7 he Roman Republic from its Institution to the Abolition of the Deeemrirate.-1. Internal History.—According to the legend, the expulsion of the Tarquins was mainly the work of their cousins, Junius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus, in revenge for the outrage on the honor of Lucretia, and was followed by the abolition of the monarchy. The date usually assigned to this event is 509 B.C. The story is intensely tragical, and if we must consider it poetry rather than fact, yet it may safely be taken as evidence that it was an unbridled lust of power and self-gratification that brought ruin on the Romano-Tuscan dynasty. Of course, we can make nothing definite out of the early years of the republic. Dates and names, and even events, must go for very little. Valerius Public:01a or Pop licola, Sp. Lucretius, M. Iloratius, Lars Porsenna (q.v.) of Clnsium, Aunts Postunrius, with the glorious stories of lloratius Codes and the battle of lake Regiilus, will not bear to be scrutinized, We must content ourselves with the knowledge of historical tenden cies and general results. The change from " kings" to " consuls" (consoles, " those who leap together"—more generally, those who act together) was not intended to dimin ish the administrative power of the supreme' rulers, but only to deprive them of the of doing harm—of becoming Tarquins; and this it effectually succeeded in doing, by limiting their tenure of office to a year, and by numerous other restrictions. (For an account of their original functions, and of the subsequent modifications which these underwent, see CoNsuL.) It is believed to have been about this time, and in con sequence of the new political changes, that the old assessors of the king, such as the qatedoresparricidii, formally became standing magistrates instead of mere honorary coun selors, and also that the priesthood became a more self-governing and exclusive body. During the regal period the priests were appointed by the king, but now the colleges of augurs and pontiffs began to fill up the vacancies in their ranks themselves, while the vestals and separate " flamens" were nominated by the pontifical college, which chose a president (pent fex tnazitnus) for the purpose. The lapse of years ever increasing the quantity of sacred lore, also increased its importance, and the importance of those who specially studied it ; and nothing conies out more clearly in the early history of the republic than the fact that the opinions of the augurs and pontiffs became more and more legally binding. This is to be connected with the fact that in every possible way the patricians or old burgesses—now rapidly becoming a mere noblesse—were seeking to rise on the ruins of the monarchy, and to preserve separate institutions for the benefit of their own order, when they could with difficulty longer exclude the plebs from participa tion in common civic privileges. In the details given us of the " Servian reform," we can easily discern a spirit of compromise, the concessions made to the plebeians in the constitution and powers of the comities centuriata being partially counterbalanced by the new powers conferred on the old burgess body, the comities curiata—viz., the right of confirming or rejecting the measures passed in the lower assembly. Toward the new assembly, therefore, it stood somewhat in the relation in which the house of lords stands to the house of commons, but the analogy must not be pushed too far; it is only general. The character of the senate altered under the action of the same influences. Although it never had been formally a patrician body—although admission to it under the kings was obtainable simply by the exercise of the royal prerogative, yet, practically, 299 out of the 300 senators had always been patricians; but after the institution of the republic, we are told that the blanks in the senate were filled up en masse from the ranks of the plebeians, so that of the 300 members less than half were palms ("full burgesses"), while 164 were conscripti ("added to the roll "), hence the official designation of the senators patres et conscripti (" full burgesses and enrolled").
As yet, however. it is to be observed the plebeians were rigorously excluded from the magistracies. They could vote—i.e., they could exercise legislative powers—but they had no share in the administration. None but patricians were eligible for the, eon sulship, for the office of qufestor, or for any other executive function, while the priestly colleges rigidly closed their doors against the new burgesses. The struggle, therefore, between the two orders went on with ever-increasing violence. One point comes out very clearly from the narrative, however dubious we may be of the particular details, viz., that the establishment of the republic and the reconstitution of the burgess body,
instead of allaying discontent, only fostered it. Power virtually passed into the hands of the capitalists, and though some of these were plebeians, yet they would seem to have preferred their personal money-interests to the interests of their order, and to have co-op erated with the patricians. The abuse by these capitalists of the ager publicus—that is, such portion of the land of a conquered people as had been taken from them, annexed to the Roman state, and let out originally to the patricians at a fixed rent (sue AGRARIAN LAW), together with the frightful severity of the law of debtor and creditor, the effect of which was all but to ruin the small plebeian "farmers," who constituted, perhaps, tire most numerous section of the burgesses—finally led to a great revolt of the plebs, known as the "secession to the sacred bill," the date assigned to which is 494 B.C. On that occasion the plebeian farmer-soldiers, who had just returned from a campaign against the Volscians, marched hr military order out of Rome, under their plebeian officers, to a mount near the confluence of the Anio with the Tiber, and threatened to found there a new city, if the patricians did not grant them magistrates from their own order; the result was, the institution of the famous plebeian tribunate (see TitinuNE)—a sort of rival power to the patrician consulate, by means of which the plebeians, at least, hoped to be shielded from the high-handed oppressions of the wealthy. To the same 'period belongs the mdiles (q.v.). A little later, the eomitia tributa emerged into political prominence. This was really the same body of burgesses as formed the comitia eenta riata, but with the important difference that the number of votes was not in proportioc to a property classification. The poor plebeian was on a footing of equality with the rich patrician; each gave his vote, and nothing more. Hence the contitia tributa vir tually became a plebeian assembly, and when the plebiscita (" resolutions of the plebs carried at these comitia) acquired (as they (lid by the Valerian laws passed after the aboli tion of the decemvirate) a legally binding character, the victory of the "multitude" in the sphere of legislation was complete. From this time the term populus practically, though not formally, loses its exclusive siguificance; and when we speak of the Roman citizens, we moan indifferently patricians and plebeians. The semi-historical traditions of this period—for we are now (5th c. B. C.) beginning to emerge out of the mythical era —unmistakably show that the institution of the tribunate led to something very like a civil war between the two orders. Such is the real significance of the legends of Otitis Marcus, surnamed Coriolanus (q.v.); the surprise of the capitol by the Sabine marauder, Appius Herdonius, at the head of a motley force of political outlaws, refugees, and slaves; the migrations of numerous Roman burgesses with their families to more peace ful communities; the street-fights; the assassinations of plebeian Magistrates; the anni hilation by the Etruscans of the Fabian yens, who had left Rome to escape the vengeance of their order for having passed over to the side of the plebeians; and the atrocious judi cial murder of Spurius Cassius, an eminent patrician, who bad also incurred the deadly hatred of his order, by proposing an agrarian law that would have checked the perni cious prosperity of the capitalists and overgrown landholders. Finally, 462 B. C., a measure was brought forward by the tribune C. Terentillius Ursa, to appoint a commis sion of ten men to draw up a code of laws for the purpose of protecting the plebeians against the arbitrary decisions of the patrician magistrates. A fierce, even a frantic opposition was offered by the patricians, and the ten years that followed were literally a period of organized anarchy in Rome. At length the nobles gave way, and the result was the drawing up of the famous code known as the Twelve Tables—at first Ten, to which two were afterward added—the appointment of the decenaviri (q.v.), and the abolition of all the ordinary magistrates, both patrician and plebeian. The government by decemvirs, however, lasted only two years; according to tradition, the occasion of its overthrow was the attempt of the principal decemvir, Appius Claudius (q.v.) to pos sess himself by violence of the beautiful daughter of Virginius, a Roman centurion; but the real cause was doubtless political. though the cruel lust of a Claudius may have afforded time occasion; the result of which was the restoration of the predecemviral state of things—the patrician consulate and the plebeian tribunate.