THE NEW DEAL IN OLD ROME HOW GOVERNMENT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD TRIED TO DEAL WITH MODERN PROBLEMS B Y H. J. HASKELL NEW YORK • ALFRED A KNOPF • 19 4 7 THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK, PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. * Copyright 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro- duced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Manufactured in the United States of America PUBLISHED MAY 15, 1939 SECOND PRINTING, JUNE 1939 SECOND EDITION, REVISED, AUGUST 1947 Published simultaneously in Canada by The Ryerson Press TO ALH- WHOSE ENTHUSIASM TOOK US TO THE PONT DU GARD, WHERE THIS ADVENTURE BEGAN :S^^O^^3<D^^^ PREFACE AN AMATEUR is, of course, presuming to enter the field of the historian. In this case there may be mitigating circumstances. Work as a newspaper man has kept me in touch with political and economic problems in the modern world. I hope familiarity with these prob- lems has given a fresh slant on similar problems in the past. To prevent any misconception let me say at the outset that this book is neither a criticism nor a de- fence of the New Deal. It is an attempt to provide an objective survey of instances of government interven- tion in the ancient world. Many of these were so like experiments tried in the United States in recent years that they may fairly be classed as New Deal measures. I have tried to show what these experiments were, why they were tried, and how they worked. Making allowance for the differences between ancient and modern society, I have ventured to call attention to certain warning signals from the past. v PREFACE While directed primarily at the economic aspects of the history of Rome, the book is intended to include enough of the political background to make the eco- nomic aspects intelligible. In the discussion I have introduced personal incidents to reveal the Romans as human beings, moved by motives and emotions very like those in modern America. The failure of the Roman system to furnish decent minimum standards of living for the mass of the peo- ple was a fundamental cause of instability, both po- litical and economic. The decay of character that at- tended the sudden rush of great wealth undermined the Republic even before it was submerged by civil wars. Later, in a society unstable through social bit- terness, extravagant public spending proved fatal. A British commentator, Professor F. E. Adcock of Cam- bridge University, remarks on the price the world fi- nally had to pay for " the gilding of the Golden Age of the Antonines." The spending for non-productive public works, for the bureaucracy, and for the army, led to excessive taxation, inflation, and the ruin of the essential middle class and its leaders. It destroyed the men whom Leon Homo, French historian, calls, in a brilliant phrase, "the general staff of civiliza- tion." These facts have implications that may be pertinent today. I have not cited authorities. The ordinary reader, Vi PREFACE I suspect, finds footnotes a rather formidable inter- ruption, and my references should be familiar to his- torians, should any do me the honour to read the book. I may say, however, that for the sake of my own conscience and for the convenience of consult- ants I have prepared a reference list citing a respect- able authority, I believe, for every statement of fact. Historical soundness has been a constant aim. So far as I am aware, no historian has collected in a single volume the economic material here used. It has therefore been necessary to comb out the relevant matter from many books and monographs, including those of ancient as well as modern writers. Perhaps my chief debt is to Tenney Frank, M. Rostovtzeff, Frank Burr Marsh, Rice Holmes, W. E. Heitland, Leon Homo, and contributors to the Cambridge An- cient History. The Latin and Greek writers of the period, translated in the Loeb Classical Library, pub- lished by the Harvard University Press, have been an ever present help. Most of the translated quota- tions in this book are from the Loeb Library, with its generous permission. Further I am under heavy obligation to scores of modern historians, such as A. H. J. Greenidge, H. F. Pelham, Sir Samuel Dill, H. M. D. Parker, F. F. Abbott, J. F. Thompson, Warde Fowler, T. G. Tucker, Grant Showerman, R. G. Col- lingwood, M. Cary, Eugene Albertini, and Henri vii PREFACE Pirenne — to mention only a few. For the benefit of those who may wish to pursue the subject further, I have supplied a reading list as an appendix. In preparing the book I have been fortunate in as- sistance from specialists. I am exceedingly grateful