Books: The Old Roman World

J >> John Lord >> The Old Roman World

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47

[Sidenote: Commerce.]

[Sidenote: Objects of ancient commerce.]

Commerce under the emperors was not what it now is, but still was very
considerable, and thus united the various provinces together. The most
remote countries were ransacked to furnish luxuries for Rome. Every year
a fleet of one hundred and twenty vessels sailed from the Red Sea for
the islands of the Indian Ocean. But the Mediterranean, with the rivers
which flowed into it, was the great highway of the ancient navigator.
Navigation by the ancients was even more rapid than in modern times
before the invention of steam, since oars were employed as well as
sails. In summer one hundred and sixty-two Roman miles were sailed over
in twenty-four hours. This was the average speed, or about seven knots.
From the mouth of the Tiber, vessels could usually reach Africa in two
days, Massilia in three, Tarraco in four, and the Pillars of Hercules in
seven. From Puteoli the passage to Alexandria had been effected, with
moderate winds, in nine days. But these facts apply only to the summer,
and to objects of favorable winds. The Romans did not navigate in the
inclement seasons. But in summer the great inland sea was white with
sails. Great fleets brought corn from Gaul, Spain, Sardinia, Africa,
Sicily, and Egypt. This was the most important trade. But a considerable
commerce was carried on in ivory, tortoise-shell, cotton and silk
fabrics, pearls and precious stones, gums, spices, wines, wool, oil.
Greek and Asiatic wines, especially the Chian and Lesbian, were in great
demand at Rome. The transport of earthenware, made generally in the
Grecian cities; of wild animals for the amphitheatre; of marble, of the
spoils of eastern cities, of military engines, and stores, and horses,
required very large fleets and thousands of mariners, which probably
belonged, chiefly, to great maritime cities like Alexandria, Corinth,
Carthage, Rhodes, Cyrene, Massalia, Neapolis, Tarentum, and Syracuse.
These great cities with their dependencies, required even more vessels
for communication with each other than for Rome herself--the great
central object of enterprise and cupidity.

[Sidenote: The metropolis of the empire.]

[Sidenote: The centre and the pride of the world.]

[Sidenote: Its varied objects of interest.]

In this survey of the provinces and cities which composed the empire of
the Caesars, I have not yet spoken of the great central city--the City of
the Seven Hills, to which all the world was tributary. Rome was so
grand, so vast, so important in every sense, political and social; she
was such a concentration of riches and wonders, that it demands a
separate and fuller notice than what I have been able to give of those
proud capitals which finally yielded to her majestic domination. All
other cities not merely yielded precedence, but contributed to her
greatness. Whatever was costly, or rare, or beautiful in Greece, or
Asia, or Egypt, was appropriated by her citizen kings, since citizens
were provincial governors. All the great roads, from the Atlantic to the
Tigris, converged to Rome. All the ships of Alexandria and Carthage and
Tarentum, and other commercial capitals, were employed in furnishing her
with luxuries or necessities. Never was there so proud a city as this
"Epitome of the Universe." London, Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, St.
Petersburg, Berlin, are great centres of fashion and power; but they are
rivals, and excel only in some great department of human enterprise and
genius, as in letters, or fashions, or commerce, or manufactures--
centres of influence and power in the countries of which they are
capitals, yet they do not monopolize the wealth and energies of the
world. London may contain more people than ancient Rome, and may possess
more commercial wealth; but London represents only the British monarchy,
not a universal empire. Rome, however, monopolized everything, and
controlled all nations and peoples. She could shut up the schools of
Athens, or disperse the ships of Alexandria, or regulate the shops of
Antioch. What Lyons or Bordeaux is to Paris, Corinth or Babylon was to
Rome--secondary cities, dependent cities. Paul condemned at Jerusalem,
stretched out his arms to Rome, and Rome protects him. The philosophers
of Greece are the tutors of Roman nobility. The kings of the East resort
to the palaces of Mount Palatine for favors or safety. The governors of
Syria and Egypt, reigning in the palaces of ancient kings, return to
Rome to squander the riches they have accumulated. Senators and nobles
take their turn as sovereign rulers of all the known countries of the
world. The halls in which Darius, and Alexander, and Pericles, and
Croesus, and Solomon, and Cleopatra have feasted, if unspared by the
conflagrations of war, witness the banquets of Roman proconsuls. Babylon
and Thebes and Athens were only what Delhi and Calcutta are to the
English of our day--cities to be ruled by the delegates of the Roman
Senate. Rome was the only "home" of the proud governors who reigned on
the banks of the Thames, of the Seine, of the Rhine, of the Nile, of the
Tigris. After they had enriched themselves with the spoils of the
ancient monarchies they returned to their estates in Italy, or to their
palaces on the Aventine, for the earth had but _one_ capital--one
great centre of attraction. To an Egyptian even, Alexandria was only
provincial. He must travel to the banks of the Tiber to see something
greater than his own capital. It was the seat of government for one
hundred and twenty millions of people. It was the arbiter of taste and
fashion. It was the home of generals and senators and statesmen, of
artists and scholars and merchants, who were renowned throughout the
empire. It was enriched by the contributions of conquered nations for
eight hundred years. It contained more marble statues than living
inhabitants. Every spot was consecrated by associations; every temple
had a history; every palace had been the scene of festivities which made
it famous; every monument pointed to the deeds of the illustrious dead,
and swelled the pride of the most powerful families which aristocratic
ages had created.

