Strife at Rome. While the Romans were conquering the
ancient world they had begun to quarrel among themselves. Certain
men resolved that Rome should not be managed any longer by the
noble senators for their own benefit or for the benefit of rich
contractors and merchants. They wished to have the idle crowds of
men who packed the shows and circuses settled as free farmers on
the unused lands of Italy.
Among these new leaders were two brothers, Tiberius and Caius
Gracchus, sons of one of Rome's noblest families. The other
nobles looked upon them with hatred and killed them, first
Tiberius and afterward Caius. These murders did not end the
trouble. The leaders on both sides armed their followers, and
bloody battles were fought in the streets. Generals led their
armies to Rome, although, according to the laws, to bring an army
into Italy south of the Rubicon River was to make war on the
republic and be guilty of treason. Once in the city these
generals put to death hundreds of their enemies.
Caesar rules Rome. The strife in the city had ceased
for a time when Pompey, a famous general, who had once shared
power with Caesar as a "triumvir," joined the senators in
planning his ruin. Caesar led his army into Italy to the borders
of the Rubicon. Exclaiming, "The die is cast,'" he crossed the
sacred boundary and marched straight to Rome. Pompey and his
party fled, and civil war divided the Roman world into those who
followed Caesar and those who followed Pompey, Caesar was
everywhere victorious, in Italy, Africa, Spain, and the East. He
brought back order into the government of the city and of the
provinces, but in the year 44 B.C. he was murdered in the
senate-house by several senators, one of whom, Marcus Brutus, had
been his friend.
Origin of the Title "Emperor." Caesar had not been
called "emperor," though the chief power had been his. One of his
titles was "imperator," or commander of the army, a word from
which our word "emperor" comes. He was really the first emperor
of Rome. In later times the very word Caesar became an imperial
title, not only in the Roman Empire, but also in modern Germany,
for "Kaiser" is another form of the word "Caesar."
Beginnings of the Empire. Caesar's successor was his
grandnephew Octavius, usually called Augustus, which was one of
his titles. Augustus carried out many of Caesar's plans for
improving the government in Rome and in the provinces. The people
in the provinces were no longer robbed by Roman officers. Many of
them became Roman citizens. After a time all children born within
the empire were considered Romans, just as if they had been born
in Rome.
The Roman Empire. The Roman Empire carried on the work
which the republic had begun. It did some things better than the
republic had done them. Within its frontiers there was peace for
two or three hundred years. Many people had an opportunity to
share in all the best that the Greeks and Romans had learned.
Unfortunately the peoples imitated the bad as well as the
good.
Roman Roads. As builders the Romans taught much to
those who lived after them. Their great roads leading out from
Rome have never been excelled. In Gaul these roads served,
centuries later, to mark out the present French system of
highroads and showed many a route to the builders of railroads.
They were made so solid that parts of them still remain after two
thousand years.
Augustus Caesar After the statue in the
Vatican
How these Roads were built. In planning their roads the
Romans did not hesitate before obstacles like hills or deep
valleys or marshy lands. They often pierced the hills with
tunnels and bridged the valleys or swamps. In building a road
they dug a trench about fifteen feet wide and pounded the earth
at the bottom until it was hard. Upon this bottom was placed a
layer of rough stones, over which were put nine inches of broken
stone mixed with lime to form a sort of concrete. This was
covered by a layer six inches deep of broken bricks or broken
tiles, which when pounded down offered a hard, smooth surface. On
the top were laid large paving stones carefully fitted so that
there need be no jar when a wagon rolled over the road.
Such roads were necessary for the traders who passed to and
fro throughout the empire, but especially for troops or
government messengers sent with all speed to regions where there
was danger of revolt or where the frontiers were threatened by
the barbarians.
CROSS-SECTION OF A ROMAN ROAD
Aqueducts. Next to their roads the most remarkable
Roman structures were the aqueducts which brought water to the
city from rivers or springs, some of them many miles away. Had
they known, as we do, how to make heavy iron pipes, their
aqueducts would have been laid underground, except where they
crossed deep valleys. The lead pipes which they used were not
strong enough to endure the force of a great quantity of water,
and so when the aqueducts reached the edge of the plain which
stretches from the eastern hills to the walls of Rome, the
streams of flowing water were carried in stone channels resting
upon arches which sometimes reached the height of over ninety
feet.
The Claudian Aqueduct. The Claudian aqueduct, which is
the most magnificent ever built, is carried on such arches for
about seven miles and a half. Although broken in many places, and
though the water has not flowed through its lofty channels for
sixteen hundred years, it is one of the grandest sights in the
neighborhood of Rome. If we add together the lengths of the
aqueducts, underground or carried on arches, which provided Rome
with her water supply, the total is over three hundred miles.
They could furnish Rome with a hundred million gallons of water a
day.
RUINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT
Completed by the Roman Emperor Claudian in 52 A.D.
The structure was nearly a hundred feet high
Public Baths. The Romans used great quantities of water
for their public baths, which were large buildings with rooms
especially made for bathing in hot or cold water and for plunges.
They were also, like the Greek gymnasiums, places for exercise,
conversation, and reading. Many were built as monuments by
wealthy men and by emperors. A very small fee was charged for
entrance, and the money was used to pay for repairs and the wages
of those who managed the baths.
RUINS OF THE COLOSSEUM
Two Famous Buildings. Many of the Roman temples,
porticoes, and theaters were copied from Greek buildings, but the
Romans used the arch more than did the Greeks, and in this the
builders of later times imitated them. Among their greatest
buildings were the amphitheaters, from the benches of which
crowds watched gladiators fighting one another or struggling with
wild beasts. The largest of these amphitheaters was the
Colosseum, the ruins of which still exist. Its outer walls were
one hundred and sixty feet high. In one direction it measured six
hundred and seventeen feet and in another five hundred and
twelve. There were seats enough for forty-five thousand persons.
The lowest seats were raised fifteen feet above the arena or
central space where men or wild beasts fought. Through an
arrangement of underground pipes the arena could be flooded so
that the spectators might enjoy the excitement of a real naval
battle.
Another great building was the Circus Maximus, built to hold
the crowds that watched the chariot-races, and at one time having
seats for two hundred thousand persons. In their amusements the
Romans became more and more vulgar, excitable, and cruel. Some
equally splendid buildings were used for better things.
THE PANTHEON
The Pantheon. One of these was the Pantheon, a temple
which was afterward a Christian church. It still stands, and is
now used as the burial-place of the Italian kings. The most
remarkable part of it is the dome, which has a width of a little
over one hundred and forty-two feet. No other dome in the world
is so wide. The Romans were very successful in covering large
spaces with arched or vaulted ceilings. All later builders of
domes and arches are their pupils.
THE ARCH OF TITUS
Basilicas. The Romans had other large buildings called
basilicas. These were porticoes or promenades, with the space in
the center covered by a great roof. They were used as places for
public meetings. One of them had one hundred and eight pillars
arranged in a double row around the sides and ends of this
central space. The name basilica is Greek and means "royal." Some
of these basilicas were used as Christian churches when the
Romans accepted the Christian religion. The central space was
then called the "nave," and the spaces between the columns the
aisles.
Triumphal Arches. The Romans built beautiful arches to
celebrate their victories. Several of these still remain, with
sentences cut into their stone tablets telling of the triumphs of
their builders. Modern people have taken them as models for
similar memorial arches.
A ROMAN AQUEDUCT Still in good repair, the
Pont du Gard, near Nîmes, France
Roman Law. The Romans did much for the world by their
laws. They showed little regard for the rights of men captured in
war and were cruel in their treatment of slaves, but they
considered carefully the rights of free men and women. Under the
emperors the lawyers and judges worked to make the laws clearer
and fairer to all. Finally the Emperor Justinian, who ruled at
the time when the empire was already half ruined by the attacks
of barbarian enemies, ordered the lawyer Tribonian to gather into
a single code all the statutes and decrees. These laws lasted
long after the empire was destroyed, and out of them grew many of
the laws used in Europe to-day. They have also influenced our
laws in America.
PAVEMENT OF A ROMAN VILLA IN ENGLAND
Unearthed not many years ago at Aldborough.
Such stones laid in the form of designs or pictures are called
Mosaics
QUESTIONS
1. In the political strife at Rome what did the brothers
Tiberius and Caius Gracchus try to do?
2. What did Julius Caesar do when a party of senators tried to
ruin him? What was the result of his war with the other Roman
leaders?
3. From what Roman word does "Emperor" come? What is the
origin of the word "Kaiser"? How did Caesar die?
4. Who was Caesar's successor and the first one who organized
the Roman Empire?
5. Why were the Romans such great builders of roads? How were
their roads built? Do any traces of them still remain?
6. How did the Romans provide the city with a supply of pure
water?
7. What was a Roman bath?
8. Were the Romans as famous as the Greeks for their
buildings? Name the largest buildings in Rome. What was a
basilica? Of what use were basilicas to the Christians later?
9. Do you remember the earliest form of the Roman law? What did Justinian do
with the laws in his day? Are these laws important to us?
EXERCISES
1. What emperors are there now? Are they like Caesar and
Augustus?
2. Find out if our roads are built as carefully as the Roman
roads and if they are likely to last as long. What different
kinds of roads do we have? Can any one in the room construct a
small model of a Roman road?
3. Find out how water is now carried to cities. Are cities
provided with great public baths like those of the Romans?
4. Ask a librarian or a lawyer to show you a copy of the
revised statutes of your state. This is a code somewhat like the
code of Justinian, only not so brief.
