From C. C. 633.

B. C. 121.

to

U. C.

662.

B. C.

92.

History. citizens who were in the habit of giving entertainments to one another, during the celebration of the games in honour of Cybele, were obliged to make oath before the Consuls that they would not expend on any meal more than a hundred and twenty asses, or 7s. 9d. sterling, exclusive of the sum paid for bread, vegetables, and wine; that they would use no other wine than that made in Italy, and that they would not have more than a hundred pounds weight of silver displayed at their table. Afterwards in the same year, a law was passed bearing the name of C. Fannius,* one of the Consuls, which restrained the expense of meals still more. On the greatest festivals no man was allowed to exceed an hundred asses, 6s. 54d.: on ten other days in every month he might go as high as thirty asses, or 1s. 114d.; and at all other times he was limited to no more than ten, about 7d. of English money. By the same law,† also the consumption of poultry and all kinds of birds was expressly forbidden, with the exception of a single hen at each table, and this, it was added, must not have been regularly fatted. This was repeated as a favourite clause in all future laws on the same subject; and other articles of food were prohibited by successive enactments;-as for example, M. Æmilius Scaurus, one of the Consuls in the year 638, excluded dormice from the table, which little animals the Romans, it appears, were accustomed to catch in great numbers, and regarded them when fatted as a peculiar delicacy. It is natural enough that men of small or moderate fortune, who could not indulge in the magnificence of splendid villas, numerous slaves, or costly furniture, should bear with great impatience these restrictions upon that peculiar gratification which was to them most accessible; besides that, they looked upon any interference in such matters, as an encroachment on their just liberty of doing what they chose with their own money. We find accordingly that M. Duronius, one of the Tribunes, § procured the rejection of a new Sumptuary law brought for ward about the year of Rome 656, to enforce the provisions of the law of Fannius. For this action, Duronius was shortly after expelled from the Senate by the Censors M. Antonius and L. Flaccus; and a Sumptuary law was in fact carried by the Consul P. Licinius Crassus, || limiting the quantity of meat which might be brought to table on ordinary occasions, but still permitting an unrestricted consumption of vegetables. There is in one of Cicero's letters, testimony to show that these regulations remained in force for many years; and that their intention was completely evaded by the arts of cookery, which found means to provide a luxurious and expensive meal out of the common productions of the garden.

In the Consulship of P. Licinius Crassus, and Cn. Lentulus, is also dated a decree of the Senate for the abolition of human sacrifices.** When the republic was engaged in any dangerous war, the superstition of the Romans believed that to bury alive in the midst

B. C. 121.

to

U. C. 662.

B. C. 92.

cius in Asia.

It is with pleasure that we are now called to contemplate two rare instances of integrity and humanity: Q. Mucius Scævola, and P. Rutilius Rufus. Q. Scævola filled the office of Consul in the year of Rome 658, together with L. Licinius Crassus, so celebrated as an orator. On the expiration of the year, he was appointed as Proconsul to the government of the province of Asia ;† by which name the Romans meant to express those countries on the western side of Asia Minor, which had formerly composed the kingdom of Pergamus. P. Rutilius at- Just admitended him as his lieutenant, and cordially co- nistration operated with him in all his proceedings. He only of Q. Muheld his command for nine months, § but during that short period he so endeared himself to the people whom he governed, by the equity of his administration, and by the firmness with which he protected them against the oppressions of the farmers of the revenue, that a festival was instituted in commemoration of his goodness, || and continued to be observed for many years afterwards in Asia; while at Rome his name became identified with that of an upright and merciful magistrate,¶ and his conduct was long held up by the Senate as a model which officers appointed to similar stations should diligently endeavour to copy. Q. Mucius was happy moreover in never being exposed to the malice of those whose interests had suffered from his pure and incorrupt government. But his lieutenant P. Rutilius was less fortunate. The judicial power according to the law of C. Gracchus, (which after a short interruption had been lately put in force again by C. Servilius Glaucia,) was as we have stated, vested entirely in the equestrian order. This class of men was closely connected with the farmers of the revenue, and entered warmly into their complaints of the treatment which they had received from Mucius and Rutilius. Rutilius was accused of corruption in his province, perhaps by some of those very individuals whose own corruption he had repressed and was brought to trial before a court consisting entirely of citizens of the equestrian order. His conduct on his trial was consistent with the high Trial of P. principles of his general life. He refused to employ Rutilius. any celebrated orator in his defence, nor would he suffer any attempts to be made to work upon the feelings of his Judges. His friend Q. Mucius spoke in his behalf, confining himself only to a clear and simple statement of the truth. But the tribunal which had so lately acquitted the guilty Aquilius, when defended by an appeal to its passions, now condemned a man of the most spotless innocence, who disdained any support but that of reason and justice.

* Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 2.

**

Livy, Epitom. lib. 70. Others place his government of Asia about four years earlier, and say that he obtained the province as Proprætor.

Livy, Epitom. lib. 70.

§ Cicero, ad Atticum, lib. v. ep. 17. Ibid. in Verrem, lib. ii. c. 21.

¶ Ibid. in Cæcilium, c. 17. Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. c. 15. ** Cicero, de Oratore, lib. i. c. 53.

From U. C. 633.

B. C.

History. Rutilius was banished, and retired to Smyrna,* in the country which was the scene of his alleged corruption, but which was in truth the best witness of his virtue. The people whom he was accused of misgoverning, sent deputies from all their several towns to welcome his arrival once more amongst them; nor did they shew less respect to him in his exile than when invested with the authority of a Roman officer. The citizens of Smyrna gladly gave him the freedom of their city; and in this adopted home, Rutilius spent in peace the remainder of his life; nor could the solicitations of Sylla when Dictator, ever prevail with him to return to Italy.

121. to

U. C.

662.

B. C. 92. Censorship of Domitius and Crassus.

In the year of Rome 661 some curious particulars are recorded of the Censorship of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and L. Licinius Crassus. The study of eloquence daily becoming more popular at Rome, there arose a number of persons who professed to teach it, and who opened schools for the instruction of young men in this accomplishment. Of these teachers some were Greeks, and if they only interpreted and expounded the works of some of their distinguished countrymen, they must have communicated to their hearers much new and valuable knowledge. An acquaintance with the rhetoric of Aristotle must have opened an unknown world to the mind of a young Roman, and have furnished him with innumerable subjects of thought, while it led him to examine the motives of actions, and the causes of feelings; while it embraced, with wonderful conciseness, the principles of almost every argument that could be used in all questions, judicial and political; and while with intuitive good sense it displayed the excellencies to be aimed at, and the faults to be avoided, in the language and arrangement of a writer or an orator. But besides these Greek instructors, some of the Romans themselves professed to open schools of Rhetoric; and being for the most part men of little education, and delivering their lessons probably on cheaper terms than the Greek teachers, their scholars consisted chiefly of the poorer class of citizens, and particularly, we may suppose, of those individuals, who

* Cicero, de Republicâ, lib. i. c. 8. + Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. c. 10. Tacitus, Annal. lib. iv. c. 43.

From U. C.

633.

B. C. 121.

to

U. C. 662.

B. C.

92.

wished to qualify themselves for the part of noisy Rome. and factious leaders of the populace. It was on these grounds, as Cicero makes Crassus himself affirm, in the Dialogue de Oratore,* that the Censors, in the exercise of their arbitrary power, thought proper to put a stop to the proceedings of the Latin teachers of eloquence: because, in the language of Cicero, "they could teach their pupils nothing but impudence." In the course of the year, the two Censors are said to have had a very unbecoming quarrel with each other the expensive habits in which Crassus indulged in his manner of living, appearing to his colleague to be unworthy of his Censorian dignity. It appears, that Crassus had six date trees in his garden,† of remarkable size and beauty, which he valued very highly; and four pillars of the marble of Mount Hymettus in his house,‡ a material which had not hitherto been used in any public building at Rome, and which, in a private house, was thought to argue excessive luxury. Another ridiculous charge was brought by Cn. Domitius against his colleague ;§ that he had gone into mourning on the death of a favourite fish, which was kept in one of his fish-ponds. Crassus, we are told, confessed the truth of the story, saying, "that he had indeed wept at the loss of a fish; but that Domitius had borne the loss of three wives without shedding a tear." The History of Rome presents us at once with instances of the strangest extravagance of conduct in some characters, combined with a most complete intolerance of every thing eccentric, in the general feelings of the magistrates and the spirit of the laws.

