The People That History Forgot
Huge masses of Latins left Italy for Spain and Gaul. This desire for the Roman of free-birth to migrate to other areas of the empire, is mentioned by Seneca. He shows how the Italian looked for every opportunity to leave his native country:
[the Romans], how many colonies has it sent to every province. Wherever the Roman conquers, there he dwells. With a view to this change of country, volunteers would gladly ascribe their name, and even the old man, leaving his home would follow the colonists overseas.""This people
Seneca, Helvia on Consolation, VII, 7
Or, as Mommsen continued about this constant desire of the Latins to migrate out of Italy:
"The Latin stock of Italy underwent an alarming diminution, and its fair provinces were over spread partly by parasitic immigrants, partly by sheer desolation. A considerable portion of the population of Italy flocked to foreign lands. Already the aggregate amount of talent and of working power, which the supply of Italian magistrates and Italian garrisons for the whole domain of the Mediterranean demanded, transcended the resources of the peninsula, especially as the elements thus sent abroad were in great part lost for ever to the nation."
Mommsen, The History of Rome, vol. V, p.393
And what is equally important in explaining the loss of Latin stock is the thousands of soldiers in foreign countries (Augustus had over 100,000 in foreign garrisons alone). When retiring from their service careers, more often than not, the veterans chose for their pension lands, territory outside of Italy. Merivale shows that by the 1st century B.C.E., "there were no tracts of land of public domain left within the Alps for the state to distribute in public grants" (Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, vol. 2, p. 395). The veterans had to take provincial areas, especially those in Gaul, Spain and North Africa as their demobilization pay.
While most of this veteran settlement was in the west and north of the empire, there were even some cities in the east that were given them to colonize. As an example, Corinth in Greece had lain desolate (in complete ruins) from 146 B.C.E., but after a hundred years of desolation it was colonized and built up again by people from Italy.
The veterans did not mind leaving Italy because the homeland was not productive enough to live on, especially if the holding of the veteran was small (as it usually was). But it was more common for the veteran to normally choose the immediate area in which he had been stationed for his twenty some years service. Whatever the case, the veterans who were of Latin stock in most cases failed to return to Italy.
And note. When the various Caesars finally awoke to the disastrous effect that this draining of the Latin population was having to the native hold on Italy, the process of the unwitting de-Latinization of Italy had gone so far that it became impossible to do anything to stop it. Of course, the state tried to reverse the situation. Lands were even bought up in Italy and many veterans were forced to take up residence in their homeland. But this even backfired. The veterans, yearning for the better provincial areas, soon sold their lands to the large land owners and went back to the new provinces. In fact, all the emergency legislation regarding the strengthening of the Latin stock in the home country came to nothing. "They [the laws] fell in fact into immediate disuse, or rather were never acted upon at all" (Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, vol. 2, p.397).
In summing up, Professor Duff gives us a keen insight on what was happening in Italy and why the Latin race went under with new races taking their place.
"Among all the causes of the change of race (apart from manumission) war was the most important. The armies of the late Republic and civil wars had consisted largely of Italians, who, if they were not killed off, were at least deprived of domestic life during their prime. Meanwhile the freedmen, usually excluded from the army, and the freedman’s descendant, never a keen soldier, were allowed an uninterrupted family life and produced offspring with greater freedom. Moreover, after his twenty years’ service, it was frequently the case that the legionary never returned home, but joined his fellow veterans to found a colony in the province where he had served. ... The Roman thus gave away to the easterner in Italy, while he made a place for himself in the provinces."
Duff, Freedmen in the Early Roman Empire, pp. 201–202
What a strange situation! By the 1st century B.C.E., Italy found itself stocked with slaves (Merivale says at least two-thirds were of servile origin at this time), and the natives were constantly leaving the country. And of those free-born who remained in Italy, the thought of propagation was not taken seriously while the slaves were producing many times the offspring. It can easily be seen how this slave population (the vast majority were from Asia Minor and Syria) replaced the old stock.
On top of this, there was a strong movement in the 1st century B.C.E. of freeing slaves. In freeing them it was common to let these ex-slaves take over the activities of the former free-born who had left or was leaving the country. The rate of emancipation was so high that laws were finally enacted to curtail the practice. For what was happening? Simply this: thousands of slaves were becoming freedmen and by virtue of this, they became the new Roman citizens. The emancipations or manumissions were not done in a corner, but were becoming the fashion of the day by the beginning of our era. When a slave-owner died, he often freed every slave in his household, and some households were upward of several thousand. These ex-slaves (now freedmen and consequently Roman citizens) were the most energetic of peoples in Italy. They were the ones, who, as slaves, had done the business, the teaching, the doctoring, the farming, the building, etc., while the rich Roman did nothing but amuse himself (this is not an exaggeration) and the poverty-stricken free-born was shifting for himself, more often than not on the dole and idle. Now, that thousands of these slaves were gaining their freedom, they continued their trading and business activities, but now as citizens. They then became the energetic stock of Italy. And they were able to transform the entire society.
