Two magistrates were added, the prætorship and curule
ædileship. A
pestilence rages in the city, which carries off the celebrated
Furius Camillus. Scenic representations first introduced.
Curtius
leaps on horseback completely armed into a gulf in the forum.
Titus
Manlius, having slain a Gaul in single combat, who challenged
any
of the Roman soldiers, takes from him a golden chain, and
hence
gets the name of Torquatus. Two new tribes are added, called
the
Pomptine and Publilian. Licinius Stolo is condemned on a law
which
he himself had carried, for possessing more than five hundred
acres
of land. Marcus Valerius, surnamed Corvinus, from having with
the
aid of a crow killed a Gaul, who challenged him, is on the
following year elected consul, though but twenty-three years
old. A
treaty of friendship made with the Carthaginians. The
Campanians,
overpowered by the Samnites, surrender themselves to the Roman
people, who declare war against the Samnites. P. Decius Mus
saves
the Roman army, when brought into very great danger by the
consul
A. Cornelius. Conspiracy and revolt of the Roman soldiers in
the
garrison of Capua. They are brought to a sense of duty, and
restored to their country, by Marcus Valerius Corvus,
dictator.
Successful operations against the Hernicians, Gauls,
Tiburtians,
Privernians, Tarquinians, Samnites, and Volscians.
1. This year will be remarkable for the consulship of a man of mean
birth, remarkable for two new magistracies, the prætorship and curule
ædileship. These honours the patricians claimed to themselves, in
consideration of one consulship having been conceded to the plebeians.
The commons gave the consulship to Lucius Sextius, by whose law it had
been obtained. The patricians by their popular influence obtained the
prætorship for Spurius Furius Camillus, the son of Marcus, the
ædileship for Cneius Quinctius Capitolinus and Publius Cornelius
Scipio, men of their own rank. To Lucius Sextius, the patrician
colleague assigned was Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus. In the beginning of
the year mention was made both of the Gauls, who, after having strayed
about through Apulia, it was now rumoured were forming into a body; and
also concerning a revolt of the Hernicians. When all business was
purposely deferred, so that nothing should be transacted through means
of the plebeian consul, silence was observed on all matters, and a
state of inaction like to a justitium; except that, the tribunes not
suffering it to pass unnoticed that the nobility had arrogated to
themselves three patrician magistracies as a compensation for one
plebeian consul, sitting in curule chairs, clad in the prætexta like
consuls; the prætor, too, administering justice, and as if colleague to
the consuls, and elected under the same auspices, the senate were in
consequence made ashamed to order the curule ædiles to be elected from
among the patricians. It was at first agreed, that they should be
elected from the commons every second year: afterwards the matter was
left open. Then, in the consulate of Lucius Genucius and Quintus
Servilius, affairs being tranquil both at home and abroad, that they
might at no period be exempt from fear and danger, a great pestilence
arose. They say that a prætor, a curule ædile, and three plebeian
tribunes died of it, and that several other deaths took place in
proportion among the populace; and that pestilence was made memorable
chiefly by the death of Marcus Furius, which, though occurring at an
advanced age, was still much lamented. For he was a truly extraordinary
man under every change of fortune; the first man in the state in peace
and war, before he went into exile; still more illustrious in exile,
whether by the regret felt for him by the state, which, when in
captivity, implored his aid when absent; or by the success with which,
when restored to his country, he restored that country along with
himself. For five and twenty years afterwards (for so many years
afterwards did he live) he uniformly preserved his claims to such great
glory, and was deemed deserving of their considering him, next after
Romulus, a second founder of the city of Rome.
2. The pestilence continued both for this and the following year,
Caius Sulpicius Peticus and Caius Licinius Stolo being consuls. During
that year nothing worth recording took place, except that for the
purpose of imploring the favour of the gods, there was a Lectisternium,
the third time since the building of the city. And when the violence of
the disease was alleviated neither by human measures nor by divine
interference, their minds being broken down by superstition, among
other means of appeasing the wrath of heaven, scenic plays also are
said to have been instituted, a new thing to a warlike people (for
hitherto there had been only the shows of the circus). But the matter
was trivial, (as all beginnings generally are,) and even that itself
from a foreign source. Without any poetry, or gesticulating in
imitation of such poetry, actors were sent for from Etruria, dancing to
the measures of a musician, and exhibited, according to the Tuscan
fashion, movements by no means ungraceful. The young men afterwards
began to imitate these, throwing out at the same time among each other
jocular expressions in uncouth verses; nor were their gestures
irrelevant to their language. Wherefore the matter was received with
approbation, and by frequent use was much improved. To the native
performers the name of histriones was given, because hister, in the Tuscan vocabulary, was the name of an actor, who did not, as
formerly, throw out alternately artless and unpolished verses like the
Fescennine at random, but represented medleys complete with metre, the
music being regularly adjusted for the musician, and with appropriate
gesticulation. Livius, who several years after, giving up medleys, was
the first who ventured to digest a story with a regular plot, (the same
being, forsooth, as all were at that time, the actor of his own
pieces,) after having broken his voice from having been too repeatedly
called on, and after having sought permission, is said to have placed a
boy before the musician to chaunt, and to have performed the
gesticulations with considerably freer movement, because the employment
of his voice was no impediment to him. Thence commenced the practice of
chaunting to the actors according to their manual gesticulations, and
the dialogues only were left to their voice. When by this arrangement
the business of the scenic performances was called away from laughter
and intemperate mirth, and the amusement became gradually converted
into an art, the young men, leaving to regular actors the performance
of plays, began themselves, according to the ancient usage, to throw
out ludicrous jests comprised in verses, which from that time were
called exodia, and were collected chiefly from the Atellan
farces. Which kind of amusement, received from the Osci, the young kept
to themselves, nor did they suffer it to be debased by regular players.
Hence it remains an established usage that the actors of the Atellan
farces are neither degraded from their tribe, and may serve in the
army, as if having no connexion with the profession of the stage. Among
the trifling beginnings of other matters, it seemed to me that the
first origin of plays also should be noticed; that it might appear how
from a moderate commencement it has reached its present extravagance,
scarcely to be supported by opulent kingdoms.
3. However, the first introduction of plays, intended as a religious
expiation, neither relieved their minds from religious awe, nor their
bodies from disease. Nay more, when the circus being inundated by the
overflowing of the Tiber happened to interrupt the middle of the
performance, that indeed, as if the gods were now turned from them, and
despised their efforts to soothe their wrath, excited great terror.
Accordingly, Cneius Genucius and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus being a
second time consuls, when the searching for expiations harassed their
minds, more than the diseases did their bodies, it is said to have been
collected from the memory of the more aged, that a pestilence had
formerly been relieved, on the nail being driven by a dictator. Induced
by this superstitious circumstance, the senate ordered a dictator to be
appointed for the purpose of driving the nail. Lucius Manlius
Imperiosus being appointed, named Lucius Pinarius master of the horse.
There is an ancient law written in antique letters and words, that
whoever is supreme officer should drive a nail on the ides of
September. It was driven into the right side of the temple of Jupiter
supremely good and great, on that part where the temple of Minerva is.
They say that the nail was a mark of the number of years elapsed,
because letters were rare in those times, and that the law was referred
to the temple of Minerva, because number is the invention of that
goddess. Cincius, a careful writer on such monuments, asserts that
there were seen at Volsinii also nails fixed in the temple of Nortia, a
Tuscan goddess, as indices of the number of years. Marcus Horatius,
being consul, according to law dedicated the temple of Jupiter the best
and greatest the year after the expulsion of kings; the solemnity of
fixing the nail was afterwards transferred from the consuls to the
dictators, because theirs was a superior office. The custom being
afterwards dropped, it seemed a matter of sufficient importance in
itself, on account of which a dictator should be appointed. For which
reason Lucius Manlius being appointed, just as if he had been appointed
for the purpose of managing the business of the state in general, and
not to acquit it of a religious obligation, being ambitious to manage
the Hernician war, harassed the youth by a severe levy, and at length,
all the plebeian tribunes having risen up against him, whether overcome
by force or shame, he resigned the dictatorship.
4. Notwithstanding this, in the commencement of the ensuing year,
Quintus Servilius Ahala, Lucius Genucius being consuls, a day of trial
is appointed for Manlius, by Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the commons.
His severity in the levies, carried not only to the fining of the
citizens, but even to the laceration of their bodies, those who had not
answered to their names being some beaten with rods, others thrown into
prison, was hateful; and more hateful than all was his violent temper,
and the surname of Imperiosus, offensive to a free state, adopted by
him from an ostentation of severity, which he exercised not more
against strangers than his nearest friends, and even those of his own
blood. And among other things, the tribune alleged as a charge against
him that “he had banished his son, a youth convicted of no improper
conduct, from the city, home, household gods, forum, light, from the
society of his equals, and consigned him in a manner to a prison or
workhouse; where a youth of dictatorian rank, born of a very high
family, should learn by his daily suffering that he was descended of a
truly imperious father. And for what offence? because he was not
eloquent, nor ready in discourse. Which defect of nature, whether ought
it to be treated with leniency if there were a particle of humanity in
him, or ought it to be punished, and rendered more remarkable by harsh
treatment? The dumb beasts even, if any of their offspring happen to be
badly formed, are not the less careful in nourishing and cherishing
them. But Lucius Manlius aggravated the misfortune of his son by
severity, and further clogged the slowness of his intellects; and if
there were in him even the least spark of natural ability he
extinguished it by a rustic life and a clownish education, and keeping
him among cattle.”
5. By these charges the minds of all were exasperated against him
more than that of the young man himself: nay, on the contrary, being
grieved that he was even the cause of public odium and accusations to
his father, that all the gods and men might know that he would rather
afford aid to his father than to his enemies, he forms the design,
characteristic of a rude and rustic mind no doubt, and though of a
precedent not conformable to the rules of civil life, yet commendable
for its filial piety. Having furnished himself with a knife, without
the knowledge of any one he proceeds early in the morning into the
city, and from the gate straightway to the house of Marcus Pomponius
the tribune: he tells the porter, that he wanted to see his master
immediately, and bid him to announce that he was Titus Manlius, son of
Lucius. Being introduced immediately, (for he had hopes that the youth,
incensed against his father, brought either some new charge, or some
advice to accomplish the project,) after mutual greeting, he says that
there were some matters which he wished to transact with him in
private. Then, all persons being ordered to withdraw to a distance, he
draws his dagger; and standing over the couch with his dagger ready to
strike, he threatens that he would immediately stab him, unless he
would swear in the words which he would dictate, that “he never would
hold a meeting of the commons for the purpose of prosecuting his
father.” The tribune alarmed, (for he saw the steel glittering before
his eyes, himself alone and unarmed; the other a young man, and very
powerful, and what was no less terrifying, savagely ferocious in his
bodily strength,) swears in the terms in which he was obliged; and
afterwards acknowledged that forced by this proceeding he gave up his
undertaking. Nor though the commons would have preferred that an
opportunity was afforded them of passing sentence on so cruel and
tyrannical a culprit, they were not much displeased that the son had
dared to act so in behalf of his father; and that was the more
commendable in this, that such great severity on the part of the father
had not weaned his mind from his filial affection. Wherefore the
pleading of his cause was not only dispensed with for the father, but
the matter even became a source of honour to the young man; and when it
had been determined on that year for the first time that tribunes of
the soldiers for the legions should be appointed by suffrage, (for
before that the commanders themselves used to appoint them, as they now
do those whom they call Rufuli,) he obtained the second place among
six, without any merit of a civil or military nature to conciliate
public favour; as he had spent his youth in the country and at a
distance from all intercourse with the world.
6. On the same year the middle of the forum is said to have fallen
in to an immense depth, forming a sort of vast cave, either by reason
of an earthquake, or some other violent cause; nor could that gulf be
filled up by throwing earth into it, every one exerting himself to the
utmost, until by the admonition of the gods an inquiry began to be
instituted, as to what constituted the chief strength of the Roman
people? for the soothsayers declare that must be devoted to that place,
if they desired the Roman state to be perpetual. Then they tell us that
Marcus Curtius, a youth distinguished in war, reproved them for
hesitating, whether there was any greater Roman good than arms and
valour. Silence being made, looking to the temples of the immortal
gods, which command a view of the forum, and towards the Capitol, and
extending his hands at one time towards heaven, at another towards the
infernal gods, through the gaping aperture of the earth, he devoted
himself: then, mounted on a horse accoutred in the most gorgeous style
possible, he plunged in full armour into the opening, and offerings and
the fruits of the earth were thrown in over him by the multitude of men
and women, and the lake was called Curtian not from Curtius Mettus, the
ancient soldier of Titus Tatius, but from this circumstance. If any way
would lead one's inquiry to the truth, industry would not be wanting:
now, when length of time precludes all certainty of evidence, we must
stand by the rumour of tradition; and the name of the lake must be
accounted for from this more recent story. After due attention being
paid to so great a prodigy, the senate, during the same year, being
consulted regarding the Hernicians, (after having sent heralds to
demand restitution in vain,) voted, that a motion be submitted on the
earliest day to the people on the subject of declaring war against the
Hernicians, and the people, in full assembly, ordered it. That province
fell by lot to the consul Lucius Genucius. The state was in anxious
suspense, because he was the first plebeian consul that was about to
conduct a war under his own auspices, being sure to judge of the good
or bad policy of establishing a community of honours, according as the
matter should turn out. Chance so arranged it that Genucius, marching
against the enemy with a considerable force, fell into an ambush; the
legions being routed by reason of a sudden panic, the consul was slain
after being surrounded by persons who knew not whom they had slain.
