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Title: Social life at Rome in the Age ofCicero

Author: W Warde Fowler

Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook

#11256]

Language: English

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GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIAL LIFE

AT ROME ***

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SOCIAL LIFE AT

ROME IN THE AGE

OF CICERO

BY W WARDE FOWLER, M.A.

'Ad illa mihi pro se quisque acriterintendat animum, quae vita, quae mores

fuerint.'—LIVY, Praefatio.

AMICO VETERRIMOI.A STEWART

ROMAE PRIMUM VISAE

COMES MEMOR

D.D.D.

PREFATORY NOTE

This book was originally intended to be a

companion to Professor Tucker's Life in

Ancient Athens, published in Messrs.

Macmillan's series of Handbooks of

Archaeology and Art; but the plan wasabandoned for reasons on which I neednot dwell, and before the book was quitefinished I was called to other and morespecialised work As it stands, it is

merely an attempt to supply an educationalwant At our schools and universities weread the great writers of the last age of theRepublic, and learn something of its

political and constitutional history; butthere is no book in our language which

supplies a picture of life and manners, ofeducation, morals, and religion in thatintensely interesting period The society ofthe Augustan age, which in many wayswas very different, is known much better;and of late my friend Professor Dill'sfascinating volumes have familiarised uswith the social life of two several periods

of the Roman Empire But the age of

Cicero is in some ways at least as

important as any period of the Empire; it

is a critical moment in the history of

Graeco-Roman civilisation And in theCiceronian correspondence, of more thannine hundred contemporary letters, wehave the richest treasure-house of sociallife that has survived from any period ofclassical antiquity

Apart from this correspondence and theother literature of the time, my mainstay

throughout has been the Privatleben der

Römer of Marquardt, which forms the last

portion of the great Handbuch der

Römischen Altertümer of Mommsen and

Marquardt My debt is great also to

Professors Tyrrell and Purser, whoselabours have provided us with a text ofCicero's letters which we can use withconfidence; the citations from these lettershave all been verified in the new Oxfordtext edited by Professor Purser One othername I must mention with gratitude Ifirmly believe that the one great hope forclassical learning and education lies in theinterest which the unlearned public may

be brought to feel in ancient life and

thought We have just lost the veteran

French scholar who did more perhaps tocreate and maintain such an interest thanany man of his time; and I gladly hereacknowledge that it was Boissier's

Cicéron et ses amis that in my younger

days made me first feel the reality of lifeand character in an age of which I thenhardly knew anything but the perplexingpolitical history

I have to thank my old pupils, Mr H.E.Mann and Mr Gilbert Watson, for kindhelp in revising the proofs

W.W.F.

CHAPTER I

TOPOGRAPHICAL

Virgil's hero arrives at Rome by the

Tiber: we follow his example;

justification of this; view from Janiculumand its lessons; advantages of the position

of Rome, for defence and advance;

disadvantages as to commerce and

salubrity; views of Roman writers; a walkthrough the city in 50 B.C.; Forum

Boarium and Circus maximus; Porta

Capena; via Sacra; summa sacra via and

view of Forum; religious buildings ateastern end of Forum; Forum and its

buildings in Cicero's time; ascent to theCapitol; temple of Jupiter and the viewfrom it

CHAPTER II

THE LOWER POPULATION

Spread of the city outside original centre;the plebs dwelt mainly in the lower

ground; little known about its life:

indifference of literary men; housing: theinsulae; no sign of home life; bad

condition of these houses; how the plebssubsisted; vegetarian diet; the corn supplyand its problems; the corn law of Gaius

Gracchus; results, and later laws; thewater-supply; history of aqueducts;

employment of the lower grade

population; aristocratic contempt for retailtrading; the trade gilds; relation of free toslave labour; bakers; supply of

vegetables; of clothing; of leather; of iron,etc.; gave employment to large numbers;porterage; precarious condition of labour;fluctuation of markets; want of a goodbankruptcy law

capitalist came by his money; example ofAtticus; incoming of wealth after

Hannibalic war; suddenness of this; rise

of a capitalist class; the contractors; thepublic contracting companies; in the ageand writings of Cicero; their politicalinfluence; and power in the provinces; thebankers and money-lenders; origin of theRoman banker; nature of his business;risks of the money-lender; general

indebtedness of society; Cicero's debts;story of Rabirius Postumus; mischief done

by both contractors and money-lenders

CHAPTER IV

THE GOVERNING ARISTOCRACY

The old noble families; their

exclusiveness; Cicero's attitude towardsthem; new type of noble; Scipio

Aemilianus: his "circle"; its influence onthe Ciceronian age in (1) manners; (2)literary capacity; (3), philosophical

