Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/792

Rh 768 ROME the people backed by a written recommendation from the dictator, which was equivalent to a command. 1 Finally, the senate itself was transformed out of all likeness to its former self by the raising of its numbers to 900, and by the admission of old soldiers, sons of freedmen, and even "semi-barbarous Gauls." 2 But, though Caesar's high- handed conduct in this respect was not imitated by his immediate successors, yet the main lines of their policy were laid down by him. These were (1) the municipaliza- tion of the old republican constitution, and (2) its subor- dination to the paramount authority of the master of the legions and the provinces. In the first case he only carried further a change already in progress. Of late years the senate had been rapidly losing its hold over the empire at large. Even the ordinary proconsuls were virtually independent potentates, ruling their provinces as they chose, and disposing absolutely of legions which recognized no authority but theirs. The consuls and praetors of each year had since 81 been stationed in Rome, and immersed in purely municipal business ; and, lastly, since the enfranchisement of Italy, the comitia, though still recognized as the ultimate source of all authority, had become little more than assemblies of the city populace, and their claim to represent the true Roman people was indignantly questioned, even by republicans like Cicero. The concentration in Caesar's hands of all authority out- side Rome completely and finally severed all real con- nection between the old institutions of the republic of Rome and the government of the Roman empire. And, though Augustus and Tiberius elevated the senate to a place beside themselves in this government, its share of the work was a subordinate one, and it never again directed the policy of the state ; while, from the time of Caesar onwards, the old magistracies are merely municipal offices, with a steadily diminishing authority, even in the city, and the comitia retain no other prerogative of imperial importance but that of formally confirming the ruler of the empire in the possession of an authority which is already his. But the institutions of the republic not merely became, what they had originally been, the local institutions of the city of Rome ; they were also subordin- ated even within these narrow limits to the paramount authority of the man who held in his hands the army and the provinces. And here Caesar's policy was closely followed by his successors. Autocratic abroad, at home he was the chief magistrate of the commonwealth ; and this position was marked, in his case as in that of those who followed him, by a combination in his person of various powers, and by a general right of precedence which left no limits to his authority but such as he chose to impose upon himself. During the greater part of his reign he was consul as well as dictator. 3 In 48, after his victory at Pharsalia, he was given the " tribunicia potestas " for life, 4 and after his second success at Thapsus the " praefectura morum " for three years. 5 As chief magistrate he convenes and presides in the senate, nomi- nates candidates, conducts elections, carries laws in the assembly, and administers justice in court. 6 Finally, as a reminder that the chief magistrate of Rome was also the autocratic ruler of the empire, he wore even in Rome the laurel wreath and triumphal dress, and carried the sceptre of the victorious imperator. 7 Nor are we without some clue as to the policy which 1 Suet., 41, "Caesar dictator . . . commendo vobis ilium et illuiu, ut vestro suffragio suam dignitatem teneant." 2 Suet., 41, 76 ; Dio, xliii. 47. 3 Watson, op. cit., App. x.; Zumpt, Stud. Rom., loc. cii.; Suet, 76, " tertium et quartum consulatum titulo tenus gessit." 4 Dio, xlii. 20. Dio, xliii. 14 ; Suet., 76. 6 Suet., 43, "jus laboriosissime ac severissime dixit." 7 App., ii. 106 ; Dio, xliii. 43. Caesar had sketched out for himself in the administra- tion of the empire, the government of which he had cen- tralized in his own hands. The much-needed work of rectifying the frontiers he was forced, by his premature death, to leave to other hands, but our authorities agree in attributing to him the design of extending the rule of Rome to its natural geographical limits 8 to the Euphrates and the Caucasus on the east, to the Danube and the Rhine or possibly the Elbe on the north, and to the ocean on the west. Within the frontiers he anticipated Augustus in lightening the financial burdens of the provincials, 9 and in establishing a stricter control over the provincial governors, 10 while he went beyond him in his desire to consolidate the empire by extending the Roman franchise 11 and admitting provincials to a share in the government. 12 He completed the Romanization of Italy by his enfran- chisement of the Transpadane Gauls, 13 and by establishing throughout the peninsula a uniform system of municipal government, which under his successors was gradually extended to the provinces. 14 On the eve of his departure for the East, to avenge the At death of Crassus and humble the power of Parthia, Caesar e. (lref fell a victim to the wounded pride of the republican nobles ; and between the day of his death (March 15, 44) and that 44.4 on which Octavian defeated Antony at Actium (September 710- 2, 31) lies a dreary period of anarchy and bloodshed. 15 710. For a moment, in spite of the menacing attitude of 723. Caesar's self-constituted representative Antony, it seemed to one man at least as if the restoration of republican gov- ernment was possible. With indefatigable energy Cicero strove to enlist the senate, the people, and above all the provincial governors in support of the old constitution. But, though his eloquence now and again carried all before it in senate house and forum, it was powerless to alter the course of events. By the beginning of 43 civil war 711. had recommenced ; in the autumn Antony was already threatening an invasion of Italy at the head of seventeen legions. Towards the end of October Antony and his ally Lepidus coalesced with the young Octavian, who had been recently elected consul at the age of twenty, in spite of senatorial opposition ; and the coalition was legalized by The the creation of the extraordinary commission for the seco " reorganization of the commonwealth " known as the ^ "second triumvirate." 16 It was appointed for a period of 43.; five years, and was continued in 37 for five years more. 17 711- The rule of the triumvirs was inaugurated in the Sullan 717. , fashion, and, in marked contrast to the lenity shown by Caesar, by a proscription, foremost among the victims of which was Cicero himself. 18 In the next year the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, by the combined forces of Octavian and Antony, destroyed the last hopes of the republican party. 19 In 40 a threatened rupture between 71 i the two victors was avoided by the treaty concluded at Brundusium. Antony married Octavian's sister Octavia, 8 Plut., 58, " ffwd-fyai T)>V KVKOV rr/s rjycfjiovlas " ; Suet., 44; < Dio, xliii. 51. 9 Plut., 48 ; App., v. 4. 10 He limited the term of command to two years in consular and one year in praetorian provinces; Cicero, Phil., i. 8 ; Dio, xliii. 25. 11 Suet, 42; Cic. Ad Att., xiv. 12. 12 Suet, 76. 13 Dio, xli. 36 ; Tac., Ann., xi. 24. 14 Lex Julia municipalis ; Wordsworth, Fragments of Early Latin, pp. 213, 464 ; Mommsen, R. G., iii. 524. Lex Rubria; Wordsworth, pp. 212, 463. 15 For this period see Merivale, Romans under the Empire, vol. iii.; Lange, Rom. Alterth., iii. 476 sq. ; -Ranke, Weltgeschichte, ii. 336 sq. ; Watson, Cicero's Letters, Introd. to Part v. 16 The triumvirate was formally constituted in Rome (Nov. 27) by a plebiscitum ; App., iv. 7 ; Dio, xlvi. 50-56, xlvii. 2 ; Livy, Epit., cxx. "ut inviri reipublicae constituendae per quinquennium essent." 17 Dio, xlviii. 54 ; App., v. 93. For the date, cf. Fischer, Rom. Zeittafeln, 352, 353. 18 Livy, Epit., cxx.; App., iv. 7; and art. CICERO. 19 Dio, xlvii. 35-49 ; App., iv. 87-138.