15. When the good man mends his armor,
And trims his helmet's plume;
When the good wife's shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom;
With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,

How well Horatius kept the bridge

In the brave days of old.-MACAULAY.

LESSON XIV.-PATRICIAN AND PLEBEIAN CONTESTS. 1. DURING several hundred years after the overthrow of royalty, the history of the Roman republic is filled with accounts of the fierce civil contests which raged between the patrician aristocracy and the common people or plebeians, relieved by an occasional episode of a war with some of the surrounding people. At first, the patricians were the wealthy and ruling class; they held all the high military commands; they made the laws; and they reduced the plebeians to a condition differing little from the most abject slavery.

2. At length, in the year 493 B.C., after an open rupture between these two classes, and the withdrawal of the plebeians from the city, a reconciliation was effected, and magistrates, called tribunes, were allowed to be chosen by the people to watch over their rights, and prevent abuses of authority. About forty-five years later, however, ten persons, called decem'virs, who were appointed to compile a body of laws for the commonwealth, having managed to get the powers of the government into their own hands, ruled in the most tyrannical manner, and oppressed the plebeians worse than ever.

3. But an unexpected event-a private injury-accomplished what wrongs of a more public nature had failed to effect. The wicked Appius Claudius, a leading decemvir, had formed the design of securing the person of the beautiful Virginia, daughter of Virginius; but, finding her betrothed to another, in order to accomplish his purpose he procured a base dependent to claim her as his slave. As had been concerted, Virginia was brought before the tribunal of Appius himself, who ordered her to be surrendered to the claimant. It was then that the distracted father, having no other means of saving his daughter, stabbed her to the heart in the presence of the court and the assembled people. The people arose in their might; the power of the "wicked ten" was overthrown; and Appius, having been impeached, died in prison, probably by his own hand.

4. About eighty years after the death of Virginia, the plebeians succeeded, after a struggle of five years against every species of fraud and violence (especially on the part of Claudius Crassus, grandson of the infamous Appius Claudius), in obtaining a full acknowledgment of their rights, and all possible legal guarantees for their preservation. It is during this struggle that a popular poet (as Macaulay supposes), a zealous adherent of the tribunes, makes his appearance in the public market-place, and announces that he has a new song that will cut the Claudian family to the heart.

He takes his stand on the spot where, according to tradition, Virginia, more than seventy years ago, was seized by the base depend. ent of Appius, and thus relates the story:

LESSON XV.-THE STORY OF VIRGINIA.

1. YE good men of the commons, with loving hearts and true,
Who stand by the bold tribunes that still have stood by you,
Come, make a circle round me, and mark my tale with care-
A tale of what Rome once hath borne, of what Rome yet may bear.
This is no Grecian fable, of fountains running wine,

Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine.
Here, in this very forum, under the noonday sun,

In sight of all the people, the bloody deed was done.

Old men still creep among us who saw that fearful day,

Just seventy years and seven ago, when the wicked ten bare sway.

2. Of all the wicked ten, still the names are held accursed,
And of all the wicked ten, Appius Claudius was the worst.
He stalked along the forum like King Tarquin in his pride;
Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side;

The townsmen shrank to right and left, and eyed askance with fear
His lowering brow, his curling mouth, which always seemed to sneer:
That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still,
For never was there Claudius yet but wished the commons ill.
Nor lacks he fit attendance; for close behind his heels,
With outstretched chin and crouching pace, the client Marcus steals,
His loins girt up to run with speed, be the errand what it may,
And the smile flickering on his cheek, for aught his lord may say.
Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies will crowd;
Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud;
Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see;
And wheresoe'er such lord is found, such client still will be.

3. Then follows an account of the seizing of Virginia by Marcus as she was passing through the market-place, of the commotion among the people that was occasioned by it, and of the spirited but vain appeal which the young Icilius, the lover of Virginia, made to the people to rise and free them

After a mock in

selves from the power of their oppressors. vestigation, held by Appius in the Roman forum, or open market-place, a few days later, the tyrant was on the point of taking possession of the maiden, when her father, who had in the mean time come from the army to protect his child, begged permission to take leave of her, and speak a few words to her in private.

4. Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside,

To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide,
Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood,
Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood.
Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down:
Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown.

And then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell,
And in a hoarse, changed voice, he spake, "Farewell, sweet child!
farewell!

