UNIVERSITY

OF

APR 2 1915

GENERAL

THE RESULTS OF THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM UNDER THE EMPIRE AND ITS DECAY

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munities, all members of a great territorial organization. All were to be subordinate to the conquering city. Yet each was to have the opportunity to live. its own local life. As we have seen in Pliny's correspondence, Trajan was still desirous of protecting this local freedom of the provincial communities. Why, then, did it fail? Why did the same state which developed the idea of local independence, combined with a share in the responsibilities and rights of the central power, finally smother the life which it gave under the pall of a deadening autocracy? In 202 A .D., Septimius Severus issued a decree establishing senates in all the principal cities of the adminstrative districts of Egypt. This has been regarded as a boon, as the introduction of independent civic organizations throughout the Nile valley. In 212 A. D., the edict of his son, Caracalla, granted Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire except the dediticii, who probably include all those who paid the poll-tax. This, too, has been hailed as a great and wise provision, and it is undoubtedly the logical sequel of several centuries of the development and spread of Roman citizen rights. Actually, however, these two decrees brought greater misery rather than greater freedom, the decree of Severus to the new communities in Egypt, the edict of Caracalla to the new Roman citizens. It is safe to say that after 200 A. D. the freedom of the local communities was hollow and meaningless. What had happened between the establishment of the empire and the principate of Severus which had changed the gift of citizenship into a burden and the grant of local government into another form of bondage?

The small political significance which Roman suffrage had had for the provincial citizens who were full Romans, disappeared entirely in the principate of Tiberius, when the elections of Roman magistrates were taken away from the Roman assemblies and given 'over to the senate. The legislative competence of the Roman assemblies had also become, by that time, a mere formality. As the power and influence of the once sovereign assemblies of citizens at Rome had dwindled, so also in the provincial municipalities the local assemblies gradually lost their vital meaning through a slow process of desiccation during the first two centuries of our era. Yet there can be no doubt that home rule and the very preservation of the forms of local political life during this period helped to keep the breath of independence going in the provincial communities. Even their petty local politics gave a stimulus to mental activity and an added zest to life. This is reflected in the concern of wealthy men for the welfare of their communities, which continued to manifest itself until deep into the second century. It was, perhaps, inevitable that this breath of freedom would eventually be choked off in the heavy atmosphere of the increasing autocracy of the empire. Yet before the end of the real political vitality of the provincial municipalities came they had done a useful service to the world. In the West they had been the central agents in the transmission of the Roman spirit throughout western Europe. In them the Latin tongue first took hold upon the population. Through them the official language seeped out over the country side, carrying with it Greco-Roman civilization. Through them the Roman law gradually won its way over the ancient world, both east and west. Especially in the east, the supplanting of the old laws of the conquered lands by the Roman law was a slow process.3

This much lies to the credit of the Roman municipal system in the provinces. In this system the Romans had fathered a great political idea, the idea

The explanation usually given is that the Roman empire was slowly developing into an autocracy which killed the spirit of political freedom. This statement is true, but it does not really explain anything. The fundamental explanation is, in the writer's judgment, to be found in a vast economic change in the ancient world-in the development of an agrarian system which transformed a free peasantry into peons. It destroyed the agricultural population as a consuming power for the manufactured articles of the industrial cities. Great manorial estates arose in which the peasants were eventually bound to the place where they worked. These estates began to manufacture for their own necessities. In the wake of this development, two things followed: First, the economic ruin of the cities; and, second, the reversion to the old system of exchange in goods and a great decline in the use of commodity money.

As this system spread over the empire, it had a blighting effect upon agricultural production. Despite the inducements offered by the government, agricultural lands began to lie idle and waste fields to increase. The position of the peasants (coloni) became so disadvantageous that they began to run away. But the government needed the labor, and finally found it necessary to force the coloni to remain where their work and their homes were.

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Innumerable books of pieces suitable for cntertainments by English classes are to be found in every In library. When the edict goes forth for a teacher of English to make up an interesting program, she is embarrassed with the wealth of material she finds in convenient form. Not so is it with the teacher of history. There are no scores of books of "the best prize speeches" arranged for her. She must use her own ingenuity if her program is to be enjoyable.

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To no more entertaining subject can she turn than to the ever-fascinating one of Greek myths.

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With a good stage, plenty of time for preparation, and enthusiastic pupils, wonderful results may be secured. Tableaux of Athena, of Demeter, or of Orpheus and Eurydice; scenes from the Iliad" or the "Odyssey;" the dramatization of whole stories, such as that of Pandora, would be effective. But the instructor has little time to devote to the preparation of such a program, that he has only an hour for the entertainment, busy pupils for actors, and no stage. With such drawbacks as these, what can he do? At first, he feels hopeless, but when he stops to think of the many British and American writers, especially poets, who have been inspired by Greek stories, he takes heart and begins a hunt for material.

The following programs, given in detail, are simply suggestive of many similar ones that may be arranged:

4. Description of the statue of Zeus by Phidias. Reference: Tarbell's "History of Greek Art." 5. Recitation: Charles Wharton Stork's Ganymede."

