by Will Durant
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: ORIGINS
Chapter I. ETRUSCAN PRELUDE: 800-508 B.C.
I. Italy
II. Etruscan Life
III. Etruscan Art
IV. Rome Under the Kings
V. The Etruscan Domination
VI. The Birth of the Republic
BOOK I: THE REPUBLIC: 508-30 B.C..
Chronological Table
Chapter II. THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY: 508-264 B.C.
I. Patricians and Plebs
II. The Constitution of the Republic
1. The Lawmakers
2. The Magistrates
3. The Beginnings of Roman Law
4. The Army of the Republic
III. The Conquest of Italy
Chapter III. HANNIBAL AGAINST ROME: 264-202 B.C.
I. Carthage
II. Regulus
III. Hamilcar
IV. Hannibal
V. Scipio
Chapter IV. STOIC ROME: 508-202 B.C.
I. The Family
II. The Religion of Rome
1. The Gods
2. The Priests
3. Festivals
4. Religion and Character
III. Morals
IV. Letters
V. The Growth of the Soil
VI. Industry
VII. The City
VIII. Post Mortem
Chapter V. THE GREEK CONQUEST: 201-146 B.C.
I. The Conquest of Greece
II. The Transformation of Rome
III. The New Gods
IV. The Coming of Philosophy
V. The Awakening of Literature
VI. Cato and the Conservative Opposition
VII. Carthago Deleta
BOOK II: THE REVOLUTION: 145-30 B.C.
Chronological Table
Chapter VI. THE AGRARIAN REVOLT: 145-78 B.C.
I. The Background of Revolution
II. Tiberius Gracchus
III. Caius Gracchus
IV. Marius
V. The Revolt of Italy
VI. Sulla the Happy
Chapter VII. THE OLIGARCHIC REACTION: 77-60 B.C.
I. The Government
II. The Millionaires
III. The New Woman
IV. Another Cato
V. Spartacus
VI. Pompey
VII. Cicero and Catiline
Chapter VIII. LITERATURE UNDER THE REVOLUTION: 145-30 B.C.
I. Lucretius
II. De Rerum Natura
III. Lesbia’s Lover
IV. The Scholars
V. Cicero’s Pen
Chapter IX. CAESAR: 100-44 B.C.
I. The Rake
II. The Consul
III. Morals and Politics
IV. The Conquest of Gaul
V. The Degradation of Democracy
VI. Civil War
VII. Caesar and Cleopatra
VIII. The Statesman
IX. Brutus
Chapter X. ANTONY: 44-30 B.C.