receptivity; Stoicism at Rome; its

influence on the lawyers; Sulpicius Rufus,his life and work; Epicureanism, its

general effect on society; case of

Calpurnius Piso; pursuit of pleasure andneglect of duty; senatorial duties

neglected; frivolity of the younger publicmen; example of M Caelius Rufus; sketch

of his life and character; life of the Forum

as seen in the letters of Caelius

CHAPTER V

MARRIAGE AND THE ROMAN LADY

Meaning of matrimonium: its religiousside; shown from the oldest marriageceremony; its legal aspect; marriage cummanu abandoned; betrothal; marriage rites;dignified position of Roman matron; theideal materfamilias; change in the

character of women; its causes; the ladies

of Cicero's time; Terentia; Pomponia;ladies of society and culture: Clodia;Sempronia; divorce, its frequency; a

wonderful Roman lady: the Laudatio

Turiae; story of her life and character asrecorded by her husband

CHAPTER VI

THE EDUCATION OF THE UPPER

CLASSES

An education of character needed;

Aristotle's idea of education; little interesttaken in education at Rome; biographiessilent; education of Cato the younger; ofCicero's son and nephew; Varro and

Cicero on education; the old Roman

education of the body and character;

causes of its breakdown; the new

education under Greek influence; schools,elementary; the sententiae in use in

schools; arithmetic; utilitarian character ofteaching; advanced schools; teaching tooentirely linguistic and literary; assumption

of toga virilis; study of rhetoric and law;oratory the main object; results of this;Cicero's son at the University of Athens:

his letter to Tiro.

CHAPTER VII

THE SLAVE POPULATION

The demand for labour in second centuryB.C.; how it was supplied; the slave trade;kidnapping by pirates, etc.; breeding ofslaves; prices of slaves; possible number

in Cicero's day; economic aspect of

slavery: did it interfere with free labour?;

no apparent rivalry between them; either

in Rome; or on the farm; the

slave-shepherds of South Italy; they exclude freelabour; legal aspect of slavery: absolutepower of owner; prospect of

manumission; political results of slave

system; of manumission; ethical aspect:destruction of family life; no moral

standard; effects of slavery on the owners

of Scipio Africanus; watering-places in

Campania; meaning of villa in Cicero'stime: Hortensius' park; Cicero's villas:Tusculum; Arpinum; Formiae; Puteoli;Cumae; Pompeii; Astura; constant change

of residence, and its effects

CHAPTER IX

THE DAILY LIFE OF THE WELL-TO-DO

Roman division of the day; sun-dials;hours varied according to the season;early rising of Romans; want of artificiallight; Cicero's early hours; early callers;breakfast, followed by business; morning

in the Forum; lunch (prandium); siesta; thebath; dinner: its hour becomes later;

dinner-parties: the triclinium; drinking

after dinner; Cicero's indifference to thetable; his entertainment of Caesar at

Cumae

CHAPTER X

HOLIDAYS AND PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS

The Italian festa, ancient and modern;meaning of the word feriae; change in itsmeaning; holidays of plebs; festival ofAnna Perenua; The Saturnalia; the ludi andtheir origin; ludi Romani and plebeii;other ludi; supported by State; by privateindividuals; admission free; Circus

maximus and chariot-racing; gladiators atfuneral games; stage-plays at ludi;

political feeling expressed at the theatre;

decadence of tragedy in Cicero's time; thefirst permanent theatre, 55 B.C.; opening

of Pompey's theatre; Cicero's account ofit; the great actors of Cicero's day:

Aesopus; Roscius; the farces; PubliliusSyrus and the mime

CHAPTER XI

RELIGION

Absence of real religious feeling; neglect

of worship, except in the family; foreigncults, e.g of Isis; religious attitude ofCicero and other public men: free thought,combined with maintenance of the iusdivinum; Lucretius condemns all religion

as degrading: his failure to produce a

substitute for it; Stoic attitude towardsreligion: Stoicism finds room for the gods

of the State; Varro's treatment of theology

on Stoic lines; his monotheistic

conception of Jupiter Capitolinus; theStoic Jupiter a legal rather than a moraldeity; Jupiter in the Aeneid; superstition ofthe age; belief in portents, visions, etc.;ideas of immortality; sense of sin, or

despair of the future

EPILOGUE

INDEX

ROME IN THE LAST YEARS OF THE

REPUBLIC At end of Volume

Translations of passages in foreign

languages in this book will be found in theAppendix following page 362

CHAPTER I

TOPOGRAPHICAL

The modern traveller of to-day arriving atRome by rail drives to his hotel throughthe uninteresting streets of a modern town,and thence finds his way to the Forum andthe Palatine, where his attention is

speedily absorbed by excavations which

he finds it difficult to understand It is aslikely as not that he may leave Romewithout once finding an opportunity ofsurveying the whole site of the ancientcity, or of asking, and possibly answeringthe question, how it ever came to be

where it is While occupied with museumsand picture-galleries, he may well fail

"totam aestimare Romam."[1] Assumingthat the reader has never been in Rome, Iwish to transport him thither in

imagination, and with the help of the map,

by an entirely different route But first let

him take up the eighth book of the Aeneid,

and read afresh the oldest and most

picturesque of all stories of arrival atRome;[2] let him dismiss all handbooksfrom his mind, and concentrate it on

