LESSON VIII.

In the following Year, M. Genucius and C. Curtius being Confuls, the Commons of Rome demand that the Plebeians may be admitted into the Confulship, and that the Law prohibiting Patricians and Plebeians from intermarrying, may be repealed. In Support of this Demand, Canuleius, one of the Tribunes of the People, thus deliver'd himself.

WHA

HAT an Infult upon us is this! If we are not fo rich as the Patricians, are we not Citizens of Rome, as well as they? Inhabitants of the fame Country? Members of the fame Community? The Nations bordering upon Rome, and even Strangers more remote, are admitted not only to Marriages with us, but to what is of much greater Importance, The Freedom of the City. Are we, because we are Commoners, to be worfe treated than Strangers? And when we demand that the People may be free to bestow their Offices and Dignities on whom they pleafe, do we afk any thing unreasonable or new? Do we claim more than their original inherent Right? What occafion then for all this Uproar, as if the Universe was falling to Ruin? They were just going to lay violent Hands upon me in the Senate-houfe. What! muft this Empire then be unavoidably overturned, muft Rome of Neceffitv fink at once, if a Plebeain, worthy of the Office, fhould be raised to the Confulfhip? The Patricians, I am perfuaded, if they could, would deprive you of the common Light. It certainly offends them that you breathe, that you speak, that you have the Shapes of Men. Nay, but to make a Commoner a Conful would be, fay they, a moft enormous Thing. Numa Pompilius, however, without being fo much as a Roman Citizen, was made King of Rome. The elder Tarquin, by Birth not even an Italian, was nevertheless placed upon the Throne. Servius Tillius, the Son of a Captive Woman (no body knows who his Father was) obtain'd the Kingdom as the Reward of his Wisdom and Virtue. In thofe Days no Man, in whom Virtue fhone confpicuous, was rejected, or defpifed, on account of his Race and Defcent. And did the State profper the lefs for that? Were not thofe Strangers the very best of all our Kings? And fuppofing now that a Plebeian should have their Talents and Merit, muft not he be fuffered to go

vern us? Muft we rather chufe fuch Governors as the Decemvirs? Thofe exceellent Magiftrates, I think, were mostly Patricians. But we find, that upon the Abolition of the Regal Power, no Commoner was chofen to the Confulate. And what of that? Before Numa's Time there were no Pontifices in Rome. Before Servius Tullius's Days there was no Cenfus, no Divifion of the People into Claffes and Centuries. Who ever heard of Confuls before the Expulfion of Tarquin the Proud? Dictators, we all know, are of modern Invention; and fo are the Offices of Tribunes, Ediles, Queftors. Within these ten Years we have made Decemvirs, and we have unmade them. Is nothing to be done but what has been done before? That very Law forbidding Marriages of Patricians with Plebeians, is not that a new Thing? Was there any fuch Law before the Decemvirs enacted it? And a moft fhameful one it is in a free State. Such Marriages, it seems, will taint the pure Blood of the Nobility! Why, if they think fo, let them take care to match their Sifters and Daughters with Men of their own Sort. No Plebeian will do Violence to the Daughter of a Patrician. Those are Exploits for our prime Nobles. There is no need to fear that we shall force any body into a Contract of Marriage. But to make an exprefs Law to prohibit Marriages of Patricians with Plebeians, what is this, but to fhew the utmost Contempt of us, and to declare one Part of the Community to be impure and unclean? Why don't they lay their wife Heads together to hinder rich Folks from matching with poor? They talk to us of the Confufion there will be in Families, if this Statute fhould be repealed. I wonder they don't make a Law against a Commoner's living near a Nobleman, or going the fame Road that he is going, or being prefent at the fame Feaft, or appearing in the fame MarketPlace. They might as well pretend, that these things make Confufion in Families, as that Inter-marriages will do it. Does not every body know, that the Children will be ranked according to the Quality of the Father, let him be a Patrician or Plebeian? In fhort, it is manifeft enough, that we have nothing in View but to be treated as Men and Citizens; nor can they who oppose our Demand have any Motive to do it, but the Love of Domineering. I fould fain know of you Confuls and Patricians, is the Sovereign Power in the People of Rome, or in You? I hope you will allow, that the People can at their Pleasure either make a Law, or repeal one. And will you then, as foon as any Law is proposed to them, pretend to lift them immediately for the War, and VOL. I F

hinder

hinder them from giving their Suffrages by leading them into the Field? Hear me, Confuls: Whether the News of the War you talk of be true, or whether it be only a falfe Rumour, fpread abroad for nothing but a Colour to fend the People out of the City, I declare, as Tribune, that this People, who have already fo often spilt their Blood in our Country's Caufe, are again ready to arm for its Defence and its Glory, if they may be reftored to their natural Rights, and you will no longer treat us like Strangers in our own Country. But if you account us unworthy of your Alliance by Inter-marriages, if you will not fuffer the Entrance to the chief Offices in the State to be open to all Perfons of Merit, indifferently, but will confine our choice Magiftrates to the Senate alone; talk of Wars as much as ever you please; paint in your ordinary Difcourfes the League and Power of our Enemies ten times more dreadful than you do now; I declare that this People, whom you fo much despise, and to whom you are nevertheless indebted for all your Victories, fhall never more inlift themselves; not a Man of them fhall take Arms, not a Man of them fhall expose his Life for imperious Lords, with whom he can neither share the Dignities of the State, nor in private Life have any Alliance by Marriage.

