The Story of Civilization: Volume III: Caesar and Christ Read online

  Table of Contents

  INTRODUCTION: ORIGINS

  Chapter I. ETRUSCAN PRELUDE: 800-508 B.C.

  I. Italy

  II. Etruscan Life

  III. Etruscan Art

  IV. Rome Under the Kings

  V. The Etruscan Domination

  VI. The Birth of the Republic

  BOOK I: THE REPUBLIC: 508-30 B.C..

  Chronological Table

  Chapter II. THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY: 508-264 B.C.

  I. Patricians and Plebs

  II. The Constitution of the Republic

  1. The Lawmakers

  2. The Magistrates

  3. The Beginnings of Roman Law

  4. The Army of the Republic

  III. The Conquest of Italy

  Chapter III. HANNIBAL AGAINST ROME: 264-202 B.C.

  I. Carthage

  II. Regulus

  III. Hamilcar

  IV. Hannibal

  V. Scipio

  Chapter IV. STOIC ROME: 508-202 B.C.

  I. The Family

  II. The Religion of Rome

  1. The Gods

  2. The Priests

  3. Festivals

  4. Religion and Character

  III. Morals

  IV. Letters

  V. The Growth of the Soil

  VI. Industry

  VII. The City

  VIII. Post Mortem

  Chapter V. THE GREEK CONQUEST: 201-146 B.C.

  I. The Conquest of Greece

  II. The Transformation of Rome

  III. The New Gods

  IV. The Coming of Philosophy

  V. The Awakening of Literature

  VI. Cato and the Conservative Opposition

  VII. Carthago Deleta

  BOOK II: THE REVOLUTION: 145-30 B.C.

  Chronological Table

  Chapter VI. THE AGRARIAN REVOLT: 145-78 B.C.

  I. The Background of Revolution

  II. Tiberius Gracchus

  III. Caius Gracchus

  IV. Marius

  V. The Revolt of Italy

  VI. Sulla the Happy

  Chapter VII. THE OLIGARCHIC REACTION: 77-60 B.C.

  I. The Government

  II. The Millionaires

  III. The New Woman

  IV. Another Cato

  V. Spartacus

  VI. Pompey

  VII. Cicero and Catiline

  Chapter VIII. LITERATURE UNDER THE REVOLUTION: 145-30 B.C.

  I. Lucretius

  II. De Rerum Natura

  III. Lesbia’s Lover

  IV. The Scholars

  V. Cicero’s Pen

  Chapter IX. CAESAR: 100-44 B.C.

  I. The Rake

  II. The Consul

  III. Morals and Politics

  IV. The Conquest of Gaul

  V. The Degradation of Democracy

  VI. Civil War

  VII. Caesar and Cleopatra

  VIII. The Statesman

  IX. Brutus

  Chapter X. ANTONY: 44-30 B.C.

  I. Antony and Brutus

  II. Antony and Cleopatra

  III. Antony and Octavian

  BOOK III: THE PRINCIPATE: 30 B.C..-A.D. 192

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XI. AUGUSTAN STATESMANSHIP: 30 B.C.-A.D. 14

