The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-02-06
An Election Day in Ancient Rome.

An ElecC1on- Lay IN Anc1ent home.
From republican Rome-our early teach
er-we borrow most of our political ideas,
and even language Our elections vary
little from those of the Roman forum.
To the Latins we owe our candidates and
our orators, our tribunitian arts and tribu-
nitian veto, the ballot-box, the register and
the polling, the conception of personal in
dependence, the sovereignty of the people.
The free Roman would bow to no man /;
and Cicero and Caesar were forced to solicit
the votes of their fellow-citizens with hu-
mility that was never feigned.
To obtain an office at Rome the candi-
date toiled for months, and even years.
Clad in his white robe he walked the forum
and the busy streets Of the city saluting
every one, asking votes and seeking what
we now call popularity. He spoke to every
citizen he met familiarly, he grasped his
hand, he begged his support; he spoke of
his own merits, decried his opponent, prom
ised to advocate some liberal measure, and
sometimes gave bribe. Cicero, who was
above bribery, has left us in his letters a
curious picture of the tolls, anxieties and
interior life of the Roman. candidate.
An election day in Rome was scene of
singular excitement. Every year the chief
magistrates of Italy were renewed, and every
veal the voters crowded the capitol. The
city was agitated by intense party feeling.
The rural population from Latium and the
distant colonies over the Tiber fastened to
exercise the priced right of suffrage. Char
lots filled with citizens came from the
Sabine villages, footmen crossed the Rubi-
con bridge, great multitude wandered
through the streets of Rome, astonished at
the great magnifcence of the city.
If it was a consular election the people
gathered at sunrise in the Campus Martius,
where the voting was to take place. The
candidates in their white robes before day
break were seen mingling with the voters,
followed by their partisans and proclaiming
their political principles. Sometimes they
stood on a high position, where they could
be seen by all, sometimes the great multi
tude covered the tops of the houses and
filled all the extensive plain from the capi-
tol to the river.
| At length, at the sound of a horn, the
voters assembled in the Campus Martius.
If the auspices were favorable and no peal
of thunder heard, standard was raised on
the Janiculum, and the consul began the GER
emonies while the people, deeply supersti-
tious, awaited awe-stricken until he closed.
The spectacle was one of rare interest it
was an assemblage of Roman freemen. In
the later comitia, at least, all were equal.
The rich noble, accustomed to luxury and
power; the equities, who had sprung from
poverty to wealth; the prosperous traders
of the Forum and the Suburra; the farm
ers, even sometimes the freedmen, the
manumitted slaves-were blended by the
Roman law into one harmonious and mo-
mentary equality. Each was gifted with
vote.
The voting next began. The people,
arranged in centuries or hundreds, passed
over abridge of wood into the polling-place.
Here, in earlier age, they voted orally, and
later with wooden tablets. Each vote was
recorded and counted at once, and result
announced The ballot box and register
were WdlCneu ofef ny CletAOHs vi uHuoupOop
honor, and fraud was scarcely possible,
As one by one the centuries gave in their
ballots the excitement was redoubled.
The candidates and the people hung
breathless upon the cries of the heralds as
they proclaimed the progress of the cleo
tion. Livy has left many picture of
these fierce struggles. Now on one side,
now another, the balance hung. At last
it was fixed forever. A Scipio, Cato, a
Graccus, Caesar, had triumphed, and the
yictors shouted in wild strain of southern
enthusiasm that echoed far away over the
capitol and the crowded hills. Fhe beaten
party turned silently homeward. The ex-
citement was over, and the Roman voters
went quietly again to their usual pursuits.