Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero

W. Warde (William Warde) Fowler

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• Publié par: zeam
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English

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Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler
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Title: Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero
Author: W. Warde Fowler
Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11256]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK SOCIAL LIFE AT ROME ***
Produced by Ted Garvin, Nicolas Hayes and PG
Distributed ProofreadersSOCIAL LIFE AT ROME IN THE
AGE OF CICERO
BY W. WARDE FOWLER, M.A.
'Ad illa mihi pro se quisque acriter intendat
animum, quae vita, quae mores fuerint.'—LIVY,
Praefatio.AMICO VETERRIMO
I.A. STEWART
ROMAE PRIMUM VISAE
COMES MEMOR
D.D.D.PREFATORY NOTE
This book was originally intended to be a
companion to Professor Tucker's Life in Ancient
Athens, published in Messrs. Macmillan's series of
Handbooks of Archaeology and Art; but the plan
was abandoned for reasons on which I need not
dwell, and before the book was quite finished I was
called to other and more specialised work. As it
stands, it is merely an attempt to supply an
educational want. At our schools and universities
we read the great writers of the last age of the
Republic, and learn something of its political and
constitutional history; but there is no book in our
language which supplies a picture of life and
manners, of education, morals, and religion in that
intensely interesting period. The society of the
Augustan age, which in many ways was very
different, is known much better; and of late my
friend Professor Dill's fascinating volumes have
familiarised us with the social life of two several
periods of the Roman Empire. But the age of
Cicero is in some ways at least as important as
any period of the Empire; it is a critical moment in
the history of Graeco-Roman civilisation. And in the
Ciceronian correspondence, of more than nine
hundred contemporary letters, we have the richest
treasure-house of social life that has survived from
any period of classical antiquity.
Apart from this correspondence and the other
literature of the time, my mainstay throughout hasbeen the Privatleben der Römer of Marquardt,
which forms the last portion of the great Handbuch
der Römischen Altertümer of Mommsen and
Marquardt. My debt is great also to Professors
Tyrrell and Purser, whose labours have provided
us with a text of Cicero's letters which we can use
with confidence; the citations from these letters
have all been verified in the new Oxford text edited
by Professor Purser. One other name I must
mention with gratitude. I firmly believe that the one
great hope for classical learning and education lies
in the interest which the unlearned public may be
brought to feel in ancient life and thought. We have
just lost the veteran French scholar who did more
perhaps to create and maintain such an interest
than any man of his time; and I gladly here
acknowledge that it was Boissier's Cicéron et ses
amis that in my younger days made me first feel
the reality of life and character in an age of which I
then hardly knew anything but the perplexing
political history.
I have to thank my old pupils, Mr. H.E. Mann and
Mr. Gilbert Watson, for kind help in revising the
proofs.
W.W.F.CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
TOPOGRAPHICAL
Virgil's hero arrives at Rome by the Tiber: we follow
his example; justification of this; view from
Janiculum and its lessons; advantages of the
position of Rome, for defence and advance;
disadvantages as to commerce and salubrity;
views of Roman writers; a walk through the city in
50 B.C.; Forum Boarium and Circus maximus;
Porta Capena; via Sacra; summa sacra via and
view of Forum; religious buildings at eastern end of
Forum; Forum and its buildings in Cicero's time;
ascent to the Capitol; temple of Jupiter and the
view from it.
CHAPTER II
THE LOWER POPULATION
Spread of the city outside original centre; the plebs
dwelt mainly in the lower ground; little known about
its life: indifference of literary men; housing: the
insulae; no sign of home life; bad condition of these
houses; how the plebs subsisted; vegetarian diet;
the corn supply and its problems; the corn law ofGaius Gracchus; results, and later laws; the water-
supply; history of aqueducts; employment of the
lower grade population; aristocratic contempt for
retail trading; the trade gilds; relation of free to
slave labour; bakers; supply of vegetables; of
clothing; of leather; of iron, etc.; gave employment
to large numbers; porterage; precarious condition
of labour; fluctuation of markets; want of a good
bankruptcy law.
CHAPTER III
THE MEN OF BUSINESS AND THEIR METHODS
Meaning of equester ordo; how the capitalist came
by his money; example of Atticus; incoming of
wealth after Hannibalic war; suddenness of this;
rise of a capitalist class; the contractors; the public
contracting companies; in the age and writings of
Cicero; their political influence; and power in the
provinces; the bankers and money-lenders; origin
of the Roman banker; nature of his business; risks
of the money-lender; general indebtedness of
society; Cicero's debts; story of Rabirius
Postumus; mischief done by both contractors and
money-lenders.
CHAPTER IV
THE GOVERNING ARISTOCRACYThe old noble families; their exclusiveness; Cicero's
attitude towards them; new type of noble; Scipio
Aemilianus: his "circle"; its influence on the
Ciceronian age in (1) manners; (2) literary
capacity; (3), philosophical receptivity; Stoicism at
Rome; its influence on the lawyers; Sulpicius
Rufus, his life and work; Epicureanism, its general
effect on society; case of Calpurnius Piso; pursuit
of pleasure and neglect of duty; senatorial duties
neglected; frivolity of the younger public men;
example of M. Caelius Rufus; sketch of his life and
character; life of the Forum as seen in the letters
of Caelius.
CHAPTER V
MARRIAGE AND THE ROMAN LADY
Meaning of matrimonium: its religious side; shown
from the oldest marriage ceremony; its legal
aspect; marriage cum manu abandoned; betrothal;
marriage rites; dignified position of Roman matron;
the ideal materfamilias; change in the character of
women; its causes; the ladies of Cicero's time;
Terentia; Pomponia; ladies of society and culture:
Clodia; Sempronia; divorce, its frequency; a
wonderful Roman lady: the Laudatio Turiae; story
of her life and character as recorded by her
husband.
CHAPTER VITHE EDUCATION OF THE UPPER CLASSES
An education of character needed; Aristotle's idea
of education; little interest taken in education at
Rome; biographies silent; education of Cato the
younger; of Cicero's son and nephew; Varro and
Cicero on education; the old Roman education of
the body and character; causes of its breakdown;
the new education under Greek influence; schools,
elementary; the sententiae in use in schools;
arithmetic; utilitarian character of teaching;
advanced schools; teaching too entirely linguistic
and literary; assumption of toga virilis; study of
rhetoric and law; oratory the main object; results of
this; Cicero's son at the University of Athens: his
letter to Tiro.
CHAPTER VII
THE SLAVE POPULATION
The demand for labour in second century B.C.;
how it was supplied; the slave trade; kidnapping by
pirates, etc.; breeding of slaves; prices of slaves;
possible number in Cicero's day; economic aspect
of slavery: did it interfere with free labour?; no
apparent rivalry between them; either in Rome; or
on the farm; the slave-shepherds of South Italy;
they exclude free labour; legal aspect of slavery:
absolute power of owner; prospect of
manumission; political results of slave system; of