Streams of History: Ancient Rome (Yesterday's Classics) (8 page)

Besides Epicurus, there were many other leaders in Greece who taught such different doctrines that the people were quite at a loss to know what to believe.

Now, when these educated Greek slaves taught such things to the Romans it had, among other effects, these two:—first, the Romans became very luxurious and learned to spend a great deal of their time in seeking enjoyment at the theater, baths, games, races and gladiatorial shows; and, second, they lost confidence in their own gods and in what the gods were able to do for them. They gave less attention to serious religious life and more to outward shows and ceremonies, such as regarding the lightning and thunder and watching the flight of birds.

These are some of the unfortunate results which finally grew out of the Romans learning to speak and read Greek that they might know about the pictures and statues and books that were sent home from Corinth and other Greek cities. Of course there were some educated slaves from other lands also who helped to bring about similar results.

Since the Romans are becoming such a pleasure-loving people, let us now take a look at the way they amuse themselves, for we can tell something of a people by the sort of amusements they enjoy.

We must remember what a great city Rome had grown to be. At this time the circuit of the walls of the city was about eleven miles, and as many people lived within these walls as now live in Chicago,
i.e.
  more than one million five hundred thousand. Dotted here and there over Italy were many other cities, which had theaters and games and amusements just as Rome had.

Let us now in imagination travel into the city over one of those broad and solid roads which the Romans knew how to build so well. We notice, at once, the very narrow streets. There is a lack of windows in the walls of the buildings, many of which are four stories high. The front doors open outward, instead of inward as ours do. The simple Roman home with thrift and freedom and contentment which we knew before the war with Carthage, has very much changed,—the great mass live now in miserable huts, the great nobles in splendid mansions,

Let us not stop now to see the sights of the streets, but enter at once into one of the great mansions, filled in the morning with beggars, who hang about the owner for their daily bread, and crowded in the evening with feasters, who spend fortunes in feasting and drinking. To understand the true Roman in early days as he was, we must see him chiefly on the farm; to understand him in these later days, we must see him in places of luxury and pleasure. Of all his luxuries and displays, perhaps none surpassed those connected with his feasts, and I must now briefly tell you something of a typical one. It is said the dining-table alone, made of rare woods, cost the wealthy nobles from twenty to fifty thousand dollars. Around these tables the feasters reclined on gorgeous couches, covered with coverlids dyed scarlet, and richly embroidered with figures of birds, beasts and flowers. When all had reclined and were ready to dine, slaves passed around the table with silver basins and ewers, pouring scented water upon the hands of the guests and drying them upon dainty napkins. The table was burdened with vessels of gold, silver and fine earthenware. At each end of the gorgeously furnished room were great urns filled with wine, from one of which cold drinks were served, from the other, warm.

After the hands were daintily scented and the room filled with fragrance, the feast began; slaves hurried here and there bearing costly and rare dishes,—dormice strewed with poppy seeds and honey; hare with artificial wings to resemble Pegasus, stuffed fowls, thrushes with dressing of raisins and nuts, oysters, scallops, snails on silver gridirons, boar stuffed with rare birds, with baskets of dates and figs hanging from his tusks, fish floating in gravies, which were poured from the mouths of four tritons at the corners of the dish, peacocks sitting on nests, the eggs made of beccaficos surrounded with yolks of eggs seasoned with pepper, and scores of other dishes strange and costly. During all this time the music of the harp mingled with the voices of boys and girls, who entertained the guests with dance and song. Sometimes, while the Romans dined, roses were showered down upon them from above. The cost of many of these feasts was very great. One man, it is said, paid $200 for a single fish, another $4,000 for a dish of rare birds, and another the sum of $40,000 for a single dinner. While a few could live in all this luxury, there were thousands of poor slaves whose board cost their masters less than two dollars a month. Many of the Romans had now grown to be gluttons, and all in all you can see how different these days must be from those of early times, when a great Roman general boasted of making his dinner upon a roasted turnip.

