Speaker 1: Section seventeen of the Groaky Marius and Sulla by A. H. Beasley.
Speaker 1: This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami,
Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, Sullah's reactionary measures. It is difficult to say
Speaker 1: about part of the legislation of this period whether it
Speaker 1: was directly due to Sullah or not, just as some
Speaker 1: of the changes in the army may or may not
Speaker 1: have been due to Marius, but were certainly made about
Speaker 1: his time. The method of gathering all the changes made
Speaker 1: within certain dates, attributing them to one man and basing
Speaker 1: an estimate of his character on them, has a simplicity
Speaker 1: about it, which enables the writer to be graphic and
Speaker 1: spares the reader trouble. But it is an unsatisfactory way
Speaker 1: of presenting history. Enough, however, is known of Sullah's own measures,
Speaker 1: to make their general tendency perfectly plain. His main object
Speaker 1: was to restore the authority of the Senate, and to
Speaker 1: do more than restore it, to give it such power
Speaker 1: as might, if it was true to itself, secure it
Speaker 1: from mob rule on the one hand and tyranny on
Speaker 1: the other. Though he foresaw that his efforts would be futile,
Speaker 1: he was none the less energetic in making them, and
Speaker 1: may reasonably have hoped that they would, at any events,
Speaker 1: last his time and enable him to enjoy himself in
Speaker 1: Campania undisturbed by another revolution. Our acquaintance with his laws
Speaker 1: is only second hand, for none of them survive in
Speaker 1: their original form. They are known as legace cornelie, a
Speaker 1: term which, though applicable to some other lawses, usually apply
Speaker 1: to those of his making. The Senate had originally been
Speaker 1: an advising council. Then it had acquired superior authority and
Speaker 1: issued commands to the magistrates. It was placed by Solah
Speaker 1: in a still higher position. To fill up its exhausted ranks.
Speaker 1: He admitted to it three hundred of the Equestrian order,
Speaker 1: and though it is not certain what its numbers were
Speaker 1: to be, it is probable that they were fixed at
Speaker 1: about five hundred. Then he provided for keeping the list
Speaker 1: full for the future. Hitherto, a man had become a senator,
Speaker 1: either at the Kensor's summons, of which he was practically
Speaker 1: certain if he had been tribune or chwistor, or if
Speaker 1: he had been consul prietor or ideal Sola made the
Speaker 1: choister ship instead of the ideal ship. The regular stepping stone,
Speaker 1: and increased the number of the Chuistors to twenty. He also,
Speaker 1: in all probability, though it is not certain, took away
Speaker 1: from the Kensors their right of conferring or taking away
Speaker 1: senatorial rank. Once a senator, always a senator was therefore
Speaker 1: now the rule, and as the Chuistors, who were the
Speaker 1: main source of supply, were nominated by the committee at Tributta,
Speaker 1: the Senate became a more representative as well as a
Speaker 1: more permanent body than before, and independent of the magistrates. Secondly,
Speaker 1: we have seen that Sullah had given to the Senate
Speaker 1: by law the power which it had previously exercised only
Speaker 1: by custom, of deliberating on a measure before it was
Speaker 1: submitted to the vote of the committee. This was one
Speaker 1: security against any measure being carried against its interests. Before this,
Speaker 1: the practice had been either for the Senate through the Tribunes,
Speaker 1: to submit a measure to the vote, or for the
Speaker 1: tribunes to submit a measure of their own after obtaining
Speaker 1: the Senate's authority to do so. Saturninus, as we have seen,
Speaker 1: had overridden this custom, and the only way in which
Speaker 1: the Senate could maintain its old privileges would have been
Speaker 1: either by proclaiming a eustacium, as it did on that occasion,
Speaker 1: or by picking out some technical informality in the passing
Speaker 1: of the plebiscitum had not. Sullah thus made its previous
Speaker 1: off authorization absolutely indispensable, the tribunes, being deprived of the
Speaker 1: power of proposing a measure at will to the committee.
