Roman Politics - free ebook by Frank Frost Abbott

Our Debt to Greece and Rome

EDITORS George Depue Hadzsits, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania David Moore Robinson, Ph.D., LL.D. The Johns Hopkins University UPenn seal...

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ROMAN POLITICS

BY FRANK FROST ABBOTT Kennedy Professor of Latin Language and Literature Princeton University Publisher mark MARSHALL JONES COMPANY BOSTON · MASSACHUSETTS COPYRIGHT · 1923 · BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY All rights reserved Printed May, 1923 THE PLIMPTON PRESS · NORWOOD · MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA...

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1. Pre-Augustan

Roman political history has an unusual meaning and value for us, because the Romans had to face so many of the problems which confront us today, and their experience ran through such a wide range. Few peoples can boast of an unbroken history of a thousand years, and perhaps none has tried so many different forms of government. The early monarchy gives way to an oligarchy, to be displaced in turn by a democracy. The dual government of the prince and the senate which follows develops into the empi

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2. Post-Augustan

The problem which confronted Augustus in revising the constitution after the battle of Actium was not simple. He had to provide a just and efficient government for an empire, which included southern and central Europe, the Near East, and northern Africa, without breaking away too violently from the traditions of the city-state. Rome must continue to be the capital. Italy must hold her privileged position above the provinces, and the old organs of government and the old forms and titles must be k

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1. Rome and the Church of Rome

In the brilliant argument which Belloc makes in Europe and the Faith to prove that “the Roman Empire with its institutions and its spirit was the sole origin of European civilization,” he goes so far as to maintain that “the divisions and subdivisions of Europe, the parish, the county, the province, the fixed national traditions with their boundaries, the routes of communication between them ... all these derive entirely from the old Roman Empire, our well-spring.” He finds in the Church of Rome

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2. The Individual and the State

Let us pass now to consider the relation which our political theories and institutions bear to those of Rome. A wise government aims to strike a judicious balance between the rights of the individual and the safety and welfare of the community. This happy mean can best be determined by watching the play of the two principles in concrete cases. Such an opportunity is offered to us by the history of the ancient city-state which sets before us examples in which the two ideals of government mentione

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3. On Constitutions

While it cannot be said that the constitutional development of England and of countries whose constitutions are like hers can be traced in all respects to Rome, it may be said with truth that the growth and character of their constitutions bear a strong resemblance to those of Rome, and that writers and political leaders, especially from the time of the French Revolution to our own day, have studied Roman political institutions and have applied the lessons drawn from their study to the political

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4. The Legislative and Executive Branches of Government

It may be convenient at the outset to compare some of the characteristics of the legislative branch of the Roman government with those of modern parliaments. The Roman method of legislating was very similar in its essential features to that followed by the states of this Union which freely use the initiative and referendum. [14] These two political devices come to us of course from Switzerland. One or both of them in their present form may be traced to Rousseau’s opposition to representative gov

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5. The Judiciary

If one passes from the legislative and executive branches of the Roman government to the judicial, he thinks at once of Roman law, the greatest legacy which Rome has left us. With that subject we are not concerned in this book. But the judicial machinery of the Romans and some phases of their court procedure are of lively interest to one who is comparing Roman and modern institutions. Of most importance to us in this connection are the methods which the Romans followed in dealing with crimina pu

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6. Conception of Citizenship

A jealous solicitude for the rights of the average citizen is a marked trait of the Roman character. A clear understanding of what the rights of the common man were and an ingrained purpose to protect him in the exercise of them determine the development of judicial procedure in Rome, of law, and of political organizations. Perhaps the Romans have bequeathed to us no greater heritage than their conception of citizenship. With them it was not a mere dogma of political philosophy, set forth in the

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7. Taxation and Finance

In the fields of taxation and public finance we have not much to learn from the Romans, save by way of warning. Most of the revenue of the state came from the provinces, and for several centuries was collected by tax-farmers. [21] We are familiar enough in more recent times with the exploitation of provinces, or colonies, as we call them, by the state or the great trading company, because most modern nations have followed Rome’s policy of making their colonies subserve the interests of the mothe

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8. Imperialism

Of all Rome’s achievements in the field of politics none was so far-reaching in its influence and so lasting in its effects as her conquest of the world and her successful government of it for five hundred years or more. With the story of her conquests we are not concerned here. But, as President Butler of Columbia University has said in his Annual Report for 1921: “No educated citizen of a modern free state can afford to ignore the lessons taught by the Roman Empire, which for centuries held to

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1. The Color and the Labor Questions