When this news was brought to Rome, the patricians, by no means so
grieved for the public disaster, as elated at the unsuccessful guidance
of the plebeian consul, every where exclaim, “They might now go, and
elect consuls from the commons, they might transfer the auspices where
it was impious to do so. The patricians might by a vote of the people
be driven from their own exclusive honour: whether had this
inauspicious law availed also against the immortal gods? They had
vindicated their authority, their auspices; which as soon as ever they
were defiled by one by whom it was contrary to human and divine law
that they should have been, the destruction of the army with its leader
was a warning, that elections should hereafter be conducted in utter
violation of the rights of birth.” The senate-house and the forum
resound with expressions such as these. Appius Claudius, because he had
dissuaded the law, and now with greater authority blamed the issue of a
measure which had been found fault with by himself, the consul
Servilius appoints dictator by the general wish of the patricians, and
a levy and cessation of business are procaimed.
7. Before the dictator and the new legions could arrive among the
Hernicians, matters were conducted with great success under the
direction of Caius Sulpicius the lieutenant-general, making use of a
favourable opportunity. On the Hernicians, who after the death of the
consul came up contemptuously to the Roman camp with the certainty of
taking it, a sally was made by the exhortations of the consul, the
minds of the soldiers also being full of rage and indignation. The
Hernicians were much disappointed in their hopes of approaching the
rampart; in such complete confusion did they retire from thence. Then
on the arrival of the dictator the new army is joined to the old, the
forces are doubled; and the dictator in a public assembly, by bestowing
praises on the lieutenant-general and the soldiers by whose valour the
camp had been defended, at the same time raises the spirits of those
who heard their own deserved praises, and at the same time stimulates
the others to rival such valour. With no less vigour are the military
preparations made on the part of the enemy, who, mindful of the honour
previously acquired, and not ignorant that the enemy had increased
their strength, augment their forces also. The entire Hernician race,
all of military age, are called out. Eight cohorts, each consisting of
four hundred men, the chosen strength of their people, are levied.
This, the select flower of their youth, they filled with hope and
courage by their having decreed that they should receive double pay.
They were exempt also from military work, that, being reserved for the
single labour of fighting, they might feel that they should make
exertions more than are made by ordinary men. They are placed in an
extraordinary position in the field, that their valour might be the
more conspicuous. A plain two miles in breadth separated the Roman camp
from the Hernicians; in the middle of this, the spaces being about
equal on both sides, they came to an engagement. At first the fight was
kept up with doubtful hope; the Roman cavalry having repeatedly essayed
to no purpose to break the enemy's line by their charge. When their
fighting as cavalry was less marked by success than by great efforts,
the cavalry, having first consulted the dictator, and then obtained his
permission, leaving their horses behind, rush forward in front of the
line, with a loud shout, and recommence the battle after a new style;
nor could they be resisted, had not the extraordinary cohorts,
possessing equal vigour both of body and spirit, thrown themselves in
their way.
8. Then the contest is carried on between the leading men of the two
states. Whatever the common fortune of war carried off from either
side, the loss was many times greater than can be estimated by the
numbers: the rest, an armed populace, as if they had delegated the
fight to the leading men, rest the issue of their own success on the
bravery of others. Many fall on both sides; more are wounded. At length
the horsemen, chiding each other, asking, “what now remained,” if
neither when mounted they had made an impression on the enemy, nor as
infantry did they achieve any thing of moment; what third mode of
fighting did they wait for? Why had they so fiercely rushed forward
before the line, and fought in a post not belonging to them? Aroused by
these mutual chidings, they raise the shout anew, and press forward;
and first they made the enemy shrink, then made them give way, and at
length fairly made them turn their backs. Nor is it easy to say what
circumstance obtained the advantage against strength so well matched;
except that the constant fortune of both people might have raised or
depressed their spirits. The Romans pursued the Hernicians in their
flight to their camp; they refrained from attacking the camp, because
it was late. The fact of not having finished the sacrifices with
success detained the dictator, so that he could not give the signal
before noon, and hence the contest was protracted till night. Next day
the camp of the Hernicians was deserted, and some wounded men were
found left behind, and the main body of the fugitives was routed by the
Signians, as their standards were seen passing by their walls but
thinly attended, and dispersed over the country in precipitate flight.
Nor was the victory an unbloody one to the Romans; a fourth part of the
soldiers perished; and, where there was no less of loss, several Roman
horsemen fell.
9. On the following year, when the consuls Caius Sulpicius and Caius
Licinius Calvus led an army against the Hernicians, and finding no
enemy in the country took their city Ferentinum by storm, as they were
returning thence, the Tiburtians shut their gates against them. Though
many complaints had been made on both sides before this, this was the
determining cause why war was declared against the Tiburtian people,
restitution having been demanded through heralds. It is sufficiently
ascertained that Titus Quinctius Pennus was dictator that year, and
that Servius Cornelius Maluginensis was his master of the horse. Macer
Licinius writes, that he was named by the consul for the purpose of
holding the elections, because his colleague hastening to have the
elections over before undertaking the war, that he might continue the
consulship, he thought it right to thwart his ambitious designs. This
being designed as a compliment to his own family, renders the authority
of Licinius of the less weight. As I find no mention of that
circumstance in the more ancient annals, my mind inclines me to
consider that the dictator was appointed on account of the Gallic war.
On that year, certainly, the Gauls pitched their camp at the third
stone on the Salarian road, at the further side of the bridge of the
Anio. The dictator, after he had proclaimed a cessation of civil
business on account of the Gallic tumult, bound all the younger
citizens by the military oath; and having set forth from the city with
a great army, pitched his camp on the hither bank of the Anio. The
bridge lay between both armies, neither side attempting to break it
down, lest it should be an indication of fear. There were frequent
skirmishes for the possession of the bridge; nor could it be clearly
determined who were masters of it, the superiority being so indecisive.
A Gaul of very large stature advanced on the bridge, then unoccupied,
and says with as loud a voice as he could exert, “Let the bravest man
that Rome now possesses come forward here to battle, that the event of
an engagement between us both may show which nation is superior in
war.”
10. There was for a long time silence among the young Roman
nobility, as they were both ashamed to decline the contest, and
unwilling to claim the principal post of danger. Then Titus Manlius,
son of Lucius, the same who had freed his father from the vexatious
persecution of the tribune, proceeds from his station to the dictator:
“Without your commands, general, I would never fight out of the
ordinary course, not though I should see certain victory before me. If
you permit me, I wish to show that brute, who insolently makes such a
parade before the enemy's line, that I am sprung from that family which
dislodged a body of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock.” Then the dictator
says, “Titus Manlius, may you prosper for your valour and dutiful
affection to your father and your country. Go on, and make good the
invincibility of the Roman name with the aid of the gods.” His
companions then arm the youth; he takes a footman's shield, girds
himself with a Spanish sword, fit for a close fight. When armed and
equipped, they lead him out against the Gaul, who exhibited stolid
exultation, and (for the ancients thought that also worthy of mention)
thrust out his tongue in derision. They then retire to their station;
and the two being armed, are left in the middle space, more after the
manner of a spectacle, than according to the law of combat, by no means
well matched, according to those who judged by sight and appearance.
The one had a body enormous in size, glittering in a vest of various
colours, and in armour painted and inlaid with gold; the other had a
middle stature, as is seen among soldiers, and a mien unostentatious,
in arms fit for ready use rather than adapted for show. He had no song,
no capering, nor idle flourishing of arms, but his breast, teeming with
courage and silent rage, had reserved all its ferocity for the decision
of the contest. When they took their stand between the two armies, the
minds of so many individuals around them suspended between hope and
fear, the Gaul, like a huge mass threatening to fall on that which was
beneath it, stretching forward his shield with his left hand,
discharged an ineffectual cut of his sword with a great noise on the
armour of his foe as he advanced towards him. The Roman, raising the
point of his sword, after he had pushed aside the lower part of the
enemy's shield with his own, and closing on him so as to be exempt from
the danger of a wound, insinuated himself with his entire body between
the body and arms of the foe, with one and immediately with another
thrust pierced his belly and groin, and stretched his enemy now
prostrate over a vast extent of ground. Without offering the body of
the prostrate foe any other indignity, he despoiled it of one chain;
which, though smeared with blood, he threw around his neck. Dismay with
astonishment now held the Gauls motionless. The Romans, elated with
joy, advancing from their post to meet their champion, with
congratulations and praises conduct him to the dictator. Among them
uttering some uncouth jests in military fashion somewhat resembling
verses, the name of Torquatus was heard: this name, being kept up,
became afterwards an honour to the descendants even of the family. The
dictator added a present of a golden crown, and before a public
assembly extolled that action with the highest praises.
11. And, indeed, of so great moment was the contest with respect to
the issue of the war in general, that on the night following the army
of the Gauls, having abandoned their camp in confusion, passed over
into the territory of Tibur, and from thence soon after into Campania,
having concluded an alliance for the purpose of war, and being
abundantly supplied with provision by the Tiburtians. That was the
reason why, on the next year, Caius Pætelius Balbus, consul, though the
province of the Hernicians had fallen to the lot of his colleague,
Marcus Fabius Ambustus, led an army, by order of the people, against
the Tiburtians. To whose assistance when the Gauls came back from
Campania, dreadful devastations were committed in the Lavican,
Tusculan, and Alban territories. And though the state was satisfied
with a consul as leader against the Tiburtian enemy, the alarm created
by the Gauls rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed.
Quintus Servilius Ahala having been appointed, named Titus Quinctius
master of the horse; and with the sanction of the senate, vowed the
great games, should that war turn out successfully. The dictator then,
having ordered the consular army to remain to confine the Tiburtians to
their own war, bound all the younger citizens by the military oath,
none declining the service. A battle was fought not far from the
Colline gate with the strength of the entire city, in the sight of
their parents, wives, and children: which being great incitements to
courage, even when these relatives are absent, being now placed before
their eyes, fired the soldiers at once with feelings of shame and
compassion. Great havoc being made on both sides, the Gallic army is at
length worsted. In their flight they make for Tibur, as being the main
stay of the war; and being intercepted whilst straggling by the consul
Pætelius not far from Tibur, and the Tiburtians having come out to
bring them aid, they are with the latter driven within the gates.
Matters were managed with distinguished success both by the dictator
and the consul. And the other consul, Fabius, at first in slight
skirmishes, and at length in one single battle, defeated the
Hernicians, when they attacked him with all their forces. The dictator,
after passing the highest encomiums on the consuls in the senate and
before the people, and yielding up the honour of his own exploits to
them, resigned his dictatorship. Pætelius enjoyed a double triumph,
over the Gauls and the Tiburtians. Fabius was satisfied with entering
the city in ovation. The Tiburtians derided the triumph of Pætelius;
“for where,” they said, “had he encountered them in the field? that a
few of their people having gone outside the gates to witness the flight
and confusion of the Gauls, on seeing an attack made on themselves, and
that those who came in the way were slaughtered without distinction,
had retired within the city. Did that seem to the Romans worthy of a
triumph? They should not consider it an extraordinary and wondrous feat
to raise a tumult at the enemy's gates, as they should soon see greater
confusion before their own walls.”
12. Accordingly in the year following, Marcus Popilius Lænas and
Cneius Manlius being consuls, during the first silence of the night
having set out from Tibur with an army prepared for action, they came
to the city of Rome. The suddenness of the thing, and the panic
occurring at night, occasioned some terror among them on being suddenly
aroused from sleep; further, the ignorance of many as to who the enemy
were or whence they had come. However they quickly ran to arms, and
guards were posted at the gates, and the walls were secured with
troops; and when daylight showed but an inconsiderable force before the
walls, and that the enemy were none other than the Tiburtines, the
consuls, having gone forth from the two gates, attack on either side
the army of these now advancing up to the walls; and it became obvious
that they had come relying rather on the opportunity than on their
valour, for they hardly sustained the first charge of the Romans. Nay
more, it was evident that their coming proved an advantage to the
Romans, and that a disturbance just arising between the patricians and
commons was checked by the dread of a war so near them. In the next war
there was another irruption of the enemy, more terrible to the country
than to the city. The Tarquinians overran the Roman frontiers,
committing depredations on that side more especially where they are
contiguous to Etruria; and restitution being demanded in vain, the new
consuls, Cneius Fabius and Caius Plautius, proclaimed war on them by
order of the people; and that province fell to the lot of Fabius, the
Hernicians to Plautius. A rumour of a Gallic war also was gaining
ground. But amid their many terrors, they had some consolation from a
peace granted to the Latins at their own request, as also from a
considerable reinforcement of soldiers received from them in conformity
with an old treaty, which, they had for several years ceased to
observe. When the Roman cause was supported by this aid, the tidings
that the Gauls had come to Præneste and were encamped near to Pedum,
were less heeded. It was determined that Caius Sulpicius should be
appointed dictator. Caius Plautius the consul, being sent for for the
purpose, nominated him; Marcus Valerius was assigned as master of the
horse to the dictator. These having selected the best of the soldiers
out of the two consular armies, led them against the Gauls. This war
was more tedious than was satisfactory to either party. When at first
the Gauls only were desirous of fighting, afterwards the Roman soldiers
considerably surpassed the ferocity of the Gauls in their ardour for
arms and battle; it by no means met the approbation of the dictator
when no urgent necessity existed to run any hazard against an enemy,
whose strength time and inconvenient situation would daily impair, in
total inactivity, without provisions previously laid up or any
fortified situation; besides, being persons of such minds and bodies,
that all their force lay in brisk exertion, whilst the same flagged by
short delay. On these considerations the dictator protracted the war,
and denounced a severe penalty against any one who should fight against
the enemy without orders. The soldiers, being much dissatisfied with
this, first censured the dictator, in their conversation, when on guard
and on the watches; sometimes they found fault with the patricians in
general, for not having commanded the war to be conducted by the
consuls. “That an excellent general, an extraordinary commander, had
been selected, who thinks that whilst he does nothing victory will fly
down from heaven into his lap.” Afterwards they gave expression to
these same sentiments openly during the day, and to others still more
outrageous; that “they would either fight without the general's orders,
or would proceed in a body to Rome.” The centurions, too, began to mix
with the soldiers; and they murmured not only in their own quarters,
but now their observations began to be confounded together at
head-quarters and at the general's tent, and the crowd increased to the
magnitude of an assembly, and they now shouted from all quarters that
“they should go forthwith to the dictator; that Sextus Tullius should
speak in behalf of the army, so as became his courage.”
