ANCIENT ROME THROUGH MODERN SPECTACLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10066, 6 February 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANCIENT ROME THROUGH MODERN SPECTACLES.

The Italian historian Ferrero writes oL , the past in terms of to-day's problems, lln , "modernising," so to speak, of ancient , Rome, is his distinctive trait- as a historian; and naturally the joint in his armor where the academic devotee 01. • archaeology and philology loves to insert , a thrust "is just this, vivid realisation of a buried nast. So points out a writer in Putnam's (December) who, by name of , Sibilla Aleramo, suggests a countrywoman. Ferrero's great work, begun an 1902, places Mm in rivalry with (.ribbon. It is called ""The Greatness and Decline of Rome," and of it the writer m Putnam's observes:—"This vast and powerful picture, of one of the most passionate periods of the world's history has been admired and criticised on all sides. Such 'a work of interpretation and synthesis could not obtain unreserved assent from dclvers in the same fields, philosophical and historic. Its author has been most reproached for not ignoring contemporary history, for comparing modern 'economic and social facts .and conditions with ancient, for often employing a termin-. ology of the present day. Docs he lessen the 0 dignity of history when he speaks of •capital' and 'syndicates,' when he com- • pares the electoral college of Codiiiis, commanded by Oesar and gathered from Hhe idle and the freedmen supported by the State, to Tammany Hall? The truth is, there arc astonishing points of similarity ■between the Roman democracy and that of our own times. Wealth inspired a <lc sire for peaceful enjoyment (interpreted by Catulius, Horace, and Ovkl)_ free from tlie danger and annoyance of war and politics, so that the so! "ers and' politicians became all-powerfii.. But some modem terms are.scarcely appropriate. For instance, the influence of women like Fulvia. the wile of Antonius, Julia, wife of Tiberius, even of Livia, wife of Augustus —an intluencc obtained by intrigue—has nothing to do with what we know as •feminism.' which is the opposite, that is to say, the right of defence and of individual development, obtained openly, by means not characteristically feminine, but simply civic, human. Another criticism is that the author can not decide between the virtuous oligarchy of the old agricultural republic and the expansive imperial democracy. But the historian can never be too impartial. The fact iri. Si'nior Ferrero can not stille occasionally a regret for the austere virtues of the. an- _ dents, nor conceal his admiration for the grandeur of the march toward wealth and culture. These are the defects that accompany -a colossal enterprise that exacts the best part of the author's time and strength. It is very rare in these days to see any one so discipline his life as to plan for "himself a. work of such magnitude. We should be grateful to him for having conceived and executed with such masterfulness." One might wonder what there is to tell of Rome after Gibbon and the later Germans. Hut the present writer shows what he has found in saying that instead of the. story of almost "fabulous heroes—called Pompey, Ciesar, Cieopatra, Brutus, Augustus, etc. —this history" unfolds before us "like a vast stage on which the .masses play a great part—the agricultural aristocracy, the new commercial middle class, the turbulent people of Rome, the provinces, the tax-collectors in all the .centres of the Empire." The' writer continues : —"Thus we see not only great men and smaller figures mingling in contemporaneous society, moved by the passions of the time., by personal ambitions a.nd necessities of the struggle for supremacy, but also, audi above all, the play of the great economic forces that .govern society and direct it unsuspected by its contemporaries. Looked at from this point of view, the actions of hostoric personages acquire a new value. Signor Ferrero shows us the work of Lucullus completely unappreciated by his contemporaries; Cicero is no longer a mere advocate, or dilettante, philosopher; his orations gain high political significance, his 'De Ufficiis' and 'De llepublica'. become socially influential works. Ciesar, seen in his actions, is no longer the demigod of many historians, but a man who wished to reconstitute the democratic party, enlarge the policy of Lucullus, and form a-personal government, and who did not succeed- a great man, but not a great statesman. His adopted son succeeded in part, in'spite of himself. Gaul and Egypt became new sources of prosperity to the Empire; Greece was reborn and Germany conquered. Augustus, who was not the comedian, some historians have thought him, but wished sincerely to reconstruct the Republic without sacrificing the old institutions, 'having tried several times to retire to private life, had to resign himself to becoming the head of the State. He governed wisely for forty years, during the dissolution of the ancient institutions. The. Empire was consolidated, to remain united for two oenturies. But even when the emperors had concentrated all power in their own persons, the ideas of Augustus remained, to be resuscitated after the-fall of the despotic monarchies. The idea that the State could, never bo the property of the princeps, that the res publica. belonged to each and every one, was. th© .Roman idea." Signor Ferrero, who is delivering a course of lectures Before the Lowell Institute,of Boston, and who will visit the. President at the '.White House before' he leaves America, is still a young man—not yet having reached . liis thirty-eighth year. Born: at Portici, near. Naples/, the son of a. Piedmontese railway engineer, vhe made his literary . bow at eighteen, 'when. ■he collaborated .with the famous alienist, Cesare Lombroso, in his work "La Donna Delihquente" (The Female Offender). He-took up lecturing and ■ writing and contributed articles to various Italian and 1 foreign periodicals on historical'"'themes. His wife is the youngest daughter of Lombroso, and is herself a writer.