* * * * *

For the ancient authorities, see Strabo, Pliny, Polybius, Diodorus
Siculus, Titus Livius, Pausanias, and Herodotus. There is an able
chapter on Mediterranean prosperity in Napoleon's _History of
Caesar_. Smith, _Dictionary of Ancient Geography_, is exhaustive.
See, also, Muller, article on _Atticus_, in Ersch, and Gruber's
_Encyclopedia_, translated by Lockhart; Stuart and Revett,
_Antiquities of Atticus_; Dodwell, _Tour through Greece_; Wilkinson,
_Hand-book for Travelers in Egypt_; Becker, _Hand-book of Rome_.
Anthon has compiled a useful work on ancient geography, but the most
accessible and valuable book on the material aspects of the old
Roman world is the great dictionary of Smith, from which this chapter is
chiefly compiled.

CHAPTER III.

THE WONDERS OF ANCIENT ROME.

[Sidenote: Early inhabitants of Italy.]

The great capital of the ancient world had a very humble beginning, and
that is involved in myth and mystery. Even the Latin stock, inhabiting
the country from the Tiber to the Volscian mountains, which furnished
the first inhabitants of the city, cannot be clearly traced, since we
have no traditions of the first migration of the human race into Italy.
It is supposed by Mommsen that the peoples which inhabited Latium belong
to the Indo-Germanic family. Among these were probably the independent
cantons of the Ramnians, Tities, and Luceres, which united to form a
single commonwealth, and occupied the hills which arose about fourteen
miles from the mouth of the Tiber. Around these hills was a rural
population which tilled the fields. From these settlements a fortified
fort arose on the Palatine Hill, fitted to be a place of trade from its
situation on the Tiber, and also a fortress to protect the urban
villages. Though unhealthy in its site, it was admirably adapted for
these purposes, and thus early became an important place.

[Sidenote: Foundation of Rome.]

[Sidenote: Settlement under Romulus.]

[Sidenote: Extent of the city at the death of Romulus.]

The legends attribute a different foundation of the "Eternal City." But
these also assign the Palatine as the nucleus of ancient Rome. It was on
this hill that Romulus and Remus grew up to manhood, and it was this
hill which Romulus selected as the site of the city he was so desirous
to build. But modern critics suppose that he did not occupy the whole
hill, but only the western part of it. Varro, whose authority is
generally received, assigns the year 753 before Christ as the date for
the foundation of the city. The first memorable incident in the history
of this little city of robbers was the care of Romulus to increase its
population by opening an asylum for fugitive slaves on the Capitoline
Hill. But this supplied only males who had no wives. And when the
proposal of the founder to solicit intermarriage with the neighboring
nations was rejected, he resorted to stratagem and force. He invites the
Sabines and the people of other Latin towns to witness games. A crowd of
men and women are assembled, and while all are intent on the games, the
unmarried women are seized by the Roman youth. Then ensues, of course, a
war with the Sabines, the result of which is that the Sabines are united
with the Romans and settle on the Quirinal. The Saturnian Hill is left
in possession of the Sabines, while Romulus assumes the Sabine name of
Quirinus, from which we infer that the Sabines had the best of the
conflict. Callius, who, it is said, assisted Romulus, receives as a
compensation the hill known as the Caelian. At the death of Romulus, who
reigned thirty-seven years, Rome comprised the Palatine, the Quirinal,
the Caelian, and the Capitoline hills. [Footnote: M. Ampere, _Hist.
Rom._, tom. i. ch. xii.] The Sabines thus occupy two of the seven
hills, and furnish not only people for the infant city, but laws,
customs, and manners, especially religious observances.

[Sidenote: The public works of Numa.]

