Episode III.08 - Introduction to the Roman Republic

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Music.

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The Roman Constitution rested, finally, on the most successful military organization in history.

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The citizens and the army were one. The army, assembled in its centuries,

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was the chief lawmaking body of the state.

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A quote by Will Durant from Caesar and Christ, the third book in his Civilization series.

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Music.

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Welcome to the Western Traditions Podcast. This is the eighth episode in the

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Roman series and the first episode to discuss the Roman Republic.

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It is the year 509 BC. The last Roman king has been exiled from the city,

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and now the patricians of the Senate will endure as collective ruler over the

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city and its expanding territories for nearly the next five centuries.

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And now, back to the project that the Roman Senate envisioned after they sent

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Rome's last king into exile and

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confronted their hostile neighbors in central Italy in the year 509 BC.

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Music.

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In all the events that follow in this episode, it should be remembered just

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how small Rome was at the time when the Senate took over completely.

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Sometime in the late 6th century. The whole realm covered perhaps just 400 square miles.

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Now this might sound like a lot at first, but this would actually just come

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out to a square territory about 20 miles on each side.

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Many modern cities today are much bigger than this, and that is why just counting

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the actual city, that's just counting the actual city area, not the area which

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surrounds the city and supports it.

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And if you live in a metropolis like New York or Los Angeles,

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London, Mexico City, or some other such place, the entire kingdom of Rome would

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have fit comfortably inside your city.

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Now, this is not to diminish or ridicule the size of Rome.

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Many, but not all of the kingdoms which surrounded the Romans at this time would

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have been no larger, and many of them were probably smaller.

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Recall, if you will, the city-states of Greece. Many of them would have been

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the same size or smaller.

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But this size explains why, for instance,

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when messengers from Lucretia reached the army on the frontier to tell of her

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abuse at the hands of the royal family, that her outraged husband and friends

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could return so quickly to take revenge.

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The warlike borders of Rome were not very far away from the city itself at this time.

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And so, neither was the Roman Senate's peril.

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Even freed of their king, they were still in the same constant danger that had

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always confronted them.

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And the vengeful living king was not far away, just to the north in Etruria,

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the home of the Etruscans, biding his time and looking for an opportunity to resume power.

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Now, in order to take advantage of executive powers without losing their own

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collective power in the Senate as the legislators of the Republic,

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the patrician senators chose to replace the authority of the prior kings,

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whose elected term had essentially lasted their whole lives,

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with the powers of the consuls.

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A consul would be elected to lead the Senate for only a year at a time,

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and there would be two of them, two consuls, no more, no less,

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in power at any given time.

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These two would have to work in agreement, along with the Senate.

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This would deter anyone from assuming dictatorial power and also hopefully prevent

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cults of personality arising around particular men.

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The first two consuls chosen were Colatinus Tarquinius and Lucius Junius Brutus.

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Colatinus was the aggrieved husband of Lucretia, and Brutus was a man whose

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family had been murdered by the former king.

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In fact, the legend states that Brutus was so called because he had only survived

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the king's wrath by pretending to be a fool, a brute, hence the cognomen Brutus.

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Translating using the tria nomina of Roman nomenclature, Lucius Junius Brutus

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was essentially being called Lucius Junius the Fool.

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Now, the exiled king and his Etruscan supporters did not immediately have the

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military power to retake Rome.

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Instead, they sent ambassadors seeking negotiations, and they sought to stir

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up conspiracies among certain senators and patrician families.

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Among those conspiring with the king's ambassadors were two sons of Brutus himself.

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These sons of his were eager and willing not just to bring the king back,

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but they were even willing to see the downfall of their own father.

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A slave overheard these conspirators, including the sons of Brutus,

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plotting their takeover.

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When this slave later exposed the conspiracy to the Senate, it,

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Brutus called for the young men, his own sons, and asked them in front of the

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Forum if they could defend themselves against these charges of conspiracy with the king.

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When his own sons did not deny their part in the plot, Brutus let justice be done.

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The lads were bound on the floor of the Forum, beaten viciously with rods,

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and then beheaded with axes.

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All this time, Brutus watched and said nothing. He showed no emotion.

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The law, not human sentiment, would reign supreme in Rome.

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Plutarch states that Brutus, in giving young Rome such an example of obedience

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and discipline, played a more important role than the legendary Romulus had

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in founding the city of Rome.

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He gave its men a cold-blooded model of self-control that would serve its leaders

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and its legions for centuries to come.

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In that chaotic first year of the Republic, there were five consuls.

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Only two ever served at one time, but the bellicose environment of central Italy

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and the fierce desire to avoid centralization of power in any man's hands led

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to the political removal,

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or the battlefield death and replacement, of consuls rather quickly.

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Colatinus, being a close relative of the king, eventually lost favor and was

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sent into exile himself.

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The Senate, as conservative as it was with regards to culture and its own place

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in Roman society, was also really a revolutionary body in some sense.

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It was radically zealous for independence.

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Vows were made to never even negotiate with the former king or his family.

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Lucius Junius Brutus himself would die in battle, defending Rome against her

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enemies before his year-long term as consul was even over.

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Now, this all makes it sound as if the whole world was against Rome,

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as if every power that surrounded her was just intent on destroying her.

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But it should be remembered also that Rome was also just as intent on destroying her neighbors.

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This was the way of the world, this constant seeking of advantage and domination

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over other groups by tribes of humans.

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We have seen already in Greek history how the city-states were ever in conflict with one another.

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And during the Middle Ages, we will see in the life of Dante Alighieri,

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for example, that things in Italy had not changed very much even nearly 2,000 years later.

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The city-states of Italy were still in perpetual conflict with one another.

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The following may seem like a digression, but hear me out.

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Recent research into chimpanzee tribes in Central Africa has revealed a startling fact.

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Not one tribe maintains friendly relations with any other chimp tribe.

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Not one. Even though they're all the same species, there are no alliances,

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no truces, no peace treaties. all chimpanzee tribes see other tribes as enemies

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and remain in a state of perpetual warfare with their fellow chimps.

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The human race has not come very far, it would seem, from its violent roots.

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Now, consuls in Rome were only elected for a year at a time,

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but they could be re-elected.

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One of the consuls chosen that first year managed to survive his term and went

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on to be re-elected to the office of consul more than once.

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His name was Publius Valerius, but he earned the cognomen Poplicola,

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or people lover, because of the deference that he showed to the people of Rome.

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Initially, Poplicola had been regarded with suspicion as someone looking to

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secure power for himself to replace the king, essentially, but he won the trust

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of the Senate, defeating Rome's enemies in the field of battle multiple times.

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When Brutus fell in battle later in that first year of the Republic,

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Poplicola was victorious in the same battle and returned in triumph to the city,

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meaning that he led a parade of victory on a chariot and received the accolades

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of the public and gifts from the Senate.

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Plutarch's essays parallel the biographies of famous Romans with their Greek counterparts.

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In this collection of essays, the life of Popelikola is paired with that of

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Solon, the Athenian lawgiver,

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perhaps because Popelikola both preserved the city's nascent traditions and,

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as one of its first consuls, he played an elementary role in creating its institutions.

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Plutarch also relates that Poplicola replenished the numbers of the Senate,

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which had been greatly reduced by battle deaths.

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The total number of senatorial seats was now 300, and Poplicola is said to have

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appointed over half of the chamber's members himself in this effort to replace their fallen comrades.

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He also appears to have raised many men of the equites class to this honor.

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Remember that the equites were the social class just below the patricians,

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wealthy enough to supply a horse for battle, but not as wealthy as the oldest families in Rome.

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Thus, Popplicola elevated many new families to join the patrician class.

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So, there was this upward mobility in early republican Rome,

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but it only came at the cost of blood.

