The camp must always be fortified, even in a friendly country, by a ditch and wall, each of which, in the proximity of a formidable enemy, must have a width of at least twelve feet, with an equal depth or height, and the wall must be surmounted by a strong palisade, rising six feet above the ground. This system of fortification imposed much labor on the Roman armies, but enabled them to select their own time for fighting, a matter of very great importance when, as often happened, there was serious difficulty in getting supplies of food. A proverb of the Romans said that they conquered by sitting down. Besides his arms, armor, provisions, and bedding, the Roman soldier on the march had to carry three or more stakes, each three inches thick and eight feet long, for palisades. The total weight was sixty pounds or more.

A political adjunct of the Roman military system was the custom of establishing colonies of Romans or allies in the conquered regions. The colonists were supplied with arms, slaves, cattle, lands, walls, and superior political privileges, so that they enjoyed a kind of nobility, ruling over the subordinate natives. The sites of the colonies were selected with special regard to their military advantages, and their fortifications were among the chief sources of the strength of Rome in war.

Every legion had engineers, who selected the campingplaces, directed the fortifications, and the work in the trenches and mines in sieges, and took charge of the artillery. It is probable that every army had its surgeons, but no mention is made of them by any Roman author.

The cavalry of the Romans was neither good nor numerous. Its inferiority to that of the Numidians, Gauls, and Thracians was admitted. About three hundred horsemen belonged to every legion. The Romans

disliked the sea, and for the construction and management of their war ships, depended mainly on allies, mercenaries, and slaves. In the first Punic War they gained some important naval victories, for which they were more indebted to their valor as soldiers than to their skill as mariners.

The war ships of the Romans were mostly quinqueremes, or vessels with five tiers of oars. The length was one hundred and seventy feet; the width at the water line, eighteen feet. Each tier had thirty rowers on a side, so that the complement for the vessel was three hundred The Romans allowed one hundred and twenty soldiers to a quinquereme in addition to the oarsmen. their naval officers were Greek freedmen.1

Many of

SEC. 432. Main Features.-The main features of the Roman constitution, as it is reported to have stood soon after the establishment of the mixed aristocracy, have been explained in preceding sections. The true legislative authority of the senate, with the customary right of initiating and finally confirming legislative enactments, had, so far as we know, no parallel in the contemporaneous cities of Greece, though it probably existed among the earlier Hellenic aristocracies. Its possession by a body which comprised all the tried and experienced political and military talents of the state, secured the adoption of a steadfast policy in foreign and domestic relations. This and expansive citizenship were the two main original features and distinguishing characteristics of the Roman constitution. The division of the chief executive authority between two officials of equal power may have been copied from Sparta, and their annual terms from Athens; the life tenure of the senators, from Sparta and the Areopagus of Athens; and the

transfer of all ex-consuls to the senate may have been suggested by the promotion of the ex-archons of Athens to life membership in the Areopagus.

The limitation of the high magistracy to a single year, and the customs of choosing new men for every term, and of considering ten years of creditable military service as an indispensable qualification for the consulship, provided for the senate a good supply of men who had held the highest political and military offices, and who by their official experience and personal dignity would be protected against the danger of falling under the control of petty cliques, the influence of which is one of the chief evils of legislative bodies and administrative boards.

The popular assembly of Rome was far inferior in dignity and influence to that of Athens. Its members were not a homogeneous body like the Athenians, but a collection of distinct classes more or less hostile to each other. The measures proposed to it were prepared by an independent senate, and on many occasions were not explained, but were simply submitted with a statement that the welfare of the republic required the enactment. The division of the people into separate groups, which were to be counted, while the number of citizens on either side were not; the custom of voting upon important bills by an assemblage which had heard no discussion of the principles and interests involved; and the exclusion of the people from the privileges of initiating and finally enacting laws, were aristocratic features of the constitution. In Athens all, but in Rome relatively few, of the political orations were addressed to the multitude. In the former city the political control was held by a majority of the people; in the latter, by a majority of the nobles.

According to her traditions, Rome began her career by consolidating people of different nationalities into one state; and, in later times, she adhered to the same policy, giving to the inhabitants of conquered provinces equal political rights with her older citizens, until finally she conferred her full citizenship upon every freeman under her dominion. This system of naturalization was one of the chief sources of her power. Among ancient republics Rome alone adopted the rule of annexing territory, with the condition that its free inhabitants should possess equal political rights with her own freemen.

SEC. 433. Sacred Mount.-We are told that soon after the establishment of the republic, in 495 B. C., there was a rebellion of the plebeians. Their discontent, provoked by oppressive laws of debt, broke out in a succession of disturbances extending through several years. About the beginning of the trouble, the Volscians invaded the Roman territory, and were welcomed by the plebeians, who declared that they preferred slaughter by foreigners to enslavement by their patrician fellow-citizens. Livy says that they were "overwhelmed with debt," and he conveys the idea that they were almost unanimous in their determination to resist the noble creditors. Under these circumstances, the patricians besought the consul Servilius, who was popular with the plebeians, to conciliate them, and he did so in a speech which has been reported to us, and which should not have had the least influence on men oppressed as, it is said, they were. told them that "the senators desired to protect the interests of the plebeians;" and they, satisfied with this unmeaning promise, enrolled themselves in his army, and defeated the invaders.' When the victorious army returned, the debtors were immediately seized and impris

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oned or enslaved as before, and the senate refused relief. The next year there was another invasion by Volscians and Sabines, acting in concert. The peril was so great that a dictator was appointed, Valerius being selected because of his popularity with the commoners. He appealed to them to enter the army, repeated the assurance of Servilius about the good intentions of the senate, and the plebeians were foolish enough to be satisfied with this, instead of exacting an explicit promise of relief. They enrolled themselves in the army, and conquered the enemy. When peace had been restored, the money lenders had influence enough to prevent the senate from granting any relief to the debtors, whereupon Valerius resigned the dictatorship and gave a decided expression to his dissatisfaction with the violation of the promises made to the commoners.

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The army of 18,000 plebeians openly rebelled. couraged by the approval of the general public, it remained in camp for several days on the Aventine Hill, determined to insist upon the protection of plebeian rights. Then in utter disregard of the plainest rules of common sense, this army, in possession of the city which inclosed their homes, families, and temples, their ancestral city, which had strong walls and an excellent military and commercial situation, this army, holding a position in which they could dictate terms to the patricians, marched out three miles to the Sacred Mount, a low hill near a small tributary of the Tiber, and there they camped and threatened to build a new city of their own. Their new site was not well chosen for either fortification or trade. It had no cliff or high elevation like that of the capitol hill in Rome; and its stream, besides being too small for navigation, entered the Tiber above the old city, where