The reign of Numa was devoted to the consolidation of the power which
Romulus had acquired, to the civilization of his subjects, and the
improvement of the city. He fixed his residence between the Roman and
the Sabine city, and erected adjoining to the Regia a temple to Vesta,
which was probably only an _oedes sacra_. It was probably along with
these buildings that the Sacra Via came into existence. The Regia became
in after times the residence of the Pontifex Maximus. Numa established
on the Palatine the Curia Saliorum, and built on the Quirinal a temple
of Romulus, afterwards rebuilt by Augustus. He also erected on the
Quirinal a citadel connected with a temple of Jupiter, with cells of
Juno and Minerva. He converted the gate which formed the entrance of the
Sabine city into a temple of Janus, and laid the foundation upon the
Capitoline of a large temple to Fides Publica, the public faith.

[Sidenote: The reign of Tullus Hostilius.]

[Sidenote: Improvement of the city made by Tullus.]

Under the reign of Tullus Hostilius was the capture of Alba Longa, the
old capital of Latium, where Numa had reigned, and the transfer of its
inhabitants to Rome, which thus became the chief city of the Latin
league. They were located on the Caelian, which also became the residence
of the king. He built the Curia Hostilia, a senate chamber, to
accommodate the noble Alban families, in which the Roman Senate
assembled, at the northwest corner of the Forum, to the latest times of
the republic. It was a templum, but not dedicated for divine services,
adjoining the eastern side of the Vulcanal. Out of the spoils of Alba
Longa, Tullus improved the Comitium, a space at the northwest end of the
Forum, fronting the Curia, the common meeting place of the Romans and
Sabines. On the Quirinal Hill he erected a Curia Saliorum in imitation
of that of Numa on the Palatine, devoted to the worship of Quirinus.

[Sidenote: Growth of Rome during the reign of Ancus Martius.]

Ancus Martius, a grandson of Numa, succeeded Tullus after a reign of
thirty-two years. Under him the city was greatly augmented by the
inhabitants of various Latin cities which he subdued. These settled on
the Aventine, and in the valley which separated it from the Palatine,
supposed by Niebuhr to be the origin of the Roman Plebs, though it is
maintained by Lewis that the Plebeian order was coaeval with the
foundation of the city. Ancus fortified Mons Janiculus, the hill on the
western bank of the Tiber, for the protection of the city. He connected
it with Rome by the Pons Sublicius, the earliest of the Roman bridges,
built on piles. The Janiculum was not much occupied by residences until
the time of Augustus. Ancus founded Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber,
which became the port of Rome. It was this king who built the famous
Mamertine Prison, near the Forum, below the northern height of the
Capitoline.

[Sidenote: Tarquinius Priscus.]

[Sidenote: The Cloaca Maxima.]

[Sidenote: Temple of the Capitoline Jupiter.]

A new dynasty succeeded this king, who reigned twenty-four years; that
of the Tarquins, an Etrurian family of Greek extraction, which came from
Corinth, the cradle of Grecian art, celebrated as the birth-place of
painting and for its works of pottery and bronze. Tarquinius Priscus
constructed the Cloaca Maxima, that vast sewer which drained the Forum
and Velabrum, and which is regarded by Niebuhr as one of the most
stupendous monuments of antiquity. It was composed of three semicircular
arches inclosing one another, the innermost of which had a diameter of
twelve feet, large enough to be traversed by a Roman hay-cart.
[Footnote: Arnold, _Hist. of Rom._, vol. i. p. 52.] It was built
without cement, and still remains a magnificent specimen of the
perfection of the old Tuscan masonry. Along the southern side of the
Forum this enlightened monarch constructed a row of shops occupied by
butchers and other tradesmen. At the head of the Forum and under the
Capitoline he founded the Temple of Saturn, the ruins of which attest
considerable splendor. But his greatest work was the foundation of the
Capitoline Temple of Jupiter, completed by Tarquinius Superbus, the
consecrated citadel in which was deposited whatever was most valued by
the Romans.

[Sidenote: Accession of Servius Tullius.]

During the reign of Servius Tullius, who succeeded Tarquin B.C. 578, the
various elements of the population were amalgamated, and the seven
hills, namely, the Palatine, the Capitoline, the Quirinal, the Caelian,
the Viminal, the Esquiline, and the Aventine, were covered with houses,
and inclosed by a wall about six miles in circuit. A temple of Diana was
erected on the Aventine, besides two temples to Fortune, one to Juno,
and one to Luna. Servius also dedicated the Campus Martius, and enlarged
the Mamertine Prison by adding a subterranean dungeon of impenetrable
strength.

[Sidenote: Tarquinius Superbus.]