  I. The Road to Monarchy

  II. The New Order

  III. Saturnia Regna

  IV. The Augustan Reformation

  V. Augustus Himself

  VI. The Last Days of a God

  Chapter XII. THE GOLDEN AGE: 30 B.C.-A.D. 18

  I. The Augustan Stimulus

  II. Virgil

  III. The Aeneid

  IV. Horace

  V. Livy

  VI. The Amorous Revolt

  Chapter XIII. THE OTHER SIDE OF MONARCHY: A.D.14-96

  I. Tiberius

  II. Gaius

  III. Claudius

  IV. Nero

  V. The Three Emperors

  VI. Vespasian

  VII. Titus

  VIII. Domitian

  Chapter XIV. THE SILVER AGE: A.D. 14-96

  I. The Dilettantes

  II. Petronius

  III. The Philosophers

  IV. Seneca

  V. Roman Science

  VI. Roman Medicine

  VII. Quintilian

  VIII. Statius and Martial

  Chapter XV. ROME AT WORK: A.D. 14-96

  I. The Sowers

  II. The Artisans

  III. The Carriers

  IV. The Engineers

  V. The Traders

  VI. The Bankers

  VII. The Classes

  VIII. The Economy and the State

  Chapter XVI. ROME AND ITS ART: 30 B.C..-A.D. 96

  I. The Debt to Greece

  II. The Toilers’ Rome

  III. The Homes of the Great

  IV. The Arts of Decoration

  V. Sculpture

  VI. Painting

  VII. Architecture

  1. Principles, Materials, and Forms

  2. The Temples of Rome

  3. The Arcuate Revolution

  Chapter XVII. EPICUREAN ROME: 30 B.C.-A.D. 96

  I. The People

  II. Education

  III. The Sexes

  IV. Dress

  V. A Roman Day

  VI. A Roman Holiday

  1. The Stage

  2. Roman Music

  3. The Games

  VII. The New Faiths

  Chapter XVIII. ROMAN LAW: 146 B.C..-A.D. 192

  I. The Great Jurists

  II. The Sources of the Law

  III. The Law of Persons

  IV. The Law of Property

  V. The Law of Procedure

  VI. The Law of the Nations

  Chapter XIX. THE PHILOSOPHER KINGS: A.D. 06-180

  I. Nerva

  II. Trajan

  III. Hadrian

  1. The Ruler

  2. The Wanderer

  3. The Builder

  IV. Antoninus Pius

  V. The Philosopher as Emperor.

  Chapter XX. LIFE AND THOUGHT IN THE SECOND CENTURY: A.D. 96-192

  I. Tacitus

  II. Juvenal

  III. A Roman Gentleman

  IV. The Cultural Decline

  V. The Emperor as Philosopher

  VI. Commodus

  BOOK IV. THE EMPIRE: 146 B.C.-A.D. 192

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XXI. ITALY

  I. A Roster of Cities

  II. Pompeii

  III. Municipal Life

  Chapter XXII. CIVILIZING THE WEST

  I. Rome and the Provinces

  II. Africa

  III. Spain

  IV. Gaul

  V. Britain

  VI. The Barbarians

  Chapter XXIII. ROMAN GREECE

  I. Plutarch

  II. Indian Summer

  III. Epictetus

  IV. Lucian and the Skeptics

  Chapter XXIV. THE HELLENISTIC REVIVAL

  I. Roman Egypt

  II. Philo

  III. The Progress of Science

  IV. Poets in the Desert

  V. The Syrians

  VI. Asia Minor

  VII. The Great Mithridates

  VIII. Prose

  IX. The Oriental Tide

  Chapter XXV. ROME AND JUDEA: 132 B.C..-A.D. 135

  I. Parthia

  II. The Hasmoneans

  III. Herod the Great

  IV. The Law and Its Prophets

  V. The Great Expectation

  VI. The Rebellion

  VII. The Dispersion
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  BOOK V THE YOUTH OF CHRISTIANITY 4 B.C..-A.D. 325

  Chronological Table

  Chapter XXVI. JESUS: 4 B.C..-A.D. 30

  I. The Sources

  II. The Growth of Jesus

  III. The Mission

  IV. The Gospel

  V. Death and Transfiguration

  Chapter XXVII. THE APOSTLES: A.D. 30-95

  I. Peter

  II. Paul

  1. The Persecutor

  2. The Missionary

  3. The Theologian

  4. The Martyr

  III. John

  Chapter XXVIII. THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH: A.D. 96-305

  I. The Christians

  II. The Conflict of Creeds

  III. Plotinus

  IV. The Defenders of the Faith

  V. The Organization of Authority

  Chapter XXIX. THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMPIRE: A.D. 193-305

  I. A Semitic Dynasty

  II. Anarchy

  III. The Economic Decline

  IV. The Twilight of Paganism

  V. The Oriental Monarchy

  VI. The Socialism of Diocletian

  Chapter XXX. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 306-325

  I. The War of Church and State

  II. The Rise of Constantine

  III. Constantine and Christianity

  IV. Constantine and Civilization

  EPILOGUE:

  I. Why Rome Fell

  II. The Roman Achievement

  Photographs

  About the Authors

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Index

  TO ARIEL

  Preface

  THIS volume, while an independent unit by itself, is Part III in a history of civilization, of which Part I was Our Oriental Heritage, and Part II was The Life of Greece. War and health permitting, Part IV, The Age of Faith, should be ready in 1950.

