The Historians' History of the World 05

But the dark side of the picture almost counterbalanced the brightness of this advance in culture. With the Greek philosophers came Greek soothsayers and charlatans, with the Greek drama the airs and abominations of the Greek world; with the Greek tutor the cook, the barber, and the courtesan came to Rome from the East and freely exercised their corrupting influence. The proceedings against the Bacchanalia in 186 B.C., in which thousands of guilty members of the secret society of Bacchus were condemned to death, show how rapid was the decline of the severity of Roman morals.

The forces which had made Rome great and won her a high place in the civilisation of the human race were spent. The rigid moral code of a well-regulated family life, the strict military discipline and organisation of the sturdy Italian peasantry, had become very rare, if they had not passed away altogether. Outwardly the development of Roman law and the Roman constitution maintained the appearance of freedom, but the selfishness of the ruling and moneyed classes threatened to destroy even this palladium of Roman libertas. With the fall of Carthage we reach the eve of the revolution which led to the repeated conquest of the capital by its own citizens, to the unchaining of mob violence, to a prætorian administration, and so to the rule of the Cæsars. “The beasts of the forest,” as Tiberius Gracchus cried to the Romans of his day, “have their dens and burrows, but the lords of the world have no place where they can lay their heads.” Such is the reverse of the medal of which the obverse reads: Foundation of the universal empire of Rome, after Corinth and Numantia, Macedonia and Carthage, were laid in the dust.

BOOK I

EARLY ROMAN HISTORY TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

INTRODUCTION

THE SOURCES AND THE CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY ROMAN HISTORY

A GLANCE AT THE EARLY SOURCES

Monumental remains, casting more or less light directly or by inference upon Roman history, are numerous. The Romans were great practical builders, and wherever they went—even into distant Britain—they left architectural remains, of which traces at least are still in existence. In Rome itself, such monumental structures as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trajan’s Pillar, and the ruins of the Forum, still bear testimony to the character of the ancient civilisation.

Even more interesting in some respects is the record brought to light through the exhumation of the buried cities of Herculaneum and of Pompeii. At Pompeii, in particular, the visitor of to-day finds himself in the midst of surroundings that give a most vivid impression of a Roman city of the golden age. The streets are flanked by the walls of buildings still intact as to their main structure; the road-beds themselves are paved with stones which still show deep channels made by the wheels of chariots that conveyed Romans of the time when Rome was mistress of the world. The broken pillars of the forums; the terraced seats of the great amphitheatres; the structure and contents of the private dwellings, unite to tell the story of the social life of a remote epoch with a vividness which no words can equal. And turning to details, the supply of interesting implements and utensils of every-day use which the lava and ashes of Vesuvius have preserved for us is almost inexhaustible.

Up to this point, the ruins of the buried Roman cities strongly suggest the ruins of Nineveh and Nippur, and those of the old Greek cities at Hissarlik. The parallel with the Mesopotamian cities holds even further, for there are numerous treasures of art preserved at Pompeii. But unfortunately, no such inexhaustible literary treasures as rewarded the explorer in Babylonia and Assyria have been discovered in the ruins of the Roman cities. A few most interesting tablets have been found; such tablets as both the Grecians and the Romans used constantly, but of which, owing to their perishable material, no examples whatever have been preserved, except in these buried cities and in Egypt. Then, too, a single collection of books was found in the small library of a private dwelling at Herculaneum. This collection, comprising several hundred papyrus rolls, gave promise of great things, if only the parched bundles could be unrolled and their contents deciphered. But when, with infinite patience, this end was effected, in a large number of instances the result was most disappointing; for contrary to expectation no important lost works of antiquity—no works throwing new light on any phase of ancient history—were found. Many of the manuscripts were injured beyond repair, and others have not yet been unrolled; but enough has been done to prove the general character of the collection and to dissipate the hopes of the antiquarian.