Aeneas and his ships on their way fromthe sea to the site of the Eternal City

Virgil showed himself a true artist inbringing his hero up the Tiber, which inhis day was freely used for navigation up

to and even above the city He saw that by

the river alone he could land him exactlywhere he could be shown by his friendlyhost, almost at a glance, every essentialfeature of the site, every spot most

hallowed by antiquity in the minds of hisreaders Rowing up the river, whichgraciously slackened its swift current,Aeneas presently caught sight of the wallsand citadel, and landed just beyond thepoint where the Aventine hill falls steeplyalmost to the water's edge Here in

historical times was the dockyard ofRome; and here, when the poet was achild, Cato had landed with the spoils ofCyprus, as the nearest point of the riverfor the conveyance of that ill-gotten gain

to the treasury under the Capitol.[3] Virgilimagines the bank clothed with wood, and

in the wood—where afterwards was the

Forum Boarium, a crowded haunt—Aeneas finds Evander sacrificing at theAra maxima of Hercules, of all spots thebest starting-point for a walk through theheart of the ancient city To the right wasthe Aventine, rising to about a hundredand thirty feet above the river, and thiswas the first of the hills of Rome to beimpressed on the mind of the stranger, bythe tale of Hercules and Cacus whichEvander tells his guest In front, but close

by, was the long western flank of thePalatine hill, where, when the tale hadbeen told and the rites of Hercules

completed, Aeneas was to be shown thecave of the Lupercal; and again to the left,approaching the river within two hundredyards, was the Capitol to be:

Hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem et Capitoliaducit,

Aurea nunc, olim silvestribus horridadumis

Below it the hero is shown the shrine ofthe prophetic nymph Carmenta, with thePorta Carmentalis leading into the CampusMartius; then the hollow destined one day

to be the Forum Romanum, and beyond it,

in the valley of the little stream that herefound its way down from the plain

beyond, the grove of the Argiletum Here,and up the slope of the Clivus sacer, withwhich we shall presently make

acquaintance, were the lowing herds ofEvander, who then takes his guest to

repose for the night in his own dwelling

on the Palatine, the site of the most ancient

Roman settlement.[4]

What Evander showed to his visitor, as

we shall presently see, comprised thewhole site of the heart and life of the city

as it was to be, all that lay under the steepsides of the three almost isolated hills, theCapitoline, Palatine, and Aventine Thepoet knew that he need not extend theirwalk to the other so-called hills, whichcome down as spurs from the plain of theCampagna,—Quirinal, Esquiline, Caelian.Densely populated as those were in hisown day, they were not essential organs ofsocial and politics life; the pulse of Romewas to be felt beating most strongly in thespace between them and the river wheretoo the oldest and most cherished

associations of the Roman people,

mythical and historical, were fixed Ipropose to take the reader, with a singledeviation, over the same ground, and toask him to imagine it as it was in the

period with which we are concerned inthis book But first, in order to take in witheye and mind the whole city and its

position, let us leave Aeneas, and crossing

to the right bank of the Tiber by the PonsAemilius,[5] let us climb to the fort of theJaniculum, an ancient outwork againstattack from the north, by way of the viaAurelia, and here enjoy the view whichMartial has made forever famous:

Hinc septem dominos videre montes

Et totam licet aestimare Romam,

Albanos quoque Tusculosque colles

Et quodcunque iacet sub urbe frigus

No one who has ever stood on the

Janiculum, and looked down on the riverand the city, and across the Latin plain tothe Alban mountain and the long line ofhills—the last spurs of the Apennines—enclosing the plain to the north, can fail to

realise that Rome was originally an

outpost of the Latins, her kinsmen and

confederates, against the powerful anduncanny Etruscan race who dwelt in theundulating hill country to the north Thesite was an outpost, because the threeisolated hills make it a natural point ofdefence, and of attack towards the north ifattack were desirable; no such point ofsimilar vantage is to be found lower downthe river, and if the city had been placedhigher up, Latium would have been leftopen to attack,—the three hills would

have been left open to the enemy to gain afirm footing on Latin soil It was also, as itturned out, an admirable base of

operations for carrying on war in the longand narrow peninsula, so awkward, asHannibal found to his cost, for workingout a definite plan of conquest FromRome, astride of the Tiber, armies couldoperate on "interior lines" against anycombination—could strike north, east, andsouth at the same moment With Latiumfaithful behind her she could not be taken

