|
The tendency of military manners to supersede the principles of Birth and Divine Right by those of Merit and Election could not stop short at the abolition of Royalty in favour of Aristocracy. The Plebians, being a part of the armed host, did not remain contented with the mere suffrage. They claimed eligibility to office, and Rome was long torn by an agitation for the abolition of Patrician privileges. Nevertheless, the legends proudly tell how, in the face of danger from without, both castes generally suspended their quarrels, and vied with one another in a generous devotion to their common country. The Patricians to some extent justified their monopoly of office by the skill, courage, and tenacity which the Senate exhibited, no less in its policy towards neighboring states than in its resistance to Plebeian demands. The final victory of the Plebeians in B.C. 367, when one consulship was secured to them by the Licinian Law, was at once a consequence of the progress of military manners and a cause of the widely extended warlike activity which immediately followed. MARCUS FURIUS CAMILLUS, who lived during the latter period of the struggle between the orders, is one of the most characteristic types of the aristocracy. His conquest of Veii after a ten years' siege marks decisively the decline of the Etruscan power, which at one time had threatened to crush the Latin-speaking peoples. By this and other achievements he attained a more commanding position than any Roman before him. But, as he was a resolute champion of Patrician privileges, now tottering to their fall, he was driven into exile, praying, it is said, that his ungrateful country might soon need his services. The next year (B.C. 390) a roving band of Gauls defeated the Romans at the battle of Allia, burnt Rome, and besieged the Capitol. But when the beleaguered fortress was at its last extremity, Camillus appeared at the head of an army of Roman fugitives and other Latins, and in a great battle cut the Gauls to pieces. This part of the story is not entitled to credit. But that the Gauls disappeared as suddenly as they had come, and that Rome rose from her ashes with her power unimpaired, is evident. Whatever was the real share of Camillus in these events, he was ever afterwards celebrated as "the second founder of Rome." The Plebeians, according to the legend, headed by their tribunes, proposed a migration from the ruins of Rome to the vacant city of Veii. But Camillus and the Patricians resisted so shameful and impious a desertion of the consecrated spot, and their healthy and far-sighted conservatism at length prevailed. During the remaining years of his life Camillus enjoyed unprecedented influence, which he increased by many other military achievements. As the trusted leader of the Patricians, he long and obstinately opposed the bill of Licinius. But when further resistance seemed likely to result in civil war, he wisely and patriotically prevailed in his order to accept a compromise which only veiled their complete surrender. The last act of Camillus thus connects his name with a decisive moment in the history of Rome.
Find more articles on Camillus
Purchase books on ancient warfare
| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
|