13. Tullius was now for the seventh time first centurion of a
legion, nor was there in the army, at least among those who served in
the infantry, a man more distinguished by his conduct. He, at the head
of a body of the soldiers, proceeds to the tribunal, and to Sulpicius,
not more surprised at the crowd than at Tullius, the leader of the
crowd, a soldier most obedient to command, he says: “Dictator, the
whole army, conceiving that they have been condemned by you of
cowardice, and kept without their arms by way of disgrace, has
entreated me to plead their cause before you. In truth, if having
deserted our post any where, if turning our backs to the enemy, if the
disgraceful loss of our standards could be laid to our charge, I would
still think it but just that we should obtain this from you, that you
would suffer us to redeem our fault by our bravery, and to blot out the
memory of our disgrace by newly acquired glory. Even the legions
defeated at the Allia, when they afterwards set out from Veii,
recovered by their valour the same country which they had lost through
a panic. We, by the bounty of the gods, your good fortune, and that of
the Roman people, have both our cause and our glory uninjured. Though
of glory I would scarcely venture to say any thing; since both the
enemy scoff at us with every kind of insult, as women hiding ourselves
behind a rampart; and you, our general, what we grieve at still more,
judge your army to be without spirit, without arms, without hands; and
before you had made trial of us, you have so despaired of us, as to
consider yourself to be the leader of a set of maimed and disabled men.
For what else shall we believe to be the reason why you, a veteran
general, most valiant in war, sit down with hands folded, as they say.
But however it may be, it is fitter that you should seem to doubt of
our courage than we of yours. If however this plan of proceeding be not
your own, but a public one, if some concerted scheme of the patricians,
and not the Gallic war, keeps us exiled from the city, from our homes,
I beg that you consider what I may say here, as addressed not by
soldiers to their general, but to the patricians by the commons, who
tell you that as ye have your separate plans, so will they have theirs.
Who in the name of goodness can be angry that we (consider ourselves)
your soldiers, not your slaves? as men who have been sent to war, not
into exile? as men who, if any one give the signal, and lead them out
into the field, will fight as becomes men and Romans? as men who, if
there be no need of arms, would spend their idle time in Rome rather
than in a camp? Consider these observations as addressed to the
patricians. As your soldiers, we entreat you, general, to afford us an
opportunity of fighting. We both desire to conquer, and also to conquer
with you for our leader; to confer on you the distinguished laurel,
with you to enter the city in triumph; following your car with
congratulations and rejoicings, to approach the temple of Jupiter
supremely great and good.” The entreaties of the multitude followed the
speech of Tullius; and from every side they cried out, that he would
give the signal, that he would order them to take arms.
14. The dictator, though he saw that a good result was brought about
by a precedent not to be approved of, yet took on himself to do what
the soldiers wished, and inquires of Tullius privately, what the nature
of this transaction was, or on what precedent it was done? Tullius
earnestly entreated the dictator “not to believe him forgetful of
military discipline, of himself, nor of the respect due to his general;
that he had not declined to put himself at the head of the excited
multitude, who generally were like to their instigators, lest any other
person might step forward, such an excited multitude were wont to
elect. That for his own part he would do nothing without the orders of
his general; that he also however must carefully see, that he keep the
army in obedience. That minds so excited could not be put off: that
they would choose for themselves time and place, if they were not
granted by the general.” While they are conversing in this way, it so
happened, that as a Gaul was driving away some cattle feeding on the
outside of the rampart two Roman soldiers took them from him. Stones
were thrown at them by the Gauls, then a shout was raised at the next
Roman post, and several ran forward on both sides. And now matters were
not far from a regular engagement, had not the contest been quickly
stopped by the centurions. By this event the testimony of Tullius was
certainly confirmed with the dictator; and the matter not admitting of
further delay, a proclamation is issued that they were to fight on the
day following. The dictator however, as one who went into the field
relying more on the courage of his men than on their numerical
strength, began to look about and consider how he might by some
artifice strike terror into the enemy. With a sagacious mind he devises
a new project, which many generals both of our own and of foreign
countries have since adopted, some indeed in our own times. He orders
the panniers to be taken from the mules, and two side-cloths only being
left, he mounts the muleteers on them, equipped with arms partly
belonging to the prisoners, and some to the sick. About a thousand of
these being equipped, he mixes with them one hundred horsemen, and
orders them to go up during the night into the mountains over the camp
and to conceal themselves in the woods, and not to stir from thence,
till they should receive a signal from him. As soon as day dawned, he
himself began to extend his line along the bottom of the mountain, for
the express purpose that the enemy should face the mountains. The
measures for infusing groundless terror being now completed, which
terror indeed proved almost more serviceable than real strength, the
leaders of the Gauls first believed that the Romans would not come down
to the plain: then when they saw them begin on a sudden to descend,
they also, on their part eager for the fight, rush forward to the
encounter; and the battle commenced before the signal could be given by
the leaders.
15. The Gauls attacked the right wing with greater fierceness, nor
could they have been withstood, had not the dictator happened to be on
the spot, rebuking Sextus Tullius by name, and asking him, “Was it in
this way he had engaged that the soldiers would fight? Where now were
the shouts of those demanding their arms? where the threats that they
would commence the fight without the orders of their general? Behold
the general himself calling them with a loud voice to battle, and
advancing in arms before the front of the line. Would any of those now
follow him, who were just now to have led the way; fierce in the camp,
but cowards in the field?” What they heard was all true; wherefore
shame applied such strong incentives, that they rushed upon the weapons
of the enemy, their attention being turned away from the thought of
danger. This onset, which was almost frantic at first, threw the enemy
into disorder; then the cavalry charging them whilst thus disordered,
made them turn their backs. The dictator himself, when he saw their
line wavering in one direction, carries round some troops to the left
wing, where he saw a crowd of the enemy collected, and gave to those
who were on the mountain the signal which had been agreed on. When a
new shout arose from that quarter also, and they seemed to make their
way in an oblique direction, down the mountain to the camp of the
Gauls; then through fear lest they should be cut off from it, the fight
was given up, and they were carried towards the camp with precipitate
speed. Where when Marcus Valerius, master of the horse, who, after
having routed their left wing, was riding towards the enemies'
entrenchment, met them, they turn their flight to the mountains and
woods: and the greater part of them were there intercepted by the
fallacious show of horsemen, and the muleteers, and of those whom panic
had carried into the woods, a dreadful slaughter took place after the
battle was ended. Nor did any one since Camillus obtain a more complete
triumph over the Gauls than Caius Sulpicius. A considerable weight of
gold taken from the Gallic spoils, which he enclosed in hewn stone, he
consecrated in the Capitol. The same year the consuls also were engaged
in fighting with various success. For the Hernicians were vanquished
and subdued by Cneius Plautius. His colleague Fabius fought against the
Tarquinians without caution or prudence; nor was the loss sustained in
the field so much [a subject of regret] as that the Tarquinians put to
death three hundred and seven Roman soldiers, their prisoners, by which
barbarous mode of punishment the disgrace of the Roman people was
rendered considerably more remarkable. To this disaster moreover was
added, the laying waste of the Roman territory, which the
Privernatians, and afterwards the people of Velitræ, committed by a
sudden incursion. The same year two tribes, the Pomptine and Publilian,
were added. The votive games, which Marcus Furius in his dictatorship
had vowed, were performed; and a proposition was then for the first
time made to the people regarding bribery at elections by Caius
Pætilius, tribune of the commons, with the approbation of the senate;
and by that bill they thought that the ambition of new men in
particular, who had been accustomed to go around the markets and places
of meeting, was checked.
16. Not equally pleasing to the patricians on the following year was
a law passed in the consulship of Caius Marcius and Cneius Manlius, by
Marcus Duilius and Lucius Mænius, tribunes of the commons, regarding
the interest of money at twelve per cent., and the people received and
passed it with much more eagerness. In addition to the new wars
determined on the preceding year, a new enemy arose in the Faliscians,
in consequence of a double charge; both that their youth had taken up
arms in conjunction with the Tarquinians, and because they had refused
to restore to the demand of the Roman heralds those who had fled to
Falerii, after the unsuccessful battle. That province fell to the lot
of Cneius Manlius, Marcius led the army into the Privernatian
territory, which, from the long continuance of peace, was in a
flourishing condition; and he enriched the soldiers with abundance of
spoil. To the great quantity of effects he added an act of munificence;
for, by setting aside nothing for public use, he favoured the soldier
in his endeavours to accumulate private property. When the
Privernatians had taken their post in a well-fortified camp under their
own walls, having summoned the soldiers to an assembly, he says to
them, “I now give to you the camp and city of the enemy for plunder, if
you promise me that you will exert yourselves bravely in the field, and
that you are not better prepared for plunder than for fighting.” With
loud shouts they call for the signal, and elated and buoyed up with
certain confidence, they proceed to the battle. Then, in front of the
line, Sextus Tullius, whom we have already mentioned, exclaims,
“Behold, general,” says he, “how your army are performing their
promises to you;” and laying aside his javelin, he attacks the enemy
sword in hand. The whole van follow Tullius, and at the first onset put
the enemy to flight; then pursuing them, when routed, to the town, when
they were just applying the scaling ladders to the walls, they received
the city on a surrender. A triumph was had over the Privernatians.
Nothing worth mentioning was achieved by the other consul, except that
he, by an unusual precedent, holding an assembly of the tribes in the
camp at Sutrium, he passed a law regarding the twentieth part of the
value of those set free by manumission. As by this law no small revenue
was added to the treasury, now low, the senate gave it their sanction.
But the tribunes of the commons, influenced not so much by the law as
by the precedent, passed a law, making it a capital offence for any one
in future to summon an assembly of the people at a distance from the
city; for if that were allowed, there was nothing, no matter how
destructive to the people, that might not he done by soldiers, who had
sworn allegiance to their consul. The same year Caius Licinius Stolo
was condemned in a fine of ten thousand asses, on his own law,
by Marcus Popillius Lænas, because he possessed in conjunction with his
son a thousand acres of land, and because he had attempted to evade the
law by emancipating his son.
17. The next two consuls, Marcus Fabius Ambustus a second time, and
Marcus Popillius Lænas a second time, had two wars on their hands. The
one with the Tiburtians was easy, which Licinius managed, who drove the
enemy into their city, and laid waste their lands. The Faliscians and
Tarquinians routed the other consul in the commencement of the fight.
From these parties the utmost terror was raised, in consequence of
their priests, who, by carrying before them lighted torches and the
figures of serpents, and advancing with the gait of furies,
disconcerted the Roman soldiers by their extraordinary appearance; and
then indeed they ran back to their entrenchments, in all the hurry of
trepidation, as if frenzied or thunderstruck; and then when the consul,
and lieutenant-generals, and tribunes began to ridicule and chide them
for being frightened like children at mere sights, shame suddenly
changed their minds; and they rushed, as if blindfold, on those very
objects from which they had fled. Having, therefore, dissipated the
idle contrivance of the enemy, having attacked those who were in arms,
they drove their whole line before them, and having got possession of
the camp also on that day, and obtained great booty, they returned
victorious, uttering military jests, both on the stratagem of the enemy
as also on their own panic. Then the whole Etruscan nation is aroused,
and under the conduct of the Tarquinians and Faliscians, they come to
Salinæ. To meet this alarm, Caius Marcius Rutilus, being appointed
dictator, the first plebeian who was so, named Caius Plautius, also a
plebeian, master of the horse. This was deemed an indignity by the
patricians, that the dictatorship also was now become common, and with
all their exertions they prevented any thing from either being decreed
or prepared for the dictator, for the prosecution of that war. With the
more promptitude, on that account, did the people order things, as
proposed by the dictator. Having set out from the city, along both
sides of the Tiber, and transporting his army on rafts whithersoever
his intelligence of the enemy led him, he surprised many of them
straggling about in scattered parties, laying waste the lands.
