Christian era. It requires centuries for the spiritual development that gave Rome its religious supremacy through the powerful agency of the Roman Catholic Church.

Recent excavations have thrown considerable light on the subterranean galleries connected with the games held in the time of Cæsar in the Forum. It is clear that 12 elevators were used to deposit quickly the various parties of combatants. Equestrian statues were later placed above them. The square basement of Janus Medius, wells containing fragments of pottery, graves containing chalices, have also been discovered. Under the substructure, narrow prison cells have come to light. At the foot of the Palatine were revealed the remains of an imperial palace, later transformed into a Christian sepulchre; also some prehistoric tombs. The ancient graffiti- that is the rough sketch or misspelled word scratched upon walls or columns by early Christians and thoughtless idlers - have solved many topographical problems of the ancient monuments of the "Eternal City."

History. The entire period from the date of the foundation of the city, 753 B.C., to the establishment of the republic, 509 B.C., is in its detailed history unknown to us, and from the mass of myth and legend it is possible to derive the very broadest conceptions only of the beginnings of the Roman state. This is due to the fact that the authentic records of Rome date only from 390 B.C., the year of the destruction of the city by the Gauls. Tradition, then, speaks of seven kings who, including Romulus, ruled over the city for 243 years and assigns to each definite services rendered to the state. Romulus was the founder and conqueror; his successor, Numa Pompilius, was a religious teacher; Servius Tullius, a political reformer and law-giver, etc. The last three kings, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, were of Etruscan origin, whereas the earlier rulers had come from Latin stock. With the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus in 510 the Roman kingship comes to an end. A critical study of this legendary period makes all these names and the events connected with them doubtful, but preserves the general outline of development. Rome, in the modern view, is regarded as having had its origin in the union of three tribes, the so-called Ramnes, Tities and Luceres, of whom the first were of Latin blood, the second of Sabine stock and the third of doubtful affinity. The situation of Rome on the hills near the mouth of the Tiber was favorable for its development, and in the course of time the city extended its authority over the neighboring country until with the destruction of Alba Longa, the ancient religious centre of the Latin peoples, it came to assume a predominant position in Latium. The Etruscan character ascribed to the last three kings points to an Etruscan conquest, and indeed throughout the early period of Rome the influence of the Etruscans to the north is marked, especially in religious customs and in architecture. From the very earliest period the inhabitants of Rome appear to have been divided into two classes, the patricians and the plebeians or plebs, with whom probably may be ranked the class of clients. It was the patricians alone that constituted the state; the plebs had no political rights whatsoever. In fact early Rome should

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be regarded as consisting of two isolated communities, one comprising the original settlers or, possibly, the conquerors of the city, the other the conquered population and later immigrants, such as those attracted to Rome by the excellent opportunities for trade it offered. Not only was the political power in the hands of the patricians, but even the early Roman religion was largely in the nature of a narrow national creed to which the plebs could not be admitted. Intermarriage between members of the populus and plebeians was forbidden. The patricians alone had the right to bear arms. Within the populus or state, the headship was vested in the rex or king, who combined in himself the functions of war leader, judge and priest, and was assisted by a council of elders or senate. The Roman "people" were divided into wards, class or gens, and households. When assembled for the exercise of its sovereign powers, it was known as the comitia curiata. A change in the relations between patricians and plebs was effected by a reform which legend ascribes to Servius Tullius. By this innovation the right of bearing arms was conferred on the piebs, and the entire free-holding Roman community was divided into five classes, on the basis of wealth. These classes were subdivided into centuries or "hundreds," and the entire military assembly of the inhabitants bore the name of comitia centuriata, which, instituted undoubtedly for purposes of national defense, soon came to exercise important political powers.

The expulsion of Tarquin was followed by long wars with the Etruscans and the Latin tribes, in the course of which Rome for a time had to contend for its existence. A great victory over the Latins in 496 led to the formation of a Latin Confederacy under the leadership of Rome. Thus strengthened the Romans fought successfully against the qui, the Volsci and the Sabines, and in 396 captured the Etruscan stronghold of Veii, which was followed by the subjugation of southern Etrura.

