VIRGINIA.

A COLLECTION Consisting exclusively of warsongs would give an imperfect, or rather an erroneous notion of the spirit of the old Latin ballads. The Patricians, during about a century and a half after the expulsion of the kings, held all the high military commands. A Plebeian, even though, like Lucius Siccius, he were distinguished by his valour and know-It ledge of war, could serve only in subordinate were common; that tight stocks, heavy chains, posts. A minstrel, therefore, who wished to scanty measures of food, were used to punish celebrate the early triumphs of his country, wretches guilty of nothing but poverty; and could hardly take any but Patricians for his that brave soldiers, whose breasts were coheroes. The warriors who are mentioned in vered with honourable scars, were often mark. the two preceding lays, Horatius, Lartius, Her-ed minius, Aulus Posthumius, Ebutius Elva, Sempronius Atratinus, Valerius Poplicola, were all The Plebeians were, however, not wholly members of the dominant order; and a poet without constitutional rights. From an early who was singing their praises, whatever his period they had been admitted to some share own political opinions might be, would natu- of political power. They were enrolled in the rally abstain from insulting the class to which centuries, and were allowed a share, considerthey belonged, and from reflecting on the sys-able though not proportioned to their numerical tem which had placed such men at the head of strength, in the disposal of those high dignities the legions of the commonwealth. from which they were themselves excluded. Thus their position bore some resemblance to that of the Irish Catholics during the interval between the year 1792 and the year 1829. The Plebeians had also the privilege of annually appointing officers, named Tribunes, who had no active share in the government of the Commonwealth, but who, by degrees, acquired a power which made them formidable even to the ablest and most resolute Consuls and Dicta tors. The person of the Tribune was inviola ble; and, though he could directly effect little, he could obstruct every thing.

of the Patrician money-lenders. Children often became slaves in consequence of the misfor tunes of their parents. The debtor was imprisoned, not in a public jail under the care of impartial public functionaries, but in a private workhouse belonging to the creditor. Frightful stories were told respecting these dungeons. was said that torture and brutal violation

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But there was a class of compositions in which the great families were by no means so courteously treated. No parts of early Roman history are richer with poetical colouring than those which relate to the long contest between the privileged houses and the commonalty. The population of Rome was, from a very early period, divided into hereditary castes, which, indeed, readily united to repel foreign enemies, but which regarded each other, during many years, with bitter animosity. Between those castes there was a barrier hardly less strong than that which, at Venice, parted the members of the Great Council from their countrymen. In some respects indeed, the line which separated an Icilius or a Duilius from a Posthumius or a Fabius was even more deeply marked than that which separated the rower of a gondola from a Contarini or a Morosini. At Venice the distinction was merely civil. At Rome it was both civil and religious. Among the grievances under which the Plebeians suffered. three were felt as peculiarly severe. They were excluded from the highest magistracies; they were excluded from all share in the public lands; and they were ground down to the dust by partial and barbarous legislation touching pecuniary contracts. The ruling class in Rome was a moneyed class; and it made and administered the laws with a view solely to its own interest. Thus the relation | between lender and borrower was mixed up with the relation between sovereign and sub ject. The great men held a large portion of the community in dependence by means of advances at enormous usury. The law of debt, framed by creditors, and for the protection of craitors, was the most horrible that has ever been known among men. The liberty, and even the life, of the insoivent were at the mercy

still more deeply on the back by the scourges of high-born usurers.

During more than a century after the institution of the Tribuneship, the Commons struggled manfully for the removal of grievances under which they laboured; and, in spite of many checks and reverses, succeeded in wringing concession after concession from the stubborn aristocracy. At length, in the year of the city 378, both parties mustered their whole strength for their last and most desperate conflict. The popular and active Tribune, Caius Licinius, proposed the three memorable laws which are called by his name, and which were intended to redress the three great evils of which the Plebeians complained. He was supported, with eminent ability and firmness, by his colleague, Lucius Sextius. The strug. gle appears to have been the fiercest that ever in any community terminated without an appeal to arms. If such a contest had raged in any Greek city, the streets would have run with blood. But, even in the paroxysms of faction, the Roman retained his gravity, his respect for law, and his tenderness for the lives of his fellow-citizens. Year after year Licinius and Sextius were re-elected Tribunes. Year after year, if the narrative which has come down to us is to be trusted, they continued to exert, to the full extent, their power of stopping

⚫ the whole machine of government. No curule | truth, naturally from the constitution of the Roman government and from the spirit of the Roman people; and, though it submitted to metrical rules derived from Greece, it retained to the last its essentially Roman character. Lucilius was the earliest satirist whose works were held in esteem under the Cæsars. But, many years before Lucilius was born, Nævius had been flung into a dungeon, and guarded there with circumstances of unusual rigour till the Tribunes interfered in his behalf, on account of the bitter lines in which he had attacked the great Cæcilian family.* The ge. nius and spirit of the Roman satirists survived the liberties of their country, and were not extinguished by the cruel despotism of the Julian and Flavian emperors. The great poet who told the story of Domitian's turbot was the legitimate successor of those forgotten minstrels whose songs animated the factions of the infant Republic.