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Poplicola also, Plutarch alleges, made a law allowing any man to kill another

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man who aspired to tyranny.

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Thus, if you heard a man proclaiming that he would seize sole power over Rome,

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it was legal to kill him immediately on the spot, without a trial.

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This would in fact be the justification for Marcus Junius Brutus,

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a descendant of the first consul Lucius Junius Brutus centuries later to assassinate

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Julius Caesar, that the man had intended to become king.

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Yes, according to Rome's oldest traditions, Marcus Brutus expected to be hailed

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as a hero for killing Julius Caesar because he had obeyed this most ancient law.

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Anyway, from this time period, the first year or two of Rome's freedom from

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monarchy, comes also the legend of Horatio.

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Properly known as Horatio Cucles, he was a patrician and an officer in the Roman

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army at a moment when an enemy army had routed Rome's soldiers,

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and they were all hurrying toward the only bridge over the Tiber River.

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On the other side of the river lay Rome itself.

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Now, not only was the army threatened with destruction at this juncture,

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but in the chaos and disorganization of retreat, it seemed likely that the enemy

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would follow them over the bridge, burst into the city, and sack it,

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essentially bringing an end not only to Rome's newfound freedom,

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but also bringing on its very destruction.

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But Horatio Cocles, Horatio the One-Eyed is how you would translate that,

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possibly. He was given this name because he had already lost an eye in battle.

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Horatio with two other men stood

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their ground at the end of the bridge and would not let the enemy cross.

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Once the retreating Romans had all crossed, the two other men began to retreat

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over the bridge to the other side,

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but Horatio held his ground on the other bank until his fellow Romans could

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destroy the bridge and thus prevent the enemy from rushing through the gates

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and overthrowing the city.

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When the Romans were able to destroy their end of the bridge on their side of

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the Tiber River, Horatio fell with the wreckage into the rushing waters below.

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He then swam horribly wounded to the friendly shore, and he has been praised

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ever since as a great Roman hero.

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Pope Licola himself would be elected consul a total of four times.

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He died shortly after his fourth consulship when he had passed power on to two new consuls.

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He was apparently of the least wealthy of the patricians, and he was buried

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at public expense because his estate could not afford to do so.

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A few years after he died, the last king, Tarquinius Superbus,

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still in exile, also died.

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And the Roman Republic's fight for survival became somewhat less complicated.

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Music.

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But just how was this newfound republic going to be governed?

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We possess today a very solid blueprint for Roman government,

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but there's some doubt that it was immediately in place after the removal of the king.

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Most scholars believe that the Roman government's components came into place slowly over the years.

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Nevertheless, whether this government was in place as early as 509 BC or came

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more slowly into existence, let's make ourselves familiar with it because,

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as described, it will play a huge role in the coming Punic Wars.

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Rome's victories in these wars would lead to the creation of their empire and

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ultimately the creation of the West in which we live today.

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So, you might think that I would begin this explanation of Roman government

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with the two consuls who were the executive branch of the government,

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But as in the written document of the United States Constitution,

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things really begin with the legislative body, which in Rome was primarily the Senate.

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It was the Senate that was supreme. It was the lawmaking body,

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and its members oversaw all the decisions of the individuals and the other branches

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of government which operated the state.

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These senators represented the quote-unquote people, and they elected the executive

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leadership of the state.

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Down through the years, their numbers would vary, but throughout most of the

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history of the Republic, there would be roughly 300 senators at any time,

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all of them usually from patrician families.

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There were, of course, more than 300 patrician men at any given time,

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and when there were vacancies in the numbers of the Senate, new members could

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be quickly appointed to fill those seats.

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It seems like the new members were initially appointed by the consuls,

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but obviously the Senate had to also accept the new members and might even deny

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them a seat if they felt that the newly appointed senator was not a good fit.

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In fact, the U.S. Constitution originally gave its own legislature the right

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to deny new members as well, but this right has been since explained away by court decisions.

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It is naturally tempting to regard these senatorial patrician families as just

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some effete ruling class,

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leading lives distant from the experiences of their subjects,

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but we should temper this emotional response with a dose of reality.

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While the patricians no doubt had it better than the common or less wealthy

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members of their society, in many ways they shared the same Spartan kind of

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life, at least in the early centuries.

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The Senate met and sat on hard wooden benches in a chamber in the Roman Forum,

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and there was no air conditioning of any kind, nor was their meeting room even heated during winter.

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They lived on a diet only a little improved over that of their poorer countrymen,

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and they often worked the land alongside their servants.

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As we have seen with other kings and queens in our own stories of ancient times,

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even with, say, the story of Odysseus, the rulers led lives only slightly better

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than the people over whom they ruled.

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I will mention again the example of Cincinnatus, but I'm going to save his story for the next episode.

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And while today many of the wealthy send the poor off to fight their wars,

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In Roman times, you were almost required to be one of the privileged classes in order to fight.

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Whenever you hear about heavy infantry or cavalry fighting in these episodes,

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understand that these soldiers were from at least upper-middle-class backgrounds.

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So the wealthy, even if they were guilty of leading privileged lives,

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they at least risked their own skin to further Rome's causes,

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instead of having others do their fighting for them.

00:18:21.557 --> 00:18:25.877
Now, of course, as time passed, this would change, and the wealthy would find

00:18:25.877 --> 00:18:31.457
ways to avoid the dangers that the state ran in order to enrich the already wealthy upper classes.

00:18:31.637 --> 00:18:35.977
But with regard even to later men like Julius Caesar, no matter what you may

00:18:35.977 --> 00:18:40.677
think of his politics, he and his peers demonstrated personal discipline and

00:18:40.677 --> 00:18:42.817
physical bravery on a daily basis.

00:18:43.945 --> 00:18:48.965
Now, the Senate initially appointed the consuls each year, but later they appear

00:18:48.965 --> 00:18:53.145
to have delegated that task to another government body, which I'll get to in a moment.

00:18:53.625 --> 00:18:57.885
There were always at least two consuls at any given time, unless one died or

00:18:57.885 --> 00:19:02.345
was killed in battle, in which case he was replaced as soon as possible.

00:19:02.745 --> 00:19:08.505
These two consuls held office simultaneously for one year, starting around early

00:19:08.505 --> 00:19:12.245
May, and they were either replaced or re-elected the following May.

00:19:13.025 --> 00:19:17.545
Re-election was possible, but not too common for fear of giving the consul the

00:19:17.545 --> 00:19:20.145
idea that he had a right to the office.

00:19:20.365 --> 00:19:24.065
And no member of the Senate wanted to give any other senator the idea that he

00:19:24.065 --> 00:19:25.925
might rule as king over the rest of them.

00:19:26.385 --> 00:19:30.745
But obviously, there were many other necessary roles and jobs to do in the Roman

00:19:30.745 --> 00:19:33.705
government. There were the censors, for example.

00:19:34.105 --> 00:19:38.085
The censors, there were usually always two of them at any time.

00:19:38.085 --> 00:19:43.105
They were elected to longer terms, usually somewhere between 18 months and 5

00:19:43.105 --> 00:19:46.745
years, depending on which era of Rome that you look at.

00:19:46.805 --> 00:19:50.505
But they were in charge of the census, of government finances,

00:19:50.765 --> 00:19:53.205
and they were in charge of public morality.

00:19:53.705 --> 00:19:59.125
This latter duty, oversight of public morality, might sound somewhat insignificant

00:19:59.125 --> 00:20:01.005
to our modern ears, but the censors

00:20:01.005 --> 00:20:05.585
were almost as highly regarded as the consuls, perhaps even more so.

00:20:05.585 --> 00:20:10.805
The importance of the census and finances aside, the censors' powers over public

00:20:10.805 --> 00:20:16.865
morals was very meaningful in Roman society, especially in the earlier stages of the Republic.

