Books: The Old Roman World

J >> John Lord >> The Old Roman World

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[Sidenote: Death of Sulla.]

The civil war between Sulla and the chiefs of the popular faction that
had been created by Marius, which ended in his complete ascendency in
Italy, stopped for a while the Roman conquests in the East. Sulla,
having undone the popular measures of the last half century, and reigned
supreme over all factions as dictator, died B.C. 78, after a most
successful career, and left his mantle to the most enterprising of his
lieutenants, Cnaeus Pompey, who was destined to complete the Mithridatic
war.

[Sidenote: Character of Sulla.]

If Sulla had not been so inordinately fond of pleasure and luxurious
self-indulgence, he might have seized the sceptre of universal dominion,
and have made himself undisputed master of the empire. He was a man of
extraordinary genius, fond of literature, and a great diplomatist. But
he was not preeminently ambitious like Caesar, and was diverted by the
fascinations of elegant leisure; nor was he naturally cruel, though his
passions, when aroused, were fierce and vindictive. He lived in an age
of exceeding corruption, when it was evident to contemplative minds that
Roman liberties could not be much longer preserved. He had, for a time,
restored the ascendency of the senatorial families, but faction was at
work among the unprincipled chiefs of the republic.

[Sidenote: Lucullus marches against Mithridates.]

On the death of the great dictator, Mithridates broke the peace he had
concluded, and marched into Bithynia, which had been left by will to the
Roman people by Nicomedes, with the hope of its reconquest. He had an
army of one hundred and twenty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse.
Lucullus, with thirty thousand foot and one thousand horse, advanced
against him, and the vast forces of Mithridates were defeated, and the
king was driven into Armenia, and sought the aid of Tigranes, his son-
in-law, king of that powerful country. He, too, was subdued by the Roman
legions, and all the nations from the Halys to the Euphrates
acknowledged the dominion of Rome.

[Sidenote: Rising greatness of Pompey.]

Still, Mithridates was not subdued, and Pompey, who had annihilated the
Mediterranean pirates, was the only person fit to finish the Mithridatic
war. His successes had been more brilliant than even those of Sulla, or
Lucullus, or Metellus. He was made Dictator of the East, with greater
powers than had ever before been intrusted to a Roman general. He had
success equal to his fame; drove Mithridates across the Caucasus;
reduced Pontus, and took possession of Syria, which had been subject to
Tigranes. The defeated King of Pontus, who had sought to unite all the
barbarous tribes of Eastern Europe against Rome, destroyed himself.
Pompey, after seven years' continued successes, returned to Italy to
claim his triumph, having subdued the East, and added the old monarchy
of the Seleucidae to the dominion of Rome, B.C. 61.

[Sidenote: The early career of Julius Caesar.]

[Sidenote: His victories in Spain.]

[Sidenote: Caesar sent into Gaul.]

But while Pompey was pursuing his victories over the effeminate people
of Asia, a still more brilliant career in the West marked the rising
fortunes of Julius Caesar. I need not dwell on the steps by which he
arose to become the formidable rival of the conqueror of the East. He
bears the most august name of antiquity. A patrician by birth, a
demagogue in his principles, popular in his manners, unscrupulous in his
means, he successively passed through the various great offices of
state, which he discharged with prodigious talent. As leader of the old
popular party of Marius, he sought the humiliation of the Senate, while
his ambition led him to favor every enterprise which promised to advance
his own interests. Leaving the province of Spain, after his praetorship,
before Pompey's return to Italy, his great career of conquest commenced.
He first availed himself of some disturbances in Lusitania to declare
war against its gallant people, overran their country, and then turned
his arms against the Gallicians. In two years he had obtained spoils
more than sufficient to pay his enormous debts, the result of his
prodigality, by which, however, he won the hearts of the thoughtless
citizens, and paved the way for honor. Conqueror of Spain, and idol of
the people, he returned to Rome, B.C. 60, when Pompey was quarreling
with the Senate, formed an alliance with him and Crassus, and by their
aid was elected consul. His measures in that high office all tended to
secure his popularity with the people, and supported by Pompey and
Crassus, he triumphed over the Senate. He then secured the government of
Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum, with two legions, for the extraordinary
term of five years. The Senate added the province of Transalpine Gaul,
then threatened by the Allobrogians, Suevi, Helvetians, and other
barbaric tribes, with the intention of confining him to a dangerous and
uncertain field of warfare.