I. Antony and Brutus
II. Antony and Cleopatra
III. Antony and Octavian
BOOK III: THE PRINCIPATE: 30 B.C..-A.D. 192
Chronological Table
Chapter XI. AUGUSTAN STATESMANSHIP: 30 B.C.-A.D. 14
I. The Road to Monarchy
II. The New Order
III. Saturnia Regna
IV. The Augustan Reformation
V. Augustus Himself
VI. The Last Days of a God
Chapter XII. THE GOLDEN AGE: 30 B.C.-A.D. 18
I. The Augustan Stimulus
II. Virgil
III. The Aeneid
IV. Horace
V. Livy
VI. The Amorous Revolt
Chapter XIII. THE OTHER SIDE OF MONARCHY: A.D.14-96
I. Tiberius
II. Gaius
III. Claudius
IV. Nero
V. The Three Emperors
VI. Vespasian
VII. Titus
VIII. Domitian
Chapter XIV. THE SILVER AGE: A.D. 14-96
I. The Dilettantes
II. Petronius
III. The Philosophers
IV. Seneca
V. Roman Science
VI. Roman Medicine
VII. Quintilian
VIII. Statius and Martial
Chapter XV. ROME AT WORK: A.D. 14-96
I. The Sowers
II. The Artisans
III. The Carriers
IV. The Engineers
V. The Traders
VI. The Bankers
VII. The Classes
VIII. The Economy and the State
Chapter XVI. ROME AND ITS ART: 30 B.C..-A.D. 96
I. The Debt to Greece
II. The Toilers’ Rome
III. The Homes of the Great
IV. The Arts of Decoration
V. Sculpture
VI. Painting
VII. Architecture
1. Principles, Materials, and Forms
2. The Temples of Rome
3. The Arcuate Revolution
Chapter XVII. EPICUREAN ROME: 30 B.C.-A.D. 96
I. The People
II. Education
III. The Sexes
IV. Dress
V. A Roman Day
VI. A Roman Holiday
1. The Stage
2. Roman Music
3. The Games
VII. The New Faiths
Chapter XVIII. ROMAN LAW: 146 B.C..-A.D. 192
I. The Great Jurists
II. The Sources of the Law
III. The Law of Persons
IV. The Law of Property
V. The Law of Procedure
VI. The Law of the Nations
Chapter XIX. THE PHILOSOPHER KINGS: A.D. 06-180
I. Nerva
II. Trajan
III. Hadrian
1. The Ruler
2. The Wanderer
3. The Builder
IV. Antoninus Pius
V. The Philosopher as Emperor.
Chapter XX. LIFE AND THOUGHT IN THE SECOND CENTURY: A.D. 96-192
I. Tacitus
II. Juvenal
III. A Roman Gentleman
IV. The Cultural Decline
V. The Emperor as Philosopher
VI. Commodus
BOOK IV. THE EMPIRE: 146 B.C.-A.D. 192
Chronological Table
Chapter XXI. ITALY
I. A Roster of Cities
II. Pompeii
III. Municipal Life
Chapter XXII. CIVILIZING THE WEST
I. Rome and the Provinces
II. Africa
III. Spain
IV. Gaul
V. Britain
VI. The Barbarians
Chapter XXIII. ROMAN GREECE
I. Plutarch
II. Indian Summer
III. Epictetus
IV. Lucian and the Skeptics
Chapter XXIV. THE HELLENISTIC REVIVAL
I. Roman Egypt
II. Philo
III. The Progress of Science
IV. Poets in the Desert
V. The Syrians
VI. Asia Minor
VII. The Great Mithridates
VIII. Prose
IX. The Oriental Tide
Chapter XXV. ROME AND JUDEA: 132 B.C..-A.D. 135
I. Parthia
II. The Hasmoneans
III. Herod the Great
IV. The Law and Its Prophets
V. The Great Expectation
VI. The Rebellion
VII. The Dispersion
BOOK V THE YOUTH OF CHRISTIANITY 4 B.C..-A.D. 325
Chronological Table
Ch
apter XXVI. JESUS: 4 B.C..-A.D. 30
I. The Sources
II. The Growth of Jesus
III. The Mission
IV. The Gospel
V. Death and Transfiguration
Chapter XXVII. THE APOSTLES: A.D. 30-95
I. Peter
II. Paul
1. The Persecutor
2. The Missionary
3. The Theologian
4. The Martyr
III. John
Chapter XXVIII. THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH: A.D. 96-305
I. The Christians
II. The Conflict of Creeds
III. Plotinus
IV. The Defenders of the Faith
V. The Organization of Authority
Chapter XXIX. THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMPIRE: A.D. 193-305
I. A Semitic Dynasty
II. Anarchy
III. The Economic Decline
IV. The Twilight of Paganism
V. The Oriental Monarchy
VI. The Socialism of Diocletian
Chapter XXX. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 306-325
I. The War of Church and State
II. The Rise of Constantine
III. Constantine and Christianity
IV. Constantine and Civilization
EPILOGUE:
I. Why Rome Fell
II. The Roman Achievement
Photographs
About the Authors
Notes
Bibliography
Index
TO ARIEL
Preface
THIS volume, while an independent unit by itself, is Part III in a history of civilization, of which Part I was Our Oriental Heritage, and Part II was The Life of Greece. War and health permitting, Part IV, The Age of Faith, should be ready in 1950.
