Servilius

“ Whilst numbers of them openly declared that it was much more eligible to be slaves to the Volscians than the Patricians. The senate, quite disconcerted by the violence of the tumult, entreated Servilius to take the management of the people. For an express was just arrived from the Latins, with advice that a numerous army of the enemy had already entered their territories. Servilius remonstrated to the people the consequences of disunion at so critical a juncture, and pacified them by the assurance that the senate would confirm whatever concessions he should make ”

“ You may learn from public documents the industry of that most honourable man. Read—"The accounts delivered by Publius Servilius." You see not only the number of the statues, but the size, the figure, and the condition of each one among them accurately described in writing. Certainly, the delight arising from virtue and from victory is much greater than that pleasure which is derived from licentiousness and covetousness. I say that Servilius took much more care to have the booty of the Roman people noted and described, than you took to have your plunder catalogued. ”

“ After this failure Caelius privately issued a law in which he gave to all the use of houses free and annulled debts. [-23-] Servilius consequently sent for some soldiers who chanced to be going by on the way to Gaul and after convening the senate under their protection he presented a proposition about the matter in hand. No ratification was reached, since the tribunes prevented it, but the sense of the meeting was recorded and Servilius then ordered the court officers to take down the offending tablets. ”

“ Appius, a man of passionate temperament, was of opinion that the matter ought to be settled by a display of authority on the part of the consuls; if one or two were brought up for trial, the rest would calm down. Servilius, more inclined to gentle measures, thought that when men's passions are aroused it was safer and easier to bend them than to break them.
24 In the middle of these disturbances, fresh alarm was created by some Latin horsemen who galloped in with the disquieting tidings that a Volscian army was on the march to attack the City. ”

“ Aebutius, the Roman consul, was dead: his colleague, Servilius, was dragging out his life with slender hope of recovery; most of the leading men, the chief part of the patricians, nearly all those of military age, were stricken down with disease, so that they not only had not sufficient strength for the expeditions, which amid such an alarm the state of affairs required, but scarcely even for quietly mounting guard. ”

“ M. Servilius, the consul of the previous year, was continued in command of his two legions in Etruria. With regard to Spain, L. Cornelius Lentulus and L. Manlius Acidinus had been there for some years and the consuls were to arrange with the tribunes to ask the Assembly to decide who should command in Spain. The general appointed was to form one legion of Romans out of the two armies and fifteen cohorts of Latin allies, with which to hold the province, and L. Cornelius and L. Manlius were to bring the old soldiers home. ”

“ Even without the provocation, the accusation was esteemed no unbecoming action, for they delighted to see young men as eagerly attacking injustice, as good dogs do wild beasts. But when great animosities ensued, insomuch that some were wounded and killed in the fray, Servilius escaped. Lucullus followed his studies, and became a competent speaker, in both Greek and Latin, insomuch that Sylla, when composing the commentaries of his own life and actions, dedicated them to him, as one who could have performed the task better himself. ”

“ He hoped too that a sea voyage would be less trying to his wound than the jolting of the march had been, and that everything would contribute to his recovery. He embarked his men and set sail, but he had not cleared Sardinia when he died of his wound. Some of his ships which had parted company with the rest when out at sea were captured by the Roman fleet which was lying off Sardinia. Such was the course of events in the Alpine districts of Italy. The consul C. Servilius had done nothing worth recording in Etruria, nor after his departure for Gaul. ”

“ I have undertaken to defend Messius, who has been recalled from his legation: for Appius had named him legatus to Cæsar. Servilius ordered his attendance in an edict. His jurors are to be from the tribes Pomptina, Velina, and Mæcia. It is a sharp fight: however, it is going fairly well. After that I have to prepare myself for Drusus, then for Scaurus. Very high-sounding title-slips are being prepared for my speeches! Perhaps even the consuls-designate will be added to the list of my clients: and [Pg 287] if Scaurus is not one of them, he will find himself in serious difficulties in this trial. ”

“ Among the patricians a split began to show itself. Livy tells us, that the minores natu among the patres were foremost in the fray;—probably this ought to be the minores, who are the Luceres, as it is impossible to think of young patricians at that time as members of the senate, which in reality was a γερουσία. The consuls (A. 259) belonged to opposite parties; Appius Claudius representing the interest of the most furious oligarchs, Servilius being moderate. In the danger which was threatening, one could only succeed by mildness: every attempt to raise an army by force disgracefully failed. ”

“ It might have been expected that Servius, when elevated above his own humble stock, might have held his head so high and become so stiff-necked as to prevent him from noticing the rank from which he had sprung; but, on the contrary, he exalted himself by endeavouring [28] to raise others. His reign was not a continued round of fights, for he preferred the trowel to the sword, and, instead of cutting his name with the latter weapon, he wisely chose to build up his reputation with the former instrument. ”

“ Severus, pro-consul at Verulam, to my son Casca, greeting.
“My son,—News has reached me of your disasters by sea and land on your journey towards Rome. This will reach you by the hand of the noble Antonius, who will by his goodness receive you into his household, to prepare you to take office in that of the Emperor himself. You refused the study of arms, to my great disquiet, therefore you must now study diligently to shape your manners after those of the young nobles at Rome. You must learn to sing, game, and become an adept on some instrument of music. ”

“ He is installed in his rule without election; [Pg 157] yet he is then acknowledged by the Curies. Now Servius appears important from three different points of view:—as the enlarger of the city, inasmuch as he gave to Rome its legal circuit, even as it remained down to the time of the Emperors, although suburbs were added;—as the author of a constitution, since he constitutes the plebes as the second half of the nation;—and as the founder of the connexion with the Latins, who before that had only been either at war with the Romans, or else in a state of forced dependance upon them. ”

