it, gave them a lively sense how dreadful a calamity it must be to live under the yoke of the Tarquins, as it cost so dear to redeem them from it. This bloody execution, and the tragical death of Lucretia, which were alike horrible to nature, impressed in all their minds so strong an aversion to regal power, that even in after-ages they could not bear so much as the shadow of it; but thought, that after the example of their ancestors, they ought to sacrifice whatever was most dear to them, and expose themselves to the utmost hazards, rather than suffer an evil, which from their infancy they were taught to consider as the greatest and most insupportable of all that could befal them. S. By abandoning the king's treasures to be plundered by the people, pulling down his palaces in town and country, devoting his fields near Rome to Mars, to make the restitution of them impossible, throwing the corn upon his lands into the Tyber, they made the rupture absolutely irreconcileable; and the whole people, who had shared in the insult and pillage, were sensible their only safety lay in an inflexible resistance. 4. The sanguine obstinacy of the Tarquins, in fa→ tiguing the Romans with a long and severe war, and in stirring up all their neighbours against them, laid them under an absolute necessity of defending themselves to the utmost. Their repeated engagements, frequent battles, and the death of one of their consuls, who was killed in the field with the most considerable of the citizens, kept up and inflamed their animosity, and made the fear and hatred of the royal authority grow into an habit. One may judge of the abhorrence they had for it from the beginning, by the answer they gave to the embassadors of king Porsenna, who earnestly solicited the restoration of the Tarquins. [n] They declared they were rather disposed to open their gates to the enemy than the kings, and would [] Ita induxisse in animum, omnium, ut qui libertati erit in illâ hostibus potiùs quàm regibus portas urbe finis, idem urbi sit. Liv. lib.. 光 cally condemned, provided that after his death they could produce an evident proof of his having entertained any such design, seemed to arm every citizen indifferently against the common enemy, to constitute every private man a guardian of the public liberty, and to make him responsible for its preservation. 6. The heroic valour of Horatius Cocles, with the extraordinary rewards and honours he received, for singly opposing on the bridge the auxiliary forces of the Tarquins; the intrepid boldness of Scævola, who punished his hand for having failed of his blow; the courage of Cloelia and her companions; the triumphs decreed to Publicola and his brother Marcus, upon account of the victories gained over the kings; the funeral oration and solemn honours paid to Brutus, as to the father of liberty, and afterwards to Publicola in acknowledgment of his constant love for the republic; all these objects still contributed to inflame their zeal for liberty, and hatred of tyranny; and as these great. examples excited the admiration of all mankind, they inspired them with an ardent desire to imitate them. 7. [0] The solemn oath that the people took at the altars, in their own name, and the name of all their posterity, that they never would, upon any pretext whatsoever, suffer the re-establishment of the regal power, was in all after-ages as present to the people's minds, as if they had but lately thrown off the yoke of a severe and shameful slavery. This aversion, cemented with so much blood, and supported by such powerful motives, was handed down from age to age, not only whilst the republic subsisted, but under the emperors also, and could not [] Omnium primùm avidum giis posset, jurejurando adegit (Brunovæ libertatis populum, ne post- tus) neminem Romæ passuros reg modum fleeti be extinguished but with the empire. [p] The attempt of Manlius, in aspiring to the crown, blotted out the remembrance of all his great actions, and occasioned his being thrown down without pity, from the summit of that very rock which he had regained from the hand of the enemies. Nothing hastened more the death of Cæsar, than the suspicion he had raised, that he designed to have himself declared king. His successors, besides the tribunitian power, took the titles of Cæsar, Augustus, Chief Pontiff, Proconsul, Emperor, Father of their country; but neither their own ambition, nor the flattery of the people ever presumed to go farther, or speak out plain. And though they were in possession of as absolute power as any king on earth; though some of them, as Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Comimodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus, carried the abuse of sovereign power so far, as to exercise the most cruel tyranny; yet none of them ever ventured to assume the diadem, as it was judged the mark of a title, which