The method of these volumes is synthetic history, which studies all the major phases of a people’s life, work, and culture in their simultaneous operation. Analytic history, which is equally necessary and a scholarly prerequisite, studies some separate phase of man’s activity—politics, economics, morals, religion, science, philosophy, literature, art—in one civilization or in all. The defect of the analytic method is the distorting isolation of a part from the whole; the weakness of the synthetic method lies in the impossibility of one mind speaking with firsthand knowledge on every aspect of a complex civilization spanning a thousand years. Errors of detail are inevitable; but only in this way can a mind enchanted by philosophy—the quest for understanding through perspective—content itself with delving into the past. We may seek perspective through science by studying the relations of things in space, or through history by studying the relations of events in time. We shall learn more of the nature of man by watching his behavior through sixty centuries than by reading Plato and Aristotle, Spinoza and Kant. “All philosophy,” said Nietzsche, “has now fallen forfeit to history.”I
The study of antiquity is properly accounted worthless except as it may be made living drama, or illuminate our contemporary life. The rise of Rome from a crossroads town to world mastery, its achievement of two centuries of security and peace from the Crimea to Gibraltar and from the Euphrates to Hadrian’s Wall, its spread of classic civilization over the Mediterranean and western European world, its struggle to preserve its ordered realm from a surrounding sea of barbarism, its long, slow crumbling and final catastrophic collapse into darkness and chaos—this is surely the greatest drama ever played by man; unless it be that other drama which began when Caesar and Christ stood face to face in Pilate’s court, and continued until a handful of hunted Christians had grown by time and patience, and through persecution and terror, to be first the allies, then the masters, and at last the heirs, of the greatest empire in history.
But that multiple panorama has greater meaning for us than through its scope and majesty: it resembles significantly, and sometimes with menacing illumination, the civilization and problems of our day. This is the advantage of studying a civilization in its total scope and life—that one may compare each stage or aspect of its career with a corresponding moment or element of our own cultural trajectory, and be warned or encouraged by the ancient aftermath of a modern phase. There, in the struggle of Roman civilization against barbarism within and without, is our own struggle; through Rome’s problems of biological and moral decadence signposts rise on our road today; the class war of the Gracchi against the Senate, of Marius against Sulla, of Caesar against Pompey, of Antony against Octavian, is the war that consumes our interludes of peace; and the desperate effort of the Mediterranean soul to maintain some freedom against a despotic state is an augury of our coming task. De nobis fabula narratur: of ourselves this Roman story is told.
I wish to acknowledge the invaluable and self-sacrificing aid of Wallace Brockway at every step in the preparation of this book; the patience of my daughter, Mrs. David Easton, and of Miss Regina Sands, in typing 1200 pages from my minuscule script; and above all to the affectionate toleration and protective guidance accorded me by my wife through many years of dull and plodding and happy scholarship.
* * *
I Human, All Too Human, Eng. tr., New York, 1911, vol. II, p. 17.
List of Illustrations
Following page 224
FIG. 1. Caesar (black basalt)
FIG. 2. An Etruscan Tomb at Cervetri
FIG. 3. Head of a Woman from an Etruscan Tomb at Corneto
FIG. 4. Apollo of Veii
FIG. 5. The Orator
FIG. 6. Pompey
FIG. 7. Caesar
FIG. 8. The Young Augustus
FIG. 9. Augustus Imperator
FIG. 10. Vespasian
FIG. 11. Relief from the Arch of Titus
FIG. 12. The Roman Forum
FIG. 13. Temple of Castor and Pollux
FIG. 14. Two Roman Mosaics
FIG. 15. The Gemma Augusta
FIG. 16. An Arretine Vase
Following page 416
FIG. 17. The Portland Vase
FIG. 18. Frieze from the Altar of Peace
FIG. 19. Frieze of Tellus from the Altar of Peace
FIG. 20. Portrait of a Young Girl
FIG. 21. “Clytie”
FIG. 22. “Spring,” a Mural from Stabiae
FIG. 23. Details of Mural from the House of the Vettii
FIG. 24. Mural from the Villa Farnesina
FIG. 25. “Sappho”
FIG. 26. The Colosseum
FIG. 27. Interior of the Colosseum
FIG. 28. Roman Soldier and Dacian, from the Column of Trajan
FIG. 29. Antinoüs
FIG. 30. Altar Found at Ostia
FIG. 31. Arch of Trajan at Benevento
FIG. 32. Ruins of Timgad
Following page 544
FIG. 33. Pont du Gard at Nîmes
FIG. 34. Temple of Iuppiter Heliopolitanus at Baalbek
FIG. 35. Temple of Venus or Bacchus at Baalbek
FIG. 36. Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome
FIG. 37. Reconstruction of Interior of Baths of Caracalla
FIG. 38. Mithras and the Bull
FIG. 39. Sarcophagus of the Empress Helena
Maps of Ancient Rome and Ancient Italy and Sicily will be found on the inside covers. A map of the Roman Empire faces page 456.