Moreover, he suddenly attacked their camp and took it; and eight
thousand of the enemy being made prisoners, all the rest being either
slain or driven out of the Roman territory, he triumphed by order of
the people, without the sanction of the senate. Because they neither
wished that the consular elections should be held by a plebeian
dictator or consul, and the other consul, Fabius, was detained by the
war, matters came to an interregnum. There were then interreges in
succession, Quintus Servilius Ahala, Marcus Fabius, Cneius Manlius,
Caius Fabius, Caius Sulpicius, Lucius Æmilius, Quintus Servilius,
Marcus Fabius Ambustas. In the second interregnum a dispute arose,
because two patrician consuls were elected: and the tribunes
protesting, Fabius the interrex said, that “it was a law in the twelve
tables, that whatever the people ordered last should be law and in
force; that the suffrages of the people were their orders.” When the
tribunes by their protest had been able to effect nothing else than to
put off the elections, two patricians were chosen consuls, Caius
Sulpicius Peticus a third time, Marcus Valerius Publicola; and on the
same day they entered into office.
18. On the four hundredth year after the building of the city of
Rome, and the thirty-fifth after its recovery from the Gauls, the
consulship being taken away from the commons after eleven years,
consuls, both patricians, entered into office after the interregnum,
Caius Sulpicius Peticus a third time, and Marcus Valerius Publicola.
During this year Empulum was taken from the Tiburtians with a struggle
not worth mentioning; whether the war was waged there under the
auspices of the two consuls, as some have stated; or whether the lands
of the Tarquinians were laid waste by the consul Sulpicius about the
same time that Valerius led the troops against the Tiburtians. The
consuls had a more arduous contest at home with the commons and
tribunes. As two patricians had received the consulship, they
considered that not only their resolution, but their honour also, was
involved in their consigning it to two patricians. For if the
consulship were made a plebeian magistracy, they must either yield it
up entirely, or possess it entire, which possession they had received
from their fathers unimpaired. The commons on the other hand loudly
remonstrate; “Why did they live; why were they reckoned in the number
of citizens; if they collectively cannot maintain that which was
acquired by the firmness of two men, Lucius Sextius and Caius Licinius?
That either kings, or decemvirs, or, if there be any denomination of
power more offensive, would be submitted to rather than see both the
consuls patricians, or rather than not obey and rule in turn; but the
one half, located in perpetual power, thinks the commons born for no
other purpose than to be subservient.” The tribunes are not remiss in
encouraging the disturbances; but amid the excited state of all
scarcely any are distinguished as leaders. When they had several times
gone down to the Campus Martius to no purpose, and when many days of
meeting had been spent in seditious movements; at length the resentment
of the commons, overcome by the perseverance of the consuls, broke out
to such a degree, that the commons followed in sorrow the tribunes,
exclaiming, that there was an end of liberty; that not only the Campus
should be relinquished, but the city also as being held captive and
oppressed by the tyranny of the patricians. The consuls, deserted by a
part of the people, finish the election nevertheless with the small
number [who attended]. Both the consuls elected were patricians, Marcus
Fabius Ambustus a third time, Titus Quinctius. In some annals I find
Marcus Popilius mentioned as consul instead of Titus Quinctius.
19. Two wars were conducted with success on that year: and they
forced the Tiburtians by force of arms to a surrender. The city of
Sassula was taken from them; and the other towns would have shared the
same fate, had not the entire nation laid down their arms, and put
themselves under the protection of the consul. A triumph was obtained
by him over the Tiburtians: in other respects the victory was a mild
one. Rigorous severity was practised against the Tarquinians. A great
many being slaughtered in the field, out of a great number of prisoners
three hundred and fifty-eight were selected, all of the highest rank,
to be sent to Rome; the rest of the multitude were put to the sword.
Nor were the people more merciful towards those who had been sent to
Rome. They were all beaten with rods and beheaded in the middle of the
forum. That was the punishment retaliated on the enemy for their
butchering the Romans in the forum of Tarquinii. The successes in war
induced the Samnites to seek their friendship. A courteous answer was
returned to their ambassadors by the senate: they were received into an
alliance by a treaty. The Roman commons had not the same success at
home as in war. For though the burden of interest money had been
relieved by fixing the rate at one to the hundred, the poor were
overwhelmed by the principal alone, and submitted to confinement. On
this account, the commons took little heed either of the two consuls
being patricians, or the management of the elections, by reason of
their private distresses. Both consulships therefore remained with the
patricians. The consuls appointed were Caius Sulpicius Pæticus a fourth
time, Marcus Valerius Publicola a second time. Whilst the state was
occupied with the Etrurian war, [entered into] because a report
prevailed that the people of Cære had joined the Tarquinians through
compassion for them from their relationship, ambassadors from the
Latins drew their attention to the Volscians, bringing tidings that an
army enlisted and fully armed was now on the point of attacking their
frontiers; from thence that they were to enter the Roman territory in
order to commit depredations. The senate therefore determined that
neither affair should be neglected; they ordered that troops should be
raised for both purposes, and that the consuls should cast lots for the
provinces. The greater share of their anxiety afterwards inclined to
the Etrurian war; after it was ascertained, from a letter of the consul
Sulpicius, to whom the province of Tarquinii had fallen, that the land
around the Roman Salinæ had been depopulated, and that part of the
plunder had been carried away into the country of the people of Cære,
and that the young men of that people were certainly among the
depredators. The senate therefore, having recalled the consul Valerius,
who was opposed to the Volscians, and who had his camp on the frontiers
of Tusculum, ordered him to nominate a dictator. He nominated Titus
Manlius, son of Lucius. He, after he had appointed Aulus Cornelius
Cossus his master of the horse, content with the consular army,
declared war against the Cæritians by order of the people, with the
sanction of the senate.
20. Then for the first time were the Cæritians seized with a real
dread of war, as if there was greater power in the words of the enemy
to indicate war than in their own acts, who had provoked the Romans by
devastation; and they perceived how ill suited the contest was to their
strength. They repented of their depredations, and cursed the
Tarquinians as the instigators of the revolt. Nor did any one think of
preparing arms and hostilities; but each strenuously urged the
necessity of sending ambassadors to sue for pardon for their error.
When their ambassadors applied to the senate, being referred by the
senate to the people, they implored the gods, whose sacred utensils
they had received in the Gallic war and treated with all due ceremony,
that the same compassion for them might influence the Romans now in a
flourishing condition, which had formerly influenced themselves when
the state of the Roman people was distressed; and turning to the temple
of Vesta, they invoked the bonds of hospitality subsisting [between
themselves] and the flamens and vestals entered into by them with holy
and religious zeal: “Would any one believe that persons, who possessed
such merits, had suddenly become enemies without cause? or if they had
committed any act in a hostile manner, that they had, through design
rather than under the influence of error from frenzy, so acted, as to
cancel their former acts of kindness by recent injuries, more
especially when conferred on persons so grateful, and that they would
choose to themselves as enemies the Roman people, now in the most
flourishing state and most successful in war, whose friendship they had
cultivated when they were distressed? That they should not call it
design, which should rather be called force and necessity. That the
Tarquinians, passing through their territory with a hostile army, after
they had asked for nothing but a passage, forced with them some of
their peasants, to accompany them in that depredation, which was
charged on them as a crime. That they were prepared to deliver them up,
if it pleased them that they should be delivered up; or that they
should be subjected to punishment, if [they desired] that they should
be punished. That Cære, the sanctuary of the Roman people, the
harbourer of its priests, the receptacle of the sacred utensils of
Rome, they should suffer to escape, in regard to the ties of
hospitality contracted with the vestals, and in regard to the religious
devotion paid to their gods, intact and unstained with the charge of
hostilities committed.” The people were influenced not so much by [the
merits of] the present case, as by their former deserts, so as to be
unmindful rather of the injury than of the kindness. Peace was
therefore granted to the people of Cære, and it was resolved that the
making of a truce for one hundred years should be referred to a decree
of the senate. Against the Faliscians, implicated in the same charge,
the force of the war was turned; but the enemy was no where found.
Though their territories were visited in all directions with
devastation, they refrained from besieging the towns; and the legions
being brought back to Rome, the remainder of the year was spent in
repairing the walls and the towers, and the temple of Apollo was
dedicated.
21. At the close of the year a dispute between the patricians and
commons suspended the consular elections, the tribunes refusing to
allow the elections to be held, unless they were held conformably to
the Licinian law; the dictator being determined to do away with the
consulate altogether from the state, rather than to make it common to
the patricians and the commons. Accordingly when, the elections being
repeatedly adjourned, the dictator resigned his office, matters came to
an interregnum. Upon this, when the interreges found the commons
incensed against the fathers, the contest was carried on by various
disturbances to the eleventh interrex. The tribunes held out as their
plea, the protection of the Licinian law. The people had the painful
sense of the increasing weight of interest nearer to their hearts; and
their private troubles became predominant amid the public contests.
Through the wearisome effects of which the patricians ordered Lucius
Cornelius Scipio, the interrex, for peace' sake to observe the Licinian
law in the election of consuls. To Publius Valerius Publicola, Caius
Marcius Rutilus, a plebeian, was assigned as a colleague. Once their
minds were disposed to concord, the new consuls, setting about to
relieve the affair of the interest money also, which seemed to prevent
perfect unanimity, made the payment of the debts a matter of public
concern, five commissioners having been appointed, whom from their
management of the money they called bankers. By their justice and
diligence they deserved to have their names signalized by the records
of every history. They were Caius Duilius, Publius Decius Mus, Marcus
Papirius, Quintus Publilius, and Titus Æmilius; who underwent a task
most difficult to be managed, and dissatisfactory in general to both
parties, certainly always so to one, both with moderation in other
respects, as well as at the public expense, rather than with any loss
[to the creditors]. For the tardy debts and those which were more
troublesome, rather by the inertness of the debtors than by want of
means, either the treasury paid off, tables with money being placed in
the forum, in such a manner that the public was first secured; or a
valuation, at equitable prices, of their property freed them; so that
not only without injury, but even without complaints on either side, an
immense amount of debt was cleared off. After this a groundless alarm
of an Etrurian war, as there was a report that the twelve states had
conspired, rendered it necessary that a dictator should be appointed.
Caius Julius was nominated in the camp, (for the decree of the senate
was sent thither to the consuls,) to whom Lucius Æmilius was attached
as master of the horse. But all things were quiet abroad.
22. An attempt made at home by the dictator, to have the election of
two patrician consuls, brought the government to an interregnum. The
two interreges, Caius Sulpicius and Marcus Fabius, succeeded in that
which the dictator had in vain attempted, scil. in having both the
consuls elected from the patricians, the people being rather more
appeased in consequence of the service done them in lightening their
debts. The persons elected were, Caius Sulpicius Peticus himself, who
first resigned the office of interrex, and Titus Quinctius Pennus. Some
attach the name of Kæso, others that of Caius to Quinctius. They both
set out to the war, Quinctius to the Faliscian, Sulpicius to the
Tarquinian; and the enemy no where meeting them in the field, they
waged war more against the lands than the men, by burning and laying
waste every thing, by the debilitating effects of which, as of a slow
consumption, the pertinacity of both states was so broken, that they
solicited a truce, first from the consuls, then through their
permission from the senate. They obtained a truce for forty years. Thus
the concern regarding the two wars which were hanging over them being
laid aside, whilst there was some repose from arms, it was determined
that a census should be instituted, because the payment of the debt had
changed the owners of much property. But when the assembly was
proclaimed for the appointment of censors, Caius Marcius Rutilus, who
had been the first plebeian dictator, having declared himself a
candidate for the censorship, disturbed the harmony of the different
orders. This step he seemed to have taken at an unseasonable time;
because both the consuls then happened to be patricians, who declared
that they would take no account of him. But he both succeeded in his
undertaking by his own perseverance, and the tribunes aided him by
recovering a right lost in the election of the consuls; and both the
worth of the man brought him to the level of the highest honour, and
also the commons were anxious that the censorship also should be
brought within their participation through the medium of the same
person who had opened a way to the dictatorship. Nor was any dissent
[from this feeling] evinced at the election, so that Marcius was
elected censor along with Cneius Manlius. This year also had Marcus
Fabius as dictator, not by reason of any terror of war, but in order
that the Licinian law should not be observed at the consular elections.
Quintus Servilius was attached to the dictator as master of the horse.
Nor yet did the dictatorship render that combination of the senators
more effectual at the consular elections, than it had proved at that of
the censors.
