|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 11
Simplicity, loyalty, industry, an absolute surrender of one's own
personality to the family and its interests,--these, in the great
families, were the traditional feminine virtues which lived again in
Livia to the admiration of her contemporaries. But with these virtues
were associated also the need and the pride of participating in the
affairs and work of her husband, that interest in politics which had
been common to the intelligent women of the nobility. No one at Rome
was astonished, especially in the upper classes, that Livia should
occupy herself actively with politics; that Augustus should frequently
come to her for counsel, or that he should not make any serious
decision without having consulted her; that, in short, she should at
the same time attend to her husband's clothes and aid him in governing
the empire. For so had done from time immemorial all the great ladies
of the aristocracy, mindful of their good repute and the prosperity of
their families. And Livia must have tried the more earnestly to fulfil
all that her education had taught her to consider a sacred duty, since
to a woman of her old-fashioned breeding the times must have appeared
especially difficult and perilous.
The civil wars had greatly reduced in numbers the historic aristocracy
of Rome, and the peace which followed after so long a time and which
had been so anxiously invoked, very soon began to threaten the
prosperity of the remnant of that nobility with a more insidious but
more inevitable ruin. About 18 B.C., when Livia was approaching her
fortieth year, the men of the new generation who had not seen the civil
wars, for when these ended they were either unborn or only in their
infancy, were already beginning to come to the front. They brought
with them a previously unknown spirit of luxury, of enjoyment, of
dissipation, of rebellion against discipline, of egotism and fondness
for the new, which rendered very difficult, not to say impossible, the
continuation of the aristocratic r�gime. Women submitted with more and
more repugnance to those obligatory marriages, arranged for reasons of
state, which had formerly been the tradition and the sure bulwark of
dominion for the aristocracy. The increase of celibacy was rendering
sterile the most celebrated stocks; the most lamentable vices and
disorders became tolerated and common in the most illustrious families,
and ruinous habits of extravagance spread generally among that
aristocracy, once so simple and austere. All this had grown up after
the conquest of Egypt, which had established more points of contact
with the East; and it increased in proportion as those industries and
the commerce in articles of luxury which had flourished at Alexandria
under the Ptolemies were gradually transplanted to Rome, where the
merchants hoped to establish among their conquerors the clientele which
had been lost with the fall of the Kingdom of the Nile. The ladies
especially took up with the new oriental customs, and, preferring
expensive stuffs and jewels, turned from the loom, which Livia had
wished to preserve as the emblem of womanhood. Many young men of the
great families were beginning to show a distaste for the army, for the
government of the state, for jurisprudence, for all those activities
which had been the jealous privilege of the nobility of the past. One
gave himself up to literary pursuits, another cultivated philosophy,
another busied himself only with the increase of his inherited fortune,
while another lived only in pleasure and idleness. So it happened that
there began to appear descendants of great houses who refused to be
senators; every year an effort had to be made to find a sufficient
number of candidates for the more numerous positions like the
questorship, and in the army it was no easy matter to fill all the
posts of the superior officers which were reserved for members of the
nobility.
[Illustration: The Emperor Augustus. This statue was found in 1910 in
the Via Labicana, not far from the Colosseum.]
The Roman aristocracy then, that glorious Roman aristocracy which had
escaped the massacres of the proscriptions and of Philippi, ran grave
danger of dying out through a species of slow suicide, if energetic
measures were not taken to supply the necessary remedies. It is
certain that Livia had a conspicuous part in the policy of restoring
the aristocracy, to which Augustus was impelled by the old nobility,
especially toward the year 18 B.C., when with this purpose in view he
proposed his famous social laws. The _Lex de maritandis ordinibus_
attempted by various penalties and promises to constrain the members of
the aristocracy to contract marriage and to found a family, thus
combatting the increasing inclination to celibacy and sterility. The
_Lex de adulteriis_ aimed to reestablish order and virtue in the
family, by threatening the unfaithful wife and her accomplice with
exile for life and the confiscation of a part of their substance. It
obliged the husband to expose the crime to the tribunals; if the
husband could not or would not make the accusation, it provided that
the father should do so; and in case both husband and father failed, it
authorized any citizen to step forth as accuser. Finally the _Lex
sumptuaria_ was designed to restrain the extravagance of wealthy
families, particularly that of the women, prohibiting them from
spending too large a part of the family fortune in jewels, apparel,
body slaves, festivities, or buildings, especially in the building of
sumptuous villas, then a growing fashion. In short, it was the purpose
of these laws to bring the ladies of the Roman aristocracy to a course
of conduct patterned upon the example of Livia. In the protracted
discussions concerning these laws, which took place in the senate,
Augustus on one occasion made a long speech in which he cited Livia as
a model for the ladies of Rome. He set forth minutely the details of
her household administration, telling how she lived, what relations she
had with outsiders, what amusements she thought proper for a person of
her rank, how she dressed and at what expense. And no one in the
senate judged it unworthy of the greatness of the state or contrary to
custom thus to introduce the name and person of a great lady into the
public discussion of so serious a matter of governmental policy.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|