Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [40.1] The election of magistrates being at hand, Lucius Pinarius and Publius Furius were chosen consuls. At the very beginning of this year the city was filled with a kind of religious awe and fear of the gods owing to the occurrence of many prodigies and omens. All the augurs and the pontiffs declared that these occurrences were indications of divine anger, aroused because of some rites were not being performed in a pure and holy manner. [2] And not long afterwards the disease known as the pestilence attacked the women, particularly such as were with child, and more of them died than ever before; for as they miscarried and brought forth dead children, they died together with their infants. And neither supplications made at the statues and altars of the gods nor expiatory sacrifices performed on behalf of the state and of private households gave the women any respite from their ills. [3] While the commonwealth was suffering from such a calamity, information was given to the pontiffs by a slave that one of the Vestal virgins who have the care of the perpetual fire, Urbinia by name, had lost her virginity and, though unchaste, was performing the public sacrifices. The pontiffs removed her from her sacred offices, brought her to trial, and after her guilt had been clearly established, they ordered her to be scourged with rods, to be carried through the city in solemn procession and then to be buried alive. [4] One of the two men who had perpetrated the impious defilement killed himself; the other was seized by the pontiffs, who ordered him to be scourged in the Forum like a slave and then put to death. After this action the pestilence which had attacked women and caused so great a mortality among them promptly ceased.

  [41.1] But the sedition raised by the plebeians against the patricians, which had long continued in the city, was starting up again. The person who stirred it up was Volero Publius, one of the tribunes, the same man who the year before had disobeyed the consuls Aemilius and Julius when they would have listed him as a common soldier instead of a centurion. He was chosen by the poor as leader of the populace, not so much for any other reason — for he was not only of common birth, but had been brought up in great obscurity and want — but because he was regarded as the first person in private life who by his disobedience had humbled the consular power, which till then had been invested with the royal dignity, and still more by reason of the promises he had made, when he stood candidate for the tribunate against the patricians, to deprive them of their power. [2] This man, as soon as it was possible for him to attend to public business, now that the divine anger had abated, called an assembly of the populace and proposed a law concerning the tribunician elections, transferring them from the assembly of the clans, called by the Romans the curiate assembly, to the tribal assembly. What the difference was between these assemblies I will now point out. [3] In order that the voting in the curiate assembly might be valid it was necessary that the senate should pass a preliminary decree and that the plebeians should vote on it by curiae, and that after both these votes the heavenly signs and omens should offer no opposition; whereas, in the case of the voting of tribal assembly, neither the preliminary decree of the senate was necessary nor the sanction of the priests and augurs, but it was only necessary that it should be carried through and completed by the members of the tribes in a single day. Now of the other four tribunes there were two who joined with Volero in proposing this law; and by enlisting the co-operation of these two he carried the day, as those who were not of the same mind were in the minority. [4] But the consuls, the senate, and all the patricians sought to prevent the law from passing; and coming to the Forum in great numbers on the day appointed by the tribunes for ratifying the law, they delivered all kinds of speeches, the consuls, the oldest senators and everyone else who so desired enumerating the absurdities inherent in the law. When the tribunes had argued on the other side and the consuls had spoken a second time and the verbal skirmishing had lasted a long while, that assembly at least was dispersed by the closing in of night-time. The tribunes having again appointed the third market-day for the consideration of the law and an even greater throng flocking to the Forum on that day, the same thing happened as before. [5] Publius, perceiving this, resolved neither to permit the consuls to inveigh against the law again nor to allow patricians to be present at the voting. For the patricians in their partisan bands and in groups together with their clients, who were numerous, occupied many parts of the Forum, shouting encouragement to those who inveighed against the law and noisily interrupting those who defended it, and doing many other things that were indications of the disorder and violence that there would be in the voting.

  [42.1] These designs of Publius, pointing toward a tyranny, were checked by a fresh calamity sent from Heaven. For the city was visited with a pestilence, which occurred, indeed, in the rest of Italy also, but was especially prevalent in Rome. No human assistance could relieve the sick; but alike whether they were attended with great care or received none of the necessary attentions, they died all the same. No supplications to the gods nor sacrifices nor the final refuge to which men under such calamities are compelled to have recourse — private and public expiations — contributed any help at that time; and the disease made no distinction of age or sex, of strong or weak constitutions, of skill, or of any other of the agencies supposed to lighten the malady, but attacked both men and women, old and young. [2] However, it did not last long — a circumstance which saved the city from utter destruction; but, like a river in flood or a conflagration, falling upon the people with full force, it made a sharp attack and a speedy departure. As soon as the calamity abated, Publius, whose magistracy was near expiring, since he could not get the law confirmed during the remainder of his term, as the election of magistrates was at hand, stood again for the tribuneship for the following year, making many big promises to the plebeians; and he was again chosen tribune by them, together with two of his colleagues. [3] The patricians, to meet this situation, contrived to advance to the consulship a man of stern disposition and an enemy of the populace, one who would not diminish in any respect the power of the aristocracy, namely, Appius Claudius, the son of that Appius who had most strongly opposed the populace in the matter of their return. And though he protested much and even refused to go to the field for the election, they nevertheless passed the preliminary vote and appointed him consul in his absence.

