Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 1 Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Ancient Rome The Lives of Great Men Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 2 Author: Mary Agnes Hamilton Release Date: October 3, 2010 [EBook #34025] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANCIENT ROME *** Produced by Louise Hope, D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland, Håkon Hope and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [This e-text comes in three forms: UTF-8, Latin-1 and ASCII. Use the one that works best on your text reader. --In the UTF-8 version, quotation marks and apostrophes are "curly" or angled. --In the Latin-1 version, the word "interréd" has an accent on the "e"; citations use the "section" mark (always in pairs); and the names on the title page are separated by raised dots · at mid-line. --In the ASCII-7 or rock-bottom version, section marks are rendered as the word "Secs.", and the raised dots will display as a simple period. Typographical errors are listed at the end of the e-text.] [Illustration: RUINS OF A ROMAN TOWN--POMPEII] [Illustration: ROME AND THE TIBER] ANCIENT ROME The Lives of Great Men told by Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 3 MARY AGNES HAMILTON Brutus and Tarquin · Lucretia · Mucius · Cloelia · Regulus Marcus Curtius · Coriolanus · Volumnia · Pyrrhus Fabricius · Hamilcar · Hannibal · Flaminius · Fabius Marcellus · The Scipios · The Gracchi · Cato · Marius Drusus · Sulla · Mithridates · Lucullus · Pompeius Crassus · Cicero · Caesar OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Humphrey Milford 1922 CONTENTS [added by transcriber] I INTRODUCTORY: The People and City of Rome II The Early Heroes III The Great Enemies of Rome IV The Scipios V The Gracchi VI Cato the Censor VII Caius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla VIII The New Rome IX Lucius Licinius Lucullus X Cnaeus Pompeius XI Marcus Licinius Crassus XII Marcus Tullius Cicero XIII Caius Julius Caesar LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Ruins of a Roman Town--Pompeii 1 Rome and the Tiber 2 The Hills round Horace's Farm. From a drawing by E. Lear 5 Lar, or Household God 7 Etruscan Soldier. (British Museum) 12 Roman Legionary. (British Museum) 13 Lacus Curtius. Restored. (From C. Huelsen, Das Forum Romanum. Maglioni and Strini, Rome) 17 Pyrrhus. (From a photograph by Richter & Co., Naples) 25 The Desolation of Carthage To-day. (From a photograph by Prof. J. L. Myres) 30 Carthaginian Priestess. (From The Carthage of the Phoenicians, by permission of Mr. W. Heinemann) 31 Pictures from Pompeii of a Mimic Naval Battle 32, 33 Great St. Bernard Pass. (From a photograph by F. J. Hall) 37 Trasimene. (From a photograph Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 4 by Alinari) 40 Helmet found on the Field of Cannae. (British Museum) 43 A Coin of Victory 47 Scipio Africanus 49 Tragic and Comic Masks 58 Costume. The Roman Toga. (British Museum) 65 Elaborate Lamp. To show the luxury of later times 69 The Tomb of a Roman Family, to show simplicity of dress. (From a photograph by Alinari) 74 Ploughing. A Terra-cotta Group. (Journal of Hellenic Studies) 75 The Shrine of the Lar, from a House in Pompeii 77 The Aristocrat distributing Largesse; The Fisherman; The Rich Matron; The Shepherdess. (Capitoline Museum) 80-3 Trophy of Victory. (Capitoline Museum) 84 Sulla, from a coin 89 Mithridates, from a coin 92 A Boar Hunt. (Capitoline Museum) 96 Scene from a tragedy. Terra-cotta relief 97 Cutler's Forge and Cutler's Shop. (From the gravestone of L. Cornelius Atimetus, a Roman Cutler) 98, 99 Writing Materials. (British Museum) 101 Pompeius 109 A Vase in the shape of a Galley 111 A Triumph, from a relief of the Empire. (Capitoline Museum) 114 A Roman Villa on the Coast 116 A Thracian Gladiator 125 Orodes the Parthian 128 Cicero 131 Arpinum, Cicero's birthplace. (From a photograph by Alinari) 132 Julius Caesar. (From a gem in the British Museum) 142 Julius Caesar. (From a bust in the British Museum) 143 Submission of Tribes, from a relief. (Capitoline Museum) 150 Roman Legionary Helmet found in Britain. (British Museum) 151 The Heights of Alesia 152 Marcus Antonius, from a coin 153 Cleopatra, from a coin 156 A Roman Coin celebrating the Murder of Caesar 157 A Cinerary Urn 159 A Roman Water-carrier with his Water-skin on