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The class war continues
One of the pleasures of reading Livy in the 21st century is that you can see how Marx got so much of it right. Well, strictly speaking, he was right about the problem, but perhaps not about the solution.
To explain, Livy was a conservative, traditionalist patriot who revered Rome as a goddess, a force of nature, a force for good, a champion of civilisation. In the early years of the imperial era he wrote a monumental history of the city in 142 books. Of these, only 35 survive entire (or almost entire), and at best only summaries survive of the remaining 107 books. Unlike some other ancient (and modern) historians, Livy doesn’t seem to have travelled anywhere in search of interviews or primary sources. He never visited battlefields, or cities. He sat at home or in a library somewhere and consulted earlier writers and chronologies. Occasionally he talks of ambiguities and contradictions in these earlier narratives and explains which version he favours and why. Generally, he supports any version of events that favours the ruling class, the patricians, and discredits the lower orders, the plebeians. However, there are instances where, try as he might, he cannot ignore the tyranny, hypocrisy and brutality of particular members of the ruling class. He then follows the “few bad apples” approach, contrasting the shameful behaviour of an Appius Claudius with the glorious patriotism and self-effacement of a Cincinnatus. More on them later.
This is Volume 2 of the Loeb edition and presents Books III and IV. These cover a period of about 60 years from 467 BCE. This is a fascinating period in Roman history (and a fascinating period in Greek history when you think about it). This is a time when Roman territory extends about a dozen miles beyond the city, when Rome’s enemies are towns a day’s march away. These enemies are clearly of the same ethnic/linguistic group, on the whole, and their politics often sounds very Roman (they have upper and lower classes too). Livy presents the conflicts between these towns as full-scale warfare, but Mary Beard has described them as over-grown cattle raids, and she’s probably closer to the truth. Although there are occasions where a town is besieged and captured, most of the campaigns seem to be aimed at grabbing farm animals and slaves, with the latter often treated worse than the former. It’s noticeable that the citizen soldiers don’t get paid for their military service (not even rations, apparently) and they have to pay for their own kit. In some instances a “war” only lasts a few days.
As an example of upper class arrogance, Appius Claudius is one of those tyrannical toffs who was elected a decemvir (lawgiver) and then refused to lay down his office. He takes a fancy to a beautiful young plebeian woman, Verginia. She is betrothed to another plebeian, but Claudius persuades one of his retainers to file a law suit claiming that she is one of his household slaves and always has been. The plan is that when the retainer has won his case, he will hand the girl over to Claudius to use as a concubine. Amazingly, it looks like they’re going to get away with it. However, messengers reach Verginia’s father, who is away at the wars. He returns to the city and when he realises that Claudius has the courts and the toffs behind him, he whips out his sword and kills his daughter to “save” her honour. Equally amazingly, he gets away with it, seemingly because Verginia is his property. It makes you realise that in ancient Rome there are two classes who are even worse off than the plebs: women and slaves.
In contrast with Claudius, Livy presents several examples of fine, upstanding toffs who display remarkable courage and leadership qualities. One such is Cincinnatus. He is appointed dictator (a temporary six month appointment only to be used in dire emergencies) by the senate in 458 BCE. The senators find him on his farm, ploughing a field. They tell him he’s been appointed dictator and must lead the army against the dreaded Sabines. Whereupon, he marches off to war, defeats the enemy in 16 days and promptly resigns and returns to his farm. In fact, there are examples in this volume of dictators resigning after a mere eight days in office, but good old Cincinnatus is the most famous example of how to use a position of leadership and power wisely and for the public good.
As well as endless wars against neighbouring towns, there is a lot of domestic politics in these books. Some of the issues covered include:
1. The appointment of the decemvirs and their production of the Twelve Tables, followed by their refusal to lay down their office.
2. Plebeian demands that they should be able to stand for the consulship, the highest elected office.
3. The appointment of military tribunes instead of consuls as a way of getting some plebeians into top jobs.
4. The role of the tribunes of the people and their use of “refuse the draft” to exert power over the toffs. Hell no, we won’t go!
5. The question of intermarriage between patricians and plebeians.
6. The role of a gang of young extremist patricians in the political conflicts. These are the sort of chaps who are looking forward to inheriting their fathers’ wealth and privileges and are determined to ensure that none of the moderates in the older generation give away too much – or any – power to the lower orders.
7. The first payment of a stipend to soldiers at the end of a campaign. That was extremely popular with the soldiers on that particular campaign, but not with the veterans of earlier wars who had had to serve at their own expense and were now forced to cough up to fund the stipend. It reaches the point where the tribunes of the people promise to defend anyone who refuses to pay the tax, although the tax will benefit the rank and file. Talk about divide and rule!
8. What’s not made entirely clear by Livy is that the Roman voting system was skewed to give greater weight to the votes of wealthy citizens, and the poorest men didn’t have a vote as they were barred from military service.
Whether you read the Latin or the facing English translation, if you’re interested in ancient history, politics, the class struggle or how the ruling classes cling onto power, I’d highly recommend this volume. And all the others available in the Loeb collection.