  [43.1] After the election had been carried through quite easily — for the poorer people left the field as soon as they heard Appius named — Titus Quintius Capitolinus and Appius Claudius Sabinus succeeded to the consulship, men alike neither in their dispositions nor in their principles. [2] For it was the opinion of Appius that the idle and needy populace should be kept employed in military expeditions abroad, in order that, while supplying themselves from the enemy’s country by their own toils with an abundance of the daily necessaries of which they were in the greatest need and at the same time accomplishing results advantageous to the commonwealth, they might be least likely to be hostile and troublesome to the senators who were administering public affairs. He declared that any excuse for making war would be justifiable for a state that laid claim to supremacy and was envied by all; and he asked them, applying the principle of probability, to judge what was to happen in the future by what had already taken place in the past, adding that all the commotions which had occurred in the commonwealth in the past had happened during the respites from war. [3] Quintius, on the other hand, thought they ought not to wage any war. He declared they ought to be satisfied if the populace, when called upon to face the inevitable dangers brought upon them from outside, yielded ready obedience; and he showed that if they attempted to use force with the disobedient they would drive the plebeians to desperation, as the consuls before them had done. As a result, they would run the risk either of putting down the sedition with bloodshed and slaughter or of submitting to a shameful courting of the plebeians. [4] In that month the command belonged to Quintius, so that the other consul was bound to do nothing without his consent. In the meantime Publius and the other two tribunes without further delay were again proposin
g the law which they had been unable to get ratified the year before, with this additional provision that the college of aediles should also be chosen in the same assemblies, and that everything else that was to be done and ratified by the populace should be voted on in like manner by the members of the tribes. This, now, clearly meant the overthrow of the senate and the dominance of the populace.

  [44.1] When the consuls were informed of this, they grew anxious and considered by what means the commotion and sedition might speedily and safely be removed. Appius advised summoning to arms all who wished the constitution of their fathers to be preserved, and if any opposed them, to look upon them as enemies. [2] But Quintius thought they ought to use persuasion with the plebeians and convince them that through ignorance of their own interest they were being led into pernicious counsels. He said that it was the extreme of folly to wish to obtain from their fellow citizens against their will the things which they might receive by their consent. [3] The advice of Quintius being approved of by the other members of the senate, the consuls went to the Forum and asked the tribunes to give them a hearing and to appoint a time for it. And having obtained both requests with difficulty, when the day they had asked of them had come, the Forum being filled with a great concourse of people of all sorts, which the magistrates on both sides had got together under instructions to support them, the consuls presented themselves with the intention of speaking against the law. [4] Quintius, accordingly, who was a fair-minded man in all respects and most capable of winning over the populace by his eloquence, first desired leave to speak, and then made an adroit speech that was acceptable to everybody, with the result that those who spoke in favour of the law were reduced to great embarrassment, finding nothing to say that was more just or more reasonable. [5] And if his colleague had not chosen to continue his officiousness, the populace, being fully aware that their demands were neither just nor right, would have rejected the law. But as it was, he delivered a speech that was haughty and offensive to the ears of the poor, so that they became exasperated and implacable and fell into greater strife than before. [6] For he did not talk to them as if they were free men and his fellow citizens who had power to confirm or reject the law, but domineering over them as if they were outcasts or foreigners or men whose liberty was precarious, he uttered bitter and intolerable reproaches, upbraiding them with the abolition of their debts and with their desertion of the consuls when they snatched up the consuls and quit the camp, imposing voluntary banishment upon themselves; and he appealed to the oaths they had sworn when they took up arms in defence of the country which had given them birth, only to turn them against that very country. [7] Therefore their conduct was not at all strange, he said, if, after being guilty of perjury to the gods, deserting their generals, leaving the city undefended as far as in them lay, and returning home in order to violate the public faith, subvert the laws and overthrow the constitution of their fathers, they showed no moderation and could not behave themselves like good citizens, but were always aiming at some selfish encroachment and violation of the laws. At one time they were demanding the right to choose for themselves their own magistrates and making these unaccountable for their actions and sacrosanct; again, they were putting on trial for their lives such of the patricians as they saw fit, and transferring the legitimate courts, to which the commonwealth had formerly entrusted the trial of causes involving death or banishment, from the most incorruptible senate to the vilest mob; and yet again, the labourers for hire and the homeless were introducing tyrannical and unfair laws against the men of noble birth, without leaving to the senate the power even of passing the preliminary decree concerning those laws, but depriving that body of this honour also, which it had always enjoyed undisputed under both kings and tyrants. [8] After he had uttered many other reproaches of like nature and withheld neither any bitter fact nor any opprobrious word, he concluded with this declaration — which gave greater offence to the multitude than all the rest — that the commonwealth would never cease being divided into factions over every matter, but would always suffer from some fresh distemper following the old as long as the tribunician power should last. He pointed out that it is important to examine the beginnings of every political and public institution, to see that they shall be righteous and just; for from good seeds are wont to come good and wholesome fruit, and from bad seeds evil and deadly fruit.

