The old virtues were completely inadequate for the new day. The abilities of the pioneer and the conqueror, which had made the empire, could not meet the conditions which resulted from their achievements. To overcome nature or nations calls for one set of qualities; to use the victory as a basis for a better state in human affairs calls for another. When men must turn from extending their possessions to making wise use of them, audacity, self-reliance, endurance, are not enough. Individualism, whether of the road-builder in the wilderness or of the self-determined general in the field, must give way. It is suited only to the wilderness and the battlefield. After Rome’s great victories had been won, the fruits of them could be gathered only by men working together. She had reached a point in her development when the good of the whole was bound up with the good of each man and the good of each man was bound up with the good of the whole, and the problem of achieving it was complicated far beyond the simple virtues of the simple man. Her first necessity was for intellectual and spiritual insight, for wisdom and disinterestedness.
What Rome was capable of, the achievement of her empire shows. The Roman character had great qualities, great potential strength. If the people had held together, realizing their interdependence and working for a common good, their problems, completely strange and enormously difficult though they were, would not, it may well be believed, have proved too much for them. But they were split into sharpest oppositions, extremes that ever grew more extreme and so more irresponsible. A narrow selfishness kept men blind when their own self-preservation demanded a world-wide outlook.
History repeats itself. The fact is a testimony to human stupidity. The saying has become a truism; nevertheless, the study of the past is relegated to the scholar and the school-boy. And yet it is really a chart for our guidance—no less than that. Where we now are going astray and losing ourselves, other men once did the same, and they left a record of the blind alleys they went down. We are like youth that can never learn from age—but youth is young, and wisdom is for the mature. We that are grown should not find it impossible to learn from the ages-old recorded experience of the past.
Our mechanical and industrial age is the only material achievement that can be compared with Rome’s during the two thousand years in between. It is worth our while to perceive that the final reason for Rome’s defeat was the failure of mind and spirit to rise to a new and great opportunity, to meet the challenge of new and great events. Material development outstripped human development; the Dark Ages took possession of Europe, and classical antiquity ended.
CHRONOLOGY
753 B.C
Traditional date of founding of Rome.
266
Conquest of Italy to the Rubicon completed.
264–241
First Punic War.
218–201
Second Punic War.
184
Plautus died.
185–159
Traditional dates for Terence’s birth and death.
167
Polybius brought to Rome.
149–146
Third Punic War and destruction of Carthage.
133–121
Tiberius and Caius Gracchus agitate reforms.
106
Cicero born.
102 or 100
Caesar born.
87
Catullus said to have been born; date uncertain.
82
Sulla dictator.
78
Sulla’s death.
70
Virgil born.
65
Horace born.
63
Conspiracy of Catiline.
60
First Triumvirate—Caesar, Pompey, Crassus.
59
Livy born.
58–51
Conquest of Gaul by Caesar.
57
Catullus died. Again date conjectural.
49
War between Caesar and Pompey.
48
Pompey defeated at Pharsalus, flees to Egypt and there murdered.
44
Assassination of Caesar.
43
Second Triumvirate—Octavius (Augustus), Antony, Lepidus. Cicero killed.
42
Battle of Philippi. Death of Brutus and Cassius.
31
Defeat of Antony in battle of Actium. Augustus sole ruler of empire.
30
Death of Antony and Cleopatra.
19
Virgil’s death.
8
Horace’s death.
3(?)
Seneca born.
14 A.D.
Death of Augustus.
17
Livy’s death.
14–37
Reign of Tiberius—extended law against high treason to include most trivial matters. Rewards given to informers. Suffocated when near death.
37–41
Caius (Caligula). At least half crazy. Murdered by soldiers.
41–54
Claudius, married Messalina, then Agrippina, who poisoned him after he had adopted her son, Nero. Tacitus probably born toward end of his reign.
54–68
Nero. Fled from uprising against him and killed himself just as soldiers arrived to execute him. End of the house of Caesar.
65
Seneca died by order of Nero.
69
The “Year of Three Emperors”: Galba, killed by uprising of soldiers; Otho, killed himself after being defeated by Vitellius, who was in his turn killed by uprising of soldiers.
69–79
Vespasian. Good administrator. Capture of Jerusalem. Coliseum built. Vespasian succeeded by son.
79–81
Titus. Destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Succeeded by his brother.
81–96
Domitian. Murdered by his freedman and his wife.
96–180
The “Five Good Emperors”: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, each, from Nerva on, adopted by his predecessor.
Tacitus probably died during Trajan’s reign, around 117.
Juvenal known to be writing during Domitian’s reign and probably died in Hadrian’s reign, around 135.
Epictetus born probably around 50 and died probably early in second century.
REFERENCES
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device's search function to locate particular terms in the text.
PAGE
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62
13
Ad Att. IV, 17. All quotations from Cicero’s letters are taken from the admirable translation in the Loeb Classical Library.
63
3
Plutarch, Caes. According to Plutarch, Clodius was discovered, but Cicero says not.
65
1
Ad Att. I, 16.
66
33
Q. Fr. III, 9.
67
7
Ad Att. II, 95.
70
27
Ad Att. II, 15.
71
1
Ad Att. XII, 9.
72
12
Ib., VII, 8.
72
17
Ib., II, 25.
72
24
Ib., I, 14.
72
32
73
4
Ad Att. II, 25.