23. Marcus Popillius Lænas was chosen consul on the part of the
commons, Lucius Cornelius Scipio on that of the patricians. Fortune
even rendered the plebeian consul more distinguished; for when news was
brought that a vast army of the Gauls had pitched their camp in the
Latin territory, Scipio being attacked with a serious fit of illness,
the Gallic war was intrusted out of course to Popillius. He having
raised an army with great energy, after he had ordered the younger
citizens to assemble in arms outside the Capuan gate, and the quæstors
to carry the standards from the treasury to the same place, having
completed four legions, he gave the surplus of the men to the prætor
Publius Valerius Publicola, recommending to the senate to raise another
army, which might be a reserve to the state against the sudden
contingencies of war. He himself, after sufficiently preparing and
arranging every thing, proceeds towards the enemy; and in order to
ascertain their strength before he should hazard a decisive action, he
commenced drawing an intrenchment on a hill, the nearest he could
select to the camp of the Gauls. They being a fierce race and of an
eager turn for fighting, when, on descrying the standards of the Romans
at a distance, they drew out their forces, as expecting to commence the
battle forthwith, when they perceived that neither the opposite army
descended into the plain, and that the Romans were protected both by
the height of the ground and also by the entrenchments, supposing that
they were dismayed with fear, and also more exposed to attack, because
they were intent on the work, they advance with a furious shout. On the
side of the Romans neither the works were interrupted, (it was the
triarii who were employed at them,) but the battle was commenced by the
hastati and the principes, who stood in front of the workmen armed and
prepared for the fight. Besides their own valour, the higher ground
aided them, so that all the spears and javelins did not fall
ineffectual, as when thrown on the same level, (as is generally the
case,) but being steadied by their own weight they took effect; and the
Gauls weighed down by the weapons, with which they had their bodies
transfixed, or their shields rendered too cumbrous by those sticking in
them. When they advanced almost up the steep at a run, becoming
irresolute, they at first halted; then when the very delay shook the
courage of the one party, and raised that of the enemy, being then
pushed backwards they fell one upon the other, and produced a carnage
among themselves more shocking than the carnage [caused by the enemy].
For more were crushed by the precipitate rout, than there were slain by
the sword.
24. Nor as yet was the victory decided in favour of the Romans;
another difficulty still was remaining for them after they had
descended into the plain; for the great numbers of the Gauls being such
as to prevent all feeling of such a disaster, raised up fresh troops
against the victorious enemy, as if a new army rose up once more. And
the Romans stood still, suppressing their ardour; both because the
struggle had to be undergone a second time by them wearied as they
were, and the consul, having his left arm well nigh transfixed with a
javelin, whilst he exposed himself incautiously in the van, had retired
for a short time from the field. And now, by the delay, the victory was
on the point of being relinquished, when the consul, having had his
wound tied up, riding back to the van, cries out, “Soldiers, why do you
stand? You have not to do with a Latin or Sabine enemy, whom, when you
have vanquished by your arms, from an enemy you may make an ally;
against brutes we have drawn our swords. Their blood must be drawn or
ours given to them. You have repulsed them from your camp, you have
driven them headlong down the valley, you stand on the prostrated
bodies of your foes. Fill the plains with the same carnage as you have
filled the mountains; do not wait till they fly, you standing still;
your standards must be advanced, you must proceed against the enemy.”
Roused again by these exhortations, they drive back from their ground
the foremost companies of the Gauls, and by forming wedges, they break
through the centre of their body. By these means, the enemy being
disunited, as being now without regular command, or subordination of
officers, they turn their violence against their own; and being
dispersed through the plains, and carried beyond their own camp in
their precipitate flight, they make for the citadel of Alba, which met
their eyes as the most elevated among hills of equal altitude. The
consul, not pursuing them beyond the camp, because the wound weakened
him, and he was unwilling to expose his wearied army to hills occupied
by the enemy, bestowed the entire plunder of the camp on the soldiers,
and led back his army, victorious and enriched with the Gallic spoils,
to Rome. The consul's wound occasioned a delay of the triumph, and the
same cause made the senate wish for a dictator, that there might be
some one who, the consuls being both sick, should hold the elections.
Lucius Furius Camillus being nominated dictator, Publius Cornelius
Scipio being attached as master of the horse, restored to the
patricians their former possession of the consulship. He himself being,
for that service, elected consul, had Appius Claudius Crassus named as
his colleague.
25. Before the new consuls entered on their office, a triumph was
celebrated by Popillius over the Gauls amid the great applause of the
commons; and they, in a low voice, frequently asked one another,
whether any one was dissatisfied with a plebeian consul. At the same
time they found fault with the dictator, who had obtained the
consulship as a bribe for having infringed the Licinian law, more
dishonourable for the private ambition [evinced] thereby than for the
injury inflicted on the public, so that, when dictator, he might have
himself appointed consul. The year was remarkable for many and various
commotions. The Gauls [descending] from the Alban mountains, because
they were unable to endure the severity of the winter, straggling
through the plains and the parts adjoining the sea, committed
devastations. The sea was infested by fleets of the Greeks; and the
borders of the Antian shore, and the mouth of the Tiber; so that the
maritime plunderers, encountering those on land, fought on one occasion
an obstinate fight, and separated, the Gauls to their camp, the Greeks
back to their ships, doubting whether they should consider themselves
as vanquished or victors. Among these the greatest alarm arose at the
circumstance, that assemblies of the Latin states were held at the
grove of Ferentina; and an unequivocal answer was given to the Romans
on their ordering soldiers from them, “that they should cease to issue
their orders to those of whose assistance they stood in need: that the
Latins would take up arms in defence of their own liberty, rather than
for the dominion of others.” The senate becoming uneasy at the
defection of their allies, whilst two foreign wars existed at the same
time, when they perceived that those whom fidelity had not restrained,
should be restrained by fear, ordered the consuls to exert to the
utmost the energies of their authority in holding a levy. For that they
should depend on an army of their countrymen, since their allies were
deserting them. Ten legions are said to have been levied, consisting
each of four thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred horse.
Such a newly-raised army, if any foreign force should assail, the
present power of the Roman people, which is scarcely confined within
the whole world, could not easily raise now, if concentrated upon one
point: so true it is, we have improved in those particulars only about
which we are solicitous, riches and luxury. Among the other distressing
events of this year, Appius Claudius, one of the consuls, dies in the
midst of the preparations for the war; and the whole direction of
affairs devolved on Camillus; over whom, the only consul, it did not
appear seemly that a dictator should be appointed, either in
consideration of his high character, which should not be made
subordinate to the dictatorship, or on account of the auspicious omen
of his surname with respect to a Gallic war. The consul, then, having
stationed two legions to protect the city, and divided the remaining
eight with the prætor Lucius Pinarius, mindful of his father's valour,
selects the Gallic war for himself without any appeal to lots: the
prætor he commanded to protect the sea-coast, and to drive the Greeks
from the shore. And after he had marched down into the Pomptine
territory, because he neither wished to engage on the level ground, no
circumstance rendering it necessary, and he considered that the enemy
were sufficiently subdued, by preventing from plunder persons whom
necessity obliged to live on what was so obtained, he selected a
suitable place for a fixed encampment.
26. Where when they were spending the time in quiet in their
quarters, a Gaul, remarkable for his size and the appearance of his
arms, came forward; and striking his shield with his spear, after he
had procured silence, through an interpreter he challenged any one of
the Romans to contend with him with the sword. There was a tribune of
the soldiers, a young man, Marcus Valerius, who considering himself not
less worthy of that distinction than Titus Manlius, having first
ascertained the consul's pleasure, advanced fully armed into the middle
space. The human contest was rendered less remarkable by reason of the
interposition of the divine power. For just as the Roman was commencing
the encounter, a crow settled suddenly on his helmet, facing the enemy,
which, as an augury sent from heaven, the tribune at first received
with pleasure. Then he prayed that whatever god or goddess had sent him
the auspicious bird, would willingly and kindly aid him. Wondrous to
relate, the bird not only kept the place it had once taken, but as
often as the encounter was renewed, raising itself on its wings, it
attacked the face and eyes of the foe with its beak and talons, until
Valerius slays him, terrified at the sight of such a prodigy, and
confounded both in his vision and understanding. The crow soaring out
of sight makes towards the east. Hitherto the advanced guards on both
sides remained quiet. When the tribune began to strip the body of the
slain enemy, neither the Gauls any longer confined themselves to their
post, and the Romans began to run to their successful champion with
still greater speed. There a scuffle taking place around the body of
the prostrate Gaul, a desperate fight is stirred up. And now the
contest is carried on not by the companies of the nearest posts, but by
the legions pouring out from both sides. The soldiers exulting in the
victory of the tribune, and also at such favour and attention from the
gods, are commanded by Camillus to advance against the enemy: and he,
pointing to the tribune distinguished by the spoils, “Soldiers,” said
he, “imitate this man; and around their fallen leader strew heaps of
Gauls.” Gods and men assisted at that fight; and the struggle was
carried on against the Gauls with a fury by no means equivocal in its
result, so thoroughly were both armies impressed with the respective
success of the two soldiers, between whom the single combat had taken
place. Among the first party, whose encounter had called out the
others, there was a desperate encounter: the rest of the soldiery,
before they came within throw of a weapon, turned their backs. At first
they were dispersed through the Volscians and the Falernian territory;
thence they made for Apulia and the upper sea. The consul, calling an
assembly, after heaping praises on the tribune, bestows on him ten oxen
and a golden crown. He himself, being commanded by the senate to take
charge of the maritime war, joined his camp to that of the prætor.
There because matters seemed to be delayed by the dastardly conduct of
the Greeks, who did not venture into the field, with the approbation of
the senate, he nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator. The
dictator, after appointing Aulus Cornelius Cossus his master of the
horse, held the consular elections, and with the greatest applause of
the people he returned Marcus Valerius Corvus (for that was his surname
from thenceforth) as consul, though absent, the rival of his own glory,
then three and twenty years of age. As colleague to Corvus, Marcus
Popillius Lænas, a plebeian, was assigned to be consul for the fourth
time. Nothing memorable occurred between Camillus and the Greeks;
neither the one were warriors by land, nor the Romans by sea. At
length, when they were repelled from the shore, among other things
necessary for use, water also failing, they abandoned Italy. To what
state or what nation that fleet belonged, there is nothing certain. I
would be most inclined to think that they belonged to the tyrants of
Sicily; for the farther Greece, being at that time wearied by intestine
war, was now in dread of the power of the Macedonians.
27. The armies being disbanded, whilst there was both peace abroad,
and tranquillity at home by reason of the concord of the different
orders, lest matters might be too happy, a pestilence having attacked
the state, compelled the senate to order the decemvirs to inspect the
Sibylline books, and by their suggestion a lectisternium took place.
The same year a colony was led to Satricum by the Antians, and the
city, which the Latins had demolished, was rebuilt. And a treaty was
concluded at Rome with the Carthaginian ambassadors, they having come
to request friendship and an alliance. The same tranquillity continued
at home and abroad, during the consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus and
Caius Plautius. Only the interest of money from twelve was reduced to
six per cent; and the payment of the debts was adjusted into equal
portions of three years, on condition that the fourth payment should be
made at the present time. And then also, though a portion of the
commons were distressed, still public credit engrossed the attention of
the senate in preference to the difficulties of private individuals.
Their circumstances were relieved most effectually, because a cessation
was introduced of the taxes and levy. On the third year after Satricum
was rebuilt by the Volscians, Marcus Valerius Corvus having been
elected consul for the second time with Caius Poetelius, when news had
been brought from Latium, that ambassadors from Antium were going round
the states of the Latins to excite a war, being ordered to attack the
Volscians, before greater numbers of the enemy should be assembled,
proceeds to Satricum with his army ready for action. And when the
Antians and other Volscians met him, their forces being previously
prepared, in case any movement should be made on the part of Rome, no
delay of engaging took place between the two parties incensed with long
pent-up hate. The Volscians, a nation more spirited to renew
hostilities than to carry on war, being defeated in the fight, make for
the walls of Satricum in a precipitate flight; and their reliance in
their walls not being sufficiently strong, when the city, encompassed
by a continuous line of troops, was now on the point of being taken by
scalade, they surrendered to the number of four thousand soldiers,
besides the unarmed multitude. The town was demolished and burnt; only
they kept the fire from the temple of Mother Matuta. The entire plunder
was given up to the soldiers. The four thousand who had surrendered
were considered exclusive of the spoil; these the consul when
triumphing drove before his chariot in chains; afterwards by selling
them he brought a great sum of money into the treasury. There are some
who state that this body of captives consisted of slaves; and this is
more probable than that persons who had surrendered were exposed to
sale.
28. Marcus Fabius Dorso and Servius Sulpicius Camerinus succeeded
these consuls. After this the Auruncan war commenced in consequence of
a sudden attempt at depredation: and through fear lest this act of one
state might be the concerted scheme of the whole Latin nation, Lucius
Furius being created dictator, as if against all Latium already in
arms, nominated Cneius Manlius Capitolinus his master of the horse. And
when, a suspension of public business being proclaimed, (a measure
usually adopted during great alarms,) the levy was held without
exemptions, the legions were led against the Auruncans with all
possible expedition. The spirit of freebooters rather than of enemies
was found there. They were vanquished therefore in the first encounter.
