LIBRARY UMtVEMSITY Of CAUFORNIA 1 SANOtEGO J Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/characterseventsOOferriala ^- uJ^ THE GREATNESS AND DECLINE OF ROME BY GUGLIELMO FERRERO Authorited Translation 5 vols. 8vo. Each |2. 50 net Vol. I.—The Empire Builders Vol. II.—Julius Caesar Vol. III. —The Fall of an Aristocracy Vol. IV.—Rome and Egypt Vol. V. —The Republic of Augustus CHARACTERS AND EVENTS OF ROMAN HISTORY From Caesar to Nero (60 B.C.-70 A.D.) AMthorited Translation by Frances Lance Ftrrero 8vo. \e^i6i Characters and Events of Roman History From Caesar to Nero iTbe XoweU Xectuces of 1908 By Guglielmo Ferrero, Litt. D. Author of "The Greatness and Decline of Rome," etc. Translated by Frances Lance Ferrero G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London ^be ftniclierbocher press 1909 Copyright, iqoq BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Published, May, 1909 Reprinted, October, 1909 «be fmicketbociiec fhress, «ew Vwk PREFACE IN the spring of 1906, the College de France in- * vited me to deliver, during November of that year, a course of lectures on Roman history. I accepted, giving a r6sum6, in eight lectures, of the history of the government of Augustus from the end of the civil wars to his death ; that is, a r6sum6 of the matter contained in the fourth and fifth volumes of the English edition of my work. The Greatness and Decline of Rome. Following these lectures came a request from M. Emilio Mitre, Editor of the chief newspaper of the Argentine Republic, the Nacion, and one from the Academia Brazileira de Lettras of Rio de Janeiro, to deliver a course of lectures in the Argentine and Brazilian capitals. I gave to the South American course a more general character than that delivered in Paris, introducing argu- ments which would interest a public having a less specialized knowledge of history than the public I had addressed in Paris. ; iv Preface When President Roosevelt did me the honour to invite me to visit the United States and Prof. Abbott Lawrence Lowell asked me to deliver a course at the Lowell Institute in Boston, I se- lected material from the two previous courses of lectures, moulding it into the group that was given in Boston in November-December, 1908. These lectures were later read at Columbia Uni- versity in New York, and at the University of Chicago in Chicago. Certain of them were de- livered elsewhere—before the American Philo- sophical Society and at the University of Penn- sylvania in Philadelphia, at Harvard University in Cambridge, and at Cornell University in Ithaca. Such is the record of the book now presented to the public at large. It is a work necessarily made up of detached studies, which, however, are bound together by a central, unifying thought so that the reading of them may prove useful and pleasant even to those who have already read my Greatness and Decline of Rome. The first lecture, "The Theory of Corruption in Roman History," sums up the fimdamental idea of my conception of the history of Rome. The essential phenomenon upon which all the political, social, and moral crises of Rome depend a Preface v is the transformation of customs produced by the augmentation of wealth, of expenditure, and of needs,—a phenomenon, therefore, of psycho- logical order, and one common in contemporary life. This lecture should show that my work does not belong among those written after the method of economic materialism, for I hold that the fundamental force in history is psychologic and not economic. The three following lectures, **The History and Legend of Antony and Cleopatra," "The Development of Gaul," and "Nero," seem to concern themselves with very different subjects. On the contrary, they present three different aspects of the one, identical problem—the strug- gle between the Occident and the Orient— problem that Rome succeeded in solving as no European civilisation has since been able to do, making the countries of the Mediterranean Basin share a common life, in peace. How Rome suc- ceeded in accomplishing this union of Orient and Occident is one of the points of greatest interest in its history. The first of these three lectures, "Antony and Cleopatra," shows how Rome repulsed the last offensive move- ment of the Orient against the Occident; the second, "The Development of Gaul," shows vi Preface the establishing of equilibrium between the two parts of the Empire; the third, "Nero," shows how the Orient, beaten upon fields of battle and in diplomatic action, took its revenge in the do- main of Roman ideas, morals, and social life. The fifth lecture, "Julia and Tiberius," illus- trates, by one of the most tragic episodes of Roman history, the terrible struggle between Roman ideals and habits and those of the Graeco- Asiatic civilisation. The sixth