00:20:17.165 --> 00:20:22.585
From the title of their office, we get the modern terms and the concept such as censorship.

00:20:23.564 --> 00:20:29.064
The censors could bring down punishment on any Roman citizen whom they believed

00:20:29.064 --> 00:20:32.004
was acting or living without honor or integrity.

00:20:32.784 --> 00:20:37.064
Infractions which might bring down the punishment of the censors on you included the following.

00:20:37.564 --> 00:20:43.064
1. Failing to marry and procreate. 2. Living luxuriously.

00:20:43.484 --> 00:20:50.724
3. Cruelty to slaves. 4. Being either too harsh or too mild with your wife and children.

00:20:50.724 --> 00:20:55.584
And many other actions and behaviors which were considered signs of low character

00:20:55.584 --> 00:20:59.704
would bring the attention of the censors who were not afraid to call people

00:20:59.704 --> 00:21:01.564
out for their dishonorable acts.

00:21:01.644 --> 00:21:05.884
And here we have another term we've derived today from their name censure,

00:21:06.124 --> 00:21:12.304
which is used often in Congress when a member of that Congress is blamed for

00:21:12.304 --> 00:21:16.564
something or shamed for something without actually being particularly penalized.

00:21:17.084 --> 00:21:22.364
The censors typically, then as now, did not bring about actual physical punishments.

00:21:22.484 --> 00:21:27.184
That is, you were not going to be flogged or imprisoned if the censors chastised you.

00:21:27.344 --> 00:21:31.604
But their disfavor was very public, and it resulted in public disgrace,

00:21:31.964 --> 00:21:37.184
the stain of shame on your family, social ostracism, and other moral consequences.

00:21:37.644 --> 00:21:41.924
Furthermore, if you were a senator, you could be removed from office by the censors.

00:21:42.584 --> 00:21:47.404
And of course, the censors were hip-deep in public money, so their roles were extremely important.

00:21:47.804 --> 00:21:51.304
The legions could not function without pay, without the food that money would

00:21:51.304 --> 00:21:55.224
buy, without arms and armor that public funds procured, and so on.

00:21:55.984 --> 00:22:00.464
Now, you might be tempted to think about these censors and other high officers

00:22:00.464 --> 00:22:04.964
of the government, like the president's cabinet members in the United States,

00:22:04.964 --> 00:22:09.124
or perhaps a ministry or department leader in another Western government.

00:22:09.124 --> 00:22:14.184
But the censors, the consuls, and other high-ranking members of the Roman government

00:22:14.184 --> 00:22:16.924
were actually much more independent of each other.

00:22:17.684 --> 00:22:21.824
Using the United States as an example, a cabinet member, such as the Secretary

00:22:21.824 --> 00:22:26.124
of State, the Secretary of Defense, or the Treasury, he's really expected to

00:22:26.124 --> 00:22:28.664
simply carry out the desires of the president.

00:22:29.084 --> 00:22:33.584
He's the one appointed to go out and do the dirty work, so to speak.

00:22:33.584 --> 00:22:37.324
If the president is unhappy with his secretary of labor, for example,

00:22:37.764 --> 00:22:39.404
he can simply remove that individual.

00:22:40.263 --> 00:22:45.163
Not so in the Roman government. The consuls, for example, could not remove the

00:22:45.163 --> 00:22:48.003
censors, nor could the censors remove the consuls.

00:22:48.303 --> 00:22:52.263
Later, I will talk a little more about how this seemingly chaotic arrangement

00:22:52.263 --> 00:22:55.243
both did and did not work for the Romans.

00:22:56.003 --> 00:23:01.783
Now, beneath these uppermost officials, there were a variety of praetors and

00:23:01.783 --> 00:23:07.803
prefects, adils and quaestors and so on, many already mentioned in the last episode.

00:23:07.963 --> 00:23:13.143
A praetor, for example, was a government official, but it could also be a general over soldiers.

00:23:13.723 --> 00:23:17.903
And indeed, the consuls were automatically in charge of the legions.

00:23:18.063 --> 00:23:21.903
During times of war, in future episodes, we will see how the consuls,

00:23:22.163 --> 00:23:26.763
after election, would immediately leave Rome and head to whatever battlefield

00:23:26.763 --> 00:23:31.143
the legions occupied to take over the army from last year's consuls.

00:23:31.803 --> 00:23:36.843
On occasion, when Rome was in great trouble, the two consuls would,

00:23:37.043 --> 00:23:39.903
with the permission of the Senate, appoint a dictator.

00:23:40.183 --> 00:23:45.523
This dictator would be given supreme power, even over the consuls, for six months.

00:23:46.043 --> 00:23:50.743
This would basically only happen during times of extreme danger to the state,

00:23:50.943 --> 00:23:54.603
typically due to warfare, and this solution was not always applied.

00:23:54.723 --> 00:23:59.823
In plenty of difficult times, we will see Rome continue to operate on its reliable

00:23:59.823 --> 00:24:05.523
two-consul system without electing a dictator, but such an election was always an option.

00:24:06.123 --> 00:24:10.563
Finally, over the years, as we will see in all future episodes about Rome,

00:24:10.743 --> 00:24:14.063
there was the perennial friction between the classes.

00:24:14.443 --> 00:24:19.623
Class struggles resulted in the creation of other representative bodies over time.

00:24:19.863 --> 00:24:23.683
There would soon be in Rome a centurion assembly,

00:24:23.863 --> 00:24:28.143
which would be the real decision-making body, as the Senate tended to become

00:24:28.143 --> 00:24:32.923
an upper house of respected men who would simply agree or not agree with the

00:24:32.923 --> 00:24:37.623
direction that members of lower assemblies and offices were taking with the state.

00:24:37.843 --> 00:24:42.843
This body, the centurion assembly, would do most of the actual appointment of

00:24:42.843 --> 00:24:47.663
consuls, censors, and such, the Senate only intervening if it felt that wrong

00:24:47.663 --> 00:24:48.843
decisions were being made.

00:24:48.983 --> 00:24:54.183
And it was this centurion assembly which would officially declare war on Rome's enemies.

00:24:55.143 --> 00:24:59.463
Then, eventually, the tribunal assembly would come into being.

00:24:59.603 --> 00:25:03.663
This was essentially a lower house of the government. In some ways,

00:25:03.783 --> 00:25:06.123
you might think of it like a house of commons or the U.S.

00:25:06.243 --> 00:25:10.003
House of Representatives, which was elected by the common citizens of Rome,

00:25:10.223 --> 00:25:16.663
and of whom there would be many more over time, as Rome liberalized just what citizen meant.

00:25:17.403 --> 00:25:21.483
In fact, during periods of Rome's history, it was the tribunes,

00:25:21.583 --> 00:25:26.943
or elected leaders of this tribal assembly, who held the real power in Rome and in the army.

00:25:27.263 --> 00:25:32.043
A more static arrangement of power will appear during the years of the Punic

00:25:32.043 --> 00:25:37.023
Wars, but both prior to and after that period, it appears that the power structure

00:25:37.023 --> 00:25:38.823
of Rome evolved quite a bit.

00:25:39.651 --> 00:25:44.111
None of these representative bodies, however, and none of their officers included

00:25:44.111 --> 00:25:49.691
or represented women, slaves, foreigners, and the others who might inhabit the land.

00:25:50.251 --> 00:25:56.031
Being a citizen of Rome, even in its more liberal days, was a privilege, not a right.

00:25:56.431 --> 00:26:00.491
Now, as a whole, together, the holders of these offices, the consuls,

00:26:00.691 --> 00:26:03.831
the censors, and others, they were known as magistrates.

