Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/515

 CHAP. II. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 50O Latium had been conquered; of the forty small peo- ples who inhabited it, Home had exterminated half She had despoiled some of their lands, and had leCt to others the title of allies. In B. C. 340 the latter per- ceived that the alliance was entirely to their detriment, that they were expected to obey in everything, and that they were required every year to lavish their blood and money for the sole benefit of Home. They formed a coalition ; their chief, Annins, thus stated their demands in the Roman senate: "Give us equality. Let us have the same laws; let us form but a single state — una civitas / let us have but a single name; let us all alike be called Romans." Anuius thus announced, in the year 340, the desire which all the nations of the empire, one after another expressed, and which was to be com- pletely realized only after five centuries and a half. Then such a thought was new and very unexpected ; the Romans declared it monstrous and criminal. It was, indeed, contrary to the old religion and the old law of the cities. The consul, Manlius, replied, that if such a proposition should be accepted, ho would slay with his own hand the first Latin who should come to take his seat in the senate ; then, turning towards the altar, he called upon the god to witness, saying, "Thou hast heard, O Jujiiter, the impious words that have come fiom this man's mouth. Canst thou tolerate, O Jupiter, that a foreigner should come to sit in thy sa- cred temple as a senator, as a consul ?" Thus Manlius expressed the old sentiment of repulsion that separated the citizen from the foreigner. He was the organ of the ancient religious law, which ]irescribed that the foi'- eigner should be detested by the men because he was cursed by the gods of the city. It appeared to him im- possible that a Latin should be a senator because the