Speaker 1: A tributta would also lose the power of prosecuting any
Speaker 1: one before it, and probably lost the right of convening
Speaker 1: meetings in order to address the people. Sulla too provided
Speaker 1: that those who had bidden tribunes should be ineligible to
Speaker 1: other offices, and though the right of the veto seems
Speaker 1: to have been left to them, it is not clear
Speaker 1: that it was left without restrictions, while the abuse of
Speaker 1: it was made a heavily punishable offense. It is likely
Speaker 1: also that he made senators the only persons eligible to
Speaker 1: the tribunate. Positively, therefore, by making the senate's previous consent
Speaker 1: to a law necessary, and negatively, by these limitations of
Speaker 1: the prerogative of the tribunes, legislative power was placed wholly
Speaker 1: in the Senate's hands. Thirdly, the balance in the committee
Speaker 1: of themselves was so adjusted that the voting would be
Speaker 1: mostly in the Senate's interests. Something has already been said
Speaker 1: of Sulla's changes on this head in reverting to the
Speaker 1: servian mode of voting. Some explanation of what this means
Speaker 1: may be given here. Sullah did not abolish the Committee
Speaker 1: a tributta, but the measures just mentioned, as they left
Speaker 1: the practical power of legislation with the Senate, left the
Speaker 1: formal power with the Comittia centuriata. We know the origin
Speaker 1: of the Committia canuriata. We do not know the origin
Speaker 1: of the Committee a tributta, but we do know that
Speaker 1: by degrees the latter obtained the legislative power co ordinate
Speaker 1: with that of the former, and that the plebiscitum became
Speaker 1: as binding on the nation as the leks. There were,
Speaker 1: in short, two parallel bodies in which the people could
Speaker 1: make laws, ranged in the one by tribes and voting
Speaker 1: on measures submitted to them by their tribunes, ranged in
Speaker 1: the other by centuries, and voting on measures submitted to
Speaker 1: them by the consul. But as the state became more
Speaker 1: and more democratic, the Committee a tributa was more used
Speaker 1: than the committea canturiata, in which legislation was gradually confined
Speaker 1: to special matters assigned to them by law or custom.
Speaker 1: Besides these functions, the Committee tributa decided on war or peace,
Speaker 1: elected the tribunes, idles and lesser magistrates, and also usurped
Speaker 1: judicial power, arraigning magistrates for their conduct and office, et cetera.
Speaker 1: The functions of the Committea conturiata were, as we have seen,
Speaker 1: also legislative. They elected to the higher magistracies and exercised
Speaker 1: jurisdiction in capital cases, a function which grew out of
Speaker 1: the Roman citizen's right to appeal. Each century had one vote,
Speaker 1: and as by the Servian arrangement, the first class, though
Speaker 1: containing fewest voters, had nevertheless, owing to its highest assessment
Speaker 1: most votes, it could by itself outvote the other classes.
Speaker 1: At some time or other, this classification was altered, and
Speaker 1: a new system, based partly on centuries and partly on tribes,
Speaker 1: came into use. Each tribe was divided into ten centuries,
Speaker 1: five of seniors and five of juniors. The first class
Speaker 1: consisted of one of each of these from each tribe,
Speaker 1: so that as there were thirty five tribes, each class
Speaker 1: would consist of seventy centuries. It is said by some
Speaker 1: that the first class included also thirty five centuries or
Speaker 1: eighteen centuries of equitase. If this be true, the first
Speaker 1: class would still have retained the preponderance of votes. In
Speaker 1: any case, it had the best of the voting. For
Speaker 1: even if it was decided by lot, which century of
Speaker 1: all the centuries should vote first, still the first class
Speaker 1: voted second, and the moral effect of the wealthier and
Speaker 1: weightier citizens voting one way or other would naturally influence
Speaker 1: the votes of the other centuries. Moreover, some say that
Speaker 1: the lot was confined to the centuries of the first class.
Speaker 1: Such then was the original and such the modified constitution
Speaker 1: of the Kamytia Kenturiata. Appian expressly states that Sullah reverted
Speaker 1: to the original mode of voting, but he may be
Speaker 1: confusing things and only mean that Sellah took the voting
Speaker 1: power from the committea Tributta and vested it in the
Speaker 1: committea Kentoiata, and this probably is what Sullah did. Fourthly,
Speaker 1: as Sullah weakened the cancership in order to exalt the
Speaker 1: Senate's authority at its expense, so to prevent any individual
Speaker 1: again obtaining undue influence. He ordained that no man should
Speaker 1: be consoled till he had been first kwistor and then pritor,
Speaker 1: and that no man should be re eligible to a
Speaker 1: cur rule offe office till after an interval of ten years. This, however,
Speaker 1: was not enough. It was his object to curtail the
Speaker 1: powers of every magistrate. And therefore, though the Consulate was
Speaker 1: not dangerous to the Senate in the sense that the
Speaker 1: Tribunate was, he laid hands both on it and on
Speaker 1: the pritor ship. The functions of the consuls and priters
Speaker 1: had hitherto been these. The consuls had the general superintendence
Speaker 1: of all except judicial matters at home, and the military
Speaker 1: superintendents in all the provinces except Sicily, Sardinia, and the
Speaker 1: two Spains, in which they only occasionally exercised their imperium.