Now having taken a glimpse of their luxurious dining, let us see the Roman in the public bath. Many of them bathe twice a day, and some as many as seven or eight times. By doing so they seek to crowd many days into one, and thus get a greater pleasure out of life. Beggars and rich alike bathed in these public baths. The buildings were built of beautiful marble and were among the largest and most splendid in Rome. There were united in the great buildings, a theater, a gymnasium, and many bathrooms all of which were ornamented within with pictures and statues. These buildings would accommodate from 1,000 to 3,000 persons at a time. The cost of a bath was in some instances about one-eighth of a cent, but in many places the bath was free.

The most common form of bath was taken after exercise in the gymnasium. The bather undressed in the outer room, or perhaps in the warm room, and was then rubbed with oil. He then took a sweat in the hot room and then a warm bath. Returning to the first room he took a cold bath and went back again to the hot room for a second sweat. Finally he was rubbed with oil to prevent his taking cold. The bath over, the bather may now listen to what is going on about him. There is a noisy crowd in the bath. Some are exercising, others being rubbed and kneaded by the servants. At times there are noisy quarrels among the motley crowd of bathers; sometimes a thief is caught, for thieving grew very common about the baths as the poor class increased in Rome. The splash of the swimmers, the noise of the players, the cries of those who are selling cakes, sausages and sweetmeats, the coming and going of every class of person, from luxurious senator to miserable beggar, makes this one of the most active and interesting meeting places for the pleasure-loving Roman.

The dinner and the bath have taken most of the day. On the next day let us start early to the circus to see the races and the sort of people who gather there.

As I have already told you, the common people have been pushed off the farms by slavery. They have swarmed to the city and have now become a crowd of loafers and beggars. All they wish now is something to eat and continual amusement. There are so many of them that the rulers and rich people scarcely know what else to do but to keep them satisfied by giving them what they ask for. The games are not religious, as they once were in the plain and simple days of early Rome, but serve wholly for amusement. There have grown to be so many of these games and celebrations that one hundred and thirty-five holidays in the year are set aside that the people may attend them all.

But we must now be off for the races. The building in which the races were held was called a circus and was made of wood and stone. This one, the Circus Maximus, which means the great circus, was between a quarter and a half mile long and six hundred feet wide. The great building was U-shaped. At the open end were placed the stalls from which the races start. Tiers of seats rose one above the other, as you may have seen them at the amphitheaters of shows or fairs. This great circus seated about two hundred and fifty thousand people—nearly twice as many as live in the city of Indianapolis. Down through the middle of the U was a low wall, around which the races were run and on which the judges sat. Instead of having light sulkies and a single horse, as our races have, they drove from two to ten horses side by side to a two wheeled car, or chariot, such as you perhaps have seen in a street parade, or in a show. The driver wore some bright color, such as red, yellow, green or blue, and the people seemed often to think more of the color than of the driver or horses; and so at the races there arose in the motley crowd parties called the Reds, Yellows, Greens and Blues. These parties became so excited over the success or failure of their favorites that they often came to blows. Let us take one of those hard stone seats and watch the teams all dart at once from the starting place at the open end of the great U into the race and go dashing around the circus. What a noise! The trampling of the running horses, the rattle of the chariots, and the terrific shouts of the people fairly make the great building tremble. We can imagine how the Romans loved a race when we think that they often sat watching them from early morning until late at night. This was all very exciting, but what made it more so to them was that they gambled great sums of money on the races. Fortunes were made and lost sometimes in a day. These are, indeed, very different people from those of the day of Cincinnatus.

But what pleased them more even than the races were the games in the amphitheater. Think of some great circus, like Barnum's, at which you may have been, having instead of wooden seats, seats of stone; instead of walls of canvas, great walls of stone; and instead of two rings, but one great ring with high walls, from which nothing can escape when placed inside. Such was the Roman amphitheater.

