FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495  
496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   >>   >|  
) Now from the fall of Alba to the conquest of Veii the immediate territory of Rome received no material extension; in perfect accordance with which we find that from the first institution of the twenty-one tribes about 259, (II. II. Coriolanus) which involved no, or at any rate no considerable, extension of the Roman bounds, no new tribes were instituted till 367. However abundant allowance we make for increase by the excess of births over deaths, by immigration, and by manumissions, it is absolutely impossible to reconcile with the narrow limits of a territory of hardly 650 square miles the traditional numbers of the census, according to which the number of Roman burgesses capable of bearing arms in the second half of the third century varied between 104,000 and 150,000, and in 362, regarding which a special statement is extant, amounted to 152,573. These numbers must rather stand on a parallel with the 84,700 burgesses of the Servian census; and in general the whole earlier census-lists, carried back to the four lustres of Servius Tullius and furnished with copious numbers, must belong to the class of those apparently documentary traditions which delight in, and betray themselves by the very fact of, such numerical details. It was only with the second half of the fourth century that the large extensions of territory, which must have suddenly and considerably augmented the burgess roll, began. It is reported on trustworthy authority and is intrinsically credible, that about 416 the Roman burgesses numbered 165,000; which very well agrees with the statement that ten years previously, when the whole militia was called out against Latium and the Gauls, the first levy amounted to ten legions, that is, to 50,000 men. Subsequently to the great extensions of territory in Etruria, Latium, and Campania, in the fifth century the effective burgesses numbered, on an average, 250,000; immediately before the first Punic war, 280,000 to 290,000. These numbers are certain enough, but they are not quite available historically for another reason, namely, that in them probably the Roman full burgesses and the "burgesses without vote" not serving, like the Campanians, in legions of their own, --such, e. g., as the Caerites, --are included together in the reckoning, while the latter must at any rate -de facto- be counted among the subjects (Rom. Forsch. ii. 396). 40. II. VI. Battle of Sentinum 41. II. VII. Commencement of th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495  
496   497   498   499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

burgesses

 

territory

 

numbers

 

census

 
century
 
numbered
 

amounted

 

Latium

 

extension

 

legions


extensions
 

statement

 
tribes
 
average
 

Commencement

 
effective
 

Campania

 

Etruria

 
Subsequently
 
reported

trustworthy

 

authority

 
burgess
 

suddenly

 
considerably
 
augmented
 

intrinsically

 
credible
 
militia
 

called


previously
 
agrees
 

Caerites

 

Campanians

 

serving

 

included

 

Forsch

 

counted

 

subjects

 

reckoning


Sentinum
 

Battle

 

reason

 
historically
 
immediately
 

Servius

 

excess

 

increase

 

births

 
deaths