INTRODUCTION
ORIGINS
CHAPTER I
Etruscan Prelude
800-508 B.C.
I. ITALY
QUIET hamlets in the mountain valleys, spacious pastures on the slopes, lakes upheld in the chalice of the hills, fields green or yellow verging toward blue seas, villages and towns drowsy under the noon sun and then alive with passion, cities in which, amid dust and dirt, everything from cottage to cathedral seems beautiful—this for two thousand years has been Italy. “Throughout the whole earth, and wherever the vault of heaven spreads, there is no country so fair”: thus even the prosaic elder Pliny spoke of his fatherland.1 “Here is eternal spring,” sang Virgil, “and summer even in months not her own. Twi
ce in the year the cattle breed, twice the trees serve us with fruit.”2 Twice a year the roses bloomed at Paestum, and in the north lay many a fertile plain like Mantua’s, “feeding the white swans with grassy stream.”3 Like a spine along the great peninsula ran the Apennines, shielding the west coast from the northeast winds, and blessing the soil with rivers that hurried to lose themselves in captivating bays. On the north the Alps stood guard; on every other side protecting waters lapped difficult and often precipitous shores. It was a land well suited to reward an industrious population, and strategically placed athwart the Mediterranean to rule the classic world.
The mountains brought death as well as splendor, for earthquakes and eruptions now and then embalmed the labor of centuries in ashes. But here, as usually, death was a gift to life; the lava mingled with organic matter to enrich the earth for a hundred generations.4 Part of the terrain was too steep for cultivation, and part of it was malarial marsh; the rest was so fertile that Polybius marveled at the abundance and cheapness of food in ancient Italy,5 and suggested that the quantity and quality of its crops might be judged from the vigor and courage of its men. Alfieri thought that the “man-plant” had flourished better in Italy than anywhere else.6 Even today the timid student is a bit frightened by the intense feelings of these fascinating folk—their taut muscles, swift love and anger, smoldering or blazing eyes; the pride and fury that made Italy great, and tore her to pieces, in the days of Marius and Caesar and the Renaissance, still run in Italian blood, only awaiting a good cause or argument. Nearly all the men are virile and handsome, nearly all the women beautiful, strong, and brave; what land can match the dynasty of genius that the mothers of Italy have poured forth through thirty centuries? No other country has been so long the hub of history—at first in government, then in religion, then in art. For seventeen hundred years, from Cato Censor to Michelangelo, Rome was the center of the Western world.
“Those who are the best judges in that country,” says Aristotle, “report that when Italus became king of Oenotria, the people changed their name, and called themselves no longer Oenotrians but Italians.”7 Oenotria was the toe of the Italian boot, so teeming with grapes that the word meant “land of wine.” Italus, says Thucydides, was a king of the Sicels, who had occupied Oenotria on the way to conquer and name Sicily.8 Just as the Romans called all Hellenes Graeci, Greeks, from a few Graii who had emigrated from north Attica to Naples, so the Greeks gradually extended the name Italia to all the peninsula south of the Po.
Doubtless many chapters of Italy’s story lie silent under her crowded soil. Remains of an Old Stone Age culture indicate that for at least 30,000 years before Christ the plains were inhabited by man. Between 10,000 and 6000 B.C. a neolithic culture appeared: a longheaded race called by ancient tradition Liguri and Siceli fashioned rude pottery with linear ornament, made tools and weapons of polished stone, domesticated animals, hunted and fished, and buried their dead. Some lived in caves, others in round huts of wattle and daub; from these cylindrical cottages architecture pursued a continuous development to the round “House of Romulus” on the Palatine, the Temple of Vesta in the Forum, and the Mausoleum of Hadrian—the Castel Sant’ Angelo of today.
