THE DECLINE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. BY GEORGE LONG. VOL. V. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, & CO. 1874. [The Right of Translation is reserved.] PREFACE. THIS Volume contains the history of the Roman Republic from Caesar's invasion of Italy to the close of the Civil War and the destruction of the old constitution, which was followed by other civil wars after Caesar's death, and the establishment of the Imperial system under Caesar Augustus. It is chiefly a history of military events, in which Caesar's great talents and his generous character are conspicuous. The civil administration is only a small part, for Caesar did not live long enough to do more than attempt to confirm order in the State, and to secure the power which he had acquired. I have said (p. 376), "Nothing could be worse than the condition of Rome when Caesar had completed his usurpation, and a radical reform seems to us impossible; even if Caesar had the will and the capacity to make such a reform, we cannot see how it could have been effected." Speculations about the great things which Caesar might have done, if he had lived longer, seem to me very foolish. We know what happened after his death, and what was done under the administration of Augustus, who was a man of large capacity, and after he became master of the Empire was anxious to secure peace within his extensive dominions and the prosperity of Rome and of the provinces. But it is not in the power of any man to change a state of affairs which is the result of the slow growth of centuries, or to avert the fate which awaits all political institutions. I have 284280 endeavoured in these volumes to trace the history of Rome from the reforms of the Gracchi through a turbulent period of nearly one hundred years, a period of oligarchal tyranny and factious quarrels, to the inevitable end, the establishment of a monarchy in fact, but not in name. In this way, says Appian in the Introduction to his Civil Wars," the Roman State was restored to tranquillity, and the Government became a monarchy." He adds, "and how this came about I have explained and have brought together the events, which are well worth the study of those who wish to be acquainted with ambition of men unbounded, love of power excessive, endurance unwearied, and forms of suffering infinite." The rise and decay of modern political systems are not exactly the same in modern States and in the great military and conquering Republic; but human passions and human folly, and even human wisdom and foresight are ever the same, and under different circumstances they work out like results. I therefore maintain what I said in the beginning of this work (vol. i. p. 2), that "all political systems contain within them the principles of their own death; and political progress, as we call it, is only the slower road to that end, to which all human institutions, so far as we have yet had experience, must come at last." "Time," says Bacon (Essays, Of Innovations), "is the greatest innovator; and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?" The events contained within this volume relate principally to one man, the greatest of all the Romans in military and civil capacity; but there is another man whose relation to Caesar from the year B.C. 59 to his death makes him conspicuous in this history. I have said (vol. v. p. 466) that I have told the truth about Caesar, as far as we know the truth, and have told it with perfect impartiality. I have treated Cicero in the same way, though I do not expect that all persons will think that I have; but if they shall think otherwise, I reply that they are either deficient in the power of forming an impartial judgment, or they have not taken pains to examine the evidence. I have observed in the Preface to the Third Volume, that " We learn Cicero's character best from his own letters, which are the strongest evidence that we have against him." I mean the strongest evidence against him as a public man. It is his own evidence that condemns him, not the evidence of his enemies, who were many. His letters also, while they often show him in a favourable light as a friend, a just provincial governor, a lover of letters, and a man of taste, also prove that he was vain, querulous, spiteful, and often ungenerous, His private character was not noble, or elevated. A good Life of Cicero is still wanted; and when it shall be written, we shall see whether the writer has the capacity of rightly estimating Cicero's political character, and particularly his behaviour towards Caesar in the few years which preceded the Dictator's death, and whether the writer has also the power of forming a just judgment on Cicero's great talents and his literary merits. Some persons would allow him even small merit as a writer, but here I think that they are much mistaken. Cicero was both a great actor in the public events of his time and an important witness; and his life proves that, like many other men of ability, he had his weaknesses, and even his vices, and that no intellectual greatness is a security against such failings. Caesar Augustus, who knew Cicero well during the last year of his life, is reported to have found one of his own grandsons reading one of Cicero's writings, and to have taken the book from him and read a good part of it while he was standing. At last he returned the book to his grandson and said, "A wise man, my boy; a wise man and a lover of his country" (Plutarch, Cicero, c. 49). Perhaps Augustus allowed too much credit for wisdom to Cicero, whom he had himself so easily deceived; but he did him justice when he said that Cicero was a lover of his country. |