Speaker 1: One pritor, the pritor urbanus, presided over civil suits between
Speaker 1: Roman citizens. Another, the pritor peregrinus, superintended such suits between
Speaker 1: a citizen and an alien, or between two aliens. The
Speaker 1: other four were over the four above mentioned provinces. Piece
Speaker 1: of need, one man could do the work both of
Speaker 1: the priter urbanus and the prider Peregrinus, leaving his colleague
Speaker 1: free for a military command. Or the consul or prider
Speaker 1: might have his term of office extended, being bound to
Speaker 1: continue in his command till a successor arrived, or one
Speaker 1: consul might manage the ordinary functions of both, and the
Speaker 1: other be similarly left free for some special employment. The
Speaker 1: Senate could in any given year assign as business to
Speaker 1: be superintended by a consul or a priter, some military
Speaker 1: command or judicial commission, and then the consuls or priters
Speaker 1: had to settle by law or by agreement who should
Speaker 1: undertake it. As the state grew greater, these special assignations
Speaker 1: had to be made oftener. There had been eight officials
Speaker 1: for eight offices. Now five new superintendents had to be
Speaker 1: provided for Asia, Africa, Macedonia, Narbo and Silicia, as well
Speaker 1: as one for the Quistio de Repetunda. To enable eight
Speaker 1: men to do the work of fourteen, the Senate made
Speaker 1: prolongation of office for a second year the rule, and
Speaker 1: the officials confined by the nature of these duties to
Speaker 1: the city during these years of office were generally sent
Speaker 1: at the end of it to the transmarine provinces, where
Speaker 1: most money was to be made. Sulla increased the six
Speaker 1: pridors to eight, and made the two years term of
Speaker 1: office the legal term. But if this added to their
Speaker 1: power and appearance, he diminished it in reality by separating
Speaker 1: the civil from the military functions altogether. The consuls and
Speaker 1: priters were to manage the civil business of Rome. The
Speaker 1: pro consuls and proprietors were to command the army. In
Speaker 1: the first year of office, the two consuls had the
Speaker 1: general administration of Rome, and two of the priters its
Speaker 1: judicial administration. The other six presided over the various courts.
Speaker 1: In the second, the ten exercised the anas imperium in Sicily, Sardinia,
Speaker 1: the two Spains, Asia, Africa, Macedonia, Silicia, and the two Gauls,
Speaker 1: and none of them might stay in his province beyond
Speaker 1: thirty days after his successor's arrival, or under penalties for treason,
Speaker 1: might leave his province during his term, or attack a
Speaker 1: foreign power without express leave from home. The effect of
Speaker 1: all this is plain. Whereas formerly the magistrates directly elected
Speaker 1: in the committee and might combine civil and military authority,
Speaker 1: now the military authority could only be held by those
Speaker 1: whose term of office was prolonged by the Senate's pleasure,
Speaker 1: For though the practice became invariable, it remained at the
Speaker 1: Senate's discretion to break through it when it chose. Fifthly,
Speaker 1: having thus lessened the power of the cansors, consuls, priters,
Speaker 1: and tribunes, he, by way of compensation, a serio comic compensation,
Speaker 1: it must have seemed to his shrewd yet so superstitious mind,
Speaker 1: restored the right of co optation to the sacred colleges
Speaker 1: of augurs and pontiffs, and increased their numbers, thus multiplying
Speaker 1: harmless objects of rivalry analogous to the ribbons and garters
Speaker 1: of modern courts. Sixthly, he took away from the equitase
Speaker 1: and restored to the Senate the eudykia. The udykia have
Speaker 1: been often mentioned, and something may be said about them here.