The place of the kings was taken after 509 by two consuls, elected by the comitia centuriata from the ranks of the patricians. The institution of the senate was retained and plebeians were admitted to membership, but all magisterial offices were closed to members of that order. The period that follows, therefore, is marked by a bitter struggle on the part of the plebeians for political and, to a degree, social equality. Wealth, too, became concentrated in the hands of the patricians and the distribution of the public lands was carried on entirely in the interests of the ruling class. Discontent was also fostered by the severity of the laws against debtors. In 494 the plebeian army, just returned from a victorious campaign, seceded to the Sacred Mount, near Rome, and threatened to found a city for themselves unless concessions were made. The patricians yielded and the office of tribune of the plebs was created for the defense of the interests of the lower order against the ruling class. These tribunes, originally two in number, later increased to 10, were given the right of veto on the decisions of the consuls and the senate. In the course of the struggle for an equitable division of the public land, Spurus Cassius, a patrician who espoused the cause of the plebs, fell a victim to the vengeance of his caste (486 B.C.). The demand for a codification of the laws led to the

appointment in 451 of 10 decemvirs who after two years' work brought forth the Twelve Tables in which the entire system of public and private law was embodied. The act of violence attempted by Appius Claudius, head of the decemvirs, on the plebeian maiden Virginia led to the overthrow of the decemvirs in 449 B.C. Protected now against the arbitrary misuse of the law on the part of the patricians, the plebeians pursued with renewed strength the struggle for political and social equality. In 445 intermarriage between patricians and plebeians was made legally valid. The consuls were supplanted by military tribunes with consular power who might be chosen from among the plebeians. After this the plebeian conquest of offices proceeded steadily. The quæstorship was gained in 421 B.C., the dictatorship in 356 B.C., the censorship in 351, the prætorship in 337. After a 10 years' struggle it was provided by the so-called Licinian Rogations (367 B.C.) that no citizen should own more than 500 jugera of the public domain that the remainder should be distributed among the plebs in small allotments. The consulship was also restored and it was made obligatory for one consul to be chosen from the plebs. By the year 300 complete equality between the, orders had been established. The termination of the contest between the two orders may be assigned to the year 286 B.C., when the Hortensian Law made any decree of the Comitia Tributa, wherein the plebs were predominant, law for the whole people, the so-called plebsicite.

The course of political progress during this period was sharply interrupted by the invasion of the Gauls who in 390 overwhelmed a Roman army on the Allia, burned the city and besieged the garrison in the Capitol. Legend ascribes the defeat of the Gauls to Camillus (q.v.), but in reality it was a large ransom in gold which induced the conquerors to retreat. The devoted patriotism of its citizens, however, restored the fortunes of the city; its houses were rebuilt, the attacks of the neighboring peoples, the Volsci, the Equi and part of the Latini were repulsed, and within a short time Rome had more than regained its former power. With the establishment of internal peace, its career of rapid conquest begins. The Samnites, the most formidable rivals of the Romans, were defeated in three great wars (343-341, 326-304, 298-290) in the course of which Rome contended successfully against the united forces of the peoples of central Italy, aided in the last of the wars by the Gauls. A rebellion of the Latins was crushed in 338, the long struggle terminated in the complete subjection of the allies, and the inhabitants of Samnium, Picenum, Umbria, Apulia, Lucania and Etruria became the allies of Rome. In 280 war broke out with Tarentum, the most powerful of the Greek cities in southern Italy. Tarentum called Pyrrhus (q.v.), king of Epirus, to its aid. Subjected at first to defeat, the Romans ultimately drove Pyrrhus from Italy and took Tarentum (272). Rome was now mistress of central and Southern Italy and had fought with success against the Gauls in the north. To make conquest permanent military colonies were planted in the subjugated territories and a great system of public highways was developed to facilitate communications. The incessant wars had made Rome a nation of soldiers, and now that there

was no one to resist it in Italy, it turned its arms against a foreign power, and in the struggle with carthage made the first beginning of its imperial career.

