George Willis Botsford

“ This is the Campagna, the broad flat belt which borders the Tiber on the left. At first sight it reveals to us its solitude. In early Roman times it had swarmed with peasants who owned the lands they tilled. As the city grew wealthy the district fell into the hands of lords, who covered it with their luxurious villas, peopled by multitudes of slaves. Still later, when Rome was declining, these villas fell to ruins, the slaves disappeared, and Malaria stalked lonely and terrible over the beautiful country she had made her own. ”

“ There are thrilling moments, for example, in the description of the ever-threatening danger of Sabinus, or the exciting escape of Cicero, when the fort of Aduatuca was endangered by a swoop of German marauders. Throughout the story the natives, with their inferior civilization, their perfidies and duplicities, are mere pigmies in the clutches of a giant. Like an irresistible force of nature, the great Roman tramples down everything in his path. ”

“ After a brief period of pretended liberty following the assassination of the dictator, they lapsed with the fall of the republic into utter insignificance.
The comitia had filled a large place in the history of the state. They were the chief factor of constitutional progress and of beneficent legislation. Their development and decline involved the prosperity and the ruin of the republic. For the world they have a higher value. The tribal assembly, supporting the plebeian tribunate, was the storm centre of long, heroic struggles for human rights. ”

“ The ruins of this famous temple stand in the Forum.
But the Campagna has its attractions. It fascinates imaginative tourists and draws them to its heart. Three or four together, their knapsacks filled with food and drink, often take long trips through this wild region, whose eternal quiet speaks peace to the weary mind, whose delicate, ever-changing tints of sky and field appeal to the taste for natural beauty, whose ruined villas and towns awaken historical memories of the rise of Rome from a little settlement on the Tiber to a worldwide power and a fame that cannot die. ”

“ Though at times, as when controlled by the rural element of the citizen body, it could be induced to adopt liberal, statesmanlike measures such as the agrarian and colonial laws of the Gracchi, the usual dominance of the ignorant and unprincipled poor of the metropolis inclined it to a short-sighted, selfish course of conduct—rendering it a powerful weapon in the hands either of the demagogue or of the plutocratic senate, equally effective for resisting genuine reforms and for destroying the institutions of the republic. ”

“ Through tiers of crowded seats that flanked their line of march, Titus and Vespasian rode in their triumphal procession in 70 A. D. Jerusalem had been conquered, and the Temple burned and destroyed. This celebration was called the “Triumph,” which was given by Rome to all her successful generals on their return from campaigns. It had been a hard task for Titus to conquer rebellious Jerusalem. Oppression and extortion by the Roman rulers had risen to such a height that the Jews were driven at last into desperate resistance to the overwhelming power of Rome. ”

“ Concessions to the people develop into popular rights. The citizens, deeply interested in the choice of a man who for the remainder of his life was to represent their community before the gods, lead them in war, and exercise over them the power of life and death, claimed as their first active political right the ius suffragii in the passing of this lex curiata de imperio. Hence after the institution of the republic and of the comitia centuriata, the curiae clung obstinately to this inalienable prerogative. ”

“ CLEOPATRA
In the Vatican Museum, Rome
From all that we can learn, however, success in the Parthian war would have been a catastrophe to European civilization. In wealth and population, in the resources of war and peace, the Oriental part of the empire would have overbalanced the European. The capital would have shifted to Alexandria or farther east; and Oriental absolutism would have dominated the civilized world. Three centuries after Cæsar, autocracy was to come even to Europe. ”

“ It has now been sufficiently established that even in the tribal condition people were differentiated into social ranks. We have traced the beginning of nobility to leadership and have found, in both ancient and mediaeval society, new noble families forming by the side of the old. Social distinctions were well developed long before the founding of cities. When a community, whether a tribe or a city, is far enough advanced to begin the conquest of neighbors, “it has already differentiated into royal, noble, free, and servile families.” ”

“ We know now to our own great satisfaction that it is not simply a picture-loving public that takes The Mentor. The serious interest in the subjects that we have published, the earnest desire to know what subjects would be forthcoming, the intelligent suggestions that we receive concerning various subjects that might be included in The Mentor plan—all these, and then the numerous evidences in our mail that The Mentor is bringing something new into the home life, convince us that when we shaped our plans on the broad lines of a comprehensive, popular education we builded well. ”

“ Rome and Egypt THREE
Early in his career of conquest Alexander the Great subdued Egypt and founded Alexandria (332 B. C.) This country proved the most valuable part of his vast realm, and afterward of the Roman Empire. The valley of the Nile is exceedingly fertile, well watered as it is from the river, and continually enriched by the alluvial deposits from the yearly overflow. The people were patient and laborious. For thousands of years they had toiled like slaves for their Pharaohs, whom they looked upon as gods, and who owned all the land and most of the wealth of the kingdom. ”