[Sidenote: His great military genius.]

[Sidenote: His difficulties in the conquest of Gaul.]

[Sidenote: Results of the Gaulish wars.]

[Sidenote: Gaul becomes Latinized.]

That field, however, established his military fame, and paved the way
for his subsequent usurpations. The conquests of Caesar in Western Europe
are unique in the history of war, and furnish no parallel. Other
conquests may have been equally brilliant and more imposing, but none
were ever more difficult and arduous, requiring greater perseverance,
energy, promptness, and fertility of resources. The splendid successes
of Lucullus and Pompey in Asia resembled those of Alexander. We see
military discipline and bravery triumphing over the force of multitudes,
and a few thousand men routing vast armies of enervated or undisciplined
mercenaries. Such were the conquests of the English in India. They make
a great impression, but the fortunes of an empire are decided by a
single battle. It was not so with the conflicts of Caesar in Gaul. He had
to fight with successive waves of barbarians, inured to danger,
adventurous and hardy, holding life in little estimation, willing to die
in battle, intrepid in soul, and bent on ultimate victory. He had to
fight in hostile territories, unacquainted with the face of the country,
at a great distance from the base of his supplies, exposed to perpetual
perils, and surrounded with unknown difficulties. And these were
appreciated by his warlike countrymen, who gave him the credit he
deserved. The ten years he spent in Gaul were the years of his truest
glory, and the most momentous in their consequences on the future
civilization of the world, since it was not worn-out monarchies he added
to the empire, but a new territory, inhabited by brave and simple races,
who were to learn the arts and laws and literature of Rome, and supply
the government with powerful aid in the decline of its strength. It was
the conquered barbarians who, henceforth, were to furnish Rome with
soldiers, and even scholars and statesmen and generals. Among them the
old civilization was to take root, among them new states were to arise
on which the Romans could impress their own remarkable characteristics.
It was the western provinces of the empire that alone were vital with
energy and strength, and which were destined to perpetuate the spirit of
Roman institutions. The eastern provinces never lost the impress of the
Greek mind and manners. They remained Greek even when subdued by the
imperial legions. Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, were filled with Grecian
cities, and Asiatic customs were modified by Grecian civilization. The
West was purely Roman, and the Latin language, laws, and arts were
continued, in a modified form, through the whole period of the Middle
Ages. Even Christianity had a different influence in the West from what
it had in the East. In other words, the West was completely Latinized,
while the East remained Grecian. Though the East was governed by Roman
proconsuls, they could not change the Graeco-Asiatic character of its
institutions and manners; but the barbarians were willing to learn new
lessons from their Roman masters.

[Sidenote: Greatness of Caesar.]

It would require a volume to describe the various campaigns of Caesar in
Gaul, in which a million of people were destroyed. But I only aim to
show results. Most people are familiar with the marvelous generalship
and enterprises of the Roman conqueror--the conquest and reconquest of
the brave barbarians, most of whom were Celts; the uprising of Germanic
tribes as well, and their fearful slaughter near Coblentz; the bloody
battles, the fearful massacres, the unscrupulous cruelties which he
directed; the formidable insurrection organized by Vercingetorix; the
spirit he infused into his army; the incessant hardships of the
soldiers, crossing rivers, mountains, and valleys, marching with their
heavy burdens--fighting amid every disadvantage, until all the
countries north of the Alps and west of the Rhine acknowledged his sway--
all these things are narrated by Caesar himself with matchless force and
simplicity of language.

[Sidenote: Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey.]

Caesar now probably aspired to the sovereignty of the empire, as Napoleon
did after the conquest of Italy. But he had a great rival in Pompey, who
had remained chiefly at Rome, during his Gaulish campaigns, virtually
dictator, certainly the strongest citizen. And Pompey had also his
ambitious schemes. One was the conqueror of the East; the other of the
West. One leaned to the aristocratic party, the other to the popular.
Pompey was proud, pompous, and self-sufficient. Caesar was politic,
patient, and intriguing. Both had an inordinate ambition, and both were
unscrupulous. Pompey had more prestige, Caesar more genius. Pompey was a
greater tactician, Caesar a greater strategist. The Senate rallied around
the former, the people around the latter. Cicero distrusted both, and
flattered each by turns, but inclined to the side of Pompey, as
belonging to the aristocratic party.

[Sidenote: Battle of Pharsalia.]

[Sidenote: Death of Pompey.]