00:26:03.831 --> 00:26:09.031
We reserve this term today for judges or other people with judicial power,

00:26:09.031 --> 00:26:13.931
but it applied well to the Roman governmental positions because there was less

00:26:13.931 --> 00:26:15.791
of a divide between judicial,

00:26:16.051 --> 00:26:18.831
executive, and legislative power in the Roman Constitution.

00:26:19.271 --> 00:26:24.211
In our modern republics in the West, and even in states that are not so democratic,

00:26:24.551 --> 00:26:28.711
there are clearly drawn lines between various roles in government.

00:26:28.711 --> 00:26:33.931
The executive branch is independent of the legislative. The judicial branch

00:26:33.931 --> 00:26:37.831
is separate from the executive and military power is completely separate.

00:26:38.371 --> 00:26:41.571
Generals command on the battlefield, not in the public streets.

00:26:42.231 --> 00:26:46.391
But in ancient Rome, there was as yet less distinction between these roles,

00:26:46.831 --> 00:26:48.351
between these branches of authority.

00:26:48.551 --> 00:26:53.571
And just as an officeholder like a consul or a praetor might have powers that

00:26:53.571 --> 00:27:00.871
mixed executive, judicial, and legislative powers, they also often held military power as well.

00:27:01.840 --> 00:27:13.680
Music.

00:27:13.931 --> 00:27:20.091
The legions of Rome, like any military force, underwent evolution as time passed.

00:27:20.951 --> 00:27:24.671
For the moment, here in the early stages of the Republic, I will give you some

00:27:24.671 --> 00:27:29.791
of the classic forms that the legions took in terms of numbers of soldiers and

00:27:29.791 --> 00:27:30.691
how they were commanded.

00:27:31.478 --> 00:27:35.878
This manifestation of the legions would remain pretty similar down to the time

00:27:35.878 --> 00:27:39.238
of the Punic Wars in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC anyway.

00:27:39.658 --> 00:27:43.458
And let's begin this from the ground up. Let's first consider the soldiers,

00:27:43.718 --> 00:27:44.998
the legionaries themselves.

00:27:45.618 --> 00:27:49.978
Originally, the legionaries were always conscripts from among the citizens.

00:27:50.098 --> 00:27:54.698
In other words, there was not a standing army, but rather every citizen had

00:27:54.698 --> 00:27:57.458
to be ready to serve in the ranks at a moment's notice.

00:27:58.118 --> 00:28:01.758
When called upon, when the city was in danger or there was some other reason

00:28:01.758 --> 00:28:06.318
to form an army, a citizen would drop his responsibilities, don his armor,

00:28:06.578 --> 00:28:08.638
pick up his weapons, and report for duty.

00:28:09.178 --> 00:28:13.398
If he was one of the poorer citizens, the legionary might only be armed with

00:28:13.398 --> 00:28:15.478
a short stabbing spear and a shield.

00:28:15.898 --> 00:28:19.658
In fact, at the beginning of the Republic, this would have represented the majority

00:28:19.658 --> 00:28:21.038
of the soldiers in the legion.

00:28:21.618 --> 00:28:25.778
Wealthier men could afford armor and heavier arms and fight with long spears

00:28:25.778 --> 00:28:30.718
and swords, like hoplites did in Greece, and the truly upper classes could afford

00:28:30.718 --> 00:28:34.018
horses as well, and they formed the cavalry arm of the legions.

00:28:34.498 --> 00:28:39.198
As time passed, the Senate would ensure that more soldiers received a minimum

00:28:39.198 --> 00:28:44.438
of body armor and a galadius, that is, a short sword for close quarters combat.

00:28:44.778 --> 00:28:48.218
The classic soldier of the legions, when going into a battle,

00:28:48.338 --> 00:28:52.378
would be armed with a pila, that is, a short throwing spear or javelin,

00:28:52.378 --> 00:28:54.998
and a short sword called a gladius.

00:28:55.258 --> 00:28:59.758
As a side note, we get the name gladiator from this word for sword.

00:29:00.078 --> 00:29:06.578
The gladiator used a gladius. He was a swordsman, though actual gladiators used a variety of weapons.

00:29:07.158 --> 00:29:11.458
But anyway, wearing male armor, either of rings of chain or metal plates,

00:29:11.558 --> 00:29:15.738
and defending himself with a shield, the soldier of the Roman legions combined

00:29:15.738 --> 00:29:22.018
the team-oriented tactics of the phalanxes with a fierce individual capacity for violence.

00:29:22.838 --> 00:29:26.458
Nearing the enemy ranks, these legionaries would launch their spears and then

00:29:26.458 --> 00:29:27.878
charge with their swords.

00:29:28.038 --> 00:29:32.078
Thus, the enemy would be inundated with falling missiles just before they withstood

00:29:32.078 --> 00:29:33.918
the impact of the charging legion.

00:29:34.575 --> 00:29:38.515
The legionaries, however they were armed, were led by centurions.

00:29:38.835 --> 00:29:44.175
A centurion, as you might guess from the name, led a group of soldiers numbering roughly 100.

00:29:44.515 --> 00:29:48.575
However, this was really more of an ideal number, and due to injuries,

00:29:48.835 --> 00:29:55.475
recruitment issues, illnesses, or whatever, a typical Roman century might only hold 80 men or even less.

00:29:56.215 --> 00:30:00.855
A centurion was something then like a lieutenant or a captain in a modern infantry

00:30:00.855 --> 00:30:05.675
force, commanding numbers somewhat larger than those in a modern infantry platoon,

00:30:05.855 --> 00:30:08.815
but smaller than a typical company-sized force.

00:30:09.315 --> 00:30:13.775
These centuries were organized into groups. Originally, those groups were called

00:30:13.775 --> 00:30:16.235
maniples, but later they were called cohorts.

00:30:16.635 --> 00:30:20.695
If you recall the Greek series of podcasts in the time of Alexander the Great,

00:30:20.695 --> 00:30:26.455
the Greek phalanx, or block of heavy infantry, was composed of 16 lines of 16

00:30:26.455 --> 00:30:29.175
soldiers, or about 256 men.

00:30:29.755 --> 00:30:33.895
The Roman version of this military unit was the cohort, which would consist

00:30:33.895 --> 00:30:39.075
of six centuries, and the cohort would vary in total numbers but usually contained

00:30:39.075 --> 00:30:41.935
less than 500 total men, most of the time.

00:30:42.135 --> 00:30:45.455
The cohort was commanded by the most senior centurion.

00:30:46.195 --> 00:30:50.495
Several of these cohorts would be organized into a full legion.

00:30:50.735 --> 00:30:53.595
Again, over time, the total would vary, but for our purposes,

00:30:54.075 --> 00:30:58.955
imagine the full legion usually numbering around 4,000 infantry soldiers.

00:30:59.335 --> 00:31:02.955
The legion was commanded by a legatus, or legate.

00:31:03.275 --> 00:31:08.775
This legate would also then be in charge of the legion's attached cavalry unit,

00:31:09.095 --> 00:31:13.635
typically composed of 300 horsemen, and these knights were usually picked from

00:31:13.635 --> 00:31:15.095
the highest patrician ranks.

00:31:15.815 --> 00:31:19.655
But just as when we learned about Greek military organization,

00:31:20.015 --> 00:31:24.035
there is less clear data about the additional personnel that surely would have

00:31:24.035 --> 00:31:25.895
been required for the legion to operate.

00:31:26.155 --> 00:31:30.755
The legions would have also had to employ or deploy numerous light troops,

00:31:31.075 --> 00:31:34.535
scouts, support personnel, camp followers, and so on.

00:31:35.135 --> 00:31:41.295
Regardless, two legions together formed a consular army, commanded by, of course, a consul.

00:31:42.035 --> 00:31:47.435
There were typically two consular armies in existence at any given time, one for each consul.