662.

A. C. 91.

The succeeding year, in which Sextus Julius Cæsar A. U. C. and L. Marcius Philippus were Consuls, witnessed the origin of the Italian war. But as the parties formed on this occasion were not without their effect in the Civil war that followed; and as Sylla took a distinguished part in the contest maintained by Rome against her revolted allies, we shall include our account of these transactions in the narrative of that individual's life, which we are now preparing to lay before our readers.

* Lib. iii. c. 24.

Pliny, Histor. Natural, lib. xvii. c. 1. Ibid. lib. xvii. c. 1.

§ Macrobius, Saturnal. lib. ii. c. 1.

THE Cornelian family was one of the most ancient and honourable in Rome; and two of its branches, the houses of Scipio and Lentulus, furnished the commonwealth with a long list of distinguished officers, in the several departments of state. A third branch bore the surname of Rufinus; but although its members occasionally appear on the lists of magistrates, none of them, till a much later period, rose to any high personal eminence. In the second Punic war, in the year of Rome 540, P. Cornelius Rufinus, being then Prætor, celebrated for the first time* the Ludi Apollinares, or Games in honour of Apollo, which the Sibylline books had directed the Senate to institute; and from this circumstance he is said to have changed his name of Rufinus, for that of Sibylla; † which was afterwards corrupted into the shorter appellation of Sylla. His great grandson was L. Cornelius Sylla, the subject of our present narrative, who was born about the year of Rome 616, in the Consulship of M. Æmilius Lepidus, and C. Hostilius Mancinus, four years before the death of Tiberius Gracchus.

The father of Sylla did nothing to promote either the honour or the wealth of his family, and his son was born with no very flattering prospects, either of rank or fortune. We know not by whom his education was superintended; but he acquired, either from his instructors or by his own exertion, in after life, an unusual portion of knowledge; and had the character of being very profoundly versed in the literature§ of the Greeks. But intellectual superiority affords no security for the moral principles of its possessor: and Sylla, from his earliest youth,|| was notorious for gross sensuality, and for his keen enjoyment of low and profligate society. He is said to have lived in lodgings at Rome, and to have rented one floor of a house, for which he paid 3000 nummi, or about £24. 4s. 44d. a year: a style of living which seems to have been reckoned disgraceful to a man of Patrician family, and to have inferred great indigence. For his first advancement in life, he was indebted to the fondness of a prostitute, who had acquired a large sum of money, and left it all to him by her will; and he also inherited the property of his mother-in-law, who regarded him as her own son. He was chosen one of the Quæstors in the year of Rome 646, and accompanied Marius, then in his first Consulship, into Africa; where, as has been mentioned elsewhere, his services were very remarkable, and it was to him that Jugurtha was at last surrendered by Bocchus King of Mauritania. This circumstance excited, as it is said, the jealousy of Marius: but Sylla** nevertheless acted

Sylla.

From

U. C.

616.

under him as one of his lieutenants in the war with L.Cornelius the Cimbri; where he again greatly distinguished himself. But finding the ill-will of his General daily increasing, he left him, and served in the army of Lutatius Catulus, the colleague of Marius: and in this situation, being charged with the duty of supplying the soldiers with provisions, he performed it so well that the army of Catulus was in the midst of abundance, while that of Marius was labouring under severe privations. This still further inflamed the animosity with which Marius already regarded him.