In regard to these changes in the social system in most of Italy, the Cambridge Ancient History says,
[freeing of slaves]. Yet this proved but a slight check, and Tacitus records a significant remark that if freedmen were marked off as a separate grade, then the scanty number of free-born would be evident.""With thoughtful citizens, partly owing to the Stoic doctrine of the fraternity of man, humane views gradually spread and made for amelioration in the lot of servitude, and for so much readiness in masters to liberate slaves that Augustus, recognizing the serious infiltration of alien blood into the body politic, introduced restrictions on manumission
vol.Vl, pp.755–756
This shows how very few native free-born were left in Italy by our era. Thus citizens were now freedmen (who were actually ex-slaves or their descendants). They were becoming the new population. The rise of successful freedmen to riches made a social change of the utmost moment, and the wealth amassed by a Narcissus or a Pallas gives point to Martial’s use of "wealthy freedmen" as something proverbial.
The ex-slaves, now freedmen, who made names for themselves were generally from Syrian or eastern extraction. It was the east that was transforming the west.
"It seems unquestionable that the slaves from the eastern provinces were numerically preponderant in Rome, and (what is still more significant) that they played a more important part in Roman life. ... The large population of slaves gave rise to a numerous class of foreign origin, the liberti, or freedmen, which came to play an important part in the life of the city. Rome’s policy of manumitting slaves was very liberal and the grant of freedom and citizenship made it possible for them to become merged in the citizen body of Rome. Former slaves and sons of slaves spread into trades and crafts that required civil standing, and in Cicero’s day it was these people who already constituted the larger element of the plebian classes."
La Piana, "Foreign Groups in Rome," pp.190–191
These freedmen from the east began to take over almost all of the active enterprises which govern society and commerce as a whole. By the 1st century, freedmen were beginning to be so powerful (their number was far more numerous than any Latin stock that remained) that even top governmental posts were being given to them.
"One thing which must, most of all, have shocked the aristocracy, even though of recent date, was the large number of easterns, especially freedmen, who had been given some of the highest posts in the empire."
- vol. X, p.727
Cambridge Ancient History,
The Cambridge Ancient History goes on and on showing personal incidents of ex-slaves from the east gaining posts that only the Latin aristocracy could previously hold in the Republic. In fact, these ex-slaves finally took over almost complete control. Tacitus complained that in Nero’s day most of the senators and members of the aristocracy were now men of ex-slave status, and most of these were of eastern origin. Ex-slaves became so powerful that in Nero’s time they were put in charge of the highest governmental offices. This was something that the rulers of ancient republican Roman would have gasped at.
[ex-slaves]. When Agrippina was accused of treason, freedman were present to hear her defense. One of Nero’s freedman, Polyclitus, was actually employed as an arbitrator between a senator and a knight; for when Suetonius Paullinus, the legate of Britain, had disputes with his procurator, Polyeritus was sent to settle their differences. He proceeded to the island [of Britain] with the gorgeous train of an eastern potentate, but the barbarians failed to comprehend why their conqueror should bow the knee to a slave. When Nero went on his theatrical tour to Greece he left the freedman, Helius, in charge of Rome. Twelve years before this menial had been employed by Nero to murder Silanus; and was now absolute master of the imperial city.""The reign of Nero saw no abatement in the power of the imperial freedman
Duff, Freedmen in the Early Roman Empire, pp.178–179
These instances of freedmen taking over the government were not isolated cases. This was the general trend. Professor Duff gives examples of how in times after Nero, the descendants of these ex-slaves were the power behind the throne. In fact, by the 3rd century even many of the Emperors were actually descendants of the slaves of earlier centuries.
"The denationalized capital of the great empire, came to be ruled by the offspring of races which originally had come to the city only to serve."
La Piana, "Foreign Groups in Rome," p. 223
Let us not forget that by the 1st century B.C.E. almost all the urban populace of the cities in Italy were of slave or ex-slave extraction. These are the clear findings of the historians. The taking over the government by the descendants of these slaves was brought about because the major population, certainly by the end of the 1st century C.E., was of ex-slave extraction. The former Latin nobles disappeared almost completely. Professor Frank continues:
"But however numerous the offspring of the servile classes, unless the Romans had been liberal in the practice of manumission, these people would not have merged with the civil population. Now, literary and legal records present abundant evidence of an unusual liberality in this practice at Rome, and the facts need not be repeated after the full discussion of Wallon, Buckland, Freulander, Dill, Lemonnier, and Cicotti. If there were any doubt that the laws passed in the early empire for the partial restriction of manumission did not seriously check the practice, the statistics given at the beginning of this paper should allay it. When from eighty to ninety per cent of the urban population proves to have been of servile extraction, we can only conclude that manumissions were not seriously restricted."
Frank, "Race Mixture in the Roman Empire," pp.698–699
By the 1st century, the vast majority of free Italians were now ex-slaves or descendants of ex-slaves. Frank concludes, "By far the larger part (perhaps ninety per cent) had eastern blood in their veins" (Frank, "Race Mixture in the Roman Empire," p.690). It was no slip of the pen when Paul stated to the Roman people of his time that the majority of them could then claim Abraham as their fleshly father (Romans 4:1). By the 1st century of our era, a change of race had taken place in Italy. Italy had, for all practical purposes, become a Semitic country. And this also applied, though to a lesser degree, to the regions of Spain, Gaul (France) and the southern areas of modern Germany. The 1st century B.C.E. and on to the 3rd century of our era saw great changes in the racial make-up in all areas of continental Europe and North Africa. People from the Near East swarmed into the regions of the west, and took over those areas for them selves and adopting the national names of the people who once lived there. These people from the east lost their former names (unless they adhered tenaciously to their national religions like the Jews) and they became ordinary Europeans with new names from the areas in which they settled. This adoption of new names and languages is a major factor in causing the historical records to forget them. They then became The People That History Forgot.
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