sult, but by the ready consent of the people thus governed. It is true that no resolution of the senate was in law binding on magistrates and people. The magistrates could always carry their point in spite of the will of the senate, if they were not afraid of being called to account after the expiration of their year of office; the people could always adopt a resolution and prescribe a course of action on any question which the magistrates thought proper to withdraw from the decision of the senate and to place before a popular assembly; but such cases always remained. exceptional, and hardly interfered with the general rule that all government measures, except those which referred only to common routine matters, should be in the hands of the great council. CHAP. II. of the senate. It is not our task here to analyse in detail the func- Functions tions of the senate in every department of public business. This task would belong properly to a separate treatise on constitutional law. In this general history we must confine ourselves to so much as will suffice to render the position of the senate in the constitution of the Roman republic clear and comprehensible, and to ascertain its share in the historical development of the empire. and Among those departments of the administration which Ancient differed most from modern practice was the department modern of finance. In constitutions of the present day the prin- finance. cipal and most important privilege of the people is the right of granting or refusing to the executive the taxes necessary for carrying on the government. Upon this foundation the liberty of Englishmen is based, as well as every constitution formed after the model of that of England. But to understand the full importance of the political right of granting supplies, we must bear in mind that money plays an infinitely greater part in modern states than in the states of antiquity. The public finances have become the first care of modern statesmen, the principal condition for the healthy working of all other branches of political life. The modern state has undertaken to provide for a great number of social interests BOOK VI. which the Romans left to themselves. It superintends 2 2 Liv. xxiii. 31, 1: Senatus, quo die primum est in Capitolio consultus, decrevit ut eo anno duplex tributum imperaretur, simplex confestim exigeretur, ex quo stipendium præsens omnibus militibus daretur, præterquam qui milites ad Cannas fuissent. lic offences should be applied. With the exception of a single law, imposing a payment of five per cent. on the price of liberated slaves,' no law is known to have been passed for establishing regular taxes. How easy would it have been, according to our notions, for a demagogue to accuse the government before the people of unjustly levying, or dishonestly applying, taxes or other sources of income! Yet among the numerous disputes about political rights not a trace is to be found of a popular party having endeavoured to gain the control of public revenues and expenses; and this may be looked upon as a proof that, with regard to the management of financial affairs, the habits of the Romans must in principle have been entirely different from ours. CHAP. II. tration of venue by the nobles. Hence we would gladly draw the conclusion that Administhe honesty and conscientiousness of the members of the rethe Roman senate justified the confidence which to all appearance the people placed in them. But, if we remember how recklessly at a later period of the republic the men of the nobility dealt in the provinces with the moneys and other trusts confided to them, how little they shrank from peculation, theft, exaction, nay, even force and open spoliation; if in the good old times we see men like Curius and Fabricius praised to the skies for their abstinence and integrity, as exceptionally virtuous; if even the honourable Camillus was accused of unjust appropriation of booty, we can scarcely admit the supposition that the free disposal by the senate of the public funds was based on an extraordinary amount of confidence on the part of the people, or that its consequence was the faithful administration of the state finances. we examine, for instance, one single but important department, the dealings with public lands, the occupation of which was not regulated by fixed laws, but depended If This was the lex de vicesima manumissionum, passed (357 B.C.) in a way contrary to all precedent by the army in the field. A special law was passed on the occasion to guard against the repetition of the practice. See Livy, vii. 16, and above, p. 33, note 1. BOOK VI. The senate and the treasury. Public works. on the will and favour of the government, and which in consequence of the neglected payment of tithes led to the conversion of public into private property, we cannot help wondering that the management of the revenue was left so exclusively to the nobility. The financial prerogative of the senate is expressed by Polybius in short and rather vague terms to consist in the right of disposing of all the revenue and expenditure.' The quæstors, who had the care of the treasury, were not allowed to issue from it any money without a senatorial decree to any magistrate, with the sole exception of the consuls.2 The greatest and most important public expenditure was, according to Polybius, that on public works which the censors superintended under the direction of the senate.3 We are nowadays accustomed to see all the other expenditure of modern states so much surpassed by that of the war department that such a statement as that of Polybius would almost appear incredible. But surely Polybius must have had in mind merely the peace budget, which, indeed, was small in Rome, as standing armies were not yet known, and as the ships of the fleet were allowed to rot in times of peace. On the other hand, the public edifices of the Romans were executed on a scale which modern states, even in our own century, have hardly surpassed. The magnificent roads, aqueducts, canals and drains, bridges, harbours, markets, halls, and 1 Polyb. vi. 13: ἡ σύγκλητος τῆς εἰσόδου πάσης κρατεῖ καὶ τῆς ἐξόδου παραπλησίως. 2 See more on this subject below, chap. vii. • Polyb. vi. 13, 3: τῆς δὲ παρὰ πολὺ τῶν ἄλλων ὁλοσχερεστάτης καὶ μεγίστης δαπάνης, ἣν οἱ τιμηταὶ ποιοιοιν εἰς τὰς ἐπισκευὰ; τῶν δημοσίων κατὰ πενταετηρίδα ταύτης ἡ σύγκλητός ἐστι κυρία. The systematic neglect of the fleet in times of peace came to light whenever a new war broke out. It was no doubt an inevitable consequence of a system of national defence such as that of republican Rome, which had the character of an annual provision for annual wants. It seems hardly in the nature of republican institutions to incur expense and trouble for the purpose of providing future successors in office with the means of meeting newly risen difficulties. temples required an enormous expenditure, and served to employ large numbers of the population. Their construction took, to a certain extent, the place of national workshops,' and if we consider in addition to this the profit which was drawn from the state by the collectors of the public revenue and their numerous staff of inspectors, clerks, and other servants, we can understand what Polybius means when he says that the people were dependent upon the senate. This dependence was not directly political, it was economical; but, as we see from Polybius, it had a great influence upon politics. The care for their material welfare, which is what the great mass of the population in every country have most at heart, was made use of to increase the preponderating influence of the nobility. We shall frequently have occasion to observe this direct bearing of private interests upon the public business of the state. The fact is that all ancient states, but especially that of the Romans, were imbued with socialistic ideas, which manifested themselves in a variety of ways-above all, in the prevailing conviction that it was the business of the state to secure the well-being of the citizens, not only indirectly by protecting their rights and liberty, but directly by the distribution of land and bread, by occasional remission of debts, and other state interference, so that the dependence of tradespeople and working classes upon the managers of the public property, which now is justly looked upon with suspicion, and restricted within the narrowest possible limits, or carefully controlled by the organs of public opinion, was in Rome held to be perfectly justifiable. A modern comparison is suggested by the notorious 'ateliers nationaux,' with which France was deluded for a short time in 1848 by the Socialists under the guidance of the incurable monomaniac Louis Blanc. 2 Polyb. vi. 17 : ὁμοίως γε μὴν πάλιν ὁ δῆμος ὑπόχρεως ἐστι τῇ συγκλήτῳ καὶ στοχάζεσθαι ταύτης ὀφείλει καὶ κοινῇ καὶ κατ' ἰδίαν. Πολλῶν γὰρ ἔργων ὄντων, ἐκδιδομένων ὑπὸ τῶν τιμητῶν διὰ πάσης Ιταλίας πολλῶν δὲ ποταμῶν, λιμένων, κηπίων, χώρας πάντα χειρίζεσθαι συμβαίνει τὰ προειρημένα διὰ τοῦ πλήθους καὶ σχεδὸν, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, πάντας ἐνδεδέσθαι ταῖς ὠναῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐργασίαις ταῖς ἐκ τούτων, κ.τ.λ. . CHAP. II. |