However the dictator, both because they had commenced hostilities
without provocation, and presented themselves to the contest without
reluctance, considering that the aid of the gods should also be
engaged, vowed a temple to Juno Moneta in the heat of the battle, and
when he returned victorious to Rome, obliged by his vow, he resigned
his dictatorship. The senate ordered duumvirs to be appointed to have
the temple built suitably to the grandeur of the Roman people; the site
destined for it was in the citadel, where the ground was on which the
house of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus had stood. The consuls, having
employed the dictator's army for the Volscian war, took Sora from the
enemy, having attacked them by surprise. The temple of Moneta is
dedicated the year after it had been vowed, Caius Marcius Rutilus being
consul for the third time, and Titus Manlius Torquatus for the second
time. A prodigy immediately followed the dedication, similar to the
ancient one of the Alban mount. For it both rained stones, and during
the day night seemed to be spread [over the sky]; and on the books
being inspected, the state being filled with religious scruples, it was
resolved by the senate that a dictator should be nominated for the
purpose of regulating the ceremonies. Publius Valerius Publicola was
nominated; Quintus Fabius Ambustus was assigned to him as master of the
horse. It was determined that not only the tribes, but the neighbouring
states also should offer supplications: and a certain order was
appointed for them on what day each should offer supplication. Severe
sentences of the people are said to have been passed on that year
against usurers, for whom a day of trial had been appointed by the
ædiles. Matters came to an interregnum, there being no particular
reason on record. After the interregnum, both the consuls were elected
from the patricians, Marcus Valerius Corvus a third time, and Aulus
Cornelius Cossus, so that it would seem that such was the end aimed at.
29. Henceforward shall be recorded wars of greater importance, both
by the strength of the belligerent powers, by the distance of the
countries, or the length of time during which they were carried on. For
in that year arms were taken up against the Samnites, a nation powerful
both in wealth and in arms. Pyrrhus followed as an enemy the war of the
Samnites carried on with various success, the Carthaginians followed
Pyrrhus. How great a mass of events! How often have extreme dangers
been encountered, that the empire might be raised to its present
magnitude, which is now scarcely sustained! But the cause of the war
between the Samnites and Romans, as they had been joined in alliance
and friendship, came from without; it originated not among themselves.
After the Samnites had unjustly taken up arms, because they had the
advantage in strength, against the Sidicinians, the weaker party being
obliged to have recourse to the aid of the more powerful, unite
themselves to the Campanians. As the Campanians brought to the relief
of their allies rather a name than strength, enervated as they were by
luxury, they were beaten in the Sidicinian territory by men who were
inured to the use of arms, and then brought on themselves the entire
burthen of the war. For the Samnites, taking no further notice of the
Sidicinians, having attacked the Campanians as being the chief of the
neighbouring states, from whom the victory might be equally easy, and a
greater share of spoil and glory, after they had secured Tifata, a
ridge of hills hanging over Capua, with a strong garrison, they march
down from thence with their army formed in a square into the plain
which lies between Capua and Tifata. There a second battle was fought;
and the Campanians, after an unsuccessful fight, being driven within
their walls, when the flower of their youth being cut down, no hope was
nigh at hand, they were obliged to sue for aid from the Romans.
30. Their ambassadors, being introduced into the senate, spoke as
near as possible to this purport: “Conscript fathers, the Campanian
state has sent us to you, to solicit from you friendship for ever, and
present aid, which if we had solicited whilst our affairs were
prosperous, as it would have commenced more readily, so would it have
been bound by a weaker tie. For then, as we should have recollected
that we entered into friendship on equal terms, we might be equally
friendly as now, but less submissive and compliant with your wishes.
Now, won over by your compassion for us, and defended by your aid in
our critical circumstances, it is incumbent on us that we show our
sense also of the kindness received; lest we should seem ungrateful,
and undeserving of aid from either god or man. Nor, indeed, do I think
that because the Samnites first became your allies and friends, such a
circumstance is sufficient to prevent our being admitted into
friendship; but merely shows that they excel us in priority and in the
degree of honour; for no provision has been made in your treaty with
the Samnites that you should not form any new treaties. It has ever
been with you a sufficient title to your friendship, that he who sought
it desired to be a friend of yours. We, Campanians, though our present
state forbids us to speak in high terms, not yielding to any state save
you in the extent of our city, or in the fertility of our land, come
into friendship with you, no inconsiderable accession in my opinion to
your flourishing condition. We shall be in the rear of the Æquans and
Volscians, the eternal enemies of this city, whenever they may stir;
and whatever ye shall be the first to perform in defence of our safety,
the same shall we ever do in defence of your empire and glory. Those
nations which lie between us and you being reduced, which both your
bravery and good fortune makes it certain will soon be the case, you
will then have an uninterrupted empire extending even to us. It is
distressing and painful, what our condition obliges us to confess.
Conscript fathers, matters are come to this, that we Campanians must be
the property either of friends or enemies. If you defend us, yours; if
you desert us, we shall be the property of the Samnites. Consider,
then, whether you would rather that Capua and all Campania should be
added to your power or to that of the Samnites. Romans, it is surely
but just, that your compassion and your aid should lie open to all men;
to those, however, chiefly, who, whilst they afford it beyond their
means to others imploring aid, have themselves been involved in this
distress. Although we fought nominally for the Sidicinians, in reality
for ourselves, when we saw a neighbouring state assailed by the
nefarious plunder of the Samnites; and after the Sidicinians had been
consumed, we saw that the conflagration would pass over to ourselves.
For the Samnites do not come to attack us, because they resent an
injury received, but because they are glad that a pretext has been
presented to them. If this were the gratification of their resentment,
and not an occasion for satiating their ambition, was it not sufficient
that they cut down our legions once in the Sidicinian territory, a
second time in Campania itself? What sort of resentment must that be,
which the blood shed in two pitched battles cannot satiate? To this add
the laying waste of our lands; the spoil of men and cattle driven away,
the burning and ruin of our country-houses, every thing destroyed by
fire and sword. Could not resentment be satisfied with this? But
ambition must be satiated. That hurries them on to besiege Capua. They
either wish to destroy that most beautiful city, or to possess it
themselves. But, Romans, do you take possession of it in your kindness,
rather than suffer them to hold it by injustice. I am not addressing a
people who decline just wars; but still, if you make but a show of your
aid, I do not think that you will have occasion for war. The contempt
of the Samnites has just reached to us; it soars not higher.
Accordingly, Romans, we may be protected even by the shadow of your
aid: whatever after this we shall possess, whatever we ourselves shall
be, determined to consider all that as yours. For you the Campanian
field shall be ploughed; for you the city of Capua shall be made
populous; you shall be to us in the light of founders, parents, ay,
even immortal gods. There shall be no colony of your own which shall
surpass us in attachment and loyalty to you. Grant to the Campanians,
conscript fathers, your nod, and your irresistible favour, and bid us
hope that Capua will be safe. With what crowds of persons of all
classes attending us do you suppose that we set out from thence—how,
think you, did we leave every place full of vows and tears? In what a
state of expectation do you suppose that the senate are, the Campanian
nation, our wives and our children? I am certain that the entire
multitude are standing at the gates, looking forward to the road that
leads from hence, anxious as to what answer you may order us, conscript
fathers, to bring back to them, in their solicitude and suspense of
mind. One kind of answer may bring them safety, victory, light, and
liberty—what the other may, I feel horror to think. Determine
therefore about us, as about persons who will be your future friends
and allies, or as persons who are to have no existence any where.”
31. The ambassadors then withdrawing, after the senate had been
consulted, though to a great many, their city the greatest and
wealthiest in Italy, their land the most fertile, and situated near the
sea, seemed likely to prove a granary to the Roman people for all
varieties of provision; still the faith of their engagements was more
regarded than such great advantages, and the consul, by the direction
of the senate, answered as follows: “Campanians, the senate considers
you deserving of aid. But it is meet that friendship be so established
with you, that no prior friendship and alliance be violated. The
Samnites are united in a treaty with us. Therefore we refuse you arms
against the Samnites, which would be a violation of duty to the gods
first, and then to men. We will, as divine and human law requires, send
ambassadors to our allies and friends to entreat that no violence be
committed against you?” To this the chief of the embassy replied, (for
such were the instructions they had brought from home,) “Since you are
not willing to defend by just force our possessions against violence
and injustice, at least you will defend your own. Wherefore, conscript
fathers, we surrender the Campanian people, and the city of Capua,
their lands, the temples of the gods, all things divine and human, into
your jurisdiction and that of the Roman people; whatever we shall
suffer henceforth, being determined to suffer as men who have
surrendered to you.” On these words, all extending their hands towards
the consuls, bathed in tears they fell prostrate in the porch of the
senate-house. The fathers, affected at the vicissitude of human
greatness, seeing that a nation abounding in wealth, noted for luxury
and pride, from which a little time since their neighbours had
solicited assistance, was now so broken in spirit, as to give up
themselves and all they possessed into the power of others; moreover,
their honour also seemed to be involved in not betraying those who had
surrendered, nor did they consider that the people of the Samnites
would act fairly, if they should attack a territory and a city which
had become the property of the Roman people by a surrender. It was
resolved therefore, that ambassadors should be sent forthwith to the
Samnites; instructions were given “that they should lay before the
Samnites the entreaties of the Campanians, the answer of the senate
duly mindful of the friendship of the Samnites, and finally the
surrender that had been concluded. That they requested, in
consideration of the friendship and alliance subsisting between them,
that they would spare their subjects; and that they would not carry
hostilities into that territory which had become the property of the
Roman people. If by gentle measures they did not succeed, that they
should denounce to the Samnites in the name of the senate and Roman
people, to withhold their arms from the city of Capua and the Campanian
territory.” When the ambassadors urged these matters in the assembly of
the Samnites, so fierce an answer was returned, that they not only said
that they would prosecute that war, but their magistrates, having gone
out of the senate-house, in the very presence of the ambassadors,
summoned the prefects of the cohorts; and with a distinct voice
commanded them, to proceed forthwith into the Campanian territory, in
order to plunder it.
32. The result of this embassy being reported at Rome, the care of
all other concerns being laid aside, the senate, having despatched
heralds to demand satisfaction, and, because this was not complied
with, war being proclaimed in the usual way, they decreed that the
matter should be submitted to the people at the very earliest
opportunity; and both the consuls having set out from the city by order
of the people with two armies, Valerius into Campania, Cornelius into
Samnium, the former pitches his camp at Mount Gaurus, the latter at
Saticula. The legions of the Samnites met with Valerius first; for they
thought that the whole weight of the war would incline to that side. At
the same time resentment stimulated them against the Campanians, that
they should be so ready at one time to lend aid, at another to call in
aid against them. But as soon as they beheld the Roman camp, they
fiercely demanded the signal each from his leader; they maintained that
the Roman would bring aid to the Campanian with the same fate with
which the Campanian had done to the Sidicinian. Valerius, having
delayed for a few days in slight skirmishes for the purpose of making
trial of the enemy, displayed the signal for battle, exhorting his men
in few words “not to let the new war or the new enemy terrify them. In
proportion as they should carry their arms to a greater distance from
the city, the more and more unwarlike should the nation prove to be
against whom they should proceed. That they should not estimate the
valour of the Samnites by the defeats of the Sidicinians and
Campanians. Let the combatants be of what kind they may be, that it was
necessary that one side should be vanquished. That as for the
Campanians indeed, they were undoubtedly vanquished more by
circumstances flowing from excessive luxury and by their own want of
energy than by the bravery of the enemy. What were the two successful
wars of the Samnites, during so many ages, against so many glorious
exploits of the Roman people, who counted almost more triumphs than
years since the building of their city? who held subdued by their arms
all the states around them, the Sabines, Etruria, the Latins,
Hernicians, Æquans, Volscians, Auruncans? who eventually drove by
flight into the sea, and into their ships, the Gauls, after
slaughtering them in so many engagements? That soldiers ought both to
enter the field relying on their national military renown, and on their
own valour, and also to consider under whose command and auspices the
battle is to be fought; whether he be one which is to be listened to as
a pompous exhorter, bold merely in words, unacquainted with military
labours, or one who knows how to wield arms himself also, to advance
before the standards, and to show himself in the midst of the danger.
My acts, not my words merely, I wish you to follow; and to seek from me
not military orders only, but example also. It was not by intrigues
merely, nor by cabals usual among the nobles, but by this right hand, I
procured for myself three consulships, and the highest eulogies. There
was a time when this could be said; [no wonder,] for you were a
patrician, and sprung from the liberators of your country; and that
family of yours had the consulship the same year that the city had
consuls. Now the consulship lies open in common to us patricians and to
you plebeians; nor is it, as formerly, the prize of birth, but of
valour. Look forward, therefore, soldiers, to even the highest honour.
Though you, as men, have, with the approbation of the gods, given me
this new surname of Corvus, the ancient surname of our family,
Publicolæ, has not been erased from my memory. I ever do and ever have
cultivated the good will of the Roman commons abroad and at home, as a
private man and in public offices, high and low, as tribune equally as
when consul, with the same undeviating line of conduct through all my
successive consulships. Now, with respect to that which is at hand,
with the aid of the gods, join with me in seeking a new and complete
triumph over the Samnites.”
