The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the MonarchyMommsen, Theodor
History
The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy
Mommsen, Theodor
Rome -- History
served to distinguish the president of the community from its members,
the grown-up man under obligation of military service from the boy
not yet capable of enrolment; but otherwise the rich and the noble
as well as the poor and low-born were only allowed to appear in
public in the like simple wrapper (-toga-) of white woollen stuff.
This complete equality of rights among the burgesses had beyond
doubt its original basis in the Indo-Germanic type of constitution;
but in the precision with which it was thus apprehended and
embodied it formed one of the most characteristic and influential
peculiarities of the Latin nation. And in connection with this we
may recall the fact that in Italy we do not meet with any race of
earlier settlers less capable of culture, that had become subject
to the Latin immigrants.(8) They had no conquered race to deal
with, and therefore no such condition of things as that which gave
rise to the Indian system of caste, to the nobility of Thessaly
and Sparta and perhaps of Hellas generally, and probably also to
the Germanic distinction of ranks.
Burdens of the Burgesses
The maintenance of the state economy devolved, of course, upon
the burgesses. The most important function of the burgess was his
service in the army; for the burgesses had the right and duty of
bearing arms. The burgesses were at the same time the "body of
warriors" (-populus-, related to -populari-, to lay waste): in the
old litanies it is upon the "spear-armed body of warriors" (-pilumnus
poplus-) that the blessing of Mars is invoked; and even the designation
with which the king addresses them, that of Quirites,(9) is taken
as signifying "warrior." We have already stated how the army of
aggression, the "gathering" (-legio-), was formed. In the tripartite
Roman community it consisted of three "hundreds" (-centuriae-) of
horsemen (-celeres-, "the swift," or -flexuntes-, "the wheelers")
under the three leaders-of-division of the horsemen (-tribuni
celerum-)(10) and three "thousands" of footmen (-milties-) under
the three leaders-of-division of the infantry (-tribuni militum-),
the latter were probably from the first the flower of the general
levy. To these there may perhaps have been added a number
of light-armed men, archers especially, fighting outside of the
ranks.(11) The general was regularly the king himself. Besides
service in war, other personal burdens might devolve upon the burgesses;
such as the obligation of undertaking the king's commissions in
peace and in war,(12) and the task-work of tilling the king's lands
or of constructing public buildings. How heavily in particular the
burden of building the walls of the city pressed upon the community,
is evidenced by the fact that the ring-walls retained the name
of "tasks" (-moenia-). There was no regular direct taxation, nor
was there any direct regular expenditure on the part of the state.
Taxation was not needed for defraying the burdens of the community,
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