magistrates could be chosen; no military muster could be held. We know too little of the state of Rome in those days to be able to conJecture how, during that long anarchy, the peace was kept, and ordinary justice administered between man and man. The animosity of both parties rose to the greatest height. The excitement, we may well suppose, would have Deen peculiarly intense at the annual election of Tribunes. On such occasions there can be little doubt that the great families did all that could be done, by threats and caresses, to break the union of the Plebeians. That union, however, proved indissoluble. At length the good cause triumphed. The Licinian laws were carried. Lucius Sextius was the first Plebeian Consul, Caius Licinius the third.

The results of this great change were singularly happy and glorious. Two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory followed the reconciliation of the orders. Men who remembered Rome engaged in waging petty wars almost within sight of the Capitol lived to see her the mistress of Italy. While the disabilities of the Plebeians continued, she was scarcely able to maintain her ground against the Volscians and Hernicans. When those disabilities were removed, she rapidly became more than a match for Carthage and Macedon.

Cicero justly infers from this law that there had been early Latin poets whose works had been lost before his time. "Quamquam id quidem etiam xii tabulæ declarant; condi jam tum solitum esse carmen, quod ne liceret fleri ad alterius injuriam lege sanxerunt."Tusc. iv. 2.

Those minstrels, as Niebuhr has remarked, appear to have generally taken the popular side. We can hardly be mistaken in suppos ing that, at the great crisis of the civil conflict, they employed themselves in versifying all the most powerful and virulent speeches of the Tribunes, and in heaping abuse on the chief's of the aristocracy. Every personal defect, every domestic scandal, every tradition dis honourable to a noble house, would be sought

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During the great Licinian contest the F.e-out, brought into notice, and exaggerated. The beian poets were, doubtless, not silent. Even illustrious head of the aristocratical party, in modern times songs have been by no means Marcus Furius Camillus, might perhaps be, in without influence on public affairs; and we some measure, protected by his venerable age may therefore infer, that, in a society where and by the memory of his great services to the printing was unknown, and where books were state. But Appius Claudius Crassus enjoyed rare, a pathetic or humorous party-ballad no such immunity. He was descended from must have produced fects such as we can a long line of ancestors distinguished by theit but faintly conceive. It is certain that satiri- haughty demeanour, and by the inflexibility cal poems were common at Rome from a very with which they had withstood all the demands early period. The rustics who lived at a dis- of the Plebeian order. While the political con tance from the seat of government, and touk duct and the deportment of the Claudian nolittle part in the strife of factions, gave vent to bles drew upon them the fiercest public hatred, their petty local animosities in coarse Fescen- they were wanting, if any credit is due to the nine verse. The lampoons of the city were early history of Rome, in a class of qualities doubtless of a higher order; and their sting which, in a military Commonwealth, is suflwas early felt by the nobility. For in the cient to cover a multitude of ‹ffences. Several Twelve Tables, long before the time of the of them appear to have been eloquent, versed Licinian laws, a severe punishment was de- in civil business, and learned after the fashion nounced against the citizen who should com- of their age; but in war they were not distin. pose or recite verses reflecting on another.* guished by skill or valour. Some of them, as Satire is, indeed, the only sort of composition if conscious where their weakness lay, had, in which the Latin poets, whose works have when filling the highest magistracies, taken come down to us, were not mere imitators of internal administration as their department of foreign models; and it is therefore the only public business, and left the military com sort of composition in which they had never mand to their colleagues. One of them ha been rivalled. It was not, like their tragedy, been intrusted with an army, and had failed their comedy, their epic and lyric poetry, a ignominiously. None of them had been hot-house plant which, in return for assiduous honoured with a triumph. None of them had and skilful culture, yielded only scanty and achieved any martial exploit, such as those by sickly fruits. It was hardy, and full of sap; which Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Titus and in all the various juices which it yielded Quinctius Capitolinus, Aulus Cornelius Cosas, might be distinguished the flavour of the Au- and, above all, the great Camillus, had extorted sonian soil. "Satire," said Quintilian, with the reluctant esteem of the multitude. During just pride, "is all our own." It sprang, in the Licinian conflict, Appius Claudius Crassus signalized himself by the ability and severity with which he harangued against the two

Plautus, Miles Gloriosus. Aulus Gellius iii 3
In the years of the city 260, 304, and 330

In the year of the city 252.

great agitators. He would naturally, there-Tribuneship was re-established; and Appíus fore, be the favourite mark of the Plebeian escaped the hands of the executioner only by satirists; nor would they have been at a loss a voluntary death. to find a point on which he was open to

It can hardly be doubted that a story so admirably adapted to the purposes both of the poet and of the demagogue would be eagerly seized upon by minstrels burning with hatred against the Patrician order, against the Claudian house, and especially against the grandson and namesake of the infamous Decemvir.

