Latest / Roman History- The Early Empire / 22 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes

Transcript

22 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes · Roman History- The Early Empire

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty two of Roman History The Early Empire by
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: William wolf Capes. This librovox recording is in the public
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: domain recording by Pamelinagami, Chapter thirteen, The Rights of Roman Citizenship.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The vast multitudes gathered within the walls of Rome were
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a motley assemblage of every class and race. War, proscription,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and imperial jealousy had thinned the numbers of the old
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: families of pure descent, and many of the great historic
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: names had already disappeared. But early under the Republic, complaints
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: were made by the Italians that the attractions of the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: capital were draining the country towns of their inhabitants, And
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: for centuries there had been a steady influx of provincials
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: of every race, while the slaves of the wealthy households,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: gaining frequently their freedom after a few years of bondage,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: passed into the class of libertini, and left chee Ldren
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to recruise every order of the state. There were still
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: differences of legal status left between the children of the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: full citizens and of the freed slave, but the lines
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that parted them became gradually fainter. But in what did
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the status of the Roman citizen consist. And how far
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: did the empire modify the rights and privileges of the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: franchise of the civil law, we need not speak. The
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: rights of family, life and property were specially determined by
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the old use pre watum, and only slowly changed by
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: an admixture of equity from the Priter's edicts and by
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: an infusion of the wider spirit of Greek philosophy. The
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: political privileges of citizenship were more directly modified. One of
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: these the earliest and most distinctive, the use sefragi. The
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: right of voting in the popular assemblies, became an idle
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: form and passed away after a few years. The committeeus
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: ceased to meet to pass laws or elect magistrates, for
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: no representative system had been devised to collect the votes
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of millions scattered over the municipia of the whole empire,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and no statesmen could regret the loss of the turbulent
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: meetings of the Roman rabble, which had disgraced the last
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: century of the republic. Two. The eusnorum, or right to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: hold official rank, was still real and valued. It had
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: not been an integral part of the Roman franchise in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the earliest days of the distinction between the potres and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the plebs. It did not always go with it in
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: later times, for we read Intacitus, the speech of Claudius,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and the Senate when some of the nobles of Gallia
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Commada pleaded for the right of office. Three. The right
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: of appeal to the popular assembly or provocatioad populum in
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: capital trials was a highly prized defense against the caprice,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: secured by the Valerian law, enlarged by the veto of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the tribunes, and reinforced by the Simpronian law of Caius Gracus.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But the Emperor now stepped into the place of both
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: tribune and comythea He was the high court of appeal,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and from him there was no flight. Four. The security
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from personal outrage or bodily chastisement, which the portion laws
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: provided had emphasized the difference of dignity between the Roman
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and the Latin, and continued in Imperial days to be
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the constitutional right of every citizen of Paul of Tarsus
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: as of the inhabitants of Rome. Five. The power of
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: voluntary exile use exilee of leaving Rome before trial in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the law courts or the committee to live in some
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: allied community became meaningless. From this time, the Emperor's hand
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: could reach as well to Rose or to Massilia as
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to Teaboor or Arisha, and the exiles of whom we
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: read henceforth, had been banished to inhospitable rocks, for the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: most part by the sentence of the Senate or the courts,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: or sometimes by a message from the Palace. Six freedom
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of speech and writing had been left large, but not
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: unrestricted by the commonwealth. Scurrilous lampoons had been made penal
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: by the Twelve Tables, and the jealousy of an oligarch
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: dealt harshly now and then with petulant criticism. But orators
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in the Forum and the law courts used the utmost
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: license of invective. Augustus was careful at first to do
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: little to abridge such freedom, and to let men find
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: in talk the safety valve of passionate feeling. But when
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: his temper grew soured with age and the Empire seemed
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: more firmly planted, he became more jealous of his dignity,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and the formidable laws of treason were extended to cover
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: words as well as acts. Spies and informers started up
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to report on wary utterances and garble social gossip. The
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: praises of a cato or a brutus might cost the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: historian his life. An epigram against a favorite be avenged
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: by his imperial master, and Lucan be driven to conspire
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: when his verses had given umbrage to the tyrant. There
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: was as yet no censorship of the press, no means
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of seizing some thousand copies of a journal before it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: had appeared for sale, no way of warping or poisoning
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the public mind by officialize and comments. Yet such freedom
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: as was left lived by sufferance only, and despotism needed
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: only more spies and agents and a more centralized machinery
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to be terribly oppressive. Seven. Religious liberty was little meddled
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: with as yet. Polytheism is naturally a tolerant and elastic creed,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and a niche might be found for almost any deity
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: in the pantheon of the Roman ruler. Atheism itself was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: safe for the state. Religion was a matter of forms
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and observances rather than of thought. If jealousy was shown
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: toward any creed or worshiped by the statesmen, it was
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: towards such as were exclusive and aggressive, like the Jewish
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and the Christian, leading as they seemed to do to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: turbulence and disrespect for established powers, or towards such as
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: were linked with sacerdotal claims like that of the Druids,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: which might foster national memories and come between the masses
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and the Roman rulers. Or towards such as seemed of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: too extravagant and mystical a type, outraging sober reason, or
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: acting as hot beds of secret societies and clubs. Eight
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Right of assembly. The right of meeting was largely used
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: under the Republic. The contitiones or mass meetings of the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: streets were addressed by every great party leader in his turn,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and no government had tried to put them down, except
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: when they met by night in secret or led to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: open riotings. More permanent unions, called partnerships, clubs, guilds, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: colleges were freely formed, and most of these were recognized
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: by law and only interfered with when at the end
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of the Republic their machinery was thought to be abused
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: by political wire pullers and electioneering agents. Warned by such experience,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: the earlier Caesars looked at such clubs with a watchful
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and suspicious eye, put down the newly formed and barely
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: tolerated the older they feared. It seems centers of attraction
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: for the discontented and secret societies that might meet under
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: cover of a harmless name. But before long the restrictions
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: were relaxed. Inscriptions show that vast numbers of such unions
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: existed all over the Roman Empire, claiming on their face
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a legal sanction, connected with every variety of trade and interest,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and recruited mainly from the lowest ranks, often like the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: provident clubs of later times, with occasional meetings for good cheer.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Formal history is almost silent on their humble interests, but
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the monumental evidence is full and clear. Nine. The citizens
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: of Rome claimed and enjoyed one further privilege which the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: franchise did not elsewhere carry with it. This was the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: right to food. From early ages, the government had bought
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: up large quantities of corn to distribute freely or below
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: cost price, or had fixed a maximum of price in
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: harder times. Caius Gracus was the first to systematize the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: practice and let every household have its monthly allowance from
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the state at as some far below its value. This
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was to be the Roman's salary for the trouble of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: governing the world. The step could never be retraced, though
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Sullah tried in vain to do so. The price was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: even lowered, and the corn was at last freely given.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: The first emperors saw the dangerous effects of this, the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: discouragement to honest industry, the temptation to the idle and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: improvident to flock to Rome, the burden on the treasury
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of the state. But they dared not give it up
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: lest the malcontents should find a rival and a rallying cry.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So they were content to scrutinize the claims and reduce
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the number to the narrowest limits, and to confine it
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to the poor of the inhabitants of Rome. It was
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: in this seemingly unlike our poor law system that it
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: did not, at first, at least imply as a matter
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of course the extremest poverty. For a noble piso came
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: we read to take his dole, saying that if the
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: state was so reckless with its money, he would have
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: his share with the rest. It was unlike the French
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: socialist's right to labor urged of late years with so
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: much vehemence, for it set a premium on vicious indolence,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and made the Romans the pensioners of the world and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: of Section twenty two.