00:31:47.635 --> 00:31:51.475
Among the officers, there would be various ranks, such as the Optios,

00:31:51.695 --> 00:31:56.115
who assisted the centurions, and the Tribunes, who held varying levels of power

00:31:56.115 --> 00:32:00.575
within the legions, and the Praetors would become generals over the armies as

00:32:00.575 --> 00:32:04.755
they grew too many for the two consuls to command by themselves. Now,

00:32:05.263 --> 00:32:09.163
Even though I did say that there were no standing armies in the early republic,

00:32:09.403 --> 00:32:14.243
not as we have today, you must remember what I said earlier about the constant state of warfare.

00:32:14.603 --> 00:32:18.123
Essentially, men were always being called up to the legions because there was

00:32:18.123 --> 00:32:24.163
always trouble, so there really always was a conscript army ready or standing

00:32:24.163 --> 00:32:28.823
in action at any given time, even if Rome did not technically possess a standing army.

00:32:28.823 --> 00:32:33.463
And again, as time passed, the armies would become permanent and professional,

00:32:33.483 --> 00:32:35.623
as well as larger and more numerous.

00:32:36.543 --> 00:32:41.123
These terms and unit names will become more meaningful when we come to the Punic

00:32:41.123 --> 00:32:44.763
Wars, but it's important right away to get to know these things because many

00:32:44.763 --> 00:32:47.083
of those military offices that I mentioned,

00:32:47.483 --> 00:32:53.523
consuls, praetors, and so on, they were or could be simultaneously members of

00:32:53.523 --> 00:32:55.703
the government according to the Roman Constitution.

00:32:56.503 --> 00:33:01.723
Consuls, for example, were automatically both civil leaders and military commanders.

00:33:02.143 --> 00:33:05.663
There was just less distinction between the branches and departments of the

00:33:05.663 --> 00:33:06.683
government for the Romans.

00:33:07.343 --> 00:33:12.023
And now, having mentioned the Constitution, I think it's time to turn back to

00:33:12.023 --> 00:33:16.523
the civil arena of Roman life, so to speak, and to dig a little deeper into

00:33:16.523 --> 00:33:20.663
explaining the overall framework which organized the Roman government.

00:33:20.663 --> 00:33:25.523
In particular, we should look at the famous 12 tables of Roman law.

00:33:27.760 --> 00:33:35.760
Music.

00:33:36.343 --> 00:33:42.283
If I were to pronounce his name correctly in classical Latin, I would name him Cicero.

00:33:42.763 --> 00:33:47.283
But we are communicating in modern English, so just as I do not say Iudius Caesar

00:33:47.283 --> 00:33:51.983
to mean Julius Caesar, I will not say Cicero when I mean Cicero.

00:33:52.703 --> 00:33:56.443
Cicero was a Roman statesman and philosopher who lived during the last years

00:33:56.443 --> 00:34:00.483
of the Republic. He died just a year after Caesar was assassinated.

00:34:01.283 --> 00:34:05.623
Cicero made the claim during his lifetime that the twelve tables of Roman law

00:34:05.623 --> 00:34:10.723
were essentially superior to all the writings of all the philosophers who had ever lived.

00:34:11.691 --> 00:34:16.891
This knowledgeable and educated man, Cicero, knew of Plato, he knew of Aristotle,

00:34:16.891 --> 00:34:21.371
and many others, yet he still thought the Twelve Tables to be more valuable,

00:34:21.511 --> 00:34:26.271
far more valuable, than anything that those men had to say about life and law.

00:34:26.851 --> 00:34:33.371
Since time immemorial, Roman law had been essentially us divinum, that is, divine law.

00:34:33.611 --> 00:34:37.991
It all depended on a scattering of ancient dictates handed down from the gods

00:34:37.991 --> 00:34:39.491
and interpreted by the priests.

00:34:40.071 --> 00:34:45.211
The senators themselves kept a collection of prophecies and oracles known as the Sibylline Books.

00:34:45.431 --> 00:34:50.391
They kept them under lock and key, only to be consulted by them in times of great need.

00:34:50.971 --> 00:34:54.631
In the middle of the 5th century, though, that all seems to have changed.

00:34:54.891 --> 00:35:01.631
The famous Twelve Tables of Rome created a Ius Civile, a civil law which superseded

00:35:01.631 --> 00:35:03.851
much legal tradition that had come before.

00:35:04.551 --> 00:35:08.771
There were law codes appearing at this time all around the Mediterranean.

00:35:09.571 --> 00:35:14.571
Lycurgus and Solon had already given constitutions to the Spartans and the Athenians.

00:35:14.771 --> 00:35:19.891
In Rome, the Twelve Tables seemed to have appeared as a result of the class

00:35:19.891 --> 00:35:21.611
struggle, which I mentioned earlier.

00:35:22.071 --> 00:35:26.971
The patricians, of course, would have been content to continue on under ancient divine laws.

00:35:27.131 --> 00:35:31.231
After all, they essentially owned the priesthood, and the old ways, quote-unquote,

00:35:31.391 --> 00:35:34.571
were primarily focused on the troubles of the wealthy,

00:35:34.571 --> 00:35:38.991
And those old religious and legal traditions had little to say about the contemporary

00:35:38.991 --> 00:35:44.091
lives of common men who lived in an increasingly urbanized environment and who

00:35:44.091 --> 00:35:49.311
worked in the trades or tilled small pieces of land that surrounded growing cities like Rome.

00:35:49.996 --> 00:35:55.076
The laws written on the Twelve Tables then seem to be a compilation of concessions

00:35:55.076 --> 00:35:59.056
and compromises worked out between the patricians and the plebs,

00:35:59.196 --> 00:36:03.516
the commoners, who were gaining increasing power as the labor force of the city.

00:36:04.236 --> 00:36:08.056
And what did the Twelve Tables contain? They are, for one thing,

00:36:08.156 --> 00:36:13.496
a manual for legal procedures. For instance, the tables explain how to manage a trial.

00:36:13.696 --> 00:36:18.156
They tell you how long it can be and who oversees it and what verdicts are possible and so on.

00:36:18.876 --> 00:36:23.376
The tables also delineate specific rights that citizens and others had.

00:36:23.576 --> 00:36:28.916
They describe the privileges and duties of fathers who receive particular attention.

00:36:29.296 --> 00:36:32.936
Fathers were commanded to euthanize deformed children, for example,

00:36:33.096 --> 00:36:36.976
in these commandments, and such men were also permitted to remove their wives

00:36:36.976 --> 00:36:39.016
from their homes and to divorce them at will.

00:36:39.556 --> 00:36:44.756
A significant amount of space is given to instructions and restrictions for

00:36:44.756 --> 00:36:49.156
women in the Twelve Tables. They explain, for example, how a woman's property

00:36:49.156 --> 00:36:52.376
becomes her husband's property after a year of marriage.

00:36:52.536 --> 00:36:57.556
They also forbid women to wail loudly or cut their faces during a funeral,

00:36:57.856 --> 00:37:03.476
a remark which seems odd now, but perhaps then it was just customary for a man,

00:37:03.496 --> 00:37:06.996
a great man anyway, to have women wailing at his funeral.

00:37:07.236 --> 00:37:11.236
The wailing might have been truly inspired by grief, but it was also simply

00:37:11.236 --> 00:37:16.356
an expectation, a part of the ritual of death, to have such wailing at the graveside.

00:37:16.596 --> 00:37:22.216
This injunction, though, against women quote-unquote wailing too loudly is quite

00:37:22.216 --> 00:37:26.176
fitting for what was encouraged at this time to be the Roman temperament.

00:37:26.376 --> 00:37:29.476
Roman society expected public decorum.

