sessed great qualities; but lenity — ^that first virtue of princes — ^he lacked.
The power of the Eoman emperors could more readily assume the appearance of tyranny than that of the monarchs of our time. As their official dig- nity was a composite of all the Koman magistracies — as they were dictators under the name of emper- ors, tribunes of the people, proconsuls, censors, grand pontiffs, and, if they desired, consuls also — they had frequent occasion to exercise the judicial function;- and thus they might easily incur the suspicion of having oppressed those whom they had condemned — the people ordinarily judging of the abuse of power by the magnitude of the power possessed. Our kings of Europe, on the contrary, being legis- lators and not executors of the law, princes and not judges, are discharged from all that part of authority which might be odious to the people; and, whilst reserving to fliemselves the dispensation of mercy, they have committed the infliction of punishments to particular magistrates.
Few of the emperors were more jealous of their authority than Tiberius and Severus; meanwhile 320 GEANDETJK AND DECADENCE [MONTESQtriEU.
botli suffered themselTes to be wretchedly governed — the one by Sejanus, the other by Plautian.
The unhappy custom of proscription, which had been introduced by Sylla, was continued under the emperors. And, indeed, it was necessary that an em- peror shoxdd possess some virtue in order not to re- sort to it; for, as his ministers and favorites threw their eyes over the prospect of so many confiscations, they incessantly pressed upon him the necessity of punishment and the dangers of clemency.
The proscriptions of Severus caused many of the soldiers of Niger' to seek refuge among the Par- thians.* These refugees taught the latter what they lacked in their military art. They taught them the use and even the manufacture of the Boman arms; and the result was that these people, who had com- monly been content with defending themselves, were, in succeeding times, nearly always aggressors.'
It is remarkable that, in that succession of civil wars which were continually renewed under the em- perors, those who controlled the legions of Europe very generally conquered those who were supported by the legions of Asia;° and we find in the history ' Herodian, Life of Severus.
* The evil continued under Alexander. Artaxerxea, who re-established the empire of the Persians, became formidable to the Romans — for the reason that their soldiers, either from caprice or licentiousness, deserted to him in crowds. {AbridgmeiU of XipMlimis, of Book LXXX of Dion.)
' That is to say, the Persians who succeeded them.
^ Severus overthrew the Asiatic legions of Niger, Constantine those CHAP. XVI.] OF THE ROMANS. 321 of Severus that he was unable to capture the city of Atra in Arabia, for the reason that, his European legions having mutinied, he was compelled to rely upon those of Syria.
This difference was felt from the time that the Komans first began to make levies in the provinces; ' and it was with the legions as with the nations them- selves— which, by nature and by education, were more, or less, adapted to war.
The levies which were made in the provinces led to another consequence. The emperors, who were generally taken from the armies, were nearly all for- eigners, and sometimes barbarians. Thus Eome ceased to be mistress of the world, and received her laws from all nations. Each emperor carried with him to the capital something which was peculiar to his own country, either in the form of manners, or morals, or police, or worship; and Heliogabalus went so far that he desired to destroy all the objects of venera- tion which he found in Rome, to remove all the gods from the temples, and to set up his own in- stead.
of Lioinius, and Vespasian, although proclaimed by the armies of Syria, made war upon Vitellius with the legions of Moesia, Pannonia, and Dal- matia only. Cicero wrote from the place of his government to the senate that troops levied In Asia were not to be relied upon. Constantino, as Zosimus says, only vanquished Maxentius by means of his cavalry — in re- lation to which see the seventh paragraph of the xxii chapter of this work. ' Augustus gave a fixed character to the legions, and placed them in the provinces. During the earliest times, troops were only levied in Rome; later, tha levy was extended to the Latins; later still, to Italy; and, finally, to the provinces.
322 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [montesqtjiku.
This, independently of the hidden ways which God had chosen, and which were known to him only, aided much in the establishment of Christian- ity; for this religion was no longer a stranger in the empire, and men were prepared to receive all the customs which an emperor might d6sire to introduce.
It is known that the Eomans received into their city the gods of other countries. They received them as conquerors, and caused them to be carried in their triumphal processions. But, when they were brought in by foreigners themselves, with a view to estabhsh- ing their worship, they were immediately interdicted. It is known, too, that the Romans were in the habit of giving to foreign gods the names of such of their own as appeared to resemble them most; but, when the priests of other countries attempted to introduce the worship of their deities into Home under their proper names, they were not permitted to do so; and this was one of the great obstacles which the Christian religion encountered.'
"We might call CaracaUa, not a tyrant, but the destroyer of men. Caligula, l^ero, and Domitian limited their cruelties to the city of Eome; CaracaUa extended his fury to the whole empire."
^ For some idea of the darkest side of the religion of the Romans, see my Kote at the end of this chapter. — Thanslatob.
' A good illustration of the inherent momentum with which a great social organism moves, and of the superiority of the aggregate social force to the special bias of a particular tyrant, is seen in the fact that the gen- eral course of the Roman Law was not disturbed, and, it may be, its act- ual development not arrested, by the tyranny of CaracaUa. " Under the CHAP. XVI.] OF THE ROMANS. 323 By means of the exactions of a long reign, and by the proscription of those who had adhered to the cause of his competitors, Severus had amassed im- mense sums. Caracalla, who commenced his reign by slaying his brother Geta with his own hand, em- ployed this wealth in rendering his crime sufferable to the soldiers, who were attached to Geta, and who said they had taken the oath of fidelity to both the sons of Severus, and not to one only.
Wealth amassed by sovereigns scarcely ever pro- duces other than bad effects. It corrupts the suc- cessor, who is dazzled by his fortune. If it does not spoil his heart it impairs his genius. He at once projects great enterprises upon the basis of a power which is accidental, which cannot last, which is not natural, and which is rather puffed up than great.