Speaker 1: In civil suits, the priter, as we have seen, had
Speaker 1: the superintendence. Sometimes he decided a case at once. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: if he thought the case should be tried, he appointed
Speaker 1: a udex, giving him certain instructions by which, after the investigation,
Speaker 1: he must decide the case. His action here would be
Speaker 1: something like one of our judge's charges, but given before
Speaker 1: hearing the evidence, there is nothing to prove that a
Speaker 1: udex of this kind was at this time taken from
Speaker 1: any special class, or that Salah interfered with the established
Speaker 1: mode of procedure. It was about the constitution of the
Speaker 1: criminal courts that the long struggle had raged between the
Speaker 1: Senate and Equitas, and here he made great changes. He
Speaker 1: found some permanent criminal courts, for example, the kuistio de repetundus,
Speaker 1: or court for investigating cases of extortion in the provinces,
Speaker 1: already in existence. He instituted or settled others. But it
Speaker 1: cannot be ascertained how many of the following which were
Speaker 1: in existence after his time were due to him. There
Speaker 1: were at least nine of these permanent courts quistiones perpetui,
Speaker 1: the kuistio may estates deui des sicariis, and et cetera,
Speaker 1: de wenefiki es de perichidio de falso de repetundus, peculatus ambitus,
Speaker 1: or courts for trying cases of treason, violence, assassination, poisoning, parricide, forgery, extortion, embezzlement,
Speaker 1: and and there may have been more, for example de
Speaker 1: adulteries and de plagiis for trying cases of adultery and
Speaker 1: the enslavement of freemen. His object in consolidating them was
Speaker 1: to take from the Committea the settlement of criminal cases,
Speaker 1: and to obviate the necessity for appointing special commissions, for
Speaker 1: there was no appeal from the Christio, and the special
Speaker 1: commission was seldom requisite when so many courts were available.
Speaker 1: To preside in these courts, there were six priters, but
Speaker 1: as there were more courts than priters, a senator called
Speaker 1: udex Chistionis was appointed annually for each court where a
Speaker 1: president was wanting something, after the fashion by which one
Speaker 1: of our judges, sometimes impressive business, appoints a barrister as
Speaker 1: his deputy to clear off the cases. The priter or
Speaker 1: udex Christionis presided over the judges in each court, and
Speaker 1: the uticase returned a verdict by by a majority of votes,
Speaker 1: sometimes given by ballot, sometimes openly. In choosing these uticase,
Speaker 1: this was the process. The whole number available was, it
Speaker 1: is said, three hundred, divided into three de curii. In
Speaker 1: any given case, the priter named the decuria from which
Speaker 1: the jurymen were to be taken, and then drew from
Speaker 1: an urn containing their names the number assigned by law
Speaker 1: for the case to be decided. Each side could then
Speaker 1: challenge a certain number, and fresh names were drawn from
Speaker 1: the urn in place of those challenged. What Sullah did
Speaker 1: was to supply these d kurii from the senators instead
Speaker 1: of the Equitaise. One of the permanent courts found by
Speaker 1: Salah already existing was that of the Kentumwiri, who had
Speaker 1: jurisdiction over disputed inheritances. The members of it were elected
Speaker 1: by the tribes, three by each tribe, one hundred and
Speaker 1: five in all. Though it was directly elected by the people,
Speaker 1: Sullah could apprehend no danger from such a court and
Speaker 1: did not meddle with it. Other measures as attributed to
Speaker 1: Sullah on evidence more or less probable, such as the
Speaker 1: suppression of gratuitous distributions of corn, the abolition of the
Speaker 1: right of freedmen to vote and of the reserved seats
Speaker 1: appropriated to the equitase at public festivals, the re establishment
Speaker 1: in Asia of fixed taxes instead of the farming system,
Speaker 1: the extension of Italy proper from the Isis to the Rubicon,
Speaker 1: and the conversion of Cisalpine Gaul into a province. It
Speaker 1: may be considered certain that he did all that he
Speaker 1: could to humiliate the equitase, but the settlement of Italy
Speaker 1: was probably not due to him. Other minor laws of
Speaker 1: which he was the author, dealt with specific criminal offenses
Speaker 1: or social matters. One, as we have seen, specified the
Speaker 1: penalties for all sorts of assassination and poisoning. Another dealt
Speaker 1: with forgery, another with violence to the person or property,
Speaker 1: another with marriage and probably adultery. Another was a sumptuary law,
Speaker 1: which is said to have limited the price of certain luxuries.
Speaker 1: If this was the case, it was even sillier than
Speaker 1: other sumptuary laws, for it would have encouraged, instead of
Speaker 1: checking gluttony. Lastly, there was a law for the settlement
Speaker 1: of his colonies through Italy and at Aleria in Corsica.
