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Title: The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic Author: Arthur Gilman

 

Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6427]

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[This file was first posted on December 11, 2002]

 

Edition: 10

 

Language: English

 

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STORY OF ROME FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC ***

 

Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

 

THE STORY OF ROME FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC

 

BY ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.

 

PREFACE.

 

It is proposed to rehearse the lustrous story of Rome, from its beginning in the mists of myth and fable down to the mischievous times when the republic came to its end, just before the brilliant period of the empire opened.

 

As one surveys this marvellous vista from the vantage-ground of the present, attention is fixed first upon a long succession of well-authenticated facts which are shaded off in the dim distance, and finally lost in the obscurity of unlettered antiquity. The flesh and blood heroes of the more modern times regularly and slowly pass from view, and in their places the unsubstantial worthies of dreamy tradition start up. The transition is so gradual, however, that it is at times impossible to draw the line between history and legend.

Fortunately for the purposes of this volume it is not always necessary to make the effort. The early traditions of the Eternal City have so long been recounted as truth that the world is slow to give up even the least jot or tittle of them, and when they are disproved as fact, they must be told over and over again as story.

 

Roman history involves a narrative of social and political struggles, the importance of which is as wide as modern civilization, and they must not be passed over without some attention, though in the present volume they cannot be treated with the thoroughness they deserve. The story has the advantage of being to a great extent a narrative of the exploits of heroes, and the attention can be held almost the whole time to the deeds of particular actors who successively occupy the focus or play the principal parts on the stage. In this way the element of personal interest, which so greatly adds to the charm of a story, may be infused into the narrative.

 

It is hoped to enter to some degree into the real life of the Roman people, to catch the true spirit of their actions, and to indicate the current of the national life, while avoiding the presentation of particular episodes or periods with undue prominence. It is intended to set down the facts in their proper relation to each other as well as to the facts of general history, without attempting an incursion into the domain of philosophy.

 

A.G.

 

CAMBRIDGE, September, 1885.

CONTENTS

I.

ONCE UPON A TIME

The old king at Troy—Paris, the wayward youth—Helen carried off—The war of ten years—Æneas, son of Anchises, goes to Italy—His death—

Fact and fiction in early stories—How Milton wrote about early England—How Æneas was connected with England—Virgil writes about Æneas—How Livy wrote about Æneas—Was Æneas a son of Venus?—Italy, as Æneas would have seen it—Greeks in Italy—How Evander came from Arcadia—How Æneas died—Thirty cities rise—Twins and a she-wolf—

Trojan names in Italy—How the Romans named their children and themselves.

 

II.

 

HOW THE SHEPHERDS BEGAN THE CITY

 

Augury resorted to—Romulus and Remus on two hills—Vultures determine a question—Pales, god of the shepherds—Beginning the city—Celer killed—An asylum—Bachelors want wives—A game of wife-snatching—

Sabines wish their daughters back—Tarpeia on the hill—A duel between two hills—Two men named Curtius—Women interfere for peace—Where did Romulus go?—Society divided by Romulus—Numa Pompilius chosen king—

Laws of religion given the people—Guilds established—The year divided into months—Tullus Hostilius king—Six brothers fight—Horatia killed —Ancus Martius king—The wooden bridge.

 

III.

 

HOW CORINTH GAVE ROME A NEW DYNASTY

 

Magna Græcia—Cypselus, the democratic politician—Demaratus goes to Tarquinii—Etruscan relics—Lucomo’s cap lifted—Lucomo changes his name—A Greek king of Rome—A circus and other great public works—A light around a boy’s head—Servius Tullius king—How the kingdom passed from the Etruscan dynasty.

 

IV.

THE RISE OF THE COMMONS

A king of the plebeians—A league with Latin cities—A census taken—

The Seven Hills—Classes formed among the people—Assemblies of the people—How ace means one—Heads of the people—Armor of the different classes—A Lustration or Suovetaurilia—What is a lustrum?—

Servius divides certain lands—A wicked husband and a naughty wife—

King Servius killed—Sprinkled with a father’s blood.

 

V.

HOW A PROUD KING FELL

A tyrant king—The mysterious Sibyl of Cumæ comes to sell books—The head found on the Capitoline—A serpent frightens a king—A serious inquiry sent to Delphi—A hollow stick filled with gold helps a young man—A good wife spinning—A terrible oath—The Tarquins banished—A republic takes the place of the kingdom—The first of the long line of consuls—The good Valerius—The god Silvanus cries out to some effect—

Lars Porsena of Clusium and what he tried to do—Horatius the brave—

Rome loses land—A dictator appointed—Castor and Pollux help the army at Lake Regillus—Caius Marcius wins a crown—Appius Claudius comes to town.

 

VI.

THE ROMAN RUNNYMEDE

The character of the Romans—Traits of the kings—Insignificance of Latin territory—Occupations—Art backward—A narrow religion—Who were the populus Romanus?—Patricians oppress the people—Wrongs of Roman money-lending—How a debtor flaunted his rags to good purpose—

Appius Claudius defied—A secession to the Anio—Apologue of the body and its members—Laws of Valerius reaffirmed—Tribunes of the people appointed—Peace by the treaty of the Sacred Mount.

 

VII.