“ The nomination of the king by the competent person was perhaps acclaimed in a contio in some such way as among the early Germans. Such an election, we may suppose, was in the beginning legal without further action on the part of the people. But the accession of a king was a momentous event in the life of a generation—far more important than the annual declaration of war upon a neighbor—and the advantage of a formal vote of the curiate assembly, after its institution, was obvious both to the king and to the sacerdotes ”

“ Cæsar began his career as a politician, but ended it as a statesman. His courage, clemency, and personal charm won countless friends. While costly entertainments were a political necessity, his moderation in private life earned the respect of Roman society. A blue-blooded patrician, he steadfastly championed the popular cause. This policy alienated his own class, and finally resulted in his death. His political understanding developed hand in hand with his patriotism. ”

“ In the age which begins with the Valerian-Horatian legislation we find the people regulating by law the qualifications and conduct of candidates as well as the powers and functions of the magistrates themselves. They had the same right to deal with the organization and competence of the assemblies. From 358 to 287 they rapidly extended their legislative power, by precedent rather than by statute, over the whole field of the constitution and over the administration in all its departments; they ventured even to regulate the senate and to interfere with the imperium. ”

“ The present number of The Mentor is the last of the calendar year—not that of The Mentor year, for that will end in February next. The turn of the calendar year, however, brings with it the inevitable moment of retrospection. This is merely a habit of the human mind, for the New Year is only a human establishment. In a sense it may be said that every day is the beginning of a new year and the ending of an old year. The real new year for a human being, it seems to us, begins with his birthday, for that is the beginning of all things for him. ”

“ Such in brief was the world in which Gaius Julius Cæsar lived (100-44 B. C.) Belonging to the bluest-blooded aristocracy, he began life with all the advantages of wealth and family repute. As a boy and youth he enjoyed the best education of the time. It consisted mainly in the study and imitation of Greek writers, especially orators, in preparation for a career as public speaker and statesman. Rome had derived her civilization from Greece; and every business man or diplomatist had to speak the Greek language, which was the chief medium of communication throughout the Mediterranean world. ”

“ As the author points out in his preface, there is no book in the English language which supplies a picture of life and manners, of education, morals, and religion, in the intensely interesting period of the Roman Republic. The age of Cicero is one of the most important periods of Roman history, and the Ciceronian correspondence, of more than nine hundred contemporary letters, is the richest treasure-house of social life that has survived from any period of classical antiquity. ”

“ The colossal statue in the Palazzo Spada, a detail of which is given in this number, has long passed as the image at the feet of which Cæsar met his death; but the proof is insufficient, and it seems at least as likely that it represents an emperor. Other portraits are equally uncertain. The Madrid bust of Cicero is genuine, and well represents the orator’s great intelligence with a momentary expression of scorn. The better-known Vatican head, the bust of which is modern, is also genuine and stands second in merit. For Cleopatra there are no certain sculptural portraits. ”

“ In an earlier chapter [1356] it was shown that primitive Rome, like primitive Greece, regarded law as god-given—a conception which left no scope for legislation by a popular assembly. Though under the kings the people may occasionally have been called to vote on a resolution affecting their customs, the comitia curiata never acquired a law-making function. [1357] Even the declaration of war, which historical Rome looked upon as a lex, was issued by the king without the consent of the community, his only need being to secure the hearty support of the warriors. ”

“ In another century (264-167 B. C.) , through a new series of wars, she built up an empire that nearly surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. This rapid expansion of power is one of the most notable events in the world’s history. In the present number of The Mentor, however, we are less concerned with the process of conquest than with its result. When Rome subdued a foreign state, she exercised her right of war in depriving it of a great part of its wealth, including money, land, and art treasures, not only paintings and marbles, but works of great intrinsic value in bronze, silver, and gold. ”

“ Doubtless when the Servian army was first introduced, its organization was made to fit actual conditions, so that all who were liable to service found their place in it; but as the political assembly of centuries was instituted many years afterward, the army with its various enlargements could have kept meanwhile no more than approximate pace with the changing population, and at no time could it include the physically disqualified, who nevertheless had a right to vote in the junior centuries of the political assembly. ”

“ Under these circumstances we should not expect to find the tribunes often bringing the power of their questioned sanctity into actual use in the early years of their existence; but that before the decemvirate they exercised jurisdiction to some extent even in capital cases, which were appealed to the assembly under their presidency, is proved by a law of the Twelve Tables, which, to remedy what the legislators must have considered an abuse, provided that accusations affecting the caput of a citizen should be brought only before the comitiatus maximus—evidently the comitia centuriata. ”

“ As the comitia curiata and comitia centuriata, under patrician presidents, had from the beginning been termed populus, nothing could be more natural than that from the time an assembly convened under plebeian presidency for plebeian objects, the latter should by way of distinction be termed plebs, even though the few patricians were included. Ordinarily the plebeians must have welcomed patricians to their assemblies, as the presence of magistrates and senators and their sons added dignity and weight to the proceedings. ”