The Gracchi Marius and Sulla: Epochs of Ancient HistoryBeesly, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
History
The Gracchi Marius and Sulla: Epochs of Ancient History
Beesly, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
Like Caius Gracchus, Saturninus represented rural as opposed to urban
interests, and the interests of the provinces as opposed to those
of the capital. Like Caius, too, he endeavoured to conciliate the
equites; but they had all the Roman prejudice against admitting
Italians to a level with themselves, and the attempt to play off
party against party utterly failed. In vain Saturninus tried to defy
opposition by enlisting the support of the Marian veterans. The rich,
the noble, and the city mob united against him; and when he seized the
Capitol, it was to defend himself against all three. In the year 100
B.C. Marius was consul for the sixth time, Glaucia was praetor, and
Saturninus was a second time tribune. A triumvirate so powerful might,
if united, have overthrown the Constitution. But the vanity and
vacillation of Marius were the best allies of the optimates; and it
was no grown man, but Caius Julius Caesar, a child born in that same
year, who was destined to subvert their rule. [Sidenote: The
Lex Servilia. The equites and the judicia.] Saturninus had been
instrumental in securing the election of Marius to his fifth
consulship in 102, and it was about that time that the Lex Servilia
was carried. This law defined the liability of Roman officials to
trial for extortion in the provinces, and, by a process of elimination
(for senators, workers for hire, and others were expressly declared
ineligible), practically left to the equites the jurisdiction in such
trials. Whether or no the law of Gracchus had been repealed by another
Servilian law--that of Q. Servilius Caepio--we cannot say for certain.
If so, the second Servilian law repealed the first. But, whether it
restored power to the equites or only confirmed them in it, in theory
it left the office of judex open to all citizens, for, while it
excluded so many citizens that in practice the judicia were closed to
all but the equestrian class, it did not assign the office to any one
class in particular. It also provided that anyone not a citizen who
won his suit against an official should by virtue of doing so obtain
the citizenship. [Sidenote: Threefold purpose of the Lex Servilia.] So
that we may trace in this law a threefold policy--an attempt (1) to
relieve the provincials, by making prosecutions for extortion easy,
and even putting a premium on them; (2) to conciliate the equites; (3)
to pave the way for the overthrow of class jurisdiction by, nominally
at least, leaving the judicia open to all who did not come under
specified restrictions. Cicero inveighs against Glaucia as a demagogue
of the Hyperbolus stamp. But there was more of the statesman than the
demagogue in this law.
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