A. C. 138. to

U. C. 666.

A. C.

SS.

tains the

For some years after this period Sylla seems to have lived in the mere enjoyment of his favourite pleasures of intellectual and sensual excitement. At length, in the year of Rome 657, he became a candidate for the office of Prætor, but without success. He attributed his failure, according to Plutarch,† to the disappointment of the people at his not first suing for the Edileship; it being a long-established custom that the Ediles should exhibit shows of some kind or other for the amusement of the multitude, and Sylla's friendship with the King of Mauritania, seemed to promise that he would procure from Africa an unusual number of lions and other wild beasts, to be hunted in the Amphitheatre. However, in the following Sylla obyear, Sylla was elected Prætor, without the previous Prætorstep of going through the office of Edile: and not ship. to deprive the people of the gratification they expected, he exhibited no fewer than a hundred lions; the first time, it is said, that the male lion was ever brought forward in the sports of the Circus. On the expiration of his Prætorship, he obtained the province of Cilicia;§ and was commissioned to replace on his throne Ariobarzanes, King of Cappadocia, who had been lately expelled by Mithridates. This he easily effected; for Mithridates was not yet prepared to encounter the power of Rome and it is further mentioned, as a memorable circumstance in the life of His proSylla, that while he was in Cappadocia, he received ceedings in the first communication ever made to any Roman his proofficer by the sovereign of Farthia. Arsaces, King vince. of that country, perceiving that the Romans extended their influence into his neighbourhood, sent an embassy to Sylla to solicit their alliance. In the interview between the Roman Prætor and the Parthian ambassador, Sylla|| claimed the precedence in rank, with the usual arrogance of his countrymen; and by this behaviour, in all probability, left no very friendly feeling in the mind of Arsaces; and rather encouraged than lessened that jealousy of the Roman power,

*Plutarch, in Syllâ, c. 4. +Ibid. in Syllâ, c. 5.

:

Pliny, Histor. Natural. lib. viii. c. 16.

§ Auctor de Viris illustribus, in Vitâ Syllæ. Plutarch, in Syllä, c. 5. Livy, Epit. 70.

|| Plutarch, in Syllâ, c. 5.

From U. C.

616.

A. C.

138.

to

U. C.

666.

A. C. 88.

But are nestly carned.

*

Biography, merly held out to them by C. Gracchus and M. Fulvius Flaccus, of obtaining the privileges of Roman citizens. The Senate, for a long time, cordially supported him; and this circumstance gave occasion to the violent speech of the Consul, L. Philippus, "That it was impossible for the republic to go on with such a Senate." But, at length, their zeal in his cause began to cool: while he professed to defend their dignity, he almost pretended to act as their patron; and on one occasion,† when they sent for him into the Senate house, he replied, That the Senate should rather adjourn to the Curia Hostilia," anciently used as the place of their meetings, "that so they might be near him while he was addressing the people, if they wanted him."—It is said, that the Senate actually complied with his proposal; but such an instance of his pride must have taught it, that it was possible to buy too dearly its deliverance from the arbitrary power of the equestrian order. Meanwhile the laws of Drusus were successively carried: the judicial power was to be divided between the Senate and the equestrian order; new colonies were to be planted; corn was to be sold at the rate fixed by the Sempronian law; all the several parties whom Drusus had courted, had received the benefits which he had promised them, excepting only the Italian allies. To admitting them to the rights of citizenship, all orders in Rome were equally averse; and they seemed likely to meet the usual fate of strangers who interfere in domestic quarrels, and whose interests are sacrificed to promote the reconciliation of the contending parties. But finding that Drusus was unable to satisfy their expectations, and that nothing was to be looked for from the freewill of the Romans, they prepared to apply themselves to other measures. A conspiracy is said to have been formed by the Latins to assassinate the Consul, L. Philippus, whom they considered as one of their greatest enemies, while he was performing a sacrifice on the Alban Mount. Drusus, aware of their design, warned Philippus to provide for his own safety, and the plan was thus frustrated; but the public mind, throughout Italy, was in the highest state of agitation, and every thing seemed to presage an impending contest.

Drusus is It was at this time, when all parties were united in murdered. their invectives against Drusus as the author of these disturbances, that one day, when he was returning home from the Forum, § encircled by an immense crowd of his followers, he was murdered at the door of his own house by some unknown assassin, who stabbed him, and left the knife sticking in his side. He was carried in immediately, and soon after expired; and such was the state of the times, that no inquiry was made to find out the murderer. But it was commonly asserted that Q. Varius Hybrida, || a vehement enemy of the Senate, was the perpetrator of the crime.

