  THE CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD Strife at Rome. While the Romans were conquering the ancient world they had begun to quarrel among themselves. Certain men resolved that Rome should not be managed any longer by the noble senators for their own benefit or for the benefit of rich contractors and merchants. They wished to have the idle crowds of men who packed the shows and circuses settled as free farmers on the unused lands of Italy. Among these new leaders were two brothers, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, sons of one of Rome's noblest families. The other nobles looked upon them with hatred and killed them, first Tiberius and afterward Caius. These murders did not end the trouble. The leaders on both sides armed their followers, and bloody battles were fought in the streets. Generals led their armies to Rome, although, according to the laws, to bring an army into Italy south of the Rubicon River was to make war on the republic and be guilty of treason. Once in the city these generals put to death hundreds of their enemies. Caesar rules Rome. The strife in the city had ceased for a time when Pompey, a famous general, who had once shared power with Caesar as a "triumvir," joined the senators in planning his ruin. Caesar led his army into Italy to the borders of the Rubicon. Exclaiming, "The die is cast,'" he crossed the sacred boundary and marched straight to Rome. Pompey and his party fled, and civil war divided the Roman world into those who followed Caesar and those who followed Pompey, Caesar was everywhere victorious, in Italy, Africa, Spain, and the East. He brought back order into the government of the city and of the provinces, but in the year 44 B.C. he was murdered in the senate-house by several senators, one of whom, Marcus Brutus, had been his friend. Origin of the Title "Emperor." Caesar had not been called "emperor," though the chief power had been his. One of his titles was "imperator," or commander of the army, a word from which our word "emperor" comes. He was really the first emperor of Rome. In later times the very word Caesar became an imperial title, not only in the Roman Empire, but also in modern Germany, for "Kaiser" is another form of the word "Caesar." Beginnings of the Empire. Caesar's successor was his grandnephew Octavius, usually called Augustus, which was one of his titles. Augustus carried out many of Caesar's plans for improving the government in Rome and in the provinces. The people in the provinces were no longer robbed by Roman officers. Many of them became Roman citizens. After a time all children born within the empire were considered Romans, just as if they had been born in Rome. The Roman Empire. The Roman Empire carried on the work which the republic had begun. It did some things better than the republic had done them. Within its frontiers there was peace for two or three hundred years. Many people had an opportunity to share in all the best that the Greeks and Romans had learned. Unfortunately the peoples imitated the bad as well as the good. Roman Roads. As builders the Romans taught much to those who lived after them. Their great roads leading out from Rome have never been excelled. In Gaul these roads served, centuries later, to mark out the present French system of highroads and showed many a route to the builders of railroads. They were made so solid that parts of them still remain after two thousand years.
How these Roads were built. In planning their roads the Romans did not hesitate before obstacles like hills or deep valleys or marshy lands. They often pierced the hills with tunnels and bridged the valleys or swamps. In building a road they dug a trench about fifteen feet wide and pounded the earth at the bottom until it was hard. Upon this bottom was placed a layer of rough stones, over which were put nine inches of broken stone mixed with lime to form a sort of concrete. This was covered by a layer six inches deep of broken bricks or broken tiles, which when pounded down offered a hard, smooth surface. On the top were laid large paving stones carefully fitted so that there need be no jar when a wagon rolled over the road. Such roads were necessary for the traders who passed to and fro throughout the empire, but especially for troops or government messengers sent with all speed to regions where there was danger of revolt or where the frontiers were threatened by the barbarians.
Aqueducts. Next to their roads the most remarkable Roman structures were the aqueducts which brought water to the city from rivers or springs, some of them many miles away. Had they known, as we do, how to make heavy iron pipes, their aqueducts would have been laid underground, except where they crossed deep valleys. The lead pipes which they used were not strong enough to endure the force of a great quantity of water, and so when the aqueducts reached the edge of the plain which stretches from the eastern hills to the walls of Rome, the streams of flowing water were carried in stone channels resting upon arches which sometimes reached the height of over ninety feet. The Claudian Aqueduct. The Claudian aqueduct, which is the most magnificent ever built, is carried on such arches for about seven miles and a half. Although broken in many places, and though the water has not flowed through its lofty channels for sixteen hundred years, it is one of the grandest sights in the neighborhood of Rome. If we add together the lengths of the aqueducts, underground or carried on arches, which provided Rome with her water supply, the total is over three hundred miles. They could furnish Rome with a hundred million gallons of water a day.
Public Baths. The Romans used great quantities of water for their public baths, which were large buildings with rooms especially made for bathing in hot or cold water and for plunges. They were also, like the Greek gymnasiums, places for exercise, conversation, and reading. Many were built as monuments by wealthy men and by emperors. A very small fee was charged for entrance, and the money was used to pay for repairs and the wages of those who managed the baths.
Two Famous Buildings. Many of the Roman temples, porticoes, and theaters were copied from Greek buildings, but the Romans used the arch more than did the Greeks, and in this the builders of later times imitated them. Among their greatest buildings were the amphitheaters, from the benches of which crowds watched gladiators fighting one another or struggling with wild beasts. The largest of these amphitheaters was the Colosseum, the ruins of which still exist. Its outer walls were one hundred and sixty feet high. In one direction it measured six hundred and seventeen feet and in another five hundred and twelve. There were seats enough for forty-five thousand persons. The lowest seats were raised fifteen feet above the arena or central space where men or wild beasts fought. Through an arrangement of underground pipes the arena could be flooded so that the spectators might enjoy the excitement of a real naval battle. Another great building was the Circus Maximus, built to hold the crowds that watched the chariot-races, and at one time having seats for two hundred thousand persons. In their amusements the Romans became more and more vulgar, excitable, and cruel. Some equally splendid buildings were used for better things.
The Pantheon. One of these was the Pantheon, a temple which was afterward a Christian church. It still stands, and is now used as the burial-place of the Italian kings. The most remarkable part of it is the dome, which has a width of a little over one hundred and forty-two feet. No other dome in the world is so wide. The Romans were very successful in covering large spaces with arched or vaulted ceilings. All later builders of domes and arches are their pupils.
Basilicas. The Romans had other large buildings called basilicas. These were porticoes or promenades, with the space in the center covered by a great roof. They were used as places for public meetings. One of them had one hundred and eight pillars arranged in a double row around the sides and ends of this central space. The name basilica is Greek and means "royal." Some of these basilicas were used as Christian churches when the Romans accepted the Christian religion. The central space was then called the "nave," and the spaces between the columns the aisles. Triumphal Arches. The Romans built beautiful arches to celebrate their victories. Several of these still remain, with sentences cut into their stone tablets telling of the triumphs of their builders. Modern people have taken them as models for similar memorial arches.
Roman Law. The Romans did much for the world by their laws. They showed little regard for the rights of men captured in war and were cruel in their treatment of slaves, but they considered carefully the rights of free men and women. Under the emperors the lawyers and judges worked to make the laws clearer and fairer to all. Finally the Emperor Justinian, who ruled at the time when the empire was already half ruined by the attacks of barbarian enemies, ordered the lawyer Tribonian to gather into a single code all the statutes and decrees. These laws lasted long after the empire was destroyed, and out of them grew many of the laws used in Europe to-day. They have also influenced our laws in America.
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