INTRODUCTION
THE plebeians
1 and Senate
of
Rome [in the olden time] were
often at strife with each other concerning the enactment of laws, the
cancelling of debts, the division of lands, or the election of magistrates.
Internal discord did not bring them to blows, however; these were
dissensions merely and contests within the law, which they composed by
making mutual concessions, and with much respect for
each other. Once when the
plebeians were going to a war
they fell into such a
controversy, but they did not use the weapons in their hands, but withdrew
to the hill, which from this time on was called the Sacred Mount.
2 Even
then no violence was done, but they created a magistrate for their
protection and called him the tribune of the plebs, to serve especially as a
check upon the consuls, who were chosen by the Senate, so that the political
power should not be exclusively in their hands. Whence arose still greater
bitterness, and the magistrates were arrayed in stronger animosity to each
other after this event, and the Senate and plebeians took sides with them,
each believing that it would prevail over the other by augmenting the power
of its own magistrates. In the midst of contests of this kind Marcius
Coriolanus, having been banished contrary
to justice, took refuge with the Volsci and
levied war
against his country.
[
2]
This is the only case of armed strife that can be found in the ancient
seditions, and this was caused by an exile. The sword was never carried into
the assembly,
and there was no civil butchery until Tiberius Gracchus,
while serving as tribune and bringing forward new
laws, was the first to fall a victim to internal commotion; and many others
besides, who were assembled with him at the Capitol, were slain around the
temple. Sedition did not end with this abominable deed. Repeatedly the
parties came into open conflict, often carrying daggers; and occasionally in
the temples, or the assemblies, or the forum, some one serving as tribune,
or prætor, or consul, or a candidate for those offices, or some
person otherwise distinguished, would be slain. Unseemly violence prevailed
almost constantly, together with shameful contempt for law and justice. As
the evil gained in magnitude open insurrections against the government and
large warlike expeditions against the country were undertaken by exiles, or
criminals, or persons contending against each other for some office or
military command. There were chiefs of factions in different places aspiring
to supreme power, some of them refusing to disband the troops intrusted to
them by the people, others levying forces against each other on their own
account, without public authority. Whichever of them first got possession of
the city, the others made war nominally against their adversaries, but
actually against their country. They assailed it like a foreign enemy.
Ruthless and indiscriminate massacres of citizens were perpetrated. Men were
proscribed, others banished, property was confiscated, and some were even
subjected to excruciating tortures.
[
3]
No unseemly deed was wanting until, about fifty years after the death of
Gracchus, Cornelius Sulla, one of these chiefs of factions, doctoring one
evil with another, made himself the absolute master of the state for an
indefinite period. Such officials were formerly called dictators -- an
office created in the most perilous emergencies for six months only, and
long since fallen into disuse. Sulla, although nominally elected, became
dictator for life by force and compulsion. Nevertheless he became satiated
with power and was the first man, so far as I
know, holding
supreme power, who had the courage to lay it down voluntarily
and to declare that he would render an account of his
stewardship to any who were dissatisfied with it. And so, for a considerable
period, he walked to the forum as a private citizen in the sight of all and
returned home unmolested, so great was the awe of his government still
remaining in the minds of the onlookers, or their amazement at his laying it
down. Perhaps they were ashamed to call for an accounting, or entertained
other good feeling toward him, or a belief that his despotism had been
beneficial to the state. Thus there was a cessation of factions for a short
time while Sulla lived, and a compensation for the evils which Sulla had
wrought.
[
4]
After his death the troubles broke out afresh and
continued until Gaius
Cæsar, who had held the command
in
Gaul by election for some years, was
ordered by the Senate to lay down his command. He charged that it was not
the wish of the Senate, but of Pompey, his enemy, who had command of an army
in
Italy, and was scheming to
depose him. So he sent a proposal that both should retain their armies, so
that neither need fear the other's enmity, or that Pompey should dismiss his
forces also and live as a private citizen under the laws in like manner with
him-self. Both requests being refused, he marched from
Gaul against Pompey in the Roman
territory, entered it, put him to flight, pursued him into
Thessaly, won a brilliant
victory over him
in a great battle, and followed him to
Egypt. After Pompey had been slain
by the Egyptians Cæsar set to work on the affairs of
Egypt and remained there until he had
settled the dynasty of that country. Then he returned to
Rome. Having overpowered by war his
principal rival, who had been surnamed the Great on account of his brilliant
military exploits, he now ruled without disguise, nobody daring any longer
to dispute him about anything, and was chosen, next after Sulla, dictator
for life. Again all civil dissensions ceased until Brutus and Cassius,
envious of his great power and desiring to restore the government of their
fathers, slew in the Senate this most popular man, who was also the one most
experienced in the art
of government. The people mourned for him greatly.
They scoured the city in pursuit of his murderers.
They buried him in the middle of the forum and built a temple on the place
of his funeral pile, and offered sacrifice to him as a god.
[
5]
And now civil discord broke out again worse than
ever and
increased enormously. Massacres, banishments, and proscriptions of both
senators and the so-called knights took place straightway, including great
numbers of both classes, the chief of factions surrendering their enemies to
each other, and for this purpose not sparing even their friends and
brothers; so much does animosity toward rivals overpower the love of
kindred. So in the course of events the Roman empire was partitioned, as
though it had been their private property, by these three men: Antony,
Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius, but afterward
Cæsar from his relationship to the other Cæsar and
adoption in his will. Shortly after this division they fell to quarrelling
among themselves, as was natural, and Octavius,
who was the superior in
understanding and skill, first
deprived Lepidus of
Africa, which had fallen to his lot, and
afterward,
as the result of the battle of
Actium, took from
Antony all the
provinces lying between
Syria and
the Adriatic gulf. Thereupon, while all the world was filled with
astonishment at these wonderful displays of power, he sailed to
Egypt and took that country, which was the
oldest and at that time the strongest possession of the successors of
Alexander, and the only one wanting to complete the Roman empire as it now
stands. In consequence of these
exploits he was at once elevated to the rank of a deity
while
still living, and was the first to be thus
distinguished by the Romans, and was called by them Augustus. He assumed to
himself an authority like Cæsar's over the country and the subject
nations, and even greater than Cæsar's, not needing any form of
election, or authorization, or even the pretence of it. His government being
strengthened by time and mastery, and himself successful in all things and
revered by all, he left a lineage and succession that held the supreme power
in like manner after him.
[
6]
Thus, out of multifarious civil commotions, the Roman state passed into
solidarity and monarchy. To show how these things came about I have written
and compiled piled this narrative, which is well worth the study of those
who wish to know the measureless ambition of men, their dreadful lust of
power, their unwearying perseverance, and the countless forms of evil. It is
especially necessary for me to describe these things beforehand since they
are the preliminaries of my Egyptian history, and end where that begins, for
Egypt was seized in consequence
of this last civil commotion, Cleopatra having joined forces with Antony. On
account of its magnitude I have divided the work, first taking up the events
that occurred from the time of Sempronius Gracchus to that of Cornelius
Sulla; next, those that followed to the death of Cæsar. The
remaining books of the civil wars treat of those waged by the triumvirs
against each other and the Roman people, until the end of these conflicts,
and the greatest achievement, the battle of
Actium, fought by Octavius Cæsar against Antony
and Cleopatra together, which will be the beginning of the Egyptian
history.