  The method of these volumes is synthetic history, which studies all the major phases of a people’s life, work, and culture in their simultaneous operation. Analytic history, which is equally necessary and a scholarly prerequisite, studies some separate phase of man’s activity—politics, economics, morals, religion, science, philosophy, literature, art—in one civilization or in all. The defect of the analytic method is the distorting isolation of a part from the whole; the weakness of the synthetic method lies in the impossibility of one mind speaking with firsthand knowledge on every aspect of a complex civilization spanning a thousand years. Errors of detail are inevitable; but only in this way can a mind enchanted by philosophy—the quest for understanding through perspective—content itself with delving into the past. We may seek perspective through science by studying the relations of things in space, or through history by studying the relations of events in time. We shall learn more of the nature of man by watching his behavior through sixty centuries than by reading Plato and Aristotle, Spinoza and Kant. “All philosophy,” said Nietzsche, “has now fallen forfeit to history.”I

  The study of antiquity is properly accounted worthless except as it may be made living drama, or illuminate our contemporary life. The rise of Rome from a crossroads town to world mastery, its achievement of two centuries of security and peace from the Crimea to Gibraltar and from the Euphrates to Hadrian’s Wall, its spread of classic civilization over the Mediterranean and western European world, its struggle to preserve its ordered realm from a surrounding sea of barbarism, its long, slow crumbling and final catastrophic collapse into darkness and chaos—this is surely the greatest drama ever played by man; unless it be that other drama which began when Caesar and Christ stood face to face in Pilate’s court, and continued until a handful of hunted Christians had grown by time and patience, and through persecution and terror, to be first the allies, then the masters, and at last the heirs, of the greatest empire in history.

  But that multiple panorama has greater meaning for us than through its scope and majesty: it resembles significantly, and sometimes with menacing illumination, the civilization and problems of our day. This is the advantage of studying a civilization in its total scope and life—that one may compare each stage or aspect of its career with a corresponding moment or element of our own cultural trajectory, and be warned or encouraged by the ancient aftermath of a modern phase. There, in the struggle of Roman civilization against barbarism within and without, is our own struggle; through Rome’s problems of biological and moral decadence signposts rise on our road today; the class war of the Gracchi against the Senate, of Marius against Sulla, of Caesar against Pompey, of Antony against Octavian, is the war that consumes our interludes of peace; and the desperate effort of the Mediterranean soul to maintain some freedom against a despotic state is an augury of our coming task. De nobis fabula narratur: of ourselves this Roman story is told.

  I wish to acknowledge the invaluable and self-sacrificing aid of Wallace Brockway at every step in the preparation of this book; the patience of my daughter, Mrs. David Easton, and of Miss Regina Sands, in typing 1200 pages from my minuscule script; and above all to the affectionate toleration and protective guidance accorded me by my wife through many years of dull and plodding and happy scholarship.

  * * *

  I Human, All Too Human, Eng. tr., New York, 1911, vol. II, p. 17.

  List of Illustrations

  Following page 224

  FIG. 1. Caesar (black basalt)

  FIG. 2. An Etruscan Tomb at Cervetri

  FIG. 3. Head of a Woman from an Etruscan Tomb at Corneto

  FIG. 4. Apollo of Veii

  FIG. 5. The Orator

  FIG. 6. Pompey

  FIG. 7. Caesar

  FIG. 8. The Young Augustus

  FIG. 9. Augustus Imperator

  FIG. 10. Vespasian

  FIG. 11. Relief from the Arch of Titus

  FIG. 12. The Roman Forum

  FIG. 13. Temple of Castor and Pollux

  FIG. 14. Two Roman Mosaics

  FIG. 15. The Gemma Augusta

  FIG. 16. An Arretine Vase

  Following page 416

  FIG. 17. The Portland Vase

  FIG. 18. Frieze from the Altar of Peace

  FIG. 19. Frieze of Tellus from the Altar of Peace

  FIG. 20. Portrait of a Young Girl

  FIG. 21. “Clytie”

  FIG. 22. “Spring,” a Mural from Stabiae

  FIG. 23. Details of Mural from the House of the Vettii

  FIG. 24. Mural from the Villa Farnesina

  FIG. 25. “Sappho”

  FIG. 26. The Colosseum

  FIG. 27. Interior of the Colosseum

  FIG. 28. Roman Soldier and Dacian, from the Column of Trajan

  FIG. 29. Antinoüs

  FIG. 30. Altar Found at Ostia

  FIG. 31. Arch of Trajan at Benevento

  FIG. 32. Ruins of Timgad

  Following page 544

  FIG. 33. Pont du Gard at Nîmes

  FIG. 34. Temple of Iuppiter Heliopolitanus at Baalbek

  FIG. 35. Temple of Venus or Bacchus at Baalbek

  FIG. 36. Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome

  FIG. 37. Reconstruction of Interior of Baths of Caracalla

  FIG. 38. Mithras and the Bull

  FIG. 39. Sarcophagus of the Empress Helena

  Maps of Ancient Rome and Ancient Italy and Sicily will be found on the inside covers. A map of the Roman Empire faces page 456.