33. Never was a general on a more familiar footing with his
soldiers, by his performing all the duties among the lowest of the
soldiers without reluctance. Moreover in the military sports, wherein
equals vie with their equals in contests of swiftness and strength,
affable and condescending, he conquered and was conquered with the same
countenance; nor did he spurn any competitor who should offer; in his
acts kind according to the occasion; in his conversation no less
mindful of the ease of others than of his own dignity; and, a thing
than which nothing is more agreeable to the people, he administered his
offices by the same line of conduct by which he had gained them. The
whole army therefore, cheering the exhortation of their leader with the
utmost alacrity, march forth from the camp. The battle commenced with
equal hopes and equal strength on both sides, as much as any battle
ever did, with confidence in themselves, and without contempt of their
enemies. Their recent exploits and their double victory a few days
before, increased the spirits of the Samnites on the other side; the
glories of four hundred years and victory coeval with the building of
their city [had the same effect] on the Romans; to both sides, however,
the circumstance of the enemy being a new one gave additional anxiety.
The battle was a proof what spirits they possessed; for they maintained
the conflict in such a manner, that, for a considerable time, the
armies inclined to neither side. Then the consul, thinking that some
confusion should be caused among them, since they could not be
overpowered by force, endeavours to disorder their foremost battalions
by a charge of cavalry. And when he saw them wheel their troops within
a narrow compass in fruitless disorder, and that they could not open a
passage to the enemy, riding back to the van of the legions, after
leaping from his horse, he says, “Soldiers, this is the task for us
infantry; come on, as ye shall see me making way with my sword, in
whatever direction I shall advance into the enemy's line, so let each
man, with all his might, beat down those who oppose him. All those
places, where their erected spears now glitter, you shall see cleared
by widely-extended slaughter.” He had uttered these words, when the
cavalry by order of the consul turn to the wings, and open a passage
for the legions to the centre of the line. First of all, the consul
attacks the enemy, and slays him whom he happened to engage. Those on
the right and left, fired at this sight, commence a dreadful fight,
each with the foe opposite him. The Samnites obstinately stand their
ground, though they receive more wounds than they inflict. The battle
had now lasted for a considerable time, great slaughter occurred around
the standards of the Samnites; in no part was there a flight, so firmly
had they made up their minds to be vanquished by death alone. Wherefore
the Romans, when they perceived their strength to relax by fatigue, and
but a small part of the day still remained, fired with fury, rush upon
the enemy. Then for the first time it appeared that they were giving
ground, and that the matter was inclining to a flight; then the
Samnites were taken, some slain; nor would many have survived, had not
night terminated the victory rather than the battle. Both the Romans
confessed, that they had never fought with a more determined enemy; and
the Samnites, on being asked what cause first drove them to fly after
being so determined, said, that it was the eyes of the Romans which
seemed to them to flash fire, and their distracted looks, and furious
aspect; that more of terror arose from thence, than from any thing
else. Which terror they confessed not only in the issue of the battle,
but in their departure by night. Next day the Romans take possession of
the deserted camp of the enemy, whither all the Campanians flocked to
congratulate them.
34. But this joy was well nigh alloyed by a great loss sustained in
Samnium. For the consul Cornelius, having set out from Saticula,
incautiously led his army into a mountainous tract, passable through a
deep defile, and beset on all sides by the enemy; nor did he perceive
the enemy stationed over his head, until a retreat could no longer be
made with safety. Whilst the Samnites delayed only till he should bring
down his entire army into the valley; Publius Decius, a tribune of the
soldiers, espies in the tract a hill higher than the rest, hanging over
the enemies' camp, rather steep to be ascended by an encumbered army,
not difficult for such as were lightly armed. He says therefore to the
consul, greatly alarmed in mind, “Aulus Cornelius, do you perceive that
elevated point above the enemy? That is the bulwark of our hope and
safety, if we briskly gain possession of it, which the Samnites in
their blindness have given up. Only give me the first rank and spearmen
of one legion; when with these I shall have gained the summit, do you
proceed hence free from all apprehension, and save yourself and the
army. For the enemy, lying beneath us and [exposed thereby] to all our
weapons, will not be able to stir without destruction to themselves.
After that either the good fortune of the Roman people or our own
bravery will extricate us.” Being commanded by the consul, he received
the body of men [required] and proceeds by secret paths through the
mountain, nor was he observed by the enemy until he approached the
place which he was making for. Then, whilst all were struck with
astonishment, after he had attracted the eyes of all to himself, he
both afforded the consul time to draw off his army to more advantageous
ground, and he himself was posted on the top of the hill. The Samnites,
whilst they march their forces now in this direction, now in that,
having lost the opportunity of effecting either object, can neither
pursue the consul, unless through the same defile in which they had him
a little before exposed to their weapons, nor march up the rising
ground over themselves, which had been seized on by Decius. But both
their resentment stimulated them more against the latter, who had taken
from them the favourable opportunity of achieving their object, and
also the proximity of the place, and the paucity of the enemy; and one
time they would fain surround the hill on all sides with armed men, so
as to cut off Decius from the consul; at another time they wished to
open a passage, so that they may fall on them when they had descended
into the defile. Before they had determined on what they should do,
night came on them. Decius at first entertained a hope, that he would
have to engage them from the higher ground, as they ascended against
the steep; then surprise took possession of him, that they neither
commenced the fight, nor if they were deterred from that by the
unevenness of the ground, that they did not surround him with works and
a circumvallation. Then summoning the centurions to him, he said, “What
ignorance of war and indolence is that? or how did such men obtain a
victory over the Sidicinians and Campanians? You see that their
battalions move to and fro, that sometimes they are collected to one
spot, at other times they are drawn out. As for work, no one attempts
it, when we might by this time have been surrounded with a rampart.
Then indeed should we be like to them, if we delay longer here than is
expedient. Come on, accompany me; that whilst some day light remains,
we may ascertain in what places they put their guards, in what
direction an escape may lie open from hence.” All these points he
carefully observed, clad in a soldier's vest, the centurions whom he
took with him being also in the attire of common soldiers, lest the
enemy might notice the general going the round.
35. Then having placed watch-guards, he commands the ticket to be
issued to all the rest, that when the signal had been given by the
trumpet of the second watch, they should assemble to him in silence
fully armed. Whither when they had assembled in silence according to
the orders issued, “Soldiers,” says he, “this silence is to be observed
in listening to me, waving the military mode of expressing assent. When
I shall have thoroughly explained my sentiments to you, then such of
you as shall approve the same, will pass over; we will follow that line
of conduct which shall meet the judgment of the majority. Now hear what
I meditate in mind. The enemy have surrounded you, not brought hither
in flight, nor left behind through cowardice. By valour you seized this
ground; by valour you must make your way from it. By coming hither you
have saved a valuable army of the Roman people; by forcing your way
hence, save yourselves. You have proved yourselves worthy, though few
in number, of affording aid to multitudes, whilst you yourselves stand
in need of aid from no one. You have to do with that enemy, who on
yesterday, through their supineness, availed themselves not of the
fortunate opportunity of destroying our whole army, who did not see
this hill so advantageously situate hanging over their heads, until it
was seized on by us; who with so many thousand men did not prevent us
so few from the ascent, and did not surround us with a rampart when in
possession of the ground, though so much of the day still remained.
That enemy which with their eyes open and awake you so baffled, it is
incumbent on you now to beguile, buried, as they are, in sleep; nay, it
is absolutely necessary. For our affairs are in that situation, that I
am rather to point out to you your necessity than to propose advice.
For whether you are to remain or to depart hence, can no longer be
matter of deliberation, since, with the exception of your arms, and
courage mindful of those arms, fortune has left you nothing, and we
must die of famine and thirst, if we are more afraid of the sword than
becomes men and Romans. Therefore our only safety is to sally forth
from this and to depart. That we must do either by day or by night. But
lo! another point which admits of less doubt; for if daylight be waited
for, what hope is there, that the enemy, who have now encompassed the
hill on every side, as you perceive, with their bodies exposed at
disadvantage, will not hem us in with a continued rampart and ditch? If
night then be favourable for a sally, as it is, this is undoubtedly the
most suitable hour of night. You assembled here on the signal of the
second watch, a time which buries mortals in the profoundest sleep. You
will pass through their bodies lulled to sleep, either in silence
unnoticed by them, or ready to strike terror into them, should they
perceive you, by a sudden shout. Only follow me, whom you have
followed. The same fortune which conducted us hither, will I follow.
Those of you to whom these measures seem salutary, come on, pass over
to the right.”
36. They all passed over, and followed Decius as he proceeded
through the intervals which lay between the guards. They had now passed
the middle of the camp, when a soldier, striding over the bodies of the
watchmen as they lay asleep, occasioned a noise by striking one of
their shields. When the watchman, being aroused by this, stirred the
next one to him, and those who were awake stirred up others, not
knowing whether they were friends or foes, whether it was the garrison
that sallied forth or the consul had taken their camp; Decius, having
ordered the soldiers to raise a shout, as they were no longer
unobserved, disheartens them by panic whilst still heavy from sleep, by
which being perplexed, they were neither able to take arms briskly, nor
make resistance, nor to pursue them. During the trepidation and
confusion of the Samnites, the Roman guard, slaying such of the guards
as came in their way, reached the consul's camp. A considerable portion
of night still remained, and things now appeared to be in safety; when
Decius says, “Roman soldiers, be honoured for your bravery. Your
journey and return ages shall extol. But to behold such bravery light
and day are necessary; nor do you deserve that silence and night should
cover you, whilst you return to the camp with such distinguished glory.
Here let us wait in quiet for the daylight.” His words they obeyed. And
as soon as it was day, a messenger being despatched to the camp to the
consul, they were aroused from sleep with great joy; and the signal
being given by ticket, that those persons returned safe who had exposed
their persons to evident danger for the preservation of all, rushing
out each most anxiously to meet them, they applaud them, congratulate
them, they call them singly and collectively their preservers, they
give praises and thanks to the gods, they raise Decius to heaven. This
was a sort of camp triumph for Decius, who proceeded through the middle
of the camp, with his guard fully armed, the eyes of all being fixed on
him, and all giving him equal honour with the consul. When they came to
the general's tent, the consul summons them by sound of trumpet to an
assembly; and commencing with the well-earned praises of Decius, he
adjourned the assembly on the interposition of Decius himself, who
advising the postponement of every thing else, whilst the occasion was
still present, persuaded the consul to attack the enemy, whilst still
in consternation from the panic of the night, and dispersing in
separate detachments around the hill, [adding] that he believed that
some who had been sent out in pursuit of him were straggling through
the forest. The legions were ordered to take arms; and having departed
from the camp, as the forest was now better known by means of scouts,
they are led onwards to the enemy through a more open tract. Having
unexpectedly attacked the enemy when off their guard, since the
soldiers of the Samnites straggling in every direction, most of them
unarmed, were not able either to rally, nor to take arms, nor to betake
themselves within the rampart, they first drive them in a panic into
the camp: then they take the camp itself, having dislodged the guards.
The shout spread around the hill; and puts each to flight from their
respective posts. Thus a great part yielded to an enemy they had not
seen. Those whom the panic had driven within the rampart (they amounted
to thirty thousand) were all slain; the camp was plundered.
37. Matters being thus conducted, the consul, having summoned an
assembly, pronounces a panegyric on Decius, not only that which had
been commenced on a previous occasion, but as now completed by his
recent deserts; and besides other military gifts, he presents him with
a golden crown and one hundred oxen, and with one white one of
distinguished beauty, richly decorated with gilded horns. The soldiers
who had been in the guard with him, were presented with a double
allowance of corn for ever; for the present, with an ox and two vests
each. Immediately after the consuls' donation, the legions place on the
head of Decius a crown of grass, indicative of their deliverance from a
blockade, expressing their approbation of the present with a shout.
Decorated with these emblems, he sacrificed the beautiful ox to Mars;
the hundred oxen he bestowed on the soldiers, who had been with him in
the expedition. On the same soldiers the legions conferred, each a
pound of corn and a pint of wine; and all these things were performed
with great alacrity, with a military shout, a token of the approbation
of all. The third battle was fought near Suessula, in which the army of
the Samnites, having been routed by Marcus Valerius, having summoned
from home the flower of their youth, determined on trying their
strength by a final contest. From Suessula messengers came in great
haste to Capua, and from thence horsemen in full speed to the consul
Valerius, to implore aid. The troops were immediately put in motion;
and the baggage in the camp being left with a strong guard, the army
moves on with rapidity; and they select at no great distance from the
enemy a very narrow spot (as, with the exception of their horses, they
were unaccompanied by a crowd of cattle and servants). The army of the
Samnites, as if there was to be no delay in coming to an engagement,
draw up in order of battle; then, when no one came to meet them, they
advance to the enemy's camp in readiness for action. There when they
saw the soldiers on the rampart, and persons sent out to reconnoitre in
every direction, brought back word into how narrow a compass the camp
had been contracted, inferring thence the scanty number of the enemy.
The whole army began to exclaim, that the trenches ought to be filled
up, the rampart to be torn down, and that they should force their way
into the camp; and by that temerity the war would have been soon over,
had not the generals restrained the impetuosity of the soldiers.