5. Oh! how I loved my darling! Though stern I sometimes be,
To thee, thou know'st, I was not so. Who could be so to thee?
And how my darling loved me! How glad she was to hear
My footstep on the threshold when I came back last year!
And how she danced with pleasure to see my civic crown,
And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth my gown!
Now, all those things are over-yes, all thy pretty ways,
Thy needle-work, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays;
And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return,
Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn.

6. The house that was the happiest within the Roman walls,
The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls,
Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom,
And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb.
The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way!
See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the prey!
With all his wit, he little deems that, spurned, betrayed, bereft,
Thy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left.

He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save
Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave;
Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow-
Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know.
Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss;
And now, my own dear little girl, there is no way but this."
With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side,
And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died.

7. Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath,
And through the crowded forum was stillness as of death;
And in another moment brake forth from one and all
A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall.
Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Virginius tottered nigh,
And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high.
"Oh, dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain,
By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain;

And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine,
Deal you by Appius Claudius, and all the Claudian line!"
So spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way;
But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay,

And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast feet, Strode right across the market-place unto the Sacred Street.

8. Then up sprang Appius Claudius: "Stop him, alive or dead! Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head!"

He looked upon his clients, but none would work his will;

He looked upon his lictors, but they trembled, and stood still.
And, as Virginius through the press his way in silence cleft,
Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left.

And he hath passed in safety unto his woeful home,

And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in Rome.

9. The people gathered around the dead body; and when Claudius attempted to disperse them, a furious onset was made upon the lictors, who were driven back severely wounded, and with garments torn in shreds. A rush was then made at Appius himself; but when the people could not reach him, owing to the crowd of his dependents who gathered around him, they resorted to other means of assault.

10.

When stones began to fly,

He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his thigh.

"Kind clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray! Must I be torn to pieces? Home-home the nearest way!" While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered air, Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair; And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right, Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for fight. But though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng, That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord along. 11. Twelve times the crowd made at him; five times they seized his gown; Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down ;

And sharper came the pelting, and evermore the yell"Tribunes! we will have tribunes!"-rose with a louder swell: And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail, When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale; When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume, And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom. 12. One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear; And, ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear. His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride, Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side: And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore. As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be! God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see.

MACAULAY.

LESSON XVI.-THE CARTHAGINIAN WARS.

1. AFTER the Romans had reduced all Italy to their dominion, about 270 years before the Christian era, they began to extend their influence abroad, when an interference with the affairs of Sicily brought on a war with Carthage, at that time a powerful republic on the northern African coast, superior in strength and resources to the Roman. The Carthaginians were originally a Tyrian colony from Phoenicia; and not only had they, at this time, extended their dominion over the surrounding African tribes, but they had foreign posses sions in Spain, and also in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Malta, and other islands of the Mediterranean.

2. In the year 263 before Christ the first Punic* war began; and, after it had continued eight years with varied success, the Romans sent the Consul Regulus, at the head of a large army, to carry the war into Africa. On the passage across the Mediterranean, the Carthaginian fleet, bearing not less than a hundred and fifty thousand men, was met and defeated; but in a subsequent battle on land the Romans themselves were defeated with great loss, and Regulus himself, being taken prisoner, was thrown into a dungeon. Five years later, however, the Carthaginians were in turn defeated in Sicily, with a loss of twenty thousand men, and the capture of more than a hundred of their elephants, which they had trained to fight in the ranks.

3. It was then that the Carthaginians sent an embassy to Rome with proposals of peace. Regulus was taken from his dungeon to accompany the embassy, the Carthaginians trusting that, weary of his long captivity, he would urge the senate to accept the proffered terms; but the inflexible Roman persuaded the senate to reject the proposal and continue the war, assuring his countrymen that the resources of Carthage were already nearly exhausted. Bound by his oath to return if peace were not concluded, he voluntarily went back, in spite of the prayers and entreaties of his friends, to meet the fate which awaited him. It is generally stated that after his return to Carthage he was tortured to death by the exasperated Carthaginians. The circumstances of the appearance of Regulus before the Roman senate, and his heroic self-sacrifice, are described in the following lesson.

The term Punic means simply "Carthaginian." The three famous Carthaginian wars are usually called, in Roman history, "The Punic Wars."