LESSON IX.

You have feen by the foregoing Speeches, the Progress of the Struggles between the Patricians and the Plebeians, which continued for many Years; the People always encroaching more and more upon the Privileges of the Patricians, till at length all the great Offices of the State became equally common to the one and the other. The following Speech, which was spoken above a hundred Years after the foregoing one, may ferve as an Inftance and a Proof of that great Simplicity of Manners, public Virtue, and noble Spirit, which raifed this People to that Height of Power and Dominion, which they afterwards attain'd. The Occafion of it was this. The Tarentines having a Quarrel with the Romans, invite Pyrrhus King of Epirus to their Affiftance, who lands with his Forces in Italy, and defeats the Roman Army under the Command of Lævinus. After this Battle,

Fa

Fabritius, with two other Roman Senators, is fent to Tarentum to treat with Pyrrhus about the Exchange of Prisoners. The King, being informed of the great Abilities, and great Poverty of Fabritius, hinted, in a private Conversation with bim, the Unfuitableness of fuch Poverty to fuch diftinguished Merit, and that if he would affift him to negotiate with the Romans an honourable Peace for the Tarentines, and go with him to Epirus, he would bestow fuch Riches upon him, as fhould put him, at least, upon an Equality with the most opulent Nobles of Rome. The Anfwer of Fabritius was to this Effect.

S to my Poverty, you have indeed, Sir, been rightly inform'd. My whole Eftate confifts in a Houfe of but mean Appearance, and a little Spot of Ground, from which, by my own Labour, I draw my Support. But if, by any Means, you have been perfuaded to think, that this Poverty makes me lefs confidered in my Country, or in any Degree unhappy, you are extremely deceived. I have no Keafon to complain of Fortune, fhe fupplies me with all that Nature requires; and if I am without Superfluities, I am also free from the Defire of them. With thefe, I confefs, I fhould be more able to fuccour the Neceffitous, the only Advantage for which the Wealthy are to be envied; but as small as my Poffeffions are, I can ftill contribute fomething to the Support of the State, and the Affiftance of my Friends. With regard to Honours, my Country places me, poor as I am, upon a Level with the richeft: For Rome knows no Qualifications for great Employments but Virtue and Ability. She appoints me to officiate in the most august Ceremonies of Religion; she entrusts me with the Command of her Armies; the confides to my Care the most important Negotiations. My Poverty does not leffen the Weight and Influence of my Counfels in the Senate; the Roman People honour me for that very Poverty which you confider as a Difgrace; they know the many Opportunities I have had in War, to enrich myself without incurring Cenfure; they are convinced of my difinterested Zeal for their Profperity; and, if I have any thing to complain of in the Return they make, it is only the Excefs of their Applause. What Value then can I fet upon your Gold and Silver? What King can add any thing to my Fortune? Always attentive to discharge the Duties incumbent on me, I have a Mind free from SELF-REPROACH, and I have an HONEST FAME.

LESSON X.

The following Speeches are of a different kind from any of the foregoing. They are the Speeches of two great Generals, at the Head of their Armies, before an Engagement. It was at the Beginning of the fecond Punic War, that Hannibal the Carthaginian General made that surprizing March over the Alps with his Army, and entered Italy. He was met near the Banks of the Po by Publius Scipio, with the Roman Army. The two Generals are faid to have conceived a high Opinion of each other. Hannibal's Name had been long renowned; and that Scipio must be a Captain of eminent Worth, the Carthaginian bad well concluded, from the Romans having chofen him, preferably to all others, to be his Opponent. But this mutual Impreffion was become much Stronger, by the hardy Enterprize of the one to march over the Alps, and the happy Execution of it; and the expeditious Courage of the other in coming from the Banks of the Rhone, to meet him, at the Foot of thofe Mountains. But Scipio, who was but newly appointed their General, thought proper to affemble his Soldiers before the Engagement, and endeavoured to animate their Courage by the following Words.

WE

ERE you, Soldiers, the fame Army which I had with me in Gaul, I might well forbear faying any thing to you at this time. For what occafion could there be ufe Exhortation to a Cavalry, that had fo fignally vanquifhed the Squadrons of the Enemy upon the Rhone, or to Legions, by whom that fame Enemy flying before them to avoid a Battle, did in effect confefs themselves conquered? But as thofe Troops, having been inrolled for Spain, are there with my Brother Cneius, making War under my Aufpices (as was the Will of the Senate and People of Rome) I, that you might have a Conful for your Captain against Hannibal and the Carthaginians, have freely offered myself for this War. You then have a new General, and I a new Army. In

this

This Battle was fought on the Banks of the Ticin, a small River which runs into the Po, and is called the Battle of the Ticin. Scipio received a dangerous Wound, and had been left upon the Place, if his Son, a mere Youth, (afterwards the great Africanus) had not, by a furp izing Effort of Courage, brought him off. The Romans were obliged to retire.