VIRGINIA.

FRAGMENTS OF A LAY SUNG IN THE FORUM ON THE DAY WHEREON LUCIUS
NUS LATERANUS AND CAIUS LICINIUS CALVUS STOLO WERE ELECTED
COMMONS THE FIFTH TIME, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCLXXXII.

YE good men of the Commons, with loving hearts and true,
Who stand by the bold Tribunes that still have stood by you,
Come, make a circle round me, and mark my tale with care,
A tale of what Rome once hath borne; of what Rome yet may bear.
This is no Grecian fable, of fountains running wine,

Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine.
Here, in this very Forum, under the noonday sun,

In sight of all the people, the bloody deed was done.
Old men still creep among us who saw that fearful day,
Just seventy years and seven ago, when the wicked Ten bare sway.

Of all the wicked Ten still the names are held accursed,
And of all the wicked Ten, Appius Claudius was the worst.
He stalked along the Forum like King Tarquin in his pride:
Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side;

The townsmen shrank to right and left, and eyed askance with fear
His lowering brow, his curling mouth which alway seemed to sneer:
That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still;
For never was there Claudius yet but wished the Commons ill:
Nor lacks he fit attendance; for close behind his heels,

With outstretched chin and crouching pace, the client Marcus steals,

His loins girt up to run with speed, be the errand what it may,
And the smile flickering on his cheek, for aught his lord may sav.
Such varlets pimp and jest for hire among the lying Greeks:
Such varlets still are paid to hoot when brave Licinius speaks.
Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies will crowd;
Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud;
Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see;
And wheresoe'er such lord is found, such client still will be.

Just then, as through one cloudless chink in a black stormy sky Shines out the dewy morning-star, a fair young girl came by. With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, Home she went bounding from the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm

And past those dreaded axes she innocently ran,

With bright, frank brow that had not learned to blush at gaze of man;
And up the Sacred Street she turned, and, as she danced along,
She warbled gayly to herself lines of the good old song,
How for a sport the princes came spurring from the camp,
And found Lucrece, combing the fleece, under the midnight lamp.
The maiden sang as sings the lark, when up he darts his flight,
From his nest in the green April corn, to meet the morning light;
And Appius heard her sweet young voice, and saw her sweet young face,
And loved her with the accursed love of his accursed race,

And all along the Forum, and up the Sacred Street,
His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet.

Over the Alban mountains the light of morning broke;

From all the roofs of the Seven Hills curled the thin wreaths of smoke:

The city gates were opened; the Forum, all alive,
With buyers and with sellers was humming like a hive.
Blithely on brass and timber the craftsman's stroke was ringing,
And blithely o'er her panniers the market-girl was singing,
And blithely young Virginia came smiling from her home:
Ah! wo for young Virginia, the sweetest maid in Rome!
With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm,
Forth she went bounding to the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm.
She crossed the Forum shining with stalls in alleys gay,
And just had reached the very spot whereon I stand this day,
When up the varlet Marcus came; not such as when erewhile
He crouched behind his patron's heels with the true client smile:
He came with lowering forehead, swollen features, and clenched fist,
And strode across Virginia's path, and caught her by the wrist.
Hard strove the frighted maiden, and screamed with look aghast;
And at her scream from right and left the folk came running fast;
The money-changer Crispus, with his thin silver hairs,

And Hanno from the stately booth glittering with Punic wares,
And the strong smith Muræna, grasping a half-forged brand,
And Volero the flesher, his cleaver in his hand.

All came in wrath and wonder; for all knew that fair child;
And, as she passed them twice a day, all kissed their hands and smiled;
And the strong smith Muræna gave Marcus such a blow,

The caitiff reeled three paces back, and let the maiden go.
Yet glared he fiercely round him, and growled in harsh, fell tone,
"She's mine, and I will have her. I seek but for mine own:
She is my slave, born in my house, and stolen away and sold,
The year of the sore sickness, ere she was twelve hours old.
"Twas in the sad September, the month of wail and fright,
Two augurs were borne forth that morn; the Consul died ere night.
I wait on Appius Cladius; I waited on his sire:

Let him who works the client wrong, beware the patron's ire !"

So spake the varlet Marcus; and dread and silence came
On all the people at the sound of the great Claudian name.
For then there was no Tribune to speak the word of might,
Which makes the rich man tremble, and guards the poor man's right
There was no brave Licinius, no honest Sextius then;
But all the city, in great fear, obeyed the wicked Ten.
Yet ere the valet Marcus again might seize the maid,
Who clung tight to Muræna's skirt, and sobbed, and shrieked for aid.