On the assassination of Servius Tullius, B.C. 535, his son-in-law,
Tarquinius Superbus, usurped the power, and did much for the adornment
of the city. The Capitoline Temple was completed on an artificial
platform, having a triple row of columns in front, and a double row at
the sides. It was two hundred feet wide, having three cells adjoining
one another, the centre appropriated to Jupiter, with Juno and Minerva
on either hand. The temple had a single roof, and lasted nearly five
hundred years before it was burned down, and rebuilt with greater
splendor.

[Sidenote: Rome under the early consuls.]

[Sidenote: Roman roads.]

Such were the chief improvements of the city during the kingly rule.
Under the consuls the growth was constant, but was not marked by grand
edifices. Portunus, the conqueror of the Tarquins at Lake Regillus,
erected a temple to Ceres, Liber, and Libera, at the western extremity
of the Circus Maximus. Camillus founded a celebrated temple to Juno on
the Aventine. But these, and a few other temples, were destroyed when
the Gauls held possession of the city. The city was rebuilt hastily and
without much regard to regularity. There was nothing memorable in its
architectural monuments till the time of Appius Claudius, who
constructed the Via Appia, the first Roman aqueduct. In fact the
constant wars of the Romans prevented much improvement in the city till
the fall of Tarentum, although the ambassadors of Pyrrhus were struck
with its grandeur. M. Curius Dentatus commenced the aqueduct called Anio
Vetus B.C. 278, the greater part of which was under ground. Its total
length was forty-three miles. Q. Flaminius, B.C. 220, between the first
and second Punic wars, constructed the great highway, called after him
the Via Flaminia--the great northern road of Italy, as the Via Appia was
the southern. These roads were very elaborately built. In constructing
them, the earth was excavated till a solid foundation was obtained; over
this a layer of loose stones was laid, then another layer nine inches
thick of rubble-work of broken stones cemented with lime, then another
layer of broken pottery cemented in like manner, over which was a
pavement of large polygonal blocks of hard stone nicely fitted together.
Roads thus constructed were exceedingly durable, so that portions of
them, constructed two thousand years ago, are still in a high state of
preservation.

[Sidenote: Ancient basilicas.]

[Sidenote: Temple of Hercules.]

[Sidenote: Asiatic luxuries.] The improvements of Rome were rapid after
the conquest of Greece, although destructive fires frequently laid large
parts of the city in ruins. The deities of the conquered nations were
introduced into the Roman worship, and temples erected to them. In the
beginning of the second century before Christ we notice the erection of
basilicas, used as courts of law and a sort of exchange, the first of
which was built by M. Portius Cato, B.C. 184, on the north side of the
Forum. It was of an oblong form, open to the air, surrounded with
columns, at one end of which was the tribunal of the judge. The Basilica
Portia was soon followed by the Basilica Fulvia behind the Argentariae
Novae, which had replaced the butchers' shops. Fulvius Nobilia further
adorned the city with a temple of Hercules on the Campus Martius, and
brought from Ambrasia, once the residence of Pyrrhus, two hundred and
thirty marble and two hundred and eighty-five bronze statues, beside
pictures. L. Aemilius Paulus founded an emporium on the banks of the
Tiber as a place of landing and sale for goods transported by sea, and
built a bridge over the Tiber. Sempronius Gracchus, the father of the
two demagogue patriots, erected a third Basilica B.C. 169, on the south
side of the Forum on the site of the house of Scipio Africanus. The
triumph of Aemilius Paulus introduced into the city pictures and statues
enough to load two hundred and fifty chariots, and a vast quantity of
gold and silver. Cornelius Octavius, B.C. 167, built a grand palace on
the Palatine, one of the first examples of elegant domestic
architecture, and erected a magnificent double portico with capitals of
Corinthian bronze. With the growing taste for architectural display,
various Asiatic luxuries were introduced--bronze beds, massive
sideboards, tables of costly woods, cooks, pantomimists, female dancers,
and luxurious banquets. Metellus erected the first marble temple seen in
Rome, before which he placed the twenty-five bronze statues which
Lysippus had executed for Alexander the Great.

[Sidenote: Sack of Corinth.]

[Sidenote: Adornment of the Forum.]

The same year that witnessed the triumph of Metellus, B.C. 146, also saw
the fall of Carthage and the sack of Corinth by Mummius, so that many of
the choicest specimens of Grecian art were brought to the banks of the
Tiber. Among these was the celebrated picture of Bacchus by Aristides,
which was placed in the Temple of Bacchus, Ceres, and Proserpine. The
Forum now contained many gems of Grecian art, among which were the
statues of Alcibiades and Pythagoras which stood near the comitium, the
Three Sibyls placed before the rostra, and a picture by Serapion, which
covered the balconies of the tabernae on the south side of the Forum.