00:37:29.796 --> 00:37:35.076
Passion was permitted, emotions were acknowledged, but one must demonstrate

00:37:35.076 --> 00:37:37.476
moderation and control at all times.

00:37:38.176 --> 00:37:43.356
Now, much of the language here in the Twelve Tables reminds us of any ancient

00:37:43.356 --> 00:37:47.396
legal document, such as, say, the Hebrew Torah, that is the first five books

00:37:47.396 --> 00:37:50.416
of the Bible, which contained many laws about everyday life.

00:37:50.636 --> 00:37:55.236
The Roman Twelve Tables define citizenship, they regulate lawsuits,

00:37:55.456 --> 00:37:59.116
describe punishments, and they delineate many more aspects of daily life.

00:37:59.796 --> 00:38:04.476
And while some of the things that I have mentioned may sound antiquated or strange,

00:38:04.476 --> 00:38:08.696
the Twelve Tables have had a lasting impact on our Western traditions.

00:38:09.256 --> 00:38:13.316
According to the Founding Fathers of the United States, the format and the legal

00:38:13.316 --> 00:38:17.416
logic of the Twelve Tables contributed greatly to the formation of the U.S.

00:38:17.516 --> 00:38:22.996
Constitution, and the laws in these tables are still studied around the world in legal schools.

00:38:23.416 --> 00:38:27.336
Because the tables are not just full of restrictions on women and penalties

00:38:27.336 --> 00:38:30.716
for witchcraft, nor are they just a laundry list of legalisms,

00:38:30.716 --> 00:38:35.716
there are some fundamental tenets of fairness and justice applied to Roman legal

00:38:35.716 --> 00:38:37.856
and civil life in the Twelve Tables.

00:38:38.296 --> 00:38:41.816
For instance, here in the Twelve Tables, we are told that it is forbidden for

00:38:41.816 --> 00:38:43.456
laws to be made in secret.

00:38:43.816 --> 00:38:47.656
In other words, everyone must have knowledge of the laws or have the ability

00:38:47.656 --> 00:38:50.536
to know the laws before they can be held accountable.

00:38:50.936 --> 00:38:55.376
The government cannot go passing laws secretly and then applying them to ignorant

00:38:55.376 --> 00:38:58.116
citizens, possibly even penalizing them for violations.

00:38:58.136 --> 00:39:01.796
This is something that we take for granted now in the West, but we get this

00:39:01.796 --> 00:39:06.056
idea of justice and other concepts from the Western traditions that we have

00:39:06.056 --> 00:39:07.836
received from the Greeks and the Romans.

00:39:08.595 --> 00:39:12.715
Other fundamentals taken from these 12 tables include the requirement of a guilty

00:39:12.715 --> 00:39:15.275
verdict in court before anyone can be executed,

00:39:15.515 --> 00:39:19.815
horrible repercussions for false accusers, the prohibition of perjury,

00:39:20.055 --> 00:39:25.435
the binding nature of verbal promises, the death penalty for corruption in judges, and more.

00:39:26.575 --> 00:39:30.135
However, if you have been paying close attention, you might have already noticed

00:39:30.135 --> 00:39:33.455
some discrepancies, some inconsistencies.

00:39:33.455 --> 00:39:37.855
For instance, earlier in this episode, I mentioned how Pope Licola made it legal

00:39:37.855 --> 00:39:41.815
to kill a man on the spot if he aspired to tyranny to the monarchy.

00:39:42.275 --> 00:39:45.915
That doesn't really square with the idea in the Twelve Tables that no one can

00:39:45.915 --> 00:39:48.055
be executed without a guilty verdict in court.

00:39:49.215 --> 00:39:53.095
But even though some historians that we will read throw around the phrase,

00:39:53.475 --> 00:39:58.315
the, quote, Roman Constitution, unquote, Rome did not really have a constitution

00:39:58.315 --> 00:39:59.835
like some countries do today.

00:39:59.835 --> 00:40:04.755
That is, a single written document accessible to all and supremely authoritative,

00:40:04.935 --> 00:40:07.695
which provides a foundation for all other law.

00:40:08.115 --> 00:40:11.675
Instead, it was perhaps a little more like the British Constitution.

00:40:12.135 --> 00:40:17.855
Roman jurists, like modern British legal experts, relied on a variety of codes,

00:40:18.035 --> 00:40:22.355
laws, customs, and precedents created throughout their overall history to interpret

00:40:22.355 --> 00:40:24.635
laws and determine legal outcomes.

00:40:25.175 --> 00:40:29.895
However, there were some firm parameters to all this, with things like the Twelve

00:40:29.895 --> 00:40:35.915
Tables providing clear judicial guidance, even if it was not an entirely all-encompassing constitution.

00:40:36.615 --> 00:40:40.535
Perhaps it could be said that the Roman Constitution was based on the Twelve

00:40:40.535 --> 00:40:45.575
Tables, but any citizen or jurist looking for legal guidance had to consider

00:40:45.575 --> 00:40:49.875
not only the Twelve Tables, but also a panoply of ancient traditions,

00:40:50.195 --> 00:40:54.795
legal precedents, and at times, they simply had to fall back on Roman gut instinct.

00:40:55.767 --> 00:41:01.027
Will Durant calls the Roman system a, quote, clumsy confusion of checks and

00:41:01.027 --> 00:41:04.747
balances in which nearly every command could, in times of peace,

00:41:04.847 --> 00:41:07.927
be nullified by an equal and opposite command, unquote.

00:41:08.467 --> 00:41:13.407
Now, there's a key subordinate clause in that sentence, in times of peace.

00:41:13.607 --> 00:41:17.987
Perhaps that's what allowed such a muddled governmental organization to endure

00:41:17.987 --> 00:41:19.327
for nearly five centuries.

00:41:19.487 --> 00:41:24.667
It was its almost continual state of war. The early Republic was always in danger

00:41:24.667 --> 00:41:26.427
and focused on external enemies.

00:41:26.707 --> 00:41:31.647
When the Punic Wars came centuries later, Rome became so focused on expansion

00:41:31.647 --> 00:41:37.107
that it again had a motive for cultural unity which was undeterred by any internal

00:41:37.107 --> 00:41:40.567
weaknesses, such as an unsatisfactory legal system.

00:41:41.227 --> 00:41:45.967
Finally, though, when it had achieved incredible territorial expansion in the

00:41:45.967 --> 00:41:51.027
late 2nd century BC, the dissatisfaction of the masses with the social and legal

00:41:51.027 --> 00:41:53.647
environment within Rome began to percolate.

00:41:53.867 --> 00:41:58.207
The history of the Republic after that juncture is one of chaotic government

00:41:58.207 --> 00:42:03.887
and a series of men seizing power to try to control the juggernaut of social upheaval.

00:42:04.267 --> 00:42:08.907
By the time of Julius Caesar in the following century, Corruption and social

00:42:08.907 --> 00:42:11.347
unrest had brought matters to a boiling point.

00:42:11.647 --> 00:42:15.947
So, the Roman Constitution was not really any kind of revolutionary document,

00:42:15.947 --> 00:42:20.027
nor was it a product of any sort of radical social experiment or movement,

00:42:20.167 --> 00:42:24.707
even though I mentioned how it codified certain fundamental concepts of fairness

00:42:24.707 --> 00:42:25.887
regarding legal openness,

00:42:26.227 --> 00:42:28.127
criminal charges, and verdicts, and so on.

00:42:28.407 --> 00:42:32.867
No, even though Will Durant declared that with the Twelve Tables,

00:42:33.067 --> 00:42:36.487
quote, Rome decided not to be a theocracy, unquote, quote,

00:42:37.127 --> 00:42:42.747
Rome still maintained a harsh civil discipline, about which Durant also says,

00:42:43.067 --> 00:42:48.547
quote, the twelve tables constituted one of the severest codes in history, unquote.