The early relations between Rome and Carthage were friendly and commercial treaties between the two nations had been concluded at various times. The contest between the two broke out in Sicily, of which the Carthaginians were masters in greater part. The first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) began with the invasion of Sicily by a Roman army. The strength of Carthage, however, was on the sea, and to cope with it, the Romans built a fleet with which in 260 they gained a great victory at Mycalæ. The fortunes of the war wavered for a long time until a second victory off the Ægatian Islands in 241 brought Carthage to terms. Sicily was surrendered to the Romans who erected it into their first province, and Carthage pledged itself not to wage war on the allies of Rome. In 238 the Romans seized Sardinia and in the following year extended their sway over the Illyrian coastlands and upper Italy. Cathage, robbed of its island possessions in the Mediterranean, more than made up its losses in Spain, and in 218 B.C. the celebrated Hannibal (q.v.), son of Hamilcar Barca, the conqueror of the peninsula, renewed the contest with Rome (the second Punic War) by his attack on Saguntum, a city ally of Rome. Hannibal invaded Italy (218 B.C.), defeated the Romans at Trebbia on Lake Trasimenus the following year, and in 216 B.C. at Cannæ thoroughly completed the rout of the Romans. Rome, however, remained steadfast with Hannibal at its very gates, husbanded its resources and by carrying the war into Africa forced Hannibal to depart from Italy. In 202 the Carthaginian general was defeated by P. Cornelius Scipio at Zama, and Carthage signed peace giving up Spain to the Romans, dismantling its navy and paying an indemnity of 10,000 talents. The hatred of Rome, however, was not appeased, and when Carthage, after 50 years, showed signs of renewed strength, it was attacked and destroyed (146), after a siege of three years (the third Punic War). The Roman arms in the meantime had also conquered the East. Antiochus III of Syria was defeated in 190 at Sipylus and deprived of his possessions in Asia Minor. Macedonia, after repeated wars, was made a Roman province in 146, and Greece, which had enjoyed the shadow of freedom for 50 years, was reduced to the same condition, in the same year, under the name of Achaia, after Corinth, its most prosperous city, had been stormed and robbed of its art treasures. In 133 Rome fell heir to the dominions of Attalus, king of Pergamus, and the Province of Asia was formed out of the territories thus acquired. The Roman rule in the Spanish peninsula was firmly established after two formidable insurrections, one led by Viriathus (148-140) and the other known as the Numantine War (143–133), had been suppressed.

Republican Rome was now at the height of its power, but the wars which had been crowned with such success abroad brought on evils within the state which were destined to destroy it. The task of governing a world empire and carrying on the great game of diplomacy by which that empire had in large measure been built up, naturally called for a more centralized and rapid exercise of authority than was possible

with the cumbrous methods of the popular comitia. The power of the state gradually passed into the hands of the senate. There grew up at the same time a nobility of the robe, consisting of those who had enriched themselves as rulers of the newly conquered provinces which Rome for a long time regarded as subject territories merely and as fruitful sources of revenue. So wealthy had the state become, indeed, that in the second half of the 2d century B.C. the citizens of Rome were freed from all burdens of taxation, a measure which attracted to Rome a large population of idlers, which derived its chief sustenance from the largesses of the nobles who found it necessary to court the favor of the mob. Throughout Italy the rich Roman office holders established vast landed estates, which were fast coming to be worked by slaves, and the poor farmers, ruined by this formidable competition, came in great numbers to Rome to swell the ranks of the propertyless. Between this great mass of poor proletarians and the small class of officials, senators and landlords, strife was in the nature of things bound to come, and it was this strife between the Optimates or the aristocratic party and the Populares or proletarians that, skilfully used by ambitious politicians, brought about the fall of the republic. Nobles of the popular champions were the brothers Tiberius and Caius Gracchus (qq.v.) who wrested from the senatorial party an agrarian law favorable to the homeless masses and regained some of the ancient powers of the popular assemblies, but fell victims both to the hatred of their enemies (133 and 121). The war against Jugurtha (q.v.), which revealed the shameless corruption to which the ruling party had sunk, brought forth another popular leader in Marius (q.v.) whose reputation was increased by the splendid victories over the Cimbri and the Teutones in the years 102–101. Moderate at first in his views, Marius was driven, by the agitations of demagogues, to violence. In 90 B.C. the Italians rose in insurrection to enforce their demand for the rights of Roman citizenship, and though the allies were defeated it was deemed expedient to grant them their demands. The termination of this struggle, known as the Social War, in 88 B.C., was followed by a conflict between Marius and Sulla (q.v.), an adherent of the senatorial party, for control in the state, in the course of which both factions were guilty of dreadful excesses. In the year 81 the Marian party was finally overthrown and Sulla, proclaimed dictator, enthroned himself in power by a bloody proscription of his enemies, and proceeded to revolutionize the constitution of the state so as to place the sole power in the hands of the senate and the aristocratic party. But neither senate nor people was thenceforth to govern in Rome. The example of aristocratic rule based on military force had been set by Sulla and the struggle between parties now passed into a struggle between individuals for control. Gnæus Pompeius by his victories over Sertorius in Spain and the suppression of the servile insurrection under Spartacus attained immense popularity and this was increased by his readiness to make concessions to popular demands. After his triumphant campaigns against the Mediterranean pirates and Mithridates (q.v.) he was for a time master