6. Recitation:

Zeus."

Charles Wharton Stork's "To

Similar programs grouped around other heroes or divinities might be arranged; while still others, based on authentic history, would prove interesting. An excellent topic would be the Spartans.

PROGRAM.

1. Paper: "Spartan Life."

2. Recitation: "The Spartans' March," by Mrs. Hemans.

3. Readings from C. Dale Snedeker's novel, "The Coward of Thermopyla."

4. Recitation: 'On those who died at Thermopylæ." John Sterling's translation of the lines by Simonides.

Other themes which have not failed to attract our writers are: "The Battles of Marathon and Salamis," The Race of Pheidippides," The Fall of Corinth," "The Greek Poets," and the "Deeds of Alexander the Great."

Good programs could also be made on the following: "The Home Life of the Greeks,' Excavations in Greece," Greek Treasures in Certain Museums," The Ancient and Modern Olympian Games," and a "Visit to Ancient or to Modern Greece."

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We have found that if the work can be made of social value, the interest of the pupils is enlarged, and the greater the interest, the greater is the incentive to work, and to do better work. If a pupil is led to see that his work will be of value, not only to himself, but to the other pupils, or that his work will be of value to his parents and to other men and women that he knows, then his desire to do good work is kindled. How we are doing this in history, civics and geography, is as follows:

For several years a sand table has been a part of the regular equipment of the history department. On this, various students of the two upper grammar grades are assigned to reproduce the topography of some locality which is being studied in history, or geography, or perhaps both. The latter was the case with a recently constructed relief map of a part of western Europe. Those assigned to do it took great pride in doing the work, and their eyes showed their pride when the sand table was discussed in class.

In the spring of 1912 when we were using our first sand map of the Gettysburg battlefield, the following incident took place. It shows the possibilities of this simple piece of apparatus in making some parts of history clear and real, and it shows an unsolicited and an impersonal estimate of the value of the results. Two days were taken to describe the incidents leading up to the battle, and the battle itself, basing my talk upon the clear description given in Rhodes' "History of the United States," Vol. IV. The members of each class taking the work sat or stood around the sand table where they could see it clearly. The day following the completion of the oral description. I called upon a little girl near the center of the room to tell the story of the battle. She started out without hesitating at the beginning of the series of events leading up to the battle. Hardly had she begun, when nearly twenty men came into the room and ranged themselves along the front and side. She glanced up, her voice trembled a little, then her eyes sought mine, and she evidently saw a message there, Do your best." She did not take her eyes away from mine during the following minutes, perhaps ten, she did not miss an important point in the narration; it was clear to her, and she made it clear to every one in the room. She sat down. The men filed out, but before the door closed we heard something that sounded like this, That is the finest history recitation I ever heard." The youngsters heard it, too, so I know that it was not my own thought. We learned later in the day that we were being visited by the superintendents of the city schools of Wisconsin. The parents of this little girl came from Hungary. She is now in my most advanced high school class, and

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last year, as a sophomore, she took first prize in the Lake County Inter-Scholastic Oratorical Contest. I remember this above all of my experiences with the sand table, and never have I been disappointed with the results.

The Panama Canal can be more readily understood and remembered after it has been constructed in sand, and others might be mentioned.

While the sand table is largely used with the seventh and eighth grade pupils, not so with maps and charts. A few years ago students of the high school classes were assigned special maps, and many fine maps were made. They were too small to be used in the recitation, and could only be preserved by filing them away out of sight. They aided only the pupil who made them. For several years our high school students have constructed many wall charts and maps illustrating many phases of ancient, medieval, modern, American and South American history. They last many years, the same as do expensive maps and charts which are published by many large firms in this country. Usually they are assigned to a student as a special problem, the same as a special report is assigned to be written from research work in the library. Many students enjoy drawing, and history can attract their interest in this way-and very profitably. The student who has made a creditable map showing the migrations of the Germans, will have a more vivid picture of the situation than the student who has worked out a written report, and it will stay with him longer. We are using maps that were made three years ago, thus proving that the work was of social value.

The idea of making cloth wall maps and charts did not come to me from reading Channing, Hart and Turner's Guide," or other standard works on "How to teach history," but rather from the fact that before I went to college, and after, too, when at home, during the summer vacation, I used to use 'sign cloth" in my father's retail store. We bought a few yards of sign cloth at eight cents a yard, and tried it out in the history room. Our first map was "Europe at the Height of Napoleon's Power." It was a success. Sign cloth will take drawing ink all right, but has its disadvantages when an erasure is necessary. Now as to the way a map is made, we find that the following is one of the easiest, namely, mark off the map you wish to reproduce in one inch or one-half inch squares; then figure how many times the small map is capable of being enlarged; the only limitation is the size of the material upon which you are intending to draw the map. Supposing you find that the large map will be six times as large as the small one; then lay out a rectangle six times as large, and reproduce the squares upon the same en