Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
new, some old and covered with lichens, mosses, and creeping plants.
Here is a portico of the days of Trajan, and there a tower that seems as
if it were of the times of the republic. Yet is there a certain harmony
and congruity running through the whole, for the material used is
everywhere the same--a certain fawn-colored stone drawn from the
quarries in the neighborhood; and each successive owner and architect
has evidently paid some regard to preceding erections in the design and
proportions of the part he has added. In this unity of character, as
well as in the separate beauty or greatness of distinct parts, is it
made evident that persons of accomplishment and rank have alone
possessed it. Of its earlier history all that Curtius has with certainty
ascertained is, that it was once the seat of the great Hortensius,
before he had, in the growth of his fame and his riches, displayed his
luxurious tastes in the wonders of Tusculum, Bauli, or Laurentum. It was
the first indication given by him of that love of elegant and lavish
wastefulness, that gave him at last as wide a celebrity as his genius.
The part which he built is well known, and although of moderate
dimensions, yet displays the rudiments of that taste that afterward was
satisfied only with more than imperial magnificence. Marcus has
satisfied himself as to the very room which he occupied as his study and
library, and where he prepared himself for the morning courts; and in
the same apartment--hoping as he says to catch something from the genius
of the place--does he apply himself to the same professional labors. His
name and repute are now second to none in Rome. Yet, young as he is, he
begins to weary of the bar, and woo the more quiet pursuits of letters
and philosophy. Nay, at the present moment, agriculture claims all his
leisure, and steals time that can ill be spared from his clients. Varro
and Cato have more of his devotion than statutes and precedents.
In the disposition of the grounds, Marcus has shown that he inherits
something of the tastefulness of his remote predecessor; and in the
harvest that covers his extensive acres, gives equal evidence that he
has studied, not without profit, the labors of those who have written
upon husbandry and its connected arts. Varro especially is at his
tongue's end.
We soon came to the quarter of the slaves--a village almost of the
humble tenements occupied by this miserable class. None but the women,
children, sick and aged, were now at home--the young and able-bodied
being abroad at work. No new disturbances have broken out, he tells me;
the former severity, followed by a well-timed lenity, having subdued or
conciliated all. Curtius, although fond of power and of all its
ensigns, yet conceals not his hatred of this institution, which has so
long obtained in the Roman state, as in all states. He can devise no way
of escape from it; but he sees in it the most active and general cause
of the corruption of morals which is spread everywhere where it
prevails. He cannot suppress his contempt of the delusion or hypocrisy
of our ancestors in terming themselves republicans.
'What a monstrous solecism was it,' he broke out with energy, 'in the
times preceding the empire, to call that a free country which was built
upon the degradation and slavery of half of its population. Rome never
was a republic. It was simply a faction of land and slave holders, who
blinded and befooled the ignorant populace, by parading before them some
of the forms of liberty, but kept the power in their own hands. They
were a community of petty kings, which was better in their mind than
only one king, as in the time of the Tarquins. It was a republic of
kingdoms and of kings, if you will. Now and then, indeed, the people
bustled about and shook their chains, as in the times of the institution
of the tribune's office, and those of the Gracchi. But they gained
nothing. The patricians were still the kings who ruled them. And among
no people can there be liberty where slavery exists--liberty, I mean,
properly so called. He who holds slaves cannot, in the nature of things,
be a republican; but, in the nature of things, he is on the other hand a
despot. I am one. And a nation of such individuals is an association of
despots for despotic purposes, and nothing else nor better. Liberty in
their mouths is a profanation of the sacred name. It signifies nothing
but their liberty to reign. I confess, it is to those who happen to be
the kings a very agreeable state of things. I enjoy my power and state
mightily. But I am not blind to the fact--my own experience teaches
it--that it is a state of things corrupt and rotten to the
heart--destructive everywhere of the highest form of the human
character. It nurses and brings out the animal, represses and embrutes
the god that is within us. It makes of man a being of violence, force,
passion, and the narrowest selfishness; while reason and humanity, which
should distinguish him, are degraded and oppressed. Such men are not the
stuff that republics are made of. A republic may endure for a time in
spite of them, owing to fortunate circumstances of another kind; but
wherever they obtain a preponderance in the state, liberty will expire,
or exist only in the insulting forms in which she waved her bloody
sceptre during most of our early history. Slavery and despotism are
natural allies.'
'I rejoice,' I said, 'to find a change in you, at least in the theory
which you adopt.'
'I certainly am changed,' he replied; 'and such as the change may be, is
it owing, sir Christian, to thy calm and yet fiery epistles from
Palmyra. Small thanks do I owe thee for making me uncomfortable in a
position from which I cannot escape. Once proud of my slaves and my
power, I am already ashamed of both; but while my principles have
altered, my habits and character, which slavery has created and nursed
remain beyond any power of man, so far as I can see, to change them.
What they are, you well know. So that here, in my middle age, I suffer
a retribution, that should have been reserved till I had been dismissed
from the dread tribunal of Rhadamanthus.'