Speaker 1: Selah had, for the moment undone by his legislation the
Speaker 1: work of ages. He gagged free speech by the disabilities
Speaker 1: attached to the tribunet. He kept the government within a
Speaker 1: close circle. By his process of recruiting the Senate, he
Speaker 1: made the magistrates subordinate to the Senate. He filled Italy
Speaker 1: and Rome with his own partisans, and therefore with those
Speaker 1: of the Senate, and he gave back to the Senate
Speaker 1: that coveted possession of the Eudikia for which it had
Speaker 1: struggled so long with the equities. But a system which
Speaker 1: could endure only by the repression not only of hostile interests,
Speaker 1: but of the ambition of his own adherents, carried in
Speaker 1: itself the seeds of early dissolution. Almost before the reaction
Speaker 1: was complete, a counter reaction had begun. Abdication only revealed monarchy,
Speaker 1: and the broad road which Sullah had laid over the
Speaker 1: breakers and quicksands of revolution, in reality paved the way
Speaker 1: to a throne. When he abdicated, he offered to render
Speaker 1: account to anyone for his acts, and there is a
Speaker 1: story that one young man thereupon followed him to his home,
Speaker 1: loading him with abuse, which Sullah listened to with meekness.
Speaker 1: If the story be true, the incident was probably a
Speaker 1: prearranged part of the ceremony of abdication, which, in everything
Speaker 1: except the fact that Sellah slipped off the cares of government,
Speaker 1: was of course a farce. His funeral showed what his
Speaker 1: real power continued to be. And if another anecdote be true,
Speaker 1: just before his death he had a magistrate of Puteoli
Speaker 1: strangled because he had not collected in time his town's
Speaker 1: subscription to the restoration of the capital. He had, in
Speaker 1: fact done mischievously what the Groki would have done beneficently,
Speaker 1: and greedy swordsmen occupied the soil which the tribunes would
Speaker 1: have divided peaceably among peaceable men. The civil wars and
Speaker 1: the triumvirates are the best vindication of the policy of
Speaker 1: the Graki, unless we can bring ourselves to fancy that
Speaker 1: the Graki created, instead of attempting wisely to satisfy the
Speaker 1: demands of the age, by an orderly intermixture of Italians
Speaker 1: and foreigners with the corrupt body of Roman citizens, new
Speaker 1: life might have been infused into the old system, and
Speaker 1: something foreshadowing modern representative government have been established without proscription
Speaker 1: or prietorian rule. As it was, the vices of society
Speaker 1: only became aggravated at Inns era of violence, and the
Speaker 1: sharpest remedies failed to stay the creeping paralysis by which
Speaker 1: it was assailed. The gradual depopulation of Italy has already
Speaker 1: been described. In spite of Sullah's colonies. The ruin of
Speaker 1: the country must have been vastly accelerated by his civil
Speaker 1: wars and those which followed them. And while the honest
Speaker 1: country class was dying out, the town class was ever
Speaker 1: plunging deeper into frivolity and voluptuousness. To defray the cost
Speaker 1: of the sumptuous life of the capital, the fashionable spendthrift
Speaker 1: was forced to resort to extortion in the provinces, which,
Speaker 1: as we have seen, became so crying and evil that
Speaker 1: a permanent court existed for dealing with it. Before the
Speaker 1: time of Sullah, the greedy throve in usury or involving
Speaker 1: the state in war to fill their own persons. The
Speaker 1: fortunes amassed by an aquilius o veras Seleucullis spoke as
Speaker 1: eloquently of Rome's rapacity abosd Rod as did those of
Speaker 1: Crassus or Sullah in Italy. Such being the state of
Speaker 1: things under the government which Sullah strove to perpetuate. His
Speaker 1: character as a statesman deserves as strong reprobation as his
Speaker 1: conduct as a man. To lay down power from a
Speaker 1: sense of duty is one thing, cynically to shrink from
Speaker 1: responsibility as another. The misery of the following half century
Speaker 1: must be laid chiefly at Sulla's door. The inevitable goal
Speaker 1: to which everything was tending, was as patent in his
Speaker 1: time as in the time of Augustus. Whatever may have
Speaker 1: been for the interest of the Roman aristocracy monarchy was
Speaker 1: by this time for the interest of the Roman world.
Speaker 1: End of Section seventeen, read by Pamela Nagami, MD, in Encino, California,
Speaker 1: November twenty twenty one. End of the Groci, Marius and
Speaker 1: Sullah by A. H. Beasley