The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-27

az cri g inal tho merchant who braves tn
wintry Aegean with a cargo Of wines from
Crete. Mr.. Dill recalls that JuvenaPi
friend, umbricius, .worsted In the soca
struggle, and preparing to quit Rome FOL
retreat In Campania, Is, among the objects
Of his plebeian scorn. specially disgusteo
with the low tribe who contract for the
building OF house. or farm the dues OF q
port, or undertake to cleanse river bed
There Is no room left In Rome, he says
for men who will not soil themselves with
such sordid trades. Manifestly. II the
satirist Is not burlesqung the feeling OF
his olass, there was plenty Of room for the
vigorous freedman who could accept Yes
pasian's motto that no gain is unsavory'-
pecunia non olet Our author adds tina
the freedmen had not only commercial
tact and ability, the wit to see whore money
was to DO made, by selling new openings
and unoooupied fields for enterprise; they
had also among them men Of great ambi-
ton. mon capable Of great affairs. 1t re-
quired no common dizziness, suppleness
and vigilant energy for an old slave to
work his way upward through the grades
Of the imperial chanoery, to thread the
maze Of deadly intrigue In the reigns OF
Claudius or Nero, and to emerge at last as
master Of the palace" 1t Is impossible
to reject the conclusion reached in the book
before us that the fact that class so de-
spised and oppressed as were the freedmen.
should rise to control the trades, and oven
tho administration, OF the empire, furnishes
| q presumption that they were needed, and
that they we're not unworthy Of their
destiny.
ii.
II 10 at the same time conced ed that
however inevitable, or even desirable.
the great social movement represented by
the rise OF the freedman may seem to the
cool critic Of the twentieth century, 1t Is
possible that had he lived in the first he
might have denounced 1t as vigorously as
Juvenal THE literary and artistic spirit.
often living In past golden age and re-
motely detached from the movements
going on around it. is prone to regard them
with uneasy suspicion 1t Is wrought upon
by sacred sentiments by memories and
distant ideals, by fastidious taste, which
expresses itself often with passionate hatred
for what seems to it revolutionary sacri-
legs. It u also apt to fasten on the more
grotesQue and vulgar traits OF any great
popular movement and to use a finished
skill In making II ridiculous It was In this
way that Latin literature treated the freed
mon. Enthusiastically they had many
gross and palpable faults. They were old
slaves and Orientals; as they rose III the
world they were eager for money. and
they got il; they we're. many OF them ma
turally vulgar, and they paraded their new
wealth With execrable Ia ste, and trampled
on better though poorer. men than them
selves. After their kind in all ages, they
looked down with insolence on those less
fortunate or less scrupulous, 1t is true.
also, that, when they had climbed TO the
highest places the imperial freedmen were
often involved in peculation and criminal
intrigues. Nevertheless, after all reserva-
tions have been made. the ascent OF the
freedmen remains q great and benefcent
revolution. Mr. Dill points out that the very
reasons which made Juvenal hate 1t most
are its best justification to q modern mind.
1T gave hope Of future to the slave; by
creating free. industrial class 1t helped
TO break down the cramped social ideal OF
the shave owner and the soldier; 1t planted
In every municipality vigorous mercantile
class, the members Of which were often
excellent and generous citizens Above
all, it asserted the dignity Of man. The
vehement iteration OF Juvenal Is the best
testimony to the sweep and force Of the
movement. And the later student Of Ro-
man society cannot afford to neglect a
great social uphea val which in an aristo-
cratic society, dominated by pride Of class
and race, made an Oriental slave First
Minister of the greatest monarchy in history.
while 1t placed men Of servile origin In COM
mAnd Of nearly all the industrial arts and
commerce OF the time
Women are proverbially more aristocratic
than men. and the great Roman ladies
might have been expected to hold freemen
disdainfully aloof. Yet men who could
win the favors Of an Agrippina and Messa-
lima could not be extingushed by the most
jealous social prejudice. The Roman
Senators who were ready on occasion
to fawn on a Pallas or Narcissus did not
always refuse them their daughters in
marriage. At Rome. as elsewhere. in the
conflict between caste pride and the effec-
tive power of new wealth, the latter would
not infrequently prevail. It is true that
tho lerJulia prohibited the union Of freed
men with daughters Of senatorial house.
Nevertheless, several such marriages oc-
CURED in the first century Of our era The
wife OF the freedman, Claudius Etruscus,
was the sister Of CO lsul who had held
high command against the Dacians. Pris-
ella, the wife OF Abascantus, another
minister Of servile origin, belonged to the
great consular family of the Antstii; Felix.
the brother Of Pallas, had married in sue
cession three ladies Of royal blood, one
Of them tho granddaughter Of Cleopatra.
1t 10 certain that the women Of the freed.
man class welded for generations in their
own way power which sometimes rivaled
that OF the men. To the author of the
book before us these plebeian Aspasias
are a puzzling class With no recognized
social position, with the double faint OF
servile origin and more than doubtful
morals. they were often endowed with
many charms and requirements possessing
q special attraction for bohemian men
Of letters. Mr.. Dill recognizes that their
morals were the outcome Of an uncertain
social position. combined with personal
fascination and accomplishments. He sees
that TO be excluded from good society