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of Rome. The senate, however, stirred to an assertion of its rights by its successful course in the conspiracy of Catiline (q.v.) now set itself to oppose his will and Pompey, desirous of redeeming the promises made his veterans of allotments of land in Italy, joined with Gaius Julius Cæsar (q.v.) and Licinius Crassus (q.v.) to form the first Triumvirate which for a time was absolute in Rome (60 B.C.) Cæsar was a leader of the popular party and he aimed at becoming the sole power in the state. Crassus died in 53, and in 49 war broke out between Cæsar and Pompey. The former had under his 'command a splendid army trained by years of campaigning in Gaul and Britain and in the battle of Pharsalia (48) Cæsar was victorious. Pompey fled to Egypt and there perished and the remnants of his party were wiped out at Thapsus in 46 and Munda in the following year. Cæsar was now undisputed master of the empire, but fell, after a short rule, beneath the daggers of Brutus and his associates, and his death was followed by the renewal of civil war. Gaius Octavius, Cæsar's nephew and adopted son, and Marcus Antonius, Cæsar's lieutenant, both aspired to be his successor, but joined in 43 with Aurelius Lepidus in a second Triumvirate to overthrow the party of Brutus and Cassius. This was accomplished at Philippi in 42, and Octavius and Marcus Antonius, setting aside the weak Lepidus, divided between them the Roman world. But while Octavius governed his western realm with energy, Marcus Antonius gave himself up to the pleasures of Cleopatra's court. War broke out between the two and in the naval battle of Actium (31) the forces of Marcus Antonius were utterly routed. Antonius fell by his own hand and Octavius was left without a rival. With Actium begins the Roman Empire.

Octavius made no change in the established forms of government. In 27 B.C. the senate conferred on him for life the government of all those provinces whose defense called for the employment of the military forces of the empire, together with the supreme command of the army and the title of Augustus. Successively Augustus united in himself the great offices of the state, the consulate, the tribunate, the headship of the sacred colleges. The senate was left with the splendid shadow of power, in reality the mere instrument of the emperor's will. The empire, and especially the provinces, found peace after a half century of civil strife and acquiesced in the rule of an autocrat whose sway was far more kindly than the selfish rule of an aristocratic oligarchy. Under Augustus the economic development of the empire made rapid progress; its parts were brought more closely together by increased means of communication; with peace came also rapid intellec→ tual growth, and Latin literature had its golden age in the reign of Augustus. The boundaries of the empire were extended to the north by the campaigns of the emperor's stepsons Tiberius and Drusus, who carried their victorious arms to the Danube and beyond the Rhine. The last years of Augustus' reign were darkened by domestic unhappiness and the great disaster of the Teutoburg Forest where Varro's legions were annihilated by the Cheruscan chief Arminius. Augustus was succeeded in the principate by his stepson Tiberius (14-37 A.D.) who ruled