[Sidenote: Aqua Marcia.]

In the year 144 B.C., Q. Marcius Rex constructed the Aqua Marcia, one of
the noblest of the Roman monuments, sixty-two miles in length, seven of
which were on arches, sufficiently lofty to supply the Capitoline with
pure and cold water. Seventeen years after, the Aqua Tepula was added to
the aqueducts of Rome.

[Sidenote: Triumphal Arches.]

The first triumphal arch erected to commemorate victories was in the
year B.C. 196, by L. Sertinius. Scipio Africanus erected another on the
Capitoline, and Q. Fabius, B.C. 121, raised another in honor of his
victories over the Allobroges. This spanned the Via Sacra where it
entered the Forum, and at that time was a conspicuous monument, though
vastly inferior to the arches of the imperial regime.

[Sidenote: Temple of Concord.]

[Sidenote: Basilica Opimia.]

When tranquillity was restored to Rome after the riots connected with
the murder of the Gracchi, the Senate ordered a Temple of Concord to be
built, B.C. 121, in commemoration of the event. This temple was on the
elevated part of the Vulcanal, and was of considerable magnitude. It was
used for the occasional meetings of the Senate, and contained many
valuable works of art. Adjoining this temple, Opimius, the consul,
erected the Basilica Opimia, which was used by the silversmiths, who
were the bankers and pawnbrokers of Rome. The whole quarter on the north
side of the Forum, where this basilica stood, was the Roman exchange--
the focus for all monetary transactions.

[Sidenote: Private palaces.]

[Sidenote: Houses of the nobles.]

The increasing wealth and luxury of Rome, especially caused by the
conquest of Asia, led to the erection on the Palatine of those
magnificent private residences, which became one of the most striking
features the capital. The first of these historical houses was built by
M. Livius Drusus, and overlooked the city. It afterwards passed into the
hands of Crassus, Cicero, and Censorinus. Pompey had a house on the
Palatine, but afterwards transferred his residence to the Casinae,
another aristocratic quarter. M. Aemilius Lepidus also lived in a
magnificent palace; the house of Crassus was still more splendid,
adorned with columns of marble from Mount Hymettus. The house of
Catullus excelled even that of Crassus. This again was excelled by that
of Aquillius on the Viminal, which for some time was the most splendid
in Rome, until Lucullus occupied nearly the whole of the Pincian Hill
with his gardens and galleries of art, which contained some of the
_chefs d'oeuvre_ of antiquity. The gardens of Servilius, which lay
on the declivity of the Houses of Aventine, were adorned with Greek
statues, exceeded in beauty by those of Sallust between the Pincian and
the Quirinal hills, built with the spoils of Numidia, and ultimately the
property of the emperors. The house of Clodius on the Palatine, near to
that of Cicero, was one of the finest in Rome, occupied before him by
Scaurus, who gave for it nearly fifteen million sesterces, about
$650,000. It was adorned with Greek paintings and sculptures. The house
of Cicero, which he bought of Crassus, cost him $150,000. Its atrium was
adorned with Greek marble columns thirty-eight feet high. Hortensius
lived in a house on the Palatine, afterwards occupied by Augustus. The
residence of his friend Atticus, on the Quirinal, was more modest, whose
chief ornament was a grove. Pompey surrounded his house with gardens and
porticos.

[Sidenote: Destruction and rebuilding of the Capitol.]

The year 83 B.C. was marked by the destruction by fire of the old
Capitoline Temple, which had withstood the ravages of the Gauls. Sulla
aspired to rebuild it, and caused to be transported to Rome for that
purpose the column of the Olympian Zeus at Athens. It was completed by
Caesar, and its roof was gilded at an expense of $15,000,000. The
pediment was adorned with statuary, and near it was a colossal statue of
Jupiter.

[Sidenote: Theatre of Pompey.]

In the early ages of the republic there were no theatres at Rome,
theatrical representations being regarded as demoralizing. The regular
drama was the last development even of Grecian genius. The Roman
aristocracy set their faces against dramatic entertainments till after
the conquest of Greece. These plays were introduced and performed on
temporary stages in the open air, or in wooden buildings. There was no
grand theatre till Pompey erected one of stone, B.C. 55, in the Campus
Martius, which was capable of holding eighty thousand spectators, and it
had between its numerous pillars three thousand bronze statues.
[Footnote: _Plin. H. N._, xxxvi. 24.] He also erected, behind his
theatre, a grand portico of one hundred pillars, which became one of the
most fashionable lounging-places of Rome, and which was adorned with
statues and images. Pompey also built various temples.