The Birth of the Republic

HISTORYHISTORY — ROME The Birth of the Republic Rome’s astonishing ascent was not based wholly or even mostly on her military exploits, but on the moral sensibilities of her people and the limitation of government power. by Steve Bonta attained the wealth, power and vitality of of Rome’s success can be attributed to her Roman civilization at its peak. In the more fanatical attention to military order and This is the first installment in a series of than two centuries since the American to the cultivation of virtues conducive to articles on the rise and fall of the Roman founding, American and European civi- military strength: unswerving loyalty, obe- Republic. lization have far outstripped and eclipsed dience, frugality, and disregard for peril to the achievements of ancient Rome. But life and limb. s with most ancient nations, the the mystique of Rome persists. The les- From her remotest beginnings, Rome origins of Rome are clouded by sons of the rise and fall of Rome resonate enjoyed an almost uninterrupted string Alegend. The first inhabitants of in our age, when a single power consumed of military successes, at first over hostile what became the city-state of Rome may by imperialistic ambition and cankered neighbors like the Aequans, the Volscians have been refugees from defeated Troy, by moral decay — the United States of and the Samnites, and later against over- led by the semi-legendary hero Aeneas. America — seems to be slouching down seas rivals like Carthage, Macedonia and Rome’s greatest poet, Virgil, said as much the same path to decline that the Romans Pontus. Rome’s military setbacks, during in his immortal epic, the Aeneid , and followed. the seven and a half centuries between her Roman historians, such as Appian and Of the time between the traditional founding and the destruction of the legions Livy, claimed the same. founding of Rome around 753 B.C.with of Varro by the Germans at the Battle of By all accounts, Rome in the eighth the ascent of Romulus and the birth of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D., were few century B.C. was little more than an armed Roman Republic in about 509 B.C. with and memorable. They included the sack- camp of brigands. Yet within seven hun- the expulsion of the Tarquins, we know ing of Rome by the Gauls in about 390 dred years, this squalid, warlike settlement nothing not colored by legend. Yet there B.C.; the humiliation under the Samnite became the greatest man-made power the is no reason to believe that Romulus did yoke at Caudine Forks in 321 B.C. (which world had ever seen, mistress of most of not exist, or that he was not, as Plutarch was speedily avenged by an overwhelm- Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and and Livy both assert, the first Roman king. ing Roman reprisal); the setbacks against the Middle East. Ancient Rome was the Romulus is depicted as a violent, warlike Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Hannibal, incubator for Christianity, the repository individual, the most ruthless member of a the Carthaginian general; the challenge of Western Civilization for over a thou- very rough crowd. The stories of his mur- of Mithridates, king of Pontus; Spartacus’ sand years, and the setting for much of the der of Remus, his brother, and his war with short-lived slave revolt; and the slaughter greatest historical drama — and many of the Sabines over the rape of the Sabine of Crassus and his legions by the Parthians the most extraordinary characters — ever women by his men, whether true or not, in 53 B.C. at Carrhae. to occupy the human stage. are certainly in keeping with the warlike But for the most part, Roman military Rome rose to unexampled heights, only spirit the Romans cultivated, from the very history is a dreary catalog of one-sided to fall with a shock that still reverber- foundation of their city. battles with outmatched and poorly orga- ates across the centuries. Unlike the great nized foes, of the destruction or absorption civilizations that preceded her — Egypt, State of War of entire nations into the expanding Roman Elam, Sumer, Babylon, Carthage and oth- With only a few brief interludes, Rome state, and of almost superhuman resilience ers — Rome’s legacy was far more than was perpetually at war from the time of in rebounding from rare defeats that would jumbled ruins. Of Rome we preserve a the Tarquins to the ascent of Caesar Au- have broken the back of any other people, vast literature, a code of laws, and many gustus. In Alexander Hamilton’s words, such as the disaster at Cannae in 216 B.C., of our political, cultural, artistic and reli- she “never sated of carnage and conquest.” where Hannibal’s forces cut down the gious forms. For instead of collapsing ut- Like Sparta, Rome, both as a monarchy flower of Rome’s entire military. terly, like its predecessors, Rome was first