24. I. XIII. Landed Proprietors
25. II. III. Combination Of The Plebian Aristocracy And The Farmers Against The Nobility
26. Varro (De R. R. i. 2, 9) evidently conceives the author of the Licinian agrarian law as fanning in person his extensive lands; although, we may add, the story may easily have been invented to explain the cognomen (-Stolo-).
27. I. XIII. System Of Joint Cultivation
28. I. XIII. Inland Commerce Of The Italians
29. I. XIII. Commerce In Latium Passive, In Etruria Active
30. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, And Latino-Sicilian Commerce
31. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, And Latino-Sicilian Commerce
32. II. IV. Etruria At Peace And On The Decline, II. V. Campanian Hellenism
33. The conjecture that Novius Flautius, the artist who worked at this casket for Dindia Macolnia, in Rome, may have been a Campanian, is refuted by the old Praenestine tomb-stones recently discovered, on which, among other Macolnii and Plautii, there occurs also a Lucius Magulnius, son of Haulms (L. Magolnio Pla. f.).
34. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, And Latino-Sicilian Commerce, II. II. Rising Power Of The Capitalists
35. II. III. The Burgess Body
36. II. III. The Burgess Body
37. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes
38. II. III. The Burgess Body
39. II. VII. Construction Of New Fortresses And Roads
40. We have already mentioned the censorial stigma attached to Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul 464, 477) for his silver plate.(II. VIII. Police) The strange statement of Fabius (in Strabo, v. p. 228) that the Romans first became given to luxury (--aisthesthae tou plouton--) after the conquest of the Sabines, is evidently only a historical version of the same matter; for the conquest of the Sabines falls in the first consulate of Rufinus.
41. II. V. Colonizations In The Land Of The Volsci
42. II. VI. Last Campaigns In Samnium
43. II. VIII. Inland Intercourse In Italy
44. I. III. Localities Of The Oldest Cantons
45. I. II. Iapygians
46. II. V. Campanian Hellenism
47. II. VIII. Transmarine Commerce
48. II. VII. The Full Roman Franchise
49. II. VI. Battle Of Sentinum
50. II. III. The Burgess-Body
51. II. VIII. Impulse Given To It
52. II. III. New Opposition
53. II. VII. Attempts At Peace
CHAPTER IX
Art And Science
The Roman National Festival-- The Roman Stage
The growth of art, and of poetic art especially, in antiquity was intimately associated with the development of national festivals. The thanksgiving-festival of the Roman community, which had been already organized in the previous period essentially under Greek influence and in the first instance as an extraordinary festival, --the -ludi maximi- or -Romani-,(1) --acquired during the present epoch a longer duration and greater variety in the amusements. Originally limited to one day, the festival was prolonged by an additional day after the happy termination of each of the three great revolutions of 245, 260, and 387, and thus at the close of this period it had already a duration of four days.(2)
A still more important circumstance was, that, probably on the institution of the curule aedileship (387) which was from the first entrusted with the preparation and oversight of the festival,(3) it lost its extraordinary character and its reference to a special vow made by the general, and took its place in the series of the ordinary annually recurring festivals as the first of all. Nevertheless the government adhered to the practice of allowing the spectacle proper --namely the chariot-race, which was the principal performance--to take place not more than once at the close of the festival. On the other days the multitude were probably left mainly to furnish amusement for themselves, although musicians, dancers, rope-walkers, jugglers, jesters and such like would not fail to make their appearance on the occasion, whether hired or not But about the year 390 an important change occurred, which must have stood in connection with the fixing and prolongation of the festival, that took place perhaps about the same time. A scaffolding of boards was erected at the expense of the state in the Circus for the first three days, and suitable representations were provided on it for the entertainment of the multitude. That matters might not be carried too far however in this way, a fixed sum of 200,000 -asses- (2055 pounds) once for all appropriated from the exchequer for the expenses of the festival; and the sum was not increased up to the period of the Punic wars. The aediles, who had to expend this sum, were obliged to defray any additional amount out of their own pockets; and it is not probable that they at this time contributed often or considerably from their own resources. That the new stage was generally under Greek influence, is proved by its very name (-scaena-, --skene--). It was no doubt at first designed merely for musicians and buffoons of all sorts, amongst whom the dancers to the flute, particularly those then so celebrated from Etruria, were probably the most distinguished; but a public stage had at any rate now arisen in Rome and it soon became open also to the Roman poets.
Ballad Singers, -Satura- -- Censure Of Art
There was no want of such poets in Latium. Latin "strolling minstrels" or "ballad-singers" (-grassatores-, -spatiatores-) went from town to town and from house to house, and recited their chants (-saturae-(4)), gesticulating and dancing to the accompaniment of the flute. The measure was of course the only one that then existed, the so-called Saturnian.(5) No distinct plot lay at the basis of the chants, and as little do they appear to have been in the form of dialogue. We must conceive of them as resembling those monotonous --sometimes improvised, sometimes recited--ballads and -tarantelle-, such as one may still hear in the Roman hostelries. Songs of this sort accordingly early came upon the public stage, and certainly formed the first nucleus of the Roman theatre. But not only were these beginnings of the drama in Rome, as everywhere, modest and humble; they were, in a remarkable manner, accounted from the very outset disreputable. The Twelve Tables denounced evil and worthless song-singing, imposing severe penalties not only upon incantations but even on lampoons composed against a fellow-citizen or recited before his door, and forbidding the employment of wailing-women at funerals.