'I see not, Curtius, why you should not escape from the position you are
in, if you sincerely desire it, which I suppose you do not.'
'That, to be honest--which at least I am--is I believe the case.'
'I do not doubt it, as it is with all who are situated like yourself.
Most, however, defend the principle as well as cling to the form of
slavery.'
'Nay, that I cannot do. That I never did, since my beard was grown. I
fancy myself to have from the gods a good heart. He is essentially of a
corrupt heart who will stand for slavery in its principle. He is without
anything generous in his nature. Cold selfishness marks and makes him.
But supposing I as sincerely desired to escape--as I sincerely do
not--what, O most wise mentor, should be the manner?'
'First and at once, to treat them no longer as slaves, but as men.'
'That I am just beginning to do. What else?'
'If you are sincere, as I say, and moreover, if you possess the exalted
and generous traits which we patricians ever claim for ourselves, show
it them by giving their freedom one by one to those who are now slaves,
even though it result in the loss of one half of your fortune. That will
be a patrician act. What was begun in crime by others, cannot be
perpetuated without equal crime in us. The enfranchised will soon mingle
with the people, and, as we see every day, become one with it. This
process is going on at this moment in all my estates. Before my will is
executed, I shall hope to have disposed in this manner of every slave in
my possession.'
'One can hardly look to emulate such virtues as this new-found Christian
philosophy seems to have engendered within thy noble bosom, Piso; but
the subject must be weighed. There is nothing so agreeable in prospect
as to do right; but, like some distant stretches of land and hill, water
and wood, the beauty is all gone as it draws near. It is then absolutely
a source of pain and disgust. I will write a treatise upon the great
theme.'
'If you write, Curtius, I shall despair of any action, all your
philanthropy will evaporate in a cloud of words.'
'But that will be the way, I think, to restore my equanimity. I believe
I shall feel quite easy after a little declamation. Here, Lucius, regale
thyself upon these grapes. These are from the isles of the Grecian
Archipelago, and for sweetness are not equalled by any of our own.
Gallus, Gallus, go not so near to the edge of the pond; it is deep, as I
have warned you. I have lampreys there, Piso, bigger than any that
Hortensius ever wept for. Gallus, you dog! away, I say.'
But Gallus heeded not the command of his father. He already was
beginning to have a little will of his own. He continued playing upon
the margin of the water, throwing in sticks for his dog to bring to him
again. Perceiving his danger to be great, I went to him and forcibly
drew him away, he and his dog setting up a frightful music of screams
and yelping. Marcus was both entertained and amazed at the feat.
'Piso,' he jocosely cried out, 'there is a good deal of the old
republican in you. You even treat free men as slaves. That boy--a man in
will--never had before such restraint upon his liberty.'
'Liberty with restraint,' I answered, 'operating upon all, and equally
upon all, is the true account of a state of freedom. Gallus unrestrained
is a slave--a slave of passion and the sport of chance. He is not truly
free until he is bound.'
With such talk we amused ourselves as we wandered over the estate,
through its more wild and more cultivated parts. Dinner was presently
announced, and we hastened to the house.
Lucilia awaited us in a small six-sided cabinet, fitted up purposely for
a dining-room for six or eight persons. It was wholly cased with a rich
marble of a pale yellow hue, beautifully panelled, having three windows
opening upon a long portico with a southern aspect, set out with exotics
in fancifully arranged groups. The marble panels of the room were so
contrived that, at a touch, they slipped aside and disclosed in rich
array, here the choicest wines, there sauces and spices of a thousand
sorts, and there again the rarest confections brought from China and the
East. Apicius himself could have fancied nothing more perfect--for the
least dissatisfaction with the flavor of a dish, or the kind of wine,
could be removed by merely reaching out the hand and drawing, from an
inexhaustible treasure-house, both wines and condiments, such as scarce
Rome itself could equal. This was an apartment contrived and built by
Hortensius himself.
The dinner was worthy the room and its builder, the marbles, the
prospect, the guest, the host, and the hostess. The aforementioned
Apicius would have never once thought of the panelled cupboards. No dish
would have admitted of addition or alteration.
When the feasting was over, and with it the lighter conversation, and
more disjointed and various, which usually accompanies it, Marcus arose,
and withdrawing one of the sliding panels, with much gravity and state,
drew forth a glass pitcher of exquisite form filled with wine, saying,
as he did so,
'All, Piso, that you have as yet tasted is but as water of the Tiber to
this. This is more than nectar. The gods have never been so happy as to
have seen the like. I am their envy. It is Falernian, that once saw the
wine vaults of Heliogabalus! Not a drop of Chian has ever touched it. It
is pure, unadulterate. Taste, and be translated.'
I acknowledged, as I well might, its unequalled flavor.
'This nectarean draught,' he continued, 'I even consider to possess
purifying and exalting qualities. He who drinks it is for the time of a