his Back 160 [Illustration: THE HILLS ROUND HORACE'S FARM from a drawing by E. Lear] I INTRODUCTORY The People and City of Rome More than two thousand years ago, at a time when the people in the British Isles and in most parts of Western Europe were living the lives of savages, occupied in fighting, hunting, and fishing, dwelling in rude huts, clad in Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 5 skins, ignorant of everything that we call civilization, Rome was the centre of a world in many ways as civilized as ours is now, over which the Roman people ruled. The men who dwelt in this one city, built on seven hills on the banks of the river Tiber, gradually conquered all Italy. Then they became masters of the lands round the Mediterranean Sea: of Northern Africa and of Spain, of Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor and the Near East, and of Western Europe. The greatness of Rome and of the Roman people does not lie, however, in their conquests. In the end their conquests ruined them. It lies in the character, mind, and will of the Romans themselves. In the history of the ancient world the Romans played the part that men of our race have played in the history of the modern world. They knew, as we claim to know, how to govern: how to govern themselves, and how to govern other people. To this day much in our laws and in our system of government bears a Roman stamp. They were great soldiers and could conquer: they could also hold and keep their conquests and impress the Roman stamp on all the peoples over whom they ruled. Their stamp is still upon us. Much that belongs to our common life to-day comes to us from them: in their day they lived a life not much unlike ours now. And in many respects the Roman character was like the British. We can see the faults of the Romans, if we cannot see our own; we can also see the virtues. We can see, too--looking back at them over the distance of time, judging them by their work and by what is left to us of their writings--how the mixture of faults in their virtues explains the fall as well as the rise of the great power of Rome. [Illustration: LAR, or Household God] The Romans were men of action, not dreamers. They were more interested in doing things than in understanding them. They were men of strong will and cool mind, who looked out upon the world as they saw it and, for the most part, did not wonder much about how and why it came to be there. It was there for them to rule. That was what interested them. Ideas they mostly got from other people, especially from the Greeks. When they had got them they could use them and turn them to something of their own. But they were not distracted by puzzling over ideas. Their religion was that of a Ancient Rome, by Mary Agnes Hamilton 6 practical people. In the later days of Rome few educated men believed in the gods. But all the ceremonies and festivals were dedicated to them; and magnificent temples in their honour were erected in which their spirits were supposed to dwell. In the old days every Roman household had its particular images--the Lares and Penates which the head of the family tended and guarded. Connected with this office was the sacred authority of the head of the family--the paterfamilias. His word was law for the members of the household. And the City of Rome stood to its citizens in the place of the paterfamilias. The first laws of a Roman's life were his duty to his father and to the State. They had an absolute claim on him for all that he could give. The Roman's code of honour, like the Englishman's, rested on this sense of duty. A man must be worthy of his ancestors and of Rome. His own life was short, and without honour nothing; the life of Rome went on. Courage, devotion to duty, strength of will, a great power of silence, a sense of justice rather than any sympathy in his dealings with other men: these were the characteristic Roman virtues. The Roman was proud: he had a high idea of what was due from himself. This was the groundwork out of which his other qualities grew, good and bad. Proud men are not apt to understand the weakness of other people or to appreciate virtues different from their own. The defects of the Romans were therefore hardness, sometimes amounting to cruelty both in action and in judgement; lack of imagination; a blindness to the things in life that cannot be seen or measured.