  INTRODUCTION

  ORIGINS

  CHAPTER I

  Etruscan Prelude

  800-508 B.C.

  I. ITALY

  QUIET hamlets in the mountain valleys, spacious pastures on the slopes, lakes upheld in the chalice of the hills, fields green or yellow verging toward blue seas, villages and towns drowsy under the noon sun and then alive with passion, cities in which, amid dust and dirt, everything from cottage to cathedral seems beautiful—this for two thousand years has been Italy. “Throughout the whole earth, and wherever the vault of heaven spreads, there is no country so fair”: thus even the prosaic
elder Pliny spoke of his fatherland.1 “Here is eternal spring,” sang Virgil, “and summer even in months not her own. Twice in the year the cattle breed, twice the trees serve us with fruit.”2 Twice a year the roses bloomed at Paestum, and in the north lay many a fertile plain like Mantua’s, “feeding the white swans with grassy stream.”3 Like a spine along the great peninsula ran the Apennines, shielding the west coast from the northeast winds, and blessing the soil with rivers that hurried to lose themselves in captivating bays. On the north the Alps stood guard; on every other side protecting waters lapped difficult and often precipitous shores. It was a land well suited to reward an industrious population, and strategically placed athwart the Mediterranean to rule the classic world.

  The mountains brought death as well as splendor, for earthquakes and eruptions now and then embalmed the labor of centuries in ashes. But here, as usually, death was a gift to life; the lava mingled with organic matter to enrich the earth for a hundred generations.4 Part of the terrain was too steep for cultivation, and part of it was malarial marsh; the rest was so fertile that Polybius marveled at the abundance and cheapness of food in ancient Italy,5 and suggested that the quantity and quality of its crops might be judged from the vigor and courage of its men. Alfieri thought that the “man-plant” had flourished better in Italy than anywhere else.6 Even today the timid student is a bit frightened by the intense feelings of these fascinating folk—their taut muscles, swift love and anger, smoldering or blazing eyes; the pride and fury that made Italy great, and tore her to pieces, in the days of Marius and Caesar and the Renaissance, still run in Italian blood, only awaiting a good cause or argument. Nearly all the men are virile and handsome, nearly all the women beautiful, strong, and brave; what land can match the dynasty of genius that the mothers of Italy have poured forth through thirty centuries? No other country has been so long the hub of history—at first in government, then in religion, then in art. For seventeen hundred years, from Cato Censor to Michelangelo, Rome was the center of the Western world.

  “Those who are the best judges in that country,” says Aristotle, “report that when Italus became king of Oenotria, the people changed their name, and called themselves no longer Oenotrians but Italians.”7 Oenotria was the toe of the Italian boot, so teeming with grapes that the word meant “land of wine.” Italus, says Thucydides, was a king of the Sicels, who had occupied Oenotria on the way to conquer and name Sicily.8 Just as the Romans called all Hellenes Graeci, Greeks, from a few Graii who had emigrated from north Attica to Naples, so the Greeks gradually extended the name Italia to all the peninsula south of the Po.

  Doubtless many chapters of Italy’s story lie silent under her crowded soil. Remains of an Old Stone Age culture indicate that for at least 30,000 years before Christ the plains were inhabited by man. Between 10,000 and 6000 B.C. a neolithic culture appeared: a longheaded race called by ancient tradition Liguri and Siceli fashioned rude pottery with linear ornament, made tools and weapons of polished stone, domesticated animals, hunted and fished, and buried their dead. Some lived in caves, others in round huts of wattle and daub; from these cylindrical cottages architecture pursued a continuous development to the round “House of Romulus” on the Palatine, the Temple of Vesta in the Forum, and the Mausoleum of Hadrian—the Castel Sant’ Angelo of today.