“ SERVIUS TULLIUS, B.C. 578-534.—Servius thus succeeded to the throne without being elected by the Senate and the Assembly of the Curiæ. The reign of this king is almost as barren of military exploits as that of Numa. His great deeds were those of peace; and he was regarded by posterity as the author of the later Roman constitution, just as Romulus was of the earlier. Three important acts are assigned to Servius by universal tradition. ”

“ The hymns of poets and the tears of women made enviable their obsequies. I say it: what a noble, what a heroic thing is youth! What flames divine escape from young bosoms to rise to the Creator! I admire above everything young folk who throw themselves into ventures of war and sentiment with the impetuosity natural to their age."
Tasso, Novara, and the diva so beloved of cardinals mingled confusedly in Jean Servien's heated brain, and in a burst of sublime if fuddled enthusiasm he wrung the old villain's hand. ”

“ Young Servius was educated in the palace of the monarch with great care, and though originally a slave, he raised himself so much to consequence, that Tarquin gave him his daughter in marriage. His own private merit and virtues recommended him to notice not less than the royal favours, and Servius, become the favourite of the people and the darling of the soldiers, by his liberality and complaisance, was easily raised to the throne on the death of his father-in-law. Rome had no reason to repent of her choice. Servius endeared himself still more as a warrior and as a legislator. ”

“ III. An important alliance with the Latins, by which Rome and the cities of Latium became the members of one great league, was one of the great events which distinguished the reign of Servius.
Map of Rome, showing the Servian Wall and the Seven Hills.
Servius gave his two daughters in marriage to the two sons of Tarquinius Priscus. Lucius, the elder, was married to a quiet and [Pg 21] gentle wife; Aruns, the younger, to an aspiring and ambitious woman. The character of the two brothers was the very opposite of the wives who had fallen to their lot ”

“ Then, amid roars of cheers, came Severus himself, habited not in his general's regalia, but in the gorgeous Imperial robes, as if already in the Palace and about to give a public levee. Though thus clad as in time of peace and walking all the way on foot, he was hedged about by his faithful six hundred, every man stepping alertly, helmet-plumes waving, helmets glittering, shields gleaming, spear-points asparkle, kilt-straps flapping, scabbards clanking, a grim advertisement of irresistible power. ”

“ Severinus, a destruction, a plague, and a famine. Those words are a fair sample of St. Severinus’s times, and of the circumstances into which he voluntarily threw himself. About the middle of the fifth century there appears in the dying Roman province of Noricum (Austria we now call it) a strange gentleman, eloquent and learned beyond all, and with the strangest power of melting and ruling the hearts of men. Who he is he will not tell, save that his name is Severinus, a right noble name without doubt. ”

“ Peace returned to the provinces, cities were repeopled, roads repaired, Rome abounded in provisions, and the people were satisfied. Severus changed the constitution of the Prætorian Guards, and filled up their ranks with the bravest soldiers of the legions of the frontier. These barbarians, he thought, would be able to suppress any rebellion that might arise; and he increased the number to fifty thousand men. The Præfect of the Prætorians, who had at first been a simple soldier, now became the chief minister of the emperor, and was at the head of the finances and even of the law. ”

“ When the rout became general, Severus' soldiers pursued and slaughtered the fugitives until they drove them into Lugdunum. Each contemporary historian has recorded to suit his own purpose the actual number of those killed and captured on each side. 7. The emperor's troops captured Lugdunum and burned it. When they caught Albinus they cut off his head and sent it to Severus [A.D. 197] . The emperor thus won two magnificent victories, one in the East and one in the West. No battles and no victories can be compared to those of Severus, and no army to the size of his army ”

“ But the worthy priest checked him:
"Say the reciter, my dear boy; actor is not a word for self-respecting people."
Barring this trifling misunderstanding, they were in perfect accord. The sun was setting by this time and the Abbé Bordier's shadow, grotesquely elongated, danced up and down the sandy floor of the shed, while the old, broken voice declaimed tags of verse that echoed to the furthest recesses of the court. But Jean Servien was smiling at the vision only his eyes could see of Gabrielle, the inspirer of all his enthusiasm. ”

“ So spake the Marquis Tudesco.
XIV Jean had trudged afoot up the hill of Bellevue. Evening was falling. The village street ran upwards between low walls, brambles and thistles lining the roadway on either side. In front the woods melted into a far-off blue haze; below him stretched the city, with its river, its roofs, its towers and domes, the vast, smoky town which had kindled Servien's aspirations at the flaring lights of its theatres and nurtured his feverish longings in the dust of its streets. In the west a broad streak of purple lay between heaven and earth. ”

“ He liked the looks of the newer part of Belgrade, beyond the palace. Here there were pleasant white houses, in green gardens, and everything was clean and well kept. The people, too, seemed to him more like real folks, as he put it. There wasn't a servile respect for a uniform. One reason for that, had he known it, was that when Servia went to war it meant that every man, and every boy old enough to carry arms, was engaged. It was a nation that fought, not just an army.
So it was with a pleasanter impression of the Servian capital than he had expected to acquire that Dick returned to Semlin. ”

“ There was the field of Kossovo, where Amurath defeated Lasar and entombed the ancient empire of Servia. I mused an instant on this great landmark of European history, and following the finger of an old peasant, who accompanied us, I looked eastwards, and saw Deligrad—the scene of one of the bloodiest fights that preceded the resurrection of Servia as a principality. The Morava glistened in its wide valley like a silver thread in a carpet of green, beyond which the dark mountains of Rudnik rose to the north, while the frontiers of Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria walled in the prospect. ”