 

HOW THE HEROES FOUGHT FOR A HUNDRED YEARS

 

Coriolanus fights bravely—He enrages the plebeians—Women melt the strong man’s heart—Plebeians gain ground—Agrarian laws begin to be made—Cassius, who makes the first, undermined—The family of the Fabii support the commons—A black day on the Cremara—Cincinnatus called from his plow—The Æquians subjugated—What a conquest meant in those days—The Aventine Hill given to the commons—The ten men make ten laws and afterwards twelve—The ten men become arrogant—How Virginia was killed—Appius Claudius cursed—The second secession of the plebeians—

The third secession—The commons make gains—Censors chosen—The wonderful siege of Veii—How a tunnel brings victory—Camillus the second founder of Rome—How the territory was increased, but ill omens threaten.

 

VIII.

 

A BLAST FROM BEYOND THE NORTH WIND

 

What the Greeks thought when they shivered—A warlike people come into notice—Brennus leads the barbarians to victory—A voice from the temple of Vesta—Tearful Allia—The city alarmed and Camillus called for—How the sacred geese chattered to a purpose—Brennus successful, but defeated at last—A historical game of scandal—Camillus sets to work to make a new city—Camillus honored as the second founder of Rome—Manlius less fortunate—Poor debtors protected by a law of Stolo —A plague comes to Rome, and priests order stage-plays to be performed—The floods of the Tiber come into the circus.

 

IX.

 

HOW THE REPUBLIC OVERCAME ITS NEIGHBORS

 

Alexander the Great strides over Persia—Suppose he had attacked Rome?

—The man with a chain, and the man helped by a crow—How the Samnites came into Campania—The memorable battle of Mount Gaurus—How Carthage thought best to congratulate Rome—Debts become heavy again—How Decius Mus sacrificed himself for the army—Misfortune at the Caudine Forks—A general muddle, in which another Mus sacrifices himself—Another secession of the commons—An agrarian law and an abolition of debts—

What the wild waves washed up—Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, takes a lofty model—How Cineas asked hard questions—Blind Appius Claudius stirs up the people—Maleventum gets a better name—Ptolemy Philadelphus thinks best to congratulate Rome—How the Romans made roads—The classes of citizens.

 

X.

AN AFRICAN SIROCCO

How an old Bible city sent out a colony—Carthage attends strictly to its own business—Sicily a convenient place for a great fight—The Mamertines not far from Scylla and Charybdis—Ancient war-vessels and how they were rowed—The prestige of Carthage on the water destroyed—

Xanthippus the Spartan helps the Carthaginians—The horrible fate of noble Regulus—Hamilcar, the man of lightning, comes to view—Gates of the temple of Janus closed the second time—A perfidious queen overthrown—Two Gauls and two Greeks buried alive—Hannibal hates Rome —Rome and Carthage fight the second time—Scipio and Fabius the Delayer fight for Rome—Hannibal crosses the Alps—The terrible rout at Lake Trasimenus—A business man beaten—Syracuse falls and Archimedes dies—Fabius takes Tarentum—A great victory at the Metaurus—War carried to Africa and closed at Zama—Hannibal a wanderer.

 

XI.

 

THE NEW PUSHES THE OLD—WARS AND CONQUESTS

 

Tumultuous women stir up the city—What the Oppian Law forbade—Cato the Stern opposes the women—The women find a valorous champion—How did the matrons establish their high character?—Two parties look at the growing influence of ideas from Greece—What were those influences?—How Rome coveted Eastern conquests—How Flamininus fought at the Dog-heads—How the Grecians cried for joy at the Isthmian games —Great battles at Thermopylæ and Magnesia, and their results—

Philopoemen, Hannibal, and Scipio die—The battle of Pydna marks an era—Greece despoiled of its works of art—Cato wishes Carthage destroyed—Numantia destroyed—The slaves in Sicily give trouble.

 

XII.

A FUTILE EFFORT AT REFORM

Scipio gives away his daughter—Tiberius Gracchus serves the state—

Romans without family altars or tombs—Cornelia urges Gracchus to do somewhat for the state—Gracchus misses an opportunity—Another son of Cornelia comes to the front—The younger Gracchus builds roads and makes good laws—Drusus undermines the reformer—Office looked upon as a means of getting riches—Marius and Sulla appear—Jugurtha fights and bribes—Metellus, the general of integrity—Marius captures Jugurtha—A shadow falls upon Rome—A terrible battle at Vercellæ—The slaves rise again—The Domitian law restricts the rights of the senate—The ill-gotten gold of Toulouse.

 

XIII.

SOCIAL AND CIVIL WARS

The agrarian laws of Appuleius—Luxury increases and faith falls away—

Rome for the Romans—Another Drusus appears—The brave Marsians menace Rome—Ten new tribes formed—A war with Mithridates of Pontus—Marius and Sulla struggle and Marius goes to the wall—Sulla besieges Athens—

Sulla threatens the senate—The capitol burned—A battle at the Colline Gate—Proscription and carnage—Sulla makes laws and retires to see the effect—A congiarium—A grand funeral and a cremation.

 

XIV.

 

THE MASTER-SPIRITS OF THIS AGE

 

Tendency towards monarchy—Sertorius and his white fawn—Crassus and his great house—Cicero, the eloquent orator—Verres, the great thief—

How Verres ran away—Catiline the Cruel—Cæsar, the man born to rule—

Looking for gain in confusion—Lepidus flees after the fight of the Mulvian bridge—How the two young men