and as a republic, was organized along broken into fragments and then transmuted military lines. Every able-bodied Roman Political Strength into the political and religious institutions male saw annual military service through- But the ascent of Rome was not due wholly that served as a foundation for modern out his young adult years, until the time or even mostly to her military successes. Western civilization. of Marius in the late second century B.C. Rome, in her evolution from armed America’s Founding Fathers, as well when Rome professionalized her military. camp to monarchy to republic to em- as their European contemporaries, were So pervasive was the militar y in Roman pire, discovered a formula for limiting fascinated with Rome, for in the 18th cen- political culture that even the senators the power of government by dividing it tury the Western world had only recently were known as “conscript fathers.” Much among several different magistrates and 34 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 4, 2004 elected bodies. The Roman Republic also Rome’s second king, Numa developed a written code of laws that de- Pompilius — a Sabine states- Ancient Rome was the incubator for fined and protected the rights of Roman man who refused an offer of citizens. The exquisitely balanced Roman the kingship until a large body Christianity, the repository of Western state conferred an extraordinary degree of his fellow-citizens persuaded Civilization for over a thousand years, of political stability, while granting to him to accept — set about civi- Roman citizens a degree of personal lib- lizing the Romans and refining and the setting for much of the greatest erty almost unknown in human history be- the crude despotism of his pre- historical drama — and many of the fore that time. The Roman state was, wrote decessor. “The first thing he did Polybius, “a union which is strong enough at the entrance into government,” most extraordinary characters — ever to withstand all emergencies, so that it is Plutarch relates, “was to dismiss to occupy the human stage. impossible to find a better form of consti- the band of three hundred men tution than this.” which had been Romulus’ life- Many of the institutions of the Roman guard … saying that he would not distrust subjects were pleased to emulate. republican government, as well as the those who put confidence in him; nor rule Numa was by disposition a man of roots of the distinctive Roman culture, de- over a people that distrusted him.” peace, and wanted to reduce the Romans’ veloped well before the founding of the Numa forbade the use of any graven love of violence and warfare. He insti- republic itself. The Senate, Rome’s oldest image in the worship of God, a practice tuted the order of the Fetials, a college of government body, was apparently founded that seems to have persisted for more than priests whose special task it was, in Plu- by Romulus. It may have been patterned a century after his death. He instituted tarch’s words, to “put a stop to disputes after the Gerousia, a governing body of many other religious reforms, including by conference and by speech; for it was Sparta, and also resembled the Athenian the creation of the Vestal Virgins, and lived not allowable to take up arms until they Areopagus. a life of conspicuous piety that many of his had declared all hopes of accommodation The Vestal Virgins were the guardians of the sacred fire at the temple of the goddess Vesta that came to symbolize the Roman state. Violation of their oath of virginity was punished by being buried alive. THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 4, 2004 35 HISTORYHISTORY — ROME temple of the god Janus during tle air had blown from Rome upon Rome discovered a formula for times of peace, a custom that, after them, began to experience a change Numa, was put into practice only of feeling, and partook in the general limiting the power of government by once — during the consulship of longing for the sweets of peace and dividing it among several different Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius order.... For during the whole reign in the third century B.C. — in all of Numa, there was neither war, nor magistrates and elected bodies. The of the centuries leading up to the sedition, nor innovation in the state, Roman Republic also developed a reign of Caesar Augustus. Wrote nor any envy or ill-will to his person, Plutarch with admiration: nor plot or conspiracy from views of written code of laws that defined and ambition. protected the rights of Roman citizens. During the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen Kings and Despots open a single day, but contin- Unfortunately, this state of affairs did not to be at an end.” The Fetials endured until ued constantly shut for a space of outlive Numa himself.

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