lecture, "The Development of the Empire," summarises in a few pages views to be developed in detail in that part of my work yet to be written. I have said that not all history can be explained by economic forces and factors, but this does not prevent me from regarding economic phenomena as also of high importance. The seventh lecture, "Wine in Roman History," is an essay after the plan in accordance with which, it seems to me, economic phenomena should be treated. The last lecture deals with a subject that per- haps does not, properly speaking, belong to Roman history, but upon which an historian of Rome ought to touch sooner or later; I mean the role which Rome can still play in the education of the upper classes. It is a subject important not only to the historian of Rome, but to all Preface vii those who are interested in the future of cul- ture and civilisation. The more specialisa- tion in technical labour increases, the greater becomes the necessity of giving the superior classes a general education, which can prepare specialists to imderstand each other and to act together in all matters of common interest. To imagine a society composed exclusively of doctors, engineers, chemists, merchants, manu- facturers, is impossible. Every one must also be a citizen and a man in sympathy with the common conscience. I have, therefore, endeav- oured to show in this eighth lecture what ser- vices Rome and its great intellectual tradition can render to modem civilisation in the field of education. These lectures naturally cannot do more than make known ideas in general form ; it would be too much to expect in them the precision of detail, the regard for method, and the use of frequent notes, citations, and references to authorities or documents, that belong to my larger work on Rome; but they are published partly because I consider it useful to popularise Roman history, and partly because some of the pleasantest of memories attach to them. Their origin, the course on Augustus given at the College " viii Preface de France, which proved one of the happiest occa- sions of my life, and their development, leading to my travels in the two Americas, have given me experiences of the greatest interest and pleasure. I am glad of the opportimity here to thank all those who have contributed to make the sojourn of my wife and myself in the United States de- lightful. I must thank all my friends at oncej for to name each one separately, I should need, as a Latin poet says, "a hundred mouths and a himdred tongues. GUGLIELMO FeRRERO. Turin, February 22, 1909. CONTENTS "Corruption" in Ancient Rome, and its Counterpart in Modern History The History and Legend op Antony and Cleopatra 37 The Development of Gaul 69 Nero .... lOI Julia and Tiberius 143 Wine in Roman History 179 Social Development of the Roman Empire 207 Roman History in Modern Education . 239 Index ....... 265 ** Corruption" in Ancient Rome And Its Counterpart in Modern History 'T'WO years ago in Paris, while giving a course - of lectures on Augustus at the College de France, I happened to say to an illustrious his- torian, a member of the French Academy, who * was complimenting me : ' But I have not re-made Roman history, as many admirers think. On the contrary, it might be said, in a certain sense, that I have only returned to the old way. I have retaken the point of view of Livy; like Livy, gathering the events of the story of Rome around that phenomenon which the ancients called the 'corruption' of customs—a novelty twenty centuries old!" Spoken with a smile and in jest, these words nevertheless were more serious than the tone in which they were uttered. All those who know Latin history and Hterature, even superficially, remember with what insistence and with how many diverse modulations of tone are reiterated the laments on the corruption of customs, on the luxury, the ambition, the avarice, that invaded Rome after the Second Punic War. Sallust, 3 4 "Corruption" in Ancient Rome Cicero, Livy, Horace, Virgil, are full of affliction because Rome is destined to dissipate itself in an incurable corruption ; whence we see, then in Rome, as to-day in France, wealth, power, culture, glory, draw in their train—^grim but inseparable comrade!—a pessimism that times poorer, cruder, more troubled, had not known. In the very moment in which the empire was ordering itself, civil wars ended; in that solemn Pax Romana which was to have endured so many ages, in the very moment in which the heart should have opened itself to hope and to joy, Horace describes, in three fine, terrible verses, four successive genera- tions, each corrupting Rome, which grew ever the worse, ever the more perverse and evil-disposed: ^tas parentum, peior avis, tulit Nos requiores, mox laturos Progeniem vitiosiorem.