The principal games held in the amphitheater were not games at all, as we would think, but real fights between men and beasts. The chief amphitheater in Rome was called the Colosseum. It was built of stone, was 180 feet high, one-third of a mile around, and it would take all the people in a large city to fill it full, for it would seat 90,000. Much of this great building is still standing, and is to this day one of the most wonderful ruins still remaining of the old-time world. The men who fought in the amphitheater were called gladiators. Gladiatorial shows were first given in Rome by Brutus, about the time of the first war with Carthage, in honor of Brutus' father. The fights between gladiators were first given only at funerals, for the Romans, like the Greeks, thought that the spirits of their departed dead liked human blood, and the custom became very common. Later, slaves and captives were trained to fight much as in these days persons are trained for the bullfights of Spain and Mexico. Wild beasts, as lions, tigers and leopards, were often thrown together in the arena to fight. The gladiators usually fought in pairs, with swords or spears. When one was wounded or overcome, if the people in the great audience wished him killed, which they frequently did, they turned down their thumbs, and he was killed then and there; but if he had made a good fight and the people wanted him spared for another, they turned their thumbs up. At one time in the Colosseum these fights were continued one hundred and twenty days; ten thousands gladiators and many thousands of wild beasts were matched and slaughtered for the amusement of the women and children as well as the men. The bullfights and prize fights are some of the things left to remind us of Rome's declining days.

I have tried now to show you how what was once the great plain common people, spend their time in Rome. The little farm has been swallowed up by the big one; the common people have been forced to give way to the slave. They have forgotten their love of country and are happy only when they have something to eat and some games with which to amuse themselves.

The rich and the noble have come to be without religion, have ceased to honor the gods; and the statues of the gods, instead of being objects of worship, serve only as ornaments in baths, parks, circuses and theaters. The signs and omens, which were once sacred, are now scoffed at and have been turned to base uses by demagogues to deceive and oppress the people. Do you see that although Rome has grown rich in territory, she is growing poor in honest, industrious, upright men? Rome is rapidly conquering the world with the sword, but in doing so she is overturning herself by wealth, slavery, luxury and crime.

As I have already told you, there are now in Rome mainly two classes, the very rich and the very poor. But we must not think every Roman has become corrupt and lost all love for his country. There are occasionally persons who see the danger that Rome is drifting into and try to avoid it. Such were the Gracchi, of whom I must now tell you.

Tiberius and Caius Gracchus were brothers and of a noble family. Their mother, named Cornelia, was a sister of the great Scipio, who conquered Hannibal. Their father's name was Tiberius Gracchus. The Romans, who sometimes imagined things, told the story that one day the father found a couple of snakes in his bedchamber. A priest, being consulted, told him he must kill one of the snakes, but if he killed the male, he himself would soon die; and if he killed the female snake, Cornelia would soon die. He killed the male and soon after died. Cornelia then gave all her attention to her children. Tiberius was about ten years older than Caius. He entered the army when he was old enough and by his courage and manliness soon won a place of honor. Many of the common people when forced to leave their small farms joined the army in the field. These people came to know Tiberius well and were good friends of his. Tiberius, although of noble family, became greatly interested in the common people, so he left the army, returned to Rome, and was elected tribune in order to try to help them. He tried most earnestly to remedy the evils he saw. He brought forward a law which was intended to divide out the large tracts of land, occupied by the rich, to the common people, and provide small homes for the poor. Of course the rich objected. But finally Tiberius won the day, and the law was passed. In order to get the law fulfilled Tiberius tried to become elected tribune a second time, which was contrary to the Roman law. A riot took place at the election, and Tiberius was killed. His brother Caius was at the time with the army in Spain. He soon came home and was chosen tribune by the friends of his brother. He took up the reforms of Tiberius. He gained the good will of the poor people by dividing among them some of the lands occupied by the rich, and by getting a law passed which gave them corn for food for nothing. While this pleased the poor it was a bad law for them, because it tended to make them more idle than they already were. He won some of the rich people to his side by taking power from the senate and giving it to them. But Caius wanted to do even more than this—he wished to give all the Latins throughout Italy the same privileges as the citizens of Rome, so that they might all vote and have a chance to hold office. When he tried this, the very people he was wanting to help turned against him, and when Caius sought to be reelected, the common people defeated him. In a riot that followed the election, Caius, too, was murdered, that he might not be in the way of the nobles.