Caracalla increased the pay of the soldiers. Ma- crinus wrote to the senate that this increase amount- ed to seventy million" drachms." It appears that this emperor inflated things; and, if we compare the expense arising from the pay of our soldiers at the present day with the residue of the public expendi- tures, and follow the same proportion for the Koweakest and moat vicious reign," sayg Gibbon, speaking of this emperor, " the seat of justice was filled by the wisdom and integrity of Papinian and Ulpian; and the purest materials of the Code and Pandects are in- scribed with the names of CaraciiUa and his ministers." (Gibbon's Romii, ch. xliv.) — Teanslatok.
'" Seven thousand myriads. (Dion, in Macrinm.)
" The Attic drachm was the Koman denarius — the eighth part of an ounce, and the sixty-fourth part of our mark.
324 GEANDEUK AND DECADENCE [mohtesqitieu.
mans, we shall see that the sum would be enor- mous.
It is necessary that we should inquire what was the pay of the Koman soldier."
"We learn from Orosius that Domitian added one fourth to the established pay." It appears, from the discourse of a soldier in Tacitus," that at the time of the death of Augustus it was ten ounces of copper, "We find in Suetonius" that Cagsar had doubled the pay in his time. Pliny " says that during the second Punic war it was diminished one fifth. It was there- fore about six ounces of copper during the fib:«t Punic war," five ounces during the second,'' ten under Cae- sar, and thirteen and a third under Domitian." Upon this I will make some comments.
The pay which the republic could easily afford whilst it was yet a small state — when each year ■'^ Pay per diem is to be understood. — Translator.
■' He increased it in tlie ratio of seventy-five to a hundred.
'^ Annales, lib. i, ch. xvii.
" Life of Ccssar.
'^ Natural History, Book XXSIII, art. 13. Instead of giving ten ounces of copper for twenty, sixteen of tlie latter denomination were given.
" A soldier, in the Mostellaria of Plautus, says it was three asses — which can only be understood as referring to the as of ten [two?] ounces. But, if the pay was exactly six asses [ounces?] in the first Punic war, it was not diminished in the second by a fifth, but by a sixth, and the frac- tion was neglected.
'^ Polybiua, who adopts the Greek values of money, only differs by a fraction.
" See Orosius, and Suetonius in Domit. They say the same thing in different words. I have reduced these values to ounces of copper in order to be understood by those who are not acquainted with the values of the Boman moneys.
CHAP. XVI.] OF THE KOMANS. 325 brought a new war, and along with it fresh spoils into the public treasury — it could no longer provide for without becoming indebted during the time of the first Punic war, when it had extended its arms beyond the limits of Italy, and when it had to sus- tain a long war and to support large armies.
During the second Punic war the pay was re- duced to five ounces of copper — a reduction which could be made without danger, at a time when most of the citizens blushed to accept soldiers' pay, and desired to serve their country at their own expense.
The wealth of Perseus, and of many other kings, which poured continually into Eome, caused the levy of taxes to cease; '" and, in the midst of great public and private opulence, the Eomans had the wisdom not to increase the pay of five ounces of copper.
Although this pay was charged with a deduction for grain, clothes, and arms, it was yet sufficient; for only such citizens were enrolled as possessed a patri- mony of their own.
Marias having enrolled men who were without property, and his example having been followed, Cse- sar was compelled to increase the pay.
This increase having been continued after the death of Caesar, it became necessary, under the eon- sidate of Hirtius and Pansa, to re-establish the taxes.
The weakness of Domitian having led him to add yet one fourth to the pay, he thereby inflicted a '" Cicero's Offices, Book U.
326 GRANDEUR AND DECADENCE [montesquieu.
great wound upon the State, the misfortune of which is, not that luxury reigns within it, but that it reigns among classes which, from the nature of things, ought to have nothing more than what is physically necessary." Caracalla having added still further to the pay, the empire was reduced to such a condition that, being unable to maintain itself without the sol- diers, it could not maintain itself with them.
In order to allay the feeling of horror which had been excited by the murder of his brother, Caracalla placed him in the rank of the gods. It is singular that this was exactly the treatment which he himself received from Macrinus, who, after having procured his assassination, erected a temple for his worship, and established priests in his honor — seeking thus to appease the anger of the praetorian guards, who were enraged at the death of a prince from whom they had received so much. The result of his deification was, that his memory was not tarnished; and, the sen- ate not daring to judge him, he was not, like Com- modus, placed in the rank of the tyrants — though none the less meriting the dishonor."
Of the two great emperors, Hadrian and Sevenis,"' the one established military discipline, whilst the other 2' This statement is more worthy of a philosopher who is at once the satellite of a throne, and the apologist of privileged orders and privileged abuses, than of the free and great genius of Montesquieu. — ^Translator.
^' JElws Lampridius, in Vita A lex. Seven.
^' See the Abridgment of Xiphilinus, Life of Hadrian; and Hero- dian, Life of Sevems.
CHAP, xvi] OF THE ROMANS. 327 relaxed it. The effects of this difference correspond- ed accurately with their causes. The reigns which followed that of Hadrian were happy and tran- quil; after Severus we look upon a reign of hor- rors.
CaracaUa had indulged in immense profusion towards the military. He had observed well the dy- ing counsel of his father — ^to enrich the soldiers, and not to trouble himself with others. But such a policy was not of much service except for a single reign; for the successor, not being able to support the same standard of expense, was at once massacred by the army; so that we constantly see the wise em- perors put to death by the soldiers, and the bad ones by conspirators, or in pursuance of judgments of the senate.