  [45.1] “If, now,” he said, “this magistracy had been introduced into the commonwealth harmoniously, for the good of all, entering in with the sanction of both omens and religious rites, it would have been the source of many blessings to us — kindly services, harmony, wholesome laws, hopes of blessings from Heaven, and countless any other benefits. But as it is, since it was introduced by violence, lawlessness, sedition, the fear of civil war, and by everything mankind most abhors, what good or salutary thing can one now expect will ever come of it when it had such beginnings? So that it is vain for us to seek for a cure and for the aids which human reason suggests against the evils that are continually springing out of it, so long as the pernicious root remains. [2] For we shall have no end of outbursts of the divine wrath, no deliverance from them, while this malignant curse and cancer, firmly imbedded in our body politic, corrupts and destroys all that is wholesome. But for the discussion of this subject another occasion will be more suitable. For the moment, since it is necessary to compose the present disturbances, I put aside all equivocation and say this to you: Neither this nor any other law shall become valid during my consulship without a preliminary decree of the senate; on the contrary, I will fight for the aristocracy not only with words, but, if it shall be necessary to proceed to deeds, I shall not be outdone by its opponents even in these. And if you did not know before the extent of the consular power, you shall learn it during my term of office.”

  [46.1] Thus Appius spoke; and, on the side of the tribunes, the oldest and most highly respected, Gaius Laetorius, a man acknowledged to be of no mean courage in warfare and not without ability in public affairs, rose up to answer him; and he delivered a long speech in behalf of the populace, beginning with the earliest times. He showed that the poor whom Appius maligned had made many hard campaigns not only under their kings, when one might say their action was due to compulsion, but also after the expulsion of the kings, when they were acquiring liberty and supremacy for the fatherland. [2] But they had received no recompense from the patricians nor enjoyed any of the public advantages, but, like captives taken in war, had been deprived by them even of their liberty, to recover which they had been compelled to leave their country in their yearning for another land in which they might live as free men without being insulted. And they had obtained their return to their possessions neither by offering violence to the senate nor by resorting to the compulsion of war, but by yielding to it when it asked and implored them to receive back their abandoned possessions. [3] He mentioned the oaths and appealed to the terms of the compact which had been made to induce them to return, among which there was, first, a general amnesty, and then for the poor the power of choosing magistrates who should assist them and oppose those who would do violence to them. [4] After recounting these matters, he cited the laws which the people had not long before ratified, both the one concerning the transfer of the courts, by which the senate had granted to the people the power to try any of the patricians they should think fit, and also the one concerning the manner of their voting, which no longer made the centuriate assembly, but rather the tribal assembly, responsible for the voting.

  [47.1] When he had finished his defence of the populace, he turned to Appius and said: “After this do you dare revile these men through whom the commonwealth, once small, has become great, and, once obscure, illustrious? And do you call your opponents seditious and reproach them for a fate akin to exile, as if all these men here did not still remember what befel your own family — that your ancestors, having raised a sedition against the authorities and abandoned their country, settled here as suppliants? Unless, indeed, your fol
k, when they forsook their country through a desire for liberty, did a noble thing, but Romans, when they did the same thing as you, did an ignoble thing! [2] Do you dare also to revile the tribunician power as having been introduced into the commonwealth for a mischievous purpose and do you attempt to persuade these men here to abrogate this sacred and inviolable protection of the poor, safeguarded as it is by powerful sanctions which stem from both gods and men, O greatest enemy of the populace and most tyrannical of men? Have you not been able, then, to learn even this, that in saying these things you traduce both the senate and your own magistracy? For the senate, having risen against the kings, whose arrogance and insults they resolved to bear no longer, established the consulship, and before they had expelled the kings, invested others with the royal authority. [3] So that everything you say against the tribunician power as having been introduced for a mischievous purpose, since it had its origin in sedition, you say against the consulship also; for there was no other ground for introducing that magistracy than the sedition of the patricians against the kings. [4] But why do I talk thus with you as with a good and fair-minded citizen, when all these men here know that you are by inheritance mischievous, harsh and an enemy of the populace, and that you can never tame your inborn savagery? Why do I not rather come to grips with you, preferring actions to words, and show you how great is the strength, all unknown to you, of the populace, whom you were not ashamed to call homeless and vile, and how great is the power of this magistracy, to which the law obliges you to give way and submit? I too shall lay aside all equivocation and set to work.”