table was always crowded with guests: Greeks and learned men were constantly about her, and kings sent and received presents from her. To all her visitors and friends she was a most agreeable companion: she would tell them of the life and habits of her father Africanus, and what is most surprising, would speak of her sons without showing sorrow or shedding a tear, relating their sufferings and their deeds to her inquiring friends as if she was speaking of the men of olden time. This made some think that her understanding had been impaired by old age or the greatness of her sorrows, and that she was dull to all sense of her misfortunes, while in fact such people themselves were too dull to see what a support it is against grief to have a noble nature and to be of honourable lineage and honourably bred; and that though fortune has often the advantage over virtue in its attempts to guard against evils, yet she cannot take away from virtue the power of enduring them with fortitude."

CHAPTER XX.

OPTIMATES AND POPULARES.

A MAN who has studied the history of the Gracchi, and has been accustomed to reflect on political matters, may form a just conception of the state of parties at that time in the Roman Commonwealth. But all persons will not take the pains to examine facts patiently, nor are all persons able to deduce from facts their true meaning. We are deceived by words in the affairs of life, and most of all when words are used to express political notions. It may be useful then to explain the state of parties at Rome during and after the time of the Gracchi, even at the risk of a little repetition.

The opposition of Patricians and Plebeians in the early Republic is now sufficiently understood. It was the opposition between a small number, who held the political power and had the superintendence of religion, and a larger body who claimed recognition as a political element in the state. The struggle between the two bodies was conducted with more moderation than contests for political equality among any other people, for it has been observed that the extreme measure which the Plebeians resorted to, a secession from Rome, was a mode of defence rather than attack. The Plebeians tried this policy first in B.C. 494, and for the last time in B.C. 287. The first secession was followed by the establishment of the Tribunician authority for the protection of the Plebeians. The contest between the two bodies still continued, but the Patricians vigorously maintained their

position, and it was only at long intervals and step by step that the Plebeians gained what the Patricians possessed and wished to keep to themselves.

When the Plebeians were made eligible to the consulship by the law of C. Licinius Stolo, B.C. 367, the way was opened for the beginning of a new kind of Nobility; for the Patricians of the early Republic as opposed to the Plebeians were a nobility, though they were designated by another name. The new nobility, the Nobles, as that term has been already explained, arose from the admission of Plebeians to the high offices of the state; and these Nobles would attach themselves to the old nobility, to the Patrician order, and not to the body from which they sprung. But in fact the new Nobles in the course of time formed a political party themselves, in which the Patricians as the smaller number were merged.

When the Plebeians had attained all that was necessary to place them on a footing of political equality with the Patricians, the descendants of the original citizens of Rome, and when out of their own body a new nobility had gradually grown up, the character of the internal contest changed, but the contest did not cease; for in every free state the opposition of parties is a necessity. The contest between the Patricians and Plebeians had made Rome powerful and free. The rivalry of opposing factions caused the destruction of the commony wealth.

The direct means by which a Roman acquired place and power were the votes of his fellow-citizens. The indirect means were bribery and intimidation by which the votes were secured. Wealth, and office as the means of getting wealth, were the sole object of a Roman's ambition; and thus when the close of the Second Punic War had given external security to Rome, and her dominion beyond Italy was extended, the greediness of the Roman commanders and magistrates was unbounded. Rome plundered every nation that she subdued, and her annually-elected magistrates plundered the people whose country was reduced to the form of a Roman province. The foreign possessions of Rome were considered as the property of the Roman people, as a source of wealth to the Romans. But it was not by the exchange of the products of

industry between Italy and the provinces that Italy was enriched, for Italy had nothing to give in exchange. The Romans were enriched while the provinces were impoverished. The governors contrived to make money in the provinces by irregular means, though they ran the risk of a prosecution when they returned to Rome: but this risk was only a reason for getting so much more money out of the provincials, for getting a fortune for themselves and enough to bribe those who might sit on their trial. The Equestrian body, who composed the Publicani or farmers of the taxes in the provinces, acquired both wealth and influence by this business. They were notoriously unscrupulous in the collection of the dues; and they had a host of people in their service, who were of course devoted partizans of the great companies who employed them. The Negotiatores also or Italian capitalists settled down on the provinces like a cloud of locusts, and turned their wealth to account by large speculations and lending money at enormous rates of interest to the Provincials, whom the exactions of the Roman state often drove to the necessity of borrowing. Thus though Italy was never a commercial country in the modern sense, the Italians in the provinces acquired great fortunes. The Publicani and the Negotiatores were the money class at Rome, an order in the state, as such a body will always be. They may be compared with the great merchants, manufacturers, loan-contractors, and bankers of modern times as to wealth and influence, but in no other respect. The provinces were sorely burdened under Roman government, but they had security against foreign invasion, for the Romans allowed no plunderers except themselves. The provinces had also a regular administration under the Romans, and some advantages, but they paid dear for them. The overthrow of the Republic was a gain to the provinces, whose hard condition under the rule of the Roman nobility will plainly appear in the course of this history. Even before the fall of Carthage an attempt was made to check the malversation of Roman governors. L. Calpurnius Piso, an honest man, as we may conclude from his acts, proposed the Law de Repetundis (Chap. ii.). The people voted for the law, but they cared little for the provincials, who suffered

from the oppression of the great. It was envy that moved them to pass a law which might occasionally bring a great offender to justice. They would gladly have shared in the pillage of the distant subjects of Rome, and they got some of it at the annual elections, for money was the means by which votes were secured, and not merit and services to the state. A large number of poor and ignorant voters was a necessary consequence of the principle that every Roman male citizen above seventeen had the suffrage, with certain exceptions which are immaterial for the present purpose. Poor voters, and knaves who are not poor, will be bought, when a candidate expects to repay himself for his outlay. Within the city there was a crowd of venal voters always ready to be treated and paid. Outside of the city there were voters also in the Roman Coloniae and those Municipia which had the suffrage, and when these men could be brought to the elections at Rome, we cannot suppose that all of them would come at their own cost, and lose their time too without being paid for it. So changed was the state of things. The old distinction of Patrician and Plebeian had long ceased to have any meaning; and the opposition of Nobles and Plebeians had also no political significance, though the term Nobles was often used to express the powerful families of Rome, who adhered to the Senate as the administrative council, and the body which maintained the interests of a small number against the interests of the state.

New names came into fashion, but it is difficult to say when they were first used. We may probably refer the origin of them to the time of the Gracchi. One party was designated by the name of Optimates, "the class of the best." The name shows that it must have been invented by the "best," for the people would certainly not have given it to them. We may easily guess who were the Optimates. They were the rich and powerful, who ruled by intimidation, intrigue, and bribery, who bought the votes of the people and sold their interests. Cicero in one of his speeches gives a definition of the word Optimates, such a definition as one of their own body would give, and nobody else: he makes it comprehend all good and honest people, of all ranks and