Even  in  129  B.C.,  when  the  internal  troubles  of  Rome
were  assuming  a  critical  character,  the  average  mob  of
the  Forum  was  not  of  Latin,  nay  not  even  of  Italian
ancestry ;  it  was  then  when  Scipio  jEmilianus,  first
Roman  of  his  time  by  every  token  of  eminence,  uttered
the  proud  rejoinder  to  the  seething  and  enraged  populace
("  Velleius,"  2,  4) :  "  How  can  I  be  alarmed  by  your  shout-
ing, to  whom  Italy  is  merely  a  stepmother !  "

In  the  early  years  of  Nero  (Tacit.,  "Annals,"  13,  26)
there  was  a  strong  movement  to  make  more  severe  the
penalties  which  a  patronus  might  inflict  upon  a  faithless
or  ungrateful  libertus.  The  injured  patronus  could,  in-
deed, relegate  the  offending  freedman  a  hundred  miles
away  from  Rome :  but  the  coast  of  Campania  was  a  para-
dise :  was  there  not  a  weapon  that  could  not  be  treated
with  disdain?  It  was  proposed  to  enact  a  Senatus  Con-
sultum  to  punish  a  transgressing  freedman  with  renewal
of  slavery.  But  upon  closer  inquiry  they  were  astounded
to  find  that  the  majority  of  the  equestrian  class,  nay  even
of  the  august  Senate,  had  such  an  humble  pedigree.  (Con-
sider also  Lucan's  lamentations,  7, 404  sqq.)

The  deference  to  family,  to  authority,  is  written  on
every  page  of  Roman  history:  the  drift  of  that  history
exhibits  the  fact  that  the  battles  of  Rome  were  won,  her
administrations  determined,  her  children  begotten  and
her  blood  shed,  for  the  interests  of  a  small  number  of
great  families.  The  very  history  of  the  Republic  is  a
texture  of  such  proud  records,  a  history  not  a  little  viti-
ated by  the  pomp  and  pride  of  the  great  houses.