00:42:49.682 --> 00:42:53.902
The Twelve Tables freed Roman men from many illogical superstitions of the past,

00:42:53.942 --> 00:42:57.402
and it mandated that they have a source to which they could appeal regarding

00:42:57.402 --> 00:43:02.382
legal matters, but it still left them bound to a code of conduct built out of

00:43:02.382 --> 00:43:04.022
fierce personal expectations,

00:43:04.642 --> 00:43:08.442
and it acknowledged many privileges for the wealthy, and it did almost nothing

00:43:08.442 --> 00:43:10.342
for women, children, and slaves.

00:43:10.562 --> 00:43:15.802
For example, the Twelve Tables gave Roman men free reign to chastise their families

00:43:15.802 --> 00:43:20.102
and their household slaves, up to and including the option to kill any one of

00:43:20.102 --> 00:43:22.402
them without recourse to judicial inquest.

00:43:22.822 --> 00:43:28.582
Though paradoxically, at the same time, it did chastise men who were too severe

00:43:28.582 --> 00:43:29.902
on their families and slaves.

00:43:30.702 --> 00:43:36.182
From this, though, we get the concept of paterfamilias and the legendary Roman

00:43:36.182 --> 00:43:40.822
legal privilege granted to Roman men that allowed them to kill their own children

00:43:40.822 --> 00:43:43.022
outright, without explanation,

00:43:43.542 --> 00:43:45.802
without need for a trial, at any time.

00:43:46.162 --> 00:43:51.162
The father was supreme in Rome. His power over the household was known as the

00:43:51.162 --> 00:43:54.182
patria potesta, the power of the father.

00:43:54.602 --> 00:43:57.642
Everyone else had to live in fear of the father.

00:43:58.022 --> 00:44:02.762
The Roman father was the only one who really had recourse to the law.

00:44:02.942 --> 00:44:06.842
At the same time, While we emphasize this here with regard to the Romans,

00:44:07.342 --> 00:44:12.042
really, fathers possessed a sort of supreme power in their own homes in almost every culture.

00:44:12.302 --> 00:44:16.002
Rome just gets a bad rap for it because it left such a great footprint in our

00:44:16.002 --> 00:44:19.102
past while other cultures faded into obscurity.

00:44:19.962 --> 00:44:24.182
Roman fathers, even the least wealthy, had to be supported, though,

00:44:24.482 --> 00:44:29.002
because they led the households which produced the children who would become

00:44:29.002 --> 00:44:32.982
the future mothers and the future workers and soldiers of the Republic.

00:44:32.982 --> 00:44:37.422
As the soldiers defended the land, or expanded its territory,

00:44:38.022 --> 00:44:44.542
other men worked the land and brought forth the fruits upon which the nation would sustain itself.

00:44:46.480 --> 00:44:59.120
Music.

00:44:59.782 --> 00:45:02.902
We learn from cicero a saying attributed

00:45:02.902 --> 00:45:10.282
to marcus cato cato was a second century bc statesman soldier and writer but

00:45:10.282 --> 00:45:13.482
cato the elder was there's also a cato the younger in the following century

00:45:13.482 --> 00:45:15.742
But Cato the Elder was once asked

00:45:15.742 --> 00:45:19.882
what he thought was the best way to make profit from a parcel of land.

00:45:20.794 --> 00:45:25.114
Raise cattle successfully, was his characteristically terse response.

00:45:25.654 --> 00:45:28.614
Well, what's the second best way to make a living from the land,

00:45:28.654 --> 00:45:30.614
his inquirer persisted.

00:45:30.974 --> 00:45:35.554
Raise cattle with moderate success. Well, okay, what's the third best way,

00:45:35.634 --> 00:45:38.274
they continued in search of some variety in his answer.

00:45:38.774 --> 00:45:43.614
Raise cattle with poor success. And the fourth best way to earn a living from

00:45:43.614 --> 00:45:45.194
the land, they plied him desperately.

00:45:45.734 --> 00:45:50.394
Farm the land, Cato replied. What about money lending, he was then asked.

00:45:50.794 --> 00:45:52.794
What about murder? Cato responded.

00:45:53.314 --> 00:45:57.334
The preceding passage reveals many things about Roman character and society,

00:45:57.494 --> 00:46:00.674
but I want to focus right now on the land that Cato mentioned.

00:46:01.174 --> 00:46:04.714
Looking at Rome on a map, you might think that the Romans, like the Greeks,

00:46:04.914 --> 00:46:07.534
would have taken to the sea as natural sailors.

00:46:07.734 --> 00:46:10.734
They were so close to the ocean waters. It seemed natural.

00:46:11.094 --> 00:46:16.454
But the Romans were true landlubbers. Not until we come to the First Punic War

00:46:16.454 --> 00:46:21.294
in the middle of the 3rd century BC will the Roman army make its first short

00:46:21.294 --> 00:46:26.494
jaunt over a very narrow sea passage from the toe of Italy to the shores of Sicily.

00:46:27.574 --> 00:46:31.694
Early on in its history, Rome conquered the seaport of Ostia,

00:46:31.854 --> 00:46:35.374
just down the river Tiber, and gained access to the Turanian Sea.

00:46:35.714 --> 00:46:39.574
And they gladly received goods at that port, and from there they shipped their

00:46:39.574 --> 00:46:41.254
own products to the rest of the world.

00:46:41.414 --> 00:46:45.274
But they apparently left all that actual shipping to others,

00:46:45.514 --> 00:46:47.534
to Phoenicians and Greeks, maybe.

00:46:48.074 --> 00:46:53.954
No, the Romans looked to the land of Italy as their source of sustenance and

00:46:53.954 --> 00:46:58.914
to the homes that they built on that land as their refuge from the chaos of

00:46:58.914 --> 00:47:02.974
political struggles and the military conflicts in the outer world.

00:47:03.414 --> 00:47:06.674
The typical peasant family in the early years of the Republic,

00:47:06.814 --> 00:47:10.934
anyway, owned just a few acres of land, but this land was fertile.

00:47:11.634 --> 00:47:16.014
Volcanic deposits made millions of years before, and the ceaseless plowing and

00:47:16.014 --> 00:47:21.334
upturning of that soil for many centuries prior had turned that land fruitful.

00:47:21.814 --> 00:47:25.714
The father of the home rose early in the morning and with his older children

00:47:25.714 --> 00:47:28.714
and maybe a slave or two went to work outdoors.

00:47:29.214 --> 00:47:33.914
They plucked rocks from their fields each year. They plowed the land with oxen

00:47:33.914 --> 00:47:36.414
whose droppings added to the fertility of the soil.

00:47:36.574 --> 00:47:38.854
They sowed grains and legumes.

00:47:39.054 --> 00:47:44.174
They also grew onions and garlic and harvested fruit from trees of various kinds.

00:47:44.634 --> 00:47:50.054
This simple fare would serve to fill the bellies of the Republic's armies as well.

00:47:50.334 --> 00:47:54.934
The typical legionary sustained himself with a bare minimum of bread made from

00:47:54.934 --> 00:47:57.194
grain and a few vegetable garnishes.

00:47:57.454 --> 00:48:00.354
He almost never saw meat, except on rare occasions.

00:48:01.294 --> 00:48:05.474
Rome conquered the world on a vegetarian diet, as Will Durant tells us.

00:48:06.192 --> 00:48:10.972
Like most of Europe during ancient times, Italy was carpeted with rich forests.

00:48:11.532 --> 00:48:15.952
Neolithic farmers had worked for thousands of years to slowly clear away trees

00:48:15.952 --> 00:48:19.292
from limited areas and to develop the land thus revealed.