73
7
Ib., II, 19.
73
21
Ib., XIV, 18.
73
32
Ib., XIV, 13.
74
7
Ib., XIV, 9.
74
33
Ib., VI, 9.
75
18
Ib., I, 8.
75
24
Q. Fr. III, 1.
76
8
Ad Att. IV, 4a.
76
17
Ad Fam. VII, 1.
77
6
Ib., VIII, 14.
77
17
Ad Att. VI, 1.
77
25
Ad Fam. IX, 22.
77
33
Ib., IX, 26.
78
10
Ib., IX, 20.
78
17
Ib., XIV, 1.
78
24
Ib., XIV, 20.
78
30
Ad Att. XII, 32.
79
9
Ad Fam. IV, 6.
79
13
Ad Att. IV, 18.
79
22
Ad Fam. VIII, 1.
79
23
Ib., VIII, 14.
79
32
Ad Att. VII, 5.
80
4
Ad Fam. VIII, 15.
80
10
Ad Att. VIII, 9.
80
11
Ib., VII, 1.
80
24
Ib., X, 8b.
80
32
Ib., IX, 18.
81
1
Ib., IX, 7c.
81
5
Ad Fam. IV, 4.
81
13
Ad Att. XIII, 5.
82
17
Ib., XIII, 52.
83
3
Ib., XIV, 21.
84
12
Ib., XIV, 17.
84
17
De Off. II, 24.
84
22
Ad Att. VIII, 11.
84
29
Conivr. Cat. 51ff.
85
1
Ad Att. VII, 2.
85
28
Catullus XXIX.
86
9
Catullus LVII.
86
20
Plutarch Caes. IX.
86
30
Suet. Oct. 45.
87
7
Plutarch Cic. XVIII.
87
15
Plut. Caes. III, also Suet. Caes. I.
87
22
Ad Att. II, 17.
87
30
Ib., IX, 10.
88
1
Ib., XV, 26.
88
11
Ib., XV, 11.
88
27
Ib., XV, 12.
89
13
Ib., XVI, 11.
89
26
Ad Fam. IX, 20.
90
10
Ad Att. XV, 15.
90
15
Caes. B. G. II end
90
27
Ib., I, 38.
91
14
Ad Fam. VII, 15.
91
20
De Am. XXIII.
91
24
Ad Fam. XVI, 5, 6.
92
3
Ad Att. II, 9.
94
5
Ib., II, 18.
95
23
Ib., II, 20.
95
26
Ad Att. IX, 10.
96
2
Ad Fam. VII, 5.
96
30
Ad Att. XII, 15.
97
24
Ib., XVI, 15.
98
17
Ib., X, 10.
99
7
Ad Fam. VIII, 1.
99
16
Ad Att. III, 8.
100
2
Ib., VI, 2.
103
19
Pro Cael. II, 1ff.
109
11
Cat. II.
110
1
Ib., III.
110
22
Ib., LXXXVI.
111
1
Ib., V.
111
17
Ib., LXXXIII.
111
28
Ib., XCII.
112
5
Ib., CIX.
113
1
Ib., LXVIIIb.
113
23
Ib., LXXXV.
113
28
Ib., LXX.
114
2
Ib., LXXII.
114
16
Ib., LXXV.
114
25
Ib., VIII.
115
27
Ib., CI.
116
26
Ib., CVII.
117
5
Ib., LXXVI.
118
1
Ib., LVIII.
121
33
Serm. II, 1, 1.
128
25
Carm. IV, 2, 5, 25.
129
2
Ib., III, 30.
129
25
Serm. I, 6, 115.
130
17
Ib., II, 6, 1.
130
21
Carm. II, 18, 1.
130
25
Ib., I, 31.
131
31
Ep. I, 18, 106.
133
33
Carm. III, 6, 16.
134
3
Ib., III, 15, 1.
134
7
Ib., III, 4, 65.
134
10
Ib., III, 5, 46.
135
12
Ep. I, 6, 6.
135
13
Ib., II, 2, 180.
135
30
Ser. II, 6, 27.
136
14
Ep. II, 2, 72.
137
11
Ep. I, 6, 37.
138
8
Ib., I, 17 and 18.
139
27
Serm. II, 3, 151.
140
1
Ib., II, 3, 94.
140
9
But Aristophanes shows the fashion is beginning: Wasps 1212
140
21
Ser. II, 2, 26.
140
33
Ib., II, 8 and 4.
141
17
Ser. II, 76.
141
28
Ep. I, 5, 22.
142
22
Serm. I, 5, 51.
143
27
Ib., II, 6, 73.
144
14
Serm. II, 6, 44.
144
19
Ib., I, 3, 81.
144
24
Ib., I, 3, 10.
145
34
Ib., II, 6, 65.
147
6
Ep. II, 1, 185.
148
1
Aen. I, 278.
149
21
Lucian, Demonax 57 (quoted by Magnin, Origines du Théatre).
149
24
Philostr. Apollon. vit. IV, 22 (Magnin, op. cit.).
149
28
Xiph. LXIX, 8.
149
29
Suet. Tit. 7.
149
33
Mart. VIII, 26.
150
11
Xiph. LXVIII, 8.
150
13
Mart. I, 6.
150
14
Xiph. LXXII, 22.
150
21
Suet. Claud. 21.
150
29
Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 21 (quoted by Magnin, op. cit.).