Between such ambitious rivals coalition for any length of time could not
continue. Dissensions arose between them, and then war. The contest was
decided at Pharsalia. On the 6th of June, B.C. 48, "Greek met Greek,"
yet with forces by no means great on either side. Pompey had only forty
thousand, and Caesar less, but they were veterans, and the victory was
complete. Pompey fled to Egypt, without evincing his former greatness,
paralyzed, broken, and without hope. There he miserably died, by the
assassin's dagger, at the age of sixty, and the way was now prepared for
the absolute rule of Caesar.

[Sidenote: Dictatorship of Caesar.]

But the party of Pompey rallied, connected with which were some of the
noblest names of Rome. The battle of Thapsus proved as disastrous to
Cato as Pharsalia did to Pompey. Caesar was uniformly victorious, not
merely over the party which had sustained Pompey, but in Asia, Africa,
and Spain, which were in revolt. His presence was everywhere required,
and wherever he appeared his presence was enough. He was now dictator
for ten years. He had overturned the constitution of his country. He was
virtually the supreme ruler of the world. In the brief period which
passed from his last triumphs to his death, he was occupied in
legislative labors, in settling military colonies, in restoring the
wasted population of Italy, in improving the city, in reforming the
calendar, and other internal improvements, evincing an enlarged and
liberal mind.

[Sidenote: Death of Caesar. His character.]

But the nobles hated him, and had cause, in spite of his abilities, his
affability, magnanimity, and forbearance. He had usurped unlimited
authority, and was too strong to be removed except by assassination. I
need not dwell on the conspiracy under the leadership of Brutus, and his
tragic end in the senate-house, where he fell, pierced by twenty-two
wounds, at the base of Pompey's statue, the greatest man in Roman
history--great as an orator, a writer, a general, and a statesman; a man
without vanity, devoted to business, unseduced by pleasure, unscrupulous
of means to effect an end; profligate, but not more so than his times;
ambitious of power, but to rule, when power was once secured, for the
benefit of his country, like many other despots immortal on a bloody
catalogue. After his passage of the Rubicon his career can only be
compared with that of Napoleon.

[Sidenote: Character of his later wars.]

But Roman territories were not much enlarged by Caesar after the conquest
of Celtic Europe. His later wars were either against rivals or to settle
distracted provinces. Nor were they increased in the civil wars which
succeeded his death, between the various aspirants for the imperial
power and those who made one more stand for the old constitution. At the
fatal battle of Philippi, when the hopes of Roman patriots vanished
forever, double the number of soldiers were engaged on both sides than
at Pharsalia, but fortune had left the senatorial party, of which Brutus
was the avenger and the victim.

[Sidenote: Civil wars after the death of Caesar.]

[Sidenote: Ascendency of Octavian.]

Civil war was carried on most vigorously after the death of Julius. But
it was now plainly a matter between rival generals and statesmen for
supreme command. The chief contest was between Octavian and Antony, the
former young, artful, self-controlled, and with transcendent abilities
as a statesman; the latter bold, impetuous, luxurious, and the ablest of
all Caesar's lieutenants as a general. Had he not yielded to the
fascinations of Cleopatra, he would probably have been the master of the
world. But the sea-fight of Actium, one of the great decisive battles of
history, gave the empire of the world to Octavian B.C. 31, and two years
after the victor celebrated three magnificent triumphs, after the
example of his uncle, for Dalmatia, Actium, and Egypt. The kingdom of
the Ptolemies passed under the rule of Caesar. The Temple of Janus was
shut, for the first time for more than two hundred years; and the
imperial power was peaceably established over the civilized world.

[Sidenote: Necessity for the empire.]

The friends of liberty may justly mourn over the fall of republican
Rome, and the centralization of all power in the hands of Augustus. But
it was a calamity which could not be averted, and was a revolution which
was in accordance with the necessities of the times. Fifty years' civil
war taught the Romans the hopelessness of the struggle to maintain their
old institutions so long as the people were corrupt, and fortunate
generals would sacrifice the public welfare to their ambition. Order was
better than anarchy, even though a despot reigned supreme. When men are
worse than governments, they must submit to the despotism of tyrants. It
is idle to dream of liberty with a substratum of folly and vice. The
strongest man will rule, but whether he rule wisely or unwisely, there
is no remedy. Providence gave the world to the Romans, after continual
and protracted wars for seven hundred years; and when the people who had
conquered the world by their energy, prudence, and perseverance, were no
longer capable of governing themselves, then the state fell into the
possession of a single man.