And bis

laws repealed.

After the death of Drusus, the general feeling ran so strongly against his measures, from the sense entertained of his criminal rashness in encouraging the claims of the Italian allies, that the Senate now concurred with the Consul Philippus in declaring all

Cicero, de Oratore, lib. iii. c. 1.

+ Valerius Maximus, lib. ix. c. 5.

Auctor de Viris illustribus, in M. Druso.

§ Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. c. 14. Cicero, pro Milone, c. 7.

|| Cicero, de Naturâ Deorum, lib. iii. c. 33.

Sylla.

From

U. C. 616.

his laws invalid;* grounding this decision on the L.Cornelius authority of the Consul, who was also one of the Augurs, and who alleged that they had been passed without due attention to the forms of religion in observing the auspices. It is remarkable, that the law for the regulation of the judicial power, which the Senate had so strong an interest in maintaining, was notwithstanding annulled, together with the rest; as if the aristocracy had not dared to retain any benefit from the support of a man, who was now considered as an enemy to his country by all parties equally.

A. C. 138.

to

U. C. 666.

A. C. 88.

A. U. C.

663.

The allies, however, had not yet broken out into open hostilities when the new Consuls, L. Julius Cæsar and P. Rutilius Rufus, entered upon their office. In the mean time the equestrian order having thus successfully repelled the attack made against it, resolved to follow up its victory, and to terrify its enemies by an unsparing exercise of that judicial power of which it had been vainly attempted to deprive it. A law was proposed and carried by Q. Varius Hybrida,† the reputed assassin of Drusus, and now one of the Tribunes of the people, that an inquiry should be set on foot in order to discover what persons had given encouragement to the pretensions of the Italians, and that all who had done so should be held guilty of a treasonable offence. This was a favourite method of annoying the nobility; and we have seen it practised already with success at the beginning of the war with Jugurtha. The Knights promised themselves the same results from it on the present occasion. Accusations were brought against M. Æmilius Scaurus, the first on the roll of the Senate; against M. Antonius, § the famous orator, against C. Cotta,|| Q. Pompeius, L. Memmius, and several others of the Senators. But the majority of those whom we have named obtained their acquittal; and the whole proceeding had little other effect than that of exasperating the Italians still further, when they saw that to have shewn any encouragement to their petitions was considered at Rome as a crime. Accordingly the different cities of Italy || entered into Confedea secret league with each other, and began to make an racy interchange of hostages. Their intrigues were first among the discovered at Asculum, a town of Picenum; and Q. states. Servilius, with Proconsular authority, was sent thither to punish the offenders. But not being supported by a sufficient military force, he provoked the inhabitants to proceed at once to open violence; and they accordingly massacred him and his lieutenant Fonteius,** together with all other Roman citizens who happened to be found in Asculum. Immediately after the per- Revolt of petration of this outrage, the Italians with one consent flew to arms: the Marsi,†† the Peligni, the Samnites, allies. the Lucani, the Vestini, the Manucini, the Picentes, the Hirpini, and the Japygians; almost every nation in Italy, except the Latins, Tuscans, and Umbrians, took part in the Confederacy. They fixed upon Corfinium as their seat of government,‡‡ giving it the

*Cicero, de Legibus, lib. ii. c. 6, 12.

+ Valerius Maximus, lib. viii. c. 6. Appian, de Bell. Civil. lib. i. c. 37. ↑ Cicero, Fragm. Orat. pro M. Scauro. § Ibid. Tuscul. Disput. lib. ii. c. 24. Ibid. de Claris Orator. c. 56, 89.

¶ Appian, de Bell. Civili, lib. i. c. 38.) **Cicero, pro Fonteio, c. 14.

++ Appian, lib. i. c. 39. Livy, Epitome, lib. 72. ‡‡ Diodorus Siculus, Eclog. lib. 37.

Italian

the Italian