had something too odious in it for eight or ten centuries to efface; and what is strange, and almost incredible, whilst their impious religion permitted them to set up for gods, a more reserved policy forbad them to pretend to bẹ kings. CHARACTER THE SECOND. An excessive Love of Liberty, and a diligent Application to extend its Rights. The whole body of the Roman republic consisted of two orders, which had each their particular magistrates, as well as their different interests, and were always opposite to each other. The one was called the Senate, and was the head and council of the state; the other was the common people, called in Latin plebs or [P] Damnatum tribuni de saxo Tarpeio dejecerunt: locusque idem in uno homine & eximi gloriæ monumentum, & pœnæ ultima fuit.... Ut sciant homines quæ quanta decora foeda cupiditas regni, non ingrata solùm, sed invisa etiam reddideret. Liv. lib. 6. n. 20 པས་ པསཟབ་པ་ བས ata comitia, in which the senate had the greatest power; or by tribes, tributa comitia, where the power of the people prevailed most. This people, already elate from the frequent victories and conquests they had gained over their neighbours, conceived still higher sentiments from the share they had in the administration, and the concessions the senate were obliged to make them in the times immediately following the revolution. Nothing was more capable of pleasing this people, than the readiness with which the consul Publicola in one night caused his house to be pulled down to the ground, upon some murmurings against the height of its situation, and the largeness of the building, which was looked on as a citadel. The same Publicola, to remove what was most terrible in the consular power, and make it more gentle and popular, caused the axe to be taken away in the city, from the fasces which were carried before the consul; [4] and when he shewed himself in an assembly of the people, he ordered that they should be bowed down, as though he submitted them to the people, and did homage to them for his authority. He farther extremely augmented the power of the people, and their immunities, by the law which allowed of an appeal to the people from the judgment of the consuls and senate; by that which condemned those to death who should accept any office without receiving it from the people; by the law which excused the poor citizens from paying taxes; and by that which exempted such as were disobedient to the [9] Gratum id multitudini spectaculum fuit, summissa sibi esse imperii insignia, confessionemque fac. Liv. tam'populi quàm consulis majesta- consuls, a consuls, from corporal punishment, and reduced the penalty of their disobedience, to a pecuniary mulct. To advance the authority of the people still farther, he thought fit to discharge himself of the custody and management of the public treasure, and prohibited any of his relations and friends from meddling with it. He therefore deposited it in the temple of Saturn, and, allowing the people to chuse two officers, who should have the keeping of it, he gave them a great share in the administration of the finances, which are the force of the state, the strength of the war, and the substance of rewards. The people growing fond of being admitted into the administration, were careful ever after to lose nothing of their ground; and they could not be more agreeably pleased, than by having an opportunity given them of enlarging their rights and prerogatives, The strongest barrier they opposed to the proceedings of the senate and consuls, and the firmest support of their credit and liberty, was the establishment of the tribunes of the people [r] which was one of the conditions of their reconciliation with the senate, and their return into the city, after their withdrawing to the mons sacer. The person of these tribunes, who were properly creatures of the people, was declared sacred and inviolable. At first they created two, and afterwards they were multiplied to the number of ten. The Patricians were rendered absolutely incapable of this employment; [s] and, to disable them from influancing the election of the tribunes, it was ordered that all the plebeian magistrates should be nominated in the assemblies which were held by tribes, wherein the senators had little authority. The violence and injustice of the decemvirs, which occasioned the second [r] Agi deinde de concordiâ coeptum, concessumque in conditiones, ut plebi sui magistratus essent sacrosancti, quibus auxilii latio adversùs consules esset, neve cui patrum capere eum magistratum liceret. Liv. lib. 2. n. 33. [] Volero, tribunus plebis, ro gationem tulit ad populum, ut plebeii magistratus tributis comitiis fierent. Haud parva res, sub titulo primâ specie minimè atroci, ferebatur; sed quæ patriciis omnem potestatem per clientium suffragia creandi quos vellent tribunos, auferret. Liv. I. z. n. 56. retreat |