[Sidenote: Change in the imperial policy.]

Under the emperors, the whole policy of the government was changed. They
no longer thought of further aggrandizement, but of retaining the
conquests which were already made. And if they occasionally embarked in
new wars, those wars were of necessity rather than of ambition, were
defensive rather than aggressive. New provinces were from time to time
added, but in consequence of wars which were waged in defense of the
empire. The conquest of Britain and Judea was completed, and various
conflicts took place with the Germanic nations, who, in the reign of
Antoninus, formed a general union for the invasion of the Roman world.
These barbarians were the future aggressors on the peace of the empire,
until it fell into their hands. The empire of Augustus may be said to
have reached the utmost limits it ever permanently retained, extending
from the Rhine and the Danube to the Euphrates and Mount Atlas,
embracing a population variously estimated from one hundred to one
hundred and thirty millions.

[Sidenote: Perfection of military art.]

When Augustus became the sovereign ruler of this vast empire, military
art had reached the highest perfection it ever attained among any of the
nations of antiquity. It required centuries to perfect this science, if
science it may be called, and the Romans doubtless borrowed from the
people whom they subdued. They learned to resist the impetuous assaults
of semi-barbarous warriors, the elephants of the East, and the phalanx
of the Greeks. Military discipline was carried to the severest extent by
Marius, Pompey, and Caesar.

[Sidenote: The spirit of the Roman soldier.]

The Roman soldier was trained to march twenty miles a day, under a
burden of eighty pounds; yea, to swim rivers, to climb mountains, to
penetrate forests, and to encounter every kind of danger. He was taught
that his destiny was to die in battle. He expected death. He was ready
to die. Death was his duty, and his glory. He enlisted in the armies
with little hope of revisiting his home. He crossed seas and deserts and
forests with the idea of spending his life in the service of his
country. His pay was only a denarius daily, equal to about sixteen cents
of our money. Marriage was discouraged or forbidden. He belonged to the
state, and the state was exacting and hard. He was reduced to abject
obedience, yet he held in his hand the destinies of the empire. And
however insignificant was the legionary as a man, he gained importance
from the great body with which he was identified. He was the servant and
the master of the state. He had an intense _esprit de corps_. He
was bound up in the glory of his legion. Both religion and honor bound
him to his standards. The golden eagle which glittered in his front was
the object of his fondest devotion. Nor was it possible to escape the
penalty of cowardice or treachery, or disobedience. He could be
chastised with blows by his centurion; his general could doom him to
death. Never was the severity of military discipline relaxed. Military
exercises were incessant, in winter as in summer. In the midst of peace
the Roman troops were familiarized with the practice of war.

[Sidenote: Military genius of the Romans.]

[Sidenote: The perfection of military art.]

It was the spirit which animated the Roman legions, and the discipline
to which they were inured, which gave them their irresistible strength.
When we remember that they had not our fire-arms, we are surprised at
their efficiency, especially in taking strongly fortified cities.
Jerusalem was defended by a triple wall, and the most elaborate
fortifications, and twenty-four thousand soldiers, beside the aid
received from the citizens; and yet it fell in little more than four
months before an army of eighty thousand under Titus. How great the
science to reduce a place of such strength, in so short a time, without
the aid of other artillery than the ancient catapult and battering-ram!
Whether the military science of the Romans was superior or inferior to
our own, no one can question that it was carried to utmost perfection
before the invention of gunpowder. We are only superior in the
application of this great invention, especially in artillery. There can
be no doubt that a Roman army was superior to a feudal army in the
brightest days of chivalry. The world has produced no generals superior
to Caesar, Pompey, Sulla, and Marius. No armies ever won greater
victories over superior numbers than the Roman, and no armies of their
size, ever retained in submission so great an empire, and for so long a
time. At no period in the history of the empire were the armies so large
as those sustained by France in time of peace. Two hundred thousand
legionaries, and as many more auxiliaries, controlled diverse nations
and powerful monarchies. The single province of Syria once boasted of a
military force equal in the number of soldiers to that wielded by
Tiberius. Twenty-five legions made the conquest of the world, and
retained that conquest for five hundred years. The self-sustained energy
of Caesar in Gaul puts to the blush the efforts of all modern generals,
except Frederic II., Marlborough, Napoleon, Wellington, Grant, Sherman,
and a few other great geniuses which a warlike age developed; nor is
there a better text-book on the art of war than that furnished by Caesar
himself in his Commentaries. And the great victories of the Romans over
barbarians, over Gauls, over Carthaginians, over Greeks, over Syrians,
over Persians, were not the result of a short-lived enthusiasm, like
those of Attila and Tamerlane, but extended over a thousand years. The
Romans were essentially military in all their tastes and habits.
Luxurious senators and nobles showed the greatest courage and skill in
the most difficult campaigns. Antony, Caesar, Pompey, and Lucullus were,
at home, enervated and luxurious, but, at the head of the legions, were
capable of any privation and fatigue. The Roman legion was a most
perfect organization, a great mechanical force, and could sustain
furious attacks after vigor, patriotism, and public spirit had fled. For
three hundred years a vast empire was sustained by mechanism alone.