to Professor Marsh for suggestions on many points and especially for helping me straighten out various complicated problems in which I found myself in- volved. I have also had frequent and generous aid from Professor Arthur T. Walker of the University of Kansas, and Professor Louis E. Lord of Oberlin Col- lege. To soften the wrath of meticulous classicists, I may say that I have deliberately tried to keep away from words with an archaic flavour that are commonly used in historical writing. So far as possible I have avoided Latin words. I have spoken of the Big Business crowd instead of " equites " or " knights." I have referred to the granaries along the Tiber as " elevators/' As an aside to historians, I trust they will believe that I recognize the controversial nature of many of the subjects discussed — the real object of the Gracchan public works, the effect on unemployment, Catiline's platform when he ran for consul in 63 B.C., Cassar's first land legislation, and so on. In all these cases I have followed what has seemed to me the weight of the rather insubstantial evidence available. The history of economic experiments by the gov- viii PREFACE ernment in the Roman world has proved a fascinat- ing field for inquiry. I can only hope the facts set forth in this book will prove as interesting to others as they have to me. H. J. HASKELL The Kansas City Star January 1, 1939 NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION The reprinting of this volume has given an oppor- tunity to make a few minor changes. Most of these have to do with historical comparisons involving the second World War. H. J. H. The Kansas City Star October 1, 1946 IX 5«33«3«!33*533*X£5S3S3«X53^^ CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Beginning an Adventure 3 CHAPTER II. When Rome Went Modern 18 CHAPTER III. A Tour of Orientation 36 CHAPTER IV. Early New Deal Experiments 50 CHAPTER V. The Get-Rich-Quick Era 73 CHAPTER VI. The Farm Problem Emerges 86 CHAPTER VII. Big Business in Politics 104 CHAPTER VIII. The Republic Couldn't Stand Prosperity 134 CHAPTER IX. Drift to Dictatorship 154 CHAPTER X. Boom and Depression 178 CHAPTER XL Prelude to Crisis 194 CHAPTER XII. The Totalitarian State 214 CHAPTER XIII. Warning Signals 226 XI CONTENTS APPENDIX I. Chronology of Roman New Deal Measures and Other Economic Ex- periments 237 APPENDIX II. If You Wish to Read Further 242 APPENDIX III. A List of Books 251 INDEX follows page 258 The Italian Maps The four maps grouped before the first page of text are re- productions of the marble maps set by the Italian Government on the brick wall of the fourth-century Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Rome. The wall abuts on the Via dell' Impero, the new boulevard from the Victor Emmanuel Monu- ment to the Colosseum. The maps illustrate the expansion of the Roman domain from the Tiber settlement of the eighth century before Christ to the Empire at its greatest extent under Trajan early in the second century of the Christian era. The Roman territory is shown in white, the rest of the world in black. (Photos by courtesy of the ENIT.) xii THE SHEPHERDS SETTLEMENT ON THE TIBER IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. c BY THE END OF THE THIRD WAR WITH CARTHAGE, I46 B.C., THE REPUBLIC HAD CARRIED ITS RULE ALONG THE NORTHERN SHORE OF THE MEDITER- RANEAN AND ACROSS TO AFRICA. AT THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS, A.D. 14, WESTERN AND PART OF CENTRAL EUROPE HAD BEEN BROUGHT WITHIN THE ROMAN ORBIT, TOGETHER WITH THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN BASIN AND MUCH OF NORTHERN AFRICA. UNDER TRAJAN, EARLY IN THE SECOND CENTURY OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA, THE EMPIRE REACHED ITS GREATEST EXTENT. IT COVERED THE ENTIRE MEDI- TERRANEAN BASIN TO THE RIVERS OF ASIA AND INCLUDED RUMANIA AND ENGLAND. THE NEW DEAL IN OLD ROME :^5^**x^^^ CHAPTER I BEGINNING AN ADVENTURE IT was a drive with Mrs. Haskell .over the Pont du Gard in southern France that led to the adventure of this little book. Here was a fine stone bridge sur- mounted by an aqueduct that crossed the River Gard near Avignon at an elevation of 165 feet above the bed of the stream. The aqueduct was built in the time of Augustus, nineteen hundred years ago. The soaring structure stands a monument to the archi- tectural and artistic ability of Rome. Under its spell I began to consider what sort of civilization had pro- duced it. Then the old problem recurred as to the reasons for the decay of the administrative and en- gineering genius that had been required to carry out such an achievement so far from the centre of the Roman world.