From its
position, we may conjecture that the forum was originally a place of
meeting common to the inhabitants of the Sabine town on the Quirinal,
and the Latin town on the Palatine hill.
[16] See Chap. XII. Sect. V. of the following History.
[17] See the following chapter.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION.
As once in virtue, so in vice extreme,
This universal fabric yielded loose,
Before ambition still; and thundering down,
At last beneath its ruins crush'd a world.--_Thomson_.
I. The most remarkable feature in the Roman constitution is the
division of the people into Patricians and Plebeians, and our first
inquiry must be the origin of this separation. It is clearly
impossible that such a distinction could have existed from the very
beginning, because no persons would have consented in a new community
to the investing of any class with peculiar privileges. We find that
all the Roman kings, after they had subdued a city, drafted a portion
of its inhabitants to Rome; and if they did not destroy the subjugated
place, garrisoned it with a Roman colony.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63