[Sidenote: The Roman Legion.]

[Sidenote: Its composition.]

[Sidenote: The infantry the strength of the legion.]

[Sidenote: Its armor.]

[Sidenote: Its weapons.]

[Sidenote: The cavalry.]

[Sidenote: Term of military service.]

The legion is coeval with the foundation of Rome, but the number of the
troops of which it was composed varied at different periods. It rarely
exceeded six thousand men. Gibbon estimates the number at six thousand
eight hundred and twenty-six men. For many centuries it was composed
exclusively of Roman citizens. Up to the year B.C. 107, no one was
permitted to serve among the regular troops except those who were
regarded as possessing a strong personal interest in the stability of
the republic. Marius admitted all orders of citizens; and after the
close of the Social War, B.C. 87, the whole free population of Italy was
allowed to serve in the regular army. Claudius incorporated with the
legion the vanquished Goths, and after him the barbarians filled up the
ranks, on account of the degeneracy of the times. But during the period
when the Romans were conquering the world every citizen was trained to
arms, and was liable to be called upon to serve in the armies. In the
early age of the republic, the legion was disbanded as soon as the
special service was performed, and was in all essential respects a
militia. For three centuries, we have no record of a Roman army
wintering in the field; but when Southern Italy became the seat of war,
and especially when Rome was menaced by foreign enemies, and still more
when a protracted foreign service became inevitable, the same soldiers
remained in activity for several years. Gradually the distinction
between the soldier and the civilian was entirely obliterated. The
distant wars of the republic, like the prolonged operations of Caesar in
Gaul, and the civil contests, made a standing army a necessity. During
the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey, the legions were forty in
number; under Augustus but twenty-five. Alexander Severus increased them
to thirty-two. This was the standing force of the empire, from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred and forty thousand men, and this was
stationed in the various provinces. The main dependence of the legion
was on the infantry, which wore heavy armor consisting of helmet,
breastplate, greaves on the legs, and buckler on the left arm four feet
in length and two and a half in width. The helmet was originally made of
leather or skin, strengthened and adorned by bronze or gold, and
surmounted by a crest which was often of horse-hair, and so made as to
give an imposing look The crest not only served for ornament but to
distinguish the different centurions. The breastplate or cuirass was
generally made of metal, and sometimes was highly ornamented. Chain-mail
was also used. The greaves were of bronze or brass, with a lining of
leather or felt, and reached above the knees. The shield, worn by the
heavy-armed infantry, was not round, like that of the Greeks, but oval
or oblong, adapted to the shape of the body, and was made of wood or
wicker-work. The weapons were a light spear, a pilum or javelin six feet
long, terminated by a steel point, and a sword with a double edge,
adapted to striking or pushing. The legion was drawn up eight deep, and
three feet intervened between rank and file, which disposition gave
great activity, and made it superior to the Macedonian phalanx, the
strength of which depended on sixteen ranks of long pikes wedged
together. The cavalry attached to each legion were three hundred men,
and they originally were selected from the leading men in the state.
They were mounted at the expense of the state, and formed a distinct
order. The cavalry was divided into ten squadrons; and to each legion
was attached a train of ten military engines of the largest size, and
fifty-five of the smaller,--all of which discharged stones and darts
with great effect. This train corresponded with our artillery. Besides
the armor and weapons of the legionaries they usually carried on their
marches provisions for two weeks, and three or four stakes used in
forming the palisade of the camp, beside various tools,--altogether a
burden of sixty or eighty pounds per man. The general period of service
for the infantry was twenty years, after which the soldier received a
discharge together with a bounty in money or land.