in the rear; the unconquerable Hannibaldid indeed approach her once on that side,but fell away again like a wave on a rockyshore From the sea no enemy ever

attempted to reach her till Genseric landed

at Ostia in A.D 455

Thus it is not difficult to understand howRome came to be the leading city of

Latium; how she came to work her

conquering way into Etruria to the north,the land of a strange people who at onetime threatened to dominate the whole ofItaly; how she advanced up the Tibervalley and its affluents into the heart of theApennines, and southward into the Oscancountry of Samnium and the rich plain ofCampania A glance at the map of Italywill show us at once how apt is Livy'sremark that Rome was placed in the centre

of the peninsula.[6] That peninsula looks

as if it were cleft in twain by the Tiber, or

in other words, the Tiber drains the

greater part of central Italy, and carriesthe water down a well-marked valley to acentral point on the western coast, with a

volume greater than that of any other riversouth of the Po A city therefore that

commands the Tiber valley, and

especially the lower part of it, is in aposition of strategic advantage with

regard to the whole peninsula Now

Rome, as Strabo remarked, was the onlycity actually situated on the bank of theriver; and Rome was not only on the river,but from the earliest times astride of it.She held the land on both banks from herown site to the Tiber mouth at Ostia, as

we know from the fact that one of her mostancient priesthoods[7] had its sacredgrove five miles down the river on thenorthern bank Thus she had easy access tothe sea by the river or by land, and anopen way inland up the one great naturalentrance from the sea into central Italy.[8]

Her position on the Tiber is much like that

of Hispalis (Seville) on the Baetis, or ofArles on the Rhone, cities opening theway of commerce or conquest up the

basins of two great rivers In spite ofsome disadvantages, to be noticed

directly, there was no such favourableposition in Italy for a virile people apt tofight and to conquer Capua, in the richvolcanic plain of Campania, had far

greater advantages in the way of naturalwealth; but Capua was too far south, in amore enervating climate, and virility wasnever one of her strong points Corfinium,

in the heart of the Apennines, once seemedthreatening to become a rival, and was for

a time the centre of a rebellious

confederation; but this city was too nearthe east coast—an impossible position for

a pioneer of Italian dominion Italy lookswest, not east; almost all her natural

harbours are on her western side; andthough that at Ostia, owing to the amount

of silt carried down by the Tiber, hasnever been a good one, it is the only portwhich can be said to command an entranceinto the centre of the peninsula

No one, however, would contend that theposition of Rome is an ideal one Taken inand by itself, without reference to Italyand the Mediterranean, that position haslittle to recommend it It is too far from thesea, nearly twenty miles up the valley of ariver with an inconveniently rapid current,

to be a great commercial or industrialcentre; and such a centre Rome has neverreally been in the whole course of her

history There are no great natural sources

of wealth in the neighbourhood—no mineslike those at Laurium in Attica, no vastexpanse of corn-growing country like that

of Carthage The river too was liable toflood, as it still is, and a familiar ode ofHorace tells us how in the time of

Augustus the water reached even to theheart of the city.[9] Lastly, the site hasnever really been a healthy one, especiallyduring the months of July and August,[10]which are the most deadly throughout thebasin of the Mediterranean Pestilenceswere common at Rome in her early

history, and have left their mark in thecalendar of her religious festivals; forexample, the Apolline games were

instituted during the Hannibalic war as theresult of a pestilence, and fixed for the

unhealthy month of July Foreigners fromthe north of Europe have always beenliable to fever at Rome; invaders from thenorth have never been able to withstandthe climate for long; in the Middle Agesone German army after another meltedaway under her walls, and left her

mysteriously victorious

There are some signs that the Romansthemselves had occasional misgivingsabout the excellence of their site Therewas a tradition, that after the burning ofthe city by the Gauls, it was proposed thatthe people should desert the site and

migrate to Veii, the conquered Etruscancity to the north, and that it needed all theeloquence of Camillus to dissuade them Ithas given Livy[11] the opportunity of

putting into the orator's mouth a splendidencomium on the city and its site; but nosuch story could well have found a place

in Roman annals if the Capitol had been asdeeply set in the hearts of the people aswas the Acropolis in the hearts of theAthenians At a later time of deep

depression Horace[12] could fancifullysuggest that the Romans should leave theirancient home like the Phocaeans of old,and seek a new one in the islands of theblest Some idea was abroad that Caesarhad meant to transfer the seat of

government to Ilium, and after Actium thesame intention was ascribed to Augustus,probably without reason; but the third ode

of Horace's third book seems to expressthe popular rumour, and in an interestingpaper Mommsen[13] has stated his