Two of our most serious social and political questions do not come to the surface in Roman history, at least not in the form in which they present themselves today. I mean the “color question” and the labor question. Lord Cromer in the book to which reference has already been made ventures the opinion that “antipathy based on differences of colour is a plant of comparatively recent growth.” He connects its development with the fact that in modern times the white man has enslaved only the black m

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2. Voting and Elections

Passing now to a discussion of some of the political and social problems which the Romans and modern peoples do have in common, we may conveniently begin a comparative study of these questions by saying a word about the way in which the Romans tried to suppress the evils connected with canvassing for votes and conducting the elections. The simplicity and strictness of the olden time is well illustrated by the earliest corrupt-practices acts, which forbade candidates for public office to whiten t

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3. The Political Boss

In the last century B.C. political and social conditions were ideal for the development of the political boss, and in many respects they resemble our own. In the first place, Rome, as is the case with many of our large cities today, was filled with foreigners. We shall have occasion later to discuss in greater detail the social and economic effect of the presence in Italy and Rome of this foreign population. For our present purpose it is sufficient to note that Professor Frank in a recent number

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4. The Recall

One of the political problems with which we have been much concerned in late years has to do with the possibility of removing an elected official from office. We proceed to the accomplishment of that purpose in two ways, by the traditional method of impeachment or by the new device of the recall. They differ in the fact that the former is a judicial procedure, whereas a recall is brought about by the direct action of the voters. The Romans were a practical people and did not like to interfere wi

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5. Pensions, Bonuses, and Militarism

One of the important political and economic questions which countries have to settle in modern times at the close of a war is that of reinstating soldiers in civil pursuits and of granting them some material compensation for their services. After the Civil War in this country the question was solved by throwing open lands in the Middle West to settlement and by appropriating money liberally for pensions. At the moment of writing the needs of the soldier returning to civil life from the late war

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6. Cases of Paternalism

In one of the preceding chapters we have tried to show how the Romans in the second century before our era attempted to check the decline of morals and the growth of extravagance by giving the censor extraordinary discretionary power over the daily life of the citizens. It may be interesting in this connection to say a word of three or four other cases of paternalism, in which the state interfered in private life or business in the hope of correcting some widespread evil or social disorder. All

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7. Growth of Cities

The drifting of large numbers of people into the great cities was one of the baffling problems of antiquity, as it is today. It meant the withdrawal of farmers and farm-laborers needed on the land. It led to unemployment in the cities. It brought so many people into the cities that it was difficult to supply them with sufficient food. It made the cities in times of economic distress or political excitement dangerous centres of disorder. To discuss here all the reasons why Rome and certain other

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IV. SOME FINAL REFLECTIONS

“The history of all institutions has a deep value and an abiding interest to all those who have the courage to work upon it. It presents in every branch a regularly developed series of causes and consequences, and abounds in examples of that continuity of life, the realization of which is necessary to give the reader a personal hold on the past and a right judgment of the present. For the roots of the present lie deep in the past; and nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how th

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NOTES

[1] The arrangements which Rome made with the several cities of Sicily are outlined by Cicero in his oration In Verrem , III. 12-14. [2] The traditional story of the Decemvirate and its codification of the Laws of the Twelve Tables is told graphically by Livy, III. 32-54. Some of the extant fragments of these laws may be seen in F. D. Allen’s Remnants of Early Latin , Boston, 1899, pp. 84-92. [3] On the activities of the censors, cf. Heitland, The Roman Republic , passim . [4] On the government

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boak, A. E. R. , A History of Rome to 565 A.D. New York, 1921. Ferrero, G. , The Greatness and Decline of Rome . 5 vols. New York, 1909. Fowler, W. Warde , Rome (Home University Library). London, 1912. Frank, T. , Roman Imperialism . New York, 1914. Frank, T. , A History of Rome . New York, 1923. Gibbon, Edward , The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edition of J. B. Bury). 7 vols. London, 1896-1900. Heitland, W. E. , The Roman Republic . 3 vols. Cambridge, England, 1909. Mommsen, Th. , The

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Our Debt to Greece and Rome

AUTHORS AND TITLES 1. Homer. John A. Scott, Northwestern University . 2. Sappho. David M. Robinson, The Johns Hopkins University . 3A. Euripides. F. L. Lucas, King’s College, Cambridge . 3B. Aeschylus and Sophocles. J. T. Sheppard, King’s College, Cambridge . 4. Aristophanes. Louis E. Lord, Oberlin College . 5. Demosthenes. Charles D. Adams, Dartmouth College . 6. Aristotle’s Poetics. Lane Cooper, Cornell University . 7. Greek Historians. Alfred E. Zimmern, University of Wales . 8. Lucian. Franc

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