However, as their own numbers bore heavily on their supplies, and in
consequence, first of their sitting down so long at Suessula, and then
by the delay of the contest, they were not far from a want of
provisions, it was determined, whilst the enemy remained shut up as if
through fear, that the soldiers should be led through the country to
forage; [supposing] in the mean time, that all supplies would fail the
Romans also, who having marched in haste, had brought with him only as
much corn as could be carried on his shoulders amid his arms. The
consul, after he had observed the enemy scattered through the country,
that the posts were left but insufficiently attended, having in a few
words encouraged his men, leads them on to besiege the camp. After he
had taken this on the first shout and contest, more of the enemy being
slain in their tents than at the gates and rampart, he ordered the
captive standards to be collected into one place, and having left
behind two legions as a guard and protection, after giving them strict
order that they should abstain from the booty, until he himself should
return; having set out with his troops in regular order, the cavalry
who had been sent on driving the dispersed Samnites as it were by
hunting toils, he committed great slaughter among them. For in their
terror they could neither determine by what signal they should collect
themselves into a body, whether they should make for the camp, or
continue their flight to a greater distance. And so great was their
terror, and so precipitate their flight, that to the number of forty
thousand shields, though by no means were so many slain, and one
hundred and seventy standards, with those which had been taken in the
camp, were brought to the consul. Then they returned to the enemy's
camp; and there all the plunder was given up to the soldiers.
38. The result of this contest obliged the Faliscians, who were on
terms of a truce, to petition for a treaty of alliance from the senate;
and diverted the Latins, who had their armies already prepared, from
the Roman to a Pelignian war. Nor did the fame of such success confine
itself within the limits of Italy; but the Carthaginians also sent
ambassadors to Rome to congratulate them, with an offering of a golden
crown, to be placed in Jupiter's shrine in the Capitol. Its weight was
twenty-five pounds. Both consuls triumphed over the Samnites, whilst
Decius followed distinguished with praises and presents, when amid the
rough jesting of the soldiers the name of the tribune was no less
celebrated than that of the consuls. The embassies of the Campanians
and Suessulans were then heard; and to their entreaties it was granted
that a garrison should be sent thither, in order that the incursions of
the Samnites might be repelled. Capua, even then by no means favourable
to military discipline, alienated from the memory of their country the
affections of the soldiers, which were debauched by the supply of
pleasures of all kinds; and schemes were being formed in
winter-quarters for taking away Capua from the Campanians by the same
kind of wickedness as that by which they had taken it from its original
possessors: “and not undeservedly would they turn their own example
against themselves. For why should the Campanians, who were neither
able to defend themselves nor their possessions, occupy the most
fertile land of Italy, and a city worthy of that land, rather than the
victorious army, who had driven the Samnites from thence by their sweat
and blood? Was it reasonable that men who had surrendered to them
should have the full enjoyment of that fertile and delightful country;
that they, wearied by military toil, had to struggle in an insalubrious
and arid soil around their city, or within the city to suffer the
oppressive and exhausting weight of interest-money daily increasing?”
These schemes agitated in secret cabals, and as yet communicated only
to a few, were encountered by the new consul Caius Marcius Rutilus, to
whom the province of Campania had fallen by lot, Quintus Servilius, his
colleague, being left behind in the city. Accordingly when he was in
possession of all these circumstances just as they had occurred, having
ascertained them through the tribunes, matured by years and experience,
(for he was consul now for the fourth time, and had been dictator and
censor,) thinking it the wisest proceeding to frustrate the violence of
the soldiers, by prolonging their hope of executing their project
whenever they might wish, he spreads the rumour, that the troops were
to winter in the same towns on the year after also. For they had been
cantoned throughout the cities of Campania, and their plots had spread
from Capua to the entire army. This abatement being given to the
eagerness of their projects, the mutiny was set at rest for the
present.
39. The consul, having led out his army to the summer campaign,
determined, whilst he had the Samnites quiet, to purge the army by
sending away the turbulent men; by telling some that their regular time
had been served; that others were weighed down by years and debilitated
in bodily vigour. Some were sent away on furloughs, at first
individuals, then some cohorts also, on the plea that they had wintered
far from their home and domestic affairs. When different individuals
were sent to different places under pretence of the business of the
service, a considerable number were put out of the way; which multitude
the other consul detained in Rome under different pretences. And first
indeed, not suspecting the artifice, they returned to their homes by no
means with reluctance. After they saw that neither those first sent
returned to their standards, and that scarcely any others, except those
who had wintered in Campania, and chiefly the fomenters of the mutiny,
were sent away; at first wonder, and then certain fear entered their
minds, that their schemes had been divulged; “that now they would have
to suffer trials, discoveries, the secret punishments of individuals,
and the tyrannical and cruel despotism of the consuls and the senate.
Those who were in the camp, discuss these things in secret conferences,
seeing that the sinews of the conspiracy had been got rid of by the
artifice of the consul.” One cohort, when they were at no great
distance from Anxur, posted itself at Lautulæ, in a narrow woody pass
between the sea and the mountains, to intercept those whom the consul
was dismissing under various pretences (as has been already mentioned).
Their body was now becoming strong in numbers; nor was any thing
wanting to complete the form of a regular army, except a leader.
Without order, therefore, they come into the Alban territory committing
depredations, and under the hill of Alba Longa, they encompass their
camp with a rampart. The work here being completed, during the
remainder of the day they discuss their different opinions regarding
the choice of a commander, not having sufficient confidence in any of
those present. Whom could they invite out from Rome? What individuals
of the patricians or of the commons was there, who would either
knowingly expose himself to such imminent danger, or to whom could the
cause of the army, set mad by ill-treatment, be safely committed? On
the following day, when the same subject of deliberation detained them,
some of the straggling marauders ascertained and brought an account,
that Titus Quinctius cultivated a farm in the Tusculan territory,
forgetful of the city and its honours. This was a man of patrician
family, whose military career, which was passed with great glory,
having been relinquished in consequence of one of his feet being lamed
by a wound, he determined on spending his life in the country far from
ambition and the forum. His name once heard, they immediately
recognised the man; and with wishes for success, ordered him to be sent
for. There was, however, but little hope that he would do any thing
voluntarily; they resolved on employing force and intimidation.
Accordingly those who had been sent for the purpose, having entered the
house in the silence of the night, and surprising Quinctius overcome in
sleep, threatening that there was no alternative, either authority and
honour, or death, in case he resisted, unless he followed, they force
him to the camp. Immediately on his arrival he was styled general, and
whilst he was startled at the strange nature of the sudden occurrence,
they convey to him the ensigns of honour, and bid him lead them to the
city. Then having torn up their standard, more under the influence of
their own impetuosity than by the command of their general, they arrive
in hostile array at the eighth stone on the road, which is now the
Appian; and would have proceeded immediately to the city, had they not
heard that an army was coming to meet them, and that Marcus Valerius
Corvus was nominated dictator against them, and Lucius Æmilius
Mamercinus master of the horse.
40. As soon as they came in sight and recognised the arms and
standards, instantly the recollection of their country softened the
resentment of all. Not yet were they so hardy as to shed the blood of
their countrymen, nor had they known any but foreign wars, and
secession from their own was deemed the extreme of rage. Accordingly
now the generals, now the soldiers sought a meeting for a negotiation.
Quinctius, who was satiated with arms [taken up] even in defence of his
country, much more so against it; Corvus, who entertained a warm
affection for all his countrymen, chiefly the soldiers, and above
others, for his own army, advanced to a conference. To him, being
immediately recognised, silence was granted with no less respect by his
adversaries, than by his own party: he says, “Soldiers, at my departure
from the city, I prayed to the immortal gods, your public deities as
well as mine, and earnestly implored their goodness so, that they would
grant me the glory of establishing concord among you, not victory over
you. There have been and there will be sufficient opportunities, whence
military fame may be obtained: on this occasion peace should be the
object of our wishes. What I earnestly called for from the immortal
gods when offering up my prayers, you have it in your power to grant to
me, if you will remember, that you have your camp not in Samnium, nor
among the Volscians, but on Roman ground; that those hills which you
behold are those of your country, that this is the army of your
countrymen; that I am your own consul, under whose guidance and
auspices ye last year twice defeated the legions of the Samnites, twice
took their camp by storm. Soldiers, I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, whose
nobility ye have felt by acts of kindness towards you, not by
ill-treatment; the proposer of no tyrannical law against you, of no
harsh decree of the senate; in every post of command more strict on
myself than on you. And if birth, if personal merit, if high dignity,
if public honours could suggest arrogance to any one, from such
ancestors have I been descended, such a specimen had I given of myself,
at such an age did I attain the consulship, that when but twenty-three
years old I might have been a proud consul, even to the patricians, not
to the commons only. What act or saying of mine, when consul, have ye
heard of more severe than when only tribune? With the same tenor did I
administer two successive consulships; with the same shall this
uncontrollable office, the dictatorship, be administered. So that I
shall be found not more indulgent to these my own soldiers and the
soldiers of my country, than to you, I shudder to call you so, its
enemies. Ye shall therefore draw the sword against me, before I draw it
against you. On that side the signal shall be sounded, on that the
shout and onset shall begin, if a battle must take place. Determine in
your minds, on that which neither your fathers nor grandfathers could;
neither those who seceded to the Sacred Mount, nor yet those who
afterwards posted themselves on the Aventine. Wait till your mothers
and wives come out to meet you from the city with dishevelled hair, as
they did formerly to Coriolanus. At that time the legions of the
Volscians, because they had a Roman for their leader, ceased from
hostilities; will not ye, a Roman army, desist from an unnatural war?
Titus Quinctius, under whatever circumstances you stand on that side,
whether voluntarily or reluctantly, if there must be fighting, do you
then retire to the rear. With more honour even will you fly, and turn
your back to your countryman, than fight against your country. Now you
will stand with propriety and honour among the foremost to promote
peace; and may you be a salutary agent in this conference. Require and
offer that which is just; though we should admit even unjust terms,
rather than engage in an impious combat with each other.” Titus
Quinctius, turning to his party with his eyes full of tears, said, “In
me too, soldiers, if there is any use of me, ye have a better leader
for peace than for war. For that speech just now delivered, not a
Volscian, nor a Samnite expressed, but a Roman: your own consul, your
own general, soldiers: whose auspices having already experienced for
you, do not wish to experience them against you. The senate had other
generals also, who would engage you with more animosity; they have
selected the one who would be most indulgent to you, his own soldiers,
in whom as your general you would have most confidence. Even those who
can conquer, desire peace: what ought we to desire? Why do we not,
renouncing resentment and hope, those fallacious advisers, resign
ourselves and all our interests to his tried honour?”
41. All approving with a shout, Titus Quinctius, advancing before
the standards, declared that “the soldiers would be obedient to the
dictator; he entreated that he would espouse the cause of his
unfortunate countrymen, and having espoused it, he would maintain it
with the same fidelity with which he had wont to administer public
affairs. That for himself individually he made no terms: that he would
found his hope in nothing else but in his innocence. That provision
should be made for the soldiers, as provision had been made by the
senate, once for the commons, a second time for the legions, so that
the secession should not be visited with punishment.” The dictator,
having lauded Quinctius, and having bid the others to hope for the
best, returned back to the city with all speed, and, with the
approbation of the senate, proposed to the people in the Peteline
grove, that the secession should not be visited with chastisement on
any of the soldiers. He also entreated, with their permission, that no
one should either in jest or earnest upbraid any one with that
proceeding. A military devoting law was also passed, that the name of
any soldier once enrolled, should not be erased unless with his own
consent; and to the law [a clause] was added that no one, after he had
been a tribune of the soldiers, should afterwards be a centurion. That
demand was made by the conspirators on account of Publius Salonius; who
in alternate years was both tribune of the soldiers and first
centurion, which they now call primi pili. The soldiers were
incensed against him, because he had always been opposed to their
recent measures, and had fled from Lantulæ, that he might have no share
in them. Accordingly when this alone was not obtained from the senate
through their regard for Salonius, then Salonius, conjuring the
conscript fathers, that they would not value his promotion more highly
than the concord of the state, prevailed in having that also carried.
Equally ineffectual was the demand, that some deductions should be made
from the pay of the cavalry, (they then received triple,) because they
had opposed the conspiracy.
42. Besides these, I find in some writers that Lucius Genucius,
tribune of the commons, proposed to the people, that no one should be
allowed to practise usury; likewise provision was made by other
enactments, that no one should fill the same office within ten years;
nor hold two offices on the same year; and that it should be allowed
that both the consuls should be plebeians. If all these concessions
were made to the people, it is evident that the revolt possessed no
little strength. In other annals it is recorded, that Valerius was not
appointed dictator, but that the entire business was managed by the
consuls; and also that that band of conspirators were driven to arms
not before they came to Rome, but at Rome; and that it was not on the
country-house of Titus Quinctius, but on the residence of Caius Manlius
the assault was made by night, and that he was seized by the
conspirators to become their leader: that having proceeded thence to
the fourth mile-stone, they posted themselves in a well-defended place;
and that it was not with the leaders mention of a reconciliation
originated; but that suddenly, when the armies marched out to battle
fully armed, a mutual salutation took place; that mixing together the
soldiers began to join hands, and to embrace each other with tears; and
that the consuls, on seeing the minds of the soldiers averse from
fighting, made a proposition to the senate concerning the
re-establishment of concord. So that among ancient writers nothing is
agreed on, except that there was a mutiny, and that it was composed.
Both the report of this disturbance, and the heavy war entered into
with the Samnites, alienated some states from the Roman alliance: and
besides the treaty of the Latins, which now for a long time was not to
be depended on, the Privernians also by a sudden incursion laid waste
Norba and Setia, Roman colonies in their neighbourhood.