Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/808

Rh 784 results of the conditions amid which it took shape. The separation of the civil from the military power has entirely disappeared. This is proved by the fact that, after the year 600, there is no further mention of the prefect. His office still survived, but with a gradual change of functions, until, in the 8th century, he once more appears as president of a criminal tribunal. The constitution of the duchy and of the new republic formed during the wars with the Lombards and the exarch was substantially of an aristocratico-military nature. At its head was the duke, first elected by the emperor, then by the pope and the people, and, as his strength and influence grew with those of the commune, he gradually became the most respected and powerful personage in Home. The duke inhabited the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine Hill, and had both the civil and the military power in his hands ; he was at the head of the army, which, being composed of the best citizens and highest nobility of Rome, was a truly national force. This army was styled the felidssimus or florens exerdtus Romanus or also the militia Romana. Its members never lost their citizen stamp ; on the contrary they formed the true body of the citizens. We find mention of other duces in Home, but these were probably other leaders or superior officers of the army. Counts and tribunes are found in the subject cities bound to furnish aid to the capital. In fact during the pontificate of Sergius II. (844), when the duchy was threatened by a Saracenic invasion, they were requested to send troops to defend the coast, and as many soldiers as possible to the city. At that time the inhabitants of Rome were divided into four principal classes clergy, nobles, soldiers, and simple citizens. The nobles were divided into two categories, first the genuine optimates, i.e., members of old and wealthy families with large estates, and filling high, and often hereditary, offices in the state, the church, and the army. These were styled proceres and primates. The second category comprised landed proprietors, of moderate means but exalted position, mentioned as nobiles by Gregory I., and constituting in fact a numerous petty nobility and the bulk of the army. Next followed the citizens, i.e., the commercial class, merchants, and craftsmen, who, having as yet no fixed organization and but little influence, were simply designated as honesti cives. These, however, were quite distinct from the plebeians, plebs, vulgus populi, viri humiles, who in their turn ranked above bondsmen and slaves. The honesti cives did not usually form part of the army, and were only enrolled in it in seasons of emergency. Nevertheless the army was not only national, but became increasingly democratic, so that in the 10th century it included every class of inhabitants except churchmen and slaves. At that period we sometimes find the whole people designated as the exerdtus, those actually under arms being distinguished as the militia exerdtus Romani. This again was divided into bands or " numbers," i.e., regiments, and also, in a manner peculiar to Rome, into scholae militum. These scholae were associations derived from antiquity, gaining strength and becoming more general in the Middle Ages as the central power of the state declined. There were scholae of notaries, of church singers, and of nearly every leading employment ; there were scholae of foreigners of diverse nationalities, of Franks, Lombards, Greeks, Saxons, &c. Even the trades and crafts began to form scholae. These were at first very feeble institutions, and only later gained importance and became guilds. As early as the 8th century there were scholae militum in the army, which was thus doubly divided. But we have no precise definition of their func- tions. They were de facto corporations with separate pro- perty, churches, and magistrates of their own. The latter [HISTORY. were always optimates, and guarded the interests of the army. But the real chiefs of the bands or numeri were the duces or tribunes, and under the Franks the Litter became comites. These chiefs were styled maynijid consules, optimates de militia, often too judwes de mili- tia, since, as was the custom of the Middle Ages, they wielded political and judicial as well as military authority. The title of consul was now generally given to superior officers, whether civil or military. The importance of the scholae militum began to decline in the 10th century; towards the middle of the 12th they disappeared alto- gether, and, according to Papencordt, were last mentioned in 1145. It is probable that the scholae militum signified local divisions of the army, corresponding with the city wards, which were twelve in number during the 10th and llth centuries, then increased to thirteen, and occasion- ally to fourteen. It is certain that from the beginning the army was distributed under twelve flags; after the scholae had disappeared, we find it classified in districts, which were subdivided into companies. The division of cities into quarters, sestieri or rioni, corresponding with that of the army, and also with that of the municipal government, was the common practice of Florence, Siena, and almost all the Italian communes. But, while usually losing importance as the guilds acquired power, in Rome the insignificance of the guilds added to the strength of the regioni or rioni, which not only became part of the army but finally grasped the reins of government. This was a special characteristic of the political constitution of the Roman commune. We now come to a question of weightier import for all desiring to form a clear idea of the Roman govern- senat ment at that period. What had become of the senate 1 1/ 1 *' It had undoubtedly lost its original character now that Agef the empire was extinct. But, after much learned dis- cussion, historical authorities are still divided upon the subject. Certain Italian writers of the 18th century Vendettini, for example asserted with scanty critical insight that the Roman senate did not disappear in the Middle Ages. The same opinion backed by much learned research was maintained by the great German historian Savigny. And Leo, while denying the per- sistence of the curia in Lombard Italy, adhered to Savigny's views as regarded Rome. Papencordt did the same, but held the Roman senate to be no more than a curia. This judgment was vigorously contested, first by Hegel and Giesebrecht, then by Gregorovius. These writers believe that after the middle of the 6th century the senate had a merely nominal existence. According to Gregorovius its last appearance was in the year 579. After that date it is mentioned in no documents, and the chroniclers are either equally silent or merely allude to its decay and extinction. In the 8th century, however, the terms senator, senatores, senatus again reappear. We find letters addressed to Pippin, beginning thus : Omrtis senatus atque universi populi yeneralitas. When Leo III. returned from Germany he was met by tarn proceres deri- corum cum omnibus clerids, quamque optimates et senatus, cunctaque militia (see Anastasius, in Muratori, vol. iii. 198 c). But it has been noted that the senate was never found to act as a political assembly ; on occasions when it might have been mentioned in that capacity we hear nothing of it, and only meet with it in ceremonials and purely formal functions. Hence the conclusion that the term senator was used in the sense of noble, senatus of nobility, and no longer referred to an institution but only to a class of the citizens. Even when we find that Otho III. (who sought to revive all the ancient institu- tions of Rome) addressed an edict to the " Consuls and Senate of Rome," and read that the laws of St Stephen