00:48:20.052 --> 00:48:24.232
Centuries of warfare, though, that those which followed the birth of the Republic

00:48:24.232 --> 00:48:28.212
would dangerously strip the land of this wealth of lumber as the trunks and

00:48:28.212 --> 00:48:32.052
branches were turned into poles for spears and planks for ships.

00:48:32.652 --> 00:48:35.712
This clearing of the land also brought disease.

00:48:36.192 --> 00:48:40.092
Sometime after the founding of the Republic, Romans began to suffer from the

00:48:40.092 --> 00:48:42.372
city's now famous strain of malaria.

00:48:43.012 --> 00:48:47.212
Roman fever became particularly prevalent in the lands just south of Rome,

00:48:47.372 --> 00:48:50.832
where deforestation had produced a marsh in which mosquitoes,

00:48:51.112 --> 00:48:54.552
perhaps originally from Africa, spawned and proliferated.

00:48:54.552 --> 00:49:00.032
The land was fertile in terms of agriculture then, but also in the diseases

00:49:00.032 --> 00:49:04.572
that come with proximity to herd animals, with exposure to wetlands,

00:49:04.732 --> 00:49:08.272
and with poor diets and the poor health of inner-city life.

00:49:08.832 --> 00:49:14.472
The land was not rich, though, in minerals, and this may be seen as a subtext

00:49:14.472 --> 00:49:17.372
and motive for the coming years of conquest.

00:49:17.612 --> 00:49:20.732
Ancient Italy had no gold mines and very little silver.

00:49:20.732 --> 00:49:25.592
There was some iron and other base metals, not enough really to support local

00:49:25.592 --> 00:49:30.072
industrial development, but enough, apparently, to make swords and spears for

00:49:30.072 --> 00:49:35.172
that Spartanly fed army to go out and conquer lands with richer deposits of ore.

00:49:35.612 --> 00:49:39.992
In the coming centuries, as Mediterranean trade continued to improve,

00:49:40.452 --> 00:49:45.572
figs, grapes, and olives would be introduced and bring some welcome variety to the local diet.

00:49:45.572 --> 00:49:51.592
But over time, war would also bring variety into the life of the sturdy peasant

00:49:51.592 --> 00:49:53.012
farmer of ancient Italy.

00:49:53.492 --> 00:49:58.632
Returning from one war or another, a farmer would find his fields in disarray

00:49:58.632 --> 00:50:00.832
due to neglect or destroyed by enemies.

00:50:01.192 --> 00:50:04.752
To rebuild, the peasant farmer often had to go into debt.

00:50:05.012 --> 00:50:10.032
The Twelve Tables had forbidden anything much higher than 8% interest on money

00:50:10.032 --> 00:50:14.192
lending, but lenders and usurers always found ways around this,

00:50:14.232 --> 00:50:18.792
and frequently interest rates of 15-20% were applied to such loans.

00:50:19.472 --> 00:50:24.832
When these debts overcame his ability to repay, the farmer sold his land to

00:50:24.832 --> 00:50:30.312
an aristocrat, who merged many such small holdings, all acquired inexpensively,

00:50:30.712 --> 00:50:37.072
into latifundia, or broad farmlands, and there the patrician pastured those

00:50:37.072 --> 00:50:40.132
cattle, of which Cato spoke at the beginning of this segment,

00:50:40.352 --> 00:50:47.692
while the now propertyless peasant moved to the city or became a hired hand on his own land.

00:50:48.549 --> 00:50:53.129
Where he mingled with the slaves of the new landowner. If he was lucky,

00:50:53.289 --> 00:50:54.629
he could become an overseer.

00:50:54.929 --> 00:50:58.489
Otherwise, the overseer would likely be a slave himself.

00:50:59.169 --> 00:51:05.649
If he chose to move to the city, the now landless peasant joined the sullen proletariat there,

00:51:05.809 --> 00:51:10.689
and in its streets he brewed the rebellion that would threaten Rome's peace

00:51:10.689 --> 00:51:16.069
again and again as the city lurched slowly toward autocracy and empire.

00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:31.280
Music.

00:51:31.229 --> 00:51:37.269
Probably no Roman father ever utilized the ultimate act of the patria potesta,

00:51:37.469 --> 00:51:40.789
the so-called opportunity to murder his own children.

00:51:40.909 --> 00:51:44.289
There is no evidence that this ever actually happened. Though,

00:51:44.389 --> 00:51:48.109
of course, people were commanded by Roman law to kill any children that were

00:51:48.109 --> 00:51:49.669
born hideously deformed.

00:51:49.849 --> 00:51:53.649
But as far as a man just up and killing his own son without warning,

00:51:53.769 --> 00:51:56.529
we have no evidence of this actually ever occurring.

00:51:56.789 --> 00:52:00.229
And much of this probably had to do with simple decorum, really.

00:52:00.669 --> 00:52:05.269
Romans cherished, above all, peace and order in their homes and in their neighborhoods.

00:52:05.569 --> 00:52:09.049
If a man was just randomly killing his own children down the street,

00:52:09.249 --> 00:52:13.509
you could not really live in peace in your own home. Romans expected things

00:52:13.509 --> 00:52:15.609
to be done properly in a process.

00:52:16.447 --> 00:52:21.187
Hence, when Jesus of Nazareth was accused of usurping authority in a Roman land,

00:52:21.427 --> 00:52:27.047
yes, he was horribly crucified, but first, he got a trial and an opportunity to defend himself.

00:52:27.247 --> 00:52:31.847
He couldn't just be randomly slain, not even by centurions or even by Pontius

00:52:31.847 --> 00:52:32.967
Pilate, the local governor.

00:52:33.687 --> 00:52:37.627
This patria putesta, the tyrannical power granted to fathers,

00:52:37.887 --> 00:52:42.887
most likely served more as a symbol of the fundamental importance of fatherhood

00:52:42.887 --> 00:52:46.627
in Roman society and of the importance of the home.

00:52:46.787 --> 00:52:51.907
I have stated before, and I reiterate now, the value, the centrality of the

00:52:51.907 --> 00:52:53.807
hearth and the home for the Romans.

00:52:54.207 --> 00:53:00.267
Yes, Rome was a strongly patriarchal society, but not anywhere near as brutal

00:53:00.267 --> 00:53:01.747
as it appears in writing.

00:53:02.467 --> 00:53:07.867
Home was a place of peace, a place where the stern father technically held supreme

00:53:07.867 --> 00:53:12.807
power, but where the feminine poetry of the mother was the steward of that power,

00:53:13.147 --> 00:53:17.327
the spirit which held the family intact around its central hearth fire.

00:53:17.827 --> 00:53:22.927
Yet, the discipline which the fathers applied to their children would make this

00:53:22.927 --> 00:53:24.807
nascent state indomitable.

00:53:25.187 --> 00:53:28.587
It is centuries before we come to the philosophy of the Stoics,

00:53:28.607 --> 00:53:31.387
but the Romans were the original Stoics.

00:53:31.747 --> 00:53:36.247
Raised to seek honor and to endure life's setbacks with dignity,

00:53:36.547 --> 00:53:40.927
the Romans, for the better part of five centuries, looked outward at the world

00:53:40.927 --> 00:53:44.607
rather than inward at their own internal or spiritual affairs.

00:53:44.887 --> 00:53:50.427
They kept themselves busy bringing order to the chaotic world that they observed around them.

00:53:50.667 --> 00:53:56.027
As Will Durant says, the Roman, quote, could not for the life of him understand

00:53:56.027 --> 00:53:58.567
Plato or Archimedes or Christ.

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He could only rule the world.

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In the next episode in this series, we will meet some of the great men who shaped

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the early republic, men who saved Rome both from regional enemies in Italy and

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from its own internal woes.

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Until then, I thank you for listening to the Western Traditions Podcast.

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Music.